Photo via iamduffy.com

The fact that Welsh songstress Duffy has a UK chart-topping single in “Mercy” and a platinum record in Rockferry pleases me, because it means that producer Bernard Butler is doing alright for himself.

So with all that under her belt, it’s a bit of a wonder that her March 18 show at the Mod Club in Toronto isn’t yet sold out – all signs certainly point to success on a Winehouse-ian scale, and tickets for her Mod Club shows last year were in pretty outrageous demand. Perhaps that sort of buzz will come after Rockferry gets a North American release on May 13 and those who were lucky enough to see her in a small club will be able to say they saw her when.

And if you want to be one of those lucky ones… well, go buy a ticket. Or enter this contest. Courtesy of Emerge, I’ve got two prize packs to give away, each consisting of a pair of passes to the show and a copy of the “Mercy” single on CD. To enter, send me an email to contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to be able to say I saw Duffy in a small club” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the body. I’ll let this run until midnight, March 12. And until then, check out the first two official singles and this interview at Barking & Dagenham Recorder. What a great name for a paper.

Video: Duffy – “Rockferry”
Video: Duffy – “Mercy”
MySpace: Duffy

Photo via rivermountainstrail.org

This will likely be my last non-festival related post for a while – at least a couple weeks – so I’m just going to clear out everything I’ve got in the hopper.

They may be skipping Toronto on their upcoming tour, but there’s still plenty of reason for DeVotchKa fans to get excited – namely the release of their first full-length album of new material in four years, A Mad And Faithful Telling, on March 18. Reuters talks a bit to frontman Nick Urata about their distinctive sound and Pitchfork is offering an MP3 from the record. There’s also an electronic press kit to watch if you’re so inclined.

MP3: DeVotchKa – “Along The Way”
EPK: DeVotchKa / A Mad And Faithful Telling

Staying in the southeast US, Chart brings details of Provisions, the new record from Giant Sand due in May and featuring a slew of familiar guest stars including Neko Case, M Ward and Isobel Campbell, amongst others.

Jeff Tweedy blogs about the joys of migraines for The New York Times.

Colin Meloy’s talks to Chart about the joys of doing the solo thinkg for a change. Check out a track from his forthcoming Colin Meloy Sings Live!, out April 8. Colin Meloy will sing live at the Phoenix on April 19.

MP3: Colin Meloy – “We Both Go Down Together”

Steve Earle talks to bot The Chicago Sun-Times and Vue Weekly.

Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields proves to Harp that his reputation as a difficult interview is well-earned.

Houstonist has an interview with Nicole Atkins, who opens up The Hot Freaks shows at SxSW next Thursday at noon at the Mohawk.

Bob Mould discusses rediscovering the guitar with Cleveland Scene. Mould is at the Mod Club on Monday night and congratulations to Thomas and Chris for winning my Mould-y contest.

American Music Club’s Mark Eitzel tells Harp about the record that changed his life – Nick Drake’s Pink Moon. AMC are at Lee’s Palace on April 17.

Spin talks to The Gutter Twins. They’re at the Mod Club on March 14.

Stereogum has the premiere of the new video from Dean & Britta, featuring dapper Dean and Britta on a bike. Dean Wareham’s memoirs, Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance, is out next week.

Video: Dean & Britta – “You Turned My Head Around”

Josh Ritter reveals his secret Canadian celebrity crush to The Globe & Mail

Drowned In Sound talks to Nina Persson of The Cardigans about their new best-of compilation, The Best Of The Cardigans.

Sigur Ros is screening their full-length documentary Heima on YouTube today. Or, if you’re inclined to see it on the big screen, it’s showing at the Cumberland in Toronto next Thursday (March 13) at 8:15 – advance tickets here.

Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood talks to The Toronto Sun

Ray Davies tells The Globe & Mail that getting shot revived his creative juices. He’s playing the Danforth Music Hall April 3.

The Breeders are offering an advance taste of their new record Mountain Battles, out April 8. They’re playing the Phoenix tomorrow night and eye has an interview.

MP3: The Breeders – “Bang On”

Everyone’s been all abuzz about the vague reunion rumours involving Pavement but Take-Away Shows have something a little more tangible – namely performances from Stephen Malkmus including a swing at a bunch of R.E.M. covers. Glide and Spin also have in-depth interviews.

One reunion that has been confirmed but quiet since said confirmation is that of Swervedriver, but there’s finally some stirrings – BrooklynVegan has a couple NYC dates confirmed for June 11 abd 12 and in the comments, a Los Angeles show on May 31. The official forum also confirms a Toronto date is being finalized, probably around early/mid-June.

The Riverfront Times talks to A Place To Bury Strangers.

The final episode of The Wire – ever – airs this Sunday. Harp talks to writer and producer George Pelecanos about the series as well as the role of music within the show. Pelecanos and other Wire writers have also contributed a piece to Time about the folly of America’s war on drugs.

The AV Club offers a primer to the works of Alan Moore.

Photo by Joe Fuda

Not everything noteworthy in Canadian music is happening this week. Indeed, fans of Cancon-qualifying music should have next week circled on their calendar as it marks a week full of Forest City Lovers-ing. Tuesday marks the release of their sophomore album Haunting Moon Sinking though it’s also a debut, in a sense, as it’s the first to feature the Forest City Lovers as a full band rather than a project led by singer/songwriter Kat Burns and friends as was found on 2006’s The Sun And The Wind and the dividends of that, and loads of touring, are immediately evident.

Whereas The Sun And The Wind was marked by a wintry and boreal sort of beauty, lovely from a distance but a touch foreboding up close, Haunting Moon Sinking is the sound of that landscape thawed by Spring and bursting forth into bloom, most notably on bookends “Don’t Go” and “Orphans” which are far too ebullient to have fit comfortably on the debut. Much of this shift comes thanks to the contributions of Mika Posen whose contributions on strings and keys offer a buoyant counterpoint to Burns’ reserved vocal delivery and effectively minimal electric guitar. But even this, together with a solid rhythm section in Kyle Donnelly and Paul Weadick (now departed and replaced on the drum stool by Steven Lappano) giving things a healthy kick in the pants where needed, hasn’t turned Forest City Lovers into a pure pop band. There’s more sunshine to be sure, but the woods – dark and mysterious – are always within sight and their minor key shadows still make themselves felt, giving the record new depths to explore with each listen.

To mark the release of the new record, Forest City Lovers are playing an in-store at Soundscapes this Sunday, March 9, at 4PM and will play a CD release show along with labelmates The D’Urbervilles – who themselves have just released an excellent record in We Are The Hunters – at the Tranzac on March 14 and it’s this bill that will head out on an east coast tour at the end of the month. But it’s to this Tranzac show next weekend that I have stuff to give away for. Namely, a pair of passes and a copy of the new CD, courtesy of the band. To enter, send me an email at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I love both forests and cities” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest will close at midnight, March 9.

Check out a track from the first record below, watch a video for a song that originally appeared on the Friends In Bellwoods compilation and appears in re-recorded form on the new record and stream some of the new one at their MySpace.

MP3: Forest City Lovers – “Scared Of Time”
Video: Forest City Lovers – “Don’t Go, Please”
MySpace: Forest City Lovers

Also with a long-awaited record out this Spring is The Coast. I’ve had a listen to Expatriate, out April 1, and it’s made me realize how little I knew the band. Their self-titled debut EP excelled at maintaining a consistent, Anglophilic and melancholic vibe but the full-length displays a much broader gamut of emotion and styles. I had been looking forward to this record but wasn’t expecting it – take that in a positive sense. And I’m pleased to be able to follow Exclaim! in sharing a track from the record below. The Coast are touring all over but have a couple local dates on the calendar – an April 18 CD release show at the Horseshoe and a July 12 side-stage appearance at this year’s Edgefest up at Downsview Park. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest the ‘Shoe gig is your better bet.

MP3: The Coast – “Nueva York”

Radio K from the University Of Minnesota have a studio session with Basia Bulat available to download, including one new song that must be really new, because I don’t think I’ve ever heard it and I saw Basia play a rather silly number of times last year. Perhaps she’ll air it out when she plays Lee’s Palace on March 29. The session sounds terrific though it is a bit strange to hear Basia playing solo since I’m so used to hearing her with the full band.

MP3: Basia Bulat – “The Pilgriming Vine” (life at Radio K)

AOL Music Canada has an interview with Kathleen Edwards about her new album Asking For Flowers – The Ottawa Citizen checks but Harp sees and raises them one set of tourmate anecdotes. You can stream some of the new record at her MySpace, watch an EPK about the making of the record at and grab some older tracks below. Edwards plays The Phoenix on April 23.

MP3: Kathleen Edwards – “In State”
MP3: Kathleen Edwards – “Six O’Clock News”
EPK: Kathleen Edwards / Asking For Flowers

So looking to Canadian Music Week, kicking off in earnest tonight, we have festival previews and picks and whatnot from The Toronto Sun, NOW, eye, The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star and Two Way Monologues. The National Post has been doing an impressive job dedicating their blog to introducing various artists performing at the fest to their readers via capsule interviews and Chart is doing the same for the artists playing their showcases at the ‘Shoe.

And to close with a complete non sequtier… the Watchmen movie has completed shooting and will be released in exactly one year. And to mark the occasion… photos of the characters in costume. I am NOT going to refer back to the book, but at first glance Rorschach’s coat looks a little short. Other than that… wow. Via Goldenfiddle.

Photo by Frank Yang

Anyone who frequents these parts knows that I’ve been quite taken with Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, the debut album from Lightspeed Champion. And even though you won’t be able to swing a stick in Austin next week without hitting Mr Dev Hynes, I’ve been pretty psyched about his show here in Toronto last night for some time so even the 4000th winter storm to hit these parts in the past three weeks wasn’t going to keep me home.

Hynes ambled onstage dressed for the weather in a ski sweater and fur hat accompanied by his only bandmate on this tour, violinist Mike Siddell, and proceeded to deliver a charmingly shambolic set. Playing without a set list, he entertained requests from the audience (were people really requesting Test Icicles songs?), rattled off some amusing anecdotes about a MuchMusic interview and the beef refrigeration practices at Wendy’s and – oh yes, he played some songs. A couple new ones, an unidentified cover (Update: “Heart In A Cage” by The Strokes – thanks, all) and a fair number of Lavender Bridge tracks.

Obviously, with just two people there was no way he was going to reproduce the wonderful orchestration on the record but to their credit, the two of them did alright for themselves – songs like “Dry Lips”, “Galaxy Of The Lost” and epic-length set closer “Midnight Surprise” all fared quite well in stripped down form. The violin is really a very versatile instrument and was able to adequately stand in for the full string sections and my brain filled in the rest of the missing arrangements – apparently the songs are already that embedded in my consciousness. Obviously, in a perfect world there’d be a Lightspeed Champion tour with full band and orchestra and Emmy The Great on vox but I don’t know that he’ll ever find the audience over here to justify the logistics. But one can hope, and in the interim settle for stalking Hynes around Austin next week.

Photos: Lightspeed Champion @ The Horseshoe – March 4, 2008
MP3: Lightspeed Champion – “Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk”
MP3: Lightspeed Champion – “Waiting Game”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Galaxy Of The Lost”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Tell Me What It’s Worth”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Midnight Surprise”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Midnight Surprise” (short film)
MySpace: Lightspeed Champion

Synthesis asks British Sea Power if they like rock music. They’re at Lee’s Palace on May 16.

The Times has a sit-down (and walk around Oxford) with all the members of Radiohead. Their recent Rolling Stone cover story is now online as well. They have a date at the Molson Amphitheatre on August 15.

The Charlatans, perhaps drawing inspiration from Radiohead’s distribution model or perhaps being realistic about the market’s interest in what they’re up to, have elected to give away their new album You Cross My Path for free via XFM. I gave up on the Charlatans a few albums ago when they seemed determined to remake themselves as a disco band but this new one is a pleasant surprise – it’s quite a solid, if slightly anonymous, record. There’s nothing especially outstanding but the fact that the band still seems energized and to sincerely give a damn is to be applauded.

Album: The Charlatans / You Cross My Path
MP3: The Charlatans – “Oh! Vanity”
MP3: The Charlatans – “You Cross My Path”
Video: The Charlatans – “Oh Vanity”
Video: The Charlatans – “You Cross My Path”

Billboard reports that Spiritualized’s new record Songs in A & E will have a North American release on June 3, just a couple weeks after the May 19 release date in the rest of the world.

Drowned In Sound, Gigwise and The Irish Independent talk to Elbow’s Guy Garvey in advance of the release of The Seldom Seen Kid, out April 22 in North America. Stereogum has a new track from the album up for stream.

Harp talks to Scott Paterson and Adele Bethel of Sons & Daughters about butting heads with producer Bernard Butler in making one of my favourite records of the year so far, This Gift. They’re at Lee’s Palace on March 26.

The Toronto Sun makes the most of their recent time spent with Ray Davies, churning out an interview about his new solo record Working Man’s Cafe, the odds of a Kinks reunion and they also offer a recommended discography though Rolling Stone one-ups them with a complete discography review. Davies plays the Danforth Music Hall on April 3.

Photo by Frank Yang

So while I was excited about the debut Toronto show for Champaign, Illinois’ Headlights this past Sunday evening, it appeared that I was one of the only ones. There were maybe a few dozen people in attendance when the quintet took the stage and while that’s a disappointing turnout, it’s not an unexpected one. Their debut Kill Them With Kindness was well-received from those with a taste for sweet, fuzzy indie pop (like myself) but didn’t exactly set the world ablaze and their newly-released Some Racing, Some Stopping, while evidencing the sort of growth you like to see in a sophomore effort, probably isn’t on a much different trajectory.

But there’s nothing wrong with dedicating oneself to writing sharp, unpretentious pop songs, particularly when you’re as good at it as Headlights are. They drew the opening slot straw of this co-headlining tour with Okies Evangelicals and served up a sweet but too-short set drawing largely from the new album (which I haven’t spent enough time with) and a few older numbers, all while fighting off feedback issues and vocals which were buried too far into the mix.

What impressed me most were the little touches the band applied to their live arrangements, more subtle and effective than I’d expect from your typical indie-pop band. Manipulating their effects pedals to actually sculpt the static coming out of their amps and not just make random squelches, inviting the Evangelicals out for one number to man multiple floor toms on “So Much For The Afternoon” and just generally doing the little things that you might think would get lost in the mix but really do make a difference. They’re playing what seems to be a millions shows at SxSW next week – I’m hoping to catch at least one of them.

I’d seen Evangelicals a few years back in support of their debut So Gone and they didn’t do much to shake the “Flaming Lips Jr” tag that they’d been saddled with, earned as much for their noisy psych-pop as their shared home state though Evangelicals seemed to draw on inspiration several shades darker than Wayne Coyne ever has. Their new one The Evening Descends is more refined than the debut, less frantic, but it was in the live show that the band has grown the most. They’re still not much for stage lights and favour a spooky, Halowe’en-y atmosphere but frontman Josh Jones is now demonstrating a fey, Kevin Barnes-like charisma which suits them quite well. His sense of vocal pitch could still use some work – singing swoopy-style around the correct note just doesn’t cut it – but the songs, which are considerably rockier (in a classic and glammy sense) live than on record, are certainly there and so is the stage show. They’ve got the strobes, black lights and smoke machines and everything.

The New Haven Advocate and The Maneater talk to Josh Jones of Evangelicals while Headlights have been keeping a tour blog for Smile Politely.

Photos: Evangelicals, Headlights @ The El Mocambo – March 2, 2008
MP3: Evangelicals – “Skeleton Man”
MP3: Headlights – “Skeleton Man”
MP3: Headlights – “Cherry Tulips”
MP3: Headlights – “Market Girl”
Video: Headlights – “Cherry Tulips”
MySpace: Headlights

So did you catch Wilco on Saturday Night Live? If not, this is what you missed – two of my less favoured songs from Sky Blue Sky nonetheless delivered with such aplomb that you can’t help but think, “damn these guys are tight”. The Des Moines Register talks to bassist John Stirratt. Update: Denied! Damn you, NBC. Update 2: In your face, NBC! Thanks, Karl.

Video: Wilco – “Hate It Here” (live on Saturday Night Live)
Video: Wilco – “Walken” (live on Saturday Night Live)

Steve Earle talks to JAM about the mixed response his Washington Square Serenade live shows have been receiving. NPR also has a radio session and interview with Steve. He’s at Massey Hall tonight.

Josh Ritter, who’s at the Phoenix tonight, has conversations with The Grand Rapids Press and The Winnipeg Sun. Congratulations to Matt, Tualla, Derek, Eddie and different Matt who won the Ritter contest last week.

The AV Club and Country Standard Time talk to Gary Louris about his new record Vagabonds, which will bring him to town for a show at the Mod Club on March 30.

Prefix gets an update from the road from Jason Isbell.

Harp reports that the Old 97s are coming back with their first album in some years with Blame It On Gravity, due out May 13, and are streaming some samples from it at their MySpace.

Peter Buck of R.E.M. talks to Filter, discusses the Live DVD and disavows Around The Sun. Accelerate is out April 1 and they play the Molson Amphitheatre on June 8.

Filter talks to Spoon about their grand 2007, Spoon records a song for the Black Cab Session, the Black Cab Sessions are featured by The Guardian. It’s the circle of life.

Video: Spoon – “I Summon You” (live on Black Cab Sessions)

The New York Daily News has a feature on Keren Ann.

The Boston Globe and Pitchfork talk to St Vincent’s Annie Clark.

Nina Persson of The Cardigans tells the BBC that the release of their Best Of compilation doesn’t mean the band’s done. Nor does the fact that she’s releasing her second A Camp solo record this year, with the title Here There Are Many Wild Animals.

Some upcoming concert announcements – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin will be in town at the El Mocambo on April 18 to offer their thoughts on the election of Medvedev as President of Russia and play some songs from their new album Pershing, due out April 8. Via Audio will be along for the ride, Pitchfork has full dates.

MP3: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – “Glue Girls”
Video: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – “Pershing”

Breaking-space averse British post-rock outfit 65daysofstatic will hoof it from their opening gig for The Cure at the Air Canada Centre on May 15 to the El Mocambo for their own headlining show.

MP3: 65daysofstatic – “When We Were Younger And Better”
MP3: 65daysofstatic – “Don’t Go Down To Sorrow”

Brazil’s Bonde do Role, new singer/MC in place, will tour North America this Spring and wrap things up with a show at The Social on May 18.

Welsh kiddies Los Campesinos! are hitting the road in support of debut full-length Hold On Now, Youngster… and stop in at Lee’s Palace in Toronto on May 23. Neu! has an interview with Ollie from the band.

Video: Los Campesinos! – “Death To Los Campesinos!”

And according to Dave Bookman, a date in late May from Rilo Kiley is in the offing. The rumoured impending nuptials between Blake Sennett and Winona Ryder? Maybe not so much.