Just bits and pieces today.

Thanks to Hold My Life for pointing me to Billy Bragg’s website where he’s offering a number of free live download clips (and one full-length track for newsletter subscribers) taken from his Live At The Barbican album (which is available for sale in digital format). I am still sore at Billy for not making good on his promise to tour through North America last year – he said he would when he played here for his Talking Woody show, but a year and a half later, I’m still waiting for him and The Blokes to show up. WHY DO YOU LIE TO US, BILLY? WHY? A poke around his website reveals a pretty good archive of materials, however – there’s a wealth of reading in the Words section. Note – not recommended for those who don’t like politicking.

Coolfer is more diplomatic than I’d be in pointing out the market for post-punk/disco/new-wave-inflected bands is getting pretty damn saturated. Death to disco hi-hats! It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even have to listen to a band to write them off, their haircuts are enough to tip me off as to what they sound like. Unlike Coolfer, I don’t think it’s necessarily the fact that the mainstream has latched onto the sound so much as the fact that the newer bands who are trying to hop the sytlistic bandwagon just sound so BAD. And by bad, I mean so derivative and obvious. Sounding like a band that was big twenty years ago is one thing. Cribbing from a band that was big twenty months ago is another. Call it the indie rock equivalent to the Pearl Jam->Creed->Nickelback syndrome, call it the second law of thermodynamics in action (each copy will be less perfect than the predecessor), or just call it tired, but bands have really got to find some new marrow of inspiration to suck dry.

And in this interview with The Oregonian, M Ward agrees with me. Via LHB.

Kathryn Yu has been working on a documentary film on The Wrens and has just released a ten-minute preview of the work-in-progress. It does make me wonder how much longer the band will be working The Meadowlands (which still has to come out in Europe!) and when we might expect some new music from them.

Another year, another 4AD reunion tour. Dead Can Dance comes to town on October 1 at Massey Hall.

Electrelene are in Toronto at a venue to be determined on June 8 to promote their new record Axes, out May 10.

N’oubliez-pas! Jens Lekman instore at Soundscapes this afternoon at 4, show at Wavelength tonight at Sneaky Dee’s… sometime!

It is with no small amount of apprehension that I realize today will probably be the last day for at least a week, probably two, that I will have anything resembling free time. I still have a number of things to do to get ready for SxSW (like play with this PDA app with the complete schedule). Between travel, work, various extra-cirricular activities, it’s going to be a pretty exhausting fortnight before I get to the Easter long weekend. I will endeavour to reply to some emails and whatnot that have been gathering dust in the past few days because if I don’t get to them now, they’re never getting taken care of.

np – Sigur Ros / ( )

At first thought, a gritty, blue-collar town like Hamilton, Ontario is probably the last place you’d expect to produce practicioners of atmospheric space-rock like A Northern Chorus and Sianspheric, and yet here they are, or there they were at the Drake Underground last night. Both acts had been on my radar for years now, being local and all, but I hadn’t seen either live in some years, nor really heard any of their recorded output. But we were in a spacey sort of mood, so off we went.

A Northern Chorus has gone through a number of lineup changes in the last while, losing flautist Julie MacDonald, acquiring a new drummer and adding a cellist (who unfortunately wasn’t at this show), but despite this, their sound has remained remarkably consistent. They still play impressively large-sounding but still quiet-ish, heavily delayed space rock with high, delicate vocals. It’s a shame they had to play without a cellist as I could hear where that would have fit in and it would have sounded great – as it was, their set was pretty impressive and prompted me to pick up their last album Spirit Flags. Their new one, Bitter Hands Resign, is due out April 17 and they were supposed to tour North America with Raising The Fawn and Damon & Naomi, but apparently got removed from the bill by the headliners rather, er, unceremoniously for whatever reason, and will now be trying to make up the dates on their own. Pity, that.

Comparatively, is A Northern Chorus were the sonic equivalent of a gentle rainshower, Sianspheric were a tidal wave. No stranger to lineup changes themselves, they were playing down one guitarist and with a guest vocalist in fellow Steeltown-er Mayor McCa. Favouring a looser, less-structured approach than their tourmates, Sianspheric alternately unloaded huge, deafening slabs of distortion and quieter bits adrift in seas of reverb. It’s a little hard to assess a band’s songwriting chops in this sort of context, but their live assault was pretty entertaining and quite deafening (thank god for earplugs). Either way, an impressive output of decibels from just a three-piece band (not counting the Mayor’s harmonica and shaker). I don’t want to imagine what it had been like if they still had a second guitarist.

Fun trivia (for me, anyway) – Sianshperic (in their former incarnation as Gleet) and Mayor McCa (in his former band Gorp) both played at the same coffee house at my high school back in 1993 where my first band made our live debut. McCa was just as enamoured of running his vocals through a delay pedal then as he is now. Photos here. It was a black-and-white sort of night.

Sigur Ros has pushed back the release of their next album from May to September, citing a need to take a break from mixing and return with fresh ears. Thanks to Unfinished for being the bearer of bad news.

In a follow-up to yesterday’s post, Chart gets in-depth with Sloan about Twice Removed and what it was like making the best Canadian album of all-time as selected by, uh, Chart.

After some more experimental forays in Modulate and Loudbomb Bob Mould, returns to making guitar music with Body Of Song, a new collection of acoustic-based songs which I hope are in the vein of his Workbook album. Dang that was a good one. Billboard has more details on the record, which is scheduled for a July 26 release on YepRoc.

np – The Comas / Conductor

Funny thing about Sloan – while they seem to be like unto indie/college rock cult heroes in the US, they’re equally loved and loathed here in their native Canada. Okay, maybe loathed is too strong a word (but it was alliterative), but they’re one of the few acts that have crossed over from indie icons to mainstream successes in this country with any sort of longevity, and the backlash in some circles is pretty virulent and amusing.

You don’t have to look too hard to find someone who would sooner gnaw off their own leg before giving up their copy of Twice Removed or One Chord To Another (especially the rare Enclave pressing!), but will slag off Between The Bridges or Navy Blues with the sort of venom usually reserved for baby smotherers or puppy kickers. Myself, I think they’ve gotten kind of formulaic and safe in recent years, but there’s always at least a few moments of pop genius on any of their albums (usually courtesy of Jay Ferguson) although the proportion of those versus 70s-ish arena rockers has skewed in the wrong direction of late and I can’t pretend I’ve gotten genuniely excited about a new Sloan album in some time… but I still care.

To back up a bit to the love/hate phenomenon – I suspect that Sloan’s biggest crime, at least to those who believe they’ve committed one, is that they stuck around. If they had actually split up following Twice Removed (recently voted best Canadian album of all-time by Chart readers), and maybe released One Chord To Another posthumously or something, their place as gods in the Canadian music pantheon would have been assured. They’d have been legends. But no, they committed that cardinal indie sin and they got big. They made money (I assume so, anyway, relatively speaking). They dared to make albums that while solid, didn’t reach the same heights as their greatest works.

Another theory is that for people my age, Sloan was “it” during my musical coming-of-age over a decade ago, at least of homegrown talent, and Lord knows it’s not cool to like anything you liked when you were 15. Or maybe they just let themselves become too familiar and have thus bred contempt. Sloan sightings around town are commonplace (I’ve only seen Jay and Chris Murphy, myself) so maybe it’s just a case of instead of thinking, “hey there’s the guy who wrote ‘Snowsuit Sound’!”, it’s, “hey, there’s the guy who spilt a drink on me last weekend!”. Or not. I dunno. For the record, no member of Sloan has ever spilt anything on me, I’m just thinking out loud.

Anyway, it’s hard to believe that the band has been around for some 12 or 13 years now. I remember the drama, the gnashing of teeth, wringing of hands and rending of clothes when they announced they were splitting a decade ago after Twice Removed, though that turned out to be record company politics to get out of their deal with DGC. However, there’s naught better to remind you of how old something is than a retrospective… and it’s Sloan’s turn. Chris and Jay talked to MTV about their forthcoming best-of compilation CD/DVD set, A Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005, coming out May 10 and featuring the obligatory two new tracks to infuriate collectors (though the DVD should help make the best-of’s purchase worthwhile). They also reveal that their US label Koch will be re-releasing all their albums (excluding Action Pact and presumably 4 Nights At The Palais Royale) later this year in an expanded format with rarities and b-sides to fill out each of their first five albums which are apparently a pain to find in the US.

I wonder if these will be available up here? After all, it’s their US label that’s releasing them and all of Sloan’s back catalog is available here for super-cheap. Even with the bonuses, it may be a hard sell getting folks to pay import prices for an album they either already have or can pick up at Sunrise for $8. To support, or maybe just because they haven’t done so in a while, Sloan are touring across Canada in May. No Toronto date yet, but they’ve only announced as far as Saskatchewan so far.

Why does Merge rule? Because they’re giving the new Teenage Fanclub record Man-Made a North American release on June 7 and the band will tour our fair continent to support. YAY. Thanks to Catbirdseat for the tip-off.

The Riverfront Times asks Will Johnson exactly what the difference between Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel and his solo work is.

The Ames Tribune talks to John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, who release their new album The Sunset Tree on April 26 and play what I believe is their first-ever Toronto show at Lee’s Palace on May 11, tickets $11. Be there be there be there.

The last two links were brought to you by the letter Q, the number 4 and Largehearted Boy.

Another trailer for The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Out April 29!

np – The Radio Dept. / Lesser Matters

I am slowing down. Used to be that I could power through an entire season of a TV show on DVD in no time at all. Was it that long ago I got through the entire first season and a quarter of the second season of 24 in a single weekend? Yes, it was at the expense of some personal hygeine, but nothing comes without sacrifice. So how on earth has it taken me so long to get through the entirety of Wonderfalls? It’s only 13 episodes, each one about 44 minutes. In theory, I should have been able to get through it all in under ten hours. That’s nothing! But still it took me more than two weeks to get through all three DVDs, not including the bonuses. For shame.

Anyway. Finished watching the complete series on DVD the other night and I can say without reservation that this was my favourite new television show in years, even though it was unceremoniously cancelled after just three (or was it four?) episodes to make room for that bellwether of the utter decline of Western civilization, The Swan. Premiering a year ago next week, the wickedly clever and hilarious show followed the quirky adventures of an overeducated, undermotivated and generally snarky trailer park-living twenty-something retail clerk to whom inanimate objects begin talking, instructing her to do bizarre things and help people… or else. I don’t know if that sounds appealing, but it was actually very very good. Lots of Canadian content in this show – besides being set in Niagara Falls (though they try to pass the Canadian side off as the American side), it was shot in Toronto (at the CNE? I see the wind turbine in some shots outside the store) and the lead role of Jaye Tyler was excellently played by Canadian Caroline Dhavernas, who is easily my #1 domestic celebrity crush du jour.

Even though it was cancelled so quickly (a save the show campaign began immediately after the first episode aired), all thirteen eps of the first season were already filmed and completed, making a DVD release possible (it came out last month) and thankfully, the first season arc ends quite nicely, allowing it to stand as a finite 13-episode mini-series rather than a cancelled mid-season replacement. Even though only a handful of episodes originally aired, another half-dozen or so leaked to the internet, ripped from DVD screeners or something, so I had managed to see most of the series regardless. It also found a second life on Canada’s Vision Television channel, which I believe aired the entire run late last year. I, however, waited for the DVD release and thoroughly enjoyed watching the whole thing start to finish – even the eps I’d already seen were funnier the second time around. Wonderfalls gets my heartiest recommendation – go rent it.

And oh yeah – Andy Patridge composed and performed the theme song, and it sounds like classic XTC.

MP3: Andy Partridge – “Wonderfalls”

The San Francisco Bay Guardian tries to figure out the secret of The Decemberists’ success. The answer? Geeks.

The Chicago Tribune introduces its readers to Stars. Last two links from Largehearted Boy.

Newsweek profiles M Ward… I CALLED HIM “MIGHTY” FIRST!!! Bastards. From Stereogum.

The ‘Gum also points us at this live Ted Leo performance at UGO. The irony police are all up in arms over his cover of a Kelly Clarkson song.

NOW talks to Jens Lekman about his sensitive side in advance of his Wavelength show at Sneaky Dee’s this Sunday night.

Ryan Adams’ new double-disc set Cold Roses has been pushed back a bit to May 3.

Yahoo! has some exclusive features to pump up the Sin City film, coming out April 1.

Aaah! The Blogroll! It is broken!

np – Sea Ray / Stars At Noon

Okay, so SxSW goes next week. I’ve been so busy putting together my tenative schedule for the three days that I haven’t really been paying attention to the more important logistical stuff like, oh, getting US cash, making sure I can get to the airport on time, that sort of thing.

But schedule – here’s my preliminary. This is not nearly everything I’ve got in my calendar, just the stuff that I’m going to try and make it to and maybe some second choices. I’ve actually got third, fourth and fifth choices in the Palm Pilot, as well as some buzz bands that I really don’t care about, but have written in just in case I need to appear hip.

Thursday, March 17:

Wrens @ Emo’s – 1:00 PM

Stars @ Emo’s – 2:00 PM

Rob Dickinson @ Cedar Street Courtyard – 2:45 PM

Feist @ Blind Pig – 3:45 PM Invite only! BOOO.

Midnight Movies @ Emo’s – 4:25 PM

Calexico @ Jovita’s – 5:00 PM

Aaron Booth @ Sake On Sixth – 8:00 PM

Ulrich Schnauss @ Blender Bar – 9:00 PM

Mark Eitzel @ Cactus Cafe – 10:00 PM

The Futureheads @ La Zona Rosa – 11:00 PM

M Ward @ The Parish – 11:00 PM

Hot Hot Heat @ La Zona Rosa – 12:00 AM

Spoon (rumoured) @ The Parish – 1:00 AM

The Salteens @ Sake On Sixth – 1:00 AM

Doves @ La Zona Rosa – 1:00 AM

Friday, March 18:

Asobi Seksu @ Emo’s – 1:25 PM

American Analog Set @ Club DeVille – 2:00 PM

Experimental Aircraft @ Trophy’s – 3:00 PM

Phoenix @ Cedar Street Courtyard – 4:00 PM

Kaiser Chiefs @ Cedar Street Courtyard – 5:00 PM

M Ward @ Pok-E-Joe’s – 5:30 PM

Earlimart @ Red Scoot’s Inn – 9:20 PM

Ash @ Blender Bar – 11:00 PM

Laura Cantrell @ The Parish – 11:00 PM

Saturday Looks Good To Me @ Friend’s Bar – 12:00 AM

Spoon @ La Zona Rosa – 12:30 AM

Centro-Matic @ Maggie May’s – 1:00 AM

Calexico@ Antone’s – 1:00 AM

Saturday, March 19:

Dirty On Purpose @ Spiderhouse – 2:00 PM

Doves @ Waterloo Records – 3:00 PM

Bloc Party @ Urban Outfitters – 3:00 PM

Centro-Matic @ Red-Eyed Fly – 4:00 PM

Tift Merritt @ Jo’s Coffee – 5:00 PM

Trashcan Sinatras @ Speakeasy – 6:00 PM

Earlimart @ Porchlight-Twillery Street Theatre – 7:00 PM

The Meeting Places @ SoHo Lounge – 8:00 PM

Aimee Mann @ Stubb’s – 9:00 PM

Ed Harcourt @ Antone’s – 10:30 PM

Stars @ Blender Bar – 11:00 PM

Son Volt @ Stubb’s – 11:45 PM

Idlewild @ La Zona Rosa – 12:00 AM

Ambulance LTD @ Exodus – 1:00 AM

American Analog Set @ Blender Bar – 1:00 AM

Nada Surf @ Red Eyed Fly – 1:00 AM

…Well, that’s approximately it. I’m actually sorry I’m missing the 16th – there’s a lot of shows that night (Trespassers William, Asobi Seksu, American Music Club, Jon Auer, Wrens) that I’d love to see, but that’s what I get for trying to save a day’s vacation time.

I’m sure a lot of what I am trying to see is logistically impossible (like being in five places at once) and it’s entirely possible that I’ll end up seeing some different bands entirely. I’m not dead-set on seeing anyone in particular, really. Well, Centro-Matic. Not missing them. And SLGTM again, if only to declare my undying love for Betty Marie Barnes (back off Grambo, she’s mine!). Set times are as accurate as I’ve been able to deduce, but are not 100% accurate by any stretch of the imagination, particularly for the day shows. But – if you’re going and are planning on being at any of the same shows, or think there’s something else I absolutely have to see, or just want to try and meet up somewhere or someplace, drop me a line. I have no problem going to shows on my own here at home, but somehow it seems that much sadder in Texas.

And if you want more information on the bands or samples of their music, the SxSW website has all that and more. Oh what a weekend this will be.

I’ve got a review of the new Wedding Present album Take Fountain up on Torontoist, and have dug up a couple more Wedd-o-matic links. Something and Nothing is a new fansite dedicated to archiving all things Gedge and are doing a pretty bang-up job so far and this piece at Manchester Online talks to David Lewis Gedge about how the new record was informed by his breakup with co-Cinerama founder Sally Murrell.

Stylus is offering a guided tour to the first 50 singles from Creation Records. Of the first thirty they’ve posted so far, I think I’ve heard, um, none.

Hear some samples from Aimee Mann’s new album, The Forgotten Arm. They’ll be posting three new songs every Tuesday, presumably until the album is released on May 3. Thanks to Eugene for the link.

Zoilus considers the party line about the fate of CBC Radio 3. Diagnosis? Cynical.

np – Pernice Brothers / The World Won’t End