Photo by Natasha Papadopoulou

“You have to see them live”.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like seeing bands live. I should think that much is obvious by now. But when that’s used as a response to my voicing a lack of interest or enthusiasm for a particular artist’s recorded output, I can’t help but get even more wary. After all, I can tell the difference between unfortunate production and weak songwriting and can forgive the former, but not the latter. This isn’t to say that a band with great songs be so much better live that the studio renderings pale in comparison, but when the strength of a band’s live performance is used as an excuse for not being able to write decent tunes, it sounds to me like someone is trying to use wacky hijinks on stage as a smokescreen for other deficiencies.

I’ve been hearing stories of Montreal’s King Khan & The Shrines’ shows spoken of in hushed, reverential tones for some time now – all about the sheer madness of their live performances but never about the strength of the actual music – so I generally dismissed them. Come on, when you have as much music flung at you as I do you sometimes have to make wholly arbitrary snap judgments to stay sane. But that didn’t keep me from giving their new record, The Supreme Genius Of King Khan And The Shrines, a fair shake when it showed up. Essentially a best-of compiled from his myriad EP, single and full-length releases, it functions as a strong introduction to Khan’s frantic blend of garage rock, funk and soul. It’s loud, proud and obviously doesn’t take itself too seriously but still seriously enough to ensure it’s expertly executed. They might be obviously and unabashedly goofy, but they can play. And while it may not be something that gets a lot of rotation when just hanging around the house, it’s the sort of record you could put on at a party and easily let run start to finish.

And, perhaps more importantly, its existence gives Khan an excuse to go out and play some shows. Now as I’ve said, I’m a bit jaded to the whole “they’re so amazing live” angle, but reading reviews like this one from San Francisco last week… I’m as intrigued as I am frightened. They’ve got two shows at the Horseshoe next week – Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th – and will also be doing an in-store at Sonic Boom at 7PM before the second night’s show. Obviously that one has the appeal of being free, but I can’t imagine they’ll be fully debauched in such a PG environment – for that, you’ll need to hit the ‘Shoe shows which, thanks to Vice Records, could also be free. I’ve got a pair of passes to give away to each night – if you want in, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see King Khan!” in the subject line and your full name, along with which night you want to go to, in the body. If you want to enter for both nights – that’s cool, you just won’t win for both – email me twice and mention which night you’d prefer, in case it comes down to it. Contest closes at midnight, July 20.

Khan and The Shrines are currently on tour across America, leaving a trail of rock & wreckage and press clippings in their wake. Check out the local preview in eye as well as interviews in SF Weekly, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Georgia Straight, The College Times, Exclaim!, Creative Loafing, Desert News, Chart, Metro and Indy Weekly, who also have an MP3 available to download different from the one below.

MP3: King Khan & The Shrines – “Torture”

The National Post and The Capital Times talk to Hold Steady guitarist Tad Kubler while Spinner compiles a list of the band’s favourite baseball movies.

Filter has some info on the forthcoming EP from Magnetic Morning, the collaboration between Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin and Interpol’s Sam Fogarino.

eye talks to Matt Ward about She & Him, kicking off their North American tour next Wednesday night at the Opera House.

The first taste of Ra Ra Riot’s debut full-length The Rhumb Line, out August 19, is now available and if it sounds familiar it’s because it’s one of the songs that first appeared on their self-titled EP… but at least it’s been re-recorded. They’re at the Horseshoe on September 4.

MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Dying Is Fine”

Nick Cave discusses the art of writing and his workaholic tendencies with The Telegraph. Cave and The Bad Seeds play the Kool Haus on October 1.

In talking to Billboard about Okkervil River’s forthcoming The Stand-Ins, out September 9, Will Sheff says that after the tour that brings them to the Phoenix on October 12, the band will be taking “a long break”. Oh noes!

Sleepercar, whose pedigree includes Sparta and At The Drive-In, are at the Horseshoe on August 5. Seeing as how that’s a Nu Music Nite, it will possibly/probably be a free show.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are at the Mod Club on August 11, tickets $27.50 on sale now.

September 20 brings The Oxford Collapse to town in support of their new record Bits, out August 5, for a show at Sneaky Dee’s. They’ll be accompanied by Love As Laughter, Gothamist has an interview.

MP3: Oxford Collapse – “The Birthday Wars”

San Francisco’s Dodos will return for a date at the Horseshoe on October 6. The Grand Rapids Press has a talk with guitarist Meric Long.

And perhaps most intriguingly, The Charlatans (UK) have a date booked at the Mod Club on October 10, tickets $30. One one hand, they’re quite obviously past their best-before date – this year’s decent but not great You Cross My Path notwithstanding – and if they’re out to prove themselves a vital creative entity, it could be awkward for everyone. But if they’re willing to accept that their fans – and though they’re playing a venue a quarter the size of the one I last saw them at in 2002 and half the size from their last visit in 2006, they’ll have no trouble filling it with psyched up Britpop refugees – are old and not interested in change and just want to hear the hits, then a well-chosen set list in a room that cozy with a band whose been around long enough and played stages big enough that they know how to put on a great show, well that could be something really special that makes you (and them) feel at least 10 years younger.

Album: The Charlatans / You Cross My Path
MP3: The Charlatans – “Oh! Vanity”
MP3: The Charlatans – “You Cross My Path”
Video: The Charlatans – “Oh Vanity”
Video: The Charlatans – “You Cross My Path”
Video: The Charlatans – “The Misbegotten”

Photo by Frank Yang

First thing I did when I got home on Monday night was hit up eMusic for Silkworm’s Firewater, which had just been recommended to me most emphatically, but as it turns out, I didn’t have enough downloads left so I grabbed the new Bottomless Pit EP Congress and put Firewater at the top of the queue for next month.

The context of this was that I’d been at Sneaky Dee’s and while as a longstanding Bedhead and The New Year fan, I’d obviously gone to see The Kadane Brothers play Toronto if not for the first time ever, then the first time in a damned long time, I was completely enthralled by their tourmates’ set. I had no history with Bottomless Pit or their previous incarnation as Silkworm, save for knowing about the senseless death of drummer Michael Dahlquist in 2005 that forced the dissolution of that band. But while I’d primed a bit with their debut album Hammer Of The Gods in the days preceding the show, I didn’t expect to be as amazed as I was.

From the moment they took the stage, via an instrumental segue at the end of the Kadane Brothers’ set that ranks amongst the most impressive things I’ve seen in recent memory, they had me riveted. Not so much for their onstage charisma – they’re mostly unremarkable-looking guys who just go about their business – but for the music they made. Melodic without being overtly pop and intense while remaining resolutely laid back, Bottomless Pit deliver “Indie rock” of the oldest school, with echoes of Built To Spill, Archers Of Loaf and Sonic Youth acquired not as influences, but contemporaries. The combination of Andy Cohen and Tim Midgett’s guitar and baritone guitar, respectively, made for a distinct and glorious sonic blend that I’m amazed isn’t utilized by more bands. Of course, it’s not just the gear – there’s also their respective virtuostic abilities on their instruments which made for some exhilarating six-string excursions. I know I’ve already used the word “enthralled” but it’s the most appropriate one I can think of.

As for the Kadane Brothers, the one-word summary would be “hypnotic”. Delivering exactly as advertised, Matt and Bubba Kadane explored the catalog of The New Year, including their forthcoming self-titled album due September 9, accompanied only on electric guitar but even without their three other bandmates, most everything sounded as full and mesmerizing as the recorded versions. What they were able to do with just the two electric guitars – and not even dueling guitars, often just some fingerpicking or sinewy lines played off of gently strummed power chords – was mesmerizing. The sort of thing that if you examine it too closely, makes no sense when you consider what you’re hearing, so it’s best to just close your eyes and listen. An unconventional but wholly satisfying first live Kadane experience, but I also say that with the knowledge that a proper New Year gig has already been booked for October 15 at Lee’s Palace.

Opening up the night was local pop outfit Great Bloomers, whom I’d seen and been left rather nonplussed by at NxNE. They made a decidedly better impression this time, having apparently decided to inject some more twang into their sound over the past month, but their shortcomings also became clearer to me. While obviously musically talented and with a knack for melody, they also lacked any real sense of… danger? Edginess? With a couple exceptions, their songs seemed overly restrained and polite. Maybe it’s just me, but bands that young should be looking to stir shit up. But on the plus side, since they are that young they’ve got plenty of time to develop a coke habit or two. NOTE: this blog does not condone or encourage the use of cocaine or other banned substances for the purpose of developing “rock” cred. But if you do it to be cool, then by all means.

There’s another short video teaser for the new New Year record and The Phoenix talks to New Year drummer Chris Brokaw, who wasn’t along for this tour (as he failed the “is your last name Kadane?” test) but should be behind the kit come October.

Photos: Bottomless Pit, The Kadane Brothers, Great Bloomers @ Sneaky Dee’s – July 14, 2008
MP3: Bottomless Pit – “Fish Eyes”
MP3: Bottomless Pit – “The Cardinal Movements”
MP3: The New Year – “The End’s Not Near”
MP3: The New Year – “Sinking Ship”
Video: The New Year – “The End’s Not Near”
Video: The New Year – “Disease”
MySpace: Bottomless Pit
MySpace: The New Year

Chart talks to Stephen Malkmus, in town at the Phoenix tonight.

Pitchfork has the first sample of the new Mercury Rev album Snowflake Midnight, due out September 29.

MP3: Mercury Rev – “Senses On Fire”

According to CBC Radio 3, Gentleman Reg is the latest member of the Arts & Crafts family. His first album since 2004’s Darby & Joan, Jet Black, will be out October 14.

I got sent a taste of the next Fields record yesterday, which fits nicely with this recent NME piece about the band’s return to live performance after basically being sequestered away in the studio working on the follow-up to Everything Last Winter for most of this year. As such, they’d fallen a bit off my radar and I hadn’t heard about the departure of guitarist Jamie Putnam, which makes me curious how the new stuff will sound if frontman Nick Peill continues to stick with the acoustic guitar. If the first track is any indication, things are accordingly less rock-heavy and more synth-leaning. Of course, the second track is all anthemic guitar rock so… Either way, these tracks have sufficiently whetted my appetite for the new record. There’s some more new material in the form of demos, including that of the track below, streaming on their MySpace. The new album is due out sometime this year.

MP3: Fields – “Worst Love”
MP3: Fields – “Are You Ready Yet”

JAM talks to Gary Louris about working again with Mark Olsen on their first collaboration in over a decade, After The Flood, due out in September.

NME reports that Jarvis Cocker is contemplating bringing the rock on his next solo record, due out sometime next year.

Wired contemplates the meaning of the term “shoegaze”. Stuart Braithwaite, Adam Franklin and Jason Pierce all think the term is rubbish. Naturally.

Photo via Rough Trade

Some bands make concept records. The Hold Steady are making a concept career. With their debut Almost Killed Me, it seemed they were just writing about what they knew – adolescence, religion, rebellion and partying in Minneapolis – and they returned to many/most/all of those themes (as well as many of the characters) on the follow-up Separation Sunday. 2006’s Boys & Girls In America carried the groundwork laid by its predecessors onto a widescreen canvas, technicolour and jubilant and flush with the energy and potential (and folly) of youth.

And their latest Stay Positive, out today, picks up right where Boys & Girls left off and while sticking close to what they know and what they do best, still find ways to stretch out creatively – Franz Nicolai has discovered the other patches on his keyboard – and in the process sound like they’re laying the groundwork for the debut of The Hold Steady: The Rock Opera on Broadway. “Constructive Summer” is as grand an anthem as they’ve ever written, dedicated to the promise of a Summer of adventures and experiences of the sort that you only find in Hollywood coming-of-age stories but tempered by the sense that the window of opportunity for such adventures might be closing. By “One For The Cutters” – a Hold Steady murder ballad? – the consequences of youthful indiscretions no longer limited to hangovers or trips to the chillout tent, but the morgue. Despite the upbeat title, album number four is decidedly dark in places. Craig Finn is still majordomo of the party pit and the nights are still massive, but the partiers might feel a bit older and the harsh light of dawn feels a little closer than it has in the past. The title track is The Hold Steady as self-referential as they’ve ever been, tying together narrative threads from the past three albums into a single manifesto for their career thus far and despite the rather cautionary nature of the songs around it, offers an optimistic rallying point. “Our songs are sing-along songs” indeed.

But one of the strengths of the Hold Steady is that even if you choose not to listen too closely to Finn’s dense, mile-a-minute lyrics it’s still entirely possible to appreciate them on a purely visceral, force of rock level. As with each preceding record, Finn moves further away from the talking-singing style that he started out with and towards more conventional means of carrying the melody – this seems to force his voice to a lower, gruffer register that also contributes to the darker vibe of the record. But though some of the songs are more in the minor key to match their lyrics, much of Stay Positive is still the fist-pumping and rousing classic rock that sounds so familiar but which no one else seems to be doing or at least doing as well. They may be suggesting you think a bit about tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time tonight.

And just in case this sounds like it might be a (relative) bummer of a record, note that the three bonus tracks that appear on initial digipack-ed versions of the record are maybe the three most fun songs on the whole CD.

The Interface features the Hold Steady in a session, Paste has been running a series of studio diaries from the making of the record, Gothamist and The Wall Street Journal have interviews while Salon and New York Magazine have more expansive features. And, not surprisingly, the album is kicking aggregated ass at Metacritic.

Stream: The Hold Steady / Stay Positive
MySpace: The Hold Steady

Blurt goes record shopping with Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood.

Muzzle Of Bees poses five questions to M Ward, who will be in town as the Him in She & Him next Wednesday at the Opera House.

With the last Rilo Kiley album put to bed (and I mean “last” as in “most recent” and not necessarily “final”, though it could well be that as well), detail have come forth about Jenny Lewis’ second solo record. Spin reports that it’s entitled Acid Tongue, due in September and features a bevy of guest stars including the aforementioned Mr Ward and Elvis Costello. Update: Release date appears to be September 9.

Feist’s upcoming appearance on Sesame Street has made its way to the internets. Brought to you by the number four, of course.

Video: Feist – “1, 2, 3, 4” (on Sesame Street)

Also surfacing on the YouTube, Radiohead’s “look ma, no cameras!” laser-powered video for “House Of Cards”. They’re at the Molson Amphitheatre on August 15.

Video: Radiohead – “House Of Cards”

And not to be outdone with video premieres, Spinner has the newest from R.E.M., a clip which was born (created) right here in Toronto.

Video: R.E.M. – “Man-Sized Wreath”

The release date for The Verve’s Forth has been pushed back a week to August 26, but even so Music Snobbery has an advance copy and shares their thoughts, though the fact that they regard “Love Is Noise” in a positive light makes their opinions suspect.

More verbiage from Wayne Coyne about the goings-on in Flaming Lips-land, via The Quietus.

Photo by Catherine Wygal

It’s understandable if you lumped the return of The Wedding Present a few years ago as part of the ongoing series of ’80s band reunions, though as I pointed out they never really went away, just changed their name for a bit. Regardless, that was the angle with which most approached 2005’s Take Fountain, a fine record to be sure though I’d maintain that the two preceding Cinerama records were just as strong. Which all sets the bar fairly high for their latest effort, El Rey.

Though they emerged with the original wave of C86 bands, The Wedding Present (and Cinerama) has always seemed to exist apart from musical trends with little in common with their contemporaries in British guitar rock – listening to them there’s no hint that they existed through the years of Baggy, shoegaze or Britpop. The musical world of David Lewis Gedge was always solely occupied by the romantically wronged or inept, and the women (or men) who did it to them, and defined by Gedge’s razor-sharp wit delivered with his distinctive bark and churning guitarwork punctuated by janglesome pauses. Though the production aesthetic has varied from orchestrally lush to almost uncomfortably arid, Gedge’s muse has been remarkably consistent over his twenty-ear career.

And El Rey does nothing to break that streak. Benefiting from some more distance from Gedge’s breakup with longtime girlfriend Sally Murrell, it has a more playful, third-person vibe than its predecessor though that’s a very relative thing – even at his most pained, Gedge never lost his sense of humour and even when writing from a strictly fictional POV, he’s able to inject his protagonists with a most believable pathos. With production duties courtesy of Steve Albini, who helmed the Wedding Present’s arguably finest hour in Seamonsters, and despite the departure after the last record of longtime guitarist Simon Cleave, El Rey does a fine job of balancing all the various facets of the band’s personality – the playful and the pained coexist in the lyrics and the sonics rage or ruminate as needed.

While it’s true that El Rey brings little new to the table, as long as men and women continue to screw each other and screw each other over, there will be grist for Gedge’s mill and audiences with whom his songs will resonate. So whenever he delivers a new album of incisive observations, especially recorded by someone as sympathetic to his aesthetic as Albini, it’s cause for celebration and earns a rightful place alongside his many, many other albums of incisive observations.

As promised when I caught he and bassist Terry De Castro play a short set at SxSW, Gedge and the full band will be coming to North America this Fall for a full tour including an October 3 stop at Lee’s Palace in Toronto. I caught the Wedding Present twice on the Take Fountain tour and both shows were excellent – I expect no less from this one.

The Skinny talks to David Gedge about the new record, living in California and affection, or lack thereof, for The Cure. Indieoma also has an interview but be sure to stop the ultra-annoying autoplaying video on the left before reading.

MP3: The Wedding Present – “The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girl Friend”
MySpace: The Wedding Present

Blurt spends some time with Pete Kember, aka Sonic Boom.

The Quietus discusses the joys of campervans with Portishead.

Eric Bachmann of Crooked Fingers talks to Billboard about the decision to go wholly independent with regards to the release of Fortune/Forfeit, out October 7. They’re at the Phoenix with Okkervil River on October 12.

John Convertino of Calexico tells JAM that their next album, out September 7, will not only be Return To Dust but a return to form. Music to my ears.

The Tennessean talks to Nels Cline about juggling existence as a guitar god in Wilco and as a guitar god in Nels Cline Singers.

You Ain’t No Picasso interview Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal. Their next one Skeletal Lamping is out October 7 and they play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on October 28.

The first video from She & Him’s Volume One hit the interwebs at the end of last week but only exclusively in the US – it’s now up on YouTube for all to see. They’re at the Opera House next Wednesday, July 23, with Freakwater as support.

Video: She & Him – “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here”

If next week’s King Khan & The Shrines two-night stand at the Horseshoe on July 23 and 24 wasn’t enough for you, note that they’re doing an in-store at Sonic Boom on the Thursday night at 7PM.

And a gentle but firm reminder that there’s no better place to be tonight than Sneaky Dee’s where you’ve got The Kadane Brothers (ex-Bedhead, current of The New Year) and Bottomless Pit (from the ashes of Silkworm) for just $10. There can be nothing better than this – it’s a mathematical fact.