Javier VillegasI’m sure it was just coincidence that the routing for Mogwai’s just-announced Spring North American tour are bringing them to the Phoenix in Toronto on May 4 – the same night that fellow Scots Franz Ferdinand are going to dance it up at the Kool Haus, but any way you slice it, that’s still a lot of Scottishness in town in one evening. If your Caledonian loyalties are torn, however, perhaps this little bit of information will help your decision making – Mogwai’s support for the first leg of the tour, including the T.O. show, will be The Twilight Sad.

I’ve been waiting for The Twilight Sad to return since they destroyed the El Mocambo in April 2007, and though they’ve returned to the continent a couple times since then, they’ve not paid us a visit. Their 2007 debut Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters was one of my favourites of the year and while they’ve not yet followed it up – sessions for album two are underway and it’s targeted for a September release – they weren’t idle in releasing new music in the interim, either. They had two 2008 releases – the Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did EP, which recast a number of the full-lengths tracks by trading in some of the sonic fury of the originals for a more ambient, textured approach with surprisingly effective results, and the tour-only/digital-otherwise collection of this and that in Killed My Parents And Hit The Road, which cobbled together covers, live versions and unreleased tracks into a satisfying stop-gap.

Now I’m not suggesting that the young’ns will be able to top the headliners for sheer aural assault – Mogwai have been shredding eardrums for over a decade – but I have no doubt that The Twilight Sad will give them a run for their money. I’m most excited about finally getting to see them again, and will never complain about seeing Mogwai for the umpteenth time. See you at the Phoenix May 4?

Twilight Sad frontman James Graham dropped The Skinny a quick note at the end of last year, just before heading into the studio, to give an idea of what we might expect from album number two.

MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Cold Days From The Birdhouse”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy”
MySpace: The Twilight Sad

Click Music talks to Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison about their Liver! Lung! FR! live acoustic album, released in North America last Fall but only getting a UK release on March 30.

MP3: Frightened Rabbit – “Old Old Fashioned” (live)

Virgin Music interviews White Lies. Their debut To Lose My Life is out in North America on March 17 and they play Lee’s Palace on March 31.

Spin talks to Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan about what to expect from their Summer tour, which kicks off July 24 in Toronto (venue TBA). Their new album Sounds Of The Universe is out April 21.

Someone out there with a lot of juice must be a big House Of Love fan, because even though they were never much of a success their first time around and their 2005 reunion didn’t do much better, they continue to undergo one of the more thorough reissue programs around. Following reissues over the last few years of their first few album and two sets of John Peel sessions, yet another record is coming – Live At The BBC gathers together 19 tracks recorded at the Beeb between 1990 and 1992 and will be available for myself and the half-dozen other fans of the band to pick up as of March 2.

MySpaceSay what you will about Taunton, Massachusetts’ Wheat, but you can’t deny that they refuse to stay down. Once upon a time one of my favourite bands (circa Medeiros and Hope & Adams), they became a cautionary tale against the major label machine with 2003’s ill-fated Per Second Per Second Per Second Every Second (which I chronicled back in 2004 and 2005) and essentially disbanded in the aftermath.

They unexpectedly returned in 2007 with Everyday I Said A Prayer For Kathy And Made A One Inch Square, again independent and down a member, but even then they were beset with label problems and delays. And the record itself was free of the excessive gloss of Per Second, it was decent at best – unfocused and only evidencing glimpses of the rough magic that defined their earliest releases. It pretty much came and went and I figured that that was the end of the band, again. They’d returned in order to finish on their own terms.

Or not. There were rumblings of a new record late last year and though there’s no release date as of yet, it has a title – White Ink, Black Ink – and a sample of it has surfaced on the band’s profile for SxSW, where I fully intend to see them play. Obviously not enough to form an opinion on, though it sounds like they’re sticking to the sonic cut-and-paste aesthetic of Kathy. I find I remain curious and still a little excited about the prospect of new music from Wheat – this news prompted me to revisit those magical first two records and they still give me tingles.

And those first two records – Medeiros and Wheat – are being reissued together along with a bonus disc of rarities and whatnots from the era entitled 30 Minute Theatrik (thanks to Mark for the tip). It’s set for a March 10 release but you can pre-order it now and get all three records digitally immediately. If you’ve never heard either one, well, you should. And here’s your chance.

More Wheat info and downloads available at thiswheat.com.

MP3: Wheat – “El Sincero”
MP3: Wheat – “Move = Move”
Mp3: Wheat – “What Everyone Keeps Telling Me”
MP3: Wheat – “World United Already”
Video: Wheat – “Don’t I Hold You”
Video: Wheat – “I Met A Girl”
MySpace: Wheat

Drowned In Sound declared this week just ending “slowcore week” and followed that up with extensive features on personal favourites like Low, Galaxie 500, The New Year and Early Day Miners. They’ll have a new album out sometime this year entitled The Treatment.

The Democrat & Chronicle interviews Blitzen Trapper, playing a sold-out show at the Horseshoe tomorrow night.

CBC Radio 3 talks to Casey Mecija of Ohbijou, who will release their second album Beacons on April 14 and follow that up with a CD release show at the Opera House on April 18.

The Thermals are hitting the road in support of their new album Now We Can See, out April 7. Pitchfork has the full North American itinerary, which includes a May 3 date at the Horseshoe.

MP3: The Thermals – “Now We Can See”

Mogwai have announced a North American tour for this Spring which will make up their cancelled The Hawk Is Howling dates from last Fall when drummer Martin Bulloch’s pacemaker threatened to escape from his chest. The Toronto date will be May 4 at the Phoenix – those who won passes to the cancelled show, I’ll be in touch about the make-up date.

MP3: Mogwai – “The Sun Smells Too Loud”

With their new album What Is?! coming out domestically on April 12, King Khan & The Shrines will be at the Phoenix on May 12 to promote.

Vetiver have a date at the Horseshoe on May 15 in support of last year’s Tight Knit.

MP3: Vetiver – “Everyday”

Leonard Cohen has announced a North American tour – closest local date is May 19 at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. Second closest is May 24 at John Labbat Centre in London. Tickets on sale March 2.

Neil Young’s Fork In The Road has a confirmed release date of March 31. Archives? Don’t ask.

Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, will release her sophomore album in Actor on May 5. Full details on the release at Pitchfork.

Also out May 5 is Outer South, the second solo record from Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band.

Viva Voce will release Rose City on May 26.

The Broken West have turned out a new video from last year’s Now Or Heaven.

Video: The Broken West – “Perfect Games”

CHUD interviews Scott Pligrim creator Bryan Lee-O’Malley.

MySpaceSo even though I’ve got a mighty backlog of stuff to cover and even though this has been a long weekend (or maybe because), I’ve still not had time to get to any of it properly. So coverage of the past few days worth of showgoing will start tomorrow. For today, you get this. A free album. Which is probably better than my concert reviews.

Welsh trio The Joy Formidable know how to get media attention. Last Summer, they had a video for debut single “Austere” banned from YouTube on account of it being comprised of video clips of people… well, I’d rather not have my site indexed for THOSE particular keywords but even though it was just a fan-made clip, the band gave it their seal of approval by posting it on their own website. And it’s probably NSFW. The band also made an official clip, but it’s far less controversial. And now, they’ve opted to take their debut album A Balloon Called Moaning and give the whole thing away for frees via NME. It was already released in a limited edition box set which sold out in a heartbeat and will be out in physical form tomorrow, but you can have it digitally now.

Now both of these might seem like gimmicky ways to get people talking about the band, but fact is that even without these talking points, The Joy Formidable would be more than worthy of your attention. Its eight tracks veer from dreamy to wide-awake and in-your-face but always maintain a gleeful enthusiasm, propelled on a wave of fuzzy, barbed hooks and snarlingly saccharine vocals. It sounds like a being hit in the face with a sack of sugar. When anyone asks me next week what I did over the long weekend, I’m going to say (and truthfully) that I listened to this record ad nauseum and didn’t tire of it at all. Is that sufficient endorsement to get you to go download and listen? It’s free for goodness sake. Just go get and listen. Thank me later.

Uncensored has an interview with the band.

MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Cradle”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Cradle”
MySpace: The Joy Formidable

The Joy Formidable had been listed as one of the acts heading to SxSW next month and surely would have been one of my highlights, but with the release of the official schedule last week, they’re nowhere to be found. Actually, instead of heading to Texas, they’ve opted to go out on a UK tour as support for Howling Bells, another band I was hoping was going to be in Austin. In fact, the entire Sx lineup is looking pretty weak. I know I said the same thing last year around this time and ended up having the best time ever anyways, but there’s going to be a lot of digging to find acts that will get my attention. But on the plus side, I already know how my Saturday night is ending – seeing Echo & The Bunnymen play a gay Texan cowboy bar.

If you missed the numerous edits to last week’s post about Polly Scattergood, allow me to sum up – rather than her debut album being entitled Other Too Endless and being released on March 9, it will now be self-titled and be coming out on May 19. But there’s a new video for the next single, which would have been the title track but is now just a song. A great song.

Video: Polly Scattergood – “Other Too Endless”

Emmy The Great week at Drowned In Sound wrapped up with another set of interviews conducted by Emmy. First off, she talks with Aidan Moffat, formerly of Arab Strap and who’s just released a new album in How To Get To Heaven From Scotland. There’s also a piece with Darren Hayman, formerly of Hefner and also with a new solo record in Pram Town, a talk with Mica Levi of Micachu. And to wrap up, a heart-to-heart with Dev Hynes, aka Lightspeed Champion, about the genius of Steve Martin. She also lets Metro have a look at her iPod (though they evidently look at her as they’ve run a picture of Los Campesinos with the piece, and helpfully identify the one of them as Emmy) and gives an interview to Virgin Music.

BBC profile Saint Etienne.

This Is Nottingham talks to Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong. They have two dates at the Kool Haus on March 13 and 14.

The Boston Globe, Boston Music Spotlight, Metro and The Village Voice have interviews with various member of Los Campesinos!, in town at the Opera House on April 1.

Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 may be saying Goodnight Oslo on their new album, out tomorrow, but they’ll be saying “hello Mod Club” when they come to town on April 16. Tickets $20.

Ingrid ZThose who sought to ride out the global recession by investing their money in Patrick Wolf should be pleased – the project has already yielded dividends! What had originally been intended to be a double album entitled Battle will now instead be two single-length albums entitled The Bachelor and The Conqueror.

In an interview with Spinner, Wolf describes the differences between the two as follows – “The Bachelor [has themes of] loneliness, hedonism, depression and melancholy, the second album is all my depression being suddenly lifted by true love.” The Bachelor will be released in June, The Conqueror sometime before the year is out. He also talks to Black Book about approaching Tilda Swinton to appear on the new record and his rather unique sense of style and assembles his dream band for The Independent.

Wolf blogs that tthe first single from Bachelor, entitled “Vulture”, will be released in early March but until then, there’s a “megamix” sampler of songs from the new record streaming at his MySpace. There’s also regular updates at his YouTube channel.

Myspace: Patrick Wolf

Stereogum gets a progress report on Kingdom Of Rust from Doves, though with its April 6 release date less than two months off, I hope there’s not much progress left to be made. Which is to say it better be done. The video for the title track is done, at least.

Video: Doves – “Kingdom Of Rust”

Drowned In Sound and Contact Music make conversation with Sky Larkin. My copy of The Golden Spike arrived yesterday. That made me happy.

Nouse and The Irish Independent interview Emmy The Great, who continues her own interview duties for Drowned In Sound by talking to Beach House and Sleeping States.

The Ting Tings have a new video. They’re at the Mod Club on March 14 as part of CMW.

Video: The Ting Tings – “We Walk”

Art Brut will release their third record Art Brut vs Satan on May 12. Pitchfork has specifics.

Clash and Virgin Music interview Saint Etienne, who will release a new best-of comp in London Conversations: The Best of Saint Etienne next week.

NME reports that The Stone Roses‘ debut album will be reissued this June to mark its 20th anniversary in a fancy pants box set form and a less fancy “legacy” edition (yes, they already did this ten years ago for the 10th anniversary). But what might make this more than just a naked cash grab is the fact that the album has been remastered by original producer John Leckie – considering that the original record could do with some sonic polishing, I may be interested to hear if the new version actually gives the album some low end.

Billboard has details on the forthcoming Iron & Wine rarities double-CD set. It’s entitled Around The Well, will be out May 19 and most importantly, will include “The Trapeze Swinger”.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs give Spin the lowdown on their new album It’s Blitz!, set for release April 14.

Matablog has everything you need to know about The Eternal, the new album from Sonic Yough, out June 9.

Making up for their cancellation in support of Calexcio last fall, Bowerbirds will be at the Drake Underground on May 2.

MP3: Bowerbirds – “In Our Talons”

NPR is streaming a session with Shearwater.

The Wrens have put together a video to go along with the new song they unveiled a few weeks ago.

Video: The Wrens – “Marked Up”

MPR is featuring a session with School Of Seven Bells and The List has a short interview with Alley Dehaza.

There’s now a trailer available for Ashes Of American Flags, the Wilco live DVD due out on April 18

Trailer: Ashes Of American Flags

The Georgia Straight talks to The Airborne Toxic Event, whose March 4 show has been moved from the El Mocambo to The Mod Club.

MySpaceThe first A Camp album came at an interesting time, with The Cardigans having proven themselves not just a one-hit wonder but a two-hit one (“My Favourite Game” to go along with “Lovefool”) but also rather burning out in the process. Nina Persson used the downtime to explore country music and Americana with the assistance of Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous and not only crafted an excellent record in their self-titled debut, but carried the influences back to The Cardigans to inform my personal favourite of their repertoire, Long Gone Before Daylight. That stylistic uniformity went out the window with their next record, the eclectic but still very solid Super Extra Gravity and with the Cardies again on a break, Persson has taken that grab-bag aesthetic back to A Camp.

Colonia, released in Europe last week but not out in North America until April 28, collects 11 songs that could have been Cardigans tunes in another life but could never be mistaken as such in the forms that they’ve been recorded in here. With the formal addition of Persson’s husband Nathan Larson (of Shudder To Think) and Niclas Frisk as members of A Camp, it’s now more of an official band than before but rather than imprint that band with a particular sonic identity, they instead reinvent themselves in whatever way necessary to compliment the songs. Persson’s vocals are unmistakable but the sounds that surround it incorporate elements of show tunes, electronica, glam and country to name just a very few – there’s enough of everything to make it sound familiar but never to the point of being able to place a song in a tidy pigeonhole.

If there’s a common thread, it’s the sonic richness and elegance each song is imbued with. No matter what they put in it, it sounds marvelous, even if some songs are less memorable than others. But the keepers are worth cherishing – “My America” is buoyed by jaunty horns, the languidness of “Chinatown” beautifully channels Television in its guitar lines and lead single “Stronger Than Jesus” boasts a melody that’s as indelible as anything Persson’s ever come up with. Though I wish as much as any fan that the Cardies break will be a short one – apparently Persson’s bandmates are all using the time to tend to fatherly duties – if it continues to yield more A Camp records then there’ll be no word of complaint from me.

Persson is engaged in conversation by The Sunday Mail, The Telegraph and The Independent. And perhaps as a way of making up for the fact that the album isn’t out domestically for another three months, Nettwerk have made available a live session MP3 of “Stronger Than Jesus”. Update: Stereogum is streaming another song from the record and talk to Nina about it.

MP3: A Camp – “Stronger Than Jesus” (Harlem Session)
Video: A Camp – “Stronger Than Jesus”
MySpace: A Camp

The Toronto Sun, The Province, Montreal Mirror and CityPages interview Lykke Li.

Spin gets a sneak preview of the new album from Mew, currently untitled but targeted for a June release.

There’s new videos from both bands playing The Phoenix on April 25 – Peter Bjorn & John, whose Living Thing is out March 25, and Chairlift.

Video: Peter Bjorn & John – “Nothing To Worry About”
Video: Chairlift – “Evident Utensil”

Also with a new video – School Of Seven Bells.

Video: School Of Seven Bells – “Half Asleep”

Check out the title track of The Thermals’ new album Now We Can See, set for release on April 7.

MP3: The Thermals – “Now We Can See”

Some in-stores of note to tell you about. The Von Bondies will hit up Criminal Records this Friday, February 13, at 5PM before heading down the street for their show at the Horseshoe. And next weekend,Alela Diane, whose To Be Still is coming out next Tuesday, will be at Soundscapes on February 21 at 6:30PM in advance of her show at the Horseshoe that evening opening for Blitzen Trapper and the next day (February 22) at 3PM, Sonic Boom will host Ben Kweller leading up to his show at the Mod Club that evening.

MP3: Alela Diane – “White As Diamonds”
Video: Alela Diane – “White As Diamonds”
Video: Ben Kweller – “Fight”

The National are returning. They’re at the Kool Haus on May 21, tickets $24.50.

And finally, The Chicago Sun-Times weighs in on what could be the most disturbing bit of music industry news in a sea of disturbing music industry news, the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. No good can come of this, none at all. But my question is – how does this affect the Canadian divisions of those respective companies? I ask because I remember way back in the ’90s when Pearl Jam were boycotting all US TicketMaster venues, they still played TM-serviced venues up here and said that was because TicketMaster Canada was a separate entity from the US one they were protesting. Though it could/should have been pointed out that even if that were true from a corporate POV, they were still as asshat-acular as their Stateside counterparts when it came to price gouging and exorbitant service charges. And do you have to have bought tickets for a specific show to take part in the class action suit or can you just be generally irritated?