It was just about one year ago that we volunteered a mesmerizing video of This Is The Kit in which the band performed at the Music Now Festival in Cincinnati.  At the time, rumors were circulating that the band would finish up a new album by the end of 2013 produced by none other than Aaron Dessner (The National).  Both The National and Dessner-produced Sharon Van Etten had touted This Is The Kit so the rumors of Dessner and the album all made sense.  While the album has yet to be released, This Is The Kit was hand-picked by The National as openers on its European tour, and rumors continue to rumble that This Is The Kit will soon complete the new album.

In support of those rumors, we’ve stumbled upon (courtesy of  The Line of Best Fit) two new songs (presumably from the new album) performed solo by bandleader Kate Stables.  Watch below as Stables performs unreleased songs Spores (on banjo) and All Written Out In Numbers (on guitar). What is it that leaves us so paralytically transfixed by these songs? Is it the spare arrangement, the haunting melodies, Stables’ crystalline voice, the gravity of the lyrics, or all of the above?  Regardless, This Is The Kit has been mired in obscurity for far too long.  Watch and listen below.

Afterwards, watch a video from one year ago in which Aaron Dessner hints at the possibilities of their collaboration with his gritty-guitar coloratura added (at the 3:23 mark and after) to the band’s performance of Two Wooden Spoons.  Transfixed.  Again.

We can’t wait for the new album and hopefully a tour of North America. 

Where to start with the uniquely-talented singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau?  Suffice it to say we’ve been a huge fan of TB’s from the first moment we heard him sing his songs (as a duo with another of our faves, Angela Correa(town) who also joins Brosseau occasionally in Les Shelleys) at the much-missed Buffalo Records in Santa Barbara.  Since then we haven’t missed a performance of the North Dakotan’s within 75 miles of Santa Barbara, and have traveled to his new-homeland LA on multiple occasions to catch him at his Largo hideaway.   We love everything about Brosseau except that he hasn’t received the fame and fortune warranted by his songwriting and live delivery.  His entire discography is amongst our favorites.  He has written many of our favorite songs, and his How To Grow A Woman From The Ground remains at the very top of our (and many others’) list of all-time best songs.  Dark Garage, Broken Ukelele and Portrait of George Washington are other outstanding songs from his rich mine.  In a live setting, Brosseau has one of the keenest senses of stage dynamics.  He always makes the best use of that gift, his lilting vocalese and elegantly spare guitar-playing.  Don’t miss the next opportunity you have to catch him live (see upcoming tour dates at bottom).

In addition to his own work, since 2010 Brosseau has performed with Santa Barbaran Becky Stark and John C. Reilly in John Reilly & Friends, a band devoted to unheralded American folk music.  In 2011, Reilly and Brosseau recorded a 7″ vinyl single entitled John & Tom that was produced by Jack White for Third Man Records.

In the meantime, after five long years, Brosseau has today released a superb new album entitled Grass Punks.  Grass Punks is his seventh studio album, and it was recorded and produced by Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek) “in a room in a house near the 101 FWY in Hollywood, California.”  According to Brosseau: “the title of this album is a phrase belonging to a very talented, original San Diego female artist, who would perform her soft, low voiced poetry over cafard melodies on the piano…. Grass Punks at once brought to my mind an earthen smoldering stick, used to light a wick or ward off peskiness, but now it stands for something greater, a sort of heading for everything I believe in when it comes to my brand of folk music and DIY recording.”  And that, we totally get (having lit and listened to a multitude of “Black Cats” in our time).

To get a feel for the new album’s songs, watch the newly-released official video for the tremendous Today Is A Brand New Day, one of the highlights off the new album.  After, listen to two other superb songs off the album, the witty and clever Cradle Your Device and the sweet Tami.  And speaking of Largo, Brosseau will appear tonight at Largo in support of the release of Grass Punks.  And ferheavensake go buy the new album HERE, and support this great artist.

Tour Dates:
01.21.14 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo at the Coronet: Album Release Party
01.25.14 – San Francisco, CA @ Sketchfest @ Verdi Club
01.26.14 – San Francisco, CA @ Sketchfest @ Marine Memorial Theatre
02.05.14 – Cambridge, MA @ Passim
02.06.14 – New York, NY @ Rockwood Music Hall
02.07.14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ortlieb’s
02.08.14 – Hudson, NY @ Half Moon
02.10.14 – Brooklyn, NY @ Pete’s Candy Store
02.12.14 – Brooklyn NY @ The Paper Box
02.25.14 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios *
02.26.14 – Seattle, WA @ Fremont Abbey *
02.27.14 – Cottage Grove, OR @ Axe and Fiddle *
02.28.14 – Davis, CA @ Veteran’s Memorial Theater
* with Shelby Earl
03.01.14 – Sacramento, CA @ TBA*
03.03.14 – Berkeley, CA @ Freight & Salvage*
03.04.14 – Northern CA @ Private Show*
03.06.14 – San Diego, CA @ North Park Vaudeville & Candy Shoppe
03.07.14 – Santa Monica, CA @ The Sanctuary: Presented by The Bluegrass Situation
03.08.14 – Lompoc, CA @ Certain Sparks Dinner & Show: Presented by The Bluegrass Situation
03.11 – 03.15 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
* with Shelby Earl

“In Santa Barbara, Hannah cried.“

Last night, while we were watching the powerful Pinback pin the audience to the ceiling at Velvet Jones “in Santa Barbara,” Vampire Weekend performed on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.  We have never been overwhelmed by the band live (trust us, we’ve tried), but we perked up a bit with their spare, dynamic rendition on Kimmel of Hannah Hunt, one of our favorite songs (along with Step) off of our No. 12 Best Album of the Year, Modern Vampires of the City.  After Hannah Hunt watch the band give a more-standard, perfunctory and soulless performance, this time of Unbelievers.  Simply put:  we far prefer to listen to the band’s recordings than throw good money after their live show, which honestly adds nothing to the recordings.

While the latter performance is particularly lackluster, the audience seemed to lap it up, and particularly the ladies.  Who knew Ezra Koenig would become a heart-throb?  Must be the culotte onesie.

The downright awesome Dawes were featured in last night’s Austin City Limits.  Watch below as the be-bearded Brothers Goldsmith and capable cohorts kill on Austin City Limits just as they did last month at the Lobero Theater with Blake Mills.  As it was in Santa Barbara, A Little Bit of Everything is especially powerful.

Skip to the 29:38 mark to avoid the “fun.”

Dawes Set:

From a Window Seat
Time Spent in Los Angeles
When My Time Comes
A Little Bit of Everything

It’s that time of year:  all-hours are being spent watching the Australian Open tennis tournament.  We are hopeless tennis addicts dating back to the days of Stan Smith, Rod Laver, John Newcombe, et. seq.  So after a Major absence following the U.S. Open in August, we’ve sat in abeyance waiting for the Aussie Open and its heat treatment.  And now we’re all good again.

In addition to being Aussie Open addicts, we’ve also been big fans of Australian music starting with The Saints and Radio Birdman, moving into The Go-Betweens and The Church, and (most recently) the (part-)Australian band Allo Darlin’ (which released our Best Album of 2012).  And recently, while properly preparing for the Australian Open, we stumbled across Courtney Barnett and her song Avant Gardener.  The tennis motif in Barnett’s official video for the song (see below) also provided the perfect tie-in with the Open.

Barnett is a 25-year-old singer-songwriter guitarist who last year combined several recordings into the well-received The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas.  That recording’s lead single Avant Gardener tells the story of an anaphylactic panic-attack in the midst of an Australian heatwave (such as happened this week at the Open), with clever lyrics such as “The paramedic thinks I’m clever cos I play guitar, I think she’s clever cos she stops people dying.”  We’re just getting to know Barnett, but it’s clear in Avant Gardener that she shows great promise as a songwriter, lyricist and performer.  We love her deadpan delivery and the instrumental flourishes in the song.  Check it out below (the song’s lyrics follow the video).  We’ll have more about Courtney Barnett in the future.

AVANT GARDENER

“I sleep in late
Another day
Oh what a wonder
Oh what a waste.
It’s a monday
It’s so mundane
What exciting things
Will happen today?
The yard is full of hard rubbish it’s a mess and
I guess the neighbours must think we run a meth lab
We should ammend that
I pull the sheets back
It’s 40 degrees
And i feel like i’m dying.
Life’s getting hard in here
So i do some gardening
Anything to take my mind away from where it’s sposed to be.
The nice lady next door talks of green beds
And all the nice things that she wants to plant in them
I wanna grow tomatoes on the front steps.
Sunflowers, bean sprouts, sweet corn and radishes.
I feel pro-active
I pull out weeds
All of a sudden
I’m having trouble breathing in.

My hands are shaky
My knees are weak
I can’t seem to stand
On my own two feet
I’m breathing but i’m wheezing
Feel like i’m emphysem-in’
My throat feels like a funnel
Filled with weet bix and kerosene and
Oh no, next thing i know
They call up triple o
I’d rather die than owe the hospital
Till I get old
I get adrenalin
Straight to the heart
I feel like Uma Thurman
Post-overdosing kick start
Reminds me of the time
When i was really sick and i
Had too much psuedoefedryn and i
Couldn’t sleep at night
Halfway down high street, andy looks ambivalent
He’s probably wondering what i’m doing getting in an ambulance
The paramedic thinks i’m clever cos i play guitar
I think she’s clever cos she stops people dying
Anaphylactic and super hypocondriactic
Should’ve stayed in bed today
I much prefer the mundane.
I take a hit from
An asthma puffer
I do it wrong
I was never good at smoking bongs.
I’m not that good at breathing in.”

Despite being tipped off early by a very reliable source, we didn’t get wholly-hooked on Bonobo (Simon Green’s work) until late in the year.  Bonobo’s album The North Borders is a mood-master mix of electronica supplemented with soul and sophistication. We think very highly of the songs with vocals on the album, such as those featuring Grey Reverend and Erykah Badu (she’s everywhere these days–must have received a boost from Wayne Coyne-generated sympathy).  But our favorite track by far is the all-instrumental Cirrus.  Green builds and builds on Cirrus’ spare opening platform, adding layers of bass and poly-percussion and ever-burgeoning bells.  Check it out below, first in a shortened edition with the visual aid of their mesmerizing official video.  Afterwards check out our preferred long-form version.

In his various, much-loved incarnations (Shins, Broken Bells, etc.) James Mercer has often hid the emotional ball.  In short his lyrics have done their best to obfuscate the heart in the matter.  But no matter the lyrical artifice, his vocals have frequently laid bare the ghost.  As Mercer’s musical life has evolved, the two (lyric and emotion) have coalesced more often.  The perfect example came today when La Blogotheque featured Broken Bells (Danger Mouse and Mercer) together on the band’s new song The Change of Lights off of their imminent album After The Disco.  Listen as Mercer lays it all out both lyrically and, especially, vocally.  That’s what we like to see–right there.  Afterwards, watch the duo perform October off of their eponymous 2010 debut.  And with that, Broken Bells have offered something both broken and worthy of healing.  We can’t wait for After The Disco.

“My cards are on the table, I am here tonight!”

The Best Concerts of 2013

As you’ll read below, it was another banner year for concerts.  The one minor weakness, however, was in the local club/bar scene.  Club Mercy and others did their best to bring in bands (though Club Mercy is clearly So-Cal focused these days while doing their best to bring shows to SB and Ventura), but it seems that many of the artists (and their booking agents/labels) are skipping the “smaller market” venues (such as the clubs/bars in Santa Barbara) in favor of the big cities and festivals. Here’s to hoping this short-sighted trend will quickly reverse itself. While the festivals may provide the artists a good and certain payday (we completely get the thrall thereof), because of shortened sets, off-peak slots and disinterested-crowds, neither bands (particularly nascent bands), nor fans nor newbies arguably benefit from the festivals. The best exposure for new bands remains more complete sets for fans and the curious in small venues at peak hours.  Recognizing that the times they have a-changed, we can’t fault the artists or their assistants, but question the long-term success of this strategy. Coachella continues to corrupt the concert scene in and around Southern and Central California because of its blackout edict.  May Coachella go the way of the Cabezon dinosaurs. Below were our favorite concerts of 2013, listed in order of preference.

In contrast to prior years, we’ve decided to limit our list to the best three shows of the year.  Check ’em out below.

1. The National at Hollywood Forever Cemetery/Greek Theater

In October we managed to piece together back-to-back concerts by The National at LA’s Greek Theater and the Hollywood Forever Cemetery the next night. As we had anticipated (given prior shows by the band), the latter proved to be the Concert of the Year, with the Greek Theater show a close second. The National are simply the best live band on the planet right now (we reserve judgment on the comparative status of the only other contender–Radiohead–until we catch them again). Singer Matt Berninger (with his omnipresent wine, baritone balladry and bent-yowl), the guitar-chiming Dessner Twins, and the Devendorf rhythm brothers (perfectly augmented by horns/keys/vocals/utility players Ben Lanz and Kyle Resnick) co-mingled with and gathered energy from the crowds both nights, ultimately playing each night as if it might be their last.  This felt especially the case on Sunday given the grave(yard) environs and the perfect audience. Rumors continue to swirl that The National might play our hallowed Santa Barbara Bowl in 2014.  If this comes to fruition, it will without question be THE Best Concert of 2014.

2. Atoms For Peace at Santa Barbara Bowl

Speaking of Radiohead…having caught Atoms for Peace’s Best Concert of 2010 at the Santa Barbara Bowl, our expectations for their October 2013 show at the Bowl were incredibly high, particularly in the wake of their scintillating debut album, Amok.  The band (Thom Yorke, Flea, Nigel Godrich, Joey Warnonker and  Mauro Refosco) again took the Bowl by storm in October with their non-stop kinetic energy and drive.  Yorke’s sinuous, ever-captivating vocals and Flea’s percolating basslines, coupled with their kilt-aided dancing, were particular riveting, along with the 1-2 rhythm section of Waronker and Refosco (possibly the best percussion duo we have ever heard live) and the MVP-on-stage, Nigel Godrich.  Between the light show and the sounds, it was a sonic phantasmagoria.  In the end, though (as great as they were) AFP couldn’t match the intensity and emotional-impact of the The National.  As much as we loved Amok, we hope that next time around AFP will be performing songs that grab hold of us more and better engage our hearts (in addition to our feet and eyes).

3. Iron & Wine at First Unitarian Church

The great Sam Beam brought his Iron & Wine in all it’s transformed, 13-member glory to Los Angeles to play an intimate show on Sunday at the First Unitarian Church in MacArthur Park and to perform last night on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, all in support of the band’s superb new album, Ghost On Ghost.  Suffice it to say that this incarnation of Iron & Wine is the best yet, and they gave one of the most soulful, rocking concerts we’ve seen in recent memory.  Iron & Wine has dramatically evolved from Beam’s solo guitar origins into a species of a whole different order.  While there are plenty who lament the more intimate side of Beam’s confessional songs, at the Church Show there were hallelujahs all around.  The First Unitarian Church was an ideal place to see Iron & Wine in all its manifold glory.  Though the sound took some continuous dialing, the intimate venue was perfect for this band.  The large band consisted of Beam and four threes (three backup singers, string trio, three strutting, scatting horn players, and a rhythm section consisting of bass, drums and keys).  And great joy was had by Beam and the beaming crowd.  The singers and horn players danced most of the night when they weren’t getting serious, and Beam paid tribute to his father by explaining how his dad contributed mightily to the Motown-Stax sounds emanating from the stage.  It’s obviously no coincidence that most of the songs from the new album also reflect the band’s large look and feel, with its big band sound and bountiful production.

As mentioned previously, one of our most highly anticipated albums of 2014 is the new album from the incomparable Elbow entitled The Take Off and Landing of Everything, which will be released in March.  Now comes the first song released off the album, Fly Boy Blue/ Lunette.  Check it out below.  It’s got everything-Elbow in one sitting.  We can’t wait for the album release.  And hopefully a concert to follow at a nearby venue.

As we said last August,London Grammar combines the atmospherics of The xx with the vocal Flo-urishes of Florence (and her Machine).  The band went on to appear on many Best of 2013 lists for their album If You Wait and its sublime songs.  Last night London Grammar made their American television debut on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.  They performed the stentorian Strong and Wasting My Young Years (the latter a web-exclusive).  Fallon wasn’t the only one to be impressed (though we’re curious if the band can captivate for an entire set).  Check ’em out below.