Frank YangWho: Warpaint
What: Los Angeles art-rock quartet who took the buzz around their debut EP Exquisite Corpse and turned into a full-on torrent of praise for last year’s full-length The Fool
Why: Despite an intensive touring regimen that brought them to town three times in ’10, they’re crossing the continent again and remain an unbelievably tight and precise live experience.
When: Saturday, March 26, 2011
Where: Wrongbar in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Also on the bill are Australia’s PVT and Brooklyn’s Family Band
How: Tickets for the show are $15 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 Warpaint” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contests closes at midnight, March 21.
What else: The San Francisco Examiner has an interview with bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg.

MP3: Warpaint – “Undertow”

Frank YangWho: British Sea Power
What: Eccentric and anthemic British rock outfit who released their fourth album in Valhalla Dancehall earlier this year
Why: Having made it a habit to play in odd and remote locales – they can list The Great Wall of China, Natural History Museum London, the UK’s highest pub and the Arctic Circle in their gigography – they now set their sights on the final frontier of North America
When: Thursday, March 24, 2011
Where: Lee’s Palace in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Canadian-Italian rockers A Classic Education will support
How: Tickets for the show are $18.50 in advance but courtesy of Collective Concerts, 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 British Sea Power” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contests closes at midnight, March 21.
What else: The Quietus reports that the band are on board with renewable energy. Good to know.

MP3: British Sea Power – “Who’s In Control?”
MP3: British Sea Power – “Living Is So Easy”

markkozelek.comWho: Mark Kozelek
What: Former Red House Painter, current Sun Kil Moon-er and all-around revered singer, songwriter, guitarist and curmudgeon
Why: Sun Kil Moon released Admiral Fell Promises last year and while you’d expect that the band as a whole would tour in support, the Koz only ever seems to come to Canada solo. And that’s when he even comes at all (or doesn’t cancel) so we should take what we can get.
When: Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Where: Lee’s Palace in Toronto (19+)
Who else: The show is billed as “An evening with Mark Kozelek”; note the absence of names that are not Mark Kozelek
How: Tickets for the show are $17.50 in advance but courtesy of Collective Concerts, 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 Mark Kozelek” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contests closes at midnight, March 17.

Video: Red House Painters – “24”

Joseph YarmushWho: Young Galaxy
What: Montreal dream-pop outfit who’ve proven the third time’s the charm with their best record to date, Shapeshifting
Why: They’re anchoring a pretty stacked lineup as part of Canadian Musicfest, providing a pretty good argument for eschewing the club-hopping that usually comes with the fest and just staying put. And there are burritos in the lobby!
When: Thursday, March 10, 2011
Where: Lee’s Palace in Toronto, 19+
Who else: As mentioned, there’s plenty of goodness on the bill with The Wilderness Of Manitoba, Miracle Fortress, Imaginary Cities and These Electric Lives coming out to play.
How: All festival wristbands, subject to capacity, will be admitted and advance tickets are $16.50 but courtesy of Union, I’ve got four pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Young Galaxy” in the subject line and your full name in the body and get that to me before midnight, March 8.

MP3: Young Galaxy – “Peripheral Visionaries”
MP3: Young Galaxy – “We Have Everything”

Kyle JohnsonWith his 2009 self-titled debut album as Telekinesis, Seattle’s Michael Benjamin Lerner established several bona fides. First, playing every instrument on the record without ending up over- or under-produced was no mean feat, although having Death Cab’s Chris Walla on hand in the producer’s chair certainly helped. Secondly, he could write the hell out of a power-pop tune, what with the record being packed top to bottom with instantly likeable and memorable numbers. Third… well who needs a third point when you’ve got those first two down?

For the follow-up, Lerner sent the band he toured the first record with home and again holed up with just himself, Walla and another brace of songs. The result? 12 Desperate Straight Lines, which doesn’t offer any sort of dramatic reinvention of what Telekinesis is or does, but does take it to enough different terrain to set it apart. And by different, I mean darker, or at least as dark as a record laden with “ba ba ba” singalong choruses can get.

The hooks may remain, but the innocence of the debut is considerably muted; that there was a failed relationship between records one and two is no surprise to who takes an even cursory listen to the lyrics. And even if the words go in one ear and out the other, the more propulsive tempos and chunkier, riffier guitars and cribs from The Cure – albeit the poppiest aspects of The Cure – certainly speak to there being both some catharsis and moping going on behind the scenes of this record’s creation. You could still rightly describe it as sunshine-y, but you can’t ignore the shadows that are cast throughout and all in all, that makes for a more interesting picture.

Telekinesis are playing The Horseshoe this Sunday evening, March 6. Tickets are $11 in advance but courtesy of Collective Concerts, I’ve got five pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to witness Telekinesis” in the subject line and your full name in the body and have that in to me before 5PM, March 5 – that’s Saturday evening, as in tomorrow. And if you can’t make the show, there’s also an acoustic in-store performance at Sonic Boom earlier that evening at 7PM.

Rolling Stone has an interview with Benjamin Michael Lerner.

MP3: Telekinesis – “Car Crash”

The Guardian interviews The Strokes about the making of their new record Angles, which is out March 22 and from which they’ve released a first video and made available a second song to stream at NME.

Video: The Strokes – “Under Cover Of Darkness”

The Creator’s Project has a short documentary feature video on Interpol.

Crawdaddy talks to Travis Morrison of The Dismemberment Plan about his songwriting method. Back when he was writing songs. The Chicago Sun-Times also ran a feature piece last month.

New York’s Beach Fossils will be in town on April 20 for a show at Parts & Labour. They followed up last year’s self-titled debut with the What A Pleasure EP last month.

MP3: Beach Fossils – “Calyer”

Battles will be at The Horseshoe on April 29, previewing material from their new record Gloss Drop which is out June 7.

Beatroute talks to The Dodos about their new record No Color, which is out March 14 but available to stream at Hype Machine right now.

Stream: The Dodos / No Color

Speakers In Code has an interview with Nicole Atkins, who has been keeping a tour diary of her current jaunt over at Spinner. Explore Music has a video session and interview while MPR is streaming a radio session.

NPR has a World Cafe session with Lissie available to stream.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of a Drive-By Truckers show at the Bowery Ballroom from last month. Deleware Online and the San Jose Mercury News have features on the band.

Rolling Stone talks to My Morning Jacket about their new record Circuital, which will be out sometime this Spring.

Spin has got a stream of Thurston Moore’s contribution to Sing For Your Meat, the forthcoming Guided By Voices tribute album, due out on Record Store Day (April 16).

Spinner solicits Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips’ thoughts on Charlie Sheen. Just because.