Torontonians haven’t seen Isobel Campbell since she sulked offstage from Belle & Sebastian’s May 2002 show at the Kool Haus… and then quit the band a couple of weeks later. And I’ve not forgotten her “food poisoning” which forced the band to cancel what would have been their Toronto debut back in the Fall of 1998. I, for one, still remember seeing the shabbily handwritten note tacked to the front door of the Opera House, declaring the show cancelled. I’m not saying I hold a grudge, I’m just saying.

But that’s all in the past. We’ll get a chance to see what she’s been up to when she plays a show at Revival on March 4. She just released the Ramblin’ Man EP this week as a preview of her album with Mark Lanegan, Ballad Of The Broken Seas, which is out January 30. She also has a second solo record due out later this year called Milk White Sheets. I reviewed the Ramblin’ Man EP last month, and despite feeling rather lukewarm about it, I’m still curious to hear the album – the combination of her and Lanegan is too weird to dismiss out of hand. In the meantime, you can stream the EP here.

I have no doubt that Campbell wants to establish herself as an artist in her own right, and not just be know as the girl who quit Belle & Sebastian, but I can’t help but think the timing of her album release and tour, with respect to that of her old band, is a little more than just coincidence. Her album is coming out a week before B&S’s The Life Pursuit and her tour brings her through Toronto just a week after her old bandmates, perhaps cannily trying to pick up some of the media coverage the B&S juggernaut will be churning up? And yeah, it’s finally official, so I can finally speak freely about the tour. Belle & Sebastian and The New Pornographers, February 25 at The Docks. This will be the first date of the North American tour, so expect excitement and jitters and maybe some flubs. And lots of cuteness. No ticket info yet, but I figure it’ll cost in the $40-$50 range. Steep, but what can you do. And finally, Stuart Murdoch and Chris Geddes talk to Scotland On Sunday about recording the new album in Los Angeles and trash talk Franz Ferdinand in the process. Nice.

Canadian Music Week will be taking place March 1 through 4 this year. The list of artists attending this year’s fest is now up, and it looks like the usual suspects. No slight to the performers intended, but almost all of those acts gig around town regularly anyways, so I don’t get particularly psyched about the idea of seeing them play shorter sets for probably higher admission prices. But I guess someone has to pay for those shiny banners they hang outside the clubs. Either way, I’ve put in an application for media accreditation for the festival. Just for kicks. My quest for same from SxSW has been fruitless so far, so maybe CMW will be a little less strict and help me feel less worthless.

Ladytron are at the Opera House on April 20. I… I can’t think of anything clever or snide to say about this. I briefly had something about people all dressed in black, but then it just slipped away. I’m tired. Via For The Records.

The New York Times contemplates the futility of year-end lists.

I get the spotlight in the latest Muzzle Of Bees’ “Get To Know Your Blogger” feature.

Salon pays tribute to Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s run on Daredevil, which will be wrapping up this month. The piece rightly declares them the best creative team to tackle the character since Miller/Mazzuchelli, though as good as their work has been, I’ll always hold a special place in my heart for “Born Again”, if for no other reason than it was my first trade paperback ever. Via The Great Curve.

Just four days in and I’ve already missed a day on my photoblog. There’s just not that much compelling stuff to shoot in the office or at home, and Lord knows I’m not outside when it’s daylight and there’s things to look at. I don’t think I’ve even seen the sun this calendar year. Very bleak. Update: Okay, it’s sunny today. And about 10 degrees colder than yesterday. Stupid Winter.

np – Steve Earle / El Corazon

It was a packed house at the Rivoli on this drizzly January night, filled with folks anxious to see and hear Neko Case preview her new album Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. The ads had promised an intimate showcase of the new material, and the 150-capacity club certainly guaranteed things were intimate. But any notions that it’d be an acoustic, coffee house-y sort of affair were out the window when the doors opened and we were greeted with a full band setup on stage. Accompanying her on this night were many of the musicians who helped her record the new album, including Rachel Flotard of Visqueen. I was a little surprised, since to my knowledge she’s never brought her band up this way. But more on her later.

I’d seen Neko twice before, and I gotta say, the third time was definitely the charm. Both previous shows were great, but the first show, from which The Tigers Have Spoken was taken, Neko was understandably nervous and seemed really intent on the performance and the second was also great, but the coziness of the Rivoli trumps the biggish Phoenix any day of the week. On this night, she and her band, who for the first time weren’t The Sadies. sounded sublime. She claimed to be suffering from a cold but you wouldn’t know it from her vocals, which were as huge and gorgeous as ever. The set started with some old “Favourite”s (sorry), and gradually worked in more of the new material, which sounded terrific, even over the incessent squeaking of the club’s ventilation system. It was definitely good to hear her older material, since she’d passed over most of it when recording and touring The Tigers Have Spoken, and the sound in the club was superb as always (save for the aforementioned fan).

Neko seemed to be having a great time with the smaller audience, cracking jokes and engaging in an extended Bryan Adams-centric comedy routine with Flotard. As much fun as it was seeing Case and Kelly Hogan play Bob and Bing at last year’s show, I have to say that Flotard is a helluva lot funnier. The best, however, was Neko’s story in the encore of visiting a game farm and seeing the gameskeeper getting scalped by a giraffe showing off for his mate. Seriously, it was the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long, long time. And it was one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long, long time. It was interesting what a wide demographic the audience covered, from indie kids through old-school country fans. And as good as the new album, out March 7 (check out the album art here), sounds like it’s going to be, I imagine that audience is only going to get larger. But even so, I hope she’ll still be able to pull off small club shows like this one amidst the bigger ones because the intimate vibe is just so perfect. Just four days in and already one of the best shows of the year, and I’ll stand by that come December.

My camera must know that I’ve been researching upgrades, it’s being sulky. My photos do not make me especially happy, despite the fact that the available light seemed pretty good. But what I got is what I got. And that Rebel XT is looking mighty attractive…

Local Over The Top Fest promoter Eric Warner gives NOW a peek at some of the shows he’s trying to bring to Hogtown in the next little while and tosses around names like Devandra Banhart and Silver Jews just wishful thinking – nothing confirmed. But first up is the 2006 OTT launch party at The Great Hall next Wednesday, featuring Final Fantasy, Akron/Family (whom NOW and The Toronto Star also profile) and Great Lake Swimmers.

Stylus reconsiders Spiritualized’s Pure Phase.

Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers contributes the official bio for the new Centro-Matic album, Fort Recovery, out March 7.

The Globe & Mail looks at how digital music has been the death knell for home stereo equipment. It probably goes without saying that I like all my stereo components and even though I tried the DVD-as-CD-player thing for a while, my dedicated CD player sounds much much better. So while I am quite happy to be the exception, I fear the article is more right than not – people just don’t care how stuff sounds anymore. They just want as much of it in as small and disposable a package as possible. Which is unfortunate.

np – Shearwater / Winged Life

Back in November, My Mean Magpie segued off a Mojave 3 post I made to bring Denmark’s Sarah Hepburn to my attention, the connection being that her debut solo album, Stars & Haze, was recorded with Neil Halstead and members of Mojave 3. The only samples he could find online was a video for the song “Hey… OK?”, which I commented sounded very un-Mojave-like, so he sent me a few more tracks from the album to sample. And a couple months later, I actually listened to them – and was impressed. Her singing voice usually stays in hushed and husky Nico-ish territory but that restraint masks some impressively elastic range, but thankfully she uses her vocal powers judiciously and always for good, not evil. Judging from the samples Five sent me and those on her MySpace page, it would seem that Stars & Haze runs a stylistic gamut, but centers around a rustic, country-ish feel that’s really quite lovely and soothing. And this is where the Mojave 3 connection comes into play – “Which Way From Here”, in particular, sounds like it could have been an Out Of Tune outtake. It’s a shame that the album is nigh impossible to get except to order directly from Europe for no small chunk of change.

Video: Sarah Hepburn – “Hey… OK?” (WMV)

Hepburn also used to play in a somewhat more rocking Danish out fit called Glorybox. At least, it’s my understanding that they were more rocking. The track on their MySpace isn’t especially rocking. Maybe the Danes have a different frame of reference for rock?

Those of you who watch TV may have recently noticed a commercial for Capital One, whom I understand are a bank or fishmonger of some description, that features a classic pop-sounding tune with the chorus “Hand in my pocket hand in my pocket hand in my pocket” and so forth. Well it turns out that that tune was written and recorded by Toronto’s own Jim Guthrie, of Royal City, Islands and Jim Guthrie fame. And he’s put together a full song-length version and made it available to download from his website. What a nice fellow.

Also on the local artists – The Airfields have uploaded a new demo to their MySpace page, which should whet your appetite for their new 6-song EP which should hopefully be due out on Humblebee in early March, in time for their opening slot for The Wedding Present at Lee’s Palace on March 10. There’s also been some roster shifts in Airfields-land, with head Diablero Pete Carmichael taking over bass duties.

JAM! and The New York Times report on Nellie McKay’s rather non-amicable departure from Columbia Records.

The Ultimate Avengers animated film has a website, and with that website comes a trailer, and with that trailer comes… muted enthusiasm? The video is really too small to really make anything out, but I think it looks pretty cool. Hopefully the writing for the movie is better than the writing for the trailer… it’s out on DVD Feburary 21.

np – Cinerama / Va Va Voom

Okay, this sort of falls under the “blatent self-promotion” category, but I don’t do that much so you’ll forgive the indulgence. I’ve begun playing with a local space-rock/shoegaze outfit called Bluescreen and we’ve been rehearsing for the past month or so in preparation for a CD release show at the Horseshoe on January 13 in honour of their (our?) second album A Survival Guide To Mishaps And Losses. Also on the bill are Fjord Rowboat, Raised By Swans and In Support Of Living, and collectively there could very well be several hundred delay pedals at work. I’m rather excited about this as it will be my first time on stage in well over a year. So since I’m sort of in the band, I don’t feel right about offering up any sort of musical review or whatnot, so I’ll just direct you to their/our MySpace page and audio page with streaming samples and cordially invite anyone and everyone to come down to the ‘Shoe next Friday and enjoy the show. Thanks. And I’ll get my pronouns sorted out.

It used to be that a band would wait a proper amount of time after disbanding before reuniting – now, like so many things in this word, that process is hyper-accelerated. Nottingham’s Six By Seven called it a day back in June, but have now announced a new album, Club Sandwich At The Peveril Hotel, to be released in March and with touring to follow. Their website calls the release “unofficial” and it may well turn out to be a companion to Left Luggage At The Peveril Hotel, which collected studio non-album cuts, but either way, I don’t care if they call themselves defunct or whatever, if new music keeps coming, I’m happy. There is also word of a DVD release and hopefully the double-disc b-sides collection the band was assembling in conjunction with Mantra Records is still on the calendar. Just because the corpse is walking around again doesn’t mean you can’t have a wake.

Thanks to suckingalemon for confirming details of The Sadies’ shows at Lee’s Palace on February 3 and 4. They’ll be recording a live album and some of the guests slated to be in attendance in some capacity include Neko Case, Blue Rodeo (all of them? Probably Greg at least), Gary Louris and Steve Albini. Check out her comment in yesterday’s post for a longer list. No ticket info yet, but that will be an insanely twang-tacular show.

Stream four tracks from Cat Power’s new album The Greatest, due out January 24.

Being There got a shiny new makeover for Christmas! And they lead off the new year with one of those features which shall not be named, but involve various things from a certain period of time ranked numerically. Ahem.

The 2006 Bloggie nominations are open. I see they’ve insisted on keeping the “entertainment” category, but somehow feel that “teens” need their own category. Come on, no one cares what teenagers have to say. Seen and not heard and all that. Anyway, if you want to nominate me and set me up for a third straight year of crushing defeat and humiliation in March, have at it.

So I will admit, I have a bit of a gadget fetish. Maybe it’s the one thing that remains after deprogramming myself of my mechanical engineering degree, or maybe it’s just a guy thing. Anyway, one of my Christmas gifts to myself was this Harmony 659 universal remote. I love this thing. Like many, my coffee table had become a remote control farm, with anywhere from three to six remotes grazing the ttabletop at any given time depending on my activities. Enter the Harmony, which has whittled it down to one shapely unit. It took a little fine-tuning of the programming to get it working properly, but I think I’ve got it now. It’s like the Sword of Greyskull, I feel so empowered with it.

And so with that bit of technology taken care of, I’m contemplating my digital camera. The G3 still takes great pics, but considering advances in digicam technology, I wouldn’t mind getting cleaner high ISOs or even a higher resolution. 4MP is acceptable, but barely. I’ve had my eye on a DSLR for a while now, and had even come up with a clever financing plan, but have backed off that for the time being. Fact is, I don’t really know how to use my point-and-shoot all that well. I mean, I can point it and shoot it, but when it comes to the nuances of photography, I’m still sort of in the caveman stage. So with that in mind, I’ve decided to start a low-key photoblog over at my Flickr page. I’m going to take/post (not sure which yet) one photo a day, of whatever. I just need to get using my camera somewhere besides concerts, and maybe by pushing myself to really learn how to use it, I can justify the expense of a DSLR in the near future. And if the prices come down a little more in the meantime, hey. Bonus. I don’t know if Flickr is necessarily the best interface to try and run a photoblog dealie, but I am paying for it (yeah, I upgraded the account for whatever reason). So there.

And I’ve been looking to upgrade my PDA to something colour and backlit. Being able to take notes somewhere besides broad daylight would be a real treat. I’m looking for a deal on a Tungsten E on eBay, but would settle for a simple Zire 31 if I had to.

CES 2006 is coming up, isn’t it? Time to camp out at Engadget and Gizmodo.

What? I like toys. Sue me.

np – American Music Club / A Toast To You

Stereogum has gotten around to compiling the XY-chromosonal edition of his 2005 indie hotties of 2005 poll. I understand it took longer than the female one because, well, every other submission was for “that guy” or “that dude”. The results prove what I’ve always suspected, and that the ladies love the sensitive, banjo-plucking Christian boys with a lisp because Sufjan Stevens ran away with half the votes. So combine this honour with the fact that agree or disagree, Sufjan’s Illinois was pretty much the concensus pick as top album of the year and it’s pretty much safe to say that 2005 was the year of the Sufjan. I’m pretty sure he took the title for most posts and links in my blog for last year anyway (and I think 2004 was the year of Wilco… I should keep track of this stuff). And with that in mind, I declare that this will be the first – and last – Sufjan Stevens-led post I make in 2006. Unless he does something especially noteworthy, like bring peace to the Middle East, eat a school busload of babies or release another album. Go on vacation, Sufjan. Go to Deleware, or Wyoming or something (or maybe California, as most Stereogum readers recommend).

And using that as a leaping off point, I’m going to make a bit of a New Year’s declaration/resolution here – I will endeavour to include more coverage of new/up-and-coming artists in this here site. That means listening to more of the stuff I’m sent out of the blue (which isn’t necessarily a solicitation for more stuff to be sent to me out of the blue, but whatever). One consequence of this could be an increase in the snark quotient of my Sunday Cleaning columns, since the stuff I actually like will probably be getting regular posts of their own. We’ll see, I haven’t decided yet. That said, my overriding mandate will still be to simply write about the stuff I like or find interesting. I subscribe to the philosophy The Big Takeover’s Jack Rabid puts forth in an interview in their latest issue – “If I’m going to stay in this business, I have to have time to listen to the stuff that I like. I can’t be kept from listening to the stuff that I like out of some sense of requirement. And I can’t ignore and punish people because I’ve written about them before”. Which means that when Wilco releases their new album later this year, expect the full court press… but I will try to balance that out with other stuff. Really.

I don’t know how you spent your New Year’s Eve, but I would think the Fox Theater in Boulder, Colorado would have been a damn fine place to be, ringing in 2006 with Drive-By Truckers and Centro-Matic. Both have new albums out this year – DBT’s A Blessing And A Curse is due out in April-ish and CM’s Fort Recovery is out March 7 – and the first preview MP3s are now online.

MP3: Drive-By Truckers – “Feb 14”
MP3: Centro-Matic – “Triggers And Trash Heaps”

The Centro-Matic song is also the title track from a teaser EP coming out February 7. And I said I was done with year-end lists, but Patterson Hood wants to share. And you can’t say no to Patterson.

And since I’ve already backslid on my “no lists” policy, I want to point out News OK’s list of the best graphic novels of 2005. Pleased to see local comic Scott Pilgrim Vs The World rocking the top spot. The third volume, Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness, was supposed to be out at the end of December but has been pushed back until January 25. Book four, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, is also slated to come out in 2006. Link via Largehearted Boy.

Oh look, I lost another awards poll thingee. Congrats to fellow covers fetishist Copy, Right? on the win. You know, when I made this post almost two years ago, I had no idea how prescient I was being…

I’m trying to write up my submission for eye’s 2005 music critics poll, for which I’m honoured to finally be included, but am finding I’m fresh out of ways to talk about why I liked the albums I did last year. The horse is beaten.

np – Six By Seven / :04