Everything I know about Baltimore, I learned from The Wire and watching some Orioles games. But obviously the drug trade and Camden Yards aren’t sufficiently representative of bmore because neither of those explain Celebration. And I’m not sure I can explain them either as the rich blend of jazz, gospel, soul and art-rock on their second album The Modern Tribe would be difficult for someone with a broad expanse of musical knowledge to describe, let alone me.

And so I won’t try. Instead I refer you to this feature in NOW, the audio-video supplements below and their upcoming show on Monday, November 26 at the El Mocambo alongside Dragons Of Zynth (whom eye profiles) and Sebastien Grainger. And that last one I can help you with because courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. If you want, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to Celebrat(ion)” in the subject line and your full name in the email body. And do it before midnight Thursday night. That is all.

MP3: Celebration – “Evergreen”
MP3: Celebration – “Hands Off My Gold” (SMD Remix)
Video: Celebration – “Evergreen” (YouTube)
MySpace: Celebration

I’ve always wondered about the logistics of the garage band. I don’t know about you, but growing up, my garage had cars in it. And a lawnmower. And boxes of various shapes and sizes containing stuff we’d never need again but couldn’t bear to throw out. But certainly nothing inspirational and most months of the year, pretty cold.

The childhood garages of the two brothers and one non-sibling that form The Blakes, on the other hand, must have housed not only the rudimentary implements of a rock band but crates of old records spanning the history of rock from the UK of the ’60s through New York City in the ’70s (via Detroit), Minneapolis in the ’80s and their native Seattle in the 1990s. Their self-titled debut bristles with raw, Nuggets-y energy with the requisite amounts of slop and snot but also an impressively sophisticated pop sensibility and enough stylistic left turns to avoid any pigeonhole you might try to set in front of them (and getting more than a little dizzy in the process). Deceptively simple on first listen, further listens hint that their garages may have housed a few cases of Guided By Voices’ empties, The Strokes’ tight jeans and some of The Cure’s leftover mascara. And there’s probably still more treasures waiting to be unearthed.

The Blakes are in town Monday night for a show at the Silver Dollar, unfortunately opposite my date with Neil Young at Massey Hall. NPR is streaming a session recorded for KEXP during CMJ last month. NOW has a feature. And, courtesy of Outside Music, I’ve got some copies of The Blakes to give away – one grand prize winner will get the CD also get a copy of a limited-edition EP while two other winners will get a copy of the CD. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I Want The Blakes” in the subject line and your mailing address in the body. Contest will close at midnight, November 24, Canadians only please.

MP3: The Blakes – “Pistol Grip”
MP3: The Blakes – “Don’t Bother Me”

Pitchfork brings tidings of the new Mountain Goats record! It’s called Heretic Pride, will be out February 19 and feature a bevy of guest stars, including St Vincent’s Annie Clark and Superchunk’s Jon Wurster.

The ‘Fork also directs us to this video for Okkervil River’s “Girl In Port” which is apparently as official a video as there’s going to be for the song. It features Will Sheff playing the song solo and acoustic beside a castle in front of a beautiful Italian sunset intercut with footage of the band’s holiday videos from Italy. For real.

Video: Okkervil River – “Girl In Port” (YouTube)

Relix talks to Josh Ritter.

Zach Condon of Beirut talks to Drowned In Sound while MSNBC discusses the Flying Club Cup video project with both he and the Blogotheque folks who put it together.

For The Records points out that Jenn Grant will be back in town on December 28 for a show at the Drake. It appears that this year, just like last, I’ll be spending a lot of the end of December at the Drake.

NPR is streaming all two hours and thirty-two seconds of Kevin Drew’s show in DC from this weekend as well as a thirteen minute and forty-two second interview. Relix also has a short interview – it will last as long as it takes you to read.

I’m Not There is out in the US this week but not in Canada till next Wednesday, apparently. Oregon Daily and The AV Club both talk to director Todd Haynes.

In advance of Sunday night’s Pipettes show at Lee’s Palace, I was told that missing the opening set from Monster Bobby – the solo project of Robert Barry of Pipettes backing band The Cassettes – would be no great tragedy. In fact, I was advised to miss his set. Now I had every intention of catching his set regardless, but as it turns out my DSLR camera wasn’t allowed in the venue and I had to bring it home and swap it for my trusty old (operative word: old) point-and-shoot. I guess it simply wasn’t meant to be.

But catching Nicole Atkins & The Sea was – they were just starting their set when I got back to the club and I realize that I crossed the line between impartial faux-critic and gushing fanboy some shows ago but I speak truth when I say that every time I see her and her band, they’re better than the last time. Which is paradoxical since each time I see them, I can’t imagine them playing better than just did. But they do and they did and from the sounds of the audience, they not only won over a slew of new fans but brought some of their own out – maybe there’s something to be said for playing the same city three times in five months? This time, the highlight of the show was their absolutely incendiery closing cover of Patti Smith’s “Pissing In A River”. Check out the video of Nicole performing it at a tribute show in Copenhagen down below, then turn the intensity up tenfold (nb – I have no scientific method of measuring musical intensity, this is an estimate). Amazing. She’ll be back once again in February for a headlining tour (finally), and I know that’s a little ways off to make plans but don’t worry – I’ll remind you. Incessantly.

While I’d seen Atkins countless times this year (okay, five), I’d managed to miss The Pipettes something like a dozen times since March. Every one of their shows at SxSW, which I think was nine or ten, and both their previous Toronto dates. I’d have missed this one as well if it hadn’t been postponed from early October due to visa issues. I wouldn’t say I’m a Pipettes fan – I’ve heard the album once via the stream on their website – but I was curious. Was the buzz that surrounded them back in March still potent? Did their act work live? Would they be able to transcend the gimmickiness of their admittedly contrived origins? I’ll admit it, I was prepared to come out of the show and dismiss them on any of the above grounds but… I couldn’t.

Even though the downgrading of their venue from the Opera House to the cozier Lee’s might have spoken to a stall in the growth of their fanbase, those who did show up were highly enthusiastic and certainly hadn’t abandoned them once they were no longer the band du jour. And in performance, it was obvious that they didn’t take themselves or the Pipettes act too seriously and were just having a good time with it, turning out some really sharp pop songs and surprisingly strong singing. Why was I surprised? I don’t know, really. I guess that in a time when things that are meant to appear genuine are really meticulously manufactured, I don’t expect that something that appears meticulously manufactured would actually turn out to be quite genuine. Makes my head explode just a little. I still don’t feel the compulsion to pick up the album – after their 60 minute set I felt I had more than enough sugar in my musical diet to last a while – but I did indeed have a bit of a buzz on the way home.

Billboard profiles Nicole Atkins, Spinner talks to RiotBecki of The Pipettes about their costumes.

Photos: The Pipettes, Nicole Atkins & The Sea @ Lee’s Palace – November 18, 2007
MP3: Nicole Atkins & The Sea – “Party’s Over”
MP3: Nicole Atkins – “Bleeding Diamonds”
MP3: Nicole Atkins – “Carouselle”
Video: The Pipettes – “Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me” (YouTube)
Video: The Pipettes – “Pull Shapes” (YouTube)
Video: The Pipettes – “ABC” (YouTube)
Video: The Pipettes – “Judy” (YouTube)
Video: Nicole Atkins – “Pissing In A River” (live in Copenhagen)
Video: Nicole Atkins & The Sea – “The Way It Is” (MySpace)
Video: Nicole Atkins – “Neptune City” (YouTube)
MySpace: The Pipettes
MySpace: Nicole Atkins

And moving to the UK’s other – and still, in my mind, superior – throwback Motown/girl-group pop act, Lucky Soul, the band is Last FM’s candidate to take a run at the much-coveted top spot of the UK’s pop charts for the week of Christmas. Scenta reports on what the campaign is and what it hopes to accomplish, but basically Last FM is trying to throw the full weight of their 20,000,000 members behind the band and get their single release of “Lips Are Unhappy” to #1 for the week of December 25. They’re asking fans the band and enemies of bad music to pre-order the single, which will be b-sided by a cover of “Lonely This Christmas” by Mud, for a mere 40p. That comes out to 85 cents US by today’s exchange rates. The single itself will be available to download on December 17. Check out the video for the song below, as well as their recent performance on the rooftop of Last FM’s offices. And if you don’t know who Lucky Soul are… read this and this.

Video: Lucky Soul – “Lips Are Unhappy” (YouTube)
Video: Lucky Soul – “Ain’t Never Been Cool” live from Last FM (YouTube)
Video: Lucky Soul – “Get Outta Town!” live from Last FM (YouTube)
Video: Lucky Soul – “Lips Are Unhappy” live from Last FM (YouTube)

Spinner is streaming Bloc Party’s new EP, Flux. Musicrooms.net reports that the band recently had to abandon a gig in the Netherlands after a couple began having sex in the balcony. Oh, those crazy Dutch.

Stream: Bloc Party / Flux

Filter talks Ouija with The Fiery Furnaces. They’re at the Phoenix Lee’s Palace on December 12.

St Vincent discusses the title and artwork for Marry Me with The Scotsman. And the music. They also talk about the music.

If P Then Dirt offers up some interviews with the likes of Dean & Britta and Mac McCaughan in their original handwritten, snail-mailed forms. I wouldn’t have expected Dean Wareham to have had tidier handwriting than Britta Phillips, but it doesn’t really surprise me that Mac’s is illegible.

Austinist talks to Tad Kubler of The Hold Steady.

MySpace Canada is giving away tickets to see Neil Young at Massey Hall next week and to win, you only need to dress up your profile in some sort of Neil-related theme. Might I suggest skipping the obvious Harvest tones and going for some Shocking Pinks or perhaps some re-ac-tor spartanism? You’ll have to take down the dancing hamster wallpaper you’ve currently got up but hey – sacrifices must be made.

Pitchfork delves into the dark recesses of Of Montreal-er Kevin Barnes’ mind. And via Stereogum, Barnes pre-emptively calls everyone else a sell-out. Even you.

Though it was as inevitable as the sun rising in the east, it’s now official that The Sadies will once again ring out 2007 and ring in 2008 and generally make your ears ring at the Horseshoe on New Year’s Eve, tickets $20.

I figure there are three types of Spiritualized fans out there in the world these days. The faithful, whose zeal for the works of J Spaceman haven’t wavered after all these years. The agnostics (like myself) who would certainly call themselves fans but would have to agree that he’s now some ten years past his best work though are not prepared to write him off yet. And the apostates who, all things being equal, would probably rather listen to Spacemen 3 and angrily dismiss everything Jason Pierce has done post-Ladies & Gentleman, We Are Floating In Space. And, I suppose, you could put everyone else in the world under the category of atheist though they’re not really relevant to this discussion.

Spiritualized has been quiet since 2003’s disappointing (I think all categories of fans can agree on this) Amazing Grace, save a couple of career-spanning compilations. Work had been ongoing on a new record as far back as 2005 but when Jason Pierce nearly died that July, that threw a bit of a spanner in the works. Pierce recovered, thankfully, but the album was delayed – a 2007 release has now become a 2008 release – and until it comes out we can only speculate what sort of effect his illness had on the writing. After all, at least musically and lyrically Pierce has always nursed a deep religious streak and almost being taken to the other side? Well that’s got to leave a mark. But if anyone needed a hint as to where his headspace was at, they needed look any further than his Acoustic Mainlines tour, started in the UK last year and wrapping up a short North American run with the penultimate show in Toronto on Saturday night (it finishes in Boston tonight).

For many/most bands, a tour billed as “accompanied by strings and gospel singers” would be indisputable, physical evidence that they had gone over the top in pretentiousness with casino gigs just around the corner. This would be the apostate point of view. But for Spiritualized, it makes sense. Pierce’s entire career has arguably been dedicated to fusing rock, blues and gospel styles together and so to focus on rearranging his catalog for this sort of show seemed like a logical step. Spiritualized compositions typically come in two flavours – stripped down, electrified blues-rockers and grandiosely orchestrated, well, spirituals. Neither of these really translate to the “unplugged” format and so while the strings and gospel singers worked really well, it was actually the acoustic portion of the arrangements that proved to be the weak spot.

The stage was arranged with Pierce seated with an acoustic guitar, facing an electric pianist and surrounded by a four-piece string section and three-piece gospel choir. Pierce’s voice and guitar were turned way up in the mix and on occasion made the rest of the band sound incidental and gave the songs in almost a folk-like delivery. Whether this was deliberate or circumstantial is hard to say but the overall vibe of the show was extremely chilled out, serene and almost zen-like in its placidity. Any sense of dynamics were muted, particularly without the percussion, horns and electric guitar that typically create the hypnotic energy and punctuation in Spiritualized songs, and instead Pierce was content to just let it flow.

This was the pace for most of the set – beautiful, slow and hazy renditions of Spiritualized songs new and old, Spacemen 3 selections and a Daniel Johnston cover – until “Anything More” from Let It Come Down segued into the title track from their magnum opus, Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. With hit utterance of “All I want in life’s a little bit of love to take the pain away”, the crowd came alive, the gospel choir came alive and though Pierce remained utterly stoic on the exterior, maybe he dug in just a little harder. This was followed up by “Broken Heart” and probably the most gut-wrenching harmonica solo I’ve ever heard before finally easing up a bit for “I Think I’m In Love”. Through most of the show I had been thinking that Pierce had forgotten or abandoned the drama, the crescendos but no, he was just saving it all for the end and in doing so, elevated the show from simply pretty to deeply, devastatingly beautiful.

The disciples would have gone home on Saturday night their faith renewed in the Spaceman, the apostates (also known as the hecklers) perhaps with more evidence that Pierce has lost whatever fire fueled his earlier works and was happily headed down the road to easy listening (and probably left early) and the agnostic, well I’m still going to wait to hear the new album before passing judgment on Spiritualized’s long-term artistic prospects. But of course I’d say that.

Support on the tour came from Irish one-man band Simple Kid who shaggy, Badly Drawn folk was mildly endearing but mostly forgettable. It’s hard to think that someone who sings a duet with a video projection of Kermit The Frog is really striving to be taken seriously so I didn’t bother.

The Toronto Star also offers up a review of the show.

Photos: Spiritualized, Simple Kid @ The Phoenix – November 17, 2007
MP3: Simple Kid – “Lil King Kong”
Video: Spiritualized – “Stop Your Crying” (YouTube)
Video: Simple Kid – “Serotonin” (YouTube)
MySpace: Spiritualized
MySpace: Simple Kid

Two reasons to visit I Am Fuel You Are Friends – one, she’s giving away a copy of the The Brit Box boxed set, two, she’s got a good-sounding recording of one of The Verve’s reunion shows to download. It sounds… good. According to the The New Zealand Herald, they hope to release a new album by Christmas. That sounds over-optimistic and a recipe for half-baked, overly jammy songwriting.

Exclaim! reports that ATO are not distributing Radiohead’s In Rainbows in Canada. Instead, it will be sent to stores via Maple Music. All of which means… absolutely nothing. It’ll still be in stores January 2. NME has some quotes from Ed O’Brien about Radiohead’s position on the state of the music industry, if that wasn’t already abundantly clear.

Spinner interfaces with Stars. Westender, Vue and The Georgia Straight settle for interviews.

Jens Lekman explains to The Age why he, in actuality, is one of the sexiest men in Sweden.

Stereogum has the premiere of the first MP3 from the new Magnetic Fields album, Distortion. It’s out January 15.

James McNew explains the joy of a Yo La Tengo Hannakuk to Gothamist. Bradley’s Almanac has recordings of their recent freewheeling stop in Boston.

Around three or four years ago, I became fairly obsessed with the works of Steve Earle. I literally couldn’t go a day without spinning at least one of his albums, often more. While that obsession eventually faded to more rational levels, I’ve spent the last few days ratcheting up my SE quotient in anticipation of the Live At The Rehearsal Hall taping at the Bravo! studios last night.

Being ultra-keen and early scored me seats in the very front row, the second time I’ve been within a couple metres of Steve this year, the first being at SxSW in March (from whence this photo is taken – no pics at the taping, obviously). This was the second time I’ve been at a show taping – the first being Wilco on Austin City Limits – and this setting was quite different. Whereas at that one, we basically piled into the sizable auditorium, grabbed free beer and watched the show, this show was in considerably tighter quarters with no stage and we had to pre-record five different takes of applause footage before the show got started. Oh the wonder of television.

Also peculiar was the set list, or more specifically the order. Playing acoustically and with a backing DJ, Earle started off with nine of the twelve tracks from Washington Square Serenade before finishing off with a trio of classics – “Someday”, “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied” and “Copperhead Road” but when the show airs, those three will be the first three aired and then the new material. So essentially, the show’s intro will be our encore – I wonder how they’re going to cut that, since the old material naturally got the greatest response. On air, it’ll look like we got less interested. But I guess we’ll see how that plays when the episode airs on January 1, and be we I mean those of you with cable. I won’t get to see the camera add ten pounds to me.

As for the actual performance, well it was simply great. I’ve already said that I’m not sold on the folk-beats hybrid that Earle toys with on Serenade but hearing him deliver it live does make for a stronger argument than the record. When he opened with “Tennessee Blues”, I couldn’t help thinking how different it sounded in Austin back in March with just Steve on acoustic, all pensive and reflective and sounding a bit sad to be leaving his home. But with the loops thumping underneath and the tempo turned up, it sounded less like a farewell than a welcome to his new home – same song, different perspectives. The rest of the set was similarly lively and on the numbers that Allison Moorer came out to play on, well though Steve may have been correct in saying he was “overmarried” – they kind of look like a domestic sitcom couple – the obvious love and affection between the two as they played together was something to behold.

I don’t know how much of the between-song banter will make the final cut, but Earle is one of those performers who’d I’d pay money to hear talk, never mind play. He’s a fascinating and engaging speaker even if he does tend to recycle some of his material from show to show. I was a little surprised that his bit about needing to look out his front door and see a mixed-race, same-sex couple holding hands didn’t get aired but considering that he was in a city where that was not only common, but the couple could even be legally married, maybe he decided he was preaching to the choir.

I wonder when Earle eventually gets around to touring Serenade properly in the new year, if he’ll be keeping the current configuration or rearranging everything for a full band? He seemed pretty enamored with the sound he was getting last night but I don’t know how that’d translate in the much larger rooms he’d be playing. Time will tell and until he returns for a regular show, I’ll have the VHS of this show to keep me satisfied. ‘Cause one of you will tape it for me, right? Right? Surely someone out there still has a VCR?

And I should mention that Allison Moorer’s new album Mockingbird is out February 19. Harp has some details on the mostly-covers album, including the track list. Coincidentally, one of the covers is of Cat Power who herself is releasing a mostly-covers album a month prior on January 22. Matablog has more info on Jukebox including the fact that there’ll be a limited edition version with a second disc of five more covers.

San Francisco’s Minipop, whom you may or may not remember from this post, have a new video from their just-released album A New Hope. Grab the MP3 while you’re at it.

MP3: Minipop – “Like I Do”
Video: Minipop – “Like I Do” (YouTube)

Behold, the first preview track from American Music Club’s The Golden Age, out February 19. Look for North American tour dates in April and May.

MP3: American Music Club – “All The Lost Souls Welcome You To San Francisco”

AMC also appears on Hard To Find A Friend’s now-available holiday compilation, alongside folks like The Long Winters and Great Lake Swimmers. Eighteen songs, seven dollars, proceeds to Toys For Tots. And if you need more convincing, here’s the Long Winters’ contribution:

MP3: The Long Winters – “Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas”

Donewaiting talks to Eric Bachmann about the art of the sandwich loaf, reviving the Crooked Fingers name for his next album and not reviving the Archers Of Loaf.

Band Of Horses’ Ben Bridwell contributes a guest list to Pitchfork. Crossed off the list? Selling a song to Wal-Mart.

Nicole Atkins’ appearance on Letterman is being rerun tonight. An upside to the writers’ strike! You can watch it below but it looks and sounds much better on the telly proper. She’s at Lee’s Palace Sunday night.

Video: Nicole Atkins & The Sea – “The Way It Is” (live on Letterman)

NPR is streaming a World Cafe session with Interpol.

AOL Music Canada wonders why The Thermals aren’t huge.

Film School’s Greg Bertens tells Chart that getting all their gear stolen was the best thing that ever happened to them. Okay, not quite.

Drowned In Sound talk to The Twilight Sad.

Brooklyn’s White Magic will be at Sneaky Dee’s on December 3.

…And that’s my backlog of links cleared! Yay. Have a good weekend.