Belle & SebastianMy Belle & Sebastian record collection is pretty thorough, but one omission from their official discography is the 2005 compilation Push Barman To Open Old Wounds, on account of the fact that I zealously collected the seven Jeepster EPs whose tracks make up the set when they were initially released between 1997 and 2001. Indeed, if you’re at all a fan of the Scottish popsters and haven’t heard some or – gasp – all of these songs, none of which appeared on their proper studio albums – then attend to that posthaste. Some of the very best songs the band has ever recorded can be found in these grooves.

I can’t claim the same sort of thoroughness with the singles that accompanied their last three albums, though, since the economics of being so comprehensive took a real hit after they started coming with just one or two new songs as b-sides instead of four. And so it’s excellent news that ostensibly to coincide with their upcoming North American tour dates, which include a TURF-closing show at Garrison Common this coming Sunday night, they’re putting out another double-sized b-sides compilation in The Third Eye Centre on August 27. Matablog has details and the tracklisting, which happily includes a number of songs I know I haven’t heard, as well as some remixes that I’m pretty sure I’d be just as happy never hearing but what can you do. One of those remixes has been made available as the first advance sample of the record.

Stream: Belle & Sebastian – “Your Cover’s Blown” (Miaoux Miaoux remix)

The 405 and DIY talk to Editors about their new album The Weight Of Your Love, which came out this week.

Magnet interviews Camera Obscura ahead of making them guest editors of their website this week, while NPR welcomes them to the Morning Becomes Eclectic studios for a session and Chicago Magazine also has a chat. They play the Toronto Urban Roots Fest at Garrison Common tonight, July 4.

New Order’s new live album Live At Bestival 2012 is now available to stream ahead of its release next week on July 8, courtesy of The Guardian

Stream: New Order / Live At Bestival 2012

A couple worthwhile complete sets from this past weekend’s Glastobury fest are available to watch online; there’s Savages, who’re at The Mod Club on July 16, and Daughter, who play The Phoenix on September 29.

Video: Savages @ Glastonbury 2013
Video: Daughter @ Glastonbury 2013

White Lies have released a video for that last new song from their forthcoming Big TV, out August 21. They play The Opera House on October 1.

Video: White Lies – “There Goes Our Love”

Franz Ferdinand have made a couple tracks from their new album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action available to stream. It’s out August 27 and they play The Kool Haus October 24.

Stream: Franz Ferdinand – “Right Action”
Stream: Franz Ferdinand – “Love Illumination”

The previously announced but not yet booked Tricky date now has a venue; he’s at The Mod Club on October 6, tickets $29.50 in advance. He’s touring behind his latest album False Idols. The Guardian recently hosted and posted a video session with the artist.

MP3: Tricky – “Anti-Matter”

Tindersticks turn 20 as a band this year, and they’re marking the occasion with the release of a new album of old songs. Across Six Leap Years, the band’s tenth album, will feature ten re-recorded songs from the breadth of the catalogue; it’s out October 14 and there’s a short film/trailer on the recording sessions available now.

Trailer: Tindersticks / Across Six Leap Years

The Guardian grabbed an interview with Jessie Ware whilst at Glastonbury; she plays The Sound Academy on November 6.

Noah & The Whale have released a new video from their latest, Heart Of Nowhere.

Video: Noah & The Whale – “Lifetime”

Le Blogotheque has a video session with Slow Club.

Johnny Marr gives The Guardian a musical tour of the key points of his life; he’s also interviewed by The Telegraph.

Frank YangIt’s just about scientific fact that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs don’t put on a bad show. The New York punk rock/New Wave trio have built and cemented this reputation since their inception in 2000, and though I missed their earliest visits to Toronto, I can testify to the spectacularness of their last two visits – an undersized semi-private TIFF party at the Berkeley Church in September 2007 circa their Is Is EP and their two-night stand at The Kool Haus in support of It’s Blitz! in August 2009. And so while their fourth long-player Mosquito is a relative disappointment – the high points are decent and the rest largely forgettable – their show at Echo Beach on Monday night behind it was plenty of reason to get excited, even if the long weekend timing meant that Echo Beach wasn’t even half full to greet them.

The band’s elevation towards the top of festival lineups this Summer meant that regular tour routing was largely out the window and as such, this date – announced barely a month ago – felt squeezed in between other commitments, and the relative spartan-ness of their set dressing – there basically was none – added to this feeling, though if that meant that we didn’t have to look at a giant backdrop of the Mosquito album art, then that was hardly a bad thing. And if any band could feel confident about having to come out and get by on the strength of their songbook, it’s the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And having Karen O as a frontwoman certainly doesn’t hurt.

Because let’s be honest, even if they’d gone full Flaming Lips with their stage show, no one would be looking at anything but Karen O. As her bandmates – guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase, plus live utility player David Pajo of Slint and Interpol fame – got down to business, O bounded around the stage as magnetic a performer as you’ll find in rock music today. Decked out in a tasseled white outfit and with a headlamp strapped to her forehead, presumably keeping in theme with show opener “Under The Earth”, O kept the energy levels and audience enthusiasm in the red, even when the confetti cannon that should have doused everyone in glitter at the peak of “Black Tongue” failed to go off.

And that kind of set the tone for the front half of the show – trying their best but not quite clicking. There were several missed cues, the usually super-tight band felt a little out of step with each other, and midway through the set, O declared she’d forgotten the words to “Down Boy”. Being followed by the largely aimless “Subway”, it was starting to feel like this might be a rare off night for the band. They might have felt it as well, as “Maps” – as much of a sure thing in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs arsenal as you’re likely to find – got an extended intro where O dedicated the song to everyone she could think of that perhaps allowed the band to regroup.

If that’s indeed what they did, then it worked. Current single “Despair” was given a reading that put the album version to shame, and the double-whammy of “Y Control” and “Turn Into” elevated things to a far more characteristic Yeah Yeah Yeahs level; Zinner’s guitar solo in the latter was especially fiery. Again, perhaps symbolically, when O stomped on the confetti cannon trigger in jubilant main set-closer “Heads Will Roll”, that shit went off. The first encore opened with one of their finest pop confections – “Cheated Hearts” – amusingly featuring pretty much the whole of the front row being passed the mic to sing (badly) the “oooh ooooh”s in the bridge – and closed with a razor-edged “Tick”, and though by this point much of the crowd had begun inching towards the exit, those who stayed up close got an eyeful in second encore as in “Date With The Night”, O shoved the microphone down her pants and then into her mouth. As you do.

At well under an hour and a half, the show felt a bit slight in length and, compared to the terrifying Berkeley Church and triumphant Kool Haus shows, in substance. But if it failed to deliver in awe, it still more than did so in fun and the only reservations, really, come from the fact that while Yeah Yeah Yeahs don’t ever put on a bad show, they have put on better.

The National Post, Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, and NOW also have reviews of the show.

Photos: Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ Echo Beach – July 1, 2013
MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Date With The Night”
MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Maps”
MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Machine”
MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Miles Away”
MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Art Star”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Despair”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Mosquito”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Sacrilege”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Skeletons”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Heads Will Roll”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Zero”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Cheated Hearts”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Turn Into”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Gold Lion”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Y Control”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Maps”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Pin”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Date With The Night”

Given that putting out a record on New York label Captured Tracks is becoming as much a sign of quality in the ’00s as doing the same on, say, 4AD, was in the ’80s – some/many will be pleased to know that Los Angeles-based duo Soft Metals are coming to The Drake on August 16 in support of their forthcoming Lenses LP, out July 16. They’ll also be pleased to know admission is $10.

MP3: Soft Metals – “The Cold World Melts”
MP3: Soft Metals – “Psychic Driving”

It’s been a while since North Carolina alt.country songstress Tift Merritt has been through town – Spring 2008 in support of Another Country, I think – but she’s here at The Drake on September 6 in support of last year’s Traveling Alone. Tickets for that are $17.50 in advance.

Video: Tift Merritt – “Virginia, No One Can Warn You”

Chicago folksinger Angel Olsen has been getting a lot of attention for her debut album Half Way Home, originally released last Fall and reissued in May, and she’s just announced a Fall tour that brings her to The Drake on September 26, tickets $13.50 in advance.

MP3: Angel Olsen – “Always Half Strange” (live at Saki)
MP3: Angel Olsen – “Free” (live at Saki)

Nashville singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott trades under the name Torres and her self-released, self-titled debut has garnered enough praise and turned the right heads to get her added as support to Okkervil River’s Fall tour, which means she’s in town at The Phoenix on September 27. Do yourself a favour and get to know her before then.

Video: Torres – “When Winter’s Over” (live in studio)
Video: Torres – “Jealousy & I” (live in studio)

Even though tales of their… troubles on the road continue to pile up, Los Angeles’ Foxygen continue to tour behind their debut We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace And Magic; they’re back in Toronto for the third time this year with a show at The Hoxton on October 1, tickets $15.

MP3: Foxygen – “Waitin’ 4 U”

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of Wilco’s no-request set at their Solid Sound festival last month; they’ll play a shortened version of the set at The Molson Amphitheatre on July 15 whilst opening for Bob Dylan.

Billboard talks to Mac McCaughan of Superchunk and Merge Records about Superchunk and Merge Records. The latter releases the new album from the former, I Hate Music, on August 20.

The Guardian talks to Janelle Monáe about her new album The Electric Lady, which is out September 10 and has just produced a new video.

Video: Janelle Monáe – “Dance Apocalyptic”

NPR has a World Cafe session with Iron & Wine. They play The Sound Academy on September 28.

DIY gets to know Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.