Some of Canada hoariest music veterans will be gathering in Barrie today to represent the grizzled, craggy, pockmarked face (hi Bryan!) of Canadian rock for the Live 8 shindigs. Last night, however, my nominee for the best new face of Canadian music – one Ms Leslie Feist, born in the Alberta, based in Toronto and inspired by the French – took the stage at Harbourfront Centre in front of upwards of 2000 people (my totally unfounded estimates) to celebrate Canada’s birthday.

Backed by a full band and a variety of guest performers including Broken Social Scene co-conspirator and opener on this evening, Andrew Whiteman from Apostle Of Hustle, Feist’s set blended slower, torchy ballads with uptempo, groove-heavy numbers and a healthy dollop of good-humoured banter and storytelling. Even in a big outdoor venue, Feist had the charisma to make it feel like an intimate club gig and actually managed to make Canada Day sexy. Performing her slow-burning “Intuition” while the fireworks went off across the lake at Ontario Place, it felt like the explosions were going off in slow motion. Magnificent.

I was waaaaay way way in back for this one so I’m surprised I got the photos I did. I’m sure there will be far, far better ones circulating soon enough. Or check out my past ones.

Laura Cantrell tells Being There about the making of Humming By The Flowered Vine.

Chart talks to The Futureheads. I appear to be incapable of coming up with an interesting lead-in sentence to Futureheads links.

Franz Ferdinand have announced the dates of their North American tour in support of their second eponymous album, out October 4. It includes a stop at the Ricoh Colisseum in Toront on October 18. Goodness, was it just a couple years ago that I saw them in the Horseshoe? They grow up so fast. More tour dates at Dreams Of Horses and Billboard gets the low-down from Alex Kapranos on what to expect on the new album (besides the same artwork as the first one).

Anyone who’s already got copies of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois would do well to hang onto them… they’ve had to recall all copies from retailers just before its scheduled release date this Tuesday. Apparently someone wasn’t real happy with their use of a certain “Man Of Metropolis” on the cover art and got all lawyer-y on Sufjan’s label. Here’s the revised artwork – I can’t seem to find a pic of the original art online, man those lawyers move fast. I unexpectedly got a promo copy of the album on Thursday in addition to the one I preordered and which is in the mail, meaning I will have an extra copy of the original artwork editions. Naturally, I will sell it to the highest bidder. No offers under five figures, please.

Oh, and the album is fantastic. Hopefully it won’t be delayed for long.

np – Sufjan Stevens / Illinois

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