St. Vincent Sessions Up, Visits Letterman

Annabel MehranIt’s been a long week – I hope you’ll allow me to decompress with some much-needed link dumping.

And it’ll begin with St. Vincent, who wraps an extensive leg of North American touring tonight in Brooklyn before spending July in Europe in support of her second album Actor. Then come August, it’s back onto the highways of America for a short northeastern jaunt which will wrap with an August 8 show in Toronto at the Horseshoe, a gig which perplexingly isn’t yet sold out, so if you’ve been dithering about whether to go or not, the following should these video sessions with Ms Clark which surfaced over the past week should certainly nudge you off the fence, and if you’ve already got the date saved, they’ll serve to simultaneously whet and appease your appetite to see St Vincent live.

Her Lake Fever Sessions set sees her dazzling in a solo acoustic setting, while the inaugural “Cemetary Gates” series at Pitchfork TV sets Clark and her band in a Brooklyn graveyard (well, in a church in a graveyard), plugged in and presumably with a mandate to wake the dead. She was also on Letterman last night, performing “Marrow” – it’s probably too much to hope that the horn section is coming on tour with her – and You Ain’t No Picasso posted up an interview conducted a few weeks back in Kentucky.

Video: St Vincent – “Marrow” (live on Letterman)

Oregon Public Broadcasting welcomed Neko Case to their studios for a session and interview. Her tourmate Jason Lytle just released a new video.

Video: Jason Lytle – “It’s The Weekend”

SpinEarth talks to Emily Haines of Metric.

Patterson Hood discusses his new solo record Murdering Oscar with Paste and The Washington Examiner. You can currently stream the whole thing at Spinner.

Stream: Patterson Hood / Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)

Aquarium Drunkard and Paste talk to Jay Farrar about Son Volt’s new record American Central Dust, out July 7.

Acoustic Guitar asks Elvis Costello about his acoustic guitar (and other stuff).

Interview talks to Swedish singer-songwriter Anna Ternheim. Her new record Leaving On A Mayday will be out in North America on August 11.

MP3: Anna Ternheim – “To Be Gone”

Here’s a peculiar bill – The Happy Mondays and The Psychedelic Furs are teaming up for a North American tour this Fall. I call it peculiar because the two acts were hardly contemporaries and probably wouldn’t have shared the same fanbase even if they were. But I guess they have the demographic now – nostalgic Anglophiles who wish they were twenty years younger.

The Dodos have announced a full North American tour for this Fall in support of their new record Time To Die, out September 15. Their tourmates will be kiwis The Ruby Suns.

MP3: The Dodos – “Fools”
MP3: The Ruby Suns – “Tane Mahuta”

- Frank Yang