New WestBlue Rodeo’s annual Summer shows at the Molson Amphitheatre are pretty much a Toronto tradition and they never have a problem getting people to come down to the lake’s edge and lounge about listening to old favourites, whether there’s a new record to support or not (their last release was 2009’s The Things We Left Behind). But this year’s edition is notable for offering the extra incentive of having Steve Earle & The Dukes and Duchesses on board as support.

That’s right, after a good long while of being Dukes-free – the last album with them on board was 2004’s The Revolution Starts Now – Earle has regrouped his long-time backing band to support his forthcoming album I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, though I’m not certain if they’re actually on it – haven’t gotten my hands on the record or its liner notes yet. What is evident is that the band has gone co-ed, and presumably includes more than just Earle’s missus, Allison Moorer.

In any case, the record is out April 26, Earle’s debut novel of the same name is out on May 12, the new season of Treme, on which Earle appears, begins April 24, and the show in question goes down August 20. Right now, however, you can download an MP3 of the album’s opening track and a chapter of the novel by liking Earle’s Facebook. Yeah, that doesn’t sound very outlaw but what can you do.

Video: Blue Rodeo – “Diamond Mine”
Video: Steve Earle & The Dukes – “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied”

In other show news – having sold the hell out of her show at the Opera House back in January, Lissie returns for a show at the Phoenix on May 28, tickets $24.

MP3: Lissie – “Everywhere I Go”

Austin instrumental outfit This Will Destroy You will bring their new record Tunnel Blanket, out May 10, to Lee’s Palace on May 30. Tickets $13.50 in advance.

MP3: This Will Destroy You – “The World Is”

Sweden’s Wildbirds & Peacedrums will be coming to town for a show on May 30 at the Drake Underground in support of last year’s Rivers, an album made up of their Retina and Iris EPs. Supporting them will be New York’s Yellow Ostrich, whose album The Mistress came out earlier this year.

MP3: Wildbirds & Peacedrums – “Fight For Me”
MP3: Yellow Ostrich – “Whale”

Ireland’s Bell X1 have made a date for The Mod Club on June 1 in support of their new record Bloodless Coup, out April 12.

Video: Bell X1 – “Velcro”

There’s no specific venue announced yet but Julianna Barwick, recipient of a “Best New Music” for her new record The Magic Place, will be in town on June 17 as part of NXNE, though that’s some interesting routing – Salt Lake City to Toronto to Seattle is not an especially common path to take across the continent.

MP3: Julianna Barwick – “The Magic Place”

Wrongbar gets just a little bit punk when JEFF The Brotherhood, The Strange Boys and White Fence hit Wrongbar on June 21.

Video: JEFF The Brotherhood – “Mind Wire”
Video: The Strange Boys – “Be Brave”

Montreal by way of Michigan saxophonist Colin Stetson, whose new record New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges is getting a lot of praise, will be at the Music Gallery on June 29. Timber Timbre talk to Exclaim about Stetson’s contributions to their new record and NPR is streaming one of his SXSW showcases from last month.

MP3: Colin Stetson – “Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun [ft. Laurie Anderson and Shara Worden]”

NYC Taper is sharing another live recording of Godspeed You! Black Emperor from last month. They’re at Lee’s Palace from April 22 to 24.

Also on offer from NYC Taper – a recording of Destroyer’s show at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan last week. Uptown and Square have conversations with Dan Bejar.

Owen Pallett has put out a new video from Heartland and a live show from Paris is available to watch at Grand Crew.

Video: Owen Pallett – “The Great Elsewhere”

Beatroute talks to The Rural Alberta Advantage, whose April 29 show at The Phoenix is almost sold out if not already.

It’d be nice if Southern Souls had a more scannable/searchable index of their content, but the sheer volume of on-the-street video sessions with Canadian artists still makes it worth becoming intimately acquainted with. And if that’s not enough, I just noticed that there are MP3s of many of the performances available to download – don’t know if that’s a new offering or if I just never noticed before, but yeah. Go to it.

Frank YangI’ve wondered a number of times in the past few years if John Darnielle even knew he was neglecting Toronto again. It took him more than a decade of operating as principal of The Mountain Goats to come to Toronto – his appearance at Lee’s Palace in May 2005 was his first visit ever – and after a few years of regular shows, neither his itinerary for 2008’s Heretic Pride nor 2009’s The Life Of The World To Come or last year’s Extra Lens side project saw fit to make their way up here. They did make it through twice in support of Get Lonely, but that was still three and a half years ago – four if, like me, you only went to the the first one.

A little ways into Sunday’s night’s show at The Opera House, he did indeed admit that he didn’t realize that it had been so long and while I don’t recall if he apologized outright, if his intention was to make it up to us in song… well, mission accomplished. The goodness started with the opening act, fellow North Carolinians Megafaun whom I’d been fortunate enough to see last year. The trio took their “warm up” duties seriously, doing their very best to get the audience roused and excited for the show to come with their spirited country-gospel-blues brew and genial down-home charm. Not many bands would offer their spare room to fans who come visit them in Raleigh and even fewer would actually mean it – but I’m pretty sure Brad Cook did. Want to see an immensely talented trio of musicians who just love what they do? Go see Megafaun.

The cult of Mountain Goats fans – who were out in force on this evening – have let me down as I’ve as yet been unable to track down a set list for the show. I’ve been a Goats fan since Tallahassee but don’t have nearly the encyclopaedic knowledge of John Darnielle’s body of work to try and compile a list of everything that was aired on Sunday night. But sufficed to say that their epic-length – we’re talking ninety minutes plus over a full set, six-song second set and single-song encore – set drew from all points of The Mountain Goats repertoire, from the just-released All Eternals Deck and back as far as 1995’s Sweden. Hell, maybe they went back as far as Darnielle’s 1994 debut Zopilote Machine; I don’t know, there was a good number of songs I didn’t recognize.

Even some of the songs I did know, I didn’t instantly recognize. For while The Mountain Goats have essentially been a full band since Jon Wurster joined Darnielle and bassist Peter Hughes for Heretic Pride in 2008, I had never seen them live as anything but an acoustic guitar-and-bass duo. And here they were as a quartet – keyboardist/guitarist Yuval Semo rounded out the live lineup – with a wealth of sounds and tempos and textures at their disposal; so very unlike the Mountain Goats I remember and so very very wonderful. Only the most steadfast purist would argue they sounded better as a duo or solo, and probably also wish that Darnielle would ditch the studio and go back to recording on a boom box. So when I say “steadfast purist”, I really mean “batshit looney”.

High fidelity Mountain Goats sound amazing and while Darnielle has always been an entertaining performer, seeing him really cut loose as a – dare I say – rock frontman is a revelation. And though (bare) feet did go up on the stage monitors at the show’s end, he’s hardly become a collection of cliched stage moves. As much a crucial part of the magic of the evening as the music was his between-song banter, delivered in his distinctive clipped cadence and covering topics such as why he wore no shoes on stage (inspired by Amy Grant), why he almost put rocks in his ears and his inability at age 15 to break up with his girlfriend honourably, amongst many others. Really, trying to summarize everything that made this show memorable would require pretty much a minute-by-minute accounting of the evening, and that’d be ridiculous. All I can say is that if you want to know what a live Mountain Goats show is like, see them the next time they come to town. And hope it’s not another three and a half years before that happens.

The Baltimore Sun has an interview with John Darnielle, NYC Taper is sharing recordings of two of the Mountain Goats shows in New York last week and Spin welcomed the band for an acoustic video session.

Photos: The Mountain Goats, Megafaun @ The Opera House – April 3, 2011
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “The Age Of Kings”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Damn Those Vampires”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Tyler Lambert’s Grave”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Genesis 3:23”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Sax Rohmer #1”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “New Monster Avenue”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Woke Up New”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Lion’s Teeth”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Palmcorder Yanja”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “No Children”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Baboon”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Family Happiness”
MP3: Megafaun – “Volunteers”
MP3: Megafaun – “The Fade”
MP3: Megafaun – “Kaufman’s Ballad”
MP3: Megafaun – “The Process”
Video: The Mountain Goats – “Ezekiel 7 and The Permanent Efficacy of Grace”
Video: The Mountain Goats – “Sax Rohmer #1”
Video: The Mountain Goats – “Woke Up New”
Video: The Mountain Goats – “This Year”
Video: Megafaun – “Carolina Days”
Video: Megafaun – “Impressions Of The Past”

Prefix, Square, The Lincoln Journal-Star and On Milwaukee have interviews with Sharon Van Etten, in town at the Drake Underground on April 12.

Prefix, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Gateway meet The Dodos, in town at The Phoenix on June 16.

Fleet Foxes have released a video from their forthcoming Helplessness Blues, due out May 3.

Video: Fleet Foxes – “Grown Ocean”

The Dumbing Of America has an interview with The Head & The Heart, whose self-titled debut should be in everyone’s shopping baskets when it comes out on Record Store Day next Saturday, April 16.

DIY and aux.tv have conversations with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes.

All five Terminal 5 recordings that My Morning Jacket are releasing leading up to the premiere of a new song from Circuital are up for grabs. A new song from Circuital will be revealed on April 12 and the album will be released on May 31. The band will be at The Kool Haus to play these songs for you and more on July 11.

MP3: My Morning Jacket – “Butch Cassidy” (live at Terminal 5)
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “The Way That He Sings” (live at Terminal 5)
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “One Big Holiday” (live at Terminal 5)
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “It Beats 4 U” (live at Terminal 5)
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “Smokin’ From Shootin'” (live at Terminal 5)

Will Johnson, following a stint as drummer for Monsters Of Folk, returns to his own works with the release of a new Centro-Matic record – Candidate Waltz will be out on June 21 and if you’re not familiar with Centro-Matic, Will Johnson has taken measures to address that via Twitter – namely a sampler compilation of tracks from every Centro-Matic album.

Paste catches up with Eisley, whose new album The Valley is out now. Check out two new songs – one live, one studio – below.

MP3: Eisley – “Ambulance” (live)
MP3: Eisley – “Smarter”

The Rosebuds have wrapped a new album and will release Loud Planes Fly Low on June 7 – check out the first MP3 from the record.

MP3: The Rosebuds – “Second Bird Of Paradise”

The Green Bay Press Gazette meets Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak while Magnet gives the kids the keys to the website for a week, starting with a Q&A. They play The El Mocambo on April 9.

The Von Pip Musical Express chats with Nicole Atkins.

Frank YangI wasn’t even intending to be at this show. The plan had been to catch The Joy Formidable at one of their many SxSW shows and thus free up this evening for something else or nothing else. A good plan, on paper, but one scuppered by the fact that the Welsh trio, who released their debut album The Big Roar Stateside on the eve of the festival, would turn out to be one of the buzz bands of the fest and any of the showcases I tried to get into were jammed to the point that getting a decent line of sight, let alone a good vantage point to shoot from, was nigh impossible. I guess what with the band having come through Toronto twice already in the past year and a third visit on the horizon, I was taking them a bit for granted. Lesson learned.

And so it was a third go-around for The Joy Formidable at The Horseshoe on Saturday night, though at least this time The Dig, who’d opened up the last two shows, had been swapped for labelmates The Lonely Forest. Clearly this quartet from the Pacific northwest, who just released their debut Arrows, is getting some attention from the powers that be, what with their being attached both to this tour and the upcoming Death Cab For Cutie jaunt later in the Spring. And that latter pairing makes a lot of sense, considering The Lonely Forest’s facility with energetic if slightly generic post-emo punk-pop. Still, what they lacked in originality they made up for in energy and on-stage pogoing and as one fellow in the audience called out, “I came for The Joy Formidable but you guys rock!”. That’s pretty much all they could ask for.

The Joy Formidable’s independently-released A Balloon Called Moaning was a nearly perfect introduction to the band’s fiery arena rock-meets-shoegaze sound, long enough to confirm that they were for real and short enough to leave you hungry for more. So when it came out that the band was re-recording half the EP for inclusion on their major label debut, there were some concerns that they might polish out some of its more delightful roughness in favour of a more radio-friendly sound. Concerns that proved to be unfounded as if anything, the new versions were even bigger, louder and spikier than before – almost the point of excess. And really, that applies to The Big Roar as a whole – it’s an utterly massive-sounding record and almost exhausting to get through, but the key word is almost. Unless you’re simply not in the mood for rock action on this scale, it’s an invigorating listen.

The principle of “more is better” also applied to their live show, though in this case it meant bigger, not longer. Despite having a pretty good wealth of material to draw on at this point, The Joy Formidable kept their set lean and mean, and still very very similar to the ones they brought through previously. It really only differed in a couple of song selections and the fact that they’d somehow gotten even more explosive as a live act. Frontwoman Ritzy Bryan has further perfected her psycho guitar-pixie persona and added in a dose of crazy eye, bassist Rhydian Dafydd now takes on more vocal duties and has added a Hulk Hogan ear-cup to his stage moves and drummer Matt Thomas, well he kept up which basically means he beat the shit out of his kit. The Joy Formidable ethos seems to be to make each song its own standalone epic and so while the show only ran ten songs with two-song encore and maybe an hour in length, it had more musical detonations than other bands pack into shows twice the length. All that said, I do hope that the next time they come through town which may well be sooner rather than later based on past history, they’ve mixed the set up a bit. Just a little.

Inland SoCal and Wall Street Journal have interviews with The Joy Formidable while Chart also has a review of the show.

Photos: The Joy Formidable, The Lonely Forest @ The Horseshoe – April 2, 2011
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Greyhounds In The Slips”
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Cradle”
MP3: The Lonely Forest – “Coyote”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring” (new)
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “I Don’t Want To See You Like This”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Popinjay”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring” (original)
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Austere” (original)
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Cradle”

PJ Harvey has released another couple videos from Let England Shake. She said one for each song on the record, and she meant it. The Sydney Morning Herald has an interview with Harvey.

Video: PJ Harvey – “Written On The Forehead”
Video: PJ Harvey – “Hanging In The Wire”

The Independent interviews Anna Calvi, who will be at The El Mocambo on May 27. I shan’t be there.

Clientele/Pipas side-project Amor de Días will team up with Damon & Naomi for a Spring tour that hits The Horseshoe on May 25. Yup, missing that one too. Both bands have new albums – Amore de Días’ debut Street Of The Love Of Days and Damon & Naomi’s False Beats and True Hearts – out on May 17.

MP3: Damon & Naomi – “Cruel Queen”
MP3: Amor de Días – “Bunhill Fields”

Pulp – who are the reason I’m missing the aforementioned shows – has relaunched their website, loading it with videos of people – both famous and not – covering their songs. Many of them terribly.

Paste catches up with the boys of Noah & The Whale.

With their best-of compilation out and out of the way, Ladytron have announced their next studio album will be entitled Gravity The Seducer and out September 13. Details at Pitchfork.

6 Day Riot have crafted a video for their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk”.

Video: 6 Day Riot – “Tusk”

DIY talks to Roddy Woomble about his new solo record Impossible Song & Other Songs and the fate of Idlewild.

The Daily Record talks to James Allan of Glasvegas, who are streaming their new album Euphoric Heartbreak for those who opt to “Like” it on their Facebook. Everyone else gets the first three songs. The album is out now.

Stream: Glasvegas / Euphoric Heartbreak

Clash talks to Mica Levi of Micachu.

Daytrotter has served up a session with Junip, who will be at Lee’s Palace on April 20.

Frank YangDan Bejar has been Destroyer for a very long time. Since 1995, according to Wikipedia, and in the past 16 years or so he’s put out ten or more albums – depending on your precise definition of an official release – many/most to great acclaim though usually from different corners as his habit of dramatically shifting styles from one album to the next seems to alienate as many as it attracts. So it’s interesting that his least conventionally Destroyer record to date – the smooth jazz/lounge synth and horn-heavy Kaputt – should be the one that has garnered the most universal acclaim. And so it was that while past Destroyer shows would draw respectably, their Thursday night show at Lee’s Palace would be completely sold out and even had scalpers out front. Scalpers for Destroyer.

Tourmates for this outing were Philadelphia’s The War On Drugs, who despite having been around for a few years themselves were perhaps best known for being Kurt Vile’s old band. But if Vile can find an audience then there’s no reason that his old bandmates can’t as well, as there’s a fair bit in common between the two and personally, I found The War On Drugs more interesting. They operate within fairly narrow stylistic margins – there’s a lot of repetitiveness and a general aversion to chord changes – but frontman Adam Granducie’s stream-of-consciousness vocals and shimmering, psych-country guitar excursions offered plenty of musical terrain to explore within them.

The last time I saw Destroyer was at SxSW 2008, circa Trouble In Dreams, and it was a performance that did nothing to improve Bejar’s reputation as a non-fan of playing live but still managed to be a fascinating and memorable show. So with that as a benchmark, the mind boggled at what sort of impression he could make if he actually seemed to care, and given that this tour would see him fronting an epic-sized eight-piece band – his last visit in 2009 was a solo show – it was pretty safe to say that this time out, he cared.

And to answer the earlier question up front: Destroyer made an amazing impression. With horns, guitars, keys, female backing vox at his disposal, the slickness of Kaputt was roughed and sped up in an excellent manner, with the smooth horns of the recordings turning tense and unsettling at points and contributing mightily to the sheer density of sound emanating onstage. Destroyer was sounding huge and Bejar, rarely speaking but still speaking more than usual, would frequently squat down in the centre of the stage with eyes closed, drink in hand and half-smile on his face like an audience member with the best seat in the house.

Given the musical configuration, I’d have expected the show to lean almost exclusively on Kaputt but the set list reached back as far as Your Blues through Destroyer’s Rubies and Trouble, the selections all largely recast in the Kaputt aesthetic and proving that Destroyer songs are as infinitely malleable as the Destroyer identity itself. For the encore, they tackled the epic-length single and Kaputt-closer “Bay Of Pigs”, and despite having lyrics sheets on hand for reference, didn’t make it through without a couple of flubs – not that that’s any grounds for criticism, it was actually pretty endearing to see Bejar crack up, even a little. Some may take some issue with The Guardian declaring Destroyer – who as an entity is almost old enough to drive – as a “new band” but there’s a genuine sense that with Kaputt, they’ve arrived and this show proved that also goes for the live experience.

Exclaim reports that one of Destroyer’s early sort-of-but-not-really albums is being reissued on vinyl – copies were actually available for sale at the merch table – and Metro and Madison.com have interview with Dan Bejar. Panic Manual and Chart also have reviews of the show.

Photos: Destroyer, The War On Drugs @ Lee’s Palace – March 31, 2011
MP3: Destroyer – “Chinatown”
MP3: Destroyer – “Dark Leaves Form A Thread”
MP3: Destroyer – “It’s Gonna Take An Airplane”
MP3: Destroyer – “The Sublimation Hour”
MP3: Destroyer – “Trembling Peacock”
MP3: The War On Drugs – “Taking The Farm”
MP3: The War On Drugs – “Comin’ Through”
MP3: The War On Drugs – “The History Of Plastic”
Video: Destroyer – “Kaputt”

Philadelphian psych-rockers Asteroid #4 have made a date at The Boat for April 29 in support of their new record Hail To The Clear Figurines.

MP3: Asteroid #4 – “Ignition Slated For Eight”
MP3: Asteroid #4 – “Wild Opal Eyes”

Just here a month ago, Telekinesis will be coming back to town next month as support for Portugal. The Man’s May 27 show at Lee’s Palace. They’ve also put out a spanking new video from 12 Desperate Staight Lines and are the subject of features at The Georgia Straight and The AV Club.

Video: Telekinesis – “Please Ask For Help”

David Bazan has announced a May 24 release date for his new record Strange Negotiations and accompanying tour, which includes a June 14 date at Lee’s Palace.

MP3: David Bazan – “Bless This Mess”

Having sold out Lee’s Palace this past weekend, Los Angeles’ Foster The People have already scheduled a return engagement for June 18 at the Mod Club. Their debut Torches is due out May 24. The Pitch and San Francisco Chronicle have interviews with the band.

MP3: Foster The People – “Pumped Up Kicks”

Eels have put together an extensive Summer tour and will be at Lee’s Palace on August 1. They’re also giving away a 3-song sampler of recent works in exchange for an email address – sign up on their tour page.

New York Magazine and The AV Club pay excellent tribute to the now-defunct LCD Soundsystem, while The Feast asks Nancy Whang what it’s like to be hanging it up. You can watch the entirety of their almost four-hour farewell performance from Saturday night on YouTube. Get comfy.

The National have made a video for their soundtrack contribution to the forthcoming film Win Win.

Video: The National – “Think You Can Wait”

Low’s new record C’Mon is now available to stream in its entirety at The Guardian in advance of its release next Tuesday. They play The Mod Club on May 1.

Stream: Low / C’Mon

NPR is streaming a World Cafe session with Janelle Monáe.

Friends In BellwoodsGetting kind of hyper-local for this week’s selection. About a week ago, Toronto post-punk stalwarts The D’Urbervilles appeared ready to be calling it a day, putting a cryptic “The D’Urbs are dead” message on their website along with a countdown clock. Many were disappointed but not surprised if this was indeed the case, given frontman John O’Reagan’s successes with electro-pop side-project Diamond Rings. But as it turned out, that was just marking time until the band emerged from their chrysalis, butterfly-style, in their new guise as Matters – an outfit with the same members, same tense and hooky musical stylings and presumably same great taste. Just now with an 80% less Google-able name.

So to mark the occasion, here is what I believe is was The D’Urbs’ last officially-released recording, a Timber Timbre cover that came out on the Friends In Bellwoods 2 charity compilation circa Summer 2009. In it, they take their labelmates’ dark and swampy blues and completely transform it, digging through the gloom to detonate an anxious and glammy energy bomb into its ghostly atmosphere. If it had appeared on their 2008 debut We Are The Hunters, it’d have been a highlight.

Matters officially release their debut single this coming Thursday at The Garrison when they open up for PS I Love You. Timber Timbre release their new record Creep On Creepin’ On this Tuesday and follow up with a sold-out show at Trinity-St. Paul’s on Friday night, April 8. Toro has an interview with frontman Taylor Kirk. There don’t appear to be immediate plans for a Friends In Bellwoods volume three, but donations to the Daily Bread Food Bank, for which the compilations were raising funds, is always a good idea.

MP3: The D’Urbervilles – “Magic Arrow”
Video: The D’Urbervilles – “Magic Arrow” (live in Ottawa)
Stream: Timber Timbre – “Magic Arrow”