The first of my two TIFF films this year was the world premiere of the Finnish martial arts film Jade Warrior (or Jadesoturi) which I figured would either be extremely amazing or extremely awful – but definitely extreme. No middle ground.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t an extreme film at all but quite slow and subtle. There were a number of martial arts sequences which were quite well coreographed and performed, but a lot of the film is rather talky. Basically, it’s a combination of the Kalevala, the epic poem integral to the Finnish national identity, and Wuxia martial arts stories. As the director told in the Q&A, it’s not an explicit adaptation of the former, but rather draws inspiration from the idea of a mythic hero who never gets the girl. In Jade Warrior, said hero’s story begins in ancient China as he prepares to face his destiny in defeating a demon and runs in parallel with his reincarnation as a modern-day blacksmith who is despondent over losing his girlfriend. Fate, in the form of a mysterious metal chest allegedly holding the key to happiness in the world, intervenes and ties the two together.

I admit I found parts of the film bewildering, probably mainly because of the unfamiliarity with the myths being drawn upon, but it was still quite engrossing and well-executed, especially considering the modest budget. It was made for under three million Euros but you really can’t tell – it never overreaches in the visual effects department and thus looks fine for the most part. The only aspect I really found to be bad was lead actor Tommi Eronen’s attempts to speak Mandarin. Obviously he learned his lines phonetically, but whoever was coaching him should be ashamed – his cadence is so slow, awkward and unnatural that he comes off more as mentally challenged than chosen by destiny. A relatively minor complaint, I guess, but still annoying.

But while I don’t know that Euro-Asian martial arts hybrids will be the next big thing in international filmmaking, based on Jade Warrior it is definitely a concept that’s worth investigating. As long it’s more like this and less like Kung Fu…

Trailer: Jade Warrior (Flash)

eye and Daylight’s For The Birds will release their debut album Troubleeverywhere. Better than a nickel in the Unicef box.

Lady Sovereign is at the Opera House October 24 while The Rapture are at the Guvernment on October 27. Full dates at Pitchfork for both.

Okay, off to the islands.

I was going to start this Virgin Festival preview off with a focus on Phoenix, but I guess the big news is the bad news that Massive Attack have pulled out of their Sunday night headlining slot because they were unable to secure their US visas in time. The fact that they’ve cancelled their Canadian dates because they can’t get into the US is a rather irksome, but I’m sure it makes sense to them. Even though I’m not really a Massive Attack fan, I’m disappointed because I expected they’d put on an amazing show whether you’re a devotee or not – alas. The last-minute replacement act will be Broken Social Scene and while that’s not a c-list substitution by any means, it’s not terribly exciting either. The hometown boys just don’t offer the international grandeur and mystique to the bill that Massive Attack did – and the V Fest lineup just became that much more identical to last month’s Lollapalooza. Oh well, what can you do besides read eye’s interview with Massive Attack and wait for the promised rescheduled dates.

Anyways. Phoenix. For the longest time, and even now, they’re ingrained in my head as that band with that song that I always heard at the indie dance nights that sounded so familiar and yet which I could never place. That song was “Too Young” off of their debut album United and as deliciously hooky as that song was, it didn’t smell of a terribly long shelf life and so I wrote them off as a one-hit wonder (without an actual quantifiable hit) and that was that.

But they didn’t go away. I didn’t hear much about their second album Alphabetical but their latest, It’s Never Been Like That, has been getting some serious praise from many quarters and with the number of familiar acts peppering the Virgin Festival lineup, I’m hoping they cover the pleasant surprise quotient of the festival. In addition to their afternoon slot on day one, they’re playing an invite-only gig at the Mod Club that doubles as the official V Fest launch party. Not that that information really does anyone any good. Ahem.

The fact that The Toronto Star, eye and NOW all ran interviews and features on the band this week indicates that I’m not the only one who thinks that they might be one of the sleeper bands on a pretty heavyweight lineup. Or maybe they all just found the French accents amusing.

Stream: Phoenix – “Consolation Prizes” (Windows Media)
Stream: Phoenix – “Rally” (Windows Media)
Video: Phoenix – “Consolation Prizes” (MOV)
Video: Phoenix – “Long Distance Call” (MOV)
MySpace: Phoenix

Another band at the fest who I’ve not paid much attention to in the past but who I am perfectly open to being impressed by are Montreal’s Dears, also on the day one schedule. Their new one Gang Of Losers came out in Canada last week and will be out in the US on October 3 (on Arts & Crafts, the label that incidentally is handling Phoenix’s record in Canada). The Toronto Star and eye talk to head Dear Murray Lightburn about the new record.

Headliners on day one will be The Flaming Lips, who will be re-releasing their latest album At War With The Mystics in deluxe CD/DVD format on October 24. Hey, ammo for those confetti guns ain’t cheap.

Chart interviews Eagles Of Death Metal front-stache Jesse Hughes, who are pretty much the only act that could entice me to the Future Shop stage on day one.

The AV Club talks to The Raconteurs, the penultimate act on the day two main stage.

And The Toronto Star is maintaining a special hub page dedicated to V Fest, including some pieces on performers, organizers and a quickie overview of everyone in the lineup. I assume it will be updated regularly over the course of the weekend. MuchMusic will also be webcasting live from the festival.

And tangentially – Doug Martsch of Built To Spill bemoans the corporatization of music festivals like Lollapalooza to City Pages. I thought the in-your-face sponsorship at Lolla was pretty subdued considering the scale of the event, but it’s probably a good thing BTS aren’t playing V Fest then. I’m expecting to be inundated with Virgin Mobile and Future Shop gewgaws this weekend.

Tonight kicks off what will be a mad, mad, mad fortnight for me – I am literally going to be pummelled over the head with culture. Over the next thirteen days, I’ve got 10 concerts (including the two V Fest days) and two Film Fest movies to hit, to say nothing of the fact that my day job (yes, I have one of those) is about to go critical mass with work and deadlines. FUN. I’ve been doing my best in the relative lull leading up to this to get a lot of pre-emptive groundwork done to make the workload over the duration easier, but it’s going to be pretty exhausting. How will I get through it? Two words: TRUCKER SPEED.

np – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin / Broom

It’s kind of a joke that indie kids don’t dance, but maybe they’re just more discriminating about what does or doesn’t get their skinny no-asses moving. Disco hi-hats and stabby new wave guitars are so 2004. But while Classics, the second album from New York duo Ratatat, has certainly got the sounds to fill the dance floor, it’s also pretty interesting and compelling listening on its own – not something that a lot of records can claim.

Classics will probably get filed under “electronica” but it’s far more organic-sounding than synthetic. Think new-school Cylon vs old-school (I’ve been watching Battlestar Galactica). The beats are solid but what sets this record apart for me are the melodies – they’re really slinky and strong and usually coupled with interesting instrumentation or samples. And the snarling cat in “Wildcat” is awesome – you almost want to claw at the air and make snarling faces. Almost. I’m not saying I did that. Nothing of the sort. It’s a fun record but not as lightweight as say Daft Punk, which I find drearily repetitve stripped of a dance club environment or an accompanying video. But Ratatat is something I can actually just sit and listen to. And now that I think about it, it might actually fail as a dance album because it makes me want to concentrate on the production rather than shake what I got. But then I don’t really got a lot. Anyway.

The Boston Globe gets some dark secrets about the band’s connections to Bjork and Dashboard Confessional (recorded at the former’s house, was touring guitarist for the latter). They (Ratatat, not Bjork and Dashboard Confessional) are at Lee’s Palace tomorrow night with Envelopes and Panther. There’s an MP3 below and you can grab another at Pitchfork.

MP3: Ratatat – “Wildcat”
MySpace: Ratatat

M Ward tells The Village Voice that Post-War is not a protest record, discusses the recording process with The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, offers a quick interview to Hour.ca and talks to The Chicago Tribune about growing up. Ampcamp has an MP3 of the title track of the album, Minnesota Public Radio has a studio session online and n’oubliez-pas that he is at the Mod Club on Monday night.

MP3: M Ward – “Post-War”

Some new videos for fans of bands with perky, sexy female lead singers. One from The Grates, in town on Saturday at Lee’s Palace, and one from Monsters Are Waiting, who are not coming anywhere near here anytime soon. The Grates, however, also offer up a new MP3 – point, Grates.

MP3: The Grates – “Feels Like Pain”
Video: The Grates – “Science Is Golden” (YouTube)
Video: Monsters Are Waiting – “Ha Ha” (MySpace)

NOW, eye and The Toronto Sun talk solo record Knives Don’t Have Your Back with Emily Haines who plays three shows at the Gladstone on Tuesday.

Fair number of shows announced in the last little bit. The highest profile would have to be the two dates at Massey Hall for Death Cab For Cutie along with tourmates Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. Death Cab, I can totally see at Massey Hall. Ted? That’ll be an interesting environment – hell, I thought the Mod Club was too fancy pants for him. But getting Mr Leo in front of 5400+ possible new fans is nothing but good news to me. Tickets range from $32.50 to $42.50 plus service charges and go on sale tomorrow. Full tour details on Billboard and a nod to For The Records for sleuthing out these dates over a week ago.

And speaking of Death Cab, which I don’t do much anymore, this video of Ben Gibbard and Decemberist Colin Meloy (aka the poster boys for major label indie) recently performed Blur’s “End Of The Century” at one of those Revenge Of The Bookeaters shows. Only noteworthy because, well, I really like that Blur song. There’s an eh-quality video at YouTube.

Video: Ben Gibbard & Colin Meloy – “End Of The Century”

And The Washington Post discusses The Crane Wife, blogs and leaked records with Meloy. The album is out in physical form October 3 and the band is at the Kool Haus November 6.

Anyway, back to shows. Mew have a headlining show of their own at the Mod Club on September 25 for $10 – pefect for those who couldn’t get tickets to the Kasabian show on the 27th or who simply don’t want to see Kasabian. I’m looking at you, self.

Furthermore – Swedes Love Is All are at the Horseshoe October 29, tickets $10.50. The Drones from Australia and The Favourite Sons from Brooklyn are at the El Mocambo November 4 and Darker My Love, who should easily find an audience in Toronto (namely BRMC’s) will be at the same venue on November 15. And someone who appreciates the many definitions of psychedelia is sending a bill consisting of Austin doom fuzz-mongers Black Angels and Los Angeles sunshine-and-surf popsters The Tyde to the ‘Shoe on October 30, tickets $10.50. Heavy, man.

And last (but certainly not least), I Heart Music, who turns one, um, sometime around now, has compiled a list of the 20 hottest bands in Ottawa. I’ve had The Acorn recommended to me before, but needed this kick in the ass to go and listen. Thanks, Matthew.

np – Forget Cassettes / Salt

I will confess that I have avoided seeing Cat Power live in the past on account of her reputation as an… unpredictable performer. Though I’m sure for some that gamble is part of the appeal, I think I’d have just felt really uncomfortable if one of the shows I was at was one of her off-nights. So news of her recent sobriety and the fact that she was supporting what, for my money, is her best album – The Greatest – got me out on Labour Day evening for the second half of a double-header solo show. That and the guest listness.

While a little disappointed that the full Memphis Rhythm Band wasn’t going to be along for the ride, it was evident that she was deliberately going for an intimate vibe, what with opting for two shows at Lee’s Palace instead of one at a much larger venue. From the moment I arrived, I had the feeling that it was going to be a different sort of evening – for starters, the lineup was snaked all around the venue and into the parking lot around back. I cannot remember the last time, if ever, I stood in line at Lee’s Palace. Bizarro. Somewhat surprisingly, there still appeared to be some tickets available at the door – a betting man would have expected the show to be completely sold out. But if it wasn’t, it certainly felt it once everyone was inside. It was warm – not as stifling as I’ve experienced, but there would be more than one fainting victim before the evening was out. More on that later.

The scheduled 10:30 start time came and went and the natives began to get a little restless until Chan strolled out onstage at maybe 10 minutes to 11 to rapturous applause. Smiling – nay, BEAMING – Marshall seated herself with her electric guitar and began with, “House Of The Rising Sun”, and from the first whisper out of her mouth, that was it. For the next two hours plus, she would own us – every one. Her voice is like velvet and honey, delicate and raw and inhumanly expressive and perfectly accompanied by her guitar and piano playing. Playing from a tattered, red magic marker setlist (I suspect if anyone grabbed it as a souvenier, the rest of the tour would have to be cancelled), she mixed up new material with old and a liberal dose of covers and standards. The Greatest material sounded drastically different stripped of its R&B production, but still incredibly satisfying. And that voice. My God.

But perhaps more important and memorable than the actual performance was Chan Marshall herself. On this night, she was smiling, chatty, happy and radiant and seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. Seeing her for the first time, I was having great difficulty reconciling the artist onstage, communing with her audience, with the mercurial, difficult performer of legend. Not that I don’t believe the stories – I’ve heard far too many of them – but she must have checked that persona at the border because for Toronto on Monday night, she was just sublime. And beautiful. Hoo-boy.

Not that there wasn’t some eccentricity. About a third of the way through the show, she caught sight of someone in the wings offstage and became a little agitated, calling security to check it out because she had her personal belongings stashed in that room. But even that was more endearing than odd, with her alternately saying, “I got my stuff back there” with a little blues guitar riff, over and over again, until she was satisfied that she hadn’t been robbed. And then a while later, a girl in the audience near the front collapsed, likely from the heat, and taking notice, Chan became quite alarmed and came offstage to see what was the matter. Then, apparently satisfied that matters were in hand, disappeared without a word, leaving the audience confused and a little disconcerted. She was doing so well! But lo, after around 10 minutes, she came back onstage with a refilled mug of tea (“sober!”) and picked up where she left off, not a word of explanation. Not that anyone cared – as long as she was back (I think it was a smoke break).

All told and including impromptu intermission, she played for about two hours fifteen and though my knees and back thought that was plenty long enough, I’d have happily stayed and listened to her another couple hours more. I can’t speak for any other show on the tour or even the early show, but for this evening, Cat Power was simply amazing. If I’m ever ambivalent about seeing Cat Power live again, it’ll only be because I don’t know how she could top this performance.

Photos: Cat Power @ Lee’s Palace – September 4, 2006
MP3: Cat Power – “The Greatest”
Video: Cat Power – “Living Proof” (YouTube)
Video: Cat Power – “Lived In Bars” (YouTube)

And note that while Matador is rereleasing The Greatest next week with three different slipcovers and a lower list price, there are NO bonus materials that would require fans to re-purchase the album. They’re just trying to give the album a second life in retail. But if you do want something new, there’s an exclusive iTunes session available as of yesterday – full details on both these releases and some pre-emptive defense of the re-release here.

Billboard has info about the Sufjan Stevens Christmas box set due out November 21, Songs of Christmas will compile five Christmas records and a stocking full of holiday bonus goodies. More info at Asthmatic Kitty.

NME reports that The Shins will release Wincing The Night Away on January 23 of next year. Just in time for a really really late Christmas gift.

And that was a really long review, so that’s it for today. Except for this – Hedgehogs vs McDonalds – and the hedgehogs win. How does something like this become an epidemic?

np – Grizzly Bear / Yellow House

Catfish Haven’s EP from earlier this year, Please Come Back was a bracing slab of acoustic, trailer-park soul carried by George Hunter’s rough and raw croon. I admit I had some question in the back of my head of whether or not what worked over a six-song EP would hold up over a whole album. Well Tell Me, their debut full-length out next Tuesday, proves that the answer is yes – and they do it by doing exactly the same thing they did the last time out so if you liked Please Come Back – and I did – there’s no reason to not like Tell Me.

Some might scoff at the idea of a big, bearded guy who grew up in a Missouri trailer park (for real) as channelling the spirits of Otis and Marvin, and considering that testimonial is coming from a Chinese indie rock guy in Toronto, maybe you’ve right to be skeptical. But know this – I have the 10-disc Complete Stax-Volt Singles and 4-disc Hitsville USA box sets, so it at least proves I’m willing to make some effort to feign knowledgability.

But seriously, Catfish Haven aren’t genre tourists. From the horns to the super-tight rhythm section to Hunter’s voice – worth singling out again – they’re in this wholeheartedly and every drop of blood, sweat and tears you hear is real. Or they’re really, really good at faking it – maybe Hunter has an even bigger box set. They’re on the road this Fall with Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Birdmonster and will be at the Horseshoe on September 11.

MP3: Catfish Haven – “Crazy For Leaving” (from Tell Me)
MP3: Catfish Haven – “Please Come Back” (from Please Come Back)
MySpace: Catfish Haven

I think this might count as a Voxtrot scoop – the band’s first (new) release for new label Playlouder will be a 3-song, Ben Hillier-produced, US-only EP that is scheduled to come out November 7 and their full-length debut will be out in Spring 2007. I say “new” because technically, a UK reissue of Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives due out next month will be their first release to bear the Playlouder imprint. I think.

Fountains Of Wayne have made a new song – the theme song to animated feature Monster House – available to download from their MySpace. I’m trying to remember… I used to really like these guys. Didn’t I? I think so. But I’m also pretty sure they did more than just theme songs and jingles. I’m so confused.

MP3: Fountains Of Wayne – “Monster House”

Look! The Hold Steady’s new album has a website and they want you to upload video testimonials about being a boy or girl in America. So far, there has been… one contribution. One. Hmm. Maybe there’ll be more before Boys And Girls In America is released October 3. Maybe.

MP3: The Hold Steady – “Chips Ahoy!”

Pitchfork talks to Maximo Park’s Paul Smith about the progress made on the band’s second album. They hope to have it out in March of next year.

Sixeyes has an interview with Mountain Goat John Darnielle.

Prefix has done gone and made themselves look all purty-like.

Oh, and I’ve posted the responses from my Virgin Festival Contest wherein people gave me a bit of Toronto trivia in exchange for a shot at winning passes to the Virgin Festival in Toronto this weekend. Some good stuff there. Winners have already been notified, so if you’ve been going back to your mailbox like Charlie Brown on Valentine’s Day… sorry.

And don’t forget I’ve got a pair of passes to Virgin Festival USA to give away – without getting into numbers, odds are very (very) good right now, so if you know anyone in the Maryland/eastern seaboard region who might want to go to this, send them here. I’m not even demanding any Baltimore trivia to enter.

np – Richard Buckner / Meadow