Frank YangRight, so where was I? Oh yes, Iceland. Yes, still. With the (attempted) road trips portion of the trip over and done with, the Friday morning was spent doing a general wander around Reykjavik, taking advantage of some actual sunshine and only a little rain (documentation of which is over at the ever-expanding Flickr set). The weather again turned foul in the afternoon but by that point, we were on an Airwaves press bus tour that took us first to the studio headquarters of the Bedroom Community label, then to the Árbæjarsafn open air museum where we were introduced to the joys(?) of Brennivin vodka and dried fish. The final stop, which had been kept secret, was Nauthólsvik beach, where we were invited to go for a dip in the frigid sea before relaxing in an artificial geothermal spring. I graciously declined. Then, following a memorable three-hour fancy-pants dinner at Dill, located in the Norræna Húsið, it was back to the clubs.

Or the club, as was the case on this night. As far as I was concerned, NASA was the place to be and the huge queue out front proved that hundreds agreed with me. Happily, the VIP/media line was moving reasonably quickly and I got inside just as the mood of those gathered outside started to turn a bit rioty with shoving, yelling and more shoving. Not that it was any calmer inside the jam-packed club, but at least these people were freaking out for a better reason. Swedish electro-pop duo Niki & The Dove were just wrapping up as I got in, but from what little I saw they had star power in abundance. And hula-hoop dancers. Though they’ve been signed to SubPop in North America for a while now, they’ve only just started to release material – a 12″ single back in the Summer and a digital EP in The Drummer released just yesterday – but in occupying a space somewhere between Lykke Li and Florence & The Machine, albeit more synthetically-textured than either, but frontwoman Malin Dahlström has genuine star power and it’s hard not to imagine that by the time their debut full-length arrives next year, success will be theirs for the taking. The Guardian and Chronicle Live have interviews with the band and The Drummer is available to stream.

Photos: Niki & The Dove @ NASA – October 14, 2011
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “The Fox”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “The Drummer”
Stream: Niki & The Dove / The Drummer

I’m not sure if Merrell Garbus of tUnE-yArDs counts as a bonafide star yet, but considering she’d guested with Yoko Ono the night before and was one of the festival’s big names, as far as Airwaves and more importantly those piled into NASA were concerned, she was close enough. I’d missed her Toronto show a few weeks earlier, but did have her SXSW show as a reference point. Not that there was any comparing the Central Presbyterian Church in March with the atmosphere in NASA this night – the former was silent and respectful, the latter frenzied even by Airwaves standards – but what was common between the two was an incredible performance. Accompanying herself on drums or ukulele, Garbus led her four-piece band through a clattering, pounding, yodeling, and peculiarly soulful celebration of song while her fans danced and tried their best to sing along. I particularly appreciated the expressiveness of Garbus’ warpaint-decorated face because if there was a running theme with the international acts at this festival, it was how the uncertainty or even apprehension about playing to an audience for the first time transformed into elation at how joyously they were received by the locals. You never get tired of seeing the sideways glances between bandmates that communicate, “holy shit”. Not ever.

Photos: tUnE-yArDs @ NASA – October 14, 2011
MP3: tUnE-yArDs – “Powa”
MP3: tUnE-yArDs – “Bizness”
MP3: tUnE-yArDs – “Sunlight”
MP3: tUnE-yArDs – “Hatari”
Video: tUnE-yArDs – “Gangsta”
Video: tUnE-yArDs – “Bizness”
Video: tUnE-yArDs – “Real Live Flesh”

Compared to the two acts that preceded them, London’s Clock Opera – another highlight from SXSW – seemed positively conventional. But by any other standards, their balance of electronic and organic rock, of ’80s-ish romanticism, thoroughly modern synth textures and timeless tension-and-release songcraft, was distinctive and bracing. It’s like dance-rock without any of the disco signifiers that that descriptor usually implies, more anthemic and visceral than slick and sexy and there’s more than a hint of Guy Garvey in vocalist Guy Connelly’s delivery. Searching out their own music at the moment can be an exercise in frustration – they’ve a few singles of original material but have their names on many remixes – but when their debut album comes out in March of next year, I predict it will be huge.

Photos: Clock Opera @ NASA – October 14, 2011
MP3: Clock Opera – “Once And For All”
MP3: Clock Opera – “Belongings” (live at Maida Vale)
Video: Clock Opera – “Belongings”
Video: Clock Opera – “Once And For All”
Video: Clock Opera – “White Noise”

So yes, after a decade and a half of rumours and denials, The Stone Roses are getting back together. There’ll be a pair of homecoming gigs in Manchester next June followed by a world tour and maybe even a new record. You’d think that as someone who ranks The Stone Roses as one of the greatest records ever made, I would find this exciting but the fact is that no one, not even the staunchest fans, could ever claim the Roses as a good live band even in their heyday. Over twenty years later, with John Squire and Reni having largely been out of music and Ian Brown’s solo career being uneven at best, it’s hard to imagine that this will be good, let alone great. But even so, if this tour comes anywhere near – and the words “world tour” certainly imply it will – I’ll be there. Anxious, and not entirely in a good way, but there. The Quietus reports on yesterday’s press conference wherein the four original members announced their intentions and The Sabotage Times better articulates why this reunion might not be a good thing.

Video: The Stone Roses – “I Wanna Be Adored”

Jarvis Cocker, someone who knows a thing or two about successful reunions, talks to The Guardian about the state of pop music.

Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien talks to BBC6 about the band’s touring plans for 2012, which may include playing not-so-fan-friendly set lists at indoor venues.

Billy Bragg has compiled all the one-off protest songs he’s released over the past decade as well as a few new songs and has released them as Fight Songs. Something to put on the boombox, perhaps, whilst occupying a place of your choosing. The Sabotage Times and Brooklyn Rail have interviews with the Bard of Barking.

Pop power couple Emmy The Great and Ash’s Tim Wheeler have teamed to release a Christmas album entitled This Is Christmas, the first MP3 from which you can download in exchange for a Facebook like. It will be released on November 21.

A new track from Summer Camp’s debut Welcome To Condale is up to stream at Paste, while Consequence Of Sound has an interview with the duo and Daytrotter a session. The album is out November 8.

Stream: Summer Camp – “Down”

Peggy Sue have released a new video from their new record Acrobats, due out next Tuesday. They play The Garrison on November 13.

Video: Peggy Sue – “All We’ll Keep”

Exclaim and Stereogum talk to M83 about the just-released Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. They’re at Lee’s Palace on November 18.

Frank YangCalling this “day one” of Iceland Airwaves isn’t strictly correct. Though the festival did really start in earnest on the Thursday, there was a fair bit of programming on the Wednesday night and though I was on the fence about leaving the comfort of the apartment late at night, I fell on the side of heading to NASA, one of the festival’s main venues, facing onto Austurvöllur square a couple blocks away.

The attraction were Iceland’s own Of Monsters & Men, whom although a new band – their debut album My Head Is An Animal only came out in September – were clearly already a hot commodity locally as the venue was jammed to the rafters. And watching them perform, it wasn’t hard to understand why; their sound fell somewhere between Arcade Fire and Fanfarlo with not a little Stars to be found in the vocal interplay between Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar Þórhallsson – in other words, eminently likeable. They were neither as dramatic or twee as those reference points might imply, nestled comfortably in the middle, but still big-sounding and making the most of their 10-piece lineup. Normally they numbered six, but this was a special occasion after all and so there were plenty of handclaps, gang vocals and a brief cover of Kool & The Gang’s “Celebrate”. I don’t know that the songs are quite up to the level of the delivery, but they were fun – no question. And word is they’ll be bringing their show to Toronto next month… details will be forthcoming.

Photos: Of Monsters & Men @ NASA – October 13, 2011
MP3: Of Monsters & Men – “Little Talks”

Slipping back into travelogue mode for a moment, Thursday saw another attempt to get out of the city and though it was hardly a nice day, the elements didn’t stop us from getting out to Þingvellir national park and Þingvallavatn. On the way, there were stops at Mosfell to check out one of those churches that just pops up out of nowhere and befriend a couple of extraordinarily friendly and pretty Icelandic ponies as well as some stunning fields of volcanic rock. As the park was situated across the continental divide between the North American and European tectonic plates, chasms and cliffs were the norm and landmarks were the thousand year-old, man-made waterfall called Öxaráfoss and the site of the first Icelandic parliament – Alþing – dating back to 930 AD. Yes, it just looked like a mound near a cliff face but still. HISTORY. Flickr has been updated with visuals and oh, on the way back into town, I completely forgot how roundabouts work just for a moment and hit an SUV for some hot Hyundai on Hyundai action. At Icelandic roundabouts, the inner lane has the right of way; that’s one to grow on, kids. While the other car was undamaged, the front end of mine was kind of mashed – but no one was hurt except my Visa card in covering the insurance deductible. Le sigh.

Back in town, we attempted to cheer the home team in seeing Owen Pallett play an afternoon off-venue – the Airwaves name for day shows – but it turned out that our support wasn’t needed; Kaffibarinn was beyond jammed and while I could hear him and Les Mouches, I didn’t lay an eye on them the whole time there. Pallett and company had been in the country for a couple of weeks leading up to the festival recording, and accordingly their set was split between old favourites, albeit somewhat reconfigured to be more keyboard-heavy, and new songs which further imply a synthier direction for the new record. The crush of humanity kept me from staying to the very end and anyways, I had a banged-up car to return.

MP3: Owen Pallett – “A Man With No Ankles”
MP3: Owen Pallett – “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”
MP3: Final Fantasy – “The Butcher”
MP3: Final Fantasy – “Ultimatum”
Video: Owen Pallett – “The Great Elsewhere”
Video: Owen Pallett – “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”
Video: Final Fantasy – “Horsetail Feathers”
Video: Final Fantasy – “The Butcher”
Video: Final Fantasy – “He Poos Clouds”
Video: Final Fantasy – “This Lamb Sells Condos”

The evening program began literally two doors down from our apartment – didn’t I mention it was conveniently located? – at the Tjarnarbíó theatre for Danish septet Raised Among Wolves. As you might expect from a band with that many players, they traded in orchestrally-inclined pop not far removed from what Of Monsters & Men were serving up the night before though Wolves were more stereotypically Scandinavian, being more elegantly polished in performance and romantically melancholic in tone. They were also better-dressed, with a decidedly northlander-ish marching band dress code in effect. It doesn’t appear that they’ve got any proper releases yet, but while their catalog is lean their ambitions are extensive – there’s no doubt they’ll be looking to replace those synth patches with a proper orchestra and the toy piano with a full grand. Though they’ll probably still paint their name on the side. Charming and brimming with promise.

Photos: Raised By Wolves @ Tjarnarbíó – October 13, 2011
MP3: Raised By Wolves – “Boys Will Be Kings” (demo)
MP3: Raised By Wolves – “Tin Foil Empire” (demo)
MP3: Raised By Wolves – “The Bear” (demo)

By the time I got to the gorgeous Kaldalón room in the Harpa opera house to see Iceland’s Nóra, I was thinking that I’d have to fit some black metal into my itinerary to offset all the orch-pop that was making up my Airwaves experience so far. But I like what I like, I suppose. Cheekily introducing themselves as “celebrated Icelandic rock band Nóra”, the brother-and-sister-led fivesome initially seemed to have some trouble with the clean acoustics of the room, with their vocals turned up considerably louder than their instruments and consequently sounding detached from the music though inviting a three-piece horn section out for a portion of the set helped fill out the mix. Singing in Icelandic and drawing from their debut Er einhver aö hlusta?, they were largely upbeat and peppy though a couple numbers at the end of the set proved they could get tense and angsty when called for and they were sonically ambitious throughout. A reliance on keyboards kept their stage presence rather static, but some dry stage banter helped endear them nonetheless.

Photos: Nóra @ Harpa Kaldalón – October 13, 2011
MP3: Nóra – “Opin fyrir morói”
Stream: Nóra / Er einhver aö hlusta?

Any fears of the festival getting too “all twee, all the time” were stopped dead with Retro Stefson at Listasafn, the Reykjavik Art Museum and another major venue. They were many things – disco, funk, hip-hop, rock, electro – but certainly not twee. And definitely a party. Though there’s something like seven of them in the band, it was hard to pay any attention to anyone besides singer/guitarist Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson and percussionist/dancer Haraldur Ari Stefánsson, and not just because the rest of the band was completely obscured in smoke and strobes. The former Stefánsson was more than a little Prince-like with his virtuostic guitar-playing and singing even he seemed restrained compared to the latter Stefánsson’s gyrating, thrusting and audience-invading/crowd-surfing antics. I think it’s safe to say they were one of the strangest lead-in acts that Beach House has ever had.

Photos: Retro Stefson @ Listasafn – October 13, 2011
Video: Retro Stefson – “Kimba”
Video: Retro Stefson – “Medallion”

I don’t think it’s a real slight to say that Beach House aren’t a conventionally great live act. Both Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand are generally content to sit or stand stock still with their instruments and let their hypnotic songs and maybe the light show do the work. In the case of the Listasafn show, billed as one of the festival’s headlining slots and marking the band’s first time in the country, they maybe let the light show get away from them as the combination of blinding backlights and smoke made it so that both were little more than stationary silhouettes for the show. It was frustrating to watch (and photograph) but did work from time to time, most notably for “Norway” when the lights went white and the entire stage lit up in tiny LEDs, presenting Legrand as a disembodied voice in a field of stars. Whatever they looked like, though, they sounded grand with the tinny canned beats segueing into huge live drums and Legrand’s smoky vocals filling the hall along with thousands of Icelanders, dancing and swaying in a giant collective swoon.

Photos: Beach House @ Listasafn – October 13, 2011
MP3: Beach House – “I Do Not Care For The Winter Sun”
MP3: Beach House – “Zebra”
MP3: Beach House – “Norway”
MP3: Beach House – “Gila”
MP3: Beach House – “Heart Of Chamber”
MP3: Beach House – “Master Of None”
Video: Beach House – “Walk In The Park”
Video: Beach House – “Silver Soul”
Video: Beach House – “Used To Be”
Video: Beach House – “You Came To Me”
Video: Beach House – “Heart Of Chambers”

Having already released a couple of videos, Fanfarlo have finally revealed details of their second album – Rooms Filled With Light will be available on February 28, details at Under The Radar.

Video: Fanfarlo – “Replicate”
Video: Fanfarlo – “De.Con.Struc.Tion”

DIY gets to know Amanda Mair, the teenage singer-songwriter who’s the latest addition to the Labrador Records roster. She’s released two singles in advance of a debut album due in late 2011 or more likely early 2012.

MP3: Amanda Mair – “Doubt”
MP3: Amanda Mair – “House”

Studio360 and The Los Angeles Times talk Biophilia with Bjork.

Sigur Rós have made another track from the Inni live set available to download. The audio/video document is available as of November 8, but is currently screening at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto.

MP3: Sigur Rós – “Ný Batteri”

Interview and Billboard talk to Anthony Gonzalez of M83 on the occasion of the release of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming this week. They’ve also just released a new video from said record. Look for them at Lee’s Palace on November 18.

Video: M83 – “Midnight City”

The hour-long Phoenix documentary From A Mess To The Masses is now available to watch in full online.

Video: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – From A Mess To The Masses

Frank YangHello all. Have you been keeping well? That’s great.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been on a bit of a working holiday the past week in Iceland, the working part being Iceland Airwaves and the holiday being everything around it, and I just got back in last night, hence the light posting last week. Festival coverage will begin tomorrow when I’ve had a chance to go through photos and gather my thoughts, but having arrived in Reykjavik a couple days before the Fest for tourist purposes, I’ll offer up the equivalent of holiday snaps today. And for real holiday snaps, head over to Flickr, I’ll be posting more there as the week goes on. And for reference, the “we” on this trip were Carrie of Live Baby Live, Lauren of No Shame Promotions, and Lauren of Amplify This; a finer group of traveling companions I could not ask for.

The list of things we’d planned to do in Iceland but didn’t get to is pretty long: marvel at the glacier bay at Jökulsárlón, drive at least a portion of the Route 1 ring road, gape at the majesty of the Aurora Borealis, walk the basalt beaches of Vík í Mýrdal, go snorkeling over the continental divide at Þingvellir, witness Geysir, the namesake of geysers around the world, visit an island of puffins, and meet up with many other music journo types from around the world also in Reykjavik for Airwaves. And yet even with so many things on the to-do list left unchecked by the time I left, the past week will go down as one of the most memorable ever: I got to luxuriate in the world-famous Blue Lagoon twice. I had my third ridiculously fancy prix fixe meal of the year as well as some super-tasty hot dogs, I saw some of the most spectacularly desolate yet beautiful landscape in the world, I befriended a pair of gorgeous Icelandic ponies (well I think we’re friends now), I visited the site of one of the oldest parliaments in the world just down a trail from a thousand year-old man-made waterfall. I learned that the rules of roundabouts work differently in different countries. And oh yeah I crashed my first car. Those last two points are not entirely unrelated.

So to begin. Following a Monday night red-eye that was only barely long enough to qualify as such and discovering our rental apartment which looked all kinds of awesome online was even moreso in person, we took advantage of what was forecast to be the only sunny day of the trip to explore the compact capital and put the excessive amount of camera gear brought across the Atlantic to work. Then it was back to the airport to pick up the European quarter of our contingent and on the way back to town, a short – okay long – pit stop at the Blue Lagoon. It’s not unreasonable to expect the experience of the lagoon to be overstated, but the truth is that it’s really an astonishing place. I can’t comment on the therapeutic benefits of it – though I will say my messed-up shoulder certainly didn’t mind the experience – but drifting in a milky, lava-heated, silica-saturated man-made lake is something else. Going on the Tuesday turned out to be a smart move as crowds were sparse, and getting there for sunset was just luck. And word of advice? If you’re wearing contact lenses, don’t dunk your head. It’s sea water and sea water and contacts? Do. Not. Mix. There’d been an ambitious plan to drive out of town later that night for Northern Lights spotting, but the frailty of being human won out over the marvels of nature and instead of aurora-chasing, it was sleep.

Wednesday was also ambitiously planned – 10 hour road trip anyone? – but in this case, nature was victorious thanks to its ability to whip up gale-force winds and horizontal rain. Compound that with Iceland’s rather spare approach towards highway signage and you get us missing an off-ramp on the highway and while technically we were still going to reach our destination, we were on the extra-scenic, 600-mile longer route. All of which is to say that within an hour and a half of setting out, Mission: Glaciers had been aborted and we went to an outlet mall and supermarket instead. Don’t judge. The weather remained intermittently dismal back in town but sightseeing still happened, though said sights were largely wet and grey. But the fish & chips were remarkable and antique shops well stocked with interesting gewgaws and in all, what was supposed to be a day spent on the road was instead down chilling around town and in out apartment and you know what? Totally fine with me. Things would start getting crazy the next day – or more accurately that night. We’ll get to that tomorrow.

And for those of you wholly disinterested in my travels, well here’s a handful of concert announcements I didn’t get around to posting last week.

On November 13, British trio Peggy Sue will be at The Garrison as part of a short North American tour in support of their second album Acrobats, which will be out over here on October 25. And if you think you knew what they were about based on their debut Fossils & Other Phantoms, think again. Someone bought themselves some amps.

MP3: Peggy Sue – “Cut My Teeth”

This is probably coming too late to be of any use as it’s likely sold out, but Bon Iver announced a second show at Massey Hall for December 7, the previous night having sold out faster than you could say, “hey remember when Bon Iver made a video set in Iceland?”.

MP3: Bon Iver – “Holocene”
Video: Bon Iver – “Holocene”

If you were wondering when and where Toronto would fit in St. Vincent’s touring itinerary for Strange Mercy, the answer is December 15 at The Phoenix. And if you were wondering how much, the answer is $20. And if you were wondering what she might say if asked questions by Arizona Central, The Vancouver Sun or The Province, well now you know.

MP3: St. Vincent – “Surgeon”
Video: St. Vincent – “Cruel”

Sub PopEverything about Dum Dum Girls is pretty danged American, from their California garage rock-meets-’60s girl-group sound to their vintage biker pin-up aesthetic, but hearing them take on arch-English mope-masters The Smiths as they did for the closing track on their He Gets Me High EP earlier this year, you can easily imagine an adolescent Kristen Gundred swooning over romanticized notions of rainy Manchester as much as SoCal’s sunny beaches. But maybe it shouldn’t be any kind of surprise – their band name does come half from The Vaselines’ debut album.

On the same note, it’s not surprising that Gundred would look to another American gone Anglo for inspiration for their new album Only In Dreams; the way she evokes Chrissie Hynde’s vibrato all over that record is uncanny. Look to hear it live when they play Lee’s Palace tonight. And while The Smiths won’t be playing anywhere live anytime soon, fanatics can shell out for the exorbitantly fancy Complete box set, which is out this week.

MP3: Dum Dum Girls – “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”
Video: The Smiths – “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”

Frank YangSome have been lumping Portishead’s return to recording and touring, starting with the release of 2007’s Third, in with the spate of ’90s band reunions and reconciliations which the more cynical would assume be intended to cash in on the nostalgia of today’s 30-somethings. This is basically wrong. Yes, the band were last properly active in the late ’90s, their second self-titled album coming out in Fall 1997, but what separates Portishead from the pack are that Third was written and recorded if not released before their return to the stage and rather than rest on past laurels as the progenitors of what would become datedly known as “trip-hop”, they opted to evolve far beyond what they were known for and leave the genre behind. There was no trip-hop on Third, only dark and fascinating Portishead. The band didn’t go away, they were just taking their time, and in the interim no one was able to replicate what they did.

And while it took them a good while to get around to touring North America for the new record – three and a half years or so – they finally got around to it this Fall and brought their show to Toronto’s Sound Academy for two nights over Thanksgiving weekend, of which I was at the first evening. Portishead may not immediately seem like they’d be an incredible live band, what with being very much studio creations and not “rocking” in the conventional sense, but the PNYC live set proved they were fully capable of recreating the same sense of desolate and desperate wonder of their records on stage. There was no reason not to expect greatness. And while there was no orchestra accompanying them this time, playing in front of a riveting lightshow made up of recorded projections and live camerawork, the six-piece band was more than equipped to create every tone and texture needed to do their material justice. Be it seamlessly combining live and electronic drums, inserting a brilliant turntable break or just jazzing the tempos the right amount to keep the dirgier songs moving, they were delicate when needed but heavy as hell on demand.

And at the centre of them all, of it all, either draped over the mic or with back to the audience, was Beth Gibbons – the enigmatic voice and face of the band. Her sorrowful, emotive vocals were reflected in the pained expressions on her face as she sang, and with her refusal to do interviews you couldn’t help but wonder if she was in character up there or if she was actually laying herself bare; in either case, whatever emotions Portishead were channelling were coming directly through her. At points her vocals seemed undermixed, not an unusual occurrence at the Sound Academy, but you couldn’t help thinking it was also deliberate to a degree, to allow for even more dramatic effect when she rose above the din. And despite the limits of her stage moves – she didn’t stay at the mic, face the crowd any longer than was necessary or say a word – she was a mesmerizing figure to watch, to try and figure out. It was only at the very end of the final song, “We Carry On”, that the mask broke and Gibbons leapt into the photo pit, all grins, and shook hands with as many fans in the front row as she could. It was a stunning and surprising dropping of what was now clearly a performance, and what a performance.

Some fans might have found room to complain that the set list leaned too heavily on Third, overlooking the fact that it’s a brilliant record for the fact that it’s not their favourite, and yeah – a couple more songs off Portishead would have been welcome – but the there’s no ground to be had in arguing that the show was anything less than brilliant for it. Perfectly paced, presented and performed. Perfectly Portishead.

The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Sun, The New Zealand Herald, and Beatroute have interviews with the band. Examiner.com and NOW were on hand for Sunday night, Exclaim on Monday and it’s unclear when Torontoist was there.

Photos: Portishead @ The Sound Academy – October 9, 2011
Video: Portishead – “Chase The Tear”
Video: Portishead – “Magic Doors”
Video: Portishead – “The Rip”
Video: Portishead – “Machine Gun”
Video: Portishead – “Glory Box”
Video: Portishead – “All Mine”
Video: Portishead – “Humming”

Spinner talks to Friendly Fires frontman Ed Macfarlane. They play The Phoenix on October 23.

Clash talks to Still Corners about their new record Creatures Of An Hour. They’re at The Drake Underground on October 25.

Clash reports that Patrick Wolf will report a new 6-song EP entitled Brumalia on November 28.

With the October 31 release of National Treasures impending, NME talks to James Dean Bradfield.

New Horrors video!

Video: The Horrors – “I Can See Through You”

The Fly has an acoustic courtyard session with Veronica Falls.

Interview talks to Ladytron’s Daniel Hunt.

Clash talks books with Slow Club.

Amor de Dias have released a new video from their debut Street Of The Love Of Days

Video: Amor de Dias – “Season Of Light”

Stereogum has premiered a new Fanfarlo video from their forthcoming second album, out sometime under some name.

Video: Fanfarlo – “Deconstruction”

Urban Outfitters have an interview with Anthony Gonzalez of M83 and are also streaming their new album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming ahead of its release on October 18. Black Book also has an interview. They play Lee’s Palace on November 18.

Stream: M83 / Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

Sweden’s Niki & The Dove have released a video for the title track of their debut EP The Drummer, due out on Tuesday.

Video: Niki & The Dove – “The Drummer”

The Line Of Best Fit has posted a video session with Loney Dear. He plays the Drake Underground on November 4.

NPR interviews Bjork.