Frank YangI’m sure it was only coincidence, but the fact that Mumford & Sons sold out the 3000+ capacity Sound Academy the night before Johnny Flynn was slated to play a solo date at Lee’s Palace made for some interesting parallel drawing. The two toured together – along with some girl named Laura Marling who’s gone on to do some stuff – a couple Autumns ago and Flynn headlined all of their Toronto debuts at the dinky Rivoli back in October 2008.

Not that playing Lee’s is any small potatoes – some great careers never got to rooms much bigger – but one can’t help but ask why the former have skyrocketed to fame while the latter hasn’t. It could be because Mumford and co may work with the musical implements of folk and bluegrass, but their songs are unabashedly emotive, arena-sized anthems and I’ve heard more than a few people express surprise that they’re British rather than American. Flynn, on the other hand, ploughs a more traditional folk furrow in his music, more given to character-driven narratives and steeped in Englishness in both form and content. Not that these distinctions likely mattered to the hundreds of predominately female fans gathered at Lee’s on Sunday night – I’ll wager that most were at Mumford the night before and just as excited to be here.

Support for the evening came from Toronto’s own Evening Hymns, operating as just a two-piece. Their debut Spirit Guides had fallen out of rotation somewhat since finding its way onto my year-end list for 2009, but this show did a tremendous job of reminding me why I was so won over by it in the first place. At past shows, I’d noted that expansive sounds captured on the record worked better live the more hands they had on deck. So it was quite the pleasant surprise that the stripped-down configuration of principal Jonas Bonetta on guitar and keys, Sylvie Smith on bass and divine backing vocals and some looping pedals were able to turn some choice selections from Spirit Guides, a promising new composition and a cover into maybe the most affecting Evening Hymns show I’ve seen yet. Particularly ingenious was the way Bonetta pulled off “Mountain Song” solo, building rhythms and guitar parts via looper and then turning to the keyboard – loaded with all manner of patches and samples – to pile on the sounds that it would have otherwise taken a small orchestra to pull off. Judging from the tremendously appreciative audience during their set and the number of people wandering around with Spirit Guides LPs afterwards, I’d say Evening Hymns made more than a few new fans that night in addition to reaffirming old ones.

If by most standards Evening Hymns’ setup was minimalist, Johnny Flynn made their stage setup look like Pink Floyd’s. Appearing with just a resonator guitar and without his band The Sussex Wit, he proved himself to be one of the rare performers who can hold an audience’s attention for a full set with just their voice, guitar and songs. And banter. Between songs, Flynn was understated and charming, offering stories from tours past and present, and during the songs he was even better. Playing necessarily stripped-down versions of songs from his debut A Larum and the just-released follow-up Been Listening, he found enough range in what was at his disposal to do justice to the material and excusing the absence of the horns and drums which buoy the recordings. It didn’t come without cost, as singles “Kentucky Pill” and “Barnacled Warship” were conspicuously absent from the show – presumably too difficult to pull off alone – but “The Water” still sounded great even without Laura Marling’s harmonies and had he been playing with a band, you probably wouldn’t have had fun moments like when his voice cracked in the middle of “Shore To Shore”, necessitating a mid-song pause and apology before continuing. It was the sort of episode that underlined the intimacy of the show, but that said it’ll be nice if the next time Flynn returns, it’s with band in tow. And maybe at a room on the same scale as his peers, like the Sound Academy (kidding – no one wants to see anyone at The Sound Academy).

The AV Club talks to Johnny Flynn.

Photos: Johnny Flynn, Evening Hymns @ Lee’s Palace – November 14, 2010
MP3: Johnny Flynn – “Kentucky Pill”
MP3: Johnny Flynn – “Drum”
MP3: Evening Hymns – “Dead Deer”
MP3: Evening Hymns – “Broken Rifle”
MP3: Evening Hymns – “Cedars”
Video: Johnny Flynn with Laura Marling – “The Water”
Video: Johnny Flynn – “Barnacled Warship”
Video: Johnny Flynn – “Kentucky Pill”
Video: Johnny Flynn – “Tickle Me Pink”
Video: Johnny Flynn – “Leftovers”
Video: Johnny Flynn – “Brown Trout Blues”
Myspace: Johnny Flynn
Myspace: Evening Hymns

I think some kind of universal concert announcement embargo expired yesterday because show news was coming fast and furious, making 2011 something to look forward to. In chronological order:

It will be a very different Concretes at The Horseshoe on January 17 than the band that was there last in May 2006. The date is part of a North American tour in support of their disco-powered new record WYWH, which frontwoman Lisa Milberg talks to Spinner about. Tickets for the show are $15 in advance, Class Actress supports.

MP3: The Concretes – “All Day”
MP3: The Concretes – “Good Evening”

That previously mentioned Decemberists date has been confirmed as part of an extensive tour in support of their new record The King Is Dead, due January 18. And yes, come February 1, the faithful will have to trek down to the Sound Academy to see them. See kids, this is what happens when you like bands – they get big and popular. You’ve no one to blame but yourselves. But as an extra incentive, Wye Oak are opening, and they’re lovely.

MP3: The Decemberists – “Down By The Water”
MP3: Wye Oak – “Take It In”

Jim Bryson will be at Lee’s Palace on February 4 with The Weakerthans backing him up as they do on his new record The Falcon Lake Incident. Tickets for the show are $17.50 in advance.

MP3: Jim Bryson & The Weakerthans – “Wild Folk”

The reigning prom king and queen of California stoner garage pop – Wavves and Best Coast – have made good on their promise to tour together next Winter. Look for them at The Phoenix on February 6; Snacks the cat will DJ between sets.

MP3: Wavves – “Cool Jumper”
MP3: Best Coast – “Something In The Way”

Wire are back. Both on record, with their new record Red Barked Tree due out January 11, and live, with a North American tour that kicks off April 1 at Lee’s Palace. Tickets $22.50.

MP3: Wire – “Dot Dash” (live at CBGB)
MP3: Wire – “3 Girl Rumba” (live at the Roxy)

Lykke Li has released a video for the new single she’s been giving away, and has also slated a Spring tour that includes a May 22 date at The Phoenix, which is interestingly 1/3 the size of the room she played last time she visited.

Video: Lykke Li – “Get Some”

Brian Wilson will bring his as-advertised album Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin to Massey Hall next Summer, on June 18; tickets will range from $55 to $85.

Frank YangJust in case anyone was uncertain, let it be known – Grinderman are not fucking around. The subset of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds made their North American debut at The Phoenix on Thursday night, the first date of an extensive North American tour, and it’s just as well their set dressing consisted of plastic sheeting draped everywhere like one of Dexter’s kill rooms because shit was flying.

Sound, spittle and fury, Cave and company unloaded it all on the completely sold out room and in the process, made the distinctions between Grinderman and their parent project much clearer than they are on record. As the Bad Seeds’ last visit in October 2008 proved, there’s still plenty of fire in the unit even after 25-plus years. But whereas The Bad Seeds operate with an air of elegance and romance, even at their darkest moments, Grinderman functions as that band’s id, trading in any stateliness for an extra dose of sleazy blues and offering it up with pretty much one setting – in your face.

Opener “Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man”, the lead track from this year’s delicious Grinderman 2, set the tone for the night with Cave demonstrating his newfound penchant for guitar abuse – clearly having learned a thing or two from mad scientist bandmate Warren Ellis – whilst rhythm section Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos punished their bass and drums for an apparent lifetime of unforgivable transgressions. That vibe of unchecked id permeated the room, given focus through Cave’s mad preacher figure as he climbed around on monitors, leered at the front row and generally reaffirmed his position as one of the most magnetic frontmen in music, no matter who he’s playing with.

Though unquestionably seedy in tone, the show wasn’t all raunch – midpoint “What I Know” had Cave trading in electric weaponry for acoustic and allowed both Cave, who had sounded occasionally hoarse throughout the show, and the audience, who had been on the receiving end of their unrelenting aural thrust from note one, to take a breather. But that tenderness was more foreplay than anything as it set up the exponentially amped-up triple-punch of “Honey Bee (Let’s Fly To Mars)”, “Kitchenette” and “No Pussy Blues” and then smouldering set-closer, “Bellringer Blues”. By the time they left the stage, the show hadn’t even run an hour but after that sort of primal one-two, did we really expect to be held afterwards? And yet they had more than a little gas left in the tank, coming back as they did for a five-song encore that included a guitar-led “Palaces Of Montezuma” and yearning “Man In The Moon”. Running half as long as the main set and feeling a good deal moodier, it was an extended coda that acted as a complex and unexpected punctuation mark on a fierce and memorable performance.

eye, The Phoenix and The Boston Globe have Grinderman features while Spin, Chart and The Globe & Mail were also on hand for the show. And Anti- are running a Grinderman photo contest wherein you can be chosen to shoot one of the shows on the tour.

Photos: Grinderman @ The Phoenix – November 11, 2010
MP3: Grinderman – “Heathen Child”
Video: Grinderman – “Worm Tamer”
Video: Grinderman – “Heathen Child”
Video: Grinderman – “No Pussy Blues”
MySpace: Grinderman

The Guardian is streaming a new instrumental track from Richard Hawley, inspired by a visit to the Glenfiddich whiskey distillery in Scotland. There’s a second such track available to stream at the Glenfiddich website; you just have to pretend you live in the UK to access it. Elsewhere, The Financial Times talks food with Hawley.

Amy Millan of Stars talks to The Dumbing Of America, See and The Gateway while Chris Seligman chats with OC Weekly.

Black Book has a brief chat with Warpaint.

Sharon Van Etten plays a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR.

The Other Paper talks to Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater.

paulwesterberg.comIf Twitter is to be believed – and when has it ever been wrong about anything? – then yesterday was International Bowie Day, a day to pay tribute to all things thin white and duke-like. Which makes this the day after International Bowie Day. But every day is a good day for Bowie so I’ll not worry too much about being a day late, I prefer to think of it as being 364 days early for next year’s edition.

Point being, this week’s selection pays homage to not one but two of today’s great musical recluses. David Bowie, of course, hasn’t released a record of new music since 2003, toured since 2004 and sung live since 2006. And this trending downwards of activity hasn’t been accompanied by any formal statement of retirement or anything, thus keeping a flicker of hope in his legions of fans’ hearts that he might return to active duty soon, even though there’s no signs of that happening.

Paul Westerberg hasn’t quite pulled the same disappearing act, but his last widely available release was the soundtrack to the animated feature Open Season – not quite what one might expect from the man who fronted one of America’s greatest and most self-destructive rock bands in The Replacements. Since then he’s kept a pretty low profile when not tending to the Mats’ legacy via a steady stream of reissues, but occasionally pops up with digitally self-released homebrew albums or in the case of a couple weeks ago, a new 7″ under the guise of “Mr. F”. If nothing else, Westerberg is clearly keeping himself amused and his fans on their toes. Which is really how it should be.

And what Bowie and Westerberg have in common is this – a cover of the former’s “John, I’m Only Dancing” done by the latter way back in 1996, when Bowie was turning out a record every other year (Outside came in ’95, Earthling in 97) and Westerberg was working his second solo record Eventually. It was recorded for a radio session at San Francisco’s KFOG, the whole of which you can grab over at Captain’s Dead.

MP3: Paul Westerberg – “John, I’m Only Dancing”
Video: David Bowie – “John, I’m Only Dancing”

JagjaguwarWho: Delorean and Small Black
What: Two electro-dance-pop acts with big debuts hailing from either side of the Atlantic – Delorean bringing Subiza from Barcelona and Small Black crafting New Chain in Brooklyn.
Why: With both of their tours hitting Toronto on the same night, rather than force Torontonians to choose one or the other, they’ve teamed up for one big dance party, Voltron-style
When: Thursday, November 18, 2010
Where: The Mod Club in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Delorean brings Lemonade as support while Small Black brings Class Actress along for the ride.
How: Tickets are $15 in advance – there’s value for ya – but courtesy of Embrace, I have three pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want a Small Black Delorean” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, November 16.
What else: Austinist chats with Delorean while Small Black tell Spinner they’re going to work with Brian Eno if it kills them.

MP3: Delorean – “Real Love”
MP3: Small Black – “Photojournalist”
MP3: Small Black – “Search Party”

Nino AndresWho: Os Mutantes
What: Brazillian psychadelic-rock legends carrying on a reunion started in 2006, following an almost 30-year hiatus
Why: 2009’s Haih or Amortecedor was the band’s first new release in 35 years, so you’re damn skippy they’re going to tour behind it.
When: Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Where: The Opera House in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Co-headlining this tour are Californian nu-school psych-pop outfit Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
How: Tickets are $20 in advance, but courtesy of Union Events, I’ve got five pairs of passes to give away. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Os Mutantes” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, November 15.

MP3: Os Mutantes – “Anagrama”
MP3: Os Mutantes – “2000 E Agarrum”
MP3: Os Mutantes – “O Mensageiro”