Photo by Jon Hoover

…And sometimes there’s a perk to posting late (or not posting at all) – like when I get an email announcing that after years of neglect, Jens Lekman is returning to Toronto for not one but two nights at the Music Gallery on April 7 and 8. It’s a fundraiser for the venue, which is almost the very definition of intimate, and presented by Wavelength. And if that’s not enough, support for the first night will be Katie Stelmanis and for the second, Final Fantasy. Makes the $20 ticket price look like quite the bargain, does it not? Tickets are on sale now at Ticketweb. Seriously, get them now. I got mine.

And this news helps relieve the only really tough decision I had at SxSW, which was to leave Jens’ set at our Hot Freaks show early to go see British Sea Power though, ironically, there’s still a Jens/BSP conflict here… but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll talk about that next week. And if you’re curious, three of four days of SxSW photos are now up, including the Jens and BSP sets.

MP3: Jens Lekman – “The Opposite Of Hallelujah”
MP3: Jens Lekman – “Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo”
Video: Jens Lekman – “Sipping On The Sweet Nectar”

Elsewhere – New Zealand psych-poppers The Ruby Suns will be in town at Lee’s Palace on May 2 in support of Sebastien Grainger. The Fader has an interview with the kiwis.

MP3: The Ruby Suns – “Tane Mahuta”
Video: The Ruby Suns – “Tane Mahuta”

Miracle Fortress have a video. Watch it. They’re at Lee’s Palace on April 26 with Born Ruffians. Attend it.

Video: Miracle Fortress – “Have You Seen In Your Dreams”

Matador has made the whole of their Spring label sample available to download. Amongst the treasures hidden within, a new track from Shearwater’s Rook, due June 3.

ZIP: Matador Intended Play 2008

Junkmedia spends 15 minutes in conversation with Colin Meloy, in town at the Phoenix on April 19.

The Boston Globe interviews Drive-By Truckers. And if you missed their show at the Opera House Wednesday night, as I did, they did a Spinner Interface session that’s almost as good as being sweat on by Patterson Hood. Almost.

Filter gets to know Black Mountain as well as Kate Nash, though not at the same time, as interesting as that might have been. Nash is at the Phoenix on April 28.

Photo by Frank Yang

I was a bit curious what attendance was going to be like for UK soul starlet Duffy’s Toronto debut on Tuesday night. I’ve often joked that even a C-list British artist could sell out a room in Toronto, but tickets for the holder of the #1 album and single in the UK seemed surprisingly easy to get, right up until the day of. But by the time the doors were open it was properly sold out so that was one potential restructuring of my reality avoided. With no opening act, there was a lot of standing around and waiting but when Ms Duffy finally strode out on stage around ten minutes past nine to great applause it was evident no one was holding the delay against her.

Now it’s not too often I see the same performer twice in the span of three days, but happened that I was in attendance after seeing her the previous Saturday in Austin at SxSW so a little compare and contrast was inevitable, and to that end, impossible. Because save for the venue and the banter – “Hello Toronto!” rather than “Hello Austin!” – the show was very similar. A bit longer but still barely an hour with encore and covering pretty much the whole of Rockferry (out in North America May 13) and a b-side. No fault there – she only has so much material, some of it superb. Chart-topper “Mercy” really is a standout and a half and the slow-burning “Stepping Stone” is also exceptional.

But as much concentrated live Duffy as I’ve had in the past few days, a few things stand out to me. First, her voice – while strong and soulful – is unmistakably of the blue-eyed variety and, for lack of a better word, rather chaste-sounding. Very proper. Similarly, her stage presence is a bit stiff – I got the sense that despite being all smiles and politeness, she wasn’t completely comfortable onstage. I’ve read a few things about earlier performances to that effect and while I don’t doubt she’s made great strides as a performer, her (few) stage moves seemed overly rehearsed and not especially spontaneous. None of this should be surprising when you consider the speed of her ascendancy from nowhere, however. Great performers are made, not born, and while charisma is to a large degree innate, it can be obscured by shyness. Time will tell if Duffy’s got it. Lord knows with the amount the girl is going to be working this year, she’ll have plenty of opportunity to find it and in the meantime, well, she’ll have to settle for selling tons of records and selling out shows everywhere she goes. Tough life.

And to the guy seeking an autograph in the middle of the show… dude – time and place.

KCRW has audio and video of a Morning Becomes Eclectic session Duffy recorded at SxSW and IC Wales has a profile of the singer.

Photos: Duffy @ The Mod Club – March 18, 2008
Video: Duffy – “Rockferry”
Video: Duffy – “Mercy”
MySpace: Duffy

The other single-named British soul singer whom Duffy can’t seem to escape sharing column-inches with, Adele, will make her own Toronto debut with an already sold-out show at the Rivoli next Wednesday night. JAM and NOW have interviews with her and Billboard reports her album 19 will get a North American release later this Summer.

According to Spinner, Matt Pond is preparing to reclaim his name by ditching his name. With the release of their next album, Matt Pond PA will be no longer, instead operating under the name of The Dark Leaves. But for now, they’re still Matt Pond PA and will be as such when they play Lee’s Palace on April 2 opening for Carbon/Silicon.

Band Of Horse-man Ben Bridwell gives Filter the two-dollar tour of South Carolina.

With his archives well and properly cleared out, Billy Bragg will release his first new record in six years with Mr Love & Justice, out April 8. The album minisite has got album info and some live performance videos and Billy will be in town to promote it on June 17 with a show at an unexpected but welcome venue – Harbourfront Centre. Digital Spy talks to Billy about the new record.

Elvis Costello has a new album – Momofuku – slated for release on April 22. This appears to be a set of all new material and not another sneaky attempt to get you to buy My Aim Is True for a twelfth time.

Aimee Mann talks to Billboard about her synth-tacular new record @#%&! Smilers, out June 3.

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats talks to New York Press about drums, Philadelphia Weekly about Black Sabbath and Pitchfork about various things in list form.

eye and The Toronto Star spend a little quality time with The Raveonettes, in town tomorrow for an acoustic in-store at Sonic Boom at 6:30 and a fully fuzzed-out electric show at the Opera House later that evening.

The Boston Phoenix, Nashville Scene and New City Chicago talk to Stephen Malkmus.

Bob Mould speaks with Gay.com.

The Times profiles Josh Ritter.

Drowned In Sound wonders why 1997 is looming so largely over this year’s festival circuit. Anyone know what was Jack Johnson doing in 1997?

Because no one demanded it – not one, but two Cure tribute albums! Though I have to say, between the two of them those are some pretty good artists taking part. Which will be the Armageddon and which will be the Deep Impact of Cure tributes? Only time will tell.

New York Magazine speculates that playing Scott Pilgrim in the forthcoming film adaptation might be the best thing for Michael Cera’s career. Yes, that’s right. Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim. Maybe. I don’t know how I feel about this.

Photo via MySpace

Unbelievably, the world kept going while I was away. It’ll be impossible to get completely caught up (though if I just ignore everyone’s Sx coverage, maybe not so difficult) but here’s some stuff that I squirreled away over the past few days.

The lineup and schedule for this year’s Over The Top Fest, running April 30 through May 4, has just been announced – highlights will surely include The D’Urbervilles and Oh No Forest Fires at the UKULA Store on May 1, Wye Oak at Sneaky Dee’s on May 2, An Albatross at Sneaky Dee’s on May 3, and capping things off, a solo performance from Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes and Peter & The Wolf at the Mod Club on May 4. There’s also a film festival component that will surely feature all kinds of stuff I’ve never heard of. Which is probably the point.

The D’Urbervilles were half of one the shows I would have dearly loved to been in attendance for this past week (Forest City Lovers being the other half). eye ran features on both bands last week in advance of Friday’s show and Radio Free Canuckistan has the director’s cut of that D’Urbervilles interview. They’re also the feature band of the week at I Heart Music, complete with CD giveaways.

The other show I wish I’d been at was The Gutter Twins at Mod, though that was the same night as the D’Urbervilles/Forest City show so even if I was in town, I’d have still missed out. Hmm. Anyways, NOW and eye both had features on the Dulli/Lanegan project while The Village Voice also has a feature and interview transcript.

Leonard Cohen, possibly still feeling the financial pinch from getting fleeced by his manager, is hitting the road for the first time in a decade and a half starting here in Toronto with a two-night stand, June 6 and 7, at the Sony Centre.

A little more in the here and now, The Raveonettes have got an in-store scheduled at Sonic Boom on March 21 at 6:30PM, before their proper show at the Opera House that same night. Sonic Boom has hosted some crazy in-stores, but I bet this one’s going to be beyond packed. The Chicago Tribune talks to Sune Rose Wagner.

MGMT – pronounced “Em-gee-em-tee” – will be back in town for the third time in four months for a show at the Mod Club on April 15. NPR – pronounced “En-Pee-Ahr” – has a World Cafe session to stream and BBC – pronounced “Bee-bee-see” – an interview to read.

Scout Niblett will be at The Horseshoe on April 23.

As promised, Rilo Kiley are also back for a show at the Phoenix on May 28. Full dates at BrooklynVegan.

If you were hoping to see Neil Halstead solo or Rogue Wave in the area sometime soon, your prayers have been answered… in the form of a nightmare. They’ll be at Burl’s Park in Barrie on August 3 opening for Jack Johnson. I realize y’all like surfing and all, but come on.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review talks to Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers, in town tonight for a show at the Opera House.

Pitchfork has an interview with Beach House, who have a gig at the El Mocambo next Friday night (March 28).

And the following night, after our Nelly Furtado-led Earth Hour, Basia Bulat will be playing Lee’s Palace. On her recent US jaunt, she stopped in for a Daytrotter session, recorded a World Cafe session for NPR and gave an interview to Who Killed The Mix Tape.

She’ll be returning to the tender embrace of the American highway system in April as support for DeVotchKa who will be promoting their grand new album A Mad And Faithful Telling, which was released yesterday and you can stream the whole thing below. The Denver Post and The Scotsman talk to frontman Nick Urata about the new record.

Stream: DeVotchKa / A Mad & Faithful Telling

Sentimentalist and The Times Online talk to Hotel and VV of The Kills, a band I’ve never paid any attention to but whose new one, Midnight Boom, is really doing it for me. Looking forward to catching them at the Opera House on May 6.

Video: The Kills – “Cheap & Cheerful”
Video: The Kills – “U.R.A. Fever”

Incendiary has a two-part interview with The Long Blondes about Couples, out April 8. The Scotsman and Click Music get theirs done in a single shot. They will be at Lee’s Palace on May 22

This Is Fake DIY and Contact Music have conversations with Elbow’s Guy Garvey, who apparently hates iTunes. The Seldom Seen Kid is out April 22.

The Guardian talks to Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce about his near-death encounter and Songs in A & E, slated for a June 3 release. Deaf Indie Elephants has a radio rip of the first single, “Soul On Fire”.

Drowned In Sound tries to decipher a recent blog posting from Patrick Wolf about the direction of his new record.

Cat Power appears to be in a session-y sort of mood – AOL Music has video of a five-song session she did for them, NPR a World Cafe show and An Aquarium Drunkard the audio of a recent Black Session available to grab.

Stars’ Torq Campbell talks to Billboard about possibly pushing the creative envelope on their next album… or possibly creating another record of hooky, boy-girl synth pop. They’re aiming for a 2009 release but may have a stopgap EP out later this year.

NME reports that the new record from Tilly & The Wall has a release date – June 17 – but no title and will remain untitled.

Photo by Frank Yang

Now I appreciate that some/many/all of you are burnt out or wholly disinterested in coverage of SxSW and I can’t say as that I blame you – it’s certainly been all-pervasive in my RSS reader and I’ve barely been able to skim it all and I care. If you don’t, then this has probably been the worst week ever. But some things, once started, need to be finished correctly so with the exception of my A/V wrap-ups which will trickle out over the next week but not supplant regular posting, this will be the end.

And the the tale of the tape is as follows: 43 bands playing 44 shows over four days. 14.5 GB of photos, the first day of which have already gone up photos have already begun going up over here. And, despite my misgivings about the lineup before the festival began, the best time I’ve had in four years of attending. Part of this was thanks to logistical adjustments on my part – getting a hotel downtown and no longer having to drive and park every day, to say nothing of the free breakfast, freed up so much time and minimized a lot of headaches I’d almost gotten used to in the past (I don’t think you ever really get used to sitting in traffic though). Likewise, getting the badge (which facilitated the first crack at decent hotels) and feeling reasonably confident about getting into whatever shows I wanted was also a real load off.

I was thrilled that, once again, our Hot Freaks party was a huge success. Sure, I felt like our lineup was really solid and could stand up to anything else going on on the Friday and Saturday, but until people actually show up you can never be sure. But the people did come and let me say that there’s almost no better feeling than seeing a band that you invited to play not only put on a great show, but to have a full house enjoying them as well and going up to the band to buy CDs or what have you immediately after the show. Seriously, it’s great. My thanks to all the bands who played, all the labels, management and booking agencies who got them there and fellow bloggers An Aquarium Drunkard, Daytrotter, Gorilla Vs Bear, Largehearted Boy, My Old Kentucky Blog and You Ain’t No Picasso for getting it all together.

As for the rest of the fest, I did pretty well as far as seeing what I wanted to but of course there were acts that no matter how many times they played, we were just not going to get together. I would have loved to have caught The Kills (though their upcoming May 6 Toronto show did dispel a little of the urgency to see them), The Ting Tings (it’s probably impossible they’ll deliver on the hype but I was curious regardless – yet I missed all nine of their shows), Make Model, Jaymay, Fleet Foxes, The Indelicates and Cathy Davey to say nothing of the acts thats I haven’t even heard of and will only discover many months down the road that they were playing across the street while I sat on the curb on 6th St, poring over my showcase guide looking for something to watch.

I was also bummed to miss seeing Lightspeed Champion and Emmy The Great perform together which they did, as I predicted, at the Harp party which I could not attend because of my own party (and aside: RIP Harp, one of my favourite music magazines). And in a perfect world I’d have been able to hit up showcases featuring old favourites like Saturday Looks Good To Me, Headlights, Centro-Matic, DeVotchKa and Billy Bragg as well as cheer on hometown/Canadian acts looking to impress. But you can’t be everywhere at once and even if you could, you’d still have to get there. Wait, does that make any sense?

The best thing I saw, musical merit notwithstanding, was Peelander-Z. I mean, I’d probably never listen to an album but see them live, particularly in a venue with lots of climbing and jumping options? Hell yes. Though already very much known quantities to me, The Brother Kite’s set still felt like a revelation. Scots Sons & Daughters were fantastic and Frightened Rabbit were even better than I’d anticipated and I wish I could have seen them play louder and longer than the 25-minute showcase I was able to catch. Similarly, my attempts to benignly stalk Emmy The Great were foiled and I only saw her official showcase but it definitely delivered. She & Him were far, far better than I expected (though standing that close to Zooey Deschanel was about as good as I expected) and my inner fanboy prevents me from being objective about seeing R.E.M. in such close quarters. If there’s any disappointment, it’s that while I’ve now got a number of acts I definitely want to investigate further, there wasn’t any left field discovery that sent me home with a new favourite band (at least for the next ten minutes) but that’s what I get for making a schedule and mostly sticking to it, I guess.

At the end of last year I was making noises about this year being my last SxSW, citing things like rising costs, stiffening joints and lack of vacation time to do other non-music related things. All valid points, but if I followed through on that then I’d be giving up what’s probably the most fun week of the year for me – even with all the above factored in. So no more dramatic ultimatums or such silliness – just a “see you next year” if you’re heading down – note the date is a week later than this year – and a “sorry sucker, you have to suffer through another week of Sx postings” if you’re not.

If you’re not wholly burnt out yet, swing a stick for SxSW coverage. Or go to Pitchfork, PopMatters, The AV Club, AOL Music Canada, eye, The Toronto Star… ah, hell. Google News and Technorati that shit.

Back to reality as of tomorrow.

Photo by Braden Barclay

And another contest for some folks from Vancouver hitting town on Saturday. This one’s for Ladyhawk, who just released their sophomore effort Shots. Like their debut, it’s a raw strip of bar rock though, if possible, it’s even more ragged and glorious than its predecessor.

They’ll be hitting the ‘Shoe on March 22 with Flash Lightnin’ and Immaculate Machine and courtesy of Against The Grain and Killbeat Music, I’ve got three Ladyhawk prize packs consisting of a pair of passes to the show and a copy of the new album on CD to give away. To enter, shoot me an email at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I firmly believe that Ladyhawke was Matthew Broderick’s finest hour” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the body. This contest will close at midnight, March 19.

The band was recently featured in both Chart and The Toronto Star.

MP3: Ladyhawk – “I Don’t Always Know What You’re Saying”
MySpace: Ladyhawk