Built To Spill has a little heart-to-heart with Billboard about why the targeted release of their new album has been pushed back from September to Spring 2006, why they’re not working with longtime producer Phil Ek for the first time, why their last album Ancient Melodies Of The Future was a letdown (says Doug Martsch – “I just wasn’t too into making Built To Spill records”) and why you shouldn’t expect Greil Marcus to write the liner notes to their box set. Playback St Louis also ran a cover story on the band last month and if you feel like taking a mosey over to your local newsstand, Under The Radar interviewed Doug Martsch as they were heading back into the studio for their current issue.

And again with the indie beards. Doug has always sported the facial hair, but now it looks like there’s a couple of squirrels growing out of his cheeks. Beards are the new soul patch.

Naturally coming just one day after my post on the band, Exclaim! has posted their cover story on Sleater-Kinney online.

Vancouver’s Salteens have been holed up in the studio the last few days recording their third album and have been keeping a recording blog while doing so. The new album is targeted for 10 songs and a running time of under half an hour, so it’s appropriate that they’re recording the whole thing in under a week. Their last one, Let Go Of Your Bad Days, was one of the finest slices of classic power pop to come out of this country in some years, so I’m pretty chuffed about the new record.

Some shows – Azure Ray’s Maria Taylor will be in town at a venue to be announced on July 22 to promote her new solo album, 11:11. Statistics support. Gallic new wave reconstructionists Nouvelles Vagues are at the Rivoli on September 16. And the Pernice Brothers show on July 18 is indeed at Lee’s Palace, tickets $12.50.

Pixies aren’t getting tired of the comeback circuit and are coming back to Toronto July 9 for a co-headlining show with Weezer at the Molson Amphitheatre, tickets $29.50 to $55, on sale next Monday. Who ever would have thought people would be reminiscing about the time they saw the Pixies play a cozy little venue like Arrow Hall?

Fellow comeback kids Dinosaur Jr tell Billboard that they won’t be playing any new stuff on their upcoming Summer tour – that doesn’t just include any freshly-written stuff, but anything post-Bug.

Stereogum reports that our very own Toronto Star is doing research for a piece on indie-yuppies and his commenters have some fun at the Great White North’s expense. What’s an indie-yuppie? Brooklyn Vegan has a quick history of the term. It seems to have originated in an interview with some chimp from Vice, but this New York Post article is the centrepiece of the… controversy? I don’t even know the proper word.

Naturally, the whole thing has sent Stereogum’s commenters into a frenzy. I might fess up to being an indie-yuppie (or a reasonably lifelike facsimile) if it wasn’t made out to be so derogatory. There’s a clueless, sheep-like mentality that seems to be associated with the label, which is amusing considering that’s sort of what I think about people who worship at the altar of Vice (yes, you in the trucker cap, too-small vintage t-shirt and/or ironic moustache, I’m looking/laughing at you), but that’s another discussion. And I sorta want to contact the person who’s writing the article – like it or not, I fit the profile but not the pathology – but that seems so… Self-promoting? Self-serving? Self-delusional? Self-loathing? Hrmm.

np – New Order / Waiting For The Sirens’ Call

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