How much do you still love The Stone Roses? Enough to pay $32 (plus applicable service charges) to see King Monkey Ian Brown whoop it up at the Mod Club on February 28? Yeah? Then you love the Stone Roses more than I do. Sure, technically he’s touring to promote Solarized, and people will almost certainly clap politely for “Corpses” (hey, I tried to get into Brown’s solo material but it just elicited raging indifference) or whatever, but you know that everyone there’s just waiting to hear those opening notes to “I Wanna Be Adored”. But you know what? No matter how hard you close your eyes and try, that won’t be Reni, Mani and Squire up there. But hey, if you want to go and pretend it’s 1990, feel free – someone’s gotta pay for Brownie’s parkas.

April 13 brings Ash and The Bravery to the Opera House. They will be pushing new records Meltdown (out March 8) and The Bravery (out March 29) respectively. Ash shmash. I want a Charlotte Hatherley show!

Stephen Malkmus’ third solo disc, Face The Truth, will be in stores May 24. Matador describes it as his “first bona fide solo recording” – which also draws attention to the fact that the album is NOT credited to “The Jicks” the way Pig Lib was. Hmm. I liked his first two post-Pavement efforts well enough, but that doesn’t make the new one a must-have. We’ll have to see how it sounds. Pitchfork has more deets.

With the impending release of Ivy’s In The Clear on March 1, some folks have been wondering what that means for the timing of the promised b-sides/rarities album – sez Andy Chase, “The Ivy bsides/dvd should appear sometime in late 2005/early 2006, once In The Clear has basically run it’s course”. I guess I didn’t really need to quote that directly.

Tired of waiting for that new Sigur Ros record? Stop waiting – play your own, with these Sigur Ros guitar tabs! Perfect for singalongs around the campfire. Actually, it’s a pretty neat site – the tabs with MIDI accompaniment are actually quite nice. I am going to learn to play “Vaka”. Someone else can sing.

And you know what’s fascinating listening? The individual instrument tracks for “Hunted By A Freak” on Mogwai’s Happy Songs For Happy People (these tracks were provided along with some multitracking computer software to allow the fans to make their own remixes of the song). Following along with just one guitar line, say, is like an education in space. Anyway, I think I need a new Mogwai record – the BBC Sessions disc out on February 22 will satisfy for a bit, but I want a new studio album.

Happy Groundhog Day. Celebrate by eating a groundhog.

np – Mogwai / Happy Songs For Happy People

Spoon.

Gimme Fiction.

May 10.

About.

Bloody.

Time.

Pitchfork has more details.

The Ambulance Ltd show that had been scheduled for March 2 at the Mod Club (yes, I just used the past tense) is no longer. Earlier yesterday, Ticketmaster had the show listed with the date TBA and Autolux, who had been tipped as support, appeared to be confirmed in Virigina on that day continuing to support The Secret Machines. Emerge has confirmed that the rescheduled date is April 16, still at the Mod Club, and that all tickets for the March 2 show will be honoured on the new date. I have no idea who will support, but I am going to stop saying “Autolux” because I’m starting to sound stupid. But on the plus side, it’s a Saturday show now.

Of course, what this also means is that I may well have the energy to hit some CMW shows on the Thursday night after all. We shall see.

The Ratio is a new online music zine based out of Toronto that just started up. Their first issue (looks like they’ll be publishing biweekly) looks promising with some interesting feature topics (Gowan?) and the writing is pretty good. Worth a look.

Another new site is Popstars Feet, brought to my attention by Largehearted Boy. The idea of a blog based on photos of indie pop musicians’ feet is a novel one, but you just know what someone, somewhere, is getting off on this.

24: I don’t know, are we supposed to cheer that Soul Patch (nee Tony) is back in the game? What I want to know is, what has he been doing for the past two years that he can be at a garage in Burbank, armed, within 10 minutes of getting a phone call from Jack. Driving a cab? And next time I need a security firm that can efficiently get massacred in their own offices, I’ll be sure to call those guys. Otherwise, not too much to say about the other storylines. Behruz and Mom on the run, CTU not quite getting the job done. Etc etc. I like how Sarah told Maryanne in precise detail where Jack and Audrey were going – she’s just helpful like that. And this Jack/Audrey/Paul triangle thing would be a lot more interesting if the husband didn’t look like Mr Bean.

Wonderfalls is out on DVD today! Go buy/rent it. It’s good.

Yes, Canadians buy our milk in bags. Metafilter is agog.

This is turning out to be kind of a slow week.

np – M Ward / Transfiguration Of Vincent

Splendid talks to Sam Beam about the going-ons in Iron & Wine-land, including a couple soundtrack appearances and a new EP, Woman King, coming out February 22. There will also be an east coast tour this Spring, hopefully with a Toronto show and hopefully without the presence of Crazy Shrieking Girls #1 and #2. Anyone who was at the show at the Horseshoe last June knows who I’m talking about. Torr has available for download “The Trapeze Swinger”, the nine-and-a-half minute tune that Beam contributed to the In Good Company soundtrack. It’s lovely. Myself, I’ve got some good Iron & Wine stuff lined up for my mp3 of the week in weeks to come, so come back later.

JAM! previews Back To Me, the sophomore effort from Ottawa alt.country sweetheart Kathleen Edwards, due out March 1.

Long-rumoured and now confirmed, The Cocteau Twins have reunited to play Coachella this May. Legendary 80s bands reuniting for Coachella seems to be the ‘in’ thing to do these days (Pixies used to be broken up, remember?). Whether this is a one-off deal or a longer-term dealie, we’ll have to see. The rest of the Coachella lineup is pretty impressive too, but the idea of standing around in the desert for two days… just not doing it for me.

Popmatters interviews Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis. From Largehearted Boy.

Stylus should re-name their site, “List Central”. Currently, they’ve got what they call “A Non-Definitive Guide To Movies About Music” and Top 10 TV Themes of All-Time. Amazingly, there is nothing by Mike Post on their list – I thought he wrote, like, everything. Hill Street Blues, man. I used to be able to play that on the piano. Back when I knew how to play piano.

Yes, I’ve given in and put a Bloggies banner up in the corner. Come on, everyone else is lobbying, I may as well do some subtle gladhanding. Anyway, it’ll be gone by Friday, don’t worry.

Steve Holt!

np – January / Motion Sickness

Let’s talk comics. I do like my comics.

Merckeda asked in the comments a few days ago what I thought about Jeff Smith’s Bone. Short answer, I loved it. I had bought a couple of the trade paperbacks a few years ago, but didn’t get around to getting the rest of them. Good thing too, because last Summer after the series concluded, they released the wonderful 1300-page single-volume collection. Bone is an old-school fantasy story with lost princesses, heroic woodland creatures, ancient dragons and stupid, stupid rat creatures. Filled with action, humour, warmth, great characters and storytelling, it’s remarkable in that it’s suitable for all ages but is never cloying or ‘kiddified’. It comes with my highest recommendation. Originally presented in black and white, they’ve begun releasing colourized editions of each of the original trade paperback collections. I’d like to take a look through one of these, but I don’t feel that the story suffered one iota for the monochrome presentation – Smith’s strong clean artwork worked really well in that format.

I’ve also started reading through the entire run of what you could call the anti-Bone, Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s Transmetropolitan. Rude, cynical and insanely funny at times, I can see why Vic has been agitating me to read the series for years now – Spider Jerusalem is one true bastard. The series started out as little more than a soapbox for Ellis to rant and ruminate on society and technology, but has thankfully developed a larger-scale narrative to carry the series through. It’s quite addictive – I’m about halfway through the series and I expect to be done in another couple days.

Also highly recommended is Brian K Vaughan’s and Tony Harris’ Ex Machina. Easily one of the best new titles of last year, it’s the story of an ex-superhero turned mayor of New York City. It manages the rare feat of being very “talky” yet never boring. There are some conventional action sequences shown in flashback to the mayor’s heroing days as The Great Machine (he can talk to and control any type of machinery), but much of the story is set in present-day (or a few years before present-day) and deals with current events. It’s far less preachy than it sounds, really. But then, I like The West Wing too. The first five issues of the series have just been collected as Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days and is selling for the immensely reasonable price of $12.20 at Amazon (the US cover is $9.95). Definitely worth checking out.

Vaughan is also the writer on Y – The Last Man, which takes far far far too long to come out in paperback form.

And a final Vertigo note, I recently went through all of Bill Willingham’s Fables. I bought the first trade a couple years ago and didn’t really get into it, but upon second visit, I now appreciate its cleverness and charm. I think the first time around, I was put off by how “straight” they were playing the story of fairy tale characters driven from their homeland and forced to live in New York City – I was too used to how Neil Gaiman had handled fairy tales in Sandman, as high fantasy and ancient lore. Willingham is much more down-to-earth in his approach, and now that I get it, it works. And anything with Mark Buckingham artwork is always great.

I got Craig Thompson’s Blankets from the library the other day. Haven’t started reading it, don’t even really know what it’s about, but I’ve seen some good press on it. It looks very emo.

Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s feature film Mirrormask made its debut at the Sundance film festival this past week. It’s still unclear if this will be getting a theatrical release, even limited, or go straight to DVD, but I’m hoping that good press can net it some big-screen release. The Salt Lake Tribune looked at the making of the $4-million dollar fantasy film and the official website has a new trailer online now.

The BBC recently conducted an interview with Alan Moore – you can listen to it on their site or read the transcript at Comic Book Resources. And speaking of Moore’s work, pre-production continues on the film adaptation of Watchmen, now being directed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy), so expect casting rumours/news to start pretty soon. The Beat is excited. And while it’s old news, Natalie Portman has been cast in the adaptation of V For Vendetta, directed by the Wachowski Brothers. I had thought that after the Matrix debacle, they’d never work again. Guess I was wrong. Achtung Baby did a comparison a little while back of the trade paperback cover and the teaser movie poster. If they can stay this faithful to the source material through the whole process, this could be something good.

The so-aweseome-my-head-explodes Justice League Unlimited wrapped up their third season this weekend with the conclusion of “The Once And Future Thing” (Hal Jordan! Hal Jordan!!!), and will be starting their fourth season this coming Saturday. Why they call the first 13 episodes one season and the next 13 episodes following right after a second season, I have no idea. But as long as they keep making em, I’m not complaining. Comics Continuum has a sneak peek at what’s to come.

Ever wonder just where Gotham City and Metropolis were? DC Atlas has the answers – New Jersey and Deleware, respectively. I don’t know, Batman just got far less cool in my estimation. I just can’t picture the Batmobile tooling around with plates that say, “The Garden State”.

np – Bettie Serveert / Attagirl

Check out this week’s edition of CBC Radio 3 for a master list of their past 102 radio sessions (and some live concert sets). The recent Arcade Fire has already spread around the interweb like ebola, but there’s scads more in the vaults. It’s not just the music that’s worthwhile, but the presentation is terrific – the essays and photos that accompany the sessions really enhance the experience. Is it wrong that this is one of the things that makes me most proud to be Canadian? Nuts to universal health care, I want my tax dollars to go towards bringing the rock, thank you very much. There’s truly an embarrassment of riches here, I can’t even start naming names of who they’ve got there – but I will say that the Sigur Ros and Feist sets are fine places to start. Go now and marvel.

American Music Club has released a live album recorded at the Rex Theatre in Pittsburgh in November of last year. A Toast To You is available off their website for $10 plus shipping, they also have the tracklisting. It’s good to see “Amusing Interlude #2” finally make it onto a CD, but I’m still hoping for a studio version.

Mercury Rev’s The Secret Migration, released in the UK this past Monday, has a North American street date of May 3. Initial reviews are good.

I always like it when a new issue of Exclaim! hits the streets (and web) – more content to post. Case in point – the Feb issue brings us a couple short pieces on M83 (article), Low ((article) and a cover feature on Bright Eyes (article).

Junkmedia talks to Wilco axeman Nels Cline about balancing his solo projects and being a member of Wilco. And tangentially, Drag City has confirmed that 2005 will see a second Loose Fur album.

I was in the mood for a little stupid at the video store yesterday, and so came home with Anchorman. Whole lotta stupid there, but I was in the right mindset so it was laugh out loud funny for most of it, particularly the news team rumble. I would have liked it if it were even more over the top than it was, but that’s just me.

Can’t think of a better way to start the weekend than having an order of music waiting for me in the mailbox. I’ll be spending the next few days getting acquainted with the sounds of January’s Motion Sickness and the self-titled releases from On! Air! Library! and Pacific UV. Expect some commentary in the next little while.

np – On! Air! Library! / On! Air! Library!