So what’ve we got today? This and that. Nothing major.

First, the schedule for V Fest is finally up and that “TBA” on Saturday at 4:55PM sure is a chin-scratcher. Nice to know something’s still in the works. Or else that’s going to be one hour of really awkward silence. Conflicts appear to be kept to a minimum as well, with only Blonde Redhead versus Stars being the only one I’m unsure about, and the safe bet there will go BR’s way if for no other reason than I’ve yet to see them play a full, proper set. I’m also sort of pleased that there’s no one I really want to see before around 3PM either day – no disrespect intended to those who drew an earlier timeslot, but sleep is going to be a precious commodity this weekend.

The Los Angeles Times and OC Weekly talked to Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino.

Spinner’s Interface has a session with Editors, who will be closing out the second stage on day two. Express and Clik Music also have interviews.

Losing Today interviews Feist.

NPR discusses The Stage Names with Okkervil River’s Will Sheff. Okkervil are at Lee’s Palace on September 21.

New videos from SubPop – The Shins’ next one from Wincing The Night Away and The Brunettes with a marionette-powered one from Structure & Cosmetics.

Video: The Shins – “Sleeping Lessons” (YouTube)
Video: The Brunettes – “Her Hairagami Set” (YouTube)

MuchMusic is streaming the whole of The Go! Team’s new album Proof Of Youth, in stores next Tuesday. They play the Opera House on October 31. Drowned In Sound talks to Go! Team captain Ian Parton about how the new album is like the old album and how he’s fine with that.

Stream: The Go! Team / Proof Of Youth

Manic Street Preacher James Dean Bradfield talks to Harp about getting back to basics on their new album Send Away The Tigers.

Klaxons have won this year’s Mercury Music Prize. Their October 12 show at the Opera House was already a hot ticket – guess it’s even moreso now.

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco tries to debunk his control-freakiness to The Denver Post.

The AV Club and Express converse with Midlake frontman Tim Smith.

Dallas Good of The Sadies talks to Chart about recording New Seasons, out September 18, in Spain.

Billboard reports that Neil Young’s forthcoming sequel to an album that was never released, Chrome Dreams 2, will come bundled with a bonus disc of material slated to appear in the Archives box sets, the first of which is supposed to be out February 18 of next year. Chrome Dreams 2 is out October 16.

I’ve always been largely indifferent to Brooklyn’s We Are Scientists but the fact that they had the cojones to cover a Sigur Ros song acoustically – and do a decent job of it – earned them my respect. And happily, I now have an excuse to post it and share it with you, because as much as I like it it’s kind of way down the queue as far as getting a Cover Of The Week honours.

And that excuse is this – courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away to their show at Lee’s Palace on Thursday night (that’s September 6), which they’re playing with Entire Cities. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to be a scientist too” in the subject line and your full name in the body. And since there’s such a short turnaround for this one, the contest will close at 5PM tomorrow (September 5).

Also check out the video, which sounds like a different recording of the cover over top the original Sigur Ros video.

MP3: We Are Scientists – “Hoppipolla”
Video: We Are Scientists – “Hoppipolla” (YouTube)
MySpace: We Are Scientists

Marissa Nadler would probably be happy to have you believe that her music was unearthed in a time capsule underneath the floorboards of a coffee house from the tail end of the ’60s and that she was a contemporary of the likes of Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake. And listening to her third album, Songs III: Bird On The Water, you could almost be convinced – her gently trilling voice, simple guitar accompaniment and ethereal production values give her gentle folk songs an air of timelessness that could almost as easily come from medieval times (the historical era, not the restaurant) as modern days.

But there are signs, telltale signs, that root it in the here and now – the reverbs on “Dying Breed” that come straight out of Radiohead’s “Subterranean Homesick Alien” or the intertwining electric lead guitars of “Bird On Your Grave” and “Rachel” that could be lifted from any ’90s college rock radio playlist. However, these are points of interest – not “gotchas”. There’s no faux-retro affectation here – just a collection of songs that may not have the same gravity as their spiritual forebears, but make up for it with a delivery that sounds like a flock of birds in a grey winter’s morning.

Nadler is in town this Friday night for a show at Sneaky Dee”s with Tradition, The Saffron Sect and Castlemusic. Tickets $8 at the door.

MP3: Marissa Nadler – “Diamond Heart”
MP3: Marissa Nadler – “Thinking Of You”
MySpace: Marissa Nadler

Bootlog is sharing some recordings of Basia Bulat’s set at the Wolfe Island Music Fest last month. Her Oh My Darling is out September 18 and will feature a bonus track that wasn’t on the European version. The two-part CD release party will take place at the Music Gallery on September 22.

CMJ features Feist.

The Toronto Star interviewed Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy during her stop in town last Tuesday.

The Times talks to Emma Pollock on the eve of the release of her solo debut, Watch The Fireworks, next Tuesday. The Herald also ran an interview last month. There’s a new MP3 and video from the album available. Emma is in town October 21 at the Phoenix opening for The New Pornographers.

MP3: Emma Pollock – “Adrenaline”
Video: Emma Pollock – “Acid Test” (YouTube)

The Guardian looks at the current wave of solo artists finding success in the UK music scene including Patrick Wolf, who’s at Lee’s Palace on October 6, and Bat For Lashes, the odds-on favourite for this year’s Mercury prize. If she wins later today, expect her September 28 gig at the El Mocambo to become a VERY hot ticket. The Independent previews the awards and Drowned In Sound looks at the Mercury-equivalent music prizes from around the globe including Canada’s own Polaris, for which they like Patrick Watson’s chances.

Couple interesting releases in the Spinner.com complete album preview jukebox thing this week – Autumn Of The Seraphs, the new one from Pinback, and the Guilt By Association covers comp which is definitely worth at least a background listen – or just put the Superchunk cover of Destiny’s Child on repeat.

Stream: Autumn Of The Seraphs
Stream: Guilt By Association

Saw Live Free Or Die Hard over the weekend, a sequel that while totally unnecessary was actually pretty enjoyable. Nice to see an action film that does it old school with guns and punching and car chases (and wrecks) and generally wanton destruction. Of course, there’s reaches in logic – John McClane’s superhuman ability to avoid traffic, the bad guys using Palm Pilots to take down the power grid of the entire east coast – that would make Jack Bauer go “oh, come on!” and Timothy Olyphant is possibly the least menacing villain ever, but it was certainly not an unpleasant way to while away an evening.

Trailer: Live Free Or Die Hard (YouTube)

Also watched this weekend – Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain which was as strange and fascinating as I’d expected but also much more emotionally affecting. I also finished watching season one of Dexter, which I didn’t really like at first – the whole “I’m a monster, I feel nothing blah blah blah” monologues put me off but as the storyline progressed and the whodunit became more of the focus, I got a lot more into it. And finally, thanks to Information Leafblower for pointing out this Washington Post dispatch from the set of the final episode of The Wire, aka the show that has ruined me for all other cop TV shows (including Dexter). The fifth and final season premieres on January 6, 2008.

I was very pleased to see that moderately buzzy Brooklynites The Jealous Girlfriends are coming to town for a show at the Drake on October 9. I’ve only heard the samples of their self-titled full-length on CD Baby, from whence you can also buy the CD-R as I just did, as well as the smattering of full tracks available here and there, and while they cascade from style to style, they maintain a home base of pop hooks, ‘gazey guitars and atmospheric production to match but their secret weapon is singer/guitarist Holly Miranda, whose riveting voice can range from blues growler to dreampop chanteuse and also sounds great in harmony with he-singer Josh Abbott.

In addition to the Toronto show, they’re also in Montreal on the 7th, but I’m not sticking around for that last night of Pop Montreal so I’ll catch up with them down the 401 a couple of days hence. Check it out – I am betting you will dig. L Magazine declared them one of “8 New York Bands You Need to Hear” and Sentimentalist has an interview.

MP3: The Jealous Girlfriends – “Something In The Water”
MP3: The Jealous Girlfriends – “Machines”
Video: The Jealous Girlfriends – “How Now” (YouTube)
MySpace: The Jealous Girlfriends

Also making the trek down the Montreal-Toronto corridor that weekend is Patrick Wolf, who in addition to the October 6 show at Lee’s Palace I mentioned the other day will be playing the lovely Cabaret du Musée Juste Pour Rire, really the perfect setting for Wolf’s theatrics. Pitchfork has all his North American Fall tour dates.

Liz Powell catches Chart up on a very busy and somewhat tumultuous Summer 2007 for Land Of Talk including losing drummer Bucky Wheaton and renouncing the band’s Canadian citizenship – musically-speaking – in a two-part interview with QRO Magazine. Land Of Talk are at the El Mocambo tomorrow night.

Welcome Voxtrot to the day one lineup of V Fest, a perk of their new status as opening act for the Arctic Monkeys on their Fall North American tour. The schedule for V Fest is supposed to be out tomorrow and with it, presumably, the last of any lineup changes. Unless the Smashing Pumpkins break up between now and Sunday which, let’s be honest, wouldn’t be that big a surprise.

Stars released their new album In Our Bedroom After The War digitally over a month ago and will release it in physical form on September 25. This record is not relevant to this contest. Instead, I’m turning the clock back a couple years to 2005’s Set Yourself On Fire and this past May’s remix collection of said album, Do You Trust Your Friends?.

The former was the band’s big breakthrough album, making them one of the bigger-profile act in the country and abroad while the latter was a self-curated record of remixes and covers by friends and associates that garnered reviews ranging from faint praise to raging vitriol. I myself haven’t heard it but suspect my opinions would fall more towards the “interesting, but unnecessary” end of the spectrum.

But I’m pretty sure no one will complain about the existence of the record when taken in the context of a free, autographed slab of vinyl. Or plastic. As the case may be. Ahem. Anyways, courtesy of Arts & Crafts, I’ve got a bundle of Stars stuff to give away, “a bundle” being the scientific term for “five”. Specifically, the following:

• 1 copy of Set Yourself On Fire on vinyl LP, autographed by the band
• 1 copy of Do You Trust Your Friends? on vinyl LP, autographed by the band
• 3 copies of Do You Trust Your Friends? on CD, autographed by the band

You can have a look at the goods here.

To throw your proverbial hat into the proverbial ring for one of these very literal prizes, read the following fine print (actually rendered in exactly the same size as the not-so-fine print):

1. You must leave me a comment on this post answering this rather cryptic and yet direct question – “Do you trust your friends to set you on fire?”. Ponder it and reply as you see fit. Winners will be selected on creativity and/or dementia.
2. Also note, in your entry, your order of preference for the prizes if you do win.
3. You must be a resident of North America.
4. You must use a valid email address – spambot-proofed is fine. Even if it doesn’t show up properly in the comment, I will have it in the email notification.
5. You must submit your entry by midnight, September 9 – the same day Stars play V Fest.

That should about do it. If I come up with any new conditions, like the next entrant must bring me a cheeseburger, I’ll post that as we go.

MP3: Stars – “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” (Final Fantasy remix)
Video: Stars – “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” (YouTube)
Video: Stars – “Reunion” (YouTube)
Video: Stars – “Ageless Beauty” (YouTube)
Video: Stars – “Sleep Tonight” (YouTube)
MySpace: Stars