It’s kind of a joke that indie kids don’t dance, but maybe they’re just more discriminating about what does or doesn’t get their skinny no-asses moving. Disco hi-hats and stabby new wave guitars are so 2004. But while Classics, the second album from New York duo Ratatat, has certainly got the sounds to fill the dance floor, it’s also pretty interesting and compelling listening on its own – not something that a lot of records can claim.

Classics will probably get filed under “electronica” but it’s far more organic-sounding than synthetic. Think new-school Cylon vs old-school (I’ve been watching Battlestar Galactica). The beats are solid but what sets this record apart for me are the melodies – they’re really slinky and strong and usually coupled with interesting instrumentation or samples. And the snarling cat in “Wildcat” is awesome – you almost want to claw at the air and make snarling faces. Almost. I’m not saying I did that. Nothing of the sort. It’s a fun record but not as lightweight as say Daft Punk, which I find drearily repetitve stripped of a dance club environment or an accompanying video. But Ratatat is something I can actually just sit and listen to. And now that I think about it, it might actually fail as a dance album because it makes me want to concentrate on the production rather than shake what I got. But then I don’t really got a lot. Anyway.

The Boston Globe gets some dark secrets about the band’s connections to Bjork and Dashboard Confessional (recorded at the former’s house, was touring guitarist for the latter). They (Ratatat, not Bjork and Dashboard Confessional) are at Lee’s Palace tomorrow night with Envelopes and Panther. There’s an MP3 below and you can grab another at Pitchfork.

MP3: Ratatat – “Wildcat”
MySpace: Ratatat

M Ward tells The Village Voice that Post-War is not a protest record, discusses the recording process with The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, offers a quick interview to Hour.ca and talks to The Chicago Tribune about growing up. Ampcamp has an MP3 of the title track of the album, Minnesota Public Radio has a studio session online and n’oubliez-pas that he is at the Mod Club on Monday night.

MP3: M Ward – “Post-War”

Some new videos for fans of bands with perky, sexy female lead singers. One from The Grates, in town on Saturday at Lee’s Palace, and one from Monsters Are Waiting, who are not coming anywhere near here anytime soon. The Grates, however, also offer up a new MP3 – point, Grates.

MP3: The Grates – “Feels Like Pain”
Video: The Grates – “Science Is Golden” (YouTube)
Video: Monsters Are Waiting – “Ha Ha” (MySpace)

NOW, eye and The Toronto Sun talk solo record Knives Don’t Have Your Back with Emily Haines who plays three shows at the Gladstone on Tuesday.

Fair number of shows announced in the last little bit. The highest profile would have to be the two dates at Massey Hall for Death Cab For Cutie along with tourmates Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. Death Cab, I can totally see at Massey Hall. Ted? That’ll be an interesting environment – hell, I thought the Mod Club was too fancy pants for him. But getting Mr Leo in front of 5400+ possible new fans is nothing but good news to me. Tickets range from $32.50 to $42.50 plus service charges and go on sale tomorrow. Full tour details on Billboard and a nod to For The Records for sleuthing out these dates over a week ago.

And speaking of Death Cab, which I don’t do much anymore, this video of Ben Gibbard and Decemberist Colin Meloy (aka the poster boys for major label indie) recently performed Blur’s “End Of The Century” at one of those Revenge Of The Bookeaters shows. Only noteworthy because, well, I really like that Blur song. There’s an eh-quality video at YouTube.

Video: Ben Gibbard & Colin Meloy – “End Of The Century”

And The Washington Post discusses The Crane Wife, blogs and leaked records with Meloy. The album is out in physical form October 3 and the band is at the Kool Haus November 6.

Anyway, back to shows. Mew have a headlining show of their own at the Mod Club on September 25 for $10 – pefect for those who couldn’t get tickets to the Kasabian show on the 27th or who simply don’t want to see Kasabian. I’m looking at you, self.

Furthermore – Swedes Love Is All are at the Horseshoe October 29, tickets $10.50. The Drones from Australia and The Favourite Sons from Brooklyn are at the El Mocambo November 4 and Darker My Love, who should easily find an audience in Toronto (namely BRMC’s) will be at the same venue on November 15. And someone who appreciates the many definitions of psychedelia is sending a bill consisting of Austin doom fuzz-mongers Black Angels and Los Angeles sunshine-and-surf popsters The Tyde to the ‘Shoe on October 30, tickets $10.50. Heavy, man.

And last (but certainly not least), I Heart Music, who turns one, um, sometime around now, has compiled a list of the 20 hottest bands in Ottawa. I’ve had The Acorn recommended to me before, but needed this kick in the ass to go and listen. Thanks, Matthew.

np – Forget Cassettes / Salt

I will confess that I have avoided seeing Cat Power live in the past on account of her reputation as an… unpredictable performer. Though I’m sure for some that gamble is part of the appeal, I think I’d have just felt really uncomfortable if one of the shows I was at was one of her off-nights. So news of her recent sobriety and the fact that she was supporting what, for my money, is her best album – The Greatest – got me out on Labour Day evening for the second half of a double-header solo show. That and the guest listness.

While a little disappointed that the full Memphis Rhythm Band wasn’t going to be along for the ride, it was evident that she was deliberately going for an intimate vibe, what with opting for two shows at Lee’s Palace instead of one at a much larger venue. From the moment I arrived, I had the feeling that it was going to be a different sort of evening – for starters, the lineup was snaked all around the venue and into the parking lot around back. I cannot remember the last time, if ever, I stood in line at Lee’s Palace. Bizarro. Somewhat surprisingly, there still appeared to be some tickets available at the door – a betting man would have expected the show to be completely sold out. But if it wasn’t, it certainly felt it once everyone was inside. It was warm – not as stifling as I’ve experienced, but there would be more than one fainting victim before the evening was out. More on that later.

The scheduled 10:30 start time came and went and the natives began to get a little restless until Chan strolled out onstage at maybe 10 minutes to 11 to rapturous applause. Smiling – nay, BEAMING – Marshall seated herself with her electric guitar and began with, “House Of The Rising Sun”, and from the first whisper out of her mouth, that was it. For the next two hours plus, she would own us – every one. Her voice is like velvet and honey, delicate and raw and inhumanly expressive and perfectly accompanied by her guitar and piano playing. Playing from a tattered, red magic marker setlist (I suspect if anyone grabbed it as a souvenier, the rest of the tour would have to be cancelled), she mixed up new material with old and a liberal dose of covers and standards. The Greatest material sounded drastically different stripped of its R&B production, but still incredibly satisfying. And that voice. My God.

But perhaps more important and memorable than the actual performance was Chan Marshall herself. On this night, she was smiling, chatty, happy and radiant and seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. Seeing her for the first time, I was having great difficulty reconciling the artist onstage, communing with her audience, with the mercurial, difficult performer of legend. Not that I don’t believe the stories – I’ve heard far too many of them – but she must have checked that persona at the border because for Toronto on Monday night, she was just sublime. And beautiful. Hoo-boy.

Not that there wasn’t some eccentricity. About a third of the way through the show, she caught sight of someone in the wings offstage and became a little agitated, calling security to check it out because she had her personal belongings stashed in that room. But even that was more endearing than odd, with her alternately saying, “I got my stuff back there” with a little blues guitar riff, over and over again, until she was satisfied that she hadn’t been robbed. And then a while later, a girl in the audience near the front collapsed, likely from the heat, and taking notice, Chan became quite alarmed and came offstage to see what was the matter. Then, apparently satisfied that matters were in hand, disappeared without a word, leaving the audience confused and a little disconcerted. She was doing so well! But lo, after around 10 minutes, she came back onstage with a refilled mug of tea (“sober!”) and picked up where she left off, not a word of explanation. Not that anyone cared – as long as she was back (I think it was a smoke break).

All told and including impromptu intermission, she played for about two hours fifteen and though my knees and back thought that was plenty long enough, I’d have happily stayed and listened to her another couple hours more. I can’t speak for any other show on the tour or even the early show, but for this evening, Cat Power was simply amazing. If I’m ever ambivalent about seeing Cat Power live again, it’ll only be because I don’t know how she could top this performance.

Photos: Cat Power @ Lee’s Palace – September 4, 2006
MP3: Cat Power – “The Greatest”
Video: Cat Power – “Living Proof” (YouTube)
Video: Cat Power – “Lived In Bars” (YouTube)

And note that while Matador is rereleasing The Greatest next week with three different slipcovers and a lower list price, there are NO bonus materials that would require fans to re-purchase the album. They’re just trying to give the album a second life in retail. But if you do want something new, there’s an exclusive iTunes session available as of yesterday – full details on both these releases and some pre-emptive defense of the re-release here.

Billboard has info about the Sufjan Stevens Christmas box set due out November 21, Songs of Christmas will compile five Christmas records and a stocking full of holiday bonus goodies. More info at Asthmatic Kitty.

NME reports that The Shins will release Wincing The Night Away on January 23 of next year. Just in time for a really really late Christmas gift.

And that was a really long review, so that’s it for today. Except for this – Hedgehogs vs McDonalds – and the hedgehogs win. How does something like this become an epidemic?

np – Grizzly Bear / Yellow House

Catfish Haven’s EP from earlier this year, Please Come Back was a bracing slab of acoustic, trailer-park soul carried by George Hunter’s rough and raw croon. I admit I had some question in the back of my head of whether or not what worked over a six-song EP would hold up over a whole album. Well Tell Me, their debut full-length out next Tuesday, proves that the answer is yes – and they do it by doing exactly the same thing they did the last time out so if you liked Please Come Back – and I did – there’s no reason to not like Tell Me.

Some might scoff at the idea of a big, bearded guy who grew up in a Missouri trailer park (for real) as channelling the spirits of Otis and Marvin, and considering that testimonial is coming from a Chinese indie rock guy in Toronto, maybe you’ve right to be skeptical. But know this – I have the 10-disc Complete Stax-Volt Singles and 4-disc Hitsville USA box sets, so it at least proves I’m willing to make some effort to feign knowledgability.

But seriously, Catfish Haven aren’t genre tourists. From the horns to the super-tight rhythm section to Hunter’s voice – worth singling out again – they’re in this wholeheartedly and every drop of blood, sweat and tears you hear is real. Or they’re really, really good at faking it – maybe Hunter has an even bigger box set. They’re on the road this Fall with Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Birdmonster and will be at the Horseshoe on September 11.

MP3: Catfish Haven – “Crazy For Leaving” (from Tell Me)
MP3: Catfish Haven – “Please Come Back” (from Please Come Back)
MySpace: Catfish Haven

I think this might count as a Voxtrot scoop – the band’s first (new) release for new label Playlouder will be a 3-song, Ben Hillier-produced, US-only EP that is scheduled to come out November 7 and their full-length debut will be out in Spring 2007. I say “new” because technically, a UK reissue of Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives due out next month will be their first release to bear the Playlouder imprint. I think.

Fountains Of Wayne have made a new song – the theme song to animated feature Monster House – available to download from their MySpace. I’m trying to remember… I used to really like these guys. Didn’t I? I think so. But I’m also pretty sure they did more than just theme songs and jingles. I’m so confused.

MP3: Fountains Of Wayne – “Monster House”

Look! The Hold Steady’s new album has a website and they want you to upload video testimonials about being a boy or girl in America. So far, there has been… one contribution. One. Hmm. Maybe there’ll be more before Boys And Girls In America is released October 3. Maybe.

MP3: The Hold Steady – “Chips Ahoy!”

Pitchfork talks to Maximo Park’s Paul Smith about the progress made on the band’s second album. They hope to have it out in March of next year.

Sixeyes has an interview with Mountain Goat John Darnielle.

Prefix has done gone and made themselves look all purty-like.

Oh, and I’ve posted the responses from my Virgin Festival Contest wherein people gave me a bit of Toronto trivia in exchange for a shot at winning passes to the Virgin Festival in Toronto this weekend. Some good stuff there. Winners have already been notified, so if you’ve been going back to your mailbox like Charlie Brown on Valentine’s Day… sorry.

And don’t forget I’ve got a pair of passes to Virgin Festival USA to give away – without getting into numbers, odds are very (very) good right now, so if you know anyone in the Maryland/eastern seaboard region who might want to go to this, send them here. I’m not even demanding any Baltimore trivia to enter.

np – Richard Buckner / Meadow

The cover of Lay Of The Land, the 2004 debut from Nottingham, UK’s Seachange on Matador looks familiar, but that may be because I’ve seen it peeking out from a used CD bin or two in my time. Well next time I see it I will be sure to pick it up because what I’ve heard from this band lately is pretty damn good. There’s something of British Sea Power’s grand romanticism in Seachange’s sound as well as some of the punkish energy of early Idlewild. Johanna Cormack’s violin adds some chamber-rock moodiness that sets them apart a bit but it’s Dan Eastop’s vocals that really stand out to me. It’s not that he has a huge range or any technically unique or distinctive quality – it’s more just his delivery, his phrasing, his accent. They sound arrogantly humble, confidently confused, powerfully vulnerable and passionately indifferent – they just sound intensely real and human, which you’d think would be more common considering most bands are comprised of real humans, but not so much so.

I was directed to a track from their new album On Fire, With Love and while that song, “No Looking Back”, was alright it was a track streaming off their MySpace – “In” – that really caught my ear. It’s one of those understated anthems that the British seem to have bred in their bones, chorus-less and rich with singularly English lyricism and built on a simple, insistent guitar figure with a bend in just the right spot. If the rest of On Fire, With Love can measure up this its finale (“In” is the last track on the album), then it’s one worth hunting down.

The band seems to be in a bit of a label limbo at the moment, having distribution on mainland Europe but the rest of the world can only buy copies of the new record off their website at the moment. There will be a proper UK release on the band’s own label on October 16 but North Americans will have to pony up import prices for a hard copy – I guess Matador declined the option for the sophomore record. But happily, eMusic has On Fire, With Love in their catalog for those of us willing to make do with a digital copy for the time being.

MP3: Seachange – “No Backward Glances” (from On Fire, With Live)
MP3: Seachange – “News From Nowhere” (from Lay Of The Land)
MP3: Seachange – “Glitterball” (from Glitterball EP)
Video: Seachange – “Glitterball” (YouTube)

Tanya Donelly is taking a break from making babies (her second child was born in March – congratulations!) to finally release the live album she recorded back in the Fall of 2004. It’s called This Hungry Life and is composed (I believe) of all new songs recorded in front of a live studio audience – just like the sitcoms of yore. It’ll be out October 17 on Eleven Thirty Records, which I think will mark the first time in a long, long time that one of Tanya’s records wasn’t released by 4AD.

The Portland Mercury loves Feist, and doesn’t care who knows it (via LHB). Rbally also loves Feist, but would prefer to express his affection in the form of a complete live show from Chicago of stunning audio quality. If only all bootlegs sounded this good.

Billboard gets Emily Haines to discuss upcoming solo record Knives Don’t Have Your Back, out September 12.

A couple show announcements – Thunderbirds Are Now!i will be at Sneaky Dee’s on November 6 and The Album Leaf, whose new one Into The Blue Again is out next Tuesday, will be at Lee’s Palace on November 9. SubPop is offering an MP3 from the record:

MP3: The Album Leaf – “Always For You” (from Into The Blue Again)

Neko Case complains to Australia’s X-Press Online about the lazy North American media.

And still running up the phone bills to down under, Okkervil River’s Will Sheff talks to Rave Magazine. It’s fascinating to follow Will’s efforts to re-establish a home base in Austin via what he’s doing while conducting these Australian interviews, while still finding the time to take a shot at Billy Corgan’s poetry and celebrate George Michael. Also note that their Aussie-only EP Overboard And Down is now available to order online.

Pitchfork bids farewell to Sleater-Kinney.

And a gentle reminder that the episode of The New Music which has a small interview with yours truly airs tonight at 9:30PM on MuchMusic. And Sonic Youth are the main feature, so there’s actually a good reason to watch (Chart also has an interview). It will repeat this Saturday at 1:30PM ET on CityTV. Also note that this is one of host Hannah Sung’s final episodes, so again – another legitimate reason to watch. Update: Apparently due to a logistical error, an old episode ran instead of the new one. Proper airdates are “Saturday on CityTV at 1:30pm ET, then on MuchMusic next Monday at 12:30pm ET and next Tuesday at 11:30am again on CityTV” (words of the producer).

np – Built To Spill / You In Reverse

The Hourly Radio / History Will Never Hold Me (Kirtland) The British influence on Dallas’ Hourly Radio is obvious, but what’s curious is the particular point in the timestream that they’ve elected minep. They hearken back to the late ’90s/early’00s, after Britpop had disappeared up its own nostrils but before Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand ushered in the wimp-rock and new4 wave movements that still reign today. The advantage of this is that though offering a sound that’s familiar and comforting to Anglophiles, they’re also hard to immediately pigeonhole and thus come off sounding more original. Aaron Closson’s urgent, adenoidal vocals that recall Brian Molko crossed with Mark Greaney and while that’s a combination that doesn’t necessarily tickle my eardrums, both of their respective outfits – Placebo and JJ72 – sold a record or two in their day, so combined with some solid, anthemic and danceable songs, there’s no reason to think that these guys couldn’t do the same. History Will Never Hold Me is out September 5. MP3: The Hourly Radio – “Fear Of Standing Upright” Video: The Hourly Radio – “Fear Of Standing Upright” (SWF) MySpace: The Hourly Radio

De Rosa / Mend (Chemikal Underground) I don’t think Chemikal Underground had any choice but to sign De Rosa, on account of the fact that they sound like label founders The Delgados’ younger, slightly angstier, art-damaged younger sibling. They share the distinctly skewed, Scottish pop sensebility but work in a dose of wild-eyed, frantic edginess that creates a healthy level of tension with their innate, gentler side. The net result is a solid debut, equally consistent and diverse. It can be a bit familiar-sounding but they’re starting out in the same sonic sandbox as some other bands that have gone on to do great things. If De Rosa can fully capitalize on the creativity and talent that’s evident here, they could go on to do great things themselves. Mend is out domestically on Tuesday. MP3: MP3: De Rosa – “Cathkin Brae” (demo) Video: De Rosa – “Camera” (MySpace) MySpace: De Rosa

Clockworkmargaret Sometimes something shows up in your inbox (or in this case, your MySpace friends requests) that out of the blue, just beguiles you. And by “you”, I mean me. It’s probably far too early to judge Liverpool’s Clockworkmargaret – after all, they look barely out of their teens (if even that old), haven’t had even a half dozen rehearsals and I think they played their first-ever gig last night. Yet they have some recorded output available on their MySpace and the one song – a cover of my possibly my favourite Elliott Smith song – is just wonderful. The sweetness of the Catherine’s voice combined with her Scouse accent suits the song’s delicate melody perfectly, imbueing the song with youthful innocence rather than Smith’s weariness. And when Jini’s harmonies come in at the very end, it’s sublime. Barely two minutes long and yet it somehow breaks my heart. The original on offer is not surprisingly a good deal rougher, but still displays a lot of potential. As I said, it’s probably still waaaaay too early to place bets but I’m definitely keen to hear what they do next. MP3: Clockworkmargaret – “Say Yes” MP3: Clockworkmargaret – “She”

np – Early Day Miners / Offshore