In case you missed his opening set at the Santa Barbara Bowl two weeks ago, and just ’cause, fab guitar genius Johnny Marr appeared last night on the Jimmy Fallon Show in support of his solo debut album The Messenger. Check out below as Marr and the gang perform the title track from the album and, more importantly, a web-only performance of The Smiths’ How Soon Is Now?  

We caught wind of Louisville’s Houndmouth last summer and have been repeatedly hounded by Louisville-faithful to write more about this fine up-and-coming band.  They will release their debut album From The Hills Below The City in June on Rough Trade and are in ascendancy.  Houndmouth is scheduled to appear all summer long at festivals across this land, including Bonnaroo, Outside Lands and Lollapalooza.

A.V. Undercover asked the band to cover a baseball-related songs for A.V., and Houndmouth dug out Joe DiMaggio Done It Again, from the Billy Bragg/Wilco album Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, the album where previously-unearthed Woody Guthrie lyrics were put to music.  Check it out below.  Katie Toupin in particular shines.  And after, check out a couple of worthy Houndmouth video vignettes.  Check out their tour dates and other info HERE.

Houndmouth covers Billy Bragg & Wilco

It’s been a banner Band of Horses fiscal year at The Lefort Report.  We managed to catch them fall for the first time live last Fall when they put on a special show at the tiny Troubadour.  When they then announced they would play the Immajestic Ventura Theater two weeks ago, we were prepared for let-down.  But the Band brought their Big (no Mirage) Rock set and won us over anew.  Ben Bridwell is still hitting all those miraculously high notes seven months later, and the band shows no sign of letting up (given their ever-burgeoning list of tour dates).

Last night Band of Horses were featured on Jimmy Kimmel’s Show last night (having been taped around Coachella-time),  performing General Specific and I’ve Been Riding With A Ghost.  Enjoy below.

In support of their new album Bankrupt!, Phoenix flew onto the Letterman Show last night o perform Trying to Be Cool/Dakkar.  After, the band joined the burgeoning Live on Letterman list of performers by playing a mini-concert for webcast-only.  Their 45-minute set included Entertainment, The Real Thing, Chloroform, and Don’t, all off their new album, along with “chestnuts” 1901 and Lisztomania.  Check both out below.

We have been yammering repeatedly about the great Canadian sax colossus Colin Stetson and his mindblowing new album New History Warfare Vol. 3:  From the Light.  Now you can visualize what we’ve been talking about.  Check out Stetson below heavy-breathing in a concrete pipe in Brooklyn for a Take Away Session for La Blogotheque.  In theory no one person should be able to render that many sounds from and through mere pieces of metal.  Circular breathing.  On steroids.  Stellar.  Now take a breather Colin.

Twelve years ago Josh Ritter brought us Midwestern joy and hope via his first proper album, Golden Age, which spelled victory for the middle and their (mostly) unsung heroes.   We have held onto that hope for the middle since.  But good times come and go, and lives move on.  It turns out that during these ‘tween times, Josh Ritter recently went through departure and divorce.  Thus, as you might imagine, Ritter’s new album The Beast In Its Tracks is divorce- and aftermath-centric.  Even though we’ve awaited the new album, we hadn’t until, now  heard a lot to cling to.  But then we happened upon his performance on KCRW today of song Hopeful (that would be the post-aftermath/reconciliation stage of divorce matters, but as a best case).  And we became hopeful once again (about Ritter, humans, et. al).  Check it out below.  And, as always, do your best to be that way.

It’s been a tough year for Chan Marshall, otherwise known as Cat Power.  She was jilted by her “soul mate,”  then in and out of hospitals with afflictions, and left to wind her way through new ways to expand her sound-palette to maintain interest and relevancy.  The upshot?  She delivered a deftly-adventurous, critically-acclaimed album, Sun, with its modern-sounding rhythms and added effects.   Many would have been perfectly happy with a classic Cat Power sound, rather than the comparatively-evolved sounds on Sun.

It wasn’t surprising, therefore, that rumors began swirling that Cat Power will release a new compendium of songs that didn’t fit onto Sun.  One of the first song-clues can be heard below.  Marshall recently performed the song Bully on Later with Jools Holland, accompanied only by solo piano.  Bully exhibits more of the fragility and emotion that originally won her fans and which would have fit well onto her older albums Moon Pix or The Covers Record.  But instead Bully is (as of now) a bonus track on the iTunes-purchasable Sun album.  Check the performance below.  In other good news:  Cat Power’s tour is going so well that she/they have announced the addition of more shows.  The current dates follow the lyrics at bottom.

Bully:

“Boy, you’re a bully
Through the grass and the river you chase
You were cruel, you were so mean
Laughing right in my face
All the while you had my back, my best friend
I can still feel that smile on my face
27 was a good year, the best
The back of the bar watching me dance in a dress
Remember that night in Paris, all those candles you lit
You and all the alcohol
Sleeping on the street, sleeping on a …
Looking like a crook for trying to come back home
With a twist of your tongue and a devilish smile on your face
When you get sick
You were through with fun and games
Now that the times have all changed
I can’t find you,
I can’t put you back into place
Nothing could be done
For this young, wild son
Standing on the street in a hospital sheet
All on the run from the police
Dumb girl on your arm
That look on your face
And all those crazy things you said to me
I can never forget
Everything you have to go through
With a smile on your face
Everything we now know, with a smile on our face
I, I can never forget”

Cat Power Tour Dates (new in bold):

May 18 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Circo Voador
May 19 Recife, Brazil / Espaço Catamarã
May 21 São Paulo, Brazil / Cine Joia
May 23 Buenos Aires, Argentina / Teatro Coliseo
May 25 Santiago, Chile / Teatro La Cúpula
May 27 Montevideo, Uruguay / La Trastienda
May 31 Nelsonville, OH / Nelsonville Music Festival
June 1 – 2 Houston, TX / Free Press Summer Festival
June 13 – 16 Manchester, TN / Bonnaroo
June 16 Jacksonville, FL / Florida Theatre
June 18 Atlanta, GA / The Buckhead Theatre
June 20 Vienna, VA / Wolf Trap Filene Center
June 22  Duisburg, Germany / Traumziet Festival
June 23  Berlin, Germany / Tempodrom
June 25  London, UK / Roundhouse
June 26  Brussels, BE / AB
June 27  Zurich, CH / Volkshaus
June 28 Munich, DE / Theater Fabrik
June 30 Somerset, UK / Glastonbury – SOLD OUT
July 2  Amsterdam, NL / Paradiso
July 3  Hamburg, DE / Grosse Freiheit
July 5 Barcelona, ES / Cruilla Festival
July 6 Montreux, SW / Montreux Jazz Lab
July 7 Milan, IT / Carroponte
July 8 Rome, IT / Parco della Musica
July 17 Paris, FR / Olympia
July 19 Suffolk, UK / Latitude
July 20 Ponznan, PL / Malta Festival
August 2-4 Chicago, IL / Lollapalooza
August 8 Oslo, NO / OYA festival
August 9 Helsinki, FI / Flow festival
August 10 Gothenburg, SE / Way Out West festival

Mondays are getting to be listening-party days with all the streamers streaming in advance of Tuesday (because?) album releases. Joining the fray today are the muscular and dynamic all-female Savages from Britain with the stream of their new album Silence Yourself.  Check it out below and go order the album.

The pick of the litter of local shows during the Coachella Heaven/Hell Week (the concert week between the two Coachella weekends when the Coachella bands span out around California) was the Band of Horses show at the Majestic Ventura Theater.  The Band showed up in Ventura with decidedly different setlist (see at bottom) and mindset from their Troubadour show that we caught last Fall.  Out were many of the slower/acoustic moments and most of the songs from last year’s Mirage Rock album, and in was The Big Rock Show.  And they wore it well (see the video at very bottom of the band performing Funeral at Ventura).  The played loud and full-tilt the entire night, only slowing down for a few quieter moments along the way and paying rightful homage to the late, great Jason Molina (with Ben Bridwell wearing a Magnolia Electric Co. t-shirt).   They played all the hits and then some, and it was truly majestic. Bridwell’s voice, even after six months of virtual non-stop touring, is a force of nature, and the entire band was hitting its stride at the Majestic.  Our favorite song of the night was the rarely-performed Blue Beard from Infinite Arms.

To get a feel for Bridwell’s voice, check out Ben and Tyler Ramsey below performing No One’s Gonna Love You for Rookie.  After, listen to the duo eventually (at 2:37) perform the lilting and lovely Everything’s Gonna Be Undone, interspersed with an interview of Bridwell by Rookie.

Ventura Setlist:

For Annabelle
The First Song
The Great Salt Lake
Is There a Ghost
Compliments
Factory
Marry Song
Islands on the Coast
Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
Knock Knock
Laredo
Older
Everything’s Gonna Be Undone
No One’s Gonna Love You
Infinite Arms
Ode to LRC
The Funeral

Encore:
Blue Beard
I’ve Been Riding With The Ghost (Jason Molina cover)
The General Specific