So the bad news is that as expected, I’m busy enough this week that time for writing is dwindling, as is content grist for the blogging mill. Hence today’s ultra-compact, or as I prefer to think of it “travel-sized”, post.

But what I’ve got is good stuff, namely Destroyer news. I was late to the Destroyer’s Rubies party but am going to be front of the line for this one. Or nearly. Catbirdseat was first – at least in my RSS reader – with the news that the new record was going to be called Trouble In Dreams and be out on March 18 of next year. Pitchfork then showed up with a track listing and the news that there’d be touring to support in the Spring and Summer (Dan Bejar is no king of the road so that wasn’t a foregone conclusion) and then finally, Merge graced my inbox with a link to the first MP3 from the record. It’s very stately. Huzzah.

MP3: Destroyer – “Foam Hands”

And this should have been tacked onto yesterday’s post, but Black Book has an interview with British Sea Power and Pitchfork has the video for the first single, also audible on their MySpace. Do You Like Rock Music? hits February 12.

Video: British Sea Power – “Waving Flags”

Billboard has specifics on the new record from The Breeders. Mountain Battles is out April 8 and the first taste is available at their MySpace. Kim Deal talks a bit to NME and Rolling Stone about making the record and BrookylnVegan has got the official press release for the record which wouldn’t really be noteworthy except it promises a Canadian Music Week appearance – so look for the Breeders to be in town sometime between March 5 and 8.

Spinner brings us news and sounds from Bob Mould’s new one District Line, due out February 5. Reuters talked to him a little while ago about his balancing his rock and techno interests.

MP3: Bob Mould – “The Distance Between Us”

Voxtrot’s Ramesh Srivastava talks to The Daily 49er.

QRO chats with Los Campesinos!, in town at the Mod Club tonight.

Those of you craving year-end lists should be checking in at Largehearted Boy (which you should be doing anyways) as he’s been keeping a running list of all – and I mean all – year-end lists he finds. Including his own.

And if you’re stuck on what to get people for your Christmast shopping, the A/V Club is here to help.

So. Those of you who’ve been around for a while – or at least a year – may recall that last November, I instigated a massive contest-slash-reader’s poll wherein I solicited everyone who cared to enter’s picks for their top five records of the year and from that pool, I gave away something like a dozen padded mailers of various sizes crammed full of music blogger promotional detritus. Perhaps some of you were hoping I’d do something like that again.

No and yes. As far “no”, last year’s little exercise was a nightmare in bookkeeping (as far as logging who wanted and might like what based one their submissions), cost me way more than expected to send all that stuff out – and a few packages were hand-delivered – and didn’t clear out my shelves nearly as much as I’d hoped it would. But to “yes”, I still have loads of promo stuff cluttering up my office and a closet full of padded mailers so I’m doing it again, but on a smaller and more manageable scale.

And so this year’s reader’s poll will work like this. You, the reader, leave me a comment down below there listing off your top six albums of the year, ranked and in order. Why six? Because. To be eligible, the record has to have been released in some form for retail, be it physical or digital. So yes, In Rainbows counts but that leak you’ve got of the new Magnetic Fields record – no, I don’t know if it’s actually leaked you can close your torrent clients – does not. Anyways, you submit me your year-end list and feel free to throw in whatever 2007-esque commentary you see fit and when I close this sucker in a few weeks – say, midnight, December 19 – then I’ll randomly select six names from the submissions, gather their mailing addresses and send out six more loot bags. They won’t be quite as industrial-sized as last year’s but I’ll make sure they have some good stuff, based loosely on your picks, to entertain you come Boxing week. And I’ll post the final results of your aggregate top records of the year before we all break for the holidays.

So send ’em in. As always, you can leave your spam-proofed email address in the “E-mail/HTTP:” field with an “AT” instead of the “@” and it won’t be displayed on the site, but I will have it on my end via the generated email (so as I can contact you, y’see). And if you were curious about last year’s results, check them out here.

…And I am hoping to have my year-end post up by next week. Note the operative word, “hope”. Also note the absence of the word “list”.

Okay, enough of that. Have some links.

Thanks to Reveille for pointing out that Songs: Illinois has got the first sample of the solo album from ex-Jayhawk Gary Louris. You can download that track and stream a few more on his MySpace. Vagabonds is out on February 19.

Super Furry Animals will tour their latest, Hey, Venus!, across North America this Winter and into the Mod Club on February 20. Full dates at BrooklynVegan. Have you heard any of the new record yet? No? Me neither. Let’s listen together. And also, on Christmas Day the Super Furries will stuff your stocking with a free holiday download – details at Uncut.

MP3: Super Furry Animals – “Run-Away”

Heckler Spray Q&As British Sea Power in advance of the release of Do You Like Rock Music?, out February 12. They also chat with Prefix and acknowledge the existence of Hot Hot Heat. And thanks to Torr for pointing out that the first single from the record is streaming at the band’s MySpace. That is some grandiose-sounding shit, man.

The Sydney Morning Herald talks to RiotBecki of The Pipettes about their retro leanings.

Filter learns a few of The Go! Team’s favourite things.

Chart pays tribute to The Horseshoe, sixty years young this weekend. Don’t forget that the Lowest Of The Low free show, which kicks off the birthday festivities, is tonight and if you are/were a Low fan, then you owe it to yourself to be there, if for no other reason than to salute some true local heroes and say goodbye. Yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like.

Welsh happy noisemakers Los Campesinos! have had a pretty good 2007, riding their debut EP Sticking Fingers Into Sockets to not inconsiderate North American buzz, including an appearance at this year’s Lollapalooza festival.

And as they prepare to release their first full-length, Hold On Now, Youngster… in or around February of next year, they’re making one last trek around North America to work the EP and that includes a stop at the Mod Club in Toronto this Wednesday night, December 5. They’re playing with Germans, with whom they shared a stage when they last came through town in August as well as Sweet Thing.

And, courtesy of Emerge, I’ve got three pairs of passes for the show to give away. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Los Campesinos!” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at 5PM tomorrow (Tuesday) evening.

Thanks, and be careful out there.

MP3: Los Campesinos! – “Don’t Tell Me To Do The Maths”
MP3: Los Campesinos! – “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives”
Video: Los Campesinos! – “The International Tweexcore Underground” (YouTube)
Video: Los Campesinos! – “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives” (YouTube)
Video: Los Campesinos! – “You! Me! Dancing!” (YouTube)
MySpace: Los Campesinos!

I’d have been remiss if I didn’t follow up Thursday’s post, exhorting y’all to go see Dog Day at the Drake Underground on Saturday night, by showing up myself. So between other engagements I popped by the Drake to catch their compact set.

Considering the band had been on tour since mid-September with only a week off, I expected them to a) be really tight and b) be really tired. Two for two. Well, the former was obvious as the punched through material from Night Group quickly, efficiently and proficiently while evidencing some Pavement-y and early Built To Spill-y influences that weren’t as obvious from the record.

To the latter point, I can only speculate based on the fact that the band have been living out of a van and criss-crossing the continent for six weeks. But whatever the reason, Dog Day’s performance evidenced a good deal of concentration if not intensity, letting the strength of the songs carry the show rather than their stage presence. Of course, it could be that that’s how they are even after a week of bed rest and three squares a day – their deadpan demeanour is part of the charm of the album, I suppose it makes sense that it’d carry over to their live show. So this past paragraph? Never mind.

Either way, they crammed a lot into their barely-40 minute set and even if the opening of “Lydia” didn’t come off quite as apocalyptically heavy as I’d hoped, it mainly reminded me how good a record Night Group is (not that I necessarily needed reminding having listened to it incessantly last week). And they were done in time for me to make it to a friend’s party at exactly the stroke of fashionably late. That’s what we call a good night.

Photos: Dog Day @ The Drake Underground – December 1, 2007
MP3: Dog Day – “Oh Dead Life”
MP3: Dog Day – “Use Your Powers”
Video: Dog Day – “Oh Dead Life” (Blip)
Video: Dog Day – “Lydia” (YouTube)
MySpace: Dog Day

Kevin Drew discusses the state of Broken Social and his solo works with The Montreal Gazette. Drew and his crew are at the Kool Haus on Saturday night.

Reveille offers up video (and transcript) of an interview with Stars’ Torquill Campbell and Pat McGee as well as live footage of the band performing in Minneapolis last month. NPR has an interview and session available to stream.

Chart talks extensively with Rolf Klausener of The Acorn about the process of making Glory Hope Mountain.

Thom Yorke talks to The Sydney Morning Herald about Radiohead’s decision to release In Rainbows online, PWYC and in the process become a verb (and an annoying one). In Rainbows is out in shiny, plasticy physical form on January 1 though those of you who splurged for that fancy-pants box set version should be getting yours right about now. Which means, of course, another four billion blog posts from people reviewing and dissecting every bonus track contained therein. Whee.

The Toronto Star has a nice feature celebrating the 60th anniversary of The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern. The Toronto institution officially turns 60 next Sunday but the festivities start up this week beginning with a free show from the Lowest Of The Low tomorrow night and carrying on through the rest of December. This first week, in particular, is going to be more than a little nuts – if anyone’s looking for me, just check the ‘Shoe. And writeups of the events may be a little slower in coming than usual… An almost-complete list of the anniversary shows is up at the venue’s MySpace page and as for the remaining surprise guests, The Star accidentally let one of the names not officially announced slip – Blue Rodeo, most likely on either the 17th or 18th. How long do you think the line for THAT one is going to get?

The Movie Network offers a helpful guide to drug culture lingo to help you get into the right mindset for season five of The Wire, premiering in just over a month on January 6. Season four comes out on DVD tomorrow.

Argentinan-born, Swedish-bred nylon-string enthusiast Jose Gonzalez is about as good an argument for allowing your music to be used in commercials as there is. While it’s not to say that he wouldn’t have made made waves exclusively on his own impressive talents, there’s no denying that allowing his cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats” to soundtrack a Sony Bravia commercial gave him the sort of exposure that you can’t put a price on. I’m not ashamed to admit that was the first place I heard his music.

And so now, a couple years on, he’s followed up his breakthrough debut Veneer with In Our Nature and, like its predecessor, it’s a skeletal, acoustic record built on hypnotic guitar figures and Gonzalez’s emotionally ambiguous vocals. The music is pretty, but curiously distant and guarded. Even though it draws you in with its sonic intimacy, it still keeps you at arms length. It’s a paradox that intrigues and frustrates me, but thankfully more of the former than the latter.

Gonzalez is currently on tour in support of In Our Nature and arrives for a trio of Canadian dates this week, including a stop at the Mod Club in Toronto on Friday, December 7. That same evening, he’s playing an in-store at Sonic Boom at Bloor and Bathurst, starting at 6:30PM.

And, since this is a contest, after all, I’ve got stuff to give away. Courtesy of Mute, I’ve got a grand prize consisting of copies of In Our Nature on both LP and CD, a signed poster and a bookmark. For marking books. And I’ve also got four runner-up prizes of autographed posters. For hanging on walls. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want the Jose Gonzalez stuff” in the subject line and your mailing address in the body. Contest will close at midnight, December 5.

Check out a live version of his cover of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop”, rearranged and properly recorded on the new record, as well as a track from Veneer and some videos from the new album. Retread has a video session and you can read an interview with Jose at Washington Square News.

MP3: Jose Gonzalez – “Teardrop” (live)
MP3: Jose Gonzalez – “Crosses”
Video: Jose Gonzalez – “Teardrop” (YouTube)
Video: Jose Gonzalez – “Down The Line” (YouTube)
Video: Jose Gonzalez – “Killing For Love” (YouTube)
Video: Jose Gonzalez EPK (YouTube)
MySpace: Jose Gonzalez