KCRW recently broadcast a solo performance by Ryan Adams that was recorded at Apogee Berkeley Street Studios in front of a live audience.  Check out a few of the songs below and watch/listen to the full set HERE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFCyysF7sfg&feature=uploademail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLrxb1IIRqA&feature=relmfu

Dum Dum Girls made their network television debut last night, showing up on the “Jimmy Fallon Show” to play their song, Bedroom Eyes, off of their #1 College-Radio album, “Only in Dreams” on Sub Pop. Watch the performance below via the Audio Perv. The song truly takes flight at 2:21.  You might assert from this performance that they are merely the Goth Go-Gos.  But we hear more depth in the lyrics to go with the arresting audio amalgam of the Shangri-Las, Ramone(a)s, Cramps, and Mazzy Star.

About the song, Bedroom Eyes, Sub Pop tells that [lead singer] “Dee Dee wrote ‘Bedroom Eyes’ after returning from a European tour, jet-lagged and lonely. ‘I was home alone,’ she says. ‘Insomnia was taking its toll; I felt absolutely crazy. I looked up poetry on the subject and found a Dante Gabriel Rosetti poem and the song was born from that.’” A poetry reader? We’re in.

Iron & Wine showed up on Leno last night to play the recently revealed “Wedding Version” of their song, Flightless Bird, American Mouth.  The track can be found on the soundtrack to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt. 1.  Check out the performance below (courtesy of the Audio Perv).  Sam Beam and band continue to deftly iron their live act and wine and dine us with live musical brilliance.

After you check out last night’s performance, check out the band’s earlier performance of Tree by the River on Leno.  Stunning stuff.

Last year’s Plants And Animals’ album, “La La Land,” was one of our favorite albums of 2010. So anticipation runs high at Chez Lefort for their newly announced third album, “The End Of That.”  Recorded outside of Paris (bien sur!), the new album will be released on February 28th on Secret City. The band has just released the first track, Lightshow, which bodes well for the album as you can hear (or download) below. The new album’s song list follows.

Plants and Animals – Lightshow by SecretCityRecords

The End Of That:

1. Before
2. The End of That
3. Song for Love
4. Lightshow
5. Crisis!
6. 2010
7. HC
8. Why & Why
9. Control Me
10. No Idea
11. Runaways

San Francisco’s Dodos showed up with Neko Case on the Jimmy Fallon Show last night and played Don’t Try And Hide It .

Check it out below courtesy of the Audio Perv. The guitar-attack starts at 3:13, and it’s a given that Neko’s vocals lift the song up.

After, go pick up their recent, John Askew-produced album,”No Color” (to which Neko Case contributed).  Go on over to the Dodos’ site HERE and pick up their album and a free, unreleased song (So Cold).

She & Him performed The Christmas Waltz on Leno last night.

Check it below courtesy of the Audio Perv and pick up their album, “A Very She & Him Christmas” at Amazon for $1.99.

Jimmy Cliff performed two old chestnuts last night with the Roots on the Jimmy Fallon Show. Check out Cliff as he dives into The Harder They Come and World Upside Down below.

Matthew Caw of Nada Surf performed solo on A Take Away Show in Paris last week for France’s Le Hiboo. Watch him perform When I Was Young at the always-captivating Musee Carnavalet.  Nada Surf will release its next album, “The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy” in January.

One of the highlights of our live music year was catching Elbow at this year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.  Whether you were in San Francisco for that set or not, Elbow is streaming their live show this year at the Manchester Cathedral in its entirety.  As you’ll see below, they opened with The Birds.  Also included is one of our faves, Weather to Fly, which they unfortunately did not perform at Hardly Strictly.  Check both out below and then go to Elbow’s site and stream the whole show.

For No One has a great Girls’ performance of the band’s Love Like A River from their recently-released album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost.  The album is on sale for $6.99 at Amazon, but the sale ends tomorrow (November 29th).  And for you OC/LA denizens, Club Mercy is bringing Girls to Santa Ana’s Galaxy Theater next Wednesday, December 7th.  Go there and see a great live band overflow its banks with musical love. They will be way, way better (and less viscous) than that reads.

Girls | FOR NO ONE from FOR NO ONE on Vimeo.