OK, we’re a little slow on the uptake.  But we’re never slow on the electric ladyland experience that is Janelle Monae, who is amongst the most talented performers of her generation.  Now combine Monae with one of Jimi Hendrix’s all-time gems, Little Wing, and drape it all in the brazen backing of The Roots on The Jimmy Fallon Show, and you’ve got yourself a performance for the ages.  Such was the case Monday night when the gang got together on Fallon in support of a new Hendrix collection entitled People, Hell And Angels.  Check the performance out below.

The cyclists are rolling down the road today, and the streamers are streaming great sounds for your listening pleasure.  Check out the best from the new album streams below.

First up is the new Dawes album Stories Don’t End, which you can stream HERE.  Dawes gave us one of the best albums of 2011, Nothing Is Wrong, and with the new album they have delivered the goods anew.

Next up is British Sea Power’s fantastic new album Machineries of Joy, which you can stream at Under The Radar HERE.  Once again BSP enamors with their thoughtful anthems.

Next is the Rilo Kiley retrospective/rarities compilation cutely titled RKives, which you can stream at Pitchfork HERE.  Rilo Kiley was/is one of the great unheralded bands of the early 21st century, and receive a deserved anthology.  They have given us some of our favorite songs/albums of the last decade+.

And last, but not least, is the new Kurt Vile album Walking On a Pretty Daze, which you can listen to via NPR HERE.  Vile continues to vilify via his hypnotic psychedelia.

We have experienced a whirlwind of Low recently as they tour across the country in support of their stellar Jeff Tweedy-produced album The Invisible Way.  Low is in LA tonight to play the Troubadour, and this morning stopped into KCRW to perform their eight-minute opus On My Own.  Check it out below, including gratuitous Alan Sparkhawk fuzz guitar, and go HERE to listen to the rest of their KCRW session.

We are long-time fans of husband-and-wife duo Mates of State.  They repeatedly craft perfect pop songs that deftly dissect the ins and outs of relationships.  In the past (including the recent past) their highly-recommended albums, Bring it Back and Re-Arrange Us, have refused to leave our rebellious jukebox.   The duo recently recorded a session for Audio-Files that will be broadcast tonight and tomorrow HERE.  The band and Audio-Files have released a tremulous trailer of the duo performing their intimate song Desire (lyrics at bottom) off of their critically-acclaimed 2011 album Mountaintops.  With the song’s private-conversation lyrics and the singers’ knowing looks, you might feel the need to look away.  But you can’t.  Shyness is overrated.

Desire:

“Someday you’ll feel
the way I feel
and though you might be brighter
you will not be shy again
Ooo, desire

Lying in a quiet back room
Careful ’cause the house could crack soon
And in the morning we can play this game
All the nights you masqueraded

But today you feel
So you made me wiser
I will not be shy again
Ooo, desire
Desire

Someday I will feel the way you feel
and though I might be brighter
I will not be shy again
Desire
Desire”

Photo: Eliot Lee Hazel

Radiohead’s/Atoms For Peace’s Thom Yorke was interviewed by Alec Baldwin on WNYC’s Here’s the Thing podcast released today, which you can listen to or download at bottom.  Two of our favorites, just chatting.

Some highlights from the interview, which you can also read the entire transcript of HERE, are below:

On the creation of Atoms for Peace:

Thom Yorke: I emailed friends of mine who I knew liked the record. One was Flea from the Chili Peppers. One was my friend Joey, who’s drummed with everybody. He’s a genius drummer from L.A. Anyway, we got it together and it turned into this thing. It became really exciting, and we ended up calling the band Atoms for Peace and making a record out of the excitement of that. And it was all brand new to me because I’d been in the same band since I was 17 – 16.

On Yorke’s pre-show routine, and how it compares to that of R.E.M’s Michael Stipe:

TY: I stand on my head for a bit and basically I’m completely on my own until five minutes before we go on, and then we’re all in a room together pacing up and down like wild animals and then we’re on. But when we first started doing big shows, it was for Michael Stipe and it does the total opposite. He literally – he’ll be talking to you and then someone taps him on the shoulder and then they’re on. I was like how the hell do you do that, man? I tried to do it like that, couldn’t do it.

On Yorke’s first band and the creation of Radiohead:

TY: No. We were not very good at all, but it was – it was very exciting, like going round to a friend’s house, setting up and jamming and all of our mates would come and hang out – and girls, which I thought, ‘Hmm, this is interesting’ as puberty hit. That sort of felt a bit, because I kept fighting with the drummer. And then when I was 16, I was thinking I really need to get this together, really, and then just went around the school sort of choosing people.

Alec Baldwin: So you went around picking people.

TY: I got Ed because he was dressed like Morrissey and he had some cool socks, and I saw he had a guitar. I had no idea whether he could play or not. I didn’t really care. I got Colin because I knew Colin could play very well and I needed a bass player who could play very well, but he’d never played bass before. His brother Jonny was this mythical musical prodigy, so I roped him in, and then Phil was the only drummer we knew anyway and he had a house down the road that we could rehearse in.

On Bjork:

TY: To me, like my favorite singer is like Björk. When I watch Björk sing, I’ve been lucky enough to sort of sing with her and watch her do it.

AB: I was going to say, you’re one of the people who can use that phrase, ‘When I watch Björk sing.’ Most of us say, ‘When I listen to Björk sing.’

On taking up a cause:

TY: I – well in my slack-arsed fashion, I was helping Greenpeace, which was trying to stop drilling in the Arctic. But it sounds like it’s kind of working because the companies seem to be pulling out because –

AB: Shell just pulled out, didn’t it?

TY: Yeah, that’s right. I don’t think that’s entirely down to us, but I think it definitely helped that we were making their life extremely difficult everywhere they turned. But the challenge now is to turn the Arctic into a reserve so it can’t happen. Because what that was going to do was create this gold rush – oil rush – up there, which was just gonna be insane, and this at the same time when the ice is melting. Basically they only started considering it was a possibility because the ice was melting and they thought, ‘Okay, great. Maybe we’ve got a better chance at drilling.’ Which is like –

On Yorke’s son’s musical talents:

TY: My son is a great drummer, but I don’t know if he’ll want to do that forever or not. He’s like not bothered really, which is cool. He just – he comes and hangs out with me when I’m working in my studio. We just hang out, you know. We’re friends. But I don’t think, you know, there’s no burning ambition to be a musician or anything really, even though he’s really good. He does it for pleasure. I mean at that age that’s good, right?

On hanging out with celebrities:

TY: That never appealed. I don’t hang out with people because they are who they are necessarily, unless I’m a big admirer of them. Like I mean, I stalked Ed Norton for ages until eventually he gave in.

AB: Why?

TY: Because I’m a big admirer of him. I think he’s brilliant. So I hang out with him a bit occasionally. And Flea, I’ve always really admired Flea anyway, so even before it became an issue of sort of playing with him.

Rogue Wave has been amongst our favorite indie-bands since catching their outstanding live sets opening on tour for the likes of The Shins and Nada Surf.  Rogue Wave will release a new album, Nightingale Floors, on June 4th, their first new album since 2010.  To kick things off listen to the sweet jangle of College, the first song to be released off the album below.  We look forward to the album and corresponding tour.  Don’t miss ’em live in particular.

One of our favorite new bands is Parquet Courts with their phenomenal debut album Light Up Gold remains on replay on our jukebox. You can get a better feel for this buzz band below in a series of raving performances at Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop (they can’t take that one away, eh Lance?) during SXSW, all as ably captured by KEXP.  Check ’em rippin’  intelligently below.

The Compton Kid, Kendrick Lamar , and his big band showed up on Jimmy Kimmel last night in support of his much-loved 2012 album good kid, m.A.A.d city. Lamar performed Poetic Justice and a “clean” version of the Marvin-esque [Girl], Don’t Kill My Vibe.  Check out both below.

Atoms for Peace’s Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich recently performed together at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge.  Yorke himself has just released a great video vignette from that show of their performance of Default (off of their stellar new AMOK album).  View the video below.  They will play the show of the year at the Santa Barbara Bowl on October 17th (see other dates below the video).  Get tickets to the Bowl show HERE.

Tour Dates:
07/06 – Paris, FR @ Zenith
07/09 – Antwerp, BE @ Lotto Arena
07/10 – Munich, DE @ Zenith
07/12 – Trencín, SL @ Bazant Pohoda Festival
07/13 – Novi Sad, SR @ EXIT Festival
07/16 – Rome, IT @ Rock in Roma
07/17 – Milan, IT @ City Sound Festival
07/20 – Malta, PL @ Malta Festival
07/21 – Munich, DE @ Melt! Festival
07/24 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
07/25 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
07/26 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
09/24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Liacouras Center
09/27 – New York City, NY @ Barclays Center
09/30 – Fairfax, VA @ Patriot Center
10/02 – Chicago, IL @ UIC Pavilion
10/16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
10/17 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl
11/18 – Osaka, JP @ Osaka Zepp Namba
11/19 – Osaka, JP @ Osaka Zepp Namba
11/21 – Tokyo, JP @ Tokyo Shinkiba Studio Coast
11/22 – Tokyo, JP @ Tokyo Shinkiba Studio Coast
11/23 – Tokyo, JP @ Tokyo Shinkiba Studio Coast

After wandering in the desert for a bit, we returned home yesterday to a tweet from Westlake Village buzz-band, Foxygen, announcing that they would play a barely-announced (pop-up?) show at hip new spot, The Loft at 48 Helena Street in Santa Barbara.  So we raced down with some of our favorite females for their show last night, which included openers Pure Bathing Culture (tying the night together was both bands, along with garrulous hosts Gardens & Villa, having been fortunate enough to have Richard Swift as their album producer).  True to the buzz,  Foxygen came on strong and delivered a raucous, loud and good time for all in attendance.

Pure Bathing Culture opened the night with a scintillating set of pure-pop gems featuring the gossamer vocals of leader Sarah Versprule and gifted guitar-play of Daniel Hindman.  While some of their canned percussion (particularly when they’ve got an actual human on drums) and harmony vocals grated on us (a pet peeve of ours), the sophistication of the songs and their delivery won us over completely.  The band is currently recording their debut album with Richard Swift.  Look out for it later this year.

In contrast to PBC’s carefully drawn pop songs, Foxygen came on and let fly.  In contrast to the varied and nostalgic Swiftian production and arrangements on their modestly-aspirational (yeah, right) album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, the band came out swaggering and swinging, and let their punkier flag fly, leaving the Kinks and other influences largely out of the mix.  A somewhat rough (and ludicrously-loud) sound-mix likely contributed to the band’s fast-and-furious mode, but regardless the local indie-cognoscenti audience ate it up.  The band performed most of the songs off of their debut album, letting up only slightly for their nostalgic slow-song San Francisco. Lead singer Sam France showed throughout why the band’s live act (in particular) has been garnering rapturous huzzahs, frequently jumping in place and exhorting the crowd (and himself) to higher heights.  Co-founder and guitarist Jonathan Rado contributed radocal, melodic guitar throughout.  Bassist Justin Nijssen, and keys/vocalist Jaclyn Cohen added immensely to the sound, while drummer Shaun Fleming was a highlight while walloping his kit and contributing sterling back-up vocals back in his corner-din.  It was a treat for Santa Barbarans to experience the Foxygen onslaught in a hip, small venue, and we look forward to their next visit.  [For a great vignette of Foxygen getting their Kinks on, check them out unplugged performing their Apeman-esque In the Darkness at bottom.]

We were somewhat taken aback early this morning when the band announced they were cancelling this summer’s European tour dates.  The band explained in their press release:

“We have some unfortunate news. We have to cancel our upcoming EU dates for May/June and upcoming EU summer festival dates. We’d like apologize to all our European fans and supporters. We know this causes frustration and headaches for ticket buyers and promoters alike. We assure you this is ultimately for the creative health of the band. We will back in EU soon and promise to make this up to all of you. Please understand. Thank you again, all of you. Your time, attention and support mean the world to us. Love, Foxygen.”

Again, we feel fortunate to have caught them.

Their updated tour dates are below:

05-07 Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
05-08 Montreal, QC – Il Motore
05-09 Toronto, ON – Wrong Bar
05-11 Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
05-14 Brooklyn, NY – Knitting Factory
05-15 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
05-18 Mexico City, MX – Festival Marvin
05-24 Amsterdam, Holland – London Calling, Paradiso
05-25 Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound Festival
05-29 Ravenna, Italy – Beaches Brew Festival
06-01 Porto, Portugal – Primavera Sound
06-03 Glasgow, Scotland – Stereo
06-04 Newcastle, England – Cluny
06-05 Manchester, England – Deaf Institute
06-06 London, England – Scala
06-07 Brighton, England – Green Door Store
06-21 Dover, DE – Firefly Music Festival
06-22 North Adams, MA – Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
06-23 North Adams, MA – Solid Sound Festival
07-07 Roskilde, Denmark – Roskilde Festival
07-12 Louisville, KY – Forecastle Festival
07-21 Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
08-02 Happy Valley, OR – Pickathon
08-06 Oslo, Norway – Øyafestivalen
08-08 Gothenburg, Sweden – Way Out West