I’ve been grappling with Hind Hind Legs, the debut from The Lovely Feathers, for a few weeks now, trying to figure out what I think of it. Is it silly? Is it catchy? Is it a put-on? Is it amazing? Is it annoying? I think the answer to all of these is yes, and sometimes all within a single song. As is practically mandatory for indie bands hailing from Montreal, the Lovely Feathers produce frantic, demented, smart-ass, ADD indie rock with kitchen sink instrumentation and hepped up, yelpish vocals from Mark Kupfert and Richard Yanofsky. Stuff like this walks a fine line for me and depending on my mood, Lovely Feathers can fall on either side of it at any given time. But not matter what my disposition, Hind Hind Legs runs a little bit long for my tastes, thirteen tracks of maniacism (word? Not a word?) does try the patience.

But as they told The Toronto Sun, they’re more about the live experience than the studio and I’m inclined to believe they’d put on a damned entertaining show – what can come off as overly awkward or odd on record is often much more engaging in its undiluted live incarnation. Torontonians can see for themselves when the Feathers headline the Pop Montreal showcase of Over The Top this Friday night at the Drake Underground with Duchess Says and Telefauna. Advance tickets are $10 or $12 at the door.

To hear some Lovely Feathers and determine if you fall on the “amazed” or “annoyed” side of the fence (or sit on the fence), check out the MP3 and video from Hind Hind Legs below, with more available at their MySpace and New Music Canada. And the once again MIA Teaching The Indie Kids To Dance Again’s last dispatch has some more Feathers tracks for grabbing.

MP3: The Lovely Feathers – “Fudgicle”
Video: The Lovely Feathers – “Frantic”

The Lovely Feathers’ album was produced by one James Shaw of Metric, who also tapped the Feathers as opening act for some of their recent shows – no doubt a polarizing experience for some of Metric’s fanbase. Prefix talks to Shaw about Metric and Canada in general.

Voxtrot have bolstered their otherwise skimpy website with a vault of live, unreleased and otherwise unavailable goodies for your downloading pleasure. Covers-heavy at the moment, which naturally makes me happy.

Paste has made their recent cover story on Flaming Lips available online.

Since the Wilco website still lists ticket info for the July 7 Toronto show as “TBA”, I think it’s safe to assume that the presale does NOT start this morning at 10AM. Note that other Canadian shows are selling for around $30-$32 USD a ticket, so not too dear.

And if you can’t scrape together the dosh for Wilco tickets, maybe The Fiery Furnaces show are at the Phoenix that same night will be a little more in line with your budget June 7. Please disregard any previous attempts to segue from the last item to this one. Nothing to see here. Move on. (via For The Records). Update: I’ve been told this info is incorrect by one who would no. So disregard for now.

Oh, and I’m officially maintaining ye olde blogroll again – it had fallen into neglect recently, but I think I need to expand my universe again. What am I missing that I should be reading?

np – Howling Bells / Howling Bells