Frank Yang Editors have been garnering their share of mediocre reviews for their latest effort In This Light And On This Evening, largely for abandoning their tried-and-tested anthemic post-punk guitar rock for something decidedly synthier – I seem to be more favourably inclined to the record than most, but can certainly see where the criticism comes from.

My bigger concern with the record, however, lies in how it will translate live. For all their faults, Editors are one of the more dynamic acts I’ve seen in recent years. Or more accurately, Tom Smith is a tremendously dynamic frontman, more than making up for his largely immobile bandmates – at least that was the case when I saw them back at V Fest 2007. So with the guitars, on record at least, taking a back seat to keys, how will they manage it on stage? Rearrange the songs? Strap on a keytar? Give up the rock star poses and stay anchored to the synths? I hope not.

Toronto shall find out what it will be come February 16, when they play the Phoenix – tickets are $25 in advance but courtesy of LiveNation, I’ve got three pairs of passes to give away to the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I need an Editor” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, February 11.

MP3: Editors – “Papillon”
Video: Editors – “You Don’t Know Love”
Video: Editors – “Papillon”
MySpace: Editors

Michael PalmieriWhen I wrote up Sharon Van Etten’s debut album Because I Was In Love back in October, I felt a bit bad about giving it just a passing mention as I liked it more than just a sentence or two might have implied. But at the time my web hosting was self-destructing and I wanted to get something out there before her local appearance opening for Rain Machine, so a cursory mention it was.

But with there seeming to be even more attention being paid to Van Etten and her record now than when it was initially released back in May 2009, now’s as good a time as any to revisit the album and, at the very least, elaborate a bit more on why it’s worthy of notice – and in a word, it’s the voice. Slow, rich and seemingly operating at the resonant frequency of melancholy and with the texture of tears, it’s the perfect vehicle for her spare, almost skeletal songs of longing and disappointment, transporting them directly through the ears and into the heart. That might seem a bit flowery a description, but I defy you to listen to the “ooohs” in “Much More Than This” and tell me otherwise. That voice, with the languid, low-key acoustic atmosphere and strategically-placed bits of electric guitar and piano make for a record that’s worth revisiting again not only a few months later, but again and again.

Blurt has a feature piece on Van Etten and Weather Vane Music has a stunning new song recorded for their Shaking Through series available to download. Sharon Van Etten opens up the sold out Great Lake Swimmers show at Trinity-St. Paul’s tomorrow night and returns on April 5 for a show at the Horseshoe with Megafaun.

MP3: Sharon Van Etten – “For You”
MP3: Sharon Van Etten – “Love More”
Video: Sharon Van Etten – “For You”
MySpace: Sharon Van Etten

The Skinny discusses Shearwater’s new record The Golden Archipelago with frontman Jonathan Meiburg. The record is out February 23, they play Lee’s Palace on April 1.

Midlake’s Eric Pulido talks to The Quietus about coffee while his bandmates discuss their music with BBC6 and The Independent.

Spoon are using a live studio performance for the first video off Transference. They’re at the Sound Academy on March 29.

Video: Spoon – “Written In Reverse”

PitchforkTV has padded out their special video series with Beach House with a few more songs and The Chronicle-Herald and New York Magazine have interviews. They’re at the Opera House on March 30.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow have put out a new video from their forthcoming Nighttime Rainbows EP, out March 2. They play The Garrison on April 2.

Video: A Sunny Day In Glasgow – “So Bloody, So Tight”

Beatroute, North County Times and The Georgia Straight talk to St. Vincent, who just released a new video/comedy sketch from Actor, featuring the thespian skills of Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, also known as ThunderAnt.

Video: St. Vincent – “Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood”

Paste has got a video session with Nicole Atkins & The Black Sea.

BeatRoute talks to Nels Cline of Wilco.

MusicOmn, The Line Of Best Fit, Montreal Mirror, Montreal Gazette, The Advocate, CBC, eye and NOW have conversations with Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, who are in town at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Monday night. There’s also an official trailer up for Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt & The Magnetic Fields, the forthcoming documentary film on the band, and an MP3 from the 69 Love Songs vinyl box set, coming out on April 20. And for folks in Toronto looking to pick this up, Criminal Records has got your best deal as far as pre-orders of the limited edition go.

MP3: The Magnetic Fields – “The Book Of Love”
Trailer: Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt & The Magnetic Fields

Paste gets some info on She & Him’s Volume Two, out March 23, from Zooey Deschanel.

Good news for Toronto roots-rock fans – in addition to their free show at the Horseshoe this coming Tuesday night, Those Darlins have slated a return engagement on April 6 at the same venue with Deer Tick. Bad news is that’s the same night as the Drive-By Truckers’ gig at Lee’s Palace. Good news is that the Truckers are doing a second night at the same venu on the 7th. Unless you were planning on hitting both, in which case I think you break about even.

MP3: Deer Tick – “Easy”
MP3: Those Darlins – “Red Light Live”

Speaking of the Drive-By Truckers, Billboard talks to frontman Patterson Hood about their new record The Big To-Do, which will be out March 16.

The Jon Spencer-powered Heavy Trash have a date at the Horseshoe on April 23. Their latest Midnight Soul Serenade came out last year.

The Control GroupSadness is Sarah Assbring’s stock in trade, a point I’ve rather drilled home in my reviews of her output as El Perro Del Mar – the 2007 self-title and 2008’s From The Valley To The Stars. While both records were beautiful in their downbeat demeanor, you couldn’t help but hope that Assbring would find a way to cheer up, if only for her own emotional well-being.

Unfortunately for Assbring – but fortunately for her listeners – delectable heartache is still the order of the day, and her third album Love Is Not Pop is again chock full of it, but the record stands a good distance apart from its predecessors for other reasons. Rather than the spare, ’50s doo-wop stylings that defined her previous work, Pop draws on a distinctly different aural palette. The core songwriting style and Assbring’s signature forlorn vocals remain, but the introduction of electronic textures and rhythms and Shields-y glider guitar overtop the spare (but occasionally orchestrated) arrangements is unexpected and welcome. Of course, the fact that the album proper is only seven tracks long, and the rest is padded out with remixes adds to the impression that this is a fresher, more sonically adventurous and dance-friendlier El Perro Del Mar. Actually, danceable might be a bit of a reach, but the extra tracks do showcase Assbring with an extra spring in her shuffle.

El Perro Del Mar is at the Mod Club on February 21 as part of a co-headlining tour with fellow Swede Taken By Trees, with the latter closing out this particular show. This is exciting as Victoria Bergsman – she who is Taken By Trees – isn’t especially predisposed to life on the road and hasn’t been to Toronto since the last visit from The Concretes. Unfortunately, it’s meant that Anna Ternheim, previously slated to open for El Perro Del Mar, will no longer be appearing. But maybe it’s a bit of a consolation that another MP3 from Taken By Trees’ East Of Eden is now up for grabs and is, appropriately enough, entitled “Anna”.

MP3: El Perro Del Mar – “Change Of Heart”
MP3: El Perro Del Mar – “Change Of Heart” (Rakamonie Remix)
MP3: Taken By Trees – “Anna”
Video: El Perro Del Mar – “Change Of Heart”
MySpace: El Perro Del Mar

Also Swedish but totally not sad are Love Is All. Their new record Two Thousand and Ten Injuries is out MArch 23 and they’re at the Horseshoe on April 3. Check out another track from the new album.

MP3: Love Is All – “Repetition”

Danish orchestral post-rock outfit Under Byen will release a new album in Alt Er Tabt on April 6.

Magnet Q&As Los Campesinos!, whom they’ve made guest editors of their site this week. Hope they hid all the breakables. Spinner, Islington Tribune, CMJ and Wales Online also have conversations, but don’t hand over the keys to the car. Los Campesinos! are at the Phoenix on April 20.

Laura Marling talks to NOW, The Visalia Times Delta and The San Francisco Examiner about making her new album I Speak Because I Can, out April 6. She plays Lee’s Palace on Tuesday night.

Chart, The Georgia Straight, The National Post, The Aquarian, San Jose Mercury News and The San Francisco Examiner talk to various members of Editors, who play the Phoenix on February 16.

Spin asks Dev Hynes about the secret origin of Lightspeed Champion. His second album Life Is Sweet! Pleased To Meet You, out February 16.

State has a word with Massive Attack, who’ve released a new video from Heligoland, out next week.

Video: Massive Attack – “Splitting The Atom”

Ska fans prepare to skank: The Specials reunion tour will include a stop in Toronto – the two-tone pioneers play the Sound Academy on April 19 – tickets $36.50 for floors, $46.50 for VIP balcony and The English Beat have a date at Lee’s Palace on May 18, tickets $23.50.

Video: The Specials – “Message To You Rudy”
Video: The English Beat – “Mirror In The Bathroom”

Pitchfork talks to Phoenix’s Thomas Mars about how it feels to be a Grammy Award winner.

The Music Fix has details on the next batch of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds reissues, which will arrive in 5.1 surround sound and with a plethora of bonus goodies, on April 5.

Aux.tv has assembled a guide to the many, many online video session sites out there in the wilds of the internet. Not comprehensive – five more started up while I was typing this sentence – but a good start.

Joseph YarmushWhen you’re Land Of Talk fan, you’ve got to keep an eye open. While any self-respecting follower of the band – or music-lover, for that matter – owns copies of their buzzsaw debut EP Applause Cheer Boo Hiss and the more nuanced but just as rewarding full-length Some Are Lakes, not everyone even knows about let alone possesses the now sold-out live acoustic L’aventure Acoustique document released between the EP and full-length. And while I, at least, did my best to notify the masses, I wouldn’t be surprised if most haven’t heard their most recent release, the Fun And Laughter EP which came out in the Fall to coincide with their first tour following Liz Powell’s recovery from throat surgery.

And if it’s slipped under your radar on account of not being available in stores, go rectify that right now. At four tracks (and three videos), it’s a bit slight in volume but there’s not a throwaway or weak track in the bunch – if anything, it’s a reaffirmation of everything that makes Land Of Talk great. The front half marries the more polished aspects of Lakes with the fierier approach of Applause and the last couple of tracks invokes their gentler side without sacrificing meatiness or feeling overly pastoral. Really, Fun And Laughter occupies the middle ground between their previous two releases which hasn’t actually been explored yet and if this is a sign of what’s to come on full-length number two, due out in Spring or Summer, then it’s going to be a doozie.

The aforementioned Fall tour covered both coasts of the US but didn’t end up making its way into eastern Canada, an oversight that’s being rectified in April as the band charts a short jaunt with Adam & The Amethysts starting in Powell’s old stomping grounds of Guelph, through Toronto and Kingston and up to Wakefield, Quebec, a little ways outside Ottawa. The Toronto date is April 8 at Lee’s Palace and while tickets are $10, area folk who’ve not gotten their hands on a copy of the EP will actually be rewarded for their procrastination because they’re offering a deal wherein you can get the EP, normally $7, and a ticket to the show for a total of $15 – so that’s essentially admission for $8 with no service charge. There is no earthly reason to not do this.

MP3: Land Of Talk – “May You Never”
Video: Land Of Talk – “It’s Okay”
Video: Land Of Talk – “The Man Who Breaks Things (Dark Shuffle)”
Video: Land Of Talk – “Some Are Lakes”

Okay, one reason not to go to the Land Of Talk show is that it’s the same night Owen Pallett plays the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Maybe you already have tickets. Maybe you prefer violins to guitars. Maybe you know who’s opening. Either way, Chart and Tiny Mix Tapes have interviews with Pallett and NYC Taper is sharing a recording of his show in New York in January. NYC Taper, incidentally, was recently profiled by The Village Voice. There’s a new remix of a Heartland track up for grabs as well.

MP3: Owen Pallett – “Keep The Dog Quiet” (Simon Bookish remix)

To everyone who’s been enjoying the (relatively) low profile that Broken Social Scene has been keeping for the past four years or so… break’s over. Just in time for their performance at the Toronto Islands on June 19, they’ll release their new, as-yet untitled album on May 4 – which happens to be the same day The New Pornographers drop their latest, Together. Shades of Blur vs Oasis, August 1995? If only. Pitchfork talks to Kevin Drew about the making of the new album and Paste does the same with head Pornographer Carl Newman.

The now-defunct Oh No Forest Fires have left a farewell gift in the form of a second album, entitled Wants To Try Something. And an unsightly stain on the Horseshoe stage, but let’s not talk about that.

ZIP: Oh No Forest Fires / Wants To Try Something

Spinner declares The Balconies a band you oughta know. They’re at the Drake Underground on February 10, as soon as they’re back from their tour of eastern Canada which they’ve been diligently blogging.

Exclaim talks to Woodhands, who’re giving away a new Pitchfork-baiting/hating track. For kicks, I guess.

MP3: Woodhands – “P’iss”

The Hylozoists have released a new video from last year’s L’Ile de Sept Villes.

Video: The Hylozoists – “Bras D’Or Lakes”

Spinner talks to Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton. They play the Drake Underground on February 11 and do an in-store at Soundscapes on February 14.

Le Hiboo has a video session of Basia Bulat performing “The Shore” in Paris whilst wearing a jaunty beret. The London Free Press has an interview with Bulat and a short chat with her viola player, Alison Stewart. Basia Bulat plays an in-store at Soundscapes on February 16.

The Toronto Star contemplates the many faces of Neil Young while Paste reports that he’s started work on his next album.

The Line Of Best Fit has posted their seventh volume of “Oh! Canada” Can-con mixes to download.

Doron GildThere’s a lot of New York in Eyelid Movies, the debut album from the duo of Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel known as Phantogram, and while the pair do indeed have Empire State license plates on their cars, they don’t hail from a Brooklyn bedsit or East Village walk-up, but the town of Greenwich way upstate – as close to Montreal as it is to Manhattan.

But you couldn’t tell that from just listening to the record – Its synthetic dream-pop owes a lot to bands who hail from Gotham, recalling in particular recent Blonde Redhead, though poppier and dancier than that trio. The similarities lie in their borrowing ideas liberally from a wide range of styles, incorporating meaty synth textures, cut-and-paste sampled hip-hop beats and guitars that are as inclined to jangle as drone and tying them together with a devotion to melody and Barthel and Carter’s contrasting vocals – hers dulcet and emotive, his rougher and anguished. It’s a combination that makes for an interesting yet accessible listen that’s honest in its influences while crafting its own identity.

Eyelid Movies is out February 9, and is currently streaming in its entirety at NPR. They set out on an east coast tour this week that stops at the Drake Underground in Toronto on February 20. Bloginity.com has an interview with Josh Carter.

MP3: Phantogram – “When I’m Small”
Stream: Phantogram / Eyelid Movies

PitchforkTV has a fancy video session with Beach House while Daytrotter has posted an audio session you can download for your very own. Not wanting to feel left out, Grand Crew points out they’ve got a complete show from last Summer in Paris to watch. The San Francisco Chronicle also has an interview with the duo, whom you can see at the Opera House on March 30.

Pitchfork talks to The National’s Matt Berninger about their new album, which is due out in May and has yet to be titled. They are at Massey Hall on June 8.

Filter has a two-part interview with The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, while Exclaim reveals that one of his upcoming projects will be performing a live score to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea – the 1916 silent film, not the Kirk Douglas-powered Disney version. Also newsworthy is the fact that 69 Love Songs is being reissued as a set of six 10″ LPs limited to only 3000 editions. You can pre-order it now with delivery coming around the April 20 release date. The Magnetic Fields are at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre next Monday evening.

MTV gets The Shins’ James Mercer to clarify statements made to NME about the band’s hiatus and his current involvement in Broken Bells with Danger Mouse, whose self-titled debut comes out March 9. Short version – Broken Bells now, Shins next year. Probably. Here’s their first video.

Video: Broken Bells – “The High Road”

JamBase converses with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats.

If you missed the free download of The Denton Sessions from The Guardian this weekend, it’s up for grabs at the Midlake website and the interview at The Guardian is still up. Their new album The Courage Of Others is out today.

Spinner talks to Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg about The Golden Dossier booklet which will accompany The Golden Archipelago on its release come February 23. They play Lee’s Palace on April 1.

NPR is streaming a live show by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists on the World Cafe last week. Their new album The Brutalist Bricks is out March 9.

And moving onto the concert announcements portion of the post – Snailhouse and Evening Hymns team up for a show at the Tranzac on March 25, admission $10 at the door.

MP3: Evening Hymns – “Broken Rifle”
Video: Snailhouse – “Salvation Army”

Jon Langford will team up with his Sadies for a show at the Horseshoe on March 26, tickets $13.50.

It’s ladies’ night at the Phoenix on April 9, when Girls and Dum Dum Girls roll in as part of a Spring tour. Girls are still riding last year’s Album while Dum Dum Girls’ debut I Will Be arrives March 30.

MP3: Girls – “Laura”
MP3: Girls – “Lust For Life””
MP3: Dum Dum Girls – “Jail La La”

The Album Leaf will set out this Winter and Spring on a North American tour in support of their new album A Chorus Of Storytellers, out today, and stop in at Lee’s Palace on April 28 – tickets $12.50, Sea Wolf support.

MP3: The Album Leaf – “Falling From The Sun”
MP3: Sea Wolf – “Wicked Blood”

Let’s Wrestle – discussed previously – have been added as support for Quasi’s upcoming east coast tour, including the April 18 date at the Horseshoe. Let’s Wrestle’s debut In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s gets a North American release on March 23 while Quasi’s American Gong is out February 23.

MP3: Quasi – “Repulsion”
MP3: Let’s Wrestle – “We Are The Men You’ll Grow To Love Soon”

Anyone who’s ever asked exactly what is meant by “gypsy punk” would do well to be at the Sound Academy on April 20 when Gogol Bordello and DeVotchKa come to town. Gogol’s live Live From Axis Mundi came out last year while DeVotchKa’s last release was 2008’s A Mad And Faithful Telling, though they haven’t been to Toronto since June 2006 – far, far too long.

MP3: Gogol Bordello – “Wonderlust King” (BBC Sessions)
MP3: Gogol Bordello – “Troubled Friends” (Gypsy Punk Sessions)
MP3: DeVotchKa – “Transliterator”
MP3: DeVotchKa – “Along The Way”

Sigur Ros can easily sell out Massey Hall, but for frontman gone solo Jonsi to schedule two (2) nights at the Sound Academy – April 30 and May 1 – to perform numbers from his solo album Go… well it’s ambitious. To say the least. The album is out March 23. Either they’re expecting it to be a hit or want their fans to have lots of elbow room.

MP3: Jonsi – “Boy Lilikoi”