Photo by Frank Yang

Things not to do ever again – book myself for shows seven nights out of eight. Especially when three of those nights are extended, club-hopping affairs such as NxNE. As it was, my brain was about 80% fried before the festival even began, so take my diminished cognitive skills into account when reading any reviews from the past weekend.

Starting with Thursday. I had an itinerary heading into things but was already off it before things began, as I was too slow out of the blocks to catch Key Witness at the Velvet Underground. I did make it to The Boat for 9PM, however, and the set from Calgary’s Summerlad. It was probably the shortest set of the festival by anyone, quantitatively speaking, at only three songs long but when one of the songs was a slightly abbreviated version of their epic³-length “City Of Noise” (it takes up three sides of the double-LP 12″ single), it was plenty. As with anything designed as such, it’s inherently proggy but unlike other bands playing in the same sandbox, The Summerlad don’t sound overtly retro – rather than stoned, it sounds wide-eyed and alert. Wired, even. Transitions from section to section isn’t as seamless as one might like – you can definitely see/hear the edges – but still commendably ambitious and remarkably engaging. And I assume the “Funkytown” crib is entirely intentional. I hope.

Photos: The Summerlad @ The Boat – June 12, 2008
MP3: The Summerlad – “City Of Noise”
MySpace: The Summerlad

Next up and also visiting from out west were Regina, Saskatchewan’s Rah Rah, proving that large, co-ed lineups weren’t exclusively the dominion of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. They were stylistically rangy, mixing pop, rock, country and folkiness and making it difficult to come up with a quick description of their sound, though there was nothing difficult about that. Amiable if not immediately distinctive, they put on a rambunctious show that was highlighted by violinist/vocalist Kristina Hedlund pouring Pop Rocks into her mouth and stepping up to the mic as they fizzed. It wasn’t actually audible but many many bonus points for trying.

Photos: Rah Rah @ The Boat – June 12, 2008
MP3: Rah Rah – “Duet For GP And Emmylou”

Though hailing from Toronto, The Rural Alberta Advantage continued the Prairie theme and were the band I’d come to see. Their debut album Hometowns has been one of my homegrown favourites since its very quiet release back in February. In fact, every time I listen to it I’m flummoxed as to why its not found the audience it deserves. But the band is still managing to find their audience, if the sizable crowd at the Boat was any indication, so it’s just as well that the RAA is as good live as they are on record. The trio, in matching Alberta-boosting t-shirts, put on a clinic of how to make a lot out of a little, using just acoustic guitar, a couple keyboards and inventive percussion to augment Nils Edenloff’s paeans to his home province. Boasting tremendous talent and charm, The RAA are one of those bands that leave me shaking my head in amazement every time I see them play, and this was no exception.

Photos: The Rural Alberta Advantage @ The Boat – June 12, 2008
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Don’t Haunt This Place”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Luciana”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Frank, AB”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Sleep All Day”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “In The Summertime”
MySpace: The Rural Alberta Advantage

The RAA would be a tough act to follow in my mind, but I gave youthful Toronto pop outfit Great Bloomers the opportunity to try, seeing as how they were playing just up the street at Supermarket. I’d heard others speak highly of them and their self-titled EP showed some promise, so why not. And it would be a relief to shoot a band anywhere besides the redder-than-the-depths-of-Hell Boat. I found the Bloomers’ stuff to be eminently likable and the band quite proficient, but residing on the wrong side of generic guitar pop. There were a few flashes of doing something more interesting or distinctive, but on the whole I found it less impressive than their recorded selves.

Photos: Great Bloomers @ Supermarket – June 12, 2008

Chart has been diligently compiling their festival report cards, and The National Post, The Toronto Star, JAM, eye, NOW and blogTO have all been covering the fest. I’ll be running down the rest of the weekend over the next couple days but all my photos are up if you want to peek ahead and see what’s coming. And while I won’t get to the writeup till Wednesday, if you’re looking for something to do tonight, I heartily recommend going to the Gladstone to see 6 Day Riot, who will be playing a post-NxNE show before heading back to the UK. If I can find some final reserve of energy, I may head down myself. Definitely one of the great discoveries of the week.

Otherwise, you may be looking to squeeze a little more value out of your NxNE wristband by heading down to the Kool Haus to see My Morning Jacket – the print ad in this week’s NOW says that ALL wristband/badgeholders who arrive before 9PM will be admitted free, which is a far safer bet than the “first 50” restriction originally imposed. Chart and The Toronto Star have conversations with the band.

The Montreal Gazette profiles Wolf Parade and their new record At Mount Zoomer, which is out tomorrow. The whole thing is streaming at their MySpace and they’re at the Kool Haus on August 9.

Stream: Wolf Parade / At Mount Zoomer

NPR is streaming last night’s Shearwater show in Washington DC and Blurt talks to Jonathan Meiburg about the art and artistry of Rook. Shearwater are at the Horseshoe next Monday night.

The Independent and The Telegraph talk to Leonard Cohen.

Daytrotter. Spoon. Yay.

Tiger Weekly talks songwriting with Jason Isbell.

MPR is streaming a studio session with Iron & Wine.

The National Post spotlights the growth of the Arts & Crafts label, talking to some of their artists including Feist and Brendan Canning.

Photo by Frank Yang

I will confess that this was a show I really wouldn’t have expected to happen. It was perfectly logical that Lightspeed Champion would stop into town as he did in March as that was en route to his carpet bombing of Austin with performances during SxSW, but that he’d return so soon – and in a full band configuration rather than a duo – was a real surprise. Not because it wasn’t justified – Falling Off The Lavender Bridge remains one of my favourite albums of the year so far – but because it didn’t necessarily seem like Dev Hynes’ project was getting much traction in North America beyond the devoted Anglophile community, Conan O’Brien appearances notwithstanding, and mounting a full North American tour might not be the most sensible thing. But understand, this isn’t me complaining – just musing. Obviously someone saw a financial rationale for bringing Dev and co back to the continent and to them, I say “thanks”.

For this tour, Lightspeed Champion had picked up a couple of newer American acts as support, South Carolina’s The Explorers Club and from Omaha, Nebraska, Flowers Forever. The former is frequently pitched with simply as, “If you like the Beach Boys…” which while accurate, doesn’t paint nearly the whole picture. Yes, they frequently tread down the classic pop trail blazed by the Wilson clan and with their unbelievable five-part harmonies and four strong lead vocalists, it’s hard to find other reference points to do them justice. And really, if you CAN sing like the Beach Boys, why on earth would you NOT sing like the Beach Boys? But beyond their vocal prowess, the Explorers Club are gifted songwriters, musicians (their quadruple-guitar freak-out cover of “Johnny B Goode” was something to behold) and really engaging and entertaining performers. They definitely set the bar high for the rest of the evening.

A bar which Flowers Forever didn’t clear. At all. An outfit noteworthy as the side-project of Tilly & The Wall, it came off as a guy desperate to prove that he had some punk rock cred beyond being the dude in the band with the the cute tap-dancing girl. With a stage setup consisting of green floodlights, smoke machines and a trio of large, grotesque screaming head cutouts, the quartet seemed have a mandate to scare grade schoolers. Musically, they were loud and vaguely psychedelic, but anything interesting they might have had to offer in that direction was overshadowed by unfocused anger and random swearing. Juvenile much? Hopefully this little exercise has gotten that out of Pressnall’s system and he’ll be on his best behaviour when Tilly & The Wall come back to town on August 2 at the Mod Club.

When I’d first heard the words “Lightspeed Champion” and “full band” used together, I had fanciful visions of Dev Hynes accompanied by not just a rhythm section, but a full string section and Emmy The Great on vocals, set to recreate the full lushness of Lavender Bridge for my listening pleasure. Well the reality did indeed include the rhythm section, but that was the extent of it. Still, the addition of just those two players significantly altered the dynamic and presentation of the album’s material. Anna Prior, formerly of Leeds’ Dead Disco, not only handled drumming duties but more than ably covered some of Emmy’s vocal parts (and adorableness quotient) though not as loudly or as frequently as I’d have liked, but even a little went a long way.

But recreating the orchestrated wonder of the studio recording obviously wasn’t on the agenda – with the more conventional rock band setup (though again with Mike Siddell on violin) things were arranged relatively louder and heavier, though not to the detriment of the songs and based on the new material that was aired out, that seems to be the direction that Hynes’ songwriting is going anyway. With a (relatively) more structured set than he played in March, he also took the opportunity to trade the acoustic in for electric for a goodly portion of the set and demonstrate some serious chops that weren’t necessarily spotlighted on Bridge. His goofball humour was also on display, with between-song banter including asking the audience what they had for dinner and engaging in some discussion about the ongoing NBA finals. And of course, the hat. Last time in town, they played on the evening of one big-ass snowstorm so the big furry hunter’s hat was an understandable accoutrement. In the middle of Summer? Not so much, especially with Lee’s Palace’s air conditioning on the fritz. But the highlight, as I’m sure they intended, was the big rock reading of the Star Wars theme – Imperial march segueing into the main theme – leading into “Midnight Surprise”. Awesome.

Photos: Lightspeed Champion, Flowers Forever, The Explorers Club @ Lee’s Palace – June 11, 2008
MP3: Lightspeed Champion – “Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk”
MP3: Lightspeed Champion – “Waiting Game”
MP3: Flowers Forever – “Black Rosary”
MP3: Flowers Forever – “Beach Bum”
MP3: Flowers Forever – “Happy New Year”
MP3: The Explorers Club – “Do You Love Me?”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Galaxy Of The Lost”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Tell Me What It’s Worth”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Midnight Surprise”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Midnight Surprise” (short film)
MySpace: Lightspeed Champion
MySpace: Flowers Forever

The Boston Globe talks to Will Johnson, whose Centro-Matic were also in town on Wednesday night at the Horseshoe. Did anyone go? How was it? No regrets on my part but I’d have liked to have caught that show as well. I should have asked someone to grab me a copy of Dual Hawks.

Thanks to Torr for the tip-off that Neil Halstead will be releasing his second solo record Oh! Mighty Engine on July 29. Neil will be as close as Oro, Ontario on the shores of Lake Simcoe with label-boss/surfing buddy Jack Johnson on August 3, but apparently a proper tour is in the works for the Fall.

Incendiary talks to Isobel Campbell.

Spin catches Nicole Atkins backstage at Bonnaroo in a bale of hay, shoots video. Not nearly as dirty as it sounds.

The Old 97s stop by Spinner’s Interface for a session and have also got a new Tricia Helfer-powered, kung fu-ed video from their new album Blame It On Gravity. And speaking of BSG, that was a pretty dense mid-season finale, n’est-ce pas? Final scene was sort of what I expected, but still something to see. And now we wait till January for the last episodes. JANUARY. Frack. So glad that Weeds is back this week, otherwise I’d be ALL out of TV. And that’s just not right.

Video: The Old 97’s – “Dance With Me”

Also with a new video are The Besnard Lakes, who just opened up for Swervedriver on Friday night and will do the same for My Morning Jacket on Monday at the Kool Haus. That is what we call padding the resume.

Video: The Besnard Lakes – “Devastation”

Daytrotter features up a session with Headlights and also an interview with The Ting Tings, who’re in town at the Mod Club on Tuesday. Congrats to Kim and Diana who won the LPs and the passes to the show. And there’s a new video for that song. Yes, that one. No dancing silhouettes, though.

Video: The Ting Tings – “Shut Up And Let Me Go”

And though it’s been a bit lean in the last while, there’s some show announcements to get to. First, TV On The Radio’s July 2 show at the Kool Haus has been moved to the Phoenix. Half the capacity means twice the intimacy! I think.

A precise release date for Margot & The Nuclear So & So’s’ Animals! remains to be set, but some touring has been confirmed – they’ll make their Toronto debut on August 6 at the Horseshoe, tickets $10.50. They were supposed to check that off their to-do list back in April 2006 but had to cancel the show after their van checked out on them. Best of luck to them making it up here this time around.

Oneida are at Lee’s Palace on August 15, tickets $8.50. Their new album Preteen Weaponry is also out in August.

MP3: Oneida – “Preteen Weaponry”

Cuff The Duke will do a two-night stand at the Horseshoe on August 22 and 23, tickets for each show $12.

Baltimore’s Ponytail will be at Lee’s Palace on August 26. Their Ice Cream Spiritual is out on Tuesday.

MP3: Ponytail – “Celebrate The Body Electric”
Video: Ponytail – “Die Allman Bruder”

If you think the great reunion trend is limited to British shoegaze bands and American post-punk outfits – mid-90’s veterans of the college circuit are also getting into the act. Case in point, Winnipeg’s Watchmen are back together and will be at the Horseshoe on September 26. Tickets $20.

At the other end of the spectrum, new kids Black Kids will release their Bernard Butler-produced debut Partie Traumatic on July 22 and have booked a Fall tour to support. The Toronto date will be at the Mod Club on October 5 and tickets are $20.

Video: Black Kids – “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You”
Video: Black Kids – “Hurricane Jane”

And finally, Pinback will be at the Mod Club on October 7, tickets $16.

Image via MONTREALT

I usually save the quick giveaway posts for the weekend, but considering I’m already backlogged from NXNE and other related activities, I’m going to get this one out there today and try and catch up on proper content tomorrow.

Most people don’t need an excuse to visit lovely Montreal – it has plenty to recommend itself as is – but if you do, and perhaps need something to do over the August long weekend (though as I understand it’s not a long weekend in Quebec, which makes the timing of all this just peculiar but I digress), I’m here to help. Taking place August 3 and 4 at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal is the third annual Osheaga festival, featuring unfortunate headliners The Killers and Jack Johnson, but an otherwise quite excellent lineup including Iggy & The Stooges, Cat Power, Broken Social Scene, Spiritualized, DeVotchKa, Duffy, Foals, Gogol Bordello, The Go! Team, The Kills and The Black Keys amongst many others.

And of course I wouldn’t be devoting a post to this if I didn’t have something related to give away (nor would there be the word “CONTEST” in the title. I have here in front of me, courtesy of the good folks at Osheaga, two sets of tickets for both days of the festival to give away. If you’d like to win them, send me an email at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I Want To Go-sheaga” in the subject line and your full mailing address in the body. Contest is open to anyone who can get to Montreal for that weekend and a winner will be selected at midnight one week from today, June 20.

MySpace: Osheaga

Photo via MySpace.com

So here we are with another NXNE upon us, and like in past years, I grumble about the lineup, agonize about whether to see the up-and-coming local/Canadian talent or the big-name import marquee acts and seriously consider just crawling under the covers and sleeping through the whole thing. But after seeking a balance between those considerations as well as the logistics of getting from venue A to venue B in the 15 minutes or so between sets, I’ve come up with the following plan for the coming days (with a number of alternates which I won’t bother to post). A lot of unknown quantities here that made the cut because I liked or was at least intrigued by a MySpace stream or something – it could lead to something great, or it could be bitterly disappointing. Who knows. But there’s at least one band each night that I fully expect to make the evening worthwhile so if some of the others step up, that’s just gravy.

One of the unfamiliar acts I’ve got some hopes for is The Summerlad out of Calgary, who’re at the Boat on the Thursday night. The samples I’ve heard totally run the gamut from drawn-out Floyd-ian space rock to razor-edged post-punk, and surely somewhere in between those two extremes is something I can get into, right? We’ll see. Chart recently talked to the band about their split musical personalities and Vue also ran a feature.

Anyway, if you’re wondering where I’ll be through the weekend, it’ll be approximately here:

Thursday, June 12:
8PM – Key Witness @ The Velvet Underground
9PM – The Summerlad @ The Boat
10PM – Rah Rah @ The Boat
11PM – The Rural Alberta Advantage @ The Boat
12AM – Great Bloomers @ Supermarket

Friday, June 13:
5:10PM – Camp Radio @ Global Backpackers
5:45PM – HILOTRONS @ Global Backpackers
6:10PM – The Blood Lines @ Global Backpackers
9PM – Oh No Forest Fires @ The Kathedral
11PM – Bionic @ Lee’s Palace
12AM – The Besnard Lakes @ Lee’s Palace
1AM – Swervedriver @ Lee’s Palace

Saturday, June 14:
8PM – Grace Emilys @ Neutral
10PM – 6 Day Riot @ The Cameron House
11PM – Static Of The Gods @ The Cameron House
12AM – Miss Derringer @ Lee’s Palace
1AM – Redd Kross @ Lee’s Palace

MP3: Key Witness – “Perchance To Dream”
MP3: The Summerlad – “City Of Noise”
MP3: Rah Rah – “Duet For GP And Emmylou”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Don’t Haunt This Place”
MP3: Camp Radio – “Cons At The New Moon”
MP3: HILOTRONS – “Dominika”
MP3: The Blood Lines – “Modern Science”
MP3: Oh No Forest Fires – “We Fit Our Charm”
MP3: The Besnard Lakes – “And You Lied To Me”
MP3: Swervedriver – “Last Train To Satansville” (live at Maxwell’s)
MP3: Grace Emilys – “Falling Down The Stairs”
MP3: Static Of The Gos – “City Is Closed”
MP3: Miss Derringer – “Black Tears”

Also with the NxNE previews are The Toronto Sun, Thick Specs with a three-parter, Torontoist, The National Post and NOW, who as a festival sponsor think that everything is wonderful. eye has suggestions on doing the festival on the cheap (read: free) and along the same lines, Wolves & Hawks & Kites have rounded up a list of all the in-stores going on during NxNE as well, though Sonic Boom has since added The Hot Springs to the Friday evening bill at 6:30PM and Julie Doiron on Saturday at 6PM.

Fog City Journal, The Toronto Star and Exclaim! talk to Adam Franklin of Swervedriver. It should be noted that he’ll be half of a 7″ coming out later this Summer on White Whale Records wherein he covers Wolf Parade’s “Shine A Light” and Wolf Parader Dan Boeckner covers a to-be-determined Swervedriver song under the Handsome Furs handle. More details at Chart and you can stream the Adam Franklin track here as well as purchase it on iTunes.

The Toronto Sun talks to Sloan’s Jay Ferguson about Parallel Play and in response to Mike’s question in the comments yesterday, now that the dust has settled it looks like their only NxNE is tonight at Mod – no Lee’s, no Dundas Square.

Chart and eye talk to Young & Sexy, who occupy the 11PM slot at Sneaky Dee’s on Friday night.

Forest City Lovers have a new video from Haunting Moon Sinking. They’re be at the Tranzac tonight – not a NxNE show but if you’re not otherwise committed, definitely worth your time.

Video: Forest City Lovers – “Pirates!”

JAM talks to Constantines’ about how Kensington Market influenced Kensington Heights. They’re playing day one of V Fest on September 6.

Canuck digital retailer Zunior.com has expanded with a new video site dedicated largely to Can-con, appropriately named zunior.tv. There’s videos and exclusive features and sessions – worth a bookmark. And don’t forget their monthly free digital mix tape.

And whilst I’m on a Canadian theme, I should probably post my first ballot for this year’s Polaris Music Prize. While some jurors have been agonizing over their selections and engaging in strategic voting (which I’ve never understood – either the concept or the point), I just compiled a list of all the eligible records I owned or had heard enough to offer a reasonably informed opinion about and picked the five that were my favourites. Easy, right? That said, I didn’t really expect a few of them (at least) to make the top 40 long list and now that I’ve seen it (and will link it when it’s published publicly later today) and it looks like I’ve got to pick a couple new records for the second ballot, which is a shame. There’s records I like alright that still qualify but nothing I’m really passionate about. Anyway, I went with the following:

1. Basia Bulat / Oh My Darling
2. Amos The Transparent / Everything I’ve Forgotten To Forget
3. The Rural Alberta Advantage / Hometowns
4. The Acorn / Glory Hope Mountain
5. Two Hours Traffic / Little Jabs

Big surprises, eh? Update: Long list is now public on the Polaris site.

Photo by Frank Yang

Yesterday marked the release date for
Sloan’s latest long-player Parallel Play, and to mark the occasion (or perhaps just coincidentally timed) they played a special intimate show at one of Toronto’s newer venues, the Tattoo Rock Parlour (which was indeed both a tattoo studio and a parlour of rock), as part of inMusic.ca‘s “Orange Lounge”, wherein the performance was to be recorded and webcast at a later date.

Though it was only intended to be a compact, showcase-y type set rather than a full show, there was still a warm-up act in Will Currie & The Country French, recent signees to Sloan’s own recently resurrected murderecords label. Though only allotted about 15 minutes to play, they took full advantage of the opportunity and barreled through enough jaunty, ’70s/AM radio piano pop – not unlike a less smart-ass Ben Folds – to make quite a favourable impression. It also reminded me that I had a copy of their debut album A Great Stage waiting for me at home and giving it a spin verified that this outfit had some great tunes and a friendly sound.

There weren’t quite enough people in the room to generate a convincing “SLOOOOAAAAAN” chant, but people were enthused when the foursome (plus keyboardist) took the stage. They started things off with a block of songs from the new album, one by each band member, and for my money all sounding better than anything off their last effort, Never Hear The End Of It. Jay Ferguson’s “Witch’s Wand”, in particular, was a real stand-out and a likely addition to the canon of Sloan classics, despite the gentle Middle Earth mocking from Chris Murphy in regards to the lyrics. They then took a brief intermission before returning to the stage with a mini-set of their greatest hits, consisting of “Coax Me”, “Good In Everyone” and a rather sad reading of “Lines You Amend”, thanks to some botched guitarwork from Patrick Pentland. It was obvious this gig rated low on the band’s intensity scale – there wasn’t a scissor kick in sight – but a little more effort so as not to mess up would have been appreciated. They got it together for a couple more new numbers and the show was done. I thought about sticking around to get a tattoo but decided that some dinner would be a better idea.

And if you were wondering, the results of the contest poll for band member tattoos came out with seven votes for Jay, three for Andrew, two each for Chris and Patrick and two for the whole band. Also, thanks to Beth from Rock/Paper/Pixels for submitting these terrific South Park and Simpsons tributes to Sloan.

Chris Murphy gives The National Post an entertaining list of Sloan facts, while Chart talks to the band about DJing and tattoo removal. The Toronto Star tries to discuss the new record with them and Metro talks process. I Heart Music is giving away a copy of the new record. Sloan are participating in NxNE with a gig alongside Ted Leo at the Mod Club on Thursday night.

Photos: Sloan, Will Currie & The Country French @ The Tattoo Rock Parlour – June 10, 2008
MP3: Sloan – “I’m Not A Kid Anymore”
Stream: Sloan / Parallel Play
MySpace: Sloan
MySpace: Will Currie & The Country French

Pitchfork talks to Emmylou Harris, who is at Massey Hall on June 18 and just released a new album in All I Intended To Be.

The Hold Steady‘s new album Stay Positive isn’t out until July 15 but it’s available to stream in its entirety at the band’s MySpace right now.

Stream: The Hold Steady / Stay Positive!

The Phoenix talks to Will Johnson of both Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel. The former (and essentially the latter) will be at the Horseshoe tonight in support of the just-released Dual Hawks.

And if you’re not at that show, you’d better be at Lee’s to see Lightspeed Champion. There are no other options for this evening. For a taste of what the full-band Lightspeed experience is like, check out the video of their recent appearance on Conan O’Brien at BrookylnVegan. And hopefully we won’t see any relapse of this. Nasty. Also watch this complete show from SxSW at Baeble Music – not quite as full a band as he’s got this time, but Emmy The Great and Florence And The Machine-enhanced. Ergo, awesome.

I haven’t talked about Florence & The Machine before, but most likely will in the future. For now, check out the video for her first single.

Video: Florence & The Machine – “Kiss With A Fist”

Wireless Bollinger, Sentimentalist and New York Magazine interview the boys from Supergrass about their just-released new album Diamond Hoo Ha, from which they’re offering a live MP3 for download.

MP3: Supergrass – “345” (live)

Coldplay have shuffled their Summer and Fall tour dates and the previously announced October 29 and 30 dates at the Air Canada Centre appear to be off, replaced by a July 30 appearance at the same venue.

Blurt is the new online magazine from the folks behind the dearly departed Harp, and it’s now live! Go poke around, perhaps starting with this feature on My Morning Jacket or maybe this one about She & Him, which comes with a bonus Zooey Deschanel primer. They’ve even got an online digital magazine that looks, well, almost exactly like Harp did. Hooray.