It’s been a great week in late night music (see our last few posts), but by far the best of the lot was last night when Canada’s best performed on Late Night with Fallon Show.  Two of our all-time favorites, Broken Social Scene and Feist (an original member of BSS), took over the Fallon studio and simply slaughtered. BSS is taking an extended break from action, but to celebrate their label Arts & Crafts’ 10-year anniversary (and the release of the commemorative album entitled Arts & Crafts: X), they have reunited to perform at this weekend’s Field Trip Festival in Toronto.

We have written repeatedly about this entrancing entourage and their ebullient live shows before (including 2o11 at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass).  Now check them out on Fallon where they performed Almost Crimes from their epic You Forgot It In People album, followed by the web-exclusive of their classic 7/4 Shoreline from their 2005 eponymously-titled album. Check out Kevin Drew in standard fine form, a de rigeur leg-kick from Brendan “Can Can” Canning, the ferocious Feistian vocals, and the remainder of the lads driving the message home. This is a great band that we hope reunites permanently. Long live BSS!

You can go HERE to stream and buy Arts & Crafts: X. Or, stream it at bottom.

It’s been a busy music week on late night TV this week.  In addition to last night’s Houndmouth showing on Conan and tonight’s bound-to-be-epic performance by Broken Social Scene and Feist on the J-Fallon Show, this week has brought Local Natives to Letterman, Divine Fits to Conan, Savages to Fallon, and Noah and the Whale and new Br”it”-band Disclosure to the Jools Holland Show.  Check them out in that order below, and let us know your pick of the litter.

Louisville’s own Houndmouth showed up on Conan last night and performed their song On The Road from their first album From The Hills Below The City.  We have been hounded by what we have heard from Houndmouth heretofore, and their performance on Conan did nothing to dissuade us.  Check out the Muscle Shoalsy vibe on Conan and the fine vocal interplay between the lead singers. [Minor concern:  between Katie Toupin’s vocals and the band’s sound, they hew a little close to Alabama Shakes’ affects here.  Things could get “interesting” when they perform together with Alabama Shakes later in June.]  Houndmouth is out on tour now and plays a free show (huh?) tonight at Bardot Hollywood in LA.  They’ll be back to Cali in August to play the High Sierra and Outside Lands Festivals.

We last heard from guest blogger Jeune Lefort (the electronic music-maven formerly known as Derp) in early 2012.  Jeune has emerged anew from his extended rave-cave hibernation to give us an electronic music update.  Check back every Friday for Jeune’s electronic track-of-the-week.  Without further adieu:

MSMR (pronounced “Miss Mister”) is a New York-based duo consisting of vocalist Lizzy Plapinger and producer Max Hershenow. They just released a new album entitled Secondhand Rapture in May.  The new album includes their three previously-released singles, including the very dance-able Hurricane.  The song of the summer, however, is this Chvrches- remix of Secondhand Rapture’s opening track.  It turns this melancholy and slowly building song into a pop/disco dance hit.  Warning: Your feet, head, and/or hips will start involuntarily begin moving when you listen to this song.

For an example of MSMR’s original work check out the Lana-del-Rey-esque Dark Doo Wop, which is the standout track of the album. The song holds beautiful vocals with a building background that keeps gaining energy throughout and right up till the end.  Check it out HERE.  Looking forward to catching MSMR at the Outside Lands Festival in August in San Francisco.

Taking an abrupt exit from the previous musical road the next track that’s been on my mind is Miasma Sky by Baths [Lefort:  Baths opened for The Postal Service at their show we caught in San Luis Obispo in April; not bad at all].  This track is off Will Wiesenfeld’s second album Obsidian and is a dark and brooding follow up to 2010’s Cerulean.  Miasma Sky is a haunting song about life and death, which (like much of the album) was written after a lengthy illness last year that left Wiesenfeld bed-ridden.

To end this update on a much lighter note, the last track is a house jam by the German duo Booka Shade. From their 2006 album Movements, Body Language is a synthed-out gem.  Not The Lefort Report’s usual fair but will nonetheless undoubtedly capture your attention.

Don’t forget to check back on Friday for my electronic-track of the week.

As oft-mentioned on these pages, we love everything about Canadian “band” Bahamas.  They consistently evince great songwriting, vocals and guitar-playing.  And now we can add humor to that arsenal of accolades. Check out the marvelous Stax-with-crunch sounds in the video below for their iTunes Session song Please Forgive My Heart.  According to the band (or their publicist), the analog recording process “incorporates everything from Motown style 8-track tape recording process to the use of an incredibly rare 1967 Germanium Neve recording console.”  The captions provide the hilarity, which takes nothing away from the perfectly rendered song (and especially the marvelette vocals by Felicity Williams and Carleigh Aikins).  If you can find any song more captivating than Please Forgive My Heart, please let us know.  Long live Bahamas!

Black Motorcycle Rebel Club have given us great music over the years (Howl is one of our favorite albums of this millennium). Tragedy struck the band while out on tour in 2010 when Michael Been, band-member Robert Levon Been’s father and BRMC’s longtime sound engineer, passed away suddenly. You oldsters will recall that the elder Been was a member of the popular ’80s rock group The Call. Watch below as they pay homage on KEXP (filmed in apropos black-and-white) to Michael Been by performing The Call’s powerful song Let The Day Begin. And then watch them perform the lullingly-sweet song Lullaby, in all its beauty and Edge-guitarness (the song’s lyrics are at bottom).  Both songs can be found on their most recent album Specter at the Feast.

Lullaby:

“You are the sun to the earth
You are the light of this world
Won’t you see
Why won’t you see
You are an arm I cant reach
You are the words I can’t speak
Won’t you say
Why wont you say

I will walk till I’ve no shadow
I will walk till I’ve no shadow

You twist the light in your hands
Losing thoughts so you move you can’t give
Reasons fall from every storm that you lived
We move through the dark, helpless

You are the quiet in my soul
You are the pieces of gold
Won’t you shine
Why won’t you shine

I will walk till I’ve no shadow
I will walk till I’ve no shadow
I will walk till I’ve no shadow”

One of our favorite jangle-bands, Rogue Wave, will release its new album Nightingale Floors, tomorrow.  And on June 12th the band will begin its tour in support of the new album, eventually making their way back to their California home in July.  As an intro to the new album, check out the band’s unplugged performance of College (“not about college,” according to the band) during a South Park Session for Rhapsody.  Sweet stuff.  And then go over to Pitchfork to stream Nightingale Floors HERE.  Clearly the band has evolved to its next epoch:  B.J. (Beyond Jangle).  It’s time to ride that Rogue Wave again.

There has been a lot of video-tease coming out of the Atoms For Peace camp in advance of their impending world tour that will bring them to the Santa Barbara Bowl on October 17th.  Various 12-second vignettes from AFP have littered the interweb.  Comes now a full song from said camp, and a beauty at that.  Watch below as Thom Yorke performs solo Rabbit In Your Headlight, a 1998 collaboration between Yorke, DJ Shadow and James Lavelle (UNKLE).   The song was evidently inspired by Adrian Lyne’s 1990 film Jacob’s Ladder, inclusive of Biblical allusions.  Check Yorke’s elegiac performance below, and get ye to the SB Bowl on October 17th.  UNKLE’s official video for the song is at bottom.

Word has come out (via his wife Laurie Anderson) that Lou Reed recently underwent a liver transplant and is alive and well.  In honor of Reed and the day, watch Reed and a huge band perform Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come at a benefit a couple years back.  Love the impassioned lead guitar playing towards the end (from 5:37 on).