Beth Orton will release her fourth album Comfort Of Strangers on Tuesday, and after the rather universal (at least in my universe) indifference to her last studio album, Daybreaker, I’m only mildly curious at best. On paper, it helps that Jim O’Rourke produced the record and as this four-star NOW review correctly points out, Orton has usually only been as good as her collaborators (William Orbit and Terry Callier yes, Ryan Adams no). I will be watching the upcoming reviews to see if there’s any sort of concensus that Beth has got her game back. Exclaim! asks the alt.folkie about her run-in with a naked Keifer Sutherland and Harp finds out why she’s feeling so dang happy these days. And Carl Wilson has a review in today’s Globe & Mail.

I haven’t found any official MP3s to preview, but that doesn’t mean there’s not media out there to audition. There is this KEXP radio session from last month and Prefix has her recent appearance on Late Night With David Letterman available to check out. There’s also this puppet-powered video for the first single, “Concieved” – the song is alright but maybe a little jaunty for what I like to hear from Beth. Is it awful to say I prefer to hear her sing sad songs? Anyway, she’s in town for a show at the Carlu on April 6.

ASX: Beth Orton – “Concieved”

It’s a family thang as Dallas Good gives eye a field guide to the guest stars we can expect to see at Lee’s Palace tonight and tomorrow helping The Sadies record their first live album, brother Travis talks to The Toronto Star how the idea to record a live album came about and Papa Bruce tells NOW what he’s been listening to lately.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian talks to Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett about their extra-Rilo Kiley-cirricular activities. Paste has also run a piece on The Elected to go along with their Jenny Lewis piece from a couple weeks back.

Howling Bells have posted the video for “Low Happening” on their website. It’s dark! Not in tone, but in lighting.

Stars’ Torq Campbell tells The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix that Saskatoon is a fantastic place to play. Really. Stars are playing The Docks in Toronto on March 1 with Magnet, who is featured in Filter’s MySpace Booth this week, as part of the Indie Awards.

Simultaneously the most incongruous, yet completely logical bill in recent memory – Franz Ferdiand and Death Cab For Cutie – are going on tour together and will stop at The Docks in Toronto on April 17.

Sweden’s Love Is All will be at Lee’s Palace on March 21 to try and prove themselves worthy of the Pitchfork love. Their website is useless, so hit up their MySpace page for info. And by the by, speaking of PF faves, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s April 8 show has been moved from Lee’s Palace to The Opera House, though the extra 300 or so tickets that freed up are apparently all gone already?

The Guardian declares digital downloads a rip-off, aurally speaking. Via Largehearted Boy.

np – Six By Seven / Artists Cannibals Poets Thieves

Brief preface – every band mentioned in today’s post is releasing a new record in the early part of this year that I expect great, great things from, and it’s only February. No doubt in my mind that 2006 is going to be an amazing year for music. End preface.

Filter declares Trespassers William a band to watch and The Great Beyond recently conducted an email interview with Anna-Lynne Williams and Ross Simonini about the new record, Having. The band have also posted their segment from a recent Anti-Hit List on their MySpace page. It’s brief, but positive. The new album isn’t out till February 28, but audio samples are beginning to appear here, there and everywhere. Nettwerk has audio from the whole album available to preview here, but if your RealPlayer doesn’t work (like mine, I think my router refuses to pass any RTSP requests… anyone know a fix?), then head over to Filter (again) and stream “And We Lean In”. And also be sure to grab this MP3 – it’s dazzling.

MP3: Trespassers William – “Safe Sound”

As the release of Belle & Sebastian’s The Life Pursuit on Tuesday draws near, there’s more and more to report. The AV Club has a sit down with Stuart Murdoch about this and that, while Pitchfork wants to remind you that there will be a special edition of The Life Pursuit available that comes with a bonus DVD featuring six songs recorded live for BBC Scotland. NME has three songs from the album streaming right now, but AOL trumps them by making the whole album available to preview.

Some exciting show news (at least for me) – At long last, Brooklyn’s Dirty On Purpose will make their Toronto debut with a show at Lee’s Palace on March 6. I’m a little surprised they’re playing a venue that big their first time out, making me think there might be someone else of note on the bill, but either way, it’ll be great to have them in town and I heartily recommend everyone attend and brings their mothers.

And though not verified, another highly-recommended act making what I think is their Toronto debut is Denton, Texas’ Centro-Matic. Donewaiting has some tour dates in support of their new album Fort Recovery and though at first glance it looks like they’re foresaking Canada again, according to this post at the Undertow Music message boards, they’ve actually already booked an April 4 date in Montreal and reading between the lines, an April 5 show in Toronto is looking likely. Naturally, I will be out of town for this momentous event but highly recommend anyone with an interest in roots rock or just good music hit this show. Centro-Matic are the awesome. That’s right, definite article. Their Triggers & Trash Heaps EP is out on Tuesday.

And speaking of conspicuous tour gaps, one can’t help but notice the days off between Lansing, Michigan and Montreal on Neko Case’s tour dates for Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. Neko back in Toronto on April 2 or 3? It could happen. And Young & Sexy have confirmed dates as close as Hamilton on April 23 to support their new one Panic When You Find It, out February 14. It seems inconcievable that they’d come all the way out here from Vancouver and only play Steeltown and not Hogtown, so I’m hoping that there’ll be something local to report on or around April 24.

Chromewaves – your one-stop, concert rumour-mongering shop.

np – The Zephyrs / A Year To The Day

So this show has been a long time in coming – Low had been scheduled to come to Toronto to support The Great Destroyer way back in June 2005 but that date was one of the casualties of Alan Sparhawk’s breakdown and subsequent cancellation of all tour dates. But seven months hence and one bassist later, Sparhawk is feeling much better now and the tour was rescheduled and for smaller, cozier venues no less! Even the original support act, His Name Is Alive, was back on the bill along with Rhode Island outfit Death Vessel.

Though he referred to himself in the first person plural, Death Vessel on this evening was just one fellow, Joel Thibadeau, and his guitar. While this combination in and of itself isn’t particularly special, when he opened his mouth to sing, you couldn’t help but stop and listen – even if just for a moment. Thibadeau’s voice is almost indistinguishable from that of a pre-pubescent girl. Seriously. It’s high and pure and quite lovely, and more than a little unnerving coming out of the mouth of this guy with shaggy black hair. But once you got past that incongruity, he was quite winning with his repetoire of sing-songy old-timey folk tunes and group finger-snapping. But yeah, that voice. Wow.

All I knew about His Name Is Alive to this point was that they’re one of Five Seventeen’s favourite bands and that they’re in Saturday Looks Good To Me’s extended family. And on hearing them play songs from their new album Detrola I can add that, well, they’re a little odd. They play pop music, but it’s not immediately hooky and is often unconventionally structured. Their sound is somewhat minimalist, but what is there is quite lush. They played as a five piece but with no drummer, just occasional tambourines for rhythm. They’re like SLGTM’s weird, arty cousins. Really not sure how I felt about their stuff, to be honest.

And Low – it’s an understatement to say that Alan Sparhawk was happy to be here. I don’t know what sort of mental shape he was in last Summer, but it seems that he’s feeling much better now, and is appreciating every minute of it. The band, including new bassist Matt Livingstone, drew heavily from last year’s The Great Destroyer as well as reaching into the back catalogue. Interestingly for the newer material, they didn’t even try to replicate the speaker-blowing, Fridmann-powered production of the latest album, instead giving it a leaner, more tense tone akin to Things We Lost In The Fire. This worked for some of the numbers, but songs like “Monkey” and “California”, which were so defined by the heavier production, sounded a bit thin when stripped of the layers of sound and keyboards. By comparison, the older material sounded superb, taking full advantage of the sonic space and the strength of Sparhawk’s and Mimi Parker’s vocals. Truly, they sounded amazing – especially Parker. While Sparhawk took most of the vocal leads, her sad and pure voice lifted the songs up into a higher plane like some sort of mournful angel.

And pictures? Just let me say I love my new camera like I’d love a puppy who just learned to poop on the newspaper. It does better than I’d hoped in low light, and you didn’t get much lower than that for the opening acts last night (two red spotlights and that was it – about as bad lighting conditions as you could ever ask for). But with a little finessing and switching to black and white for HNIA, I was still able to get some great shots and far fewer write-offs. Thankfully the lights came up for Low (and disco lights for the encore), so in swapping from the 50mm f1.8 to the 18-55 f3.5-4.6 and even cranked up to ISO 1600, I got excellent, clean shots. DSLR = the awesome.

And related – Pitchfork interviews Alan Sparhawk about Low, circa 2006 and NOW talked to HNIA’s Warren Defever last week.

Under The Radar gets Isobel Campbell’s thoughts on 2005 while iFilm is hosting the “mature content” warning-sporting video for “Ramblin’ Man”. Hers and Mark Lanegan’s Ballad Of The Broken Seas came out yesterday and she’s in town at Revival on March 4.

Athenians Elf Power will release Back To The Web on April 25 via Rykodisc. Billboard has some deets. Preview new material at their MySpace page.

The Toronto Sun and Chart get a sneak preview of the guest star-studded Sadies-fest going down at Lee’s Palace this Friday and Saturday. I’ve got tickets for the first night, so check back Saturday for the low-down on the hoe-down.

np – Nellie McKay / Get Away From Me