Photo by Patrick Marold

Eric Bachmann has worn many hats over the years. He started out as the hard-barking frontman of angular ’90s college rock heroes Archers Of Loaf. He then reinvented himself as the lonely troubadour on the first couple Crooked Fingers records, terrain he revisited on 2006’s gorgeous solo effort To The Races. And with the last couple Crooked Fingers records, in particular 2005’s sublime Dignity & Shame, he proved to be just as capable as a lush pop artisan and bandleader. And now on his latest effort Forfeit/Fortune, which once again finds him operating under the Crooked Fingers banner, he decides to be all of the above – simultaneously.

Perhaps as a reaction to the singular starkness of For The Races, Bachmann has crafted one of his most eclectic and fully-arranged records – one that manages to incorporate aspects of his entire career from gruff-voiced Archer-esque numbers to somber, solo-ish pieces, while still treading some completely new sonic territory. The heavy-handed production might be a point of contention for some, utilizing decidedly un-Bachmann-ish touches like drum machines and synths.

Those more left-field tangents give Forfeit/Fortune a certain, “WTF?” quality and in some cases probably distract and detract from the songs themselves but those instances are thankfully rare. It may be a bit dizzying, but the Forfeit/Fortune experience is a good one. The overall flavour isn’t too far from Dignity & Shame, maintaining that record’s Spanish accents if not its cohesiveness and adding some Balkan influence for good measure. It’s also a bit back-loaded with the best material, culminating in a stellar duet with Neko Case. Bachmann fans might find themselves a bit off-balance listening to this latest record, but there’s still plenty solid to hold on to.

Crooked Fingers are currently on tour with Okkervil River and will play the Phoenix this coming Sunday night, October 12 – to which I’m giving away passes. New City Chicago, The Hartford Advocate and Crawdaddy have interviews with Bachmann about Forfeit/Fortune, which was released yesterday. It’s streaming in its entirety as Spinner and comes in both standard and deluxe CD formats, the latter of which comes with a documentary DVD amongst other goodies. Check out the trailer.

MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Phony Revolutions”
Video: Crooked Fingers – “Let’s Not Pretend (To Be New Men)”
Stream: Crooked Fingers / Forfeit/Fortune
MySpace: Crooked Fingers

In addition to streaming Bob Dylan’s new Bootleg Series – Tell-Tale Signs, out yesterday – Spinner has got a couple of the tracks available to download.

MP3: Bob Dylan – “Mississippi”
MP3: Bob Dylan – “Dreamin’ Of You”
Stream: Bob Dylan / Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8

Neil Young could take a lesson or two from Dylan in archive-digging efficiency. No Depression reports that to no one’s surprise, the release of Archives has been delayed from this Fall until January or February of 2009… sure. Whatever. As a form of compensation, Bad News Beat reports that another Archives live set circa 1968 and entitled Sugar Mountain will be released on November 28. Neil is playing the Air Canada Centre on December 4 and 5.

Pitchfork and The Skinny chat with Kurt Wagner of Lambchop.

Marc Perlman of The Jayhawks and Golden Smog talks to Prefix about the process of assembling the latter’s recent best-of comp Stay Golden.

Paste talks to M Ward about what’s next for both him (new record called Hold Time out in February) and She & Him (Volume Two is “in the works”).

Minneapolis City Pages converses with David Berman of Silver Jews.

Matador has massive plans to entice you to pre-order the next edition in the massive Pavement reissue series, Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed.. It’s out November 18.

Political Affairs talks to Billy Bragg about affairs of a political nature.

Much delight in these parts that Neil Halstead has a date at the Drake Underground on November 8. No, he’s not bringing his surfing BFF Jack Johnson with him but you can’t have everything.

MP3: Neil Halstead – “Paint A Face”
Video: Neil Halstead – “Queen Bee”

Noah & The Whale are coming back to town for a date at the El Mocambo on December 9. The band have been keeping a tour diary from their just-completed North American jaunt at LiveDaily and Seattlest interviews frontman Charlie Fink.

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals have a date at the El Mocambo on December 10. The McGill Tribune has a chat.

Photo by Frank Yang

Most things I’ve read about Ra Ra Riot seem to reference Arcade Fire, and this perplexes me. Yes, I see the superficial and quantitative similarities – large-ish co-ed bands with a distinct orchestral flavour and who put on terrific live shows, but the spirit of what the two bands do seem so diametrically opposed to me, that putting one down in the “RIYL” column for the other just seems misleading. Whereas the Arcade Fire trade in weighty, some might say ponderous, themes and deliver it with equivalent drama, even though there’s enough darkness in Ra Ra Riot’s backstory to justify such an approach if they so desired, they’re above all else celebratory. On stage they’re a party the likes of which you can’t imagine the Arcade Fire ever loosening up enough to attend, let alone throw.

Thursday night was their second visit to Toronto this year but the first since the release of their rightly-praised debut The Rhumb Line. Their first visit back in January was a total joy to watch and if possible, the band have gotten even tighter and better in the interim. Though the slightly larger stage of the Horseshoe gave them more space to move than the El Mocambo did, they seemed less inclined to roam around than last time but the energy of the performance didn’t suffer for it at all. They ran through most all their repertoire in a scant but exhausting 45 minutes and still found the second wind to come back for a one-song encore that left me, at least, wholly satisfied.

I spent most of the set from openers Walter Meego trying to figure out the best way to describe them, but that concise description proved a moving target from song to song. Outfitted with scads of keyboards, a distinctly melodramatic songwriting style, vocal stylings just this side of fey and an impressive ability to execute harmonized guitar tapping, they were by turns New Wave, New Romantic and New Order. Normally I find bands without drummers – let alone conventional rhythm sections to come off overly stiff in a live setting but their DJ/sample jockey/Kaos Pad maestro did a fine job of keeping things grooving, and actually more physicality to the performance than either of his two less equipment-anchored bandmates. The live stuff was more engaging and organic – though still heavily synthesized – than what little I’d heard from their recent Voyager release, and I commend them for keeping things eclectic and interesting whilst maintaining a definite sonic identity.

Photos: Ra Ra Riot, Walter Meego @ The Horseshoe – September 4, 2008
MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Dying Is Fine”
MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Each Year” (EP version)
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Ghost Under Rocks”
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Dying Is Fine”
Video: Walter Meego – “Forever”
MySpace: Ra Ra Riot
MySpace: Walter Meego

This week on Spinner’s Interface – a session with Tokyo Police Club. They’ve also got a remix of Tokyo Police Club by Ra Ra Riot… Serendipity!

MP3: Tokyo Police Club – “Juno” (Ra Ra Riot remix)

Check out a track from Jenny Lewis’ forthcoming solo record Acid Tongue, out September 23. Billboard has a chat with her about the album.

MP3: Jenny Lewis – “Acid Tongue”

France’s Herman Dune will be at the El Mocambo on October 2 accompanied by Throw Me The Statue – tickets $10. For a taste of the Dune, head over to Daytrotter for a session recorded this Summer. Their new album Next Year In Zion is out October 21 in North America. Throw Me The Statue paid us a visit back in April and are still working their new record Moonbeams.

MP3: Throw Me The Statue – “Lolita”

Japan’s Boris, just here in July, are coming back for another show at Lee’s Palace on November 13. Tickets are $15.

Mountain Goat John Darnielle has long been a fan of acoustic guitar virtuoso Kaki King and the two have collaborated on a forthcoming EP to be entitled Black Pear Tree. Pitchfork has some words from Darnielle on the project as well as an MP3 from it.

MP3: The Mountain Goats & Kaki King – “Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle”

King was also one of the performers who took part in those Beautiful Noise sessions at the Berkeley Church back in April, the fruits of which are now coming to air. The more singer-songwritery artists will actually be featured in a different series entitled The Berkeley Sessions and will begin airing on Bravo here in Canada starting this Wednesday with the Joel Plaskett episode.

Apologies for the late post, V Fest coverage tomorrow. The past weekend beat the crap out of me… but not as much as it did Noel Gallagher. If you want to see what everyone’s going to be talking about – and pretty much negating the need for any review of the rest of the fest but I’ll do it anyway – check out the photos at Information Leafblower. Madness.

Photo via VentnorBlog

Paper seems to be quite good at this convergence of fashion and music thing – following their Joanna Newsom feature a couple weeks ago, they’ve now taken five up-and-coming female British singers, dressed them up and profiled them. And as much as I appreciate the rather lovely photo of Emmy The Great, I’m most thankful for the piece as it gives me an excuse to introduce you – if you don’t know her yet – to the Ms Candie Payne.

I actually think I have Karl to thank for this one as he recommended her to me last year in return for introducing him to Lucky Soul and there’s definitely some RIYL-action going on there. On her debut album I Wish I Could Have Loved You More – released in the UK last year but not over here – she reaches unashamedly into the past, back to the swinging ’60s and the heyday of northern soul. Granted, this is the style that seems to be all the rage across the Atlantic these days, but there’s something in Payne’s music that sets her apart from some of her peers, besides the fact that she goes by two names.

It starts with the voice. Pure and clear, but never over-sung and always a certain knowing inflection that’s proof she’s no ingenue, she knows the score. And from that grows the layer of noir-ish shadows that permeates everything most seductively. It’s there in the lyrics, in which relationships are regarded largely from the rearview mirror and tinged with distrust and betrayal, to the production, which alternately channels Motown, Portishead and Dame Shirley Bassey’s James Bond themes depending on whether the situation calls for orchestrated pop grandeur or smoky nightclub confessionals. And Payne excels at both.

And, of course, while her blue-eyed soul-slinging contemporaries accumulate varying degrees of buzz in the old world and new, Payne is almost completely unknown in North America despite the fact that I greatly prefer her stuff to theirs. But, as is mentioned in the Paper piece, her in-progress next album will definitely be aimed at America.

Video: Candie Payne – “One More Chance”
Video: Candie Payne – “I Wish I Could Have Loved You More”
Video: Candie Payne – “I Wish I Could Have Loved You More” (unofficial)
MySpace: Candie Payne

Take5Music.com talks to probably the most successful, thus far, of Paper‘s picks – Kate Nash. She’s playing the Phoenix on April 28 and, as NME reports, will be taking her friendship with Billy Bragg into the studio to record a cover single of The Shangri-La’s “Give Him A Great Big Kiss”. They performed a medley/duet/something at the NME Awards earlier this year. Check it.

Video: Kate Nash & Billy Bragg – “Foundations / A New England” (live at NME Awards)

As for Bragg, he’s at the Harbourfront Centre on June 17 as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. The New York Daily News talks to Bragg about his new record Mr Love & Justice while The Register talks to him about some of the reaction his New York Times op-ed about artist royalties and social networks has gotten. There’ve also been some EPKs going on at his label’s YouTube channel, if you need a little more Billy in your life.

Duffy, interestingly not included in the Paper piece, talks to ICWales about being on the outside looking in, even though she once again has the #1 album in the UK. She also chats with The Courier-Mail. Rockferry gets a North American release May 13.

The Age features Adele.

The New York Times, The Guardian and The Telegraph profile Portishead, whose Third is out April 29.

So even though my ticket to see Richard Hawley at the Royal Albert Hall in London next month finally arrived, the other show I had planned on attending whilst I was visiting Dear Old Blighty – a free Drowned In Sound showcase featuring Sky Larkin, Let’s Wrestle, Dinosaur Pile-Up, has now lost the headlining band and the one I’d most wanted to see as Sky Larkin are heading to the US in May to work on their debut album (as a stop-gap, they’re releasing a covers EP on May 19). They’ve been replaced by The Grammatics, whom I don’t know at all, so it raises the question of do I go see a bill of bands I don’t know at all on my last day in London or do I, like, go take a boat cruise down the Thames? Game-time decision.

Video: Sky Larkin – “One Of Two”

This Is Nottingham talks to Elbow about The Seldom Seen Kid, out next week.

Futurehead Ross Millard tells Spinner to not bother trying to befriend him on Facebook. Not going to happen. Their new record This Is Not The World is out May 27.

Obviously following my lead, both Pitchfork and Drowned In Sound laud Frightened Rabbit’ new album The Midnight Organ Fight, out tomorrow. The Scots are embarking on an American tour at the end of May but sadly, that’s strictly “United States of” and not “North”. Maybe next time.

Worth noting – Feist is performing on Letterman tonight and while this in and of itself isn’t necessarily remarkable, Pitchfork is reporting that she will be joined by an all-star backing choir including Nicole Atkins, members of The National, The New Pornographers, Grizzly Bear, Broken Social Scene and Mates Of State. I’m assuming that she’ll be performing “1 2 3 4”. Not sure if she’ll be wearing the shiny pantsuit or if there’ll be synchronized dance numbers. But we can hope.

So that’s 11:30 EDT tonight, she’ll be on closer to 12:15 if not later.

Update: And thanks to the magic of YouTube, Ms Leslie Feist and the Pitchfork Best New Music Tabernacle Choir.

Video: Feist – “1 2 3 4”
Video: Feist – “1 2 3 4” (live on Letterman, August 27 2007)

May 15 will see a couple of bands roll into the Horseshoe, both of whom have new records out that look to distance themselves from the “emo” tag/slag that was often attached to their earlier works. Hailing from New York by way of Madison, Wisconsin, Rainer Maria just released Catastrophe Keeps Us Together while Richmond, Virginia natives moved to Chicago Ambulette’s debut release is The Lottery EP.

I haven’t heard all of Catastrophe yet as I’ve been too busy/lazy to go out and get a copy, but based on what I’ve heard both live and online, it sounds great. Caithlin De Marrais’ voice is so much stronger than it once was, no longer sounding like she’s on the edge of a nervous breakdown whilst being egged on by Kyle Fischer. Fischer’s self-proclaimed “peculiar” voice is apparently completely absent from the new record. While I was never a fan of his leads because of the aforementioned peculiarity, I thought it could be effective in certain contexts. Regardless, producer Malcolm Burn, who might at first seem like an odd choice with his roots-heavy resume featuring the likes of Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan, has done a terrific job of helping the band along in the maturing process first evidenced on 2003’s Long Knives Drawn, though The New York Times (Bugmenot) thinks they’ve actually gotten less mature but holds that up as a good thing. Metacritic in general is tilting for them rather favourably.

MTV and The News & Observer have conversations with Fischer about the new record. Official MP3s from the new album are hard to come by, I guess new label Grunion isn’t as generous as their old friends at Polyvinyl were, but this one submitted for their SxSW profile is still good – there’s also a couple more tracks on their MySpace.

MP3: Rainer Maria – “Burn”

Ambulette (née Bella Lea), Rainer Maria’s tourmates for this jaunt, haven’t been quite as successful at shaking the emo label that frontwoman Maura Davis’ old outfit Denali wore. The Lottery boasts a couple exceptional rock tracks, but much of the rest is still too heavy on the (melo)dramatic wailing. While the strength of Davis’ voice is undeniable, you get to wishing she’d use it in a different manner every now and again. But for what it is – a moody, sultry slice of alt.rock – it’s not a bad start. No MP3s available, but you can hear a couple tracks from the EP and a couple that aren’t at their MySpace page. Denali also has a MySpace page if you want to hear something from their salad days. And Spin recently named them “Band Of The Day”.

I caught both Rainer Maria and Ambulette at SxSW last month (linky 1, linky 2), so I can attest that the Horseshoe is going to play host to some fine rock on the 15th. Tickets are $10.50 in advance, $12.00 at the door.

Thanks be to Five Seventeen for tipping me off that The Wedding Present would be continuing to affirm their status as maybe the most fan-friendly band on the planet by releasing Search for Paradise: Singles 2004-5 on May 16. The CD/DVD collection will compile all the singles and b-sides released for 2005’s Take Fountain as well as all the videos. While the Weddoes have always been good about making their b-sides and whatnot available – witness all the compilations out there – it was during the Cinerama years that they began releasing a companion disc for every one of their proper albums. As an avowed fan of b-sides but not so much of having to buy all the singles individually, I applaud them for this. Clap clap.

And also check out My Mean Magpie’s list of albums that are better heard than seen (he’s talking about ugly artwork, yo).

The now-defunct Comes With A Smile offers an unpublished interview with Stephin Merritt, whose new album Showtunes, consisting of songs written for a pair of operas (via For The Records). Gigwise and Opera News Online also have interviews with Merritt about his collaborations with director Chen Shi-Zheng. Opera News Online. Now THAT’S a website I never thought I’d be linking. As for the record itself, apparently it’s a little confounding. The Magnetic Fields guy writing operas scored entirely by traditional Chinese instruments? I can’t see why that wouldn’t be ultra-accessible.

So lately I’ve been more than a little obsessed with bags. Yes, bags. Besides this addictively voyeuristic Flickr group, my recent adventures abroad have shown me that my current sac, this ubiquitous (in Toronto) MEC bag, just isn’t big enough or suitable for my current junks, my DSLR and attendant lenses in particular. So I’ve now been looking for something better – I gave up on camera bags since I want something that can serve multiple duty, ideally hauling my laptop, camera gear and assorted sundry items in whatever configuration I desire. I’m now looking for something courier/messenger style, bigger than a standard briefcase/satchel but not as big as a real bike messenger bag. Something that’ll handle my apparently gigantic laptop (it seems that most bag manufacturers only acknowledge the existance of Apple-sized laptops? WTF? Windows people don’t ever travel?) as well as offer space for me to slap in some of these for toting camera gear. Padding, waist strap for cycling and not butt-ugly are also concerns. I’ve found a couple of good candidates, but an inability to find them locally to measure and test them out is annoying (Update: Bah – Timbuk2 says my laptop won’t fit, it’s maybe 1cm too thick. Anyone want a used Dell Inspiron 6000?). I can easily order them online but am not terribly comfortable with doing so without being sure they’re what I want. Any other suggestions? And I know someone is gonna recommend Crumpler, but I can’t see any of their current models fitting my exact needs – by the time they get big enough to do what I want, they’re mammoth both in physical size and price.

np – The Concretes / In Colour