Photo by Justin Broadbent

It’s turned out that V Fest lineup-spotting has been less engaging than I’d hoped. The first two waves of lineup announcements came in March and May, and the acts for the B-Live dance tent in July, but since then the expected final batch of names to fill out the lineup hasn’t appeared, and there’s just over a week to go.

So while there’ve been a few names quietly added to the lineup – Paper Lions, Matt Costa, Mark Robertson, Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains, Songs From A Room – it now seems that what we’ve got is what we’ve got, and that’s a leaner lineup in terms of both star power and simple numbers. In 2007, there were eight bands per day on the main stages and nine on the third stage, whereas if things stay as is for this year, there’ll be just seven acts on the two big stages and six on the small one. They could simply give each band a longer set time, which makes sense as far as satisfying the fans who have bought tickets because presumably there’s someone there they want to see, but as someone who was hoping for a moderately big, 11th hour addition to the bill if just to make things interesting, I’m a bit disappointed.

And oh yes, that third stage. It’s dubbed the “Oh Henry!” Stage and is tasked with showcasing up-and-coming Canadian acts, including the winner of a competition sponsored by the titular candy bar. But as dubious a setup as that might sound, there’s actually some decent talent appearing including London hip-hop artist Shad, whom I’d have thought as a Polaris Music Prize nominee might get invited to one of the big stages. Now as part of my duties as a grand jurist for the aforementioned prize, I’ve been listening rather closely to all ten of the nominated records including Shad’s The Old Prince, and while I don’t feel qualified to objectively discern good hip-hop from bad, I quite like this record – it’s got a nice flow and a lot of really clever wordplay – and like most everyone of a certain age, I like the just-released video for the almost sorta title track. Does that mean I’m going to be lobbying for it to win? Wouldn’t you like to know?

Back to V Fest – the lineup for the Oh Henry stage is as follows – Saturday will feature We Are The Take, Saint Alvia Cartel, Flash Lightnin’, Lights, Bad Flirt and The Waking Eyes while Sunday will have Winter Gloves, OPOPO, The Arkells, Rock Plaza Central, Shad and Secret Broadcast. On top of those I’ve collected names of a few more acts who, at least according to their websites or MySpaces, seem to think they’re playing V Fest – Jesse Krakow and Electric Touch… maybe you can busk? I dunno.

The schedule is promised soon, and that should answer pretty much everything though last year it didn’t show up until the Wednesday before, so things could remain ambiguous a little bit longer. But come on, you’re going just to hear “Wonderwall” and “Big Me” anyways, right? Right. And don’t forget I’m still giving away peripherally associated mobile phone accessories and CDs.

MP3: Shad – “I Don’t Like To”
MP3: Shad – “The Old Prince Still Lives At Home”
Video: Shad – “The Old Prince Still Lives At Home”
MySpace: Shad

JAM talks to Liam Gallagher of Oasis about his band, his brother, y’know – stuff. They kicked off their North American tour last night on the road to V. Dig Out Your Soul is out October 7.

Pitchfork reports that That Night A Forest Grew – the new EP from The Clientele previously mentioned here, is now available digitally at eMusic and will be out in physical form at a to-be-determined date. The Clientele played V Fest last year. They were great.

NME has news about Editors returning to the studio this Fall. They played V Fest last year. They were great.

PopMatters talks to Guy Garvey of Elbow. They should play V Fest this year. They’d be great.

Tiny Mix Tapes has a chat with Neil Halstead, manages to go five questions before broaching the subject of Slowdive. They also get updates on the state of Rachel Goswell’s health and Mojave 3 in general. He should play V Fest this year. He’d be great. Okay, I’ll stop.

The Irish Independent talks to Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine about the band’s Irish roots. The band are at the Ricoh Coliseum on September 25 (still giving away tickets!) and for a taste of what to expect, check out this video of the band’s recent performance in Japan. I daresay it sounds glorious.

Video: My Bloody Valentine – “To Here Knows When” (live at Fuji Rock Festival)

And for more reunited band live video footage, check out The Verve playing at the BBC Studios at Maida Vale. Forth came out this week and reviews are lukewarm.

Video: The Verve – “Love Is Noise” (live at Maida Vale)

Angry Ape reports that The Long Blondes will release a compilation of their early singles in a collection entitled Singles, set for release on October 20.

Photo via Secretly Canadian

Almost forgot I had this to give away.

Maybe you saw my review from earlier this week of Windsor For The Derby’s new album How We Lost, maybe you clicked on one of the sample MP3s contained therein and maybe you liked what you heard. And maybe you were considering going to see them at the Drake Underground this Friday evening – August 29 – because even though it’s the start of the last long weekend of the Summer, you’ve got nothing to do. Maybe.

Well, courtesy of Against The Grain, I’m going to make that decision process a touch easier – I’ve got three pairs of passes to give away for the show, and if you want ’em, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Windsor For The Derby” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, August 27th.

MP3: Windsor For The Derby – “Maladies”
MP3: Windsor For The Derby – “Hold On”
MySpace: Windsor For The Derby

Photo by Doron Gild

As much as I’d like to find a completely different angle to discuss Ra Ra Riot’s debut full-length The Rhumb Line, it’s difficult to not address the topic of the death of drummer John Pike last year as his spirit permeates the whole record, from the dedication on the liner notes to the fact that he co-wrote many of the songs. Indeed, though drums on the record are handled entirely by Cameron Wisch, including the four of six songs from their self-titled EP re-recorded for the full-length, it’s notable that he’s not credited as an official band member.

Also interesting is that over the course of the record, it’s those older songs that still stand out the most, and that’s not just familiarity talking. They’re the most energetic numbers and also the ones that best capture the swirling wonder of their live show. This isn’t to suggest the newer material is lesser – that which was presumably written after Pike’s death may not be as immediate, but it’s just as effective at showcasing the band’s dense and detailed orchestral pop and certainly proves that even without Pike, there’s still plenty of creativity to tap into. But if you were looking to sell the band in one song, any of “Ghost Under Rocks”, “Each Year” or “Dying Is Fine” is where you’d go to seal the deal.

So rather than a progression from the self-title, The Rhumb Line feels more an expansion of that record – obviously the band wasn’t ready to move on without a proper toast to absent friends, and in that the record manages to simultaneously succeed as both a stirring debut and a poignant memorial.

Rolling Stone features the band as one to watch for 2008 and if you want to watch them – which I highly recommend – they’re at the Horseshoe next Thursday night, September 4. And, courtesy of Outside Music, I’ve got one pair of passes to give away to the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to Ra Ra Riot” in the subject line (yes I used that last time I gave away passes to their show what of it) and your full name in the body and have that in to me by midnight, September 1.

Update: Also check out the band doing some live sessions at Pitchfork, Stereogum, BrooklynVegan and My Old Kentucky Blog.

MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Dying Is Fine”
MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Each Year” (EP version)
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Ghost Under Rocks”
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Dying Is Fine”
MySpace: Ra Ra Riot

JAM finds out what Aimee Mann has against smilers. Be sure to greet her with stoic, stony faces when she plays the Kool Haus on Thursday night.

Bend Bulletin talks to Glenn Kotche of Wilco about their massively expanded set list and their 50-state initiative. They’re at the Air Canada Centre on December 4 opening up for Neil Young. I will simply not get tired of writing that. Everyone get tickets alright? I’ve got seats in section 104, row 16. I think those are good.

Filter profiles The Kills.

As My Morning Jacket tours through Texas, Dallas News and Austin 360 score interviews with the band, who’ve just released a new video from Evil Urges.

Video: My Morning Jacket – “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt 2”

Pitchfork reports Mountain Goats will be releasing a tour-only double-7″ EP for when they hit the road this Fall, but those unlucky enough to not be on the sched – including us – will be able to grab it digitally via a novel new “pay what you want” model.

Athenians Dark Meat will be returning to town for a show at the Drake Underground on September 25. If you need a reason to attend, just check out this concert photo at Spin. Seriously, how much fun does that look? And the idea of that spilling over into the chi chi environs of the Drake… priceless. Full tour dates at Pitchfork.

MP3: Dark Meat – “Freedom Ritual”

You can currently stream the whole of Matthew Sweet’s new album Sunshine Lies. Now it’s true that Sweet’s output has become somewhat less than essential in recent years – still decent enough but not really a patch on his older material – but anytime he pulls up the right supporting cast as he does this time with the likes of Ric Menck and Richard Lloyd, it’s worth taking note. OC Register talks a bit to Sweet about the new record.

Stream: Matthew Sweet – “Sunshine Lies”

Chart talks to Liz Powell of Land Of Talk, who play Lee’s Palace on September 27 and release Some Are Lakes on October 7.

The ever-wonderful Merge records turns 20 next year and are marking the occasion with SCORE!, a subscription series of 14 CDs of Merge goodies curated by a variety of famous people and whose proceeds will go to charity. Pre-orders begin in September, delivery in January 2009. Details at Pitchfork.

Photo by Frank Yang

It’s a fact that I don’t get out to see as many local bands play as I’d like. I know there’s a wealth of great or soon-to-be great acts in Toronto that are playing out every night, but it’s simply not possible to keep on top of everything. So it’s nice to have nights like last Thursday where I’m able to not only hit up a show comprised entirely of local talent, but for the bill to turn out to be as solid top to bottom as this one was.

The main draw for me was Oh No Forest Fires, whom I’d tried unsuccessfully to see many times since I first caught them last December. And though they were closing things out, it wasn’t officially their show – that honour went to Modern Boys Modern Girls, marking the release of their debut album I Might As Well Break It. And of the other two bands on the bill, Everything All The Time had been recommended to me a little while back and the other, Dinosaur Bones, well since I was headed down to the Horseshoe anyways, why not see everyone?

Actually, that’s being a bit disingenuous. I’d done some due diligence on Dinosaur Bones via their MySpace and was quite impressed with what I’d heard – they’ve got a sounds that’s fresh yet familiar, but not easily slottable into any particular genre or revival movement. If parallels must be drawn, then perhaps I’d liken them to a rawer (or maybe just less polished) Ambulance LTD, combining Anglo romanticism with a distinctly North American (okay, New York) urbanity. Darkly sophisticated stuff, I look forward to hearing more from this five-piece in the future.

You could be forgiven if you assumed, from the name, that Everything All The Time were an overly slavish Band Of Horses tribute band, but in fact dusty Appalachian roots-rock is about as far from what EATT are about as you can get. For starters, their setup had more keyboards (8) than band members (8) and no guitars. If you think from this that synth-pop is in order, then you’d be correct but there was so much more than that. True, they did start out with relatively twee electro-pop but as the set progressed, they began piling on the stylistic shifts with notable forays into jazz and by the end, full-on electro-funk and disco and doing it all almost seamlessly (I say almost because the saxophone solo stood out more than a bit). Interestingly, the singer on their debut record – Audrey Bankley – is decidedly of the indie folk school, yet their live singer – Alanna Stuart – is an old school soul singer… and yet it works. Really well. Go figure.

Though their name makes specific promises, Modern Boys Modern Girls only half deliver – yes, there’s boys and girls in the band, the latter in the form of two full-time backing singers – yet “modern” is not the best single word to describe them. Their barreling rock quite overtly cherry picks the past – girl group pop hookery and simplicity from the ’50s , stomping classic guitar rock from the ’60s and danceable grooves from the ’70s – and while it’s certainly not the first time that particular musical recipe has been put to work, MBMG deliver it with a swagger and aplomb that makes it seem like they, at least, believe they’re the ones who thought it up. Exceptionally tight, MBMG strike an impressive balance between the party and the polish.

Contrarily, “polish” is not a word you’d use to describe Oh No Forest Fires. The last time I saw them I alluded to them sharing musical headspace with Broken Social Scene and while that knack for pulling pop out of chaos is definitely still present… there’s a lot more chaos. Actually, “bedlam” was the word that most jumped into my head the most, watching the four piece gleefully bound around the Horseshoe stage, eventually demolishing as much of their equipment as the possibly could. Some bands like to jump around on stage – ONFF move like they’re in a pinball machine stuck on “TILT” and slowly filling with lava, and yet they manage to deliver their songs rather impeccably. It’s really something to behold. Their now-completed, soon to be released debut album The War On Geometry should better demonstrate the band’s songwriting chops and range, but for the full, in-your-face experience seeing them live is the way to go. Do so before they blow up. Or self-immolate.

Photos: Oh No Forest Fires, Modern Boys Modern Girls, Everything All The Time, Dinosaur Bones @ The Horseshoe – August 21, 2008
MP3: Oh No Forest Fires – “Swing And A Misdemeanor”
MP3: Oh No Forest Fires – “We Fit Our Charm”
MP3: Modern Boys Modern Girls – “My Baby Says Boy, Don’t You Ever Go”
Stream: Modern Boys Modern Girls / I Might As Well Break It
MySpace: Modern Boys Modern Girls

Chart talks to Angela Desveaux, who will release her sophomore album The Mighty Ship on September 9 and play the Boat on September 4 and Lee’s Palace on October 15 opening up for The New Year.

Jenn Grant has two dates scheduled for Hugh’s Room on September 27 and 28.

In addition to his show at the Mod Club on October 4, Chad Van Gaalen has an in-store scheduled at Sonic Boom the following day, October 5, at 4PM. His new record Soft Airplane is out September 9.