English sensations Alt-J have taken the world and America by storm.  To prove it, yesterday the band released their concert documentary An American Wave, which was filmed at The Midland Theatre in Kansas City, as directed by Julian Acosta.  Check out this fantastic young band below paying homage to Kansas City in An American Wave, and get out and buy their awesome album, An Awesome Wave.

Yesterday The Kinks’ mastermind Ray Davies and band performed a set of hall-of-fame songs at the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park, London. Check out below as Davies (and audience) perform two of the best songs ever written, Sunny Afternoon and Waterloo Sunset.

LA’s Local Natives have gone global and seem to fit in well wherever they wander. Last month the band played the Optimus Primavera Sound Festival in Porto, Portugal. Check out La Blogotheque’s Take-Away Show below of the band and their ethereal harmonies performing songs Wooly Mammoth and Ceilings in the streets and alleyways of Porto.  Beware: gratuitous mammoth visuals.  There may be some overdubbing here, but nonetheless impressive (particularly on Ceilings beginning at 5:15).

Atoms For Peace are currently out blowing minds on their world tour, and played the Lotto Arena in Antwerp this week. Check out the superb multi-fan-video-compilation below of Thom Yorke performing unreleased song The Present Tense solo during the Atoms For Peace concert on July 9th.  Yorke himself blessed it by Tweeting the video earlier.  Afterwards is an alternative video cut by talented YouTuber “JohnnyAirbag” followed by a similar video-treatment for AFP’s AMOK, the title-track of their recently-released debut album.  Don’t miss AFP’s show at the Santa Barbara Bowl on October 17th.

Following on the heels of their performance last month on Conan, Louisville’s Houndmouth showed up on the Letterman Show last night and played the crap out of Ludlow from their debut album From The Hills Below The City.  Thankfully the band veered away from their Alabama Shakes-y performance on Conan, sounding on Letterman more like their admitted-influences, The Band.  Houndmouth is out on tour and will be back to Cali in August to play the High Sierra and Outside Lands Festivals.

The ever-pleasing Eleanor Friedberger and her rippin’ band showed up last night on Jimmy Fallon and performed Stare At The Sun off of her scintillating new Personal Record album.  Watch the be-banged Friedberger all decked out in denim and lighting up the studio.  Go buy Personal Record HERE.

As we’ve mentioned before, the masterful Joseph Arthur is winning ears and souls with his autobiographical new album The Ballad of Boogie Christ.  Last night Arthur and his big band slaughtered on the Letterman Show, performing It’s Ok to Be Young/Gone in self-painted garb and backdrop.  Check it out below, followed by Arthur’s own backstage capture of the pre-show warm-up and proceedings.

Atoms For Peace our out on the road finally in support of their debut album AMOK. A video has now been released of the band’s recent Amsterdam concert. Check it out below. We can’t wait for their October 17th show at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

This week the L.A.-based Rhye partially came out of their mysterioso cloud and performed The Fall (from their debut album Woman) as their TV-debut on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.  Watch below as Toronto-born singer Michael Milosh properly sets the mood, backlit for obscurity, and backed sparingly by piano, cello and percussion.  Milosh is the latest in a long line of androgynous-sounding male singers that’s included everyone from Curtis Mayfield to Jimmy Scott to Boy George, to other purveyors of blue-eyed soul.  This version is shear beauty.  You heard it here last:  Rhye are going to be huge.

If you like what you hear/see, afterwards check out Rhye’s even-better, NPR-captured set at the candle-lit Le Poisson Rouge in NYC in April.  Check out an actual analog sextet stretching out in jazz-inflections, led by chief component and songwriter-producer Robin Hannibal.  Killing softly, but with occasional bullets, and sounding at times like mid-’70s band War at its best. But then add in Milosh’s vocals and you have a beast of a whole different color and gender.  A great new addition to the music scene.  They play Outside Lands Festival on August 9th in Golden Gate Park.

And finally, at bottom check out the band’s performance of 3 Days for KCRW.