Most nights of NxNE feature one lineup that is obviously the hot one of the evening, be it for one act on the bill or all. Usually they’re for larger names and are appropriately at one of the larger venues like Lee’s or the ‘Shoe – but Thursday night, it was The Boat, a tiny stage-less nautically-themed club in Kensington Market and the showcase assembled by Maple Music.

Kicking things off were Midland, Ontario (read: cottage country) trio Born Ruffians with a set of obscenely tight, rhythm-heavy tunes with the requisite amount of quirk. At times reminding me of The Dismemberment Plan’s hillbilly cousins their songwriting could be a little too willfully scattershot for their own good but the musicianship and energy was undeniable – the standout tunes were the ones where they just rode their obvious musical chemistry into parts unknown and jammed it out. If and when their songwriting finds some more focus, they could be fearsome.

Montreal’s Land Of Talk were my main attraction on this bill, the shoddy-audio MySpace clips intriguing as much as annoying, and I am pleased to report that they did not disappoint in the least. Frontwoman Elizabeth Powell’s voice is an incredibly emotive rasp, every inflection loaded with plaintive yearning. The songs are superb slabs of post-punk (in an entirely non-forumlaic way) and have a grittiness and urgency that suit Powell’s voice very well. I also picked up the EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss, and it is amazing. This band is bound for huge things – one could argue they were the least charismatic band on the bill but I for one will take songs over antics any day of the week. Their next show in town will be the Dog Day Afternoon festival curated by Metric on July 15 at Fort York. I won’t be going to that, but next time they play a club in town, you bet your sweet bippy I will be in attendance. All I can say further is that it’s a damn shame the record isn’t a) 8 songs or b) longer than 30 minutes…

If Land Of Talk were all about tension, then killthelights were the release. While their influences (again, 80s American and UK alt/indie) are hardly original, they have a gift that eludes many of their peers – the gift of the anthem. Hugely hooky without losing any edge, their songs are radio-friendly (in the completely non-suck sense of the phrase), their live show is high-energy and the vocal interplay between guitarist Alex Hackett and keyboardist Steph Hanna is superb. I don’t know where these guys came from – I’d never heard of them before save what I heard on their MySpace, but a completely welcome surprise. Their debut album is Winter Asthmatics and their next show is June 17 at The Drake with NYC’s Levy and Toronto’s The Two Koreas.

The Adam Brown were also visiting from Montreal and unlike the previous three acts, all of whom owed some debt to the 80s post-punk scene, they drew their influences from what can best be described as straight classic rock. I heard equal parts Mott The Hoople and Springsteen in the mix, though louder and faster than either. They had tremendous energy and an audience that was totally into it which always makes for an electric atmosphere, but I thought the rock star moves were a trifle overdone. MySpace here.

Though I didn’t stick around for the final band, what I did see was almost top-to-bottom impressive. I don’t think a single NxNE detractor, and to find one you really just need to swing a stick, could have disagreed – if shows like this were more the rule than the exception, then goddamn. Who needs Austin? I kid, I love you Austin.

I had been warned that the Boat was hard on photography, but I’ve never found a venue that made me consider using a flash more than this one. When a venue’s primary source of illumination is Christmas lights, you’re in for a good time. But I resisted and all things considered, my photos turned out okay.

Dig on some audio from the bands of the evening. And get that Land Of Talk EP. Seriously.

MP3: Born Ruffians – “Hedonistic Me”
MP3: Land Of Talk – “Sea Foam”
MP3: Kill The Lights – “Skinny White Girls”
Video: Kill The Lights – “Arctic At Dawn” (MySpace)
MP3: The Adam Brown – “Give Me Back My Heart” (demo)

Sonic Youth will be at the Kool Haus on August 8 with The Go! Team in tow. Their new album, Rather Ripped, is out Tuesday and while some may complain that it’s too mellow and not noisy enough, I really like it because, well, it’s mellow and not especially noisy. Keep in mind these are descriptors relative to past Sonic Youth, though I think it’s keeping in perfect form with their last few albums which I’ve also liked the most of everything they’ve done (besides Daydream Nation, yes yes). A poster at Via Chicago has posted an interview transcript with Sonic Youth addressing Jim O’Rourke’s departure from the band. And here’s a track from the new O’Rourke-less record.

MP3: Sonic Youth – “Incinerate”

Stylus rounds up their top 10 post-Britpop flops. I had gotten Britpop out of my system by the time by the time most of these came out so I feel no need to defend any of them, save for Pulp’s We Love Life. Not because it’s an outstandingly good record – though it’s not terrible by any stretch – but simply because I think Pulp was good enough to transcend simple scene-lumping as another Britpop band.

Decemberist Colin Meloy gives Pitchfork an exclusive preview of their new album and then turn around and give Billboard almost the exact same preview. Ha ha, Pitchfork. Ha ha. The Crane Wife is out October 3. It had never occurred to me that the “crane” in the title was in reference to the bird – I always thought it was, well, this. Hey, if anyone could make up a story of some guy marrying a piece of construction equipment, it’d be Colin Meloy.

Dig it – my second Anti-Hit List shout-out in as many weeks. And a Mojave 3 tune as #1, perfect.

np – Television / The Blow-Up

Due to the sheer number of shows I’ve got on the docket for the next few days, I’m going to have to run on a one-day delay just to keep my sanity. So thoughts and images from last night’s show at the Boat with Land Of Talk et al will be forthcoming in the next day or so. In the meantime, enjoy this hastily-assembled fill-in post!

Behold – the first burro-powered video from Amy Millan’s Honey From The Tombs. In addition to the video, there’s four Honey tracks streaming on Amy’s MySpace. The Toronto Star talks to her about the new record and previews her shows at the Reverb tonight and the Mod Club tomorrow and eye gets the scoop on some of her collaborators on Honey. Based on the sheer amount of press she’s been getting, it’s probably safe to say that Amy is this year’s “it” act at NxNE. Don’t forget that only the solo Reverb show is a formal NxNE show – the full band Mod Club thing is limited to the first 50 wristbands/badges/whatever. After that, you need a ticket and there aren’t many left, if any. Ticketmaster and Rotate are both sold out.

Video: Amy Millan – “Baby I” (MOV)
MP3: Amy Millan – “Skinny Boy” (ZIP)

Just Keep Bloggin’ has high school yearbook photos of Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew and Metric’s Emily Haines. Oh, like yours are any less embarressing.

Billy Bragg isn’t down with MySpace. Aversion reports that Billy read the fine print in the user agreement and didn’t like the bit about how MySpace gets a royalty-free license for all posted materials – MySpace’s PR and lawyers are in damage control mode, insisting that they in no way own the music posted on the site. More info here. So while Rupert Murdoch may not own the artists music, all the pictures of the kids pouting into their webcams are his to do what he wants with. And it’s best if you don’t ask any more questions about that.

Paste discusses the deeper meanings behind Built To Spill’s You In Reverse. The Seattle Times also talks to Doug Martsch.

Chart talks to the far-too neglected half of Television’s legendary guitarists, Richard Lloyd. The Age still prefers to talk to Tom Verlaine. Call it heresy, but I’ve always preferred Lloyd’s earthier melodic leads to Verlaine’s more abstract melodies. How to tell whose is whose? The album liner notes say who plays what solo – didn’t you ever notice? Very handy for picking sides. And it’s not really possible to articulate in words how excited I am about tonight’s show at the Phoenix.

NOW is similarly excited about this Sunday’s Tilly & The Wall show at the Mod Club.

Stylus wonders if The Flaming Lips were due for a backlash regardless of whether or not At War With The Mystics was any good or not. I only got a copy last week and have listened to it maybe twice so I’m not really in a position to say one way or the other, save to say that in that limited amount of time my overall impression has been a resounding “meh”. But I admit I’ve not been in the mood for Lips-ian wackiness for some time.

Apparently Ambulance LTD has fractured into little itty bitty pieces, with singer Marcus Congleton carrying forward with the band name and the rest of the crew now plugging along as The Red Romance, who sound incredibly unremarkable. It’s too bad, their New English EP was really pretty good and boded well for their future. Considering that the second Ambulance full-length was due out at the end of the Summer, mayhap the departed still played on it? Via Torr.

And that Gnarls Barkley fellow that the kids are all about these days has a tour date schedule for Toronto on September 9 at what Pitchfork calls “Toronto Islands Park”. Either this means Olympic Island or they’re going to run roughshod over Centreville. I kind of like the latter scenario.

Fluxblog interviews Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee-O’Malley.

np – Land Of Talk / Applause Cheer Boo Hiss

Not quite done with the shoegaze theme yet. Released in the Fall of last year, Club AC30’s Never Lose That Feeling tribute comp was far better than I had any right to expect. Featuring new artists who fell under the “shoegaze” stylistic banner covering tracks by their forebears, I reviewed it last October so in the interests of not repeating myself, I’ll just direct you back there. But this Fall will bring the second volume in the series, and AC30 has just released the tracklisting.

While the first edition featured a respectably varied number of different artists being covered, from major artists to more minor ones, the sequel sticks mainly to the big guns. There’s three from Catherine Wheel, three from My Bloody Valentine, a pair of Ride covers and a couple of the Drop Nineteens, and amongst the rest are Spiritualized, Slowdive, Lush, the usual suspects.

But there are a few curveballs in the lineup that promise to keep things extra-interesting. Britta Phillips of American ‘gazers The Belltower and more recently of Luna covers “How You Satisfy Me”, originally by Spectrum, AKA Pete Kember of Spacemen 3 while Paula Kelley, formerly of Drop Nineteens offers a lovely chamber-pop version of Ride’s “Vapour Trail”. But extra cool is the fact that the Lush cover of “Sunbathing” from Gala is done by Sing-Sing, the new band featuring Emma Anderson… ex- of Lush. Four tracks from the new comp are streaming on Club AC30’s MySpace and you can hear Piney Gir’s Bossa Nova-ish cover of Catherine Wheel’s “I Want To Touch You” at her MySpace.

More shoegaze covers – Are You Familiar also has some rare Chapterhouse MP3s including Beatles and Spacemen 3 covers. And I mentioned Greg’s “History Of Shoegaze” series a few months back – while it’s still not complete, the first five entries are excellent reading (and listening). Check it out – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

I’ve also re-upped some or all, I’m not sure, of my relevant past MP3s of the week. I’m only leaving them up temporarily so get them while they’re hot. Full info on the tracks here – use ye olde browser search command to find the track you’re looking for.

MP3: Mira – “When You Sleep”
MP3: Trespassers William – “Vapour Trail”
MP3: Buffalo Tom – “Cupid Come”
MP3: Mogwai – “Honey”
MP3: B Fleischmann & Ms John Soda – “Here She Comes”

Credits/links – My Bloody Valentine by Mira (MySpace), Ride by Trespassers William (MySpace), My Bloody Valentine by Buffalo Tom (MySpace), Spacemen 3 by Mogwai (MySpace), Slowdive by B Fleischmann & Ms John Soda (Myspace & MySpace).

And because I have never really, given Lush enough ink in these pages and YouTube makes it SO easy to be lazy:

Video: Lush – “Sweetness & Light” (YouTube)
Video: Lush – “Nothing Natural” (YouTube)
Video: Lush – “De-Luxe” (YouTube)
Video: Lush – “De-Luxe” – alternate version (YouTube)
Video: Lush – “For Love” (YouTube)
Video: Lush – “Superblast” (YouTube)
Video: Lush – “Hypocrite” (YouTube)
Video: Lush – “Ladykillers” (YouTube)
Video: Lush – “Single Girl” (YouTube)
Video: Lush – “500 (Shake Baby Shake)” (YouTube)
Video: Lush – “500 (Shake Baby Shake)” – UK version (YouTube)

And also topical – ex-Velocity Girl Sarah Shannon will release her second solo album this Fall on Minty Fresh. No idea if it will continue in the Bacharach-pop style of her self-titled debut of a few years ago, but I’m just pleased she’s still making music. As for her bandmates, I accidentally tracked them down last year.

Dave Gedge of The Wedding Present complains to Belfast Today about kids these days and their music and Event Guide also sits down for a chat. The Weddoes’ Search For Paradise comp came out a couple weeks ago – not as strong as Take Fountain, where the a-sides originated, nor even the Cinerama b-sides comps, but still worthy.

Billboard reports that Doves are holed up somewhere in the English countryside working on album #4. Expect it to be influenced by cattle.

Exclaim! rounds up the sordid history of Primal Scream. Riot City Blues is out now.

The Toronto Sun, eye and NOW preview Television’s NxNE show at the Phoenix tomorrow night. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Seattle’s The Stranger also talk to Tom, but not about NxNE. I’m pretty sure they don’t care. I may have an extra ticket for tomorrow night’s show which I’m more interested in seeing go to good use than getting fully reimbursed for. If you want it, email me.

Couple new show announcements – The Late BP Helium, alumnus of Elf Power and Of Montreal, will be at The Boat on June 28, cover $8, while the next night (June 29 for the chronologically impaired) sees The Organ at The Drake Underground, $13.

np – Josh Ritter / The Animal Years

Double-digit-member Toronto-based musical collective/supergroups are old hat, but double-digit-member Toronto-based musical collective/supergroups fronted by vibraphonists? Hold the phone! Fronted by transplanted Haligonian Paul Aucoin The Hylozoists lineups, past and present read like a who’s who of Canadian indie rock (the family tree would include Broken Social Scene, The Sadies, The Weakerthans, Fembots, Cuff The Duke and Final Fantasy amongst many others) but anyone trying to use any of those acts as reference points for The Hylozoists will be left scratching their heads.

Their new album, La Fin Du Monde, is a primarily instrumental affair that’s pretty, joyous sweeping and rolicking and completely un-indie rock. It sounds like the orchestral score to a circus movie, laden with strings, horns, keys and yes – vibraphones, and is in stores June 20. The Hylozoists were tapped to play the official launch of the Polaris Music Prize yesterday afternoon at the Drake, and goodness knows I’ve never turned down an opportunity to cut work early to catch some hot vibraphone action. Playing as a six-piece, they were quite hypnotic and great fun to watch – It’s such lively music and an unusual (compared to what I’m used to) combination of sounds. The vibraphone itself was fascinating to watch with it’s rotating valves and fun mechanical mute and whatnot. Okay, maybe that’s the engineer geek in me talking. And the beer. Some photos here.

While their official website is under construction, hit up their MySpace or their page at Boompa Records for more info. For the instrumentally curious, Exclaim! talked to Aucoin about the tools of his trade back in November. The ‘Zoists will be touring all over southern Ontario this Summer – check out their MySpace for dates – but locally, they play the Horseshoe June 17, have an instore at Soundscapes on the 20th and will be at Harbourfront on August 13 soundtracking the Hot & Spicy Food Festival. Really.

Here’s some audio – one from the new album, one from their old one. And you can watch some video footage of their performance at CMW earlier this year courtesy of ZED-TV.

MP3: The Hylozoists – “Strait Is The Gate”
MP3: The Hylozoists – “DetailsAt5”

Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallet graces the cover of this month’s Exclaim!.

From Are You Familiar – the new Broken Social Scene video. Funnier and less seizure-inducing than their past clips, guest starring Geddy Lee and that guy from Rotate This who gave you that look when you asked about Snow Patrol tickets. But he’d probably happily sell you tickets to BSS’ Olympic Island show on the 24th or the Broken Mascis Scene show on the 23rd. And note that Arts & Crafts has a new, far more usable website.

Video: Broken Social Scene – “Fire Eye’d Boy” (MOV)

And more new videos – the first one from Centro-Matic’s Fort Recovery and another from Spoon’s Gimme Fiction:

Video: Centro-Matic – “Triggers & Trash Heaps” (YouTube)
Video: Spoon – “The Two Side Of Monsieur Valentine” (MOV)

Rhino is streaming the whole of the new Replacements best-of Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was?, out June 13. And yes, you can skip right to the end to check out the new songs “Message To The Boys” and “Pool & Dive” if you really want. Harp has a profile of ‘Mats bassist Tommy Stinson’s new gig in Soul Asylum with more of a focus on the early Minneapolis days. I overheard a record store clerk saying the other day that he doesn’t get why people like The Replacements. I had a word with the manager and he was fired immediately. Update: Newsday profiles The Mats. Via LHB.

After releasing Another Fine Day on July 18, Golden Smog will follow it up lickety-split with another EP in November. There’s some new preview clips on their MySpace and Billboard has a little more info.

Pitchfork interviews Glenn Kotche of Wilco and Glenn Kotche.

Ben Birdwell of Band Of Horses talks to Pulse Of The Twin Cities and Metromix. Their show at Lee’s Palace next Tuesday is damn near sold out, if not already. Just so you know.

Head Concrete Victoria Bergsman talks to The Chicago Tribune about selling out to Target and getting drunk in Omaha.

JAM! syndicates an AP piece about Neko Case learning how to sing.

Paste goes jogging through time with Josh Ritter. The Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle and Boise Weekly opt to just, you know, talk and stuff.

Village Indian learns the mystical story of Tilly & The Wall. Congrats to who won my contest and will be in attendance at their show at the Mod Club on Sunday night. Link via Genki Zenki.

np – Trespassers William / Having

My contribution to the Mars Needs Guitars shoegaze group-blog post I mentioned yesterday was Slowdive’s “Dagger”, the final track on their second album Souvlaki. I’ll let you read the whole post for my thoughts on the song and why I picked it, but I’ve got a couple more versions of the song to put up as appendices of a sort.

The electric version is presumably a Souvlaki demo that sounds much more conventionally Slowdive than the one that made the final album. It’s got shoegaze-approved glistening, echo-laden guitar and a longer, slightly denser arrangement and there’s nothing wrong with it at all but it lacks the rawness that makes the album version so powerful. The moment over a decade ago where they decided to put this version on the shelf and try something different would certainly prove to be a momentous one.

Mojave 3 steadfastly refuse to play Slowdive material live, and justifiably so, but that wasn’t always the case. Witness this MP3 from a March 2001 gig in San Francisco where they performed a M3-ified version of “Dagger” – the audio quality is unfortunately quite sad, but you can still hear the new arrangement they’ve given it, introducing pedal steel and drums to really fill out the sound and building to a soaring crescendo. The skeletal arrangement of the original was really a crucial part of what made it so effective, but the Mojave 3 version introduces some real melancholy and sense of loss into the song that really changes the mood and meaning. It’s a real shame that they don’t play it live anymore.

MP3: Slowdive – “Dagger” (electric)
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Dagger” (live)

The new Mojave 3 album, Puzzles Like You, was originally supposed to be released today but it has been pushed back a fortnight till June 20. The first single, “Breaking The Ice”, was released yesterday in the UK and comes with two b-sides. As promised, Puzzles is easily the band’s peppiest work since Out Of Tune and even eclipses that for sunshininess. Those who favour the bands quieter, gentler side can still take solace in numbers like “Most Days” and “You Said It Before”, though those are only temporary reprieves from the sumptuous pop that dominates the rest of the album. And it’s really amazing that for all the great songs that Neil Halstead writes for the band, the moment he lets one of his bandmates in with a writing credit they almost steal the show. As Rachel Goswell’s “Bringin’ Me Home” was a real standout on Excuses For Travelers, this time it’s drummer Ian McCutcheon who pens one of the album’s best tracks. Closing track “The Mutineer” is a gentle acoustic strummer with a gorgeous melody and ghostly vocals. The song also appears on the If Ifs And Ands Were Pots APans album from McCutcheon’s other band, The Loose Salute. You can hear their slightly more uptempo version on their MySpace page.

And speaking of personnel – the observent will notice that guitarist Simon Rowe is not listed in the credits for the new album. Sadly, Rowe has apparently decided that married life is more rewarding than playing in a criminally underappreciated band so he’s out for the time being. Add in Rachel Goswell’s health issues and it will be a very different M3 that tours in support of this album in North America this Fall.

Apparently no one told AOL about the pushed-back release date as they’re streaming the whole thing online right now. 4AD has also assembled a nice eCard for the album where you can sample songs not only from Puzzles, but the band’s entire discography including Neil and Rachel’s solo albums. It also has the new video for “Breaking The Ice” which is far and away the catchiest song in Mojave 3’s repetoire and the video is fittingly cute. It’s only the band’s third-ever video – you can see the other two below.

MP3: Mojave 3 – “Breaking The Ice”
Video: Mojave 3 – “Love Songs On The Radio” (YouTube)
Video: Mojave 3 – “Some Kinda Angel” (RealVideo)

The New York Times business section is really the last place I’d expect to get Luna news, and yet there it is. In a piece about a new practice of releasing archival material with limited audiences in digital form only, they reveal that on June 20 – the same day The Best Of Luna CD and Tell Me Do You Miss Me? DVD hit the stores, a third collection will be made available only through download outlets. Lunafied will will compile a CD’s worth of the band’s covers, presumably ones not commonly available on album or EP, and was originally intended to be a companion disc to the best-of but that notion was squashed by bean counters. Obviously I’d have preferred to have been able to get the rare stuff in physical form, old-school as I am, but at least they’re seeing some form of release. However on the down side, I wonder if a) this spells an end to Rhino’s days of putting out cool, collector-friendly compilations for smaller bands and b) if this means that the chances of a full accounting of Luna’s b-sides and unreleased goodies are that much closer to nil? Lord knows there’s enough in the vaults to fill out a damn find box set. Someday, someday.

Australia’s X-Press Online and The Age talk to Alan Sparhawk of Low. He is releasing a solo album entitled Solo Guitar on August 2 that consist of 9 tracks of ambient looped guitarscapes, recorded live off the floor. Should be interesting, if completely un-Low.

MP3: Alan Sparhawk – “How The Weather Comes Over The Central Hillside”

The Scotsman finds out why Camera Obscura had to go to Sweden to find themselves (via Largehearted Boy) and The DIY Rockstar also has an interview. Let’s Get Out Of This Country is out today and I repeat – it’s fantastic.

Ladytron are at The Docks on October 2. I can’t believe they’re already Docks-sized. Where does the time go?

I’ve selected the winner for last week’s Mission Of Burma contest – all the submissions were excellent so I copped out and did the random draw thing. But if you want to read the responses to my “What is the horrible truth about Burma?” question, I’ve set up a special page with all the submissions. Thanks to everyone who entered. And go read this PopMatters interview with the band.

np – Luna / Bewitched