John Doe and crew let the truth fly on the Letterman show last night.  “We got a house full of junk…..But it’s never enough!!  But it’s got to change!!”   Stirring wisdom imparted.  And as he is prone to do following particularly inspiring performances on his show, Letterman proclaimed:  “Come on!  Let’s turn this dump upside down.  We’re not payin’  nobody.  That’s all you need.  That’s all you want!!!”  Letterman is the rare late-night dude who gets it.  Vive le Letterman!

We are huge fans of Neko Case, whether solo or as a part of super-pop-group, New Pornographers.  She is amongst our most evocative singer-songwriters (lyrics being her particular strength), and a brilliant live performer (our fave instance being her show in the early millennium at the small ole Brown Derby in LA).  We’ll write more about her another day, but on her birthday check out two videos of one of her mini-masterpieces, I Wish I Was the Moon.  Happy Belated Birthday Neko (yesterday, Sept 8th).

Below the two Neko videos is a repeat of Jesse Winchester drawing tears (at 3:12) from Neko in a performance of Winchester’s love song, Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding, on Costello’s spectacular Spectacle show.  As she confesses in I Wish I Was The Moon, those tears evince that she carries her “heart in [her] lap.”  You can see Costello also fighting it off throughout the song until he too is “finished.”  The performance is proof positive of Jesse Winchester’s soulful ways.  Sadly, in July Winchester posted the following to his website:  “I have been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, and will have to undergo treatment for the next couple of months. I’m very sorry if any plans have been disrupted; I do hope to see you again soon, and we’ll pick up where we left off.”  According to CaringBridge, Jesse is in the middle of “chemo, radiation, and neupogen shots” while surrounded by family.  Our prayers for healing, Jesse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fhur6g8_BM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4op5mUtyIw&feature=related

Band of Horses played their song Infinite Arms (yep, off their now-“ancient” May 2010 album of the same name) on Conan Wednesday night.  And in more regrets-we’ve-had-a-few news, we couldn’t make the band’s Wiltern show last night.  Check out the video below where the band augurs great harmony vocals and guitar (though we could do without the cheezey-organ and whistley bits).

We agree one thousand percent with Ben Folds who has said this about Clem Snide’s Eef Barzelay: “I can listen to that guy sing anything, all day.”  And judge ye not, Folds knows a thing or two about singing.  We’ll just say this about Eef Barzelay:  he is America’s most underrated living singer (which is to take nothing away from his stellar songwriting), with phrasing skills to shame the Famers.  You don’t need any more proof of the foregoing than in the recent A.V. Undercover video in which Eef enthralls while covering (of all things) Journey’s song, Faithfully, and accompanying himself beautifully on ukelele. Turns out you can, in fact, turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.   Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr2woarCpCY&feature=player_embedded

If you enjoy this video, make sure you check out more of Clem Snide’s musical offerings HERE (including a 6-song EP of Journey covers).  Says there that he’ll also write you a song for $200, or if we can pull together $1,000 (plus traveling expenses), we can get one of the nation’s musical treasures to do a show in Santa Barbara.  His Lobero show for Sings Like Hell a couple of years ago was simply spell-binding.  Who’s in??

And while you’re at it, check out the other A.V. Undercover offerings at the link above.  A.V. also has a hilarious interview with the witty Eef HERE.

P.J. Harvey has yet again left her mark on musical history, this time winning England’s prestigious Mercury Prize for best album, “Let England Shake.”  We have sung the praises of Ms. Harvey previously, and can’t think of a more deserving winner.  Brava!

If you haven’t seen them before, Ms. Harvey and Seamus Murphy collaborated to create verity videos for each of the 12 tracks of Let England Shake.  The videos and Ms. Harvey’s album are worthy of all the accolades.  Check out a few of the videos below and then check the rest out HERE.

Wilco just released the official video for new song Born Alone from Wilco’s upcoming album “The Whole Love,” out September 27, 2011 on dBpm Records.  Check it out below.  It’s merely more of the usual Wilco magic, with Glenn Kotche’s drumming and Nels Cline’s guitar-work carrying the musical load.

We’ve been accused of being somewhat humorless here at The Lefort Report.  Point taken.  So, in case you missed it, we found humor in Josh Groban’s lampoon of Kanye West on The Jimmy Kimmel Show.  Kanye, Kanye, Kanye….

The impending Girls album, “Father, Son, Holy Ghost,” is streaming over at The Hype Machine. The album hits on September 22nd and you can buy it HERE.

Girls also hit the road next week:

September
Wednesday 14 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
Thursday 15 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
Friday 16 – Nashville, TN – Grimey’s (instore performance – 5PM)
Friday 16 – Nashville, TN – The Mercy Lounge
Saturday 17 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
Monday 19 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Tuesday 20 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts
Thursday 22 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Friday 23 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Saturday 24 – Boston, MA – Paramount Center
Sunday 25 – Montreal, AL – Corona Theatre
Tuesday 27 – Toronto, ON – The Mod Club
Thursday 29 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
Friday 30 – Madison, WI – Majestic Theater

October
Saturday 01 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Tuesday 04 – Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore Cabaret
Wednesday 05 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
Thursday 06 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
Saturday 08 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Sunday 09 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall

France’s M83 have been making soaring synth sounds for almost a decade.  Their ambitious new double-CD record, “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming,” is due in October.  In advance of that release, M83 just released a new song, Midnight City.   We love the retro mix (yet again–is there a Retromania going on??) with synth, harmonies and the old-school sax that enters at 3:02.  Check it out below and then the Big Black Delta Mix of the same song further below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDyonn3mQj8

Midnight City (Big Black Delta Remix) by M83