Frank YangSo, let’s see. Crooked Fingers were just here back in July – yeah, covered that. Oh, but in the interim, they also released a new album in Breaks In The Armor; covered that too. So was there really anything new to report out of Tuesday night’s show at the Drake Underground? Actually, yes.

To begin with there was opener Strand Of Oaks, who definitely merit discussion. I’d been familiar with the project of Pennsylvania singer-songwriter Tim Showalter for a little while – his 2010 album Pope Killdragon coming highly recommended from a number of directions – but hadn’t caught him live on any of his previous visits to Toronto. And I almost didn’t catch this one as he started his set at least 15 minutes earlier than had been scheduled, but walking into the Underground to the sounds of Showalter and his two bandmates weaving some mesmerizing space-folk, I was extra thankful that traffic had been light.

Pope Killdragon was an impressive work – lyrically rich and emotionally resonant – but despite pushing beyond the voice-and-guitar template, was a pretty stark-sounding affair. Live, with two guitars, a bass and a small army of technology at their respective toes and fingers for triggering and controlling a multitude of backing tracks, it was a much richer and haunting sonic experience with the songs being lifted up on a bed of echoes and swells. I’ve heard some comparisons made between Strand Of Oaks and Bon Iver; they’re fair, though with less falsetto and vocoder. If you dig what Justin Vernon does, do yourself a favour and investigate Strand Of Oaks. And if you don’t, well, check them out anyways.

July’s Crooked Fingers felt special in the way that performances that take place outside the regular touring cycle for an album often do; more experimenting, more deep cuts, more unpredictability. What with the band consisting solely of Eric Bachmann and Liz Durrett at that point, it was necessarily simpler in arrangement but still a stirring showcase for Bachmann’s career so far. This time out they were formally touring in support of Breaks and added a rhythm section for the occasion but rather than show off benefits of the extra hands right off, Bachmann stepped offstage as soon as he got there and into the audience to open with a gorgeous, unamplified “Man O’ War”. Plugging in, the band would showcase much of the new record alongside selections from the entirety of the Crooked Fingers catalog, all tweaked and subtly adjusted to sit perfectly alongside each other despite the broad stylistic shifts between the albums from whence they came.

As memorable as the last show was, it was great to have the muscle of the rhythm section overtop the skeleton presented in the Summer this time out. Besides the obvious extra infusion of energy, the songs were able to loosen up and breathe more and Bachmann given the freedom to rock out more on guitar where he saw fit. The additional personnel also allowed them to explore more complex arrangements of songs – sure, it would/could have been simpler to arrange everything for two guitars, bass and drums and it probably would have sounded great, but you have to appreciate the creative choices such as Durrett’s more felt than heard keyboard contributions or the way that Bachmann started “The Counterfeiter” instrumentless and then jumped onto keyboards for the last verse while the bass carried the chords. Sure, that’s how it goes down on Armor, arrangements-wise, but watching it done live gives you a new appreciation for it all.

Just as they did mid-set in July, Bachmann and Durrett led off the encore with an intimate, unamplified “Your Control” and proved that there was an upside to a band as great as this playing criminally undersized rooms. On the other hand, the unscheduled guest appearance of a mouse running across the floor during “Lonesome Warrior” reminded that there’s something to be said for playing nicer venues as well. To close, Bachmann acquiesced to an earlier request and made the requisite Archers Of Loaf song in the set a beautiful “Chumming The Ocean”, a song I’d not heard before but won’t soon forget. It’s been a recurring theme through this year, what with the return of Archers Of Loaf and the new Crooked Fingers record, but man. Eric Bachmann. He should be on postage stamps.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has an interview with Eric Bachmann.

Photos: Crooked Fingers, Strand Of Oaks @ The Drake Underground – November 8, 2011
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Typhoon”
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Phony Revolutions”
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Angelina”
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Big Darkness”
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Devil’s Train”
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “When You Were Mine”
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “New Drink For The Old Drunk”
MP3: Eric Bachmann – “Carrboro Woman”
MP3: Eric Bachmann – “Lonesome Warrior”
MP3: Strand Of Oaks – “Bonfire”
MP3: Strand Of Oaks – “End In Flames”
Video: Crooked Fingers – “Let’s Not Pretend (To Be New Men)”
Video: Crooked Fingers – “New Drink For The Old Drunk”
Video: Eric Bachmann – “Man ‘O War”
Video: Eric Bachmann – “Lonesome Warrior”
Video: Strand Of Oaks – “Last To Swim”

Tom Waits has released a video from his new record Bad As Me.

Video: Tom Waits – “Satisfied”

The Quietus has a final interview with Michael Stipe of R.E.M., whose career-capping/ending compilation Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage 1982-2011 is out next week. You can stream it in whole right now at NPR, including the two of three final new songs from the band. Over at Under The Radar, actress Kirsten Dunst explains how the screen test-like video for their last single, “We All Go Back To Where We Belong”, came about.

Stream: R.E.M. / Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage – 1982-2011

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy tells The Sun that they have a sense of humour. Because putting a camel in a party hat on their last album cover didn’t make that clear.

NPR has a World Cafe session with Ryan Adams. He plays the Winter Garden Theatre on December 10.

The Mountain Goats have given away a free unreleased track, just because.

MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Thucydides II:58”

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists and sister Maile talk to Salon about the benefits of a creative childhood.

Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn will release his solo debut, Clear Heart Full Eyes on January 24. Details at Tiny Mix Tapes.

Frank YangSo here we are, with both post-Oasis projects with their debuts officially out in the wild – the Liam-led Beady Eye having released Different Gear, Still Speeding back in March and Noel Gallagher’s Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds out this week. Given the not-so-greatness of Liam’s Oasis output, the bar for the former was set fairly low and Different Gear‘s meat-and-potatoes Brit-rock had no problem clearing it, with “not bad” counting as a big win. Noel, on the other hand, had considerably more to live up to what with not only having penned some of the most memorable British rock anthems of his generation, but having been the one pulled the pin on the grenade that finally, inevitably, killed Oasis. Though looking at it from another perspective, Beady Eye had everything to prove while Noel could point as his songbook and say, “what the fook have YOU done?”.

The best and the worst thing you can say about High Flying Birds is that it’s pretty much what you’d expect from a Noel Gallagher solo record, with his respective weaknesses and strengths on full display. Amongst the former are his penchant for cribbing lyrics and melodies from others wholesale, and may of the words that are his are vague and nonsensical, though at least they rhyme. However just as he did in Oasis, he’s able to marry them with an unimpeachable gift for melody, a delivery that makes them sound profound and a flair for dressing them up in big arrangements that aren’t too overcooked (obviously this took some time to learn). It can be frustrating to sing along with words that make no sense, but sing along you will.

That said, for all the familiar motions, Birds feels distinct from an Oasis record for reasons beyond the absence of Liam’s rock’n’roll sneer. Perhaps in being freed from the inherent compromises of a band and being able to take full creative control, Gallagher has been able to fully assume the role of composer rather than just songwriter and consequently, Birds feels more meticulous in its execution than any Oasis record I can recall. Some might bemoan its mid-temponess or dearth of guitar heroics, but let’s be fair – he’s made those records already. High Flying Birds doesn’t necessarily revitalize or recontextualize what Noel Gallagher is about – not even remotely, if we’re being honest – but it is well-crafted, tuneful and likeable. Well I like it, anyways, and that’s why despite not getting accredited to cover the show in an official capacity, I headed down to Massey Hall about 20 minutes before showtime and patronized my first ever scalper. Less than half face value? Sure.

Though not sold out – two nights at Massey is a tall order for many acts, even one who sold out arenas with his old band – the hall was nearly full and crackling with the energy of fans who’d not seen the elder Gallagher since that fateful Virgin Festival 2008 appearance where he was assaulted onstage, if not earlier. The vibe was not unlike that at The Sound Academy in June when Liam led Beady Eye into town for their first visit, though feeling a bit older and with fewer (no) Union Jack flags hanging from the balconies.

Unlike Beady Eye, however, Noel had already said that the Oasis songbook was very much fair game for his solo shows and to prove it, the show opened with “(It’s Good) To Be Free”, a 17-year old b-side from a non-album single. Not just the hits, then. Oasis material would actually comprise almost half the 90-minute set, spanning the breadth of their catalog but with no small amount of revisionist history applied – “Wonderwall” got the Ryan Adams treatment, “Supersonic” was stripped down to acoustic guitar and piano (and would be a post-show point of contention for being a Liam song) and “Talk Tonight” given the full band treatment. It was as though Gallagher was more than willing to indulge his fans’ desire to hear the old material, but wasn’t going to make head-to-head comparisons of Oasis and his High Flying Birds easy.

As for the new material, not only was the album played in its entirety, but a b-side and new song thrown in for good measure. All of it was played pretty much verbatim from the album arrangements and in workmanlike fashion from Gallagher and his five-piece band – the crowd was enthused but Gallagher didn’t seem particularly interested in stoking the fires, just in doing his thing. It would have been unreasonable to expect him to discover some heretofore unknown wellspring on on-stage charisma upon assuming the role of frontman, but at least Gallagher seemed chipper in bantering with the crowd.

Early on, he told an audience member who’d not heard the new record that, “it’s going to be a long fucking night for you then” and later, when the inevitable topic of his younger brother came up (he has a home in Toronto), he responded to someone calling out that they’d seen Liam around town buying shoes, “were they high heels?”. Noel has a well-earned reputation for shooting his mouth off about anything and everything, but he’s got a sense of humour. The encore was a triple-bill of Oasis numbers – “Little By Little” from Heathen Chemistry, “The Importance Of Being Idle” from Don’t Believe The Truth and, finally, predictably and thrillingly, “Don’t Look Back In Anger”. That finale was spared any rejigging and performed as it always has – how else do you lead the singalong? And sing along everyone did.

So with all the evidence gathered – live and on record – how do the two post-Oasis projects measure up? Both have turned in decent efforts without offering anything new, but neither is a patch on Oasis in their prime – but to be fair, most of Oasis’ career isn’t a patch on Oasis in their prime either. With Beady Eye, Liam seems to want to recreate the rock’n’roll heyday of Oasis without invoking Oasis, whereas Noel is content to acknowledge his legacy without resting on it. I’d go so far as to say if you took both their records and combined the best moments into one, you’d have the best Oasis record in some years. To be at their best, as both brothers once sang, they need each other. Maybe someday they’ll once again believe in one another.

The Toronto Sun, Exclaim, The Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, NOW, Spinner and National Post also have reviews of the show and Los Angeles Times and National Post also have feature interviews.

Photos: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds @ Massey Hall – November 7, 2011
Video: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – “AKA… What A Life”
Video: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – “If I Had A Gun”
Video: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – “The Death Of You & Me”

In talking to NME, Damon Albarn reveals that Blur have been recording and discussions about more touring in 2012 have taken place. None of which is a commitment to anything, but it is something.

BBC chats with Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner.

Band Of Skulls have set a date at The Phoenix for March 30 of next year in support of their new album Sweet Sour, out February 21. Tickets are $17.50 in advance. Exclaim has details and dates and there’s a video for the first single from the album.

Video: Band Of Skulls – “The Devil Takes Care Of His Own”

DIY talks to Kele about his new EP The Hunter.

Clash interviews Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine.

Artrocker profiles Los Campesinos!, whose new record Hello Sadness is streaming at NPR ahead of its November 15 release date.

MP3: Los Campesinos! – “By Your Hand”
Stream: Los Campesinos! / Hello Sadness

Interview, The Independent and Londonist talk to Summer Camp on the occasion of the release of their debut Welcome To Condale this week.

Pitchfork reports that The xx have begun work on their second album, and will be documenting the process via cryptic animated gif.

The ink barely dry on the their Toronto debut last month, London’s Still Corners will be back on December 9 at The Horseshoe in support of The War on Drugs. The Georgia Straight and Houston Press have interviews and Radio K is streaming a session with the band.

MP3: Still Corners – “Into The Trees”

The AV Club talks to Charlie Fink of Noah & The Whale.

Spinner interviews Laura Marling.

The Guardian gets two generations of folk music – Billy Bragg and Johnny Flynn – to discuss the relevance of protest music today.

Patrick Wolf has released a new video from Lupercalia, which continues to await a North American release. In 2012, perhaps. The Gay Times talks to Wolf about his impending nuptials.

Video: Patrick Wolf – “The Falcons”

Rocksucker talks to The Twilight Sad about their third album No One Can Ever Know, due out in February.

Clash marks the 20th anniversary of My Bloody Valentine’s landmark Loveless album, while The Quietus reflects on the significance of The Jesus & Mary Chain’s debut Psychocandy.

And while not nearly on the level of either of those records, I greatly appreciate Drowned In Sound saluting The Closer I Get, the second album from Nottingham’s Six By Seven. Terribly underappreciated over their tenure, at their best – which would be that record – there was no more beautifully aggressive and misanthropic rock band out there. After a few ill-fated reunions, the band is done but if you go to their website, their last great record – 2004’s relatively sunnier :04 – is available for free download in exchange for an email. You should do this thing.

MP3: Six By Seven – “Bochum (Light Up My Life)”
Video: Six By Seven – “Eat Junk Become Junk”

Frank YangWhile I don’t expect anyone loses any sleep over anything I write, I feel compelled to offer a formal mea culpa for my thoughts on Loney Dear’s last record Dear John. Said review wasn’t a thumbs down by any means nor was it inaccurate, but “yeah it sounds like all his other stuff but that’s okay” now feels at best faint praise and at worst, dismissive. And considering how much I’ve grown to properly appreciate the work and vision of Emil Svanängen, I’d like to take the opportunity of Saturday night’s show at the Drake Underground in support of his latest album Hall Music to properly praise him.

As I mentioned, it’s true that all the Loney Dear albums share a similar vibe and dynamic – that of orchestrally ornate pop that ruminates on love and melancholy the ebbs and crests with Svanängen’s falsetto – but rather than imply a lack of new ideas, Svanängen continues to find new angles to observe from and depths and heights to explore within those parameters. That every one of his albums offer a fully-realized suite of songs and are as worthy a point of entry into his catalog as any other is remarkable, and also necessary – his works have been released in North America in as non-chronological a sequence as mathematically possible, with Hall Music being pretty much the first to count as the “new” Loney Dear album everywhere in the world at once.

Within the parameters of what is Loney Dear, Hall Music could be considered a bit of a revolution, particularly when compared to its predecessor, Dear John. Whereas John was sonically dense and had a distinctly sleek and synthetic sheen to it, Hall Music feels sparer but bigger, no doubt a result of the chamber orchestra tour undertaken prior to its recording. It makes full use of the reverberant space around things to create a more stately, almost spiritual, frame to present Svanängen’s compositions, the net result being what may be the most cohesive and beautifully rendered album in the Loney Dear canon.

So you might think that reproducing all of the grandeur live would require a full band if not a full orchestra. Instead, his brief North American tour was billed as a solo one, which might have raised concerns about the material being done full justice – my reviews of his past two visits in June 2007 and October 2009 hailed his band for being able to bring his complex arrangements to life – but when you consider that the Loney Dear recordings are largely done by Svanängen alone, this might have actually been the more faithful presentation. And considering the stage setup consisted not of a single acoustic guitar but of a fortress of gear arranged on four sides around a single seat, I was pretty confident this wouldn’t be a thin-sounding show.

And indeed, “thin” was about the last thing you could call the hour-long set. Deftly working an array of effects, bass pedals and loopers with his feet while singing and playing 12-string acoustic, Svanängen did a remarkable job of recreating and reinventing material from all of his albums, even adding live percussion by playing an array of drums and cymbals and looping them into the mix. One-man band? One-man orchestra, more like. It wasn’t completely strictly solo – he solicited a choral F# note from the audience and had a tour companion named Susanna (missed the surname but she hails from a town about 10km from where original Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was killed – this was the banter on offer) on backing vox and keys for a few songs. Nor was it flawless as a runaway note from a stuck bass pedal during “My Heart” forced him to dash back to his laptop to silence the offending tone, though full points for not missing a single lyric while doing so.

At one point, Svanängen apologized for the slowness of the material chosen for the set, a consequence of the church settings he’d been playing at home of late, but no apology was necessary as it suited the sit-and-listen mood of the audience quite well. If there was any regret, it was that long-time bandmate Malin Ståhlberg wasn’t on hand to not only add backing vocals but to take lead on my favourite song from Hall Music, “What Have I Become?”. But to have her there would have made it a completely different show, and this one was just about perfect in its way; as beautiful and heartswelling as I’ve learned to expect Loney Dear shows to be, but in a completely new way.

Gimme Indie is streaming a live recording from Sweden a couple weeks ago.

Photos: Loney Dear @ The Drake Underground – November 5, 2011
MP3: Loney Dear – “Calm Down”
MP3: Loney Dear – “My Heart”
MP3: Loney Dear – “Ignorant Boy, Beautiful Girl”
MP3: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”
MP3: Loney Dear – “I Was Only Going Out”
MP3: Loney, Dear – “I Am John”
MP3: Loney, Dear – “A Few Good Men”
Video: Loney Dear – “Young Hearts”
Video: Loney Dear – “I Was Only Going Out”
Video: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”
Video: Loney, Dear – “I Am John”
Video: Loney, Dear – “Saturday Waits”

Q solicits a soundtrack for a meal from Amanda Mair.

Björk talks to Clash about Biophilia, from which she has released another new video.

Video: Bjork – “Thunderbolt”

Aux.tv talks shop with Vincent Morriset, director of the film component of the new live Sigur Rós document Inni, out next week. And Jonsi’s solo projects continue with the announcement that he will score the new Cameron Crowe film We Bought A Zoo with new and old material. The soundtrack will be out on December 13 and the film will be released on December 23. Exclaim has specifics, and that title? Not a metaphor.

Trailer: We Bought A Zoo

Franco-Finn duo The Dø will be releasing their second album Both Ways Open Jaws on November 15. An MP3 for a single which came out on their Dust It Off is available now to preview, along with a video.

MP3: The Dø – “Slippery Slope”
Video: The Dø – “Slippery Slope”

If you’re heading to Massey Hall tonight for the first of two shows by Noel Gallagher and are concerned you haven’t heard any of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds because it’s not released until tomorrow, fear not – Rolling Stone has the former Oasis songwriter’s solo debut available to stream so you can get acquainted with all the songs you’ll be patiently waiting through before you hear “Don’t Look Back In Anger”. And apparently a half-hour film documenting the recording sessions of said album is out there; Rolling Stone also has those details.

Stream: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds / Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Beatroute profiles The Jezabels, who’ve released a new video from Prisoner – out tomorrow – and will be at The Phoenix on November 24 and 25 supporting Hey Rosetta!.

Video: The Jezabels – “Trycolour”

Frank YangMuch of Dan Mangan’s appeal comes from his everyman-ness – and his beard, if you ask certain friends of mine – so when he was playing the back rooms of bars, as at The Rivoli in October 2009 or The Horseshoe in April 2010, it felt perfectly natural. Those shows also felt utterly jam-packed – because they were – making it unlikely that the club circuit would be able to serve his ever-growing audience for very long. And so when he played Trinity-St. Paul’s in his last proper Toronto show last October, it felt like he’d made a significant step up.. or so I’d imagine – I missed that show, making this past Friday night’s performance at The Queen Elizabeth Theatre in support of Oh Fortune the first time I’d be seeing Mangan in such a formal setting. Or as formal as you could get with a Hallowe’en theme park located around the corner.

Openers The Daredevil Christopher Wright were certainly impressed with the venue. The Madison, Wisconsin trio said as much during their set, between showing off songs from their new EP, The Longsuffering Song. Their whimsical, carnival-like musical sensibilities and endearing presence was easy to enjoy, but with the instrument swapping and impeccable harmonies, it was impossible to not notice the formidable musicianship and sophisticated songwriting underneath. It was no stretch to say that while they’re not nearly at a point in their career to be headlining theatres like this, they’ve got the talent to get there. Or to a big top. Whichever.

Dan Mangan, on the other hand, had already grown comfortably into the posher surroundings. Fronting a seven-piece flannel orchestra, he opened with Oh Fortune‘s “About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All” – complete with wall of noise introduction – and over the next hour and fifteen, took full advantage of the room’s acoustics and the capabilities of his band to reproduce the complex textures of the new record. I was sorry I missed The Crackling, who’d opened up the night, as they were made up of some members of Mangan’s band and really stood out in bringing his songs to life and in many cases, eclipsing the recorded versions. In particular, the effected/delayed trumpet of JP Carter was used as a ghostly sonic backdrop for much of the show and the barber shop harmonies that opened up “Some People”, to say nothing of the big instrumental jam in the bridge, were remarkable enhancements.

But just as I described Mangan’s steady presence in the sonic swirl of Oh Fortune, so too was he a rock of solidity throughout the show with his mostly-acoustic guitar, gravelly voice and thoughtful, empathic songs. Interestingly, even with so much going on sonically I found myself compelled to pay even more attention to Mangan’s lyrics in this live setting and more fully appreciating the way he balances simplicity and depth in his songs. A particular standout was “Basket”, from Nice, Nice, Very Nice, which Mangan said was a birthday request though its ruminations on aging make it kind of a grim birthday tune.

Though the set was relatively short, Mangan managed to fit an impressive number of tunes into his allotted time and also a goodly amount of banter; this may have been physically the furthest he’s been from his audience, but he was still able to reach out and connect with them and make it feel intimate. After ending the main set with an aptly-named “Jeopardy” – his amp was making unhappy noises and threatened to blow up at any moment – he returned for the encore solo at first, inviting the audience to sub in for Veda Hille on “The Indie Queens Are Waiting”, offering a faithful reading of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” and then closing out with a full band “Robots” – of course” – and placing his mic facing out into the crowd to play chorus while he went for a wander in their midst. A fitting end to a show that was eminently satisfying, with Mangan proving that his charms easily translate into larger rooms and larger audiences. There weren’t any surprises, but then that’s not his game – he wasn’t here to argue or debate or make bold declarations; simply to play his songs and strike up a conversation with friends. We were all friends here.

BlogTO also has a review of the show and NOW, Uptown, View, The Manitoban, The Cord, and The Toronto Star all have interviews with Mangan.

Photos: Dan Mangan, The Daredevil Christopher Wright @ The Queen Elizabeth Theatre – October 28, 2011
MP3: Dan Mangan – “Oh Fortune”
MP3: Dan Mangan – “Road Regrets”
MP3: Dan Mangan – “Robots”
MP3: Dan Mangan w Shane Kyczan – “Tragic Turn Of Events”
MP3: The Daredevil Christopher Wright – “The Animal Of Choice”
MP3: The Daredevil Christopher Wright – “The East Coast”
Video: Dan Mangan – “Rows Of Houses”
Video: Dan Mangan – “Sold”
Video: Dan Mangan – “Robots”
Video: Dan Mangan – “The Indie Queens are Waiting”
Video: Dan Mangan – “Road Regrets”
Video: The Daredevil Christopher Wright – “Stewardess”
Stream: The Daredevil Christopher Wright / The Longsuffering Song

Feist talks to HitFix and has also released a video taken from her show at the Glenn Gould Studio in early October, which will be broadcast on CBC Radio 2 tomorrow night – November 2 – at 7PM. She is at Massey Hall on December 1.

Video: Feist – “Caught A Long Wind” (live at Glenn Gould Studio)

The Washington Post talks to Katie Stelmanis of Austra, who are at The Phoenix on December 1 and whose set at Moogfest this past weekend is streaming over at NPR. Both support acts for that show – Young Galaxy and Tasseomancy – have also just released new videos.

Video: Young Galaxy – “Phantoms”
Video: Tasseomancy – “Black Milk”

Heavy Weather has posted a video performance by Bruce Peninsula recorded atop Signal Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland. And while there, they also chatted with The Telegram.

The Ottawa Sun talks to Chad VanGaalen.

Daytrotter has posted a session with The Wilderness Of Manitoba.

The Darcys have announced they’ll play an in-store at Kops Records on Queen West on November 7 starting around 1PM for a sort of teaser of their full show at The Horseshoe on November 18.

MP3: The Darcys – “Shaking Down The Old Bones”

Pitchfork have inaugurated their new Frames animated feature by turning Fucked Up into a cartoon with Damian Abraham narrating the story of his first stitches.

And finally, how much does Toronto love My Bloody Valentine? Enough to stage not one but two concert events honouring the twentieth anniversary of Loveless, that’s how much. The first, Toronto’s Loveless, goes this Friday, November 4, at the Toronto Underground Theatre and will feature performances from Ruby Coast, Volcano Playground and others – admission $10 at the door. And as a bonus, event organizers Gold Soundz have assembled a Loveless tribute album comprised of Toronto artists – many of whom are playing the event – as well as Memoryhouse and Silver Dapple.

The other event is a Wavelength joint called Lovel(in)ess which will feature a complete reading of Loveless by an assemblage of local players calling themselves So Much Sorry as well as a set from Flowers Of Hell and MBV covers from a variety of other acts. That one takes place November 18 at The Garrison, admission $10 or pay what you can.

MP3: Heartbeat Hotel – “To Here Knows When”
MP3: Memoryhouse – “When You Sleep”
MP3: Volcano Playground – “Come In Alone”

Frank YangFirstly, thanks to The Grid for their preview piece on the Death From Above 1979 reunion tour which finally made it home for two nights at the Sound Academy last Thursday and Friday night. They do a far better job of encapsulating the band’s backstory than I could, since though I was certainly around for their first heyday in the early aughts, I wasn’t much of a fan. Some of their disco-metal hybrid was appealing and I dug Jesse Keeler’s bass tones, but it was generally too aggressive for my tastes and Sebastien Grainger’s vocals were definitely not my thing. When they announced they were splitting up five years ago, I didn’t give it half a shrug.

So why be at the Sound Academy to see the reunion? Mostly curiosity about this reunion which, even in the era of reunions, felt different to all the others. For starters, the response to it seemed disproportionate to how big they were when they broke it off, but as The Grid points out they were on the cusp of blowing up when they split and rather than see interest in them fall off a cliff as a result, evidently it kept growing into the realm of myth. Hence the high billing on festivals worldwide. Hence the playing to more people at home over two nights than they probably did in total over their first run. So curiosity, and also the fact that I happened to be outside the Beauty Bar in Austin, Texas back in March when they were soundchecking their surprise SXSW appearance – their very first comeback show and eventual near-riot – and it sounded great.

I’ve been to my share of reunion shows and most have had the sort of demographic you’d expect; mainly older fans from said act’s first go-around indulging in a bit of nostalgia with the mean age brought down a notch by kids who discovered the act in their fallow years and finally getting a chance to see them live (I tend to straddle the two). For DFA1979, however, the audience was overwhelmingly young – so much so that you got the sense if they hadn’t booked an all-ages venue, they wouldn’t have needed two shows. My theory is that those who’d followed the band in the first half of the decade had largely outgrown them, no longer running on the necessary blend of hormones and adrenaline, and instead these shows were being attended by those who’d been in high school or college when DFA were at their peak – see above about hormones and adrenaline – but had never gotten the chance to see them live. Until now.

And with youth comes energy and the jammed room was rather crackling with it as they awaited their hometown heroes to emerge, getting into form with a little exploratory crowd surfing to Iron Maiden over the PA and chanting, “D! F! A!” the way you might hear “U! S! A!” at a monster truck rally. With that as the pre-show noise floor, then it was no surprise that security had orders to be extra-vigilant and rightly so – when the curtain covering their giant “DFA 1979 2001-2006” tombstone backdrop fell to the floor and Keeler and Grainger strode out onstage, shit was lost (and so was their stage garb, with the all-in-white, bleached-blonde Grainger looking rather Jacob and Keeler playing The Man In Black, but I digress).

I must confess to only knowing a few songs from the DFA1979 oeuvre (even though it consists of just a single full-length in You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine and a few EPs and singles) but I don’t think that was a real issue as their aesthetic is pretty limited. Imagine grinding, metallic bass and drum riffing seasoned with synths and wailing vocals and you’re pretty much there. But what they lack in range, they more than make up for in volume and vigor. They pounded out one song after another while the crowd surged like a wave pool, steadily cresting with crowd surfers as drinks, clothes and three-finger devil salutes flew about. Early on it seemed like it’d be all business for the duo, with a “Thank you, we’re from here” offered by Grainger as the only bit of banter, but later on they got chattier with a highlight of the banter being Keeler’s response to a request for a bass solo: “every song is a bass solo”.

As mentioned, things got fairly samey to me after a while with the band offering sleek aggression and relentless rhythm in lieu of hooks – not that my head ever stopped bobbing to the beat. “Romantic Rights” was appreciated not only because its killer opening riff remains a high point in the entire DFA1979 catalog, but because Grainger took the opportunity to get up from behind the kit and wander the stage while singing, proper frontman-style. But even when my attention wandered from the music, there was also the audience to watch as they continued to freak out, head bang, what have you throughout the show. I may have been there mainly out of curiosity, but for many/most this was something they’d been waiting for for years and probably never expected, considering how acrimonious the original split had seemed. And for them, I’m pretty sure it was everything they’d hoped for and more. I get it, but I still don’t like the vocals.

Exclaim, NOW, BlogTO, The National Post and The Globe & Mail all have reviews of the show(s).

Photos: Death From Above 1979 @ The Sound Academy – October 27, 2011
MP3: Death From Above 1979 – “Romantic Rights”
Video: Death From Above 1979 – “Black History Month”
Video: Death From Above 1979 – “Romantic Rights”

Arctic Monkeys have released a new video from Suck It And See.

Video: The Arctic Monkeys – “Evil Twin”

PopMatters chats with Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons.

The Quietus talks to Jim Reid of The Jesus & Mary Chain.

Exclaim reports that Elvis Costello will be releasing a live set culled from the Los Angeles dates of this year’s “The Spectacular Spinning Songbook” tour, which came through town in June. Elvis Costello & the Imposters: The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook!!! will be released as a limited-edition CD/DVD/10″ box set on December 6 – with price to match – and less fancy editions will be released in the new year.

GQ talks to PJ Harvey.

Spin is offering a stream of the opening track from Noel Gallagher’s solo debut Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, out next Tuesday and showcased over two nights at Massey Hall on November 7 and 8. The Globe & Mail has an interview.

Stream: Noel Gallagher – “Everybody’s On The Run”

Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers discusses his Polaroid fetish with The Guardian. The images compiled over the Manics’ career will be compiled in a book entitled Death of a Polaroid: A Manics Family Album, out next month, and the band’s new best-of comp National Treasures is out today in the UK.

The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Globe & Mail and The Guardian talk to Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine about her second album Ceremonials, out this week.

Exclaim points to a stream of both sides of a new 7″ from former Long Blondes singer Kate Jackson, limited to 300 pieces and due out December 7. You may recall a different song was premiered a few months back, but it wasn’t sold physically so this is her first “proper” release.

MP3: The Kate Jackson Group – “Date With Dawn”
Stream: The Kate Jackson Group – “Wonder Feeling”
Stream: The Kate Jackson Group – “The Atlantic”

And Prince has announced two dates at the Air Canada Centre on November 25 and 26 as part of his “Welcome 2 Canada” tour. Yes he’s crazy but he’s also an incredible performer and if the “Welcome 2 America” shows already done are any indication, he’s giving the fans what they want this time out. So… yeah. Tickets on sale this Friday, November 4 at 10AM, ranging from $67.75 to $268.25, fees included.

Video: Prince – “Let’s Go Crazy”