Yesterday was the third or fourth release date I’d had for the new Metric record, but finally it was the correct one. Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? is pretty good, though it’s been a little while since I’d heard something with this degree of polished production. Thankfully, Emily Haines’ vocals are left pretty pure and unprocessed, they’re strong enough as is. She sounds a bit like Sarah Harmer in her phrasing and timbre, but trading in the folkiness for rock and roll attitude. Good stuff from these Toronto ex-pats. Exclaim! ran a cover story on Metric last month.

Dancing robots. Sure, they look like a lot of fun… but wait till they turn on you. From Ms Lonetree.

MyIE2 is a new web browser with all the features of current browsers, such as tabs, pop-up blocking, crazy customizability, but built off of Internet Explorer instead of Mozilla/Netscape. I still have to use IE for a few of my regular websites because they just don’t function right in Mozilla, so this looks like it could be handy for those. I love Mozilla, but it’s not the fastest browser on the market and it’s pretty memory-intensive. I doubt I’ll switch completely but it’ll be fun to have a new web-browsing toy to play with.

Another day, another release date I feel compelled to report on. Yo La Tengo will release a new EP, Today Is The Day, in October. It will feature a different version of the titular Summer Sun track and five other songs.

Update: The tracklisting is as follows –

“Today Is The Day”

“Styles Of The Times”

“Outsmartner”

“Needle Of Death” (Bert Jansch)

“Dr. Crash”

“Cherry Chapstick” (previously unreleased version)

Done Waiting bring word that Beth Orton will release a compilation of b-sides from Daybreaker. The Other Side Of Daybreak is out September 2 and sadly, after the snorefest that was Daybreaker, I can’t bring myself to get too excited about the cast-off material. But hey – her buddy Ryan Adams put out an odds-and-sods collection (Demolition) that was much better than the ‘proper’ album preceding it (Gold), so I might yet be surprised. If I ever get around to listening to it.

The Denver Post ran this article on the success of Matador Records recently. Nothing really illuminating, but it’s nice of them to notice. They also ran a companion piece about other indie labels of note. What, no props for Bloodshot? Links from Largehearted Boy.

While there is absolutely nothing official right now, it would not shock me to see Death Cab For Cutie in or around Toronto on or around mid-October promoting Transatlanticism. I hear things, what can I say.

That mysterious Neutral Milk Hotel release scheduled for August 19, entitled T-Shirt I mentioned a couple weeks back? You’ll never guess what it is. Never ever. Turns out… it’s a t-shirt. Yeah. Debate raged fast and furious on the Elephant 6 Town Hall on the matter.

More Eitzel/AMC reunion news. There’s something wrong with the world when I’m getting my indie rock scoops from Rolling Stone. So very very wrong.

np – various artists / The Bridge – A Tribute To Neil Young

Contrary to my previous report, the new Belle and Sebastian album will be out Oct 7 and entitled Dear Catastrope Waitress. I never thought I’d see the day where I couldn’t believe what I read on the internet. I reserve the right to be totally wrong about this as well, though responsibility for the scoop falls squarely on the shoulders of Tiny Mix Tapes.

While on the subject of fey Scottish pop bands, Travis’ new album 12 Memories will be out in October.

Ted Leo has an EP of new material including Jam and Style Council covers coming out in October. From Delusions Of Adequacy.

The new American Music Club album, You Better Watch What You Say, is scheduled for a Spring 2004 release. Pitchfork talks to Mark Eitzel about the reunion.

JAM! talks to Grandaddy in advance of their Toronto show tomorrow night.

Crazy shit from the Largehearted Boy – Classic videos rendered in ASCII. It’s like the Matrix devoured VH1. Cool and somehow unsettling at the same time.

UPDATE: The new Shins album is entitled Chutes Too Narrow. Full details and an interview with James Mercer here.

np – The Tyde / Twice

Road To Perdition is Sam Mendes’ first film after American Beauty, and it’s a heavy one. Slow, ponderous and predictable, it’s made worthwhile by the solid acting by Tom Hanks and Paul Newman and the gorgeous cinematography – this is an amazing film to look at. Whether that makes it worth two hours of your time is your business.

Dictionaraoke is great for learning the exact lyrics to songs, enunciated properly, whilst laughing your ass off. It’s fun AND educational! Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg is highly recommended.

Exclaim! has assembled a pretty concise history of Neil Young. Since day one, Neil has been one of the most primary elements in my musical universe. You don’t need to look too hard to find connections between the stuff I love and play and Neil’s influence. Sure, he’s musically fallible and much of his output since the late 70s has been uneven, though with flashes of brilliance, but the man’s artistic integrity and ethic are beyond reproach. He’s always done whatever he damn well wants, and that’s something to be respected. I suspect that with the reissue of On The Beach in September, I will finally be getting around to filling in some of the holes in my collection of his classic output from the 70s (Tonight’s The Night, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere for example). I do know that Decade will be getting some spins in the next little while. Listening to Neil is like coming home.

Speaking of filling in holes in my musical collection, I think I need to finally get those last two Byrds reissues I’m missing, Turn! Turn! Turn! and Younger Than Yesterday. And if there’s enough good stuff on the double-disc Legacy Edition of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo (out September 2), well that’ll have find a home with me as well.

I got the new Jay Farrar album as well. I’ve on record as saying that every record Jay puts out sounds like the last one, but somehow that math doesn’t equal any of them being as good as the first Son Volt record Trace. That said, only a couple of listens into Terroir Blues and I think this one’s got something special going on. I can’t put my finger on exactly what, but I’m getting something from this one that I didn’t get from Sebastapol. A return to form for Jay is good news for everyone.

Yup, looks like I’m heading into a full-bore country kick. You’ve been warned.

np – Steve Earle / Sidetracks

Okay, last night was tremendous. To say I was nervous about the show is something of an understatement. Actually, I wasn’t nervous when we got there and were setting up, that was fine. The nerves kicked in when people started showing up. Lots of people. Lots and lots and lots of people. More than once, I asked no one in particular, “Who are all these people? Where are they coming from? What’s going on?” I estimate the crowd as easily two to three times larger than any other show we’d played, well over 100 people – daunting, to say the least.

The other acts on the bill were terrific. Immaculate Machine, all the way from Victoria, B.C. had great energy and vocals, I think they won over a lot of the crowd, judging from the response. The evening’s headliners, Les Mouches, impressed with their virtuosity and unconventional song structures. Their drummer was an absolute monster, it was pretty scary.

And then there was us, wedged in between the two. Certainly the most conventional pop band of the night, and probably one of the more conventional that Wavelength has seen in a while. Thank God that once onstage, the lights were bright enough that I couldn’t see past the first couple rows of people, and once Doc Pickles had done the introductions, there was nothing to do but play. And by jove if we didn’t acquit ourselves nicely, if I do say so myself. I can point to a half-dozen moments where I fucked up, mostly on account of not being able to hear myself and having to play strictly by remembering where my fingers were supposed to go when, but listening to a recording of the show afterwards, you can’t really tell. Everyone was on, especially Mr. Clay Jones on the kit, who was beating those drums within an inch of their lives, and Brad delivering maybe the strongest vocal performance I’ve heard yet. As for me, I stayed in key whenever I wandered into ad-lib territory, which is really all I could ask. The response from the crowd was very positive and coming from total strangers, that meant a lot.

Genuine thanks to everyone who came out and supported us, it really meant a lot. Thanks to Vic for taking a terrific batch of photos, thanks to Wavelength for giving us the opportunity to play and thanks to Lake Holiday for earning it.

So the show calendar is empty for the time being while we work on some more material so as to put the oldies to rest, but we’re hoping to get back out there around the end of September. Nothing definite yet, but there are some irons in the fire, so to speak.

np – Superchunk / Incidental Music 1991-95

The newly-beige Pitchfork Media reports that The Shins will be releasing a single on September 9, as yet untitled, in advance of their new album, also as yet untitled, which drops October 7. That also happens to to be the day new albums from Death Cab For Cutie and Wheat are released – I am henceforth declaring October 7 the International Day Of Pop, or the International Day Of Frank Spending A Lot Of Money At The Record Store.

My Morning Jacket hit Lee’s Palace September 12 in support of It Still Moves. I have missed MMJ’s last three or four Toronto dates, I am not missing this one. And the new album kicks some serious ass.

The sophomore album from The Electric Soft Parade is out October 13 in the UK and is titled, The American Adventure. Ironically, there is no word about it being released in America. Some adventure.

Is Jeff Tweedy the newest target of Ryan Adams’ petulant ire? Tiny Mix Tapes reports it so – check out the story towards the end of the August 4 news. Jesus Murphy, Ryan, I say this to you as a fan – SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Neil Gaiman’s BBC series Neverwhere, which formed the basis of his first novel, will be available on DVD in North America on September 9.

np – Fountains Of Wayne / Welcome Interstate Managers