Photo by Frank Yang

Anyone who frequents these parts knows that I’ve been quite taken with Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, the debut album from Lightspeed Champion. And even though you won’t be able to swing a stick in Austin next week without hitting Mr Dev Hynes, I’ve been pretty psyched about his show here in Toronto last night for some time so even the 4000th winter storm to hit these parts in the past three weeks wasn’t going to keep me home.

Hynes ambled onstage dressed for the weather in a ski sweater and fur hat accompanied by his only bandmate on this tour, violinist Mike Siddell, and proceeded to deliver a charmingly shambolic set. Playing without a set list, he entertained requests from the audience (were people really requesting Test Icicles songs?), rattled off some amusing anecdotes about a MuchMusic interview and the beef refrigeration practices at Wendy’s and – oh yes, he played some songs. A couple new ones, an unidentified cover (Update: “Heart In A Cage” by The Strokes – thanks, all) and a fair number of Lavender Bridge tracks.

Obviously, with just two people there was no way he was going to reproduce the wonderful orchestration on the record but to their credit, the two of them did alright for themselves – songs like “Dry Lips”, “Galaxy Of The Lost” and epic-length set closer “Midnight Surprise” all fared quite well in stripped down form. The violin is really a very versatile instrument and was able to adequately stand in for the full string sections and my brain filled in the rest of the missing arrangements – apparently the songs are already that embedded in my consciousness. Obviously, in a perfect world there’d be a Lightspeed Champion tour with full band and orchestra and Emmy The Great on vox but I don’t know that he’ll ever find the audience over here to justify the logistics. But one can hope, and in the interim settle for stalking Hynes around Austin next week.

Photos: Lightspeed Champion @ The Horseshoe – March 4, 2008
MP3: Lightspeed Champion – “Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk”
MP3: Lightspeed Champion – “Waiting Game”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Galaxy Of The Lost”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Tell Me What It’s Worth”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Midnight Surprise”
Video: Lightspeed Champion – “Midnight Surprise” (short film)
MySpace: Lightspeed Champion

Synthesis asks British Sea Power if they like rock music. They’re at Lee’s Palace on May 16.

The Times has a sit-down (and walk around Oxford) with all the members of Radiohead. Their recent Rolling Stone cover story is now online as well. They have a date at the Molson Amphitheatre on August 15.

The Charlatans, perhaps drawing inspiration from Radiohead’s distribution model or perhaps being realistic about the market’s interest in what they’re up to, have elected to give away their new album You Cross My Path for free via XFM. I gave up on the Charlatans a few albums ago when they seemed determined to remake themselves as a disco band but this new one is a pleasant surprise – it’s quite a solid, if slightly anonymous, record. There’s nothing especially outstanding but the fact that the band still seems energized and to sincerely give a damn is to be applauded.

Album: The Charlatans / You Cross My Path
MP3: The Charlatans – “Oh! Vanity”
MP3: The Charlatans – “You Cross My Path”
Video: The Charlatans – “Oh Vanity”
Video: The Charlatans – “You Cross My Path”

Billboard reports that Spiritualized’s new record Songs in A & E will have a North American release on June 3, just a couple weeks after the May 19 release date in the rest of the world.

Drowned In Sound, Gigwise and The Irish Independent talk to Elbow’s Guy Garvey in advance of the release of The Seldom Seen Kid, out April 22 in North America. Stereogum has a new track from the album up for stream.

Harp talks to Scott Paterson and Adele Bethel of Sons & Daughters about butting heads with producer Bernard Butler in making one of my favourite records of the year so far, This Gift. They’re at Lee’s Palace on March 26.

The Toronto Sun makes the most of their recent time spent with Ray Davies, churning out an interview about his new solo record Working Man’s Cafe, the odds of a Kinks reunion and they also offer a recommended discography though Rolling Stone one-ups them with a complete discography review. Davies plays the Danforth Music Hall on April 3.

Photo by Frank Yang

So while I was excited about the debut Toronto show for Champaign, Illinois’ Headlights this past Sunday evening, it appeared that I was one of the only ones. There were maybe a few dozen people in attendance when the quintet took the stage and while that’s a disappointing turnout, it’s not an unexpected one. Their debut Kill Them With Kindness was well-received from those with a taste for sweet, fuzzy indie pop (like myself) but didn’t exactly set the world ablaze and their newly-released Some Racing, Some Stopping, while evidencing the sort of growth you like to see in a sophomore effort, probably isn’t on a much different trajectory.

But there’s nothing wrong with dedicating oneself to writing sharp, unpretentious pop songs, particularly when you’re as good at it as Headlights are. They drew the opening slot straw of this co-headlining tour with Okies Evangelicals and served up a sweet but too-short set drawing largely from the new album (which I haven’t spent enough time with) and a few older numbers, all while fighting off feedback issues and vocals which were buried too far into the mix.

What impressed me most were the little touches the band applied to their live arrangements, more subtle and effective than I’d expect from your typical indie-pop band. Manipulating their effects pedals to actually sculpt the static coming out of their amps and not just make random squelches, inviting the Evangelicals out for one number to man multiple floor toms on “So Much For The Afternoon” and just generally doing the little things that you might think would get lost in the mix but really do make a difference. They’re playing what seems to be a millions shows at SxSW next week – I’m hoping to catch at least one of them.

I’d seen Evangelicals a few years back in support of their debut So Gone and they didn’t do much to shake the “Flaming Lips Jr” tag that they’d been saddled with, earned as much for their noisy psych-pop as their shared home state though Evangelicals seemed to draw on inspiration several shades darker than Wayne Coyne ever has. Their new one The Evening Descends is more refined than the debut, less frantic, but it was in the live show that the band has grown the most. They’re still not much for stage lights and favour a spooky, Halowe’en-y atmosphere but frontman Josh Jones is now demonstrating a fey, Kevin Barnes-like charisma which suits them quite well. His sense of vocal pitch could still use some work – singing swoopy-style around the correct note just doesn’t cut it – but the songs, which are considerably rockier (in a classic and glammy sense) live than on record, are certainly there and so is the stage show. They’ve got the strobes, black lights and smoke machines and everything.

The New Haven Advocate and The Maneater talk to Josh Jones of Evangelicals while Headlights have been keeping a tour blog for Smile Politely.

Photos: Evangelicals, Headlights @ The El Mocambo – March 2, 2008
MP3: Evangelicals – “Skeleton Man”
MP3: Headlights – “Skeleton Man”
MP3: Headlights – “Cherry Tulips”
MP3: Headlights – “Market Girl”
Video: Headlights – “Cherry Tulips”
MySpace: Headlights

So did you catch Wilco on Saturday Night Live? If not, this is what you missed – two of my less favoured songs from Sky Blue Sky nonetheless delivered with such aplomb that you can’t help but think, “damn these guys are tight”. The Des Moines Register talks to bassist John Stirratt. Update: Denied! Damn you, NBC. Update 2: In your face, NBC! Thanks, Karl.

Video: Wilco – “Hate It Here” (live on Saturday Night Live)
Video: Wilco – “Walken” (live on Saturday Night Live)

Steve Earle talks to JAM about the mixed response his Washington Square Serenade live shows have been receiving. NPR also has a radio session and interview with Steve. He’s at Massey Hall tonight.

Josh Ritter, who’s at the Phoenix tonight, has conversations with The Grand Rapids Press and The Winnipeg Sun. Congratulations to Matt, Tualla, Derek, Eddie and different Matt who won the Ritter contest last week.

The AV Club and Country Standard Time talk to Gary Louris about his new record Vagabonds, which will bring him to town for a show at the Mod Club on March 30.

Prefix gets an update from the road from Jason Isbell.

Harp reports that the Old 97s are coming back with their first album in some years with Blame It On Gravity, due out May 13, and are streaming some samples from it at their MySpace.

Peter Buck of R.E.M. talks to Filter, discusses the Live DVD and disavows Around The Sun. Accelerate is out April 1 and they play the Molson Amphitheatre on June 8.

Filter talks to Spoon about their grand 2007, Spoon records a song for the Black Cab Session, the Black Cab Sessions are featured by The Guardian. It’s the circle of life.

Video: Spoon – “I Summon You” (live on Black Cab Sessions)

The New York Daily News has a feature on Keren Ann.

The Boston Globe and Pitchfork talk to St Vincent’s Annie Clark.

Nina Persson of The Cardigans tells the BBC that the release of their Best Of compilation doesn’t mean the band’s done. Nor does the fact that she’s releasing her second A Camp solo record this year, with the title Here There Are Many Wild Animals.

Some upcoming concert announcements – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin will be in town at the El Mocambo on April 18 to offer their thoughts on the election of Medvedev as President of Russia and play some songs from their new album Pershing, due out April 8. Via Audio will be along for the ride, Pitchfork has full dates.

MP3: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – “Glue Girls”
Video: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – “Pershing”

Breaking-space averse British post-rock outfit 65daysofstatic will hoof it from their opening gig for The Cure at the Air Canada Centre on May 15 to the El Mocambo for their own headlining show.

MP3: 65daysofstatic – “When We Were Younger And Better”
MP3: 65daysofstatic – “Don’t Go Down To Sorrow”

Brazil’s Bonde do Role, new singer/MC in place, will tour North America this Spring and wrap things up with a show at The Social on May 18.

Welsh kiddies Los Campesinos! are hitting the road in support of debut full-length Hold On Now, Youngster… and stop in at Lee’s Palace in Toronto on May 23. Neu! has an interview with Ollie from the band.

Video: Los Campesinos! – “Death To Los Campesinos!”

And according to Dave Bookman, a date in late May from Rilo Kiley is in the offing. The rumoured impending nuptials between Blake Sennett and Winona Ryder? Maybe not so much.

Photo by Paul Hammond

So while the first shows associated with this year’s edition of Canadian Music Week got started last night with Gogol Bordello at the Sound Academy, the complete takeover of the city’s live music clubs doesn’t really begin until Thursday evening. I like to try and catch as much as I reasonably can, but my CMW participation is always mitigated by trying to conserve some energy for SxSW next week as well the fact that many of the bands playing that I would normally want to see are hardly strangers to Toronto and there will certainly be more opportunities to see them play in the future… but on the other hand, a good show from a good band is a good show from a good band.

My personal schedule is starting to coalesce, largely based on picking one act I really want to see and checking out what else is nearby. I’m not going to get into specifics right now because it could all possibly change, but if I can make it to Sunday and have caught Rebekah Higgs, The Details, Jane Vain & The Dark Matter, Pooma and The Pigeon Detectives, I’ll have considered the week a success.

On a more general level, I’d recommend folks looking for something to see catch Dog Day at one of their many shows – Thursday at 9:20PM at the Horseshoe, Saturday at 11PM at the Rivoli or their free in-store at Criminal Records at 6:40PM on Saturday. It’s true that they’re not the most scintillating live band, but Night Group is such a good record they’re worth your time and attention anyways. Chart has two interviews with the band in advance of their CMW appearances.

Other shows you may want to plan an evening around are Sloan’s Thursday night gig at Supermarket – that’s the little 200-capacity venue in Kensington, so if you don’t have a ticket already you’d best get one now (assuming they’re not all gone) because that’s going to be packed. And if it is, you can always try your luck at The Besnard Lakes’ midnight show at the El Mocambo just down the block. The Horseshoe’s lineups all weekend are all stacked into the wee, wee hours of the night but Thursday is particularly impressive – starting at 8:30, you’ve got Immaculate Machine, the aforementioned Dog Day, Katie Stelmanis, Plants & Animals, The Acorn (Sunparlour Players and if you’re still upright at 2:30AM on a work night, Oh No Forest Fires will make you glad you are. Jenn Grant has two shows, Thursday and Saturday night at the Rivoli, both at 10PM. Heading to the Drake Underground on Friday night will get you the Paper Bag Records showcase with the likes of Laura Barrett and Woodhands. Obviously, that’s only a tiny sampling of what’s on offer this weekend as viewed through my narrow filter. The entertainment weeklies will certainly have a more thorough preview of performers this Thursday. The National Post has their picks for the week up already.

And to add to the list of in-stores I rounded up last week, Criminal Records on Queen West will have Jenny Omnichord and The Burning Hell serenading shoppers on Wednesday, March 6 from 6 to 7 and on Saturday afternoon, Julie Doiron highlights a block of Maritimer performances from Calm Down It’s Monday, Dog Day and The Superfantastics – that starts around 5, Julie on at 5:30. Update: More Criminal Records action – Friday, March 7 from 6 to 8 – Winter Gloves and Plants & Animals.

An in-store that’s not CMW-related but definitely worthy of note is Bon Iver, who will be doing a solo acoustic set at Soundscapes on Wednesday, March 5 at 4PM which is tough noogies to those of us with regular day jobs but a boon to everyone else, especially if you don’t have tickets to his sold out show at Lee’s Palace that night with Black Mountain, with whom BeatRoute has an interview.

Kathleen Edwards talks to Spinner, Country Standard Time, The New York Daily News and The Seattle Times about her new album Asking For Flowers, in stores tomorrow. She plays The Phoenix on April 23.

The Telegraph catches up with Neil Young on the occasion of his first visit to the UK in half a decade.

And while we’re (mostly) talking Canadian music, a moment for blues guitar great Jeff Healey, who passed away at age 41 yesterday.

This is Canadian Music Week so to mark the occasion, three records from bands who are not playing Canadian Music Week. Huzzah!

The D’Urbervilles / We Are The Hunters (Out Of This Spark) The debut full-length from Guelph’s D’Urbervilles crackles with the anticipation of some bad shit going down. The tension of the band straining to bust loose is tangible but singer/guitarist John O’Regen keeps everything barely in check with his almost preternaturally calm vocals – even when he’s shouting he sounds calm. It’s as though he knows that this musical knife fight is just the prelude to something even bigger coming around the corner. If there’s a complaint, it’s that that something bigger never quite manages to arrive – there’s post-punk border skirmishes and disco-rock commando strikes, but each only seems to be pointing to something bigger just over the next ridge and it’s that epic, battle of Mordor finale that never quite arrives. But maybe it’s for the best because the build up is tremendous and if was to actually deliver a worthy climax, heads might quite literally explode. A rather stunning record from a band that I didn’t know had it in them. I salute them. The D’Urbervilles play a CD release show with labelmates Forest City Lovers at the Tranzac on Friday, March 14 and tour across Canada through late March and most of April. MP3: The D’Urbervilles – “Dragnet” MP3: The D’Urbervilles – “National Flowers” MP3: The D’Urbervilles – “Hot Tips” MySpace: The D’Urbervilles

Kara Keith / Kara Keith (Saved By Radio) Kara Keith, former frontwoman for Calgary’s Falconhawk, drives her piano like a runaway car. She careens from the theatricality of “Gorgeous Gets The Gold” through the crashing power pop of “Kick This City” before skidding into the baroque tension of finale “Knosses”, and of course she gets up and walks away without a scratch on her. She’s obviously well trained on the keys but that doesn’t stop her from delivering the goods with irreverence, genuine punk rock zeal and enough stylistic ADD (know what goes great with angelic choral vocals? Massive fuzz bass!) to make the record’s 13-minute running time feel like even more of a whirlwind experience – but one that merits hitting the “repeat” button over and over again. MP3: Kara Keith – “Kick This City” MP3: Kara Keith – “Get Up And Go Go”

The Paper Cranes / Halcyon Days (Unfamiliar) I’d almost forgotten that I reviewed the Paper Cranes’ debut EP Veins a couple years ago, though re-reading that piece doesn’t do much to remind me what I thought of it. I seemed rather fixated on singer Ryan McCullagh’s yelping and while yes, his vocals on the full-length will be a comfort for those who seek no cure for clapping hands, saying yeah or shouting out loud, they’re no longer the object of fixation for me. Maybe I’ve grown, maybe he’s grown, but either way it’s the songs and not the singing that stuck in my head this time around. They’re no longer easily pigeonholed as new wave or post-punk or whatever label jaggy guitars and, um, yelpy vocals usually garner – they’re still obviously children of the ’80s but there’s a melodic sophistication that mines a more timeless vein of pop songcraft. The Paper Cranes play the Wrong Bar this Thursday night, March 6. Yes, it’s during Canadian Music Week. No, it’s not a Canadian Music Week show. And no, this is not the same band that’s opening for R.E.M. at SxSW next week – that’s a different Papercranes. Oh the difference a space makes. MP3: The Paper Cranes – “I’ll Love You Till My Veins Explode”

Photo via ANTI

Bob Mould has long since earned the right, via his works with Husker Du and Sugar as well as his solo work, to do whatever the hell he wants. But it’s probably safe to say that most of his fans breathed a sigh of relief when he backtracked from his decision to give up electric guitar and concentrate on his DJ gigs and dance music. 2005’s Body Of Song was a welcome return to his more aggressive, plugged-in aesthetic though he brought with him touches of the electronica that has inspired him in recent years. This new, consolidated Bob returns with District Line, a record I’ve yet to hear in its entirety but which is garnering solid reviews.

Besides the return to the ear-shredding volume he’d once sworn off, the tour for Body Of Song was remarkable for the fact that Mould once again embraced the songs he’d written for Husker Du and Sugar, a trend that one can expect to continue when he returns to Toronto to play the Mod Club on March 10. And, courtesy of ANTI/Epitaph, I’ve got two prize packs consisting of a pair of passes to the show and a copy of District Line on CD to give away. To enter, shoot me an email to contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want the Bob” in the subject line and your full mailing address in the body. Contest will close at midnight, March 5.

Oh, and the other best thing about Bob live, besides getting to hear the likes of “Could You Be The One”? No vocoder.

The Star-Tribune and Reveille talk to Bob from a hometown POV and NPR has a World Cafe session.

MP3: Bob Mould – “The Silence Between Us”
Video: Husker Du – “Could You Be The One”
MySpace: Bob Mould