Last week I asked “Whither twee?”, and the postman must have heard my question because what should show up in my mailbox but the debut album from UK duo The Boy Least Likely To. Released in the UK last year but only getting a North American issue last month (though I’m not sure how distribution on it is – Amazon still only has it as an import), The Best Party Ever revels in the duo’s wimpiness.

From the cover art on down, this package is about as edgy as a rubber ball and unashamedly so. Even though some of the song titles hint at something a bit darker (“I Sleep With A Gun Under My Pillow”, “I See Spiders When I Close My Eyes”), there’s nothing here so sinister that it can’t be dispelled with a night light and security blanket. The songs are gently adorned with banjo, keyboards and flutes but are acoustic strummers with rich, singalong melodies at their heart. It’s all terribly pretty and maybe a little maddening – like being trapped in sun-dappled meadow with the biggest damn teddy bear’s picnic ever. They may be The Boy Least Likely To, but they’re the band most likely to spontaneously turn into stuffed animals.

Their first headlining North American tour brings them to Toronto on June 10 for a show at Revival with The Bicycles, who may well have finally found a band that makes them look badass by comparison. They were in town back in March opening for James Blunt at Massey Hall, but I don’t expect much of their fanbase could justify the cost or the Blunt. The Straight talks to the band about their concious choice to not rock.

They might happily invite you to their best (tea) party ever, but don’t expect too much sharing of the goodies – the only downloadable I’ve been able to find is via the SxSW website. Even the video for the same song is streaming only. There’s much streaming action on their MySpace page and So Much Silence has a recent session for KCRW MP3-ed and ready to go with an extended discussion about the band’s dangling preposition for good measure.

MP3: The Boy Least Likely To – “Please Be Gentle With Me”
Video: The Boy Least Likely To – “Please Be Gentle With Me” (MOV)

And the whole of Camera Obscura’s North American tour has been announced and Tripwire has them. The July 4 show at the Horseshoe in Toronto is the first of the tour – if you’re gonna go, I recommend getting tickets sooner rather than later. The ‘Shoe ain’t that big. Let’s Get Out Of This Country comes out June 6.

This week on UK frontmen gone solo: Roddy Woomble of Idlewild will put out My Secret Is My Silence on July 24 in the UK – Filter has some deets. Brett Anderson of Suede and The Tears has completed his solo record and will release it early next year and Pitchfork has a preview of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke’s solo record The Eraser which is out July 11.

Faceculture has a slew of video interview clips with Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle and one video clip of Lytle performing “Underneath The Weeping Willow”.

The Toronto Star reports that birthday boy Bob Dylan will be played in an upcoming biopic by… Cate Blanchett. And Heath Ledger. And Richard Gere. And Christian Bale. I’m Not Here is being directed by Todd Haynes of Velvet Goldmine fame and should be, at the very least, interesting.

np – Serena-Maneesh / Serena-Maneesh

I think Crooked Fingers is maybe the band that gets heaviest rotation in my listening that I’ve never actually done a proper post about. Time to rectify that. I’m a relatively new convert to the gospel of Eric Bachmann, really only seeing/hearing them for the first time in October 2004 when Bachmann opened for The Delgados as a solo act. I thought he was great but it wasn’t unitl last March when I was invited to the Crooked Fingers show at the Horseshoe that I was driven to pick up any of his recorded output starting with 2005’s Dignity & Shame. That record would end up in my top 5 albums of last year and the rest, as they say, is compulsive back catalog collecting.

The completistism hasn’t carried over to Bachmann’s old band Archers Of Loaf – I’ve got Vee Vee and Icky Mettle but their noisy 90s alt.rock is so far removed from the timeless troubadour persona that Bachmann took with Crooked Fingers that one does not satisfy a craving for the other. But before you old-schoolers jump all over me, I’m getting around to working on the AoL catalog. Put those pitchforks away.

It’s hard to say what I find so compelling about Crooked Fingers – on paper, it’s nothing especially original but I guess there’s something about Bachmann’s evocative songwriting, 50-packs-a-day rasp and the near-perfect production and instrumentation of the records that strikes a deep chord with me. It’s singer-songwriter done perfectly. So naturally I’m excited to hear that Bachmann will be releasing a new record on August 22 via Saddle Creek. CMJ reports that To The Races will be released under Bachmann’s own name and will apparently be very stripped down – just guitar and voice with some piano and violin accents. Recorded in a week in a North Carolina hotel room, it sounds to be quite a switch from the lushness of Dignity & Shame, maybe even more austere than the first couple Crooked Fingers records which were fairly sparse in their own right.

While I was obviously a fan of the richer Crooked Fingers sound, I’ve witnessed Bachmann solo and can testify that the man on his own is riveting. It’s telling that at SxSW this year, with all the buzz bands and next big things playing the fest, it was Bachmann’s solo set on the top floor of the Capital Place hotel that was hands down the best performance I witnessed. There’s something to be said for the wily veterans. Bachmann has some choice opening gigs this Summer for Calexico and Neko Case but will be doing a co-headlining tour with Richard Bucker this Fall.

I’ve taken the liberty of rounding up every legit Crooked Fingers MP3 I could find online, covering the breadth of their discography. Also be sure to hit their MySpace and their own homepage – they’re streaming Dignity & Shame‘s “You Must Build A Fire” and it’s essential listening for anyone with a heart. Also, Epitonic has Crooked Fingers’ cover of Prince’s “When U Were Mine” taken from their Reservoir Songs covers EP. I can’t figure out how to direct link the track so you’ll have to go there to get it. Update: And there’s a slew more MP3s available on the Crooked Fingers website – just click on the huge “music” graphic on the left side.

MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Call To Love”
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Big Darkness”
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Devil’s Train”
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “New Drink For The Old Drunk”
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Juliette”

One of the highlights of Dignity & Shame was the contrast in Bachmann’s vocals and those of Australian-in-New-York Lara Meyerratken. Meyerratken’s main gig is as keyboardist for Ben Lee but she also moonlights with other acts – though she didn’t tour with Crooked Fingers on their jaunt up here last year, I did see her as touring keyboardist for Luna a few years back. And she’s very lazily working on some solo material which you can have a listen to at her MySpace. The tracks sound great and her voice is like butter – I hope these see the light of day someday soon.

Full Of Wishes has a first look at the artwork for The Very Best Of Luna compilation coming out on June 20 and Amazon has the tracklisting. As Andy points out, the mysterious “Hard Times” is actually “Sideshow By The Seashore”, thus dashing the hopes of completists who were looking for some lost gem to make this comp worth owning. I’m a little disappointed that Rhino, who has usually done such a good job of loading up their best-ofs with rarities and whatnot, has apparently gone with a straight cull of album tracks for this one. One hopes that this means that a proper separate b-sides and rarities comp is in the works – after all, Luna were one of the best odds and sods bands of recent memory, their singles and EPs being as essential as the albums. But who knows.

Bradley’s Almanac makes me jealous with a recording of Margot & The Nuclear So And Sos in Boston Monday night. He’ll have the Film School portion of the show up soon as well.

It’s the darkness and the light at Lee’s Palace on August 3 with Black Heart Procession and Danielson, tickets $15. The Handsome Family and Curt Kirkwood, playing solo although the Meat Puppets have reformed, are at the Horseshoe July 15, tickets $13.50.

Happy belated birthday to Bob Dylan, who turned 65 yesterday. Billboard pays tribute to the now-senior citizen and The Toronto Star considers Dylan in print.

np – Evangelicals / So Gone

Five long months after it was initially supposed to ship, the third volume of Scott Pilgrim – Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness – finally hits the stands today! For those unfamiliar with this absurdly charming Toronto-created and -based graphic novel series, grok the Wikipedia entry and become acquianted with one of the freshest, funniest and funnest funnybooks on the stands today. Did I mention it’s fun?

When I say I’ve been waiting for volume 3 for a while, I’m not kidding – I first posted about it last October. First it was supposed to be out in December, then January, then “Spring” and now finally May. Newsarama has an interview with creator Bryan Lee-O’Malley where he explains the constant delays (“We had to solicit early due to the bookstore market, and failed to do the math right, basically”) but also mentions some of the real-life Hogtown locales that play host to the events in the new book (“Lee’s Palace is real, Honest Ed’s is real, the Pizza Pizza across the street is real”). Woo Toronto. Comic Book Resources ran a 13-page preview of Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness back in September.

Newsarama also has the whole of the Scott Pilgrim Free Comic Book Day Special if you missed out on a copy a couple weeks ago – an edition which got positive mentions from both Entertainment Weekly and Salt Lake City Weekly.

And for Torontonians who want to celebrate with Lee-O’Malley, head over to Rocco’s Plum Tomato (at Bloor and Bathurst – right by Honest Ed’s and the Pizza Pizza) this Saturday night for a book release party for Scott Pilgrim and Dinosaur Comics’ first tome. It’ll be comic geek-eriffic.

Someone ripped off Jens Lekman’s “Sweet Summernight On Hammer Hill” for a washing machine commercial and that someone is LG. Read about it here and boycot LG washing machines! Via Largehearted Boy. Also read this interview with Jens at Dusted, but don’t boycott them.

Harp has a little info on the new M Ward record Post-War, due out August 22.

Thanks to Prefix for pointing the way to the new Mogwai video for “Travel Is Dangerous”.

Video: Mogwai – “Travel Is Dangerous” (SWF)

The Magnolia Electric Co will be at Lee’s Palace on September 12 as part of their Fall tour. Though the booking agency doesn’t explicitly say so, I’m told that Shearwater should also be on this bill, which would bump it up from a “recommended” to an “absolute must-see”. Venue still TBA but I’m guessing Lee’s.

Popmatters talks to Stephin Merritt about Showtunes but thankfully doesn’t address the ridiculous Song Of The South controversy that’s been swirling around him on the interweb of late. If you’re curious about that – and it’s not really worth the cyber-ink that’s been spilled on it – The New York Times reports on the controversy stirred up at the recent EMP conference and Zoilus has lots more on the matter. Pop (All Love) also has something to say, but it’s more an excuse to talk Britney than anything else.

And to circle round back to comics, IGN is counting down their 25 greatest X-Men moments this week leading up to the release of X-Men 3: The Last Stand on Friday (Via LHB). I’d be lying through my teeth if I said I wasn’t more nervous about this than excited, but I’m sure my inner fanboy will win out over good cinematic judgement in the end and I’ll be there on Friday night.

np – Bedroom Walls / All Good Dreamers Pass This Way

Tilly & The Wall release their second album Bottom Of Barrels today, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little surprised that they’ve stuck around this long. If ever there was a candidate for fast-track novelty band status, it’d have been these tap-dance-powered sunshiney Omahans signed to Saddle Creek’s farm team label.

But their debut Wild Like Children was solid if maybe a little long for maximum effectiveness. Behind the tap-dancing and summer camp counsellers on upppers persona you actually had some good songs so I was perfectly happy to give them the old thumbs up, particularly after seeing them live a couple times. They were like injecting pure glucose into my eyeballs and eardrums, but in short controlled doses – neither of their opening sets were longer than half an hour – they were the most fun ever.

Which bring us to the new record. It’s simultaneously better and not – on one hand, their sound has grown. There’s actually drums on a couple of tracks, and for that I applaud the band for not being too beholden to their aesthetic and doing whatever’s best for the songs. On the other hand, some of the songwriting has crossed that dangerous line of treacle and now they don’t just sound like camp counsellers, they sound like Church camp counsellers – so positive and affirming that you just know they have to be shooting up behind the mess hall after hours. Back on the plus side, Neely and Kianna’s harmony vocals still sound great and Derek Pressnall’s voice sounds even morer eerily like Conor Oberst’s but without the annoying vibrato – which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you feel about Bright Eyes.

The band will be at the Mod Club on June 11 with David Dondero for a mini Team Love-in. Considering what I said earlier about “short, controlled doses” we’ll see how well they hold up in a headlining context. Bring insulin, just in case. I’ll be running a little Tilly contest next week, so stay tuned. More Tilly content to see and hear – the band discusses the effectiveness of free downloads in marketing something as cliched as a tap-dance powered folk-pop combo to The Los Angeles Times and Take Your Medicine has some live Tilly audio and video. There’s some MP3s from the new album below and they’ve got a MySpace but there’s no new audio there so all you can do is become, like, BFF with them all.

MP3: Tilly & The Wall – “Bad Education”
MP3: Tilly & The Wall – “Lost Girls”

The reason you have to wait till next week for my Tilly contest is because this week, if you’ll note the shiny new Mission Of Burma contest banner up in the corner, I’ve got one set of the super-limited edition A Time To Punctuate 12″ series to give away, complete with fancy ethings, courtesy of Matador. That’s EIGHT 12″ singles, people. Super limited edition. File under: amazing. You can listen to the tracks here and become the band’s friend here but you can only win the 12″s here. And The Phoenix talks to the band (as DJs) who today release what some are calling their heaviest album yet, The Obliterati. And hey – Pitchfork loves it – what higher endorsement is there? They’re at the Horseshoe on July 26.

Illinois Entertainer talks to Mike Cooley of Drive-By Truckers while The Monitor chats up Jason Isbell and Minnesota Public Radio has got a recent radio session up for listening. I just picked up A Blessing And A Curse the other day (it’s out officially in Canada today) and have to say it’s another triumph for the boys (and girl) from Alabama. And I think Isbell has clinched the title of fave Trucker – “Daylight” slays me.

The Guardian discusses the demise of Grandaddy with Jason Lytle while The Houston Chronicle compares the band with The Flaming Lips while The Seattle Times talks to Wayne Coyne with nary a mention of Grandaddy. So Much Silence has the audio from Lytle’s recent stop at Cincinatti’s WOXY.

24: Finally – some educational content to the show. How to kill a man with a penknife silently from behind! Actually, this is some of the most graphic violence we’ve seen nice. Yes. So, twenty minutes in and everything scary has been addressed. Now it’s time to go after everything simpering! Have Jack and Logan ever actually met before? Not really the best foot to get started on, tasering the secret service and interrupting the President’s Sudoku session. Ah, if it were only really so easy to kidnap the President… Aside – man, David Palmer selling car insurance during the commercial break. Surreal. End aside. Now this wasn’t a season finale climax I was expecting… talking. Jack and Logan talking. Oh, here’s some gunplay. That’s more like it… and Jack loses. But lo and behold, a hysterical First Lady somehow manages to ask exactly the right questions – BECAUSE SHE WAS IN ON IT. Huzzah! You know, I found this more gratifying than if Jack HAD shot him. See? Violence isn’t the answer to all our problems – only most of them. And now, I guess the Vice-President takes over. I dunno, man. I saw Twin Peaks – he’s crazy. Oh, Bill and Karen are TOTALLY going to get it on. That’s nice – we know how well CTU romances work out. Bill’s gonna lose a limb.

HAHAHA. THE CHINESE HAVE THE LAST LAUGH. DO NOT FUCK WITH US! Remember this post from last season? I may have been off by a season, but I STAND BY IT. And I’ll stop shouting now. So not the most action-packed finale, but definitely a satisfying and ballsy one. And a decently strong season all around with relatively minimal WTF moments. Except one – where’d Chloe’s ex-husband come from again? I must have blinked when he was introduced.

np – Mission Of Burma / Vs.

Saturday night, the Drake Underground played host to what I’d consider a fairly good microcosm of the indie scene here in Toronto. Three bands, all quite different but all fine ambassadors for their respective styles, on one bill. Two I was quite familiar with, one I figured I may as well get acquainted with considering the growing buzz around them.

The Ghost Is Dancing I’d seen twice before and each time, they’ve gotten bigger and wackier and I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing. Boasting a nine-piece band and an arsenal of instruments real and makeshift, they’ve still got some good tunes and energy to spare, but I wonder if they might be letting the chaos of their live show run a little roughshod over the music (not that they’re the only ones – see below). I dunno, it seems to be working for them and it was certainly entertaining, but I’m wondering if someone’s going to have to take a step back at some point and reassess live show tactics. But I won’t be surprised if next time I see them, there’s a circus elephant onstage.

After the stage-overflowing cacaphony of The Ghost Is Dancing, The Coast’s setup seemed positively austere by comparison but they just proved you don’t need giant papier mache dragons or dazzling lightshows to be riveting onstage – sometimes great tunes are all it takes. You may (or may not) recall my review of their self-titled EP a last month, but as much as I enjoyed it then I’m surprised how much more its grown on me in the interim. There’s a couple songs on there that are some of the best things I’ve heard all year, no word of lie. Rendered live, there was an extra roughness around the edges that was a nice counterpoint to the cleaner-sounding shimmer of the recorded versions. Highly recommended for anyone with an yen for fresh yet classic-sounding Brit-styles.

It seems sad that it’d take some vegan in Brooklyn to bring Tokyo Police Club to my attention, but there you go. The four-piece has just released their debut EP A Lesson In Crime on Paper Bag Records and are reaping some buzz for the effort, so the Drake was pretty full by the time they climbed onstage. This Exlaim! piece details how the band decided that “silly” and “ridiculous” stage antics would be the best way to win over audiences, and that ethos was in full effect on Saturday. The big signs and giant red flag were nice touches but when they broke out the armfull of rolled up newspaper and asked the audience to build giant towers out of them to win home-made cookies, it got a little much. The crowd quite enthusiastically took up the challenge and everyone was having a great time playing arts and crafts, and that was sort of the problem – I’ll guarantee you not one of the people taking part in the little civil engineering challenge was listening to the band. Hell, I was barely able to pay attention for the construction going on all around me and I wasn’t even playing (okay, I taped a few pieces together but they would have fallen on me otherwise). And that’s rather a shame because while their sound is hardly original at the moment, they’ve got some ace songs and should really give themselves and their music more credit for being able to engage the audience with it. The gimmicks aren’t doing anyone any favours except maybe those who are inspired to rediscover their old Erector sets.

It probably comes off a bit sour to rag on bands for wanting to put on an entertaining and engaging show for their audience, and maybe it’s just me showing my age but I’d much rather it be done with the music than with a sideshow. Of course, consider that some of my favourite live bands of all time (Luna, Mojave 3, Wilco) don’t do anything but get up and play – if you dig on the bands that bring out the fire-breathing or lion-taming, you’d probably disagree. Kids these days and their ADD. I tell ya.

Check out the MySpaces for The Coast and The Ghost Is Dancing. Since Tokyo Police Club’s is their only website, I’ll give you this interview with The Gazette instead. And photos, of course. And here’s some audio to soundtrack your morning – the sounds of Toronto!

MP3: Tokyo Police Club – “Cheer It On”
MP3: Tokyo Police Club – “Nature Of The Experiment”
MP3: The Coast – “The Lines Are Cut”
MP3: The Ghost Is Dancing – “Organ”

Folks looking for info on The Sleepy Jackson’s new one at their website may be a little perplexed that it now just forwards on to EMI Australia’s website. The whys and wherefores of this, I don’t know, but your one stop source for all things Luke Steele can now be found at www.columnsofsmoke.net. Okay, maybe there’s two stops – there’s also the MySpace. The album – whose title has gotten longer since last check (Personality – One Was a Spider, On Was a Bird) – is out July 25 and there’s a track-by-track review in their forum.

The Austin Chronicle talks to Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg about stepping out of Okkervil River’s shadow and finding his own voice.

The Guardian dedicates more than a few column-inches to a couple Canadian icons with extended pieces on Leonard Cohen, who has just put out a new book of poetry, and Neil Young, who wants to impeach the president. The Los Angeles Times rounds up some of the reaction to Living With War.

And as you settle in tonight for the season finale of 24, consider this interesting analysis of the 24 clock, apparently a bane to typographiles everywhere. And speaking of clocks, don’t forget it starts an hour early tonight. Update: Note to Canadian viewers – The Toronto Star sez that Fox will air the last 2 episodes back to back but Global is breaking them in half to run The Apprentice at 9. Because they’re, you know, IDIOTS.

np – Rainer Maria / Catastrophe Keeps Us Together