The songwriter’s songwriter, Bill Callahan (Smog), recently set up for NPR in Manhattan’s 6th & B Community Garden to perform his new song Small Plane off of his impending Dream River album.  Trustworthy folks are pronouncing Dream River as Callahan’s best album to date (which sings volumes).

Watch below as Callahan, with his poet’s ear and beauteous baritone, sings his dulcet ode to intimacy and trust in a relationship.  While listening to this song, it is hard to dispute that “I really am a lucky man.”  You can go HERE to pre-order Dream River on Drag City.  Callahan will head out in a week on an international tour in support of the new album, including at Soho in Santa Barbara on November 15th.  Go to Club Mercy for tickets.

Okkervil River’s new album, The Silver Gymnasium, is justly receiving rave reviews across the board.  As mentioned before here, The Silver Gymnasium is a nostalgic look back (circa 1986-’89) by talented leader Will Sheff at his childhood upbringing in Meridien, New Hampshire.  Throughout, the album manages a somewhat brighter outlook and sonic hue than on prior Okkervil releases (all fantastic, in their own right).  In addition, the album has been crafted to reflect the music of the time when Sheff was in Meridien, including emphasized synthesizers (which may have been a consequence of Sheff’s other recent solo efforts) and other effects heard less often on prior albums.  This past Monday, the band performed at WNYC, and you can watch the band perform three superb songs from the new album that are guaranteed to make their mark on you.  Stay Young has quickly become one of our favorite songs of the entire year.  Check out the powerful WNYC performances below, and go buy the new album HERE.  And if we may: “How long have you been missing love?”

We can’t wait to catch them next month when they hit Cali, including on October 20th at the Wiltern in LA.  There’s also a video game associated with the new album, which you can play HERE.

For the adventurous and exactingly literate, the three songs’ rich lyrics are at bottom.

Down Down the Deep River:

“You’re spit into the center of your hometown. And there are leaves in the street, and there are friends around you now, and all the days in your life in a line (or the way they seemed by ’89)… But it’s not alright. It’s not even close to all right.

Down a hall of a house, down a road in December
(Down, down, down the deep river, down, down, down the deep river)
Down a hall of a house, down a road in December
(Down, down, down the deep river, down, down, down the deep river)

We lie awake at night in a tent. I say, “Tell me about your uncle and his friend, because they seem like very bad men. Well, we want to keep away from them!” (Bend in the road back there. We saw the place they go.)

“Tell me about the greatest show, or the greatest movie you know, or the greatest song that you taped from off the radio. Play it again and again. (It cuts off at the ending, though.) Tell me I’m always going to be your best friend. You said it one time, why don’t you say it again? All the way down the line to where the telephone ends, come on and shout it on down the wire! And that it’s not alright, that it’s not even close to alright.”

Down a hall of a house, down a road in December
(Down, down, down the deep river, down, down, down the deep river)
Down a hall of a house, down a road in December
(Down, down, down the deep river, down, down, down the deep river)

And as the rescue party, the volunteer team – they’re just kids of eighteen, and it’s the worst thing they’ve seen – as they’re all standing around that tree, and I’m so sorry, and I can’t stop crying.

(Oh, I know.)

Shivering from the late fall cold, I felt like a solid ghost. I ran, and I couldn’t slow. My father found me though, and my father took me home. He said, “Oh, son, I saw you get knocked down and I ran out. I bet your head was spinning! With that bright pain you’re stunned, when you’ve only just begun to be only just beginning. Tossed in the viper pit, all those feelings and fears and all the difficult shit in all those tender years. There was something in the air… Something gathered in the air. Something singing in the wind… Oh, I’ll be your fighter and I’ll be your mirror, and you’ll be all right because I’ll be right here. Oh, kid, I’m not going anywhere. I swear I’ll try to not be going anywhere. Though it’s not all right, it’s so far from all right, we’ll make it into a choice somehow. I don’t know. But you’ll have a choice somehow.

“Down a hall in your house, down a road in December
(Down, down, down the deep river, down, down, down the deep river)
We can never go back; we can only remember
(Down, down, down the deep river, down, down, down the deep river)

“And maybe they told you about the summer sky. And maybe they said there’s a great gold spirit in the summer sky, and all your friends – all your best, best friends – are going to gather around your bed at night. Well that doesn’t make it all right, because it’s still so far from all right. Oh, kid, I know.”

Down a hall in your house, down a road in December
(Down, down, down the deep river, down, down, down the deep river)
Up the stairs, four flights up, can you feel my heart shiver?
(Down, down, down the deep river, down, down, down the deep river)
Walking in the dawn, with that dream getting dimmer and dimmer. Say you still see it. Say you remember. Are we going to the deep river? I know it’s scary, baby.”

Stay Young:

“Young, stay young, stay strong and get on with it; gone way gone, one day it’s all gone and you’re all done.

All my friends are running to their own corners, the hurters and the haters and the faders and the mourners. The world goes to its work and it is not gentle, in what it breaks you down into.  All my friends are looking in life, and it’s a long, long, long, long, lonely time. I said that when you met me I was just dying. I said it to no one. I said it in silence.

Young, stay young. Face dawn, all talk and quick.  Stunned,stay stunned, mind blown, and your jaw drops, and all these hateful people judging and hand-wringing. Oh, lord, why don’t you bury me in all they call sinning? Open up your heart, show me the place where love is missing. How long have you been missing love?

I see all creation pulsing and divided up between it. Now you have to lay me down because my head is spinning.

Try, try hard to drop fear and to drop your guard. Off, off of love, off drugs. Just feel it in your blood.

And I call to all my friends: all the cracked-cassette-tape-thrillers, all the hand-inside-the-tillers, and the hundred-dollar-billers, standing by the stone that was rejected by the builders, there was drinking at the bar, they carried from the burning building.

Never let it be said daddy wasn’t willing. Well I know you miss him, girl I’ve lost the edges off the earth, you make it wider. When I see your crying, don’t you know it’s killing me?

Now climb, climb up. Way up to see the sun. One, one draw. One life. One love. You’ve only got one.

And young, stay young girl. Get tough.  Get on with it.  Young, stay young. It’s a heartbreak; step with it; stay young.”

It Was My Season:

“Tell me a reason
To break things off
Stop the bleeding
When it’s my season
Mind was just revving
Your eyes they went hard
Our parents were freaking
But it was our season
All that time ago

If you want to stop our thing you’ll stop my heart
All this pain inside’s still just too sharp
What was I thinking?

Step out of your trailer
And into this dark
It’s warm and it’s breathing
And it’s our season
Your dad is half sleeping
But really he’s gone
Can you hear his VCR weeping
They crossed his wires completely
When they made him fire that gun

I’ll say to you: to cut it off’s to cut me down
If they take me out of school, you out of town
I called a friend, my world at end, my words unwound
I said: It’s crashing down around our heads
We’re dumb, we’re dead, shut up about it now

I won’t say I’m sorry
And how would they know?
Below the Atari
Well, I could feel your heart was just going
We’ll meet on the weekend
Your dad won’t be home
Your sister’s out cleaning
You don’t need to speak it
Because I know, baby, I know
I said I know
You know I know
I know (that it was our season)
Baby, I know (it’s hard to believe it)
I said I know (there isn’t a reason)
You know I know (it’s only a feeling)

When I look back on it now
Remember mixed up I got
Before they got me sorted out
All that heart-in-my-mouth
All that head-filled-with-doubt
It’s fading out
I hardly think about it now

They say that I’ll go to college
And you will stay home
And watch while I’m leaving
The cold will just creep in
Oh, Jason, I know”

Like many of our generation, The Clash were OUR band in our formative years.  We lived through school and life with The Clash leading the way, and have yet to experience a more thrilling or better concert than their 1979 show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (their second show ever in the US).  Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon could do no wrong in our book.  And that feeling persists to this day.  So we were thrilled to learn that the band would release a massive new, all-encompassing box-set this week entitled Sound System.

To coincide with the release of the new box-set, Google Plus has produced a new documentary on the band entitled Audio Ammunition, which includes never-before-seen footage of the band and interviews concerning each of their incendiary albums.  You can see it in five parts below.  In addition, Google Plus is releasing various videos of other artists covering Clash songs.  So far the pick of the litter (somewhat surprisingly) is Kurt Vile’s take on the politically-charged Guns of Brixton.  Check it out at bottom following Audio Ammunition.

Wisconsin’s Volcano Choir made its TV debut last night in support of their new album Repave on the Jimmy Fallon Show. They performed their epic sounding ode Bygone with Justin Vernon be-hoodied and miming/semaphoring the song’s lyrics.  Your guess as to the exact meaning of the lyrics is as good as ours.  Regardless, they stamped their imprint firmly on the Fallon studio stage and set sail!

The band’s current tour dates follow the performance and the song’s lyrics below.

“Day dead byegone
Laying near the lights
Of the (k)nights of the northern lodges
There’s a border road
No one slipslides or is stoppin’
And the neighborly, sleeping in a coffin

With enough keif
You could really bore someone
Took a rat trap out to the Ache Inn
We were drinking all the ways to down
Door is wide open
You know what were saying ‘bout us now
He’s a legend
I’m a legend
And we both go tripping through the door

You know that we are northern now
I heard you promise me
At the north end of monogamy
Cut there from filament lead

Somewhere I heard you scream:
For others’ hearts
And in the limiest of lights
Hold the keys to a Cuban flight that you won’t ever ride
It’s time to up and die

Set sail!
Set sail!
Set sail!
Set sail!

Hon, you plenty competent
So why aren’t you confident
It’s softening to be softening
Then why are you so constant then?
Are we going on a coat ride?
Well, we’re off and definitely stumbling
Tossin’ off your compliments, wow
Sexting all your Parliaments”

TOUR DATES:

9/06 | Chicago, IL: Metro w/ Sylvan Esso
9/07 | Indianapolis, IN: The Vogue w/ Sylvan Esso
9/08 | Toronto, ON: Phoenix Concert Theatre w/ Sylvan Esso
9/09 | South Burlington, VT: Higher Ground w/ Sylvan Esso
9/11 | Boston, MA: Paradise Rock Club w/ Sylvan Esso
9/12 | Washington, DC: 9:30 Club w/ Sylvan Esso
9/14 | New York, NY: Webster Hall w/ Sylvan Esso
9/27 | Madison, WI: Orpheum Theater w/Field Report
9/28 | Milwaukee, WI: The Pabst Theater w/Hello Death
10/18 | Minneapolis, MN: First Avenue w/Mark Mallman (solo)
10/19 | Eau Claire, WI: Schofield Auditorium w/Adelyn Rose
11/10 | Melbourne, VIC: Werribee Park: Harvest Festival 2013
11/16 | Syndney, NSW: The Domain: Harvest Festival 2013
11/17 | Brisbane, QLD: Botanic Gardens: Harvest Festival 2013
1/17/14 | Phoenix, AZ: The Crescent Ballroom
1/18/14 | Los Angeles, CA: Fonda Theatre
1/19/14 | San Diego, CA: House of Blues
1/23/14 | Portland, OR: Wonder Ballroom
1/24/14 | Vancouver, BC: Commodore Ballroom
1/25/14 | Seattle, WA: Neptune Theatre

Twelve damn years.  And still the heartache and disbelief persist.  American treasure Randy Newman recently performed Losing You, his poignant ode to a lost one, and has just released the video. We assume the timing of the video’s release is as an homage to the ones we lost on 9/11/01.  Here’s to them (may they rest in peace) and to Randy Newman.  After watch another performance of the song by Newman, including an introduction by the songwriter in which he explains the song’s theme.  At bottom are the song’s lyrics.

“Was a fool with my money
And I lost every dime
And the sun stopped shining
And it rained all the time
Did set me back some
But I made it through
But I’ll never get over losing you

Do you know, I love you
Do you remember me
Should’ve told you
Cause it’s true
I get over losing anything
But I’ll never get over
Losing you

When you’re young
And there’s time
You forget the past
You don’t think that you will
But you do

But I know
That I don’t have time to wait
And I’ll never get over
Losing you

I’ve been cruel
I’ve been hungry
Not for a while
I guess most of my dreams have come true
With it all here around me
No peace do I find
Cause I’ll never get over losing you
No I’ll never get over losing you”

We finally discovered The Staves and their facile way with harmonies in May, equating them to the great American sister group The Roches. Since then we have been enamored by the three sisters’ music and on the lookout for more examples. Today it rained Staves in the way of two new videos from La Blogotheque and Myles O’Reilly’s Arbutus Yarns.  Check out below as the group first stave off a downpour at a Cornwall beach to perform their song Mexico in an impromptu shelter for La Blogotheque, all the while evoking Joni Mitchellisms (always fine by us).  The harmonies beginning at 2:01 are well worth the wait.  And then watch as the group is filmed by O’Reilly performing Icarus under cloudy skies at a park.  More sweet music from The Staves sure to brighten any dark day.

Janelle Monáe has released her second album The Electric Lady and let the world know by seizing the Letterman Show stage and Dave’s desk last night to perform Dance Apocalyptic.  Monáe raged around the studio in front of her 8-piece band in white and striped get-ups (with token conga player), cavorting with the cameras and Paul Shaffer before jumping up on Letterman’s desk and letting loose.  She then slammed a mic stand down and walked out the doors in a tour de force performance.

Before she came out, Letterman told the audience to “Get ready, and get ready again” for Monáe because the last time she had been on his show (her TV debut) she had “turned the dump over.”  Once again Letterman knew what he was talking about, and afterwards he equated her to the likes of James Brown when he pronounced her “the hardest working woman in show business.”  Spot on.  Check it out below.

After all sorts of traumatic tease, Arcade Fire today released the title song and official video from their new album entitled Reflektor scheduled to be released on October 29th.  At 7:42 long, the song continues to grow on you as it plays out.   In addition to the usual winning vocals by Win Butler, the song features Regine Butler singing in French and added vocals of David Bowie (which can be heard most prominently from the 4:56 mark on).  We’ll get back to you on the meaning of the video’s visuals, although we’re pretty sure the above graphic represents some kind of anagram homage to this website.  Check out the full lyrics of the song at bottom, which seem to be a timely indictment of life and human-relationships in the devolving “smart”-phone gestalt.

The new album was produced by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, and the new song bears his strong imprimatur.  After the official video, check out the Behind the Scenes video behind the video, which was directed by Anton Corbijn (Tom Waits, etc.).  All bodes well for the new album.  Word has also arrived that Arcade Fire will appear on the season opener of Saturday Night Live.

“[Verse 1]
Trapped in a prism, in a prism of light
Alone in the darkness, darkness of white
We fell in love, alone on a stage
In the reflective age

[Pre-Chorus – Régine Chassagne]
Entre la nuit, la nuit et l’aurore.
Entre le royaume des vivants et des morts.
If this is heaven
I don’t know what it’s for
If I can’t find you there
I don’t care

[Chorus]
I thought I found a way to enter
It’s just a Reflektor (It’s just a Reflektor)
I thought I found the connector
It’s just a Reflektor (It’s just a Reflektor)

[Verse 2]
Now, the signals we send, are deflected again
We’re still connected, but are we even friends?
We fell in love when I was nineteen
And now we’re staring at a screen.

[Pre-Chorus – Variation – Régine Chassagne]
Entre la nuit, la nuit et l’aurore.
Entre le royaume des vivants et des morts.
If this is heaven
I need something more
Just a place to be alone
Cause you’re my home

[Chorus]

[Bridge 1]
It’s just a reflection of a reflection
Of a reflection of a reflection
Will I see you on the other side?
We all got things to hide
It’s just a reflection of a reflection
Of a reflection of a reflection
Will I see you on the other side?
We all got things to hide

[Verse 3]
Alright, let’s go back
Our song escapes, on neon silver discs
Our love is plastic, we’ll break it to bits
I want to break free, but will they break me?
Down, down, down
Don’t mess around

[Chorus]

[Bridge 2]
Thought you would bring me to the resurrector
Turns out it was just a Reflektor (It’s just a Reflektor)
Thought you would bring to me the resurrector
Turns out it was just a Reflektor (It’s just a Reflektor)
Thought you would bring to me the resurrector
Turns out it was just a Reflektor (It’s just a Reflektor)

[Outro]
It’s a Reflektor
It’s just a Reflektor
Just a Reflektor
Will I see you on the other side?
It’s just a Reflektor
Will I see you on the other side?
We all got things to hide
It’s just a Reflektor
Will I see you on the other side?

John Prine is simply one of the greatest American songwriters of all-time.  Classified early-on as one of the legion of “next Dylans,” Prine nonetheless gave nothing away, transcended with his heart-of-gold storytelling, and drew more humanity from his human fans.  Through thick and thin (and after suffering various illnesses that would have killed the average man) he has stuck with America and it’s chords-a-plenty.  Last night he appeared on The Colbert Report to sing a couple of gems.  Check ’em out below.  And sing on, John Prine, sing on!