Photo by Victor Tavares

When Kathleen Edwards first arrived on the scene in 2003, her debut Failer was like a breath of fresh air for the roots-rock scene, with an electric guitar turned up loud and lyrical edge that could be sharp and incisive one moment, vulnerable the next. It was a rightful success and made the Ottawa native one of the country’s rising stars.

The follow-up Back To Me offered more of the same and was arguably as good, material-wise, but to these ears somehow sounded less essential than its predecessor. Edwards’ strength has always been her straightforward songwriting and vivid storytelling and I think I was craving something a little more cryptic in my diet. For whatever reason, Back To Me didn’t last nearly as long in rotation.

Which brings us to her third record, the just-released Asking For Flowers which caught my attention from the get-go because, unlike the first two records, it didn’t open with an immediate rocker. Instead, “Buffalo” builds from a sombre piano figure into an impressive piece of orchestration centred around Edwards’ strong vocals and some terrific drum work. Certainly not what I expected and with that, I had to shelve my preconceptions about what Edwards had delivered and listened closer.

Of course, the second track and first single – “The Cheapest Key” – is exactly the sort of lyrical list-checking rocker I’d have expected to kick things off but it’s not at all unwelcome, unlike “I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory”, which is written along the same lines and tries too hard to be clever to curry favour. Much of Flowers falls right back into Edwards’ safety zone and maybe it’s unfair of me to expect her to be the sort of songwriter that she may simply not be – she’s pretty damn good at what she does do – but songs like “Buffalo” can’t help but make me feel like she could still be even more.

Edwards is currently on tour across the continent and will stop in at the Phoenix in Toronto on April 23. In addition to touring, the new album brings with it a flurry of interviews from the likes of Chart, Velocity Weekly, The Baltimore Sun, The Detroit Free Press, Express, The Chicago Sun-Times and The Boston Globe. She also recorded a short session for NPR.

Video: Kathleen Edwards – “The Cheapest Key”
MySpace: Kathleen Edwards

Good news for those who missed out on My Morning Jacket’s recent Beautiful Noise taping (or those who were in attendance but just need more) – the boys will be back on June 16 for a show at the Kool Haus. Billboard has full tour dates and confirms the band’s appearance on Saturday Night Live on May 10, a month before Evil Urges is released. They also have a video interview with the band about making the new record.

The Roanoke Times talks to Steve Earle about his New York digs.

Tift Merritt discusses her Gallic sojourns with SF Weekly, The Province and Country Standard Time.

Thick Specs brings word that Sloan will release their umpteenth (okay, ninth) studio album, Parallel Play, on June 10. At 13 songs in length, it should be a damn sight more digestible than Never Hear The End Of It. Patrick Pentland talks a (tiny) bit to Chart about the new record.

Also much anticipated in Can-rock circles is the sophomore effort from Wolf Parade – Kissing The Beehive is out June 17 and Billboard talks to Spencer Krug about what to expect while Pitchfork offers a first taste.

MP3: Wolf Parade – “Call It A Ritual”

Carl Newman of The New Pornographers talks to Express and tells Billboard that it may be time for him to put the Pornography in the closet for a bit and put on his solo-rockin’ AC(-DC) hat back on.

Scoop catches a few minutes with Will Sheff of Okkervil River.

Spinner congratulates Elbow on the feat of being a British band who’ve managed to release four albums in North America despite not selling all that many of any of them. The Seldom Seen Kid will be neglected on North American store shelves starting next Tuesday.

The Detroit Free Press ponders why Radiohead have refused to play Motown in over a decade… the answer to which my shock and amaze you. Or not. It’s actually pretty much what you’d think. Via The Daily Swarm. And while fans may be able to turn their noses up at the cash-grab best-of comp coming out in June – with the express disapproval of the band and you know the LPs will be lousy pressings – the companion DVD, with its nine unreleased clips, may prove more difficult to resist.

The AV Club lists off “20 respectable rock and rap acts that peaked with debut albums”.

Photo via Merge

You see that huge list of concerts I’ve got over there on the right? No word of lie, the one I’m looking forward to the most out of all those shows, big and small, is the one at the very top of the list. This Thursday night, American Music Club at Lee’s Palace.

It’s one of those shows I never thought would happen, and not just because the band was broken up for the better part of a decade. As a solo artist, Mark Eitzel didn’t set foot in Toronto after a 2002 gig opening for Low and when the band reunited for 2004’s excellent Love Songs For Patirots, a visit to Hogtown was not on the agenda. Instead I went to Chicago in 2004 to experience them live and it was worth the trip. But now, at long last, AMC are coming to town and it’s on the back of a superb new record in The Golden Age.

If you’re a fan, and if you’ve ever listened to Everclear or Mercury I have to believe you became one, then I imagine you already have a ticket but if not, or if you’re just curious about who this grizzled old band that I am raving about is, then your ship has come in. Courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to join the American Music Club” in the subject line and your full name in the body before midnight, April 15.

And while you wait to find out if you are a winner, give this session they recorded for Minnesota Public Radio a listen. They are in fine form. There’s also interviews with The Vancouver Courier, Frog And A Blender and Prefix (via The Invisible Blog).

MP3: American Music Club – “All The Lost Souls Welcome You To San Francisco”
MP3: American Music Club – “I Know That’s Not Really You”
MP3: American Music Club – “All My Love”
Stream: American Music Club / The Golden Age
MySpace: American Music Club

Photo via VentnorBlog

Paper seems to be quite good at this convergence of fashion and music thing – following their Joanna Newsom feature a couple weeks ago, they’ve now taken five up-and-coming female British singers, dressed them up and profiled them. And as much as I appreciate the rather lovely photo of Emmy The Great, I’m most thankful for the piece as it gives me an excuse to introduce you – if you don’t know her yet – to the Ms Candie Payne.

I actually think I have Karl to thank for this one as he recommended her to me last year in return for introducing him to Lucky Soul and there’s definitely some RIYL-action going on there. On her debut album I Wish I Could Have Loved You More – released in the UK last year but not over here – she reaches unashamedly into the past, back to the swinging ’60s and the heyday of northern soul. Granted, this is the style that seems to be all the rage across the Atlantic these days, but there’s something in Payne’s music that sets her apart from some of her peers, besides the fact that she goes by two names.

It starts with the voice. Pure and clear, but never over-sung and always a certain knowing inflection that’s proof she’s no ingenue, she knows the score. And from that grows the layer of noir-ish shadows that permeates everything most seductively. It’s there in the lyrics, in which relationships are regarded largely from the rearview mirror and tinged with distrust and betrayal, to the production, which alternately channels Motown, Portishead and Dame Shirley Bassey’s James Bond themes depending on whether the situation calls for orchestrated pop grandeur or smoky nightclub confessionals. And Payne excels at both.

And, of course, while her blue-eyed soul-slinging contemporaries accumulate varying degrees of buzz in the old world and new, Payne is almost completely unknown in North America despite the fact that I greatly prefer her stuff to theirs. But, as is mentioned in the Paper piece, her in-progress next album will definitely be aimed at America.

Video: Candie Payne – “One More Chance”
Video: Candie Payne – “I Wish I Could Have Loved You More”
Video: Candie Payne – “I Wish I Could Have Loved You More” (unofficial)
MySpace: Candie Payne

Take5Music.com talks to probably the most successful, thus far, of Paper‘s picks – Kate Nash. She’s playing the Phoenix on April 28 and, as NME reports, will be taking her friendship with Billy Bragg into the studio to record a cover single of The Shangri-La’s “Give Him A Great Big Kiss”. They performed a medley/duet/something at the NME Awards earlier this year. Check it.

Video: Kate Nash & Billy Bragg – “Foundations / A New England” (live at NME Awards)

As for Bragg, he’s at the Harbourfront Centre on June 17 as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. The New York Daily News talks to Bragg about his new record Mr Love & Justice while The Register talks to him about some of the reaction his New York Times op-ed about artist royalties and social networks has gotten. There’ve also been some EPKs going on at his label’s YouTube channel, if you need a little more Billy in your life.

Duffy, interestingly not included in the Paper piece, talks to ICWales about being on the outside looking in, even though she once again has the #1 album in the UK. She also chats with The Courier-Mail. Rockferry gets a North American release May 13.

The Age features Adele.

The New York Times, The Guardian and The Telegraph profile Portishead, whose Third is out April 29.

So even though my ticket to see Richard Hawley at the Royal Albert Hall in London next month finally arrived, the other show I had planned on attending whilst I was visiting Dear Old Blighty – a free Drowned In Sound showcase featuring Sky Larkin, Let’s Wrestle, Dinosaur Pile-Up, has now lost the headlining band and the one I’d most wanted to see as Sky Larkin are heading to the US in May to work on their debut album (as a stop-gap, they’re releasing a covers EP on May 19). They’ve been replaced by The Grammatics, whom I don’t know at all, so it raises the question of do I go see a bill of bands I don’t know at all on my last day in London or do I, like, go take a boat cruise down the Thames? Game-time decision.

Video: Sky Larkin – “One Of Two”

This Is Nottingham talks to Elbow about The Seldom Seen Kid, out next week.

Futurehead Ross Millard tells Spinner to not bother trying to befriend him on Facebook. Not going to happen. Their new record This Is Not The World is out May 27.

Obviously following my lead, both Pitchfork and Drowned In Sound laud Frightened Rabbit’ new album The Midnight Organ Fight, out tomorrow. The Scots are embarking on an American tour at the end of May but sadly, that’s strictly “United States of” and not “North”. Maybe next time.

Photo by Jamie Campbell

I’ve been awaiting Expatriate, the debut full-length from The Coast ever since I first saw them live and subsequently heard their self-titled EP, and what’s interesting is that while the full-length doesn’t disappoint, it also doesn’t sound much at all like their old work. It’s not a drastic reinvention – there’s greater variety in tempo and texture but the bedrock of shimmering guitars and plaintive vocals still remains – but it’s enough that your first thought after listening may well be “that was different”, followed shortly by “but still very familiar”. The Coast have done a fine job of expanding their identity both sonically and stylistically without letting go of what got their fans interested in the first place.

Their cross-country tour brings them back into Ontario this week, stopping back home in Toronto for a performance on MTV Canada on the 17th, a show at the Horseshoe on the 18th along with The Wooden Sky, The Ghost Is Dancing and Mixel Pixel and a change of clothes before heading back out to say hello to the eastern part of the country. Courtesy of the band, I’ve got three pairs of passes to give away for the show at the Horseshoe, which you can try to win by sending me an email at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to visit the Coast” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest will close at midnight, April 16.

MP3: The Coast – “Nueva York”
MP3: The Coast – “Tightrope”
MySpace: The Coast