Sometimes I think I’m not only out of step with UK music, but living in a mirror universe. For example, Bloc Party’s first album was met with hosannas from everyone but only mild appreciation from me, but the follow-up was widely considered a big disappointment by most but not me – I love it. Similarly, Maximo Park’s sophomore effort Our Earthly Pleasures is doing middlingly at best, critically-speaking after their debut A Certain Trigger and even the b-sides companion volume Missing Songs were met with much more effusive praise. Needless to say, I like the new record much more than the first one.

I like how Paul Smith’s manic, cocksure attitude on the first record has been tempered a bit and maybe made a bit more desperately romantic. Musically things aren’t as constantly breakneck as they were but Maximo is just as adept at the slower numbers as the fast and for them, slow is a relative term – there are no piano ballads. For my money, everything that made Trigger appealing is present on Pleasures along with so much more. To everyone grousing that the new record isn’t as good as the first, it’s called growth – put on “Our Velocity” and tell me it’s not a good thing. But just in case anyone was afraid that this maturity thing would dampen their live show, fear not. I’d never seen Maximo live before but I don’t think it’d have been physically possible for them to have been more energetic in the past for Smith would surely have spontaneously combusted long ago.

Support for this tour were Los Angeles’ Monsters Are Waiting, who I’d seen at the past two SxSWs. While this was the best setting of the three, previous experiences being early afternoon sets to near-empty bars, I still felt a bit bad for the band, always having to win over an audience from scratch. And it’s not that they don’t have the goods to do so – I quite like their theatrically bipolar new wave synth-pop and Annalee Fery is a sexy and charismatic frontwoman – but I’ll bet that in front of a hometown crowd or even one with a decent number of proper fans, they’re excellent live. In Toronto they were merely pretty good, never quite getting into high gear, but still got a warm response from the audience. The couple of new songs showcased sounded really good as well, leaning more towards the power pop end of their debut Fascination rather than the twitchy.

Due to curfew – the Mod Club had to get the dance club contingent in by 10PM – Maximo Park was given just over an hour to work their magic to the sold out club but they made the most of it, cramming 16 songs into their set as well as a good number Paul Smith leaps off the drum riser and a few scissor kicks for good measure. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a frontman with as much energy as Smith – the man was a non-stop dynamo, bounding around the stage and alternately treating the mic stand like a forbidden lover, mortal enemy or lightsabre, whipping the crowd into a frenzy but (thankfully) never preening or coming off as attention-needy. He was simply there with a bowler hat full of rock to dole out and by god, he was going to dole it.

The rest of the band was quite content to lay back and let Smith take the spotlight, opting to concentrate on churning out the super-tight and tightly-wound jangle rock that kept Smith hopping through a set that was heavily weighted towards Pleasures (nine of fifteen songs total). Keyboardist Lukas Wooller physically got into it a little more than his bandmates but for all intents and purposes, the show belonged to Smith and so did the crowd. Particularly the ladies, judging from the shrieking, and I can’t say as I blame them – when that British mojo gets working, it’s something to behold. Throw in the bowler hat and it’s game over.

The band talked to The National Post about getting pelted onstage with beer, shoes and soccer jerseys. Lovingly, of course. The tour, of which Toronto was the fourth show, continues through the end of the month. See them.

Photos: Maximo Park, Monsters Are Waiting @ The Mod Club – July 14, 2007
MP3: Monsters Are Waiting – “Nobody”
MP3: Monsters Are Waiting – “Christine”
Video: Maximo Park – “Our Velocity” (YouTube)
Video: Maximo Park – “Books From Boxes” (YouTube)
Video: Monsters Are Waiting – “Ha Ha” (YouTube)
Video: Monsters Are Waiting – “Nobody” (YouTube)
Video: Monsters Are Waiting – “Last Goodbye” (YouTube)
Video: Monsters Are Waiting – “Fascination” (YouTube)
MySpace: Maximo Park
MySpace: Monsters Are Waiting

Backtracking to Bloc Party (was talking about them earlier, wot), they recorded an acoustic session for Spinner’s Interface which you can watch and download while Vice also has some acoustic tracks available to grab from a session for Boston’s FNX back in May. There’s also a new video available for “The Prayer”. Bloc Party are in town September 28 at Ricoh Coliseum.

MP3: Bloc Party – “I Still Remember” (acoustic)
MP3: Bloc Party – “Sunday” (acoustic)
Video: Bloc Party – “The Prayer” (YouTube)

In exchange for the cover of their new issue, Interpol gives Chart a song-by-song breakdown of Our Love To Admire.

Concert news – The Noisettes have a date at Lee’s Palace September 19, Voxtrot are back in town on the 9th of October for a show at the Mod Club, French electronic duo Justice are at the Republik in the heart of clubland on October 18 and Pitchfork has the The New Pornographers at the Phoenix on October 21 rather than the 20th, thus clearing up the conflict with Do Make Say Think. They also have Benjy Ferree opening up along with Emma Pollock.

The Daily Show‘s Rob Corddry annotates his life in music for Filter.

Looking for something to do tonight? Try hitting up the El Mocambo where The Wildbirds, hailing from the rock and roll hotbed of Wisconsin, will be raising a racket. Their stock in trade is straightahead, no frills rock of the sort you probably don’t even realize you dig until you’re there and you realize that, yes, that is your hair whipping around. Even if you’re bald. Spin named them their band of the day last Friday.

Courtesy of Emerge, I’ve got three pairs of passes to this show to give away. Since it’s kind of time-sensitive, I’ll take the first three people who email me at frank AT chromewaves DOT net with “I want to see The Wildbirds” in the subject line and their full names in the body. Toronto’s Barons & Lengthy support, contest closes when I’ve got three names.

MP3: The Wildbirds – “421”
Video: The Wildbirds – “421” (YouTube)

Toronto singer-songwriter Megan Hamilton released the follow-up to her 2006 debut Feudal Ladies Club this week in the form of the How We Think About Light EP. It picks up where the full-length left off, with its woozily playful countryisms and heads off to a more high, lonesome and autumnal place with some new production tricks (My Morning Jacket called – they want their reverb back) and even some rock attitude in tow. The benefits of playing with a full band, The Volunteer Canola, between the first record and this one are evident and make for a fine follow-up.

Hamilton will be celebrating the release of the record this coming Thursday evening at the El Mocambo with compatriots Emilie Mover and The Northwest Division and is offering a prize pack to one lucky winner consisting of a pair of passes to the show, copies of both CDs, a t-shirt and some pins. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want the Megan Hamilton stuff” in the subject line and your full name in the body before midnight, July 17.

BlogTO and Pulp Magazine talked to Megan about the creation of her new record.

MP3: Megan Hamilton – “Detroit”
MP3: Megan Hamilton – “Prophecy”
Video: Megan Hamilton – “Are The Birds Caught In The Trees?” (YouTube)
MySpace: Megan Hamilton

I’ve been making much of the fact that this past Tuesday and Wednesday night’s Built To Spill shows were the band’s first in Toronto, but it wasn’t my first time seeing them – I got to check them off my “must see” list at Lollapalooza last year. But a rigid festival-length set really isn’t enough to fully contain the majesty that is Built To Spill, so I was still pretty stoked to see at least half of their Hogtown debut.

The opener for the Toronto and Montreal dates seemed an odd choice for the indie rock legends – Attack In Black share a label with screamo mall-punks Alexisonfire as well as a point of origin in the Niagara Peninsula (AiB are from Welland, of canal fame). A quick MySpace listen didn’t do much for me and I considered missing their set in favour of naptime but I headed out regardless and learned that you can’t judge a band by their MySpace (except that usually you can). Rather than the shouty, adolescent angst-rock I’d expected, I found band channeling old sounds – well, 80s old – with great youthful energy. Raw and rootsy in the vein of Springsteen or The Replacements but enough suburban sheen to appeal to modern rock radio. Still not a band I’d have thought would appeal to the BTS demographic but worth skipping a nap for.

Lee’s Palace was rightly packed well before the headliners’ scheduled start time and it’s just as well as they got started a good 20 minutes early. I suspect a good portion of them had been there on Tuesday night as well and the investment paid off well as the setlists for Tuesday and Wednesday had minimal overlap – just four songs – and were overflowing with awesome. Surely appreciating the fact that this was the first time many/most in attendance had ever seen them, Doug Martsch led his band on a leisurely stroll through their whole catalog, from the compact spiky pop gems of the earlier independent records to the expansive, prog-psych rock outs of the Warner years.

Built To Spill are not much to look at onstage. Five guys, about as middle-aged and unassuming as you can get and dressed for comfort but put guitars in their hands and oh man. Though technically you can call it jammy, but the noodly connotations of the word don’t do Built To Spill justice – I prefer to think of it as sonic sculpture. Martsch, Brett Netson and Jim Roth’s guitars create cascades, torrents, DELUGES of sound that intertwine, tease, attack and make sweet love to each other – it’s a 22-string orgy up there – and yet it’s all done within the context of superb pop songs and none of it is self-indulgent, it’s all in the service of the song.

Of course, this is what every jam band fan would say about their bands but Built To Spill are just different. Only on the 27-minute encore of “Randy Described Eternity” did they seem to really start to wander but they’d been playing nearly two hours at that point, so they can be excused. But my favourite part of the encore was watching Scott Plouf begin packing up his drum kit while the guitarists were still playing. A too-funny cap to an amazing show that, while I don’t know if it was worth the fifteen-year wait – what possibly could be? – was certainly a fine debut. Here’s hoping it’s not a decade and a half wait for their next visit.

You can stream both sides of BTS’ new reggae single at Spinner and The Toronto Star has a quick review of Wednesday’s show to which I’d like to point out that while guys do love guitars, I noticed there was a significantly higher proportion of XX-chromosones in the audience than I’d have expected at the show. Which isn’t a complaint at all. But a guitar geek question – does anyone know how Doug’s Strat is wired? He had no pickup selector and only one volume control. My Lollapalooza pics show he stayed on the middle pickup the whole time (or at least the first three songs), maybe he got tired of accidentally knocking it out of place? I guess that makes more sense than assuming he’s got all three wired in series for triple output and the volume control actually turns up the awesome when he needs it…

Photos: Built To Spill, Attack In Black @ Lee’s Palace – July 11, 2007
Video: Built To Spill – “Conventional Wisdom” (YouTube)
MySpace: Built To Spill
MySpace: Attack In Black

So really, the best thing about this week’s Polaris Music Prize finalists announcements weren’t so much seeing which records made the cut but the fierce discussion/debate/hand wringing that inevitably followed, most of which focused mainly on the Anglo indie-rockness of the final ten. AOL Music Canada looks on the bright side (and calls the Besnard Lakes alt-country? Wha?) but eye opted to consult former Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau on the matter and he suggests that the 170 jurors that contributed to this year’s list constituted too many cooks and a watered-down meal. Similar topics are raised in Zoilus’ comments as well as some analysis of the regionalism of the jurors and finalists while CBC Radio 3’s commenters are far more fixated on the language issue and at Torontoist, they rather gauchely debate how last year’s winner spent his $20,000, prompting Final Fantasy to chime in in his own defense.

And some bits from some of the finalists – Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry talks to Drowned In Sound about the European festival circuit, JAM! and Radio Free Canuckistan talk to Miracle Fortress who, profile-wise, has arguably benefited most by the Polaris attention and The Besnard Lakes have got a new video. Grok it. Grok it now.

Video: The Besnard Lakes – “For Agent 13” (YouTube)

And (hopefully) a candidate for next year’s list, The Acorn will release Glory Hope Mountain on September 25.

JAM chats with Sloan about opening for the Rolling Stones.

Thanks to For The Records for pointing out that the Sadies release date reported yesterday is likely for the US – Chart reports that Canadians can celebrate New Seasons on September 18.

Happy to see The Last Town Chorus will be opening for Camera Obscura at the Phoenix on August 26. I wasn’t planning to go to this having seen CO tour Let’s Get Out Of This Country twice already but the combination of the two acts in a very slow concert month may prove too tempting to resist.

Also just announced – former Jayhawk Mark Olson is at the El Mocambo on August 28 in support of his new solo record The Salvation Blues and legendary popsmith Nick Lowe brings his new record, At My Age, to the Mod Club on September 24.

Britt Daniel gives eMusic a look at the working process behind Spoon’s Ga⁵.

Sea Wolf will release their debut full-length Leaves In The River on September 25.

Filter and The New York Post admire Interpol’s love.

The AV Club rightly commits Luna’s Penthouse to their Hall Of Fame. I still prefer Bewitched by a hair, but that’s probably because it was the first of their albums I discovered.

The Balitmore Sun talks to Colin Meloy of The Decemberists about the intricacies of staging an orchestral tour, as they’re doing right now.

The Scotsman says hello to Wilco.

Inside Bay Area talks to Nicole Atkins, who has pushed back the release of her new album Neptune City from July 24 to… sometime after that. I’m still trying to sort out if she’s opening for The Raveonettes at Lee’s Palace on October 14 – she’s with them in Chicago and Minneapolis the following week, but I haven’t figured out when she joins the tour. I suppose I could just ask, but where’s the fun in that?

I have to wonder if, when preparing his first solo album Sirens Of The Ditch, out this past Tuesday, if Jason Isbell had any inkling that he was going to be leaving the Drive-By Truckers? And if not, did that affect the selection criteria for the material? Did he set some songs aside for the next Truckers record? Would this have been a different record otherwise?

These are all strictly rhetorical questions that hinge largely on whether or not Isbell jumped from the truck or was pushed and that’s not something that’s likely to be addressed by either camp any time soon. The fact is, Isbell would sound like Isbell no matter what band he was in and Sirens Of The Ditch sounds like Isbell. Sirens is a mix of searing rockers and plaintive ballads which showcase his fearsome guitar chops and whiskey-soaked vocals respectively, as well as serving as a reminder that he was responsible for some of the poppiest stuff the Truckers ever put out. And while his last outfit is a tough act to follow, his players on this record – the 400 Unit – definitely don’t let Isbell or the material down. Sirens more than proves that for Isbell, there’s plenty of life after the Truckers. We’ll have to see if there’s life for the Truckers after Isbell… of course the answer to this is “yes”, as there was plenty of life in the band before Isbell. I guess the real question is as to the quality of that life.

Isbell is on the road in support of the record and will be at the El Mocambo on July 24. He was in town back in April and turned in a fine set of new and old material opening for Son Volt – I would expect this tour is more of the same. Only more. Isbell talked to The AV Club, Style Weekly, The Day, The Huntsville Times and Creative Loafing about his new record and his old band. And Philadelphia City Paper talks to his old band.

MP3: Jason Isbell – “Dress Blues”
eCard: Jason Isbell / Sirens Of The Ditch
MySpace: Jason Isbell

The National have announced a Fall tour that brings them back to Toronto for a show at the Phoenix on October 8. That’s both Thanksgiving and the day I roll back into town after Pop Montreal, which they are almost certainly closing out with their show the night before at Le National. The National at Le National. Oprah, Uma, Uma, Oprah.

Will Sheff of Okkervil River talks to Billboard about crafting The Stage Names, out August 7. Jagjaguwar is offering folks who pre-order either the regular or double-disc deluxe version of the record through them the opportunity to download the album (almost) immediately. Folks like me who pre-ordered through Insound get to pay a couple dollars more and receive nothing in advance. Boo. They’re in town September 21 at Lee’s Palace and then down the QEW in Hamilton at the Pepper Jack Cafe on September 22.

Some MP3s and details from the forthcoming Mendoza Line release have surfaced on the band’s website. Out August 21, 30 Year Low comprises new recordings and the final ones with vocalist Shannon McArdle while companion disc The Final Remarks Of The Legendary Malcontent clears out the vaults of live tracks, rehearsals and covers. The future of the band got discussed quite thoroughly on this very site a few months ago – sift through the birthday greetings in the comments for news on the current state of the band and even a message from McArdle herself.

MP3: The Mendoza Line – “Since I Came”
MP3: The Mendoza Line – “Thirty Year Low”
MP3: The Mendoza Line – “Aspect Of An Old Maid (alt)”

Also coming out August 21 is The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter from, well, Josh Ritter. He tells Billboard the new long-player will be his most “rock” record yet.

Paste reports that The Sadies’ new album New Seasons will be out October 2.

Nellie McKay will release her third album, Obligatory Villagers, this September. Since she’s releasing it on her own label, there’s unlikely to be the same major label drama that plagued and delayed Pretty Little Head for almost a year.

Scottish all-girl punk-pop band The Hedrons are at the Boat on Sunday night and at the Horseshoe on Tuesday night for a free show. PopMatters likes them.