The Mountain Goats were in T.O. last night. I’ve been pumped for this show for some time now, so let’s get into it.

I mean it in the most complimentary way when I say that Minneapolis’ Jeff Hanson, the first opener last night, sounds like a girl. He looked like a pretty normal, somewhat stocky midwestern dude in a hoodie, and his speaking voice is pretty nondescript, but when he sings, it’s like HIGH. One review I read described him as Elliott Smith if he were a girl, and while I can see where they’re coming from, I don’t really agree. Hanson’s stuff didn’t have that desperately sad undercurrent that Smith’s did (which probably bodes well for his mental health) and his guitar playing, while impressive, is less intricate. But combined with that voice, it definitely gave his stuff an otherworldly quality that should make him a standout in the extremely crowded “dude with an acoustic guitar” genre. Worth watching out for.

All I knew about Austin’s Shearwater was that they share some members with Okkervil River, an act about whom I know about as much as I do about Shearwater… I was, however, immediately taken in by their hauntingly fragile country-pop. Some random reference points would be Misra label-mates Centro-Matic and Sparklehorse with a dash of recent Wilco thrown in for good measure – not much surprise then, that I liked them a lot. The sonic cacaphony that closed out their set sounded very Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and while it sounded a little out of place with the delicacy of the rest of their set, I applaud the effort to bring a little more to the table. I picked up a copy of their latest full-length, Winged Life, and hope it measures up to the live show.

Judging from the size and enthusiasm of the crowd at Lee’s Palace last night by the time the headliners too the stage, I’d say some people here have been waiting a very long time for the Mountain Goats to come to town. A decade’s worth of pent-up requests came flying at John Darnielle over the course of their show, forcing him to apologize for no longer knowing how to play some of them. But what he didn’t play he made up for with what he did play. performing mainly as a two piece, Darnielle and co-conspirator Peter Hughes’ set list covered the breadth of the Mountain Goats’ repetoire, from the early boombox-fidelity compositions (which probably never sounded better than they do live) through the recent, more polished 4AD records. I was a little surprised that they didn’t concentrate more on The Sunset Tree, but maybe they knew that the audience would be clamoring for everything and they had best oblige.

Thanks to the stripped-down arrangement and super-clean mix, Darnielle’s frantic guitar playing and high, nasal vocals were loud and clear and well complimented by Hughes’ loping, melodic bass playing and backing vocals. Although it was just the two of them, it never sounded thin or musically lacking. Three-quarters of the way through they brought out members of Shearwater to fill out the sound for the remainder of the main set, but even their contributions were kept relatively sparse. All in all it sounded great, and hearing the songs performed live only reinforces the fact that Darnielle is one of the best songwriters around. His writing ranges from joyous, depressing, poignant, angry and wickedly funny – sometimes all in the same verse, let alone the same song.

Darnielle himself was quite the funny frontman, quite enthused by the response from the crowd and frequently bantering with the audience, declaring his love for Toronto for bringing the world The Junior Boys (though we was corrected that they’re actually from Hamilton – but points for knowing where Hamilton was). He and Hughes were also a good deal more animated on stage than I’d expected, constantly moving about onstage and making use of the open real estate. The set was relatively short – playing just over an hour, including two encores, they left the crowd hollering for more but I suspect that even if they played three hours, people still wouldn’t have been satisfied. It was a fantastic show, one of the best of the year so far, and I only hope it doesn’t take them another ten years to come back to Toronto. I’ll go through my photos tonight and have them up tomorrow. Hey, it was late, I was tired. Update: Photos are now up.

Tiny Mix Tapes offers up a succinct review of the new Nine Inch Nails album.

Taking advantage of the break between tours, Wilco axeman Nels Cline brings the Nels Cline Singers to Toronto on May 20, tickets $20. The Rotate This webpage says they’re at the Silver Dollar, Nels’ website says Tranzac. One or the other. I’d think about going to this, but that’d be five shows in six nights and by god, as we’ve already established, I am not a young man anymore. Update: Looks like it’s at the Silver Dollar. More info here.

The Great Pumpkin, Billy Corgan, will be at the Carlu on July 2 to pimp his solo album, TheFutureEmbrace (no spaces, please), out June 21. In case you didn’t know, The Carlu is the fancy ballroom dealie on the 7th floor of College Park at the corner of Yonge and College. I hear it’s pretty swank.

Anton Newcome and The Brian Jonestown Massacre hold court at Lee’s Palace on July 27. Tickets $10.50.

Damn, thanks for everyone who left me birthday greetings in yesterday’s comments and by email. That’s far and away a new record for comments – now I know how it feels to be Stereogum on a slow day.

It is the middle of May. Why the hell is there a wind chill? Stupid capricious weather gods.

np – Shearwater / Winged Life

“We’ve got a runner!”

Today, I mark the end of my third decade and start the fourth. Which now that I read back over it, makes me sound even older than I am. But yeah, it’s my 30th birthday and I’m surprisingly okay with it. If you talked to me about it four or five months ago, I was damn near freaking out. I was making all these absurd, “things I must accomplish before I turn 30” lists that, well, I didn’t really get anywhere with. I was certain that a full-on third-life crisis was in the offing (I’d already had a quarter-life crisis a few years back) and that I’d have quit my job to go work as a distant early warning station janitor up on Baffin Island or something (while still managing to blog daily).

And yet here I am, same job, new old apartment, bascially staying the same course as I’ve been on for the last few years. Am I at peace now or have I just given up? Not sure, but I sleep fine at night so whichever it is, it can’t be all bad. My life is completely unlike what I would have imagined it to be ten years ago, but then again I probably wasn’t very imaginative. No, again you can probably take that in both a positive and negative sense. Things I had taken for granted have turned out to be far more elusive than I ever would have thought, and yet I’ve also done things I couldn’t have even imagined in my salad days. Overall evaluation at the three-decade mark? Not bad, much room for improvement. Possibly a social idiot savant. Poor penmanship.

Anyway, this is turning into a LiveJournal entry so I’ll turn the naval-gazing off for now. Henceforth, I will concentrate on perfecting the various “old man” personas. Grumpy old man, dirty old man, etc. “You damn kids and your music!” Yes, that’ll do nicely.

And I know that in the original Logan’s Run the cut-off age was 18, not 30. Screw you, man.

Oh, and if anyone wants to come out, I think I’ll be heading to Pop Noir this Saturday night at Lot 16 out by Queen and Dufferin. I’ve never been but I hear it’s a good time. Not that it really matters as I intend to be moderately drunk off my face.

The used CD gods were smiling on me yesterday as I turned up copies of Husker Du’s Flip Your Wig, which I’ve been looking for for well over a year now, and the first British Sea Power album which I’ve only been seeking for maybe a month, but was happy to find damn cheap. And I picked up Explosions In The Sky’s The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place new for good measure, ’cause a friend lent it to me for a week and damn it’s good.

The not-so-secret history of Doves, as told to Paste. Doves are at the Kool Haus next Monday.

Another day, another Mountain Goats link from Largehearted Boy (Thanks for the birthday wishes, David!). Today, a piece in New City Chicago and a Q&A with Nerve. They talk about sex, pornography and children (but not in combination with each other!). It’s kinda weird. Come to Lee’s Palace tonight to see the Goats make their Toronto debut! And buy me a drink. It’s my birthday.

Pitchfork has an interview with John Vanderslice about what we can expect from this next album, Pixel Revolt, due out August 23.

Some show announcements – miserablist popsters Eels will be at the Phoenix on June 25 with a string section in tow to plug their latest double-album opus, Blinking Lights And Other Revelations.

And if you like your 70s revival to be equal parts prog and Southern rock, then the Secret Machines/Kings Of Leon tour should be as much fun as, um, some suitably relevant 70s reference. I was working on something involving the General Lee and the Starsky & Hutch-mobile, but it just didn’t come together. That tour hits the Kool Haus on August 3.

Natalie Portman is bald. Darlin’ don’t you go and cut your hair, do you think it’s gonna make him change?

np – British Sea Power / The Decline Of British Sea Power

So here’s the official lineup for that show on Olympic Island June 26:

Modest Mouse

Broken Social Scene

Metric

Do Make Say Think

The Most Serene Republic

Triumph Of Lethargy

Keren Ann*

* – Keren Ann is a maybe. If she does appear, Keren Ann would be the odd duck on this bill. I guess they figure since she’s in town the for the Jazz Festival the day before, why not? I wonder how her stuff would go over a) in a big open field, and b) to a crowd of Modest Mouse-loving indie kids.

Early bird tickets go on sale today at 10AM with a CFNY password (you’ll have to look up the specifics elsewhere) for $36.50 and regular tickets go on sale this Saturday for $42.50 at Ticketmaster, Rotate and Soundscapes. There’s also an extra $6 surcharge per ticket that covers the ferry ride and a charitable donation towards island improvements. While it’s a perfectly solid lineup, it’s not enough to get me to shell out the $50 to go sit in a field. I don’t know what the bill would have had to be to persuade me, but this isn’t it.

Do you like my badass Photoshop pic of the two headliners? They look like they’re ready to throw down. Broken Social’s got the numbers and Andrew Whiteman’s got the muscle T, but Modest Mouse have that crazy-ass look in their eyes. I bet they fight dirty. Isaac Brock would probably bite your ear off so much as look at you.

Alan Sparhawk has posted a letter on the Low message board explaining why the band has cancelled all upcoming touring plans – he’s not right in the noggin. Best wishes to Alan and his friends and family that he gets well soon.

Ben Folds, Ben Lee and Rufus “Not Ben” Wainwright are at the Kool Haus on August 9. I’m honestly not sure who’s got top billing on this show. I suspect it’s not Ben Lee, though.

Tiny Mix Tapes has a quickie interview with M Ward.

Stereogum readers play mad libs with the sentence, “I SAW ROCK & ROLL’S ________ AND ITS NAME IS _________”. Hilarity ensues.

So I’m watching the trailer for The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe and I’m thinking, man – this looks like The Lord Of The Rings done in all primary colours. I hope that they take some time between now and the Christmas release date to rub some dirt on the digital effects. It doesn’t look very good right now.

24: So this is how I see the end of season 4 – never mind the missile, that’s old news. The US hands over Jack to the Chinese for his part in, um, invading China, and season five is all about Jack escaping from a Chinese prison where all the guards are clones of James Hong (www.jameshong.com). Like Agent Smith in The Matrix, except they’re all dressed as the bad guy from Big Trouble In Little China. Just wait, it’ll happen. I’m surprised the US government didn’t try to pin the consulate ambush on Marwan. After all – he is the man responsible for today’s attacks. But a nice quick takedown of the big bad, glad they didn’t drag that out. Pity about the missile, though.

Today is my last day as a twenty-something. I should be getting drunk or something, shouldn’t I? Yeah, I think I’ll just finish watching Sealab 2021.

np – Godspeed You Black Emperor! / Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven!

I bought a new TV this weekend – nothing fancy by today’s standards, but a huge improvement over my 20-year old set. Hooked it up to the DVD player with high-techy component video cables and the first thing I watched with my grand new entertainment centre? Season two of Sealab 2021! I had a feeling I wasn’t getting the full sensory experience with my old setup and boy was I right. There’s so much detail and depth to the images, it’s like a veil has been lifted from mine eyes. The oranges of the jumpsuits are so much more vivid now! I mean, Bizarro vivid!

Junkmedia interviews John Darnielle of Mountain Goats, who promises that a song about Ozzy may be inevitable. The Kalamazoo Gazette and The New Yorker also have Goats features.

Pitchfork reviews the double-disc rerelease of Elvis Costello’s King Of America and find that it is still a great record. Enlightening.

The Sunday Herald finds out why Teenage Fanclub have decided to go it alone in releasing their new album Man-Made. They get a little help on these shores from Merge who are putting out the record on June 7. Via LHB.

Comics2Film reports that Hugo Weaving, aka Agent Smith and Elrond, has replaced James Purefoy in the title role of the film adaptation of V For Vendetta. I guess they can get away with swapping actors this far into production since the character wears a Guy Fawkes mask through the whole film. Dub new dialogue over previously shot scenes et voila!

The New York Times (bugmenot: iwantnews093/iwantnews) examines the phenomenon of geek films currently ruling the box office. Our time is now!

And this is what we call a slow news day. Hopefully something amazing will happen today.

np – Broken Social Scene / You Forgot It In People

It looks as though New Zealand’s Brunettes will be joining Nada Surf as support for the leg of the Rilo Kiley tour that hits The Opera House on May 19. I quite enjoyed them when they opened for The Shins last month – it may be featherweight, but their giddy pop is great fun. I got their last album Mars Loves Venus at the Shins show and wouldn’t mind picking up some more of their stuff – I don’t think the new When Ice Met Cream EP was out yet when they were here last, hopefully they’ll have some copies available in a couple weeks. Hey Paul – that’s twice in a month I’ll be seeing them. Jealous?

Pitchfork reports that Nottingham’s Six By Seven have signed a deal with The First Time RecordS to release their latest album :04 in North America on August 16. Which is great, except I reported this back in February and the album came out last Fall. Furthermore, :04 will only be their new album for another couple of weeks – then Artists Cannibals Poets Thieves will get a formal release on May 23 in the UK (though it’s been available for sale from the band through their website for a few weeks now). But while PF is hardly on the ball with the news, at least the reporter managed to tell everyone about when he was deflowered, and really – isn’t that the important thing? Eww.

The Boston Globe talks to John Darnielle about putting his childhood on public display on The Mountain Goats’ new album, The Sunset Tree. The Goats are at Lee’s Palace this Wednesday – you should be there. Link from Largehearted Boy, who has been you one-stop Mountain Goats shop for links and reviews lately.

Billboard reports on Drive Well, Sleep Carefully: On the Road With Death Cab For Cutie, a tour documentary on Death Cab For Cutie that follows the band through their 2004 tour for Transatlanticism and will feature live performances, rehearsals and demos. The film will debut at the Seattle International Film Festival next month and come out on DVD from the good people at Plexifilm on July 26. Death Cab’s major-label debut Plans is slated for a September 20 release.

Also not coming to a theatre anywhere near you – Better Off In Bed, a film about rock-n-roll and relationships starring Vancouver’s New Pornographers and The Gay. Sounds fascinating.

The Onion AV Club goes through the liner notes of Elvis Costello’s latest round of reiussues and compiles an album-by-album retrospective, in Declan’s own words.

On my way home from running errands yesterday afternoon, I passed through the Toronto chapter of the Global Marijuana March. There were hundreds of people bumming around in Queen’s Park, the seat of Ontario’s government, handing around bongs, blunts, spliffs, joints, ganja, etc etc, while the cops just stood around and watched. I got a buzz just walking through them all.

np – British Sea Power / Open Season