At long last, the queen feline, Cat Power, is back and working on a new album.  In this new mix of an old song (from 1996) we hear Black (Cat) Dub and sparseness filled with void-filling.  She’s one of our best, and it’s been way too long.  Welcome back Cat.

Visit http://catpowermusic.com to help Cat Power and Manny Pacquiao give to those in need this holiday season and download the remixed song, King Rides By (originally released in 1996).  All proceeds benefit The Festival of Children and The Ali Forney House.

Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws strode into the Musee Carnavalet in Paris and performed new song, Waiting For Something for Le Hiboo.  The song’s thrust seemed apropos this day.

Speaking of Le Hiboo and today’s date, we would have liked to have been in the room when new artist Ben Howard (about whom we’ve written previously) performed his song, The Fear. Check it out.

Joseph Arthur has just released his official video for his hypnotic song, Gypsy Faded, off of his fantastic 2011 album, “The Graduation Ceremony.”  Check out this beauty set against Arthur’s own anagogic animation (amongst other things, he is a formidable artist).

We have written recently about wagering on War on Drugs and their album “Slave Ambient” showing up on our Best Albums of 2011 list.  We’re still sanding that list (up to 320 grit now), but in the meantime KEXP has just released videos of the band killing on four songs off of Slave Ambient recorded at KEXP in October.  Check out the stellar songs and the adept musicianship below.

First up is Come to the City:

Then the uber-catchy Best Night:

Next, Your Love is Calling My Name:

The Animator:

Having opened for Bon Iver on the most recent leg of their tour, Lianne La Havas has been garnering deserved huzzahs.  Check out her performance of her song, No Room for Doubt, captured by La Blogotheque’s Take-Away Shows while La Havas ambled around Montmartre in Paris recently (we like the contributed street-percussion).  And then watch the Londoner sing Age (in which she gives hope to old folks) on a Black Cab Session.  Remind you of anybody?  We hear the late Phoebe Snow mixed with Norah combined with Joan Armatrading.

Check out Coeur de Pirate’s Beatrice Martin play her poignant song, Place de la République, on CBC’s Studio Q last week. According to Martin, Place de la République is the centerpiece of her most recent album, “Blonde.” You don’t need to speak la langue to know and feel this one (though the loose translation–lost in translation?–can be found way below).  You can also check her sing Golden Baby and an interview with Martin at Studio Q after.

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We’d been hearing great things about Los Angeles band Mariachi El Bronx, and sure enough they tossed a molotov and lit it up on the Letterman Show last night. In perhaps a tip of the proverbial sombrero to nearby Occupy Wall Street, the band offered up their great recent song, Revolution Girls, and assassinated it. Mariachi El Bronx (comprised of members of the alter-ego punk band, The Bronx) and others such as the devoted Devotchka are now occupying the space initially cropshared by Calexico. We highly recommend Mariachi El Bronx’s second album, “Mariachi El Bronx (II),” which was released this year to critical acclaim.

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A few days after their ingratiating concert at Velvet Jones in Santa Barbara, the engaging and engorged band, Deer Tick, showed up last month on KEXP and performed four songs off their latest album, “Divine Providence” (including hidden track Mister Cigarette).  Check out the performances, which have just been released by KEXP.

The Bump

Miss K

Main Street

Mister Cigarette

Radiohead has today released two stellar (shocker, we know) studio versions of songs (The Daily Mail and Staircase) previously heard on their live recording of the entirety-plus of “The King of Limbs” on their “From the Basement“ show.  The band is also making the songs available on YouTube as can heard below (at least temporarily).  Check ’em out and be one of the first 300-400 to hear the songs as of this posting.  And after check out two remixes (by Four Tet and Anstam) of one of the songs of the year, Separator.

The entire video of the stunning “The King of Limbs: Live From the Basement” is also released today digitally, and on DVD in the U.S. on January 31st.  If ever there was a perfect present for your music-loving, fact-check couz (or other friend/family), this will be it.  Nonpareil performance by Radiohead that whets the appetite for their tours to come in 2012.

Radiohead–The Daily Mail

Radiohead–Staircase

Radiohead–Separator (Four Tet RMX)

Radiohead–Separator (Anstam RMX)