We stumbled upon a couple of very inventive and innervating official videos from The Manchester Orchestra and Eskmo.

First up is Eskmo‘s  video (directed by Cyriak Harris) for the song We Got More.  Eskmo is Brendan Angelides, a San Francisco-based electronic music producer who records and performs live as Eskmo.  Technically impressive, this Escher-esque video provides great encouragement to leave the computers, smart-phones and TVs behind and set out on a stroll along the beach or hike up into some hills, and think outside the silicon.

Next up is The Manchester Orchestra‘s video (directed by DANIELS) for their anthemic song Simple Math (the title track to their most recent album).  The Manchester Orchestra took the Santa Barbara Bowl by storm recently at the Summer Roundup, and is orchestrating a growing following.  The song Simple Math has echoes of Built to Spill vocally, and the video’s visuals are built to spill your emotions across the road and kitchen. Check it out.

Manchester Orchestra – “Simple Math” from DANIELS on Vimeo.

Earlier this year Josh T. Pearson (of Saddlecreek’s one-album band, Lift to Experience) put out one of the most personal and affecting albums of this or any year, “Last of the Country Gentlemen.”  Amongst a harem of harrowing songs on the album can be found the walloping Woman, When I’ve Raised Hell.  In this song the protagonist demands acceptance of his alcoholism because refusal will result in his seriously bad company, and ultimately recommends saving departure.  Lyrically astounding, this is Real Country.  Check the album version below, the well-crafted lyrics and a live video of the song thereafter.

Josh T. Pearson–Woman, When I’ve Raised Hell

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Woman When I’ve Raised Hell:

For some further proof of the worth of Pearson, check out The Take-Away Video below wherein Josh performs Sweetheart I’m Not Your Christ and Thou Art Loose.  Though over 20-minutes long, we couldn’t take our eyes off the video.  Check out in particular the juxtaposition of lyric and the Christ-like visual effect (on the Sweetheart I’m Not Your Christ portion of the video) starting at 5:48 and ending at 6:15 in emblematic glow.  And there is circumstantial magic (thanks to Take-Away Video’s site-selection) that ensues between the 6:15 mark and the renewed, naturally-reverberating singing that starts at 16:58.  We reckon Pearson is a beating force to be reckoned with.  You can read more about this Take-Away Show and Pearson HERE.

Josh T. Pearson | Sweetheart I Ain’t Your Christ | Thou Art Loose | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Some things just seem so natural and apropos.  Like Mumford & Sons covering The National’s great song England. The video was released as a precursor to the band’s upcoming Unplugged show on VH1, which will be broadcast next week.  According to Marcus Mumford, the English band is “still trying to figure out whether or not [the song is] offensive towards English people,” though he acknowledged that the Mumfords love the song and “High Violet.” Check out the video of this fine Mumford-ized take on England below.

There’s a group of fine French folks (led by Frenchman Vincent Moon, seen above) putting out some of the best, most-captivating music videos on the planet under the moniker, “The Take-Away Shows.”  Moon began by making cinéma vérité styled music videos of bands such as Phoenix, The National and Yo La Tengo, filmed in settings that helped to isolate and illuminate the performers and their music.  You may know Moon and the Take-Away from the Arcade Fire-in-elevator video below (Take-Away #41).

Take Away Show #41 _ THE ARCADE FIRE from Vincent Moon / Petites Planètes on Vimeo.

As you can read in the New York Times link below, Moon eventually grew restless and reinvented himself by abandoning his Parisian life and taking to the worldly road and producing videos from Brazil and, most recently, Austin Texas.  Check out a recent video below from the band Vandeveer (which have a bit of  the look and feel of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) set in an abandoned swimming pool.  The Take-Away, Vandeveer and Maps and Atlases worked together this year at SxSW in benefit of Uganda’s “Invisible Children.”

Vandaveer | The Nature of our Kind | A SxSw / IC Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

You can see more fantastique Take-Away Shows HERE and read a profile of Vincent Moon from today’s New York Times HERE.

We meandered upon a couple of new music videos that, for us, help to overcome the greasy gray-matter outside our windows and convey some serious Summertime.  First up is a great new song and video by Eleanor Friedberger from her first solo record, “Last Summer,” which is due from Merge in mid-July.  Friedberger is the co-leader (with her brother, Matthew) of the inventive and invigorating band, “The Fiery Furnaces.”  In My Mistakes Eleanor delivers a powerful pop song brimming with honesty (and manages to incorporate some solo tennis in the video).  The Merge press blurb says it well:  “Friedberger’s phrasing is as good as anyone’s; even better, when the line’s over and most other singers would leave it right there, she’ll throw in an unnecessary extra syllable—a “yuh” or an “er,” even an “oh oh.” It’s like she hates silence. “Eleanor Friedberger’s music improves on silence”: there’s your headline.”

And below that is the perpetually peppy Matt and Kim (do they ever have a “bad day”?) with a new video for their song, Block After Block.  The video is an infectious bit of sound and and sight featuring New York City and environs (Union Square, Brooklyn Bridge Walkway, etc.).  Chapeau! to the maundering mosh-pit and the crowd-surf train guy.  All of which serves to remind:  it’s been far too long, NYC.  Check ’em out.

Eleanor Friedberger – My Mistakes from Merge Records on Vimeo.

If you like instrumental music and rock n’ roll, then you have to love Explosions in the Sky.  We are such slaves to lyrics in songs and their collaborative effects that we admit instrumentals are generally not our first (or second) pick when we want to listen to music.  But when a band makes music as beautiful and cathartic as Austin’s Explosions in the Sky, you must give them their due.  Check out their set from Bonnaroo a few days ago (courtesy of the AudioPerv), and see why this band has a justifiably huge following.  Click twice on the arrows below for viewing.

Photos by Lefort

We had the great fortune to catch Buffalo Springfield at the Santa Barbara Bowl last Wednesday.  A year ago no one would have predicted that Neil Young, Richie Furay and Stephen Stills would re-group and grace us with a reunion tour from a band that had dis-banded a scant 43 (!) years ago.  For what it’s worth, it was well worth the wait.  The songs and delivery of the band roundly resonated in the hallowed grounds of the Bowl.  The only expectation of ours not met by the band was when they failed to play their best song, Neil Young’s  Expecting to Fly. Check out the full set-list from the show way below.  Also below is a video of the band performing Mr. Soul at Bonnaroo.

Photo by Lefort

Opening up was the American-treasure-trove of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who performed their usual musical magic (in full Nudie-suit regalia) despite the nattering and inattention of the ADD crowd, which failed to heed Buffalo Springfield’s own warning that Gillian and David might not “be back till later on, if [they] do come back at all.”  Pay attention folks: you might at any point be in the presence of greatness without realizing it.  Better to adhere to the admonition of the Talking Heads:  “Don’t you miss it, don’t you miss it; some ‘a you people just about missed it!”  On June 28th, the duo will release its phenomenal new album, “The Harrow & the Harvest,” under the Gillian Welch moniker (after an eight-year wait), which you can read about and pre-order HERE .

For a flavor of the Bowl show, check out Buffalo Springfield’s performance of Mr. Soul at Bonnaroo last Saturday.

Buffalo Springfield setlist from the June 8th Bowl show:

We caught the brilliant Bright Eyes when they came through Pomona a few months back, and the band delivered an “incendiary” performance.  In line with that flash-pot set, check out the official video for Bright Eyes’ tribute to The Cars:  Jejune Stars below.  Consider it an early Fourth of July celebration.

Stephen Malkmus is soon to release his fifth post-Pavement album, Mirror Traffic (out August 23) on Matador. The new album was recorded by Beck (candidly, we’re not fans of his) in Los Angeles over the past couple of years and includes 15 songs.  Check out the first song released from the album, entitled Senator, below.  In light of the recent wiener-revelations swirling around Representative Weiner, along with the allegations concerning the IMF’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn (OK, go ahead and pick amongst 30-50 possible sordid government or regulatory offenders), the lyrics are particularly apropos.  And if this song is any musical indication of the caliber of the new album, it sounds like Malkmus is back on track and making vibrant, melodic and interesting sounds, and not just wanking on his guitar as he has over the course of the last couple of albums and tours with the Jicks.  We’re sure it was because of our earlier plea. Vive le Malkmus!

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks–Senator

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They’re everywhere, and that’s a good thing.

If you missed it, check out video from their recent Todd Haynes-filmed show at the The Palace in Louisville and then tune in to VHS1 Storytellers tonight.

Read about VHS1 show HERE and check out a sample below.