In the last few months of 2011 we discovered the collaborations of King Creosote and Jon Hopkins, and in particular their small masterpiece, Diamond Mine, which was nominated this year for Britain’s Mercury Prize.  King Creosote (songwriter Kenny Andersen) has said the album was the “soundtrack to a romanticized version of a life lived in a Scottish coastal village.”  The seven-track album is a combination of Anderson originals coupled with the ambient-electronica producer Jon Hopkins’ (Coldplay, etc.) arrangements, sounds and field recordings.  Meshing with the coastal village backdrop, the album’s sound and feel is pacific (if you will) and halcyon.  Anderson’s sweet vocals and lyrical cant can’t lose with Hopkins’ added sounds and effects.  All in all:  charming sounds for a lazy (or better, hectic) day.  Check out two of their songs below.  The video for Bubble should have made our Best Videos of 2011 list so check it out in particular, and if taken, you can check out way below a short video about the making of the Bubble video.

Bubble:

Bats in the Attic (Unravelled):

Making of Bubble:

The Antlers ambled over to the Moog Sound Lab during the annual Moog Fest (in Asheville, North Carolina) and “reshaped” their song, Parentheses, off their great 2011 album, Burst Apart.  Check it out below. And then after, check out an interview with The Antlers and a performance of their song, Rolled Together.

Happy New Year All!

In the entertainment-for-entertainment’s sake category, Jools Holland was his usual cunning-curator self on New Year’s Eve last night with his annual New Year’s Hootenanny.  Check out a few of the performers, including Aloe Blacc performing his SARS-catchy I Need A Dollar (from 2010, but still relevant with the ongoing world-economic morass) and Hey Brother.  And then check out Cindy Lauper singing her chestnut, Time After Time, and then lighting it up with Jools on Girls Just Want to Have Fun.  And after, check out Betty Wright performing her ’70s hit, Clean Up Woman (no connection whatsoever to 2011’s Domestic-Help Poster-Boy, Dominique Strauss-Kahn).  And then, finally, check out the crowd-pleasing, Specials-evoking Pokey LaFarge.  We trust you’ll find something in here to help you properly sway into 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neiRReIDuQ8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT2fNcvHPek&feature=uploademail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SSeQnQOJHY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgIiYgn2BiM&feature=uploademail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MveLErNJvJE&feature=related

Wilco is graciously streaming one of their five recent shows at the Chicago Civic Opera House.  Magnificence!  The show includes the following covers and guest artists: Cruel To Be Kind (written by and performed with opener Nick Lowe); You Are Not Alone (performed with Mavis Staples); and The Weight performed with Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe).  Wilco will play Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theater on February 10th.  Don’t miss it.

Go over and stream it HERE.  The full set list is set forth below:

• Intro
• One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)
• Poor Places
• Art of Almost
• I Might
• Misunderstood
• I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
• One Wing
• Rising Red Lung
• Impossible Germany
• Far, Far Away
• What Light
• Born Alone
• Jesus, Etc.
• Capitol City
• War On War
• Box Full of Letters
• Pot Kettle Black
• Dawned On Me
• Shot in the Arm
• Whole Love
• Heavy Metal Drummer
• Candyfloss
• I’m the Man Who Loves You
• Outta Mind (Outta Sight)
• Cruel to Be Kind (Nick Lowe)
• You Are Not Alone
• The Weight (The Band)

We are huge fans of Haruki Murakami (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, Kafka on the Shore, and most recently 1Q84, which showed on many Top Books of 2011 lists).  So we can’t wait to see director Anh Hung Tran’s adaptation of Murakami’s bestselling novel, “Norwegian Wood,” which opens in the US (finally!) on January 6th, 2012. The soundtrack for the film features an instrumental score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood (following on his Oscar-nominated “There Will Be Blood” and other soundtracks) performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Emperor Quartet, and includes three tracks written and performed by influential German band, CAN.

Tonight, while the usuals will be counting down with their commercial-filled extravaganzas of excess and nil, Austin City Limits will light up our TVs brighter than Times Square with a special 90-minute concert by Coldplay starting at 11pm (Pacific Time) on PBS (you can also stream the concert via www.pbs.org).  The band will perform a cache of songs off their new album, Mylo Xyloto, along with live favorites from their back catalogue.  We can’t think of a better band to lively-up New Year’s Eve.  So check it live or set your DVRs.

And then afterwards (at 12:30 Pacific), Austin City Limits will re-broadcast a 60-minute concert of Tom Waits filmed in 1979 (circa Blue Valentine and Heartattack and Vine.   You can check out previews of both shows below. Don’t miss it.

Coldplay:

Watch Behind the Scenes: Coldplay on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Tom Waits:

Watch Tom Waits – Preview on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Stew & the Negro Problem (meant to be ironic) have been making eclectic, melodic, and heady material since the mid-’90s, and have had their ups and downs.  Spearheaded by the dramatic dramatist, Mark Stewart (together with his now-former partner Heidi Rodewald), they have put out critically-hailed albums (2000’s “Guest Host“), and written and performed award-winning musicals (“Passing Strange,” filmed by Spike Lee).  They are about to release their first new album, “Making It,” in ten years.  We can’t wait.  Check out two new songs from the new album.  First up is the tantalizingly-titled Love Is A Cult, which will immediately lure you in and have you hooked on its melodic Kool-Aid.  Following is another hook-filled gem, Curse, with its great ’60s/’70s/Hollywood/LA slideshow accompaniment.  We hear Broadway and pop music melding perfectly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ite5qPps34

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5BEtWevNJ4

The Avetts YouTube Channel just released a video of Scott Avett performing a “New Love Song” solo on banjo.  Bodes well for 2012 and, hopefully, new music from the brothers and band.  Check it out.

Thank goodness for Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Company in particular. CBC has, along with our NPR, presented many of the best interview/performance moments of the year in the arts, and in particular in music. Most recently on CBC, the superb songwriter, Nick Lowe, was captured at Studio Q performing his great song for these (and any other) times, Peace, Love and Understanding. The song was made famous by the colossally talented Elvis Costello. We repeatedly have played/play Costello’s version (as viewed way below with the Imposters when Costello graciously filled in for David Letterman when Letterman had emergency heart surgery in 2008), but love Lowe’s version here with its softness and subtly to match the lyrical mien. And for those needing the song’s tablature, you’re set with this video. Check it out below and Costello’s version after. And then pick up Nick Lowe’s excellent new album, “The ConvincerThe Old Magic” (released in September) and hear what pop songcraft is all about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ywceG6onqg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XYFJUP84lE