Australian band, Goyte, showed up recently on KCRW and performed their worldly (popular) song, Somebody That I Used to Know, which was just released in July.  The performance keeps making sense until 2:34 when Kimbra’s (cool name) musical rapture kicks in to take it to another level.  Her hands have it, hands down.  After this addictive musical trollope, check out two other Kimbra videos (so easily distracted are we).

We’ve raved about Jessica Lea Mayfield before.  And we will rave again because she strikes a vein that the stricken vain won’t feel. Check out a newly jet-black-coiffed Jessica performing “Blue Skies Again” solo-acoustic at WNRN in Charlottesville, Virginia.  We especially like the added chorus yips.  And then for comparison check out  a blonde Mayfield and band performing the same song on KEXP electrically.  And then check out two more performances on  WNRN, the devastating Somewhere in Your Heart and I’ll Be The One You Want. She has a field day with these songs.

Feist’s “Metals” album is still holding feisty to its top spot in our jukebox, and the song, Get It Wrong, Get It Right, is one of the gems of Metals‘ gem faire.  Check out below the just-released video from CBC’s Studio Q in which Feist and band give a particularly poignant read of the song.  Listen in as Feist sings, with haiku eloquence, of relational trials endured and hope evinced.  And she gets it right, gets it right, gets it so right.  The song’s lyrics follow the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWspaTPB1lw

Get It Wrong, Get It Right

“Wind on the fields blowin’ your hair
Wheat of gold, wheat of gold, wheat of gold
Wheat of gold, hand to hold, hand to hold

Come to the hill, got a nest to build
String and grass, string and grass, string and grass
String and grass, be the past, be the past

Climb up to the clouds, tops of the trees
Little road, little road, little road
Little road, come and go, come and go

River dam, lake fills up the land
Skippin’ stones, skippin’ stones, skippin’ stones
Skippin’ stones, build a home, build a home

Cold outside, warm by the fire
Get it wrong, get it wrong, get it wrong
Get it right, get it right, get it right

In our continuing efforts to pay homage to our French-Canadian roots, we introduce (we surmise) to you Canadian singer, Beatrice Martin, who has been making huge inroads (over 10,000,000 hits for her video below of Comme des Enfants) in both her native French and English tongues (she’s Canadian after all).  Martin has made her mark in Canada and other Francophone environs as “Coeur de Pirate” (Pirate Heart) and elsewhere as a part of the English side-project, “Armistice.”

Toronto-based music blog, Chromewaves, pointed to Martin, Couer de Pirate and Armistice in their post today in which Chromewaves rave-viewed the Couer de Pirate show in Toronto last Friday (in support of the band’s brand new album, “Blonde“).  Chromewaves said the following about the new album:  “The girlish, chanson-derived charms of Coeur de Pirate have blossomed into widescreen, swinging-’60s full-band pop gems with Martin functioning less as a singer-songwriter than a full-on bandleader.”

To begin to get a feel for Martin and crews, first check out Armistice’s (with Mariachi El Bronx) official video for their song, Mission Bells (followed by the song’s lyrics).  And then check out Couer de Pirate’s humorous/inventive official video for new song, Adieu (off of Blonde), and the official video for previously mentioned ballad, Comme des Enfants .

“MISSION BELLS

I can still feel you there
Are we tangled in time somewhere
And it’s been a while since you’ve been ‘round here
Since you locked me in some devastated stare

Oh then we could ring out like mission bells
Across the yard we knew so well
Come on come on give me my turn
To sing once more
And let it burn

‘Cause I’m
I’m just no good
So leave me, as you should
And surrender to some unholy war
‘Cause we forgot what we first came here for

Oh then we could ring out like mission bells
Across the yard we knew so well
Come on come on give me my turn
To sing once more
And let it burn

Come on come on come on now you sing it
Laying me low in bells that come ringing and,

We could ring out like mission bells
Across the yard we knew so well
Come on come on give me my turn
To sing once more
And let it burn”

We’ve liked the Minneapolis-born band, Tapes n’ Tapes, ever since their urgency-riddled debut album, “Loon,” in 2007.  Though not favored by the critics, we also enjoyed their Dave Fridmann-produced sophomore album, “Walk It Off.” And earlier this year the band released it’s third album, the return-to-full-form “Outside,” which includes three song-subjects performed by the band on a just-released Sleepover Show out of Boston.

First check out the great, driving first single off of Outside, Freak Out, followed by One in the World.  Then check out the footstomping acoustic-shuffle delivery of SWM (following the song lyrics).  We like how the lyrical despair in  SWM cuts against the grain of the ostensibly upbeat music.

“Give me all your money
and give me all your friends
I’ll be your saviour

And when your heart is aching
and I’ll be your bitter end
Those thoughts of mine
Those thoughts of mine

And when you pull up to the old time table
And you start to see
that you’re unable
I’m alone
You are alone

Now we’re in the middle
Awaken till the end
I’ll be alone most of the time
You’ll be alone most of the time

And when you find your body aching
I’ll be your bitter end
Time to ache, time to hold her
And bottle up your soda

When you’re walking, walking, walking, walking
I’ll be on my knees,
And when you’re talking, talking, talking, talking
Your words are a disease
I’ll be alone
I’ll be alone

In the middle I’ll hold you tight
You’ve been going out every night
I’ve been holding your savings tight

You called me out
I’m not so sure
You’ve been here before
And when you hold
-my hand
I’ll walk you out
i’ll have you over

Don’t meet me in the middle
I am not a friend
You called me up
You called me out
and so, so, so, so, sure that

You are not a level
You’re not innocent
You called me up
and called me out
and so, so, so, so, so, sure that

You are alone
You are alone
You are alone
You are alone
You are alone
You are alone”

It’s Sunday and so we went seeking some congregant singalongs.  And we discovered Iceland’s Of Monsters and Men courtesy of KEXP‘s October visit to Iceland for the Iceland Airwaves ’11.  Of Monsters and Men are a six piece indie/folk band that already has had success with their song, Little Talks, following KEXP’s recording of it during last year’s Iceland Airwaves. This September the band released their first album, “My Head is an Animal.”

Check out Of Monsters and Men reprising their Little Talks performance, along with added songs Lakehouse, Love Love Love, and Six Weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNE8jUVboT4

Flavorwire has offered up “The Cultural Omnivore’s Guide to Classical Music.”  Having laid around in the ’60s listening to our father’s Tchaikovsky, Grieg, and Rachmaninoff, and then spending portions of the next four decades familiarizing ourselves with every genre and facet of classical music (and opera), we laud this post and effort (minor quarrel: no prog-rock-n’-rolling Stravinsky or Janacek at Step 3, dear Flavorizers?).

While we appreciate Flavorwire’s effort (and many others’ efforts–notably Alex Ross’s “The Rest is Noise” blog), we’re not sure how we feel about various classical ensembles (and individuals) “covering” modern music.  We have a hard time determining whether or not this activity is a waste of talented musicians’ and listeners’ time or a worthy exercise in the effort to bring new listeners to classical music, or somewhere in between or outside that spectrum.

To gauge your reaction, check out the Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra (pictured above) performing Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit below and let us know what you think.  Other examples of this genre are Vitamin String Quartet.  You can check out their take on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah after the Jingle Punks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2pAnF1o_JY

War on Drugs wages our kind of musical war and has renewed their campaign in earnest with the recent release of new album, “Slave Ambient,” on the strong and not-so-secret label, Secretly Canadian.  Philadelphia’s Adam Granduciel, Dave Hartley, Robbie Bennett and Steven Urgo create an engagingly updated Byrds-meets-Dylan-in-Petty’s-dressing-room-in-2011 sound that you oft-times don’t want to end.  And that hypnotic jangle is the value that War on Drugs has added to the influences, and which has quickly become our drug of choice.

Check out a few great examples below.  First up is the hypno-jangle of Brothers as performed for The L Magazine.  After hearing this song and Granduciel’s vocals you won’t be surprised to learn that Kurt Vile used to be in the band (until 2008) before heading out on his own.  The second video is, Best Night, the opening track off of “Slave Ambient” (as performed for L Magazine–you can skip past some interview bits and “favorite pedal” discussion to Best Night at 4:00).  The next video is a driving acoustic version of that same song (Best Night) as performed on KDHX in St. Louis.  And finally check out the official video for the song, Come to the City, which Secretly Canadian calls “the sprawling centerpiece” to the new album.

War on Drugs are supposed to be addicting live and will be touring next March with the sublime Sarah Van Etten.  They’ll play the following West Coast dates:

03/20/12 Los Angeles, CA – The Avalon w/ Sharon Van Etten
03/21/12 San Francisco, CA – The Independent w/ Sharon Van Etten
03/23/12 Portland, OR – Aladdin Theatre w/ Sharon Van Etten
03/24/12 Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore Cabaret w/ Sharon Van Etten 

Prior to their stirring set at Soho last Sunday, the Fruit Bats appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Studio Sessions.” Check out their performance of three songs off of their new album, “Tripper,” and one from their masterpiece, “The Ruminant Band.” Check out the vivacious videography and sounds below.

You’re Too Weird:

Tony the Tripper:

So Long:

Feather Bed:

There are frankly not many music blogs that consistently impress with their combined writing and music standards.  Said the Gramophone is the one blog by which we are consistently humbled.  We feel compelled to sing their praises in particular today given their recent post entitled, “The Answer to Our Current Crisis,“ which you can read HERE.  Between the prose and the pros of the offered song (Adam & the Amethysts’ “Dreaming“), guaranteed uplift will ensue. Dreaming is quickly rising on our Songs of the Year list.

Check out and download Montreal’s Adam & the Amethysts‘ songs, Dreaming and Prophecy, below, and then go over to Exclaim.ca and stream the band’s impending new sophomore album, “Flickering Flashlights.” And then go HERE to buy the album.

The similarity between the Amethysts’ and Appleby’s album (below) covers is duly noted.

ADAM & THE AMETHYSTS – Dreaming by kelprecords

ADAM & THE AMETHYSTS – Prophecy by kelprecords