Paper Bag RecordsAs previously reported, Toronto’s Paper Bag Records is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and they’re doing it with a three-night run of shows at The Great Hall featuring performances from much of their active roster. And though it’s their birthday, they’re the ones offering the gifts.

You may have seen the giveaways run at Quick Before It Melts and Soft Signal for prize packs consisting of label goodies and passes to the Thursday and Saturday nights respectively, and wondered where the Friday night one was – well wonder no more, it’s right here.

Courtesy of Paper Bag, I’ve got one prize pack consisting of:

– A pair of tickets to see The Rural Alberta Advantage, Cuff The Duke, PS I Love You, and Slim Twig at The Great Hall on September 28 – note that this is a 19+ show.
– A special PBR10 t-shirt and commemorative poster
– Exercises by CFCF LP
– Days Into Years by Elliott Brood LP
– All Red by Winter Gloves LP
– Contempt! by Slim Twig LP
– PS I Love You/Diamond Rings “Leftovers” 7″ single

Not bad, eh? To enter, leave a comment on this post naming your favourite Paper Bag artist and release from the past decade, and be sure to include your email as that’s how the winners will be contacted. By email. Contest is restricted to folks in the Toronto area – you gots to go to the show – and closes at midnight, September 15.

Tickets for the shows are available from direct from Paper Bag.

MP3: Cuff The Duke – “Standing On The Edge”
MP3: Elliott Brood – “Northern Air”
MP3: PS I Love You w Diamond Rings – “Leftovers”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Stamp”

Julia PerssonWho: Holograms
What: Swedish post-punk quartet carrying on the time-honoured tradition of young people thinking their the first ones to ever discover Joy Division and start a band.
Why: Their self-titled debut came out earlier this Summer. And so they tour.
When: Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Where: The Shop at Parts & Labour in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Mausoleum, Ell V Gore, and S H I T – you try googling that – make it a night.
How: Tickets for the show are $10.50 in advance but courtesy of Embrace, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with, “I want to see Holograms” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, September 6.

MP3: Holograms – “Chasing My Mind”
MP3: Holograms – “ABC City”
Video: Holograms – “ABC City”
Video: Holograms – “Hidden Structures”

Norman WongOkay, since I am posting this from the north of Quebec – okay, not really that north, but considerably further north than Bloor St. in Rouyn-Noranda for this year’s Festival de musique émergente – I figure this is as good a time as any to run a pretty sweet giveaway for – wait for it – The North. As in the new record from Stars, out this coming Tuesday.

Thanks to the folks at Universal Music Canada, I have numerous copies of The North to give away in both analog and digital formats – the the former, a pair of LPs on blue vinyl, and to the latter, five silver CDs. To enter, leave a comment below with your email (it will be hidden from prying eyes), album format in order of preference, and tell me the furthest north point in Canada you’ve ever been. If you want to be precise, Google will tell you the latitude of anywhere if you ask nicely. Interestingly, Rouyn-Noranda is one degree further south than Vancouver, making that my northernmost sojourn in our fine country. Anyways, the contest is open to residents of Canada only and winners will be chosen on September 15.

The North was made available to preview via NPR stream at the start of this week, but The National Post has made their hosted stream worth checking out by adding track-by-track commentary from Torq Campbell. Consequence Of Sound also talks to Campbell about the new record.

Stars open up for Metric at The Air Canada Centre on November 24.

MP3: Stars – “Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It”
MP3: Stars – “The Theory Of Relativity”
Stream: Stars / The North

The Wilderness Of Manitoba’s second album Island Of Echoes will be coming out on September 18 and they’ve booked a hometown record release show at Trinity-St. Paul’s for October 26. Fancy!

MP3: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “Morning Sun”

The Wooden Sky have been touring their latest Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun over hill and through the dale since its release back in February, and they’re bringing it back home for a show at The Phoenix on December 1, tickets $17.50.

MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Child Of The Valley”

Andrew Scott of Sloan lists his five favourite records of the past two decades for CBC Music. Their super-deluxe Twice Removed reissue arrives September 4.

Exclaim has some details on the next album/project/thing from Yamantaka/Sonic Titan. The 33 // 渦 rock opera will debut at Pop Montreal on September 21; no details on encore performances more local to here or a recording release, but we can hope. Their YT//ST gets a re-release on September 11.

Pitchfork talks to Grimes about the making of her latest video for “Genesis”. She plays two nights at Lee’s Palace, September 21 and 22.

How excited is Woodpigeon to be opening for Patrick Wolf on his upcoming North American tour, including September 25 at the Music Gallery? So excited that there’ll be a new, tour-only album entitled Diamonds for sale throughout the journey and they’re giving away a cover of Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney’s “Say Say Say”. That’s pretty excited.

MP3: Woodpigeon – “Say Say Say”

Talk Rock To Me chats with Paul Saulnier of PS I Love You. They play the Friday night of the Paper Bag Records 10th anniversary shows at The Great Hall, September 28.

Toronto Life has an extensive feature piece on Diamond Rings, and Macleans solicits some scholastic advice from John O for those just starting school. The new album Free Dimensional will be out on October 23 and to support that release, he will be on Letterman on October 26. That is bananas. B-a-n-a-n-a-s.

Modern Superstitions’ self-titled debut album finally has a release date – it’ll be out and about on October 23.

Shad has released a video from his recent Melancholy & The Infinite Shadness mixtape.

Video: Shad – “A Milli Vanilli”

MTV lists off some things you may not have known about Coeur de Pirate.

Moonface have a new video from With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery.

Video: Moonface – “I’m Not The Phoenix Yet”

They Shoot Music has a video session with Memoryhouse.

Dominique ClementWho: Duchess Says
What: Montreal-based purveyors of aggressive New Wave/post-punk that they like to call, “Moog rock”.
Why: They released their second album, In A Fung Day T! last Fall. They would like to play it for you.
When: Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Where: Lee’s Palace in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Opening up are The Blind Shake and Dirty Inputs.
How: Tickets for the show are $10 at the door but courtesy of Collective Concerts, I’ve got three pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want Duchess Says” in the subject and your full name in the body, and have that in to me by 5PM, August 27.
What else: They were in New York this week; BrooklynVegan was there.

Video: Duchess Says – “Black Flag”

The FaintWho: The Faint
What: American New Wave outfit who made Omaha, Nebraska an improbable launching pad for the dance-rock movement of the early ’00s; they helped teach the indie kids how to dance.
Why: Their pivotal Danse Macabre album is getting an ultra-fancy reissue on October 30, and to help mark the occasion The Faint are embarking on a Fall tour to perform the album in its entirety, as well as material from their other albums as well as new songs to preview the follow-up to 2008’s Fasciinatiion.
When: Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Where: The Sound Academy in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Toronto’s TRUST and Omaha’s Icky Blossoms will open.
How: Tickets for the show are $23.50 in advance and go on sale this Friday, August 24, at 10AM, but courtesy of LiveNation, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show to help you Beat The Box Office. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to Faint” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, August 23. You’ll know if you’ve got your tickets before they go on sale.
What else: Exclaim has details on what sort of bonuses you’ll get in the deluxe edition of Danse Macabre, as well as a stream of one of the bonus tracks.

MP3: The Faint – “Agenda Suicide”
MP3: The Faint – “Glass Danse”