Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Perform ‘Man on Fire’ on ‘Letterman’

We still have to get through a few more weeks before Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros return with their new album ‘Here,’ but to help ease the wait, the band appeared on ‘The Late Show With David Letterman’ last night (May 10) to perform new song ‘Man on Fire.’

‘Here,’ scheduled for a May 29 release, follows the band’s 2009 debut ‘Up From Below. The record cracked the Top 100 of Billboard’s album chart on the strength of largely positive reviews and the song ‘Home,’ which earned placement in a number of commercials, TV shows (including ‘Gossip Girl‘ and ‘Community‘) and films. According to bandleader Alex Ebert, the new record sprung from a more collaborative approach between the 12-member Magnetic Zeros.

“It was a little more all-togethery,” he explained during a recent interview with Canada’s Metro News. “We all sat around and worked on arrangements together … As we became a band over the last three years, doing all these radio sessions, we would sing together in an acoustic environment, really hearing each other.”

Asked to describe the new album’s sound, he admitted some trepidation. “It’s much more aggressive,” Ebert mused, saying the new songs are “not angsty aggressive but sonically aggressive.” He added, “There is some distortion, which we rarely dabble in. If ever there was an album that I was slightly nervous about delivering, I would say it would be this album.”

While admitting ‘Here’ is “a little outside the realm that we’ve played in,” Ebert expressed confidence in the new record, saying, “We feel quite comfortable putting out anything that we love, knowing that we have these people to share it with, and a growing number of people to share it with, too.” Watch their performance of ‘Man on Fire’ in the clip below, and let us know what you think.

Watch Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Perform ‘Man on Fire’ on ‘Letterman’