Today is Rememberence Day in Canada. In addition to remembering our war veterans, let us also remember Jack Palance, who passed away yesterday and whom I’m embarrassed to say I thought was already dead.

John K Samson of The Weakerthans guest-blogs at Said The Gramophone with beautiful results.

Stomp & Stammer offers up a charming interview with Joanna Newsom, whose Ys is out on Tuesday and is pretty much the last new 2006 release I expect to be picking up this year. Via Zoilus, who offers some thoughts on Newsom’s recent press clippings.

Victoria Legrand of Beach House tells The Georgia Straight she comes by her sleepy singing style naturally. BrooklynVegan rounds up some of the blogger buzz surrounding the band right now.

The Swarthmore Phoenix interviews The New Pornographers’ Blaine Thurier, whom they identify as Blaine Thunder. Because if anyone needs a porn star name, it’s this guy.

Joe Pernice warns Gaper’s Block that he is “safe and appropriate for no woman”. There is a context for this quote.

Hate Something Beautiful interviews TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe.

Nerve Q&As Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear.

CMJ talks to Mew about their CMJ festival experience.

The Decemberists’ session for AOL’s Interface is now up and at ’em. They are also asking fans to finish their green-screen video for “O Valencia!” – details of the contest at MTVU. And thanks to Annie for the link to this YouTube clip of some of the band’s REM covers from their Halloween show in Massachusetts.

There’s no making sense of XTC’s recent output, so don’t even try. After going on strike against their label for seven years following 1992’s Nonsuch, they released two albums in Apple Venus and Wasp Star, albums of demos for those two albums (Homespun and Homegrown) and then a box set collecting those four records plus a couple new songs (Apple Box). Also released over the past seven years was a career-spanning box set (Coat Of Many Cupboards) as well as a series of demos dubbed Fuzzy Warbles.

Released under Andy Partridge’s name (Colin Moulding chose not to contribute his naked baby photos to the set) but still really XTC in all ways that matter, the original issues were eight individual CDs, released over the past four years and obtainable only as import or via the XTC website so very much for collectors only. But now that the set is complete, it has been collected together as the Fuzzy Warbles Collectors Album in a glorious philately-themed box set along with an extra bonus disc and copious liner notes for a total of nine – NINE – CDs of XTC ecstasy.

Keeping in mind that I’ve only waded through maybe just under half of this set, I can say that while there are the requisite number of walkman-fidelity sketches, hissy bedroom throwaways and general goof-offs that are mandatory with sets of this size and nature. But the good material – and there’s a lot of it, ranging from early versions of album tracks to songs that are as good as anything that did make the album cuts – are superb and the overall level of quality is really quite remarkable though not surprising considering Partridge’s perfectionist nature. It’s a bit cliche to say but even Partridge’s castoffs are compositions that a lesser songwriter would give his left arm to have written.

Interestingly, you can’t easily pinpoint from what era each song comes by its sonic signature as Partridge has taken the time to polish up the goods before putting them on display – relics from their early New Wave days could well sit side-by-side with ideas that will appear on the next XTC record or a forthcoming Partridge solo record. It’s a glorious, technicolour pop adventure that’s not turning out to be nearly as overwhelming as I’d feared – though check back with me when I onto disc seven or so. I may well have gone insane by then, but what a way to go.

And you too can now die of XTC overload. I have a copy of the Fuzzy Warbles Collectors Album box set to give away and it can be yours. To enter, leave me a comment telling me what your favourite XTC album is and why (if you want this box set, I’m assuming you’re a genuine fan and therefore would have a favourite album), and be sure to use your correct email address. The contest will run for one week and close at midnight, November 17. Get cracking.

PopMatters has an expansive interview/podcast with Partridge about his and XTC’s past, present and future that’s definitely worth reading while the Los Angeles Times also talks to him about the box. And you want media? Here’s one new song from the Fuzzy Warbles box, another that was included with the Apple Box and the theme from the late, lamented Wonderfalls, for which Partridge composed the theme (segue – Comic Book Resources recently talked to creator Bryan Fuller about many things including the rise and fall of Wonderfalls. There’s also the complete original unaired pilot available on YouTube, see below). I’ve also dug up a slew of XTC videos – though Partridge and co gave up live performance many many moons ago, they made up for it with some brilliant promo clips. “The Disappointed” is gorgeous – both sonically and visually – but I couldn’t find the one for “Peter Pumpkinhead”. Alas.

MP3: Andy Partridge – “Sonic Boom”
MP3: XTC – “Spiral”
MP3: Andy Partridge – “Wonderfalls”
Video: XTC – “Are You Receiving Me?” (YouTube)
Video: XTC – “Making Plans For Nigel” (YouTube)
Video: XTC – “Life Begins At The Hop” (YouTube)
Video: XTC – “Senses Working Overtime” (YouTube)
Video: XTC – “The Mayor Of Simpleton” (YouTube)
Video: XTC – “Dear God” (YouTube)
Video: XTC – “Grass” (YouTube)
Video: XTC – “The Disappointed” (YouTube)
Video: Andy Partridge – “I Wonder Why The Wonder Falls On Me” (YouTube)
Video: XTC – “The Road To Oranges & Lemons” (YouTube)
Video: XTC – “Fuzzy Warbles commercial” (YouTube)
Video: Wonderfalls unaired pilot

One of Partridge’s projects this year was working with fellow Englishman Robyn Hitchcock, including co-writing “‘Cause It’s Love (Saint Parallelogram)” off of Ole Tarantula, which Hitchcock will be performing tonight at the Mod Club. eye has an interview with Hitchcock, who is apparently a fan of the TTC, as does The Toronto Star, who gets him to declare his love for his Venus 3 and The National Post, to whom he shrugs off the “British eccentric” label assigned to him (and Partridge).

And in completely XTC-unrelated news… NEW SPIDER-MAN 3 TRAILER. Jinkies! It’s got the Sandman, symbiote costume… whew. Bring it on. And one to file under, “yeahbuhwha?” – Alan Moore to guest star on The Simpsons.

np – Shearwater / Palo Santo

Not necessarily the first person you’d think of as a workaholic, but Isobel Campbell just released her second album of 2006, Milk White Sheets. Recorded amidst the sessions for Ballad Of The Broken Seas (while waiting for Mark Lanegan to find time to record his parts), it’s quite a different beast from its Mercury-nominated sibling. Whereas that record saw the Scottish songstress exploring new and interesting country-soul directions, Milk White Sheets is a collection of traditional and traditional-sounding songs that is very much in the vein of the wispy, folk of her earlier records.

To be fair, Campbell’s voice – while pretty – isn’t the most versatile instrument and there’s no fault in sticking to one’s strengths. The songwriting (she contributes a number of originals alongside the standards) and arrangements both serve the fairy tale atmosphere of the record quite effectively and for what it aspires to be, Milk White Sheets can be called a success. And yet I can’t help feeling a bit frustrated and even a bit disappointed by this release, which is odd because I don’t actually have many/any expectations of Ms Campbell. I guess I just hoped that the Lanegan collaboration, which I found intriguing if not entirely successful, might signal a new, less predictable phase in her career. But then again, she tells Billboard that she’s been working a little with Giant Sand-man Howe Gelb – that could be promising. What can I say – I think she works best in ampersand-ed projects.

Campbell also talks a bit about making the record with Aversion while Metacritic tallies up the critical response.

MP3: Isobel Campbell – “Beggar, Wiseman or Thief”
MP3: Isobel Campbell – “Cachel Wood”
MySpace: Isobel Campbell

PopMatters has an interview with another artist who walked away from an ultra-successful British band to pursue his own muse – Mr Graham Coxon. His latest, Love Travels At Illegal Speeds, is out now.

The Toronto Star goes quote fishing with Noel Gallagher of Oasis. “…Placebo — I don’t mean to bring that band down, although they are shite…” – got one!

Under The Radar has posted online the whole of their interview with Joanna Newsom, an abbreviated version of which appeared in their Fall issue.

NME reports that the next album from Bright Eyes, due in Spring of next year, will be more apocalyptic. APOCALYPTIC BRIGHT EYES. Think about that.

James McNew of Yo La Tengo talks to Drowned In Sound.

The Constantines inject a little rock into the December concert calendar (which is looking pretty anemic right now) with a show at Lee’s Palace on December 1. Then the next day they’re part of an all-ages matinee benefit at Lee’s for Care Canada, on a bill that also features K-OS and Jason Collett. Collett will then headline the evening show at Lee’s. Tickets for the three shows are $17.50, $16 and $15 respectively and go on sale tomorrow (the Collett tickets are already available). Also just announced – Elliott Brood are at Lee’s on December 15 and are also playing the Weewerk show thing at the Toronto Reference Library next Saturday evening. No idea if tickets for that are still available.

Pitchfork announces that Brooklyn cosmic country workaholics Oakley Hall have signed with Merge Records and will release their next album sometime next Summer, probably by August.

np – XTC / Oranges & Lemons

How different my life might have been if I was 10 years younger and able to capitalize on geek chic as opposed to the… whatever the opposite of geek chic that I grew up with. Consider Portland’s Decemberists, who if they had come along at any other point in history besides the early aughts would be getting swirlies in the boys room rather than packing venues like the Kool Haus, as they did on Monday night. Riding the success of their latest (and for my money, greatest) album The Crane Wife, Colin Meloy and his vagabond players drew a devoted crowd of castaways and cutouts to a venue that I affectionately refer to as “the god-awful concrete box by the waterfront. No, not The Docks, the other one”.

Support on this leg of the tour was Alasdair Roberts, a Scottish folkie who performed a compact set of Scottish folk. Now while I appreciate that a Decemberists audience would likely be far more receptive to someone performing traditional Celtic ballads than, say, a Celtic Frost audience, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they WANT to hear traditional Celtic ballads. Roberts’ set was received politely, though not especially enthusiastically, and he wisely decamped after half an hour. Perhaps in a different, more intimate setting he’d have come across better but if there’s one thing the Kool Haus is not, it’s intimate.

The Decemberists, however, know how to work a room. Any room. This was my third time seeing them, and each time was at a considerably larger venue than the last, moving from the cozy Horseshoe in March 2004 to the mid-sized Lee’s Palace a couple months later (which I didn’t attend) to the 1000-capacity Phoenix last May and now the cavernous Kool Haus, twice the size of the Phoenix. And though each time I can’t imagine they’d be able to draw that many more fans – this is a band whose wikipedia entry links to “idiosyncratic” (okay, not really), each time I’ve been proven wrong. Not only are they able to fill each room with more adoring throngs, but they’re able to raise their energy and level of performance to prove that they were indeed meant for the stage, no matter how big it is.

The touring band again featured a new face with Lisa Molinaro of TalkDemonic, taking the violinist position most recently vacated by Petra Haden, who had also been handling the backing vocals originally belonging to former drummer Rachel Blumberg. And while Molinaro was up to the task on fiddle as well as handling Laura Veirs’ duet duties with Meloy on “Yankee Bayonet”, it was surprisingly drummer John Moen who covered the bulk of the harmonies and excellently so.

But as excellent and essential as the supporting cast are, the star of The Decemberists is unquestionably Colin Meloy and everyone knows it. Probably the unlikeliest-looking guy to make the girls in the front row scream, Meloy was in top form both as performer and as puppet-master. Whether inciting impromptu audience dance contests, leading singalongs or splitting the crowd in half and getting each side to jeer at the other during “1816 Military Wives” in some sort of metaphor for the political state of America, everyone was just another player in Meloy’s little comedies. Meloy also got into the act, falling flat on his face after wrapping himself up in mic cable and attempting a little crowd surfing though that ended up being little more than dipping his toe in the water and running back onshore.

Musically, they leaned heavily on The Crane Wife including both epics but also delved into their back catalog enough to satisfy the long-time fans (though I’d have killed to hear any of the REM covers that Northamption, MA got. It’s hard to appreciate the breadth of the band’s musical ability until you actually see them play – they had a small orchestra’s worth of instruments along with them, though I was particularly impressed with Chris Funk’s awesome space-age hurdy gurdy, or at least that’s what I think it is. What is that, carbon fibre? And unbelievably, the sound at the Kool Haus was not only acceptable, it was actually terrific – loud and clear and not nearly the acoustic nightmare that it usually is. Veteran Toronto concertgoers will know of what I speak, and believe me when I say it sounded great. This is generally held to be one of the signs of the apocalypse, but if that’s the case then it’s good to go out on a high note, with a great show, and we all go down together.

As the Decemberists carry on with their North American tour, they leave a trail of press clippings and interviews in their wake. Among them – Junkmedia talking to Chris Funk, The Flint Journal with John Moen, and Exclaim!, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Sun-Times and The Los Angeles Times with Colin Meloy.

And do check out the Filter tour blog, which features dispatches from a different blogger in each city on the tour (I covered Toronto) as well as interview tidbits with Jenny Conlee sprinkled throughout.

Photos: The Decemberists, Alasdair Roberts @ The Kool Haus – November 6, 2006
Stream: The Decemberists Crane Wife jukebox
MP3: The Decemberists – “The Engine Driver”
MP3: The Decemberists – “The Soldiering Life”
MP3: Alasdair Roberts – “Drinking Milk Again”
MySpace: The Decemberists

Paste discusses the stories behind Ys with Joanna Newsom while The Village Voice offers up a somewhat more elliptical feature on the artist. The Chicago Tribune also has an interview. The new album is out Tuesday.

Being There hunted down Joe Pernice at home in Toronto to chat about Live A Little and his current endeavours, both musical and non. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review also has an interview.

You must check out the latest from Blogotheque’s Concert A Emptor video series – Joel Gibb leads The Hidden Cameras and scores of Parisians in song, pied piper-style, along the banks of Canal St Martin in Paris. Fantastique.

np – Jens Lekman / Oh You’re So Silent Jens