Love him or hate him, Steve Earle has a history of stirring things up, whether on behalf of his anti-war or anti-death-penalty causes (go Steve!), or his manifold other causes.  Now, via his official video for new song Invisible (off his impending new album The Low Highway), comes yet another Steve Earle. Via the song and video, Earle rightly (but not self-righteously) lambasts those of us (guilty) who treat as invisible the destitute folks that wander our towns and cities.

If we may throw on the hair shirt for a moment, here’s how it works at the glass house known as Chez Lefort.  At times we use the excuse that we simply don’t know these folks and there are lots to know and too many tasks to be done.  At others, we use the excuse that we’ve seen these same folks around town time and again, and nothing ever changes.  And nothing ever changes.

Continuing a long line of artists, writers and troubadours that have depicted and reminded of the downtrodden in need of empathetic souls, Steve Earle reminds of the effort owed in his new song/video Invisible. It can take “An angel bendin’ down, to whisper in your ear.”

Earle’s song and video follow last month’s release by Helado Negro (Robert Carlos Lange) of the stirring Dance Ghost video (see at bottom) that caused us to look around and see a separate spectral subculture (the immigrants in our communities) in need of the human touch.  We all need those reminders.

So this weekend, be ye on State Street or Martin Luther King Avenue, or out in front of that Rescue Mission, skip the blinders and look up from that apparat glass, and see.  And as John Prine wrote a long-time back (about yet another sequestered subset):  “Say ‘Hello in there.  Hello.'”

It’s been a good week for Frightened Rabbit fans. Tuesday night they killed on Conan in commendable support of their non-pedestrian and lyrical Pedestrian Verse album. Today the band appeared on KCRW. You can listen to and (eventually) watch the entire session HERE. To get a feel, check out their performance below of one of the highlights of the new album, State Hospital.  They are currently on tour in the US and storming through the West Coast and Cali this and next week.  You can check their US dates and buy your ticket for their 3/13 show at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood HERE.  Updated:  you can now also watch their performance of The Woodpile on KCRW at bottom.

The XX continue to be the kings and queens of covers.  Check them out below covering Kings of Tomorrow’s Finally on BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge Late.  Matches the rain outside perfectly.  Or it could be the perfect Jeffreys Bay surf soundtrack.

After writing about them yesterday, we were thrilled to discover that Parquet Courts recently performed for WNYC’s Soundcheck studio. Watch the band’s Andrew Savage and Austin Brown below as they perform a medley of two of their songs, Master Of My Craft and Borrowed Time.  The Fall’s influence on the band is particularly evident on Master Of My Craft.

These radio studio performances are tricky business. For the balladeers and other similars it can push them over the top, but for rockers lacking an audience’s energy and participation, it can be dicey (particularly when viewed rather than listened to).  Watch the young Parquet Courts as they deftly walk that tightrope.  Ultimately the band wins out and stays aloft.  You can listen to the rest of the band’s session and interview at WNYC HERE.  Having just tried both, we’d say the audio version is the pick.  And that’s our public service announcement for the day.  And that part yesterday about not caring for Stoned And Starving? Fuggedaboutit.  The song was the highlight of this WNYC session (as heard on the longer audio version).

Irish band BellX1 is prepping the release of their next album Chop Chop.  The band’s songs have been known to intermittently refuse to leave The Lefort Jukebox.  BellX1 has released beguiling official video/song entitled Starlings Over Brighton Pier to accompany their new hypnotic song Starlings Over Brighton Pier off the new album.  Check it out below.  Be prepared to be mesmerized by both the starlings and the song, which bodes well for the new album.  Enjoy.  Oh, and we’ve been assured there was no CGI involved.

Frightened Rabbit appeared on Conan last night in support of their phenomenal new album Pedestrian Verse. Watch below as the band takes their guitars to The Woodpile for a good whoopin’. Nicely done.

Eleanor Friedberger put out one of our Best Albums of 2011 with her sunny-sounding pop-inflected solo album Last Summer, and she is now a perennial favorite at Chez Lefort.  Make no mistake about it:  Friedberger has a way with upbeat, summery pop-rock.  Now comes the good news that Friedberger will release her second solo album, Personal Record, on June 4th on Merge Records.

Before releasing Last Summer, Friedberger spent the prior decade in the critically-acclaimed (but at times maddening) indie-rock “band” The Fiery Furnaces (currently on hiatus) with her brother Matthew.  Let’s see here…hmmm.  Eleanor has now released two comparatively straightforward, but masterful pop-rock albums and Matthew has released…oh.  In 2011 Matthew Friedberger released eight (8!) albums each focusing on one particular instrument.  And then in 2012 he released Matricidal Sons of Bitches, which included 45 tracks for a “soundtrack for an imaginary horror film.”  We may have figured out the maddening portion of The Fiery Furnaces equation.  As we were saying:  we love Eleanor Friedberger’s music!

To get a feel for Friedberger’s post-Fiery-Furnaces sound, listen below to Stare At  The Sun, the first song off the new album.  It’s great to hear Friedberger back with her ever-intelligent pop sounds. After, you can watch/read her comedic trailer for the new album. The new album’s tracklist is at bottom.  We can’t wait for it.

Personal Record tracklist:

1. I Don’t Want to Bother You
2. When I Knew
3. I’ll Never Be Happy Again
4. Stare at the Sun
5. Echo or Encore
6. My Own World
7. Tomorrow Tomorrow
8. You’ll Never Know Me
9. I Am the Past
10. She’s a Mirror
11. Other Boys
12. Singing Time

Back in ancient days we did our best academic work while studying to the sounds of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures and The Fall’s Live At The Witch Trials and Dragnet set on repeat.  And all was good, albeit not quiet, on the Western (Civilization) front.  The Fall’s Mark E. Smith singlehandedly hit upon a new Rebellious Jukebox sound that we found both danceable and hypnotic in our Psychic Dancehall.  Later, The Fall begat Pavement (Smith famously foamed at the mouth about Pavement stealing The Fall’s sound), which begat countless other bands.  Fast forward nearly 35 years when we fall upon a new rebellious jukebox sound:  Parquet Courts.

The buzz over the Texas-cum-Brooklyn band Parquet Courts has been building for a bit, and we’d listened to a snippet or two and not been hooked immediately.  It was only when we gave their album Light Up Gold a deserved thorough listen (ain’t that the way it always goes?) that we began to get just how refreshingly raucous and heady their songs are.  In an era in which we find the “ho hey” sounds of The Lumineering Magnetic Hearts & Sons entourage taking over the airwaves, we have found ourselves craving the more raucous sounds of Palma Violets and, now, Parquet Courts.  We readily admit to singing the praises of several of the aforementioned, fresh-faced and well-scrubbed folk-pop bands (Typhoon, The Head and the Heart, etc.) now dominating the Northwest and UK playlists.  In an era of Kei$ha and Chris Brown, we will take the folk-poppers any day.  But with all the sweetness, ya gotta have some savory, rocking counterbalance.  Bring on the Parquet Courts.

To our ears Parquet Courts righteously meld the roiling sounds of The Fall, early (circa Johnny Jewel) Television, Pavement, The Feelies, and yes, even a bit of Wire.  You can listen to Light Up Gold in its entirety below.  Make sure to give good listens in particular to Borrowed Time and Light Up Gold II, although the album lights up throughout.  The band’s lyrics are a particular highlight–they are both effervescently-creative and carefully-curated (go HERE if you want to view the worthy lyrics as you listen; you know a band is lyric-centric when they feature their lyrics prominently as done here–bravo dudes!).  A few of the lyrics didn’t pique our interest (e.g. Stoned and Starving), but the wordsmithing here bodes well for the future of Parquet Courts.  After listening below, check out the band’s impending tour and get ye in front of them.  They play The Echo on June 5th.   We intend to be there.  You can see the band in action further below.

The band has also just released a b-side off their upcoming single for a-side Borrowed Time (What’s Your Rupture?) entitled Smart Aleck Kid.  Check out all one-minute-and-six-seconds of its caterwaul below.  You can order the 7″ here.

While you’re at it, check out a great video vignette of the band performing Borrowed Time live below:

Tour:

Thu-March-7 New York,NY @ Bowery Ballroom w/ The Men *SOLD OUT*
Fri-March-8 Mexico City, Mexico @ Auditorio Blackberry w/ Mykki Blanc
Sat-March-9 Monterey, Mexico @ Festival Nrmal
Thu-March-14 Austin,TX @ 1100 East 5th (Pitchfork SXSW Day Party) – 2:30pm
Fri-March-15 Austin,TX @ Mohawk (Ground Control Touring Official SXSW Showcase) – 12am
Sat-March-16 Austin,TX @ Red 7 (Chaos in Tejas Official SXSW Showcase) – 9:45pm
Sun-March-17 Dallas,TX @ Club Dada (Spillover Fest)
Sat-May-4 Philadelphia,PA @ PhilaMOCA
Sat-May-25 Washington,DC @ The Black Cat w/ Total Control
Sun-May-26 Richmond,VA @ Strange Matter w/ Total Control
Mon-May-27 Atlanta,GA @ 529 w/ Total Control
Tue-May-28 Memphis,TN @ Murphy’s w/ Total Control
Wed-May-29 Denton,TX @ Rubber Gloves w/ Total Control
Thu-May-30 Austin,TX @ Chaos in Tejas
Fri-May-31 Austin,TX @ Chaos in Tejas
Sat-June-1 Austin,TX @ Chaos in Tejas
Mon-June-3 Phoenix,AZ @ The Rhythm Room
Tue-June-4 San Diego,CA@ Che Cafe
Wed-June-5 Los Angeles,CA @ The Echo
Fri-June-7 San Francisco,CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Sun-June-9 Oakland,CA @ 1234-GO Records
Mon-June-10 Davis,CA @ Davis 4th
Wed-June-12 Portland,OR @ Doug Fir w/ Naomi Punk
Thu-June-13 Seattle,WA @ Neumos w/ Naomi Punk
Fri-June-14 Vancouver,BC @ Media Club w/ Naomi Punk
Mon-June-17 Boise,ID @ Neurolux
Tue-June-18 Salt Lake City,UT @ Urban Lounge
Wed-June-19 Denver,CO @ Larimer Lounge
Thu-June-20 Omaha,NE @ Sweatshop
Fri-June-21 Minneapolis,MN @ Triple Rock
Sat-June-22 Madison,WI @ High Noon
Sun-June-23 Bloomington,IN @ The Bishop
Mon-June-24 Columbus,OH @ Ace of Cups
Tue-June-25 Detroit,MI @ Magic Stick
Fri-Aug-2 Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
Sat-Aug-3 Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
Sun-Aug-4 Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon

Phosphorescent’s new album Muchacho will be released on March 19th.  From all accounts, the album includes more of singer-songwriter  Matthew Houck’s world-weary, earthly assessments, but also accounts of life beyond our atmosphere.  We’ve been huge fans of Houck for years, and on first listen Muchacho delivers on all fronts.  To listen go to NPR HERE.