Sadly, the David Letterman days are ticking down to the inevitable culmination of the talk show host’s esteemed and historic career.  We’ve been enjoying Letterman since 1982 when he and talented band-leader Paul Shaffer would jokingly recall the illusory days when the show began “15 years ago.”  33 years later, Letterman and Shaffer will end their talk show collaboration, and the baton will be passed by a “class act” (as Dave likes to say).  Sad, but inevitable.  Many of late night’s best musical moments (Warren Zevon, Tom Waits, James Brown (killing it in 1982), R.E.M., U2, Joe Strummer, Janelle Monae, etc., etc., etc., but NOT that uber-lame Future Islands performance) have occurred on the Letterman Show, and while we fear the void, we trust that Stephen Colbert will carry on that tradition when the show re-starts on September 8th.

As the nights dwindle down, Letterman is bringing out some of the musical greats, to be capped off by Tom Waits as the last musical guest on the show on Wednesday, May 20th.

Last night was another great musical event.  As mentioned yesterday, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam and Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell showed up to cover Unicorn’s No Way Out Of Here (but see “Exit” sign above) from their forthcoming covers album Sing Into My Mouth (which you can pre-order HERE).  With Shaffer and the great studio band riffing along, Bridwell and Beam lit up the stage with their harmonies and exchanges.  Check it out below.

Two of our all-time favorite singer-songwriters, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam and Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell recently announced the release of a covers album entitled Sing Into My Mouth.  The two have evidently been longtime friends and have previously exchanged other folks’ songs (that heavily influenced them) via cassette and mixes.  Through Beam’s persistence they eventually managed to squirrel away some time to record the album together in Asheville, North Carolina, and it will be released this summer on Black Cricket/Brown Records.

As a first sample, they have today released Sade’s Bullet Proof Soul (you would think:  of all things; you would be wrong).  We love everything about their take on the song (harmonies, pedal steel, guitar, you name it) and can’t wait for the album.  Check it out below.  Update:  the duo has also revealed (listen below) for your eased ears Unicorn’s obscure, Beatles-esque No Way Out of Here.

The duo will also appear on the unfortunately-dwindling-down Letterman Show tonight, so set your DVRs.

Check out the full tracklist after the song below.

Sing Into My Mouth:

01 “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” (Talking Heads)
02 “Done This One Before” (Ronnie Lane)
03 “Any Day Woman” (Bonnie Raitt)
04 “You Know Me More Than I Know” (John Cale)
05 “Bulletproof Soul” (Sade)
06 “There’s No Way Out of Here” (Unicorn)
07 “God Knows (You Gotta Give to Get)” (El Perro del Mar)
08 “The Straight And Narrow” (Spiritualized)
09 “Magnolia” (JJ Cale)
10 “Am I A Good Man?” (Them Two)
11 “Ab’s Song” (Marshall Tucker Band)
12 “Coyote, My Little Brother” (Pete Seeger)

Sufjan Stevens is newly out on tour in support of his superbly melancholy/crystalline new album, Carrie & Lowell.  Only at tour spots is Stevens is selling a 7-inch single called Exploding Whale, but today he released the song online for those not fortunate enough to catch him on tour.

Check out the fine song, replete with whale-sounds, below.

Great Brit-pop masters Belle & Sebastian showed up on CBS This Morning today on their way to Corpchella. Watch below as Stuart Murdoch and crew performed a few great songs (The Party Line, Perfect Couples, and Allie) off their critically-acclaimed new disco-very album Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance. Check ’em out below.

This week has been chockablock with would-be chart-topping releases.  In an ideal world Desaparecidos’ City On a Hill and Pfarmers’ The Ol’ River Gang would be sitting at or near the top of the new-release charts and joining them would be Eskimeaux’ I Admit I’m Scared from new album O.K. on Double Double Whammy. (We would also include Death Cab For Cuties’ Black Sun in the list, but their new release may actually be a chart-topper.)  We trust that in no time, the world will get a clue and our dream-chart will be realized.  Holding breath.

Eskimeaux is the meauxniker [sic] of front-lady Gabrielle (Gabby) Smith, with other Brooklyn-centrics aiding, including Oliver Kalb of Bellows, Felix Walworth of Told Slant, and Jack Greenleaf of Sharpless.  Apparently Smith developed O.K.’s songs on her own over two years.  Smith then brought in Greenleaf to co-produce the album.  Greenleaf also added arrangements and vocals.

We love everything about the song I Admit I’m Scared, which you can listen to below.  Lyrically, Smith hews to the classic confessional-songwriter motif (tip-off: the song’s title).  Musically, the track begins soft and treacly, then builds and adds layers and emphases until the explosion at 3:21 and the resolve.  We imagine that Eskimeaux can blow the roof off of joints with this song.

Speaking of which, Eskimeaux will be touring in support of O.K. (which will be released on May 12th).  You can pre-order the album HERE.

Photo above by Andrew Piccone.

Evidently “armed with a single microphone and an iPhone,” The National’s percussionist Bryan Devendorfer has been gathering material for a while for a new super-band dubbed Pfarmers.  The band features several of our favorites, including the core of Devendorfer, Menomena’s Danny Seim, and horn player David Nelson (Sufjan Stevens, Beirut, St. Vincent/David Byrne).  Pfarmers will later this spring release their debut album, Gunnera, on Jurassic Pop.

About the album, Seim says:  “The record is about a dream I had where I’m reluctantly accepting a fear of drowning by focusing on being reincarnated as a giant Gunnera plant, which thrive on the banks of rivers (specifically the Jordan River, i.e., the Biblical promised land) after I paint myself gold and sink to the bottom like the El Dorado of South American folklore.”  Well OK then.

To get a feel, listen below to a fantastic new track entitled The Ol’ River Gang.  We love everything about this cut:  Seim’s Peter Gabriel-esque vocals and synthesizer-play, Nelson’s layered, contrapuntal horns, and especially Devendorfer’s now-standard drum/percussion extravaganza (Devendorfer has, in our humble opinions, eclipsed the estimable Mick Fleetwood and Glenn Kotche with this and other efforts).  This track also has the added, sizzling guitar-play of Shugo Tokumaru.  It’s all wrapped up in a mesmerizing, multi-layered attack that draws you in and won’t let go.  Repeat number 21 about to begin.  The song bodes incredibly well for the rest of the album, and we can’t wait.

You can pre-order the new album HERE.

Death Cab For Cutie have released a new album entitled Kintsugi.  Coincidentally, Ben Gibbard and crew have appeared on a new NPR Tiny Desk Concert.   Check it out below as Gibbard, bassist Nick Harmer and pianist Zac Rae give compellingly rending, stately performances of Black Sun (a great divorce song from the new album), No Room In Frame, Your Heart Is An Empty Room, and Passenger Seat.  It’s lovely indeed.

For those that’ve seen or heard Conor Oberst spit lyrics with vehement venom, today was a dream day.  Whether on his own or as a part of Bright Eyes, Oberst has always slathered the stage in estimable slicks. With some artists, it might seem only a surface show.  But with Oberst it has always felt real and oh so right, harkening back to the gifted gobbing of yore.

Getting back to today, Oberst and his other desperate Desaparecidos have released a phenomenal new song, City On The Hill, and announced they are at long last releasing a new album, Payola, their first in thirteen (13!) years. Longtime Oberst collaborator Mike Mogis produced.

Oh how we love this song.  Check it out below.  While others have inexplicably ascribed certain influences (Rolling Stone says Tommy Tutone. Huh?  Conor, you really need to stop granting those idiots interviews–really? the 867-5309 band??), we give you just one:  Husker Du.  Husker Du and the other Twin City bands laid the foundation and Oberst and crew desperately build on top of it with City On The Hill.  We can’t stop it from repeating.  Please don’t make it stop.

“We could sing together in America”! Let’s do! “We’ll all get rich in America!!!!”  Please, do define rich.

Many have forgotten the depth of artistry on Oberst’s Saddle Creek Records.  Desaparecidos are one of many great, semi-unheralded artists on the label that includes Cursive, The Faint, The Good Life (!!), Now It’s Overhead and Son Ambulance.  Go there now.

Back in 2011, Van Pierszalowski sailed away from his former band, Port O’Brien, into Waters (his new band).  That year we caught Waters vibrant set at Muddy Waters amidst a tidy little crowd in support of their stellar debut album Out In The Light.  As good as the band was that night, we were concerned given the small turnout and their ability to separate themselves from the heightened competition.  Our concern increased as Waters faded a bit into the background.  But amidst this drought they are thankfully back with a new album, entitled What’s Real, which will come out next week.  And they showed last night, in their late-night TV debut on Conan, that they are a power-pop force to be reckoned with.  Watch below as the augmented band delivers a powerful performance of new song Got To My Head.  We love everything about it.

The National have surprised by dropping a previously unheard song, Sunshine On My Back “in celebration of Mistaken For Strangers being available for rental and purchase on VHX.”  The track is apparently a remainder from the sessions that resulted in their Best Album of 2013, Trouble In Mind.  The song could have easily made that album and is quintessential National.  While the band does what it does so well, intricately and deftly supporting, and Sharon Van Etten adds background vocals, Matt Berninger introduces new character “Tina” who “knows the devil” and who “loves the violence of living in the country, she loves that it’s so far from me.”  Not surprisingly, we love everything about the song.

You can pick up Sunshine On My Back HERE.  And listen below.