The cover of Lay Of The Land, the 2004 debut from Nottingham, UK’s Seachange on Matador looks familiar, but that may be because I’ve seen it peeking out from a used CD bin or two in my time. Well next time I see it I will be sure to pick it up because what I’ve heard from this band lately is pretty damn good. There’s something of British Sea Power’s grand romanticism in Seachange’s sound as well as some of the punkish energy of early Idlewild. Johanna Cormack’s violin adds some chamber-rock moodiness that sets them apart a bit but it’s Dan Eastop’s vocals that really stand out to me. It’s not that he has a huge range or any technically unique or distinctive quality – it’s more just his delivery, his phrasing, his accent. They sound arrogantly humble, confidently confused, powerfully vulnerable and passionately indifferent – they just sound intensely real and human, which you’d think would be more common considering most bands are comprised of real humans, but not so much so.

I was directed to a track from their new album On Fire, With Love and while that song, “No Looking Back”, was alright it was a track streaming off their MySpace – “In” – that really caught my ear. It’s one of those understated anthems that the British seem to have bred in their bones, chorus-less and rich with singularly English lyricism and built on a simple, insistent guitar figure with a bend in just the right spot. If the rest of On Fire, With Love can measure up this its finale (“In” is the last track on the album), then it’s one worth hunting down.

The band seems to be in a bit of a label limbo at the moment, having distribution on mainland Europe but the rest of the world can only buy copies of the new record off their website at the moment. There will be a proper UK release on the band’s own label on October 16 but North Americans will have to pony up import prices for a hard copy – I guess Matador declined the option for the sophomore record. But happily, eMusic has On Fire, With Love in their catalog for those of us willing to make do with a digital copy for the time being.

MP3: Seachange – “No Backward Glances” (from On Fire, With Live)
MP3: Seachange – “News From Nowhere” (from Lay Of The Land)
MP3: Seachange – “Glitterball” (from Glitterball EP)
Video: Seachange – “Glitterball” (YouTube)

Tanya Donelly is taking a break from making babies (her second child was born in March – congratulations!) to finally release the live album she recorded back in the Fall of 2004. It’s called This Hungry Life and is composed (I believe) of all new songs recorded in front of a live studio audience – just like the sitcoms of yore. It’ll be out October 17 on Eleven Thirty Records, which I think will mark the first time in a long, long time that one of Tanya’s records wasn’t released by 4AD.

The Portland Mercury loves Feist, and doesn’t care who knows it (via LHB). Rbally also loves Feist, but would prefer to express his affection in the form of a complete live show from Chicago of stunning audio quality. If only all bootlegs sounded this good.

Billboard gets Emily Haines to discuss upcoming solo record Knives Don’t Have Your Back, out September 12.

A couple show announcements – Thunderbirds Are Now!i will be at Sneaky Dee’s on November 6 and The Album Leaf, whose new one Into The Blue Again is out next Tuesday, will be at Lee’s Palace on November 9. SubPop is offering an MP3 from the record:

MP3: The Album Leaf – “Always For You” (from Into The Blue Again)

Neko Case complains to Australia’s X-Press Online about the lazy North American media.

And still running up the phone bills to down under, Okkervil River’s Will Sheff talks to Rave Magazine. It’s fascinating to follow Will’s efforts to re-establish a home base in Austin via what he’s doing while conducting these Australian interviews, while still finding the time to take a shot at Billy Corgan’s poetry and celebrate George Michael. Also note that their Aussie-only EP Overboard And Down is now available to order online.

Pitchfork bids farewell to Sleater-Kinney.

And a gentle reminder that the episode of The New Music which has a small interview with yours truly airs tonight at 9:30PM on MuchMusic. And Sonic Youth are the main feature, so there’s actually a good reason to watch (Chart also has an interview). It will repeat this Saturday at 1:30PM ET on CityTV. Also note that this is one of host Hannah Sung’s final episodes, so again – another legitimate reason to watch. Update: Apparently due to a logistical error, an old episode ran instead of the new one. Proper airdates are “Saturday on CityTV at 1:30pm ET, then on MuchMusic next Monday at 12:30pm ET and next Tuesday at 11:30am again on CityTV” (words of the producer).

np – Built To Spill / You In Reverse

The Hourly Radio / History Will Never Hold Me (Kirtland) The British influence on Dallas’ Hourly Radio is obvious, but what’s curious is the particular point in the timestream that they’ve elected minep. They hearken back to the late ’90s/early’00s, after Britpop had disappeared up its own nostrils but before Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand ushered in the wimp-rock and new4 wave movements that still reign today. The advantage of this is that though offering a sound that’s familiar and comforting to Anglophiles, they’re also hard to immediately pigeonhole and thus come off sounding more original. Aaron Closson’s urgent, adenoidal vocals that recall Brian Molko crossed with Mark Greaney and while that’s a combination that doesn’t necessarily tickle my eardrums, both of their respective outfits – Placebo and JJ72 – sold a record or two in their day, so combined with some solid, anthemic and danceable songs, there’s no reason to think that these guys couldn’t do the same. History Will Never Hold Me is out September 5. MP3: The Hourly Radio – “Fear Of Standing Upright” Video: The Hourly Radio – “Fear Of Standing Upright” (SWF) MySpace: The Hourly Radio

De Rosa / Mend (Chemikal Underground) I don’t think Chemikal Underground had any choice but to sign De Rosa, on account of the fact that they sound like label founders The Delgados’ younger, slightly angstier, art-damaged younger sibling. They share the distinctly skewed, Scottish pop sensebility but work in a dose of wild-eyed, frantic edginess that creates a healthy level of tension with their innate, gentler side. The net result is a solid debut, equally consistent and diverse. It can be a bit familiar-sounding but they’re starting out in the same sonic sandbox as some other bands that have gone on to do great things. If De Rosa can fully capitalize on the creativity and talent that’s evident here, they could go on to do great things themselves. Mend is out domestically on Tuesday. MP3: MP3: De Rosa – “Cathkin Brae” (demo) Video: De Rosa – “Camera” (MySpace) MySpace: De Rosa

Clockworkmargaret Sometimes something shows up in your inbox (or in this case, your MySpace friends requests) that out of the blue, just beguiles you. And by “you”, I mean me. It’s probably far too early to judge Liverpool’s Clockworkmargaret – after all, they look barely out of their teens (if even that old), haven’t had even a half dozen rehearsals and I think they played their first-ever gig last night. Yet they have some recorded output available on their MySpace and the one song – a cover of my possibly my favourite Elliott Smith song – is just wonderful. The sweetness of the Catherine’s voice combined with her Scouse accent suits the song’s delicate melody perfectly, imbueing the song with youthful innocence rather than Smith’s weariness. And when Jini’s harmonies come in at the very end, it’s sublime. Barely two minutes long and yet it somehow breaks my heart. The original on offer is not surprisingly a good deal rougher, but still displays a lot of potential. As I said, it’s probably still waaaaay too early to place bets but I’m definitely keen to hear what they do next. MP3: Clockworkmargaret – “Say Yes” MP3: Clockworkmargaret – “She”

np – Early Day Miners / Offshore

Blogiversary is kind of a dumb word, but hey – there it is. Four years ago today, the inaugural post was made at 12:44 PM and the rest, as they say, is a whole crapload of drivel. The image here isn’t actually of the original site – I think this was my third or fourth redesign in two or three months and comes courtesy of The Wayback Machine. It didn’t preserve all of my interface images or any of my stylesheets – I’m pretty sure my original design wasn’t THAT ugly. Anyways, I went through a lot of iterations, starting out from a blogspot account which sadly no longer seems to exist and eventually migrating to my own URL within a few months.

It’s truly been a long, strange trip – blogosphere wasn’t even a word when I started, and the online landscape is very, very, VERY different now. If you’d told me back in Fall 2002 that my little exercise in boredom would have grown into this time-devouring, sleep-depriving monkey on my back, I’d have surely thought you mad. MAD. And yet, here we are. I’ve blogged trips to far corners of the world (not sure which is further – St Petersburg or Kyoto), reviewed god knows how many CDs, photographed countless concerts and probably posted twice as many Sufjan Stevens interview links. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve blogged and I’ve discovered so much great music and you’ve been along for the ride and for that, I say thanks.

While I can’t necessarily picture myself still doing this in four years, I can’t see myself stopping either. So at some point Mr Unstoppable Force will meet Mr Immovable Object and something will give… I had actually completely forgotten about the significance of today’s date because my mind has been a little more focused on another anniversary that’ll be rolling around in about a month and a half. If you don’t know what that is, well I’ll tell you when it happens. But until then, thanks for coming ’round. And enough with the back-patting, let’s get some linkage.

Centro-Matic are also celebrating an anniversary – 10 years of crafting awesome roots-rock. The Mercury News celebrates with the band.

Okkervil River continues to make the press circuit in Australia in advance of their tour down under, kicking off tomorrow. dB Magazine talks to Will Sheff about homelessness, The Sydney Morning Herald about Okkervil: The Early Years, Time Off tackles the poetry of his lyrics and Beat gets the lowdown on the knife incident.

RBally has posted a complete Wilco show from this July (featuring four new songs) and decided that Canadians are rude to Wilco. I corrected him by stating that Canadians are rude to everyone. We don’t discriminate.

The AP, via The Buffalo News, talks to Golden Smoggers Gary Louris and Dan Murphy while Blogcritics.org chats with Kraig Johnson.

Something Old, Something New declares The Lemonheads’ Evan Dando a thief and offers audio evidence to back it up. Lemonheads are at Lee’s Palace on December 12 and their new album The Lemonheads is out September 26.

Chart talks to Television’s Richard Lloyd.

Yo La Tengo confess to Harp that despite their extreme sports image, none of them are really jocks. I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass – a jocktacular sentiment if ever there was one – is out September 12 and the band will be at the Phoenix October 2. And check out iamnotafraidofyouandiwillbeatyourass.com (can’t believe that URL wasn’t taken) to see video clips of people saying, “I am not afraid of you and I will beat your ass”. This is why the internet was invented.

And you may note that there’s another “Virgin Festival Contest” banner up there on the right. Didn’t I just run one of those? Well this one is for the US edition of the Virgin Festival. Go here for more details and to enter if you are around Baltimore or intend to be on the 23rd of September. And my winners for the Canadian V-Fest have been selected – I am sorting out logistics with the organizers right now but if you are a winner, you’ll be notified ASAP. Also note that the final schedule for next weekend is now available in PDF form. I’m rather surprised that each night will go till 11PM – the Toronto Island residents will LOVE that.

np – Yo La Tengo / Electr-O-Pura

Offshore, the new album from Bloomington, Indiana’s Early Day Miners, clocks in at a respectable 38 minutes but feels much, much shorter than that. Opener “Land Of Pale Saints” rides an insistent drum pattern for over nine minutes while guitars and feedback dance overtop it. It’s utterly hypnotic in the way its repetition, but subtly warps and mutates so as to never actually be the same thing from one moment to the next.

The record is remarkably unified and cohesive start to finish, which makes sense since it’s based on the the song of the same name from their 2002 album Let Us Garlands Bring – the band calls it, “a director’s cut” of that one composition. This ongoing theme allows one song – or movement, really – to blend seamlessly into the next in creating a warm, dark space-time wormhole that not only eliminates the notion of time elapsing, but does so while passing through the UK music scene circa 1992. There’s an unmistakable shoegazing element to this album – think the ambience of Slowdive with some of the darkness and menace of Catherine Wheel – but funnelled through the lonesome, midwestern soundscapes of Songs: Ohia, in particular the Magnolia Electric Co album.

It’s interesting – even though the ingredients that make up Offshore are all fairly easily identifiable, there’s something quite distinctive and unique about this record. There’s a solidarity of vision, courtesy of bandleader Daniel Burton, that lifts it up into something far greater than the sum of its parts and while that’s evident from the first listen, it’s only with more successive listens that the weight and enormity of what that actually means becomes evident. They are playing September 13 at the Tranzac and I’m actually thinking about passing up Serena Maneesh that night aroudn the corner at Lee’s Palace to see them perform Offshore – presumably in its entirety and ideally without stopping. As deafeningly glam-tacular as the Norwegians are sure to be, something is telling me that the EDM show will be even more special in its way. Hrmmm, I say. Hrmmm.

MP3: Early Day Miners – “Return Of The Native”
MySpace: Early Day Miners

Working in favour of Serena Maneesh is the fact that Evangelicals are opening – Pitchfork has an interview with the Oklahoman trio.

A band the Evangelicals are often compared to, both because of their state of origin and psychedelic tendancies, is The Flaming Lips. PopMatters, Hour.ca, St Louis Today, Columbus Dispatch and The Montreal Gazette all have interviews with the band, who will be in town to headline day one of the Virgin Festival. The contest for passes to said fest closed last night – I will be drawing winners this weekend. Thanks for entering, if you did so.

The Independent talks to Emma Anderson of Lush about the old shoegazing days, 15 years ago. Via Largehearted Boy.

Billy Bragg’s new hobby? Taking on social networking sites’ intellectual property policies. Having successfully gotten MySpace to back off of laying claim to music hosted on its pages, The Guardian reports he’s accomplished the same thing with Bebo, which is apparently quite big for the pouty webcam demographic in the UK. Bragg plays the Danforth Music Hall September 24.

John Darnielle of Mountain Goats stands up and testifies about the influence of Souled American to Harp. Parking Lot Cities has a recent KEXP session available to download. Mountain Goats are at Lee’s Palace September 19.

And finally, otherworldy Danish outfit Under Byen (wrote about them a couple weeks ago) will be embarking on a short North American tour in October which will include just one US date to four Canadian ones. The perks of signing to a Canadian label! The US date is Oct 4 in New York City, and from there it’s two Pop Montreal shows, one it Ottawa on the 8th and finally a stop at the Horseshoe on October 9 opening for Giant Sand, with whom they’ve worked before. I’d normally be all over that but I will have just stumbled off a train from Montreal that afternoon so will probably not be in any state for a concert. But I intend to catch at least one of the Montreal shows so all’s good on that front.

And things seem to be running incredibly slowly today, which is annoying but not as bad as the chronically offline as it’s been in the past couple weeks. I’m looking into it.

np – Early Day Miners / Let Us Garlands Bring