Wednesday, October 9th, 2013

Let's Just Go To The Dogs Tonight

Review of The Dismemberment Plan’s Uncanney Valley

Shervin LainezI will admit, first impressions of Uncanney Valley – the first album from Washington, DC’s Dismemberment Plan since 2001’s Change – was disappointment. And it’s not that I came to it with excessive expectations. I counted myself a fan of the band at the end run of their existence, but mostly of their tremendously entertaining live performances with 2002’s Death & Dismemberment tour with a then-unknown Death Cab For Cutie and their 2003 farewell show being very fond memories. But in the years of their absence, I came to appreciate how singular their blend of post-pop-hardcore-math-punk-art-rock was, and how no one ever really stepped into their oddly-shaped void in indie rock, or even tried. So comeback album? Yes, please.

So why disappointment? I’m not sure. Valley seemed to lack the manic energy, unpredictable creativity, and general weirdness that made the other records unique. It sounded like the Plan, but not the Plan I remembered. But it also still didn’t sound like anything else out there, so it stayed in rotation and before long, its own merits – and not those of its predecessors – became what I focused on, and those merits were many. Yeah the tempos were a little slower and the energy probably measured at a few less joules, but top to bottom Valley was the work of a more mature and tuneful Dismemberment Plan.

Everything that makes the Plan the Plan – Travis Morrison’s mile-a-minute delivery and off-kilter lyrical imagery, Eric Axelson’s oddly funky basslines, Jason Caddell’s creatively jagged guitarwork, and Joe Easley’s heavily nimble drumming – are in place and show no signs of rust, though if I were in charge of the mix said drums would be higher in the mix. While the likes of “Mexico City Christmas” and “White Collar White Trash” tap into their darker sides, it’s the more chipper “Waiting” and “Let’s Just Go To The Dogs Tonight” that set the tone for the record. There’s a relaxedness to the proceedings that might seem contrary to the nervous energy that infused their earlier work, but they wear it well. I as much as anyone should be able to appreciate that you in your 40s is not, cannot be, and should not be you in your 20s and Uncanney Valley is the sound of a band that knows that and is fine with it. The Dismemberment Plan circa 2013 might not be the same Dismemberment Plan circa 2001, but there’s still no one like either of them.

NPR has posted an advance stream of the record, which is out officially next week on October 15. Wired, Filter, and What’s On Tap have interviews with the band, and for the bonus round, the Plan stops in at The AV Club to cover Heart’s “Barracuda”, done straight but great because you do not fuck with “Barracuda”.

Stream: The Dismemberment Plan / Uncanney Valley

Under The Radar and Yahoo! Canada talk to Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal about their new album lousy with sylvianbriar, out this week.

Elle has premiered the new video from Lissie’s just-released new album Back To Forever, which is still streaming at Rolling Stone; she’s at the Adelaide Music Hall on November 21.

Video: Lissie – “Sleepwalking”
Stream: Lissie / Back To Forever

Interview talks to Lee Ranaldo about his just-released new record Last Night On Earth; he and The Dust are at The Horseshoe on October 11.

With a week to go before the October 15 release of Emancipated Hearts, Dean Wareham has made the mini-album available to stream via Spin.

Stream: Dean Wareham / Emancipated Hearts

Refinery 29 talks to Cameron Mesirow of Glasser, whose new album Interiors came out this week. She plays The Drake Underground on October 13.

Pitchfork has an advance stream of Campfire Songs, the new acoustic EP from The Men, out October 15. They play The Horseshoe on October 20.

Stream: The Men / Campfire Songs

The Head & The Heart have given Rolling Stone the nod to stream their new album Let’s Be Still, before it comes out October 15. Mother Jones has an interview with the band, who’re at The Danforth Music Hall on October 31.

Stream: The Head & The Heart / Let’s Be Still

Also out next week and streaming at NPR is Static, the second album from Cults. It brings them to Lee’s Palace on November 25.

Stream: Cults / Static

Pitchfork checks in with Fiona Apple, whose tour with Blake Mills brings her to The Queen Elizabeth Theatre on October 17.

Consequence Of Sound has got a stream of a new Yo La Tengo song which will be released as a 7″ single on November 5 and also appear as one of the bonus tracks on Fade Deluxe when it comes out on November 19.

Stream: Yo La Tengo – “Super Kiwi”

Rolling Stone talks to Frank Black of Pixies about their plans to stay relevant ten years into their reunion. They’ve already had cast changes with the Roseanne-esque swapping of Kims on bass, are finally releasing new if underwhelming new material via a series of EPs complete with new video, and now another North American tour that kicks off in Toronto at Massey Hall on January 15, tickets ranging from $44.50 to $79.50, FIDLAR supporting.

MP3: Pixies – “Bagboy”
MP3: FIDLAR – “Got No Money”
Video: Pixies – “Andro Queen”

Those who like a little more Danger Mouse in their Shins will be happy to know a second Broken Bells album is on the way; they just released a trailer for After The Disco, which is due out in January.

Trailer: Broken Bells / After The Disco

After releasing her debut Neptune City on a major and the follow-up Mondo Amore on an indie, it just makes sense that for her third album Slow Phaser, Nicole Atkins would start her own label and release it via PledgeMusic. She’s soliciting donations now and with the two-month window, it stands to reason that the new album will be out sometime in early 2014.

NPR puts Superchunk behind a Tiny Desk and demands a concert.

NPR has a KCRW session with Jim James available to stream.

Monday, October 7th, 2013

Nightcall

London Grammar and Jaymes Young at The Great Hall in Toronto

Frank YangAs noted in my review of their debut album If You Wait, London Grammar should be commended for countering any cynicism about their sound being a little too of-the-moment – add one part Florence and one part Daughter to two parts xx, bake for 45 minutes, serve smouldering – by applying it to solid, affecting songs that should resonate with the lovelorn for years to come while still leaving plenty of room to grow. It wasn’t quite enough to make them the Mercury Prize favourites that their champions expected – they didn’t even make the shortlist – but even without that accolade, their inaugural North American tour was doing quite well, thank you very much, with Friday night’s Toronto date quickly getting the upgrade from the originally booked BLK BOX to the more spacious and appropriately elegant Great Hall upstairs.

Support came from Seattle’s Jaymes Young, who for his well-crafted and performed songs, didn’t quite manage to transcend his reference points to the same degree. The vaguely yearning vocals over echoey guitar tones with electronic flourishes sounded like a distillation of 2013 indie, and as such remained largely anonymous. And using a slow, soulful cover of Haddaway’s “What Is Love” as an audience-rallying moment was an odd move, considering that most in attendance weren’t allowed to stay up until 11:30 when The Roxbury Guys were a thing on Saturday Night Live. But maybe that was to his advantage as undoubtedly some in the audience thought the song was his own and were impressed.

New bands get a bit of leeway with regards to their effectiveness as a live act, particularly when they’ve potentially gotten swept up in a wave of buzz that might short circuit their normal development curve as performers. Happily for all involved, London Grammar didn’t need to be cut this slack. I was pleasantly surprised they didn’t bring any additional players with them as the trio of guitarist Dan Rothman, vocalist Hannah Reid, and multi-instrumentalist Dot Major set up across the front of the stage and set to recreating the space and texture of their debut with just the tools at hand – guitar, keys, and loops while occasionally turning to bongos or a drum kit for extra dynamics. The de facto visual and aural focal point of the band, Reid would get a bit showier with her vocals in pushing the melodies around – somewhat surprising given how the album seemed to make an effort to keep things in check, but such excursions were relatively modest and didn’t detract from the proceedings; if anything, they demonstrated the impressive degree of confidence with which the band were operating.

And if they didn’t come to the stage with that confidence, the audience would have given it to them. In one of their many between-song asides to the crowd, they commented on their willingness to cheer at everything – an observation which was, of course, met with cheers. Their 45-minute set encompassed most of, but not all, of If You Stay, with the pairing of “Strong” and “Metal & Dust” as a powerful closing couplet, followed by a on-the-mark cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” as an encore. A solid performance that decidedly increased my appreciation for the band.

Metro, The Sydney Morning Herald, and entertainment.ie have interviews with London Grammar.

Photos: London Grammar, Jaymes Young @ The Great Hall – October 4, 2013
Video: London Grammar – “Strong”
Video: London Grammar – “Wasting My Young Years”
ZIP: Jaymes Young / Dark Star

The Guardian and MusicOhm talk to Anna Calvi about her new album One Breath, which is out on Tuesday and from which she’s just put out a new video.

Video: Anna Calvi – “Sing To Me”

Drowned In Sound meets Peace, who have two local dates next week on October 14 at The Mod Club and October 15 at The Danforth Music Hall, both in support of Two Door Cinema Club.

The Quietus has a stream of Tindersticks’ forthcoming anniversary album Across Six Leap Years, coming out next week on October 14.

Stream: Tindersticks / Across Six Leap Years

It’s a touch late to actually act on the information, but Consequence Of Sound reports that Neil Halstead will be recording a couple of shows in London later this month on October 23 and 24 for release as a live record, and amongst the promised “special guests” will be Rachel Goswell, which means that both Slowdive and Mojave 3 move ever-so-slightly into the “active” column” but more importantly, that Goswell is healthy enough again to perform again – even if it is just for a few songs.

DIY goes behind the scenes of the new Los Campesinos! video, set to debut later this week. It’s taken from their new album No Blues, out October 29.

The Guardian has an extensive interview with Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, who return for a show at The Kool Haus on November 5.

Stornoway will release a companion EP to this year’s Tales From Terra Firma – from which they’ve just released a new video – with the five-song You Don’t Know Anything, out November 12.

Video: Stornoway – “Farewell Appalachia”

DIY has confirmed details of Working Out, the debut album from London’s Arthur Beatrice. It’s out February 3 and they’ve released a first official video from the long-player.

Video: Arthur Beatrice – “Grand Union”

David Gedge has dusted off the Cinerama monicker under which he traded for several years between Wedding Present incarnations for occasional recent live shows, but has just issued the project’s first new release since 2002’s Torino with a tour-only 7″ with a new song and a live Disco Volante track recorded in 2012 – you can stream it and order the single below.

Stream: Cinerama – “I Wake Up Screaming”
Stream: Cinerama – “Unzip” (live)

Noisey talks to Yuck’s new frontman Max Bloom about having to become Yuck’s new frontman. DIY also has a feature interview.

Johnny Flynn lists off some of the influences that went into the making of his new album Country Mile for The Line Of Best Fit.

Billboard has an interview and video session with CHVRCHES.

Rolling Stone has premiered the new video from Palma Violets’ debut 180.

Video: Palma Violets – “Rattlesnake Highway”

Clash chats with Kele Okerke of Bloc Party.

The Skinny talks to Elena Tonra of Daughter.

Paste has an interview with Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys.

The Quietus talks about the history and state of pop music with Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne, who incidentally has a new book on the topic in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story Of Modern Pop.

Friday, October 4th, 2013

Time Exists Only To Betray Us

Review of Keep Shelly In Athens’ At Home and giveaway

Tolis ElefantisGreek duo Keep Shelly In Athens first came to attention in late 2010 with a series of singles when “chillwave” was still a thing and sure, the washes of synths and gentle vocals of RΠЯ and Sarah P could merit the hashtag. But in the time its taken them to assemble their full-length debut last month – 2012’s In Love With Dusk / Our Own Dream was a compilation of their previously-released EPs – the label has largely gone from adjective to pejorative and probably not the best pony to hitch one’s wagon to. So it’s a good thing that At Home easily stands up on its own, without the aid of scenes or trends.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. While At Home is far more emotive and emphatic than most hazy bedroom-bred musical excursions, it’s still pretty on-the-sleeve with its influences. They strive to recreate the soulful shadows found at Portishead’s end of ’90s trip-hop but use sleek, ’80s synth luminescence as their light source to go with the dance-ready beats. But what elevates At Home above the pack are Sarah P’s vocal work – which is always engaged and gorgeous, whether evoking menace on “Time Exists Only To Betray Us” and “Knife” or crooning serenely on “Recollection” and “Sails” – and the melodies that she’s given to work with. Because whatever labels you choose to apply to At Home, under it all it’s pop music, and pretty great pop music. And pretty great pop music doesn’t need to much else to be worth your while.

Dime Store Saints and Prairie Moon have interviews with the duo, who kick off a North American tour as co-headliners with Chad Valley next week. Their Toronto show comes October 15 at Wrongbar, and courtesy of LiveNation I’ve got five pairs of passes to give away to the show. To enter, email me at contests@chromewaves.net with “I want to Keep Shelly In Athens” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, October 11.

Video: Keep Shelly In Athens – “Recollection”
Stream: Keep Shelly In Athens / At Home

PopMatters talks with The Naked & Famous, who are in town for an October 14 show at The Phoenix.

November 19 will see the release of a new 7″ from Iceage consisting of covers from Sinéad O’Connor and Bahamutsi Drama Group. Details at Pitchfork, streams of both sides below.

Stream: Iceage – “Jackie”
Stream: Iceage – “To The Comrades”

The Deer Tracks are marking the announcement of the North American tour which brings them to The Silver Dollar on November 28 with the final statement of their epic The Archer Trilogy with a stream of the appropriately-titled “Epilogue” at Filter.

Stream: The Deer Tracks – “Epilogue”

Australian rock machine Jagwar Ma have announced a North American tour for this Fall behind their debut Howlin’; it brings them to The Great Hall on November 28. Tickets are $15 in advance. Drowned In Sound, The San Francisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Examiner have interviews.

Video: Jagwar Ma – “Come Save Me”
Video: Jagwar Ma – “Man I Need”

Efterklang have released a new video from this year’s Piramida.

Video: Efterklang – “Monument”

The Line OF Best Fit has premiered the new video by múm, taken from their latest album Smilewound.

Video: múm – “Candlestick”

Under The Radar checks in with the Söderberg sisters of First Aid Kit.

Noisey interviews Nanna Fabricius of Oh Land.

Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

Blackt Out

Stream of new Lee Ranaldo album declared essential service; continues despite US shutdown

John Von PamerThe United States government may be in shutdown mode over political wranglings, but it’s good to know that both sides of the aisle can agree that the people should be able to hear Last Night On Earth, the new album from once and hopefully future Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo and his new outfit The Dust, which also includes Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley.

Like bandmate Thurston Moore’s extra-cirricular activities in Chelsea Light Moving, Ranaldo’s vocals and guitar style are instantly recognizable and not far off from what he put on display with Sonic Youth, but whereas Moore took the opportunity of shedding expectations to go punker and heavier, Ranaldo goes in the poppier direction, with Night always melodic and downright pretty. But don’t think for a moment that means he’s gone soft – or get within range of his guitar and say so; they’ll set you straight.

Last Night On Earth is streaming now at Clash – you see they went with a UK-based website, just to be sure it was safe – and it’s out officially on October 8. His North American tour gets underway the same day and rolls into The Horseshoe not long after on October 11.

Stream: Lee Ranaldo & The Dust / Last Night On Earth

Clash has an interview with Sleigh Bells while Rolling Stone has an advance stream of Bitter Rivals before its official release next week on October 8. They play The Phoenix on November 13.

Stream: Sleigh Bells / Bitter Rivals

Pitchfork has the advance stream of the new of Montreal record lousy with sylvianbriar, out next week. The Fly talks to frontman Kevin Barnes about the new album.

Stream: of Montreal / Lousy With Sylvianbriar

Aquarium Drunkard talks to The Men about their Campfire Songs EP which comes out October 15. They also play The Horseshoe on October 20.

Buzzfeed has an interview with The Head & The Heart as well as a stream of a new track from Let’s Be Still, out October 15. They’re at The Danforth Music Hall on October 31.

Stream: The Head & The Heart – “Another Story”

Esquire has a video session with The Dismemberment Plan, whose first album in forever – Uncanney Valley – comes out October 15. Billboard and Denver Westword also have interviews with the band.

Frankie Rose, who made her name as drummer for Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls, and Vivian Girls before stepping up as frontwoman and dreampop-leaning solo artist, has been announced as support for Franz Ferdinand at the Kool Haus on October 24. She just released her second album Herein Wild, which she talks to Stereogum and The Village Voice about.

Stream: Frankie Rose – “Street Of Dreams”
Stream: Frankie Rose – “Sorrow”

Widowspeak are streaming a new song that will appear on their The Swamps EP when it comes out October 29. Expect them to have copies for sale when they roll into The Silver Dollar on November 2.

Stream: Widowspeak – “Calico”

Albert Hammond Jr – aka the only Stroke who actually seems to still enjoy being a rock band – will be releasing a new solo EP in AHJ on October 8 and will be in town at The Phoenix on November 10 to play some songs from it, and hopefully some others since there’s only five of them. Tickets $20 in advance.

Stream: Albert Hammond Jr. – “Rude Customer”

Under The Radar has details on a new EP and tour from Denver duo Tennis; their Small Sound extended play will be available November 5 – stream a new song below – and they’ll be at The Garrison on November 10, tickets $16.

MP3: Tennis – “Take Me Somewhere”
Stream: Tennis – “Mean Streets”

The Line Of Best Fit interviews Lou Barlow of Sebadoh, coming to town for a November 8 show at The Horseshoe.

Crocodiles have premiered a new video from their latest album < em>Crimes Of Passion via Stereogum. They play Lee’s Palace on November 19.

Video: Crocodiles – “Teardrop Guitar”

Los Angeles’ Lord Huron has announced an extensive tour for next Winter that stops in at The Danforth Music Hall on February 1, tickets $22.50. Their last release was 2012’s Lonesome Dreams but they might well have a new release out in time for these shows.

MP3: Lord Huron – “The Stranger”

Bob Pollard offers The Utne Reader some life lessons; the next Guided By Voices album Motivational Jumpsuit will be out in late February.

The Line Of Best Fit interviews Will Sheff of Okkervil River.

Stereogum has premiered the new Mary Timony-starring video from Mikal Cronin’s MCII.

Video: Mikal Cronin – “Peace Of Mine”

NYC Taper has posted recordings of Superchunk’s shows at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan last week.

Exclaim reports that New York’s premier Anglo-Japanese shoegaze outfit Asobi Seksu have gone on indefinite hiatus. Thanks for the blown eardrums, guys.

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013

How Deep In The Valley

Sarah Harmer rallies rally for pipeline awareness

Afie JurvanenHer musical achievements are pretty much beyond reproach – both leading Weeping Tile and as a solo artist – but Sarah Harmer has become as well-known for her activism in recent years. In 2005, she helped form PERL – Protecting Escarpment Rural Land – to fight proposed development on the Niagara Escarpment, work which was reflected musically in her I’m A Mountain album and documented in the Escarpment Blues doc. The movement scored a major victory last Fall when a proposed quarry in the escarpment was denied. Now she’s seeking to draw attention to Line 9, a pipeline which currently carries conventional crude oil across Ontario and Quebec and which may be repurposed to also transport heavy crude oil from Alberta’s tar sands.

To draw public attention to their calls for further environmental assessment of the project, Harmer has organized Rock The Line, a free concert happening at Mel Lastman Square in North York this coming Sunday, October 6, starting at 2PM. Joining her will be Gord Downie & The Sadies – formidable on their own, fearsome together – Hayden and Guelph’s Minotaurs. A great show for any reason and an even better one for the cause behind it.

Video: Sarah Harmer – “Oleander”
Video: Gord Downie & The Sadies – “Search & Destroy”
Video: Hayden – “Rainy Saturday”

Basia Bulat is marking the release of her new album Tall Tall Shadow this week with a track-by-track walkthrough at Port Magazine, a video session at NOW, and a video for the title track premiered over at Bullett. She plays three nights at The Polish Combatants Hall on from October 10 to 12.

Video: Basia Bulat – “Tall Tall Shadow”

Filter has a stream of Prayer Of The Woods, the solo debut from Great Lake Swimmers’ Tony Dekker, out October 8.

Stream: Tony Dekker / Prayer Of The Woods

The Darcys talk to Exclaim about their plans to release a 20-minute, Cormac McCarthy-inspired instrumental track and video series for every track on their latest, Warring. They play The Adelaide Music Hall on October 11.

In advance of his “electronic pop opera” performance at the Adelaide Music Hall that night – The Montreal Gazette saw said show at Pop Montreal last weekend – Murray Lightburn will play an in-store at Sonic Boom’s Annex location on October 12 at 2PM.

MP3: Murray Lightburn – “Motherfuckers”

As the October 27 release date for Reflektor draws ever closer, Arcade Fire have revealed a few more new songs via a short film by The Creators Project.

Video: Arcade Fire / Here comes The Night Time

Loud & Quiet, The Link, The Ottawa Citizen, and The Edmonton Journal interview Braids. They play The Great Hall on November 10.

Under The Radar and The Georgia Straight talk to Catherine McCandless of Young Galaxy, who’ve released a new video from Ultramarine. They play The Hoxton on November 22.

Video: Young Galaxy – “Sleepwalk With Me”

Perhaps conscious that they haven’t actually played Toronto since Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO came out in early April – their CMF show happened a few weeks prior and their announced NXNE show never actually happened – The Besnard Lakes have announced a November 26 date at Lee’s Palace, tickets $15 in advance.

MP3: The Besnard Lakes – “People Of The Sticks”

Stereogum talk to Fucked Up’s Damien Abraham about their new record and Godspeed’s comments following their Polaris win last week. That seems like ancient history now, but if you wanted to read some well-reasoned responses to the kerfuffle (which align with my thinking, natch), check out pieces at Herohill, A Void, Radio Free Canuckistan, Liisa Ladouceur, and The Toronto Standard.

Dan Mangan drops some pretty high-falutin’ reference points in discussing his plans for his next record with Exclaim.

NOW has an interview and Chart solicits a list of recommended listening from Diana.

The National Post, Culture Map, and Beatroute interview Katie Stelmanis of Austra.