The new Velvet Crush album has very quietly been released. Parasol has copies of Stereo Blues on sale for $12 to everyone in the world except for folks in Japan – apparently the Crush still has a record deal there, so they’ll have to wait till the label decides to release it proper. Though the band is still comprised mainly of Ric Menck and Paul Chastain, the new record also features a slew of guest performers. Hopefully this will be a bit livelier affair than 2002’s Soft Sounds, which was quite pretty but too languid overall. They hope to tour in support either in late Autumn or early Winter, possibly with Matthew Sweet along for the ride on guitar. Folks, it doesn’t get more pop than that.

Everyone who fell in love with The Wrens’ The Meadowlands and has been trying to hunt down the band’s earlier material without paying extortionist eBay prices gets a little bit of good news with the announcement that their Abbott 1135 EP from 1999 will be getting a re-release this October expanded with extra tracks to album length. That’s great, but what about their first two records, Secaucus and Silver? Well the rights to those records are the property of their old label, abhorrent Creed-peddlers Wind-Up Records, who refuse to revert the rights back to the band. Why? Cause they’re fuckers. So if you want to see justice done, I suggest writing a letter to the Wind-Up powers-that-be to cajole and persuade the to see the light and do the right thing. To get you started, I’d suggest opening with something like, “Dear Asswipes; Give the Wrens back their music or I will come down there and cut you. I swear I will. I’m a crazy man. Sincerely, blah blah blah”.

The new Interpol album has been titled Antics and will be out out on September 28. Rejected potential titles included Shenanigans, Hijniks and Wacky Escapades. Tracklisting at Matador Records.

The Toronto Star profiles Wilco and becomes the first article in ages to not mention Jeff Tweedy going into rehab. Instead, Vit Wagner draws heavily on Greg Kot’s Learning How To Die in considering the argument that Wilco are America’s Radiohead. Not available online is a sidebar offering an album-by-album comparison of the two bands’ careers.

Some shows coming to the Horseshoe – country chanteuse Carolyn Mark holds a CD release party for The Pros And Cons Of Collaboration on August 27 and Austin’s instrumental anarchists Explosions In The Sky will blow the shit out of the club on October 11. With loudness.

Now Michael Moore things that Fahrenheit 911 can save Canada’s elections as well as the US’. Well, he certainly has a high opinion of himself and he seems to not be aware of the fact (sad or not) that no one who’s planning on voting for the right in either of our countries is going to see his film, so his impact on the outcomes will be, uh, nothing. Further on the topic of Mr Moore, Roger Ebert succinctly articulates my beefs with the man, his tactics and how he may be doing more harm than good. From Heart Murmur.

Not much going on this weekend, which suits me just fine. I’ve been stuck in ‘go’ mode for a couple of weeks now which is really wearing me out. I need some decent ‘sit around and do nothing’ time to get it all together again.

np – The Olivia Tremor Control / Music From The Unrealized Film Script “Dusk At Cubist Castle”

Good show at Sneaky Dee’s last night. Between Lake Holiday, Pine Music and Code Name Laurentians we were able to offer a solid and eclectic set of music to a surprisingly good turnout (there was a lot going on in town last night for a Thursday). Pine Music were up first and played a short but very nice set of folkish rock rooted somewhere between The Band and Royal City. Bonus points for incorporating the bowed saw. We were up next and were tighter than usual, which was a nice surprise. The new stuff sounded good though we botched the cover – that’s okay, it’s someone else’s song. I’m glad we had the opportunity to work the cello back into the arrangements. Finally, Code Name Laurentians brought some natty suits and a hip sound not unlike Scott Walker fronting Franz Ferdinand. Definitely some Psychedelic Furs/Echo & The Bunnymen mojo going on. If it was a dancing-type crowd, they’d probably have been dancing.

I had been more nervous than usual going into this one not just because it was us organizing the show, but because I was having ‘technical difficulties’ with my playing – which is a euphemistic way of saying that I was playing like shit lately. More accurately, there were a couple songs in the set that I seemed unable to play consistently and when I was off, BOY was I off. I was prepared to just roll my volume off when necessary and say that my gear was cutting out. Thankfully, that wasn’t necessary as I guess I got my swing back just in time. I was just trying to stay in key but I managed to make it tuneful as well, which was gravy. I was trying to channel Son Volt’s Dave Boquist but it was commented afterwards that I may have misdialed and gotten Poison’s C.C. DeVille. Um, okay. Next time, I play less notes. And leave the spandex and wig at home. Photos here, courtesy of Garry.

Tired today. Even though I didn’t have to haul gear back to the space afterwards, I still didn’t get to bed till after 2AM. Thank God for half day Fridays.

Pitchfork continues their love affair with Toronto bands, giving Controller.Controller’s debut record a very solid 8.3 rating.

Billboard has some info on the two forthcoming Elvis Costello albums on September 21.

The new Ted Leo joint has a title of Shake The Streets and will be out October 19. He will be in town shaking Queen St from the Horseshoe on Monday the 21st.

np – Heavenly / Operation Heavenly

Okay, so who else knew that Mystic River was NOT the sequel to Mystic Pizza? Would it have killed you to mention it to me before I rented it? Anyway, having now watched the almost-universally praised film, I will confess to being a little perplexed. What I saw was a workmanlike and fairly predictable drama that walked mostly on the wrong side of melodrama. Granted, the performances were quite solid – you can’t really go wrong with a cast like this – but I found Eastwood’s direction heavy-handed and uninspired. I kept waiting for the story to come up with some sort of twist that would make it more worthwhile, but by the end, everything was explained in the most logical and pedestrian manner possible. I didn’t want Shyamalan-esque corkscrews, but something that could have outsmarted a mind that wasn’t really working that hard might have been nice. I certainly wouldn’t say it’s a bad film or not worth seeing, but it’s hardly exceptional. I am thankful, however, that Kevin Bacon was not given the opportunity to take off his pants and show his bare ass.

Has indie rock’s time in the sun come? And if so, will it be it’s very undoing? Oh, the tension! From the GPC.

Sarah Harmer continues her tour of the really really nice theatres in Toronto – next stop, Massey Hall on September 17 with Josh Ritter as support. Tickets are $29.50-$35.50, on sale Friday. Or, if you’re special and have the advance sames password like I do, they go on sale today. Anyone who wants it, email me.

And now we reach the Wilco portion of today’s post: Rolling Stone has a nice long feature on the band in their latest issue, contrasting interviews with Jeff Tweedy before and after his rehab session. Nude As The News has a song-by-bong review of Ghost. And that was a fine performance of “Hummingbird” on Letterman last night, but man does Jeff look strange on stage without a guitar. Dancing? What?

NOW puts Montreal’s Arcade Fire on this week’s cover to hype up their show June 23rd at Lee’s Palace. June 23rd? Why that’s the night that we’re playing a show at the Rivoli with Wax Mannequin! That’s okay, we’ve also got a show tonight at Sneaky Dee’s with Code Name Laurentians, you can catch us then… unless of course you’re at Lee’s (again) to see Jay Farrar, whom NOW also profiles this week. It’s a conspiracy, I tells ya. But that’s okay – if we weren’t playing, I’d probably be at both of these shows myself. But if you are coming down tonight, Pine Music should be up by 10:30, we’ll be up by 11 and Code Name Laurentians around 11:45.

Update: Pine Music got a stellar review in this week’s eye, in case you needed extra incentive to come out tonight. It’s even stopped raining!

np – …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead / Source Tags And Codes

It took me quite some time and at least two renewals at the library (it’s now officially overdue, by the way), but I finally finished Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay the other night. Not for lack of interest, I just kept getting sidetracked by other things. I actually quite enjoyed the book which is the story of two cousins at the dawn of the Golden Age of comics who create a character – The Escapist – as a contemporary of Superman. Chabon does a good job of believably weaving his fiction into the true history of the industry and demonstrating his love of the medium without making it a book about comics – it’s squarely about the characters and their lives, which simply happen to be greatly informed by comics. Ah, fuck it – This is why I don’t do book reviews. It’s a good book. Look into it if you’re interested. For my part, I’ll be checking out Chabon’s other works after I get through my current massive backlog of reading materials.

I’m also planning on picking up the comics Dark Horse has begun publishing chronicling the fictional adventures of The Escapist. Featuring a host of the top talent in comics today, it looks to be the perfect extension of a great novel. The first two 80-page issues have already been collected in a trade paperback, but I think I’ll just be getting the regular issues – they’re thick and squarebound so they’d look just as good on a bookshelf as a compendium.

Wilco on Late Night with David Letterman tonight.

Endearing Records artists The Waking Eyes will be opening for Ted Leo this coming Monday at the ‘Shoe. The Waking Eyes got some serious praise from Chart for their set during NXNE last weekend. Should be good.

New York’s On!Air!Library! will be in town October 12 with Solex. No venue yet.

Paul Westerberg’s Folker has a release date – August 24. Sez Westerberg about the set, “It’s got the classic stuff. You know, the songs of mine that people always like? I think I’ve got more than I need this time. I think it might be a fan favorite.” From Delusions Of Adequacy.

The full official information on the Legacy Edition of Jeff Buckley’s Grace can be found here. I don’t know why they keep listing a Monday as the release date. Even if that is the European release date, you think they’d make some mention of the North American date.

Some release info from Lost Highway – Tift Merritt’s sophomore release has a title, Tambourine, and will be out August 24. The following week will see a still-untitled live Lucinda Williams record hit stores. A live Jayhawks record is out September 28.

Best wishes to Johnny Ramone in his battle with cancer.

Hardcore Uncle Tupelo fans may appreciate this news story. Others… will not.

So thanks to Bradley of the Almanac, I have a shiny new Gmail account. What I don’t have is any idea what to do with it. I already have three fairly entrenched email addresses in use that I really don’t have any problems with – spam or storage. So for now, I’ll just sit here and look at it. Kinda like just breathing in that new car smell without any need to turn the ignition.

np – Spoon / Kill The Moonlight

YAAAAY. New Steve Earle album! The Revolution Starts… Now is out August 24. Once again featuring the incomparable Emmylou Harris on guest vocals, details and tracklisting are available from Rolling Stone.

I’ve always preferred the work of the post-prison Fat Steve Earle (Train A-Comin’ through Jerusalem) versus that by the pre-prison Skinny Steve Earle (Guitar Town through The Hard Way), but now he’s gone and lost a whole lot of weight, creating a third iteration – post-prison Skinny Steve Earle. What will that mean for his music? Well, I’ll wager he’s still just as pissed off about the state of the Union as he was on Jerusalem (some song titles – “Rich Man’s War,” “Condi, Condi” and “F the CC”), and Angry Steve Earle is usually a guarantee of a great record. There’s no doubt some out there who would prefer Steve not make the overtly political records and I don’t doubt that he wishes he didn’t have to make them either – but times like these, someone’s gotta do it. And hell – everyone who’s gonna hate him already does, so what’s there to lose?

Time is the latest publication to review A Ghost Is Born and profile Wilco.

Good stuff from Said The Gramophone today – new tracks from the forthcoming Hidden Cameras and Rachel Goswell albums. Rachel Goswell’s Waves Are Universal is out next week, the Hidden Cameras’ Mississauga Goddamn sometime between now and the end of the year. Yeah, I’m useless, I know.

Newsweek took an exclusive visit to the set of Batman Begins and got a pic of Christian Bale in action. The first teaser trailer is in production and they hope to have it attached to Spider-Man 2 on June 30, but failing that, it will make its debut before I, Robot on July 16 or at the very latest, July 30 as the only thing worth seeing if you have some sort of mental moment and decide to go see Catwoman.

Best wishes going out to long-time Blue Jays radio broadcaster Tom Cheek, who is battling a brain tumour. Previous to his father’s death last month, he had gone an amazing 4306 games without missing a broadcast since the franchise’s inception. I’ve spent many hours listening to him calling Jays games, here’s hoping he’ll have many more.

Rasputin’s dick. ‘Nuff said.

Yahoo Mail is going ca-ca today while they upgrade everyone’s accounts (or so they say), so if you write me and I don’t respond for a bit, blame them. Or use my chromewaves account (link on ‘about’ page).

np – Built To Spill / Perfect From Now On