Frank YangI’ll admit that sometimes I get a bit protective of bands. Particularly those who tour from far and distant lands without the benefit of a lot of buzz behind them; I’ve seen too many bands play too less than double-digits of people and just felt bad for them… and for myself because you’re unlikely to get the best show out of a band who thinks they’re playing to no one.

These were the sorts of concerns I had leading up to the Toronto debut of Allo Darlin’ – in all the way from London – at the El Mocambo on Saturday night. None of the band, tour or show seemed to be particularly well-promoted (though I did my part) and even if they were, the timing was tough as the indie/Brit-pop contingent also had Gruff Rhys and Architecture In Helsinki shows that evening to choose from. I had fallen quite in love with the band’s self-titled debut, but had fears of walking into the El Mo and finding a near-empty room.

Happily, such was not the case and by the time the foursome took the stage at half-eleven, I guesstimated just shy of eighty or so people in attendance. Not a packed house by any means, but certainly a respectable one and one that got treated to about as adorable and entertaining a show as anyone could have hoped for. Their hour-long set was a study in fun, with frontwoman Elizabeth Morris proving that the ukulele was as headbanging an instrument as anything else, dancing and pogoing around the stage. And really, for a band that’s rather instantly and mostly fairly pigeonholed as twee-pop, they brought some seriously punk rock energy to the proceedings, Morris’ sweet voice and phrasing taking an unexpected but entirely welcome Louise Wener-ish edge in the live setting.

In between some colourful banter – apparently the show in Montreal the night before was interrupted when someone smashed the club doors with a sledge hammer – they melted hearts with a selection of songs from their debut, a few new tunes from their second album – entitled Europe and presumably finished though apparently not out anytime too soon – and a cover of The French’s “The Wu Tang Clan” to close the main set out. By this point a call for an encore was assured and they obliged with their hilarious single “Henry Rollins Don’t Dance”, wrapping a wonderful little set. Morris mentioned earlier in the show that she heard Toronto doesn’t get much in the way of indie-pop coming through town, and that’s probably true enough. If they want to up our regular dosage of Allo Darlin’, I won’t complain a bit.

Allo Darlin’s North American tour has less than a week to go (though they’ve sworn to reschedule the week of west coast shows cancelled on account of late vias) – if you’re in one of the cities remaining on the itinerary, go. Just go.

Photos: Allo Darlin’ @ The El Mocambo – June 11, 2011
MP3: Allo Darlin’ – “My Heart Is A Drummer”
MP3: Allo Darlin’ – “Dreaming”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “My Heart Is A Drummer”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “If Loneliness Was Art”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “Dreaming”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “The Polaroid Song”

A couple big British concert announcements over the last couple days; The Horrors will follow up the July 26 release of Skying with a Fall North American tour that includes a September 27 date at Lee’s Palace. Tickets $20 in advance.

MP3: The Horrors – “Sea Within A Sea”

And at long last, Elbow are coming back to Toronto for their own, non-Chris Martin-tainted show as part of a Fall tour. Not even the fact that the September 28 show is at The Sound Academy can dampen my happiness about this. Tickets are $38.50, on sale Saturday.

Video: Elbow – “Open Arms”

White Lies have a new video. They’re at The Phoenix on August 3.

Video: White Lies – “Holy Ghost”

Spin puts Arctic Monkeys on their latest cover. Well, one of their latest covers.

Emmy The Great has posted an unabridged version of the feature that ran in The Guardian last week, making a worthy read even better. The Stool Pigeon has also posted a mixtape from Emmy as relates to her new album Virtue.

Nouse have an interview with Slow Club, whoe are gearing up for the release of their second album with a new website and a new video for their new single “Two Cousins”, though you have to sign up to their mailing list to watch the thing.

Belle & Sebastian have rolled out a new video from Write About Love and are teasing the release of another one coming later today – I’ll update when it’s up. And while we wait for the future to arrive, Magnet takes us back to the past by posting their cover feature on the band circa 2006, back when they were a magazine and had covers.

Video: Belle & Sebastian – “Come On Sister”
Video: Belle & Sebastian – “I Didn’t See It Coming”

Sons & Daughters are streaming their new record Mirror Mirror at The Guardian. It’s out now in the UK but not until July 12 in North America.

Stream: Sons & Daughters / Mirror Mirror

The Irish Independent, Star-Observer, Irish Times and SX News have feature pieces on Patrick Wolf, whose new album Lupercalia is out next wek.

NME talks to Stornoway about what they might have planned for album number two.

The Guardian declares that Pulp are more important, culturally speaking, than ever.

NPR has posted a World Cafe session with a couple of songwriting legends currently on tour together, Richard Thompson and Loudon Wainwright III. Thompson is here solo on September 8 for a show at Koerner Hall.

Danish post-punk teen act Iceage will be at Parts & Labour on August 17 in support of their debut album New Brigade, out next Tuesday. Pitchfork has full tour dates.

MP3: Iceage – “Broken Bone”
MP3: Iceage – “White Rune”

Spin and NPR have video and audio sessions, respectively, with Peter Bjorn & John, while The Huffington Post talks food with John Erikkson. They’ve got a two-night stand scheduled for Lee’s Palace on September 2 and 3.

Frank YangOkkervil River are probably pretty comfortable at the Phoenix now, this past Friday marking the band’s third straight show at the Toronto venue. But each visit was in a slightly different context – Spring 2008 as support for The New Pornographers, that same October marking their first swing at headlining the 1000-capacity room – and this show would be the gauge as to whether they had outgrown that scale venue and would be moving onto bigger stages. And indeed, the did sell it out but not without the help of a pretty impressive undercard.

Leading off was Baltimore trio Future Islands, who’d been getting attention at a pretty steady rate since the release of their second album In Evening Air last Spring. I can’t comment on the “post-wave” scene of which they’re apparently a part of, but what I saw was three regular joe-looking dudes taking the stage in a synth/bass/vocals configuration and while the former two went about their business in an understated manner, vocalist Sam Herring turned into a fascinating model of a frontman. Stalking and/or prowling the stage like a jungle gorilla, hes was all chest-slapping, arm-flailing and face-grabbing antics and yet carried himself with an odd sort of stateliness. The musical side was just as odd/interesting, coupling a distinctly glammy take on early ’80s post-punk vibe with vocals that were at times gutteral and others almost theatrically dramatic. I can’t say how much I really liked it but it was definitely interesting, and these days interesting goes a long way.

I’ll go see Okkervil River each and every time they come to town, whatever the room, but I won’t lie – having Titus Andronicus on the bill made this show extra exciting, being one of the bands that could easily steal a show out from anyone. Their show at Sneaky Dee’s in April 2010 still goes down in my books as one of the most intense and chaotic live music experiences in recent memory, and while it was slightly more controlled when I saw them later that summer at Pitchfork, it was clear that of all the club-level bands getting their moment on a big festival stage that weekend, Titus Andronicus were one of the few ready to deserve it.

This would be the band’s fourth show in Toronto in just over a year, each one was a sell out and rowdy as hell, but this was their first in a room larger than The Horseshoe and I’m sure Patrick Stickles was happy to finally be on stage high enough that he wouldn’t have to worry about fans falling or getting flung onto his pedalboard. And I was happy that there’d probably be less of a concentration of their own fans and I might get to enjoy their set without worrying quite as much about getting kicked in the head. And indeed, their set had less of the bedlam of past performances but it’s important to note that as their show went on and converts to the unrelenting lessons in history, rock and rage as documented on The Monitor were made, the chaos steadily increased – thankfully mostly on the other side of the room from me. This allowed me to note that the sonic mix had shifted somewhat from when I saw them last, working a little more piano into the mix and coming across with less punk fury and more rock’n’roll fun. Goodness knows guitarist/violinist Amy Klein was having fun up there – whether pogoing around the stage or going foot-on-monitor for some riffing, she was a ridiculous amount of fun to watch, and it’s not hard to imagine that before too long it will be her and her bandmates headlining rooms this size.

But for this night, the stage still belonged to Okkervil River. I noted in my review of their latest effort I Am Very Far that the band had shed some of the refinement that marked The Stage Names/The Stand Ins in favour of a more sonically adventurous approach and indeed, that aesthetic shift carried over to the live show. I’d commented in my writeup of their last Phoenix show that the band were simply too good now to recapture the anarchic spirit that marked some of thier earlier shows and while that’s still technically true, they took a pretty good shot at it.

Whereas the last few shows had been about how in control of their formidable musical powers Okkervil River now were, this time out there was again the sense of overreaching just enough to feel unpredictable. Sure there was the fact that Will Sheff was knocking over mic stands while roaming around the stage, but he’s always done that; what was new were some noisier indulgences like a mic dedicated to heavy echo effects for him to randomly sing into, the introduction of synths for extra aural chaos, extra-ripping guitar solos from Lauren Gurgiolo, to say nothing of the synchronized hand clap/finger snap dance moves with her and Sheff in “Piratess”. Rather than simply play a show, there was a sense that they wanted to put on a show.

Whichever it was, the net result was a terrific show drawing from all their records from Black Sheep Boy forward in the expected proportions and with power substituted for some of the precision. The enthused – and tone-deaf, judging from the singalongs – audience may have helped contribute to the atmosphere, but proved to be a bit of a problem when Sheff went solo and acoustic for “A Stone”, proving you can’t rowdy up a crowd and then ask them to hush up when you need it. Old school fans got their fix with the encore as they went all the way back to Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See for “Westfall” before closing with the raucous, everyone-pleasing “Unless It Kicks”. Without a breakthrough hit or some other trajectory-altering event, it’s unlikely that Okkervil River’s next return to Toronto will see them graduating to the next tier of venue – that’d be the twice as large Kool Haus – but as long as they continue to play the Phoenix stage, they will continue to own it.

Will Sheff shares some thoughts on lyrics with Magnet in his capacity as producer for Bird Of Youth, who were playing guest editor of their website last week. The Wall Street Journal also has a talk with him about his current digs of Brooklyn, New York.

Photos: Okkervil River, Titus Andronicus, Future Islands @ The Phoenix – June 10, 2011
MP3: Okkervil River – “Wake And Be Fine”
MP3: Okkervil River – “Mermaid”
MP3: Okkervil River – “Lost Coastlines”
MP3: Okkervil River – “Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe”
MP3: Okkervil River – “The President’s Dead”
MP3: Okkervil River – “No Key, No Plan”
MP3: Okkervil River – “Black”
MP3: Okkervil River – “It Ends With A Fall”
MP3: Okkervil River – “Kansas City”
MP3: Okkervil River – “Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas”
MP3: Okkervil River – “Red”
MP3: Okkervil River – “Westfall”
MP3: Titus Andronicus – “A More Perfect Union”
MP3: Titus Andronicus – “Four Score And Seven” (Part One)
MP3: Titus Andronicus – “Four Score And Seven” (Part Two)
MP3: Titus Andronicus – “Titus Andronicus”
MP3: Future Islands – “Tin Man”
MP3: Future Islands – “Walking Through That Door”
Video: Okkervil River – “Wake And Be Fine”
Video: Okkervil River – “Lost Coastlines”
Video: Okkervil River – “Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe”
Video: Okkervil River – “Girl In Port”
Video: Okkervil River – “For Real”
Video: Titus Andronicus – “No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future”
Video: Titus Andronicus – “A More Perfect Union”
Video: Titus Andronicus – “Titus Andronicus”
Video: Future Islands – “Tin Man”

After a couple years apart, Two Gallants are back together and will be at The Drake Underground on September 9, tickets $15 in advance.

MP3: Two Gallants – “Las Cruces Jail”

Active Child – aka Los Angeleno Pat Grossi – will release his debut album You Are All I See on August 23 and follow it up with touring which includes a September 14 date at The Garrison. Tickets for the show are $12 in advance.

MP3: Active Child – “Body Heat (So Far Away)”

The South Carolina Times talks to Gary Louris of The Jayhawks; their new record Mockingbird Time arrives September 20.

Pitchfork, The New Zealand Herald and The Australian have interviews with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, whose new album Bon Iver, Bon Iver – making it technically not self-titled, just redundant – is out June 20. They play The Sound Academy on August 9.

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats chats with The Georgia Straight and Seattle Times.

Clash interviews Jim James of My Morning Jacket, in town at The Kool Haus on July 11.

Paste checks in with Darby Cicci of The Antlers, who are in town at The Mod Club tomorrow night.

Over at The Quietus, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips names off his top 13 albums of all time.

Colin Meloy clarifies rumours on the end of The Decemberists to The New York Times.

Frank YangWhat’s in a name? If you were at The Drake Underground on Friday or Saturday nights, possibly a lot. Over those two nights the marquee outside the front doors read Jonny and Apex Manor, as the two acts were kicking off their North American tour with a two-night stand in Toronto, but had the top billing read Teenage Fanclub and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – as Jonny is the collaboration of those two bands’ Norman Blake and Euros Childs – then maybe there’d have been a little less elbow room for those who were in the know enough to show up.

The identity issue might have also applied to the support, as Apex Manor is the new band of Ross Flournoy, who used to front Los Angeles power pop outfit The Broken West, who once upon a time were called The Brokedown. Got that? Good. Though advance listings had stated that this show would feature Apex Manor as an acoustic duo – presumably Flournoy and bassist Brian Whelan, also from The Broken West – but when things got underway it was just Flournoy, his Martin acoustic and a brace of songs drawn mostly from Apex Manor’s debut The Year Of Magical Drinking. And though the stripped-down nature of the set necessarily diminished the “power” half of the equation, the “pop” of things was still very much in effect thanks to the sophisticated hookiness of the material. It was good to be reminded of how good a band The Broken West were – particularly when Flournoy busted out their song “Down In The Valley” – and satisfying to see that carried over into their new incarnation.

No one would accuse Jonny of being an overly serious side-project, but assuming that Childs and Blake – the former with a couple of keyboards to go with his acoustic guitar and the latter handling guitar, drum machine and laptop duties – would treat it as a joke would have been a mistake. Okay, that’s not entirely accurate; there were plenty of jokes as the duo bantered back and forth in a manner worthy of a seasoned stand-up duo, their ultimately aborted attempt to cover the Saxons’ “It Ain’t Right” was more comedy sketch than musical performance and there were running gags of a sort with Childs’ collapsing homemade keyboard stands and Blake’s orchestration of the drum machine, but with the talents on hand, even the silliest songs were immaculately executed.

Considering the Jonny album barely clocks in at 40 minutes, their set was considerably longer than you might have expected. Of course some of that was for the aforementioned between-song back-and-forth, but they also included a number of non-album songs and made what could have been a brief-ish affair not only feel like a full and proper set, but one that reinforced Jonny as its own entity, separate and distinct from the resumes of the two artists who made the band up. Not so much, however, that one of the biggest highlights of the show was the encore wherein each of them busted out a couple of the former/other bands’ tunes. Jonny was charming and all, but hearing “I Don’t Want Control Of You” and “Spanish Dance Troupe” was the guaranteed way to close the night on the highest possible note.

Photos: Jonny, Apex Manor @ The Drake Underground – June 4, 2011
MP3: Jonny – “Candyfloss”
MP3: Jonny – “Gloria”
MP3: Apex Manor – “Under The Gun”
Video: Jonny – “You Was Me”
Video: Jonny – “Candyfloss”
Video: Apex Manor – “My My Mind”
ZIP: Jonny / Free

With reunions must come reissues, and so Pitchfork reports that Pulp’s first three albums – It, Freaks and Separations – will be reissued with bonus material come August 8.

The Independent finds out Elbow frontman Guy Garvey’s secrets to staying grounded while The Sydney Morning Herald chats with guitarist Mark Potter.

Emmy The Great offers a guide to staying virtuous to Clash. Her new album Virtue is out next week.

Exclaim and Metro interview James Blake, in town at The Phoenix on September 30.

Gruff Rhys has released a new video from Hotel Shampoo, just in time to wrap up the North American tour that hits The Horseshoe on June 11.

Video: Gruff Rhys – “Honey All Over”

TapeDek gets The Vaccines to indulge in some old-school Britpop trash talk. The National Post also has a chat.

Clash interviews Ladytron, whose new album Gravity The Seducer arrives September 13.

Beatroute interviews The Raveonettes.

Billboard has got a live video session from Peter Bjorn & John, while Metro, The Province and OC Weekly have interviews. They play Lee’s Palace on September 2 and 3.

aux.tv talks to The Naked & Famous, in town at Lee’s Palace on August 9.

Austin’s Ume have finally announced details of their new long-player; The AV Club has all the details but the key information is that it will be called Phantoms, be released on August 30 and the band will be in town on June 15 at the Drake Underground as part of NXNE. This is not a song from the new record but a good reminder of why they’re a band worth getting excited about.

MP3: Ume – “The Conductor”

The War On Drugs, last seen hereabouts opening up for Destroyer back in April will be back on August 24 at a venue to be named in support of their new record Slave Ambient, out August 16. Pitchfork has full dates and check out the Springsteen-ish first MP3 below.

MP3: The War On Drugs – “Baby Missiles”

Peter Hook brings his new band the Light and their rather questionable re-production of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures to The Phoenix on September 24. “Atmosphere” isn’t from Unknown Pleasures but this video should give you an idea of how they’re doing it. The Spectator has an interview with Hook.

Video: Peter Hook & The Light featuring Rowetta – “Atmosphere”

Once again announcing a new show before their last one has actually happened yet, Foster The People will be at The Sound Academy on October 1, tickets $23.50. More immediately, they’re at The Mod Club on June 18 but that’s sold out.

MP3: Foster The People – “Pumped Up Kicks”

Officially back from Europe/vacation, and let me tell you I am thrilled about it. THRILLED.

Frank YangAt the entrance to Parc del Forum is a typically strange-looking piece of Barcelonan architecture, wedge-shaped and indigo-coloured, and within it is a series of stark white hallways leading to a huge auditorium. This is the L’Auditori and on the Saturday afternoon of Primavera Sound, it hosted the performance that I had been looking forward to only a little bit less than Pulp the night before: John Cale leading the BCN216 orchestra in a performance of his Paris 1919 album – a recipe for greatness if ever there was one.

The ingredients for said recipe were the kilt-clad Cale handling vocals and keyboards whilst leading the 19-piece orchestra and a three-piece rock band through a sumptuous reading of his 1973 album, with Cale’s huge voice carrying its musical riches, both joyous and melancholic, to the furthest corners of the packed concert hall. Also, I’m used to hearing the album with the clicks and crackles of the LP and its seventies-era studio fidelity – to behold it in such bold, rich and three-dimensional tones was really a revelation. Truly, this is an album that deserves to be ranked as one of the all-time greats, and anyone who disagrees simply hasn’t heard it.

It’d be nice if the same could be said about the material that Cale used to pad out the set; after the orchestra decamped, Cale strapped on a guitar to kick off a set that was both traditional and experimental rock. I won’t claim to be anything resembling an expert on Cale’s solo repertoire, but while some of it was interesting and there were indisputable moments of beauty contained therein, the strongest impression was that it was musically overcooked thanks to some excessive solos. It got better when the orchestra returned to fill things out, but the remainder of the set certainly didn’t measure up to the album recital that preceded it – that was just magical.

It’s a shame I didn’t sneak out of the theatre earlier because it would have meant catching more than a couple songs of Warpaint’s set over on the Llevant stage. I was surprised they were playing the second largest stage at the festival, but perhaps I underestimated the benefits of all their European touring. Our time together wasn’t long but a little bit of their intensely chilled-out space rock is better than none, and few bands look like they have as good a time on stage together as Warpaint does. Bonus points to Jenny Lee Lindberg for rocking the Rosie The Riveter livery up there.

It’s kind of a shame there’s so little grass at Parc del Forum, as lying on a patch of green watching the sun set behind the stage would have been the ideal setting for Fleet Foxes’ Spanish debut (according to them). After all of the big productions that the San Miguel stage had hosted thus far, their stripped down yet soaring folk-rock was a nice change of pace. Robin Pecknold’s voice not always able to soar past the dense instrumentation in the mix, but when needed, like on “White Winter Hymnal”, the extra lift from the band’s harmonies and audience singalong saved the day. It was also interesting to note that “Helplessness Blues”, the title track from their not-even a month-old new album, has already been elevated to set closer. Bold.

The original game plan had been to pop back to L’Auditori to see at least some of Mercury Rev’s live recreation of Deserters Songs, but an excessively long turnover between the audience for the last show and this one prompted me to bail and instead indulge my German industrial rock joneses with Einstürzende Neubauten back at the Ray-Ban stage. Except it turns out I don’t actually have and German industrial joneses and so after a couple times it was time to head back to the San Miguel stage and grab some pavement in anticipation of PJ Harvey.

As keen as I was to finally get to see Polly Jean Harvey live and as much as I liked her latest album Let England Shake, I was well aware that this latest release might not be the best album to see her perform live, particularly in a festival setting. And any hopes that she might revert to rocker form for just one evening were shelved when she took the stage, resplendent in white Victorian gown and armed with an autoharp, under intense spotlights at far stage right while her bandmates were set up at far stage left and opened up with the title track of the new record.

The stark, restrained performance was as theatrical in its own way as the Flaming Lips’ set a few nights earlier, with Harvey’s movements and positioning onstage extremely calculated and deliberate and interaction with the audience kept to an absolute minimum. The set comprised almost all of Let England Shake, with its meditations on war and history setting an odd tone against the Primavera backdrop – particularly for those in the crowd trying to dance to descriptions of the horrors of World War I battlefields, but also a fascinating one.

Even when Harvey delved into her varied back catalog, with the oppositely-themed To Bring You My Love the most visited, the songs were recast in Let England Shake dress, some even rearragned to be led on the autoharp. Trying to reconcile the chasteness of what I was seeing with the sensuality of Harvey’s persona circa 1995, from whence I remembered those songs, was an interesting exercise. Some of the old Harvey raucousness began to creep in later on with Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea‘s “Big Exit” and To Bring You My Love‘s “Meet Ze Monsta” proving that for all the white she could and would still get dirty, but rather than mark the mark the start of a fresher, rawer and more crowd-pleasing portion of the show, it was the end. There was no encore.

And there, at a little past midnight on Saturday evening, did my first Primavera Sound experience end – while there was still plenty to see, an early morning flight out dictated that getting out then to be the prudent thing to do. I won’t say it’ll be my last Primavera, though – besides the perks of getting to visit Barcelona, it was an impressively-run festival (I can say this because I didn’t partake in the cash-card fiasco that marred day one for beer-drinkers) with a ridiculous lineup.
Big but not too big, if they assemble another perfect storm of acts I want/need to see (Ride/Slowdive/Lush reunions in 2012 holla) then I can certainly see myself returning. And if you’re never been but have considered it, I heartily encourage you to do so. For the curious, all my set and atmosphere shots (from the crowd) are up on Flickr, as are all my pics from Barcelona and London over the last couple weeks. If you’re a holiday snaps kind of person.

And the wrap out the week…

The Quietus talks to Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donahue about Deserter’s Songs and also their new album plans.

Exclaim reports that New York Euro-poppers Ivy have completed a new album, their first in seven years since In The Clear. No title or release date as of yet but the first single will arrive next week.

Aquarium Drunkard interviews The Radio Dept. guitarist Martin Larsson.

The Line Of Best Fit meets I Break Horses, whose debut Hearts is out August 15.

DIY interviews Emmy The Great, whose second album Virtue is released on June 13. Any postal service strike had better be over before my copy arrives or there may be some… unpleasantness.

Video: Emmy The Great – “Iris”

Drowned In Sound talks Lupercalia with Patrick Wolf. The new record is out June 20 in the UK.

NPR is streaming a KCRW session with Hot Chip.

Frank YangI’m not sure what purpose Barcelona’s Parc del Forum, a fairly massive, considerably paved waterfront park on the edge of the city, is used for the rest of the year – it seems to built up and out of the way for just hanging out in – but for one weekend in May, at least, it’s a pretty terrific spot to hold a music festival. Some more grassy spaces would be welcome and being long and narrow, it can be a haul from one stage to the next, but when you realize you’re seeing a fantastically well-curated lineup of artists right on the shores of the Mediterranean, then a little bit of walking doesn’t seem like such a big deal.

As a North American festival-goer used to things kicking off at the crack of noon, it was odd to see Primavera Sound’s schedule not getting underway until late afternoon each day and going until almost the crack of dawn. But as it turned out, this was a pretty sweet arrangement – assuming you didn’t have to work in the morning – as it saved you from being in a wide open space during the hottest part of the day and let you do touristy things while still packing in a full slate of acts.

My Thursday began at the San Miguel mainstage for Of Montreal and though it had been a few years since I last saw them live, it was good to see that they hadn’t tamed things down at all in the interim. Quite the opposite, actually, as in addition to the psychedelic electro-funk that you find on their records, the show was crammed with such curiosities as costume changes, balloon acrobats, Mexican wrestlers and epic man versus she-pig battle re-enactment. For any other band, these technicolor shenanigans would probably constituted doing something special for the festival but for Of Montreal? Just another day at the office.

Post-Of Montreal, it was time to wander the grounds a bit and get the lay of the land and coming across the ATP Stage, I stopped to listen to London’s Seefeel for a bit, having read something about them on the Twitters. I caught about 10 minutes of their set but apparently this was just the outro of their final song, consisting of a pulsing, groovy bit of drone-dub that played quite nicely against the backdrop of the sea. Might have been nice to have actually heard a song, but what can you do.

By this time, night had fallen and ater verifying that none of the festival’s wifi points were working – no surprise but really, why even pretend they’ll work? – it was over to the Ray-Ban Stage where I was susprised to find Big Boi on stage and punctual. Maybe he was jet-lagged and thought he was two hours late. Either way, his crew had been hard at work pre-set to round up pretty girls from the audience – and this being Spain there were a lot of them – and had them on-stage as dancers. Fun to watch for a bit but after hearing the couple of Big Boi/Outkast songs I knew, it was time to move on.

The first can’t-miss act of the festival, for me at least, as Grinderman. Yes, I’d seen Nick Cave and company’s alter ego at their North American debut last Fall but whereas some acts excel in a club-sized environ, I posit that the potency of Grinderman actually comes across better in a big outdoor setting. With the extra stage and pit space to move around in, Cave seemed extra unhinged as though he amped up his intensity to make sure all the thousands in attendance got their fair share. In particular, the camera shots of Cave stalking the pit between audience invasions during “Kitchenette” reminded of ringside footage from a prize fight and in “Honey Bee”, he proved that he may be the only man on earth who can make bee noises and arm flapping come across sinisterly. Grinderman were loud, raw and exhilarating and it’s a good thing that at set’s close when Cave encouraged everyone to Suicide, he specified the band playing the next stage over and not the act. Because after their performance, this was not a man you wanted to say no to.

Circa their latest self-titled album, there’s been much talk about how Interpol’s time is past, how they’re on the decline – that’s not a position that would have gotten much traction with the thousands who showed up for their 1AM set on the Llevant Stage. And for as much as you can complain that Interpol does the same thing over and over again, there were a few new things to come out of their set. For instance, Daniel Kessler speaks Spanish – at least I think it was Kessler who addressed the audience fluently in their native tongue, I suppose it could have been Paul Banks. I couldn’t tell from way back in the field. And also different was the speed at which they plowed through their songs – tempos on most numbers were ratcheted up from the norm, perhaps for a more efficient set. It wasn’t necessarily better, but it was different. But otherwise, Interpol was Interpol. And I have no idea who’s playing bass for them now.

I left their set early so as to stake out prime bubble walk/confetti cannon position for The Flaming lips. There was some ambiguity about exactly which show they were going to be performing and I was mildly disappointed this didn’t turn out to be a Soft Bulletin show as I’m one of those who hold that album up as their masterpiece and material from it doesn’t get aired out in regular sets nearly as much as it should. But if it being otherwise meant that I’d get a repeat of last year’s stellar Molson Amphitheater show, then okay – I can deal. And a lot of it was the same, but that didn’t diminish the fun of it, particularly when you’re surrounded by people who’re witnessing the spectacle for probably the first time. Because it remains a hell of a thing. Twists on this particular show included bringing out a translator to greet and advise the audience of the opening space bubble walk, a Wizard Of Oz theme for the dancers with dozens of cute Dorothys whooping it up on either side of the stage, the giant exploding confetti balloons were new, the firing of laser hands at a giant disco ball was an inspired move and there was even a new song in the set with Steve Drozdt showing off some manner of iPhone app that he used to generate noises Kaos Pad-style. It’s nice to see their show continue to evolve with new material while maintaining the elements that are now basically trademarks of the Lips’ shows. Always a blast and you would hear people singing “Race For The Prize” into the night, long after the show was done.

I should note that I started to fade at 4am. I am allowed to fade at 4am. But it wasn’t done. The evening/morning closer was back at the Llevant Stage where Greg Gillis – aka Girl Talk – was flown in from Pittsburgh specifically for this show and when you only have to work for one hour, I imagine you give it your all. Of course as a mash-up artist/DJ, “giving it your all” is more just a figure of speech but for a guy with a laptop, Girl Talk live was a lot of fun. He also filled the stage with dancers and would periodically step out in front of or on top of his desk to dance it up himself, and then there were the thousands of partygoers getting down in sea of feathers, presumably left over from El Guincho’s set beforehand. Yes, it was a sight. Musically I only knew about half of the stuff he played – typically the Top 40/pop half, not the hip-hop half – but I can see why people enjoy his stuff so much. I stuck around for a while but eventually the rising sun and falling stamina forced an end to the day.

A new Flaming Lips EP done in collaboration with Prefuse 73 is available to stream at Paste.

And in other news.

Last night’s Friendly Fires show at The Phoenix has been rescheduled for October 23 at The Phoenix after drummer Jack Savidge was hospitalized “due to exhaustion”. Details at Exclaim. There’s a pre-exhaustion interview with the band at Interview.

White Lies are back for a show at The Phoneix on August 3, tickets $27.50 in advance.

Video: White Lies – “Bigger Than Us”

The Village Voice interviews Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles. They’re at The Phoenix on June 10.

Low play a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR and talks to The Skinny.

Exclaim reports that Stephin Merritt will be releasing a compilation of rarities spanning all of his various bands and projects in Obscurities, due out August 23 on Merge.

MP3: Stephin Merritt – “Forever And A Day”

NPR welcomes TV On The Radio for a World Cafe session.

Drowned In Sound and NPR interview Death Cab For Cutie. They play The Molson Amphitheatre on July 29.

Diamond Rings’ remix series continues with an interpretation of Austra’s “Lose It”. Diamond Rings plays Echo Beach on June 3 and Yonge-Dundas Square and Wrongbar on June 18 for NXNE.

MP3: Austra – “Lose It” (Diamond Rings remix)

Fucked Up’s new opus David Comes To Life is now streaming in whole at NPR, in advance of its release on June 7. They’re playing Yonge-Dundas Square and Wrongbar on June 16 for NXNE and the Air Canada Centre on August 9. Tourdates UK has an interview with Damian Abraham.

Stream: Fucked Up / David Comes To Life

Evening Hymns are featured in a Takeaway Show; they play the Music Gallery for NXNE on June 16.

Dan Mangan has cobbled together some tour footage into a new video, presumably the last from Nice, Nice, Very Nice before his third album Oh, Fortune arrives in September. You can also stream his set this weekend at Sasquatch over at NPR.

Video: Dan Mangan – “Sold”

JAM interviews Sloan. They have two dates at the Mod Club for June 21 and 22.