So with the UK editions of V Fest are ongoing this weekend, which leaves Toronto’s franchise – set for September 6 and 7 at the Toronto Islands – as the only of Richard Branson’s big parties left for 2008. That’s just three weeks off, and with only 24 of the 32 acts announced – and that assumes the same number of bands for the two stages per day, never mind the third stage which appears to be in the plans again this year – it’s understandable that people are just a wee bit curious about who else is coming.

Starting with announcements of Foo Fighters, Oasis, Paul Weller, Bloc Party and Spiritualized, it looked like we were set for a rather ass-kicking lineup this year but since then, the roster has been filled with resolutely club-level acts, who while not necessarily bad per se, haven’t done a lot to keep the excitement – especially not when compared to the talent assembled for the Baltimore edition a couple weeks ago.

Since they announced the Moby-led lineup for the Bacardi B-Live tent, announcements have not been forthcoming and the only two new names – Mardeen and Yoav – were added to the website quietly and without fanfare. There should be one more lineup press release coming – last year’s came on August 22 – and the optimist in me is hoping they’re saving some moderate names to keep it from being too anticlimactic – but all we can do is wait. Some digging has revealed some smaller/local names who’ll be playing – Songs From A Room, Electric Touch, Winter Gloves and contest winners Secret Broadcast – but no one that’s going to sell any tickets. Oasis, that is your burden to bear. Update: Also playing: Paper Lions, Shad and The Arkells (thanks Ryan). And Lights, Jesse Krakow and The Waking Eyes (thanks Colin). And Matt Costa. And Rock Plaza Central.

But what does this have to do with contesting? Not a lot. Just thinking out loud. Here’s the giveaway bit. In case the omnipresent branding around the festival grounds aren’t reminder enough, the “Virgin” in Virgin Fest is a reference to Virgin Mobile and courtesy of Sony BMG Canada, I’ve got an indeterminate number (gotta double-check) two of these “Virgin Festival 2008 Ultimate Survival Kits” to give away. These contain a 2GB micro SD card with adapter and 9 songs preloaded, a mobile phone carrying case, some stickers, a wired headset and three CDs TBD (but almost certainly the Sony artists in the lineup) Oasis’ Stop The Clocks, Foo Fighters’ Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace and MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular. In my opinion it should also include earplugs to use during Yoav’s set, but that’s just me. But whether you’re going to V Fest or not, you may well have need of some or all of the items included in this little kit so if you do, fire me off an email to contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want the V Fest survival kit” in the subject line and your mailing address in the body. Contest will be open until August 30 and is open to residents of Canada.

Photo by Carrie Musgrave

Obviously no one wants to look past what’s left of the Summer, but you must admit that when there’s as much going on in September as there typically is, it’s not the worst thing for the trees to start turning colours. For example, there’s the annual Word On The Street book and magazine festival taking place on September 28 this year. And while there will be the usual many booths and stalls closing off Queen’s Park and celebrating (and selling) the printed word, this year there’ll also be a music stage sponsored by eye featuring some choice local talent.

Starting at 11AM, there’s be music and literary-type shenanigans from Chris Eaton of Rock Plaza Central, Forest City Lovers, $100, Dave Bidini, Castlemusic, Laura Barrett, Ibi Kaslik, Eric Chenaux, author Nathan Whitlock accompanied by Alex Lukashevsky and capped off by members of Ohbijou. All for frees, of course.

And it’s less in the interests of disclosure than simple pride that I point out that Laura Barrett, my former bandmate gone on to bigger and better things will release her debut full-length album, Victory Garden, on September 23. Congratulations! While the strength of her songwriting always allowed her to transcend the potential pigeonhole of her girl with a kalimba act, I’m pleased to hear that the record evidences some serious growth. A little slice of quirky-to-say-the-least orchestral folk-pop, Garden demonstrates that her lyrical approach has evolved such that they’re not just curious and eccentric, but also intriguingly oblique, and also incorporates much more expansive musical arrangements and also showcases her piano skills. But fear not, fans – there’s still plenty of kalimba.

She’s playing tomorrow night at the Theatre Centre as part of the finale of the Summerworks Music Festival alongside the Sunparlour Players, and both The Montreal Mirror and NOW have feature interviews with her. CBC Radio 3 has also made the recording of her show at NxNE this past June available to stream.

MP3: Laura Barrett – “Robot Ponies”
Video: Laura Barrett – “Robot Ponies”

JAM talks to Duffy.

Oklahoma’s Evangelicals are back for what must be their fiftieth local show this year, this time at Sneaky Dee’s on September 27. Tickets $7.

And the band they played with last time through – Shearwater – you can watch their show in New York City from the past May wherein they played the majestic Rook in its orchestrally augmented entirety at Baeble Music. Glorious.

I realize that this has been a fairly light week, content-wise, but there’s simply been a dearth of stuff happening the likes of which I can’t really recall. Next week, however, should be better. For starters, I just got accredited to cover and shoot Radiohead at the Amphitheatre tonight. Yes. I had planned to just spend the night watching TV, but this could very well be better.

Photo via mybloodyvalentine.net

What a time to be a My Bloody Valentine fan! First legendary band reunites after an almost 15-year hiatus with live performances in Europe through the Summer and more dates set for North America in the Fall. Then they announce that their two masterpiece albums Loveless and Isn’t Anything will be remastered and re-released at some point in the Autumn, with new material to follow. And NOW comes the news that the awful 1981 Canadian horror film from which the band took their name is being remade… in 3-D and starring absolutely no one of consequence. EXCITING.

But that’s not out until January 16 of next year. Somewhat sooner is My Bloody Valentine’s (the band) show in Toronto on September 25 at the Ricoh Coliseum and courtesy of Emerge I have two pairs of passes to give away for the show. EXCITING. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I Must See My Bloody Valentine” in the subject line and your full name in the body and as a skill-testing question, you must tell me what sort of rodent Kevin Shields became obsessed with – perhaps/probably unhealthily so – during the band’s downtime in the late ’90s. I’m going to let this one run a while – say until September 14. One month. And earplugs are not included.

Video: My Bloody Valentine – “Only Shallow”
Video: My Bloody Valentine – “Soon”
Video: My Bloody Valentine – “To Here Knows When”
Video: My Bloody Valentine – “Swallow”
Video: My Bloody Valentine – “You Made Me Realise”
Video: My Bloody Valentine – “Feed Me With Your Kiss”
Trailer: My Bloody Valentine
MySpace: My Bloody Valentine

The Quietus talks to a couple of Shield’s former bandmates from his brief tenure in Primal Scream, Bobby Gillespie and Mani. The Telegraph also talks to Gillespie, This Is Nottingham to Mani.

You can currently stream fragments of The Verve’s new record Forth in advance of its release on August 26. Obviously these are just short snippets (and choppy – dear Parlophone, buy some more bandwidth, sincerely, me) but they sound alright though the fairly standard “don’t listen too close to Ashcroft’s lyrics” disclaimer seems to be in effect.

Head over to Stereogum for a stream of the new Oasis single “Falling Down”, which sounds more immediately interesting than anything new I’ve heard from them in a long time. Dig Out Your Soul is out October 7 and they’re closing out V Fest on the Toronto Islands on September 7.

NPR is streaming a World Cafe session with British Sea Power.

As suspected, those North American tour dates for Noah & The Whale which I pointed out earlier this week were incomplete. Be sure to circle September 23 on your calendar because that night the UK folk-pop outfit will be at the Horseshoe to play Nu Music Nite (read: free show!). Their album Peaceful, the World Lays me Down is out September 16. Trivia – the band’s name is derived from the Noah Baumbach film The Squid & The Whale.

Black Mountain have a new video from In The Future. They’re at the Opera House on September 27.

Video: Black Mountain – “Wucan”

Though she’s still playing the November 3 date at the Air Canada Centre, Feist has scheduled another (relatively) more intimate show two night previous (November 1) at Massey Hall. You know you’re big when Massey Hall counts as intimate. Tickets go on sale to the public on August 18 at 10AM.

Yeah, that’s all for today. Don’t tell me you don’t lazy in the middle of August too.

Photo by Liam Henry

Before my recent trip to the UK, people were asking me what shows I was going to catch across the pond. As if the whole point of going on vacation was to continue doing what I do when I’m not on vacation. That said, I did have a couple things lined up, big and small. The former – Richard Hawley at the Royal Albert – went marvelously but my efforts to catch some British baby bands on their home turf didn’t go so well.

On my last full day in London, there was supposed to be a Drowned In Sound-sponsored free matinee at a Notting Hill community centre featuring a band that had been on my radar for a little while, Leeds-based outfit Sky Larkin, which I was actually rather excited about, but a little over a month before the trip they announced they’d pulled out of the show in order to go to New York City and record their debut album. I was disappointed, obviously, though it was probably for the best for two reasons. One, I ended up having an absolutely marvelous day without having to hoof it to the west end and two, the first sample of their efforts in New York is scorching.

It’s an immediate and visceral blend of pop and punk that manages to not be pop-punk that grabs me in a way that I don’t think I’ve been grabbed since I first heard Land Of Talk – in other words, in a very good way. Like their earlier recordings, it’s loud and brash but there’s an extra dimension of confidence (not to mention audio fidelity) that implies that the band have found the next level. It’s still a long way off before the still-untitled album is released – I’m told February 2009 – but it certainly gives something to look forward to.

In the meantime, check out a song they made available via RCRDLBL and an video of the song that initially caught my ear.

MP3: Sky Larkin – “Molten”
Video: Sky Larkin – “One Of Two”
MySpace: Sky Larkin

I had thought New York’s Longwave had called it a day, but the space-rock outfit are still at it and back with a new album called Secrets Are Sinister, due out November 11. They’re streaming a goodly portion of the new record at their MySpace.

Fans of The Stills may be interested to know that the band will be playing a free show at the Horseshoe on August 19 to mark the release of their new record Oceans Will Rise, out that same day. So if you were planning on heading down to see Dog Day, on just before them, be forewarned that the ‘Shoe will be a mite busier than usual that night. The Calgary Herald and Chart have interview with The Stills.

Video: The Stills – “Being Here”

The Irish Times and Sky News talk to Noah & The Whale and considers the current “anti-folk” scene in the UK, which has inadvertently began making up more and more of my current music rotation. Sneaky anti-folks!

September 9 is a good day to hit the record store with new releases from Okkervil River – The Stand-Ins – and Calexico – Carried To Dust. There’s a new MP3 available from the former and a new video from the latter.

MP3: Okkervil River – “Lost Coastlines”
Video: Calexico – “Two Silver Trees”

Reveille Q&A’s The Coast, currently gallivanting around the USA on tour.

Bad Religion have a date at the Sound Academy on September 24 while Beck and MGMT are there on October 5.

The National talk festivals and politics with Drowned In Sound.

They Shoot Music Don’t They films Saturday Looks Good To Me playing a couple songs in an abandoned cattle hall in Austria. Which is only just slightly less of a musical cliche than having your band photos taken beside railroad tracks. SLGTM’s Fred Thomas has also been blogging.

Photo by Marc Rimmer

Those of you inclined to follow such things may have noted that the members of the Grand Jury for this year’s Polaris Music Prize was announced yesterday and you may also have noted that yours truly is there at the bottom of the list. I’m proud to be taking a great step towards respectability for fake media outlets and helping decide whom out of Black Mountain, Basia Bulat, Caribou, Kathleen Edwards, Holy Fuck, Plants & Animals, Shad, Stars, Two Hours Traffic and The Weakerthans will be taking home the giant cheque for $20,000.

You might think you know from my personal tastes how my vote is going to swing, but you might be surprised about where my thoughts are leading. For my ballot that went toward the long and short lists, I just went subjectively with the eligible albums I liked best but for the grand prize, I’m taking the more objective approach and considering the prize’s stated purpose of rewarding the record with the “highest artistic integrity”… and whatever that means, it’s not the same as “I like this one best”. I think. I’m not sure. Anyway, what this all means is that this year, since I’ll be locked in a dark, smoky room with ten others figuring out who gets to be this year’s Patrick Watson, I won’t get to sit in the balcony of the Phoenix with the cream of the Canadian music industry’s b-list (a-list gets tables down on the floor) and snap photos like last year.

But apparently you can – there’s a contest on to give away six passes to the Polaris Gala on September 29 in Toronto. The performers for the gala haven’t been announced yet but I can’t help but notice that Black Mountain, Holy Fuck and Two Hours Traffic all have local shows scheduled around the time of the festivities, while Stars and Kathleen Edwards are on the road and almost certainly no-shows. Either way, it’s a fun night and they have decent cheese and cracker platters in the cheap seats.

So what does this have to do with the handsome group of people in the photo up top? Nothing and everything. That up there is Calgary’s Woodpigeon, whom I first heard of from discussions in the Polaris jurors Google group as being a worthy nominee for last year’s list for their 2007 release Songbook. That prompted be to see their showcase at last year’s Pop Montreal, which I enjoyed quite a bit. And even though their set opening for Calexico back in June was even more impressive, I still wasn’t prepared for how revelatory their new record Treasury Library Canada is.

The first and prevailing impression is – “damn, this thing is pretty”. Listening to the record is like trying to carry on a conversation with an uncommonly attractive person – you want to listen to what they’re saying, to get to know them better, but you can’t help being distracted by just how good they look. Or in this case, sound. And when you finally do manage to pay proper attention, you discover they’re just as interesting, witty and/or charming as you could possibly hope… and you’re smitten.

Orchestral folk-pop at its core, Treasury is a remarkable achievement of songwriting, arrangement and performance. Built around bandleader Mark Hamilton’s soft vocals and stunning harmonies from almost everyone in the band, the eight-piece outfit strike a perfect balance of grandeur and intimacy, delight and melancholy. When things sound like they might get too twee, a well-placed bit of electric guitar toughens things up just enough. I don’t know if Canada really needs its own Sufjan Stevens, but in Woodpigeon we may just have found one – just as delicate but not nearly as precious. But what I do know is that if “7th Fret Over Andres” doesn’t break your heart, at least a little, then you don’t have one. Go see a doctor immediately.

Treasury Library Canada is being released independently by the band – an ambitious move to say the least, and one that I commend them on though I do worry a bit that this might keep the record from reaching as many ears as it deserves, which is to say all of them. They’re selling the album on their website digitally using the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, pay what you can model, digitally via Zunior with a bonus ten track album of rarities called Pixie Children Crying and for old schoolers like myself, as a physical CD though only in limited quantities. Fans of tactile objects, get a move on.

The band have also gained friends/fans in high places – in addition to opening for Calexico on their North American tour, they’ll also be joining them for a string of dates in the UK in September and also support Iron & Wine for a pair of Alberta shows in October. The Calgary Herald has an interview with head ‘Pigeon Mark Hamilton. And to bring it all back home, even though we’re just over two months into the eligibility period for NEXT year’s Polaris prize, Woodpigeon have already got the inside track to one of the spots on my ballot. And if their already in-progress next album Die Stadt Muzikanten, slated for early 2009 release, is anywhere near as good, maybe they’ll have two.

MP3: Woodpigeon – “Knock Knock”
MP3: Woodpigeon – “I Live A Lot Of Places”
Stream: Woodpigeon / Treasury Library Canada
MySpace: Woodpigeon

It’s been out since May but I think I only just noticed that Basia Bulat has a 7″ out via Rough Trade featuring the Sam Cooke cover that’s been a staple of her live set, “Touch The Hem Of His Garment”, and on the b-side, an extended version of “Before I Knew” which you’ve probably also heard live.

There’s a new video from Mogwai’s forthcoming release(s) – The Hawk Is Howling, the new album out September 23, and the Batcat EP, out September 9 – that’s just all KINDS of unsettling. They’re at the Phoenix on September 24.

Video: Mogwai – “Batcat”

Pitchfork has, via Norwegian TV, a live performance from Okkervil River of a song on the forthcoming The Stand-Ins, out September 9. They’ll be at the Phoenix on October 12.

RCRDLBL has an exclusive first MP3 from The New Year, the new album from The New Year. They also have an interview with Bubba Kadane. The record is out September 9 and they play Lee’s Palace on October 15.

Thanks to Adam for the tip that Frightened Rabbit are finally coming to Toronto! The date is October 21, the venue is Lee’s Palace and the context is as support for The Spinto Band… I don’t know who that is. But Frightened Rabbit! Yeah!

Also newly announced – Yeasayer will be at the Horseshoe on October 25 and Dungen will be there on October 31. Full tour dates for each are available at Pitchfork and BrooklynVegan, respectively.

Opening up for Iron & Wine on their Toronto date at the Danforth Music Hall on November 13 will be Blitzen Trapper – those expecting a nice, quiet night are advised to show up a bit late. The Trapper dost get raucous. Full dates at Pitchfork. Blitzen Trapper’s new record Furr is out September 23.

MP3: Blitzen Trapper – “Furr”