Tom BeardMy first listen to Wild Beasts’ 2009 release Two Dancers didn’t go so well. The English quartet’s most distinctive feature – Hayden Thorpe’s otherworldly falsetto – comes on so strong that for the unprepared, such as myself, it can be disorienting to experience and my first instinct was to simply back away. It was like stepping into a dense jungle, in this case the dark and shimmering aural backdrop of Wild Beasts’ musicianship and before fully acclimating, being unexpectedly divebombed by a magnificent but terrifying bird that you can barely glimpse but certainly feel, particularly as you know it’s always watching you. Always watching.

If those terms sound more favourable than you’d expect given my opening sentence, that’s because after that initial retreat – and yes, motivated by the record’s Mercury Prize nomination – I revisited Two Dancers with Thorpe’s vocal range (and willingness to use said vocal range) more of a known quantity, was able to take the record in as a whole. And, as those who’ve been singing its praises since its release a year ago knew, it’s some piece of work. It’s as rich and sensual as rock music comes, and yet for all the implied lushness it’s almost ascetically lean in its construction at points. Equal parts glamorous and seedy, it may take some listens and patience to get into – at least it did for me – but the persistence is worth it.

Wild Beasts are set to undertake a short North American tour this week, and to coincide with it, they’re not only releasing a special 10″ single for “We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues” but are making the tracks available to download for free, for one week until August 9 – coincidentally, the date that Wild Beasts are going to be at the Mod Club in Toronto. Tickets for that show are $19.50 in advance but courtesy of Domino and Collective Concerts, I’ve got two pairs of passes to the show and one copy of said 10″ to give away, which will be bundled with one of the pairs of passes. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want Wild Beasts” in the subject line and if you are of the vinyl collecting persuasion, your full name and mailing address in the body and if you are not and just want a shot at the passes, your full name. Contest closes at midnight, August 5.

MP3: Wild Beasts – “All The King’s Men”
Video: Wild Beasts – “We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues”
Video: Wild Beasts – “Hooting & Howling”
Video: Wild Beasts – “All The King’s Men”
MySpace: Wild Beasts

Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos tells BBC that he’s been writing songs. Yeah, that’s all.

Hot Chip have recorded a Surveillance episode for PitchforkTV.

Sky Larkin have a new video from their second album Kaleide, out next week in the UK. North American release (hopefully) still to come.

Video: Sky Larkin – “Still Windmills”

Also with a new video to go with the release of their album is Oxford’s Stornoway, whose Beachcomber’s Windowsill is out today.

Video: Stornoway – “Watching Birds”

The Drums are sharing a track from their self-titled debut, which is out on vinyl on August 10. They’re at the Mod Club on October 20.

MP3: The Drums – “Down By The Water”

School Of Seven Bells have released a first video from Disconnect From Desire for leadoff track “Windstorm”. They’re at the Mod Club on September 15.

Video: School Of Seven Bells – “Windstorm”

Julien BourgeoisThe inimitable Jens Lekman has been a bit quiet since wrapping up support for 2007’s Night Falls On Kortedala but a the last couple weeks have seen not quite a flurry of activity from the Swedish singer-songwriter, but definite signs that he’s not been idle while away.

First came what he called “A Summer In 3/4 Time”, a downloadable mix/mash-up that started as a remix he did for Au Revoir Simone and turned into an extended aural treatise on 3/4 and 6/8 tempos spanning all eras and genres of pop music with some film quotes thrown in for good measure. There’s a breakdown of the what and the why at his Small Talk journal, but really all you need to know is this.

And while that was very unexpected and enjoyable, the real treat came last week when a new song surfaced and was made available for free in exchange for an email. It also came with an extended backstory describing its origins – your boilerplate boy loses girl on the eve of the US election, fakes being happy on Swedish TV and writes a song about it – but what’s most important is that the song is big and sweeping and pure Jens. And bodes very well for his next record, whenever it’s done.

MP3: Jens Lekman presents A Summer in 3/4 Time

Yours Truly solicits an acoustic performance from First Aid Kit; they’re back in North America this Fall and are at the El Mocambo on October 15.

The San Francisco Chronicle interviews Joanna Newsom.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of The National at Terminal 5 in New York last week.

The Fly solicits an In The Courtyard video session from The Morning Bender. See them in a similar setting on Wednesday afternoon when they play a free acoustic set outside The Big Chill ice cream in Little Italy, in between opening gigs for The Black Keys at the Kool Haus on August 4 and 5.

Spinner talks to Greg Edwards of Autolux. Transit Transit is out this week and they are at Lee’s Palace on August 24.

Matt Pond PA will be at the Mod Club on October 1. They released The Dark Leaves back in the Spring.

MP3: Matt Pond PA – “Grave’s Disease”

Punk legends Bad Religion will be in town on October 14 at a venue to be announced in support of their new record The Dissent of Man, out September 28.

Video: Bad Religion – “New Dark Ages”

How do you know Broken Social Scene are down under? Interviews in Australia’s The Vine and New Zealand’s Under The Radar. And oh yeah, their new video is out.

Video: Broken Social Scene – “Forced To Love”

If you haven’t heard it yet, NPR is streaming the whole of Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs – out now if you’re analog and tomorrow if you’re digital. They play the Toronto Islands on August 14.

Stream: Arcade Fire / The Suburbs

And last but certainly not least – Grinderman is at the Phoenix on November 11, full dates at Pitchfork. Grinderman 2 is out September 14.

Trailer: Grinderman 2

WikidepiaA Means To An End, the 1995 tribute album to Joy Division, is a curious entity. Though their status as legends had been cemented for many years, it was still largely an underground and music geek thing – I’m pretty sure you couldn’t get Closer t-shirts in child sizes as you can now (it’s true, I’ve seen them). And I remember a not inconsiderable marketing push behind A Means To An End when it came out – on a major label – even though there wasn’t really a single act on the track list who was a household name; at best they were dorm room names.

But maybe there was a kid out there who picked up The Crow soundtrack the year before and lost his shit to the Nine Inch Nails’ version of “Dead Souls” and actually learned that it wasn’t a NIN song and thus learned who Joy Division were and, being in the middle of the ’90s alt.rock explosion, wanted to hear their songs done by artists who were relevant to them (and unknown to everyone else, thus increasing their potential cool points). Maybe A Means To An End was for them.

And if so, then they’d have discovered New York’s Versus doing a mostly faithful but still distinctly Versus (thanks to the vocals of James Baluyut and Fontaine Toups) version of “Twenty Four Hours”. And they’d have become fans of that band through the rest of the ’90s, only to lose them when they went on an extended hiatus in 2000. A hiatus that would last a decade until this coming Tuesday’s release of On The Ones And Threes, a Versus record that sounds like Versus never went away. And then they would be happy.

Versus play Lee’s Palace on August 13.

MP3: Versus – “Twenty Four Hours”
Stream: Joy Division – “Twenty Four Hours”