UK bands kicking off a month-long North American tour could do far worse than to do so in Toronto, as I doubt there are many more cities on the continent more favourably inclined to all things British. Scotland’s Camera Obscura did just that this past Tuesday night to a sold-out, sweltering Horseshoe in support of their excellent new album, Let’s Get Out Of This Country.

Toronto’s Diableros got the nod to open both the Toronto and Montreal shows on the tour – a bit of an odd choice, stylistically, but I wasn’t going to complain as I’ve missed numerous opportunities to see them play in the past half-year and was thankful for the gimme. Many have complained about the fuzzy production of their debut album You Can’t Break The Strings In Our Olympic Hearts but after seeing them live, I gotta say – that’s what they sound like. The guitars may jangle a little cleaner but everything else, from the organs doing battle with the distorto-bass for sonic space to Phoebe Lee’s propulsive drums and Pete Carmichael’s howl sound remarkably similar live to how they do on record – or maybe that should be the other way around. Either way, their set was intense and impassioned and actually got the front of the club packed with both the converted and the curious, no mean feat for an opening band – even a hotly-tipped local one.

Much of what makes Let’s Get Out Of This Country such a leap forwards from the aptly-titled Underachievers Please Try Harder is the extra vim in songs like “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken”, “If Looks Could Kill” and the title track that bust the band out of any twee-pop pigeonhole one might have been tempted to place them in. But in a set that drew heavily from both those records, it was unavoidable that the energy levels would drift back towards the more delicate mid-tempo numbers. Luckily, the band has gotten quite good at those over the years. There were a few flubs that could be chalked up to first-show jitters, but maybe because they accepted that there were going to be a few hiccups in the performance (right before starting the show, they realized that the soundman had all their set lists) and that the audience wasn’t going to hold it against them, they were quite relaxed onstage. Tracyanne Campbell, carrying the frontperson mantle entirely on her own after the departure of John Henderson at the start of last year, was surprisingly chipper and chatty and certainly set a good tone for the night though it’s a shame she got the coughs during the outro of “Lloyd” and couldn’t sing it properly. Alas. But a thoroughly enjoyable show if maybe not as intoxicating as the album it was in support of.

I look at my photos from Tuesday and my photos from two years ago and I laugh. Ha ha. Tracyanne also talks to The Independent Weekly about Lloyd Cole.

MP3: Camera Obscura – “Let’s Get Out Of This Country
MP3: The Diableros – “Push It To Monday”
Video: Camera Obscura – “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” (MOV)
Video: The Diableros – “Sugar Laced Soul” (MOV)
MySpace: Camera Obscura
MySpace: The Diableros

The Airfields, a band which at last check counted two Diableros amongst their roster, have a new video from their Laneways EP. It’s a charming little retro film montage set to one of the saddest and prettiest songs on the record.

Video: The Airfields – “Red Fox” (YouTube)

The New Pollution talked to The Concretes when they kicked off their own North American tour at the Horseshoe back in May. Hopefully Camera Obscura’s turns out better than their Swedish compatriots’ did.

Aversion has some info on the new Sparklehorse record. Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain will be out September 26 and is described as being “in the style of VivaDixie/Good Morning Spider“. While I’m personally of the belief that It’s A Wonderful Life is the best Sparklehorse record, when Mark Linkous releases a new record after a half-decade, you take it whatever it sounds like. Either way, NME has the tracklisting.

NOW talks to The M’s about working with Jonathan Demme on the video for “Future Women”. The M’s open up for Wilco at Massey Hall tomorrow night.

Bradley’s Almanac has a recording of Buffalo Tom’s recent hometown show in Boston.

Update: Anyone need a single ticket for Wilco tomorrow night? 6th row floor, centre-right. I paid around $58 so best offer thereabouts. Email me. Thanks.

np – Luna / Rendezvous

So the ten finalists for the inaugural Polaris Music Prize were announced yesterday and to no one’s surprise, the list is heavily indie rock-centric and Toronto/Ontario-centric, to say nothing of Toronto indie rock-centric.

Of my nominations, the only one I’m a little surprised about not making the list is Destroyer. I thought Destroyer’s Rubies would have been a critic’s pick shoo-in – guess not. What I am surprised about are the presence of Sarah Harmer and Metric, as I didn’t feel their latest efforts measured up the the benchmarks set by their earlier works. But, as I noticed when I was trying to make my picks, the pool of eligible acts was pretty slim this year.

But without further delay – the final 10:

Broken Social Scene / Broken Social Scene (Arts & Crafts/EMI)
Cadence Weapon / Breaking Kayfabe (Upper Class/EMI)
The Deadly Snakes / Porcella (Paper Bag/Universal)
Final Fantasy / He Poos Clouds (Blocks Recording Club/Sonic Unyon)
Sarah Harmer / I’m A Mountain (Cold Snap/Universal)
K’naan / The Dusty Foot Philosopher (Track & Field/Sony BMG)
Malajube / Trompe L’oeil (Dare to Care/Outside)
Metric / Live It Out (Last Gang/Universal)
The New Pornographers / Twin Cinema (Mint/Outside)
Wolf Parade / Apologies To The Queen Mary (Sub Pop/Outside)

Anyway, each of the nominated bands will contribute a track to a compilation CD to be released on August 22 and the winner of the $20,000 grand prize will be selected on September 18 from a final jury of 11 of the 120 original jurors. And for those looking for an angle by which to condemn this event, the main sponsors of the prize are evil conglomorate Rogers and Yahoo!. Boo, hiss! Chart talks to Polaris exec Steve Jordan about the short list while The Globe & Mail contemplates the list.

But for the record, I’m pulling for the New Pornograpers, which means I will have to fight Zoilus.

Exclaim!’s review of Mojave 3’s Puzzles Of You includes a brief interview with Neil Halstead.

The Los Angeles Times talks to members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Belle & Sebastian’s Mick Cooke about their collaboration/performance at the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow night.

The New Pollution asks Stuart Brathwaite of Mogwai if they’ve mellowed.

Glide counts off the buzz bands of 2006 so far and essentially wraps up the entire indie rock blogosphere in one tidy list.

The Sadies are holding a CD release party for In Concert Vol. 1 (out August 8) at the Horseshoe September 8 and 9. You know what they should do? They should record it and release it as Volume 2, then record the release party for THAT and put it out as Volume 3, and so forth and so forth. That’d be awesome. Elsewhere, Early Day Miners are at Club Tranzac on September 13, Lambchop and The Tosca String Quartet are at Mod Club September 24 ($20), Be Your Own Pet are at the Horseshoe September 25, blogger beloveds Beirut (see above) are at the ‘Shoe October 4 ($10), Hot Chip at Mod Club October November 6 ($15) and from the Britpop graveyard – The Bluetones – BLUETONES – are at Lee’s Palace on Oct 6. Seriously.

np – Gemma Hayes / The Roads Don’t Love You

Toronto concert-goers would do well to get acquainted with Oakley Hall as they’ll be passing through town not once but twice in the next few months as support for such notable shows as Calexico at the Phoenix on Thursday and M Ward at the Mod Club on September 11.

Initially formed by ex-Oneida member Pat Sullivan, Oakley Hall hail from Brooklyn but sound about as un-stereotypically New York as you can get. They draw heavily on traditional country forms and arrangements but add a healthy dose of indie rock intensity and psychedelic-fuzz guitar. You know, the sort of thing that once upon a time might have been called (whispers) “alt.country”. But I don’t think people use that term anymore, so I’ll just say that Oakley Hall will appeal greatly to folks who might have once come out and said they listened to (whispers) “alt.country”. But be prepared for an emphasis on the “country” half of the equation. You wouldn’t think it’d be necessary, but some people like only a very specific amount of twang in their tunes. True story.

Oakley Hall have released not one but two new full-lengths in 2006 – Second Guessing back in February and Gypsum Strings last month – so they’ll have plenty of material to choose from on their upcoming tours. They’ve got a reputation as a scorching live act so I’ll be able to report back on the truth of that later this week. In the meantime, check out some of their recorded output – the first one comes from Gypsum Strings, the other three from Second Guessing.

MP3: Oakley Hall – “Lazy Susan”
MP3: Oakley Hall – “Landlord”
MP3: Oakley Hall – “Eyes, Lock & Steel”
MP3: Oakley Hall – “Light Of My Love”
MySpace: Oakley Hall

Amusement Parks On Fire will release their second album Out Of The Angeles in the UK next Monday and from the sounds of the new tracks on their MySpace page, they may have gotten over their My Bloody Valentine-wannabe phase just a little, which is probably a good thing. No word on a North American release of the album yet.

AZNightBuzz talks to Band Of Horses’ Ben Bridwell. Via Largehearted Boy.

Largehearted Boy also has his best-of 2006 so far list up, covering not just music but literature as well. Pitchfork offers up suggestions of great music you might have overlooked (so far) this year.

The New York Daily News talks to Voxtrot (whose EPs are on that PF list) about their recent signing to Play Louder, and I’ve got my photos from their Friday night show in Brooklyn – along with TV On The Radio and Matt Pond PA – processed and uploaded for you viewing pleasure. Not the best set of pics I’ve ever taken but considering I was shooting from dozens of rows back with a 300mm lens in the dark, not too bad.

Still recovering from NYC. In case you were wondering.

np – The Grates / Gravity Won’t Get You High

Dear New York City:

Thank you for your hospitality. Thank you for Madison Square Park, the Shake Shack, Grand Central Station, the MTA, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, the Empire State Building, B&H Photo Video, the MoMA, Union Square, the Staten Island Ferry, the Statue Of Liberty, Wall Street, Brooklyn, Prospect Park, the United Nations, the East River, the Public Library, the Chrysler Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall, the Courthouse, Ground Zero, Washington Square, Greenwich Village, the East Village, the Hotel Chelsea, Central Park, the Central Park Zoo and the Met.

You’re lovely. Don’t ever change. Except that humidity thing. That can go.

Frank

PS – Happy Fourth of July – don’t take it personal that we’re clearing out before you guys go all crazy patriotic celebratory-like. I’ll send photos in the next few days.

So in brief – Friday night we went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn to catch a free show as part of Celebrate Brooklyn, featuring locals TV On The Radio, Matt Pond PA and Austinites Voxtrot. It had been a long day of walking around Manhattan, so arriving early enough to get seats was a real boon.

Voxtrot got a brief set but made the most of it. It was kind of strange to see them on such a massive stage and they played it like it was a small one, staying mostly clustered together up front (except the keyboardist, who was shunted off way to stage right). The set did contain one new song amongst old favourites which was more like the jaunty pop of the first EP rather than the leaner rockingness of the second, but still sounded good. I don’t think I’ll ever hear Ramesh’s voice as loud and clear at a club show as they were this night, that’s for sure. I like these fellows, they’ll go far.

Matt Pond was apparently celebrating his last night in Brooklyn and I think he might have been more than a little drunk. The weather had begun turning a bit foul during their set, and rather than hurry up through their show to get the headliners on before everyone got drenched, he wasted time by talking about how the weather was turning a bit foul and how they were going to hurry up through their show to get the headliners on before everyone got drenched. I haven’t heard Several Arrows Later so I can’t really comment on that stuff but surprisingly, the Emblems material was quite sped and rocked up. The new cellist sounded as good as the old cellist which is to say it sounded like cello. A good set but I was distracted by the fear of getting drenched. As previously stated.

I have never actually heard TV On The Radio, but can now say they put on one hell of a live show. Playing off the energy of the super-enthused hometown crowd and bringing out guest singers and horns, they definitely impressed with their rocked-up, fuzzed-out soul music. Now THIS was a band who knew how to work a stage the size of the Prospect Park bandshell. It’s also worth noting that the skies cleared up and the air warmed up the minute TVOTR took the stage and remained mostly warm and clear right till the end of their set, with a little rain only coming back during the encore. Not many bands can control the weather like that. I am going to have to check out their stuff, including the new one Return To Cookie Mountain, which is released this week in the UK and which NME is streaming the whole of right now.

Hey, I told you it’d be brief. I got some okay super-telephoto pics, but won’t be getting to them until I get home. Update: Okay, photos are up.

MP3: TV On The Radio – “Staring At The Sun”
MP3: Voxtrot – “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives”
Video: Matt Pond PA – “Look Out (Closest)” (MOV)
MySpace: Matt Pond PA
MySpace: Voxtrot

BrooklynVegan was also there, natch, and from the camera angles was backstage. And also for Voxtrot’s set.