Search Results - "El Perro Del Mar Soundscapes Toronto March 4, 2007"
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Woodpigeon prepare third fourth fifth album, tour
Leigh RightonFor a band that’s so good at doing things quietly, Calgary’s Woodpigeon certainly has a thing for volume. Their debut Songbook was originally released in 2006 in Canada and Japan, then reissued in Europe in 2008 to great critical acclaim. Their next release Treasury Library Canada wasn’t even intended to be a proper follow-up – just a collection of outtakes and leftovers from Songbook intended for sale as a limited run direct from the band. Thankfully, it became clear very quickly that it was too good a collection to not be made available to all – an opinion backed up by its eventual Polaris Prize longlisting – and it was reissued in early 2009, itself with another complete album appended as a bonus in Houndstooth Europa.
Which brings us to the impending release of their next album Die Stadt Muzikanten. Weighing in at 16 tracks and filled with orchestral pop finery, it’s no slight musical statement but again, Woodpigeon are all about value and North American and Japanese editions will come with Balladeer / To All The Guys I’ve Loved Before, described as an EP but at a dozen tracks and over 47 minutes, is pretty much another proper album recorded with Howard Bilerman, Steve Albini and Husky Hoskulds. And this round-up doesn’t even include all the one-offs, covers and whatnot that are regularly given away on their website. Sufficed to say, if you’re a Woodpigeon fan, you are never short of material to listen to.
Hearing said material live, however, is less easy – at least if you live in Ontario. Though the band has staged extensive tours throughout Europe, where they remain a much bigger draw than their home and native land, they rarely seem to make it out this way. Since 2007 they’ve only visited Toronto twice, opening for Calexico in July 2007 and an appearance at this Summer NxNE 2009. They’re looking to rectify that somewhat this Winter and have booked a fairly extensive tour through southern Ontario and Quebec, locally stopping at the Drake Underground on February 11.
Die Stadt Muzikanten is out on January 12 in Canada and Japan, March 1 in Europe and March 9 in the US, with Treasury Library Canada being made available domestically in the US for the first time as of that date as well. A sample track from Die Stadt is available below along with a holiday tune for the, well, holidays. Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton gave Ragged Words a list of his albums of the decade.
MP3: Woodpigeon – “Empty-Hall Sing-Along”
MP3: Woodpigeon – “xoxmas”
NYCTaper is sharing a recording of Final Fantasy’s recent show in New York, chock full of material from Heartland. Said album is out January 12 and the show that night at the Mod Club is sold right out. Way to dither.
Southern Souls has a video session with Olenka & The Autumn Lovers.
Spinner gets a rundown from Diamond Rings’ John O’Regan about how the Sony takedown kerfuffle last week shook out.
Stereogum talks to Born Ruffians about how the drummer situation that resulted in founding member Steve Hamelin giving up the throne for a spell this year was resolved, just in time to record sophomore album Say It, out early next year.
Joel Plaskett discusses the Thrush Hermit reunion with Spinner. That hits Lee’s Palace for two nights in March, the 26 and 27.
aux.tv recorded a video interview with The Rural Alberta Advantage at their instore last month at Soundscapes; The Portland Mercury also has a chat.
Toro y Moi and The Ruby Suns have a date at the Drake Underground on March 30. The former’s Causers Of This and the latter have a new one entitled Fight Softly and due out March 10.
MP3: Toro y Moi – “Blessa”
MP3: The Ruby Suns – “Tane Mahuta”
Swedes ahoy! Pitchfork reports that Taken By Trees will join Anna Ternheim as support for El Perro Del Mar on their upcoming North American tour, which stops in at the Mod Club on February 21. The Skinny talks to Victoria Bergsman.
MP3: Taken By Trees – “My Boys”
MP3: Taken By Trees – “Watch The Waves”
Video: Taken By Trees – “My Boys”
Denmark’s Efterklang have a date at the El Mocambo on March 6 as part of a North American tour in support of Magic Chairs, out February 22.
MP3: Efterklang – “Modern Drift”
The National Post talks to Bo Madsen of Mew.
Bettie Serveert will return with a new album in Pharmacy Of Love on March 23. There’s already a video for the first single.
Video: Bettie Serveert – “Deny All”
Filter solicits a list of Lightspeed Champion’s ten favourite things of 2009. Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You – which has good odds of being one of my favourite things of 2010 – is out February 16.
Fanfarlo plays a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR.
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Shout Out Louds get back to Work
MergeLast week, I was complaining that with the US holiday season, there wasn’t nearly enough blog fodder trickling out of the interwebs. This week, it’s like a deluge.
We begin wading through it all in Scandinavia, particularly Stockholm, Sweden, home of the Shout Out Louds. The quintet turned in one of the indie-pop highlights of 2007 with Our Ill Wills and are set to follow it up with the release of Work. For this outing, they’ve opted to not work with Bjorn Yttling, who manned the boards for Our Ill Wills and have instead enlisted producer Phil Ek, best known for his work with The Shins and Built To Spill, amongst many others. And if the band’s idea of adding an American accent to things means going for a drier, less shiny sonic approach without giving up any of the hooks, then judging from the just-released first MP3 and video they’ve succeeded.
Work is out on February 23 of next year and they promise to spend most of the year touring to support. They posted up a short video clip of the recording sessions back in September.
MP3: Shout Out Louds – “Walls”
Video: Shout Out Louds – “Walls”
PopMatters interviews Anna Ternheim, who will be supporting El Perro Del Mar on her Winter 2010 tour including the February 21 date at the Mod Club. After her too-short set opening for Loney Dear at the Horseshoe in October, I had hoped she’d be back soon for a longer performance – wish granted.
MP3: Anna Ternheim – “What Have I Done”
Serena Maneesh are offering a taste of their new record, still untitled and due out in March 2010, by way of a Norwegian television session.
Clash gets a guided tour of Reykjavik from Mum.
DCist interviews Jonas Bjerre of Mew, who will be at the Mod Club in Toronto on December 6.
Chart talks to The Raveonettes.
The National Post profiles Jonas Bonnetta of Evening Hymns, who are playing an in-store at 7PM at Soundscapes tonight and a full show at the Tranzac on Friday night.
Resonancity interviews Matt Cully of Bruce Peninsula.
One of the great mythical unicorn-griffin-dragon hybrids of the indie rock world, the solo debut from Beulah frontman Miles Kurosky, should become a reality on March 9 under the title of The Desert Of Shallow Effects… unless it doesn’t. Details at AntiMusic.
There’s still no North American release date set for Sigh No More, the debut album from Mumford & Sons, but considering they’re cobbling together a North American tour for February, including a February 15 date at the El Mocambo (tickets $12), mid-February seems like a reasonable guess.
Video: Mumford & Sons – “Winter Winds”
Video: Mumford & Sons – “Little Lion Man”
Johnny Flynn, with whom Mumford & Sons made their Toronto debut last October, has put out a new EP entitled Sweet William, from which you can download a track, courtesy of Drowned In Sound.
MP3: Johnny Flynn – “Drum”
The third member of that bill, Laura Marling, is still targeting a Winter 2010 release for her sophomore effort and will release the first single from album number two in “Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)” as a Christmas single on December 14.
Magnet and Filter Q&A Ray Davies.
Daytrotter has offered up a session with The Swell Season.
Monday, March 5th, 2007
With the release of Neon Bible tomorrow, it’s Arcade Fire week whether you like it or not. In an ideal world I’d be able to offer up my thoughts on it but since I haven’t heard it – my preorder is supposed to arrive by tomorrow but I’m not hopeful – they’ll have to wait. But if you’re curious what the general critical consensus is, well that’s why we have Metacritic. Predictably, the overall vibe seems to be “it’s good, but it’s no Funeral“. Also predictably, most critics seem to be using this record as an excuse to write essay-length pieces as it’s the very definition of an “important record” and thereby deserving of many big words. And for those of you in Pitchfork pools (what’s wrong with you people?), they’ve given it an 8.4 (relative to Funeral‘s 9.7) but also thrown in a “Best New Music”, just to mess up your spread.
And it’s not just reviews – I can’t imagine how much time the band has spent doing interviews in the past few weeks, but there’s sure to be a torrent of features released in the next few weeks though I doubt any will be as expansive or high profile as this New York Times Magazine feature from this weekend. PopMatters leads off the week with an interview with the band and Merge hocho Mac McCaughan and there’s also pieces at JAM! about the making of the record and The Toronto Sun about gearing up to play live again. The Ottawa Citizen and Montreal Gazette also talk to the band about Neon Bible.
The band kick off their month-long European tour tonight in Dublin and do North America starting in late April, including two sold-out shows at Massey Hall in Toronto on May 15 and 16. You can download the first single from the album below and hear another streaming on their MySpace.
MP3: Arcade Fire – “Black Mirror”
MySpace: Arcade Fire
I swung by Soundscapes yesterday evening for El Perro Del Mar’s in-store, a brief 5-song set that served to remind how affecting her doo-wop-group-in-mourning sound could be. She’s playing the the Mod Club tonight with The Submarines. And thanks to a commenter who pointed me to Sarah Assbring’s old dreampop band Aquadays – if you can get past the awful quality .RA files (the streams don’t work but the downloads do), it’s an interesting listen when you think about what she’s doing now.
Photos: El Perro Del Mar @ Soundscapes – March 4, 2007
MP3: El Perro Del Mar – “God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get)”
Video: El Perro Del Mar – “God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get)” (YouTube)
MySpace: El Perro Del Mar
MP3Hugger tracks the whereabouts of all former members of Slowdive with audio evidence of their activities. Nicely done.
The Scotsman profiles Scotsmen (and woman) My Latest Novel, in town for three shows this week – Friday night at the Drake Underground, Saturday night at the El Mocambo and then Monday night at the Horseshoe. The last of these is a free show.
Yo La Tengo tells The Age, “we are not a relaxed band”.
The Houston Chronicle talks to The Shins’ James Mercer.
The Broken West tell The Boston Globe that they’re not power pop but they’re not NOT power pop and The Maneater that they’re not a California band but they’re not NOT a California band. The walking contradiction and their west coast power pop will open up The Hot Freaks at SxSW next Saturday at 11AM at The Mohawk and are in Toronto on March 27 with The Long Winters at the El Mocambo.
Check out this edition of Spinner 3×3 assembled from some of the video that’ll be part of Neil Young’s Live At Massey Hall, out next Tuesday. It looks and sounds great and I won’t point out that they’ve left the “Why” off the second song title… oh, I just did.
Friday, March 2nd, 2007
Last week I directed you to a stream of Cortney Tidwell’s new album Don’t Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up. While I can’t tell if the stream still works – it’s still reachable through the navigation but I couldn’t get it to play – I still want to talk about the record.
Though you can’t hear the whole thing anymore, the one MP3 that has been made available – the opener “Eyes Are At The Billions” – really tells you all you need to know. It opens with a delicately fingerpicked acoustic guitar figure and is joined the second time around by some gentle keyboards and Tidwell’s airy, voice – gentle, but obviously capable of huge things. Then, two minutes in the drums appear, as though miced in a cavern and it explodes into a sonic wash worthy of Slowdive – launched into space but somehow never leaving the countryside.
That essentially tells the tale for the record. Not that they all go from folk-to-shoegaze in under two minutes (though that wouldn’t be a bad thing) but that they take Tidwell’s traditional folk/country upbringing and wrap them up in sounds and ideas that come from much farther away than her native Nashville. In addition to the celestial rock vibe that crops up a few more times, there’s a pervasive Bjork-ish feel to the production, both in her vocal timbre and acrobatics (nothing excessive, don’t worry) and in the electronic production sheen that rests over much of the album. The finished product is hazy and dark, a little creepy and a lot beautiful.
Stars was released in the UK last year but has only come out in North America last week. Drowned In Sound and Indie London talked to Tidwell last Summer on the occasion of the record’s British release. She’s playing SxSW with an official showcase Wednesday night at midnight at the Ale House and an in-store at Cheapos at 5PM on Saturday afternoon. Obviously I advise you to catch one or the other but if you can’t (or won’t be in Austin), check out the live performances assembled in this AOL 3×3 feature. Sorry about the commericals.
MP3: Cortney Tidwell – “Eyes Are At The Billions”
MySpace: Cortney Tidwell
And also looking back to last Friday’s post, The Rich Girls Are Weeping celebrates (and takes a little credit for) Shearwater’s signing to Matador by posting the three available versions of “Red Sea, Black Sea” (nee “Turn Your Transmitters Off”).
eye and NOW talk to Sarah Assbring of El Perro Del Mar, in town for a show at Mod Club on Monday and also doing an instore at Soundscapes on Sunday at 6PM. New City Chicago and The Boston Herald also talk to the singer.
UK brothers in arms (and by birth) The Cribs are at the El Mocambo on April 30.
Lucinda Williams complains to The Globe & Mail about some of negative reviews her latest album West has been getting. Williams is at Massey Hall on April 17.
Drowned In Sound reports that Camera Obscura will squeeze another single out of Let’s Get Out Of This Country. “Tears For Affairs” will be out as a single in the UK on April 16 and be b-sided by a cover of ABBA’s “Super Trouper'”. Oh yes please. X-Press talks to keyboardist Carey Lander about missing John Peel.
Malajube are discovered by the American west – witness interviews by Tuscon Weekly, The Arizona Star, Seattle Weekly and The Portland Mercury as they try to make heads or tails of the Francophones. Oh – and in a bit of Hot Freaks news, due to scheduling issues Malajube are no longer able to play our party. However we’ve found a pretty decent pinch-hitter and even manage to maintain our Can-con quotas – the 1PM slot on Saturday, March 17 at the Mohawk will now be taken by Victoria, BC’s Frog Eyes.
Dirty On Purpose have released a new video and seriously, these guys make the best vids. Trebuchet! Awesome. They’re playing the other SxSW party I’m involved with, the LiveDaily/Spaceland jag now dubbed “The Bomb” (hopefully not a prediction). Like the poster says, the show is at Antone’s on Thursday March 15 and DoP are on around 1:20PM.
Video: Dirty On Purpose – “Car No Driver” (MOV)
Pitchfork talks to National frontman Matt Berninger about their new record Boxer, out May 22.
Dylan Hears A Who – this is one part brilliant, one part demented and all parts too well-executed.
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