MySpaceSo I’m sitting down to write up this little contest giving away passes to see bluegrass bros The Avett Brothers and I’m getting the oddest sense of deja vu… because I did the very same thing back in September, when they played the Horseshoe in support of their just-released album I And Love And You.

So if you’re looking for some thoughts on the record, go re-read that post – I don’t think I’ve got anything to add to what I jotted down last Fall – but if you’re looking to score some passes to see them live, then this is where you want to be. The Avetts are coming back to town on June 1, but instead of the cozy ‘Shoe, they’re playing the much larger Phoenix – a sign, perhaps, of the success their major label debut has garnered in the past eight months.

Tickets for the show are $25.50 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 be an Avett Brother” in the subject line and your full name in the body and get that in to me by midnight, May 27.

There’s features on the band at Associated Press and Sign On San Diego.

MP3: The Avett Brothers – “I And Love And You”
Video: The Avett Brothers – “I And Love And You”

sonigGroundbreaking German electronic duo Mouse On Mars have been relatively quiet in recent years – their last release under their own name was 2006’s Varcharz, but then they were part of Von Sudenfed, who released Tromatic Reflexxions in 2007, and working with Mark E. Smith of The Fall is probably enough to send anyone into hiding for a few years.

They’re finally coming back, however – a website news update late last year announced that, ““Mouse On Mars are writing their most exciting new stuff for years – possibly decades” and perhaps as a sign that said material is ready to see the light of day, they’ve scheduled a handful of Canadian live dates leading up to the MUTEK festival in Montreal. Southern Ontarians can catch them on June 1 at Wrongbar in Toronto and June 2 at The Casbah in Hamilton, and Torontoians can possibly do so for free by entering this here contest.

Tickets for the show are $15 in advance but courtesy of The Union, 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 Mouse On Mars” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, May 27.

Video: Mouse On Mars – “Actionist Respoke”
Video: Mouse On Mars – “Wipe That Sound”

FacebookBetter late than never, right? That’s the only consolation I can offer myself for having largely ignored LCD Soundsystem for so long. And it’s not that I can claim ignorance (not being the same thing as ignoring, despite their etymological connection) – I gave their 2005 self-titled debut a passing writeup, saw them play at ACL 2007 and even saw them rank 6th in my 2007 reader’s poll for Sound Of Silver. So why, with all of this, have I never given them more than the most passing listen? I think I’d assumed that they were just a shouty, ironic dance-rock band and while they are all those things, but never twigged on to how smart, hilarious and utterly catchy their stuff was, either. Shame on me.

But finally revisiting (or visiting for the first time, in the case of Silver) their works in advance of next week’s release of their third – an possibly final – album This Is Happening has been a minor revelation, hitting a spot that I didn’t necessarily know I needed hit. And the timing is also ideal in that it allows me to hit up what might be their last show in Toronto – hey, last record generally means last tour – at the Kool Haus on May 25. Tickets for the show are $35 in advance but courtesy of Embrace, I have two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to lose my edge with LCD Soundsystem” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and get that in to me before midnight, May 20.

Clash has a five-part interview with LCD mainman James Murphy; The Guardian wraps up their feature piece in one.

Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Drunk Girls”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “All My Friends”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Someone Great”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “North American Scum”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Tribulations”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Daft Punk Is Playing”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Movement”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Losing My Edge”

fyfedangerfield.comI had always thought of The Guillemots as being a sort of overly-quirky, art-rock band – an opinion that was, apparently, not based in anything factual – at least if a listen to their MySpace is any indication. Because what they’ve got streaming there is big, lush and straight-ahead, anchored and buoyed by the blue-eyed soulful vocals of frontman Fyfe Dangerfield and that reality kind of tosses what I was initially going to write out the window. Which is that while singers will often take a break from their main gigs in order to do something odder, Dangerfield (a great name that I briefly made even greater by mis-typing as “Dangerfiend” but I digress) had to go solo to do something more mainstream.

So from my barely-informed POV, his solo debut Fly Yellow Moon doesn’t sound a lot different from the MySpace face of The Guillemots, which is to say quite good, the only distinction being perhaps some distinctive production touches from Bernard Butler (cue the strings!) and an advert-ready Billy Joel cover that probably wouldn’t have fit on a Guillemots record (though it’s turned out to be quite the hit for Dangerfield).

Dangerfield is coming to North America next week for a handful of dates, including one at the El Mocambo in Toronto on May 23. Tickets are $13.50 in advance, but courtesy of LiveNationa, 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 to see Fyfe Dangerfield” in the subject and your full name in the body and get that in to me before midnight, May 20.

Dangerfield talks to The Sunday Mercury about how the Billy Joel cover came to be.

MP3: Fyfe Dangerfield – “She Needs Me”
Video: Fyfe Dangerfield – “She Needs Me”

MySpaceAll anyone’s ever wanted from James Mercer is Shins records. And with three years passed since Wincing The Night Away and the rest of the band dismissed, it seems that making a Shins record is the last thing James Mercer wants to do. But at least he’s doing something again, and at least that something sounds vaguely Shins-ish. I speak, of course, of Broken Bells – his collaboration with producer Danger Mouse, which has yielded an album of the same name.

It’s not a collaboration many had expected, but that goes for most of whom Danger Mouse has worked with so from that angle, perhaps it’s the most natural thing in the world. One of the Mouse’s greatest strengths as a producer is his prêt-à-porter collection of sounds and ideas, and on Broken Bells it sounds as though Mercer is working his way through his wardrobe like one of those change-room film montages. His voice is unmistakeable but the dressings – including but not limited to strings, electronic blips, synthetically-tinged drums and beats – are a fair ways away from the archetypal indie-pop of The Shins. None of it doesn’t work; the record is quite listenable and has its share of stand out moments, but that’s more thanks to the math than magic. Fine as a sidebar, but James? Get back to work.

Broken Bells are taking their show on the road this Summer, including a June 2 date at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto with The Morning Benders as support. Tickets are $37.50 in advance, but courtesy of AEG Live, I’ve got two pairs of tickets to give away. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Broken Bells” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and get that in before midnight, May 23.

Video: Broken Bells – “The High Road”