Photo via High Road Touring

My enthusiasm for Brooklyn’s The Jealous Girlfriends may have been cemented by their ass-kicking, if hardly attended, show at the Drake last October but it was instigated by their self-titled album which I’d gotten in all its CD-R, no artwork glory via CD Baby last Fall. Their killer pop, built off of churning guitars, burbling synths and glorious vocal interplay from Holly Miranda and Josh Abbott, defies easy categorization not by refusing to sound like any specific genre or era, but by sounding like all of them at once and turned up loud. Sufficed to say, I was/am fond of the record.

Which is why I am approaching the upcoming re-release of said record by their new label, Montreal-based Good Fences (April 22 in Canada and May 13 in the US) with a bit of trepidation. You see, it’s largely the same record and while there’s now some nice artwork, liner notes and one new track – they’ve also shuffled the running order. I know in this day and age the things like the album and running order is a bit of an outmoded concept, but it’s still somewhat sacred to me and I’m having a bit of a time wrapping my head around the rebuilt record. The aforementioned new addition “Secret Identity” now starts things off and it’s a decent enough tune, though I’d have preferred to hear a more fully-realized version of “Monkey Brains”, the demo version of which is streaming on the band’s MySpace and which they trotted out at the Drake show.

From that point on, though, things get familiarly unfamiliar. Whereas “Machines”, all mystery and foreboding, felt like the perfect entry point on the original sequence, it’s now traded places with the much bouncier and accessible “How Now” which used to be the penultimate track. Simliarly, the drone of “Heiroglyphics” and the jauntiness of “Robuxulla” have also swapped. I can see the logic – the CD-R version was more backloaded as far as the more straightforward pop songs went but I felt it had a more cohesive arc to it, as a record. I’m glad, however, that the record still closes on a gentle note with “Carry Me”. Definitely the right way to go out. I’m sure a lot of this is just the fact that the final edition is different from what I’m used to and like all right-thinking individuals, I fear change. But for the time being, I’ve got both versions of the record on my iPod and time will tell which one eventually wins the place of favour for good. Though maybe it really doesn’t matter… people are just going to rip them into their computer music library software of choice and hit “shuffle” anyways, right?

Well thanks to Ideal Friends, you could have a copy of the CD to listen to or resequence as you see fit. I’ve got ten (10) copies of the new CD to give away and, if you like, I’ll email you the running order of the old CD-R… To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I wish I had a jealous girlfriend” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the body. Contest is open only to residents of Canada – sorry American cousins – and will close at midnight, April 7.

That, incidentally, is the same night the band is here in Toronto opening up for Nada Surf at the Opera House. They’ll accompany them for a couple weeks around the east coast and then, in late May, they pile into the van again for a continent-crossing jaunt with Sea Wolf. Full dates and routing here.

MP3: The Jealous Girlfriends – “Roboxulla”
MP3: The Jealous Girlfriends – “Something In The Water”
MP3: The Jealous Girlfriends – “Machines”
Video: The Jealous Girlfriends – “How Now”
MySpace: The Jealous Girlfriends

The AV Club talks process and Express talks love with Jens Lekman Jens is at the Great Hall next Tuesday night and it appears that that show is now (again) sold out. As it happens, I’ve got an extra ticket for that one so if anyone hesitated and is now lost, drop me a line. Ticket gone!

A few people have been asking me about on-sale dates for the R.E.M. show at the Molson Amphitheatre on June 8… well dig up your Ticketmaster passwords because they’re going to be available this Saturday morning, April 5, at 10 AM and will run $30 for lawns up to $90 for seats. Yeah. You know what? I’ve seen Stipey up close, it’s not all that. And if you’re really keen, there’s a presale that starts today at 10AM, though it appears that you need to be a member of their mailing list to be eligible. It’s probably just the reserved seating – giving hardcore fans first dibs at a patch of grass doesn’t make much sense.

Wireless Bollinger and New York Magazine feature Destroyer, who is in town for a show at Lee’s Palace on April 19.

The Long Blondes would like you to watch the video for the lead-off track from Couples, which will be out next Tuesday. They would also like for you to see them at Lee’s Palace on May 22, but don’t want to be all pushy. Start with the video, see where that takes you. And if that goes well, perhaps get to know them a bit via interviews with Heckler Spray, The Scotsman, The Belfast Telegraph and The Sunday Mail.

Video: The Long Blondes – “Century”

Dayrobber is a Swedish webzine that was recently brought to my attention, in particular their feature called “The Band” wherein they conduct video interviews with different artists… like this one with Lucky Soul.

Thanks to Melody for pointing out in the comments yesterday that Basia Bulat will be playing the annual free show at Harbourfront Centre on Canada Day. Considering that Canada Day falls on a Tuesday this year, I’m assuming this show will happen on the preceding Sunday, June 29, but am not sure. I’ll let you know when I find confirmation.

Photo by Frank Yang

See, if going to church was always such an ass-kicking rock experience, then I might go more often. Or at all.

The tapings for season three of Beautiful Noise got off to an unbelievable start last night as My Morning Jacket rolled into town for their first Toronto show in almost two years and considering they played a hall that held but a fraction of the audience they’d normally draw, I don’t know that you could consider their touring debts to the city paid. But that’s more a complaint for those who weren’t inside. For those of us who were… wow.

But with their absence from the stages of Toronto and the fact that they hadn’t released a new studio record in almost three years, My Morning Jacket were suffering from a bit of out of sight, out of mind syndrome for me at least. Which is to say, I’d kind of forgotten how much I liked them and how incredible they are in live performance. Consider me reminded. Ignoring the fact that their show would likely be edited down considerably for broadcast, the band blew through a two hour show that didn’t even feel half as long. In addition to all the gems you’d want to hear from their earlier records, they also previewed a fair number of tracks from their next long-player Evil Urges, which isn’t out until June 10.

While it’s obviously premature to assess the new material from a single listen in a live context, the impression most of it gave was that it was a step back from the determined experimentalism that made 2005’s Z initially challenging but ultimately rewarding and a return to the more straight-ahead rock of It Still Moves and At Dawn… but note that I said most. They’ve still got a few hard lefts in their pocket as songs like the pure ’80s electro-funk of “Highly Suspicious” would attest.

But all songs, new and old, were marked by the band’s unbelievable musicianship and Jim James’ showmanship – the man was a dervish of hair and Flying Vs, whether pogoing around the stage, trying out some dance moves or trying to invade the audience at the show’s close (thank goodness for that velvet rope keeping everyone safe). And that encore! I thought they were going to finish with their haunting reading of Z closer “Dondante”, but then stepped up with a scorching “One Big Holiday” and when I thought they couldn’t top that… they did, with “Anytime”. Unbelievable.

I remember being a bit confused when Magnet ran a My Morning Jacket cover story in their Fall 2007 issue – they were a year on from the release of their live record Okonokos and nothing had been announced about their new album. There didn’t seem to be any context, any reason. Now, after last night’s show, I understand. My Morning Jacket are awesome, and that’s really all the reason you ever need.

Jim James talks to MTV about what to expect from the new record. The above photo comes from their October 2005 show at the Guvernment.

MP3: My Morning Jacket – “Off The Record”
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “One Big Holiday”
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “Lowdown”
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “Bermuda Highway”
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “The Bear”
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “Evelyn Is Not Real”
Video: My Morning Jacket – “Off The Record”
MySpace: My Morning Jacket

Pitchfork reports that My Morning Jacket have a new labelmate in Liz Phair, who will try to salvage whatever remains of her career with a re-release of Exile In Guyville in deluxe format on June 24. It’ll contain a handful of bonus tracks and a DVD doc about the making of the record.

Le Blogotheque celebrates the release of R.E.M.’s new album Accelerate today with not one, not two, not three, not four but five Take-Away Shows. Okay, in hindsight, that may not have been the best device to lead into that bit of information. Entertainment Weekly assembles a video history of the band and The Huffington Post talks to Michael Stipe. The critical response to Accelerate, by the way, is pretty solid.

PopMatters follows The Hold Steady around, writes about it.

Wolf Parade’s new record is out June 17 and has the Pitchfork-disavowed title of Kissing The Beehive. Oh come on, maybe they’re just Jonathan Carroll fans. If I recall, I particularly liked that book.

The Independent talks to DeVotchKa frontman Nick Urata.

Good news for those who’d given up waiting on ex-Beulah frontman Miles Kurosky’s solo record – Hard To Find A Friend has an interview with the man and while there’s nothing as concrete as a title or release date, it’s still in progress. Via You Ain’t No Picasso.

Some show announcements big and small. Jim White will be at the Horseshoe on May 11 in support of his new record Transnormal Skiperoo.

Justin Townes Earle – son of Steve – brings his burgeoning solo career to the Horseshoe on May 25. His debut record is The Good Life, Exclaim! has a review and an interview, The Desert Sun just an interview.

The Raconteurs, who tried to be all sneaky deaky about the release and the very existence of their new record Consolers Of The Lonely, will be at the Ricoh Coliseum on June 5 with The Black Lips as support.

Olympic Island, which broke a streak of Summer music mini-fests last year, will again play host to a big to-do (besides V Fest) on June 7 with a lineup featuring Death Cab For Cutie, Stars, Rogue Wave and Young Galaxy. Tickets for the event, which is billed as “sponsorship-free”, are $49.50 plus a $6 ferry fee. Death Cab’s new album Narrow Stairs is out May 13.

Photo by Frank Yang

Had it really been almost five months since I last saw Basia Bulat live? I know that doesn’t seem like a long time, but considering I’d caught her and her band some half-dozen times last year, that’s a long time. And in that time, she’s released her record Oh My Darling in the US and has been touring south of the border relentlessly, making Saturday night’s gig at Lee’s Palace a homecoming of sorts (yes I know she’s from London – I said “of sorts”).

For the occasion, she enlisted a couple of acts with whom she’d been been playing around southern Ontario – Ottawa’s Amos The Transparent and Toronto’s Katie Stelmanis. The former features what you could call a malleable lineup – the first time I saw them, their lineup numbered in the double digits and the last time, they were a much leaner four-piece. I was hoping that they’d see fit to bring a few more compatriots along this time to fill the larger Lee’s stage but again, it was the quartet and I suspect that I should expect that to be the case from now on. But whatever disappointment I felt about that was dispelled by the reminder that even with just the four of them, they could do the richly melancholy pop of Everything I’ve Forgotten To Forget justice, complete with harmonies and little musical and percussive accents that you might have expected to have been left in the studio.

I’d seen Katie Stelmanis before as part of Bruce Peninsula, but her own music is quite a bit removed from that collective’s rural gospel choir. Here, Stelmanis’ operatic vocals are brought to the fore but mated to electronic and acoustic percussion, guitar, synths and keyboards in way that leaves me at a bit of a loss to try and describe it beyond listing off its component parts. Sufficed to say that I found it interesting if not entirely enjoyable and her take on Roy Orbison’s “Crying” was maybe a little disturbing.

And for Basia, it must be a treat to come back to Canada to play to full houses of fans rather than trying to win over new audience after new audience in America. Which isn’t to say that she’s not succeeding – most accounts I’ve read indicate that she’s leaving a trail of fans in the US wherever she goes – but they’ll probably still have a ways to go before they can equal the excitement and cheer of the Toronto fans. The set ran a bit shorter than I’d have expected or liked, but it still hit all the high points of Oh My Darling and featured a few new songs with Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You In The End” now being the cover song du jour. And though the road warrior lifestyle may have given the band some well-earned polish and tightness – I swear their harmonies sound better every time I see them, and that’s saying something – their giddiness and pure joy of playing music comes across as fresh as ever. And when the whole of Lee’s Palace was clapping along for the opening of “I Was A Daughter”, well it felt like Spring had finally arrived.

Chart talked to Katie Stelmanis about her new record Join Us.

Photos: Basia Bulat, Katie Stelmanis, Amos The Transparent @ Lee’s Palace – March 29, 2008
MP3: Basia Bulat – “In The Night”
MP3: Basia Bulat – “Snakes & Ladders”
MP3: Katie Stelmanis – “In My Favour”
MP3: Amos The Transparent – “After All That Its Come To This”
Video: Basia Bulat – “In The Night”
MySpace: Basia Bulat
MySpace: Katie Stelmanis
MySpace: Amos The Transparent

Stereogum has assembled another of their “man the 90s were great” tribute albums, this one for Bjork’s Post. Head over to grab covers by the likes of White Hinterland, Evangelicals and a collaboration between Final Fantasy and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste.

Spin has put their April cover story on R.E.M. online. CBS News also has an interview and The Times followed the band around London last week. Accelerate is out tomorrow.

And speaking of magazine covers, the release of Elephant Shell on April 22 means that Tokyo Police Club’s faces will be beaming from the cover of Exclaim! for the next 30 days or so. Spinner also has a quick interview. They’ve got two shows at the Opera House on May 2 and 3.

MP3: Tokyo Police Club – “In A Cave”

The New York Daily News talks to Zooey Deschanel, the “she” of She & Him, about the genesis of the project.

Pitchfork interviews Nick Cave. His new album with the Bad Seeds, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, is out April 8.

MP3: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Bring It On”

Kevchino interviews Beach House.

Stephen Malkmus discusses Real Emotional Trash with The Boston Globe and The Bucks County Courier Times. NPR is streaming the whole of the Jicks’ recent show in Washington DC.

Photo by Annie Musselman

The last time Portland’s Blitzen Trapper came through town, they found themselves in the odd position of losing their tour headliner (Two Gallants done gone got their van broke) and being added to someone else’s show (John Vanderslice). How did they respond? By kicking serious ass.

And I assume that this wasn’t the only city where they made an impression because they’re currently crossing the continent on their own headlining tour in support of last year’s Wild Mountain Nation and are back this Wednesday night for a show at the El Mocambo, and they’re bringing along with them Sub Pop labelmates Fleet Foxes, who judging from their pre-SxSW buzz and post-SxSW roar, will be the ones with their names in big letters on the marquee next time around, especially after their self-titled debut comes out June 3. And rounding out the Mutual Of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom-esque bill are Barrie’s Fox Jaws.

Courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away to this show – to enter, send me an email at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I wish to trap a fleet fox with jaws” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, March 31 which is to say tomorrow.

Daytrotter had Blitzen Trapper in for sessions not once, but twice in the last few months while The Boston Globe, eye, The Washington Post Express and The News & Observer all have interviews with the band.

MP3: Blitzen Trapper – “Wild Mountain Nation”
MP3: Blitzen Trapper – “Sci-Fi Kid” (Principal Participant Kingswood’ Remix)
MP3: Blitzen Trapper – “Sci-Fi Kid” (40 Thieves Remix)
MP3: Fleet Foxes – “White Winter Hymnal”
MP3: Fox Jaws – “Karmonica”
MP3: Fox Jaws – “Quarantine Girl”
Video: Blitzen Trapper – “Devil’s A-Go-Go”
Video: Blitzen Trapper – “Wild Mountain Nation”
Video: Blitzen Trapper – “Woof & Warp of the Quiet Giant’s Hem”
MySpace: Blitzen Trapper
MySpace: Fox Jaws

Photo by Matt Anker

This is a bit of news I’ve been waiting anxiously to be able to announce – dates have been trickling out piecemeal for Swervedriver’s North American reunion tour and while a Toronto date was confirmed as happening, the when and the where weren’t being leaked… until now. Brooklynvegan has if not full then extensive tour dates for the reconstituted Swervies this Summer and that includes a June 13 stop in Toronto at Lee’s Palace, the timing of which indicates that it’ll be a NxNE-affiliated gig.

I don’t know why, but I’m as excited for this tour as I am any of the other 1997 resurrections making their way to town this year, and I wasn’t even that big a Swervies fan the first time around though that could be because I only got on board in time for their unremarkable swan song 99th Dream. But perhaps it’s that lack of heightened expectations or anxiety about being disappointed that makes me think this could be great. Adam Franklin has been doing solid work as a solo artist and I don’t know what the rest of the band has been up to in the interim, but it’s doubtful they’re doing this for a big payday so maybe, just maybe, it’s about the music. How novel would that be?

It occurs to me that I still need to find a copy of their debut Raise between now and, oh, June, but in the meantime there’s always the free downloads the band is offering of live versions of their four albums as well as a slew of b-sides and rarities. Now that’s a band that know how to take care of their fans.

MP3: Swervedriver – “Son Of Mustang Ford” (live at St Andrew’s Hall)
MP3: Swervedriver – “Duel” (live on Stockholm radio)
MP3: Swervedriver – “Last Train To Satansville” (live at Maxwell’s)
MP3: Swervedriver – “Bring Me The Head Of The Fortune Teller” (live on Stockholm radio)
Video: Swervedriver – “Never Lose That Feeling”
Video: Swervedriver – “Duel”
Video: Swervedriver – “Sandblasted”
Video: Swervedriver – “Son Of Mustang Ford”
MySpace: Swervedriver

I’ll admit it – the addition yesterday of Jarvis Cocker to the lineup of July’s Pitchfork Festival had me pricing flights and hotels to Chicago. Now if Jarv just stayed on his side of the Atlantic and minded his own business, I’d probably accept that the odds of me seeing him live are slim to none, but the fact that he is obviously willing and able to come to North America to perform and yet hasn’t come to visit Toronto is a bitter pill to swallow. I’m just hoping that this Pitchfork date is part of a proper tour and we’ll be basking in the glow of his Cocker-ness before the year’s out. Fingers crossed. And now’s as good a time as any to link that Archie vs Pulp cartoon thing that everyone was talking about… what, two weeks ago? An eternity. Which reminds me of Jamie Hewlett’s comic version of the same song which made the rounds a few years ago.

Billy Bragg talks to Chart about his forthcoming Mr Love & Justice, out April 8. He plays Harbourfront Centre on June 17.

Also coming to Harbourfront this Summer is Ladytron, who play there on July 4 in support of their new album Velocifero. Check out the first MP3 from it below.

MP3: Ladytron – “Black Cat”

AllMusic gets on the Lucky Soul bandwagon.

The Grand Rapids Press Q&As Explosions In The Sky. The Riverfront Times also grabbed an interview along with outtakes.

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats extols the virtues of Ozzy Osbourne for io9.com. NPR also offers up a session with the man. John, not Ozzy.

Exclaim! interviews Zooey Deschanel of She & Him, Paste talks to both she and him.

Paper profiles and plays dress-up with Joanna Newsom.

The Asheville Citizen-Times interviews Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers.

JAM! and The Chicago Tribune talk to Gary Louris about going solo on Vagabonds. He’s at the Mod Club tomorrow night.