AmazonThis is probably going to be it for the holidays, so I’ll leave it with a salute to the folks at Herohill, who’ve fulfilled a Christmas wish I didn’t know I had by assembling a tribute album to Hall & Oates featuring a slew of independent Canadian artists including Rae Spoon, Milks & Rectangles, Ox and more. A lot of the names might not be familiar but there’s talent in that there lineup and the material is tops, and there’s more to come – another batch of Can-con covers is coming sometime in January.

Yeah, I grew up listening to Hall & Oates and, as this collection and the Bird & The Bee tribute album Interpreting The Masters from earlier this year have proven, I still do. On my annual Boxing Day record store trawl this weekend, I will be crate digging for a copy of Private Eyes and/or H2O, yes I will.

Switch Mode talks community with Ohbijou’s Ryan Carley.

Conor Oberst goes over some of the science fiction influences on The People’s Key, the next album from Bright Eyes, with Spinner. The album is out February 15 and they play The Sound Academy on March 13.

MP3: Bright Eyes – “Shell Games”

There’s now a video trailer for R.E.M.’s new record Collapse Into Now, due March 8, and while the formula of veteran acts and special guests usually equals artistic calamity, the advance word on this record continues to be very good. Here’s hoping.

Trailer: R.E.M. / Collapse Into Now

Daytrotter have served up a session with Old 97’s, who should be making up their cancelled Miller/Hammond show in October with a full-band show at The Horseshoe sometime in the Spring. Keep an ear open. And in the meantime, read these interviews with Murry Hammond at American Songwriter and Rhett Miller at CNN.

NYC Taper has followed up last week’s post of The National at Maxwell’s in New Jersey with another set of recordings from the same show – for the whats and the whys, read the post and grab the tracks.

NPR has got a World Cafe session with Sharon Van Etten and another one with Janelle Monáe.

And that should do it. See you sometime next week. Safe holidays. Seacrest out.

MyspaceAnd as the internet inexorably slows for the holiday season, we have this. Over in the UK, the generally dubious tabloid The Sun cites an anonymous source as saying that Blur are headed back into the studio in the new year to hash out some new material and, if all goes well, release a new record in 2011, their first since 2003’s Think Tank and since 1999 with guitarist Graham Coxon.

While the credibility of the source – of both The Sun and their tipster – is suspect, it does make some sense. Following their triumphant 2009 reunion, the quartet opted to not immediately carry it forward and instead announced the reunion over, though ironically it was Coxon – who left the band in the first place – who kept pushing the idea that there could be more to come. In any case, Damon Albarn went back to wearing his Gorillaz suit, Coxon released his seventh solo record and Dave Rowntree and Alex James went back to doing whatever they were doing, making it look like the unfinished business had been attended to.

But then came their “Fool’s Day” single, released in April for Record Store Day, which proved that a) they weren’t in face done with Blur and b) Blur were still writing good tunes. It wasn’t a song for the ages, certainly more subdued than many had hoped, but I thought it was an honest representation of where Blur was at in their 40s and still boasted a terrific Graham solo – certainly I’d be happy if they put out more of this. So with Gorillaz heading to the back burner and enough time elapsed since the reunion celebrating their past glories, 2011 sounds like a pretty good time to move Blur into the future. Let’s hope that this rumour has more legs than the one last Spring, hinting that they’d be crossing the Atlantic for some North American dates.

MP3: Blur – “Fool’s Day”

Much more certain is the new record from Elbow – BBC6 talks to frontman Guy Garvey about the new album, which will be entitled Build A Rocket, Boys and be out March 7 in the UK. Fingers crossed for a simultaneous North American release and touring.

Even though Florence & The Machine really broke out in 2009 and by rights should have gone back into the studio to work on a new record this year, Florence Welch still made her procrastination productive enough for Spin to name her their artist of the year and run a feature piece on her.

British Sea Power previews their new record Valhalla Dancehall acoustic-style with a video session for The Fly. The record is out January 11 and the band ruminate over their back catalog for Spinner.

PJ Harvey has released a video from her new record Let England Shake, due out February 15. Was only a passing PJ Harvey fan in the past but what I’m hearing from the new record is really doing it for me.

Video: PJ Harvey – “The Last Living Rose”

Even though they already had a perfectly good clip for the song, The Joy Formidable have made a new video for “Austere” – one that presumably has the version of the song that will appear on The Big Roar when it comes out on January 24 in the UK and March 15 in North America. Glad to hear that while the arrangement is a bit different, there’s not any excessive major label gloss on it.

Video: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Austere” (original)

The dears at Lucky Soul are giving away their cover of Mud’s “Lonely This Christmas” in all its uncompressed WAV glory over at Soundcloud. Or, if you’ll take something compressed in exchange for manageability, grab the MP3 below.

MP3: Lucky Soul – “Lonely This Christmas”

NPR has complete audio and selected video from yesterday’s hometown holiday throwdown from Glasgow by Belle & Sebastian available to stream.

FacebookSeeing as how 2010 is basically over and done with – didn’t you see all the lists summing it all up? The next week and a half are just formality – it’s time to start turning our eyes ever so slightly to next year and Canadian Musicfest, one of the first big upcoming to-dos hereabouts, has given us something to focus on with the first batch of showcasing artists at the festival, which will run March 9 to 13 at clubs around downtown Toronto.

Some of the names that jump out at me are J Mascis, who will be showcasing his acoustic side as per his forthcoming solo record Several Shades Of Why out March 15, buzzy Brit band Bombay Bicycle Club, Canadian acts like Land Of Talk and Shad who will have graduated to marquee artist status and up and comers such as La Patère Rose and Olenka & The Autumn Lovers.

I was especially pleased to see Miracle Fortress in the lineup, as it means the long wait for a follow-up to 2007’s Five Roses could finally be coming to an end. At one point last year the word was the famine was going to become a feast with not one but two new albums being readied for release, but nothing came of them and Graham Van Pelt busied himself with Think About Life. A new record for 2011 seems like a certainty, although exactly what that record will be is anyone’s guess. The promotion cycle for Five Roses turned Miracle Fortrees from a solo endeavour into a band, but key members Jessie Stein and Adam Waito have their own projects – The Luyas and Adam & The Amethysts respectively – demanding their attention. I’ll bet that album number two will again be Van Pelt on his own and suspect that anyone hoping for another collection of sparklingly psychedelic Beach Boys-esque pop will be left scratching their heads. But my guess is as good as anyone else’s, and we’ll find out for sure come March.

MP3: Miracle Fortress – “Have You Seen In Your Dreams”

Diamond Rings has had a pretty impressive 2010, and his 2011 is looking to be shaping up nicely as well – it was announced yesterday that he would be opening up for Swedish pop superstar Robyn on all her upcoming North American dates, starting on January 26 at the Sound Academy in Toronto. Yes indeed, a hell of a thing.

MP3: Diamond Rings – “Something Else”

Paste asks Destroyer’s Dan Bejar to describe his new record Kaputt. Said album is out on January 25.

The first MP3 from Iron & Wine’s new record Kiss Each Other Clean is up for download at the band’s website in exchange for an email address.

Billboard talks to Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst about their new record The People’s Key, out February 15. They are at the Sound Academy on March 13.

Beach House are giving away a new song, just because they sound like Summer and it is currently, in no way shape or form, Summer. Except in the southern hemisphere.

MP3: Beach House – “I Do Not Care For The Winter Sun”

If you missed their sold-out show at the Drake last week, take heart – husband-and-wife duo Tennis will return on February 25 for a show at the Horseshoe. Their debut Cape Dory is due out January 18. The Denver Post profiles the band.

MP3: Tennis – “Take Me Somewhere”
MP3: Tennis – “Baltimore”

Bandwidth has an acoustic video session with Frightened Rabbit.

Matablog reveals that Belle & Sebastian’s hometown show at the Barrowland in Glasgow next Tuesday will be streamed live via a number of online outlets, including NPR, starting at 4PM EST.

The Dumbing Of America, Bloginity and Herald Scotland interview White Lies, whose second album Ritual will be out January 18. They’re at the Mod Club on January 29 and a live version of the first single is available to download at their Myspace.

Grinderman have a new video. It’s “Evil”. And evil.

Video: Grinderman – “Evil”

Pitchfork has details on Peter Bjorn & John’s next record, which will be entitled Gimme Some and be out on March 29.

Shervin LainezThough I’ve no corroborative quantitative evidence, I will posit that this past June 19, 2010 was one of the busiest nights, as far as music entertainment options go, in recent history. You had Iggy & The Stooges inciting mayhem at Yonge-Dundas Square, Pavement and Broken Social Scene holding court out on the Toronto Islands, Queen West was being transformed into Bieber Central for the MMVA’s at MuchMusic the next night and American Idol‘s Adam Lambert was doing whatever the hell he does at the Molson Amphitheatre. Not to mention that NXNE was still raging at most clubs throughout the city. And while I’ve no regrets about bearing witness to the Iggy-powered punk uprising at YDS, I remain sad that it meant missing seeing Brooklyn duo Savoir Adore at Sneaky Dee’s that same evening as part of NXNE, even moreso now that I’ve been spending quality time with their debut album In The Wooded Forest.

Unlike some other he-and-she duos currently on the indie rock circuit, Deirdre Muro and Paul Hammer don’t allow their band configuration define their sound – Forest is as full-sounding a record as anything a more conventionally structured band might make; it definitely boasts a certain home studio fidelity but isn’t lacking in musical depth in any way and the simpler aesthetic suits their earnest brand of pop to a tee. You can hear them experimenting with different musical styles – ’80s New Wave, Americana and disco all get thrown into the mix in varying quantities – but it’s the duo’s songwriting and intuitive hookiness that carries the record. Muro and Hammer’s voices are strong individually and divine in unison, their melodies carrying just the right amount of verve and sugariness, like aural cotton candy that somehow manages to deliver the full nutritional value of a balanced meal. A wholly addictive record.

I don’t know if there’s much chance of Savoir Adore coming back to town anytime soon – Forest is already well over a year old (I never said I discovered them in anything resembling a timely manner) and they’re more likely headed back into the studio than back on the road, but if and when they do return, I can only hope that they’ve got a little less competition on the live music front than last time.

They’ve just made a new non-album single available for download in “Loveliest Creature” and reaching back a bit, there’s also this Daytrotter session which was posted back in the Spring.

MP3: Savoir Adore – “Loveliest Creature”
MP3: Savoir Adore – “Bodies”
MP3: Savoir Adore – “We Talk Like Machines”
MP3: Savoir Adore – “The Garden”
Video: Savoir Adore – “The Scientific Findings of Dr. Rousseau”
Video: Savoir Adore – “Bodies”
Myspace: Savoir Adore

R.E.M. has given a March 8 release date to their new record Collapse Into Now and are giving the first track “Discoverer” away from their website. And while the whole “return to form” thing gets tossed around with every new record, “Discoverer” does have a certain old-school-ness about it… I approve.

Drowned In Sound gets some time with Robert Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

The Quietus talks to Brett Anderson and Neil Codling of Suede, who if they’re going to not break up again may as well just hop on a plane and come over here to play Lee’s. Yes, they can bring Fat Richard.

Interview, BBC, Sydney Morning Herald and Scotland On Sunday chat with Duffy.

PitchforkTV has a Tunnel Vision session with Isobel Campbell.

QRO has an interview with Stornoway.

Win Butler of Arcade Fire tells The Scotsman he is now and ever shall be a fan of the album.

It’s a music video! It’s a PSA! It’s both! The New Pornographers have teamed with Oxfam to create a clip for “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk” from Together that draws attention to the plight of those affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill earlier this year. There’s more info on the collaboration at Oxfam.

Video: The New Pornographers – “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk”

aux.tv solicits some holiday memories from The Rural Alberta Advantage. They’re at Lee’s Palace tonight and their new record Departing arrives on March 1. Departing? Arrives? See what I did there?

FacebookThat sound you hear is the sound of legions of Bright Eyes fans, whom having just recovered from the news that Conor Oberst was returning to that project for one more record in The People’s Key on February 15, are swooning and weeping (with joy) even more at the announcement of the first leg of tour dates to support said record.

Oberst last played Toronto as Bright Eyes back in May of 2007 with a show at Massey Hall, but didn’t return with his own Mystic Valley Band solo thing. He did make an appearance last Fall with his Monsters Of Folk compatriots, again at Massey, but TO Conor-ites will finally get a proper fix next March when he leads whomever is in Bright Eyes this time out for a show at the Sound Academy on March 13. Not the classy digs he’s gotten used to over the last couple visits, no, but venue complaints aside you can bet that the date is being circled on a lot of calendars right now, especially if the rumours that this is Oberst’s final kick at the Bright Eyes can are accurate.

Tickets for the Toronto show are $34.50 for general admission (aka those who need to be as close to Conor as possible) and $49.50 for VIP (aka those who need to be as far from those who need to be as close to Conor as possible) and go on sale this Friday, December 17.

MP3: Bright Eyes – “Four Winds”
MP3: Bright Eyes – “Lua”
MP3: Bright Eyes – “Lover I Don’t Have To Love”

Connoisseurs of French pop will be pleased to know that Parisians Revolver have made a date at the Drake Underground for March 3, tickets $10.50 in advance. Their debut Music For A While was released domestically back in August.

MP3: Revolver – “Get Around Town”
Video: Revolver – “Leave Me Alone”
Video: Revolver – “Balulalow”

Those who missed Chicagoan glam-punk moppets The Smith Westerns last month when they opened for Florence & The Machine and played a tiny after show the same evening will be pleased to know they’ve slated a proper tour and will be back in town at the Horseshoe on February 28. And they’ve put out a new video, too. Their second album Dye It Blonde is out January 18.

MP3: Smith Westerns – “Imagine, Pt 3”
Video: The Smith Westerns – “Weekend”

The first sample of The Rural Alberta Advantage’s new record Departing is now up for grabs. The record is out March 1 and they play a sold-out show at Lee’s Palace tomorrow night.

MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Stamp”

Dodos frontman Meric Long talks to Pitchfork about their plans for album number three.

The Mountain Goats are giving away a new MP3 for a song that won’t be appearing on their next album All Eternals Deck when it’s released on March 29. But hey – new Mountain Goats.

MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Tyler Lambert’s Grave”

NPR has a World Cafe session with Johnny Flynn.

The Quietus interviews Titus Andronicus. The band, not the fictional character.

The first video from Nicole Atkins’ forthcoming Mondo Amore is now available for all to see. The record is out January 25 and she plays the Horseshoe on February 26.

Video: Nicole Atkins – “Vultures”

Colin Meloy previews some of The Decemberists’ new record The King Is Dead in session for NPR. The album is out January 18 and they play The Sound Academy on February 1.

The AV Club’s AV Undercover series from this Summer is over and done, they’re busting out the covers series for the holiday season with Holiday Undercover, which includes Shearwater covering Randy Newman’s bummer seasonal tune “God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)” and Kate Nash taking on Slade’s “Merry X-Mas Everybody”.

And speaking of Randy Newman, he’s coming to town for a date at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall on March 26 of next year.

Video: Randy Newman – “I Love LA”

American Songwriter contemplates the career of Jay Farrar and chooses their 20 favourite songs.