I don’t keep a list of contemporary artists for whom I would really want a box set, but if I did, Billy Bragg would surely be near the top of the list – at least for his earlier and mid-period records. I had been tempted to get the three-disc Must I Paint You A Picture? compilation a couple years ago but held off, not really wanting the more recent material.

Now with Pitchfork reporting that Yep Roc will be reissuing his first four albums as double-disc reissues, individually and as a seven-disc box set which also includes a concert DVD, I have to consider if this is archive I’ve been waiting for. I find Bragg’s early discography to be a wee bit muddled – His first two albums (Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy and Brewing Up) were already collected on the Back To Basics set while the third album, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, is available individually or in double-album format with fourth album Worker’s Playtime on the Victim Of Geography collection, which is what I’ve got.

So with Yep Roc releasing the first two albums as individual entities along What does it mean? I don’t know, I’m already confused. How do four individual double-disc sets combine into a 7-disc box set, including a bonus DVD? Something getting lost in the compiling? Or maybe Pitchfork’s math is off, I don’t know – I can’t find a proper press release that might shed some more light on exactly what the reissue configurations will be… Naturally, it’s the bonus materials that will decide whether or not these are worth getting, but I’d like to be reasonably economical in making the stuff I’ve already got redundant.

Billboard reports that in addition to the In The Reins collaborative EP with Iron & Wine due out on September 20, Calexico will be releasing their follow-up to 2003’s Feast Of Wire in the Spring of next year. They’re also doing some touring through the Summer that will bring them to Canada, but they’re going the wrong way up the 401 with stops in Ottawa and Quebec City. Alas. Calexico are one of my very favourite live bands – I hope the In The Reins tour comes through Hogtown.

Also in Billboard – not a whole lot of new information about the new Sigur Ros album. It will be out in September, narrowed down a bit from the Fall window they’d announced previously, and lyrics are written in Icelandic this time, rather than their usual made-up language of Hopelandish. This, of course, means that their songs will be precisely 0% more comprehensible to me. Excellent.

If you, like me, are feeling a Brian Eno-sized hole in your musical education, mayhap this primer/timeline courtesy of Exclaim will be just the thing to get you started.

Not a concert, per se, but sure to be a hot ticket regardless – Pollstar has The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart is coming to town for a stand-up gig at Massey Hall on October 7. Tickets go on sale Monday and will run you $55.50 to $79.50.

Tiny Mix Tapes rattles off ten things that made them (collectively) want to be rock stars. Rather than rock writers. “Bastards Of Young”? Hell, yes.

np – Echo & The Bunnymen / Songs To Learn & Sing

So today was supposed to be the day you could go out and get a copy of Sufjan Stevens’ latest opus, Illinois, but as I reported Saturday, it’s been shelved thanks to the threat of legal action from DC Comics due to the inclusion of one Superman image on the album art.

As a result, Asthmatic Kitty has ended online sales and recalled all copies of CDs already shipped to stores. The Big Ticket has got a nice, concise summary of the story thus far, including links to commentary from around blog-ville and links to an interview with Sufjan by Dusted in happier, pre-recall times. He also has a link to an MP3 of the song for which this post is titled really, the song that’s the impetus for all this legal kerfuffleing. Big Ticket, we salute you.

MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts”

Of course, if shops have already sold copies, there’s naught to be done, but if you haven’t already gotten one, you’ll have to wait until August 2 for the new versions with the Supes-less artwork. I expect they’ll just replace the booklets in the already-pressed CD packages… hmm, opening thousands of sealed CDs and swapping booklets? Sounds like someone’s going to be hiring some interns… So yeah, while you can’t buy the album until its new release date of August 2, you CAN buy this sharp poster featuring Sufjan and his Illinoisemakers (née The Michigan Militia).

And as I’ve said before, the album is marvelous and still worth the wait (easy for me to say since I’ve already got a copy, yeah). I’d only had Seven Swans to this point and was surprised by the lush orchestration of the 50 States albums (I assume Michigan is similar in treatment – I’ll have a copy of that one this week), considering how spare and meditative Seven Swans was. Both are so very pretty, but in very different ways. I tell ya, that Stevens boy. He’s got game. Pitchfork concurs.

The new Big Star album has a title – In Space. It’s in stores August 23. I heard one of the tracks off of it yesterday – it was alright, I’m still not really sure what I can reasonably expect from this record. Has Alex Chilton done anything really worthwhile since the Third/Sister Lovers session? Is there any reason to believe that just because he’s calling it Big Star again, that he can find his muse? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Magnet’s featured artist of the month is Aimee Mann.

A Silver Mount Zion are going to be at the Tranzac Club for a three-night stand running July 27, 28 and 29, tickets $10 per night. Now I don’t know ASMZ and I know they’re not GYBE!, but would being a fan of the latter mean that I’d necessarily like the former, or would it just leave me confused and disappointed? Because I can do that without their help.

np – Northern Picture Library / Alaska

Where I come from (and where I went to university for engineering), a band that called themselves “Engineers” would probably be a couple guys with acoustic guitars who, in between covers of The Tragically Hip (or cover, singular, because they only ever bothered to learn “50 Mission Cap”) would slip in inspired originals extolling the virtues of boat racing and Labatt 50. I guess in Britain, from whence Engineers come, the word is not loaded down with such baggage. Instead, if the London four-piece has anything to say about it, the word will henceforth connotate immense cathedrals of sound – stately, solemn and beautiful. Not a backwards baseball cap in sight.

Temptations to lump them in with whatever nu-gaze movement is going on at the moment should be avoided, though. While they would certainly appeal to the same sort of eye-contact avoidant fanbase, Engineers draw more from a more atmospheric wellspring of inspiration – more Mark Hollis than Kevin Shields. In fact, sonically their self-titled debut is almost crystalline in its cleanliness. Those seeking walls of fuzz would do well to keep walking. Simon Phipps’ voocals are suitably hushed and dreamy but are mixed well in front so as to still have enough have more weight than you might expect. Only album closer “One In Seven” reaches for any level of bombast, and it’s done quite well – I hope they aspire to produce a more dynamic set with future records. As it is, however, the steady pace and consistent mood feel like a deliberate statement rather than an inability to rock out.

The album was released in the UK in March and in North America at the end of June. Reviews have been quite positive. You can check out some samples at their MySpace page or grab this mp3, courtesy of Insound.

MP3: Engineers – “Come In Out Of The Rain”

You also get an mp3 of a b-side if you sign up for their mailing list.

The New York Daily News talks to Jay Farrar about the road to and influences informing the new Son Volt record Okemah And The Melody Of Riot, out next week. Link via Largehearted Boy.

Happy Fourth of July to Fourth-Of-July-celebrating people. And happy first- day- back- at- work- after- a- long- weekend to Canadians. Gawd. Since everyone is on holiday, there is pretty much no news to report on. So… go back to sleep. I am.

np – Spoon / Gimme Fiction

With 2005 officially half over, I’m going to do the music blogger clip-episode equivalent and get on the “favourite albums of 2005 so far” bandwagon. Will these albums necessarily be on the year-end list? Maybe, maybe not. There could end up being ten spectacular records that come out between now and December that push these ones into runner-up position, or I could just get really sick of these. Who really knows? But for now, these are the five records released this year that have worked themselves into my playlist and cranium the most. I’m keeping it brief, though. Alphabetical order, not ranked.

The Decemberists / Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars) – Like a new work from a favourite author, Picaresque doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the Decemberists’ table, but more of the same from Meloy & co. will suit me just fine.

Doves / Some Cities (EMI) – If this list were ranked, this would be number five. Not as consistent top to bottom as I’d like, but when it hits, it’s magnificent. Songs like “Black & White Town”, “Snowden” and “Ambition”, for starters, are enough to elevate any album to at least some degree of greatness.

Low / The Great Destroyer (SubPop) – A change of scenery does Duluth’s finest some good. A new label, a new producer, and a new direction that revitalizes the band without abandoning any of the traits that made them special in the first place.

The Mountain Goats / The Sunset Tree (4AD) – (Too) much has been written about the autobiographicalness of John Darneille’s latest opus. All that matters is that whether it’s informed by memory or imagination, he makes you feel it. Truly a heartbreaking work of staggering genius (what, is that phrase played out?) and maybe his best work yet. And that’s saying something.

The Wedding Present / Take Fountain (Manifesto) – Dave Gedge has always been at his best writing tales of lovers jilted, jilting or just getting randy, so how does he find inspiration for the first album under the Wedding Present moniker in some eight years? By drawing on the dissolution of his relationship with longtime girlfriend Sally Murrell to create one of the Weddoes’ best records of any era, and certainly the most personal and heartfelt.

And since I’ve only had it a few days, it’s not really fair to include it in the list proper, but Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois will almost certainly be a shoo-in for the final list in December (check out You Ain’t No Picasso’s interview with Sufjan). I’m sure there’s other stuff that came out in the past six months that would have made the list if I’d only gotten around to getting a copy before now, I will try to have a reasonably comprehensive sample group by year’s end, which usually means a shopping frenzy of some sort in late November/early December.

Hall Monitor is the new hangout of Paul from The Rub, and his inaugural post is his half-year review of 2005.

Being There also plays the list game with their 10 best music movies ever. We’re talking non-fiction, so there is no This Is Spinal Tap, much to Liam Gallagher’s confusion.

So Live 8 was a success? Everyone happy? Awareness heightened? Good, I’m glad for you. Really I am. I somehow managed to sleep through the whole thing. All 20 hours of it. Yeah. Okay, I actually saw the very very end with everyone onstage singing “Oh Canada” – please tell me Motley Crue took part. Please please please.

Thanks to everyone who entered my Doves contest – I will try to contact the winners in the next day or two, as soon as I figure out how to randomly select winners. Things learned from this contest – next time, database the entrants so that it’s easier to sort through.

np – Brakes / Give Blood

Some of Canada hoariest music veterans will be gathering in Barrie today to represent the grizzled, craggy, pockmarked face (hi Bryan!) of Canadian rock for the Live 8 shindigs. Last night, however, my nominee for the best new face of Canadian music – one Ms Leslie Feist, born in the Alberta, based in Toronto and inspired by the French – took the stage at Harbourfront Centre in front of upwards of 2000 people (my totally unfounded estimates) to celebrate Canada’s birthday.

Backed by a full band and a variety of guest performers including Broken Social Scene co-conspirator and opener on this evening, Andrew Whiteman from Apostle Of Hustle, Feist’s set blended slower, torchy ballads with uptempo, groove-heavy numbers and a healthy dollop of good-humoured banter and storytelling. Even in a big outdoor venue, Feist had the charisma to make it feel like an intimate club gig and actually managed to make Canada Day sexy. Performing her slow-burning “Intuition” while the fireworks went off across the lake at Ontario Place, it felt like the explosions were going off in slow motion. Magnificent.

I was waaaaay way way in back for this one so I’m surprised I got the photos I did. I’m sure there will be far, far better ones circulating soon enough. Or check out my past ones.

Laura Cantrell tells Being There about the making of Humming By The Flowered Vine.

Chart talks to The Futureheads. I appear to be incapable of coming up with an interesting lead-in sentence to Futureheads links.

Franz Ferdinand have announced the dates of their North American tour in support of their second eponymous album, out October 4. It includes a stop at the Ricoh Colisseum in Toront on October 18. Goodness, was it just a couple years ago that I saw them in the Horseshoe? They grow up so fast. More tour dates at Dreams Of Horses and Billboard gets the low-down from Alex Kapranos on what to expect on the new album (besides the same artwork as the first one).

Anyone who’s already got copies of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois would do well to hang onto them… they’ve had to recall all copies from retailers just before its scheduled release date this Tuesday. Apparently someone wasn’t real happy with their use of a certain “Man Of Metropolis” on the cover art and got all lawyer-y on Sufjan’s label. Here’s the revised artwork – I can’t seem to find a pic of the original art online, man those lawyers move fast. I unexpectedly got a promo copy of the album on Thursday in addition to the one I preordered and which is in the mail, meaning I will have an extra copy of the original artwork editions. Naturally, I will sell it to the highest bidder. No offers under five figures, please.

Oh, and the album is fantastic. Hopefully it won’t be delayed for long.

np – Sufjan Stevens / Illinois