Paul O’ValleBefore the passing of Jay Reatard on Wednesday – condolences to his friends, family and fans – the topic du jour in the indie nation was what was up with Joanna Newsom. Everyone’s favourite harpist hadn’t released any new music since 2007’s Joanna Newsom & The Ys Street Band EP, itself a chaser for the epic Ys, and while anyone is entitled to a break after putting something like that together, fans were certainly getting anxious for some new material, or even news of new material.

Which finally came this week, first in the form of a cryptic comic strip at her North American label Drag City and then as a confirmation from her Australian handlers at Spunk Records which has since been removed, but too late – the word was out that Newsom’s third album will be entitled Have One On Me and be released on February 23 in North America.

And that timing makes sense, considering the previously-announced tour dates that will take her around North America in March. And while I had previously suggested that the days off between her Grand Rapids date on the 12th and Montreal’s on the 15th were enough that a Toronto show would be a virtual certainty, that window of opportunity has since gotten smaller with the addition of a second Montreal date on the 14th. Which essentially means that if there is going to be a local date for Ms Newsom, it’s going to have to be on March 13 – which happens to be the final day of Canadian Musicfest. So one theory is that the announcement of the show is being held back to coincide with a festival press release. Another is the show is happening independently of the festival and the announcement is just being delayed for one reason or another. Or it’s possible that she’s skipping us entirely and any Torontonians hoping to get a glimpse of her first visit to the 416 since October 2006 will have to do so from a 401 overpass, assuming she travels by car and not on the back of a flying unicorn.

I’ll obviously keep you posted if anything further emerges about either the album or tour. Until then, enjoy the one available piece of official media available online – a video from her 2004 debut The Milk-Eyed Mender.

Video: Joanna Newsom – “The Sprout & The Bean”

Dirty Projectors are giving away both sides of a new 7″ as free MP3 downloads from their website right now.

Muzzle Of Bees asks five questions of Sharon Van Etten, in town on February 6 at Trinity-St. Paul’s opening up for Great Lake Swimmers.

Black Cab Sessions has a session in a cab with Alela Diane, circa SxSW 2009.

Department For Sound interviews Dean & Britta on the occasion of their playing the WOMAD festival in Australia in March.

The Dumbing Of America talks to Lauren Larson of Ume while declaring them, “your new favourite band”.

Check out the first MP3 from The Morning Benders’ new album Big Echo, due out March 9. They play the Drake Underground on April 14. The Fader has an interview.

MP3: The Morning Benders – “Promises”

Magnet solicits an interview from Centro-Matic’s Will Johnson, who is playing guest editor on their site this week.

ABC News has a video interview with Richard Balayut and Fontaine Toups of Versus, who are back together and working on a new record.

Pitchfork reports that Okkervil River’s next recorded appearance will be as psych-rock legend Roky Erickson’s band on his new record True Love Cast Out All Evil,, out April 20.

Stereogum has the first taste of Miles Kurosky’s solo debut The Desert Of Shallow Effects, out March 9. There’s also some tour dates set, though nothing up this way. Hope that’s rectified soon – as I recall, Beulah’s final show here at Lee’s Palace in October 2003 was epic.

Soundproof talks to Dinosaur Jr drummer Murph as the trio finally makes it to Toronto, with a date at the Phoenix next Thursday night, January 21.

Baeble Music has a full concert video from Thao with The Get Down Stay Down at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia.

Luxury Wafers has a video and downloadable session and aux.tv an interview with The Dutchess & The Duke.

Record Store Day (which is April 17 this year write it down) has an interview with Britt Daniel of Spoon. Transference is out on Tuesday and they play the Sound Academy on March 29.

Vivian Girls have set a North American tour this Spring in support of last year’s Everything Goes Wrong. The Toronto date is at Wrongbar on March 10, tickets $14.

Video: Vivian Girls – “When I’m Gone”

Dr. Dog’s new record Shame, Shame is out April 6 and they will kick off their North American tour at Lee’s Palace on April 14.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s April 1 show at the Phoenix has been moved from the Phoenix to the Sound Academy.

Dose reports that the Blur documentary No Distance Left To Run will be getting a one-day engagement across Canada next Thursday, January 21. The Toronto showing will be at 7PM at the Scotiabank Theatre – advance tickets go on sale Friday. Since the reunion is apparently done for the foreseeable future, this is as close to Blur in 2010 as we’re going to get. I’ll have to wait for the DVD, though, since that evening is reserved for another reunion – Dinosaur Jr.

Trailer: Blur: No Distance Left To Run

MySpaceWhen I was planning my trip to London back in the Spring of 2008, I was determined to NOT make it a concert-going vacation, Richard Hawley at the Royal Albert aside. But I did pencil in what looked like an interesting little gig at a Notting Hill matinee show presented by Drowned In Sound that I figured would be an opportunity to see some little British acts who’d probably never make it over to this side of the Atlantic. As it turns out, Sky Larkin made it to America sooner than expected, canceling their appearance at the show in order to record their debut The Golden Spike and they’ve returned to tour a times and the second-billed band on the bill, Let’s Wrestle, has just signed with Merge Records to release their debut album In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s over here come March 23.

I grabbed a digital copy of the record when it was released in the UK last Summer as well as its preceding EP In Loving Memory Of… and to say it’s a bit rough around the edges is an understatement, but it’s also deliberate. Musically and lyrically, the trio seek to cultivate an image of youthful insolence and indolence, favouring off-kilter and somewhat soused vocals with buzzsaw guitars to get their clever and sardonic pop culture-referencing points about matters of cosmic import like girls and wrestling across. The snotty punk delivery can’t hide their wicked pop sensibilities, though, nor their musical chops – they may not make a show of it, but they can play – the instrumental title track of the album is proof positive of that.

I’m glad to see that the band is making a stab at North America and that they’ve got good folks like Merge behind them – hopefully there’ll be some touring and I can feel better about ultimately skipping that Notting Hill show completely.

MP3: Let’s Wrestle – “We Are The Men You’ll Grow To Love Soon”
Video: Let’s Wrestle – “I Won’t Lie To You”
Video: Let’s Wrestle – “We Are The Men You’ll Grow To Love Soon”
Video: Let’s Wrestle – “I’m In Fighting Mode”

Paste checks in with Kate Nash, whose second album will be out in Spring of this year.

Little Boots’ Hands will finally get a domestic North American release on March 2.

NME interviews Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine.

BBC6 gets some details on the direction La Roux’s second album.

Cribs bassist and singer Ryan Jarman tells Spinner he’s of the opinion it’s too easy to make music these days. He longs for the old days when you had to go to the trouble of recruiting your siblings and a musical legend to get things done. The Cribs are at the Phoenix this Friday night, January 15.

Tom Smith of Editors talks to Spinner about the surplus of material that came out of the In This Light And On This Evening sessions, five of which will be added to the North American edition of the record when it’s released next Tuesday. They play the Phoenix on February 16.

Pitchfork solicits a list of current obsessions from The xx, who are at the Phoenix on April 4 and the Kool Haus on April 20.

NME reports that Noah And The Whale have recovered all the gear that was stolen from them way back in September.

Lightspeed Champion paid tribute to Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday last week with a cover video – check it out. His next album Life is Sweet! Nice To Meet You is out February 16.

Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Devil In Disguise”

Thanks to A Good Day For Airplay for pointing me to this online issue of Nightshift, music magazine from Oxford, England, which features an interview with all four members of Ride on the occasion of their debut, self-titled EP’s 20th anniversary. And yes, the reunion question is asked and no, it’s not happening. But it’s not dismissed either. So… there. Oh, and that link’s a PDF so forewarned.

The Guardian talks to Danny O’Connor, director of Upside Down – a documentary about the Creation Records story. No release date has been given but a vague Spring target has been mentioned.

Trailer: Upside Down

Pitchfork has premiered the first track from The Ruby Suns’ forthcoming album Fight Softly, due out March 10. They play the Drake Underground on March 30.

MP3: Ruby Suns – “Cranberry”

Ms Lara Meyerratken, aka El May, aka Australian ex-pat in America, aka touring keyboardist for Dean & Britta and Luna and vocal foil for Eric Bachmann on Crooked Fingers’ masterful Dignity & Shame, has completed her first solo record – also entitled El May – and will release it next Tuesday. Physical copies are limited to 500 so if you like the tangible media, pre-order one now.

Marcus Roth/Paolo ProserpioI should start setting aside Tuesday posts for concert announcements – every Monday brings an absolute deluge of them, yesterday through to this morning being no exception. But even on a day filled with big announcements, there was this.

Toronto Island Concert isn’t the catchiest name – apparently calling it the Olympic Island Festival is now verboten? – but it really doesn’t matter what you brand a show that features Pavement, Broken Social Scene and Band Of Horses because everyone with a lick of sense will simply call it “awesome”. The show is only the third North American date officially confirmed for the reformed indie rock legends, after Sasquatch in May and the four-night stand in New York’s Central Park in September, though word is they’re also headlining this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, probably in mid-July. I tend to vacillate between indifference and great love for Pavement, depending on my mood. Right now it’s all love, and I would say that even with more acts to be added to the bill, this has already more than made up for last year’s canceled BSS/Explosions In The Sky event.

The show will go June 19, which is a bit ill-timed as it falls on the last day of NXNE but really, there’s no choice to be made. This must happen. Tickets will be $49.50 (plus $1.50 facility fee and $6.50 ferry admission) and go on sale next Friday, January 22 though a pre-sale through Arts & Crafts’ online store starts January 18 and also gets you a $5 credit towards their merch. So why wouldn’t you.

Pavement have a best-of in Quarantine The Past and series of vinyl reissues coming March 9. Broken Social Scene’s new record is supposed to arrive in May. Band Of Horses’ third album has a title of Night Rainbows and is due out sometime this year. Pavement drummer Bob Nastanovich talks to The Courier-Journal about the impending reunion tour and basically confirms the Pitchfork Festival appearance.

MP3: Pavement – “Gold Soundz”
MP3: Pavement – “Rattled By The Rush”
MP3: Broken Social Scene presents Brendan Canning – “Hit The Wall”
MP3: Broken Social Scene presents Kevin Drew – “TBTF”
MP3: Band Of Horses – “No One’s Gonna Love You”
MP3: Band Of Horses – “Is There A Ghost”
MP3: Band Of Horses – “The Great Salt Lake”
MP3: Band Of Horses – “The Funeral”

And everything else that came out yesterday, in chronological order:

Mumford & Sons’ February 15 show has been moved from the El Mocambo to Lee’s Palace due to overwhelming demand for bluegrass-ish music. Sigh No More gets a North American release on March 15.

Norwegian ambassadors of chillax, the Kings Of Convenience, will be at the Phoenix on February 18 in support of last year’s Declaration Of Dependence. Tickets are $21.50. The Independent has a feature on the duo.

MP3: Kings Of Convenience – “Boat Behind”
Video: Kings Of Convenience – “Boat Behind”

Born Ruffians have set a date at the Phoenix for March 14. Their new record Say It will be out sometime.

Well it looks like I won’t be going a half decade without seeing Spoon – in addition to headlining Stubb’s on the first night of SxSW, they’ve announced a full North American tour – they’ll be at the Sound Academy on March 29 with Deerhunter and The Strange Boys. Tickets are $24.50 for general admission, $33.50 for VIP balcony spots. Apparently this is what it will take to get me back to the Sound Academy. Transference is out next Tuesday and is streaming in its entirety right now at NPR. Deerhunter made an entire album available for free download last December.

MP3: Spoon – “The Underdog”
MP3: Deerhunter – “Rainwater Cassette Exchange”
MP3: The Strange Boys – “Heard You Wanna Beat Me Up”
Stream: Spoon / Transference

Beach House will finally make up their canceled appearance at last year’s Olympic Island show on their Spring North American tour – it brings them to the Opera House on March 30 with Bachelorette, tickets $14. Their new album Teen Dream is out January 26.

MP3: Beach House – “Norway”

Almost as exciting – or maybe even moreso – as the Pavement announcement was that of the April 1 date at Lee’s Palace for the amazing double bill of Shearwater and Wye Oak, part of a North American tour. Shearwater’s epic The Golden Archipelago is out February 23 and Wye Oak are still supporting last year’s excellent The Knot.

MP3: Shearwater – “Castaways”
MP3: Wye Oak – “Take It In”

The Black Lips are setting up for a two-night stand at the Horseshoe on March 27 and 28, tickets for each night are $15.50. I seem to recall hearing tales of anarchy the last time they played there – no reason to believe this time will be any different. Demon Claws and Box Elders support.

MP3: The Black Lips – “Lock & Key” (live at Amoeba)

Already posted but now official – The xx and jj at the Phoenix on April 4, admission $20. jj’s No 3 is out March 9, Creative Review has a look at the recently unveiled video sculpture for their debut album.

MP3: The xx – “Basic Space”
MP3: jj – “Ecstasy”

The Low Anthem will bring their Oh My God, Charlie Darwin to the Church Of The Redeemer on April 10.

MP3: The Low Anthem – “Charlie Darwin”
MP3: The Low Anthem – “To Ohio”

The Wedding Present have announced the dates for their tour commemorating the 21st anniversary of Bizarro and that includes an April 14 date at the Horseshoe.

Quasi have set a February 23 release date for their new record American Gong and are hitting the road to promote – look for them April 18 at the Horseshoe. And I could be wrong on this, but I think this is their first time back in town since 2001. That’s almost as long as, um, Pavement!

MP3: Quasi – “Repulsion”

Shout Out Louds are crossing the Atlantic this Spring to support new album Work, out February 23. They’ll be in Toronto at the Mod Club on May 8 and have just released a new video.

MP3: Shout Out Louds – “Walls”
Video: Shout Out Louds – “Fall Hard”

And to close with something completely different – if you aren’t following my Twitter feed and didn’t hear the collective cry of fear/rage yesterday afternoon from the geek nation, it was announced that Spider-Man 4 – which as early as yesterday morning appeared to have confirmed John Malkovich as the Vulture – will instead be a complete reboot, jettisoning Tobey Maguire in the lead role and Sam Raimi in the director’s chair, and bring in a whole new cast while heading back to a high school setting for Peter Parker. I didn’t think it’d be possible to make a worse film than Spider-Man 3 but it seems they’ve found a way.

Jenna WakaniSince first seeing her in a little basement pub at Pop Montreal 2006, it’s been a real treat watching Basia Bulat’s career blossom. 2007 saw her gig relentlessly – I saw her a half-dozen times and wasn’t even really trying – and release her debut Oh, My Darling to much acclaim both at home and abroad and earn a place both in my favourites of the year and the almost-as-prestigious 2008 Polaris Music Prize shortlist. As debuts go, it yielded a pretty good narrative and so it’s not surprising that the follow-up, Heart Of My Own, takes what worked best and builds on that.

Whereas Darling has it’s share of bigger, more orchestrated numbers, it was evident that the songs had started out more homespun, and a few of them simply grew into something more grandiose. it’s notable that rollicking single “In The Night” didn’t appear on the initial European tracklisting but would be regularly held up as a high point in reviews of the North American edition. Heart follows that trajectory, clearly benefiting from the constant touring as a full band, with all the instruments, voices and ideas that came with it.

Utilizing many of the same players and again recorded under producer Howard Billerman’s auspices, Heart maintains the sweetness of Darling, but delivers it with considerably more sophistication, exuberance and sass. The rhythms, arrangements and textures at play are all considerably more complex without sacrificing any of the simplicity that’s at the heart of Bulat’s appeal. That sense of growth also applies lyrically – where Darling‘s protagonist was very much the ingenue, Heart finds her older and wiser; not necessarily more cynical, but certainly more experienced. Oh, My Darling was the first, impressive step from an artist with a clear vision of the sort of folk-pop she wanted to create; Heart Of My Own offers no creative left turns, just a determined, confident stride forward. It’s simply what comes next.

Bulat talks to Spinner about finding inspiration in the Canadian north and gives an in-studio interview and performance for The National Post.

Heart Of My Own is out on January 26 and Basia Bulat has a show at Trinity-St. Paul’s this Saturday night, January 16. Tickets are $20 in advance but courtesy of Secret City, I have a pair of passes to give away to the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Basia Bulat” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, January 13.

MP3: Basia Bulat – “Go On”
MP3: Basia Bulat – “Gold Rush”
MySpace: Basia Bulat

Suitcase Orchestra and Chart talk to Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon. Die Stadt Muzikanten is out tomorrow and they play the Drake Underground on February 11.

Great Lake Swimmers are keeping a tour blog of their ongoing trip to China at Spinner. They play Trinity-St. Paul’s on February 6.

Beatroute chats with An Horse. They play an in-store at Criminal Records on January 20 at 6PM.

Sadly, the Charlotte Gainsbourg show at the Phoenix January 26 announced just last week has been cancelled. No reason has been given and other dates on her North American tour still appear to be a go, so one can only surmise that there’s a conflict with something else, or she has a hate-on for Toronto. Her new record IRM is still out that day and The Guardian has an interview.

The Mountain Goats are featured in PitchforkTV’s “Cemetery Gates” video session this week.

Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs talks to Variety about her soundtrack work on Where The Wild Things Are.

Shout Out Louds singer Adam Olenius discusses their new album Work, out February 23, with Spinner.

Bjork’s recent concert film Voltaic, documenting shows in Paris and Reykjavik, will be getting a theatrical screening in Toronto on January 22 at the Acacia Centre, formerly the Golden Classics Cinema in Chinatown. Tickets are $10 in advance at Soundscapes, Queen Video and online.

Frank YangHere’s a little bit of trivia that I’m sure is interesting/alarming to me and me only – I haven’t seen Spoon live in over four years. The last time was at the Phoenix, circa Gimme Fiction in November 2005 and while I think they’ve only been here once since – a Kool Haus show in October 2007 which I skipped for whatever reason – it’s still a bit of a surprise. I did have a Britt Daniel encounter at a Mexican restaurant in Austin during ACL (“Bloggers! What’s up!”) but didn’t actually see them play during the festival. Again, for whatever reason.

So I look forward to rectifying that this year, when the band presumably hits the road in support of their impending new album Transference. I expect/fear that they’re now big enough that their local date will be at somewhere as big/awful as the Sound Academy – certainly a far cry from seeing them back at the ‘Shoe in 2002 – but you can’t begrudge a band a success that’s as hard-won as theirs is. Grouse about it, sure, but no begrudging.

I don’t really recall if they busted out any covers the few times I saw them, but this recording from April 2008 in Norfolk, Virginia shows they’re certainly up for it on occasion – and while I wouldn’t have thought The Smiths to be an obvious pick for them, this scrappy re-do of one of the first Smiths songs I ever recall hearing certainly works for me.

Spoon’s Transference is out on January 12. The Smiths are still broken up. Morrissey is currently without a label or management. Johnny Marr is a member of The Cribs and will be in town with them at the Phoenix this Friday night.

MP3: Spoon – “Panic”
Video: The Smiths – “Panic”