One of the few Elephant 6-affiliated bands to still be kicking it old-school is Athens’ Elf Power. While their psychedelic compatriots have taken hiatuses, broken up, reconfigured or simply gone mad, Andrew Rieger, Laura Carter and co. have plugged right on, turning out album after album of slightly fey, whimsical yet increasingly muscular indie pop. In fact, it seems with every record Elf Power has gotten darker, both musically and lyrically – maybe that’s inevitable as you get older and realize you’re still playing in a band called “Elf Power”. Maybe they should change their name to “Dark Elf Power” or “Drow Power”. Okay, I totally just outed myself as a former D&D geek, though maybe that’s cool now. Hmm. Moving on.

Their new album, Back To The Web, will be out April 25 and the band will be in town at the Horseshoe on May 3, with The Instruments and Lake Holiday opening. Funny – I remember seeing Elf Power some three-plus years ago and thinking that we (Lake Holiday) would be a perfectly-fit opening band for them. And now that I’m no longer with that band, we/they are. Go figure. Anyway, some of the band’s local media outlets have got interviews with Andrew Rieger – check out pieces from Flagpole and Red & Black. But question – now that the Power’s new label, Rykodisc, has been bought by Warner Bros, does that mean Elf Power is a major label band? Hmm. Ponder that while you listen to the first MP3 from the new disc:

MP3: Elf Power – “An Old Familiar Scene”

It seems not so long ago they were cramming a dozen-plus members onto the stage at the Horseshoe, but now Bright Eyes have moved to bigger and posher things – witness their just-announced cross-Canada tour this Summer, which will culminate in a show at Massey Hall on June 14. Well, I suppose if Cake can play Massey Hall, then Bright Eyes can. Gruff Rhys, taking a break from all things Super Furry to promote his Yr Atal Genhedlaeth solo album, will open all dates.

CMJ talks self-deprecation with The Boy Least Likely To. Check em out at Revival on June 10.

Fresh off the resurrection of Son Volt, Jay Farrar tells Billboard he’s working on an album of traditional numbers called Gob Iron with Anders Parker, due out this Fall, as well as live DVD on May 23 called Live: 6 String Belief. But fear not – the Volt rests far from the back burner. They’re touring with Drive-By Truckers this Spring and will head back into the studio soon thereafter to record the second SVMk2 album, due out in Spring of ’07.

Harp reports on Neil Young’s forthcoming new album, which will be entitled Living With War. As you can imagine, it’s a protest album of sorts and judging from one of the song titles (“Impeach The President”), it’s a bit heavy-handed. Not surprisingly, even with Dubya’s microscopic approval ratings, his supporters are already getting their knives out for Neil – it’s bad enough that anyone would deign to criticze the president, let alone a Canadian? Thrasher’s Wheat has been following the online scuttlebutt closely.

And if you missed it yesterday, my photos from Thursday’s Voxtrot/Irving show are up.

np – Billy Bragg / The Internationale

By my count, I missed both Voxtrot and Irving a combined 54 times at SxSW last month, give or take. Being two of the buzzier bands at the fest, they were playing shows left, right and centre in Austin and I somehow managed to skip them all – no mean feat. But that’s okay, because last night’s gig at Sneaky Dee’s had been on the calendar for some three and a half months and I figured that surely, way up north, there wouldn’t yet be such a crush of hip kids in the know. In reality? Not so much the fact.

The club was pretty packed early, thanks in no small part to Toronto-spawned openers Spiral Beach, whose keyboard-driven, dorkily precious new wave seemed pretty popular with the locals. Looking like Jenny Lewis with three impossibly-curly headed brothers, they were hellaciously tight and undoubtedly entertaining, if not particularly my thing. Some of my compatriots, however, were quite blown away by them, so give them a listen anyway.

Irving and Voxtrot, who hail from Los Angeles and Austin respectively, proved to be rather an inspired touring bill. Both have brand-spanking new releases as of last week and both trade in classic-sounding guitar pop, but get there in distinctly different ways. Irving draw elements from five or six decades of pop music and mash it all together into something that sounds distinctly modern yet timeless while Voxtrot unabashedly owe their existance to the 60s via the 80s but thanks to some supremely sharp melodic and songwriting sense, neatly avoid any “retro” tags that might get thrown at them.

Because of some unspecified holdups getting from Montreal to Toronto, neither band had the opportunity to soundcheck beforehand and as a result the evening was a little slow-moving with set-ups and getting everything sorted. But both bands were able to rise above the minor technical difficulties and put on terrific sets. Irving have more than their fair share of vocal talent, with all five members contributing either leads or harmonies as they plowed through their set of high-energy power pop, drawn mainly from new full-length Death In The Garden, Blood On The Flowers. Bonus marks to keyboardist Aaron Burrows for his t-shirt which read, “Canada – Fits Your Budget”. Awesomeness.

At the end of Voxtrot’s set, singer Ramesh Srivastava dedicated much-requested “The Start Of Something” to a Toronto girl in attendance with whom he’d lived in Scotland for a few years. It makes perfect sense that he spent Voxtrot’s embryonic years in the UK, because their sound is so immersed in classically British stylings, yet (thankfully) without any of the Anglophile affectations that plague so many other similarly-influenced acts. Instead, they’ve mastered the art of the hook and the beat, blending Smiths-y jangle and lyricism with uptempo, dance-friendly rhythms. Ingredients that are sure to guarantee a positive response in oh-so-Anglo-friendly Toronto, and that Voxtrot surely did. The unplanned encore of “Missing Pieces” was nearly derailed by a nonfunctioning guitar (apparently they’ve been plagued by gear maladies the whole tour) but was eventually pulled off as a splendid finale to the show.

Yes there are pictures. No they aren’t ready yet. Come back later. Come back now. But in the meantime, check out this brief interview with Srivastava about their new EP Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives, which just came out officially last week. It’s an excellent complement to their first first EP, though a lot less influence-on-the-sleeve than that one. Which while it may make it a little less immediate, is undoubtedly a sign of growth. Listen to the title track here:

MP3: Voxtrot – “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives”

Some shows – Calexico will bring their ruinous garden to Toronto for a show at the Phoenix on July 5. No other North American dates announced yet. And Mark Kozelek will be at Lee’s Palace on July 12, full dates here. Ever notice that Kozelek never comes up here with his band(s)? It always seems to be just him. Wonder why that is.

Beth Orton discusses Comfort Of Strangers with Chart.

The Sydney Morning Herald speaks briefly to The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle. Someone told me where in North America their new Babylon Springs EP was available, but I’ve completely forgotten.

Billboard hears all about Doug Martch of Built To Spill’s recent eye injury.

My post punctuality has totally gone to shit this week. But come on, today’s a holiday. Celebrate. If we took a holiday, took some time to celebrate, just one day out of life? It would be so nice.

np – Aloha / Some Echoes

The Drive-By Truckers will release their latest album, A Blessing And A Curse, next Tuesday but you can hear the whole thing now through the marvel of modern technology. And if you go indie and buy the album from any of these stores, you’ll get a limited-edition 4-song bonus EP for your troubles. Of course, the only stores listed there are in the good old US of A, so your guess is as good as mine as to whether any of those puppies will make their way up here. Lord knows the band themselves won’t be. Not yet, anyway.

The band grace the cover of this month’s Harp and within, they talk about deliberately NOT wanting to make A Blessing And A Curse another record about being Southern or any sort of concept record, and they cover some of the same ground in this interview with Billboard (via MSNBC). But even with that in mind, the sounds of their three-headed songwriting and guitar-slinging machine are so distinctive and so innately of the South, there’s only so far they can get from that while staying honest to who they are. I’ve only given the aforementioned stream a single listen so far, but it sounds pretty damn Drive-By Truckin’ to me.

In addition to their show at the Drake on May 5, Montreal’s Lovely Feathers will be back the following month for a show at the El Mocambo. Their new one, Hind Hind Legs, is out next Tuesday. Recommended if you like pop music that’s probably a little more difficult than it needs to be. Also, The Streets are at The Phoenix on June 23 with Lady Sovereign.

Metric’s Emily Haines will release her new, still-untitled solo album on September 26, followed by a Metric live DVD on November 7.

Chart talks to Isobel Campbell.

Ben Gibbard defends Phil Collins to Harp. Harp isn’t buying it.

You may recall my reviewing the Thunderegg Open Book collection last month – CokeMachineGlow also tried to figure out how to review 530 minutes of music and instead, came up with a feature story. About writing the review.

The last of my vacation pics from Taiwan and Japan are now up on Flickr. They’ve been broken up by city/locale for easier browsing. Have I already said that? I don’t remember. Anything.

np – Young & Sexy / Panic When You Find It

Sometimes a little time away can do a world of good. Built To Spill’s last one, Ancient Melodies Of The Future, was generally regarded as a disappointment and while I didn’t mind it so much, I’d be lying if I said that it was the first album I reached for when I was in the mood to hear some Martsch & Co. But following that, the band took some time off, Doug Martsch put out a decent if not remarkable solo effort in Now You Know and somewhere along the line, the band found the will to make a new record. Now officially a five-piece (second guitarist Jim Roth presumably no longer has to sleep in the trailer with the gear and third guitarist Brett Netson is a former accomplice who has rejoined the fold), they yesterday released You In Reverse which could be called a return to form depending on what edition of Built To Spill floats your boat.

If you liked the simpler, rawer indie pop of circa There’s Nothing Wrong With Love then this might be another in a line of disappointing records but on the other hand, if you’re that guy you probably jumped ship ages ago. You In Reverse is defintely in keeping with the denser, more sprawling and just slightly foreboding guitar orgy that’s mostly defined their Warner Bros albums. In some respects, it doesn’t sound all that different from Ancient Melodies. The songwriting seems a little more compact (though still epic-length more often than not) and while there’s plenty of guitar, it’s not necessarily all in the form of solos – they’re a little more integral to the songs. But the energy and interest that seemed absent from their last studio album is back, and that’s absolutely a good thing. It doesn’t break any new ground but it’s good to have them back, doing what they do and doing it well.

AOL is streaming the whole album right now and Harp has an interview with Martsch about the Built To Spill story thus far while Metacritic tallies the overall score on the new record. And even though the concert gods struck Martsch down with an eye injury for not booking a Toronto show, they still insist on tempting fate and refuse to come any closer than Buffalo on their rescheduled tour dates. What’s it gonna take, locusts? Seas of blood? C’mon.

CokeMachineGlow gets Matt Berninger of The National to talk about his lyrics and reflect a bit on 2005, the year of the Alligator.

Spin revisits Feist a year after declaring her “Band Of The Day”. Also check out her new fansite/blog All Things Feist, which has lots of live goodies. Via For The Records. Her Open Season rarities comp is out April 25.

Prefix talks to Mogwai bassist Dominic Atchison in an interview that’s confoundingly curse-, slag- and venom-free. Skiddle doesn’t fare much better at eliciting a Brathwaite-calibre quote from Atchison. They’re at the Phoenix on May 16 with Torche.

Billy Bragg tells Chart he loves the digital age.

Those who refused to go see James Blunt just to catch the opening act will be rewarded on June 10 when too-cute-to-live Britsters The Boy Least Likely To are at Revival, Blunt-free.

Release news – CMJ has the title – Personality – and tracklist for the new Sleepy Jackson album, due out July 25. And Yo La Tengo will have a new album out in September but in the meantime, they’ve got a compilation disc of their legendary WFMU fundraiser sessions up for sale. Yo La Tengo Is Murdering The Classics is a collection of their finest(?) phone-in request covers, guaranteed to get feet tapping, fingers snapping or just make you squirm uncomfortably in your seat for 70 minutes.

24: Do gas stations and motels normally stay open after curfew during martial law? I dunno, not an especially thrilling episode – most notable for the introduction of Twangy Spy Guitar into the soundtrack and generally being a bad day to be in emergency services and just doing your job.

np – Crystal Skulls / Outgoing Behaviour

Broken Socialite and Stars star Amy Millan will hold a CD release party for her solo disc Honey From The Tombs at the Mod Club on June 10. This will be a NxNE-related event and as such, some wristbands will be admitted but otherwise tickets will run you just $12. The CD itself is out May 30 in Canada but not until the 29th of August in the US of A.

In addition to the first MP3 for “Skinny Boy”, which you can grab for free from Arts & Crafts and which Pitchfork was kind of “eh” about, there’s a second track streaming at Amy’s MySpace page. She also recently talked to Dose about the new record.

And in other local show news, Grizzly Bear are making themselves comfy in Toronto with a show at the Drake on Thursday and another at the Music Gallery on May 4. Drama-rockers Ambulette will support Rainer Maria at the Horseshoe on May 15, tickets $10.50, and Wolfmother will be back at the Opera House on May 16 with Deadboy & The Elephantmen.

Bardo Pond, still kicking and most likely still hellaciously loud, are at Lee’s Palace on June 11, while fans of soaring vocals and introspective lyricism are SOL on June 13 14, when instrumental acts Pelican and Mono are at Lee’s, tickets $13.50. And at a venue to be determined but hopefully somewhere quiet and vibe-y, Jose Gonzalez will be in town June 26 with Juana Molina and Psapp.

But perhaps most exciting is Television at the Phoenix on June 9? Hello? For real? Yes? YES? FINALLY. Apparently tickets are $40-ish and go on sale Thursday. I will post more details as I find ’em.

Harp gets a travelogue from road warriors Rainer Maria, whose Catastrophe Keeps Us Together was released last week.

And looking to the future, Billboard reports Spoon will be starting work on the follow-up to Gimme Fiction shortly and hope for an early 2007 release while a single-disc reissue of their Telephono and Soft Effects releases should happen before the year’s end. Also, Wilco will be taking their new stuff on the road. There’s no timetable for the new album but hopefully 2006 will still happen, though I am a little doubtful.

Apologies for the lateness of the hour. Maybe I’m a little jet-lagged after all.

np – Billy Bragg / Talking With The Taxman About Poetry