We have a love/hate relationship with our spam filter.  We love it until it erroneously cordons off an invaluable missive from a friend (or foe/faux, you know who you are), and then we hate it.

But what we meant to say is, check out this great poem by the great Bob Hicok (again):

Spam leaves an aftertaste

What does the Internet know that it sends me
unbidden the offer of a larger penis?
I’m flattered by the energy devoted
to the architecture of my body.
Brain waves noodling on girth, length, curvature
possibly, pictures drawn on napkins
of the device, teeth for holding, cylinder–
pneumatic, hydraulic–for stretching
who I am into who I shall be.  But of all
messages to drop from the digital ether,
hope lives in the communiqué that I can find
out anything about anyone. So I’ve asked:
who am I, why am I here, if a train
leaving Chicago is subsidized
by the feds, is the romance of travel
dead? I’d like the skinny on where I’ll be
when I die, to have a map, a seismic map
of past and future emotions, to be told
how to keep the violence I do to myself
from becoming the grenades I pitch
at others. The likes of Snoop.com
never get back to me, though I need
to know most of all if any of this helps.
How we can scatter our prayers so wide,
if we’ve become more human or less
in being able to share the specific
in a random way, or was it better
to ask the stars for peace or rain,
to trust the litany of our need
to the air’s imperceptible embrace? Just
this morning I got a message
asking is anyone out there. I replied
no, I am not, are you not there too,
needing me, and if not, come over, I have
a small penis but aspirations
for bigger things, faith among them,
and by that I mean you and I
face to face, mouths
making the sounds once known
as conversation.

Oh sure, we could pull up John Philip Souza, Aaron Copland, or Bernstein.  But as good as they might be, their music wouldn’t be the soundtrack to our Fourth of July.  And what’s the point of an instrumental version from U2?  We can think of a million (and one) songs that subtly evoke our Independence Day and its history.

But for explicit musical reference, we always turn to two of our favorite songs on the 4th.

First is X’s fine cover of Dave Alvin’s song, Fourth of July. We have been X men (and women) since we first bought their 7″ vinyl, Adult Books, in a prior lifetime (when “Slash” magazine ruled the California punk scene).   X always had drilling deliveries and literate lyrics, but the gift was in the beautiful meshing of Exene’s high-edgy-monotone vocals with John Doe’s more melodic intonations.  The world hasn’t heard anything like it since, and it won’t again.

X–Fourth of July

“She’s waitin’ for me
When I get home from work
Oh, but things ain’t just the same
She turns out the light
And cries in the dark
Won’t answer when I call her name

On the stairs I smoke a
Cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shootin’
Fireworks below
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July

She gives me her cheek
When I want her lips
But I don’t have the strength to go
On the lost side of town
In a dark apartment
We gave up trying so long ago

On the stairs I smoke a
Cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shootin’
Fireworks below
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July

What ever happened
I apologize
So dry your tears and baby
Walk outside, it’s the Fourth of July

On the stairs I smoke a
Cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shootin’
Fireworks below
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
Hey baby, baby take a walk outside”

Our other favorite 4th of July song is by Aimee Mann.  Ms. Mann has stood the test of time, both in the band Til Tuesday and solo, and has been one of America’s best female songwriters.  Having intermittently abhorred fireworks (so shoot me!) and the resulting throngs, certain lyrics (“what a waste of gunpowder and sky”) from this song have always resonated with us.

Check it out.

Aimee Mann–4th of July

“Today’s the 4th of July
Another June has gone by
And when they light up our town I just think:
What a waste of gunpowder and sky

I’m certain that I am alone
In harboring thoughts of our home
It’s one of my faults
That I can’t quell my past
I ought to have gotten it gone

Oh, baby, I wonder
If when you are older someday
You’ll wake up and say
My God, I should have told her!
What would it take?
But now I am here, and
The world’s gotten colder
And she’s got the river
Down which I sold her…

So that’s today’s memory lane
With all the pathos and pain
Another chapter in a book
Where the chapters are endless
And they’re always the same
A verse, then a verse
And refrain

Oh, baby, I wonder
If when you are older someday
You’ll wake up and say
My God, I should have told her!
What would it take?
But now I am here, and
The world’s gotten colder
And she’s got the river
Down which I sold her…

Yeah, she’s got the river
Down which I sold her… “

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros came to the Lobero in Santa Barbara last night and drew this this town to them yet again.  With this band, the sum is always greater than the parts, and infinitely beyond zero.  Have Mercy!

We had seen the band in March at SoHo and were blown away by the collective sound and stage presence of this charismatic, patchouli-hurricane, 10-person ensemble.  They delivered stupendous songs with vital verve that night.

So prior to the Lobero show, we held concerns that, with the change of venue to the more staid Lobero and the added effects on the band of another four months of incessant touring behind the same record, the Magnetic Zeros might be somewhat de-magnetized and less than zeros.  As the old Faces song goes:  shows how wrong you can be.

The evening opened with an interesting set by the band’s piano player, Tay Stratham, accompanied by various members of the band (but especially the pixie-ish Jade).  While the songs were melodic and the singing somewhat enchanting, Stratham’s lyrics and between-song banter were naive and insipid enough to make an aspiring kindegartner poet blush.  Still, the net effect was disarmingly enjoyable.

After a short break, the entire band took the stage and from the first notes of their childrens-song sounding, Janglin’, Alex and the band were in full rippling and janglin’  control of the Lobero crowd.  The full stimulus package of the band didn’t really kick in until a few songs later, but once it did there wasn’t a person in the theater who would have wanted to be anywhere else.

Lead singer Alex Ebert was in shamanic control of both the band and the audience with his dancing, crowd-involvement and beautiful voice.  Co-vocalist, Jade Castrinos, engagingly employed her perky-pixie, Bjork-sque habitude during the proceedings, although she wasn’t featured quite as prominently as last time around.  Nevermind:  she still beguiled and significantly contributed to the night (and particularly on her own song, the soulful Fire Water-River of Love). Onstage she flaunted the spectrum from seemingly drug-addled to crafty, controlled entertainer, but always with a gestalt of love and care.  A rare gift.

On this night we especially appreciated the musicality and significant contributions of the band’s supporting members.  Nico Aglietti and Christian Letts supplied deft lead and rhythm guitars (with Letts adding stellar harmonies), Stewart Cole held sway with his sonorous trumpet sounds and vocals, while drummer Josh Collazo vacillated between pounding and soft-malleting his drum kit to great effect.  To round it out, bassist Airin Older supplied a steady, melodic bottom, Stratham added pounding piano, Orpheo McCord contributed great vocals and percussion, and  Nora Kirkpatrick supplied keyboard and accordion effects.  These are dexterous and talented musicians, and all contributed mightily to the collective sound.

The band played a significant setlist comprised of most of their debut record, “Up From Below.”  The set included the obligatory crowd pleasers Home (five to six minutes when the world smacks of heaven) and 40 Day Dream, but also Desert Song (on which each member turned eyes heavenward and seemed to be playing and focused as if their lives depended on it), Carries On (with its message of caring love), Up from Below, Black Water, Simplest Love and Om Nashi Me, along with a cast of others.

One of the highlights of the evening was the obscure, audience-requested (not the first to be obliged) Man on Fire. The band had to spend a few moments figuring out the song’s chords and spent a few moments early in the song fleshing out the vocals and sound, but by song’s end the power and glee found by the band in playing this song were apparent to all.

And for the finale Alex tightrope-walked the first few rows of seats and sat atop the seat next to Mrs. Lefort to regale the crowd with the band’s standard fine finale, the haunted and haunting Brother.

Afterwards, Alex and other band members stayed on stage for their usual catch-up with their fans.  It warms the heart to see this band and others taking a more friendly stance with their fans.

We can’t wait for the next time and a new set of songs.  Don’t miss it.

In the meantime check out some of their videos below and the stellar cover of Sharpe song Carries On by the band “Dawes.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Obs9t5nTyI

Blue skies, the Dutch over Brazil in World Cup soccer, and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros tonight at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara.  Life can’t get much better.

Ah, but it can.  Tomorrow begins the Tour de France, what many consider the Greatest Show on Earth.   We concur, though the World Cup is making a strong play for that title.  This year Lance Armstrong goes for his last turn of the French countryside against his arch-nemesis and former teammate, Alberto Contador of Spain, the Brothers Schleck from Luxembourg, Bradley Wiggins of England, and countless other contenders (including a host of “Eastern Bloc” athletes that have spent good amounts of money and risked their lives to get the good stuff coursing through their veins).  It’s going to be great.  Perhaps in homage of the anticipated Dutch performance in the World Cup, the Tour will begin tomorrow with a Prologue in Rotterdam, Netherlands.  You can find coverage on the Versus Channel and all over the inter-web.

Le Tour has always captured the attention of artists throughout the world, including musicians.  And so we give you two songs that pay homage to the Tour de France, the first only tangentially and the second wholly.

The first is Camera Talk from the loquacious Local Natives.  In the lyrics below, the band points their camera briefly on the Tour before moving on to examine the merits of travel, with its sensory-overload.  Local Natives deliver a driving, harmony-laden song, with a stellar time-change chorus.  Coming to SoHo in Santa Barbara on September 20th.  Highly recommended, along with their critically acclaimed debut record, “Gorilla Manor.”

Local Natives–Camera Talk (emphasis added)

“We’re running through the aisles
of the churches still in style
does this city have a curfew?
don’t you know it’s good to see you too

The riders on the Champs-Elysees
we are the tourists in the cafes
we drank our wine along the river
not believing where we were at all

It’s alright, the camera is talking
and even though i can’t be sure
memory tells me that these times are worth working for

The buffalo in Catalina
the colored stones and troop leaders
the voices of the canopy singers
ensured that we wouldn’t sleep for long

I knew this would be the part
my plane’s arrival catches me off guard
we’ll all be leaving with a broken heart
wallets empty and we’re back at start

It’s alright, the camera is talking
and even though i can’t be sure
memory tells me that these times are worth working for

The cistern is not even full
the sister is naughty
the cistern in not even”

Local Natives–Camera Talk

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-Camera-Talk1.mp3|titles=02 Camera Talk]

Next up is a more explicit homage from the seminal German techno-band, Kraftwerk.  We give you their Tour de France single, first released in 1983.  The song includes sampled voices and sounds of cycling to mesh with a melody allegedly borrowed from the opening theme of Paul Hindemith’s “Sonata for Flute and Piano.”  The melodic song was a departure from the techno tone of Kraftwerk’s prior work and was meant to be a celebration of cycling.   The record cover design depicted the band in a paceline against an angled replica of the French flag.

Kraftwerk–Tour de France

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/12-Tour-de-France.mp3|titles=12 Tour de France]

It was in the fall of 1915 that I decided not to use any color

until I couldn’t get along without it and I believe

it was June until I needed blue.

–GEORGIA O’KEEFE

Amen, Georgia.  She must have been living in Santa Barbara at the time.

We desperately needed blue in June, but deliverance was not had until July.  July 1st to be exact.  Money and blue skies change everything.  I think that’s how that great song went (one-hit wonder band, The Brains, version please, not that Lauper thingy).

To match the change in mood brought by the big ole sun, we give you some sounds of summer.  Some by girls and another by Girls (the boy band).

First up are The Mynabirds and their song Numbers Don’t Lie. The song is a great throwback to the sounds of the Sixties and just says “summer.”  According to Mynabirds’ leader, Laura Burhenn, she had long aspired to have a band that sounded like Neil Young playing Motown. After recording some songs, she named her new group The Mynabirds.  Only later did she discover that Neil Young had made music with Rick James in 1960s Motown in the 60′s R&B group, The Mynah Birds.

Listen in to some piano, soul, a bit of grit, and vocals that recall Dusty Springfield, Bobbie Gentry and other 60s icons.

The Mynabirds–Numbers Don’t Lie

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Numbers-Dont-Lie.mp3|titles=Numbers Don’t Lie]

In a similar, throwback vein comes the self-avowed “blissed-out buzz saw” pop of the Dum Dum Girls in their song Jail La La, their first single for  Sub Pop.  With their ’60s-inflected songs and melodies, the Dum Dum Girls seem destined for sugary success.  Check ’em out.

Dum Dum Girls–Jail La La

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/10-Jail-La-La.mp3|titles=10 Jail La La]

Moving on to the boys, we give you Girls from San Francisco.   Listen to their driving, shimmering song, Summertime, off their phenomenal record “Album” (creative) released in the fall of last year.  It’s the Wall of Fuzz, and pop genius with an edge.  We saw this band at Muddy Waters late last year, and they delivered the goods.  Highly recommended.

Girls–Summertime

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/08-Summertime.mp3|titles=08 Summertime]

Finally, listen in to LA’s Active Child and its sparkling, 80s-esque pop in their song Voice-Of-An-Old-Friend-Summer-Camp-Bedford-Falls-remix.  We can’t help but hear heavy Thompson Twins and ABC influence in the mix, but there’s never been anything wrong with that.  Is Malcolm McLaren the referenced “old friend” of the song’s title?  Buffalo Dude and Gal have gone around the outside, indeed.

Active Child–Voice-Of-An-Old-Friend-Summer-Camp-Bedford-Falls-remix

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Voice-Of-An-Old-Friend-Summer-Camp-Bedford-Falls-remix.mp3|titles=Voice Of An Old Friend (Summer Camp Bedford Falls remix)]

A shocker.  Another drab, dreary day in Santa Barbara in June.  And so, naturally, we think of prison songs.  We remain under gray lock and key, and sick for the big sun.

Our first thoughts are of the Prisonaires, a group formed by five inmates at Tennessee State Penitentiary, and their song Just Walkin’ In the Rain.  They recorded the song for Sun Records in ’53 under armed guard following a special leave granted by their biggest fans, the Governor of Tennessee and the prison warden.  In this song the Prisonaires sing of those that skeptically eye them from “the window”:

“People come to windows
They always stare at me
Shaking their heads in sorrow
Saying, who can that fool be?”

The song captures well the longing for the prisoners’  lives and loves before the Big House:

“Just walkin’ in the rain
Getting soaking wet
Torturing my heart
By trying to forget”

Check it out.

The Prisonaires–Just Walkin’ In the Rain

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/04-Just-Walkin-In-The-Rain.mp3|titles=04 Just Walkin’ In The Rain]

In a similar vein, David Ackles great inmate song, Down River, was given a stunning reading by Elton John and Elvis Costello two years ago on the first episode of Costello’s “Spectacle” show.   Elton covering Ackles’ might seem strange at first, but it turns out Ackles co-headlined with John at the Troubadour in 1973 in Elton’s debut American performance.    In Down River, Ackles wrote of the heartache of an ex-con confronting the loss of his love, Rosie.

Check the song’s grievous lyrics and the John/Costello killer cover below.

“Good to see you again, Rosie
I know I’ve changed a lot since then
You’re lookin’ fine, babe

Three years that ain’t long, Rosie
I still remember our song
When you were mine, babe

Times change, times change I know
But it sure moves slow
Down river when you’re locked away

Hey why didn’t you write, Rosie?
I stayed awake most every night
Countin’ my time babe

Oh no I ain’t mad Rosie
I know you had to mind your dad
But just a line babe

Oh sure I remember Ben
Why we went all through school
Is that right?
Well he ain’t no fool

He’s a good man Rosie
Hold him tight as you can
Don’t ask me why babe

Yeah nice seein’ you again Rosie
Me I got things to do
Well good-bye babe

Chorus”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNwr7QsCb5M

And finally, we give you the more modern, deceptively upbeat (the lyrics mournfully  cross-cut the beat) Countdown (Sick for the Big Sun) by Phoenix.  Phoenix is coming soon to the SB Bowl and are avowed to be wowing live.   In Countdown, the band assays the inevitable loss of youth’s bright big sun.  We are sick for the big sun.

“Countdown unless you’re juvenile let’s go
God bless your miss somewhere
We’re sick for the big sun
It doesn’t matter what you did
and if you did it like you been told

True and everlasting that’s what you want
True and everlasting that’s what you want

Don’t say no your breakfast tears are gone
Resist or let go, you’re borderline withdrawn
Down, unlit from the bottom there is a misfit
Better than it looks, better than it looks
Better than it looks, better than it looks

We’re sick
We’re sick for the big sun
We rumble and trip
I realize that too

Hear the lonesome bell, is this knowledge?
Ask forgiveness you know somewhere
You’re fixed to an atom
It doesn’t matter what you did
And if you did it right let’s go

Cruel and everlasting that’s what you want
Cruel and everlasting that’s what you want

Don’t say no your breakfast tears are wrong
Do you remember when 21 years was old?
Down unlit does it matter that you care the less?
Better than it looks, better than it looks
Better than it looks, better than it looks

We’re sick
We’re sick for the big sun
We rumble and trip
I realize that too

True and everlasting, it didn’t last that long
We’re the lonesome, we’re the lonesome yell
True and everlasting, it didn’t last that long”

Phoenix–Countdown (Sick for the Big Sun)

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-Countdown-Sick-For-The-Big-Sun.mp3|titles=02 Countdown (Sick For The Big Sun)]

Another day, another drizzle.  Must be June in Santa Barbara.

To match the mood, we give you Lorn’s Cherry Moon.

This month Lorn released his “Nothing Else” record on Flying Lotus’s newly-enabled label, Brainfeeder.  Highly recommended for the complexities and range of emotions captured in the electrons of Lorn’s electronica.

Set against this relentless grayness, Cherry Moon emotes “Blade Runner” with swelling string-synth melody and syncopated beats.  We hear breakbeat-techno apparitions yearning for something that just won’t come.  Perhaps the sun.  Perhaps a cherry moon.

Lorn–Cherry Moon

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/04-Cherry-Moon.mp3|titles=04 Cherry Moon]

As mentioned before, we love the jazz music.  And as you can hopefully also tell, we love songs.  Especially worthy “first songs.”

There are a few musical moments in one’s life that can stick with you forever and cling to your soul.

For us, we will confess that those moments are far fewer in strictly instrumental music.  Faure’s sweet  Pavane, Claudio Arrau’s heart-rending recording of Brahm’s posthumous Sonata in B-Flat Major, and portions of Keith Jarret’s “Koln Concert” come to mind (though there are others, our mind’s a bit foggy during the World Cup proceedings).

But the jazz song that is embedded forever in our list of favorite songs, and that has stuck with us since we first heard it twenty-some years ago, is Charlie Haden’s beautiful First Song (for Ruth) as recorded with Quartet West and featuring the soulful saxophone genius of Ernie Watts.

Charlie Haden wrote an enduring beauty which has been covered by Stan Getz, Abbey Lincoln and others since it first appeared on Quartet West’s 1988 “In Angel City.” It was the first song Charlie wrote for his  wife, Ruth Cameron, whom he married in 1989 and has acknowledged “saved my life” (from heroin addiction amongst other afflictions).   And so it sounds in First Song.  One hears a relatively simple, but haunting melody, that moves through many moods:  from heavyhearted torment, to anger, to soulful wonderment, perhaps, of a saving second chance.

And in the Quartet West recording heard below, Ernie Watts sees this song in all its beauty and raises it one (perhaps two).

Charlie Haden and Quartet West–First Song (for Ruth)

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-First-Song-For-Ruth.mp3|titles=02 First Song (For Ruth)]

First there was Nat.  And then there was Lloyd.  The Kings of Cole.

We have been huge fans of Lloyd Cole since his “Rattlesnakes” record first came out in the Darker Ages (1984 for you Orwell and Bowie fans).   Cole made quite a commotion back then and in the 90s with his jangle-pop, crafty songwriting and literate lyrics.  Since then, he has released additional great records, though arguably not at the level of his earlier years.

But never count out a great artist.  We were reminded of Lloyd recently when listening to Believer magazine’s annual music issue and Cole’s included one-off song, Coattails, came on. On first listen, you recognize the voice but aren’t drawn in completely by the song.  Repeated listens, however, leave you recognizing the brilliance, artistry and delivery of  Lloyd King Cole, who has been doing it on and off for 27 years.  For those who are Cole-savvy, Coattails is done more in the style of Cole’s under-appreciated “Don’t Get Weird On Me Babe” record, and in particular its croonier, cabaret-esque second side (though with less production).  We love the piano’s relaxed, eloquent intro to this song, followed by Cole’s lament for another soul, and his seeming gut-check of his prior offerings (of all sorts) and his resolve that “you have yet to read my defining works.”  This previously unreleased song is articulate and soulful and harkens back to another era.

So listen in below, and if you haven’t heard Lloyd Cole (gasp!), we include a couple of our favorites from his earlier discography.  We can’t wait for his “defining works” given what he’s already delivered.

“Couldn’t get arrested
So you went and stole a car
And now you say that it was me
Who drove you where you are

Got out of the city
Everyone agreed
The life that you were living
It wasn’t healthy

And now it’s
One more piece of paper
Flying through the air
Are these your waste paper basket diaries?
And you wont get to the future
In that old time machine
But if you climb in back
We could take you a little while

And then again

Written for kicks
Paid by the line
Straight from the sticks
To the beginning of Time
Who wouldn’t want to raise a glass to that?

And I may be drunk
But this is no church
And you have yet to read
My defining works
I’m getting close
I’m closing on the final scene

And now it’s
One more piece of paper
Flying through the air
Are these my waste paper basket diaries?
And I know that I wont get to the future
In thisold time machine
But if I climb in back
You could take me a little while

And then again
And then again”

Lloyd Cole–Coattails

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/04-Coattails.mp3|titles=04 Coattails]

Lloyd Cole–Rattlesnakes

Pertinent lyrics:

“She is less than sure if her heart has come to stay in San Jose
And her neverborn child still haunts her
As she speeds down the freeway
As she tries her luck with the traffic police
out of boredom more than spite
She never finds no trouble she tries too hard
She’s obvious despite herself”

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/05-Rattlesnakes.mp3|titles=05 Rattlesnakes]

Lloyd Cole–Forest Fire

Pertinent lyrics:

“She crossed herself as she put on her things
She has promised once before not to live this way
If she don’t calm down she will burn herself out
Like a forest fire well doesn’t that make you smile”

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/03-Forest-Fire.mp3|titles=03 Forest Fire]

Lloyd Cole–Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?

Well are ya?

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-Are-You-Ready-To-Be-Heartbroken_.mp3|titles=02 Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken_]

All lyrics written by Lloyd Cole and published by Chrysalis Music.