Billboard has all the details on the new Son Volt album. The bizarrely-titled Okemah And The Melody Of Riot will be coming out on July 12 in DualDisc format. This will be my first DualDisc! How very exciting. The band will be in Europe for most of the Summer but are planning a proper North American tour for the Fall.

And for those who refuse to acknowledge the new lineup as Son Volt, there’s the previously reported release of Son Volt’s A Retrospective: 1995-2000 (See the artwork) on May 24 courtesy of Rhino. The 20 tracks are split right down the middle, half of them previously released album tracks and the other half b-sides/unreleased goodies. Which means that even if I ignore the 10 tracks I already own on the albums, there’s still about an album’s worth of material that I don’t have. Very canny. And finally, May 10 sees the release of the band’s 1997 appearance on Austin City Limits on DVD.

For The Records points out that the calendar for this Summer’s Harbourfront Festivals is up, and something called “T.O. Twang: All Things Alt Country” will be happening August 12 through 14… Now why does that weekend sound familiar? Oh yeah, my brother’s getting married that weekend. I don’t really need to be there for that, do I?

I’m a little disappointed in The Onion AV Club for deeming The Decemberists as a “fresh face eager for stardom”. Which is not to say that Colin Meloy & co don’t have fresh faces nor that they aren’t eager for stardom, but come on – they just released their third album and are hardly a “new” band on the scene. This is the sort of thing I expect from, say, the Grammies, but I expect The Onion to be a little more on top of things than this. Still, nice interview.

Royal City will release a b-sides/rarities compilation later this year entitled I Will Always Sing These Songs. 411 from Catbirdseat. Update: Five Seventeen has some more info on what you might be expecting to find on this comp – speculative tracklists, etc.

SubPop has made available for your viewing pleasure the new Shins video for “Pink Bullets”. Shins blah blah Sunday blah blah Kool Haus blah blah. From You Ain’t No Picasso.

More Cowbell has the first of the Dinosaur Jr reunion tour dates for North America. Well, America, anyway. No Canadian dates but I can’t help but notice a conspicuous 4-day gap between the Boston and Cleveland shows. That’s just enough time to zip north of the border, no? Also, Dino Jr are on the Late Late Show tonight. Either TIVO that shiznit or just stay in on a Friday night (there’s nothing wrong with that!) and watch it live.

And finally, something near and dear to everyone’s hearts – boobs. Apparently for every click through on www.thebreastcancersite.com, you’re helping fund free mammograms for underprivileged women. Hoax-Slayer.com says it’s legit. Certainly can’t hurt either way, right? Thanks to Gary for the tip.

np – Luna / Bewitched

This is my first and probably only Bloc Party post. There is absolutely nothing of substance I can add to the hype maelstrom that currently swirls around this band. I just got Silent Alarm this week – the one or two songs I’d really listened to were alright and it was cheap, so why not? Here’s a play-by-play.

First listen – not impressed. Kind of annoyed, actually. “So Here We Are”, one of the tracks that convinced me to buy it, is still the standout.

Second listen – a couple more of the songs begin to sink in. Annoyance levels decreasing. I hear a flash of some Chameleons influence, which pleases me.

Third listen – Okay, this isn’t bad. Still a little too frantic/yelpy for me to love and the guy sounds more like Damon Albarn than Robert Smith, but whatever. I guess 90s reference points aren’t hip yet, so we’ll stay in the 80s.

Fourth listen – I think we’ve hit a leveling off point. It’s alright, I don’t mind it at all, I’ll probably keep it. I think I prefer it to last year’s Bloc Pary, Franz Ferdinand (or are Bloc Party this year’s Franz Ferdinand? I get so confused). Overall, it seems to have more depth, shelf life. I like the guitarwork.

And that’s all. If you want more Bloc Party pics/reviews/interviews/hype, step outside, swing a stick. However, they do get mad props from me for wearing a Six By Seven t-shirt in their promo photo. Respect. For that, I will post an mp3 – this one appeared as a b-side on a few releases was put out as a proper single pre-Silent Alarm. I like it.

MP3: Bloc Party – “Tulips”

NOW asks The Shins how Garden State changed their lives, namely allowing them to sell out almost every date on their North American tour, including Sunday’s show at the Kool Haus.

eye previews M83’s show at Lee’s Palace on Tuesday.

Check out the cover art (small, I know Thanks to Catbirdseat for the high-res goodness) for the new Pernice Brothers record, Discover A Lovelier You, out June 14. Also noteworthy is Joe’s pirate-riffic beard. See it in person when he plays a solo show at the Horseshoe on May 4.

Looking to add a little twang to your life? Neko Case is back in town July 7 at Harbourfront Centre and The Sadies are playing a show somewhere in the city on August 12. If you can’t wait that long, see them with Robyn Hitchcock at Lee’s Palace on May 28.

I was in Penguin Music yesterday after work and saw MuchMusic doing an interview segment with two of the guys from The Bravery. Whilst counting up the number of times the interviewer called them, their music and their videos “awesome”, I thought about yelling, “Bravery suck! Killers rule!” but decided against it as the singer guy probably would have caught up with me and poked out an eye with his silly little mohawk.

np – Neil Young & Crazy Horse / Zuma

Aimee Mann is releasing her fifth solo album, The Forgotten Arm, on May 3 and the media machine is getting warmed up for her. The Guardian talks to her about boxing and Southern rock, while Salon (via The Toronto Star (bugmenot: danshack49@yahoo.ca / 123456)) talked to Mann at SxSW about the new album. The Star seems to have some problems with line breaks…

The Forgotten Arm, a 70s-themed concept album about love and pugilism, is Mann’s first since 2002’s somewhat disappointing Lost In Space (not counting last year’s live album set). Previously, each of her albums involved some sort of radical reinvention – Whatever‘s pop classicism gave way to I’m With Stupid‘s harder alt-rock edge, which in turn was traded in for the adult sophistication of the breakthrough Magnolia soundtrack and its proper companion album, Bachelor No 2. Space offered up more of the same, but the songwriting seemed to be treading water. While cynicism and emotional detachment had become Mann’s stock-in-trade, she just sounded bored now. It was as if now that her much-documented battles with the major label system were over and she’d found her artistic independence, the fight had left her. I was pleased that the material from Live At St. Ann’s Warehouse seemed to recapture some of that energy, at least in the more muscular band arrangements. Hopefully The Forgotten Arm continues that trend.

Of course, it’s easy enough to find out – the whole of the new record is now available to stream off her website. Or if you don’t want to spoil the new album experience but still want a taste, but you can download an mp3 of one of the tracks here:

MP3: Aimee Mann – “Dear John”

PopTones recently posed their Questions Of Doom to Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake. He talks about the making of Man-Made, Alan McGee and how the Fannies will always be inexorably linked with Nirvana. I think this piece dates back to last Fall, but it’s still a good read. Man-Made gets a North American release on June 7.

New City Chicago talks to James Mercer of The Shins, who play a sold-out show at the Kool Haus this Sunday. Link via Largehearted Boy.

Keren Ann is back in Toronto on June 25 at an indeterminate venue… her website says she’s playing “The Toronto Star Stage”, which either means a festival of some kind, or the cafeteria at the newspaper’s offices. More details as they become known. Update: Looks like she’ll be performing at the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival.

New York’s Enon and Detroit’s Thunderbirds Are Now! are in Toronto at a venue to be determined June 11. Thunderbirds are also here May 7 at Sneaky Dee’s as part of the Over The Top festival.

np – M83 / Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts

In the two and a half odd years I’ve been writing this blog, I don’t think that it’s really come across how much I like Yo La Tengo. It’s mostly a matter of timing – they’ve been fairly quiet since 2002, only releasing one proper album in that time (it in itself fairly quiet) and that was before I was really writing much at all. As such, I haven’t had opportunity to pen any love letters to Hoboken’s finest.

But now is as good a time as any, what with the band celebrating twenty years of making wonderful music and releasing their Prisoners Of Love compilation album. Although I’ve got all their albums, I wanted this one as well since it came with a bonus disc of rarities and YLT are so wildly eclectic as a band that a portable edition of their catalog would be quite handy (although I probably could have made my own. Whatever). Happily, there’s enough tracks on the main double-disc set that I don’t have (“Shaker”, “Nuclear War”) that it’s still an interesting listen, and not just a walk down memory lane. To call it a “greatest hits” disc is a little silly since bands like Yo La Tengo don’t really have hits… The obvious poppier favourites like “Tom Courtenay” and “Sugarcube” rub elbows with free-form noise skronks and beautifully quiet folkier numbers. You’ll not find a band more difficult to pigeonhole, yet possessing such an unimstakable sonic personality.

The bonus disc (which I paid a premium for, yes) doesn’t contain anything revelatory. It’s a mix of unreleased and rare stuff, done up in the same eclectic mix of styles as the main compilation. The highlights so far are the Georgia-sung reworkings of “Tom Courtenay” and the acoustic “Decora”, though that might just be because the songs are already familiar favourites. Ask me again in a month or so, I might have completely different favourites.

I’ve seen Yo La Tengo live a couple times, and have to confess I wasn’t blown away either time. With so large a catalog at their disposal, set lists can obviously be a complete crapshoot. I enjoyed the first show I saw back in 2001 a fair bit, but was rather bored in April 2003 when they were touring Summer Sun as they were in a particularly jammy mood and it just didn’t grab me. I skipped their last time through town, but think I’ll catch them again the next time through, whenever that is. They’re doing some sporadic touring around the world over the Summer and probably won’t have a new record out till next year at the very earliest. The last couple albums have been quite snoozy – lovely in their own way, but one does yearn for a good old fashioned sonic freak out once in a while.

Links – NJ.com covers Yo La Tengo’s annual covers benefit for WFMU wherein the band plays cover song requests in exchange for a pledge, often with hilarious results. Paste takes a look at the 20-year history of the band while Radio Free Yo La Tengo celebrates their anniversary with an online radio show. Fansite Sunquashed recently crashed and is still rebuilding, but when it’s online it’s a great resource of stuff. And longtime home Matador has a variety of audio clips and videos, including this pinnacle of awesomeness:

Video: Yo La Tengo – “Sugarcube” (RealVideo)

As promised, Ivy will be at Lee’s Palace on June 12. Astaire support.

It does me proud to be associated with Torontoist, who conducted this in-depth and revealing interview with Amy Millan of Stars. For my part, I have a slightly less profound review of Doves’ Some Cities.

Pitchfork investigates the phenomenon of musicians as bloggers and how it reflects (or distorts) their mystique as artists. In summary – John Darnielle and Momus: Good, Moby: Bad. So very bad. WHAT HAVE I BEEN SAYING FOR THE PAST YEAR?!? Gawd. Moby.

Rolling Stone talks to Death Cab For Cutie the making of their new album, Plans (due out in September), and about life in the major leagues.

Comic Book Resources reports that X-Men 3 will begin shooting in Toronto and Vancouver around July 15. The first film was shot in the GTA, the second out west. Mutants back in the Big Smoke! Woot!

24: First off… Mike Novick? How does he get another job in government? Did the new administation think, “hey, here’s a guy who betrayed a lifelong friend and was a high ranking official in the other party’s administration. I want HIM on my payroll!” Not sure if there’s really time for him to be evil, though he’s doing as good a job at being slimy as the new President is at being spineless. Now to the main story – a nice, wholly contained, tense episode. I approve. I’ll ignore the great stretch in believability that the terrorists planned to only damage Air Force One, thus dislodging the football and having it land somewhere retrievable. Because that’s a scenario that it obviously makes loads of sense to base an entire master plan on. But I digress. The endgame this season has a definite air of familiarity about it – invoking the 25th Ammendment again? More rogue nuclear warheads? Mark my words – by 7:00 AM, Jack is sawing someone’s hand off.

It’s not a nomination, but I have been deemed Webby Worthy as part of this year’s Webby Awards. What does this mean? I do not know, I guess it’s like a nice pat on the back, or one of those “participant” ribbons they gave out at science fairs. “Way to come out and not embarrass yourself! Have a cheeseburger!” Thanks. Can’t help but notice MOBY isn’t Webby Worthy…

np – Eisley / Room Noises

I’m afraid I don’t have much more to say about Mississauga’s The Empires since I saw them last back in February, at least not in terms of descriptives. Believe me, I tried to come up with something besides, “Swervedriver having a really intense conversation with Catherine Wheel in a dark room in Brooklyn at 3AM”, but I really can’t. However, I think that’s pretty complimentary so I’ll leave it at that.

Their set last night they played Wavelength, however, was much more impressive than the Horseshoe gig a month and a half ago. The sound was better, the band had more energy and the song selection seemed stronger (I’m assuming it was a different set – I don’t know their stuff that well and I can’t really A/B the two shows). I left the last show wanting to like the band but not quite being there. This time they put me over the top. Some of the songwriting is still uneven – the good songs are quite head and shoulders above the others – but it certainly bodes well when they grow into more consistency. Some photos from the show here. The projections they use at Wavelength always make for strange pictures. For more info, check out their MySpace page though the audio is the same tracks that are available on their website.

In reading the bio, I noted that their keyboardist/guitarist is Graham Walsh, also of Hamilton space-rock combo Flux AD, whom I’d long assumed to be defunct. This fansite, however, implies otherwise. I should really dust off my copy of Passive Aggressive – I seem to remember liking it a fair bit, though I never did get their second album transatlanticthoughts.

Amazon.co.uk has a good deal of detail on the forthcoming Belle & Sebastian biography This Is Just A Modern Rock Story. You may recall that they had initially said that the release of this book would coincide with the release of the band’s next record… does this mean we can look forward to a new album sometime around August 1?

A whole shitload of music video links. Via Hold My Life.

So there is no Toronto transit strike after all. While this is good for most, I suppose, it’s a little disappointing for me. Since I’m on my bike now and no longer at the mercy of streetcars and subways, the strike would have had minimal impact on my life. However, the cancellation of the strike meant that I was not able to bomb straight down the dedicated streetcar lanes on Spadina this morning as I’d planned. Too bad, it would have taken me, like, 2 minutes to get to work.

np – Archers Of Loaf / Icky Mettle