Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Dance Me In

Photo via MySpace

I must not have checked my luggage too carefully because I seem to have brought a bunch of British bands with a fondness for the definite article back to Toronto with me. Another salvo of bands for this year’s V Fest was announced yesterday. A few of the names had trickled out in past weeks but this was the first large block of acts since the initial announcement two months ago – no headliner-calibre acts, everyone is rather firmly b-list (if even that) but at least there’s a better idea of who we’ll be seeing September 6 and 7 at the Toronto Islands.

Joining the initially announced Saturday lineup of Foo Fighters, Bloc Party, Spiritualized, Wintersleep and Constantines will be The Kooks, The Fratellis, MGMT, Against Me!, Shudder To Think, The Midway State and The Airborne Toxic Event while Sunday’s roster of Oasis, Paul Weller, Sterophonics, The Weakerthans and The Pigeon Detectives will welcome Silversun Pickups, Robyn, The Cribs, The Wombats, Danko Jones and Sons & Daughters.

The last of those is the only band of all the additions that I’d actually call myself a fan of (hence their photo being used above) so the latest announcement was a bit underwhelming but I’m still looking forward to this year’s festival. I mean, taking the “glass half full” approach, that’s a lot of bands I’ve never seen live before. Not necessarily ones I’ve wanted to see, but whatever. More acts are still to come but anyone holding out hope that there’s going to be anything earth-shaking is probably going to be (more) disappointed.

MP3: Sons & Daughters – “Gilt Complex” (acoustic, live on Vic Galloway)
MP3: The Kooks – “No Longer”
MP3: The Airborne Toxic Event – “Wishing Well”
MP3: Silversun Pickups – “Kissing Families”
MP3: Robyn – “Cobrastyle”

Day one act Spiritualized release their new record Songs In A & E today, and IGN, Billboard, The Irish Independent, The Sun and Drowned In Sound have interviews with J Spaceman about the album.

The NxNE schedule is now up in ugly, annoying, registrant-only and easily-crashable format. It amazes me that in this day and age, people still can’t figure out how to construct a user-friendly online schedule. Anyway, I’ll be trying to parse the sched and making some comments later.

But one of the associated shows will be the “Gay-Way” party at the Phoenix on June 12 featuring The Hidden Cameras. Tickets for that are $25 and presumably some NxNE wristbands will be given admittance. The Cameras are also supposed to be doing some shows in around Pride at the end of June.

Harbourfront Centre has listed their lineup of free festivals for this Summer, if not the actual acts that are playing each. But I know that Ohbijou are there on the 28th of June for “A Rocky Mountain High”, Basia Bulat on Canada Day for, uh Canada Day, and Ladytron with Poni Hoax on July 4 for Beats, Breaks & Culture.

He had to cancel his appearance at Hillside last year, but Alejandro Escovedo returns to the region on July 7 for a show at the Mod Club, tickets $18.50. His new album Real Animal is out June 24.

On July 11, DD/MM/YYYY will play host to The Mae-Shi from Los Angeles, TheDeathset from Baltimore and The Fucking Ocean from San Francisco. That’ll be at Sneaky Dee’s, tickets $10.

MP3: The Mae Shi – “Run To Your Grave”
MP3: TheDeathSet – “Negative Thinking”
MP3: The Fucking Ocean – “Literacy Test”

Though they’d originally said touring was unlikely, She & Him will find the time to visit Toronto for a show at the Opera House on July 23, tickets $23.50. Perhaps Zooey Deschanel anticipates needing some time away from Hollywood following the debacle that The Happening is almost certain to be. Full tour dates at Spin. MTV and NPR talk to Deschanel about the band.

Anyone wanting to see Graham Van Pelt get really tired should be at Sneaky Dee’s on July 26 when he’ll do double duty, first with Think About Life and then fronting Miracle Fortress. Tickets are $12, and maybe bring the man some towels.

Horribly-named British electro-punk outfit Does It Offend You, Yeah? will be at the Drake Undergound on August 4, tickets $13.50.

Final Fantasy will perform at the Danforth Music Hall on August 27, tickets $20.

The reconstituted Squeeze have a date at the Kool Haus on August 28, tickets $44.50.

Tortoise are at the Mod Club on September 5, admission $18.

And re: that pop-up survey thing – apologies if you find it objectionable, it’s a thing for a thing that’s totally benign. You, your information and your organs are not being harvested. Click it or close it, it’ll go away.

Wednesday, June 7th, 2006

Smiley Smiley

Double-digit-member Toronto-based musical collective/supergroups are old hat, but double-digit-member Toronto-based musical collective/supergroups fronted by vibraphonists? Hold the phone! Fronted by transplanted Haligonian Paul Aucoin The Hylozoists lineups, past and present read like a who’s who of Canadian indie rock (the family tree would include Broken Social Scene, The Sadies, The Weakerthans, Fembots, Cuff The Duke and Final Fantasy amongst many others) but anyone trying to use any of those acts as reference points for The Hylozoists will be left scratching their heads.

Their new album, La Fin Du Monde, is a primarily instrumental affair that’s pretty, joyous sweeping and rolicking and completely un-indie rock. It sounds like the orchestral score to a circus movie, laden with strings, horns, keys and yes – vibraphones, and is in stores June 20. The Hylozoists were tapped to play the official launch of the Polaris Music Prize yesterday afternoon at the Drake, and goodness knows I’ve never turned down an opportunity to cut work early to catch some hot vibraphone action. Playing as a six-piece, they were quite hypnotic and great fun to watch – It’s such lively music and an unusual (compared to what I’m used to) combination of sounds. The vibraphone itself was fascinating to watch with it’s rotating valves and fun mechanical mute and whatnot. Okay, maybe that’s the engineer geek in me talking. And the beer. Some photos here.

While their official website is under construction, hit up their MySpace or their page at Boompa Records for more info. For the instrumentally curious, Exclaim! talked to Aucoin about the tools of his trade back in November. The ‘Zoists will be touring all over southern Ontario this Summer – check out their MySpace for dates – but locally, they play the Horseshoe June 17, have an instore at Soundscapes on the 20th and will be at Harbourfront on August 13 soundtracking the Hot & Spicy Food Festival. Really.

Here’s some audio – one from the new album, one from their old one. And you can watch some video footage of their performance at CMW earlier this year courtesy of ZED-TV.

MP3: The Hylozoists – “Strait Is The Gate”
MP3: The Hylozoists – “DetailsAt5”

Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallet graces the cover of this month’s Exclaim!.

From Are You Familiar – the new Broken Social Scene video. Funnier and less seizure-inducing than their past clips, guest starring Geddy Lee and that guy from Rotate This who gave you that look when you asked about Snow Patrol tickets. But he’d probably happily sell you tickets to BSS’ Olympic Island show on the 24th or the Broken Mascis Scene show on the 23rd. And note that Arts & Crafts has a new, far more usable website.

Video: Broken Social Scene – “Fire Eye’d Boy” (MOV)

And more new videos – the first one from Centro-Matic’s Fort Recovery and another from Spoon’s Gimme Fiction:

Video: Centro-Matic – “Triggers & Trash Heaps” (YouTube)
Video: Spoon – “The Two Side Of Monsieur Valentine” (MOV)

Rhino is streaming the whole of the new Replacements best-of Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was?, out June 13. And yes, you can skip right to the end to check out the new songs “Message To The Boys” and “Pool & Dive” if you really want. Harp has a profile of ‘Mats bassist Tommy Stinson’s new gig in Soul Asylum with more of a focus on the early Minneapolis days. I overheard a record store clerk saying the other day that he doesn’t get why people like The Replacements. I had a word with the manager and he was fired immediately. Update: Newsday profiles The Mats. Via LHB.

After releasing Another Fine Day on July 18, Golden Smog will follow it up lickety-split with another EP in November. There’s some new preview clips on their MySpace and Billboard has a little more info.

Pitchfork interviews Glenn Kotche of Wilco and Glenn Kotche.

Ben Birdwell of Band Of Horses talks to Pulse Of The Twin Cities and Metromix. Their show at Lee’s Palace next Tuesday is damn near sold out, if not already. Just so you know.

Head Concrete Victoria Bergsman talks to The Chicago Tribune about selling out to Target and getting drunk in Omaha.

JAM! syndicates an AP piece about Neko Case learning how to sing.

Paste goes jogging through time with Josh Ritter. The Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle and Boise Weekly opt to just, you know, talk and stuff.

Village Indian learns the mystical story of Tilly & The Wall. Congrats to who won my contest and will be in attendance at their show at the Mod Club on Sunday night. Link via Genki Zenki.

np – Trespassers William / Having