Patrick FordHad the weekend not already wiped me out before Sunday even began, I might well have made it a three-for-three for shows-in-evenings – or five-for-three if I had attempted to make any of the in-stores happening around town – by catching Peggy Sue at Sneaky Dee’s on Sunday night. And if that had happened, you might be reading a live review of their show. But I didn’t, and so you’re not.

But even without my notes from the Toronto stop of their ongoing North American tour – Friends With Both Arms was and has some thoughts and remember, I caught them last time they visited – there’s plenty to talk about with regards to the English trio. They just released their debut album Fossils And Other Phantoms in North America – hence the tour – and melange of folk, soul and blues that their Lover Gone EP hinted at arrives on it fully-formed. It’s a darkly-hued and unexpectedly sensual record filled with tales of love gone wrong, gone off or just gone away, all delivered in the affectingly unvarnished voices and multi-instrumentalism of Katy Young and Rosa Slade and backed by the clattering percussion of Olly Joyce. It’s not the most immediate record, but given the proper attention its a rewarding listen.

As part of their tour, the band are recording a live video on location in each city – I’m pleased to be able to present their communiqué from Toronto, a reading of “February Snow” done by the garden car in Kensington Market. Enjoy it and check out the rest of the series at their YouTube channel.

And on top of that, there’s a Daytrotter session from this Spring and a video from Fossils – not a bad grab bag for having missed the show, eh?

Video: Peggy Sue – “Watchman”

Interpol have finalized details on the release of their fourth album. The previously announced window of mid-September has been clarified and the self-titled effort will be released on September 13, and somewhat surprisingly, it will be coming out on their original label of Matador. Their move to Capitol for 2007’s Our Love To Admire was one of the first in a run of indie rock stalwarts leveraging that success for life in the major leagues – and now they’re one of the first to return. Interesting.

The Line Of Best Fit chats with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.

Following the August 24 release of their Burning/Special Moves live video/audio documents, Mogwai will be screening the film component around North America – the Toronto date will comprise two screenings at the Drake Underground on September 14. There’s a new clip from the film available to watch.

Video: Mogwai – “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead” (live)

School Of Seven Bells will follow up the July 13 release of their sophomore effort Disconnect From Desire with an Autumn North American tour, supported by Active Child and including a September 15 date at the Mod Club in Toronto.

MP3: School Of Seven Bells – “Babelonia”

Laura Veirs and The Watson Twins will team up for a Fall tour that stops in at the Horseshoe on September 29. Veirs’ latest album July Flame came out in Jaunary, while The Watson Twins released Talking To You, Talking To Me a month later. Veirs’ Daytrotter session just went up as well.

MP3: Laura Veirs – “Wide-Eyed, Legless”

Stereogum has premiered an MP3 from the new Superchunk record Majesty Shredding, out September 14.

PitchforkTV has added a couple more segments to their video session with The Hold Steady. They play the Kool Haus on July 17.

Spinner, The Guardian and Billboard talk to Kele about The Boxer. The record is out next week and he plays the Mod Club on July 29.

Interview puts M.I.A. and the director of her “Born Free” video in conversation with one another.

Frank YangThis past Saturday night was one of those evenings with absolutely no shortage of options for Toronto concert-goers – and that’s even before Arcade Fire showed up to siphon off another 1000 people or so to the east end – so I wasn’t sure how well the Toronto debut for both Sweden’s First Aid Kit and Oklahoma’s Samantha Crain at The Rivoli would do, particularly since I heard that First Aid Kit’s free in-store at Criminal Records earlier that afternoon – which I had to miss – was only lightly attended. Any concerns about possibly being the only one there, however, evaporated when I got to the Rivoli’s back room and literally had to squeeze my way through throngs of attendees to get near the front. Yeah, people were there.

I was there to see the headliners but the addition of Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers to the bill – which required them to drive for 14 hours straight following their set at Bonnaroo the night before – actually had me more excited. I’d been hearing great things about Crain for over a year – before last year’s SxSW, I think – but had managed to not get around to hearing any of her music beyond a few drive-by MySpace visits, so her set promised to combine the joy of a new discovery with the assurance that it’d be good. And it was. Classifying Crain as a folk-pop singer-songwriter type is technically accurate, but really doesn’t do the scope of her talents justice. As her set ably demonstrated, in addition to writing songs that are both melodic and affecting, she delivers them in a voice rich with soul and a touch of twang and on top of all that, she’s a fierce guitarist – acoustic and electric, thanks. And she’s funny. Needless to say, everyone who’s been telling me that she’s great over the last however long – you were right. And to everyone who hasn’t heard her yet… you should. Her latest album is the just-released You (Understood). Seek it out.

Crain might have set the bar high, and First Aid Kit were well-set to clear it, thanks in no small part to being frighteningly tall. Both Klara and Johanna Söderberg measure in at close to six feet tall (the former just shorter, the latter a good deal taller) and considering they’re just 20 and 17 years old respectively, they might have a spurt or two left in them. But even so, their statures aren’t the most remarkable things about them – that’d be their voices. I’ve talked about how their respective quirks complimented each other perfectly on record, but it’s live that you really can’t help but be impressed by how perfect their pitch was – hearing them sing was like a master class in harmony. Accompanying themselves simply but effectively on acoustic guitar and keyboard (and occasionally accordion and autoharp), the duo and touring drummer showcased material from their debut Drunken Trees EP and the full-length follow-up The Big Black & The Blue, punctuated by sharp and sassy between-song banter (“we’d like to do a cover by a band called Fleet…. wood Mac”). The set highlight came about midway through when they stepped away from the mics to sing the beautifully sad “Ghost Town” unamplified to the full house. A close second was their encore, for which they brought out Samantha Crain and performed her “Dam Song”, complete with absurdly great three-part harmonies. There may have been plenty of other higher-profile entertainment options in town on Saturday, but I don’t think any of the hundred or so people who chose to hit the Rivoli had any regrets.

First Aid Kit have added another installment to their Filter tour blog (though the Toronto show only gets a passing mention – apparently we have nice architecture). Samantha Crain is profiled by The San Francisco Examiner, Oklahoma Gazette and The Oklahoman and also recently recorded a session for Daytrotter.

Photos: First Aid Kit, Samantha Crain @ The Rivoli – June 12, 2010
MP3: First Aid Kit – “I Met Up With The King”
MP3: First Aid Kit – “You’re Not Coming Home Tonight”
MP3: Samantha Crain – “Traipsing Through The Aisles”
Video: First Aid Kit – “Hard Believer”
Video: First Aid Kit – “I Met Up With The King”
Video: Samantha Crain – “Santa Fe”
Video: Samantha Crain – “Traipsing Through The Aisles”
MySpace: Samantha Crain

The St. Louis Tribune, Uptown and AV Club talk to John Darnielle and Peter Hughes of The Mountain Goats.

Spinner talks to Joe Pernice about the new Pernice Brothers record, Goodbye, Killer. It’s out today and available to stream for the next week at Spinner.

Stream: Pernice Brothers / Goodbye, Killer

The Flaming Lips have a new video from Embryonic available to gawk at. You can gawk at the band in real life at the Molson Amphitheatre on July 8 and get a preview of what to expect via this NPR stream of this past weekend’s Bonnaroo set, though you really need to get all your senses in play when experiencing a Flaming Lips show.

Video: The Flaming Lips – “The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine”

The Books will be on tour this Fall in support of their new record The Way Out, out July 20, and will be at the Mod Club on October 25.

MP3: The Books – “Beautiful People”

PitchforkTV solicits a live performance of “The Sweet Part Of The City” from The Hold Steady. They have a July 17 date at the Kool Haus.

Spinner is hosting a series of web videos from Fanfarlo entitled Under The Reservoir.

Magnet talks to Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake as the Fannies prepare to take over the editor’s desk of their website this week. Blake also talks to The AV Club about their new record Shadows and to Metro about moving to Canada (he now resides in Kitchener-Waterloo).

Spinner talks to The Joy Formidable about making their debut EP A Balloon Called Moaning.

Kele gives an interview to The Quietus and eye about his solo debut The Boxer, due out next week. He’s at the Mod Club on July 29.

Chart sics Narduwar on Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine.

That The xx are coming back to town isn’t remarkable in and of itself – they’ve already been here thrice since last December. What is remarkable is that for their Fall tour, they’ve booked their September 29 date… for Massey Hall. Tickets will be $25 to $45 with presale starting tomorrow, regular onsale come Friday. Presumably there’ll be a new record released between now and then, and say what you will about their suitability for such a not-so-basic space, but there’s no question that their show will sound great. Their Bonnaroo set is also up to stream at NPR.

MP3: The xx – “Basic Space”

Islands have set a date at the Mod Club for July 14 – tickets $13.50 in advance.

MP3: Islands – “Vapours”

July 21 brings Jason Collett out for a show at the Mod Club supported by Daniel, Fred & Julie; tickets $16.50 in advance.

MP3: Jason Collett – “Love Is A Dirty Word”
MP3: Daniel, Fred & Julie – “The Gambler & His Bride”

With his own show at the Opera House last Saturday in the books, Shad has been announced as support for K’Naan’s October 1 show at the Kool Haus. Best of Canadian hip-hop, anyone?

Miike Snow have a date at the Kool Haus on October 9, tickets $25.

Video: Miike Snow – “Black & Blue”

Frank Yang“Thanks for coming out on such short notice.” It was hard to tell if Win Butler was smirking when he said this, midway through the first night of Arcade Fire’s surprise two-night stand at the Music Hall in Toronto this past Friday night. After all, they had given the city just over 48 hours notice that these performances would be happening – though they did offer teasers throughout the week – prompting a mad scramble of canceled plans and fake sick days so that fans could line up for the one-per-person admission wristbands that only went on sale the day of the show.

It was the latest in a series of warm-up shows for the band, starting last week with a private house show in Montreal, through a couple of theatre shows in Sherbrooke, Quebec and a free parking lot performance in Longueuil, all serving to get the band back in game shape and build anticipation for their third album The Suburbs, due out August 3. Of course, accomplishing the latter didn’t require much effort on the band’s part save to announce that the record actually existed – since wrapping up their tours in support of 2007’s Neon Bible, the Montrealers have done remarkably well at keeping out of the public eye and secretive about what they’d be doing next and when.

The need for a retreat following Neon Bible was understandable. It was a tremendously heavy record, both from the weight of expectations as the follow-up to the universally-praised Funeral and its thematic burdens, being informed by the very height (or depths) or the Bush years. The resulting combination of ambition, angst and anxiety made for an album that tried to be grander than its predecessor and while it had more than its share of moments, ultimately came feeling insular and leaden and a relative disappointment. So while the first samples of The Suburbs that were released a couple of weeks ago didn’t immediately induct themselves into the Arcade Fire songbook hall of fame, they did seem to indicate that the band were taking a looser, more spontaneous approach to their songwriting – certainly a good start.

Which brings us back to Friday night and a familiar band in a familiar setting. It was at this same Music Hall on the Danforth that the Arcade Fire played a now-legendary three-night stand just over half a decade ago, and their first time back since their two nights at Massey Hall in May 2007. But rather than fill the bill with warm-up acts that would become huge themselves, this time out it was just Arcade Fire… and a thousand people who’d been waiting a long time to see them again. And at 8:30PM sharp, there was the roar of the audience as the band took the stage, the whoosh of seats being evacuated as the audience rushed the stage and the sound of Arcade Fire breaking into the aptly-named new composition “Ready To Start”… and we were off.

Though the 90-minute set would be heavily loaded with new material, it was well-sequenced to keep interest and energy up – the atmosphere was electric for the propulsive opener and then the even more driving (and familar via the single) “Month Of May”, but with the familiar opening chords of “Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)”, the crowd found another level of freak out. And so the show went – a brace of new songs and then a handful of classics, providing ample opportunity to compare and contrast the songs that will comprise The Suburbs with the old stuff. What I noticed most about the new material was that it felt less epic in scale, but deliberately so – as though they decided in writing that constantly trying to outdo themselves was the wrong way to go. The songs were more focused on finding a groove and riding that rather than attempting to jump the tracks at a certain point to grab sky, and had a more classic rock vibe about them – don’t expect the Springsteen comparisons that cropped up with the last record to go away. The lack of the big, anthemic moments might have disappointed some, but it really did feel as though the band had unclenched and were feeling more comfortable in themselves – it’s probably not a coincidence that Neon Bible‘s black uniform stage garb had been traded in for something in a lighter shade of blue. And while there were some obvious standouts in the new stuff – both “Modern Man” and “Rococo” had people in the audience looking at each other and nodding, “yes” – odds are The Suburbs will end up being a grower, and in the long run I think that’ll be for the best.

Time will tell how much truth there is in that statement, but what is not up for debate is that the show came to a head with what has always been and always shall be their coup de grace, their finishing move – the back-to-back body blows of “Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)” and “Rebellion (Lies)”. All the momentum that had intensifying up through the night, all the energy that had been pent up since the band finished touring Neon Bible, all the anticipation that had been building since their last Toronto show, came to a head with that finale and simply exploded, with the shockwaves carrying through the encore of “Keep The Car Running” and, of course, “Wake Up”. Though the song implies beginnings, here it was a fitting ending to the night. That Arcade Fire are a great band and an important band is not in question, but time away can dim the memory; this show was an intense and extraordinary reminder of why.

There’s more reviews of the show at The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Sun, eye, The Toronto Star, CTV, Pitchfork and Spinner. Arcade Fire return to play the Toronto Islands on August 14.

Photos: Arcade Fire @ The Music Hall – June 11, 2010
MP3: Arcade Fire – “Keep The Car Running”
MP3: Arcade Fire – “Black Mirror”
MP3: Arcade Fire – “No Cars Go”
MP3: Arcade Fire – “Wake Up”
Video: Arcade Fire – “Neon Bible”
Video: Arcade Fire – “Black Mirror”
Video: Arcade Fire – “Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)”
Video: Arcade Fire – “Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)”
Video: Arcade Fire – “Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)”
Video: Arcade Fire – “Rebellion (Lies)”
MySpace: Arcade Fire

Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning Chart engages in some trash talk with Olympic gold medalist rower Adam Van Koeverden in advance of their charity soccer game during NXNE which pits musicians against pretty much everyone else in support of Right To Play. Broken play the Toronto Islands the day before, June 19.

On Milwaukee, The Montreal Mirror, JAM, Winnipeg Free Press, hour.ca, Uptown and The Toronto Star profile The New Pornographers, coming to town for a show at the Sound Academy this Tuesday, June 15.

The Ottawa Citizen talks to Sloan, who are headlining the free Friday night show at Yonge-Dundas Square for NXNE this week.

Stars have begun streaming their new album The Five Ghosts in full over at NPR. It’s officially released as of next Tuesday.

Stream: Stars / The Five Ghosts

The Ottawa Sun interviews The Balconies, who are playing the top of the CN Tower on Wednesday night for NXNE and then on Saturday night in the Distillery District as part of the Wine & Spirit Festival. The former is invite-only but the latter is free to all.

Filter and The Gauntlet get to know Born Ruffians.

NOW, The Hamilton Spectator and See talk to Shad about his music while The National Post prefers to get his take on the NBA playoffs.

Joel DidriksenPast lineups for the almost-annual Toronto Island Concert (née Olympic Island) have had a charmingly random quality to them – Keren Ann on a bill with Modest Mouse? Sure! Feist back to back with Bloc Party? Why not! – but this year’s double-shot of Pavement and Broken Social Scene actually has some history behind it, besides the obvious pairing of the Summer’s biggest reunion and a hometown show for arguably the city’s biggest band.

Scott Kannberg, aka Spiral Stairs, aka Preston School Of Industry, kept busy in the years that Pavement was on the shelf. In addition to his own works, guested on Kevin Drew’s Spirit If… solo record and appeared at some of the accompanying tour dates. He teamed up with Broken as a one-off act called Human Milk when he curated Calgary’s Sled Island a couple of years ago and contributed to the new Broken album Forgiveness Rock Record. In return, Kevin Drew’s grandmother appeared on his debut record as Spiral Stairs – last year’s The Real Feel (no really) and generally – like most every band of their generation – were influenced by Kannberg and his compatriot. “Ibi Dreams Of Pavement”? Yeah. BSS + SS = BFF.

And whilst Drew was on tour as Broken Social Scene – the whole “presents” thing ditched from the concert bill early on – one of Kannberg’s best-loved Pavement compositions was trotted out as a cover. This recording of Broken Social Scene performing “Kennel District” from Wowee Zowee comes from their show in Washington DC in November 2007, recorded for posterity by and available to stream at NPR.

Pavement and Broken Social Scene are joined by Band Of Horses, Beach House and more out on the Toronto Islands this Saturday, June 19. Crawdaddy and The Prague Post have interviews with Kannberg about both the Pavement reunion and his solo work.

MP3: Broken Social Scene – “Kennel District”
Video: Pavement – “Kennel District” (live)

Frank YangClearly firm believers that the road to success lies on the road, Montreal’s Plants & Animals have been touring their second album La La Land relentlessly since before its release back in April, and with good reason. Their sprawling jam-happy classic rock approach works best on stage, where the trio’s musicianship and chemistry can be put front and centre – I wasn’t especially wowed be either their debut La La Land or their debut Parc Avenue, but they were one of the standouts at Canadian Musicfest thanks largely to their showmanship.

They’re putting that on display for Toronto for the third time in as many months with an all-ages show at the Opera House on June 24, following the aforementioned CMF gig and their free record release show at the Horseshoe in April. Tickets for the show are $18 in advance but courtesy of LiveNation, I have three pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Plants & Animals” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight on June 21.

Gothamist has an interview with Plants & Animals drummer Matthew Woodley.

MP3: Plants & Animals – “Tom Cruz”
Video: Plants & Animals – “The Mama Papa”