Sep
Watch Graham Nash Perform “The Ballad For Bradley Manning” on PBS
in Music
One of our long-time favorites, and ever the political activist, Graham Nash recently appeared on PBS to speak about his new memoir Wild Tales. While there, Nash performed his song The Ballad for Bradley Manning (co-written with James Raymond) for PBS. Check it out below. The lyrics follow.
Almost Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning )
Written by Graham Nash and James Raymond
Locked up in a white room, underneath a glaring light
Every 5 minutes, they’re asking me if I’m alright
Locked up in a white room naked as the day I was born
24 bright light, 24 all alone
What I did was show some truth to the working man
What I did was blow the whistle and the games began
Tell the truth and it will set you free
That’s what they taught me as a child
But I can’t be silent after all I’ve seen and done
24 bright light I’m almost gone, almost gone
Locked up in a white room, dying to communicate
Trying to hang in there underneath a crushing wait
Locked up in a white room I’m always facing time
24 bright light, 24 down the line
What I did was show some truth to the working man
What I did was blow the whistle and the games began
But I did my duty to my country first
That’s what they taught me as a man
But I can’t be silent after all I’ve seen and done
24 bright light I’m almost gone, almost gone
(Treat me like a human, Treat me like a man )
Sep
Watch Atoms For Peace on The Daily Show
On their way to the Santa Barbara Bowl on October 17th, Atoms For Peace ran Amok on The Daily Show last night. Check out below as the band performed standout Default from Amok and (web-exclusive) Harrowdown Hill, from Yorke’s solo album The Eraser. At bottom, check out Stewart’s interview with Thom Yorke and Flea. Great stuff. We can’t wait for their return to Yorketown, California.
Sep
Watch Deer Tick Perform “The Dream’s In the Ditch” on Conan
Having just watched Deer Tick’s performance of The Dream’s In The Ditch (off their just-released album Negativity) last night on Conan, we’re a tick confused. Enthralled and impressed, but still confused. Every time we’ve previously caught the band live they have blazed and swaggered across the stage somewhat akin to The Replacements of yore, and evinced none of the refinement and composure to be found on the Conan performance below. Like Mikey of yore, we gotta say: we like it! Deer Tick will soon hit the road in support of Negativity. The tour dates follow the performance below. They also play the UCLA Bruin Plaza today if you’re in the vicinity. And ferheavensake, go buy Negativity HERE.
October
1 London, U.K. @ The Borderline
2 Sint Joost Ten Node, BE @ Botanique
3 Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
4 Berlin, DE @ Comet Club
10 Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palaace
11 Detroit, Mich. @ Magic Stick
12 Dekalb, Ill. @ Otto’s Nightclub
13 Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
15 Minneapolis, Minn. @ Fine Line Music Cafe
16 Winnepeg, MB @ West End Cultural Centre
18 Edmonton, AB @ The Starlite Room
19 Calgary, AB @ The Republik
21 Vancouver, B.C. @ Rickshaw Theatre
22 Seattle, Wash. @ Neumos
23 Portland, Ore. @ Wonder Ballroom
25 San Francisco, Calif. @ Slim’s
26 Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Troubadour
27 Solana Beach, Calif. @ Belly Up Tavern
29 Salt Lake City, Utah @ Urban Lounge
30 Denver, Colo. @ Bluebird Theater
November
1 Omaha, Neb. @ Slowdown
2 Lawrence, Kan. @ The Bottleneck
3 St. Louis, Mo. @ Firebird
4 Louisville, Ky. @ Headliners Music Hall
6 Philadelphia, Pa. @ Union Transfer
7 New York, N.Y. @ Webster Hall
10 Morgantown, W.V. @ Mountain Stage
Sep
Watch Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam Perform Solo-Acoustic on The Current
in Music
While out on tour in support of their magnificent recent album, Ghost On Ghost, Iron & Wine have been thrilling from town to town with their 13-piece big-band. The only complaint we’ve heard is from some diehards who prefer leader Sam Beam revert to his original solo-and-straight-up presentation so as to keep drinking their creek from a cradle for endless numbered days. But as somone once sang, he not busy being born is busy dying, and thankfully Beam adheres to this axiom. So for the diehards (and the rest of us that like the Iron AND the Wine), watch below as Beam plays Winter Prayers (lyrics at bottom) off the new album solo and unplugged. We can’t get these verses out of our heads: “And you know why she’s gone, like the clothes in the river drifting on.”
The recent album’s Grace For Saints and Ramblers follows. All courtesy of MPR’s The Current.
Winter Prayers:
“Well it’s cold and you’re bored
From counting the Smart cars on 94
When you dream, you’re back home
But the lakeside don’t trust you to walk alone
Hollow trees talk offhand
All the neckties are toasting with empty cans
And you know why she’s gone
Like the clothes in the river drifting on
Slide down south
Cause once in a while your confidence leaves you
Like smoke falls out her red mouth
Well she left you the holes
That tracks in the backyard December snow
But those sad souvenirs
They end at the fence line and disappear
Why’d you follow her there
Milwaukee’s a deaf ear for winter prayers
There’s no night, there’s no day
With only hope in your pocket and hell to pay
Slide down south
When once in a while your confidence leaves you
Like smoke falls out her red mouth”
Sep
Watch The Avett Brothers on Jimmy Fallon Show–Coming to Santa Barbara Bowl on 10/10
in Music
The Avett Brothers will soon release their new Rick Rubin-produced album Magpie And The Dandelion (out October 15th). Last night they performed stentorian new song Another Is Waiting on the Jimmy Fallon Show. Watch below as the band provides yet another scintillating example why you simply cannot fail to catch them live, including on October 10th when they will grace the hallowed Santa Barbara Bowl (get your tickets HERE). Be there or be lost in the supermarket.
After the Fallon video, check out the band’s lyric video for the song and an interview in which the band explains the song. Guessing the subject wasn’t Miley Cyrus.
Sep
Listen to Feist and Arcade Fire Cover Peter Gabriel Songs
in Music
A new compendium of Peter Gabriel cover songs, And I’ll Scratch Yours, was released today. The album features the likes of Elbow, Paul Simon, Lou Reed and Joseph Arthur. The fantastic Feist also appears (together, curiously, with Timbre Timbre) covering Gabriel’s perfect Don’t Give Up, which you can listen to below. To our ears it’s a marked improvement over Arcade Fire’s unimaginative version of Games Without Frontiers, which you can listen to HERE. At bottom, you can watch (via Stereogum) Gabriel himself perform the song with Feist on his tour in 2012.
And I’ll Scratch Yours Tracklist:
1. David Byrne – “I Don’t Remember”
2. Bon Iver – “Come Talk to Me”
3. Regina Spektor – “Blood of Eden”
4. Stephin Merritt – “Not One of Us”
5. Joseph Arthur – “Shock the Monkey”
6. Randy Newman – “Big Time”
7. Arcade Fire – “Games Without Frontiers”
8. Elbow – “Mercy Street”
9. Brian Eno – “Mother of Violence”
10. Feist – “Don’t Give Up” [ft. Timber Timbre]
11. Lou Reed – “Solsbury Hill”
12. Paul Simon – “Biko”
Sep
On Sunday: Have a “Little Faith” from The National
in Music
After their High Violet touring ended and before they began recording Trouble Will Find Me, The National took time out to capture their live rendering of Little Faith (from High Violet) at a castle in the Hudson Valley. As with most of Matt Berninger’s lyrics, each of us takes our own from his tragicomic words and lines. Here, you might ponder burning blueberry fields. Or you might play nuns versus priests on your own. Or you might Peckinpah a fire to see what it kills. For us, we’ll take a little faith to follow us around. And all the while the horns and strings play on, and the Devendorf brothers lay down the perfect rhythmic propulsion and display.
The song’s lyrics follow the video.
Little Faith:
“Little faith, follow me
I’ll set a fire in a blackberry field
Make us laugh or nothing will
I’ll set a fire just to see what it kills
Now we’re stuck in New York and the rain’s coming down
I don’t feel like we’ll go anywhere
Stuck in New York and the rain’s coming down
Still in line for the vanity fair
Leave our red southern souls
Head for the coast
Leave our red southern souls
Everything goes
All our lonely kicks are getting harder to find
We’ll play nuns versus priests until somebody cries
All our lonely kicks, they’ll make us saintly and thin
We’ll play nuns versus priests until somebody wins
Awesome prince, get your sleep
Lose your heart in history
Make us laugh or nothing will
I’ll set a fire just to see what it kills
Don’t be bitter, Anna, I know how you think
You’re waiting for Radio City to sink
You’ll find commiseration in everyone’s eyes
The storm will suck the pretty girls into the sky
All our lonely kicks are getting harder to find
We’ll play nuns versus priests until somebody cries
All our lonely kicks, they’ll make us saintly and thin
We’ll play nuns versus priests until somebody wins
Leave our red southern souls
Head for the coast
Leave our red southern souls
Everything goes”
Sep
Listen to Alternate Takes of Songs Co-Written by Eleanor Friedberger and Wesley Stace
in Music
We were were surprised to learn that two talented, but decidedly different, artists, Eleanor Friedberger and Wesley Stace (formerly known as John Wesley Harding before reverting to his real name), had co-written all of the songs on Friedberger’s Personal Record album released this summer. Two of the song highlights on Personal Record are Stare At The Sun and When I Knew. This week Wesley Stace released his self-titled debut album that also includes those two songs. Listen below to the decidedly different takes (and connotations) on the songs by the two artists. You pick ’em. We like ’em both in their own ways.
Sep
Watch Elvis Costello and The Roots’ Encore Performances on Jimmy Fallon Show
in Music
Last night Elvis Costello appeared again with The Roots on the Jimmy Fallon Show and performed Cinco Minutos Con Vos with Marisol, and all was right with the world. Watch as the atmospherics explode while the Ghost of Joe Strummer (Wise Up Ghost!!) sings from the sidelines. Credit to Marisol for carrying the melange, while Elvis mostly just read along (for the second time, but who’s counting?). Viva la!
Sep
Watch Agnes Obel Perform “The Curse” Live
in Music
We wrote earlier this week of our latent discovery of Danish singer-songwriter Agnes Obel. Obel has subsequently released the live performance below of The Curse off of her new album Aventine (which will be released on September 30th). Check out the mesmerizing, hypnotic delivery below.
