It was a little infusion of Montreal at the Whippersnapper Gallery on Saturday night with an art exhibition from poster designer Jack Dylan, soundtracked by Montag and Miracle Fortress. The bill originally had the latter opening and the former headlining, but the running order was wisely flipped before showtime – putting aside the fact that the Miracle Fortress record is currently riding a not insignificant amount of buzz, following up a loud band with a not loud solo synth-pop artist just doesn’t make for the best dynamic.

And that’s not to take anything away from Antoine Bedard, he who is Montag and who has his own shiny new record in Going Places to promote. Though one-man synth bands as live performers tend to start off with a couple strikes against them what with being trapped behind a wall of keyboards, Montag did quite well for himself. For starters, Bedard seemed almost unnaturally happy to be playing, all pep and smiles, and that fit in well with the vibe of his music, which was also heavy on the pep and smiliness. Bedard’s decision to include lots of live percussion as well as violin to the live arrangements also added a very welcome organic and physical dimension to the show. Short and sugary-sweet.

I saw Miracle Fortress last October at Pop Montreal and was impressed with how the strength of the songs transcended the novelty and limitations of seeing Graham Van Pelt perform them solo, simultaneously working a drum kit, playing guitar and triggering keyboards and samples. But since the release of Five Roses last month and the acclaim that’s followed, it’s not only forced Van Pelt to transform Miracle Fortress from a pseudonym into a proper band but to step out from behind the figurative and literal shelter of the drum kit and play frontman.

I can’t imagine it’s an easy task to expand one man’s creative vision to three others, so even though the new additions were all fine players with terrific musical pedigrees, the inevitable growing pains were in evidence. It wasn’t anything especially specific, just a general feeling of the band getting used to playing the songs and with each other. It’s almost a shame that the record is so good as a whole because it makes reproducing it onstage, with all its soft and swirling textures, so much more daunting. Most notable was the odd, bleat-like quality that Van Pelt’s live vocals had when compared to the wonderful, Wilson-esque layered voices of the record and the individual songs, but I’ll chalk that up to nerves in transitioning from a studio project to a touring one and also the fact that the Whippersnapper’s PA system isn’t anything to write home about (unless it’s to complain).

But despite these complaints, the strength of Van Pelt’s compositions rose above it all and ensured a good time was had – the man has written some undeniably superb pop songs that can definitely translate in a live setting with the right arrangements, more confidence and experience. And as I heard that this show was a big improvement on the one they played a month ago at The Boat, I can only expect that they’re getting it all together and the next time through they’ll sound even better.

Canada.com talks to Van Pelt about the contrasts between Miracle Fortress and his other band, Think About Life.

Photos: Miracle Fortress, Montag @ The Whippersnapper Gallery – June 23, 2007
MP3: Miracle Fortress – “Have You Seen In Your Dreams”
MP3: Montag – “Best Boy Electric”
MP3: Montag – “Going Places”
MySpace: Montag

Billboard reports that Neil Young has pushed back the release of Archives Vol 1 from Fall of this year to Spring of 2008. I’m shocked – SHOCKED – that this isn’t coming out when initially promised.

Britt Daniel talks to NME about some of the circumstances around the recording of Spoon’s new record Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, out in a fortnight.

The full itinerary for Okkervil River’s Fall tour is now up – Pitchfork has the full itinerary – and I note that after their Friday show in Toronto on September 21 is a Saturday show just down the QEW at the Pepper Jack Cafe in Hamilton. I think this calls for a rock’n’roll road trip to the Hammer. Who’s with me? I’m serious. It’s in the calendar and everything. Donuts and Okkervil double header = the awesome. Support for the Hamilton show and presumably the Toronto one as well is Damien Jurado.

Joseph Arthur has been added to the day one of V Fest. Those hoping for more acts to make or break their decision to attend will probably be disappointed – as far as big names go, things are pretty much set. There’s some more smaller acts still to be named but Radiohead is NOT going to be an 11th hour addition. But come on, look at the lineup – it’s pretty damn good on both days. So says I.

Other random announcements – Cary Brothers is a the El Mocambo on July 29 with the ever-present Stars Of Track & Field. Don’t these guys have homes? Also Girl Talk is at the Phoenix on September 12, Akron/Family at Lee’s on September 23 (full tour dates at Tiny Mix Tapes) and Earlimart is in town at the El Mocambo October 5. Their show at Main Hall in Montreal the following evening is almost certainly a Pop Montreal showcase.

Grok the first official cast photo from the Iron Man film, complete with Robert Downey Jr in dubious facial hair and a folically-challenged Jeff Bridges.

I finished season three of The Wire. I… I have no idea what to do with myself now.

This weekend’s slate of shows read a bit like my finalists list for this year’s Polaris Music Prize, what with Miracle Fortress on the Saturday evening (check back tomorrow) and The Besnard Lakes on Friday at the Horseshoe, in support of their perhaps prophetically-titled album Are The Dark Horse. And if that sentence is as awkward as I suspect it is, I apologize.

Opening for the Besnards for this night (though they weren’t technically headlining, I didn’t stick around for final act In-Flight Safety) was fellow Montrealer Jade McNelis, whose debut All The Fables EP was released this past March. With a strong voice, classically-trained piano chops and a solid band behind her, McNelis’ material was good but still a little too easy to accurately describe as “girl with a piano”. She reminded me of Emm Gryner, though steeped more in jazz and rock than straight pop and balladry. Enjoyable and lots of potential, but not distinctive enough to make me take notice… yet. The Toronto Star talked to McNelis before NxNE at the start of June.

I think I managed to miss the Besnard Lakes live maybe a half-dozen times in the past nine months or so, and that’s with my actually making an effort to see them. Scheduling issues, as they say. But this night, I finally got to see them and the timing was good as Are The Dark Horse has recently been burrowing its way further into my consciousness. The six-piece band came fully armed to recreate The Dark Horse‘s psychedelic pop otherworld, pedalboards and smoke machines a-plenty, but for some reason, they didn’t bring the reverb. Whereas the album is drenched in bottom-of-a-well reverberation, they played this show mostly dry. But rather than dispel some of the material’s mystique, their Beach Boys backed by Hendrix vibe remained intact and if anything, the more direct sound served to emphasize the classic rock goodness of the band’s triple guitar attack.

And I’d like to point out just how impressive their guitar arrangements were – even with the three axes, their choice of tone and notes played was such that no one ever stepped on each others’ parts or sounded unnecessary. Probably a geeky thing to notice but it definitely caught my ear. Actually the tightness and focus of their set overall surprised me a bit – with a record ripe for jamming out, I would have expected some more extended musical excursions but they kept things firmly on track. Probably being the middle band, albeit the one most were there to see, with a fixed time slot had something to do with that. But seeing it performed live confirmed that Horse was one of the most interesting Canadian albums of the past year – yes, I’m still in Polaris-think mode. Only disappointment on the night? They were sold out of the flaming horse t-shirts in my size.

Photos: The Besnard Lakes, Jade McNelis @ The Horseshoe – June 22, 2007
MP3: The Besnard Lakes – “And You Lied To Me”
MySpace: The Besnard Lakes

Muzzle Of Bees has details on Magnolia Electric Co’s forthcoming release The Sojourner Boxset, which as implied will collect a wealth of recent unreleased MEC material over four CDs, one DVD, 5,000 copies and out August 7. Molina and co are at Lee’s Palace on October 5.

Drowned In Sound talks to Tokyo Police Club about their UK Summer festival itinerary.

Biggie-sized shows coming to town – The Cure will be at the Air Canada Centre on September 27, 65 Days Of Static support, and Bloc Party at the Ricoh Coliseum on September 28.

Some forthcoming release news – Super Furry Animals will release Hey Venus! on August 28 – full details at Prefix. Super Furry frontman Gruff Rhys will be in town doing the solo thing September 25 with a show at the Rivoli. The Weakerthans’ Reunion Tour is out September 25, details at Punknews, and Aversion has it that British Sea Power’s third album will bear the cryptic title of Now That’s What I Call World War One Joy Division. Ask for it by name sometime this Fall.

Takeaway Shows featured a joint Voxtrot/Sparrow House session last week.

JAM! caught up with Ryan Adams during his recent tour stop in Toronto. Sadly, no further revelations of drug abuse or near-death experiences – just talk about his music. Booooring. Easy Tiger is out tomorrow, critical reaction is decent.

Those who prefer their singers with perfect pitch – or even pretty good pitch – would be well advised to avoid the Music Gallery this Saturday night. But those who are more interested in songcraft than technical perfection and want to see a couple of performers who are arguably indie rock royalty despite this may want to get in line as Julie Doiron and Calvin Johnson will be holding court there that evening.

Both are currently supporting releases that look back at their pasts while simultaneously looking forwarrd. For Doiron, her new album Woke Myself Up reunites her with her former Eric’s Trip bandmates for one of the best collections of her career. Johnson, on the other hand, has just released Calvin Johnson & The Sons Of The Soil which eschews his usual musical primitivism aesthetic and enlists “a band of real music-making people” (their words) to re-record songs from his Dub Narcotic Sound System and Halo Benders repertoires. The net result is one of the most listenable records he’s ever put out, at least for someone who’s never really been into his work.

But to business – courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got two pairs of passes to this show to give away. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with your full name in the body and “I want to see Julie and Calvin” in the subject line. Contest closes at midnight, June 27.

And they’ll be playing songs together as well – head over to Gorilla Vs Bear to check out a Halo Benders song that Johnson and Doiron recorded special for them in Denton, TX a few weeks ago.

MP3: Julie Doiron – “No More”
MP3: Calvin Johnson – “I’m Down”
Video: Julie Doiron – “Me And My Friend” (MOV)
Video: Julie Doiron – “No More” (youTube)
Video: Julie Doiron – “Swan Pond” (MOV)
MySpace: Julie Doiron
MySpace: K Records/Calvin Johnson

Well that was just a shame, pure and simple. Brooklyn’s Chris Garneau made his Canadian debut at Sneaky Dee’s on Wednesday night, the first date of a mini Canadian tour, and… well, I guess in every musician’s career there’s going to be some shows that are just bound to be disasters. This was one of them.

For starters, Garneau was given the middle slot between a couple of bands so anonymous that I couldn’t even find a MySpace for them. The lead-in were just wrapping up their set of remarkably unremarkable rock when I arrived and when they were done, they took their sweet time clearing off stage, making sure to converse loudly with all their friends who drove in from the suburbs for the occasion. These conversations continued (loudly) as Garneau and his bandmates set up onstage and vainly tried to soundcheck and when they began their set.

If you haven’t heard Garneau’s material, he trades in very quiet, very delicate piano pieces accompanied by his unearthly soft and fragile voice. Beautiful stuff, but also the sort of stuff that’s easily drowned out by loud talkers or the howling, persistent feedback that was coming from both the stage monitors and the house PA. Now the sound at Sneaky Dee’s is usually pretty good and I know they’ve dealt with trickier setups than vocals, electric piano, cello and drums but for whatever reason they were incapable of getting anything resembling a decent mix.

Obviously frustrated, Garneau tried to play through it by discarding the quieter bits of his set (which is to say most of it) and what he did perform from his album Music For Tourists was so lovely but he gave up after barely half an hour, looking like he was either going to apologize to everyone or curse us all out. Graciously, he opted for the former. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt such sympathy for a performer… hopefully he won’t hold it against us and returns to play for a quieter, more respectful audience. But if you’re going to see him on any of the other tour dates, please – keep it down.

Photos: Chris Garneau @ Sneaky Dee’s – June 20, 2007
MP3: Chris Garneau – “Not Nice”
Video: Chris Garneau – “Relief” (YouTube)
MySpace: Chris Garneau

The Phoenix tries to figure out at exactly what point M Ward became such a big deal. His first record, Duet For Guitars #2, is being reissued by Merge on July 10.

Also out that day from Merge – Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. I’m comfortable saying this is one of their best records yet, and they put out some consistently good records. Stream it below and see them at the Phoenix on October 15.

Stream: Spoon / Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

The Daytrotter machine doesn’t stop – up this week are sessions with The Long Winters (interview/session) and Sparrow House, the solo project of Voxtrot keyboardist Jared Van Fleet (interview/session). If you like what you hear of Sparrow House, he’s got and EP out (Falls), another on the way (Television Snow) and some tracks from the first one available to download:

MP3: Sparrow House – “When I Am Gone”
MP3: Sparrow House – “You Sang Along”

Filter makes available their feature story on Feist from their latest issue.

PennLive.com talks to Richard Thompson.

Nels Cline discusses his many hats with The Boston Globe.

Some interviews with The National courtesy of The Georgia Straight, The Boston Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe and Filter. The band’s DC show from Wednesday night, which The Washington Post calls “a snoring success”, is available to stream at NPR along with an interview. Looks like they picked the wrong show to broadcast? Hey Leafblower – maybe The National DO hate DC after all? Happy birthday, btw.

Some pretty big concert announcements coming down the pipe this week. Instead of running through them chronologically, I’ll go by order of excitement.

First – Okkervil River at Lee’s Palace on September 21. Tickets $13.50, on sale next Wednesday. This is in support of their new album The Stage Names, out August 21. The Catbirdseat says that the album will be available in a deluxe edition limited to 5000 copies that will come with a second disc of Will Sheff’s solo demos of each track on the album. Obviously I want this, but saw no option for this edition when I pre-ordered. This is mildly concerning to me. I should probably also mention I AM INCREDIBLY EXCITED FOR THIS SHOW. In case you couldn’t tell. I’m just trying to be all cool about it and stuff.

As they did last year, Beirut will be in town on October 2, right before Pop Montreal. Unlike last year, however, they’re going in the other direction (west) and not playing the festival. Also unlike last year, they’re not going to be at the Horseshoe – this show is at the far larger Danforth Music Hall. Pitchfork has full details about the tour and the new record, still untitled, and out October 9. I really enjoyed seeing the band at SxSW in March but would be very surprised if I managed to squeeze this one in before heading to Montreal. I’ve done the show-the-night-before-a-trip thing, it’s kind of brutal.

Band Of Horses will be at Lee’s Palace on August 11. Sadly, that day is already earmarked for the Wolfe Island Musicfest up in Kingston. Wolves > Horses.

And a note that the Bill Callahan show at the Music Gallery on September 11 is actually the first of two nights – he’s also there on the 12th, both shows with a full band. Tickets $20.50, on sale next Wednesday.

FHM Australia has declared me the 89th greatest website, nine spots greater than Rotten Tomatoes. FHM WTF?