Penny Black Music (almost) completes their set of Slowdive interviews by catching up with guitarist Christian Saville and bassist Nick Chaplin some ten years since that band’s final album, Pygmalion, which neither really contributed to in any meaningful sense (link via Bradley’s Almanac). Nick sums up the Slowdive mystique as “A good looking guy, a good looking girl and three ugly looking blokes behind them”. This piece goes nicely with Penny Music Black’s past interviews with Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead. Drummers Adrian Sell and Simon Scott should be expecting a call from PBM any day now.

These days, Christian plays in Monster Movie, which is actually quite good – definitely in keeping with the spirit of his old band. I wish there was some Mojave 3 news to update you on, but since they said work was continuing on their fifth album back in the Spring, there’s been no word on anything. I think Ed, who runs the M3 website, checks in here every once in a while – any news?

Another old Creation alumnus shoegaze-era band getting a second look is The Boo Radleys, who just put out their Find The Way Out double disc anthology. The BBC talked to Boos songwriter Martin Carr about suriving the Britpop era (everyone’s about the Britpop reminiscing these days) and getting the best-of treatment. Link via Information Leafblower.

The Guardian recounts the secret history of the Pixies. How secret? Kim Deal reveals she still lives with her parents. Via One Louder.

Rob Dickinson is now my MySpace friend. Won’t you make him yours as well?

NOW talks to Neil Young about his new album Prairie Wind from the floor of the Ryman, where he performed his first post-aneurysm shows last week.

Thanks to Prefix for pointing out this video of Calexico performing their marvelous cover of Love’s “Alone Again Or” at last year’s Austin City Limits festival, culled from their DVD document of the whole festival.

PopMatters finally gets around to publishing an interview with Joe Pernice conducted waaaay back in April.

Ryan Adams tells Billboard that anyone spreading rumours the Cardinals have split up “can go fuck themselves”. The swearing means he’s really emphatic about this – passionate, even. His next album September (née Jacksonville City Nights – the article doesn’t even manage to keep it straight) is out September 27.

It’s a Bay Area Golden State invasion when The Warlocks and The Gris Gris hit Lee’s Palace on October 18.

np – Okkervil River / Down The River Of Golden Dreams

With Superchunk on the back burner indefinitely, Mac McCaughan has turned former side project Portastatic into his primary creative outlet. It’s no coincidence that each successive Portastatic album released after the last Superchunk record (2001’s Here’s To Shutting Up) sounds more and more like a ringer for Superchunk. Whereas the older albums were a catch-all for McCaughan’s musical experiments outside the Superchunk mould, 2001’s excellent Summer Of The Shark and its companion mini-album Autumn Was A Lark were fully realized rock records that could stand shoulder to shoulder with anything his day job released in the past decade. It’s a trend that continues with his/their latest record, Bright Ideas, which came out this past Tuesday.

Notable for being the first Portastatic record recorded as a full band (with Superchunk guitarist Jim Wilbur on bass and Mac’s brother Matt on drums), the album opens with the quiet and textured title track, which sounds more like earlier-era Portastatic but from there on it’s solid power pop that could pass for the ‘Chunk if they’d turned the gain knobs on their distortion pedals down a touch – more jangle than fuzz. For reasons unbeknownst to me, it took a few listens to get into this record but now I’m enjoying it quite a bit. It’s a shame this record is coming out so late in August – it would have been a great soundtrack for the Summer.

Bright Ideas also comes with companion pieces – an EP previewing material from the album called Looking For A Power Supply was released earlier this Summer on a Spanish label, but copies are available domestically for you completists out there. Also, early pressings of Bright Ideas came with a disc of demos called Ideas For Bright Ideas – I found my copy of the album used over a month ago, so it had no bonus disc. It did have a big fancy hole punched through the UPC code, though. That’s just as good as demos!

Mac and co are embarking on a fairly extensive Fall tour that includes a stop at Lee’s Palace on September 12th with Tenement Halls. I’ve never seen Superchunk live (and may never get the chance to) but did see Portastatic open for Yo La Tengo a few years back. Good show, recommended. And RelishNow has an interview with Mac (via Largehearted Boy).

MP3: Portastatic – “I Wanna Know Girls”

Initially reported by Adam Radwanski and now confirmed by Billions – the October 9th New Pornographers/ Destroyer show has moved from the desolate Docks to the much friendlier Phoenix. I dashed out and bought the album and a ticket after work yesterday – after all, the capacity of the show just got cut by 2000 heads. I think a sell-out is a much safer bet now.

Also at the Phoenix – Spoon return to Toronto with Mary Timony in tow on November 1. American Music Club join the tour four days later. Alas, I guess it was not to be for us, though I notice New York get Mary Timony AND American Music Club. Because, you know, New York doesn’t get enough good shows. Not at all.

And a little more show news – Matt Pond PA will be opening for Athlete at the Opera House on September 19. Liz Phair at the Phoenix on October 23. Interesting pairing.

Okkervil River’s Will Sheff took guest-blogging duties yesterday at Said The Gramophone, taking the opportunity to offer a first-year course in Tim Hardin, who was the inspiration for Okkervil’s latest album Black Sheep Boy. Coincidentally, I picked up Down The River Of Golden Dreams yesterday – it’s lovely.

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists confides to Billboard that they won’t be playing a lot of new material on their upcoming Fall tour (including a show October 13 at the Phoenix in Toronto) because they, like, want the next album to be a surprise. The faithful shouldn’t expect the follow-up to Picaresque until late next Summer, but they can look forward to the band’s first DVD due out sometime… you know, later.

AmAnSet has another website courtesy of their new lable,Arts & Crafts. There’s also a listening party for their new album Set Free at The Drake tonight, if you can’t wait till it comes out September 20.

NOW puts pop culture pundit Chuck Klosterman on this weeks cover (and fawns all over him in the accompanying article) in advance of his Killing Yourself To Live book reading at the Horseshoe next Wednesday. It’s free!

The Torontoist week in shows.

np – The New Pornographers / Twin Cinema

Rolling Stone is first out of the blocks with information on the new Belle & Sebastian album. Coming out earlier than expected, The Goalkeeper’s Revenge has been given a target release date of January 2006. Handling production duties on this one was Tony Hoffer, who has a very impressive contemporary indie-pop resume. It will be interesting to see what the band keeps from Trevor Horn’s heavier-handed production on Dear Catastrophe Waitress. I’ve been a longtime B&S fan, but tend to go through feast-or-famine phases with the band. I haven’t spun any of their stuff in some time, come to think of it – betcha that ends soon.

Also exciting is the Rolling Stone piece mentions expectations of a Spring North American tour. I’ve seen the band twice, almost thrice (their 1998 show at the Opera House was cancelled at the last minute due to an Isobel Campbell fit of pique) and the last show at Massey Hall in November 2003 was one of the best I’ve ever seen. I would assume a T.O. date would again be at Massey Hall… here’s hoping I can work my front-row centre Massey Hall magic again! Finally – they will also be contributing a track to the upcoming War Child benefit compilation Help: A Day In The Life (available online on September 9 and in stores shortly thereafer) and the official bio has a website (though really, there’s nothing there). And they’ve updated the Q&A section of their own website (Stuart calls The Hidden Cameras “a pack of scavaging whore-mongers” – but in a good way).

Paste has a quickie with The New Pornographers. Twin Cinema is absolutely rocking Metacritic right now. I usually avoid the big stores but HMV has Twin Cinema for $14.99… tough price to beat.

I’m pleased to see Wheat’s lovely “Don’t I Hold You” will be included on the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown. Wheat never got the success they were due before going on hiatus last year – hopefully this will put some dollars in their pockets. My only question is whether Crowe was wise enough to include the far superior Hope & Adams version in as opposed to the re-recorded, overproduced Per Second Per Second Per Second Every Second version? Probably not. Also appearing on the soundtrack are My Morning Jacket and Ryan Adams. The album is out September 13, the movie October 14.

For The Eardrums offers up an interview with Dirty On Purpose for the eyeballs.

John Cale, ex of The Velvet Underground, will be in town for a three-night stand at the Lula Lounge from November 13 to 15. Tickets are $25, though there’s sure to be some weird dinner/show packages available from the Lounge. Shows @ Lula Lounge = weird.

There’s really not much you can say about a news story like this.

np – Mat Pond PA / Emblems

Everyone knows I do love me a good cover song, so I was pleased to see Copy, Right? devote a complete post to covers of The Magnetic Fields. And I have to say I completely agree with Liza that the Arcade Fire cover of “Born On A Train” is uninspiring at best. The arrangement is pedestrian and Win’s voice is absolutely shot (this is in reference to the KCRW radio session version that was circulating – I’ve no idea if there are others). If you’ve not heard it, you can watch a video of their session and judge for yourself.

If I may be so bold, I much prefer the version that my old band did on one of our old EPs (you can listen to the whole thing here, courtesy of Five Seventeen. Though I haven’t heard the finished version of the album we recorded over a year ago (it should be out, uh, someday), I think this was the best-sounding recording we ever did. Take that as you will. Maybe we should have submitted the track to It’s Meaningless, the online Magnetic Fields tribute project. I actually haven’t gone through any of the submissions here – what’s worthwhile?

There’s not too much actual Magnetic Fields news to report on – the promotional cycle for last year’s I is done and Stephin Merritt appears to be devoting his time to stage projects. There’s full details on the MF website, but particularly interesting is the fact that he’s working on a musical adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s children’s book Coraline with an eye towards a Fall 2006 release. That could be quite interesting.

Some bits from the land of Broken Social – Broken Social Scene has leaked and Kevin Drew is philosophical about the fact that it’s out there over a month before its October 4 release date. That’s right, everyone. Scurry to your P2P networks. Scurry! Elsewhere, Stars are interviewed by Incendiary, Gothamist talks to BSS guitarist John Crossingham’s Raising The Fawn and in the “no big surprise” deptartment, Metric have added a second show at the Phoenix on September 28 to go along with the sold-out show there on the 29th. Their new one, Live It Out, is out the day before, on the 27th. Expect it to leak aaaany day now.

Though still untitled and not looking very likely for the originally planned Fall release, Rainer Maria have posted a Quicktime stream of one of their new songs, called “Burn”. Hmm, the album was produced by Malcolm Burn – wonder if the song’s named after him? Either way – it’s nice. Hard to believe this is the same band that made Look Now, Look Again. They’ve… mellowed. It suits them. Aside – I had no idea that in The Sound Of Music, Maria’s maiden name is “Rainer”. Maria Rainer. Weird.

Junkmedia and Pulse Of The Twin Cities have words with Joe Pernice, but no fisticuffs ensue.

I bought a set of these at Ikea last week. They’re brilliant. I’ve never been so excited to grate cheese in my life.

np – Yo La Tengo / Prisoners Of Love

New York (and outlying regions’) chamber pop combo Matt Pond PA will release their new album Several Arrows Later on October 11 with supporting tour dates to be announced shortly. The band also reports progress in finding a replacement for cellist/vocalist Eve Miller, who departed the band earlier this Summer. She presumably still appears on the new album, as does appear in the video for “Closest (Look Out)”, the link to which comes courtesy of Prefix.

While rather quiet in the press since their cover of “Champagne Supernova” soundtracked a key scene in The O.C., there has been some press about how that’s affected the band’s fortunes, the recent covers-heavy Winter Songs EP and what to expect from the new record. Pond talked to Ink 19 and 30music (what’s with the numerically-inclined webzines?) while guitarist Brian Pearl took a few minutes with Wheel Kick.

In a bit of an odd pairing but pleasant surprise, the Fruit Bats will be opening for Son Volt on the leg of their Fall tour that includes the October 17 show at the Opera House in Toronto. I have my ticket and am looking forward to seeing Jay Farrar for the first time ever, but still feel a pang of regret that it means missing out on the Mountain Goats show at Lee’s the same night. And speaking of the Goats, thanks to Zoilus for this link to their first-ever music video, a clip for “This Year”, off The Sunset Tree.

JAM! and Billboard have reports from Neil Young’s two-night stand at the Ryman in Nashville last week, which was being recorded by Jonathan Demme for a forthcoming concert documentary and which featured songs from Neil’s new album Prairie Wind, which is due out on September 27. Young recently renewed his contract with Reprise Records, a move which should finally see the release of his Archives, which have been on a burner of some sort for decades now.

The latest issue of Filter Mini is now available to download and peruse. The cover artist this time around is Rilo Kiley.

Sixeyes solicits some recommended listening from John Vanderslice, guaranteed to give you fresher breath and a glossier, shinier coat. His new one, Pixel Revolt, which I’m sure he wouldn’t mind you listening to as well, is out Tuesday.

Incendiary interviews Decemberists. Via Largehearted Boy.

Some rather fruitful record-shopping this past weekend – scored a few House of Love and Billy Bragg 7″s, a neat Dinosaur Jr 10″ EP for “Feel The Pain”, a Luna 12″ single and a near-mint copy of The Chameleons’ What Does Anything Mean? Basically. Mmm, vinyl.

np – Mogwai / Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003