Logically, I should have run this yesterday in advance of the Final Fantasy show at the Danforth Music Hall last night… but I didn’t. Alas. But the information is still relevant and of interest, so here we go anyways. I last week mentioned that the Owen Pallet Experience was going to be releasing two EPs this Fall in lieu of the Heartland LP that he’d been working on – well details on said releases are now available.

First up on September 21 is Spectrum, 14th Century and is a collaboration with Beirut consisting of five tracks of “fake field recordings” committed to tape in the Quebec outdoors. That’ll be followed on October 21 by Plays To Please, described as an orchestral tribute to the songs of Alex Lukashevsky of Toronto’s Deep Dark United. Obviously anyone expecting the Pallet to follow up He Poos Clouds with more looped violin was underestimating the randomness of his muse.

Both will be limited editions with 1000 copies made available on CD and another 1000 on 10″ vinyl. Stereogum has an MP3 from each release available to download and tireless Final Fantasy booster Zoilus has another Plays To Please track available to download. And for more background on the releases, check out the piece at Exclaim!. Toronto Life also has a profile on the man behind the band.

Land Of Talk have made the first sample of their forthcoming Some Are Lakes available to download. The title track of the album has been kicking around live for some time but it’s nice to hear a final, definitive version of the song – I wasn’t expecting the production to be so clean, though. It’s surprising, but nicely so. The record is out October 7 and they play Lee’s Palace on September 27. Tangentially – eye looks into Saddle Creek’s nefarious plan to annex Canada from Nebraska, one band at a time (including Land Of Talk). The Omaha World-Herald also considers the direction of the label.

MP3: Land Of Talk – “Some Are Lakes”

You may have heard scuttlebutt about this year’s edition of the Vice Festival Ball – the same soiree that last year brought the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to town for a ridiculous gig at the Berkeley Church. Well the deets are as follows – Crystal Castles and The Juan Maclean will be at the Hart House on the University of Toronto campus on September 4 and admission (and booze) is free – you just have to RSVP at festivalball@viceland.com. And I’ve been assured that the Hart House is a damn sight larger than the Berkeley Church so while it’ll certainly be packed, hopefully getting in won’t be quite as much of a drama as last year.

No Age are back for the third time this year with a show at Lee’s Palace on November 21.

Exclaim! has the very tall Chad Van Gaalen as their cover feature this month. He’s playing the Mod Club on October 4, doing an in-store at Sonic Boom on October 5 and releasing his new album Soft Airplane on September 9. There’s also a new video from the record.

Video: Chad Vangaalen – “Molten Light”

Filter talks to Paul Westerberg about The Replacements and their legacy. Sadly, Steve Foley – the band’s last drummer who toured with the band for their final album All Shook Down – passed away last weekend. Details at Billboard.

Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune talks to Aimee Mann, in town tonight at the Kool Haus.

Chart has details on who’ll be performing at the Polaris Music Prize gala at the Phoenix on September 29, aka all the stuff I’ll be missing whilst sequestered away in the grand jury room. Unlike past years, they’re apparently having all ten nominees perform at the show – seven live, three via satellite. How fancy! Remember, there’re still tickets to the gala to be given away. Never mind.

The Globe & Mail profiles Mathieu Saura, aka Vincent Moon, aka the guy behind Takeaway Shows.