Most everything you read about Our Ill Wills, the sophomore effort from Stockholm’s Shout Out Louds, will have a common reference point – The Cure. This is both deserved and not. To the former, it’s simply fact that singer Adam Olenius is, vocally, as dead a ringer for Robert Smith as you’ll find in Sweden and the downbeat jubilation of “Tonight I Have To Leave It”, the first single and the album’s leadoff track, is so evocative of The Cure at their poppiest – think “In Between Days” or “Just Like Heaven” – that ignoring the similarities is like ignoring the giant, mascara-laden elephant in the room.

But extrapolating that one song out to the whole record is doing it a real disservice. Over the next eleven tracks, The Cure influence doesn’t really weigh any heavier than the other ’80s British rock acts that the band obviously grew up on (Smiths, Stone Roses, New Order) though Olenius obviously sounds more Smith than Moz, Brown or Sumner. And even there, Ill Wills is more than just a rehash of the sounds of Thatcher-era England. Instead, it sounds very much like contemporary Swedish indie-pop – warm and organic but with a healthy studio sheen – thanks in no small part to the involvement of ubiquitous producer Bjorn Yttling.

Songwriting throughout is kept at a high standard throughout – always melodic and meticulously arranged – but at points, it really soars. Album centrepiece “Impossible” is a particular gem, the music slowly but insistently swelling to anthemic stature despite the gloriously defeatist lyrics they have to carry and the chorus, as simple as it is, just slays. “Time Left For Love” and “Hard Rain” are also standouts that validate the album beyond any criticisms of influence-sleeving (is that a term? Is now). Shout Out Louds may not be peddling a new sound, but it is a good one. Their North American tour kicks off tonight in Vancouver and will wind its way to the Mod Club on October 22.

The Georgia Straight tackles the Cure thing head on in talking to the band, Wireless Bollinger slips it in towards the end of their conversation, Lunapark only asks about the influence of Head In The Door and Chart doesn’t bring it up at all.

MP3: Shout Out Louds – “Tonight I Have To Leave It”
Video: Shout Out Louds – “Tonight I Have To Leave It” (MOV)
Video: Shout Out Louds – “Impossible” (YouTube)
Stream: Shout Out Louds / Our Ill Wills
MySpace: Shout Out Louds

Jens Lekman talks to Drowned In Sound about the backstory of Night Falls On Kortedala and moving to Australia. For real. Paste also has a brief feature.

Pitchfork reports that the Beirut videos assembled at www.flyingclubcup.com – I talked about them earlier this week – will be compiled on a DVD entitled Cheap Magic Inside. It’ll be available sometime around November while the band is touring Europe. Paste also has an interview with Zach Condon while Rolling Stone declares them a “breaking band”.

Bob Mould has a new home at Anti Records and will release District Line on February 5. Billboard has details.

The Portland Mercury, The Georgia Straight and The Westender feature Bat For Lashes while NPR has a World Cafe session.

Prefix interviews Amy Millan of Stars, who have a three-night stand at the Phoenix scheduled for November 26 through 28.

eye previews Spoon’s Monday night show at the Kool Haus by talking to drummer Jim Eno.

I don’t know where y’all were on Tuesday night but if you weren’t at the Drake Underground, and I know for a fact that you weren’t, then damn were you missing out. No matter what else you were doing – on safari, fighting crime, being Gypsy punks – you were still missing out.

And what you were missing out on was the Toronto debut of Brooklyn’s Jealous Girlfriends, in town following a Pop Montreal appearance on Sunday. I talked a bit about them last month when the show was announced but that was before I got a hold of their eponymous album. It’s a rather stunning record that straddles both sides of the Atlantic effortlessly. It melds hazy atmospheric fuzz with giddy amphetamine British art-rock (think mid-period Blur) with spiky New York attitude and a whiskey shot of Southern soul – all served with smirk, but a deadly serious one. In case I’m not being clear, I really like this record which is why it’s that much more astonishing that it’s not even available as a proper CD – just an independently released CD-R. Sometimes I don’t understand the world.

Also meant to be on the bill was Kinetic Stereokids from Flint, Michigan but they ran into border issues, leaving the bill as just the Jealous Girlfriends and some “special secret guests” who turned out to be Montreal’s Hot Springs. This was a stroke of good luck because I’d meant (but failed) to see them a couple of times in the past few weeks and now here they were, added to a show I was going to see anyways. I’d caught them back in March during CMW and was pretty impressed with the intensity of their show so I was a little surprised when I finally heard their new album Volcano, which was a lot more smoothed out and poppier than that show had led me to expect (note – not complaints). Similarly, their show on this evening was ratcheted down a couple notches as far as maniacism goes. Frontwoman Giselle Webber was still entertainingly loopy and the band as a whole animated and entertaining but with the sparse crowd, it may have been they just didn’t feel compelled to go all out. But even so, the strength of the songs on the album, in all their glam-punk classic rockery – were evident, and that wasn’t something I picked up on quite so clearly in March.

And even though the crowd was even thinner by the time the Jealous Girlfriends took the stage, they didn’t hold anything back, deadly serious about the rock but also determined to have a good time – they were just as likely to punch you in the face as give you a noogie (musically speaking). While singer/guitarist Holly Miranda is the obvious aural and visual focus of the band, live I really appreciated what Josh Abbott contributes, vocally. His powerful pipes are the perfect counterpoint for Miranda’s smoky rasp and really sounded terrific when they harmonized on lead vocals together. Throw in manic guitarwork from both overtop a deep bed of synths and douse liberally in sweat, you’ve got maybe the best unattended show of the year. If there’s any justice in this world (and I’m not convinced there is), this is far from the last time I – or you – will be hearing about The Jealous Girlfriends.

On the occasion of Volcano‘s release and the Hot Springs’ show at Lee’s a couple weeks ago, they made the press rounds talking to The Toronto Star, Hour, NOW, The Montreal Gazette and Chart.

Update: sorry about the JG MP3s – someone’s domain registration expired today! Hit up their MySpace until they get that fixed or I’ll post the tracks tonight.
Update 2: Website back! Go bask.

Photos: The Jealous Girlfriends, The Hot Springs @ The Drake Underground – October 9, 2007
MP3: The Jealous Girlfriends – “Something In The Water”
MP3: The Jealous Girlfriends – “Machines”
MP3: The Hot Springs – “Headrush”
MP3: The Hot Springs – “Bacteria”
MP3: The Hot Springs – “Caco Disco”
Video: The Jealous Girlfriends – “How Now” (YouTube)
Video: The Hot Springs – “Bacteria” (MOV)
MySpace: The Jealous Girlfriends
MySpace: The Hot Springs

One of the things about discovering and wanting to get the word out on new, up-and-coming bands is that it’s sometimes hard to find the opportunity to write about them without rehashing the same info (“hey, remember these guys? Still good!”). So I was pleased to see this bit at Filter announcing that San Francisco’s Minipop, who were on of this year’s SxSW discoveries, have gotten a deal to release their album A New Hope on November 6. I’m glad for the opportunity to finally replace my little promo CD-R with a proper copy.

Stereogum is streaming “Young Bridge”, the first single from the UK expanded edition of Land Of Talk’s Applause Cheer Boo Hiss. It’s out October 22 and the band, coming off a UK tour with The Decemberists sadly truncated by illness, will be at the El Mocambo on October 29 with Film School.

The Village Voice fires a shot across the bow of hipsterdom and irony, using Okkervil River’s The Stage Names as ammunition. NPR is also streaming an interview and session the band recorded for the World Cafe.

So Much Silence has MP3-ified The Twilight Sad’s recent session for KEXP. The Riverfront Times also has a feature on the band, who at one point was supposed to open up the recent east coast dates for The National – at least that’s what some early leaked concert listings implied. I’m still a bit perplexed that even though they’ve made a couple journeys back to North America since their ElMo show back in April, there’s been no Toronto stop. Come back, Twilight Sad. Our hearing has recovered and needs to be abused again.

The Riverfront Times also talks to Adam Franklin, in town at the Drake on October 25.

A smattering of concert announcements – Oh No! Oh My!, The Deadly Syndrome and The Silent Years are at Sneaky Dee’s on October 23, Castanets at the Whipper Snapper on November 3, The Cribs have a date at the Horseshoe on November 14 – they were supposed to be here in August… did that get cancelled and rescheduled or do they just really like it here? And finally, Shonen Knife will be at Lee’s Palace on Lee’s Palace on November 27.

Random things I was giving thanks for this past Monday – good health and fortune to my friends and family, that The National were playing that night not 10 minutes from home and that there weren’t telemarketers stupid enough to try and sell me a cellphone plan at dinnertime on Thanksgiving day. Two out of three ain’t bad.

The National were back in town barely four months since their last visit and considering they’d easily sold out the sizable Phoenix, there was obviously no shortage of demand. Support on this tour was Doveman, who on record is largely the solo project of Thomas Bartlett, his piano and some studio alchemy. His new album With My Left Hand I Raise The Dead blends Barlett’s whispery, strained vocals with Sparklehorse-y ambiance that’s mesmerizing, if you’re in the right mood, but mostly quiet. Which is why I was wondering how such a hushed sort of act would fare in front of a crowd of 1000 punters in a town not really known for being quiet at shows, even if they were partly doped on tryptophan.

This was addressed by enlisting 3/5 of The National to be the backing band – a move which not only guaranteed the audience would be respectful but that things would be good and loud. Unfortunately, things were a little too loud and Bartlett’s vocals and piano were largely overwhelmed by the Dessner brothers’ guitarwork. It all still made for some great musical performance but it didn’t do justice to the Doveman material. It deserves and demands a quieter setting – maybe next time.

For the most part, this show wasn’t terribly different from last time, which is fine – that show was fantastic, and so was this. But there were a few things this time around that stuck with me that bear mentioning. First, “Abel”. Being one of the two all-out rockers in the band’s usual set list, it’s a crowd favourite but this time, coming mid-set, what stood out the most to me was how out of place it sounded amidst the rest of their songs. Whereas most of their repertoire now is more mid-paced and more concerned with exploring nuance and texture rather than tension and release, I found “Abel” to sound brutish and bludgeoning in comparison. Its inclusion seemed perfunctory rather than based on merit, a concession to the audience but a song they’ve since outgrown.

The other moment that really stood out was during “Fake Empire” when, during the chorus, I looked around and realized everyone around me was singing along. Not loudly, not in a “I’m a big fan and I know all the words” way, but quietly and almost to themselves, as if compelled. The net result was a sort of ghostly choral effect that really created a vibe I’d not felt at a show before, a sort of unconscious communion between the band and the audience. I don’t know if anyone else noticed but for me, it was a “wow” moment. This is what this band can do.

And finally, during the encore, they announced they were going to have a guest onstage, a local who was a hero of theirs – Hayden, whom they let take the mic for a run through of his “Dynamite Walls”. The National’s heroes are Bruce Springsteen and Hayden. Go figure.

And I’m finding myself unable to come up with a tidy way to wrap up this review, so I’m just going to leave it as is. My third time this year seeing one of my favourite bands, on tour for one of the best albums of the year? I guess I’m just out of words. But I point you to eye for another review.

Thanks.

Photos: The National, Doveman @ The Phoenix – October 8, 2007
MP3: The National – “Fake Empire”
MP3: Doveman – “…& Sunrise Medley”
Video: The National – “Mistaken For Strangers” (YouTube)
Video: The National – “Apartment Story” (YouTube)
Video: Doveman – “Chasing Clouds” (YouTube)
MySpace: The National
MySpace: Doveman

Unlike most everyone else out there, I wasn’t especially taken with Beirut’s 2006 debut Gulag Orkestar. I don’t have any hard, specific reasons but if pressed, I’d say that while I found the Gypsy/Balkan orchestra aesthetic novel, with a couple exceptions it seemed to be more about sound than song and anyways I am inherently prejudiced against wunderkinds, as the teenaged Zach Condon obviously was. They always remind me of how little I’ve accomplished in my life. Anyway, I gave the record a few listens and moved on.

Fast forward to this past March and their 4AD showcase at SxSW, which was a gloriously ramshackle event that gave me a glimpse of what everyone else was seeing in the band – now fully a band and not just a Zach Condon solo project. After returning home, I revisited Gulag Orkestar and while I took to it more warmly, it still didn’t make it into any sort of heavy rotation.

Skip ahead yet again to just a few weeks ago, when the folks from Le Blogotheque asked me to do a write-up for one of the videos they’d shot for each of the songs on the new Beirut record The Flying Club Cup, out today. Hosted at www.flyingclubcup.com, they shot a video, Take Away Shows-style, of Condon and cohorts performing each of the songs from the new record around Brooklyn and I was given a couple to choose from. One pass through “Forks And Knives” and I was sold. My commentary for the video is (uncharacteristically) brief but I was having so much fun watching the clip over and over again and really, it speaks for itself.

And perhaps that experience made me more favourably inclined towards the album but with it, I think I’m feeling what everyone else was over a year ago. Even though it’s still much the same recipe as Gulag, it simply sounds so much more cohesive and alive than its predecessor. I would credit much of that to the fact that Beirut is now a full and proper band rather than Condon on his own and recorded the record as such – there’s just no replacing the chemistry of musicians playing together, especially ones who’ve been forged into a cohesive unit from relentless touring. Additionally, the songwriting just seems stronger, with the orchestration now serving the song rather than the other way around, which was the impression I got from Gulag.

In short – Beirut? I get it now. And I’m giving Gulag Orkestar one more go-around.

The Los Angeles Times talks to Condon about the new album and Chart gets some insight as to Owen Pallett’s contributions while SFist chats with bandmember Jason Poranski.

MP3: Beirut – “A Sunday Smile”
MySpace: Beirut

Also from the Blogotheque – a Takeaway Show with St Vincent. Only en Francais for now (et maintenant en Anglais), but St Vincent is the universal language, n’est pas? And while you’re basking in live vids of Annie Clark, My Old Kentucky Blog has a vid of her performance at Hot Freaks in Austin a few weeks ago. There’s another Takeaway Show with Elvis Perkins, in town at the Horseshoe on November 28.

Wilco have made some more goodies available in their Roadcase – streams of their shows in Edmonton on August 18 and Berkeley, California on August 24. And note that their Austin City Limits session (which I attended last month) will be airing on PBS the week of November 3, specific day contingent on whenever your local PBS affiliate airs the show. And instead of the usual half-hour segment that most bands get on the show, Wilco will get the whole hour which means that the wonderfully botched version of “Too Far Apart” may well see the light of day! I can’t wait. And the Arcade Fire episode will air the following week, also an hour-long.

Pitchfok interviews Mr “#1 record in Sweden” Jens Lekman, whose Night Falls On Kortedala is released in North America today.

Also out today – Cease To Begin from Band Of Horses, who talk to The State about the decision to license the use of their songs in commercials. They’re at the Phoenix on November 9. And you can stream both the Horses and Lekman albums at Spinner.

Stream: Band Of Horses / Cease To Begin
Stream: Jens Lekman / Night Falls On Kortedala

Drowned In Sound talks to PJ Harvey about her new album White Chalk.

Josh Ritter discusses conquering history with Express.

Robyn Hitchcock, whose I Wanna Go Backwards box set is out October 30 November 13, will be at the Mod Club on November 14. You can stream the whole box set – five discs worth – below.

Stream: Robyn Hitchcock / I Wanna Go Backwards

And Celebration, whose The Modern Tribe is out today, will be at the El Mocambo on November 26. Check out a couple tracks.

MP3: Celebration – “Evergreen”
MP3: Celebration – “Hands Off My Gold” (SMD Remix)

And finally, all of Voxtrot’s Canadian shows – aka the ones I was giving away prizes for – have been cancelled. This obviously includes the one scheduled for tonight at the Mod Club. Singer Ramesh Srivastava had some emergency surgery in Philadelphia the other night and while he’s going to be fine, they’ve elected not to cross the border. So my contest is moot and all shows are off. Best wishes to Ramesh for a quick recovery. Update: Concerts off, but contest still on. For Montreal and Ottawa, anyways. Click on the thingie to the right for details. Or scroll down. Whichever.

Saturday was my last day in Montreal but the beautiful and unseasonably warm weather decided to take off a day early, leaving things cold, grey and wet in its wake. Most of the day was spent doing not much of consequence though I did pop into the Pop & Policy workshop on dealing with the media (from the artist’s POV) and much as my “The New Influencers” panel at last year’s FMC turned into “Meet Ryan Schreiber”, this one ended up a “Ex-Unicorns vs The Media” grudge match, featuring a prickly Nick Diamonds and J’aime Tambeur, formerly of said band. I don’t know how much the attendees took away from the session (though hopefully it did register that sending 8×10 glossy promo photos to online publications is kind of silly) but it was certainly entertaining.

The evening session began for me at the Ukrainian Federation towards the north end of the Plateau. Ron Sexsmith was the headliner but I was there to see Woodpigeon, a Calgarian outfit who had gotten a fair bit of support from those who know earlier this year during the Polaris nomination discussions. Flying a few members short of a full flock (at least relative to their official lineup), the five-piece band lined up across the community centre stage, two pairs of ladies flanking Mark Hamilton (who looks eerily like my second grade teacher Mr Shaw) and his acoustic guitar. The offered up a set of gentle and lovely spiritual folk music centered around simple guitar work, tasteful piano, percussion, glockenspiel and flute flourishes and some absolutely stunning choral vocals arrangements. – but before you think it sounds a little too Sunday school, consider that they announced one song was about gay pirates and have another dubbed “Death By Ninja”. They’re sugary sweet but with a crunchy centre and are in Toronto November 8 for a show at the Rivoli.

Photos: Woodpigeon @ The Ukrainian Federation – October 6, 2007
MP3: Woodpigeon – “In Praise Of The West Midlothian Bus Service”
MP3: Woodpigeon – “Oberkampf”
MySpace: Woodpigeon

It was a bit of a hike from there back to the main drag on St-Denis, but I got to Le Gymnase in time to catch Amos The Transparent, there to play I Heart Music’s edition of our Bleating Heart Shows. Combining sharp folk-pop songs with lilting boy-girl harmonies and big rock crescendos, the Ottawa outfit were endearing and engaging and impressed me into a purchase of their Everything I’ve Forgotten To Forget album, which is actually a lot broader, musically-speaking, than their show implied. In a good way.

Photos: Amos The Transparent @ Le Gymnase – October 6, 2007
MP3: Amos The Transparent – “After All That Its Come To This”
MySpace: Amos The Transparent

My intention had been to catch Hot Panda at Quai des Brumes but rather than some Edmontoninan fuzz pop, I instead got a transvestite transgendered lounge singer by name of Mackenzie MacBride. Oh, the joys of unannounced schedule changes. While she cut a pretty convincing figure of a lady, she was unable to move around with anything resembling grace on the heels and her schtick begain wearing thin after a couple songs. I decided it would be in everyone’s best interest if I left then and got some pizza. Which I did. Hot Panda are in Toronto at The Boat on Tuesday night – if I didn’t have other plans, I’d take the gamble of trying to see them and hoping that drag night doesn’t break out again.

Photos: Mackenzie MacBride @ Quai des Brumes – October 6, 2007

Then it was back to Le Gymnase, second floor this time, for some OFFICE action. I noted, with a mix of bitterness and satisfaction, that my showcase on Thursday had drawn more people than this somewhat buzzy Chicago band with major-label backing. But to their credit, the slight crowd didn’t faze them and they served up A Night At The Ritz like they’d sold out the biggest theatre in town. The slightly arch, new wavey pop of the album was served up with a healthy dose of blue-collar rock energy – I enjoyed their set a lot more than the album, and I enjoyed the album pretty well.

Photos: OFFICE @ Le Gymnase – October 6, 2007
MP3: OFFICE – “The Ritz”
MP3: OFFICE – “The Big Bang Bump”
Video: OFFICE – “Oh My” (YouTube)
Stream: OFFICE / A Night At The Ritz
MySpace: OFFICE

And finally, closing out the night and the festival (for me, anyways) was Los Angeles’ Earlimart. The crowd had filled up a bit by the time they took the stage but it was still pretty sparse for an act as veteran as they. Also a bit unfortunate was the fact that I wasn’t even running on fumes by this point – I was simply in the act of falling down very slowly and hadn’t yet hit the ground. But on the way down, I heard things – lovely, classically pop-ish things. Songs that were rocking and gentle, rough and elegant, sweetly voiced by both boy and girl and laden with crickets and radio static. And before everything went dark, it occurred to me that I should listen to my copy of Treble & Tremble.

Okay, that’s not really how it went down but the net result is approximately the same. I wish I’d had been more together, mentally, for Earlimart’s set, but I did leave with a very positive impression. Mentor Tormentor.

Photos: Earlimart @ Le Gymnase – October 6, 2007
MP3: Earlimart – “Everybody Knows Everybody”
MP3: Earlimart – “Thank You For Visiting Earlimart”
MP3: Earlimart – “Untitled #3”
MySpace: Earlimart

Most every media outlet in the country had some sort of presence at Pop this year – rather than round up everything, I’ll point you to full coverage from NOW, Maisonneuve and a couple days from The Montreal Gazette. The Gazette coverage is really thorough but their website is so abysmal, I’m not having much luck finding all of it. If you’re interested, you’re welcome to go digging.

And now I’m back in Toronto, sitting on my couch with my cat napping at my feet. And more importantly, I have no ongoing projects, no upcoming trips (not till SxSW, anyways), no extra-curricular activities, no music/blog-related stressors taking years off my life, for probably the first time this calendar year. I look forward to catching up on some reading, maybe some movies, on listening to some of the mountain of unlistened-to CDs littering my office and a lot of sleeping. In short, it’s time to decompress. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.