I declared over the weekend that it was time for musicians to stop fetishising the 80s post-punk/new-wave scene and start playing re-animator with the early 90s shoegazers. I’d now like to nominate an act to help music fans with that painful and awkward transition from one overdone scene into another – Film School.

The band is aptly named, as they strive for a big, cinematic sound that reminds me a bit of Bright Lights-era Interpol in the vocals and guitars (more than a few shades of The Chameleons and Bunnymen here), though overall there’s more groove and less tension, not to mention a healthy dollop of ‘gaze-approved fuzz and atmosphere. I’d also liken them to a less sleepy Calla. They’re obviously of a certain style, but are diverse and hooky enough to have a good shot at a wider audience. The San Francisco Chronicle are boosters, and have a piece talking up their local boys.

Film School’s eponymous new album came out this past Tuesday on Beggars Banquet, who have put together one of those E-Card dealies with some streaming music on it, or you can hit up their MySpace page to hear more. The Dark Stuff gives them a thumbs-up and has some streaming audio, and you can grab this preview MP3 to keep for your very own:

MP3: Film School – “Pitfalls”

One of the bands Film School get compared to in the Chronicle piece is New York’s Ambulance LTD, who have been quiet of late but will be releasing the New English EP in the near future, which will collect some rarities for a stopgap release before their next album. You can hear a couple tracks from the EP on their MySpace page.

You may recall that The American Analog Set was releasing a demo version of every track from Set Free last year – well they’re finally done, and for those of you (like me) who lost track and missed a few, they’ve conveniently compiled the whole batch into a .zip file for you to grab. That’s basically a free album they’re giving away, kids. Can’t beat that with a stick.

Harp gets a number of artists to bear witness to how the Iron & Wine and Calexico collaboration came about and bore fruit.

About.com rattles off a list of what it calls “seminal alternative albums”, their definition of alternative apparently referring to the early-mid 90s post-Nirvana period when anything and everything was being scooped up from college radio and thrown into the mainstream in hopes of scoring a left-field hit (which most of these records did, to some extent). This list could be subtitled “mandatory albums in everyone’s collection during my college years”, or “albums found en masse in the every used CD shop across the country two years later”. Via Largehearted Boy.

Some shows – Scout Niblett, who had to cancel her last scheduled show in town last year, will make it up on March 26 at the Horseshoe. The Brunettes will be opening Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s sold-out April 8 show at Lee’s Palace, though For The Records speculates a venue change may be in the offing. And the lineups for Wavelength 300 has been announced, and is as follows:

February 9 @ The Speakeasy – Anagram, Republic Of Safety, Kickers, Feuermusik
February 10 @ The Boat – LAND (Lullabye Arkestra + No Dynamics), Lenin I Shumov, The Bicycles, Castlemusic
February 11 @ The Music Gallery – The Hylozoists, Picastro, Ohbijou, Woodhands
February 12 @ Sneaky Dee’s – Henri Faberge And The Adorables, Ninja High School, The Secret Handshake, The Phonemes

Note the new contest banner up in the corner – this one’s a pretty cool promotion for online label/shop Zunior.com. Check it out check it out check it out.

And oh yeah, I’m going to Amsterdam next month. IYou can follow along via the blog or you can wait for the film.

np – The American Analog Set / Set Free Demos

I was a big fan of Buffy and think Astonishing X-Men is one of the very best mainstream comics out there right now, so I think I can say that I’m well-acquainted with the appeal of Joss Whedon and his works (but not Angel. Boo). So I’m not speaking as an outsider when I say I never understood the devout following Firefly garnered during its brief life. I saw a couple episodes and while I found it reasonably enjoyable, it didn’t rope me into making an effort to catch or tape it and before I knew it, poof. Gone. I didn’t think too much of its departure till I saw the unprecedented grassroots movement that led to the film Serenity last Fall and the raves the show (and film) got from folks whose opinion I generally trusted – maybe I had missed out? Well, I got the Firefly DVD set for Christmas and after getting through that I rented Serenity this weekend. And y’know what? I still don’t get it. Let me expound.

I enjoyed Firefly and I enjoyed Serenity and after getting through the series, I was certainly glad the film existed if for nothing else than to tie up some loose plot threads, but based on the fifteen episodes of the show (only a dozen of which actually aired), I’m surprised that the show managed to garner the fanbase it did. I liked the premise, the execution, the characters, the writing, all of it – but none of the ongoing plotlines really caught my interest. The secret history of Shepherd Book would have been interesting, and the whole Mal-Inara/Sam-Diane thing appeals to the sap in me, but they didn’t get played out much. The one major story with the mysterious River Tam totally did not strike a chord, maybe I’m just burned out on crazy-talking prophet girls, so when the show was over, I didn’t have any overwhelming outrage at remaining dangling story threads. But apparently others did, and so we got a film. Which, naturally, focuses on crazy girl River.

Usually when a TV show makes the jump to the big screen, it’s an opportunity to let the characters cuss – and the language is a little bluer – but since most swearing is conducted in Chinese, they didn’t really need to ramp up the language. Being moderately comprehensive in Mandarin, it was amusing to me to actually understand the swears they used in the show, but wonder what it’s like for the non-Chinese-speaking audience. Anyway, the film was quite satisfying whether I was hungry for what it was offering or not – it wraps things up in a pretty satisfactory manner, though, taking care to off a couple cast members for good measure. The secret origin of the Reavers was pretty cool, and the requisite big space shoot-em-up also offered some visceral thrills and I’m sure overall it was a treat for hardcore fans. Me, I liked it but the primary feeling that stuck with me was that there was a lot of unrealized potential in the show, and that’s a shame. Now Whedon is working on the film adaptation of Wonder Woman, and some have speculated that he’d be casting Summer Glau, who played River Tam, as Diana of the Amazons. I dunno, besides the fact that she looks MAYBE 15 years old (okay, probably more like 18 now), she’s kinda short.

Harp has posted their new issue online, and the cover story belongs to one Cat Power, who released her latest and Greatest yesterday.

Billboard gets the lowdown on the upcoming year in Feist, starting with more American touring, recording in Europe and culminating in the release of her follow-up to Let It Die before the year’s end.

There’s now an official MP3 from the new Neko Case album to preview – check it out and get excited for Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, out March 7.

MP3: Neko Case – “Star Witness”

Buddyhead offers up their unique look at the best and worst albums of 2005. And Harp has a list too, but not nearly as snotty.

We established yesterday that I’m a fan of physical music packaging, but why oh why do digipacks always break JUST enough spindles to not hold onto the freaking CD? Does anyone have a decent way of replacing digipack trays? I have glue. I just need the plastic bits. The CD in question is Belle & Sebastian’s Funny Little Frog single, which arrived from the UK yesterday a little worse for wear. Alas. Oh, speaking of B&S – the Put The Book Back On The Shelf release party that was scheduled for February 8 at Andy Poolhall in Toronto has been postponed on account of the comic not actually being released till the end of the month. The Beguiling are hoping to reschedule, though, so I’ll keep you posted.

And if you liked yesterday’s post (which many of you seemed to, thanks, and to which I will carry on the very interesting discussion in the comments when I have a chance to form some coherent thoughts), check out the follow-up from Zolius, who picks up the baton and carries it from my community cable access show into highbrow PBS territory.

Joe Sacco, the cartoonist who made his name reporting (via comics) on his experiences in Bosnia and Palestine has put together a new 8-page strip (PDF) The Guardian about his interviews with a pair of former Iraqi prisoners who are accusing Rumsfeld and the US military of torture. This is a follow-up to a piece he did last year (PDF) when he was actually in Iraq, embedded with some US troops. I recommend a) reading these because Sacco’s war commentary is always excellent and thought-provoking but b) downloading them first, because the files are big and could well crash your browser. Via The Great Curve.

np – The Mountain Goats / The Coroner’s Gambit

I finally found an image from that American Analog set t-shirt I’ve gone on about in the past. And it’s topical!

The University of Leicster in the UK reports something that I’ve believed for some time now – music downloading creates listener apathy. It can’t be any surprise that the ease with which people can constantly access and download new music without any real effort has devalued, at least for many, music. If something doesn’t cost you anything, be it money or energy, why should you ascribe any real value to it? Combine that with the fact that we’re mainly now talking about something without any tangible, physical form and you’ve got a recipe for who gives a fuck. This isn’t to suggest that the advent of digital music has been a negative thing – no, it’s hard to argue that the great decline of the major labels is anything but a plus, but nothing comes without a price, and in this case that price is the commoditization commodification of music. There’s a generation of kids growing up now who have no concept of ever paying for music, and I have to wonder what it will mean when they become the primary consumer demographic. Will artists still find a way to get paid? One of The Big Takeover’s blog-columnists offers his thoughts.

I’ve rounded up a few more links of late that address some facet or consequences of the increasing insubstantiation of music. PopMatters ponders what it means to completists now that pretty much everything – rarities, demos, live shows – is essentially available to everyone, everywhere. I for one have basically stopped caring about live show recordings, unless it’s one that I was actually at. In the distant early days of the internet, I remember hunting down and treasuring every live recording, no matter how poor, as precious and rare. Now I could care less, to be honest. Though I can’t really explain why, even though every live Wilco show is seemingly available on bit torrent 24 hours after the curtains come down, I still felt compelled to buy the live album…

And more – Angry Robot wonders if the increasing popularity of downloads might somehow spark a reaction/revolution in interesting packaging to renew interest in the physical product, while Canada.com wonders the same thing, but in regards to album artwork. Sterophile eulogizes the independent record store (done in by the internet, natch), and you may recall my own personal reaction to today’s download culture – vinyl.

And a final iPod question – while mine no longer does the refuse-to-play thing (yay for reinstalling the whole OS), for whatever reason it refuses to play certain songs. Maybe three out of a few thousand on the iPod so not a great percentage, but annoying nonetheless. If I play the album, it just sits on that song for a second, then skips ahead to the next track. Reimporting the tracks don’t work. I haven’t tried re-ripping or re-naming to try and fool it, but that seems dumb. Any ideas?

Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene tells PopMatters that he thinks the digital music revolution is great, but that Pitchfork is silly.

B(oot)log has rounded up a slew of Feist’s radio performances in MP3 form for your listening pleasure, but unfortunately doesn’t have the Red Demos, from which much of Let It Die sprung forth from. They’re worth hunting down – they sound great and “Intuition” is still one of her best songs ever while the version of “Leisure Suite” is almost sinister-sounding.

The Scotsman talks to Scotswoman Isobel Campbell about her new album Ballad Of The Broken Seas. She’s at Revival on March 4 and while Mark Lanegan won’t be touring with her, her band will include some heavyweights including Eugene Kelly (of The Vaselines and Eugenius), who will handle Lanegan’s parts. Now THAT should be interesting.

Some more shows – Stars will be performing at The Docks on March 1 as part of CMW’s Indie Awards. Admission gets you into the awards ceremony to see all the artists not show up to accept their awards, followed by a full set from Stars. And quietly buzzy UK popsters Field Music will be at Sneaky Dee’s on March 11 for a show before heading down to Texas for SxSW. That night will be a mini British invasion in Toronto shows – in addition to The Subways at The Mod Club that night, Billy Bragg will finally be making good on his promise to come back and sing for us at the Opera House. I’m gonna have to go with the old guy.

Here’s a follow-up to yesterday’s expansive Jenny Lewis roundup – a couple more interviews with Paste and Chart. There’s also a video for “Rise Up With Fists”, but it’s a MySpace exclusive and apparently that means exclusive territorially too – I can’t see it since I’m in Canada, and I think the rest of the world (and some parts of America) are shut out as well. Can you say “bullshit”?

24: I want to punch the President. Oh surprise, the baddies have someone “on the inside” at CTU. It’s nice to see that they’re maintaining their high standards of employee screening and are placing a greater emphasis on interpersonal skills and overall professionalism. And evidently they’re grooming Chloe to take over from Curtis as chief interrogator – that woman is ice cold! And there’s nothing like a good old fashioned infirmary knockdown scissor-fight to liven up an otherwise talky episode. That final scene? That;s Walt’s spider-sense tingling.

np – Metal Hearts / Socialize

Tomorrow sees the release of albums from both of Rilo Kiley’s principals – Jenny Lewis with her Watson Twins-powered Rabbit Fur Coat and Blake Sennett with Sun Sun Sun, the sophomore effort from his side-project, The Elected. While RK’s earlier albums featured a more even split in vocal duties, the balance has been shifting towards Lewis – their breakthrough More Adventurous featured just one Sennett lead vocal, and that track was generally acknowledged to be the low point of the album. It’s not that Sennett is a poor singer, he’s not – though his whispery Elliott Smith-ish tunes were rather generic and when you’ve got a voice like Lewis’ at your disposal, you’d be a damn fool to not utilize it as much as possible.

So accepting that reality, Sennett has The Elected as a vehicle for his vocal excursions, and it sounds pretty much like you’d expect. His voice is rather stronger than his Rilo Kiley work would have suggested but the songwriting is the same lightly twangy, classic pop style that brings home the bacon in his day job. It’s the sort of thing that would have worked fine on a Rilo Kiley disc (almost everything here is better than “Ripchord”) but left to stand on its own, it all feels a bit insubstantial. Devout RK fans will surely find enough here to make it worth adding to their collection and casual ones might be interested to know that Ms Lewis contributes backing vocals on a one song and lyrics on a couple others but this is all Sennett’s show.

On her first attempt at flying solo, Lewis pursues a distinctly country vibe, but rather than the sassy belting of More Adventurous’ “I Never”, Rabbit is more old-school country-gospel in flavour. While Lewis has a ways to go before she has the depth of life experiences to stand alongside Emmylou or Loretta, she still has a sharp lyrical pen and growing up as a child actor is good for some compelling songwriting inspiration, most notably on the (presumably) autobiographical title track which documents a strained mother-child star daughter relationship. The topic of Lewis’ childhood is a thread that runs through the whole album, which in spite of the lovely vocal work from Lewis and the Watsons and with the exception of the indie-star studded Traveling Wilbury’s cover “Handle With Care”, has a distinctly downbeat tone. It’s interesting to compare Sun Sun Sun to Rabbit Fur Coat, as while the former is hooky but slight, the latter is considerably weightier in subject matter and much less generous with instant gratification. One can’t help but wonder what sort of record might have emerged if the songwriting sessions for both had intertwined?

The Watson Twins are also taking full advantage of their association with Lewis’ album, releasing their debut EP Southern Manners this week as well. They will be touring with Lewis through the Spring, including a stop in Toronto at the Opera House on March 16. Might the Watson Twins sieze the opportunity to be their own opening act? Someone else will have to report on that, since I’m out of town that week. And anyone attending the show who hopes to hear some RK stuff will probably be disappointed, Lewis has already stated that she’s putting that stuff to bed for a while and is concentrating on road-testing the solo material.

There’s been plenty of Lewis-related press (and some Elected stuff, but not nearly as much), some of which I’ve linked already and some more I’ll link now – Between Thought & Expression has transcribed an interview between Lewis and American Way, The Independent, Los Angeles Times and Chart have pieces and The San Francisco Chronicle engages in some playful banter. Meanwhile, Seattle Weekly talks to Sennett.

All three acts have MySpace pages – Lewis, The Elected and The Watson Twins all have tracks up for preview, as well as the following officially sanctioned downloads – note that the Watson Twins ones are in M4A format.

MP3: Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins – “Rise Up With Fists!”
MP3: Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins – “Melt Your Heart”
MP3: The Elected – “Not Going Home”
M4A: The Watson Twins – “Friend And Foe”
M4A: The Watson Twins – “Darlin’ Song”

A few more shows announcements – The Violent Femmes are still around and apparently can still fill Massey Hall – or at least think they can. They’ll be in town on March 8 while The Gris Gris are at the considerably cozier and grungier Comfort Zone on April 8.

Broken Social Scene’s Charles Spearin worries aloud to JAM! that the Can-rock love-in bubble might burst soon. I wouldn’t expect that to be the case here at home, at least, if the enthusism over their two sold-out shows at the Kool Haus is any indication.

I finally got myself a Canon Digital Rebel XT last week and have spent the weekend learning how to use it – I’m very excited about this thing, the quality of photos coming out of it hurts my head. There’s a couple shots from it up in my Flickr photoblog, but I won’t get to really see what it can do until the Low show at Lee’s next week. Say it with me – “Clean ISO 400!” Ahhhh.

It’s official – The West Wing will be coming to an end on May 14. It’s for the best, and will be going out on a high note though anyone who believes the producers when they say that they haven’t decided whether Jimmy Smits or Alan Alda will win the election is smoking something. Alda hasn’t gotten one fraction of the screen time that Smits has, and hasn’t been portrayed very positively when he has. Unless they’re planning to handle John Spencer’s death by having Smits strangle him on national television, there’s no way they’re going with Hawkeye.

But even though I’d personally rather vote for Frank Burns’ corpse than any of our candidates, I’d like to remind and encourage Canadians out there to go out and vote today. Hold your nose if you have to.

And if you want to vote for something a little less repugnant (though just a little), I’m up for “Best Canadian Weblog” in the 2006 Bloggies for the third year running. I’m flattered for the nomination, but don’t expect the honours to go much beyond that. Getting cynical as the years go by? Maybe a little. That doesn’t mean I won’t still ask for your vote, the prize they’re offering of, oh, NOTHING, is mighty tempthing. And I’ll just say again that it’s absurd there’s no standalone music category – there is nothing in common between sites like those that populate most of my blogroll and the five gossip/T&A sites nominated for “Best Entertainment”. I don’t know what they hoped to accomplish by rolling them into one last year, but if it was to completely marginalize a huge portion of the blog world, well mission accomplished. I miss the good old days of me vs Moby.

np – Saturday Looks Good To Me / Every Night

David Thomas Broughton / The Complete Guide To Insufficiency (Plug Research) So it took a fairly glowing Pitchfork review to a) remind me that I had a copy of this record, and b) that it had been curious enough at first listen to merit a revisit. Stretching five songs out over forty minutes, Insufficiency is not a casual listen – most of the record is just Broughton’s mournful voice and his creaking, grumpy acoustic guitar with bits of drum machine and looping pedal providing accents. The whole record was recorded in one take in an English church, and remarkably, that’s exactly the vibe that the album recreates, except I was thinking it sounded not so much like the church as the mausoleum. Broughton’s voice recall’s Antony (of the Johnsons) in timbre and emotional rawness, but placed in a folk context rather than cabaret, sounds completely different. But they’re similar in another way – I didn’t think I’d ever listen to the Antony & The Johnson’s album nearly as much as I have, and the same may well be said about The Complete Guide To Insufficiency. David Thomas Broughton @ MySpace

Lying In States / Wildfire On The Lake (Flameshovel) And at the other end of the stylistic spectrum is Chicago’s Lying In States. They’re an unabashed rock act, all in-your-face alt.rock aggression and modern punk energy, and quite frankly annoyed me the first time I put it in the CD player – it was like modern rock radio had somehow managed to infiltrate my insular little musical world. Thankfully, over the course of the record the angry young man-ness is mitigated somewhat by some more dynamic numbers and even some nice boy-girl harmonies. Because, y’see, they may be angsty but they’re also sensitive. File under: whatever. MP3: Lying In States – “Turn” MP3: Lying In States – “Hackles” Lying In States @ MySpace

np – Devandra Banhart / Cripple Crow