I’m afraid I don’t have much more to say about Mississauga’s The Empires since I saw them last back in February, at least not in terms of descriptives. Believe me, I tried to come up with something besides, “Swervedriver having a really intense conversation with Catherine Wheel in a dark room in Brooklyn at 3AM”, but I really can’t. However, I think that’s pretty complimentary so I’ll leave it at that.

Their set last night they played Wavelength, however, was much more impressive than the Horseshoe gig a month and a half ago. The sound was better, the band had more energy and the song selection seemed stronger (I’m assuming it was a different set – I don’t know their stuff that well and I can’t really A/B the two shows). I left the last show wanting to like the band but not quite being there. This time they put me over the top. Some of the songwriting is still uneven – the good songs are quite head and shoulders above the others – but it certainly bodes well when they grow into more consistency. Some photos from the show here. The projections they use at Wavelength always make for strange pictures. For more info, check out their MySpace page though the audio is the same tracks that are available on their website.

In reading the bio, I noted that their keyboardist/guitarist is Graham Walsh, also of Hamilton space-rock combo Flux AD, whom I’d long assumed to be defunct. This fansite, however, implies otherwise. I should really dust off my copy of Passive Aggressive – I seem to remember liking it a fair bit, though I never did get their second album transatlanticthoughts.

Amazon.co.uk has a good deal of detail on the forthcoming Belle & Sebastian biography This Is Just A Modern Rock Story. You may recall that they had initially said that the release of this book would coincide with the release of the band’s next record… does this mean we can look forward to a new album sometime around August 1?

A whole shitload of music video links. Via Hold My Life.

So there is no Toronto transit strike after all. While this is good for most, I suppose, it’s a little disappointing for me. Since I’m on my bike now and no longer at the mercy of streetcars and subways, the strike would have had minimal impact on my life. However, the cancellation of the strike meant that I was not able to bomb straight down the dedicated streetcar lanes on Spadina this morning as I’d planned. Too bad, it would have taken me, like, 2 minutes to get to work.

np – Archers Of Loaf / Icky Mettle

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