Behold the artwork for Tanya Donelly’s Whiskey Tango Ghosts, out July 27. Larger pic here. Over on the 4AD message board, someone has done a track-by-track commentary (I hesitate to call it a review) of the new record.

Wilco appear to be set on becoming a multimedia powerhouse. In the last few years there’s been a feature film and DVD, compact discs, a free digital download EP and biography (Learning How To Die, out June 15). Now there’s another book due out in October – check out The Wilco Book. Produced in conjunction with PictureBox Inc (who designed the packaging for A Ghost Is Born), it’s descibed as follows: “Accompanied by a 40-minute CD of unreleased new music, The Wilco Book is a full color 160-page visual analog to the band’s music”. So there you have it – an album’s worth of unreleased music and a picture book to go along with it. How cool is that? Only thing that could be cooler is if there was the sound of Tinkerbell waving her magic wand everytime it was time to turn the page.

And a Wilco chaser – Billboard reviews their show last night in NYC.

Iron & Wine are doing an instore at Soundscapes on College St on June 29 at 7pm in advance of their show that same night at the Horseshoe.

I don’t know why The Wave has decided that Yo La Tengo are ‘shoegaze’, but thankfully it doesn’t factor into this quick interview with James McNew about nothing in particular. From the GPC.

Curiosa ticket info is now up. As predicted, it’s pricey – $25.50 for lawns, up to $85.50 for seats. And don’t forget, this is before Ticketmaster’s anal rape fees so we’re talking $100 if you want to marvel at how badly Robert Smith is aging from up close. They’re on sale this Saturday though I believe there’s a presale starting today if you’re a member of CFNY’s – sorry, Edge 102’s glee club. I don’t know anything beyond that. Now you damn kids get off my lawn.

An interesting experience helping out at the White Ribbon Campaign concert last night. Who knew The Tea Party had so many fans? Not I. Nor was I accustomed to interacting with all-out rawk fans, with their leather pants, low-cut tank tops and teased-out hair (this is the men AND women, thanks – though the women did generally have much larger breasts). Guess I’ve spent too much time in the insular little world of indie… or not enough. Since it turned out I was no longer needed for the silent auction, I was assigned to gather signatures for a giant petition. Didn’t do a terrific job of it either, I confess, though it wasn’t really my fault. It’s tough to get peoples’ attention when you’re standing in a dark doorway (some light would have been nice…) and they’re looking really hard for the bar. What got me the most was the people who looked at the petition (which basically said “These men are working to end men’s violence against women”, the raison d’etre of the organization) and said, “no thanks”. What, you disagree with the cause? Anyway, I got bored with that and went to help hand out white ribbons at the front door for a while. All in all, I wasn’t really needed there after all but it was nice to help out where I could. If ineffectively.

np – Cinerama / Torino

Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Lightning for winning their first Stanley Cup. I was obviously pulling for Calgary, but Tampa certainly earned this and I’m thrilled for Dave Andreychuk (ex-Leaf!) – 22 seasons is a helluva long time to wait for your first championship. And while there’s going to be naysayers who will huff that the Stanley Cup doesn’t belong in Florida, I liked what Martin St. Louis said in response to them last night after the game – “I don’t care what they think”. You’re not going to tell me that those 25 guys on the ice or the 20,000 fans in stands were any less ecstatic than they would have been here. Maybe I’m just a little touchy after hearing the same sort of criticism 10 years ago when my Jays won two World Series – how could a Canadian team win the championship of America’s pastime? Easy – we kicked Atlanta and Philadelphia’s asses. It happened, deal with it. (I was kidding with my, “that’s just not right” comment a couple days ago, by the by). Cheers to the Bolts.

Lowculture has a touching eulogy for Ronald Reagan from one of his most famous co-stars.

The Finn Brothers will be in Toronto at Massey Hall July 26 to promote their new album Everyone Is Here, out August 24. Full details at Filter.

More information, reliable or not, is coming to light about the death of Robert Quine. At first they were saying it was a suicide, then that became a heroin overdose – not to say that they can’t be the same thing. The Billboard link has some kind words about Robert from Lou Reed. Pitchfork also has an obituary.

A fond farewell to Glamorama – another blogger bites the dust. Now, as prescribed by ancient tradition, remaining bloggers will cut apart his source code and insert it into our own, thus granting us the strength of the fallen.

You may note the presence of a new retro-styled banner up in the corner plugging a couple of upcoming Lake Holiday shows. After almost three months of hiding out, we’ve got two shows in the span of a week – the first on the 17th at Sneaky Dee’s is our own, with Code Name Laurentians and Pine Music (it’s a whole cottage-country theme) and the second opening for the “President of indie rock”, Wax Mannequin at the Rivoli on the 23rd. Dan Gorman also performs that night. Extra incentive, if you need it, is that these could be Five Seventeen’s final shows with the band as frankly, we’re sick of his shit and intend to tie him in a gunnysack and toss him over the Bloor viaduct sooner rather than later. Actually, he’s moving to BC at the end of the Summer so we’re looking for a replacement bassist. Know anyone? Funny name and veganism are not prerequisites.

I have somehow been hornswaggled into volunteering at the White Ribbon Campaign Concert/NXNE kickoff tonight at the Phoenix. Well, hornswaggled probably isn’t the right word if it’s even a word at all. More like Clay asked if anyone could help out and I said “sure”. Apparently I will be sitting around in the silent auction room making sure no one steals anything – you know that signed Bacon Brothers CD/DVD will be a hot item. Meanwhile, The Tea Party and other perpetrators of crimes against music will be rocking out in the next room. At least it’s for a good cause.

np – Bettie Serveert / Dust Bunnies

Signs of the Apocalypse #5301: Could Neil Young’s Archives finally be coming out? MusicTap has been getting multiple reports that Neil has made a deal with Sanctuary Records to release the gargantuan Archives collection, which has been under construction for nigh on twenty years now, in four installments of 8 CDs and 2 DVDs each. That’s a total of 32 CDs and 8 DVDs, for those of you without calculators handy. That’s right – never one to do things in half measures, Neil will be putting out a box set of box sets. And if that’s not enough Neil, they’ll also be releasing a live CD taken from a 1971 show at Massey Hall in Toronto. Note that none of this is confirmed and as with all things Neil, it can change at the drop of a hat, but any news is good news, I think.

Some sad news – Robert Quine has passed away. No details right now, but his website has confirmed it. Quine was a sideman nonpareil, starting out with Richard Hell and the Voidoids in the late 70s NYC-CBGBs punk scene, and later working with Lou Reed, John Zorn, Tom Waits, Lloyd Cole and Matthew Sweet. It’s Sweet’s records that I know his work best from – the guitar work on Girlfriend, Altered Beast and 100% Fun is phenomenal (it’s mostly Quine and Richard Lloyd). Condolences to friends and family, RIP. Update: The webmaster at Richard Hell’s website has posted the following message: “It was suicide. He never recovered from his wife’s sudden, completely unexpected death ten months ago. I don’t know much more except that it’s going to mess up many many people’s minds. There was no one like him.” So sad.

As we inch closer towards the June 22 release of A Ghost Is Born, you know the Wilco press clippings are going to increase exponentially, and like any proper devoted fanboy blogger, I’ll be presenting the ones I find and deem worthwhile, like this Chicago Sun-Times piece by Jim DeRogatis or this one from the Chicago Tribune by Greg Kot (free registration required).

Shortwavemedia interviews Camera Obscura on the eve of their first North American tour. Or really, about twenty eves before the start of their first North American tour. they play the Horseshoe in Toronto July 23.

Pitchfork has complete details on the Low box set, A Lifetime Of Temporary Relief, out on July 20. Most of this info has been previously reported, but here’s the 411 all in one place. They also mention the band is working with Dave Fridmann on their new album.

Retrocrush presents an interesting twist on the best-of list: 50 Coolest Song Parts. It’s nice every once in a while to see a list that’s not trying to be ironic or post-modern, but is just excited to be talking about good music. From Burned By The Sun.

Coolfer has compiled a best of 2004 list, thus far at least. I had thought about doing something similar for the end of June at the midway point of 2004, but the truth is is that of the 2004 releases that I’ve acquired to this point, there’s not really any that have blown me away. There’s some that will certainly grow on me as I listen to them more and could well earn its way onto the year-end list, but to assign them that status at this point is premature. The second half of the year has some key releases scheduled though, so I’m not saying 2004 is a bust yet, not at all. It just hasn’t been particularly spectacular… though I will investigate some of the stuff on Coolfer’s list.

I’ve finished watching season two of The Office and think I actually enjoyed it more than season one, heresy as that might seem. Partly because it took me a few episodes to get into the rhythm of season one whereas for the second series I was right in there from the get go, but also because while it might be less all-out funny, it has a more compelling storyline running through it. While season one focused on establishing the characters and their dynamic, season two actually takes it and runs with it. David Brent shows himself to be less the bumbling idiot and more the nasty, deluded little man while the Tim-Dawn plotline is executed quite realistically (maybe a little too much so?). I particularly liked the ambiguity of the final episode. Now I guess I’ll can either go dig up the Christmas special online or wait for it to come out DVD as season three.

12,000 participants in yesterday’s Ride For Heart, over $1.55 million raised. Not a bad day’s work, and you know what? Today my legs don’t even hurt!

Found this in my referer log – someone got to my blog by searching for “milky sexy nude naked girls photos”. Sorry dude, you want my other website.

np – Buffalo Tom / Big Red Letter Day

PS – Buffalo Tom are writing a new album for release in 2005! Yay for the early 90s Beantown-rock revival!

Well that was bracing. Actually, the Ride For Heart went really well this year. Overslept my alarm by half an hour and scrambled to get out the door on time, but beyond that everything went hiccup-free. The weather was more accommodating than last year – warmer, if still overcast most of the morning, and less windy. Every factor I had hoped would make a difference in the ease of the ride this year did so. My bike was lighter and faster, I was in much better shape than last year and I just knew the course this time – I knew where the hills were, where I needed to conserve energy and where I could just boot it. Net result? I breezed through the distance without much difficulty at all. The hills that I expected would kick my ass didn’t. The 50 km (actually 43, apparently, though with the ride down there and back it was more like 60) didn’t seem that long at all. It didn’t even take that long, barely two hours and that includes about 15 minutes spent at a rest stop loading up on water and bananas (potassium is your friend!). Granted, I really needed a shower when all was said and done and my ass hurts, but I’m quite pleased with how the ride went. Thanks again to everyone who sponsored me – apparently $1.5 million was raised for heart and stroke research. Thanks to Gary for snapping the ‘in-action’ photo at the end of the race.

Caught the second installment of Kill Bill yesterday, and was pleased to have been able to wait until it hit the rep theatres to do so. It takes the sting out of having to pay twice to see a single film just a little bit. And it really should have been a single film, if I may harp on a point. While the first one was chock full of action and moved really well for a two-hour flick, I found the second part just dragged. I understand it’s supposed to be the talkier, more exposition-filled of the two, and that’s fine. I just wish they weren’t so obviously trying to fill up time to make it feature-film length – it runs out of gas before the finish line and instead of managing to coast the rest of the way, they have to get out and push. A good thirty to forty minutes could have been excised without compromising the story one bit, in fact it would have helped the pacing a lot. The final act wherein The Bride first meets her daughter is particularly excessive – I think Tarantino overestimates the audience’s patience in indulging his every whim (or at least mine) and I’d recommend in the future he avoid trying to give his films any sort of emotional heart. He’s about empty calorie entertainment and pop culture references – trying to work humanity into the mix is simply not his strength. Anyway, besides the fact that I got hungry halfway through and became more interested in what I was going to have for dinner, Volume 2 was alright if considerably less fun than its predecessor. If one of the dozen or so DVD releases for the film is the original 3-hour, single film edit then I might be interested to see it again. Otherwise I’d probably just get annoyed again.

Boo to Tampa Bay for ruining Calgary’s party. Now they’re going to have to award the Stanley Cup on Monday night in FLORIDA. That just ain’t right.

Now I need a nap.

np – Camera Obscura / Underachievers Please Try Harder

Interesting find in the used CD bins yesterday – a solo album from Emily Haines of Metric. Titled Cut In Half And Also Double, it’s a collection of demo-quality songs recorded in the early- and mid-nineties, released seven years ago. I had not heard of the existance of this record in any press or discussions about the band (The only evidence I can find of it on the internet is this review from eye in 1997), so I had to listen to it before buying to make sure it was the same Emily. The blurry photo on the cover wasn’t much help, but a quick listen to a couple tracks confirmed her identity. The songwriting is rougher and less poppy and is very much the sound of a young artist trying to find her voice, but the characteristics that would come to the fore years later in Metric are definitely detectable. It’s almost a shame I’ve decided to keep it – I bet I could get some coin for it on eBay.

Also cool was finding a copy of Rachel Goswell’s The Sleep Shelter EP. It’s so pretty I want to cry. Okay, I don’t really want to cry, but it sounds gorgeous and is surprisingly pop – moreso than the last Mojave 3 album, even. Not that that record was especially pop. But if this is just a sample of what Waves Are Universal (out June 22) will sound like, we may have a sleeper contender for one of my favorite albums of the year.

Possibly my favourite local band, The Sadies will have a new album out August 10 entitled Favourite Colours. For some reason, the idea of those two words spelled Canadian-style on something that’s going to be on sale in the States makes me happy.

Feist explains to Chart why sad songs say so much.

According to Billboard, Fountains Of Wayne are looking at releasing a b-sides/rarities collection by the end of the year. Speaking as someone who has a slew of their b-sides in mp3 form, I can vouch for the fact that a lot of them are top-notch quality – often better than tracks from the album to which they were excised.

Stephen Malkmus is contemplating what kind of album to make next. Hey Stephen – how about a good one for a change? Okay, that was a cheap shot. I didn’t mind either Stephen Malkmus or Pig Lib, but neither set my world on fire either. Look for the fruits of his indecision next January, if not sooner.

Rainer Maria and Engine Down are in town to rock you sensitively July 29, venue TBA.

Another show looking for a home is Br. Danielson of the Danielson Familie. If a venue isn’t found, he’ll be roaming the streets of Toronto aimlessly on August 21.

Wanna plan waaaaay into the future? Old 97’s are coming to town September 12 at the Opera House. Don’t wanna wait that long to get a live taste? A Live at the Troubadour DVD is going to be released soon, though maybe not before the show. But maybe it will! The new album, Drag It Up, is out July 27.

Looking even further ahead, The Magnolia Electric Co. (née Songs: Ohia) will be in town October 2. I’m amazed acts book this far in advance. Hasn’t anyone seen The Day After Tomorrow? The world could, like, END. If not tomorrow, then the DAY AFTER tomorrow.

Meet Tontie, your new favorite online time-waster. It’s like a cross between Whack-A-Mole and Super Mario Bros and addictive like nicotine-laced crack.

Tonight is the release party for Shameless magazine down at the 360 ($5 at the door including a copy of the magazine) – I know a few of the people involved with putting this project together and have been very impressed with the dedication and hard work they’ve put into getting to this point. Congratulations to them all.

It’ll be a late post tomorrow – the Ride For Heart starts way early in the morning and will keep me on the road until early afternoon at least. Thanks tremendously to everyone who has generously pledged their money to sponsor me (as well as prove the blog as a viable fundraising device!). I promise I won’t wimp out halfway through the course and take the loser bus of shame back to the finish line.

np – Rachel Goswell / The Sleep Shelter EP