There’s precious little information available for my one and only Film Fest screening this year, a film called Neverwas by first-time director Joshua Michael Stern. It hardly rates as a “small” picture though, with a very solid cast including Aaron Eckhart, Sir Ian McKellen, Brittany Murphy, Nick Nolte, William Hurt, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming. I guess it’s just so far off from a proper theatrical release – this was the world premiere – that they haven’t gotten any sort of PR machine working yet. I wasn’t able to find any information on the film besides what TIFF had on their own site. No idea if this is a greatly anticipated film by anyone or if it’s completely flying under the radar, and that sort of mystery is part of the fun of the Film Festival.

It’s about a psychiatrist (Eckhart) whose father (Nolte) was the author of a much-beloved childrens book, Neverwas. Though he’s spent most of his life trying to escape his father’s legacy and shadow, he chooses to take a job at a mental institution where his father spent his last days. There, he meets a patient (McKellan) with some mysterious ties to his father and his work… and hilarity ensues. No, not really. It’s a very earnest, open-hearted film and that leaves it open to some somewhat cliched moments. It’s also not helped by the direction, which is rather obvious and lacking in subtlety and nuance, and some underdeveloped or cookie-cutter characters. Jessica Lange in particular is wasted and Nick Nolte is convincing as a mental patient (shock!) but not as much as a man who could write a children’s book. And as always, Brittany Murphy is just annoying.

But these shortcomings – which I’m willing to forgive for a rookie directorial effort – are outweighed by a simply amazing performance by Sir Ian McKellan. The main story of Eckhart’s psychiatrist (who I swear was separated at birth from Six Feet Under’s Peter Krause) trying to unravel his own personal history with McKellan’s mental patient is nothing short of riveting. In the hands of a lesser actor, McKellan’s role could have been a nightmare of overacting and scenery-chewing, but he instead makes his character fascinating and inscrutable, slowly revealing himself as he connects with Eckhart. Whenever he’s on screen, you can’t take your eyes off him. The final scene in particular is marvelous, as he utterly transforms himself with no more than a slouch. Never Was is worth seeing for his performance, if nothing else.

Celeb sightings – the director was in attendance, obviously, as were Nolte, Eckhart and Cumming. A shame McKellan wasn’t there because he should have – and would have – gotten a 20-minute standing ovation. And try as I did, I could not come up with an interesting title for this post. Alas.

Exciting news – the tracks from Galaxie 500’s two John Peel Sessions in 1989 and 19909 will finally be getting a proper release courtesy of Damon & Naomi’s own 20-20-20 label. You can pre-order it now $10.98 plus shipping – it’s out November 14. Meanwhile, in Luna-land, Rhino will be assembling a compilation for the departed outfit, but it won’t be one of their excellent rarities-and-hits combos, just the best-of. Look for that sometime around March, and the farewell tour documentary (currently working titled Tell Me Do You Miss Me) could be out around the same time.

Losing Today has an interview with Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom (Pete Kember to his mom).

Sadly, it seems that rumours of Ear To the Ground’s troubles are true, though their full extent remain to be seen. What is known is that the festival has been reduced in scope (with dance and theatre components apparent casualties) and the festival no longer being held at Exhibition Place. How organizers will manage to shoehorn in all or even some of the acts into other venues in such short notice remains to be seen (though they’re trying), though that might be less difficult than weathering the PR nightmare that is sure to follow. It’s a real shame that things have had to shake out this way – even if they salvage the musical performances, it’ll be a far cry from the giant one-stop multi-disciplinary arts festival it was initially hoping to be.

Comic Book Resources talks to Justice League Unlimited writer Dwayne McDuffie about what is, for my money, the best animated comic book adaptation ever. Of all time. The good news is that the new season starts up later this month (September 17 to be exact), the bad news is that STILL no one is saying those magic words, “complete season DVD set”. I’m sorry, those measly 3-episode discs don’t cut it. I want em ALL. With commentary from Batman.

np – Crooked Fingers / Red Devil Dawn

Starting today, MySpace is streaming the entirety of Sigur Ros’ new album Takk, four days before its official release on Tuesday. I will confess to downloading and burning a copy of the record this week – it seems like the perfect soundtrack to a trip to Scandanavia, and I doubt I’d be able to pick up a copy abroad (at least not at anything resembling a reasonable price). I don’t have the greatest confidence that it’s an accurate tracklist, though – some of the song titles are different and it doesn’t flow especially well, so it’s likely it’s more of an attempt to cobble the album together rather than a proper album rip, but it’ll do. And before you jump all over me for hipocrisy, know that I’ve already pre-ordered it ($12.98 CDN/$10.98 USD at MyMusic.ca!) and it should be in my mailbox at home by this time next week. So there.

You can watch the first video from Takk for “glósóli” (so much for NME‘s purported exclusive premiere…), as well as read band interviews with Sirkus, The Telegraph and The Sunday Times. Oh how I envy those of you seeing them on this North American tour… and if you don’t have tickets, there’s contests to win some here and here.

There’s a flurry of Son Volt pieces circulating as the tour hits the west coast – check out interviews and articles from Offbeat, The Straight, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, NCTimes, San Diego CityBeat and MetroActive. And then there’s Pitchfork reporting that a new interview with Farrar in Relix magazine offers up some tabloid-worthy dirt on the breakup of Uncle Tupelo – it’s not online, but one of the good folks at Via Chicago has transcribed it to keep the curious from having to suffer the embaressment of buying a magazine with Carlos Santana on the cover.

Chicago Innerview has a mostly superfluous interview with Jeff Tweedy, but he does allow a little more info about the forthcoming live DVD/CD and reveals a new Loose Fur album is about 75% done and should be out early next year.

Arcade Fire confirms the rumours that have been swirling for some time when they tell NME that they are, indeed, recording a second album.

The BBC is having a big Bob Dylan lovefest – check out their Bob-o-rama minisite, inspired by the No Direction Home biopic.

Chart. Sufjan.

Veronica Mars season two previews!!! Thanks to Soaring With Eagles for the link. Ms Mars, aka Kristen Bell, will also be performing the theme from Fame on this year’s Emmy awards. She’s gonna live forever, she’s gonna be a star. The new season starts September 28.

np – The New Pornographers / Twin Cinema

Mark Kozelek continues to surprise and confound. Billboard reports that the next Sun Kil Moon record will be all covers. That in and of itself is no surprise, Kozelek has long been known for being a proponent of covers as the Red House Painters discography will attest. This time, however, he’s recorded an album of songs all by one artist – Modest Mouse. Tiny Cities, out November 1, will feature eleven Isaac Brock compositions though no doubt completely deconstructed and redone in Kozelek’s own style. Kozelek is currently on tour with Low’s Alan Sparhawk (apparently feeling much better since his mental difficulties earlier this Summer) as the Retribution Gospel Choir. Pitchfork also has a news item with pretty much the same information.

NOW, eye and JAM! all talk to Laura Veirs about wanting to rock out on Year Of Meteors. Veirs will amp it up Saturday night at Trinity-St Paul’s opening for Sufjan Stevens.

Stevens is also getting some press (shock!) with a feature story in eye and an interview in Cleveland Scene (Via Largehearted Boy).

Check of the video for The New Pornographers’ “Use It” – Neko doesn’t appear but David Cross does. Twin Cinema (which has its own cute IMDB-style website here) debuted on Billboard’s Top 200 chart at #44 (PDF). I don’t follow charts, but checking out the mainstream artists that fill out the rest of the chart, I have to think that’s a pretty damned impressive showing. Bravo. The band will be on Conan O’Brien on September 16 and play The Phoenix in Toronto on October 9.

Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley tell MTV about their respective side projects due out in January of next year – Lewis’ Rabbit Fur Coat and Sennett’s second album with The Elected. They’re also sure to say only nice things about current tourmates and meal tickets Coldplay. The St Petersberg Times also has an interview with the pair. Stereogum has a live mp3 of the title track of Jenny’s album. Links via LHB.

I had no idea Depeche Mode was an Air Canada Centre-scale band, but there they are, December 1. Go Figure.

This is my last Torontoist week in shows for a couple weeks. Just doesn’t seem right to try and document what’s coming up at the Horseshoe from Helsinki.

EOnline has more stunt-casting news from the set of Arrested Development – with Henry Winkler/Barry Zuckerkorn leaving the show, he will be replaced by his cousin – Chachi. Yes, in an obvious attempt to get the entire Happy Days cast on the show, Scott Baio will be the new Bluth family attorney. Hopefully, however, they won’t tempt fate and will resist the temptation to bring Ted “Kiss Of Death” McGinley onboard.

np – Low / The Great Destroyer

So while everyone will surely be all excited to see Sufjan Stevens at Trinty-St Paul’s this coming Saturday evening, the wise will be those who show up early enough to catch tour opener Laura Veirs and her band The Tortured Souls. The Seattle-based singer-songwriter just released her fifth album Year Of Meteors, her first second for Nonesuch. It builds on the stark, literate country/folk structures of her earlier work, but fills it out with subtle electronic flourishes and electrified band arrangements. The songs still maintain a wintery beauty though, mainly thanks to Veirs’ pure, guarded voice. Pop hooks are present, though subtle. These are not songs that reveal themselves immediately – you have to gain their trust first and coax them out, but it’s worth the effort.

Seattle Weekly conducted a quick Q&A with Laura about her inspiration on the new record while Spin made her the artist/band of the day last month. Stereogum has declared his love of Year Of Meteors and Metacritic agrees. You can stream the album in its entirety here or check out the video for first single “Galaxies”.

Video: Laura Veirs – “Galaxies” (.mov)

Cloak & Dagger has a special Feist feature right now where they get Ms Feist to offer up some insight into how she wrote the original songs on Let It Die. Click on “Features” off the homepage to find it – and note the other fine songwriters in their archives, including Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam. The Metro Times also has a short Feist profile, Metromix has an interview. Don’t forget Feist is playing the Danforth Music Hall on October 17 and 18. Not sold out yet, but it will be.

It looks like Magnet is using Carl Newman’s yearbook photo for their upcoming New Pornographers cover…

And speaking of Ms Feist AND Mr Newman, thanks to Soaring With Eagles for the tip that this month’s Air Canada in-flight magazine En Route is running a music feature, and has pieces with Carl Newman interviewing Ron Sexsmith (link) and Jann Arden interviewing Feist (link). I am not going to read these interviews yet because I am flying Air Canada to Europe next week and don’t want to use up those precious 10 minutes worth of reading material.

Billboard says that Nellie McKay’s Pretty Little Head has had its October 18 release date bumped all the way until January.

This guy needs to get beat up. By an indie-yuppie. Via Largehearted Boy.

np – Wilco / Being There

The observant will have noticed that I’ve mentioned I’m going to be in Europe for a while this month. I will, indeed, be in the Old Country starting next Sunday for a fortnight – yours truly will be partaking in a good old fashioned cruise with my dad around the Baltic Sea, hitting no less than seven countries. On days I’m not in either Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Gdansk or Oslo, I’ll be whooping it up playing shuffleboard with Isaac and Gopher.

This has been brewing since February, but it’s only just hit me that I’m actually doing this – and I’m getting excited about it. This is a Europe not many people I know have seen, and while a cruise may seem like an odd way taking my first-ever trip to Europe, you can’t fault its efficiency for getting around. For shore excursions, I’ll be playing straight-up tourist and sticking with the tour group, so if you’ve got some little out-of-the-way coolio place in Helsinki you think I just have to see… maybe next time. My overwhelming fear is wandering off, losing the group and missing the boat. I mean, I’m sure there’s worse things in the world than being stranded in Sweden, but all things considered I’d rather make it home on schedule.

Getting away will be a welcome respite from my soon-to-be-ex work. It’s still a little weird to be in the office when I know I’m leaving, so the getaway will be welcome. I am bringing my laptop along and the ship is wifi enabled, so I expect I’ll be able to check in throughout the trip. Blogging it as I go is much more preferable to trying to sum it all up with some uber-post at the end. And there will no doubt be lots of photos, the best of which I’ll Flickr.

The live Wilco album appears to have been given a release date of November 1. No further details at present, but it’s probable that it will be a double set with CD and DVD packaged together. Update: They’re now saying on Via Chicago that the Nov 1 date is premature and that it will actually be a little later than that.

Links du Largeheart du jour – The Scotsman gets a primer on the dirty South from the Drive-By Truckers and SFGate talks Okemah with Jay Farrar of Son Volt.

Check out the video for Doves’ new single “Sky Starts Falling” in RealVideo, courtesy of Cliptip, who just posted a slew of updates.

A couple show announcements courtesy of For The Records – Art Brut at Lee’s Palace on November 14 and Freakwater at the ElMo on October 22.

Pernice Brothers are doing their bit to assist in relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina by making their rare but oft-traded 5-track Sandwich EP available for download – with artwork – from their bargain centre for a minimum $5 donation to the Red Cross.

Alex Chilton is okay.

np – On! Air! Library! / On! Air! Library!