Another dynamic duo hits Santa Barbara next week when the live-killing Phantogram play at Soho.  We caught them last year in LA when they opened for The Antlers on tour, and immediately began fantasizing about catching them headlining.  Turns out we didn’t have to wait too long, thanks to Club Mercy.

Phantogram recently performed three new songs (16 Years, Don’t Move, and Nightlife) off their impending EP, “Nightlife“, on The Current (Minnesota Public Radio).  Check those songs and the band being interviewed below.

She’s a little bit punky; she’s a little bit country.  21-year old Lydia Loveless grew up in a musical family with a rock drummer-dad (he plays on her albums) and otherwise surrounded by country music in Ohio.  Like another young Ohian, Jessica Lea Mayfield (what is it with Ohio?), Lydia’s vocals remind you of Neko Case, but also of seminal female country singers such as Loretta Lynn.   Her songs are all over the map stylistically (fast, anthem, ballad, humorous ode, you name it).  And Loveless ladles on loads of lyrical lines that stick to your cerebellum and heart (Salty lyric alert:  she is not afraid to hide anything and tosses off some vulgar vernacular and ribald phrases–Amen!).

To start getting Lovelessed, go over to MTVHive and check out her song, Jesus Was a Wino, off her brand new album, “Indestructible Machine.”  And then below, check out an in-store performance of that same song, which, amongst other things, recognizes the Son of Man’s empathy for the earth’s downtrodden.  At MTV Hive Loveless said this about the song: “I’ve always seen wine as a really biblical thing.  Growing up and drinking it in church for communion, and when I got older, meeting a lot of Christians who think it’s sinful to drink. It’s poking fun at people – it’s not anti-Jesus.”

As mentioned above, Loveless just released a great new album entitled “Indestructible Machine” on Bloodshot Records.  Saunter on over and buy the album HERE. She’s also on tour and coming to the following Cali venues next week:

Nov. 1st–San Diego at the Soda Bar
Nov. 2nd–Los Angeles at the Bootleg Bar
Nov. 3rd–Santa Cruz at the Crepe Place
Nov. 4th–San Francisco at the Hotel Utah
Nov. 5th–Sacramento at Harlows

You can get tickets for those shows HERE.  In the interim, check out her rocking go-girl anthem, Can’t Change Me, off the new album below:

Lydia Loveless–Can’t Change Me

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/lydia-loveless_cant-change-me.mp3|titles=lydia loveless_can’t change me]

And then check out her brand new Daytrotter (newly subscription-based–we’re in!) session HERE.  From that session you can check out Back on the Bottle below.

Lydia Loveless–Back on the Bottle

As Daytrotter writes (with their usual, penetrating aplomb):  “She sings about the affairs of man and woman in the way that they really are – often very unromantic. She gives us some of these farewells and some of the spicy interludes the way we never get to see them unless they’re happening to us for real. They are blunt and the cut to the chase. They are stories that male songwriters would pretty up, but Loveless would be the first to admit that she’d never pussy out like that. She hits us with it all and it leaves that sweet sting, all while still settling in like something that used to be written and played all the time in old Nashville.”

Together with Jessica Lea Mayfield, there is added hope for Real Country music.

Ryan Adams showed up on Live… on Jools Holland to perform Lucky Now. Check it out below, followed by Adams’ trick-or-treat “Night Sweats” promo-video (for his new album “Ashes and Fire”) featuring mega metal allusions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcG1PbHvtEs

We recently shared Kathleen Edwards‘ new songs, Change the Sheets and Wapusk, from her forthcoming album, “Voyageur.“ Voyageur was co-produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.  Comes now the new song, Sidecar (via TLOBF).

Check Sidecar out below (while we wonder what that  pooch is doing in our spot above).  We’re hearing quite a departure from her beloved Americana strum (and drang).

Kathleen Edwards – Sidecar by Kathleen Edwards

Catch Kathleen Edwards on tour with Bon Iver on the following European dates:

October
26 –  Utrecht, Netherlands – MCV
27 – Brussels, Belgium – AB
29 – Paris, France – La Grande Halle de La Villette (Pitchfork Music Festival Paris)
30 – Cologne, Germany – E-Werk

November
01 – Berlin, Germany – Columbiahalle
03 – Oslo, Norway – Sentrum Scene
04 – Stockholm, Sweden – Globen Annexet
05 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Falkoner
06 – Hamburg, Germany – Docks
09 – Leeds, England – O2 Academy
11 – Bristol, England – Colston Hall

We’re still reveling in the memories of Sunday night’s Paul Simon concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl.  Check out the only videos/audios we can currently find below.

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hym1afFEy5M&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Kodachrome

Sounds of Silence (good audio)

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

Slip Slidin’ Away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmF1BnIu6aU&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Here Comes the Sun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx2epKddx20&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Still Crazy After All These Years (including great, SNL-esque sax solo beginning at 2:41)

Beirut showed up on the Jimmy Fallon Show last night to perform their song, Santa Fe, off of their new album, The Rip Tide.  Check it out below courtesy of the Audio Perv.

We’ll write more later about the preternatural Paul Simon and his (and his phenomenal 9-piece band’s) powerful show at the Santa Barbara Bowl last night.  We can tell you (based on a straw poll) that the highlight for many was Simon’s acoustic covering of George Harrison’s, Here Comes the Sun. It was pitch and picture perfect.  At the end of the song, Simon looked to the heavens and voiced thanks to George (Harrison).

Check out last night’s rendering of Here Comes the Sun below (courtesy of Tad Wagner), followed by the show’s setlist.  Other massive highlights for us were Sounds of Silence, Peace Like A River, Hearts and Bones, and The Only Living Boy in New York.

Paul Simon–Here Comes the Sun (George Harrison cover)

Photos by Lefort

Setlist:

1. The Boy in the Bubble
2. Dazzling Blue
3. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
4. So Beautiful or So What
5. Mother and Child Reunion
6. That Was Your Mother
7. Hearts and Bones
8. Mystery Train
   (Junior Parker/Elvis cover) (segued into “Wheels”)
9. Wheels
   (Chet Atkins cover)
10. Slip Slidin’ Away
11. Rewrite
12. Peace Like a River
13. The Obvious Child
14. The Only Living Boy in New York
    (Simon & Garfunkel song)
15. Love Is Eternal Sacred Light
16. My Little Town
17. Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
18. Gumboots
19. Encore:
20. The Sound of Silence
21. Kodachrome
22. Gone at Last
23. Here Comes the Sun
24. Crazy Love, Vol. II
25. Late in the Evening
26. Encore 2:
27. Graceland
28. Pretty Thing
    (Bo Diddley cover) (Sung by Jim Oblon (drummer)
29. Still Crazy After All These Years

In case you missed Austin City Limits this past Saturday, ACL is graciously streaming their show with The Decemberists and Gillian Welch (David Rawlings compris).  Check it out in its entirety below.

Watch The Decemberists / Gillian Welch on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

At the Bridge School Benefit Concert, Eddie Vedder invited the charming Regine Chassagne (Arcade Fire) out to sing the beloved chestnut Tonight You Belong to Me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyLQzWIP4Y4&feature=related

And then Beck (get back to your production duties!) joined for the Bryants’ (Boudeleaux and Felice) great  Sleepless Nights (if you like it, best covered by Gram Parsons in our ever-so-humble opinion).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX27xmD9sQU&feature=related

And finally Eddie covered Neil Young’s stupendous Don’t Cry No Tears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCwSdiP7GY4&feature=related

At the Bridge School Benefit Concert this past Saturday, Neil Young came out with Mumford & Sons to perform one of the Mumfords’ favorites of Young’s, Dance, Dance, Dance.  Great to see this great band humbled by greatness.  Mumfords are the perfect band for the spirit of the Bridge School Benefit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvCQ4s_Qo0A

And then below is Mumford & Sons performing Awake My Soul with additional female fiddle accompaniment from Sarah Neufield and Marika Shaw of Arcade Fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dZ2wYmOnsQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL