Shitloads of concert news for Hogtown today. Let’s begin.

This year’s edition of the Over The Top Festival has been shaping up over the last few days. While the official website hasn’t been updated yet, promoter Eric Warner has been announcing shows on the 20 Hz message boards. There’s too much to list here, but some of the acts appearing are: Decibully, The Unicorns, Volcano, I’m Still Excited, The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players, Japanther, K and Don Caballero, and new stuff is still being added. Past editions of this festival have been wonderfully eclectic and this year looks to be no different – I usually catch at least a couple of the shows, but I haven’t made up my mind about which of this year’s offerings I’ll be taking in.

Current buzz-girl (that’s not the same as bee girl) Nellie McKay will play the El Mocambo March 25, tickets $10. Unfortunately, that’s the same night Ted Leo demolishes the Horseshoe with his rock action, so I’ll have to miss it. No doubt ducats to see Ms McKay the next time she comes to town will be much more dear.

Shannon Wright is at the Rivoli May 20, tickets $10 in advance. Her new record, Over The Sun is out April 6. Sample mp3 on Touch & Go’s website. Update: Julie Doiron has been added to the bill as support.

Califone are at the ‘Shoe May 6 in support of their new one Heron King Blues.

Norwegian pretty-boy Sondre Lerche will make the indie girls swoon May 8 at the Horseshoe whilst kicking off the North American tour to promote his new one, Two Way Monologue.

Half of The Smiths are coming to town! No, not Moz or Marr – the other guys. Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke are going to be doing a DJ set at Ciao Edie in Little Italy next Wednesday, tickets are $15 in advance – you can get em at Rotate. And please, if you go, don’t be the guy who requests “How Soon Is Now”.

Some ticket prices for previously announced shows – Destroyer/Frog Eyes on May 6 will set you back $10.50, Snow Patrol April 22 is $10. Both shows at Lee’s Palace.

And not a concert announcement, but concert-related: an Old 97s tour diary from the Dallas Observer. From Burned By The Sun.

And finally, an item totally concert unrelated. Travis Morrison is pissed at The Vines, and it’s not just because they suck ass. It’s because they stole the idea for their video for “Ride” from that for The Dismemberment Plan’s “Time Bomb”. But you know what the very worst part is? I had to sit through any part of that Vines song to form an educated opinion. You can feel unclean by watching the video here. From Largehearted Boy.

The Guardian talks to Kevin Shields about Loveless, Alan McGee, his extended absence from the public eye and chinchillas. It’s not his first interview in over a decade, as the headline states, but it is still an insightful one. But Yo La Tengo a “far less talented band”? Them’s fighting words. From The GPC.

np – The New Pornographers / Mass Romantic

Reading Our Band Could Be Your Life has naturally prompted me to revisit the records I own of the bands covered in the books. In particular, Minnesota’s favorite sons The Replacements and Husker Du. While I take some issue with author Michael Azerrad mostly dismissing the bands’ major label output (while arguably not their best work, the Mats’ Tim and Pleased To Meet Me and Husker Du’s Candy Apple Grey and Warehouse are still excellent, excellent records), he makes a compelling argument to take a closer look at their earlier material. Where once they might have been too raw for my delicate sensibilities, I think I’m now at a point where I could get past perceived superficial sonic shortcomings to appreciate the power of the music underneath. For example – I listened to Zen Arcade yesterday for the first time in years, and though my memory told me it was a chaotic, unlistenable mess (I first bought it in first year university fully 10 years ago… God, I’m old), my ears were now telling me that there really was something very cool going on there. I forsee that album getting more spins in the next few weeks than it has in the past decade. I’ve added the Du’s Flip Your Wig and New Day Rising, though I think they’re technically out of print, and the Mats’ Hootenanny to my shopping list.

As for the book, it really is a great read. The underground rock scene of the 80s seems unfathomable in today’s superconnected world, but it makes the notion of rock bands piled into a van driving around America and taking on the world seems so horribly romantic. The bands are simultaneously fucked-up outcasts and mythic legends. Don’t worry – I’m not quitting my job and buying an old Econoline anytime soon. Unless someone has one for sale…? But it’s a great book. A shame it’s taken me so long to get around to reading it.

Chart has some more info on the Neko Case & The Sadies shows the first weekend of April at Lee’s Palace. They confirm the Sadies aren’t opening, but are Neko’s backing band and add that the openers will be bluegrass traditionalists Jim & Jennie & The Pinetops. The live album that will hopefully be culled from these shows will be out before the end of the year, along with a new studio album from Ms Case.

Nerve chats with The Shins – complete with crotch-grabbing photo! From The Modern Age.

Franz Ferdinand are in the money – they’ve signed a licensing deal in North America worth a cool 1.5 million pounds. That is a lot of dosh.

Congratulations to Dave Sim on the publication of the final issue of Cerebus, number 300. No matter what you think of the man, that’s still a remarkable artistic achievement.

So Five Seventeen has started up a chess club in downtown Toronto, and while it’s true there’s none more geek than a chess player, it’s actually quite fun. I’d say that I have to get my brain back into game shape – it’s been a long time since I played with any regularity – that would imply that it ever was in game shape. Which it wasn’t. Basically, I know the rules and sometimes engage in some reckless bloodlust, but I’m not moving up the leaderboard any time soon. 517, on the other hand, is a ruthless killing machine. Play him at your peril.

Lake Holiday play our first show of 2004 in a couple weeks, March 24th at the El Mocambo. We’re sharing the bill with Friday Morning’s Regret (samples at New Music Canada), League Champs and Mnemosyne. The show is pay what you can and gets started at 9:30 – we are on at 10:15. We’ve been holed up in recording mode for so long, I’m pretty damned eager to get back out and play – stop by and say hello if you get the chance.

np – The Replacements / Let It Be

I got my copy of American Music Club’s 1984-1995 retrospective in the mail yesterday. It functions well as a ‘Rough Guide to AMC’, combining album tracks with rarities and demos – it’s also nice to hear the selections from California remasterd and sonically up to snuff with the rest of their catalog. Brad asked me recently how a reunited AMC would sound different from Mark Eitzel’s solo material, and I think (hope) that working with his old compatriots will rekindle some of the fire (piss and vinegar?) that Etizel’s AMC material had that his solo stuff has been somewhat lacking. Give a listen to “Ladies And Gentlemen, It’s Time”, one of the new AMC tracks and see what you think. The new AMC album, You Better Watch What You Say, is supposed to be out this Spring. Don’t know who’s putting it out though – apparently Matador passed on it? For shame.

Further on the AMC tip – Come On Beautiful is a pretty cool tribute album to Eitzel and company featuring Lambchop, Calexico and Portastatic, among others. The website for the album has nice writeups on each song by the artist covering it. They say you can buy it at the Merge Records website, but they didn’t have it so I ordered it from GERMANY for a cool $10 US. Not bad.

Tanya Donelly’s third solo album will be entitled Whiskey Tango Ghosts and be out on 4AD in June.

To celebrate their 15th anniversary, Merge Records will be putting out a triple-CD compilation of classic and rare/unreleased tracks from throughout their illustrious history. Their roster has had some pretty amazing acts on it through the years, so this one should be good… if they don’t mess it up like Matador did on their 10th anniversary comp Everything Is Nice. I don’t know how they did it, but somehow Matador managed to compile three discs of material that I really had no interest in hearing. Amazing. From Donewaiting.com.

Wow, I’m just giving Matador static today. Don’t worry – I still love you.

np – American Music Club / 1984-1995

Stylus loves the 90s, and is going to spend all week telling you why. Everything from Quantum Leap to Super Mario Bros 3 to Kids In The Hall, it’s a good thing they’re spreading it out over five days – it’s a little too much adolescent nostalgia for me to handle in one dose. The 90s are the new 80s.

Chart has a wee chat with Franz Ferdinand. Their debut album is out in North America to-day.

But what isn’t out today, or at least by all indication, is Sarah Harmer’s All Of Our Names. Looks like it’s the 23rd… but that won’t stop me from swinging by the record store tonight to make sure. Sarah has a new journal entry up on her website, though. As I mentioned before, tickets for the April 26 show at the Winter Garden Theatre go on sale this Friday at noon… price is a steep $32 before service charges. Ow.

I don’t know who ever told John Travolta he could look scary, but they were wrong. So who keeps casting this guy as villains? The reach of L Ron Hubbard is long. And scaly. Thomas Jane fares a little better – but I’m still not sure if I can expect The Punisher to not suck.

Busted up the eardrums real good with the first full band rehearsal in some time. Between recording sessions and Clay conquering the UK with Beneath Augusta, there hadn’t been any opportunity to get everyone in a room and kick out the jams until last night – which is some good timing because we’re just hammering out the details for our first show of 2004 in a couple weeks. Thankfully, the patina of rust was pretty thin and we shook it off after a couple songs. We should be fine with a little fine tuning.

np – Neil Young / Decade

The rock won out over the sloth yesterday, and I headed out to the 360 for the post-CMW hangover show. I hadn’t been to the 360 in years, since they renovated and decided to target the local hard rock/metal audience, and I have to say – they’ve done a pretty good job. The stage is larger and more professional and the sound is quite good – it used to be awful.

Anyway, despite having Vancouver popsters The Salteens headlining, most of the show was still very appropriate to the 360’s usual demographic. Vancouver’s Billy & The Lost Boys played a short set of very catchy and energetic pop-punk, with just the right amount of hookiness and sneer. They were followed by locals Hostage Life, who pretty much all aggro punk and prompted me to put in earplugs and pull out a book after a couple songs. Dead Letter Dept were mostly more of the same, but with a little more interesting song structures and instrumentation. Still, I was getting a little impatient for the bands I’d come to see to get on.

Australia’s Sekiden has been to Canada a number of times in the past couple years, almost always touring with The Salteens. They trade in high-energy synth-driven new wave pop, and they’re good at it. Sharp tunes combined with lots of jumping around and just all-around good times – think The Rentals on speed. By this point, it had gotten late and they were pressed for time, so The Salteens were forced to play an abbreviated 8-song set – they made the most of it though. I’d last seen them three or four years ago, and there’ve been line-up changes and loads of touring since then, the end result of which is a much tighter and better band. Terrific melodies and vocal harmonies, great songs – worth the wait. Photos of the two last acts here. They’ll be back in June for NXNE, and I’m going to do my best to catch them again. I also picked up their latest album at the show, Let Go Of Your Bad Days. It still features the old four-piece lineup, so it’s a slightly different sound than the live band. I’d say the current incarnation sounds better – new member Erin Jane’s keyboards really help fill out the sound and her vocals are stronger than departed bassist Megan Bradfield’s. Still an enjoyable listen, though I’m more anxious to hear some recordings with the new band.

np – Husker Du / Candy Apple Grey