Over the years, we’ve hidden in some Harris(on) tweed (Goodwill, Brooks, no matter), and we’ve heeded some Harrison tweets (mainly All Things Must Pass). Combining the two can be disconcerting.  But My Morning Jacket’s Jim James deftly melded with Harrison with the release of his “Tribute to” EP last year.

In “Tribute to” James (under the “Yim Yames” moniker) combined George Harrison songs with his specter-siren vocals (minus the Spector production) in tribute to the solo Beatle.   Beyond Harrison’s stellar songs, we initially drew blanks as to the nexus between the two, but when we heard James’ rendering of My Sweet Lord it came clearer:  James has often spoken spiritual, as did Sir George.  Instances of James’ loftier spiritual side have been heard in the atonement of At Dawn, the biblical references in Gideon, and the lyrics of Look at You (amongst others):  ““We believe in your power, to lead without fear / Not above, in some tower, but here, right down here, with us in this world… / Let me follow you.”

Though only released late last year, James originally recorded “Tribute to” in December 2001 with just acoustic guitar and his standard reverberant vocals on an eight-track reel-to-reel tape recorder just days after Harrison’s passing.  With it, James has provided an unfailingly fitting eulogy to George.

While we enjoyed the entirety of the EP, the one track that particularly ensnared us is Long, Long, Long, a cut off of the Beatles’ 1968 “White Album.”  James’ self-harmonizing on the track is particularly perfect, but too the essence of the song is sifted exactly.  Beatles biographer Nicholas Schaffner wrote of the song that it was “the first of dozens of Harrison love songs that are ambiguous in that he could be singing either to his lady or to his Lord.”  And therein lies another link between the two songwriters.  In his autobiography, I Me Mine, Harrison wrote:  “The ‘you’ in Long, Long, Long is God. I can’t recall much about it except the chords, which I think were coming from Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands – D to E minor, A, and D – those three chords and the way they moved.”

Yin James has similarly aspired and achieved in these tributes to Harrison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcEigFdtm9E

We have all succumbed to the power of the British rock anthem.  Come on–admit it.

For some it started with the Beatles’ Hey Jude, for others the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction, and for others still it was The Who’s My Generation. Or perhaps you came along later and for you it was Mott the Hoople’s All the Young Dudes, John Lennon’s Instant Karma, Bowie’s Heroes, or Queen’s Under Pressure.  Still later it could have been the Clash’s London Calling, the Smiths’ There is A Light That Never Goes Out, Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, the Stone Roses’ I Am the Resurrection and (we sensed a theme with the Stoned ones) I Wanna Be Adored, Oasis’s Wonderwall, Live Forever, and Don’t Look Back in Anger, or The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony. Still more recently it’s been Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees, Paranoid Android, Karma Police, High and Dry, and (yes even) Creep, Blur’s Song 2, Elbow’s One Day Like This, and Coldplay’s ubiquitousYellow and Vida la Vida (does this band do anything but attempt anthems?).

We have all condescended to the British anthem, attached our souls thereto and souled the same down that ravashing musical river.  But still we have overlooked some.

And a band that has delivered some beauties you may not have heard is British Sea Power.

We have had a litmus test over the years:  if a song forces us to replay it more than five times before listening to another track, then it is likely a classic (in our own minds, mind you) that passes notorious muster (last year we replayed Bell X1’s worthy How Your Heart is Wired for almost an entire drive between San Luis Obispo and Berkeley).

And on no less than five to six occasions in recent memory, I have found myself hitting the repeat button on British Sea Power’s mutiny on the bountiful songs, Carrion and Lately, from their first record, “The Decline of British Sea Power.”

In Carrion, the band seems to lament the descent of Britain and British identity in the face of its long, and sometimes dark, history.  Regardless, a repeated line and the chorus kill:

“I felt the lapping of an ebbing tide

Oh the heavy water how it enfolds
The salt, the spray, the gorgeous undertow
Always, always, always the sea
Brilliantine mortality”

But for those with true staying power (and yes this song has been set to repeat for weeks at a time), the main course for us is the song Lately (all 14 minutes of it–and it still feels too short at times).  In this great song, British Sea Power tell the story from a British World War II veteran’s perspective, perhaps to his wife or girlfriend, and with serious aplomb (emphasis added):

“Lately, you seem like another language
Are you in trouble,
Are you in trouble again?

And you know how they say,
The past, it is a foreign country
How can we go there,
How can we go where we once went?

Have I been standing here for so long,
Nature’s found a way of telling you that it was going wrong?

So which way, do I go to get out of here?
Avoiding landmines,
And all the other stuff around here

Replacing Hercules, with the heroic sounds of Formby
Remove the tunics touch, stood aside from the putsch,
Stood aside from history

Have I been standing here for so long,
Nature’s found a way of telling you that it was going wrong?

Across the Kattegat, maybe out to Java,
Oh, did you wonder if these days will stay true?

All through the years, all through the dead scenes,
Across the memories, across the memories, melodies, melodies

Oh, have I been standing here for so long,
Nature’s found a way of telling you that it was going wrong?

Do you like my megalithic rock?
Do you like my prehistoric rock?
Do you like my teutonic rock?
Do you like my priapic rock?
Do you like my neolithic rock?
Do you like my sterile rock?
Do you like my megalithic rock?”

Take great pains to speak the same language with those you love, no matter where you find yourself.  We have fallen short at times.

British Sea Power–Carrion

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

British Sea Power–Lately

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/10-Lately-1.mp3|titles=10 Lately 1]

O Canada photo: David Lang

Flying Lotus has just released its new record, “Cosmogramma,” and the accolades are adding up.  Mashing electronica with avant-jazz, dance, soul and even chamber-ish string music, Flying Lotus (aka Steven Ellison) has delivered a complex and fascinating melange.   We are fond of the 2008 recording, “Los Angeles,” but with Thom Yorke, Ravi Coltrane (yes, that lineage), Laura Darlington, Thundercat and a polyrythmic ping pong ball contributing, Flying Lotus has upped its game.

For those given to fly, Flying Lotus is putting on its raved-about rave-up show live this Friday and Saturday (May 14th and 15th) at the Echoplex in L.A.   Should kill.

In the meantime check out …And the World Laughs With You (with the everywhere Thom Yorke) and Table Tennis (with Laura Darlington).

Flying Lotus-…And the World Laughs With You

Flying Lotus-Table Tennis

We are so old as to have lived through the advent of Cadillac Wheels back in the day.  Urethane reduced, but also enhanced, the pain.  We will admit to only riding skate longboards these days, and have not taken to the clickety-clack of the modern day “tricksters.”   Back in the day though we took some steep drops with speed and lived for the kick-push life.

Many tributes have been paid to skating in song, but we like the juxtaposition of Lupe Fiasco’s Kick, Push (off of his 2006 debut record) and Little Wing’s Shredder Sequel. The former is the update and the latter is a throwback (and a reference to a further throwback).  Lupe you know.  Little Wings is the phenomenal, uniquely-voiced band originally from San Luis Obispo (now Portland) headed by virtuosic Kyle Field (have a look at his stellar art at http://www.kyledraws.com).

But to the skate songs–check ’em out.

Lupe Fiasco–Kick, Push

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

Little Wings–Shredder Sequel

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

All Drawings Used With Kind Permission of  Multitalen-Tad Wagner

As you may know, we are infatuated with Grizzly Bears, and particularly the Brooklyn-based musical variety.  It turns out we are also earnestly enamored with Eagles (no, not those ancient, drug-addled geezers) and the Departments that house them.  In the Department of Eagles’ most recent recording, “In Ear Park,” those engrossed in the music of Grizzly Bear are treated to another round of resonant songs illumed by devout deliveries and melodies.

With “In Ear Park” Daniel Rossen (of Grizzly Bear) and Fred Nicolaus have delivered their best collection to date (granted, “In Ear Park” was released pre-Veckatimest in October 2008, so the DoE’s may be in the throes of another round that may even eclipse “In Ear Park”).   This record is said to have been inspired by Rossen’s upbringing (being named after a favorite childhood haunt) and devoted to his departed dad.  Rossen has brought in most of his pals from Grizzly Bear to help at times, and the sounds of the two bands often cross over.

The record has gangs of great tracks, but our pick of the patter-litter is Phantom Over which aurally commences with low-key solo voice and acoustic guitar and accretes swirling harmonies, killer keys, guitars, and drums to much larger effect.

And we love the heartfelt, but nonetheless oblique, lyrics (and especially the opening lines–who hasn’t been rendered so resigned?):

“All right, we’ll do this your way
All right, we’ll make it anyway
Now’d be good time,
To send us all away there
So what would it take?
And what would it take to make you learn?
And what would it take?
And what would it take to make you listen? ah

Oh man, you’re not the only one
Oh boy, with that phantom other gone
Now’d be the right time
To send us all away
It’d be a good time
If you just go away there

What would it take?
What would it take to make you leave?
What would it take?
What would it take to make you listen?

My God in heaven
What were we thinking?
My God in heaven
What were we thinking of?

Look out, look out now
We gotta get out now
Look out, look out now
We gotta get out now
Wake up, wake up now
We gotta get out now
Wake up, wake up now
We gotta get out now”

Give a good listen and give it time.

Department of Eagles–Phantom Other

On their new album, “The Monitor,” Titus Andronicus blister and wail across the majority of the record.

But just when you need a respite, up comes this New Jersey band’s song, To Old and New Friends.  Piano softly introduces the song.  Lead singer Peter Stickles comes on initially with the call and Jenn Wasner (of Wye Oak) has the response in her beautiful voice.  Then at 2:15 a glorious horn is added, and layers are added, and they come farther forward and then recede, to stunningly good effect.

And the gut-wrenching dialogue between these two love-torn lovers adds powerful punch, excerpts from which are below:

“Like the time traveler who killed his grandfather, these cycles are bringing me down.
We could build a nice life together if we don’t kill each other first.
Are you just too fucked up to understand me or is it the other way around?
Maybe it’s both, and I just don’t know which is worse….

Was it the devil, or was it the lord
who gave you those words,
the ones I never heard….

If I were there to keep satisfied all of your carnal desires,
then it might be my place to say what is or isn’t forbid
So how can I hold it against you if you answer the call of the wild?
No matter how brilliant a woman, you’re only a kid….

But if you know that nobody is ever going
to suffer for you like I did
Well it’s alright the way that you live,
It’s alright the way that you live.

It’s alright now”

Torn asunder.

Titus Andronicus–To Old and New Friends

Who knew?!  We are constantly amazed to learn that 100% of the world’s populace do not agree 100% with our musical choices and preferences.  Get in line world!

A recent example of musical subjectivity involves the musical tastes of two good friends.  While these friends share acres of musical-landscape appreciation, one (so far) doesn’t care much for The National (I know!–said with Craig Ferguson-ish inflection), and the other (so far) doesn’t hear justification for the avid Avett Brothers accolades (I know!).  Realizing that life is short, people are bustling and a song or two may not give a proper feel for the AMAZINGLY TALENTED (with all due objectivity) musicians that WE love, we’re going to try this again (and again, if we have to!).

Without further adieu, please give proper due to The National’s live rendering of their new Vanderlyle Cry Baby,  and the Avett Brothers’ Perfect Space (a near-perfect ode to true friends and well-lived lives–in our objective, but humble, opinion) and January Wedding (as sanguine and joy-filled a paean to love and marriage as you will ever hear).

The National–Vanderlyle Cry Baby

The Avett Brothers–Perfect Space (whoever doesn’t love the chorus of “Will you understand when I am too old of a man? And will you forget when we have paid our debt who did we borrow from? Who did we borrow from?” is simply without a soul)

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

The Avett Brothers–January Wedding

We recently picked up Making Mischief (a Maurice Sendak appreciation) by Gregory Maguire (Wicked author), and highly recommend it.  Maguire provides a much better appreciation of Sendak with his fine prose and analysis/juxtaposition of Sendak’s biography and aesthetic influences.   Maguire ably endows the book with side-by-side comparisons of Sendak’s art to contrasting and sometimes surprising influences (varying from comic illustrators, to William Blake to Winslow Homer), all of which is summed up by Maguire’s reference to “Sendak’s license to borrow.”  And who hasn’t borrowed?

Throughout Making Mischief Maguire affords great insight into the mind, upbringing, aptitudes and appetites of Sendak.  After all, Sendak was born in 1928 and so grew up and came to maturity during the difficult post-World War I, Depression and World War II eras.  Some of the zeitgeist of those eras naturally entailed darkness, which is seen aplenty in Sendak’s early art in particular, but relief from the gloom was plentifully afforded by Sendak.  For example, Sendak’s art was often leavened with the levity of comic silent films of that era (as can be seen in Sendak’s adoption of Oliver Hardy-like characters in some of his art) along with other cartoon/comic influences (comic artist Winsor McCay and Bugs Bunny’s Chuck Jones, for example).  Maguire also exhibits well Sendak’s escape from the difficulties of childhood.

Maguire is at his best describing and showing Sendak’s disparate styles, media and subjects, many of which we had not seen before.  Amongst our favorites are Sendak’s line drawings, such as “Jennie” below.

Highly recommended for all, but particularly for anyone who has read Sendak’s charming and beguiling books or read them to kids.

And it was still hot.

The Leforts were on the road again on Friday night, headed for parts south and tremulously anticipating the tremelo of the Antlers at the Troubadour.

We’d seen ’em months before opening for some very mediocre band (Minus the Bear–emphasis on minus), at Downtown Brew in San Luis Obispo.  That night they kicked the headliners to the curb and blew the doors off of Downtown Brew.  ‘Twas 50 minutes of heated, heavy harmonics, delivered as if there was a fire next door.

So we were naturally salivating at the specter of seeing the band headline at the legendary Troub.  We are happy to report that once again (and  despite their having toured non-stop behind their stellar “Hospice” record for at least 9 months), the crowd was properly gored by these great Antlers and their weighty/beautiful songs.  Headlining enabled them to stretch out a bit and revel in the hallowed hall.  While as openers they had played with more intensity and resolve (necessary given the shorter time to lobby the partisans), as headliners they let the songs explore themselves more and indulged the sonics in full.  Peter once again gave glimpses of Buckley and beyond, while Darby magically kept all the plates spinning and the harmonies tethered, and Michael held down the forest fortress.  On top of the “Hospice” songs, we were treated to a new song and a great, slowed cover of XX’s fine song, VCR.   Too dang good.

In the video below you won’t see the Antlers attack in full as we did on Friday, but instead a stellar band taking a step back acoustically and selling it well.  A great glimpse into the vocalese of Peter Silberman, as ably accompanied by Darby and Michael.  A fine use of 12 minutes, 34.  Playing tonight at the Doug Fir in Portland.

http://vimeo.com/6136403