I owe Mystery & Misery a big heapum thanks for introducing me to The Radio Dept (XL Recordings artist page). I was hankering for something new and his post on these Swedes was just what the doctor ordered. To my ears, they’re the perfect mix of Belle & Sebastian folksy tweeness, eclectic Boo Radleys-ish pop, the gentle electronic flourishes of Trembling Blue Stars and a healthy dollop of Jesus & Mary Chain-approved fuzztones – a perfect mix of grit and delicacy.

It’s like being wrapped in a warm, static-y blanket with soft boy-girl vocals. Bassist Lisa Carlberg only takes lead vocals on one track, but hopefully there’ll be more of her on future recordings. Despite being wonderfully poppy, it took a little time for it to properly sink into my consciousness but now it’s definitely in heavy rotation – highly recommended. Their debut, Lesser Matters, came out in North America last November and they released the This Past Week EP consisting of five all-new songs, uh, this past week. I expect to have a helluva time getting a copy.

I’m not the only one who’s discovered the joys of The Radio Dept., either – Bradley’s Almanac has just twigged onto them and Bob Mould describes one of their b-sides, “You And Me Then”, as “one of the most haunting pieces of music I’ve heard in a while” – he’s got the track available to download from his site. If you want to hear more, check out Labrador Records for mp3s, streams and videos, or this BBC interview.

The Fiery Furnaces tell Billboard their master plan for 2005 – release as many albums as humanly possible.

The House Of Love message board recently conducted a brief interview with Guy Chadwick about the reunion and the new album Days Run Away, out February 28. Read it here, thanks to Joyce for the link.

That Donnas show at the ACC I mentioned yesterday on April 12? Don’t quote me, but it could be opening for U2… Interesting that the date has disappeared from Pollstar’s listings – mayhap someone in Camp Donna jumped the gun in announcing the dates? Conjecture! Hearsay! Shazam! I blame Tori Spelling, or “evil Donna”. Update: So all the press is saying that Kings of Leon are opening the U2 tour… so who’s at the ACC on April 12?

Watch Feist’s new video for “Inside & Out” – very stylish and sexy, a shame about the stream quality. If anyone finds a better one, let me know s’il vous plait. From Brooklynvegan.

Thanks to More Cowbell for bringing the Lawrence.com Turnpike to my attention – there’s a tremendous archive of video interviews and live performances with a slew of great artists, like Arcade Fire, The Shins, Spoon and Neko Case dating back over the past couple years. Great stuff.

Tonight’s Bright Eyes show is early to a ridiculous degree. Doors are at 5pm, Tilly & The Wall start things off at 5:30 and I expect the whole to-do to be over by 9/9:30. The curfew is on account of the fact that the Phoenix turns into a meat market discotheque later in the night, and they have to clear out all the sensitive and impressionable Conor-ites before the debauchery begins. But what this means, practically, is that even if I high-tail it outta work at 5 sharp, I will still probably not make it before things start (assuming they stick to schedule, which honestly is not likely). Never mind trying to get any dinner, either. Oh, and did I mention it’s ridiculously frigid out today? Yeah, that pretty much goes without saying.

Sympathies to Information Leafblower on the passing of his cat, Jarvis.

np – Trembling Blue Stars / Alive To Every Smile

Today’s post has been overrun with concert announcements. Do not be alarmed.

Major awesomeness in the form of Steve Earle & The Dukes accompanied by Allison Moorer will hit the Palais Royale on March 4, tickets $37.50 on sale tomorrow via Ticketmaster (or now, via Rotate This). And for those in the 519 who don’t want to travel to the 416, they’ll also be at Club Denim in Guelph on March 3. I’ve been waiting for this show for a year and a half, since I inexplicably missed his 2003 show at the Kool Haus. Thankfully, he’s not playing there again… I hear the Palais Royale is nice – I think it’s actually the last venue in Toronto I’ve never been to. One more thing to cross off my “things to do before I die” list. Hmm, the list is getting shorter and shorter. That may not be a good thing.

And if you’re not down with Mr Earle, Ireland’s Frames are at the Opera House on the 4th with Mark Geary, also on March 4. Or, if you’re looking for more rootsy twangy goodness, check out Nashville’s Bobby Bare Jr at Lee’s Palace this Monday the 24th ($7) or Memphis’ Lucero at a venue TBA on February 18. And neither rootsy nor twangy, New York’s Calla play with The French Kicks at the Horseshoe March 10, tickets $10.50. Meanwhile, local promoters Whacked Out Production celebrate their 6th anniversary with a show March 14 at Club Rockit featuring Bella Lea, the new band featuring Maura Davis, formerly of Virginian emo outift Denali.

Some big shows – Queens Of The Stone Age are at the Kool Haus March 30 promoting Lullabies To Paralyze, out March 22. The Donnas are at the Air Canada Centre on April 12 – this has to be supporting someone, there’s no way they’re headlining a show at the ACC.

Some odds and ends for the Anglophiles… a couple of this year’s “next big things” are coming to town – The Kaiser Chiefs (what an awful name) are at the El Mocambo on February 15 and Bloc Party are at the Mod Club Lee’s Palace April 2, tickets $13.50. One of 2003’s big things, who I guess now qualify only as “things”, British Sea Power, are at Lee’s Palace April 21. All three acts have new albums to shill for – The Kaiser Chiefs’ Employment is out March 15, Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm is out March 22, as is BSP’s Open Season.

On the veteran side, The Wedding Present begin their North American tour to support Take Fountain starting April 16 – I’m assuming there’ll be a Toronto date even though they passed us by when promoting Cinerama’s Torino. The rumour mill puts King Monkey Ian Brown at the Mod Club sometime in May, Idlewild could also be in town in May and it’s reasonable to expect a Doves date in T.O. during their mini-North American jaunt in March for SXSW or Coachella in May.

And it looks like the lineup for the Broken Social Scene benefit show on Tuesday is as I have noted on my sidebar there. Apostle Of Hustle at 9:40, Jason Collett at 10:30 and BSS at 11:20. I think it seems horribly ungracious to feel disappointed at that lineup, so I won’t. It will be an excellent show regardless, and I still fully expect guests a-plenty. Like Charo!

Whew.

The new, as-yet-untitled studio album from The Strokes has been scheduled for release on June 14. It was pointed out to me recently that I’ve taken cheap shots at New York City’s poutiest in the past, and perhaps have been a little unfair in my mockery. So to make up for it, I’m going to try and say something nice about them… Ahem. To the best of my knowledge, no member of The Strokes – or their entourage – has ever intentionally and maliciously drowned a gunnysack full of kittens. Yet.

Check out the video for the new Delgados single, “Girls Of Valour”.

Realizing that the decade is now half over, Stylus has compiled their list of the top 50 albums from 2000 to 2004. Well, numbers 50 to 21, at least. The complete list is up. I have nineteen of these records.

One of my favourite times of the year is the end of January/start of February when the NAMM show goes down in California – it’s one of two huge annual music gear orgies wherein equipment manufacturers trot out their new wares for the next year, a veritable porn-fest for gear geeks like myself. As always, Harmony Central will have a day-by-day rundown of all the new toys that have been unveiled and make me lust for shiny gewgaws that I have no need for whatsoever.

np – Interpol / Turn On The Bright Lights

Buddyhead sits down for an expansive interview with Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine. It’s interesting to hear Kevin speak so frankly about the demise of MBV and the “lost years” between Loveless and his return to the public eye with Primal Scream and the Lost In Translation score. The piece quite rightly points out that he’d become a myth of Brian Wilson proportions, figuratively if not literally (though he is a bit heftier than he was…) – the bit of apocrypha that I latched onto in particular was that he’d given up music to raise chinchillas (Don’t believe me? Read this interview from last year). The idea of this architect of sonic cathedrals sharing a home with hordes of soft, furry rodents appeals to me somehow.

But what is exciting is to hear Shields talk about the forthcoming archival MBV releases matter-of-factly. I do think Loveless could benefit from a remastering, and unreleased tracks are always welcome. His comments on the artwork are interesting as well – the cover of Loveless is so iconic now, I wonder what it was originally intended to look like.

If you’re looking for more MBV love on the internet, the fansite I linked above and Tremolo are both excellent resources with loads of links and info. This site has a goodly number of live recordings available to download (quality’s not great, but I don’t think that the recording equipment exists to survive the live MBV experience and sound good doing it). Loveless is also the subject a forthcoming volume in the 33 1/3 series of books.

And if you don’t know who Kevin Shields or My Bloody Valentine were, well damn – I can’t talk to you. Go here and be enlightened.

Speaking of massively influential musical recluses, The BBC talks to Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and discovers that the band has not gone the way of the dodo after all. Besides playing a tsunami relief show in February, they are in the midst of recording their third album – their first in eight years. Coincidentally, I dusted off my Portishead records this week for the first time in ages – I’d forgotten how good and utterly unique they were and still are. A new record is good news.

The indie kids will be wetting themselves over the new video for The Postal Service’s “We Will Become Silhouettes”. It’s ironic! It’s profound! It’s kitschy! It’s directed by the guy who did Napoleon Dynamite! It’s got Jenny Lewis! It’s got that dreamy Ben Gibbard! See it here. The EP for the single is out February 8. From Largehearted Boy.

Possibly the best team-up since chocolate and peanut butter, Calexico and Iron & Wine got together for some recording sessions at the end of last year, the fruits of which will see the light of day in Fall of this year as a 7-song EP entitled Lays in the Reigns. And to pour gravy on that proverbial peanut butter cup, they’ll be touring to support.

Sleater-Kinney’s new album, and their first for SubPop, has been given the title of The Woods and the release date of May 24. Pitchfork has more deets.

South San Gabriel, the kinder, gentler side of Centro-Matic, will release The Carlton Chronicles: Not Until the Operation’s Through on April 5.

Bettie Serveert’s February 10 show will be at the Horseshoe, not Lee’s Palace.

Someone really hates Dave Lowery. Camper Van Beethoven’s gear was stolen. Again.

np – Saturday Looks Good To Me / Every Night

The back-from-the-dead Family Guy will make it’s much-belated third-season premiere on May 1 at 9pm. WRITE IT DOWN.

Donewaiting’s SXSW blog has more info on acts performing at this year’s festival. One big name is Elvis Costello playing SXSW for the first time ever – I highly doubt I’ll get in to see that one. Part of me wants to start making a list of the acts I want to see and researching others, and the other part of me is saying why even bother. I’ll just walk around Austin and follow the smell of BBQ.

Arcade Fire did a session yesterday for KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, in which they performed a number of songs including a cover of The Magnetic Fields’ “Born On A Train”, which was also a staple of Lake Holiday’s set for, um, one show or so. But we did also do a nice recording of it which I don’t have online at the moment. Perhaps Five Seventeen will get around to uploading our second EP to his My Mean Magpie online label sometime in the near future? Update: Stereogum has an mp3 of their “Born On A Train” cover. Update 2: Bradley’s Almanac one-ups the Stereogum with the whole MBE set mp3-ed for your non-streaming enjoyment. Tip from Syntax Of Things. Coolfer weeps.

The Times is confounded by Feist. From Pop (All Love), who has also posted a column on the singer from the end of last year.

New Order spills the beans to NME about their new album Waiting For The Siren’s Call, out March 29. NME insists they clean them up.

Talk about ridiculous – Metric have added a fourth show at the Mod Club for January 24 – this one licensed – and I will bet you it is the same people who have bought tickets for the first three sold-out shows. It’s a vicious cycle, folks, and it won’t stop till someone is dead. Or broke. Or dead broke.

Hirsute Southern gentlemen The Kings Of Leon will be at the Opera House on March 2, with The Features as support.

Wavelength celebrates its fifth anniversary as ground zero for the Toronto indie-rock scene this year! To celebrate, they’re holding a weekend of eclectic shows from February 10 to 13 at a variety of venues. The lineups are too expansive for me to retype, so check out the post on 20Hz for the lowdown.

24 – I have to give credit to the producers this season – they’ve mastered the art of milking a dramatic moment just long enough but without crossing the line into incredulity. Jack and the cops? They got a cliffhanger out of it for last week’s episode, wrap it up, move on. The pacing this year is excellent – once again, this episode was taut start to finish. Giving Jack 10 minutes to get in and out and avoid a missile strike? Sure, why not. And I’ll admit it – when Beruz’s mom handed him the gun, I was almost yelling at the screen, “SHOOT HER! SHOOT HER! AND SHOOT YOUR DAD TOO!” Now how many television shows can drive a reasonable person to condoning patricide? Not nearly enough. Sooo good. And oh yeah… BYE CHLOE!!! End spoilers.

The Guardian looks at the science of determing what will and will not be a hit song. There is something fundamentally sinister about this technology. I picture it looking like a single giant red light embedded in a wall. Open the pod bay doors, HMI.

It was -23 this morning, -33 with the wind chill. THAT’S KELVIN, PEOPLE. My boogers will never unfreeze.

np – Trespassers William / Different Stars

First concert of the year! After my record-breaking 2004 calendar, I took almost exactly one month off, but it’s time to get back on the horse. Yee-haw.

It’s an odd thing to go see a show that’s promoting an album that you were present for the recording of. What was Neko Case going to do at the Toronto stop of her tour to support The Tigers Have Spoken, play the same songs she did last Spring at Lee’s Palace when she was making the record? Short answer, yes. The set list drew heavily from Tigers, with only a few older selections and one new track from the still-being-recorded new record thrown in. What this meant was that the show was cover-heavy, like the album, but light on originals. Not getting to hear favourites from Furnace Room Lullabye and Blacklisted was one of my only complaints about the Tigers making-of shows last year, though I understood why. This time, I was a little more disappointed by their omission – I mean, I’d already seen this show last year… But anyway, that’s the extent of my griping for last night. That and the relative brevity of the set. While they played for about an hour and fifteen total, that included a lot of chatter and tuning time. They actually ended the main set after 45 minutes!

But on to the good, and any time you get Neko Case and The Sadies (AKA on this night, Her Boyfriends) on the same stage, there’s gonna be lots of good. Neko’s voice was in marvelous form, helped along by Kelly Hogan on backing vocals. It’s worth noting that Neko was considerably more relaxed at this show than she was last time, where the pressures of making a live record were pretty obvious. This time, she was extremely jovial and chatty, bantering with Hogan (who was celebrating a birthday) like they were a veteran comedy team. The Sadies were a little more restrained supporting Neko than they usually are at their own shows, but they still tore it up on a few occasions and got to slip in their signature reading of the Benny Hill theme song. It was obvious everyone was having a good time playing this show – it’s just a shame it couldn’t have gone on longer. But if there’s one thing that can be accurately said, it’s that the live show sounded just like the album.

Opening things up was Johnny Dowd, who is seriously old-school. He seems like the kind of guy you’d feel compelled to call “sir”, even if you don’t call anyone “sir”. He and his band played a tight, half-hour set of swampy, grooving blues-country soul and brought Neko out to take vocals on a couple songs. Good, toe-tapping stuff.

With a month off between shows, I almost forgot how to use my camera. Thankfully, the Phoenix was well-lit last night, so getting back into the swing of things was fairly easy. Results here.

The Houston Chronicle talks to Tift Merritt. From LHB.

At long last, there’s news from the land of Longwave (also known as New York) – they’ve finally finished recording their third album There’s A Fire and are looking at a late April release, mad touring to follow.

Heavy Black Frames gets all hellfire and brimstone-like in reviewing Low’s The Great Destroyer, out next Tuesday. Repent!

Some shows: Out Hud is at the Horseshoe April 10. Xiu Xiu are at the Gladstone on June 25. Kids these days and their crazy band names. In my day, bands had proper names – like Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins.

np – Six By Seven / :04