Sarah BowlesIf there’s any upside – and I type this knowing that there’s not – to the fact that the holidays are over and it’s back to the workaday week, it’s that my inbox and RSS reader are once again filling up with interesting news bits (and tonnes of uninteresting ones) rather than lists upons lists and year-end retrospectives. And that includes concert announcements, of which there were more than a few yesterday.

Including a return to North America for the first time in a couple years from Brighton, UK’s premiere electro/indie/hip-hop/dance/rock party-all-over outfit The Go! Team. Their third record Rolling Blackouts will be out on February 1 and while their official tour itinerary only goes as far as the end of March and doesn’t cross the Atlantic, a Toronto show at the Opera House on April 10 has just been announced (tickets $23.50), so expect more dates to be announced in the coming days. Spinner has an interview with chief songwriter Ian Parton about the shift in lyrical direction on the new record, while samples of said album can be had via the video for the lead track and the stream of next single “Buy Nothing Day” – featuring vocals from Best Coast’s Beth Cosentino – over at The Guardian.

Stream: The Go! Team – “Buy Nothing Day”
Video: The Go! Team – “T.O.R.N.A.D.O.”

Also coming to town, fond of exclamations and parties are Vancouver’s You Say Party – though apparently the “!” was dropped in their recent name change – and Montreal’s Young Galaxy, whose new record Shapeshifting has got a lot of folks talking in advance of its February 8 release. Both are at Lee’s Palace on March 4, tickets $15.50 in advance.

MP3: You Say Party! – “Laura Palmer’s Prom”
MP3: Young Galaxy – “Peripheral Visionaries”

BBC Sound of 2011 shortlistee Anna Calvi will be in town for Canadian Musicfest with a showcase at Wrongbar on March 11. Her self-titled debut will be out on March 1.

MP3: Anna Calvi – “Jezebel”

Destroyer’s new record Kaputt is out on January 25 and though the tour dates with The War On Drugs are still patchy, there will be a show at Lee’s Palace in Toronto on March 31, tickets $15 in advance.

MP3: Destroyer – “Chinatown”
MP3: The War On Drugs – “The History Of Plastic”

They don’t really have a lot in common, but that’s not stopping …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and Surfer Blood from teaming up for a tour that stops in at Lee’s Palace on May 3. Trail Of Dead’s new album Tao Of The Dead will be out on February 8 and Surfer Blood will be putting out an EP sometime this year before getting to work on their major label debut.

MP3: Surfer Blood – “Swim”

The new British Sea Power record Valhalla Dancehall is up and streaming in its entirety at The AV Club, one week before it’s January 11 release.

Stream: British Sea Power / Valhalla Dancehall

NPR is streaming the whole of The Decemberists’ new album The King Is Dead two weeks before its January 18 release date. The band play The Sound Academy on February 1.

Stream: The Decemberists / The King Is Dead

Also up at the NPR has also got a new song from R.E.M.’s forthcoming Collapse Into Now, which continues to confirm that this record might well be pretty good. It’s out March 8.

There will be a new Strokes record in March. BBC says bassist Nikolai Fraiture says so.

Titus Andronicus have blogged a farewell to their founding bassist Ian Graetzer, who amicably left the band as of this weekend.

Specifics on the new Okkervil River record are still forthcoming, but Pitchfork reports that the first single “Mermaid” will be out on February 8 on 12″.

Laundromatinee has got a video session with Son Volt.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of the Drive-By Truckers’ New Year’s Eve eve show in New York. The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Boot talk to Patterson Hood about their new record Go-Go Boots, which will be out February 15.

Olle KirchmeierFor a band whose name implies durability and solidity, Sweden’s Concretes have had a remarkably fluid existence. Their 2005 self-titled debut introduced them as adorably introverted Motown revivalists while the follow-up In Colour took its title to heart, broadening their palette to include bigger pop arrangements.

It all went off the rails shortly thereafter, however, as the band had their gear stolen somewhere in the American midwest and then had to cancel the remainder of their tour after lead singer Victoria Bergsman fell ill with exhaustion. Her convalescence would become a permanent departure and though she would eventually returning to music as the critically-acclaimed, folk-oriented Taken By Trees, her former bandmates were left to figure out what would become of The Concretes.

The decision was made to carry on with drummer Lisa Milberg, who had taken a couple of lead vocal turns on In Colour, stepping out from behind the kit to assume the frontwoman role full time. I didn’t hear all of their next record Hey Trouble as it wasn’t released in North America, but the couple samples I did hear were underwhelming and I got the impression that, once again, the title was quite fitting with the band documenting the growing pains of their search for a new identity to tape. But now having heard their latest effort WYWH, I’d like to give Trouble a listen if just to fill in some of the blanks of how they got to where they are now – and from the sounds of it, it’s a smoky after-hours dance club.

WYWH – as in “wish you were here” – cultivates a dark, groove-based sullen disco vibe that suits Milberg’s wounded and worn vocals perfectly. It’s not a persona I’d have expected from her given her ebullient turn on In Colour‘s “Song For The Songs”, but it’s the perfect protagonist for haunting these songs. While the singles “All Day” and “Good Evening” emphasize the pulsing, dancier side of the record, it’s in the gentler moments like “Sing For Me” that the record’s heart really beats. I’m sure that many wrote off The Concretes when Bergsman left and yes, it may have taken them a record to find their footing, but they’ve more than successfully reinvented themselves with melodicism intact and plenty of new tricks to offer.

The Concretes kick off their first North American tour since their ill-fated one almost five years ago in a couple of weeks, and will be stopping in at the Horseshoe in Toronto on January 17. Tickets for the show are $15 in advance but courtesy of Collective Concerts, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see The Concretes” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, January 12.

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

Remember when music videos for songs from soundtracks were montages of clips from the film? Sometimes with footage of the artist acting as though they were also in the film interspliced? Well it’s only the former and none of the latter in this clip for Jonsi’s contribution to the soundtrack for last year’s How To Train Your Dragon feature, which is too bad because the world could use a CGI-ed Jonsi.

Video: Jonsi – “Sticks & Stones”

This Is Ellie, aka blog of RTHK Radio 3 in Hong Kong DJ Ellie Davis, has an audio interview with Emmy The Great, wherein she reveals that her second album might not be ready in time for February as originally intended, that the record will almost certainly be called Virtue and also offers an in-studio performance of a new song. And that was one mighty run-on sentence.

2010 buzz band become 2011 buzz band Cults have made a date at The Horseshoe for April 4, where they will preview material from their debut album due out in May. Which hopefully means they’ll have more decent material to offer than when they were here last August. Full dates at Death & Taxes.

MP3: Cults – “Go Outside”
MP3: Cults – “Most Wanted”

Toro Y Moi has skedded dates in support of his second album Underneath The Pine, due out February 22. Exclaim has the full North American itinerary, which includes a stop at Wrongbar on April 7.

MP3: Toro Y Moi – “Still Sound”
MP3: Toro Y Moi – “Blessa”

Frank YangThe first covers selection of 2011 is inspired by the first major record release of 2011, at least in my books, and that’s Valhalla Dancehall the new album from British Sea Power. And for the track, we reach back three years and a bit for Dig For Fire: A Tribute To Pixies, a tribute album dedicated to the college rock forebears.

The Brighton-based band not only turned their selection it into an instrumental, but they turned it into an ambient instrumental – the finished product has more in common with Caribou the band than “Caribou” the Pixies song. In fact, it’s nigh unrecognizable, even if you know what the song is supposed to be, the only obvious connection being the melodic hook at the end of the chorus. And while most of it’s rather serene – perfect for the post-New Year’s Eve weekend – it does get abrasive towards the end, because what’s a Pixies cover without a quiet-LOUD dynamic shift?

Valhalla Dancehall is out next week. Pixies continue to not release new music but make old show recordings from both their original run and reunion available for download. In addition, their latest best-of compilation Wave of Mutilation: The Best of the Pixies gets a double-vinyl release next week.

MP3: British Sea Power – “Caribou”
Video: Pixies – “Caribou” (live @ Coachella)