Yes, it was a bit of a bummer when The Go! Team’s Hallowe’en party originally scheduled for October 31 at the Opera House got moved to an All Saints’ Day party on November 1 at the Phoenix, but it could be worse – it could be All Saints.

And anyways, if you’ve heard Proof Of Youth or seen the Go! Team live, you’d know that no matter where or when they play it’s going to be a rollicking good time – not unlike being trapped in the audio editing suite for an crossover episode of Hawaii 5-0 and Starsky & Hutch with the Kool-Aid Man, who just happens to have been spiked by Captain Morgan. And yes, that’s my idea of a rollicking good time.

So I’m pleased, courtesy of Against The Grain and Secret City Records, to be able to offer up this two-fisted Go! Team giveaway. On one hand, I’ve got two pairs of passes to the November 1 show at the Phoenix in Toronto, and in the other hand, I’ve got three copies of Proof Of Youth on vinyl, all to give away to five lucky peeps.

To enter, leave me a comment below declaring “Trick!” if you want to go the show or “Treat!” if you want the vinyl. Either or, not both. Gotta spread the love around. Also tell me your best ever Hallowe’en costume (or if you don’t celebrate Hallowe’en, something equally amusing and tangentially related and be sure to include a contact-able email address (spam-proofed if you like). Obviously, the concert giveaway is limited to Toronto-area residents but anyone in Canada can go for the vinyl. Contest closes at midnight, October 29.

Update: Just a reminder that the vinyl is only available to Canadians. I appreciate the enthusiasm from readers hailing from elsewhere – and feel free to share your stories if you like – but the prizing for this one is Canuck-only. Thanks.

And head over to The Smudge Of Ashen Fluff for some MP3s of the band’s recent appearance on KCRW, wherein they turn and early AM appearance on Morning Becomes Eclectic into a dance party. What’d I tell you? Update: You can also watch video of their performance at KCRW. Yay.

MP3: The Go! Team – “Grip Like A Vice”
Video: The Go! Team – “Grip Like A Vice” (YouTube)
Video: The Go! Team – “Doing It Right” (YouTube)
Video: The Go! Team – “Keys To The City” (YouTube)
MySpace: The Go! Team

Cred-killing confession time – I’ve never really liked Joy Division. Respect, acknowledge the importance of, own the two albums by, yes. Really like? Not so much. I’ve always been more a New Order guy, if just because they wrote pop songs. Joy Division were, basically, too heavy for me. And it’s probably terribly cliche to say, but seeing Control has given me a whole new appreciation for the band.

The first thing that needs to be said about Control is that it’s visually stunning. If for aesthetic reasons alone, it deserves the glowing reviews that it’s been getting. Though his first time helming a feature, Anton Corbijn’s mastery of visuals has been well-proven in his music videos and photography so there’s no surprise that the film would look sumptuous but that doesn’t keep your jaw off the floor. Every shot, every scene, is so perfectly composed and lit that you could literally take any single frame of the film, blow it up and hang it on a wall. And what’s most impressive is that it seems so effortless – very few shots are obviously staged or deliberately “arty”, instead it seems like every element just fell into place because that’s where and how it was meant to be.

But appearances mean nothing if the film is hollow and thanks to superb lead performances from Sam Riley as Ian Curtis and Samantha Morton as Deborah Curtis, there’s real heart and humanity to the film. Corbijn opts to follow their story in a slightly detached manner, moving at a slowish but steady pace towards its final, inevitable and tragic conclusion but ensuring the film is about them and their story. While the Joy Division story is obviously integral to the tale, it’s not the central topic – just context. That’s not to say that the music isn’t given its due for the scenes of the band playing are electrifying. Riley, doing his own vocals just as the rest of the actors/band plays their instruments live, channels Curtis’ intensity and charisma and really conveys just how revolutionary they must have sounded thirty years ago and, as I listen to them for the first time in ages and with fresh ears, still do.

It’s not a perfect film – it wavers a bit at the end when dealing with Curtis’ suicide, trying to compress all explanation and rationale for it into the final act and Corbijn loses the distance that had served so well to that point – but it is an exceptional one and absolutely worth seeing whether you’re a Joy Division fan or not, but especially if you are.

And I couldn’t help but compare the portrayals of Joy Division in Control and 24 Hour Party People, thanks to YouTube. Riley’s portrayal of Curtis is light years superior, and I remember thinking that Sean Harris’ portrayal in the Winterbottom film was pretty good. I have to give the nod to 24 Hour‘s Bernard Sumner though, if only because John Simm looks uncannily like Barney. Both films were pretty in synch as to their Rob Grettons and I also found it comforting somehow that Peter Hook is universally portrayed as an asshole. And a bit of trivia from IMDB – Sam Riley played The Fall’s Mark E Smith in a cameo in 24 Hour Party People. How about that?

Harp and Paste talk to Anton Corbijn about making Control while The Globe & Mail and The Village Voice discuss inhabiting Ian Curtis with Sam Riley.

Trailer: Control

Editor Tom Smith talks to Harp.

Scott Wilkinson of British Sea Power discusses their new album Do You Like Rock Music?, out February 12 of next year, with Billboard. I’m anxiously awaiting this new album but hope it’s better than the Krackenhaus? EP, which has failed to excite me so far.

Express talks to Billy Bragg about his charity work and his relationship with America.

Adam Franklin talks about the impending Swervedriver reunion in their MySpace blog.

Harp gets to know Natasha Khan from Bat For Lashes.

It’s not too often that a show announcement sneaks up on me to the point that the first I hear of it is opening up the latest issue of NOW, but this one did and what a pleasant surprise it is. Spiritualized at the Phoenix, November 17. Now I’ve seen Spiritualized before and didn’t really care for the last couple records, but this show is part of the Spriritualized Acoustic Mainline tour and features J Spacemen unplugged with string sections and gospel singers. To get an idea of how good that’ll sound, check out the live clip from their performance at All Tomorrow’s Parties earlier this year. I’d call this a must-see. Simple Kid supports, tickets $26.50, on sale Saturday.

Video: Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline @ All Tomorrow’s Parties – April 2007

And just announced – Peter Bjorn & John will make up their cancelled V-Fest appearance with a show at the Phoenix on January 22 of next year. Which really isn’t that far off.

So you know that show this Monday night at the El Mocambo that I just gave away passes to? Well turns out I’ve got more. I’ve already talked a bit about
Eulogies and I’ve gone on about Land Of Talk so I’ll take this opportunity to talk a bit about the third band on the bill, Californians Film School, and their new album Hideout.

Though featuring a new and expanded lineup than the band that recorded 2006’s self-titled release, Hideout offers more of the sonically dense dream/dronepop that defined that record, though with some of the harder edges softened up just a touch. There’s also more focus on soundscaping than songwriting though things do coalesce into pop songs from time to time, making for a hazy sort of listen start to finish, like drifting in and out of focus. Which, in this style of music, is exactly the point.

It was essentially a different band that played the Horseshoe in May of last year but since the recorded aesthetic hasn’t changed that much, I expect their live show will be as loud and hopefully as good as last time. Want to find out? Courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away to the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to go to Film School” in the subject line and your full name in the body as well as the name of your favourite director. Just out of curiosity. And Scott and Bruce (aka, those who entered the Eulogies contest), I will automatically enter you in this one. Contest closes at midnight, October 27.

MP3: Film School – “Lectric”
MySpace: Film School

Even though I wrote up Our Ill Wills from Shout Out Louds a couple weeks ago, it’s managed to stay in fairly heavy listening rotation hereabouts. I think it just suits what I’ve been in the mood for lately – well-produced, unpretentious and slightly dour pop music that’s not trying to change my world. It’s perfectly happy to have a seat and just hang out and that’s about how their show at the Mod Club this past Monday night went down.

For expediency’s sake we’ll skip past the first band on the bill, a trio from LA that dealt in overdramatic alt.radio rock fronted by an American Apparel ad and just deal with the Swedish portions of the bill. Johnossi were a duo named for the members of the band (John and Ossi, natch) and while their self-titled debut didn’t convince me – I thought they sounded a bit like The Hives wearing cowboy hats – their live show proved they were deadly serious and able to coax more rock out of an acoustic guitar and drum kit than I’d have thought possible. Stylistically I’d still go with the above reference points – the do blend classic hard rock with a cowpunk/rockabilily sensibility – but expressed with nothing but respect. Still not feeling the urge to revisit the album (though I probably will), but I’d happily see them again live in a heartbeat.

While what I’d heard from the first Shout Out Louds record hadn’t captured my imagination the way the new one has, I’ll be first to admit that it came across much better live. The Ill Wills material, with its widescreen production, is harder to pull off than the drier, scrappier Howl Howl Gaff Gaff songs and the band mostly opted not to try and reproduce all the nuances, instead stripping the arrangements down for live performance. I expected as much and thus shouldn’t really have been disappointed that “Impossible” didn’t sound as sweeping as it does on record but still was, just a bit.

But that doesn’t mean that they didn’t try to make things sound interesting. Each member of the band seemed to come equipped with an arsenal of percussion – shakers, tambourines, wooden blocks, cowbells, whatever. If you could hit it and have it make a noise, they probably had it up there somewhere and while a few shakers does not a dance party make, it made for a much more rhythmic show than one might have thought they had in them. Though NOW was more than a little unimpressed with the show, I had a good time with it and Our Ill Wills continues to be spun on a more than regular basis.

The band had hoped to keep a tour diary of sorts on their North American tour but as the first dispatch at Spinner indicates, things got off to a rough start with bus troubles and while they’ve managed to get back on schedule, they might have other things on their minds. Maybe they’ll catch up eventually. They did make it to Minnesota Public Radio to record a session, though, which you can stream or download. Newsday and AM New York also have interviews. Update: A second tour diary update is now up at Spinner.

Photos: Shout Out Louds, Johnossi @ The Mod Club – October 22, 2007
MP3: Shout Out Louds – “Tonight I Have To Leave It”
MP3: Johnossi – “Man Must Dance”
Video: Shout Out Louds – “Tonight I Have To Leave It” (MOV)
Video: Shout Out Louds – “Impossible” (YouTube)
Video: Johnossi – “Man Must Dance” (YouTube)
Video: Johnossi – “Execution Song” (YouTube)
Video: Johnossi – “Glory Days To Come” (YouTube)
MySpace: Shout Out Louds
MySpace: Johnossi

Slate declares Jens Lekman to be “Sweden’s greatest musical export”. And backs it up.

Filter and Magnet have interviews and MPR a session with Rogue Wave, in town for a show at the Mod Club on Friday.

Craig Finn of The Hold Steady talks to The Metro Times about his songwriting and NME about where they’re at with their next record.

Harp offers up an excerpt from All Over But The Shouting: An Oral History Of The Replacements.

Beat Route has posted their October cover story on Ted Leo.

The Diableros’ first album You Can’t Break The Strings In Our Olympic Hearts was a head trip of swirling Farfisa and fuzz-drenched 12-string guitar pop that I liked as is but had many tempering their enthusiasm with complaints about the mix. Yeah, Pete Carmichael’s voice was low in the mix and the guitar and organ way up, but to me that was part of the rough charm of the record. We agreed to disagree.

But the band apparently took this to heart as their follow-up, Aren’t Ready For The Country, has a much more sensible mix – vocals up and guitars and organs turned down to a dull roar – and stretches out a bit more stylistically but it comes at the cost of some of the immediacy and energy of the first record. I guess you’d call that maturing and it’s reasonable to think that in time, its sophistication will grow on me and I might prefer it to its predecessor, but it’s not there yet.

But speaking of being there, the Diableros are holding a CD release show for the album at the Horseshoe this Friday and I’ve got two prize packs for it to give away. They consist of two passes to the show, a copy of the new album on CD and a limited-edition 7″ of “Working Out Words” from the first record on some dapper blue vinyl. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I’m Ready For The Country” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the email body. The CD and 7″ will be sent to you via mail. Contest closes Thursday night at 9PM.

MP3: The Diableros – “No One Wants To Drive”
MySpace: The Diableros