Photo by Frank Yang

Most things I’ve read about Ra Ra Riot seem to reference Arcade Fire, and this perplexes me. Yes, I see the superficial and quantitative similarities – large-ish co-ed bands with a distinct orchestral flavour and who put on terrific live shows, but the spirit of what the two bands do seem so diametrically opposed to me, that putting one down in the “RIYL” column for the other just seems misleading. Whereas the Arcade Fire trade in weighty, some might say ponderous, themes and deliver it with equivalent drama, even though there’s enough darkness in Ra Ra Riot’s backstory to justify such an approach if they so desired, they’re above all else celebratory. On stage they’re a party the likes of which you can’t imagine the Arcade Fire ever loosening up enough to attend, let alone throw.

Thursday night was their second visit to Toronto this year but the first since the release of their rightly-praised debut The Rhumb Line. Their first visit back in January was a total joy to watch and if possible, the band have gotten even tighter and better in the interim. Though the slightly larger stage of the Horseshoe gave them more space to move than the El Mocambo did, they seemed less inclined to roam around than last time but the energy of the performance didn’t suffer for it at all. They ran through most all their repertoire in a scant but exhausting 45 minutes and still found the second wind to come back for a one-song encore that left me, at least, wholly satisfied.

I spent most of the set from openers Walter Meego trying to figure out the best way to describe them, but that concise description proved a moving target from song to song. Outfitted with scads of keyboards, a distinctly melodramatic songwriting style, vocal stylings just this side of fey and an impressive ability to execute harmonized guitar tapping, they were by turns New Wave, New Romantic and New Order. Normally I find bands without drummers – let alone conventional rhythm sections to come off overly stiff in a live setting but their DJ/sample jockey/Kaos Pad maestro did a fine job of keeping things grooving, and actually more physicality to the performance than either of his two less equipment-anchored bandmates. The live stuff was more engaging and organic – though still heavily synthesized – than what little I’d heard from their recent Voyager release, and I commend them for keeping things eclectic and interesting whilst maintaining a definite sonic identity.

Photos: Ra Ra Riot, Walter Meego @ The Horseshoe – September 4, 2008
MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Dying Is Fine”
MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Each Year” (EP version)
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Ghost Under Rocks”
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Dying Is Fine”
Video: Walter Meego – “Forever”
MySpace: Ra Ra Riot
MySpace: Walter Meego

This week on Spinner’s Interface – a session with Tokyo Police Club. They’ve also got a remix of Tokyo Police Club by Ra Ra Riot… Serendipity!

MP3: Tokyo Police Club – “Juno” (Ra Ra Riot remix)

Check out a track from Jenny Lewis’ forthcoming solo record Acid Tongue, out September 23. Billboard has a chat with her about the album.

MP3: Jenny Lewis – “Acid Tongue”

France’s Herman Dune will be at the El Mocambo on October 2 accompanied by Throw Me The Statue – tickets $10. For a taste of the Dune, head over to Daytrotter for a session recorded this Summer. Their new album Next Year In Zion is out October 21 in North America. Throw Me The Statue paid us a visit back in April and are still working their new record Moonbeams.

MP3: Throw Me The Statue – “Lolita”

Japan’s Boris, just here in July, are coming back for another show at Lee’s Palace on November 13. Tickets are $15.

Mountain Goat John Darnielle has long been a fan of acoustic guitar virtuoso Kaki King and the two have collaborated on a forthcoming EP to be entitled Black Pear Tree. Pitchfork has some words from Darnielle on the project as well as an MP3 from it.

MP3: The Mountain Goats & Kaki King – “Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle”

King was also one of the performers who took part in those Beautiful Noise sessions at the Berkeley Church back in April, the fruits of which are now coming to air. The more singer-songwritery artists will actually be featured in a different series entitled The Berkeley Sessions and will begin airing on Bravo here in Canada starting this Wednesday with the Joel Plaskett episode.

Apologies for the late post, V Fest coverage tomorrow. The past weekend beat the crap out of me… but not as much as it did Noel Gallagher. If you want to see what everyone’s going to be talking about – and pretty much negating the need for any review of the rest of the fest but I’ll do it anyway – check out the photos at Information Leafblower. Madness.

Photo via MySpace

Just once, it’d be nice to have a V Fest go off without a hitch. Or at least have people talking more about who’s on the lineup than who’s not. The first year, there was the whole thing with the day two headliner Massive Attack having to cancel on account of visa issues, so Broken Social Scene was hastily called in to cover and while they put on a memorable show – how often do you get all three ladies on stage together – it wasn’t what was advertised. Then last year, it was Amy Winehouse who had to pull out in order to concentrate fully on her self-destruction, and while there were attempts to get the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in her stead, that didn’t work out and Kid Koala got the thankless task of entertaining the disgruntled masses for an hour (actually less, since his records started melting in the sun).

And now this year. After a strong start with the likes of Oasis, Paul Weller, Foo Fighters, Bloc Party and Spiritualized, the Toronto edition of V not only failed to add any more especially big names, they were actually losing them. Well, moderately big names. Swedish dance-pop queen Robyn disappeared from the lineup almost as quickly as she was announced on account of being tapped to open up for Madonna. Perfectly reasonable. Then UK brothers in arms The Cribs bailed – no reason given, but considering they’ve probably cancelled more Toronto shows than they’ve played, not a surprise. But when the official schedule was released last week and The Wombats were nowhere to be seen, that was a let-down. And inexplicable – their North American tour is continuing on as planned, and their routing still takes them near Toronto on Sunday (from Chicago to Providence) but they’re not crossing the border. And while it’s unlikely anyone bought a ticket explicitly to see these acts – that’s just bad budgeting – they were certainly draws and their absences cause for grumbling.

But on that, there’s naught to be done and at least the big guns are still coming to town today and tomorrow and if the weather holds out – looks iffy right now – it should still be a good weekend. The Toronto Star is obviously excited, devoting an entire section to the fest – previewing acts, talking to Bloc Party and Shudder To Think and generally getting all worked up. The Globe & Mail profiles a band that I’m more interested in seeing every time I listen – The Airborne Toxic Event, eye catches up with Constantines, AOL Music Canada talks to Paul Weller and NOW discusses the joys of ALL CAPS with MGMT.

Oh, and for a little audio content, one V Fest act covering another. The Kooks on MGMT.

MP3: The Kooks – “Kids”

And finally, apparently Noel Gallagher has whilst on this North American tour, but you need to be a registered member on their website to read em. I don’t think I’m quite ready to trade my personal info for access to such insights like the fact that The Beatles are his favourite band of all-time… though Details and Canada.com have more substantive pieces on the band. Either way, I’m still really forward to seeing them on Sunday night. Yessir.

Photo via www.pwelverumandsun.com

Those who like their music extra-fragile, rejoice. This Fall, Phil Elverum – he who is sometimes The Microphones and other times Mount Eerie – will be hitting the road this Fall in support of his new record Lost Wisdom and for a good chunk of the dates, he’s bringing along as tourmate one of his collaborators on the record, Julie Dorion.

In addition to the new record, which Pitchfork talks to Elverum about, both artists have also re-released old records this year. In April, The Microphones’ 2001 release The Glow, Pt 2 was put back into print with a bonus disc and in July, Doiron’s second solo record Loneliest In The Morning was also reissued along with three bonus tracks.

The tour stops in Toronto on October 14 at the Church Of The Redeemer along with Calm Down It’s Monday on the bill.

MP3: Mt Eerie – “Woolly Mammoth’s Absence”
MP3: Mt Eerie – “2 Blonde Braids”
MP3: Julie Doiron – “So Fast”
Video: Microphones – “The Glow, Pt 2”

Paste reports that Great Lake Swimmers, who themselves played the Church Of The Redeemer in Spring 2007, will be theatrically releasing a concert film shot at the Phoenix in HD last Fall on November 5 and intend to have album number four out next Spring. They’re at Lee’s Palace on October 25.

And she who accompanied Great Lake Swimmers at that April show – Basia Bulat – has an incendiary new video out. Yes, incendiary. Wait for it.

Video: Basia Bulat – “The Pilgriming Vine”

Blurt interviews Neil Young. He’s at the Air Canada Centre on December 9.

Radio Free Canuckistan has posted the full transcript of his interview with Angela Desveaux which yielded the previously-linked Exclaim piece. There’s also interviews with her at The Montreal Gazette, Montreal Mirror and hour.ca. If you missed her show at the Boat last night, you can still see her October 15 opening up for The New Year at Lee’s Palace. The Mighty Ship is out on Tuesday.

Drowned In Sound follows The Hidden Cameras on tour around Europe.

David Berman of The Silver Jews talks to The Weekly Dig, Valley Advocate, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Metro Boston.

Bradley’s Almanac is sharing audio of The National’s show in Boston this Summer whilst opening up for R.E.M..

If you missed The Secret Machines when they hit Lee’s in July, take heart – they’re coming back. With their self-titled album due out on October 14, they’re hitting the road and will be back at the Palace of Lee on October 22.

New Hampshire Public Radio has an audio interview with Okkervil River’s Will Sheff. The penultimate installment in the Stand-Ins cover project is now up, featuring Ola Podrida. One to go before the album is out on Tuesday. Okkervil are at the Phoenix on October 12.

Video: Ola Podrida – “Calling and Not Calling My Ex”

The Sea & Cake have a new album in Car Alarm, out October 21, and will be at Lee’s Palace on November 14.

I appreciate that posts have been a little on the brief side lately – this one only reached a respectable size at the last minute this morning. Call it a combination of trying to work ahead to minimize the amount of work that V Fest is going to be and some utter madness at work. So if you were hoping for more verbiage… blame the Harper government. No, I’m serious.

Photo by Lucia Holm

Just yesterday, I mentioned both The Church and Nicole Atkins in separate newsy items, and now today the two come together. And the context is this – Nicole is releasing an EP of covers cheekily entitled Nicole Atkins Digs Other People’s Songs and contained therein will be Nicole’s takes on The Doors’ “Crystal Ship”, Mama Cass Elliot’s “Dream A Little Dream”, Nada Surf’s “Inside Of Love” and The Church’s “Under The Milky Way”.

The Doors song has long been a staple of her live shows, so that makes sense, and the Mama Cass song suits her style perfectly. The Nada Surf song… sure, why not, but The Church cover is a pleasant surprise though as she tells Stereogum, who have a stream of said cover, it was her “favorite song in high school”. Who’d have thunk it? It’s a bit of a shame that there’s no definitive version of her take on Patti Smith’s “Pissing In A River”, though – I mean, just watch the vid below. Far as I know the only decent recording is from Austin City Limits last year and that’s only available via iTunes.

Anyway, the EP will be out on Tuesday in digital form for sure and in physical form maybe? I have yet to find any evidence that there’ll be a CD, but nowhere do they say “digital only” either, and the luddite in me still likes to thing that the CD is the default format for releasing music. Either way, it’s coming.

Nicole talks a bit about the EP in a recent MySpace blog post and also mentions that after this upcoming leg of touring, she and The Sea will be hunkering down to work on album number two, which she anticipates taking a heavier, rockier direction. There’s more Nicole blog action at her Tumblr and there’s a two-part video interview at MOG.com from earlier this Summer.

Video: Nicole Atkins & The Sea – “Pissing In A River” (live)

An Aquarium Drunkard has an interview with Kurt Wagner of Lambchop, whose OH (ohio) is out October 7 and who will be playing the Drake Underground solo on October 6.

PopMatters talks to Alan Sparhawk whilst wearing his Retribution Gospel Choir hat.

Shannon McCardle, formerly of the Mendoza Line, discusses her solo debut Summer Of The Whore with Blurt.

Filter has posted the entirety of their recent cover story on Flight Of The Conchords. This article, along with their cover feature in Under The Radar (along with hilarious photo spread) was key to getting me to watch the show. Season two is supposed to start up sometime around January of next year.

Sonic Boom will be hosting another in-store on September 13 at 7PM, this one featuring $100 and Castlemusic.

Photo via MySpace

When Nottingham’s Seachange quietly called it a day in March of last year, not too many noticed. Never critical darlings nor commercial successes, they also never seemed to get lumped in with any particular musical movement in the UK – the sort of phenomenon that may be maddening for artists but certainly makes getting press and attention easier. And so when they called it a day following the release of their second album On Fire, With Love, it probably got no more than a passing mention in the NME.

And it’s a damn shame, really. As I mentioned two years ago, I’d never paid them much attention until I was sent a couple tracks from that final record and was quite won over by their sound, heavy on words and melody, a dry yet soothing aesthetic and a knack for both a well-placed bit of guitar skronk and violin line. Kind of a slightly snottier yet no less romantic Idlewild, with an similar facility for balancing anthemic rockers with more introspective, folk-inflected numbers. It wasn’t necessarily anything new, but it was done really well and there were more than a handful of really excellent songs on there – it’s quite a testament that even after all this time, it still gets moderately heavy rotation hereabouts and this is from someone with a pretty lousy attention span.

They had one posthumous release in last year’s Disband In Bonn, which as the title implies was a collection of live tracks recorded on their final tour in Germany. They’ve now done a little more cupboard cleaning, however, and the result is the The Stars Whiteout – an 8-song mini-album that they’re giving away as a free download to whoever wants it. It’s mostly new songs, plus an alternate version of an On Fire song and a cover of fellow underappreciated Nottingham-ers Six By Seven’s “IOU Love” (which in itself was a crib of The Church’s “Under The Milky Way”, but let’s not get into that again). While it’s kind of a bit late to act as a way to get into the band – at least in any sense that’ll do them any good – it’s a good listen and maybe it’ll be enough to encourage you to scrounge up a copy of On Fire, With Love and enjoy it as the excellent record it is.

eMusic has pretty much their entire catalog available for download – which reminds me that I still have to grab their Matador debut Lay Of The Land – and if you’ve only got five minutes and forty-three seconds to spare, I suggest devoting them to “In”, my favourite track off On Fire.

MP3: Seachange – “Personal Assistant”
MP3: Seachange – “IOU Love”
MP3: Seachange – “In”
Video: Seachange – “Glitterball”
Album: Seachange / The Stars Whiteout (.zip)

And speaking of scenes (and fitting into them or not), Brett Anderson tells The Guardian that Suede were never a Britpop band, no matter how many Union Jacks he posed in front of in the early ’90s. Sure, Brett. He’s got a new solo record out entitled Wilderness.

NME reports that Patrick Wolf has not one but two new albums in the works.

Head over to The Daily Growl for a taste of Richard Hawley in full-on rockabilly mode, part of his contribution to the soundtrack to British retro horror film Flick.

Austin 360 welcomes Nicole Atkins back to Austin for Austin City Limits in a few weeks.

Santogold is coming to the Phoenix on September 24, though I can’t help notice that that’s the same date as the Mogwai show… Mogwai versus Santogold. That, I would pay to see. I assume this conflict will be resolved one way or another. Full dates – correct or otherwise – at NME. Update: thanks to Daniel in the comments for pointing out that the show is now at the Guvernment. That post-rock/dance-rock showdown for the ages will have to wait for another day, but believe me – it’s coming.

Zoilus has posted the the complete email transcript of his interview with Silver Jew David Berman that went into the piece in Tuesday’s The Globe & Mail. I opted to skip the show at Lee’s on Tuesday night – how was it?

There’s another installment up in the Okkervil River Stand-Ins covers project – this one is “On Tour With Zykos” covered by, of course, Zykos. The Stand-Ins is out on Tuesday and Okkervil are at the Phoenix on October 12.

Video: Zykos – “On Tour With Zykos”

Hamptons.com chats with Aimee Mann.