The Joggers / With A Cape And A Cane (Star Time) The Joggers don’t sound like they come from Portland. If I were none the wiser, I’d have placed their point of origin firmly across the Atlantic. With A Cape And A Cane, the title of which the band insists has nothing to do with Aleister Crowley, sounds like a mish mash of Blur and The Fall, thanks mainly to singer Ben Whiteside’s mealy-mouthed, Brit-affected vocal delivery. Musically, they trade in the sort of herky-jerky, stop-start vaguely funky brand of indie rock that’s so popular with the indie kids these days, which would account for the minor buzz that currently surrounds the band. It all sounds simultaneously interesting and not – there’s lots going on on a sonic level, but the songs don’t quite have the pop hooks to make listening enjoyable beyond the cerebral. Perhaps further listens would be more revealing, but I suspect my tolerance for Whiteside’s voice would run out before that happened. Hear some of The Joggers at MySpace. With A Cape And A Cane came out on September 27th and they’re at Sneaky Dee’s on November 14.

The Sharp Things / Foxes & Hounds (Bar None) New York’s Sharp Things prove that massive musical collectives aren’t strictly a Canadian phenomenon. Boasting ten players (at least that’s how many get their pictures on the website), The Sharp Things are the brainchild of pianist Perry Serpa. Foxes & Hounds is a sprawling throwback of an album that draws heavily on the grandiose chamber pop of the ’60s, obvious touchstones being The Left Banke and Burt Bacharach, with some R&B flourishes and some decidedly modern touches like the squalling guitar solo in “The Suicide Bombers”. Serpa’s voice isn’t always quite up to the task of pulling off the range and melodies that the songs call for, but laid overtop of the sweeping string- and horn-laden arrangements, but hearing it strain that little bit actually gives it all a pleasant dose of humanity. Great Sunday listening (as I’m doing right now). Hear some Sharp Things at MySpace.

Heroes Of Switzerland Heroes Of Switzerland are not a band comprised of the Ricola guys, but a new British four-piece celebrating the release of their debut album, Disposable Fiction. Some press likens them to recently departed fellow Nottingham natives Six By Seven, but while there are some similarities in the dense sheets of guitar and high energy, but favour a more in-your face attack than the twisted tension and release of 6×7. The band’s strengths definitely lie with the rhythm section – drums are thunderous and nimble and lock in nicely with the weaving bass. On the other hand, the guitars are of a rather conventional indie style, the vocals tend to be rather buried and the songwriting is not especially remarkable. All in all though, a solid if somewhat conventional effort. Check out the title track from the EP: MP3: Heroes Of Switzerland – “Disposable Fiction”

np – Antony And The Johnsons / I Am A Bird Now

Going into last night’s Rob Dickinson show at the Horseshoe, there were a few questions that remained unanswered. Who was opening? When they promised Rob solo, did they mean solo from Catherine Wheel or solo from anyone else, acoustic troubadour style? And who, more than one person asked when I told them what I was doing last night, was Rob Dickinson?

I won’t bother addressing the last question, because it makes me feel old. And to the first question, I have no idea. I arrived just as Rob’s set was starting and the sandwich board out front only read “& guests”. Not even “special guests”. No one I talked to knew who I missed. Finally, as for the configuration, the answer was both and neither. Rob was indeed playing acoustically, but he brought along a second guitarist and keyboardist and was definitely not above running his Taylor acoustic through a bank of pedals. This unconventional configuration necessitated a rearrangement of most of the songs from Rob’s new album Fresh Wine For The Horses, but it worked really well. There wasn’t a lot of hard, fast material in the set so the bed of acoustic guitars and thick keyboards did a fine job of laying the musical bed for Rob’s amazing vocals to soar over.

I had forgotten how powerful his voice is – though it broke and rasped at a few points, Dickinson managed to remind everyone that he probably has one of the best voices anywhere in rock music. Warm and chatty with the adoring crowd (the ‘Shoe was near packed – Toronto has always been freakishly adoring of the Catherine Wheel), he was able to switch it into raw intensity as soon as the music started. Goosebump-inducing. The bulk of the set was drawn from Fresh Wine, which is actually a better record than I had expected, but he naturally closed things out with Catherine Wheel material – the main set with a gorgeous “Heal” and the encore with “Future Boy” and “Black Metallic”. Even with the stripped down band configuration, they managed to create a convincing wall of sound that retained all the majesty of the fully amplified album versions. I don’t know if Rob is going to get the tour support from Sanctuary to continue touring his record, but even if he doesn’t, I’m sure it’s comforting to know that he’ll always be able to pack a house with the faithful in Toronto.

Since I arrived late, there was no fighting my way through the wall of big dudes to get up front. I did manage to squeeze close enough in to get some decent pics. They really had Rob lit up really well on stage – and he was sweating buckets as a result. That’s the price of rock, Rob.

Zoilus’ secret identity of Carl Wilson has a piece in today’s Globe & Mail about the re-emergence of the storyteller in indie rock, using upcoming shows by The Decemberists (October 13th @ The Phoenix), The Fiery Furnaces (October 10 @ Lee’s Palace) and Destroyer (October 9 @ The Phoenix) to make his point.

Starting this week and running every week through December, American Analog Set will be making available demos for every song from their new album Set Free on their website. Go to the “recordings” section of their site to grab the first one, for “Immaculate Heart”. And thank them by going to see them at the Horseshoe on November 13. Thanks to Andy from the Galaxie 500 mailing list (and a defunct AmAnSet fanpage) for the info.

Stylus has finished compiling their week-long countdown of the 50 best movies of the ’90s ’00s. If you don’t feel like scrolling down, The Royal Tennenbaums takes top spot, to no one’s surprise considering Stylus’ demographic. I’m not challenging the selection, just saying that when I saw it, I though, “figures”. Myself, I’ve seen 30 of these 50, more than I’d expected. I guess that explains why I can never find anything to rent at the video store. I’ve already seen most of the good stuff.

np – Bob Dylan / The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964 – Concert at Philharmonic Hall

Manchester’s Elbow and I got off on entirely the wrong foot. Their debut album Asleep In The Back came out when I was at prety much the nadir of my Britpop interest. I’d heard a track or two on some compilations but it didn’t quite grab me enough to pursue. I had a very low tolerance for anything that sounded remotely Coldplay-ish so into the “ignore” pile they went. Fast-forward four years to the release of their third album, Leaders Of The Free World. I’m feeling much more generous to music from the UK these days, and the glowing reviews piqued my interest. Thanks to the good folks at V2, I got a copy of the new album to investigate.

Short answer? It’s very good. There isn’t much in the way of pop hooks to catch the ear on early listens, but that’s because the true strengths of the record move deeper below the surface, moving slowly with great weight and determination. It actually took me a little while to identify what it was that I was hearing from this record – it sounded familiar, yet long-forgotten. It wasn’t like my alt.country records, or my shoegaze stuff, or pure pop. Then it hit me – this is rock. Not ironic cock-rock bullshit or fake aggro suburban metal, but thoughtful, muscular-yet-delicate, singularly British epic rock the likes of which Radiohead used to make and which I used to love. That love affair ended not just because my tastes changed but because there didn’t seem to be any more purveyors of the style after the ‘Head went all Kid A on us.

Over the course of 49 minutes, Leaders Of The Free World swells, soars and offers drama, gravitas and emotion while avoiding the pitfalls of pretentiousness or preciousness. The instrumentation is as lush or austere as required, anchored by singer-guitarist Guy Garvey’s elastic rasp which reminds me more than just a little of Peter Gabriel. Upon rereading the last few paragraphs, I wonder if I might be a little over-effusive with my praise – it sort of sounds like I’m anointing Leaders Of The Free World the album of the year. I’m not. It’s good, surprisingly so, but it’s not changed my world. What it has done, and I’m thankful to it for this, is re-introduced and reinvigorated a style of music I’d wrtten off and/or forgotten about.

Though the album has been out for a little while now, the media machine hasn’t caught on yet – I’ve been able to find very little link-worthy press. Just this piece from Manchester Online wherein they talk to the hometown boys about the making of Leaders Of The Free World. If there’s any justice, however, this album will get the attention it deserves – it surely stomps on much more hyped 2005 albums from the likes of Oasis and Coldplay.

Soaring With Eagles points us to this interview with Metric in UofT newspaper The Varsity. We say thanks. Gothamist also has an interview (via Prefix).

Feist talks to The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix because, let’s face it, there’s nothing else to do in Saskatoon. Via LHB.

Macleans profiles/reviews Broken Social Scene/Broken Social Scene. I got my copy yesterday. One-listen impression? It’s a dense album and will take some time to dig through. You Forgot It In People was the same way, but there were the all-out pop numbers to bring you back to the surface for air – not so much on this one. I expect/hope that it will still ultimately prove as enjoyable/rewarding, but time will tell the tale.

And speaking of Metric and Feist and Broken Social Scene, Under The Radar loves Canada. We love you too.

Tom Vek is at the Drake on November 10. Wanna know a secret? I have no idea who Tom Vek is. I only posted this because I’ve seen his name on other cool kids blogs. What should I know about him?

More Bob Mould news – Billboard reports that tonight’s show in Washington, DC will be recorded for release as a live DVD. And after the current full-band electric tour wraps up, Mould will hit the road again for an acoustic tour – no Toronto date for that one, though.

eye’s comic-friendly column The Panelist closes out its last column with a profile of Neil Gaiman, who is in town tomorrow for a reading of Anansi Boys. It appears eye is rebranding themselves in a few weeks time and from the look of the ads in this week’s issue, they’re going for a “sick”, “suggestive” and “penetrating” direction. Eww.

np – Broken Social Scene / Broken Social Scene

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had this conversation:

Random person: “Blah blah blah like in in Nightmare Before Christmas blah blah blah”

Me: “I’ve never seen Nightmare Before Christmas.”

Random person: “What are you, a crackbaby?”

But truthfully, I’ve never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas. I’ve been advised many times to remedy this, and people have even offered to help, but it hasn’t happened yet. Dunno why, just hasn’t. But now, at least, I have seen Corpse Bride.

First off, Corpse Bride is amazing to look at. I couldn’t believe it was all stop-motion clay animation (remember, I’ve never seen Nightmare so my best frame of reference for claymation is Gumby and Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer). The Gorey-gothic visuals and character design were wonderful, as was the animation. The whole thing was a feast for the eyes – at a few points, I even stopped listening to the dialogue so as to concentrate on taking everything in with my eyes. Which is just as well, because the story, while sufficiently cute and charming, is kind of rote and uninspired. A film that looked as good as this really deserved a script up to the task. Furthermore, I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a musical or not – there were only a handful of songs, and none were especially good at all, some were actually bad. But despite these reservations, it’s still a fun (if short) film – just not a classic.

Paste has an interview with Mike Johnson, one of the animation gurus behind Corpse Bride.

Christmas comes early for shoegazers this year. On November 14, Sanctuary will be reissuing all three Slowdive albums, including the long out-of-print and expensive Pygmalion. But that’s not the best part – both the Souvlaki and Just For A Day reissues will come with bonus discs chock full of rarities and EP-only material. This is the treasure trove of stuff that people were hoping would have appeared on the Catch The Breeze compilation earlier this year. The tracklists are as follows:

Just For A Day:

1. Slowdive

2. Avalyn 1

3. Avalyn 2

4. Morning Rise

5. Morning Rise

6. She Calls

7. Losing Today

8. Holding Our Breath

9. Golden Hair

10. Shine

11. Albatross

12. Catch The Breeze (Peel Session)

13. Song 1 (Peel Session)

14. Golden Hair (Peel Session)

Souvlaki:

1. Some Velvet Morning

2. So Tired

3. Moussaka Chaos

4. In Mind

5. Good Day Sunshine

6. Missing You

7. Country Rain

8. In Mind (Bandulu Mix)

9. In Mind (Reload Mix).

Half of the Souvlaki bonus tracks appears on the North American SBK edition, so that’s not quite as exciting (I still have to have it, of course), but the Just For A Day material is pretty much worth selling a kidney for. I don’t know if the albums themselves are getting any sort of remastering spit-and-polish, nor if there will be new liner notes, but either way – my cup runneth over.

And an extra early Christmas gift for me and me only – I finally got a copy of Ride’s Going Blank Again on LP. It’s en route from the UK right now. Double vinyl, baby. Sweet.

Carl Newman wonders to eye if maybe starting an east coast/west coast feud with Broken Social Scene might not be a solid career move for The New Pornographers. PopMatters also has an interview.

Pop (All Love) quantitatively and conclusively determines that Franz Ferdinand are the best band in the world. QED.

The week in shows at Torontoist. I was exhausted when trying to write this last night. It took forever and it shows.

np – Slowdive / Souvlaki

Check out the minisite for The Cardigans’ new album, Super Extra Gravity. There will eventually be song samples but for now, you can see the sass-tacularly sexy video for the first single, “I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer” featuring a blonde-again Nina Persson. Yeah, you need to register to see it, but come on – a big multinational conglomerate like Universal? They already know who you are. There’s no point in trying to hide. Or you can just watch the whole thing anonymously here. There’s some behind-the-scenes photos from the making of the video here.

The new official bio makes it sound like Super Extra Gravity is going to be all over the map in terms of sound and style, quite a contrast from the consistently lovely melancholy of Long Gone Before Daylight. As Nina puts it, “Compared to our mature last album this is an obnoxious teenager”. Sounds good to me. The new album is out in Europe October 17 and in Canada on October 25. Keeners should know there’s a deluxe edition being released overseas that comes with a making-of documentary DVD. Each international edition will also haev exclusive bonus tracks. Completists weep. CDWow has both UK editions available for pretty reasonable prices, though. There is no current planned release of the album for the US. American fans get the shaft again.

JAM! thinks The New Pornographers are an excellent example of the musical socialism that defines so many current Canadian collectives, but Carl Newman prefers to think of them as “a benevolent dictatorship”. The Pornos will rally the faithful to their cause at the Phoenix this Sunday.

Delays delays delays. Wilco’s Kicking Television double live album has been delayed a fortnight and will now be coming out November 15.

Check it out – I am linking to Bob Mould, who is linking to me, who is linking to him, who is… whoa. Heavy. And here’s an interview with Bob from EQ, courtesy of Bob.

Lee’s Palace will host a fairly buzzy bill on November 12 – West Yorkshire (that’s in the UK, kids) family act The Cribs are in town with Brooklyn space-rockers Longwave and Los Angeles stoner rock duo Giant Drag. Eclectic? Very much so. Tickets are $13.50. I saw Giant Drag at SxSW this past March, and they were… entertaining. Not so much musically but I’m pretty sure singer-guitarist Annie Hardy was one something (or several somethings) because her between-song banter was totally out there and fairly hilarious. And she rates rather highly on the “cute girl with a Gretsch-o-meter”.

And speaking of SxSW – who’s going next year? I’d like to, but am contemplating costs, logistics, arrangements, etc etc. Anyone from around T.O. got any interesting ideas for getting down there? My wristband hookup from last year now has little itty bitty babies to tend to, so I don’t think I’ve got anything covered on that end either. And if anyone would have a spare photo pass… Huh. That looks like a lot of work. Maybe I’ll just stay home.

I believe I’ve identified the source of those goddamn annoying flash ads that have been showing up on my site lately – I used to use Nedstat for a site counter, and they’ve recently become WebStats4U – that’s fine. What’s not fine is THIS new policy of serving up ads on top of sites running their meters. I agreed to nothing of the sort, and maybe they think they’re doing a favour by saying “nothing will be implemented directly into your website like banners, buttons or links”. Hi, fuck you. You paste a goddamn ad across the face of my site and then act like you’re respectful of my property? Go to hell. I’ve removed the WebStats4U counter from my site and recommend that anyone else who has one of these things on their sites either a) remove it posthaste or b) demand a cheque from them for using your site for advertising.

np – My Morning Jacket / At Dawn