“As stick hits bare drum, as bare voice hits ear drum, a charge runs through me. And sure, she’s a singer-songwriter, just using a drum as often as six strings, but it’s completely different. In the same way a room full of vacuum and a room full of air look the same, but one is impossible to live without and the other will make you implode. For three minutes, we’re hers” – David Kohl, Phonogram

Those words come from the comic Phonogram and are uttered in reference to Scout Niblett – which is unusual as the comic is about the ghost of Britpop and Scout Niblett is as far from Britpop as you can get. Hell, despite what her passport says, Niblett hardly even seems British – instead she belongs to the mists of Appalachia or the Mississippi delta, to the sources of the lonesome and anguished folk-blues she channels through her latest record This Fool Can Die Now.

And as harrowing as the experience might be, all accounts are that she’s a riveting live performer and courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away to her show at the Silver Dollar on Tuesday night, October 23, so you can find out for yourself. Also on the bill are locals Picastro, herself no stranger to mesmerizing with just voice and guitar, and Radius & Helena, whom I know nothing about. To enter, shoot me an email to contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Scout Niblett” in the subject line and your full name in the body and get it to me before midnight, October 21.

MP3: Scout Niblett featuring Bonnie Prince Billy – “Kiss”
Video: Scout Niblett featuring Bonnie Prince Billy – “Kiss” (YouTube)
MySpace: Scout Niblett

While Todd Haynes’ Dylan pseudo-biopic I’m Not There isn’t out until late November – the 21st in the US in limited release and the 28th in Canada, presumably also in limited release – the soundtrack will be out on October 30. And while the concept of having different actors “cover” a single figure in the same film, as Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Christian Bale and others do in I’m Not There is far more novel, the soundtrack of Dylan covers is just as star-studded.

You’ve got the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Karen O, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo and Calexico all over the place across two CDs and 34 tracks and Dylan himself shows up on the title track. They’ve got four of the tracks – the contributions from Tweedy, Cat Power, Sufjan Stevens and Jim James streaming off the record’s MySpace and I gotta say, the way Cat Power wraps her voice around Dylan’s words on “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” as though each syllable were a delicious morsel is particularly sumptuous. If that’s where the bar for this record is set, then hot diggity dog. But then, I love Dylan, I love most of these artists and I love covers – It’s probably mathematically impossible that I’d dislike this collection.

And so I’m pleased to be have, courtesy of Filter, two copies of the soundtrack to give away. If you want to take a shot, I want you to leave a comment below telling me what your dream Dylan cover would be – who doing what song and why. Because even though he may well be the most oft-covered musician in history (save maybe the Beatles and even that I won’t say is a gimme), there’s surely far more interesting potential permutations out there. I want to hear em. Make sure to leave an email address you’re contactable at – spamproof it if you need – and I’ll pick two winners on October 29, so get entries in before midnight the eve of October 28.

Random thought – anyone dressing up as one of the Dylan personas for Hallowe’en? No? Too dorky? Gotcha.

And to celebrate the release of the film – and to celebrate Dylan in general – they’re holding a special concert in New York City on November 7 that will feature many of the artists on the soundtrack as well as others singing the songs of Bob. I’m sure tickets would be nigh impossible to score even if you did live in New York, but you can be certain that there’ll be something – webcast, DVD, concert album – released to allow the rest of us to sit in on the show.

And finally, while the film got mixed reviews when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, the Rotten Tomatos rating is a little more promising. And even if it does turn out to be a failure, it’ll at least be a spectacular one. Either way, I can’t wait. Check out the just-released second trailer to the film and I’ve dug into my own vaults for a few Dylan covers that I’ve posted over the years. Just to get you in the mood. Update: Here’s the New York Times interview with Todd Haynes that Aimz mentioned in the comments – thanks!

Trailer: I’m Not There (trailer 1)
Trailer: I’m Not There (trailer 2)
MySpace: I’m Not There
MP3: Billy Bragg – “Positively 4th St”
MP3: Yo La Tengo – “It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry”
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Girl From The North Country”
MP3: Drive-By Truckers – “Like A Rolling Stone”

While we’re discussing tribute albums to living legends, let’s talk Neil Young. In 1994 an all-Canadian double disc entitled Borrowed Tunes was released with one disc dedicated to his acoustic work (Out Of The Blue) and one to his electric (Into The Black). I was then, as I am now, a raging Neil-o-phile so I had it on cassette and played it to death but in hindsight, I didn’t really care for a lot of the artists on it. But when you’re working with material as good as Neil’s, even the most uninteresting performer can sound decent. Except for Our Lady Peace’s “Needle And The Damage Done”. That was just abhorrent. ANYWAY the point is that 13 years later, they’ve released a sequel album – Borrowed Tunes II and honestly, it makes the lineup from the first one look like the ’77 Canadiens. Who wants to hear Finger Eleven butcher “Walk On”? No one, that’s who.

More interesting is the Cinnamon Girl compilation, which is accurately subtitled “Women Artists Cover Neil Young for Charity”. It’s two discs of, well, women artists covering Neil Young and the proceeds are going to Casting For Recovery, a foundation for breast cancer recovery. It’s not exactly and all-star cast but the presence of Tanya Donelly and Britta Phillips is certainly enough to get my attention. There’ve been a number of delays in the album’s release but they’re promising that pre-orders will ship this December, well before the formal retail street date of February 2008. You can stream a few of the songs on the album’s MySpace page.

MySpace: Cinnamon Girl: Women Artists Cover Neil Young for Charity

And a little while ago I pointed to the first part of an ongoing piece at Stylus that was trying to inventory every Neil Young cover ever recorded. Obviously it’s nowhere near comprehensive, but it’s still an impressive body of work they’ve put together. And while not striving for authoritativeness, The AV Club’s Neil Young primer is a good intro to the man’s long and fascinating career. The next chapter in said career, Chrome Dreams II, is out on Tuesday and he plays three nights at Massey Hall on November 26, 27 and 29. The first 18-minute single is still available to download and you can preview four of the songs from the new record with these sorta-videos.

MP3: Neil Young – “Ordinary People”
Video: Neil Young – “Dirty Old Man” (YouTube)
Video: Neil Young – “The Believer” (YouTube)
Video: Neil Young – “The Way” (YouTube)
Video: Neil Young – “Spirit Road” (YouTube)

Lastly, we’ve got some Springsteen. No, not that Arcade Fire video (which, if you don’t know what I’m talking about you probably don’t care), but a cover of “The River” by Josh Ritter that’s been released to the internets. It’s a live performance from Berlin and it’s okay, but only reminds me of how much better Crooked Fingers did it on the Reservoir Songs EP. When it comes to rough, raw and emotive vocals, Ritter can’t touch Eric Bachmann… but not many can. Also worth reading are eye‘s cover story from last week looking at how Springsteen became the ubiquitous name-drop in indie rock references that he is today and Radio Free Canuckistan’s interview with Mac McCaughan of Merge/Portastatic/Superchunk about the same (it was conducted as research for the eye piece). And The Idaho Statesman has an interview with Ritter, MPR a session.

MP3: Josh Ritter – “The River” (live)
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “The River”

Okay, no more classic rock tributes? Fine.

NME is premiering the video for the new Bloc Party single. The song isn’t anything exceptional but the video is goofy fun.

Video: Bloc Party – “Flux” (WMV)“

Maximo Park talks to PopMatters about their adventures in touring around the world.

Both Maximo Park and Bloc Party are involved with the Love Music Hate Racism organization in the UK and have contributed tracks to a free awareness CD released in the UK this week. Maximo’ Paul Smith talks to XFM and Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke to NME about why they participated in the project.

BeatRoute talks to Jason Tait, drummer of The Weakerthans while frontman John K Samson answers five questions from The Detroit Free Press. They’re at the Phoenix November 7 and 8.

Also doing a mutli-night stand at the Phoenix later that month (November 26-28) are Stars. Frontman Torquil Campbell has an interview with The AV Club.

When I talked about Doveman’s set opening for The National last week, by no means did I want that to be my final word on Thomas Bartlett or his new record With My Left Hand I Raise The Dead. While I don’t doubt that at least some of those in attendance who weren’t familiar with Doveman enjoyed the set, they’d only need to listen to the record once to appreciate why it didn’t do the compositions justice.

Hand is built on skeletal frames of piano and acoustic guitar, dressed in gossamer garments of horns and electronics and given the breath of life by Bartlett’s strained whisper of a voice. A voice that’s sometimes barely there, and yet seethes with an emotion so raw that it can’t be ignored. It feels so inward and private that it’s a bit uncomfortable being privy to it but while you may not understand what he’s feeling, you know you’ve felt exactly the same way before and so you’re welcome. Uncertain and unsettling yet beautiful and serene, Hand‘s nine “proper” songs drift in and out of extended instrumental bridges like a transistor radio caught between a classical music station, white noise and the afterlife.

And this is why, no matter how they tried to arrange it, it just couldn’t translate in a sold-out, 1000-capacity concert hall.

To celebrate (and promote) the release of the album, Doveman filmed a video for each song on the record and have been doling them out to various sites around the internet to premiere. It’s my pleasure to present the one for the leadoff track, “The Sunken Queen”. The rest are available to view on the Doveman website and Stereogum has some annotations for each part of the singularly strange video project.

MP3: Doveman – “…& Sunrise Medley”
Video: Doveman – “Chasing Clouds” (YouTube)
MySpace: Doveman

The Boston Globe touches base with Spoon’s Jim Eno.

Patterson Hood talks about the new Drive-By Truckers record Brighter Than Creation’s Dark with The Free Times. The new record is out in late January, I’m guessing the 22nd since the third week of the year is usually stacked with big new releases. But that’s just speculation on my part.

Minnesota Public Radio offers up a session with The New Pornographers, in town at the Phoenix this Sunday.

eye talks to Adam Olenius of Shout Out Louds, in town at the Mod Club on Monday night.

John Stirratt of Wilco tells the The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review he wants to keep rocking forever.

And finally, a survey of some 600 Canadian musicians has named Neil Young’s Harvest “The top Canadian album”. The full results are being published in a book creatively titled The Top 100 Canadian Albums and The Toronto Star has an interview with the book’s author as well as a list of the top 20 albums, according to it.

Slow news day plus a general dearth in free time equals a brief, dog’s breakfast of a post. Or cat’s breakfast, as the case may be.

The most interesting thing to come up yesterday were details about Cat Power’s forthcoming second covers album which is no longer called Covers Record 2 because it’s no longer strictly a covers record. Jukebox will be out on January 22 and in addition to ten cover songs, there will be two of Chan Marshall’s own compositions – a revisit to (or cover of?) “Metal Heart”, which originally appeared on 1998’s Moon Pix, and “Song For Bobby”, a tribute to Bob Dylan. Matablog has the cover art for the new record as well as the complete track list.

Drowned In Sound checks in with Sam Beam of Iron & Wine.

eponymous, the new blog from the folks that brought you and then abandoned Good Hodgkins and Wolf Notes, has an interview with Fred Thomas from Saturday Looks Good To Me about their new album Fill Up The Room. It’s out next Tuesday.

Spinner has got the premiere of the new Weakerthans video for “Civil Twilight”. They’ve got two dates at the Phoenix on November 7 and 8.

Video: The Weakerthans – “Civil Twilight” (Spinner)

QRO talks to Graham Wright of Tokyo Police Club about the progress on their new album. In the meantime, they’ve just issued the Smith EP to tide you over until the full-length is done next year.

Glenn Kotche tells The Columbus Dispatch he hates it when Wilco is called “mellow”.

Reveille offers up an interview with Shout Out Louds frontman Adam Olenius. They’re in town at the Mod Club next Monday evening, October 22.

The New Yorker bemoans the lack of soul in today’s indie rock while The Village Voice offers commentary.

When I caught Toronto’s Sunparlour Players opening for Elliott Brood, they were a rip-roaring duo belting out a potent blend of gospel, country and blues from behind a small fortress of musical gear, seated all the while. They were celebrating the release of their debut full-length Hymns For The Happy and now, a year later, they’re playing a CD release show to celebrate the release of… Hymns For The Happy.

The difference is that it’s been remixed, remastered, re-recorded (some of it, anyways) and generally redone for the re-release, there’s label support behind it and the band’s also now a three-piece. The album maintains some of the band’s live intensity (but not all – that’s simply not possible) while putting their gentler, quieter side on display as well. And it sounds a hell of a lot better as well (two of the MP3s below are from the original version of the album). For more insight, check out this extensive interview at Exclaim! with head Player Andrew Penner. Chart also has a chat.

The aforementioned CD release show is going down this Thursday, October 18, at the Rivoli with Bry Webb of The Constantines as support and courtesy of the band I’ve got one prize pack to give away consisting of a pair of passes to the show along with a two copies of the CD and two jars of the band’s famous preserves. Yes, they’re famous for their preserves. And yes, both the winner and their guest will go home with a CD and jar of preserves. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see the Sunparlour Players” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest will close at 8PM tonight (October 17).

MP3: Sunparlour Players – “If The Creek Don’t Rise”
MP3: Sunparlour Players – “Talk It To Death”
MP3: Sunparlour Players – “Shake & Bake For Goodness-Sake”
MySpace: Sunparlour Players