Captain’s Dead has posted a phenomenal live recording of Warren Zevon performing at The Record Plant (a recording studio back in the day–duh Captain!).  Go over to Captain’s Dead and check it out.  Zevon died in 2003 at the age of 56 and is still sorely missed.

Here’s the song list:

Intro
Johnny Strikes Up the Band
Tenderness on the Block
Mohammed’s Radio
Excitable Boy
Werewolves of London
Accidentally Like a Martyr
Band Intros
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
Poor, Poor Pitiful Me
Lawyers, Guns and Money
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead

We have lavished praise on the newish, Northwest-borne genre of skip-the-barber-quartet Singalong Bands. Let’s call it Oregorian Chant in honor of Portland band, Typhoon and others.  Or, perhaps, Doe-gorian Chant is a better moniker in honor of the annual Doe Bay Festival at which many of the genre’s progenitors seem to have been born (again)–The Head and the Heart, Hey Marseilles, The Lonely Forest, The Maldives, Bryan John Appleby, and other harmonious offerings.

But we’re not sure how many of these fresh-faced folks the Everything-is-Free generation can/will ultimately support.  So we were pleased to see Seattle band, Pickwick, performing at this year’s Doe Bay Festival.  While they have the Singalong genre’s GUI, they manage to set themselves somewhat apart based in part on the powerful pipes (Buckley-esque) of leader Galen Disston and their dirtier R&B sound.  Check out the band first on Orcas Island below.  And then check ’em out in a basement, grinding it out.

LA-based band Milo Greene recently graced the Lobero Theater as openers at the sold-out Civil Wars concert.  Though we were elsewhere that evening, we have it on good authority that Milo Greene stole the show.  Check out a couple-a-few compelling examples of the band performing live below.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings appeared last week on Later on Jools Holland and performed two great new songs, Dark Turn of Mind and The Way It Goes , from her album “The Harrow & The Harvest.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_dTFT-KflU&feature=watch_response

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBke402nyIQ&feature=player_embedded

Let the shoppers darken the day-after.  We’re still leavened by the light of thanksgiving.  Craig Finn (of faves, The Hold Steady) captures it well in his song, One Single Saviour, as performed earlier this year on Minnesota Public Radio.  Check it out below, followed by the lyrics.  Thankfully, Finn will soon be making his way around the US solo (well, without the Hold Steady backing) in support of his impending new solo album,  “Clear Heart Full Eyes” on Vagrant Records.  After One Single Saviour, check out the first track (Honolulu Blues) released by Finn of the new album and then its lyrics.

“One single savior
One way to be right
I said one simple prayer towards the darkness
I took two steps into the light
Your soul left my body
Your sight left my eyes
I turned my back on the business
I quit picking up shipments
Pretty sure we’re all gonna die

And the road, it keeps bringing me
All the things we want and need
We don’t really want them anymore

So your lay your head down on my ribs
Listen to the life I’ve lived
Listen to the love I have to give to you
Dance a little closer, let me rescue you

One single savior
Some friend on the phone
One for the road, one for the team
Too tired to get up, too broke to stay home
One simple devotion
One way to get right
I pulled the shades on the sunshine
Now it’s just me time
I’m pretty sure we’re all gonna die

On the highway up ahead of us
Are all the things we wanted but
Nothing really matters anymore

So pull a chair up to the bed
Put your hands up to my neck
Put my mouth up to your broken wing
Listen to the songs that I sing

Listen to the songs that I sing
Under my breath
As I die a peaceful death
These are all the songs that really got to me

You and me both
As we wait in joyful hope
Deliver us Lord from our anxiety
As we wait in joyful hope
As we wait in joyful hope
As we wait in joyful hope
as we wait in joyful hope”

Craig Finn – Honolulu Blues by Vagrant Records

Honolulu Blues

“A man darkened our doorway. He said he’s here to share the good news. He had a smile straight from the movies. But when I looked down at his shoes. There were holes and they showed his toes. The right was left. The black was brown. And later on in the garage I couldn’t find my chainsaw. In the distance I heard trees just falling down.

I was underneath the city. I was riding around on trains. Fell asleep before Nassau Ave. And I ended up in Maine. There were big tall trees and rocky coastline. And the waves came in so wild. But for all the natural beauty there were still so many kids that were asking me for something that could help them to get high.

We’re all good. We’re all bad. We’re euphoric and we’re sad. We roll the rock away and check the tomb. We’re awake and we’re aware that we’re confused and cold and scared. And the cross reminds us that He died for me and you. Woke up in the ocean with the Honolulu Blues.

Joan Didion and Graham Greene. Said roughly the same thing. You bring your Jesus to the jungle. Try to teach people to sing All the hymns that you love because you learned them as a kid and they make perfect sense to you. There’s a point in time when thousands die. And you’ve got to maybe think that maybe Jesus isn’t getting through.

We’re freezing in the forest. There’s no wood to heat the house. We took axes to the furniture. We pulled the floorboards out. There’s animals scratching at the door. And they know we’re gonna die. There were big tall trees and rocky coastline. And the waves came in so wild.

We’re all wild. We’re all free. We’re all back from Tennessee. With the souvenirs to prove that we were there. We’re flying around in planes. We’re riding around in trains. Searching out those panoramic views. Woke up in the ocean with the Honolulu Blues.

We’re all good. We’re all bad. We’re euphoric and we’re sad. We roll the rock away and check the tomb. We’re awake and we’re alarmed at the scars scratched in your arm. The cross reminds us that He died for me and you. Woke up in Oahu with the Honolulu Blues.”

Sharon Van Etten, one of the best new songstresses to appear recently on the scene in America or anywhere, has announced she will release a new album, “Tramp,” (on Jagjaguwar) to follow up her stunning “epic” album, a couple of songs of which you can check out HERE.  Check out the first song sampling off the new album, Serpents, via Pitchfork.  The new album was recorded with The National’s Aaron Dessner, with a stellar cast of Brooklyn-centric musicians (Bryce Dessner, The Walkmen’s Matt Barrick, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, and Doveman’s Thomas Bartlett).

On Serpent we hear a more dense sound to go with the usual Van Etten harrow.  Check it out below.

Sharon Van Etten—Serpents

Van Etten will also tour in support of the new album starting in February as set forth below.  And check out Tramp’s song list below the tour dates.

Sharon Van Etten 2012 Tour Dates:

02/10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s *
02/11 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat *
02/12 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle *
02/14 – Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center *
02/15 – Newport, KY @ Southgate House *
02/17 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall *
02/18 – Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center *
02/21 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace *
02/22 – Montreal, QC @ Il Motore *
02/23 – Boston, MA @ Paradise *
02/24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg *
02/25 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom *
03/20 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Avalon #
03/21 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent #
03/23 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater #
03/24 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret #
03/25 – Seattle, WA @ The Neptune
03/27 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room #
03/28 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater #
03/31 – St. Louis, MO @ Luminary Center for the Arts #
04/01 – Bloomington, IN @ Rhino’s #

* = w/ Shearwater
# = w/ The War on Drugs

Tramp:
1. Warsaw
2. Give Out
3. Serpents
4. Kevin’s
5. Leonard
6. In Line
7. All I Can
8. We Are Fine
9. Magic Chords
10. Ask
11. I’m Wrong
12. Joke or a Lie

Laura Marling joined Ryan Adams last night on British Channel 4′s Live From Abbey Road show. Marling’s joinder makes sense given Adams’ recent praise for Marling and her album, “I Speak Because I Can,” from 2010.

Check out the duo performing one of Adams’ finest songs, Oh My Sweet Carolina.  The music saunters in at :56 and on the chorus we hear Marling channel Emmylou Harris’s original harmony vocal with some added inflection and feeling.  One senses each is honored.  Beauty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix9g-yW7sCo&feature=player_embedded

Merge Records is generously offering up its free Winter Sampler Download HERE.

As listed below, the Merge sampler consists of some of the best music put out this year (in particular the Buckner, Mountain Goats, and Friedberger offerings).  Check ’em out.

Hospitality – “Betty Wang”
Richard Buckner – “Traitor”
Lambchop – “Gone Tomorrow”
Crooked Fingers – “Bad Blood”
Superchunk – “Driveway to Driveway”
The Mountain Goats – “Estate Sale Sign”
Eleanor Friedberger – “My Mistakes”
Imperial Teen – “Runaway”
Archers of Loaf – “Harnessed In Slums”
Wild Flag – “Romance”
Stephin Merritt – “Rot in the Sun”
The Rosebuds – “Go Ahead”

And while you’re over there streaming/downloading, check out the Christmas offerings of She & Him and Julian Koster (as to the latter, it is finally what we’ve all been waiting for: O Holy Night performed on saw–we are now ready for the rapture).

Fab French band, M83, stopped in on the Jimmy Fallon Show last night and killed on a performance of their great new song, Midnight City, off their tres grand new album, “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” (a double album). Check out the digitalis, the harmonies, and then the arresting analog sax solo (reminding of Destroyer’s great sound on this year’s phenomenal “Kaputt” album).  Fallon was wowed, as were we.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed that they’ll be alighting in a nearby venue in the near future.

The elevating English band, Elbow, recently performed on CBC’s Studio Q sessions.   Studio Q just today released video of the band performing a stripped down version of their great song, Grounds For Divorce.  Compare a full-electrified version of this song from this year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival HERE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUZ5FRqss2U&feature=uploademail