Sick today. I’ve got most of today’s post already written, and will finish it up later after I’ve gotten some more sleep. Do not adjust your set. Thank you.

– The Management

Check out the wealth of goodies now posted at the V For Vendetta website. They held a press conference last week in advance of the start of filming tomorrow with producers Joel Silver and Grant Hill, director James McTeigue, lead actor James Purefoy and my secret girlfriend Natalie Portman wherein they discuss their plans to adapt the legendary Alan Moore/David Lloyd graphic novel to film. There’s a transcript of the whole thing and if you don’t like to read – and come on, who does? – there are also select video clips. Perhaps the most revelatory thing to come out of the to-do is the fact that Natalie will be shaving her head for the role. My goodness, I wonder how much those locks would go for on eBay…?

A bit surprised at the director on this one – I had thought the Wachowski brothers were going to be behind the camera, but they’re just given producer credits. Instead they’ve got McTeigue, whose credits to date amount to first- and second-director credits on the Matrix and Star Wars prequel films, but who appears to be a rookie when it comes to being the main guy. Hrmmm. So he’s got a lot of experience making big, loud, empty films. That doesn’t bode well.

And related – Newsarama has an essay from British comics columnist Rich Johnson about “Why V For Vendetta Matters – Especially Now”, wherein he considers the post-9/11 world, how it relates to the fascist London portrayed in the comic and the question of whether America is ready to accept a terrorist as hero. It predictably sets off a shitstorm of responses. I remember reading a discussion sometime in late 2001 of whether or not V would ever be made into a film because of the touchiness of that very idea. I was in the camp of those who thought it would not – remember, this was a time when radio stations were pulling John Lennon’s “Imagine” from playlists for fear of offending someone. The likelihood of anyone making a film about an individual trying to take down the government seemed remote at best. Guess not. Maybe it’s okay since it’s the British government in the crosshairs and not the American…? Anyway, I need to re-read V For Vendetta. And if you haven’t read it yet, you really should.

As I reported earlier, the good news is that Six By Seven’s last album, :04 (and it’s companion album Left Luggage At The Peveril Hotel), will finally be getting a North American release on May 2. The better news is that the band has just announced they will have ANOTHER studio album ready for release in the UK on May 23. I’m all for more music from great bands, but geez – apparently keeping the colonies months behind on releases isn’t good enough, we actually have to be albums behind.

There’s finally some firm info on the new Pernice Brothers record. It’s called Discover A Lovelier You and it’ll be in stores June 14. Expect Joe to preview songs from it when he plays the Horseshoe on May 4.

People have been asking me what I’m doing for my 30th birthday. Well, I now have an answer – I will be at Lee’s Palace seeing The Mountain Goats! Yay. That’s May 11, for those of you who don’t already have my birthday on your calendars. Their new album, The Sunset Tree, is out April 26. See 517? All these years without, you move away and they finally come to town. YOU KEPT THEM AWAY.

A quick reminder that A Girl Called Eddy is doing an instore at Soundscapes this afternoon at 4. I just picked up her self-titled album on Friday, and it’s quite nice. Everyone mentions it when talking about the record, but Richard Hawley’s production really is excellent. I wonder how much of the lushness they’ll be able to reproduce live? I guess I’ll find out tonight at the Horseshoe where she plays a co-headline show with France’s Keren Ann. If you’re going, A Girl Called Eddy is scheduled for 9:45 and Keren Ann for 11.

In anticipation of moving in a couple months, I finally got off my duff yesterday and sold off a huge whack of CDs that had been collecting dust on my shelves for over a year now. With it went many of the last vestiges of my blues and Britpop phases and now I’m left with what I consider to be a pretty respectable music collection that’s still going to herniate me to move. This is one of the very few times I look at my teeming shelves and think maybe the iPod crew has the right idea. But then I come to my senses.

np – Doves / Some Cities

I’d been waiting to see Steve Earle live for quite a while now, so having to stand outside the Palais Royale in the cold for forty minutes wasn’t that bad… but it wasn’t good, either. But eventually the huge lineup worked its way into the venue, to which it was my first time visiting. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all – it was far less… glamorous? than I was expecting. Basically a banquet hall that seemed much smaller than its 1250 capacity would imply.

One upside of having to wait so long to get in was that it made the wait inside for the show to start seem that much shorter. Opening act Allison Moorer took the stage promptly at 9:15 and played a surprisingly short solo acoustic set. It was interesting to see her perform in that format since the last couple times I saw her, it was with a full rock band. I think I actually preferred her solo, it kept the focus on her amazing voice. She wrapped up her set after just a half hour, but it certainly wasn’t her last appearance of the night as she took vocals on a number of Earle’s songs.

Taking the stage to Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, Steve Earle & The Dukes showed up ready to play – and for the next two and a half hours, play they did. Starting out with the title track from his latest The Revolution Starts… Now and segueing right into “Home To Houston”, the Dukes were a finely-tuned rock machine from the word go. The tone of the night was unmistakably political, drawing heavily from the last two albums including Revolution in its entirety, but Earle was careful to play to all parts of his audience with a middle set heavy with “chick songs” (his words, not mine), a bluegrass number, a whack of covers (The Beatles’ “Revolution”, Townes Van Zandt’s “Brand New Companion”, George Harrison’s “Isn’t It A Pity”, The Chambers Brothers’ “Time Has Come Today” and The Rolling Stones’ “Sweet Virginia”, the last three of which featured Allison Moorer on vocals) and of course the Skinny Steve Earle (Mark 1) classics like “Copperhead Road”, “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied”, “Guitar Town”, though those were mostly saved for the encore. He was going to give the yahoos what they wanted, but they were gonna have to wait. And as an aside, I was pleased to see Steve has joined the cult of the Jazzmaster, strapping one of those on for much of the night alongside his Epi Casinos and Gretsches. The man has sublime taste in guitars.

But of course, when you see a Steve Earls show, you’re not just getting the music. It was 40 minutes in before he broke out the first of several monologues – I won’t call them banter because they were obviously well prepared in advance – about revolution, politics, praise for Canada, you know – the usual. So while the content was predictable, it was still earnest and inspiring (unless you were a righty who just wanted to hear “Copperhead Road”, then it was probably annoying but that’s your tough beans). He actually didn’t talk as much as I’d expected or wanted, he’s a very entertaining and engaging speaker, but maybe he got a lot of that out of his system at his CMW lecture earlier in the day. I would have liked to hear him go off on Kim Campbell, though.

Thankfully, while the aesthetics of the Palais Royale may have been a little disappointing, the sound wasn’t – everything came through loud and clear and the sightlines were okay though the crowd was unusually tall. Actually, they were just plain unusual. With the banquet hall-ish venue, it was like a redneck wedding. I saw people drinking to excess, smoking up, getting into fights and generally being rowdy and rude. I’ve never been unceremoniously shoved aside at a show so many times in my life. It’s a whooole different sort of concert ettiquite at these shows, lemme tell ya. But I do thank them for making me feel really young for a change. Median age of the crowd must have been around 40-something. But except for the occasional jostle, no one really bugged me excessively. Except for the guy standing beside me who thought he was edifying everyone around him but declaring very loudly, “He’s a troubadour! A hardcore troubadour!”, over and over again. He ran out of material after a little while and settled for being one of the really loud “Whoo!!!!” guys. Dick.

No photos. Though I did smuggle the camera in, I really wasn’t in the mood to fight my way through the crowd up to the front, so I took, as they say, the night off. Sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and enjoy the music.

The Boston Herald talks to M Ward about the death of radio. From LHB.

It’s a special “goodbye” issue of CBC Radio 3 web magazine this week as they fold up shop after 105 issues. Publicairwaves.ca reports on the official reasoning for folding the publication and Soulshine ponders just what it means. Who knows, maybe the new site, in whatever form it eventually takes, will be just as good or better. But in the meantime, we’ll just be a little sad.

It’s been blogged everywhere already, but it’s good so I’ll join the pile-on. Superman is a dick.

np – A Girl Called Eddy / A Girl Called Eddy

Exclaim! has a short piece on Kathleen Edwards and her new album Back To Me, which came out this Tuesday. It’s a very short piece. The photo is actually bigger than the copy. Chart also has a piece, and it’s longer but the photo is smaller. Also – pieces from West Coast Music, and Metro, which asks her about her first job. Yeah, top-notch journalism. There’s also a nice feature on Edwards in the latest issue of Harp. And you can listen to clips of the new album online at here, courtesy of her label. She plays the Mod Club on April 7. Yeah, I mentioned that earlier this week but sometimes I like to repeat myself.

And for some more Canuck content – Popmatters interviews Amy Millan of Stars about a lot of the same stuff they talked about when they made the Canadian press rounds last Fall, but one tidbit revealed is that her solo album, Honey From The Tombs, will finally be getting a release in June. Or so they say. Umbrella Music also has an interview with Amy, though I’m not certain how old it is.

Being There has a chat with Ambrosia Parsley of Shivaree, the lucky bastards. From the looks of the photos, it would appear that they were sitting almost next to me at the Lula Lounge shows last month. From Largehearted Boy.

The video for the new Ambulance LTD single “Stay Where You Are” shows hip and beautiful New Yorkers doing hip and beautiful New York things.

Shows for this year’s Over The Top Fest, taking place May 5th through the 8th, are starting to be announced. Already I will be at Sneaky Dee’s on May 5 to see Matt Pond PA and By Divine Right. The OTTFest always has interesting and eclectic bills, so I can see my weekend filling up fairly quickly thanks to this.

The St Petersburg Times digs on Mogwai. Via LHB.

Metafilter loves them some shoegaze. Thanks to Consolation Champs for the link. Speaking of which, a reminder that the monthly Miasma shoegaze night goes down at SpaHa tonight. Great tunes, expensive drinks. If you go, get loaded at home first. I will probably stop by after seeing Steve Earle tonight.

Check out Tiny Showcase, an independent art showcase and store from the good folks behind Slatch and 75 Or Less.

np – Matt Pond PA / Emblems

There’s been a lot of chatter on the Big Takeover mailing list of late about The Chameleons (UK) and their influence on the current crop of early 80s-influenced bands and their general under-appreciatedness in the grand scheme of things. If they paid royalties for copping styles, then the biggest cheques would be coming from Interpol – there’s parts of Turn On The Bright Lights that are just uncanny and are probably why I prefer the debut to Antics. You can also hear their influence on obvious acts like hometown followers The Stone Roses and not-so-obvious ones like Pernice Brothers (Joe Pernice is an avowed fanatic of 80s UK indie stuff – they did an excellent cover of the Chameleons’ “Up The Down Escalator” which I posted a couple years ago). Anyway, since sometimes all you have to do is mention the name of a band to get me on a jag, I’ve been listening to a lot of Chameleons lately…

Coming out of Manchester in the early 1980s, it could be argued they laid the groundwork for almost every guitar band to come out of the UK for the next twenty years… but of course they never get the respect they deserve for it. The chiming, intertwined guitar lines of Dave Fielding and Reg Smithies still sound incredibly fresh and innovative today, and Mark Burgess’ vocals might sound a little over-dramatic in their earnestness, but they fit the huge, dreamy, anthemic sound of the Chameleons perfectly. The production on their first three studio albums is unforunately rather dated by today’s standards (hey, it was the Eighties), but the songs are still amazing. The band split in 1986 after releasing their major-label debut, Strange Times, though the releases kept coming post-mortem in the form of live records and sundry compilations.

Then, proving they were yet again ahead of the curve, they announced their reunion in January of 2000 for a handful of low-key gigs in England that drew fans from all around the world. Building on the enthusiastic response, they turned it into a full-on reunion and world tour, even releasing a new album – Why Call It Anything? – that featured their trademark sound and trademark awful cover artwork. While not their best work, it was far from an embaressment and showed that some of the old magic still remained. Unfortunately, so did some of the old acrimony and the band split again in 2003 after a few productive years. I wouldn’t say I was surprised to hear it – while their show at the Phoenix in October of 2002 was excellent, there was definitely some tension apparent onstage between the band members. While Burgess was obviously loving being the frontman again, Reg and Dave looked pretty grumpy. Since the second split, all have gone back to their solo projects and while saying they’re done for good is obviously overly final, the nastiness of the schism was pretty public (god bless the internet) and there’d have to be some pretty major reconciliations to get the boys back together again.

While their first two albums, Script Of The Bridge and What Does Anything Mean? Basically are technically out of print, they’re not impossible to find if you look. If any records were crying out for a deluxe reissue, it’s these. On the other hand, their third album, Strange Times, is incredibly easy to find – I think HMV sells it for like $6 or something. If you come across it and are at all curious, you won’t regret it, it’s a glorious record. The quality of the various live records varies. I have Tripping Dogs, which is basically a recording of a rehearsal, and while it’s interesting, it’s not especially revelatory or of exceptional sound quality. The Live In Toronto disc, recorded by Big Takeover editor Jack Rabid from a radio broadcast of a show at the old RPM club in 1987, sounds decent and I’m fond of it for obvious reasons. Ain’t many live albums recorded in our fair city. Here’s a track from that record:

MP3: The Chameleons – “Swamp Thing” (live in Toronto, 1987)

MTV lays slavish praise at the feet of some other legendary Mancunians, New Order. Via Whatevs.

And Torr reports that the current kings of Manchester, Doves, are releasing a live album on April 26. Live at Eden will present the same 2002 show that was featured on the Where We’re Calling From DVD… That’s the only portion of the DVD that I haven’t watched yet. Torr also points to this live acoustic performance video of the next single from Some Cities, “Snowden”.

A Girl Called Eddy is this week’s NOW cover story as they preview her show on Sunday at the Horseshoe with Keren Ann as well as her in-store at Soundscapes that afternoon at 4PM. And yes, there’s the requisite Joanie Loves Chachi joke. I’m sure she’s punched someone out for that before.

It’s Canadian Music Week. If you want to get out and partake in the festivities, NOW has their picks of all the showcases. eye is a little more expansive in their coverage, including a cover story on Great Lake Swimmers, but they would be – they’re a sponsor.

And anyone who can’t make it to see the A Northern Chorus/Raising The Fawn/Damon & Naomi showcase at the El Mocambo tonight will get another chance as the same bill will be touring together next month and will play The Drake on April 7.

Catbirdseat seems to think that the “Special guests” slot at the end of the Merge SxSW showcase (March 17 @ The Parish) will be going to a certain freshly-reformed Jurrasic-ally named band… I hadn’t even thought about that. Hmmmm. HOORAY FOR RUMOUR-MONGERING! Note – this is pure speculation and is based in no hard fact whatsoever.

Did a little archive-checking yesterday… I know that I had a pretty good consecutive-day posting streak going, but shee-it. Check it out – last time I missed a post was January 25 and 26 of last year, when I was in Vegas. Then before that, August 16 2003 which was the big-ass blackout. Then before that, May 10, 2003 (for no particular reason I can recall). But besides that, I’ve been rock-solid since around December 1, 2002. Four days out of twenty-seven months. I feel like I should have one of those workplace safety signs up proclaiming, “400 days without having anything better to do”. I think that’s worthy of equal parts awe and pity. No two ways about it, I have got to get a life.

np – Pernice Brothers / Nobody’s Listening