I owe the good people at Disney my thanks a) for making all of Hayao Miyazaki’s films available in North America and b) doing a good enough job with them that I’m not embaressed to watch the dubbed versions. Case in point – Porco Rosso. I found the voice acting from Michael Keaton, Cary Elwes and Kimberly Williams as well as the translated script to be thoroughly enjoyable on its own merits, and wish I understood French so I could have watched the French version with Jean Reno in the lead role.

Porco Rosso is a bit of a departure for Miyazaki as it’s a pretty straight comedy with none of the weighty themes or high fantasy of most of his other work. Porco Rosso is an ace seaplane pilot based in the Adriatic in the 1920s. He’s working as a bounty hunter, wanted by the Italian air force for desertion and oh yeah, he’s a pig. A group of seaplane pirates enlist an ace American pilot of their own to take down the flying pig, forcing him to enlist some help of his own in the form of a genius airplane engineer (who happens to be a teenage girl – first rule of Miyazaki, there will always be a heroic teenage girl). Dogfights, boxing matches and general hijinks ensue.

I really liked Porco Rosso, probably because it was so lighthearted and funny. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoy Miyazaki’s weightier works, but sometimes some straight fun is just what the doctor ordered. There’s more reading on the film to be had at Nausicaa.net. I believe this leaves me with just My Neighbour Totoro and this year’s Howl’s Moving Castle to see of Miyazaki’s full-length features.

The new Posies album is called Every Kind of Light and is out June 28. There’s a clip of a new song off the album here.

Dressy Bessy release their new album Electrified on June 14 and will be touring to support this Summer. Boo to using Java applets on their website – come on, what year is this? Fluxblog has an mp3 from their last self-titled album and manages to spark up a discussion about Belly’s King, an album much beloved by myself. Album info from Delusions Of Adequacy.

Video footage of Wilco performing “I’m A Wheel” in London. From Hold My Life.

Following up from yesterday… more videos! Both these production houses are based right here in Toronto and have produced some terrific stuff. Check out Plates Animation and watch the video for Arcade Fire’s wonderfully Triplets Of Belleville-ish “Neighbourhoods #3 (Power Out)” clip, as well as vids for The Shins and Mogwai. And also visit Ghostmilk to see part of the video for Broken Social Scene’s “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl”… Anyone know where I could find the whole thing online? 517 also recommends Spy Entertainment for your high-res video viewing needs.

Update: Thanks to Tab for providing a hookup for the BSS video – click here.

I had the strangest dream last night. I dreamt the apartment building in which I was living broke off its foundations, slid down through the city (which was built on a very steep embankment) and fell into a 50-storey deep crevice, taking with it all my material goods. Apparently my subconsciousness hates the idea of moving even more than my consciousness does.

Early post! Got a meeting off-site this morning.

np – British Sea Power / Open Season

Today, I direct you to Magnacyd.com, the website for video director George Vale. Sort of the unofficial Arts & Crafts director, there’s high-res clips there for Broken Social Scene, Stars and Feist, among others.

Most I’ve linked to before, though probably in lossier formats. This is a nice page to just browse and watch the vids. The Broken Social Scene promo short is especially cool – it’s interesting to see them making You Forgot It In People, unknown and unbearded (for the most part), just making music with no idea of what they were about to unleash upon the world. Hopefully the site will be updated soon, as there’s at least one new Stars video in the can.

Also check out the video section of Feist’s website – they have her performance on the Juno awards a few weeks ago (where she remained unflappable when the PA cut out for a few moments) as well as her acceptance speech for the Best New Artist award. Note that you can increase the size of the site content with the little magnifying glass in the bottom right corner. And if anyone can figure out exactly what you’re supposed to do with that “vr” link, you’re a smarter person than me.

And on a lark, I checked ebay for what copies of Feist’s first album Monarch are going for… $100+ CDN. Holy shit, I knew I shoulda grabbed a copy from the cutout bin at Chapters a couple years ago. Metric need to become bigger so I can sell that Emily Haines solo record I’ve got and put a down payment on a house.

And finally, Japan Times previews the upcoming Canadian Wet invasion tour of Osaka and Tokyo, introducing readers to the unique dynamic that is the Scene and extended family. Torquil Campbell and Brendan Canning provide commentary.

And if you want some non-A&C video goodness, check out the new Doves vid for “Snowden”, courtesy of NME (via Poptart).

np – Teenage Fanclub / Thirteen

So what is this? Get Arrested? It looks like a Fox-maintained site, and it says that Arrested Development is back this Summer – what’s up with that? Reruns? Like that’s going to satisfy anyone… Is this their way of telling us it’s been renewed, or are they just taunting us? Philly.com wonders exactly what the deal with the “loyalty oath” is. Via Bradley’s Almanac.

It took me two or three days to getting around to watching the season finale from this past Sunday. I couldn’t help noticing, a little sadly, that they made a point of wrapping up all the plot threads to some degree, such that if they didn’t get renewed there wouldn’t be any cliffhangers dangling for all eternity. If, as the cynic in me expects, Fox declines to renew it (ASSHATS!), I would hope that someone like HBO would jump in and pick up the show, even though that means that I’d have to bit torrent it since I don’t get HBO up here (nor do I have the pay-tv channels that would carry it domestically). It would be a complete travesty of justice if they didn’t. Complete and utter.

Matador celebrates the 20th anniversary of one of their flagship artists by commissioning a very special tribute – Yo La Tengo Breakout. It’s harder than it looks, especially when you’ve got the two balls going at once, but that Ace Tone isn’t going to save itself. Via Largehearted Boy.

A couple show announcements – Montreal’s Dears are at the Phoenix June 10 and Seattle instrumental post-rock outfit Kinski tour through Lee’s Palace on August 20.

The geekosphere is all abuzz about the first official image of Brandon Routh as Superman, and the buzz is not unlike the sound of a swarm of angry bees. My first reaction? Gads, that looks bad. The small insignia looks dumb – it draws attention to the fact that it’s a big-ass leotard. The reds are horribly muted and almost brown, though some speculate that’s to make digital enhancement in post-production easier. And the little insignia on the belt? Pure cheese. One of the commenters over at The Beat has colour-corrected the image and resized the insignia, and it looks much better (though they left in the silly belt). I’m still willing to give Bryan Singer the benefit of the doubt that he’s putting together a decent film, but I would have liked a better first impression.

Scanning the TV guide for next week, I see the following in the description for Monday’s 24: “Chloe is forced into field duty”. Oh God oh God oh God.

np – The Sadies / Stories Often Told

I suspect that Mystery & Misery and Labrador Records are in cahoots to make me broke. Earlier this year, Jason turned me onto The Radio Dept (Aside – Dear Radio Dept: Please come to Canada. I will make you waffles. Love, Frank), and now with this post, I’ve discovered the joys of Douglas Heart (note – no one in the band is named “Douglas Heart”. It’s either a reference to the original JAMC bassist or the pulmonary system of King Robert the Bruce of Scotland).

I like Jason’s comment that they sound like a loud Sundays. That’s a good starting point, but Malin Dahlberg’s voice is more melancholy and wearied than Harriet Wheeler’s. It’s probably too obvious a comparison, and maybe it’s just the Swedish accent that I’m hearing, but her voice reminds me far more of Nina Persson on the later-era Cardigans records. Musically, Douglas Heart are a wonderful collision of 60s and 90s, with huge church organs and psychedelic guitars and trippy effects, but with a distinctly modern mid-fi/indie production sensibility. Their 2002 self-titled debut album was a little hesitant and stayed on the slower, sadder side while their 2004 EP I Could See The Smallest Things offered a more upbeat, edgier sound though only relatively speaking. Everything that made the first record great was still very much intact, but with a more self-assured presentation.

I’m a little worried that my growing addiction to all things Swedish will be hard on the pocketbook – there doesn’t appear to be as entensive a distribution system in North America for these releases as there is for, say, UK artists. Thankfully, there’s sites like Pop Polar – based right here in Toronto – that boast a fine catalog of hard-to-find records. Thanks to them, I got both the Douglas Heart album and EP for very good prices (and dropped off the same day in my mailbox, though I don’t think this is a service they can offer everyone). If you’re looking for pop imports of the more esoteric variety, I highly recommended looking through their catalog. End plug.

The only downside I see to discovering all these wonderful Swedish pop bands is that the odds of them finding their way over this way to tour is probably pretty damn slim. Though if it makes a difference, my waffle offer is open to all Swedes. But until they visit, check out this track from the EP, and if you like what you hear, there’s more excellent audio samples on the Labrador website:

MP3: Douglas Heart – “Komplex”

And for others getting bitten by the Swede-pop bug, Craig from Songs: Illinois also runs Swedes Please, a site dedicated to showcasing Swedish talent. And I’ve mentioned Hello! Surprise!, the guide to Swedish pop music before, but will do so again just because.

JAM! finds out why head Weakerthan John K Samson is so happy lately.

Check out this Quicktime clip of BBC4’s interview/profile of Doves, including a live performance of “Snowden”. The hostess has freakish cheekbones.

Poptones poses Questions of Doom to Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein. SubPop has also made available to download “Entertain”, the first single from The Woods.

Eisley are finally coming back to Toronto to play a headlining show of their own. Hooray for not having to open for bigger, more expensive bands I have no interest in seeing! The Texans will be at Lee’s Palace on June 22.

The Journal News talks to Ivy about the necessary evils of licensing their music for movies and commercials. Tickets for their June 12 show at Lee’s Palace are on sale now, $12.50.

I am sitting at home, waiting for moving boxes to be delivered. Whee.

Update: 10:54AM – still waiting. GODDAMN.

np – The Decemberists / Picaresque

Anticipation is growing for next Tuesday’s Wedding Present show at Lee’s Palace. There’s a complete concert from earlier this month in Amsterdam available to stream at FabChannel – it takes a little while to get going and the sound isn’t awesome, but it does whet the appetite (and it seems to run nicer in IE than Mozilla). Though I am concerned that Simon Cleave appears to be playing a Tom DeLonge (Blink 182) signature Strat… WTF? But there’s a whole lot of classic material in the setlist, which obviously augers well, and from Take Fountain which has become one of my favourite albums of the year so far. The band will also be performing live on The Current on Minnesota NPR this afternoon at around 3:30-4:00 EST, if you’re really keen.

Also on topic, eye has a Q&A with the band, there’s an interview at The East Bay Express and The Seattle Times finds out how Gedge’s residency in their fair town influenced Take Fountain. There’s also Something And Nothing – a pretty comprehensive fansite devoted to the works of David Lewis Gedge.

And because Manifesto was so good to make it available, here’s the first single from Take Fountain. Not new or anything, but it’s a good tune.

MP3: The Wedding Present – “Interstate 5”

Spin ran a interview with Torq Campbell of Stars last month, but I’m only finding it now. Hey, I don’t go poking around the Spin website unless I absolutely have to. There’s also a piece on the band in the new Magnet where Campbell confesses that in the band’s salad days when they were broke, he secretly took out a $10,000 loan to fly the band to England to play a couple of small shows in hopes of convincing new recruits Amy Millan and Evan Cranley that there was label interest in the band. It’s a cute story. And while you’re feeling the Stars love, check out this radio session they did for KEXP a couple weeks ago.

Stars will be taking part in the “Canadian Wet” shows in Japan next month, alongside fellow Canucks Broken Social Scene, Dears, DFA1979 and Metric. JAM! has the story of how the tour came together. This would be something to see, indeed.

And tangentially – You Ain’t No Picasso continues his string of excellent shows for download with Broken Social Scene’s 2003 radio session at KVRX. Y’ahrr, thar appear to be new songs in the setlist. Y’ahrr. And yeah, I’ve linked this before, but it’s worth reposting. Interesting that on this version of “7/4”, it’s definitely Feist taking the female vocals, whereas on another version I’ve got from a Canadian radio session, the identity of the singer isn’t nearly as obvious. I’ll have to give it another listen to see if it’s her there as well.

Jason Molina and The Magnolia Electric Co. return to Toronto August 8 for a show at a venue to be determined. What Comes After The Blues, the first proper studio album under the Magnolia Electric Co monicker was released a couple weeks ago.

Zoilus looks at the impending 20Hz message boards revolt and how the new owners, well-intentioned as they may be, totally fucked this up. eye also chips in, via blog. I’ve been watching the drama from the sidelines with great amusement – I had wanted to avoid any sort of righteously indignant knee-jerk reaction to the new ownership, but the way they’ve handled themselves has been so comically bad, it’s been a textbook example of how enrage your audience. Alls I can say is I hope they didn’t pay too much for the domain name, because in a very short while it’s going to be worthless. In the meantime, the kids begin their migration today to their new home at Stille Post.

Manic Street Preachers have released a free online EP, God Save The Manics, for anyone and everyone to enjoy. Well, anyone with Windows Media Player 9 and who isn’t running on a Mac. Very proletarian, fellas.

Check out the trailer for the new Studio Ghibli film, Howl’s Moving Castle, here. Looks like classic Miyazaki. Apparently it will be released in North America in both dubbed and subtitled versions. A nice move, but I wonder how theatres will decide which one to screen? I suspect that they’ll err on the side of caution and go with dubbed for the most part – after all, how can you pass up the collective voice talents of Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall and Billy Crystal? The North American release of the film will be June 10. Link via Popdrivel

np – Sonic Youth / Murray Street