Frank YangGuilt and courteousness can be powerful motivators. Even moreso than self-preservation, which is why it was that rather than stay home Saturday night, safe and warm, I set out into the frigid, frigid cold to the Velvet Underground to catch a couple of bands who’d been politely and persistently inviting me out to their gigs for a while now – Receivers, visiting from Montreal, and locals Beth In Battle Mode. Of course it helped that I’d liked what I’d heard of both acts and had intended to catch either or both at some point – so why not both at once?

What I’d heard of BIBM past had made me associate them with New Wave power pop, thanks in no small part to their big keyboard sounds and devotion to the art of the hook, but live there was an extra oomph to the delivery that you couldn’t hide behind a skinny tie. In particular, singer/guitarist Ed Maher’s pipes are a lot more powerful than I’d expected, more reminiscent of a ’70s arena rock delivery with a touch of white boy funk-soul, though the transistor-y distortion of the venue’s PA certainly kept things honest and suitably lo-fi. A short set, but definitely sweet. The trio have just finished work on their second album Hot Science and aim to have it out in mid-March.

Receivers aspire to a noble end – to blend the noir-ish atmosphere of ’60s film soundtracks with concise and evocative pop song structures. It’s harder to do well than one might think, but I think Receivers are just about getting it. As with Beth In Battle Mode, the recorded samples I’d heard before the show painted an accurate and yet incomplete picture of the band. Emilie Marzinotto is a much more expressive singer live, though I suspect there’s still more upside to be tapped and the rest of the band was also more dynamic and ragged – in a good way – than on their debut Consider The Ravens. Most tellingly and probably importantly, the songs they introduced as new ones were easily the most immediate and impressive in their set.

I saw much promise in both acts, certainly worth leaving the house for (that is NOT faint praise, FYI) and even the venue – generally known as Toronto’s goth bar and now title-bearer for worst club lighting in the city as far as I’m concerned – left a favourable impression if for no other reason than starting off their club night, just as I was leaving, with The Chameleons’ “Up The Down Escalator”. If this is what goth kids are listening to, then hell – get me some mascara.

I don’t actually mean that.

Receivers will be back in town mid-March for CMW and BIBM will be having a CD release party for the new album around the same time.

Photos: Receivers, Beth In Battle Mode @ The Velvet Underground – January 24, 2009
MP3: Receivers – “Changing Of The Guard”
MP3: Receivers – “Matinee”
MP3: Receivers – “Petrograd”
MySpace: Beth In Battle Mode

Seriously, it’s an awesome song. Check it.

Video: The Chameleons – “Up The Down Escalator”

And because it’s an appropriate segue, there’s been a new communique from Joe Pernice, dispatched from somewhere in Toronto’s west end. In it (you can read it on the Pernice Brothers site), he mentions that his first novel It Feels So Good When I Stop is complete and will be released in September, and that there’s not one but two Joe Pernice albums in the works. The first is a set of covers intended as a soundtrack of sorts for the book, the second is of originals and entitled Murphy Bed, set to come out sometime this year. Though he refers to it as a Joe Pernice record, many of the players of Pernice Brothers – including Bob, the actual other Pernice Brother – appear on it so maybe it’ll carry the oh-so-slightly more marketable band name on release. Who knows. All I do know is that Joe has been living in Toronto for over four years now, and hasn’t done a show of any sort here since July 2005. Would it kill you to throw your new home a bone, Joe? Geez. Oh, and the segue I mentioned above? This Pernice Brothers cover of the aforementioned Chameleons song which I posted as Cover Of The Week waaaaay back in 2004. But which I still love.

MP3: Pernice Brothers – “Up The Down Escalator”

DeVotchKa turns in an unusually long set to NPR’s World Cafe.

Paste serves up not one but two features on Neko Case. Her Middle Cyclones is out March 3 and she plays not one but two shows at Trinity-St Paul’s on April 17 and 18.

Metro Vancouver talks to AC Newman. He’s at Lee’s Palace on March 11 and congratulations to Kaley, Bruce, Kelly, Garret and Alicia, all of whom won copies of Get Guilty.

Cuff The Duke will play a free show at the Natrel Ice Rink down at Harbourfront this Saturday night, January 31, as part of CBC Radio 3’s live broadcast that evening. On the plus side, free show. On the down side, the waterfront is NOT really the place you want to be at night in the dead of Winter. Just saying.

azizisbored.comTo the best of my knowledge, Canadians are not privvy to the wonders of Human Giant, at least not by conventionally “legal” means. But that doesn’t mean we don’t know who Aziz Ansari is. After all, that Clell Tickle video was inescapable for a while. And he was that racist fruit vendor in Flight Of The Conchords. And he’s going to be in the Office-but-not-Office-spinoff show The Untitled Amy Poehler Project on NBC, premiering this Spring.

In other words, you already know him, or will. Or maybe you don’t and never will. I don’t know. What I do know is that he’s doing a stand-up tour right now cheekily entitled ” Glow In The Dark” (well, cheeky if you’re Kanye) and the final date of said tour is this Friday night, January 30, at the Mod Club. And courtesy of REMG, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away to the show. If you like your comedy standing up and luminescent, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to glow in the dark” in the subject line and your full name in the body and have it to me before midnight Wednsday, January 28.

Frank YangCalgary’s Woodpigeon will be rectifying a grievous wrong next week when they re-release their originally limited-edition (and completely sold out) Treasury Canada Library album, this time accessorized with a bonus album in the form of Houndstooth Europa. The album was one of my favourites of last year and I’m pleased that more will be getting to hear it.

But by giving older works their proper due, the band is having to postpone – at least for a little while – their newer works which are already starting to pile up. Not only is there a plan to release another album of new works entitled Die Stadt Muzikanten for this Fall, but demos are already complete for the album after that one. It’s from sessions for that record, currently called Thumbtacks + Glue and which almost certainly not to see the light of day until sometime in ’10, that this simple and haunting ABBA cover comes.

Following a couple of Vancouver dates next week, the band is set to head out on a European tour for most of February. Eastern Canada types take heart, though – they’ll be here in June for NxNE. Yet another reason to look forward to Summer. In case no longer dealing with -30 wind chills wasn’t quite sufficient.

MP3: Woodpigeon – “Lay All Your Love On Me”
Video: ABBA – “Lay All Your Love On Me” (fan video)

Celeste Danger, Elisabeth YoungHaving spent most of 2008 on the road and working their self-titled debut to death, Brookyln’s Jealous Girlfriends are quite understandably taking the first part of this year off to recover and recharge. And, in the case of singer/guitarist Holly Miranda, work on a solo record. Well, judging from her MySpace blog, work on the solo record has been ongoing for some time – since late 2007 at least – but presumably the time available now will allow it to wrapped up and hopefully see the light of day.

Details are scarce, but production duties appear to have been handled by TV On The Radio’s David Sitek and it will feature appearances from Celebration’s Katrina Ford and TVOTR’s Kyp Malone. The project may or may not be named Raven Mayhem and the album may or may not be called The Magician’s Private Library. Whatever it’s called, there’s a good number of tracks – demo or completed is unclear – at her MySpace and they sound quite compelling. Some distance away from the Jealous Girlfriends’ rock attack, they’re more atmospheric and sonically adventurous while remaining firmly rooted by her marvelous, sleepy yet soaring rasp of a voice. Who/what/whenever this stuff comes out, I’m definitely interested to hear more.

Thanks to Spicy Times for not only letting me know that this project existed but also pointing the way to this FabChannel solo show recorded in Amsterdam last May, wherein we see some of Miranda’s singer-songwritery side. And Get Glucky got her to assemble and comment on a playlist of favourite songs.

MySpace: Holly Miranda

Spinner premiered the new video from TV On The Radio yesterday.

Video: TV On The Radio – “Stork And Owl”

Prefix reports that the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album has a name – It’s Blitz. It’s due out sometime in the Spring.

Peter Bjorn & John are set to release their new record Living Thing on March 31 and will tour it across North America starting in April. Their Toronto date is April 25 at the Phoenix, and support for the whole tour will be Chairlift, who were featured in a Daytrotter session last week. PB&J have already released a video from the new album and Pitchfork premiered a remix MP3 of the first single earlier this week.

MP3: Peter Bjorn & John – “Lay It Down (Golden Filter remix)
Video: Peter Bjorn & John – “Lay It Down”

There’s a video from the new Loney Dear album Dear John, coming out next Tuesday.

Video: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”

Stereogum has premiered the first MP3 from Marissa Nadler’s new album Little Hells, due out March 3. This ties in nicely with her previously-announced April 21 date at the El Mocambo with The Handsome Family. The Times talked to Nadler as part of a feature on what they call “goth-folk”.

David Berman has dissolved the Silver Jews. Maybe I should have gone to see them at Lee’s in September after all… Pronouncement from the man himself at the Drag City forums.

Clash interviews Of Montreal, who have released a track from their digital-only Jon Brion remix EP.

MP3: Of Montreal – “First Time High” (Of Chicago acoustic version)

NME talks to Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallet about his contributions to the new Rumble Strips record, currently in production.

It turns out the Born Ruffians/Akron/Family double-bill at Sneaky Dee’s reported on last week is also a double-header. In addition to the already-announced and nearly sold-out March 24 date, there’ll be a March 23 show, also at Sneaks, and the two will pair up again on the 25 and 26 at Il Motore in Montreal.

Franz Ferdinand’s Tonight is currently streaming at the band’s MySpace. It’s available this Tuesday. Conversations with the band are up at Clash, Metro and dose.ca.

Stream: Franz Ferdinand / Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Neil Halstead drops by the Paste offices to play a song.

The Toronto Sun and The Ubyssey talk to M83 mastermind Anthony Gonzalez. They’re at the ACC tonight opening up for The Killers.

Send Me Dead Flowers talks to The Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner.

Aquarium Drunkard gets a Robyn Hitchcock guide to New York City. Goodnight Oslo, his new album with the Venus 3, is out February 17.

JAM reports that the threatened new Neil Young concept album Fork In The Road (which concerns bailouts of banks and automotive manufacturers as well as electric cars) will indeed be released on March 31 and the promised Archives have indeed been pushed back. It’s probably safe to say this will be the least-welcome Neil Young album in the history of ever.

A farewell to Mr Mick Harvey, who has elected to leave Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Details at the ANTI Blog.

Liam HenryIt’s really of no surprise whatsoever that I misread the offer tied to pre-orders of Sky Larkin’s debut album The Golden Spike, which I reported on a couple weeks back. I had thought that by committing to the purchase, you’d immediately get MP3 downloads of both the album proper and the live recordings of the same songs. As it turns out, you just get the live set.

But that’s okay, because February 9 isn’t that far off and the live version of the record is really pretty good. It’s obviously a bit rawer than I expect the album to be – though not that much, I expect it to be raw – but the je ne sais quoi that I really like about this band is very much in evidence. I think it’s how they disguise a surprising melodic sophistication behind a youthful energy and directness. At first it sounds like scrappy, jagged pop – which it is – but it’s also much more than that. The already-released singles have been consistently terrific and the rest of the album isn’t far off. Can’t wait to hear the proper thing, and they’re definitely on my “to-see” list for SxSW this year.

They recently gave Drowned In Sound a song-by-song commentary on the record and there’s also interviews at This Is Fake DIY and The Yorkshire Evening Post.

MP3: Sky Larkin – “Molten”
Video: Sky Larkin – “Beeline”
Video: Sky Larkin – “Fossil, I”
Video: Sky Larkin – “Molten”
Video: Sky Larkin – “One Of Two”
MySpace: Sky Larkin

In curiously parallel fashion, The Reading Evening Post has album annotations for the other British debut record I’ve got coming to me in the mail hopefully not long after February 9 – Emmy the Great’s First Love, so in the interest of consistency I’ll link up all the videos released so far for songs appearing on the record (though I suspect “Easter Parade” and “M.I.A.” have been re-recorded for the album). And if you thought I was overly effusive about her, check out Drowned In Sound’s review of the album – they make me look positively measured in comparison. There’s also an interview over at Oxford University’s Cherwell.

Video: Emmy The Great – “First Love”
Video: Emmy The Great – “We Almost Had A Baby”
Video: Emmy The Great – “Easter Parade”
Video: Emmy The Great – “M.I.A.”

Camera Obscura haven’t let slip many details about album number four, now complete and set for a release sooner rather than later in 2009, but they did post a MySpace blog yesterday announcing that it when it was released, it would be by the venerable 4AD label.

Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison tells The Chicago Tribune how a failed relationship inspired The Midnight Organ Fight. You know, in case it wasn’t abundantly clear from the lyrics.

eye, The Telegraph and The List talk to Franz Ferdinand on the occasion of the release of Tonight, in stores on Tuesday.

Glasvegas have released a new video from Glasvegas. Their April 3 show at the Mod Club is totally sold out.

Video: Glasvegas – “Flowers & Football Tops”

Incidentally, support for the Glasvegas tour has been announced as Ida Maria, who is herself getting no small amount of attention. Her album Fortress Round My Heart got a major label release last year, but now that she’s gone indie again, she’s re-releasing a different version on February 9.

Video: Ida Maria – “Oh My God”
Video: Ida Maria – “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked”
Video: Ida Maria – “Stella”

I was dismayed to have missed Asobi Seksu’s visit to the Horseshoe back in October – way too much going on to go, if I recall – but will get the chance to make that up on March 3 when their tour in support of Hush, out February 17, brings them to the El Mocambo.

The Von Pip Musical Express has an interview with Juanita Stein of Howling Bells. The moving target of a release date for Radio Wars seems to have settled on March 2, but I need to confirm that. Update: NME is also saying March 2. We’ll go with that.

Minipop stopped in for a Daytrotter session last week.

Decider interviews Anthony Gonzalez of M83, in town at the Air Canada Centre in support of The Killers tomorrow night.

It’s an odd bit of contesting, but Annuals are giving away tickets to their show at the El Mocambo on Saturday night as well as a pair of passes to the Art Gallery Of Ontario. Yeah, I dunno. Enter here.