First impressions can be deceiving. Seeing Amos The Transparent perform at Pop Montreal last month, I took them for one of the big, ramshackle rock orchestras that usually hail from Toronto, not Ottawa, and specialize in outbursts of musical joyfulness. This impression was helped along by frontman Jonathan Chandler’s geniality – his friendly greetings to every concertgoer in attendance should have seemed totally hokey, but instead came across charming and sincere.

So it was a bit surprising to find that the band is technically just a trio (at least according to the liner notes) and only expands to the baker’s half-dozen for live shows and their album, Everything I’ve Forgotten To Forget, isn’t really joyful at all though that’s probably for the best from my point of view. Happiness gets tired, sadness gets much better mileage and Amos The Transparent has a full tank. Everything is a collision of folk song intimacy and classic rock anthemicism, fused together by a deep melodic and melancholic streak and delivered by Chandler’s with equal parts rage and resignation. It stops short of despair, however, as the presence of sweet backing vocals from Ana Miura and Star Amy Millan give proceedings a he-said, she-said dynamic that offers some sense of flickering optimism – as bad as things may be, at least they’re still talking.

Everything is a dense record both sonically and lyrically and with the number of times it builds from a gently strummed rumination to a thundering crescendo, a bit exhausting by the time you’re done but well worth the trip. Also worth the effort is catching them live, as you can do this weekend as Amos is in town tonight at the Horseshoe with Two Hours Traffic and tomorrow night for a show at Tiger Bar.

MP3: Amos The Transparent – “After All That Its Come To This”
MySpace: Amos The Transparent

Minnesota Public Radio recently had Stars in their studio for a session, which you can download for your very own. They’re at the Phoenix from November 26th through the 29th.

At the Phoenix last night and also tonight, opening for The Weakerthans, is Jenn Grant, with whom BlogTO has a conversation. The Journal has an interview with Stephen Carroll of the headliners.

PopMatters, NOW and The Recorder pose questions to Ben Bridwell of Band Of Horses. They’re at the Phoenix tomorrow night.

Drowned In Sound talks to Will Sheff of Okkervil River, who just kicked off their European tour which runs through early December.

Wireless Bollinger talks to Calexico about playing house band of sorts on the I’m Not There soundtrack and how things are shaping up on their next album, due out in 2008.

Spinner catches up with Margot & The Nuclear So And Sos, newly signed to a shiny major label deal and set to release their sophomore album Animals in 2008 on Epic.

NME reports that Radiohead’s In Rainbows will get a physical, non-gift boxed release in Europe and the UK on December 31 via XL, which lends credence to rumours that the North American release will be on New Year’s Day via ATO. Assuming you can find an open store.

Not normally one for doing the “breaking news” thing, but this piece at The Daily Swarm warrants it if anything does.

They report that in an interview set to air this Monday on VBS’ Soft Focus (I don’t know what either of those things is), Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine says that not only has the band already gotten back together for recording sessions over the course of the Summer, but that the fruits of it may see the light before the end of the year. Also the band’s official website is under the tender ministrations of bassist Deb Goodge and will hopefully offer more than a link to their MySpace.

No mention is made of their alleged appearance at Coachella 2008 but when Shields says, “People will go, ‘Yeah, it sounds like My Bloody Valentine'”… well, that’s the sound of me getting just a little excited. Anyway, go read the piece and wait for the interview on Monday. And then we’ll discuss.

Obviously 30-second clips isn’t the best way to be introduced to a new band – even if they do cut right to the chorus – but perusing this list of XFM’s 32 Best British Debuts of 2007 was a pretty interesting exercise. Mostly in that with a few exceptions – mostly the acts I was already somewhat familiar with, and that right there might explain why – nothing jumped out and caught my interest. I’m investigating a few further – Air Traffic’s MySpace got a hit, I dug the Jack Penate CD out of a pile and I was reminded that I’ve always meant to revisit that Maps record – but by and large most of the samples seemed unremarkable. Again – I’ve not passed final judgment on any of the listees, goodness knows that lots of my now-favourites started out with less than spectacular first impressions.

And so it’s a bit ironic that my pick for the best British debut of the year is a record that had me hooked within the first 30 seconds and is nowhere to be found on XFM’s list – Lucky Soul’s The Great Unwanted. I gushed about the record more than a little back in April and while it’s perfectly reasonable to think that in the intervening seven months, some of the initial sugar buzz and infatuation would have worn off but instead I’m using this rather tenuous tangent to report that I still love this record as much as I did this Spring, maybe more, and stand by everything I wrote then. And while they haven’t garnered the XFM love, they seem to have had enough success at home and abroad to tour internationally – jaunts around Europe and to Japan dot their upcoming itinerary – but nothing over this way yet. Hopefully the operative word being “yet”. The Von Pip Musical Express caught an interview with keyboardist Malcolm Young at the end of the Summer, they took part in Erasing Clouds’ “100 Musicians Answer the Same 10 Questions” series, Click Music has an interview with singer Ali Howard and guitarist Andrew Laidlaw circa this past May.

MP3: Lucky Soul – “The Great Unwanted”
Video: Lucky Soul – “Lips Are Unhappy” (YouTube)
Video: Lucky Soul – “My Brittle Heart” (YouTube)
Video: Lucky Soul – “Add Your Light To Mine, Baby” (YouTube)
Stream: Lucky Soul / The Great Unwanted
MySpace: Lucky Soul

And thanks to Torr for a) directing me to the XFM list and b) having the wisdom to include Lucky Soul on his companion list. Anyone else want to step up and advocate for any of the bands on XFM’s list or offer their own suggestions for impressive UK debuts this year? I know that my own tastes aren’t really in synch with what’s popular over there right now, but I’m always open to recommendations. And I should mention that the Jack Penate disc went right back into the pile when I was done with it. Eh.

Another British band that put out a pretty damned good debut full-length this year was Fields – Everything Last Winter‘s strengths have outpaced its shortcomings since I initially wrote it up, also back in April. PopMatters has an interview with the band wherein they discuss the band’s origins and debate the merits of othe bands with “Field” in their names. And I’d just like to say that their describing keyboardist/vocalist Thorunn Antonia as an “Icelandic sexpot” skeeves me out juuuust a bit. Is that really appropriate? I don’t think it is.

And some more UK bits in descending order of newness…

The Times introduces their readers to Patrick Wolf. And to give you an idea of the tenor of the piece, it ran in their Style section and the sidebar is titled, “Interesting boys to keep your eye on”. The Sydney Morning Herald also has a piece, more appropriately filed under “music”.

BeatRoute talks to Maximo Park frontman Paul Smith.

Doves give NME and Billboard status updates on the recording of album number four, due out in 2008.

Emma Pollock discusses life as a solo artist with The Independent and PhillyBurbs.com.

Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and The Los Angeles Times have interviews with PJ Harvey about her new record White Chalk while Yahoo has video of a full live show she recorded for them. If you can, increase the video quality as much as you can – the sound really improves as well.

And finally Alan McGee, via his blog at The Guardian, argues that Ride deserve more respect than they get, though the photo they chose to run alongside the piece rather undermines his case. The comments get lively as well. And if we can’t get a proper reunion, how about at least a Don’t Look Back concert for Nowhere or Going Blank Again? I’d damn well get on a plane to anywhere for one of those.

See how I went from “recommend me something new” to “god I miss the past” over the course of the post?

I’m told that Glen Hansard of The Frames doesn’t like to talk about The Commitments, in which he played guitarist Outspan Foster. And while it makes me sad that he sees the need to disavow one of my favourite films so, he can rest easy knowing that if anyone asks him about his acting career from here on out, they’ll be far more interested in his performance in Once.

Originally released in Ireland in 2006 and then trickling out in limited release worldwide over the past year, it follows an Irish street busker and Czech emigree who meet in Dublin and begin a musical relationship over the course of a week. It’s a tremendously romantic film, though not necessarily in the conventional boy-girl sense – that the “will they/won’t they” is beside the point seems to be entirely the point. Instead, Once celebrates the romance of music and dreams with nary an ounce of cynicism but also without being treacly or grandiose. It’s perfectly content to work on a very small and human scale that makes it feel that much more real and affecting. An utterly charming film. Those in Toronto still hoping to catch it can do so this weekend at the Bloor (screening Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) and for everyone else, it will be out on DVD on December 18. The Guardian talks to director John Carney, who used to be bassist in The Frames, about the making of the film.

Of course, you can’t talk about Once without talking about the music, since that’s the very core of the film. As the film demands, most of the material was written by Hansard and as such, sounds very Frames-y. Which is unfortunate as I’ve never really cared for The Frames – far too bombastic for my tastes – but in this context, with Marketa Irglova’s voice and piano softening things up and keeping Hansard in check, it works and turns out a handful of really outstanding songs. I do wonder what it’d have been like to listen to the soundtrack before seeing the film and to hear it without connecting the songs to the emotional weight they carried onscreen, but short of suffering a sharp blow to the head, I guess I’ll never know. And not being able to separate “Falling Slowly” with the scene of them first connecting in the music store? I’m okay with that.

Hansard and Irglova have also leveraged the success of the film and soundtrack into a proper band (as well as a romantic relationship, though he’s literally twice her age – ew). Dubbed The Swell Season, they’ve released an album and have been touring North America and performing songs from the film though considering the ticket prices for some of the shows, I hope they’ve got a little more in the repertoire than just that. The Toronto stop of the tour will be on November 23 at the Danforth Music Hall with Mary Margaret O’Hara opening and courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got passes to give away. More specifically, one grand prize of a pair of passes to the show and a copy of the Once soundtrack on CD and two runner-up prizes of just the soundtrack CD. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Swell Season” in the subject line and your full name in the body before midnight, November 15.

To get a taste of what the live show might be like, check out some video clips at Spinner and this complete live show at NPR. Pixies cover? Really?

Trailer: Once

Also crossing the lines between music and film, Sigur Ros. By this point, people pretty much know whether they find the Icelandic quartet mesmerizing or monotonous and so if you’re in the latter camp, just move on. If you’re still here, you’re likely a bit frustrated that their Fall releases – the Hvarf/Heim double-CD set and the Heima DVD – have been real moving targets on the release calendar. As it stands, the CDs will be out on November 20 and the DVD, originally intended to be out the same day, will now be available December 4 though Toronto-dwellers should note that there’ll be a screening of the film at The Royal in Little Italy on November 23 at 11:15PM. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door and if you live elsewhere, check the listings at your local rep cinemas and art houses – there’s a good chance that it’s screening nearby in the next little while. Update: Clarification from XL, the label releasing the CD and DVD – the CD is already out in Canada and the DVD is still on for November 20. The above dates are only for the US.

I’ve not seen the film but I have heard the CDs (conveniently streamable below) and while it’s hardly essential – half of it is unreleased material, the other half acoustic versions of old songs – it’s not unnecessary, either. The second disc, in particular, is worth hearing if for no other reason than when Sigur Ros says “unplugged”, they don’t mean they sit around the campfire strumming guit-boxes and singing folk songs in Hopelandish, it means they bring in an orchestra to replace the sonic sweep and impact that normally would have been achieved by electrification. It’s just a different way of achieving the same sense of majesty.

MP3: Sigur Ros – “Pop Song”
Stream: Sigur Ros / Hvarf/Heim
Video: Sigur Ros – “Gitardjamm” (from Heima)
Trailer: Heima version 1
Trailer: Heima version 2

Exclaim! has a brief profile piece on Jens Lekman as well as a much longer interview. The Cleveland Free Times and Cleveland Scene Weekly also have pieces – Jens, big in Cleveland. Who knew.

Spinner has the third part of Shout Out Louds’ North American tour diary – in this installment, the Shout Outs Take Manhattan! The Washington Post Express also checks in with the band.

NME reports that just as they did for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, Wilco is re-releasing Sky Blue Sky for Europe with a 5-song bonus CD containing new and live recordings. And just as they did for both of those albums, they’ll be making the new material available digitally to everyone who’s already bought a copy of the album. The physical edition will be released next Monday, and I imagine the bonus goodies will be available to download at the same time.

Liz Powell of Land Of Talk seethes to StudentDirect about how their dream tour opening for The Decemberists in the UK turned into a sort of a nightmare when the headliners cancelled all the shows… and didn’t tell them.

“We turned up in Bristol and started unloading only to find the venue locked. We went around the front and found the whole place shut down and a notice announcing the rest of their tour was cancelled due to ‘band illness’. No one had bothered to tell us anything. The only reason we were on this fucking tour was that band. They were all amazing shows, we might have broken even, we might have got some new fans and then they come along and cancel. They’ve never bothered to contact us. They’re not that popular with us right now.”

First their gear gets ripped off, now this. Poor Land Of Talk. Update: Actually, apparently the UK cancellations happened a month ago, at the start of October. So first they got stood up in the UK, THEN they got their gear stolen. Not that that’s any better.

Let’s hear it for efficiency in concert-going. Technically, I hit up three different shows in under 24 hours over the weekend – two were in-store matinees, sure, but still. That’s getting the most out of a day. The proper show was at the Tiger Bar, in celebration of the one-year anniversary of Easy Tiger nights and with nothing whatsoever to do with Ryan Adams. Actually that’s not entirely true, but mostly.

First on the bill was The Rural Alberta Advantage, a local trio that’s proven more than a little elusive since I first saw them way back in February both in regards to seeing them live or even getting a copy of their 2006 EP. Happily, both proved worth the wait. It’s hard to accurately describe the RAA, which is odd since there’s really not that many ingredients at work – strained hollers, sweet harmonies, frantic acoustic guitars, whirring synths and loads of percussion – but you’d start from the intersection of Neutral Milk Hotel and Yo La Tengo and head west towards the Rockies. A little folky, a little funky and a lot of pop – I eagerly await the proper full-length, hopefully out in the new year.

I actually have a bit of a history with The Wooden Sky – not a “we found a dead body in the ravine and swore never to talk about it” history, but simply that I’ve seen them a few times over the past few years – and my old band played with them once – and it’s been interesting to see them develop. Of course, back then they were called Friday Morning’s Regret, which was the name they originally released their debut album When Lost At Sea under, but in May they announced their new identity and re-pressed all their CDs accordingly. Does that make my copy a collector’s item?

Dressed in skeleton make-up to celebrate the Day Of The Dead, The Wooden Sky reminded me of why I was always so impressed by FMR. I’d remembered them as a Neil-ish alt.country band with sharp arrangements and solid songwriting but they’ve since injected a heavier dose of rock into their sound, recalling Whiskeytown at points (there’s your Ry-Ry content), as well as some strings and keys to mix things up. Though you could still easily and accurately call them a roots-rock band, they evidence an ambition to be more than that – as though understanding that while roots are what they are, they don’t stop you from growing up and out in whatever direction you like.

Photos: The Wooden Sky, The Rural Alberta Advantage @ Tiger Bar – November 2, 2007
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “North Dakota”
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “The Wooden Sky”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “The Dethbridge In Lethbridge”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Sleep All Day”
MySpace: The Wooden Sky
MySpace: The Rural Alberta Advantage

The aforementioned in-stores maintained the country-ish vibe of the weekend, with the incomparable Sadies stopping in at Rotate This on Friday evening and then Sonic Boom on Saturday afternoon. Both times, Dallas Good mentioned how daunting the format was for them as they’d never played live acoustically before but if they were having any difficulty, you sure couldn’t tell. They still played as fast and furiously as they would have on their electrics and I found that the (relatively) quieter set allowed them to showcase their other strengths that might otherwise get overlooked, namely their songwriting chops and vocal work. The latter was most evident on songs from New Seasons, where the vocal harmonies and interplay between the Good brothers had the fingerprints of producer Gary Louris all over them. Though you’ll never hear me say anything remotely like electrified Sadies are a bad thing, acoustic Sadies are pretty terrific as well and should be something they consider doing more often.

Photos: The Sadies @ Rotate This – November 2, 2007
Photos: The Sadies @ Sonic Boom – November 3, 2007

The Handsome Furs have a date scheduled for December 20 at Lee’s Palace.

Commercial Appeal talks punk and tacos with Ted Leo.

Spoon-terviews with The Orlando Sentinel, The Houston Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News.

Daytrotter went all Chicago-lovin’ last week by featuring OFFICE (session, interview) and Andrew Bird (interview, session).

NPR has launched a new music-oriented site that gathers all their wonderful content – live sessions, concerts, interviews – into an easy-to-navigate hub. Loverly.

The New York Times features Zach Condon of Beirut… in their Fashion & Style section. BeatRoute and Harp also have pieces on Beirut, one longer, one shorter.

Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear annotates their Spring 2007 tour itinerary for Harp.