Grizzly Bear’s “Veckatimest” was our Album of the Year in 2009, and their live performance that year at the Wiltern in LA was a revelatory mauling.   While we await their next album (no word yet), one of the band’s leaders, Daniel Rossen, has released a gripping set of songs on his debut solo release, Silent Hour / Golden Mile.  The prolific Rossen has written some of the best compositions of the last several years as part of Grizzly Bear and Department of Eagles, and the new EP is more of the same.  Rossen has said these songs have a unified theme of “unease with the world around you, about indeterminacy in your own life, and the ability somehow to navigate both.”  All is not gloom and doom as Rossen sings on the closing track, Golden Mile:  “For a silent hour, for a golden mile, there’s bliss in this mess. There’s madness all around.”

Listen to Saint Nothing followed by Silent Song below, and then buy the EP HERE.  You can stream it at Spinner HERE.

Sharon Van Etten showed up on Conan last night to (yet again) play her song Leonard off of her new album, Tramp.  We haven’t tired of the song yet, and Van Etten obviously arrived in time for full makeup. She looks great in red. Sweet stuff.

The Shins showed up on the Letterman Show last night and played their fab song Simple Song for the broadcast show, and then played a full hour for Live on Letterman (web-only) of songs off of their newly-released album, Port of Morrow, and older songs.  Great stuff.  Check ’em both below.

Last night Esperanza Spalding performed Radio Song off of her new album, Radio Music Society, on the Letterman Show.   Radio Music Society was released today and bodes well for fans of crossover jazz, as we see a resurgence in new players of the genre.  Somehow Spalding manages to convey the spirits of both Wayne (Shorter) and Wonder (Stevie) on the new album.  The New York Times had a great feature article on her last week, which you can read HERE.  Check out her performance below.  Once again, Dave and Paul are right on with their fervent praise.

Spalding has this to say about Radio Song on her website: “This song speaks to an experience we’ve all had at one time or another: when for whatever reason, you turn on the radio and a fragment of a song just grabs you, everything in the world seems to stop, and you sit mesmerized and uplifted by the music. That moment of “being touched” from the radio is a testament to the power of song, and it’s at that magical moment when an artist – even someone we know nothing about – truly connects with their equally unknown listener.”

Neil Young is at the very top of a very small list of artists we consider to be the best of all-time.  Many of his best albums have been collaborations with the great band, Crazy Horse.   Now comes the great news, via Rolling Stone, that Young and Crazy Horse will release a new album, entitled Americana, on June 5th.  This will be the first Young album backed by the entirety of Crazy Horse since 1996, and we can’t wait.

As reported in Rolling Stone, the songs on Americana are all classic American folk songs, including This Land Is Your Land, Gallows Pole, Tom Dooley and Clementine.  This album now stands atop our list of most anticipated albums of 2012.  When done right (a la Dan Zanes and many others), these old standards are born anew and give history a chance.  We assume these covers by Young and Crazy Horse will be definitive new versions. As pointed out by the Audio Perv, Neil has penned words about each of the songs that can be found HERE.

Young has said this about the album: “What ties these songs together is the fact that while they may represent an America that may no longer exist,… [t]he emotions and scenarios behind these songs still resonate with what’s going on in the country today with equal, if not greater impact nearly 200 years later. The lyrics reflect the same concerns and are still remarkably meaningful to a society going through economic and cultural upheaval, especially during an election year. They are just as poignant and powerful today as the day they were written.”

Here is the complete track-listing for the new album (and no, it’s not THAT God Save the Queen):

Oh Susannah
Clementine
Tom Dooley
Gallows Pole
Get A Job
Travel On
High Flyin’ Bird
She’ll Be Comin ’Round The Mountain
This Land Is Your Land
Wayfarin’ Stranger
God Save The Queen

Sharon Van Etten showed up on KCRW today and once again performed her fine new song, Leonard.  She plays the Avalon tomorrow night and tickets are still available.  Check her out on KCRW below.

We’ve been fans of Nigerian Nneka for a while.  She’s delivered some stirring performances on KEXP and elsewhere.  Check out her intro and performance to Shining Star off of her recent album, Soul Is Heavy, courtesy of KUT Austin.  Feels like Sunday, but maybe it’s the sweet rain.

It’s that time of year again.  That’s right:  March Madness and the NBA Trade Deadline.  Oh wait, what we meant to say was SXSW.  According to various reports coming out of Austin, the University of Texas just lost in the NCAA Tourney.  Oh, and the musical frolic-fest that is SXSW is in full swing.  We’d love to be there to catch Chuck Prophet and a few others, but otherwise we’ll lazily monitor from afar.

Of course we wouldn’t have minded catching Bruce Springsteen perform yesterday for 2-1/2 hours and give one of the best keynote speeches of all time.  You can check the speech out way below (note:  Parental Advisory for language).  But first, courtesy of Consequence of Sound, you can check out below Springsteen’s set-culminating read of Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land, featuring Régine Chassagne and Win and Will Butler from Arcade Fire, Tom Morello (lighting it up with a little Occupy SXSW venom), Eric Burdon of The Animals, Alejandro Escovedo, Garland Jeffreys, Joe Ely, and members of The Low Anthem.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – “This Land Is Your Land” (Woody Guthrie cover) from Consequence of Sound on Vimeo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWVp7NBp9XU

You can also catch The Shins live set HERE this afternoon.

Penguin Cafe Orchestra was a brilliant British ensemble that put “chamber-pop” on the map in the ’70s and ’80s.   That title does a disservice, however, to their inventive, moving compositions.  For us they placated both our classical and pop urges in one fell swoop.  And we found that their songs provided a great score for commedia dell’arte plays.  Unfortunately, their leader Simon Jeffes passed away in 1997.  Thereafter the PCO put together occasional tours until Jeffes’ son, Arthur, restarted the ensemble in 2010 with a new group of musicians to stake out the next chapter of the PCO.

Recently, renowned concert violinist, Lara St. John joined Great Lake Swimmers on CBC’s Studio Q to perform a medley of Bach’s Partita No. 1 in B minor BWV 1002 and Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s Music for a Found Harmonium.   Now that’s entertainment!

You can see the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra perform their own version of Music for a Found Harmonium after, followed by PCO’s great Perpetuum Mobile, Air a Danser, Paul’s Dance, and Salty Bean Fumble. Sorely missed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO8-qTEz0zk&feature=uploademail