We were bowled over yet again at the Santa Barbara Bowl last night by the brilliant Bright Eyes.  We’ll write about tonight’s show soon, but in the meantime check out Bright Eyes, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and a hardy singalong-crowd at Stubb’s in Austin last week slaying Lua.  Conor left out the luscious Lua tonight (though they gave us powerfully poignant versions of Poison Oak and Ladder Song), so we’ll fill the Lua void with the fine version below from Austin.  Listen in to Nate Walcott’s horn play interlaced beautifully with Rawlings’ standard, soul-arch guitar.

And then check a superb rendering by Bright Eyes, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and Laura Burhenn (of Mynabirds fame) of Welch’s Wrecking Ball.  Conor and Burhenn gave a great reading tonight at the Bowl, but the version below from Stubb’s sets the bar ridiculously high, with Gillian’s sonorous singing and Rawlings elevating on electric guitar and vocals.   Wow.

Radiohead appeared on Saturday Night Live last night.

Check out their performances below of Lotus Flower and Staircase (both courtesy of The Audio Perv).

And don’t forget they’ll be on The Colbert Report tomorrow night for a special one-hour show.

Lotus Flower (Thom may be missing his usual ear monitors and the mix is a little off–where’d the bass go?–but still great):

Staircase (ah, much better):

My Brightest Diamond (led by the multi-talented Shara Worden) initially announced the release of their new album, All Things Will Unwind, via the hauntingly hopeful song Reaching Through to the Other Side.  Comes now the official music video for another track, Be Brave.  We’re not used to this more playful side of My Brightest Diamond.  But we like it.  Check it out (via Stereogum originally).

And then take another tour of Reaching Through to the Other Side below it.

My Brightest Diamond – ALL THINGS WILL UNWIND: Be Brave from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

Here’s Reaching Through to the Other Side.

Reaching Through to the Other Side by My Brightest Diamond

Check out the Toronto band Evening Hymns in their performance on an earlier  Takeaway Show.

Evening Hymns | A Take Away Show | Presented By La Blogotheque, NxNE, SxSW and ASTW from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

We are gonna have to attend a music festival one of these days.  Oh, right, a week from today at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.  Can’t wait.

In the meantime check out some of our favorite vignettes from last week’s ACL Festival and then go HERE if you want to check out scads more from ACL 2011.

First check out Young the People performing My Body.  Now that’s how to rile up a crowd. Almost gleams like Glastonbury.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuv8tncXBNQ&feature=related

Then check out the fab Iron & Wine doing their revelatory Walking Far From Home in near-acappella mode (with Rosie Thomas and Marketa Irglova, of movie “Once” fame, killing).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aV9YmaZZTU

And then check the ubiquitous The Head and the Heart doing their song, Rivers and Roads.

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

In case you missed Brandi Carlisle when she opened recently at the Bowl for Ray LaDisstagne, check out her rendering of The Story below.  Girl’s got pipes.

And then check out the Cults doing their breakout song, Go Outside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqyf2aYR1pQ

And just for “kicks” check out the worst cover band ever doing the great song Pumped Up Kicks. Oh wait, sorry, that’s actually Foster the People.   A shame about them live.  We’s prefer Weezer’s cover by far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZmP4xsWKt4&feature=relmfu

One of our all-time favorites, Clem Snide lead singer, Eef Barzelay, has just released “Fan Chosen Covers (Best of)” which you can stream/download below or HERE.  We wrote recently about Clem/Eef and his ukelele-fueled live covering of Journey’s Faithfully. Now he’s back with more craftily-covert covers. Great stuff.

As the Bandcamp page says:  “As part of the Journey Ep Kickstarter campaign folks who pledged $150 or more got to choose any song for Eef to cover. Of the 30 some odd songs here are Eef’s favorites all recorded around the summer of 2011 at his home in Nashville TN.”

Check the covers out below (we particularly like Whiter Shade of Pale), and go on over to Bandcamp and contribute to the cause of one of America’s great singer-songwriters and cover-songsters.

Recent Santa Barbara visitors, Telekinesis (formidably opening for Joy Formidable at Soho), performed their song, Please Ask for Help, on the Jimmy Fallon Show last night.  They are one of our current power-pop faves. Check ’em out.

Soon-to-the-SB-Bowl, Death Cab for Cutie, did two songs on Carson Daly recently. Check out some new (You are a Tourist) and some old (The New Year) below.

Great Brit-band Elbow made their U.S. television debut on the Jimmy Fallon Show. We have written repeatedly about the wonders of this band, and can’t wait to catch them on October 2nd at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.  They’re one of the best, comparatively-unknown bands on the planet.

Check out below their poignant delivery of the sensationally sweet Lippy Kids off their most recent album, “Build a Rocket Boys!” Guy Garvey and gang are wonders.  And then check out The River and some backstage moments with Guy Garvey

Lippy Kids

“Lippy kids on the corner again
Lippy kids on the corner begin settling like crows
And I never perfected that simian stroll
But the cigarette scent, it was everything then

Do they know those days are golden?
Build a rocket boys!
Build a rocket boys!

One long June I came down from the trees
And cursed on cue
You were freshly painted angel walking on walls
Stealing booze and outlawing hungry kisses

Nobody knew me at home anymore
Build a rocket boys!
Build a rocket boys!

Lippy kids on the corner again
Lippy kids on the corner begin settling like crows
And I never effected that simian stroll, no

Do they know those days are golden?
Build a rocket boys!
Build a rocket boys!

One long June I came down from the trees
And cursed on cue
You were freshly painted angel walking on walls
Stealing booze and outlawing hungry kisses

And nobody knows me at home anymore
Build a rocket boys!
Build a rocket boys!”

Elbow also performed The River.