Photo by Victor Tavares

When Kathleen Edwards first arrived on the scene in 2003, her debut Failer was like a breath of fresh air for the roots-rock scene, with an electric guitar turned up loud and lyrical edge that could be sharp and incisive one moment, vulnerable the next. It was a rightful success and made the Ottawa native one of the country’s rising stars.

The follow-up Back To Me offered more of the same and was arguably as good, material-wise, but to these ears somehow sounded less essential than its predecessor. Edwards’ strength has always been her straightforward songwriting and vivid storytelling and I think I was craving something a little more cryptic in my diet. For whatever reason, Back To Me didn’t last nearly as long in rotation.

Which brings us to her third record, the just-released Asking For Flowers which caught my attention from the get-go because, unlike the first two records, it didn’t open with an immediate rocker. Instead, “Buffalo” builds from a sombre piano figure into an impressive piece of orchestration centred around Edwards’ strong vocals and some terrific drum work. Certainly not what I expected and with that, I had to shelve my preconceptions about what Edwards had delivered and listened closer.

Of course, the second track and first single – “The Cheapest Key” – is exactly the sort of lyrical list-checking rocker I’d have expected to kick things off but it’s not at all unwelcome, unlike “I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory”, which is written along the same lines and tries too hard to be clever to curry favour. Much of Flowers falls right back into Edwards’ safety zone and maybe it’s unfair of me to expect her to be the sort of songwriter that she may simply not be – she’s pretty damn good at what she does do – but songs like “Buffalo” can’t help but make me feel like she could still be even more.

Edwards is currently on tour across the continent and will stop in at the Phoenix in Toronto on April 23. In addition to touring, the new album brings with it a flurry of interviews from the likes of Chart, Velocity Weekly, The Baltimore Sun, The Detroit Free Press, Express, The Chicago Sun-Times and The Boston Globe. She also recorded a short session for NPR.

Video: Kathleen Edwards – “The Cheapest Key”
MySpace: Kathleen Edwards

Good news for those who missed out on My Morning Jacket’s recent Beautiful Noise taping (or those who were in attendance but just need more) – the boys will be back on June 16 for a show at the Kool Haus. Billboard has full tour dates and confirms the band’s appearance on Saturday Night Live on May 10, a month before Evil Urges is released. They also have a video interview with the band about making the new record.

The Roanoke Times talks to Steve Earle about his New York digs.

Tift Merritt discusses her Gallic sojourns with SF Weekly, The Province and Country Standard Time.

Thick Specs brings word that Sloan will release their umpteenth (okay, ninth) studio album, Parallel Play, on June 10. At 13 songs in length, it should be a damn sight more digestible than Never Hear The End Of It. Patrick Pentland talks a (tiny) bit to Chart about the new record.

Also much anticipated in Can-rock circles is the sophomore effort from Wolf Parade – Kissing The Beehive is out June 17 and Billboard talks to Spencer Krug about what to expect while Pitchfork offers a first taste.

MP3: Wolf Parade – “Call It A Ritual”

Carl Newman of The New Pornographers talks to Express and tells Billboard that it may be time for him to put the Pornography in the closet for a bit and put on his solo-rockin’ AC(-DC) hat back on.

Scoop catches a few minutes with Will Sheff of Okkervil River.

Spinner congratulates Elbow on the feat of being a British band who’ve managed to release four albums in North America despite not selling all that many of any of them. The Seldom Seen Kid will be neglected on North American store shelves starting next Tuesday.

The Detroit Free Press ponders why Radiohead have refused to play Motown in over a decade… the answer to which my shock and amaze you. Or not. It’s actually pretty much what you’d think. Via The Daily Swarm. And while fans may be able to turn their noses up at the cash-grab best-of comp coming out in June – with the express disapproval of the band and you know the LPs will be lousy pressings – the companion DVD, with its nine unreleased clips, may prove more difficult to resist.

The AV Club lists off “20 respectable rock and rap acts that peaked with debut albums”.

Photo via Merge

You see that huge list of concerts I’ve got over there on the right? No word of lie, the one I’m looking forward to the most out of all those shows, big and small, is the one at the very top of the list. This Thursday night, American Music Club at Lee’s Palace.

It’s one of those shows I never thought would happen, and not just because the band was broken up for the better part of a decade. As a solo artist, Mark Eitzel didn’t set foot in Toronto after a 2002 gig opening for Low and when the band reunited for 2004’s excellent Love Songs For Patirots, a visit to Hogtown was not on the agenda. Instead I went to Chicago in 2004 to experience them live and it was worth the trip. But now, at long last, AMC are coming to town and it’s on the back of a superb new record in The Golden Age.

If you’re a fan, and if you’ve ever listened to Everclear or Mercury I have to believe you became one, then I imagine you already have a ticket but if not, or if you’re just curious about who this grizzled old band that I am raving about is, then your ship has come in. Courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to join the American Music Club” in the subject line and your full name in the body before midnight, April 15.

And while you wait to find out if you are a winner, give this session they recorded for Minnesota Public Radio a listen. They are in fine form. There’s also interviews with The Vancouver Courier, Frog And A Blender and Prefix (via The Invisible Blog).

MP3: American Music Club – “All The Lost Souls Welcome You To San Francisco”
MP3: American Music Club – “I Know That’s Not Really You”
MP3: American Music Club – “All My Love”
Stream: American Music Club / The Golden Age
MySpace: American Music Club

Photo by Jamie Campbell

I’ve been awaiting Expatriate, the debut full-length from The Coast ever since I first saw them live and subsequently heard their self-titled EP, and what’s interesting is that while the full-length doesn’t disappoint, it also doesn’t sound much at all like their old work. It’s not a drastic reinvention – there’s greater variety in tempo and texture but the bedrock of shimmering guitars and plaintive vocals still remains – but it’s enough that your first thought after listening may well be “that was different”, followed shortly by “but still very familiar”. The Coast have done a fine job of expanding their identity both sonically and stylistically without letting go of what got their fans interested in the first place.

Their cross-country tour brings them back into Ontario this week, stopping back home in Toronto for a performance on MTV Canada on the 17th, a show at the Horseshoe on the 18th along with The Wooden Sky, The Ghost Is Dancing and Mixel Pixel and a change of clothes before heading back out to say hello to the eastern part of the country. Courtesy of the band, I’ve got three pairs of passes to give away for the show at the Horseshoe, which you can try to win by sending me an email at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to visit the Coast” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest will close at midnight, April 16.

MP3: The Coast – “Nueva York”
MP3: The Coast – “Tightrope”
MySpace: The Coast

Photo by Touch And Go

I feel quite fortunate in that my list of (active) bands that I still need to see live gets shorter and shorter every year, and many of those that remain unchecked are probably not very realistic prospects unless I go to them, on account of them being mostly smaller international acts who will probably never make their way to Toronto.

Not so for The New Year, however. I appreciate that with members scattered geographically around the United States that logistics can be an issue, but the fact is that they’ve toured the northeast before, but to my knowledge – and certainly not in the last five years or so since I’ve been listening to them – they’ve never come to Toronto. Did their former incarnation of Bedhead harbour a similar distaste for Hogtown? I don’t know, but I’d basically accepted that if I were ever going to get to hear any of their hypnotic and intricate narcolepsy rock live, I’d have to go to them.

And then, yesterday whilst cruising concert listings at work as I am wont to do (shh, don’t tell), I saw this and did a triple take. July 14, at a venue still to be determined, a Toronto show for the Kadane Brothers, aka Matt and Bubba Kadane, aka the principals behind The New Year and Bedhead. In Toronto. On July 14. With Bottomless Pit, the band formed from the ashes of Silkworm. Whoa. Now considering they’re taking care to NOT call this outfit The New Year, it does raise the question of exactly what we’re going to get – just Matt and Bubba on guitars? It could work, but more likely they’ll borrow their tourmates’ rhythm section. Either way. Excitement.

The New Year also reported, via MySpace blog, that their third album is now complete and is set for a September release with European and US touring to follow. Note that nowhere in that message does the word “Canada” appear. July 14. I’ll tell you where when I know, you just be there.

MP3: The New Year – “Sinking Ship”
MP3: Bedhead – “Liferaft”
MP3: Bottomless Pit – “The Cardinal Movements”
Video: The New Year – “Disease”
MySpace: The New Year

Also just announced and itching for a spot on your concert calendar… Brooklyn’s Blood On The Wall are at Sneaky Dee’s on May 20. Full dates here.

MP3: Blood On The Wall – “Hibernation”
MP3: Blood On The Wall – “Lightning Song”

The Helio Sequence is at the Horseshoe on May 26 as part of a tour in support of their solid new release Keep Your Eyes Ahead.

MP3: The Helio Sequence – “Keep Your Eyes Ahead”
MP3: The Helio Sequence – “Can’t Say No”
Video: The Helio Sequence – “Keep Your Eyes Ahead”

Islands, hot on the heel of the release of their new album Arm’s Way on May 20, will be at the Phoenix on May 29, tickets $12.

MP3: Islands – “Creeper”

Grand Archives is the new band featuring Mat Brooke, formerly of Band Of Horses. Grand Archives is also the debut album from Grand Archives. They make their Toronto debut on June 6 at the El Mocambo, tickets $10.50. Full tour dates here. NPR has a World Cafe session. JamBase has an interview.

MP3: Grand Archives – “Torn Blue Foam Couch”
MP3: Grand Archives – “Miniature Birds”

The following night (June 7) at the El Mo will find Adam Green, currently enjoying a Moldy Peaches/Juno-related wave of popularity, pushing his new record Sixes And Sevens. Tickets for this one are $13.50. The Guardian has a chat.

MP3: Adam Green – “Morning After Midnight”

Mercury prize-nominees from the UK, Young Knives, are at the Horseshoe on June 12 for what I presume is a NXNE gig. The Moscow Times talks to the band, who will release their new record Superabundance Stateside on April 22.

MP3: The Young Knives – “Weekends And Bleak Days”
Video: The Young Knives – “Up All Night”
Video: The Young Knives – “Terra Firma”
Video: The Young Knives – “Mummy Light The Fire”

You want weird? Stop in at the Horseshoe on June 23 where Frog Eyes and Evangelicals will bring the weird. Tickets for that will be $12.

MP3: Frog Eyes – “Bushels”
MP3: Evangelicals – “Skeleton Man”

And for the decidedly not weird, try the El Mocambo on June 26 where Maria Taylor and Johnathan Rice will sing you songs and be sensitive for just $11.50 in advance.

MP3: Maria Taylor – “A Good Start”
MP3: Maria Taylor – “Lost Time”
MP3: Johnathan Rice – “We’re All Stuck Out In The Desert”
Video: Maria Taylor – “A Good Start”

A note to those hitting the Peter Moren show on April 24 – the venue has been moved from the Mod Club to the El Mocambo and doors are now at 8 rather than 7.

Liz Phair begins the long, futile quest to reclaim her indie cred with this interview with Billboard. Paraphrased: “oh, those awful vacuous pop records? I didn’t really mean those. Or any of the other records that aren’t Exile In Guyville which, incidentally, I’m reissuing on June 24. Please buy it”.

CokeMachineGlow interviews The Acorn. My CD giveaway ends today, by the way, so if you were procrastinating for some strange reason, now’s a good time to stop.

Chart talks to Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood, is impressed by his name-dropping of Canadian musical icons. Did everyone get their tickets for their show at the Amphitheatre on August 15? I was going to try and get a lawn seat but got tired from watching everyone get all worked up over the presales all this week and decided I simply didn’t care that much… and I still tried this morning and couldn’t even get a lawn. Alas.

The New York Times considers the glut of music festivals across America this Summer and the ensuing lineup redundancy, covering some of the ground I tread on back in January. Which makes me look at Toronto’s V Fest, smaller than most others for sure but thus far the only one with Oasis, and feel pretty good about it.

The Kids In The Hall getting back together (and performing at Massey Hall on June 5) may seem like another piece of the “man, weren’t the ’90s awesome?” nostalgia wave, but as they tell The AV Club they’re going into this with the intention of not only performing new material, but maybe starting another TV show. That’s… good news?