James Mercer of The Shins talks to Pitchfork about making Wincing The Night Away (out January 23) and the weight of expectation surrounding the new release. He also mentions that Fruit Bat Eric Johnson is now in the band on guitar – an interesting development as the implication seems to be that it’s a permanent position. A gifted songwriter in his own right, I guess we won’t see what Johnson can contribute to the band in terms of writing until the next record, but a second guitar will certainly beef up their live sound. Also look for a new Fruit Bats record sometime this year.

Mercer also talks to NOW about the new record as part of the magazine’s hot upcoming releases feature in this week’s issue. Finally, also note that The Shins will be on Saturday Night Live on January 13, Late Night With David Letterman on January 23 and are expected to begin touring in in support of the new album in February and March.

And if you haven’t heard and seen the first single yet, well here you go, along with an alt. version of one of the album tracks. I’d really forgotten how much I liked The Shins, but the new stuff sounds great.

MP3: The Shins – “Phantom Limb”
Video: The Shins – “Phantom Limb” (MOV)

If you’re looking for something to do tonight, I suggest checking out Basia Bulat at the Drake Underground tonight. Said The Gramophone has all the aural and written persuasion you should need.

As people get back to work, there’s been some movement on lineups for a few of the Spring music festivals. Firstly, the lineups for the Wavelength 7th anniversary celebrations taking place February 8 to 11 at various venues around Toronto have been announced. The website hasn’t been updated yet but all the info has been posted at Stille Post including links to artist MySpace pages as applicable. I’ll be making use of those because I’d be lying if I said I knew who (m)any of the bands playing are but I’ve seen some good stuff at past Wavelength anniversaries so I’d expect/hope the same could be said of this year’s edition.

Swinging to pretty much the opposite end of the cred-o-meter, Canadian Music Week has revealed the first batch of bands confirmed to be playing the festival this year from March 7 to 10. As usual, a whole lot of unknowns, a couple familiar faces (The Coast, Jenn Grant) and an intriguing import – in this case, Scotland’s My Latest Novel, who I wrote up in November. They’ll be at the Drake Underground on March 9.

Also running concurrently (and oppositely) to CMW over March 7 to 11 is the Pitter Patter Festival, named for the weekly music series that runs at cozy little venues around town like The Boat and The Supermarket. Though much smaller in scale, the announced bands are arguably a lot more interesting. A great alternative to those who’d otherwise be spending their time complaining about CMW.

And information on the daddy of them all, SxSW, is starting to trickle out. The Donewaiting SxSW blog is once again getting into gear with all the confirmed appearances and a healthy dose of rumour and hearsay. Honestly, in a way the anticipation is the best part of the festival. No one hugely exciting in the confirmed acts yet, but give it a few weeks – things usually get really silly/fun by late January/early February and hit a fever pitch by early March. SxSW Baby will also be back by mid-Month offering survival tips for March Madness in Austin.

And bringing things back to Toronto, this year’s edition of Over The Top Fest is scheduled for May 3 to 6. No bands announced yet, but I have faith that it’ll be ridiculously solid as ever.

And that’s just the stuff that’s happening before it’s warm enough to head outdoors…

We begin the 2007 concert queue with some local flavour – Toronto outfit Forest City Lovers is centered around the duo of Kat Burns and Mika Posen, who craft folk songs that are soft and pretty but with a more than a hint of darkness around the edges. Understated but compelling stuff. They play Supermarket on January 10 and roll out a full band for a show at the Tranzac on January 25.

Courtesy of the band, I’ve got a copy of the debut full-length The Sun And The Wind to give away, along with a t-shirt and pin. Entering is easy – just email me at contests@chromewaves.net with “I want the Forest City Lovers stuff” in the subject line. The contest closes at midnight, January 8.

MP3: Forest City Lovers – “Closet Genius”
MySpace: Forest City Lovers

I was pleased to see Pitchfork report that Danish orch-rock combo Under Byen will be returning to North America this March including a show March 8th at the Mod Club. My appreciation for the band and their 2006 release Samme Stof Som Stof is well documented and the venue (and its elaborate lighting rig) is a perfect choice for one of the most visually striking bands I saw last year.

But also noteworthy is their tourmate for this visit – singer/songwriter Frida Hyvonen. Her debut Until Death Comes was released in her native Sweden in 2005 to much success and in North America last Fall by Secretly Canadian. Based around her austere but perfectly appropriate piano playing, Hyvonen’s simple songs are compact (the album’s ten tracks clock in at under half an hour) and initially sound a bit cold and emotionally detached. Upon further listens, however, it’s evident that’s as much the characteristic Swedish accent and delivery as anything else, and the songs are actually bubbling with emotion as well as a healthy dose of humour – they’re not so much distant as just guarded and maybe a bit prickly. But charming through and through.

She also has another release due out on January 24 as part of a new series entitled, “Frida Hyvonen Gives You”, intended to be an outlet for anything and everything Hyvonen decides should see the light of day. If that sounds like a ticket for strangeness, you’re probably correct – the first release is called Music From The Dance Performance PUDEL and if you were wondering, “Pudel” means “poodle” in German and the dance performance in question indeed apparently featured 20 dancing poodles. For real. More info on the release here.

MP3: Frida Hyvonen – “You Never Got Me Right”
Video: Frida Hyvonen – “I Drive My Friend” (MOV)
Video: Frida Hyvonen – “The Modern” (MOV)
MySpace: Frida Hyvonen

Hyvonen’s labelmate and tourmate from this past Fall, Jens Lekman talks a bit about his new album which apparently sounds like Kortedala, circa 2001. It’s currently untitled but he hopes it’ll be out before Summer of this year and so do I.

Idlewild have released the first video from forthcoming album Make Another World, due out February 26. Though they warn that it’s not representative of the record, “If It Takes You Home” is arguably one of the punkier and fiercer tracks the band has recorded in some years and for those who think that 100 Broken Windows is still their finest hour (that’s my hand in the air), it’s encouraging. You can stream the song at their MySpace or watch the vid below.

Video: Idlewild – “If It Takes You Home” (WMV)

The Ottawa Sun talks to Emily Haines, who plays the Danforth Music Hall on Saturday.

PopMatters and I had the same taste in television last year. And I really do mean to catch up on The Wire soon.

Just brought to my attention via this Comic Book Resources piece about titles they’re looking forward to in 2007 is Phonogram, a new six-issue limited series on Image that’s set in modern-day London but is based in the Britpop days of the mid-90s, thankfully not in a wholly nostalgic light though the album cover homages have been nice. I’ve only lightly cruised the first few issues but it looks pretty good, sort of a cross between Hellblazer, Transmetropolitan and Books Of Magic but with an Echobelly soundtrack. Could be promising.

Newsarama has the whole of the first issue available to read online and the first story arc, Rue Britannia, is supposed to be out in trade paperback in March though that presumes that the individual issues will have already come out by then, never a sure thing. But check it out. It actually made me sort of wish I still had my Sleeper CDs.

Coincidentally, I’ve been thinking that I might be looking to make my listening habits a little more Anglophilic this year… not exactly sure what that means, but I may be ready to stop knee-jerkedly disliking anything that comes with a whiff of NME buzz (full backstory here). Here’s hoping that there’s actually something interesting and worthwhile to discover. Suggestions? Anything that can be best described with the words “snotty” or “Doherty” need not apply. And while it’s not necessarily forward looking on my part, I can say that the Jarvis Cocker record is really good. Like REALLY good.

Interesting – there will be a Buffy The Vampire Slayer season eight… in comic book form. TV Guide talks to creator Joss Whedon about how it happened and what to expect. Via Drive Blind.

The Guardian wishes David Bowie a happy 60th birthday next Monday.

Thanks to Bradley’s Almanac for sharing some audio from the Touch’n’Go 25th Anniversary party back in September, not only because the three-day fest featured some great bands but because his coverage day two coverage includes a couple tracks from The New Year’s set, and I also opened 2006 with a post about the band. Also check out Brad’s coverage of days one and three

So how’s everyone? Have a good holiday? Good, good. I had some family time, some friend time and spent a lot of the remainder in front of the TV. Watched all of Deadwood (great show, disappointed with the end of season three, I want those damned movies!), watched season five of Six Feet Under (a show I never really loved but got sort of hooked on anyway) and all of Twitch City, which I enjoyed even more the second time around and which I’ll write up properly in the near future.

And if you’re feeling so inclined, you can nominated me for a 2007 Bloggie Award because the only thing better than being a four-time loser is a five- or six-time loser. The “Best Music” and “Best Canadian” categories would be most logical but if you think I qualify for best food weblog as well, I’m certainly not one to argue.