The collaboration between David Byrne and St. Vincent continued last night on the Letterman Show.  The artists and their big band reeled off the best song, I Should Watch TV, off of their album from last year Love This Giant.  Byrne has said the following about the song that was inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem Song For Myself:  “In the poem, he begins by talking about himself and then extrapolates outward: ‘I am multitudes, I am everybody, everybody is in me, I love everybody.’  He talks about people he sees on the street, the people he sees in Brooklyn, in New Jersey, and on and on– how he’s in all of them and they’re all in him.  That’s taking the idea of watching other peoples’ lives on television to a more cosmic place.”  Check out David Byrne at his theatrical best with horns and band killin’ below.  The song’s lyrics follow the video.

“I used to think that I should watch TV
I used to think that it was good for me
Wanted to know what folks were thinking
To understand the land I live in
And I would lose myself
And it would set me free

This is the place where common people go
A global franchise; one department store
Yes, there were many awkward moments
I had to do some self-atonement
Well, if I opened up
Well, it would set me free

I know, I like
Behold and love this giant
Big soul, big lips
That’s me and I am this
Everybody is a touched up hairdo
Everybody’s in the passing lane
Had a reason that she touched all channels
The weird things that live in there

I took a walk down to the park today
I wrote a song called ‘Just Like You and Me’
I heard the jokes from the sports reporter
The rival teams when they faced each other
The more I lost myself,
The more it set me free

How am I not your brother
How are you not like me
Everybody’s in the hotel lobby
I’m living in here, yes I am
I feel it moving in my arms and fingers
Touch me, Feel happy

It’s good to lose and it’s good to win sometimes
It’s good to die and it’s good be alive
Maybe someday we can stand together
Not afraid of what we see
Maybe someday understand them better
The weird things inside of me”

Kathleen Edwards put on one of our Best Concerts of 2012.  To get a feel for Edwards’ performance appeal and crystalline voice, check her out below with stalwart standbys Jim Bryson and Gord Tough giving Kurt Cobain’s end-note, All Apologies, a fitting read in London in December.  Note to guitar players everywhere:  if you want to hear how to subtly accompany an artist with brilliant, but chaste, embellishment (instead of showy gunslinging), check out Gord Tough’s perfect “solo” at 2:32.  We could listen to Edwards’ lustrous vocals and the boys’ fine harmonies till the end of time.  And the next time she comes around to your town, don’t you miss it.  The Edwards “Trio” Tour, with talented Sera Cahoone opening, is happening now in a city near you.  Check the dates HERE.

Grizzly Bear has released their new official video for Gun-Shy off of their sterling, penetrating 2012 album Shields.  Warning:  in the clever video, Director Kris Moyes has avowedly attempted to depict how much of their bodies (and souls) the band puts into their music.  So there are some gratuitous blood, tissue and organ facets to the video.  We can’t wait to see the band give their all on April 16th at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur.

At year’s end, Kendrick Lamar’s album good kid, m.A.A.d city posed a serious threat to Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange for Best Album of 2012. The album was universally hailed by critics and fans alike.  We had been immune to Lamar’s allure until a couple of fans held a “good kid” symposium at our house over the holidays (thanks Derp and Hazznah).  And at long last we got it.  And we got it more still when Lamar appeared on Saturday Night Live as musical guest this weekend.  See what all of the fuss was about below as Lamar and band slay on the self-possessed call-to-consciousness (literally) of Swimming Pools (Drank) and then Poetic Justice from the album.  The former, in particular, was stunning.

We fell in love with Glen Hansard’s music again last Fall.  His best-of-festival performance at the 2012 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival led us back to his bountiful album from earlier in the year, Rhythm and Repose.  Since then we’ve continued to unearth various gems from Hansard.  Just the other day we bumbled upon the video below for his song Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting from the most recent album (heaven knows how we missed it before?).  And it brought joy.  Also with you.

We paid lip service again to making our way to Todos Santos in Baja Mexico for Peter Buck’s annual Todos Santos Music Festival.  Good friends were smarter than us, and are riding it out, and reporting that it’s the musical party of all-time.  Another round of regrets, all the way around.  Check out Buck, Mike Mills, Ed Kowalcyzk (in the bald Michael Stipe role), Chuck Prophet, Scott McGaughey, and others perform Don’t Go Back to Rockville and Superman.  Amongst others, Buck and the guitarists sound fantastic.  Looks like one heck of a party, with great crowd-sing.  Next year!

We’ve fallen heavily for the upstart Brit-band Palma Violets.  In the last two weeks, the band has been playing a few dates in the US and showed recently at Brooklyn’s tiny Shea Stadium BK venue.   Check out the band below (captured well by Tear ‘N Tan) playing their fan-favorite Best of Friends in our favorite setting and atmosphere:  ardent fans singing every word of a hot new band in their first-run at a tiny venue.  Oh to have been there (except for the lame smokers–Brooklyn’s got rules to protect those that don’t choose cancer, right?).

Check out below Dirty Projectors covering Usher’s (cover of Diplo’s) song Climax for Australia’s Triple J Radio.  According to the group’s Amber Coffman, the cover is somewhat of a reprise of her and David Landstreth’s assistance in Jamaica during the song’s recording.