If you like instrumental music and rock n’ roll, then you have to love Explosions in the Sky.  We are such slaves to lyrics in songs and their collaborative effects that we admit instrumentals are generally not our first (or second) pick when we want to listen to music.  But when a band makes music as beautiful and cathartic as Austin’s Explosions in the Sky, you must give them their due.  Check out their set from Bonnaroo a few days ago (courtesy of the AudioPerv), and see why this band has a justifiably huge following.  Click twice on the arrows below for viewing.

Photos by Lefort

We had the great fortune to catch Buffalo Springfield at the Santa Barbara Bowl last Wednesday.  A year ago no one would have predicted that Neil Young, Richie Furay and Stephen Stills would re-group and grace us with a reunion tour from a band that had dis-banded a scant 43 (!) years ago.  For what it’s worth, it was well worth the wait.  The songs and delivery of the band roundly resonated in the hallowed grounds of the Bowl.  The only expectation of ours not met by the band was when they failed to play their best song, Neil Young’s  Expecting to Fly. Check out the full set-list from the show way below.  Also below is a video of the band performing Mr. Soul at Bonnaroo.

Photo by Lefort

Opening up was the American-treasure-trove of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who performed their usual musical magic (in full Nudie-suit regalia) despite the nattering and inattention of the ADD crowd, which failed to heed Buffalo Springfield’s own warning that Gillian and David might not “be back till later on, if [they] do come back at all.”  Pay attention folks: you might at any point be in the presence of greatness without realizing it.  Better to adhere to the admonition of the Talking Heads:  “Don’t you miss it, don’t you miss it; some ‘a you people just about missed it!”  On June 28th, the duo will release its phenomenal new album, “The Harrow & the Harvest,” under the Gillian Welch moniker (after an eight-year wait), which you can read about and pre-order HERE .

For a flavor of the Bowl show, check out Buffalo Springfield’s performance of Mr. Soul at Bonnaroo last Saturday.

Buffalo Springfield setlist from the June 8th Bowl show:

We caught the brilliant Bright Eyes when they came through Pomona a few months back, and the band delivered an “incendiary” performance.  In line with that flash-pot set, check out the official video for Bright Eyes’ tribute to The Cars:  Jejune Stars below.  Consider it an early Fourth of July celebration.

Stephen Malkmus is soon to release his fifth post-Pavement album, Mirror Traffic (out August 23) on Matador. The new album was recorded by Beck (candidly, we’re not fans of his) in Los Angeles over the past couple of years and includes 15 songs.  Check out the first song released from the album, entitled Senator, below.  In light of the recent wiener-revelations swirling around Representative Weiner, along with the allegations concerning the IMF’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn (OK, go ahead and pick amongst 30-50 possible sordid government or regulatory offenders), the lyrics are particularly apropos.  And if this song is any musical indication of the caliber of the new album, it sounds like Malkmus is back on track and making vibrant, melodic and interesting sounds, and not just wanking on his guitar as he has over the course of the last couple of albums and tours with the Jicks.  We’re sure it was because of our earlier plea. Vive le Malkmus!

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks–Senator

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/stephen_malkmus_jicks_senator.mp3|titles=stephen_malkmus_jicks_senator]

Matthew Zapruder recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry with his book, Come on All You Ghosts.

We highly recommend this collection.  Zapruder takes the everyday happenstance and applies boatloads of texture to render haunting and whimsically simple vive-vignettes.  Check out one of the poems from this collection, Global Warming below.

“Global Warming”

In old black and white documentaries
sometimes you can see
the young at a concert or demonstration
staring in a certain way as if
a giant golden banjo
is somewhere sparkling
just too far off to hear.
They really didn’t know there was a camera.
Cross legged on the lawn
they are patiently listening to speeches
or the folk singer hunched
over his little brown guitar.
They look as tired as the young today.
The calm manner in which their eyes
just like the camera rest
on certain things then move
to others shows they know
no amount of sunlight
will keep them from growing suddenly older.
I have seen the new five dollar bills
with their huge pink hypertrophied numbers
in the lower right hand corner and feel
excited and betrayed.
Which things should never change?
The famous cherry trees
I grew up under
drop all their brand new buds
a little earlier each year.
Now it’s all over before the festival begins.
The young.
Maybe they’ll let us be in their dreams.

They’re everywhere, and that’s a good thing.

If you missed it, check out video from their recent Todd Haynes-filmed show at the The Palace in Louisville and then tune in to VHS1 Storytellers tonight.

Read about VHS1 show HERE and check out a sample below.

The Real Country is oft-times of earlier eras.  But Real Country is still alive and kicking today if you look hard enough.  While they are not straightahead, straitjacket purveyors of strictly country music, at its core Megafaun embodies the heart and soul of Real Country.

The boys from Megafaun were originally in the band DeYarmond Edison with Justin Vernon, until he left for the good musical winter that is Bon Iver.   Since then these Raleigh-NC-by-way-of-Eau-Claire-WI lads (Phil Cook, Brad Cook, and Joe Westerlund) have re-grouped in North Carolina as Megafaun.  Megafaun resounds in an eclectic and multifarious sound incorporating indie, folk and sweet harmonies augmented with varied sounds such as free-jazz and psych-folk.  Megafaun has released three “albums” and have garnered critical acclaim throughout.

From the Real Country portion of their discography, check out the addicting song Volunteers off of their 2010 album “Heretofore.” After the second or third listen, you’ll be fawning over Megafaun.

Megafaun–Volunteers

<iframe src=”https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/5vphKIuJqazddpKfRaSgXt” width=”300″ height=”380″ frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true” allow=”encrypted-media”></iframe>

This must be the season of (the witch and) Radiohead covers.  The interweb is blowing up with Radiohead covers.  And there was joy across the land.  Comes now Rivers (Phoenix Mario) Cuomo and Weezer with a stellar covering of Paranoid Android.

We flipped over to Letterman the other night and were reminded why the Arctic Monkeys are one of our favorite Brit rock bands.  The band is about to release their fourth album, the ridiculously entitled “Suck It and See” (of course Letterman had fun with that title).  You can check out the pre-release stream of the new album at the Guardian HERE.  Check out the video in which the band perform the very greazy “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair,” with its interesting lyrical bent (frontman Alex Turner is slyly one of rock’s great lyricists when you can make it out amongst all the venom).  And after that check out one of the best songs ever recorded by man (Riot Van) and a few of their great rockers.

Up rolls the Riot Van and sparks excitement in the boys.  Indeed.  One of the greats.  We love:  “Up rolls the riot van and these lads just wind the coppers up, and that’s why they don’t catch proper crooks.”  It’s a variation of sorts lyrically on Arcade Fire’s Sprawl I (Flatland) and countless other great rock songs.

Arctic Monkeys–Riot Van

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/07-Riot-Van.mp3|titles=07 Riot Van]

And sounding at times like early Jam and The Clash, with some dashes of The Strokes and The Libertines, these lads also wind the rockers up.  Check ’em out and then look out for the new album.

Arctic Monkeys–When the Sun Goes Down

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/11-When-The-Sun-Goes-Down.mp3|titles=11 When The Sun Goes Down]

Arctic Monkeys–Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/08-Red-Light-Indicates-Doors-Are-Secured.mp3|titles=08 Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured]

Arctic Monkeys–From the Ritz to The Rubble

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/12-From-The-Ritz-To-The-Rubble.mp3|titles=12 From The Ritz To The Rubble]