Having seen Los Angeles’ Monsters Are Waiting in March at SxSW, I figured I knew what to expect from their debut album Fascination, released yesterday. Slightly spastic new wave revivalist pop which I would find fun in smallish doses but perhaps tiring over the long haul. Well to my pleasant surprise, there’s more going on here than I expected.

The record opens with “Last Goodbye”, which is an unexpected dose of pure pop. Perfectly balancing melancholy and jubilation, Annalee Fery’s voice the epitome of sweetness, backed by chiming, overdriven guitars and lightly squelching synths. This is one of those songs you could put on repeat for hours on end. Well, maybe a couple hours. From there, the band steps out of the sunshine a bit. The guitars get stabbier and sharper and Fery becomes a little more unhinged and the further along you go, the more you realize that maybe someone’s not taking that “last goodbye” all that well. “Don’t Go” is more than a little delightfully demented with Fery’s panicky little girl squealing over the bridge, and a marked contrast to her dead-eyed monotone over “Firefly”. Second-to-last song “Monsters” brings some bounce back to the proceedings and closer “Time” is a lovely, glistening coda to what I’m sure was never meant to be a concept record, but there it is.

Boasting more than a little LA cool and a sexy, magnetic frontwoman, Monsters Are Waiting could have big things in store for them – New York Press attributes much of that potential to Fery’s hair. Spin also dubbed the Band Of The Day last month. You could easily use Metric as a point of comparison but Monsters have that “just a little crazy” edge that I find quite appealing. And I prefer brunettes…

MP3: Monsters Are Waiting – “Nobody”
MP3: Monsters Are Waiting – “Christine”
Video: Monsters Are Waiting – “Last Goodbye” (MySpace)
Video: Monsters Are Waiting – “Fascination” (MySpace)
MySpace: Monsters Are Waiting

Tilly & The Wall’s new video for “Bad Education” – just a little Almodovar-influenced? Yeah, just a bit.

Video: Tilly & The Wall – “Bad Education” (MOV)

The Hold Steady will release their new album Boys And Girls In America on October 3 (via Clicky Click). Pitchfork has some deets. Expect to hear them preview the new material when they play Lee’s Palace on August 31.

The first song and video from the new Pernice Brothers album is up for grabs. Go here and sign up for the mailing list to see/hear “Somerville” from Live A Little, which has no release date as of yet. I’d link them directly but I don’t want Catbirdseat to think I’m a dick. And anyway, the mailing list updates are generally informative and fun.

Pop (All Love) despairs for Richard Ashcroft.

Andy Partridge talks to Paste about the nervous breakdown that took XTC off the road for good. Since they’re not touring and not on strike from their label, are they ever going to release something that’s not a) archival or b) a milking of the Apple Venus sessions? That was seven years ago. C’mon.

As noted in the comments yesterday, The Cardigans have a show tenatively scheduled for September 20 at the Opera House. The operative word here is “tenative”, as Magnus Sveningsson notes nothing has been confirmed. So hold off on buying from Ticketmaster come Thursday, just in case.

And speaking of forthcoming Fall tours, the first dates for Mojave 3’s North American jaunt are up – expect the Toronto show somewhere between October 11 (Chicago) and October 19 (Boston).

Goldenfiddle directs us to this animated poster for Spider-Man 3. Sinister spider-logos are the new evil Spock goatees.

Not content to bury just alt.country (see yesterday), The New York Times writes an obituary for CD stores. Sadly, I can’t rebut this one as well – Flash’N’Crash gave up the ghost last week and the Annex is poorer for it.

np – The Mountain Goats / The Sunset Tree

The New York Times (Bugmenot) tries to stir things up a bit with a piece on the demise of “alt.country”, using the career of The Jayhawks as a reference point. It’s fine as a Jayhawks piece but is a helluva lot more tenuous as an obituary for a sound. Yes, the term came into fashion at around the same time the ‘Hawks and Uncle Tupelo were in their heyday and yes, most of the bands that were part of that specific scene have either disbanded or grown out of the sound but term outgrew the scene long before the scene outgrew it.

To my mind, it now encompasses anything from Gram and Neil (or even further back) through to anyone today who has an appreciation for good old-fashioned songcraft, storytelling, pedal steel and fuzzboxes or anything rootsy that doesn’t come from the Nashville/CMT machine. Like any other musical descriptor, it’s as meaningful as it is meaningless and as long as people keep making music that can be described as such, it’s not going anywhere.

But on a personal level my interest in alt.country as they define it does pretty much coincide with the arc as described in the NYT piece. I liked the Jayhawks’ post-Olson pop phase just as I liked Wilco’s growth beyond the A.M. sound and while I can certainly appreciate a band that trades in rootsy twang, I get a little frustrated now if that’s all they have to offer. It’s kind of odd to say, but it seems the only way a genre can continue to be fresh and interesting is if the bands that get pigeonholed in it keep trying to shake it off. Stylistic labels are like challenges to the artist – you don’t like it? Prove it doesn’t fit.

But if nothing else, the piece is good for one thing – they’ve also got five – FIVE – tracks from the new Golden Smog album Another Fine Day available to download as part of their Gary Louris segue. I linked “5-22-02” last week – here’s another one courtesy of The New York Times and you can stream the whole record at AOL. It’s in stores today but don’t expect much touring to support. As Louris and Dan Murphy tell Harp, they don’t see much point in touring without Jeff Tweedy. Which I don’t agree with but can understand them not wanting to deal with the drunken lout who shows up to loudly request “Casino Queen” through the whole show.

MP3: Golden Smog – “Another Fine Day”
Stream: Golden Smog – Another Fine Day

In addition to the Smog, Gary Louris is also producing the new Sadies album and appeared on their soon-to-be-released (August 8) In Concert Volume 1. I just got a copy of the double-disc set yesterday and it’s really spectacular. The 110-minute set is a twang feast and does a pretty damn good job of capturing the energy and excitement of being at the shows it’s drawn from. Like the show, the discs are broken up into a Good family affair and a special guest-laden racucous barnburner and it’s a feather in Steve Albini’s cap that he was able to capture the show with the perfect balance of rawness and clarity without sacrificing any of the vibe. I should know, I was there.

Also nice is that the liner notes tell you exactly who each of the songs was written by and what album they originally appeared on – very handy considering the cover-heavy set list and the revolving door that was the stage those nights. The Sadies play a two-night CD release show for In Concert at the Horseshoe on September 8 and 9. How they intend to do this record justice without flying all the participants back into town, I don’t know but I’m sure it’ll be something else to see them try. YepRoc has a half-dozen tracks of the 41 total tracks available to stream, including the Jayhawks’ “Tailspin”. You can also download of one of The Sadies’ own songs.

MP3: The Sadies – “Why Be So Curious? (live)”
Stream: The Sadies with Gary Louris – “Tailspin” (SWF)

Wilco’s Toronto show from July 7 has now been torrented thanks to Toronto taper extraordinaire David Klein. They opened with what I believe is the first ever performance of a new song, “There’s A Light”. There were two more new songs in the set – I posted a link to “Impossible Germany” from the Milwaukee show last week.

MP3: Wilco – “There’s A Light” (live in Toronto 2006-07-07)

Billy Bragg will release his second box set of the year, Volume Two, on October 17. It will cover the second half of his career including the essential Worker’s Playtime and Don’t Try This At Home as well as the somewhat less essential William Bloke and England, Half English (though I am guessing that the Mermaid Avenue sessions will be unrepresented). Each album will have a bonus disc of goodies and the ninth disc in the set will be a DVD containing two live shows, one from 1991 and one from this year. As with Volume One, each album will be available individually as well as in the fancy box and Bill will again be touring Canada to promote it so everyone who was disappointed to not hear “She’s Got A New Spell” last time will have to be in attendance. Of course, the Toronto show, which goes down at the Danforth Music Hall on September 24, just happens to be the same day as Lambchop which also just happens to be the same day as something else I sort of have to attend…. so Five Seventeen – just how long is this wedding thing of yours going to take?

And to bring things full circle, NPR has a feature on Jayhawks drummer gone solo Tim O’Reagan and Center Times Daily talks to him about his self-titled CD which came out June 27. O’Reagan will be at the Horseshoe on August 15 with Greg Laswell.

And yeah, the site was down for about six hours last night. THAT was fun.

np – The Sadies / In Concert Volume One

As promised last Thursday, this past Saturday night was another live music double-header with a bunch of bands in a “family” meme. First was an early show at the Drake with Toronto’s Your Volunteer and Brooklynites Say Hi To Your Mom and then up to Lee’s Palace for Ottawans My Dad Vs Yours and new local outfit Kids. We’ll just go in order, noting that though it was amusing that three of the bands had similarly-themed names, that they’re still all pretty bad band names. Sorry.

I wasn’t impressed with Your Volunteer at first, writing them off as another broody, angsty alt.rock combo that probably aspired for radio play on CFNY but as their set went on, I developed some respect for what they were doing. While I still didn’t think much of the songwriting, they were musically proficient and seemed to have more sonic vision than I’d expected, breaking out ebows, keyboards, melodicas, bongos and even a musical saw in attempts to broaden the aural palette of their songs. Not all of it worked, much of it didn’t actually contribute much to the songs and were ther for the sake of being there, but I will give credit for thinking outside the box. With luck their writing will grow to the point where they can do something more cohesive and interesting with their ideas.

For a three-piece, Say Hi To Your Mom sound massive – far moreso than you’d expect from just hearing the records. Jeff Sheinkopf’s old-school synths are a wall unto themselves and bolstered by Chris Egan’s drums and Eric Elgoben’s guitars, the end result is a pretty impressive slab of hooky indie rock. I was reminded a bit of Starflyer 59 in the laid back, almost narcoleptic vocals cresting a sea of fuzz. It’s funny – Elgoben’s droll, deadpan lyrics (the new album Impeccable Blahs has a lot of songs about vampires) seem like they should completely at odds with the musical approach and yet it works perfectly. The band seemed to get stuck with a shortish set on account of having to clear out for a Prince fan convention (seriously) but expect to be back later in the Fall for what would be their fourth Toronto show of 2006. Yes, they are here a lot.

I wrote up My Dad Vs Yours in May and they were one of my Polaris Prize nominees for their new album After Winter Must Come Spring, but this was my first time seeing them live. Instrumental post-rock bands like Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai have developed reputations for stellar live shows because their music lends itself to huge dynamic shifts, allowing for a real visceral (and physical) audience response. My Dad Vs Yours’ post-pop sound relies more on strong melodicism and tightly arranged instrumentation so there weren’t any sonic kidney punches to be had, just incredibly pretty songs. There was something of a deficit in stage presence, though, and the pacing could have been better. Still, minor complaints when they pulled off “Kids On Psych Drugs” (aka “Bellicose” on the album) as sublimely as they did.

Together only since January, Kids were a complete unknown to me, but their promise of Mojave 3 and Belle & Sebastian-esque pop was enough to get me to stick around. The five-piece band certainly displayed an eclectic range of influences including the aforementioned, though I’d most liken them to a more countrified Stars. With four strong singers, presumably almost as many songwriters and solid musical chops, they’ve got a loaded hand to play but will need to work on a more cohesive sound – as they went from one lead singer to another, they came off a bit more like a mix tape than a single band. But I was impressed enough to be sure to keep an eye on them in the coming months and the forgive them some more rookie mistakes, like not tuning any of their guitars before taking the stage or having a conversation with their buddies in the audience over the PA.

All in all, not a bad night of music. Photos from the My Dad Vs Yours show here and photos from the Say Hi To Your Mom show here. And some audio below. The My Dad Vs Yours track is one of my favourite things I’ve heard this year – the combined guitar/keyboard riff in the chorus is awesome.

MP3: Your Volunteer – “Nobody Has To Cry”
MP3: Say Hi To Your Mom – “Snowcones and Puppies”
MP3: My Dad Vs Yours – “Bellicose / Kids On Psych Drugs”
MySpace: Say Hi To Your Mom
MySpace: My Dad Vs Yours

And speaking of Explosions In The Sky (which I was), the band has posted some news on their website stating that their new album is written and will be recorded in Minneapolis next month with an eye towards releasing it in February of 2007. In the meantime, however, they’ve made the whole of The Rescue, an album they released in a limited edition last year, available to download. Because they’re swell. You can download it all here, read about it here and hear one of the songs here:

MP3: Explosions In The Sky – “Day One”

And not post-rock in the least, but still exciting – the first tracks from Eric Bachmann’s To The Races are available to grab courtesy of Saddle Creek. The album is out August 22 and his Fall tour will hit the Horseshoe on September 16.

MP3: Eric Bachmann – “Carrboro Woman”
MP3: Eric Bachmann – “Lonesome Warrior”

And have I mentioned lately how much I love Bedhead and The New Year? No? Well I do.

np – Bedhead / Beheaded

Midlake / The Trials Of Van Occupanther (Bella Union) There’s something unrelentingly 70s about Denton, Texas’ Midlake. I mean, I was born in 1975 so don’t remember much of the decade at all, let alone the music, and I don’t listen to a lot of music of that vintage but that notwithstanding, there’s something about this record that simply SCREAMS 70s. Maybe it’s the production, maybe it’s the instrumentation, maybe it’s the fact that it’s a prog-folk concept album or that the title is The Trials Of Van Occupanther. But all that notwithstanding, Trials, out out July 25, is lightly trippy and extremely mellow – even when it gets uptempo, it stays almost frustratingly laid back. Despite my general indifference, a lot of folks are quite enamored of this record. Maybe I’ll get it more after seeing them live when they’re at Lee’s Palace on July 31 supporting The Hold Steady. They may or may not take the stage wearing capes. MP3: Midlake – “Roscoe” Video: Midlake – “Young Bride” MySpace: Midlake

Fiel Garvie / Caught Laughing (Words On Music) Hailing from Norwich in the east of England, Fiel Garvie backs up her Anne Reekie’s shy, whispery (and maybe slightly creepy) smile of a voice with some exquisite chamber pop arrangements that give their sound a distinctive dreamy, timeless, fairy tale-ish quality that you don’t hear so much of these days. They actually remind a bit of The Concretes but more deliberately baroque and timeless than cribbing from a Motown fake book. The tempo rarely gets above a slow canter but there’s no need to rush through something this pretty. MP3: Fiel Garvie – “Estimate” MP3: Fiel Garvie – “The Palace Lights” MP3: Fiel Garvie – “Airsong” MySpace: Fiel Garvie

Low Skies / All The Love I Could Find (Flameshovel) Chris Salveter, frontman and singer for Chicago’s Low Skies, goes for that staggering, drunk at 3AM, howling at the moon vocal style which is a fine line to try and walk. When he hits, he’s soulful and intense and the result is everything that blend of beer and tears in your mug would want it to be. When it doesn’t, it’s grating and out of tune and you just wanna throw him in the back of the cab without getting puke on your shoes. His bandmates do a solid job of crafting a suitably slow and hazy backdrop for his barstool philosophizing, rich in atmosphere and a sepia, dusty twang. MP3: Low Skies – “Levelling” MP3: Low Skies – “You Can’t Help Those People” MP3: Low Skies – “To Fail You” MySpace: Low Skies

np – Hot Chip / The Warning

Billboard reports that TV On The Radio’s sophomore album Return To Cookie Mountain, which was released internationally last week to rave reviews, will be getting its North American release on September 12 via Interscope (they’re on 4AD elsewhere in the world). I’m still very much a newcomer to this band (first exposure just two weeks ago), but am quite keen to hear the record and news of North American touring in the Fall is also good news.

Almost every band member is taking their turns with press duties – vocalists Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone talk to New York Press, drummer Jaleel Bunton discusses their major label debut with The Japan Times and producer/guitarist David Sitek draws questions from down under, talking to New Zealand’s Stuff and The Sydney Morning Herald. Bassist Gerard Smith doesn’t talk to anyone. They’ve also gotten some extensive coverage in recent issues of Mass Appeal, Filter and Magnet.

The band is still tuning up their website but have got some entertaining little promo clips available for you viewing pleasure. In addition to the four currently on the site (number 2 has a special guest star at the end), there’s a fifth one at YouTube.

Cat Power has a new video. It’s quite astonishing to compare Chan 2006 with, say Chan 1998. Still has her own style of dancing, though.

Video: Cat Power – “Lived In Bars” (YouTube)
Video: Cat Power – “Cross Bones Style” (YouTube)

Pitchfork brings news of a new Portastatic release due on October 10. Be Still Please is the proper follow-up to Bright Ideas, at least far moreso than the Who Loves The Sun? soundtrack that was released under the ‘Static name earlier this year. From the MP3 the ‘Fork has on offer, it sounds like a good blend of the guitar rock of the last few Portastatic releases and the more orchestrated sound that Mac has been exploring on his soundtrack releases. Looking forward to this record. And also pleased that Mac continues to blog.

MP3: Portastatic – “Sour Shores”

According to Harp, the collaboration between Belle & Sebastian and the Los Angeles Philharmonic was a smashing success. OCRegister concurs. Anyone know if there’ll be a recording from this circulating at any point? I’m too lazy to look but would very much like to hear it.

Tuscon Weekly talks to Camera Obscura’s Nigel Baillie.

ZWire profiles Rainer Maria. Via Largehearted Boy.

Paste declares Voxtrot their band of the week.

Today’s funniest man on the internet – Mr. Aaron Wherry.

np – Fiel Garvie / Caught Laughing