So tonight begins what will almost certainly be an insane eleven days punctuated by Canadian Music Week here at home over the next three nights and then SxSW in Austin for most of next week. I’m bracing myself as best I can but it’s akin to holding tightly onto a tree in the face of an incoming hurricane – any way you slice it, you’re gonna get buffeted.

For me – and for many – things kick off tonight with Under Byen, Frida Hyvonen and Ohbijou at the Mod Club – a rock solid bill that doesn’t actually rock at all in the conventional sense. Under Byen’s concert page also states that they and Frida Hyvonen will be on MTV Live tonight. I believe you can be part of the studio audience if you show up at the studio at Yonge and Davenport at 5PM – don’t take my word for it, call them for details. And the Mod Club show is an early one so if you’re going, be there by 7:30 when Ohbijou is scheduled to go on. eye features Under Byen on this week’s cover, The Toronto Star has a profile and Stereogum, who is presenting the tour, has a couple of new remixes from the Danish band’s latest album Samme Stof Som Stof, and they will be playing multiple times at SxSW though their official showcase is at 9:00 on Thursday, March 15 in Emo’s. And congrats to Dmitri, Vincent and Jonathan who won the Frida Hyvonen CDs.

Then tomorrow I’ll be spending far longer than any one person should at the Horseshoe for the Chart-sponsored showcase featuring a wealth of Canadian talent. Land Of Talk will be the highlight for me, but the bill also includes (in no particular order) Vancouver dance-punkers You Say Party! We Say Die!, former Local Rabbit Peter Elkas, Edmonton hip-hop artist and newest addition to the Anti-/Epitaph roster Cadence Weapon, Montreal rock machine The Adam Brown, Haligonian roots rockers The Divorcees Vancouver I’ve-no-idea-what-to-call-them Mother Mother and Toronto/Montreal’s Kill The Lights. Yeah that’s a hell of a lot of acts for one night but the ‘Shoe is open till 4AM this weekend. Don’t expect me to last the whole thing.

Saturday night is up in the air – right now I’ve got The Acorn and friends at the Whippersnapper Gallery on the calendar, though I’m not sure if that’s an actual CMW show, but I’m also tempted by The Coast and Santa Dog at Clinton’s or even make a half-assed attempted to see The Pipettes at the Rivoli, though that’s almost certainly not going to happen. And less likely but still worthy of note are post-rockers The Red Sparowes at the El Mocambo, Leeroy Stagger at the Hideout or The Golden Dogs, Yoko Casionos and Jenn Grant at the Horseshoe. Or I could stay home and sleep.

NOW, The Toronto Sun, and The Toronto Star offer up some of their picks for the festival while eye, being sponsor of the event, has a full sched with bios and a slew of other features, profiles and interviews. Torontoist is making their picks day-by-day and The Toronto Star also considers the state of the festival, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

While a saner course of action for Monday night would be getting organized to catch a plane to Austin the next morning, I will instead be seeing Dean & Britta at the Mod Club that night. Packing can wait till later (but hopefully not too late). Dean Wareham talks to NOW about going back on the road after two years away and progress on his memoir (also check out the audio clips at the bottom of the page) and to Chart about same. Phillips, meanwhile, talks to Harp about her second life as a cartoon.

As for SxSW? Oh man. Still haven’t wrangled a wristband but I’ve got a plan (or a few plans) for rectifying that once I get to Texas. I’ll be posting my schedule in the next couple days for those who are curious, but in the meantime check out Drowned In Sound’s picks – three of four are up, the last one will be posted tomorrow. They’ve also got this piece asking various UK music execs what their SxSW plans are. Besides BBQ. But you know what I’m looking forward to the most? This.

A couple of bits that, in an ideal world, would have gone in yesterday’s post – Tripwire has a rather expansive interview with Jarvis Cocker, who also tells NME there is no Pulp reunion in the works. Ted Leo tells Harp 10 things you didn’t know about him. Number eleven might be the fact that he has a new ecard with a Living With The Living preview.

And I finally got my copy of the Arcade Fire album yesterday. One listen in? It’s alright. The Malaysia Star has a rather large profile of the band from The Chicago Tribune‘s Greg Kot.

Maybe it’s because I was only a casual fan of Silent Alarm that I have been so won over by A Weekend In The City whereas many Bloc Party fans seem to be disappointed by the band’s sophomore effort. And I can understand it – if you loved the first record and its tense, razor-wire attack then the new one could easily seem overwrought and overdone. But from my point of view, it’s denser, richer and less in-your-face – part of my problem with Silent Alarm was how exhausting a listen it was.

Kele Okereke’s vocals draw from a broader emotional palette than the strangled bark he favoured the first time around and similarly, the music has found a method of attack besides “stab” and as such is also far less obvious in its musical touchstones. True, the singles don’t necessarily stack up to those from the debut but as an album, I feel it’s a stronger collection. It reminds me in a way of Suede’s Dog Man Star – far grander in ambition than its predecessor and reviled by some for it, but as history would show, its grasp equaling its reach more often than not. And grandiosity and romanticism are what I want from British rock. That and ripping guitar solos.

I’ve already listened to A Weekend In The City in the past month and a bit far more often than I did to Silent Alarm in the past couple years and am enjoying it more and more with each listen (though I’ve also gained a deeper appreciation for that record in the last little while as well). And though devoted fans probably already have them all, there’ve been a rather absurd number of bonus tracks and b-sides accompanying the new record depending on where and in what format it’s been purchased. Some more diligent blogs have done a good job of rounding them all up and I have to say, a lot of the excised tracks are as good or better than those that made the album. Worth seeking out or better yet, petitioning the band to release a b-sides collection.

Paste talks to Okereke and bassist Gordon Moakes about the new record while Harp asks a few questions of the band’s frontman while The San Francisco Chronicle offers up a rather disastrous Q&A. Okereke also recently spoke out about his embarrassment with his US label’s print incarnation.

Bloc Party play a sold-out show at the Kool Haus in Toronto on March 25. I’m hoping to catch them at SxSW but their midnight slot on Thursday conflicts with a lot of other good stuff and I’m a bit concerned about whether or not I’ll get in (though apparently Stubb’s is ginormous and that won’t likely be an issue). I guess we’ll just wait and see if it happens or not.

Video: Bloc Party – “The Prayer” (YouTube)
Video: Bloc Party – “I Still Remember” (YouTube)
MySpace: Bloc Party

Billboard talks to Jarvis Cocker about the making of his solo record Jarvis which will get a proper North American release on April 3. AmpCamp is offering up an MP3 of one of the darker and more biting tracks on the record.

MP3: Jarvis Cocker – “Fat Children”

Drowned In Sound talks to Forget Cassettes, who’ve gone from a trio to a four-piece to a duo in the time since I wrote this. Whew.

Salon’s Audiofile has an exclusive new download from the new Ted Leo record Living With The Living, out March 20. This is in addition to the other two tracks currently circulating – and if you think from the three of them that the new one’s a scorcher, you’d be right. And there’s also a stream available of a song that’ll appear on the bonus CD that will accompany early pressings of the album, in case you needed more convincing. Ted’s at the Mod Club on May 2.

MP3: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “Bomb Repeat Bomb (1954)”
MP3: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “The Sons Of Cain”
Stream: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “Old Souls Know” (Flash)

Spinner’s Interface has a session with Peter Bjorn & John, who’ll be in town at the Phoenix on May 6. I saw that Brooklyn synth-poppers Au Revoir Simone will be supporting, just one month before they’re back again on June 8 with Voxtrot at Sneaky Dee’s. The aforementioned Vice recently asked the band some typically classy questions while The Guardian says they have David Lynch’s seal of approval.

Weren’t Bright Eyes just here? Well yes they were but they’re coming back – this time on May 22 for a show at Massey Hall. So stop – or start – your crying, as the case may be. Full tour dates at Pitchfork. Their new one Cassadaga is out April 10.

MP3: Bright Eyes – “Four Winds”
Video: Bright Eyes – “Four Winds” (YouTube)

Lavender Diamond will be at Lee’s Palace on May 30 in support of her Matador debut Imagine Our Love, out May 8. I Like Music talks to frontwoman Becky Stark.

Stream: Lavender Diamond – “Open Your Heart” (QT)
MP3: Lavender Diamond – “You Broke My Heart”

AOL Canada has an expansive feature on Arcade Fire while The National Post wonders if Meat Loaf isn’t getting shortchanged as one of the band’s influences.

Much hubub was made when Jay Farrar revived Son Volt two years ago with a whole new lineup and the ensuing album, Okemah And The Melody Of Riot, sounded like a guitar-rocking statement of defiance from Farrar and crew to those who had written him off as having lost his sense of adventure and being too comfortable in the folksinger mode of his last couple solo records. And while Okemah did rock like he hadn’t in some years and was a solid offering, it was also a bit one-dimensional in sound and production – no doubt a consequence of the band having come together just before heading into the studio and thus missing out on the chemistry that can only be earned through time and touring.

But two years on with the release of The Search today, it seems that’s no longer an issue. Note that my impressions are based on just a single listen to the album stream below but also a more than passing familiarity with Farrar’s whole career. It sounds like they’ve reined in the rock a bit and the addition of Derry deBorja on keyboards is a solid one, giving the proceedings a more expansive and textured sound that the songs wear very well and overall, it’s a much more dynamic record. Attempting further discourse without spending a lot more time with the album would be pointless, so I’ll simply say that it sounds pretty good to me.

St Louis Today and CTNow.com talk to Farrar about the new record and NPR has a live show from Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago available to stream. The band kicks off a North American tour at the end of this month that includes an April 12 stop at the Mod Club in Toronto with solo Drive-By Trucker Jason Isbell as support. They’re also one of two bands confirmed for Lollapalooza this August, along with Pearl Jam. C’mon, Son Volt AND Pearl Jam? Time to buy those plane tickets to Chicago.

Stream: Son Volt / The Search
MySpace: Son Volt

And speaking of Mr Isbell, I can’t find any recent news on what’s happening with his long-completed solo record, though the fact that he’s touring on his own could be a good sign on that front. Interestingly, his primary MySpace seems like a typical personal page, but this bare-bones one has three songs streaming on it, and nothing else.

And even though Uncle Tupelo called it quits fourteen years ago, Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy’s careers continue to exhibit interesting bits of synchronicity – as Son Volt release their new album, Wilco unveiled their new album Sky Blue Sky via an overnight stream on Saturday night. I gave it a couple listens (though not my undivided attention) and it sounds very laid back and pretty. Can’t wait for May 15, but until then, the band has made one of the tracks available to download – the song they debuted in Toronto last July. It was called “There’s A Light” back then, and you can compare it with the final version below.

MP3: Wilco – “What Light” (.zip)
MP3: Wilco – “There’s A Light” (live in Toronto 2006-07-07)

The National have announced a full North American tour in support of Boxer, out May 22. As far as Toronto goes, they’ll be at the Opera House on June 5. I’m tired of complaining about the venue so I’m just going to be really really excited about the show instead.

CokeMachineGlow has an interview with Okkervil River’s Will Sheff wherein they dig up some of his old music journalism for AudioGalaxy and ask him about it. It’s fun watching Sheff’s answers get briefer and more terse as it goes on.

My Old Kentucky Blog has got some new Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s songs that you can expect to hear on their new album, out later this year, or at SxSW next week – perhaps at Hot Freaks where they’ll be playing Club DeVille at 4:30 on Saturday.

Bradley’s Almanac has the audio from last week’s Sparklehorse show in Boston available to download.

I declared my love and devotion to Dean & Britta and their new record Back Numbers in a post last week so I don’t need to go back into that.

But I will direct you to some more interviews with Dean Wareham and/or Britta Phillips – Exclaim! asks their stock questions of Wareham and get some interesting answers, WERS has a short chat with the duo while Lunapark6 has a long one and Dean tells The Boston Herald that we can expect to hear some Luna songs when they play the Mod Club next Monday night – honestly, with two of their own albums to draw on it never occurred to me that they’d play Luna songs. Without Sean and Lee, that’ll certainly be… different. Update: Okay, so the Herald link doesn’t work because they want you to pay for their articles. But if you google “boston herald dean britta”, you can read the whole thing from the Google link. Why? No one makes Google pay. Link fixed.

And courtesy of Against The Grain, you can be there to hear it all. I’ve got three pairs of passes to give away to said March 12 show… but wait! There’s more! Each winner will also get a copy of Back Numbers for their very own to take home and share with friends and family. How exciting is that? To enter, leave a comment below telling me which Luna songs you would most like to hear Dean and Britta perform live, and no obvious ones like “Bonnie & Clyde”. Been there, done that. And if you can’t attend the show but want to chime in anyway, please do so – just mention that you’re not entering the contest. This contest will close at midnight, March 8. Update 2: Okay, thanks to D&B management, I’ve also got four pairs of passes for their March 10 show at Main Hall in Montreal – same deal, just leave me a comment to enter and also mention if you’re entering for the Montreal show. Thanks.

And thanks to one of Stereogum’s commenters for pointing out that Dean & Britta’s new video for “Words You Used To Say” is actually an homage to Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s video for “Melody”. Check it out below.

MP3: Dean & Britta – “Words You Used To Say”
MP3: Dean & Britta – “Singer Sing”
Video: Dean & Britta – “Words You Used To Say” (YouTube)
Video: Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin – “Melody” (YouTube)
MySpace: Dean & Britta

With the release of Neon Bible tomorrow, it’s Arcade Fire week whether you like it or not. In an ideal world I’d be able to offer up my thoughts on it but since I haven’t heard it – my preorder is supposed to arrive by tomorrow but I’m not hopeful – they’ll have to wait. But if you’re curious what the general critical consensus is, well that’s why we have Metacritic. Predictably, the overall vibe seems to be “it’s good, but it’s no Funeral“. Also predictably, most critics seem to be using this record as an excuse to write essay-length pieces as it’s the very definition of an “important record” and thereby deserving of many big words. And for those of you in Pitchfork pools (what’s wrong with you people?), they’ve given it an 8.4 (relative to Funeral‘s 9.7) but also thrown in a “Best New Music”, just to mess up your spread.

And it’s not just reviews – I can’t imagine how much time the band has spent doing interviews in the past few weeks, but there’s sure to be a torrent of features released in the next few weeks though I doubt any will be as expansive or high profile as this New York Times Magazine feature from this weekend. PopMatters leads off the week with an interview with the band and Merge hocho Mac McCaughan and there’s also pieces at JAM! about the making of the record and The Toronto Sun about gearing up to play live again. The Ottawa Citizen and Montreal Gazette also talk to the band about Neon Bible.

The band kick off their month-long European tour tonight in Dublin and do North America starting in late April, including two sold-out shows at Massey Hall in Toronto on May 15 and 16. You can download the first single from the album below and hear another streaming on their MySpace.

MP3: Arcade Fire – “Black Mirror”
MySpace: Arcade Fire

I swung by Soundscapes yesterday evening for El Perro Del Mar’s in-store, a brief 5-song set that served to remind how affecting her doo-wop-group-in-mourning sound could be. She’s playing the the Mod Club tonight with The Submarines. And thanks to a commenter who pointed me to Sarah Assbring’s old dreampop band Aquadays – if you can get past the awful quality .RA files (the streams don’t work but the downloads do), it’s an interesting listen when you think about what she’s doing now.

Photos: El Perro Del Mar @ Soundscapes – March 4, 2007
MP3: El Perro Del Mar – “God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get)”
Video: El Perro Del Mar – “God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get)” (YouTube)
MySpace: El Perro Del Mar

MP3Hugger tracks the whereabouts of all former members of Slowdive with audio evidence of their activities. Nicely done.

The Scotsman profiles Scotsmen (and woman) My Latest Novel, in town for three shows this week – Friday night at the Drake Underground, Saturday night at the El Mocambo and then Monday night at the Horseshoe. The last of these is a free show.

Yo La Tengo tells The Age, “we are not a relaxed band”.

The Houston Chronicle talks to The Shins’ James Mercer.

The Broken West tell The Boston Globe that they’re not power pop but they’re not NOT power pop and The Maneater that they’re not a California band but they’re not NOT a California band. The walking contradiction and their west coast power pop will open up The Hot Freaks at SxSW next Saturday at 11AM at The Mohawk and are in Toronto on March 27 with The Long Winters at the El Mocambo.

Check out this edition of Spinner 3×3 assembled from some of the video that’ll be part of Neil Young’s Live At Massey Hall, out next Tuesday. It looks and sounds great and I won’t point out that they’ve left the “Why” off the second song title… oh, I just did.