eye has a little piece on The Wrens, who will be at the ‘Shoe this Saturday night.

There’ll be a new Calexico EP coming out in early 2004. Convict Pool will collect a number of tracks from European singles including their cover of Love’s “Alone Again Or”, which I’ve been trying to hunt down for a while. There will also be a live DVD, Worlds Drift In, which will feature their November 29, 2002 show in London. Finally, there will be a tour-only album made available by the end of the year. There was supposed to be a new studio album in 2004, but it appears that there’ll be an assortment of other goodies instead.

A couple shows to note – TV On The Radio are opening for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs February 27 at the Phoenix, and Blonde Redhead roll into town at the Opera House April 6 with Victoria’s Unicorns as support.

Some unlikely ingredients in this Go Home Productions mash-up. It’s a mid-90s revival combining American r&b one-hit wonder Adina Howard’s “Freak Like Me” getting gene-spliced with Ride’s “Leave Them All Behind”.

Ryan Adams’ wrist surgery was successful. Doctors estimate he will once again be able to give critics the finger within weeks.

Uh-oh. A post to the Big Takeover mailing list read, “A close friend of mine, who is next-door neighbors/friends with David Lovering, was told by Lovering that the whole thing is off.” ‘The whole thing’ being the Pixies reunion, of course. I hope this is just irresponsible rumour-mongering on my part, but The BTO list isn’t generally a place for trolling. I have to say that I find it unlikely that the band would finally decide to reunite after over a decade, make some doubtlessly expensive touring commitments and then realize, “hey, these guys are assholes, I’m going home”. Surely for the amount of cash that’s being thrown at them, they can at least handle the eleven North American dates that are in the process of being confirmed. Fingers crossed. If I find anything to support or debunk this, I’ll update.

np – The Sleepy Jackson / Lovers

Random thought… when the Pixies reunite, will they be fronted by Frank Black or Black Francis? Only Charles Thompson knows for sure. Maybe the title of the next Frank Black album (a double record, no less) due out in April offers a clue… Frank Black Francis. What is known is the North American reunion tour will happen in advance of Coachella – which means April. Which means that specifics should be made available sooner rather than later. Which means you should start getting excited or disgusted, depending on how you view reunions, shortly. Me, I’m excited. But I’m an excitable person.

Steve Earle’s Just An American Boy documentary is out on DVD next Tuesday. I’ll get it either way, but I hope the performances are different from those on the companion live double-album.

There will be a new Idlewild record this Spring with Dave Eringa, who produced their last two albums, behind the board.

Ben Kweller and Death Cab are teaming up for a massive US tour from March through May, but with no Canadian dates. Obviously, these artists did not feel Canuck love their last times through and are deliberately slighting us. And for this, I blame each and every one of you. Hang your heads in shame. Kweller’s new record (say the five times fast!) is out April 6 and entitled On My Way. But not to Canada! Also, The Bens EP, featuring Kweller, piano man Ben Folds and Clare Danes cast-off Ben Lee, is now available domestically.

This week’s installment of the 24 peanut gallery – Okay, this is more like it. Gunplay! Double-crosses! And best of all, we now have a Euro-trash villain! Every good action flick needs a good Euro-trash villain. Mexican drug lords just don’t have the same cachet. And I’ve figured out what’s wrong with every other storyline this season. The writers have made the horribly incorrect assumption that we care about the characters. Newsflash – we don’t. We don’t care about Palmer’s presidency. We don’t care about Chloe’s black market baby syndicate . We don’t care about Sherry trying to get back in David’s good books or her fear of geriatric motorists. All we care about is Jack kicking ass, chewing gum and shooting smack. More of that, less of everything else. Thank you. Spoilers finis.

np – Mogwai / Happy Songs For Happy People

I find it a criminal injustice that The Tick live-action show, the very existance of which confounded me, is available on DVD but the brilliant animated series is not (Yeah, you can get it through ‘unoffical’ channels, but this is more about principle). Running on Saturday mornings in the early 90s (remember Saturday morning cartoons?), the cartoon was truly a worthy heir to the dearly missed comic books. Sure, New England Comics kept publishing Tick-related books after the original series ended, but without creator Ben Edlund at the helm, it just wasn’t the same. The cartoon though… Truly one of the funniest shows in recent years. A cast of characters the likes of which the world has never seen… The Civic-Minded Five. Speak. Bi-Polar Bear. The Decency Squad. And the rogues gallery! The Angry Red Herring! El Seed! Multiple Santa! Thrakazog (Click it! Click it!)! Man, good times. I miss The Tick.

Expect Pixies reunion tour dates to be announced any day now. Well well well. I wonder what size of a venue they’d play? They’d sell out the 2000-capacity Kool Haus in a heartbeat. Maybe the Ricoh Collisseum, which can go from 3500 to 10000+ seats would be a fit? Pixies = arena rockers? Who’d have thunk it.

The new Doves disc, originally slated for an early March release, has been pushed back indefinitely.

Umbrella Music has a list of ten albums they overlooked last year. Just one month into 2004, I have my own list of stuff that came out last year that I totally overlooked, but am really enjoying now. On this list:

Happy Groundhog Day. Both Punxsutawney Phil and Wiarton Willie let us down this morning, seeing their shadows and running away like cowards. Stupid rodents.

Support for The Decemberists show at the ‘Shoe March 7 will be Scotland’s Clearlake (also opening for Stereolab a month later) and Oregonian (is that a word?) Tom Heinl. The Decemberists will also be releasing a new EP, The Train, on February 24th.

Keeping with the numberic monikers, Twelve is a side project of Six By Seven guitarist Chris Olley and drummer Chris Davis and self-described as “a combination of bittersweet ballads, krautrock beats and pulsing electronica, a sombre and harmonius 45 minute journey that you keep on wanting to go back to the start of.” Their debut self-titled album is available for sale directly from the band. Six By Seven’s next album is still on target for a late March release… provided they have a label.

Just recently I was thinking, hmm – I wouldn’t mind having a Mazzy Star compilation. Well the telepathic parasite Capitol Records implanted in my brain last year seems to be doing its job, because they’re releasing Anthology on June 1. Thanks, guys – Now can we do something about that smell of burnt toast?

I saw Saturday Looks Good To Me at Rancho Relaxo last summer, but in a reversal of the norm, their live show doesn’t really measure up to the recordings. Their set as a three-piece was energetic and enjoyable enough, but having just gotten All Your Summer Songs yesterday, I am blown away by the sonics of this record. The production and instrumentation, the revolving cast of vocalists, the songs… it’s like the perfect mash-up of Motown, Phil Spector (without the gunplay) and indie pop. Highly recommended.

np – Saturday Looks Good To Me / All Your Summer Songs

New Wilco record on June 8. You heard it here first… unless you heard it elsewhere first. In which case you heard it again here. First.

Audiojunkies has the whole of Franz Ferdinand’s debut eponymous album, available to download. Give a listen, see if you believe the hype. I, myself, am quite digging it. The album is out in physical form February 9th in the UK and March 9 on these shores. They play the Horseshoe February 23rd with Oshawa spaz-rockers Anagram open. Link from Burned By The Sun.

Exclaim! talks to The Mountain Goats about We Shall All Be Healed, out Tuesday.

And speaking of Exclaim, their 12th anniversary cross-Canada concert series takes place this Spring. The Toronto show is set for April 15 at the Phoenix and so far the bill includes Chicagoan post-rock legends Tortoise and electronic/IDM darlings Four Tet.

Sleater-Kinney have finally discovered the internet. From LHB.

Brett Anderson has begun working on a solo album in the wake of Suede’s dissolution. Not especially newsworthy, except that the NME reports that one of his collaborators on the project is… Bernard Butler. Well well well. Sounds good on paper, but will it butter the parsnips? We’ll see.

Took a quiet ‘me-time’ night last night to try and recover from all the commotion of the past week. Watched some hockey, read some books, listened to some music. I feel a little guilty for seeking distraction, but I figure I’m preoccupied enough with the shitstorm of reality that I’m justified in hiding under the covers once in a while.

np – Bob Dylan / Blonde On Blonde