Brief preface – every band mentioned in today’s post is releasing a new record in the early part of this year that I expect great, great things from, and it’s only February. No doubt in my mind that 2006 is going to be an amazing year for music. End preface.

Filter declares Trespassers William a band to watch and The Great Beyond recently conducted an email interview with Anna-Lynne Williams and Ross Simonini about the new record, Having. The band have also posted their segment from a recent Anti-Hit List on their MySpace page. It’s brief, but positive. The new album isn’t out till February 28, but audio samples are beginning to appear here, there and everywhere. Nettwerk has audio from the whole album available to preview here, but if your RealPlayer doesn’t work (like mine, I think my router refuses to pass any RTSP requests… anyone know a fix?), then head over to Filter (again) and stream “And We Lean In”. And also be sure to grab this MP3 – it’s dazzling.

MP3: Trespassers William – “Safe Sound”

As the release of Belle & Sebastian’s The Life Pursuit on Tuesday draws near, there’s more and more to report. The AV Club has a sit down with Stuart Murdoch about this and that, while Pitchfork wants to remind you that there will be a special edition of The Life Pursuit available that comes with a bonus DVD featuring six songs recorded live for BBC Scotland. NME has three songs from the album streaming right now, but AOL trumps them by making the whole album available to preview.

Some exciting show news (at least for me) – At long last, Brooklyn’s Dirty On Purpose will make their Toronto debut with a show at Lee’s Palace on March 6. I’m a little surprised they’re playing a venue that big their first time out, making me think there might be someone else of note on the bill, but either way, it’ll be great to have them in town and I heartily recommend everyone attend and brings their mothers.

And though not verified, another highly-recommended act making what I think is their Toronto debut is Denton, Texas’ Centro-Matic. Donewaiting has some tour dates in support of their new album Fort Recovery and though at first glance it looks like they’re foresaking Canada again, according to this post at the Undertow Music message boards, they’ve actually already booked an April 4 date in Montreal and reading between the lines, an April 5 show in Toronto is looking likely. Naturally, I will be out of town for this momentous event but highly recommend anyone with an interest in roots rock or just good music hit this show. Centro-Matic are the awesome. That’s right, definite article. Their Triggers & Trash Heaps EP is out on Tuesday.

And speaking of conspicuous tour gaps, one can’t help but notice the days off between Lansing, Michigan and Montreal on Neko Case’s tour dates for Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. Neko back in Toronto on April 2 or 3? It could happen. And Young & Sexy have confirmed dates as close as Hamilton on April 23 to support their new one Panic When You Find It, out February 14. It seems inconcievable that they’d come all the way out here from Vancouver and only play Steeltown and not Hogtown, so I’m hoping that there’ll be something local to report on or around April 24.

Chromewaves – your one-stop, concert rumour-mongering shop.

np – The Zephyrs / A Year To The Day

So this show has been a long time in coming – Low had been scheduled to come to Toronto to support The Great Destroyer way back in June 2005 but that date was one of the casualties of Alan Sparhawk’s breakdown and subsequent cancellation of all tour dates. But seven months hence and one bassist later, Sparhawk is feeling much better now and the tour was rescheduled and for smaller, cozier venues no less! Even the original support act, His Name Is Alive, was back on the bill along with Rhode Island outfit Death Vessel.

Though he referred to himself in the first person plural, Death Vessel on this evening was just one fellow, Joel Thibadeau, and his guitar. While this combination in and of itself isn’t particularly special, when he opened his mouth to sing, you couldn’t help but stop and listen – even if just for a moment. Thibadeau’s voice is almost indistinguishable from that of a pre-pubescent girl. Seriously. It’s high and pure and quite lovely, and more than a little unnerving coming out of the mouth of this guy with shaggy black hair. But once you got past that incongruity, he was quite winning with his repetoire of sing-songy old-timey folk tunes and group finger-snapping. But yeah, that voice. Wow.

All I knew about His Name Is Alive to this point was that they’re one of Five Seventeen’s favourite bands and that they’re in Saturday Looks Good To Me’s extended family. And on hearing them play songs from their new album Detrola I can add that, well, they’re a little odd. They play pop music, but it’s not immediately hooky and is often unconventionally structured. Their sound is somewhat minimalist, but what is there is quite lush. They played as a five piece but with no drummer, just occasional tambourines for rhythm. They’re like SLGTM’s weird, arty cousins. Really not sure how I felt about their stuff, to be honest.

And Low – it’s an understatement to say that Alan Sparhawk was happy to be here. I don’t know what sort of mental shape he was in last Summer, but it seems that he’s feeling much better now, and is appreciating every minute of it. The band, including new bassist Matt Livingstone, drew heavily from last year’s The Great Destroyer as well as reaching into the back catalogue. Interestingly for the newer material, they didn’t even try to replicate the speaker-blowing, Fridmann-powered production of the latest album, instead giving it a leaner, more tense tone akin to Things We Lost In The Fire. This worked for some of the numbers, but songs like “Monkey” and “California”, which were so defined by the heavier production, sounded a bit thin when stripped of the layers of sound and keyboards. By comparison, the older material sounded superb, taking full advantage of the sonic space and the strength of Sparhawk’s and Mimi Parker’s vocals. Truly, they sounded amazing – especially Parker. While Sparhawk took most of the vocal leads, her sad and pure voice lifted the songs up into a higher plane like some sort of mournful angel.

And pictures? Just let me say I love my new camera like I’d love a puppy who just learned to poop on the newspaper. It does better than I’d hoped in low light, and you didn’t get much lower than that for the opening acts last night (two red spotlights and that was it – about as bad lighting conditions as you could ever ask for). But with a little finessing and switching to black and white for HNIA, I was still able to get some great shots and far fewer write-offs. Thankfully the lights came up for Low (and disco lights for the encore), so in swapping from the 50mm f1.8 to the 18-55 f3.5-4.6 and even cranked up to ISO 1600, I got excellent, clean shots. DSLR = the awesome.

And related – Pitchfork interviews Alan Sparhawk about Low, circa 2006 and NOW talked to HNIA’s Warren Defever last week.

Under The Radar gets Isobel Campbell’s thoughts on 2005 while iFilm is hosting the “mature content” warning-sporting video for “Ramblin’ Man”. Hers and Mark Lanegan’s Ballad Of The Broken Seas came out yesterday and she’s in town at Revival on March 4.

Athenians Elf Power will release Back To The Web on April 25 via Rykodisc. Billboard has some deets. Preview new material at their MySpace page.

The Toronto Sun and Chart get a sneak preview of the guest star-studded Sadies-fest going down at Lee’s Palace this Friday and Saturday. I’ve got tickets for the first night, so check back Saturday for the low-down on the hoe-down.

np – Nellie McKay / Get Away From Me

I’m not too proud to admit that before I went to see it on Saturday, I kept getting Woody Allen’s latest Match Point mixed up with Wimbledon. Not that I’d seen the latter. Anyway, it’s decidedly not a romantic comedy about tennis, rather a slow, taut suspense about a former tennis pro who tries to juggle his upper crust, social climber lifestyle with a mistress and does a rather poor job of it. Okay, that’s a rather flip description of the film, but I don’t want to get into it any more for fear of spoiling the plot. I believe this is exactly the third Woody Allen film I’ve seen, and based on that incredibly comprehensive sampling of his ouvre, I can say I definitely preferred it to his comedies – Allen’s humour, or more accurately his persona which he insists on projecting onto his characters – just doesn’t do it for me.

But Allen’s skill as a director is undeniable and he does a fine job in Match Point. It’s a slow film – so much time is spent building the situation and relationships that when it begins to shift gears from drama to suspense, it comes as something of a surprise. Once it does slip the thriller robes on, it builds the tension effectively but remains refreshingly grounded. There’s no giant lapses in plausability, breakdowns in logic, or frustrating moments of deus ex machina – just wholly believable luck, good and bad. Jonathan Rhys Myers and Scarlett Johansson are an absurdly handsome couple onscreen, especially contrasted against the relative dowdiness of the rest of the cast. Rhys Myers is particular effective in remaining inscrutable – by not coming off as obviously either a manipulator or opportunist, it’s hard to read exactly what he’s willing or going to do next. Overall quite a good film and it seems that getting out of New York City has done Allen’s creativity a world of good.

Bradley’s Almanac has converted another of his bootleg cassettes to MP3 form to share – this time a Spooky-era Lush show from Chicago taken from a radio broadcast, so the audio quality is pretty damn good (though you can hear the wow and flutter from the zillion times Brad has probably played the thing).

The New York Times thinks her audience might be a little scandalized to find out that Jenny Lewis likes country music. Once you’ve picked yourself up off the floor from that revelation, head over to her website and check out the video for “Rise Up With Fists”. Do kids these days even know what Hee Haw was? I mean, I barely do, and I’m old.

Mercury Rev alumnus Hopewell are at the Horseshoe April 11. I only know a little about them, but they seem like they might be up my alley. Anyone want to testify one way or the other? And Norwegian psych-rockers Serena Maneesh are at Lee’s Palace on March 30. I will not be around for that one, so I’ll have to try and catch them at SxSW (perhaps at the just-announced Under The Radar/Tag Team day party). What I’ve heard of them is pretty damn good – From Blown Speakers has an mp3 right now that may persuade you to agree. I can’t seem to find out exactly when the album is being released on these shores, I think it’s available as import right now but surely with the touring, a domestic issue is forthcoming? And Pitchfork has a live review (and references Match Point! Oh, synchronicity!).

American Music Club shows are now available at the Live Music Archive. Only one for now, but surely more to come. File under: awesome.

Amazon.com offers some advice on how to woo an indie rock girl via mix tape. Don’t ask me how I found this.

PopMatters wonders who will be the greatest bands ever once the classic rock generation is dead and buried.

24: Overheard at the White House last night – “Hey Dick, could we get away with that nerve gas thing? Jack Bauer’s not real, is he? He looks real.” This WMD twist is a good one. Clever clever. Bet the current administration wishes they thought of it first. Sure they did the White House coup thing a couple seasons ago, but this one is far more interesting and has more potential. It’s a shame Logan found a backbone so quickly – it’d have been pretty cool if they’d milked it a bit and had Jack working directly against the President for at least part of the season. But at least we got a fine (almost) tortune scene out of it. I wanted to see Cummings cry like a little girl. I just hope they have some more twists in store and it doesn’t settle into “chase the terrorist” for too long. That’s so done.

np – Lush / Topolino

This Best Buy ad has sparked off some really interesting debate about the dilemma the larger indie labels face when large retailers (like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc) sell their titles at loss-leader prices, and what that does to the indie stores who have supported the labels over the years, enabling the label to muster the resources to break the larger acts in the first place? And while it’s certainly the label’s duty to ensure that their artists reach as wide an audience and sell as many records as possible, what do they do when this can potentially hurt their own retail base, to whom they also have an obligation? This is one of the trickle-down effects of indie crossing over to the mainstream that lots of people (myself included) had probably never thought of, but as you’ll read, the potential impact of no longer flying underneath the radar of popular culture can be considerable. There’s a lot to read in the following links, but it’s worthwhile to do so if you’re got the time (and the inclination).

Merge honcho Mac McCaughan is offers his POV at their own message boards and at the blog of mail-order house Saki Store where representatives of Matador and Secretly Canadian also weigh in. Read the posts in order starting here, then here, over to here and finally here, with an epilogue of sorts here.

I guess I’m lucky in the sense that there are no big box retailers I could get to from downtown Toronto, even if I wanted to, so that temptation to take advantage of their loss leader tactics isn’t really there, though I have to wonder if these marketing strategies really work? I mean, has anyone really gone into a Best Buy to pick up a cheap CD and walked out with a microwave oven? Furthermore, the good folks at Rotate This and Soundscapes here in Toronto will almost always sell for less than any of the big stores on Yonge St, so I can get a good price and clear consicence for supporting the independents. But if I were still a ‘burbanite with a Future Shop on the corner selling a title for half the price of what the local, low-volume indie store (if such even exists) does, well I honestly don’t know what I’d do. It’s one thing to spend an extra buck or so to buy indie, but if you’re going to be saving six or seven dollars a title, well dang – that adds up. What’re your thoughts on the matter?

And sorry about the relative lameness of today’s image. I wanted to find something like the Best Buy mascot being suplexed by Cat Power, but curiously Google Images came up empty.

And while I’m talking Superchunk, it’s exciting to note that the band are ending their hiatus to play SxSW in March, probably snagging the 1AM slot at Antone’s on the 18th to close out the Merge showcase and the festival itself. I doubt I’ll be willing to spend the time in line the ensure getting in to that one, but it’s certainly an option. And the band has been posting rarities on their website that didn’t make it onto their Cup Of Sand compilation from a couple years a go. Here’s the current one:

MP3: Superchunk – “Kicked In” (acoustic)

And there’s a lot more good stuff on their audio page.

Know how I said a couple days ago I didn’t know when Rainer Maria’s new one Catastrophe Keeps Us Together came out? Scratch that – it’ll be in stores April 4 on Grunion Records. Yeah, I don’t know who that is either. CMJ has a little info.

The Pitch talks boxing with Aimee Mann, who has begun an acoustic tour that will bring her to the Mod Club on February 6 with Chuck Prophet (via Largehearted Boy). Artvoice also has a feature and The Rocky Mountain Bullhorn finds out what she’s been listening to lately – nothing.

Harp reflects on the artistry of Jason Molina’s Magnolia Electric Co, who are in town March 25 at Lee’s Palace with Destroyer and Nedelle.

Howling Bells are finally streaming a new song on their website. “Wishing Stone” will be the band’s next single and is due out on Bella Union on February 27. There’s already a video produced and circulating out there somewhere – if someone finds it online, please share.

The Washington Post floats some new lingo to peppen up the category names in the Bloggie Awards. Tomorrow’s the last day to vote, so if you haven’t yet, please do so (for me as Best Canadian, natch) and if you’re stumped on some of the other categories, might I suggest Photojunkie for Best Photography (but NOT best Canadian… sorry Rannie!), Said The Gramophone for Best Writing and You Ain’t No Picasso for Best Teen?

np – Tanya Donelly / Beautysleep

Maryrose Crook with The Renderers / Ghosts Of Our Vegas Lives (3 Beads Of Sweat) A longtime mainstay of the New Zealand underground music scene, Maryrose Crook and her band The Renderers will release Ghosts Of Our Vegas Lives on February 7, some two plus years after it was originally recorded. Consider Jesse Syles fronting the Bad Seeds and you’re in the ballpark. Her smoky, mournful vocals blend with The Renderers’ ghostly, mildly creepy backings to create a work of atmospheric, gothic country noir. The album starts out in rather somnambulant territory but on later tracks like “Blood Of The Angels” and “Sea Of Total Darkness”, they raise the tension and energy levels to rather electrifying effect before closing with the gentle “Outgoing Queen”. It’s like moving from an unsettling dream to full-out nightmare before waking up. Catbirdseat calls it “David Lynch-ian”, and that’s as good a description as any. Recommended. MP3: Maryrose Crook with The Renderers – “Night Train” MP3: Maryrose Crook with The Renderers – “Storm From The East”

Jonny Lives! / Get Steady! (Eleven Seven Music) The press release for Jonny Lives! overreaches a bit by initially comparing New York’s Jonny Lives! to The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Who, but comes down to reality later on in namechecking Fountains Of Wayne and The Mooney Suzuki. This EP, which precedes their debut full-length due out in May, is pretty straightforward power-pop delivered with a good amount of energy and attitude, but thankfully no snottiness. They’re may not stand out in the crowd on paper, but they’ve got the potential to churn out that one hit single that will get in everyone’s faces and be horribly annoying after a couple weeks/months – probably via a soundtrack – but make the band rich. And really, isn’t that what music is all about? Jonny Lives! @ MySpace Jonny Lives! @ PureVolume

np – Cat Power / The Greatest