The rock won out over the sloth yesterday, and I headed out to the 360 for the post-CMW hangover show. I hadn’t been to the 360 in years, since they renovated and decided to target the local hard rock/metal audience, and I have to say – they’ve done a pretty good job. The stage is larger and more professional and the sound is quite good – it used to be awful.

Anyway, despite having Vancouver popsters The Salteens headlining, most of the show was still very appropriate to the 360’s usual demographic. Vancouver’s Billy & The Lost Boys played a short set of very catchy and energetic pop-punk, with just the right amount of hookiness and sneer. They were followed by locals Hostage Life, who pretty much all aggro punk and prompted me to put in earplugs and pull out a book after a couple songs. Dead Letter Dept were mostly more of the same, but with a little more interesting song structures and instrumentation. Still, I was getting a little impatient for the bands I’d come to see to get on.

Australia’s Sekiden has been to Canada a number of times in the past couple years, almost always touring with The Salteens. They trade in high-energy synth-driven new wave pop, and they’re good at it. Sharp tunes combined with lots of jumping around and just all-around good times – think The Rentals on speed. By this point, it had gotten late and they were pressed for time, so The Salteens were forced to play an abbreviated 8-song set – they made the most of it though. I’d last seen them three or four years ago, and there’ve been line-up changes and loads of touring since then, the end result of which is a much tighter and better band. Terrific melodies and vocal harmonies, great songs – worth the wait. Photos of the two last acts here. They’ll be back in June for NXNE, and I’m going to do my best to catch them again. I also picked up their latest album at the show, Let Go Of Your Bad Days. It still features the old four-piece lineup, so it’s a slightly different sound than the live band. I’d say the current incarnation sounds better – new member Erin Jane’s keyboards really help fill out the sound and her vocals are stronger than departed bassist Megan Bradfield’s. Still an enjoyable listen, though I’m more anxious to hear some recordings with the new band.

np – Husker Du / Candy Apple Grey

A big mushroom and turkey omelete is a good way to start the day.

So my total intake of CMW events this years was ZERO. There were a few that I had earmarked, but other things came up both Friday night (Shameless reading) and last night (Kate’s 25th birthday – happy birthday!). I am still planning on hitting the Salteens/Sekiden matinee at the 360 this afternoon, but I wouldn’t be amazed if I went back to sleep instead. Sundays are made for sloth. And I’m not just talking about the dude from The Goonies.

While at Kate’s party, there were some band discussions about the in-progress album, and it was decided that things would move a lot faster if we made it an EP. Never mind working harder, we’ll just lower expectations! But seriously, I think it’d be a much more effective work if kept shorter and concise. And yeah, we’ll be able to get it done and out that much sooner. We’re also trying to get some shows organized for the Spring – I’ll plug those when things are more concerete.

I also heard some of the new Modest Mouse last night – now I’d filed them under the “I’ll never understand this” category a few years ago when I owned a copy of The Lonesome Crowded West and simply could not get into it, but I was surprised how much better the new stuff sounded to my ears. I’m not saying there’s going to be any sort of epiphany, but I may have to give them another chance.

np – Guided By Voices / Earthquake Glue

Tobin Sprout will be on tour with Elf Power this Spring. I assume he’s finally getting around to promoting Lost Planets & Phantom Voices, which came out at the end of February… last year. They’re at the Horseshoe April 19, tickets $10.50. Sprout wrote some of my very favorite GBV songs – This will be great. It really will. (Photo by Mike Baehr from Indie Rock Photo Gallery)

Scottish pop outfit Snow Patrol will be making what I think is their Toronto debut at Lee’s Palace on April 22. Bradley’s Almanac caught them in Boston recently and highly recommends the live experience. Their latest album Final Straw is out domestically March 30 – you can preview the whole album here. It’s good.

Lisa Oliver of Stylus Magazine ran a contest in her “Ask A Girl” column to find the best Valentine’s Day mix tapes, and in the latest edition, lists the winners and their annotated track lists. It’s a fun column – check out her previous entries.

Set your VCRs for Bravo Canada on April 3rd at 8pm, as they’ll be airing Live At The Rehearsal Hall featuring Chromewaves ‘It Girl’ for this week, Sarah Harmer.

Jay Farrar has put the lyrics from all his solo and Son Volt material on his website, under the discography section. They even include Jay’s cryptic mumblings at the end of “Blind Hope”.

A complete dissertation on the evolution of that penguin smacking game.

Went to a book reading in support of Shameless magazine last night – had a pretty good time. Sheila Heti of Trampoline Hall fame and author of The Middle Stories was particularly impressive. I’m interested to read more of her stuff.

np – The Mountain Goats / We Shall All Be Healed

Confidence sorta came and went last year without getting much attention, despite a somewhat high-powered cast. You can’t really call it an overlooked gem, though – it was okay, no more, no less. The plot is all bendy and twisty like good con films should, but it shoots well past being believable by the time everything plays out, and it doesn’t help that there’s little chemistry between Edward Burns and Rachel Weisz. Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia are slumming it as a crime lord and federal agent respectively, and Burns comes off as little more than a poor man’s Ben Affleck – probably overly harsh but true nonetheless. So yeah, all in all, Confidence nets an enthusiastic “meh” on the Chromewaves sliding scale of cosmic import.

Franz Ferdinand’s debut eponymous album, out in North America on Tuesday, is getting very solid reviews all around. You know, in case you were resisting the hype. Oh, and here’s a FF fansite, if you couldn’t get enough.

The new Pixies compilation Wave Of Mutilation and accompanying self-titled DVD will be in stores May 4. Personally, I think the comp should have been called Gouge Away… Get it? GOUGE? As in this comp is so unnecessary – Death To The Pixies was fine – and is just a lousy cash grab. Kinda like 4AD reissuing all the albums a couple years ago in exactly the same format as the ones that were currently on the market, but at full price instead of the discounted list that the Elektra versions were at. Oh, but wait – they decided to split up the Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim disc so you had two records to buy instead of one, because that’s how it was originally. And they didn’t have that horrible major label logo on the artwork! SO SINCE IT’S NOW INDIE, OBVIOUSLY IT WILL SOUND BETTER, MAKE YOUR BREATH FRESHER AND MAKE YOU MORE ATTRACTIVE TO MEMBERS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX. WELL THANK GOD FOR THAT.

The Elephant 6 is coming to town! Elf Power walk the beggar boys into the the Horseshoe April 19th and the Apples In Stereo unload their aural sugar bombs May 4, same venue. EP are promoting Walking With The Beggar Boys, out April 9, and Apples In Stereo are, uh, trying to make money to pay the rent? They’ll be touring with High Water Marks, Hilarie Sidney’s other band, and Apollo Sunshine.

Pitchfork graciously directs us to the new American Analog Set webpage, which will be featuring downloads of rare AmAnSet tracks. Currently available is a studio version of live set closer “White House”, recorded in Dublin in 1992.

Ivy’s “Worry About You”, from their last album Long Distance, is the theme song for the new Stephen King-created television show Kingdom Hospital (story here). Adam Schlesinger will be collecting extra royalties from ABC for that show as Fountains Of Wayne’s “Red Dragon Tattoo”, from Utopia Parkway, will also be used in the show. Ivy expect to have a new album out by the end of the year and will be following that up with a CD/DVD compiling all their b-sides and videos.

The headline on the NME website gleefuly declares, “PJ Harvey reveals all about new album”. Except a title. Or when it’ll be coming out beyond ‘this summer’. Which is pretty much what we knew in the first place. Thanks for nothing, NME.

YAAAY. After being shut down for two months, the Bloor Cinema is re-opening on March 18.

Oh, and as a follow-up to my Alan Moore post a couple weeks ago, I’ve gotten a couple of the America’s Best Comics hardcovers from the library – the first Tom Strong and Promethea collections. Tom Strong was very enjoyable, don’t know if I’d buy them but I did enjoy reading it. Just starting Promethea now. Once again, I doff my hat to Mr. Moore. How someone maintains that level of output and quality is beyond me.

np – Ryan Adams / Rock N Roll

Just in time for the release of All Of Our Names, Sarah Harmer’s website has undergone a shiny makeover, and it’s about time. As a housewarming gift, they’ve brought the video for the first single, “Almost” in RealMedia format (go to Rounder’s minisite for a Windows Media version). And in other Sarah news, Chart talks to Sarah about her new record and the lineup in her touring band. Tickets for her April 26th and 27th shows at the Winter Garden Theatre go on sale March 26 12. The album may be going on sale either this coming Tuesday or the 23rd, depending on who you ask. I *think* it’s the 9th in Canada, 23rd elsewhere, but I’m not certain. I’ll tell you for sure Tuesday when I go to the store and either leave happy or not happy.

20 underappreciated Canadian albums of the last 10 years. I can’t argue with most of these selections, playing as it does like a best-of list from campus radio over the past decade, but get the Gandharvas OUT of there. Sheesh. From The GPC.

Wonder of wonders – The Family Guy is coming back to television. After being cancelled for over two years, it’s being resurrected. Surely this is unprecedented?

I’m not normally one to indulge in nostalgia, but picking up the Formerly Known As The Justice League trade last night certainly does take me back. You could make a strong argument that a comic book institution like the Justice League deserved far better than the jokey Justice League International franchise in the early 90s, but come on – the team of Giffen/DeMatties/Maguire/Rubenstein came up with some truly funny shit, and Formerly does a good job of recapturing a lot of that spirit. Bwah-ha-ha indeed.

Gary Oldman has been cast as Officer Jim Gordon in Batman Begins. Until now, creepy was not an adjective I’d ever expected to have to use to describe the future Commissioner Gordon. Is it right that he’ll be more intense than Batman?

Best. Headline. Ever. Update: Alas, someone’s taken the article down. But basically, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a story on Rosie O’Donnell’s gay wedding with the headline “Rosie Weds Longtime Girlfriend, Slams Bush”. There’s a screencap of the article here.

I just heard Calexico in an Adidas commercial. I spent most of it looking around, trying to figure out how I left the stereo on.

np – Beulah / Yoko