Frank YangEvery relationship waxes and wanes over time, and mine with Interpol is no different. Like many/most, I fell for the blend of post-punk and atmospheric rock on their debut Turn On The Bright Lights, an infatuation cemented by a stellar show at the Horseshoe way back in September 2002. The bloom started coming off the rose not long after, though, with a lacklustre show at the Kool Haus a year later where they were clearly exhausted from touring the world and should probably have just gone home and gotten a good night’s sleep rather than book one more North American leg.

When their second album Antics arrived in 2004, surrounded by a sea of sonic imitators, my attention was already wandering and by the time their major label debut Our Love To Admire came out in 2007, I was detached enough to be able to regard it objectively and heard a band struggling with how to grow artistically without losing their distinctive sound and ending up compromising on both fronts. Their V Fest 2007 appearance, however, was still pretty solid and reminded me of why I liked them in the first place.

Fast-forward to 2010, specifically Tuesday night at the Kool Haus in Toronto. Circumstances beyond their control – namely their leaving Capitol after one album and the departure of founding bassist Carlos Dengler – have forced Interpol out of their comfort zone and though three years isn’t that long a time, the musical landscape has changed enough that they may be finding themselves in the unfamiliar position of being underdogs. And though these dates in advance of the September 7 release of their self-titled fourth album were ostensibly to make up for their support slots on the cancelled U2 Summer tour, also on the agenda was retrenching and seeking to remind fans why Interpol were the soundtrack to their early-mid ’00s.

Striding on stage besuited and dapper as ever, the five-piece touring ensemble started things off with the new and hopefully prescient “Success”, the pulsing opener to Interpol. It’s interesting that after getting progressively cleaner-sounding with each album, the new record dives back into the sonic muck, relatively speaking, thanks to post-production work from uber-shoegaze producer Alan Moulder, and while it still doesn’t reach the heights of their debut, it does possess a pleasing denseness and sophistication that hits the balance that they were striving for on Love. It would be only one of four new songs previewed, though, as the bulk of the set stuck to their first two records and thereby ensured the just-about sold-out house would remain largely enraptured for 90 minutes or so and lose their shit more than a few times for numbers – classics? – like “PDA”, “NYC” and “Slow Hands”.

In the past, it was Dengler – all low-slung bass, questionable moustache and irresistible aloofness – who acted as the visual focus for the band but with him gone and touring players Dave Pajo and Brandon Curtis off to the side tending to their bass and keyboard duties respectively, it left guitarists Paul Banks and Daniel Kessler to provide the band’s stage presence. Kessler obliged, barely standing still throughout the show in favour of dancing/lurching around the stage and Banks, never the most magnetic frontman, was somehow more charismatic and animated than in the past. Even with the new players, Interpol were superbly tight throughout, performing with a nimbleness and weight that you can’t take for granted. That cohesion has always their greatest strength, moreso than any showmanship, so it was a relief to see that that survived the lineup changes.

It can be argued that Interpol sound and style are so tightly tied to a time and place that it would be hard if not impossible for them to ever regain that level of relevance. But it’s also true that while all the imitators that followed in their wake have largely disappeared, the original article has persisted and stayed true to themselves well past fashionable, and it still resonates. Either way, it feels good to have Interpol back.

eye, The Chicago Sun-Times and Charleston City Paper talk to Fogarino and aux.tv with Paul Banks about life in Interpol post-Dengler. Exclaim, Chart and Music Vice have reviews of the show.

Photos: Interpol @ The Kool Haus – August 10, 2010
MP3: Interpol – “Lights”
MP3: Interpol – “NYC”
MP3: Interpol – “PDA”
Video: Interpol – “Lights”
Video: Interpol – “The Heinrich Maneuver”
Video: Interpol – “No I In Threesome”
Video: Interpol – “Mammoth”
Video: Interpol – “C’Mere”
Video: Interpol – “Evil”
Video: Interpol – “Slow Hands”
Video: Interpol – “PDA”
Video: Interpol – “Obstacle 1”
Video: Interpol – “NYC”
MySpace: Interpol

Belle & Sebastian have released some of the salient details about their next album – it will be called Write About Love, look like this and be out on some yet to be announced date this Fall – probably sometime around their October tour dates that include Massey Hall on the 12th of the month.

Pitchfork talks to Isobel Campbell about her new album with Mark Lanegan Hawk, out August 24, cancelled shows and the state of her relationship with her old band. She and Lanegan are at Lee’s Palace on October 20.

The Vaselines have released a video for the title track from Sex With An X. The record is out September 14 and they play The Horseshoe on October 30.

Video: The Vaselines – “Sex With An X”

The triple-bill of Dawes, Peter Wolf Crier and Vetiver will be at the Horseshoe on November 8. For Peter Wolf Crier, it’ll be their second time in town in just over a month and a half as they’re also part of a bill with Rogue Wave and Midlake at the Opera House on September 24. There’s a concert video with them available over at Baeble Music.

MP3: Dawes – “Love Is All I Am”
MP3: Peter Wolf Crier – “Hard As Nails”
MP3: Vetiver – “Strictly Rule”

Support for Band Of Horses’ October 21 show at the Kool Haus has been announced as Jenny & Johnny (as in Lewis and Rice) and The Besnard Lakes.

MP3: The Besnard Lakes – “Albatross”

NOW features Forest City Lovers, playing a record release show for Carriage at the Great Hall tonight.

Exclaim reports that after celebrating their 10-year anniversary earlier this year, Constantines have gone on indefinite hiatus.

Bryan Lee-O’MalleyYesterday afternoon, the words “Scott Pilgrim” became the top trending topic worldwide on Twitter, a remarkable if probably fleeting accomplishment that kind of underscores how big a deal the release of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (the motion picture) this coming Friday is… at least to people on Twitter. And like indie rock. And comic books. And (old-school) video games. And Toronto. In other words, people like me. And possibly/probably you.

And so I present to you a selection of particularly interesting or entertaining links culled from the veritable ocean of Pilgrim-related articles, interviews, videos, games and online tchotchke related to the film. Or at least the ones I found. There’s this About.com interview with series creator Bryan Lee-O’Malley, these The Los Angeles Times and AV Club conversations with film director Edgar Wright, this The Toronto Star interview both Wright and star Michael Cera, this series overview for newbs from The Globe & Mail, this collection of fake Lucas Lee movie posters, this MTV cast interview video at their Lee’s Palace soundstage (with an explanation of why they didn’t use the real Lee’s as a set), this Newsarama interview with various cast members and this other Los Angeles Times piece interviewing music supervisor Nigel Godrich and contributor Beck about putting together the music for the film.

Advance reviews of the film are pretty good but I’m sure once you adjust for geekdom, it’s awesome. I will have to wait a while to see for myself, though, as other engagements will keep me from making it to a theatre probably until Monday or Tuesday. But to hold me over, I re-read the whole series last night and have this fascinating interactive trailer, this brilliant trailer assembled from frames of the comic, this video of Jason Schwartzman and Michael Cera doing the weather for an Atlanta news broadcast and as the domino that will finally get me to perhaps get a modern video game system (or at least borrow one for a while), the video game trailer. And both the soundtrack and original score of the film are available to stream in their entirety at Spinner.

Stream: Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Original Soundtrack
Stream: Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Original Score

Bradley’s Almanac is sharing a recording of Arcade Fire’s show in Boston a couple weeks ago while Zoilus has posted a transcript of an interview with Win Butler. They play the Toronto Islands this coming Saturday, and congratulations to the band on scoring #1 records in the Canada, the UK and USA.

Owen Pallett will release a new EP on 10″ come September 28 – details on A Swedish Love Story available at Domino Records.

Movie Entertainment profiles celebrity Basia Bulat while The Edmonton Journal finds out about her next project. She’s at the Phoenix on October 26.

Prefix interviews Stars, who will be setting up at Massey Hall on October 23.

PopMatters asks 20 questions of Tokyo Police Club, who will be opening up for Phoenix at the Ricoh Coliseum on October 26.

Paste talks to Liz Powell of Land Of Talk, whose new one Cloak And Cipher is out next week. They’re at Lee’s Palace on September 16.

American Songwriter profiles American songwriter Samantha Crain. She’s at the Horseshoe on September 26.

Spinner inquires about The Thermals’ Personal Life. It’s out September 7 and they follow it with a show at Lee’s Palace on October 9.

Daytrotter has posted a session with First Aid Kit and another with Ferraby Lionheart, who will be opening up for them at the El Mocambo on October 15.

The first video from Grinderman’s Grinderman 2 is out and yes, it’s 100% ridiculous. Grinderman 2 is out September 14 and they play the Phoenix on November 11.

Video: Grinderman – “Heathen Child”

Kate Nash, having played the deliberately undersized Mod Club back in April, brings her second album My Best Friend Is You back to town for a show at the Phoenix on November 13 as part of an extensive Fall tour. The Sydney Morning Herald has an interview.

Video: Kate Nash – “Do Wah Do”

The Cribs have just released a new video for a non-album single entitled “Housewife”.

Video: The Cribs – “Housewife”

This Is Fake DIY has got an acoustic session with Sky Larkin and The Yorkshire Evening Post an interview.

Blurt has a feature piece on The Wedding Present.

Denny RenshawWhen Sufjan Stevens came out of nowhere last August to announce a show that October at Lee’s Palace, people – particularly those not among the 500 who got tickets – were wondering why he’d choose to play his first show here in four years in such a small room. Surely he was big enough to play a room on the size and stature of, oh, Massey Hall? Well, almost a year to the day from that Lee’s announcement comes another one for a show almost a year to the day at – wait for it – Massey Hall.

The date will be October 13 and comes at the start of a massive North American tour that makes those intimate club dates last year seem even more intimate and but hits many more markets and while Stevens and his merry troupe will be welcomed with open arms at all of them, there is the question of exactly why he’s doing it. Last year at least, there were the BQE multimedia project and Run Rabbit Run rework to justify a tour – even though neither of those records was represented in the shows – but there’s been no official word about a follow-up to 2004’s Illinois. Perhaps this is their way of hinting that the album that The National’s Bryce Dessner told Exclaim that Stevens was recording this Summer is done and ready for release in mid-October? If that’s the case, then they’re clearly eschewing the traditional long lead time and will probably spring the official release of the album with short notice, thereby driving the indie-net into a tizzy and ensuring that people mispronounce “Sufjan” well into the Winter.

Whatever’s happening on that front will be revealed when it’s revealed. Far more pressing is the matter of presales for this tour, which goes TODAY at 1PM Eastern time for all dates – presumably through Asthmatic Kitty – and regular public onsale for all other seats goes this Friday at 10AM. Tickets are $40 for floor and balcony and $34 for galleries. And yes, the October 13 date does indeed come one day after Belle & Sebastian play the same venue – we may as well just wrap up the Old Lady of Shuter Street in a ratty cardigan and be done with it.

MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “The Henney Buggy Band”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “Casimir Pulaski Day”

Other announcements of note… Amusement Parks On Fire – who were held up as the second coming of My Bloody Valentine a few years back but turned out to just be pretty good if not especially original shoegaze disciples – will release their third album Road Eyes on October 5 and be accompanying The Boxer Rebellion on their North American tour including the September 27 date at the Horseshoe.

Video: Amusement Parks On Fire – “Venus In Cancer”

Rae Spoon has booked a cross-Canada tour in support of his new record Love Is A Hunter which is due out on August 17. Exclaim has the dates, which includes an October 21 engagement at the Gladstone in Toronto.

MP3: Rae Spoon – “You Can Dance”
Video: Rae Spoon – “Love Is A Hunter”

Hey, remember a couple of years ago when Mumford & Sons were here as support for Laura Marling? Or back in February when they played Lee’s Palace? Well friends, those days are long gone and British bluegrass is apparently very much what’s hot now – witness their just announced Fall tour which puts them at the Sound Academy on November 13, tickets $21 general admission and $35 for VIP balcony on sale Friday at 10AM.

Video: Mumford & Sons – “The Cave”

Sarah Harmer has set a date at Massey Hall on November 20 in support of her new record Oh Little Fire. Tickets will range from $32.50 to $42.50, on sale next Monday at 10AM. The Edmonton Journal and Vancouver Sun have interviews.

Video: Sarah Harmer – “Captive”

And because you apparently can’t giveth without taketh, the October 1 Gayngs show at the Phoenix has been cancelled; no reason given. Everyone hoping their slow jams would get them some lovin’ is just going to do it the old fashioned way and get their dates liquored up.

Frank YangHeading into Saturday night, I had a managed to go a full six weeks without hitting a club show – only partly by design – and feeling on the cusp of official “shut-in” status and a full week of activities coming up, I figured that it was a good time to start getting back into game shape with a trio of bands with whom I was only passingly familiar – enough so to think that it might be a good show, but not enough to really know what to expect.

Leading off were Brooklyn’s Laura Stevenson & The Cans, who at the core are sweet, jangly and slightly twangy pop-rock but get a bit orchestral and right noisy around the edges. Namesake Stevenson has an immediately likeable crystalline voice and her bandmates do a fine job of providing the proper accompaniment to keep things dynamic and interesting. Apparently not enough to keep the folks standing beside me from believing that loudly quoting 30 Rock jokes was more entertaining than what was going on onstage, but what can you do. Stevenson’s record A RecorD is available for free download with donations welcome. You should do both of these things.

New York duo Cults came into the night with the highest buzz-to-recording ratio, the enthusiasm that met their “Go Outside” 7″ earlier this Summer being responsible for their being able to tour the continent before they’d released anything else and do it as a full six-piece band instead of just the core two-piece with taped backing tracks. And while they had more than the four songs released so far to fill up a set, it may have been a blessing that being held up at the border and arriving at the club late forced them to truncate their show a bit. While the newer material fit the Motown-in-Summer mould that the single did, none of it was as instantly catchy and their relative green-ness as a live act was also evident – what made Madeline Follin’s vocals sound sweet and girly on record came across thin on stage and co-conspirator Brian Oblivion had the annoying habit of constantly brushing his hair back behind his ears while playing. That aside, they were clearly comfortable as live performers – no given – and they’ve got a good sound so one hopes they’ll improve with time. What I got most out of their set, though, was just how much I miss Saturday Looks Good To Me, who did what Cults do so much better and were summarily ignored for it. Oh SLGTM.

I’d given Maps & Atlases’ latest Perch Patchwork a number of listens in advance of the show to try and get a handle on exactly what the Chicago quartet were about and… well, I’m pretty sure I failed. Were they math-rock? Prog-rock? Jam-rock? Pop-rock? Folk-rock? Just rock? The answer, apparently, was yes. Maps & Atlases somehow straddle all of these genres and while you can’t say their union is seamless – some sounds weren’t meant to go gently together – they largely make it work thanks to the fact that they’re all astonishing musicians and they seem to think what they’re doing is perfectly normal. Constantly shifting tempos and time signatures rendered by heavy yet nimble percussion and mad guitar tapping figures underneath, high and lonesome vocals and plaintive melodies overtop. Certainly, no one sounds like them and like most distinctive bands, they drew a modestly-sized but wholly enthusiastic audience who cheered wildly for every feat of musicianship, of which there were many. I didn’t fall in love with them, but I was impressed. And that was enough.

Photos: Maps & Atlases, Cults, Laura Stevenson & The Cans @ The Horseshoe – August 7, 2010
MP3: Maps & Atlases – “Solid Ground”
MP3: Cults – “Go Outside”
MP3: Cults – “Most Wanted”
MP3: Laura Stevenson & The Cans – “Holy Ghost!”
Video: Cults – “Oh My God”
MySpace: Maps & Atlases
MySpace: Laura Stevenson & The Cans

Spinner has an Interface session with The National.

NYC Taper has a recording of Spoon set opening up for Arcade Fire at Madison Square Garden in New York last Wednesday.

In conversation with Spinner, Interpol’s Sam Fogarino discusses Interpol and the band’s journey from indie to major to indie again. The record is out September 7 and they’re at the Kool Haus tomorrow night.

NPR is streaming a World Cafe session with Laura Marling.

St. Louis Today chats with Phoenix guitarist Laurent Brancowitz. They play the Ricoh Coliseum on October 26.

NPR interviews Bjork.

This is a track that I forgot I had in my archives and which elicited a double-take when I was cruising for something to post. I didn’t believe it was tagged correctly or was some sort of hoax, but no – that thick Scottish brogue does indeed belong to former Arab Strap-per Malcolm Middleton, he is indeed trading verses with Craig Finn whilst the rest of The Hold Steady back him up and yes, that is indeed a Bryan Adams tune they’re tackling.

It was recorded in May of 2009 for the BBC Radio 1 and it was a Hold Steady session and interview with Colin Murray and the necessary background for how and why the Brooklyn bar rockers and Glaswegian moper got together in the first place is well-covered at Lip Service Librarian and MP3s of the whole interview and session – which also includes a Zep cover – can be found at The Hold Steady Taped Show Archive.

The Hold Steady are spending 2010 promoting their latest record Heaven Is Whenever. Malcolm Middleton’s last solo record Waxing Gibbous came out last Summer. The first two Arab Strap albums The Week Never Starts Round Here and Philophobia are being reissued on August 17, each with a bonus disc of BBC session material. Bryan Adams is spending more time as a photographer than musician lately and Canadian music is all the better for it.

MP3: The Hold Steady with Malcolm Middleton – “Run To You”
Video: Bryan Adams – “Run To You”