We have been listening to and writing about marvelous new chanteuse Laura Mvula (Dolores?) for a while now. She recently stopped by NPR and performed a three-song Tiny Desk Concert.  Check her intimate set out below (with strings) and pick up her debut album, Sing to the Moon, which is one of the best female albums of this year.

Set List:

Father, Father
Diamonds
She

It’s Sunday.  If you need us, we’ll be swimming.  Likely in the ocean.  Likely in the aquamarine of Windansea.  You might be at a river hole, or the municipal, or the club.  Regardless, get in the water.  Below is the perfect accompanying soundtrack, The Swimming Song, from the legendary Loudon Wainwright III (off of his 1973 album, Attempted Mustache).  If you need further inspiration, at bottom check out the Beach Boys’ California (part of the California Saga off of their under-appreciated 1973 album Holland).

National treasures Clem Snide (Eef Barzelay) have made available for streaming their brand new album We Leave Only Ashes. Barzelay has this to say about the new release:

“This record is a rough and tumble collection of songs that giddily disregards any attempt at a sense of cohesion. Some songs may be familiar to long time fans while others may not. Some songs are fast while others are slow. Long time favorites “We Are Flowers” and “Enrique Iglesias’ Mole” are once and for all available along with some Beautiful and Moment In the Sun EP tracks.”

Listen below and go buy the album. And be better for it.

UK duo Disclosure (brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence) has been garnering huge attention around the globe, with artists and fans scrambling to catch their shows and rave reviews for their electro-pop houseparty album Settle.  To get a feel for their dancefloor, check out their recent video for F for You below.

Disclosure – F For You from Tom Watson on Vimeo.

We are thrilled that Glaswegian pop-maestros Belle & Sebastian will play their only California show at the Santa Barbara Bowl on July 17th (one of only ten U.S. shows on their world tour).  Best Coast will open.  We have waited 17 long years to see the band live so the 17th of July is a particularly apropos date for our first gander of the band live.  Sure to be one of the concert highlights of the year.  Get ye there.

On August 27th, the band will release The Third Eye Centre on Matador – a collection of B-sides, rarities, and non-LP tracks from the last decade. To get a feel, you can listen below to the new, pop-kaleidoscopic track Your Cover’s Blown (Miaoux Miaoux Remix) from the new album.  The Third Eye Centre compilation is the next installment in the band’s rarities collections since the much-loved and lauded album Push Barman To Open Old Wounds (2005).  The album’s track list precedes the new song and the band’s tour dates follow at bottom.  The band plays the Montreal Jazz Festival tonight.

Track listing:

I’m A Cuckoo (Avalanches Remix)
Suicide Girl
Love On The March
Last Trip
Your Secrets
Your Cover’s Blown (Miaoux Miaoux Remix)
I Took A Long Hard Look
Heaven In The Afternoon
Long Black Scarf
The Eighth Station Of The Cross Kebab House
I Didn’t See It Coming (Richard X Mix)
(I Believe In) Travellin’ Light
Stop, Look And Listen
Passion Fruit
Desperation Made A Fool Of Me
Blue Eyes Of A Millionaire
Mr Richard
Meat And Potatoes
The Life Pursuit

Tour:

JULY
4– Quebec City Festival – Quebec
5– Montreal Jazz Festival – Montreal
6– Ottawa Bluesfest – Ottawa, Canada
7– Toronto Urban Folk Festival – Toronto
9 – Bank Of America Pavillion – Boston
10– Skyline Stage @ The Mann – Philadelphia
11– Prospect Park – NYC
12– Merriweather Post Pavillion – Wash DC
13– Stage AE – Pittsburgh
14– Bunbury Music Festival – Cincinatti
16– ACL @ The Moody Theatre – Austin
17– Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara
18– Twilight Series– Salt Lake City
20– Pitchfork Festival – Chicago
26– Open Air Festival – San Sebastian, Spain
27th July – Low Cost Festival, Spain

AUGUST
15– Sonorama – Spain
17– Parades de Coura – Portugal
23– Rock en Seine – Paris, France
30– Openair Festival – Zurich, Switzerland
SEP 1– End Of The Road Festival – Dorset
SEP 6– Bestival – Isle Of Wight

Last time we checked it was still summertime. Contributing to that feel this week is Noah And The Whale’s official video for their bubbly coming-of-age song Lifetime, which is off of their new album Heart of Nowhere.  The video was created by Fourteen-Nineteen, a project which aims to celebrate and critically engage with the work of young photographers through publishing, exhibitions, online galleries and more.  Check it out.

It’s that time in America.  It’s high summer on the 4th of July.  It’s fitting then that you check out Aoife O’Donovan’s single Red & White & Blue & Gold.  You might be celebrating on a beach in Malibu (like O’Donovan) or a Secret Beach on the American Riviera, or on Ponta Vedra in Florida, or on New England sands.  Or you might be a part of the larger American majority celebrating in between.  Regardless, we wish you peace and safety.  And a girl on a bike.  Red & White & Blue & Gold is off of O’Donovan’s recently-released debut solo album, Fossils. O’Donovan is currently on tour and will be coming through California in July with the Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion “Radio Romance Tour,” including a stop at the Vina Robles Amphitheater on Quatorze Juillet (or Bastille Day…how ’bout July 14th?). Below the official video is a live performance of the song for Rhapsody by Donovan while at SXSW.

We’ve been singing the praises of Josh Rouse and his new album The Happiness Waltz.  This week Rouse premiered the official video for the album’s lilting title track.  After, watch Rouse performing It’s Good To Have You from the new album while in the WFUV studios.  The song smacks a bit of Paul Simon (never a bad thing), and Rouse’s band is top shelf.  The Happiness Waltz, available now HERE.

Hot off the heals of her fiery closing performance at Saturday’s BET Awards, Janelle Monáe has released the official video for the second track, Dance Apocalyptic, off of her impending (9/10/13) new album The Electric Lady.  Check out the video below with Monáe even letting her hair down a bit.  Fun stuff, with Monáe’s vocal resembling Michael at times (a good thing).  The video naturally includes a zombie and various apocalyptos.