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“Big Star’s third album has long been revered by musicians and critics as one of the most mysterious and influential records ever made. Its fragile, achingly beautiful songs have never been properly performed – but now an all-star band has unearthed the original string and wind orchestrations for this one-off London show.”

Other special guests for this amazing performance will include:
Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs)
Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub)
John Bramwell (I Am Kloot)
Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo)
Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip)
Sharon Van Etten

Don’t miss! Details, tickets are here.

If you can’t make it to the Barbican, you can catch a great solo show with Sondre at the Garage in London the following evening, May 29th. Tickets and details for that one are here.

This just in: Sondre will be appearing again in the incredible Cabinet of Wonders series organized and hosted by John Wesley Harding. The show will be on Saturday, March 10th, at City Winery in NYC, and the lineup — which always includes a mix of musicians, writers and comedians — will also include Eugene Mirman, Sloane Crosley, Joe Pernice Meg Baird (Espers), A.M.Homes and more to come. Tickets and details are available at the City Winery website. Hurry – they’ll go fast!

“When The River is a pretty, soft-focus splicing of Super 8 film (from drummer David Heilman’s childhood) and Lerche performance footage shot by his Lerche’s, Mona. It’s a clip that underscores the heartsickness of nostalgia and the mellow sadness of Lerche’s music, all presented with vivid flecks of color and life. Though the Super 8 thing is pretty overdone at this point, it’s a nice reminder of that style’s effectiveness when thoughtfully employed.”

The new video was directed by Mona Fastvold Lerche and here’s her director’s commentary:

“With this video I wanted to capture the joy and energy of Sondre’s live shows together with his band. There’s a sense of longing and nostalgia in the song that I felt would connect with the old Super 8 family footage from drummer David Heilman’s childhood. We discovered it while shooting the video for ‘Domino’ at Dave’s grandmother’s house and I knew right away I wanted to try and make use of it for this video. The footage is so beaten up by time and from being transferred from film to video to DVD that it feels like an old blurred out memory.”

Watch below!

4.  jan: Playcom, Lagunen, Bergen, kl 17
http://www.facebook.com/events/117521455031697/

4. jan: Platekompaniet Torgallmenningen, Bergen, kl 19
http://www.facebook.com/events/311727525515830/

5. jan: Platekompaniet Oslo City, Oslo, kl 18

http://www.facebook.com/events/186708281424994/

6. jan: Platekompaniet, Tromsø, kl 17
http://www.facebook.com/events/334263609918190/

6. jan: Backbeat, Tromsø, kl 19
http://www.facebook.com/events/307638879276378/

7. jan: Platekompaniet, Trondheim, kl 14
http://www.facebook.com/events/279856665396089/

7. jan: Big Dipper, Trondheim, kl 17
http://www.facebook.com/events/163979150370988/

8. jan: Robot, Bergen, kl 17
http://www.facebook.com/events/215961618482807/

9. jan: Musix Box, Oasen Senter, Haugesund kl 16
http://www.facebook.com/events/256887074374230/

9. jan: Shabby, Haugesund, kl 14
http://www.facebook.com/events/241472075924962/?context=create

10. jan: Apollon, Bergen kl 20
http://www.facebook.com/events/164101680356978/

14. jan: Big Dipper, Oslo kl 15
http://www.facebook.com/events/344858615528019/

See you there!

Download Sondre’s solo acoustic cover of
“COUNTDOWN”
by Beyoncé

From Sondre:

This year, it’s officially a tradition: for the third time my annual Christmas gift to you is my humble solo acoustic version of someone else’s song; my favorite of the year, no less. In 2011 there was a tie between two incredible songs (“Changes” by Sandro Perri being the non-Beyoncé one), and both proved equally impossible to tackle or do justice to alone. But it’s what I do, and there are worse jobs, so I did it. I took the liberty of making some gender-oriented changes to the lyrics to better accommodate my macho-persona (although I wouldn’t dare tamper with Beyoncé’s appeal to all women to show their man they are the flyest simply by grinding “up on it girl, show him how you ride it”). That being said, the trick is to get past the novelty-factor and just sing a beautiful song at the best of your abilities. Obviously, a significant part of this song’s appeal and ecstatic energy comes from the dizzying vocal performance and the mind-blowingly cool production work — elements and talents useless to even attempt replicating (especially not in my father in-law’s basement). But as long as there’s a song underneath, there’s a way. That’s how I operate. It’s what I do.

Thanks for all the good times this year — and for listening. Happy Holidays, y’all. – SL

—

(Check out the complete list of Sondre’s 2011 faves here.)

Sandro Perri – Changes
Beyoncé – Countdown
Destroyer – Savage Night At The Opera
Paul Simon – Love and Hard Times
1,2,3 – Lonesome Boring Summer
Fjorden Baby! – Himmelen
Cass McCombs – County Line
Young Dreams – Dream alone, wake together
Tune-Yards – Es-so
Atlas Sound – Te Amo
Girls – Just A Song
Vondt I Hjertet – Razika
The Last Hurrah!! – Melodi Grand Prix 63
Dirty Projectors + Björk – When the World Comes to an End
Lykke Li – I Follow Rivers
The War On Drugs – Baby Missiles
Martin Hagfors – Hanging On To Innocence
The Strokes – Taken For A Fool
Lana Del Rey – Video Games
Tame Impala – It Is Not Meant To Be
Jonas Alaska – In The Backseat
Radiohead – Little By Little
Smith Westerns – Weekend
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
Fleet Foxes – Montezuma
Metronomy – Trouble

Hear the entire playlist on Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/user/sondrelv/playlist/5M7eYP7eGdvrGIBjiIMG8J

These should also be on the list but were nowhere to be found on Spotify:

Berry Adams – High Llamas
Problem With You – Chris Holm (debut album out in 2012)
Keeper Of The Keys – Marit Larsen
All You Are Going To Want To Do Is Get Back There – The Caretaker

I probably left out a whole bunch and the best ones are always those  you still have yet to hear so what are your favorites that I missed this year?

The very best,
SL