I can’t believe he hasn’t played on American Television before. UK heartthrob Ed Harcourt will be on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show this evening to promote his new album (well, that is to say his 2006 album that never got released in the States) The Beautiful Lie, which came out on Dovecote Records last Tuesday. Listening to The Beautiful Lie (and his back catalogue as well) it baffles me why he isn’t as huge in North America as he is in Europe. Last March during SXSW I ended up tagging along and filming Ed and his wife Gita as he got a sweet tattoo of one of his first songs, “Sing For My Supper” on his arm in Austin, TX. Enjoy our lil’ mini doc:

ED HARCOURT TO MAKE U.S. TELEVISION DEBUT ON THE TONIGHT SHOW JUNE 6, WEEK OF ‘THE BEAUTIFUL LIE’ RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, May 6, 2008 - Not long since wreaking havoc on Austin, Texas during SXSW, the illustrious Ed Harcourt will return to the States from his native England to perform on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” Friday, June 6. Timed perfectly with the release of his fourth full-length album, THE BEAUTIFUL LIE, due June 3 on Dovecote Records, Harcourt will celebrate the arrival of this much-awaited LP with a national television debut.

The Mercury Prize-nominated Harcourt has been keeping extraordinarily busy on tour with the Gutter Twins overseas, where he has been joining Greg Dulli, Mark Lanegan and co. on stage following his own opening set. “Ed Harcourt’s songs are as close to cabaret tunes and 1960s pop as they are to current rock,” recently noted the NEW YORK TIMES while UNDER THE RADAR hailed ‘The Beautiful Lie’ as “his best work to date.” The WALL STREET JOURNAL was on hand for one of his acclaimed Austin performances, calling Harcourt, “a gifted songwriter in the mold of Karl Wallinger and XTC’s Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding” adding, “and thus a descendant of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.”

Lead radio single, “Revolution in the Heart,” mimics Harcourt’s larger-than-life personality, brimming with his exquisite piano playing, booming delivery, thunderous rhythms and bursting backup vocals, compliments of The Magic Numbers. The track is currently going for adds at radio, already receiving early support across the country from stations like Starbucks XM Café, KBAC and others.

This visit is a precursor to additional U.S. tour dates this summer, to be announced soon.

For a while now there have been whispers of the Fab-Four finally going digital and making their back catalog available for download, but for the most part it seemed to be just wide-eyed speculation. However, that appeared to change a few days ago when the UK press (Daily Record, Telegraph, Daily Mail, etc.) began reporting that a deal had been struck with Apple Inc. (computer company not Beatles publishing, that’s Apple Corps.) to make the songs available for download on iTunes.

It looked as if I’d finally get replace those tattered old records with substandard, compressed mp3s! Hooray! Wait, that doesn’t sound right. Why should I be excited to replace organic audio with a cheap codec-ridden blather that’s one-tenth the file size? To be honest, I’m not. Sure it’d be great to line the pockets of Ringo and Paul with a little more cash; after all Paul is about to get hammered by an ugly divorce settlement. But personally I’d rather scour a record store (even if they’re going the way of the buffalo) looking to find that classic album on vinyl. Now you might be thinking, they’ve yet to create a Walkman that plays vinyl, and they probably never will. Truly, you would be mistaken, and you can find one right here that will only run you $250. Even if that groovy gadget isn’t your style it remains true that most of The Beatles’ catalog is already available on CD, which can be purchased and made portable. In the end it becomes a compromise of quality for price.

All techno-babble and rhetoric aside, the issue is still unsettled. The initial reports of an agreement have since been discounted and only time will tell when those famous boys from Liverpool will finally go binary.

We’re coming up on the 27th anniversary of John Lennon’s assassination (December 8th, 1980)…
(aside: Isn’t it a bit weird to have an anniversary for an assassination? I mean, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, not the day he was murdered. Same with Lincoln for Presidents Day. Emo.)

To commemorate this dark day in music history, our buddies at The Orchard are releasing the audio from John Lennon’s last official interview, which took place 12 hours before crazed fan Mark David Chapmanpulled a gun and murdered the former Beatle.

You can listen to the first part of the interview here: Testimony

During the conversation, Lennon and wife Yoko Ono talk with Bob Miles about what would be Lennon’s last album, Double Fantasy, their family, how Lennon met McCartney, and much more I’m sure.

If you would like to purchase the whole interview on mp3 you can do so here. Or here.

War is Over (if you want it).