Arcade Fire perform "Normal Person" and "Afterlife" on Colbert Report

With only a week to go before the release of the year's most-anticipated album Reflektor, Arcade Fire stopped by The Colbert Report to perform a pair of tracks not named "Reflektor." Included in the performance are two songs that the band previously performed on SNL special "Here Comes The Night Time," "Normal Person" and the album's second single "Afterlife."

Speaking of which, the radio rip of "Afterlife" has been subsequently taken down after yesterday, but the band has produced a lyric video instead.

Throughout the piece, Colbert constantly refers to the band as The Reflektors. The notion isn't a mistake, in case you missed the special story on the band's performance in Brooklyn last weekend.

Reflektor will be released October 29 on Merge. Watch the videos after the bump.

Arcade Fire - Here Comes The Night Time

In case you may have missed it, last Saturday, after the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, musical guests Arcade Fire debuted the half-hour "Here Comes The Night Time" special, featuring all new previously unheard music from the upcoming Reflektor LP.

Directed by Roman Coppola, the special featured performances of "Here Comes The Night Time," "We Exist," and "Normal Persons," as well as "Reflektor" and "Afterlife" during Saturday Night Live. As well, a slew of guest stars had small cameos, including; Bill Hader, Zach Galifianakis, Rainn Wilson, Jason Shwartzman, Aziz Ansari, Eric Wareheim, Bono, Ben Stiller, James Franco, and Michael Cera.

Watch the whole, commercial-less special below. Reflektor comes out October 29 on Merge.

Watch Fred Armisen's well-deserved goodbye from Saturday Night Live

For those that may have missed the season finale of Saturday Night Live, the show was notable for several reasons. It was the fifth time Ben Affleck, now an Oscar-winning director, hosted, and Kanye West performed some insane new material from his upcoming Yeezus album. But, at least for myself, what ended up stealing the show was the delightful and heartfelt send-off the two of the show's biggest names - Bill Hader and Fred Armisen.

The former saw the epic finale of his beloved Stefon character during weekend update, but the final moment belonged to Armisen. Staying in his Ian Rubbish character, Armisen, with Hader on bass and Jason Sudeikis (also rumored to be leaving) on drums, was joined on stage by his Portlandia counterpart Carrie Brownstein, along with a litany of musicians who've appeared on the show, including; Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), Kim Gordon, J Mascis, Aimie Mann, and Michael Penn. Considering how much Armisen loved the initial Ian Rubbish skit and how his career started as a member of punk band Trenchmouth, this couldn't have been set up better.

Watch "Top Of The Pops" below. Cry if you must.

Vampire Weekend on Later ... With Jools Holland

Starting off the furious whirlwind of performances before the release of the band's third album Modern Vampires Of The City, Vampire Weekend stopped over Later ... With Jools Holland with a couple new tracks. First, the album's lead single "Diane Young," leading into "Unbelievers." The appearance comes after the Steve Buscemi-directed performance last Sunday at New York's Roseland Ballroom (Buscemi is a distant relative of band member Chris Baio, in case you forgot) and nearly a week before the band's upcoming Saturday Night Live appearance.

Modern Vampires In The City is slated for release May 14 on XL Recordings.

Tuesday Bears: New Jack White single - Sixteen Saltines

When Jack White performed on Saturday Night Live on March 3, he premiered this second song off his upcoming April LP Blunderbuss, "Sixteen Saltines." And while the live version was chaotic, it wasn't totally audible. Listen to the excellent studio version below and grab the album April 24.

Monday Bears: The Shins on SNL

Port of Morrow is gathering more and more hype as one of the biggest releases of early 2012 with the Shins emphatic return of "Simple Song." Before the Tuesday, March 20 scheduled release, James Mercer and the rest of the reformed band played the aforementioned single and "It's Only Life" on last weekend's Saturday Night Live. Watch both performances below.

The Shins - Simple Song (Live on SNL)



The Shins - It's Only Life (Live on SNL)

Monday Bears: Jack White makes solo TV debut

Last weekend, Jack White made his highly-anticipated solo debut on Saturday Night Live with an attempting to redeem herself Lindsay Lohan. And while the noted problems with the show's tech-crew on musical performances continues to be completely apparent, White's rendition of "Love Interruption" with Ruby Amanfu went off pretty well.

His second song (with a completely different backing band) from Blunderbuss -pretty much the first time any of us heard it - wasn't quite as clean. But for anyone who's a fan of White's past work, that's not a problem. Check out both performances below.

Jack White - Love Interruption (Live on SNL ft. Ruby Amanfu)



Jack White - Sixteen Saltines (Live on SNL)

New Shins video - Simple Song

Yesterday it was announced that The Shins would be the next in a seemingly growing line of indie-centric musical guests on Saturday Night Live, for better or for worse. Assuming the vocal majority of "nothing is good enough for me" internet commentators don't decide to unsympathetically rip them apart because they are who they are, the performance hopes to be solid.

Check out the new video from the band's huge lead-single "Simple Song" below, starring a dead James Mercer and his jerkoff family.

Bon Iver on SNL

After last week's debacle of Lana Del Rey, in whatever form you may find it more comforting to explain (along with a good impersonation from Kristin Wiig on last Saturday's show), Justin Vernon and the rest of Bon Iver made their first appearance on the Channing Tatum-hosted Saturday Night Live.

Just a week before the 53rd Grammy Awards, in which the aforementioned group is up for several awards, including 'Best New Artist,' despite being relevant for four-plus years now, Bon Iver performed a spectacular rendition of "Holocene" and a surprising rendition of the much maligned "Best/Rest." Watch the performances below, and look for Colin Stetson helping out for "Best/Rest."

Bon Iver - Holocene



Bon Iver - Beth/Rest (ft. Colin Stetson)

SNL recreates Call Your Girlfriend

During the regular writing process for last weekend's Saturday Night Live, Taran Killam and the writers of the show decided to recreate Robyn's video for "Call Your Girlfriend," which the Swedish bob-cut icon performed on the show. It's worth your time.

Black Keys on the Colbert Report

After last weekend's so-so showing on Saturday Night Live, the Black Keys performed on last night's The Colbert Report with the same two songs from their recently released El Camino album, "Lonely Boy" and "Gold on the Ceiling." Watch them both below and grab the new record, out now via Nonesuch Records.

The Black Keys - Lonely Boy

The Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling (Web Exclusive)

Monday Bears: New Shabazz Palaces - Black Up

Normally, I'd be posting about the Black Keys performance from last week's Saturday Night Live, but judging on how it seems like EVERY live performance on that show just sounds sub-par, I'll skip it (by the way, Robyn will be the guest next Saturday).

Instead, check out Shabazz Palaces wonderfully shot summation of his most recent album Black Up, available now via Sub Pop. If you aren't familiar with the album that already is, or soon will be, on the top of all the end of the year lists, this five minute video sells it well.

Shabazz Palaces - Black Up

Tuesday Bears: Radiohead on Fallon

More Radiohead?

On the cusp of what has now been a confirmed upcoming tour from the England super band (next year), Radiohead made yet another familiar New York City stop on their recent media brigade, this time on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

But with most of The King of Limbs tracklist already performed on Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report, "Giving Up the Ghost" was the next logical choice (if you're keeping tabs, that only leaves the instrumental "Feral" and "Separator" left to be seen). Watch the performance - sans Ed, Colin, and Phil below.

Radiohead - Giving Up The Ghost (Live on Fallon)

Monday Bears: In case you haven't already seen, Radiohead played SNL

Last Saturday marked the official beginning of Radiohead Week with the band's performance of "Lotus Flower" and "Staircase" on the season-premiere of Saturday Night Live. In case you haven't already seen the songs, catch them below via The Audio Perv.

At 10 a.m. EST today, tickets for the band's first official show supporting The King of Limbs at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City officially went on sale, which will be back-to-back September 28-29. Tonight, they will also be appearing on a special one-hour edition of The Colbert Report performing four songs from the aforementioned The King of Limbs.

Radiohead - Lotus Flower (Live on Saturday Night Live)



Radiohead - Staircase (Live on Saturday Night Live)

Thursday Bears: Strokes make Letterman return

The Strokes just seem to fit on Letterman. During their 2000-06 heyday, the band constantly frequented the Late Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien (including month long specials). Now with Conan dearly departed (Jack White/the White Stripes were always his band anyway) from the New York area, and the Strokes already previewing Angles on SNL, the Late Show seemed apt.

Last night, the group returned, performing the live debut of "Taken for a Fool," one of Angles stand-outs. It still has that classic Strokes-performance cool apathy, but they seem to try a bit harder than they did on SNL a few weeks ago.

The Strokes - Taken for a Fool (Live on Letterman)

Monday Bears: The Strokes return to SNL

As you probably have heard already, the Strokes performed a pair of new songs on last weekend's Miley Cyrus-hosted Saturday Night Live. Alongside "Under Cover of Darkness," Casablancas and Co. debuted "Life is Simple in the Moonlight," a song we've only heard 30 seconds of before.

The consensus is that it seemed a bit, I don't know, phoned in. Plaintively, the group looked unenthusiastic (that's not to say that the songs were actually bad - they weren't), but not in the cool Strokesy way. See for yourself.

The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness



The Strokes - Life is Simple in the Moonlight

Wednesday Bears: Arcade Fire on Jools Holland

After their second performance on Saturday Night Live last weekend, Arcade Fire made their trans-Atlantic trek to "Later ... with Jools Holland" to perform "Ready to Start" and "Month of May," a song I still consider to be among the weakest in the Arcade Fire catalog, both from The Suburbs.

Arcade Fire - Ready to Start (Live on Later ... with Jools Holland)



Arcade Fire - Month of May (Live on Later ... with Jools Holland)

Monday Bears: Kanye West on SNL, again

Last weekend, Kanye West brought his two newest singles (although we heard them both a while back) to Saturday Day Night Live, hosted by Bryan Cranston. His rendition of "Power" (The Social Network, if you aren't sure) was, albeit, powerful. And his version of "Runaway" certainly did him more justice than his performance at last month's MTV VMA's.

All in all, while it still seems Kanye is still trying to craft whatever he was aiming for on 808's and Heartbreak, West's fifth studio album, Good Ass Job, is expected, hopefully, to exceed his previous entry.

Kanye West - Power (Live on SNL)



Kanye West - Runaway (Live on SNL)



Get em' before the law does.

Monday Bears: MGMT "Flash" on SNL

In a two-song performance that didn't seem as bad as most indie bloggers predicted/hoped, MGMT made their Saturday Night Live debut last weekend. The band, fresh off the release of their second studio album, Congratulations, performed "Flash Delirium" and "Brian Eno," two songs that don't exactly bring the same mass-appeal that "Time to Pretend" or "Kids" did, but still offer some wild-eclectic spin. I always liked the mad-dash finish to the end of "Delirium," anyway.

MGMT - Flash Delirium (Live on SNL)



MGMT - Brian Eno (Live on SNL)

Monday Bears: Lonely Island and Julian Casablancas digital short for "Boombox."

Last Saturday's SNL featured yet another video (digital short) from the Lonely Island's legendary Incredibad album. This time around, Andy Samberg got help from Julian Casablancas, bringing a "Boombox," and lively-hood to a New York City that has been drolled down by a society like a boiled goose.

In other Strokes' related news (which is actually happening), the band just announced their plans to release their fourth studio album this coming September, along with their official confirmation to be one of the headliners at this year's Lollapalooza.

Lonely Island (ft. Julian Casablancas) - Boombox (SNL Digital Short)