Watch another fantastic AUDIO-FILES vignette featuring Josiah, Jon and Charity of The Head and the Heart perform Winter Song aboard a Ferris wheel in Seattle.  More astounding vocalese from this here-to-stay band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UWnGQUq1y0&feature=em-uploademail

Amanda Palmer is an uber-talented and controversial musical figure.  In addition to being a member of The Dresden Dolls, repeatedly outspoken, very theatrical and married to author Neil Gaiman, she recently managed to raise over $1,000,000 in a Kickstarter campaign to support the recording (with the Grand Theft Orchestra) of her most recent album, Theater is Evil, which was released in September, all the while vowing to pay musicians with beer(!).  The Kickstarter project was ultimately supported by 24,883 backers for a grand total of $1,192,793,at the time the most funds ever raised for a musical project on Kickstarter.  Regardless, Theater is Evil is critically acclaimed and a mind-boggling and winning mix of glam, rock ‘n roll and ballads.  But Palmer’s main attribute may be as a live performer.  Check out her superb live performances below for Sleepover Shows captured in August and to buy the new album HERE (you can pay what you want).  In the first video below, Palmer and Grand Theft literally throw the kitchen sink at it, and Palmer limns a little Tom Waits along the way.  Girl knows how to put on a show!  Brava!

Metric have been touring relentlessly in support of their well-received new album, Synthetica.  As evidence of their touring, they have now released a tour-montage video for their song Breathing Underwater.  Lead singer/songwriter Emily Haynes has got brains and brawn (not to mention the best legs this side of cohort Leslie Feist–those gals should be racin’ bikes!).  Check Haynes and crew out below.

The Walkmen ventured through the Saint-Denis arrondissement to film this very special Takeaway Show for La Blogotheque at the city hall.  While singer Hamilton Leithauser’s voice initially exhibits some post-Paris-show effects, he and the band quickly gather themselves, “stumble upon” a classical guitarist and conjure magic in this unplugged/acapella cover of We Can’t Be Beat.  C’est vrai pour The Walkmen.

We attended Modest Mouse’s last show at the Santa Barbara Bowl for two reasons.  First, and foremost, was that Johnny Marr (of The Smiths–The Smiths!!) was lending his guitar magic to the band on its tour.  Second, was something about some bloke named Brock.  And that night Marr delivered in spades the je-ne-c’est-quoi that is his guitar mastery.  He has a sound all his own.  How does he do it?   No one knows how he wrangles the sounds he does from those six-string instruments and amps, and it’s just as well.

Comes now (all these post-Smiths years later) that Marr will soon release his first (what the heck took so long?) self-titled solo album.  To get a flavor, check out the first video for Messenger from the new album.  Wow.  Smiths/REM meets Nada Surf, and look out below.  We absolutely love it.

Brooklyn band The Antlers appeared recently on KEXP, and their leader Peter Silberman showed why is one of our most affecting songwriters, vocalists and guitar-players.  Check the full performance out below.  Particularly noteworthy are Drift Dive and Hounds (despite some obvious monitor issues in the latter).

Setlist:

Drift Dive
No Widows
Crest
Zelda
Hounds

Like many, we enjoyed Mumford & Sons first album Sigh No More, and particularly when that album’s songs were performed live. With the band speed-strumming and flailing around the the stage, audiences around the world were drawn to their shows like flocks to old-time tent revivals.  And miracles could ensue.  But at the same time, many wondered if that magic would be sustainable.

After a hiatus, the band has now put out their second album, Babel.  And somewhat surprisingly, Babel has been a “towering success” and  is the year’s best-selling rock album.  In less than two months, more copies (over one million) of Babel have been purchased in the US than Justin Bieber’s Believe and all others, and is second only to Taylor Swift’s Red album.  You have to give credit to the Mumfords and their non-stop touring, boundless energy and aspiration, and ultimately managing to infiltrate the hearts and minds of a broad range of youths and young-adults, and their parents.

Time will tell if the Mumfords will be able to maintain their momentum.  We at Lefort don’t see much progression musically in the new album, and fear the band may have shot all the arrows in its musical quiver.  Already critics are sounding the death-knell, and even for those that approve of Babel, there is the constant refrain:  “musically a virtual repeat of their first album.”  For some that’s great.  For others it’s the end (without more variety and invention, we will fall into this camp).

Some of the negative reviews are humorously vicious:  “With every crescendo of catgut and steel, their lack of nuance becomes wearing.” (The Observer); “For those who never liked That Guy Who Plays Acoustic Guitar At The Party, Babel’s gonna sound like the dentist’s drill. For others, this still may be the point at which you put down your makeshift tambourine, get up from the half-circle and find a better room in the party house.” (Prefix); and, our favorite, “Effectively, it is emo for blacksmiths.” (The Fly).

Regardless, we’ll defer our final judgment to another day.  In the interim, check out the band below last night on the Letterman Show performing the first single off the album, I Will Wait.  The best part of the song, the repentant lyrics, follow.  And at bottom is the band’s Red-Rock-ing of the same song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26maHIFoHRQ&feature=em-uploademail

“And I came home
Like a stone
And I fell heavy into your arms
These days of darkness
Which we’ve known
Will blow away with this new sun

And I’ll kneel down
Wait for now
And I’ll kneel down
Know my ground

And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you

So break my step
And relent
You forgave and I won’t forget
Know what we’ve seen
And him with less
Now in some way
Shake the excess

But I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you

So I’ll be bold
As well as strong
And use my head alongside my heart
So tame my flesh
And fix my eyes
That tethered mind free from the lies

But I’ll kneel down
Wait for now
I’ll kneel down
Know my ground

Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Keep my heart slow

Cause I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you”

Check out the great Blur closing the 2012 Olympic Games with a stellar rendition of new song Under the Westway (written for the Olympics event, as we’ve written before).  The full show will be available on the Parklive Deluxe Set on December 3rd at blur.co.uk  http://smarturl.it/parklive

After all the recent heavenly hubris and hub-bub, Sufjan Stevens today released his new Christmas-song box set, Silver & Gold.  You can stream it in its entirety and buy it below.

You can’t say Sufjan Stevens has been playing things safe.  He’s recently released an unsettling clay-mation video featuring bloody scenes and has otherwise been going out on limbs.  And now, in his new video for I’ll Be Home For Christmas (from his impending Silver & Gold Christmas-songs box set) we see a less-than-Christmasy, David Lynch-esque montage of a child running past Santa sawing reindeer antlers, a creepy seance-esque scene, ballerinas menacingly popping balloons, and police hovering over what appears to be Stevens’ body (though credited as “Jordan Lake,” and finally ending with a child receiving a gift from what may or may not be her parents.  The only thing missing is Dennis Hopper and a gas mask.  Also reminds of Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander.  Yikes.  Don’t let your kids see this one.  The good news?  If you don’t watch, it’s a dreamy rendering of the song.

As Stevens’ label (we assume Stevens himself) has written about Christmas and the genesis for the new box set:  “This is the true horror-show catharsis of Christmas: the existential emptiness that perseveres in the heart of modern man as he recklessly pursues his search for happiness and comes up empty handed.”  But as also written, we trust that Stevens will do as they later say:  “His song is love; his song is hope; his song is peace. His song conjures the fruitcake world of his own imagination with steadfast pursuit of the inexplicable bliss of Christmas Promises—“Gloria in excelsis deo””.  Sounds like somebody we know.