amymillan.comOne thing you can’t say about Amy Millan is that she’s lazy. In addition to co-fronting one of Canada’s most popular indie bands and playing a key role in another – Stars and Broken Social Scene respectively, if you’ve been asleep the last six or seven years – she’s done a good job of establishing herself as a proper solo artist, having just released her second album this Summer in Masters Of The Burial.

A mixed bag of originals and borrowed tunes, it shines a brighter light on Millan’s strummier, country side and while it does show she’s got some good taste in covers, tackling compositions from Richard Hawley, Death Cab and Weeping Tile, she doesn’t bring much new to the table and nor does she make the case for striking out on her own for good anytime soon.

But it does give her an excuse to pick up the acoustic and play some shows a good deal more intimate than anything she gets to do with either of her bands, so that’s good news for her fans. She kicks off an extensive North American tour at the Mod Club in Toronto on October 14,. Tickets are $15 in advance, but courtesy of Rootmeansquare, 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 master the burial” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, October 8.

There’s an interview with Millan at the Kingston Whig-Standard.

MP3: Amy Millan – “Bury This”
Video: Amy Millan – “Bury This”

PolyvinylEmil Svanangen has no use for your concepts of “linear time” or “chronological discographies”. For North American fans of Loney Dear, keeping up with his output has been a bit like playing Rock Band: The Traveller’s Wife Edition as his Stateside labels have picked and chosen which of his records to release whenever they want, regardless of where they fall in his artistic arc. Thankfully, Svanangen has been quite consistent from record to record in his dedication to grand melancholic pop gestures and the sanctity of the “ba-ba-ba” so you can really start wherever you like and just go with it.

And while we’d gotten mostly in sync earlier this year when Dear John came out – his newest release was his newest release wherever in the world you were – the picture is once again getting a bit clouded as his second album, 2004’s Citadel Band, is getting a limited edition (1000 pieces) re-release on vinyl come November 24. Yeah it’s already been available domestically on CD but who buys CDs anymore? Besides me, that is.

Regardless, analog-swede-pop-ophiles will rejoice at this. And those who like it live will surely be at the Horseshoe on October 12 when Loney Dear makes up their show from May, cancelled when their van broke down en route to Toronto, and they’re bringing fellow Swede Anna Ternheim and labelmates Asobi Seksu for the ride. Tickets are $13 in advance but courtesy of Rootmeansquare, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I am thankful for Loney Dear” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Yes, it’s Thanksgiving but most people do their turkey day rituals on the Sunday night, don’t they? And I actually thought this show was on the 13th for most of this Summer and have been reporting it as such for months. Thanks for catching that, everyone.

And oh yeah, there’s a new video from Dear John Check it out.

MP3: Loney Dear – “Ignorant Boy Beautiful Girl”
MP3: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”
Video: Loney Dear – “I Was Only Going Out”

CrackerfarmFor as often as they’re cited as having one foot in the world of bluegrass and another in punk rock, you might expect The Avett Brothers to be some sweat-drenched, hellfire-picking outfit leaving a trail of wanton destruction in their wake. And while there’s no denying they’ve got the instrumental virtuosity that you’d expect from the former or the latent energy or wildness inherent in the latter, their new record I And Love And You – out Tuesday – is best described as elegant. Unbelievably elegant pop tunes, built on stately acoustic arrangements and soaring harmonies but fully capable of acting out and letting their roots show. Love is only the second Avetts album I’ve listened to so I can’t say with any sort of authority where they’ve been but where they are now, with their major-label debut, is somewhere pretty special.

And on the topic of where they’re going to be, though it took a little while to confirm – original tour routing seemed to have them going from Dallas to Toronto to New Orleans over the course of five days – the Avetts will indeed be at the Horseshoe on Wednesday night, September 30. Tickets are $17.50 in advance and $20 at the door, but courtesy of Against The Grain, 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 – get that in to me by midnight, Monday night, September 28.

There’s interviews with the band at The Daily Times, Reuters and Metro Spirit while Paste gets some commentary from them on their song “Laundry Room” from the new record. And in addition to streaming the new record in advance of its release, NPR has a radio session with them.

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

Columbia RecordsThroughout his career, since the earliest days fronting Screaming Trees, Mark Lanegan has cultivated a distinct image as a man apart, solitary and brooding, an impression reinforced by his perma-scowl visage and voice like a gravel pit in hell. So why, if indeed this is man who just wants to be alone with a bottle, does he seem to be willing to work with everyone?

Post-Trees, he embarked on a well-received solo career before joining up with Queens Of The Stone Age for a while, and at the same time began an unexpected but fruitful collaboration with Isobel Campbell. On top of all that, he found the time to team up with ex-Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli to form the ’90s alt.rock dream team The Gutter Twins. To suggest the man’s dance card was full is an understatement.

And still, he finds the time for more. Right now, his prime role is as frontman for Soulsavers – ostensibly a UK electornica production team though you wouldn’t know it from their latest effort Broken, which has only been released digitally in North America. It’s like rather than having Lanegan guest on their tracks, they’ve opted to play backing band for him and in doing so, have built a near-perfect aural landscape for Lanegan to sing overtop, all charred gospel and blues, a bleak, sweeping and cinematic Americana. These guys do remixes? Really?

And they also tour. With Lanegan along for the ride – there’s no way they could do it if he wasn’t – Soulsavers are currently playing North America and will be in Toronto this Friday, September 25, for a date at the Mod Club. Tickets are $20 in advance but courtesy of LiveNation 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 Soulsavers” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest will close at midnight, September 23.

Video: Soulsavers – “Revival”
Video: Soulsavers – “Kingdoms Of Rain”
Stream: Soulsavers / Broken

Frank YangToronto has a reputation for being standoffish, but I personally don’t get it – I think we’re downright neighbourly. Or at least our bands are. Or some of them. Consider excellent The Balconies, just moved to Hogtown from Ottawa in the last couple months, and they’ve already scheduled a record release show for their excellent debut album at Lee’s Palace and they’ve gotten some of the buzziest up-and-coming bands in the 416 (and probably the 647 and maybe the 705) to join them. That’s next Friday night, September 25, at Lee’s with Oh No Forest Fires, Fox Jaws and Whale Tooth, all of whom have been feted in these pages at one time or another – you could rightly say this show is chromewaves-endorsed, top to bottom. For what that’s worth.

And to prove said endorsement, I have two pairs of passes to give away for the show. So confident am I that you will enjoy this show that I am encouraging to devote your Friday night to it! I don’t do that for just anything. Wait, I sort of do. Anyways. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see The Balconies” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, September 22. And if you don’t win, admission is $7 at the door – still a deal any way you look at it.

MP3: The Balconies – “300 Pages”
MP3: The Balconies – “Smells Like Secrets”
MP3: Oh No Forest Fires – “It’s Not Fun And Games Until Someone Loses An Eye”
MP3: Fox Jaws – “Quarantine Girl”
MP3: Whale Tooth – “Hibernation Song”
MP3: Whale Tooth – “6 Billion”