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Yup, that’s the cover to High Violet up there.

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The Shins’ James Mercer and Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) form Broken Bells, the duo that has caught nearly everyone’s attention–Dave Letterman being no exception. The late night host invited the two gentlemen (and their backing musicians) to play on his show last night (March 9). Mercer’s voice sounds amazing here, and Burton rocks those drums, albeit with a certain reserved pensiveness. Also, you can watch Letterman act awkward pre- and post- performance, like someone’s out-of-touch grandpa:

This is just speculation, but perhaps the “reserved pensiveness” comes from the duo losing their dear friend and collaborative partner over the weekend, Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. These guys are troopers for performing in light of such a sad event.

In case you haven’t already heard, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy is scoring an upcoming Noah Baumbach film called Greenberg (starring Ben Stiller). Sounds like an interesting matchup, all across the board.

To hear how the film has inspired Mr. Murphy’s compositional style, go over to We All Want Someone to Shout For and stream the radio rip of the song “Oh You (Christmas Blues).” It’s a very bluesy piece reminiscent of less proggy King Crimson songs. You might be surprised to realize that it’s Murphy singing. As he recently told Pitchfork, “My voice is more chameleonic than people would imagine, because I tend to yell the same way all the time.”

Watch Ted Leo and his gang of musicians play “The Mighty Sparrow” from his upcoming LP The Brutalist Bricks on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

The new album is available today in North America via Matador.

(Prefix)

Watch out, MySpace. The good folks at NPR have been giving us quality full-album streams lately, and now, they add to that track record by premiering The White Stripes’ new live album, which will essentially be the audio version of Under Great White Northern Lights, the band’s forthcoming documentary about touring Canadian provinces. It will be released next week on DVD, CD, and deluxe box set.

Listen to NPR’s full stream here.

Tracklist:

01 Let’s Shake Hands
02 Black Math
03 Little Ghost
04 Blue Orchid
05 The Union Forever
06 Ball and Biscuit
07 Icky Thump
08 I’m Slowly Turning Into You
09 Jolene
10 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues
11 We Are Going to Be Friends
12 I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself
13 Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn
14 Fell In Love With a Girl
15 When I Hear My Name
16 Seven Nation Army
17 End

(P4K)

One-man pop-punk institution Ted Leo (along with his “pharmacists”) is coming out with an album next week (March 9 in the U.S.) called The Brutalist Bricks. It’s being released alongside all these other amazing albums, so if you don’t have the money for all of them, you’ve got some tough choices to make! After hours upon hours of deliberation, the record store clerk might urge you to leave the store, but at least we know you have the best of intentions.

If you haven’t heard Mr. Leo’s forthcoming album yet, it’s streaming (in full) over at his MySpace, so go check it out.

The Brutalist Bricks will be released via Matador.

We already set you up with the full-album stream for the new Gorillaz album, but let’s not forget that Tuesday, March 9 (Monday, March 8 for non-North Americans) is a day full of quality releases. Prepare to be broke until your next paycheck!

Here are some albums coming out next week, all of which are now available for free streaming:

Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Liars – Sisterworld
Gonjasufi – A Sufi and a Killer
The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night
Broken Bells – Broken Bells
Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
The Morning Benders – Big Echo

If there are more full-album streams that we should be linking here (for March 8/9 releases), please let us know.

(P4K)

Esben and the Witch are a new(ish) three-piece band from Brighton slowly accumulating hype amid the blogosphere. They named themselves after a Danish fairy story and there is plenty of susurrus about their wiccan tendencies. Their music is difficult to categorise: a blend of ambient shimmers, Portishead-influenced indie rock, and Bjork-like glitch, it is ethereal, spooky and often quite breathtakingly good. Currently preparing to tour across the UK with the Big Pink in May, Esben and the Witch has released a new seven-inch single, which includes the stunning “Lucia, at the Precipice”. Here is its eerie video, black and white and jarring and ghostly. This is “nightmare pop”, but I truly mean that in the most complimentary way possible.

For full UK tour details, head to the Esben and the Witch myspace, here.

When I heard the new Foals single was called “Spanish Sahara”, I’ll admit that the title alone had me reasonably excited. The zippy dance punk singles “Cassius” and “Balloons” were – in my mind – markedly preferable to the lengthier math rock treatises that filled much of the rest of debut Antidotes. “Spanish Sahara”, then, could plausibly have signalled a movement towards the current balearic/hypnagogic pop trends, and an extrapolation on the fun of “Cassius” et cetera. I was imagining something distinctly tribal and summery with goofy lyrics. It had potential.

Of course, the aphorism dictates not to judge a book by its cover, and, thus, “Spanish Sahara” proves an ironically moody piece made all the more plaintive by the recently released video. There are no Lacoste references here; this is devoid of silliness. Foals’ version of the Sahara is intriguing and decidedly wintry.

“Spanish Sahara” is the lead single from Foals’ new record Total Life Forever, which is due out on May 10 on Transgressive Records in the UK, and Sub Pop in the US.