Saturday, March 3rd, 2012
Frank YangWho: Young Prisms
What: San Francisco quintet who were far too young to have lived through shoegaze the first time around, but have an affinity for hazy, reverb- and fuzz-laden dreampop anyways
Why: Their second album In Between is set for a March 27 release, so a little pre-release tour to road-test the material is in order.
When: Saturday, March 10, 2012
Where: The Drake Underground in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Austin’s Boy Friend are opening up this tour
How: Tickets for the show are $10 in advance but courtesy of Collective Concerts, I’ve got one pair of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Young Prisms” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, March 8.
What else: If you can’t make the Drake show or need a double-shot, the band are doing an in-store at the Kensington location of Sonic Boom that same afternoon at 5PM.
MP3: Young Prisms – “Floating In Blue”
Stream: Young Prisms – “Four Hours (Away)”
Video: Young Prisms – “Floating In Blue”
Friday, March 2nd, 2012
The Twilight Sad and Odonis Odonis at Lee’s Palace in Toronto
Frank YangAs I understand it, conventional wisdom is that Leap Day should be taken as an opportunity to try something new. But seeing as how prior to this year I’ve never thought of February 29 as anything more than an extra day of Winter every four years, I don’t feel bad that I spent it seeing a band I’ve seen many times before – Scotland’s The Twilight Sad, in town in support of their third album No One Can Ever Know.
“Trying something new” points should still be award for showing up early for opening act Odonis Odonis, who despite hailing from Toronto I’d not heard before the took the stage. A little research revealed that they were in fact labelmates with The Twilight Sad, being signed to the UK’s esteemed Fat Cat imprint for their debut album Hollandaze; this would normally be a good indicator of quality, but I recall another Toronto outfit signed to Fat Cat – Ten Kens – whom I was totally unimpressed with. And as it turns out, Odonis Odonis is the project of a former Ten Kens member. So. It’s probably just as well that I didn’t know that beforehand because I likely wouldn’t have given them a shot, and as it turned out, I liked them better. Relatively, at least. The trio either took a garage/surf-rock thing and buried it under noise layers or art-rock or took a noisy, art-rock thing and gave it a garagey/surfy friendly vibe – the coin flipped a few times over the course of their set. It was pretty loud and heavy, either way, and by the time it was over, I think the scorecard tipped in favour of tuneful over discordant, but just barely.
As noted in my review, No One Can Ever Know certainly found The Twilight Sad trying something new – synth-rock. An unexpected move given their signature sound to this point had been James Graham’s inconsolable bellow over Andy Macfarlane’s massive guitars, but one that works surprisingly well. So while I had a pretty good idea of what to expect of the band live by this point, I was curious to see how this new dimension would be incorporated into the show.
Taking the stage to a slow, pulsing synth tone that could well have been a fire alarm, they opened with No One‘s “Kill It In The Morning” – about half the set was comprised of new material, the rest split evenly between Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters and Forget The Night Ahead – and made it clear that though they had the same five-piece lineup that opened for Mono last time through, Martin Doherty’s keyboard responsibilities – while certainly more important this time out – were not going to supplant Macfarlane’s six-string duties anytime soon. The synthetic sheen of the new material was given a proper steel wool scrub courtesy of Macfarlane’s Fender Jaguar and Marshall stack and made loud, fuzzy and loud. Did I mention loud?
The combination of their old sound and new was quite a potent one, the resultant chaotic squall with a mechanical pulse coming across as more urgent and menacing than ever before and proving the new direction did not come at the expense of old strengths. At some points, the mix fell out of balance and Graham’s vocals – no wallflower of an instrument – were buried under the tumult but it always managed to right itself before becoming an issue. It was also interesting to see how far Graham has come as a frontman, his lurch-dance moves providing a welcome bit of onstage activity relative to his bandmates.
The show moved with a steady but unrelenting momentum for just over an hour, Graham taking the time to sincerely thank everyone for coming out to see them and promising a return visit soon before finishing with a scorched-earth double-shot of “And She Would Darken The Memory” from Fourteen Autumns and “At The Burnside” from Forget The Night Ahead. There was no encore, but there didn’t need to be; that was the proper finish.
Exclaim also has a review of the show.
Photos: The Twilight Sad, Odonis Odonis @ Lee’s Palace – February 29, 2012
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Another Bed”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Kill It In The Morning”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Reflection Of The Television”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Cold Days From The Birdhouse”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy”
MP3: Odonis Odonis – “Ledged Up”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “Another Bed”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “Sick”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “The Room”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “Seven Years Of Letters”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “I Became A Prostitute”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “And She Would Darken The Memory”
Video: Odonis Odonis – “Ledged Up”
Video: Odonis Odonis – “Blood Feast”
Video: Odonis Odonis – “Mr. Smith”
Nick Lowe returns to town with a full band for a show at The Phoenix on April 23, tickets $34 in advance and there will be limited seating available. It’s in support of last year’s The Old Magic, from which Lowe has released his first music video in almost two decades – NPR premiered it alongside a conversation with Lowe about the tune.
Video: Nick Lowe – “Sensitive Man”
Finally apparently getting over her fear of playing venues appropriately sized to her fanbase, Laura Marling has announced a June 17 visit to The Phoenix, the final date of a Summer tour. Tickets will be $25 in advance.
Video: Laura Marling – “All My Rage”
Daytrotter has posted a session with Noah & The Whale.
Interview and The Quietus interviews Beth Jeans Houghton, whose Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose is up to stream in whole at Spinner; I wrote this record up a month ago – but the North American release was just this week. But to make up for the delay, there’s a new video!
MP3: Beth Jeans Houghton – “Dodecahedron”
Video: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny – “Atlas”
Stream: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny / Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose
Arctic Monkeys have released a new video for a non-album track. They’re at the Air Canada Centre opening for The Black Keys on March 14.
Video: Arctic Monkeys – “R U Mine?”
The lead single from The Wedding Present’s new album Valentina is now available to download. The record is out March 20 – North Americans can preorder the LP version over here – and they play The Horseshoe on March 25.
MP3: The Wedding Present – “You’re Dead”
The most appealing part of the new Belle & Sebastian-curated Late Night Tales compilation coming on March 26 – the band’s cover of The Primitives’ “Crash” – is now available to stream.
Stream: Belle & Sebastian – “Crash”
Also out March 26 is In Time To Voices, the new record from Blood Red Shoes; Artrocker talks to drummer Steve Ansell about the new album.
Allo Darlin’ have released a new video from their forthcoming album Europe, which will be out on April 17.
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “Capricornia”
In conversation with producer Stephen Street, Louder Than War learns that the Blur back catalog is in the process of being remastered for reissue in the near future. And the video from Graham Coxon’s new solo record A+E for which he was soliciting dance audition clips is now live; the album is out April 26.
Video: Graham Coxon – “What’ll It Take”
Pitchfork reports that Hot Chip have completed work on their new album and will release it under the title of In Our Heads on June 12.
Summer Camp has released a new video from their debut album Welcome To Condale.
Video: Summer Camp – “Losing My Mind”
Le Blogotheque has posted a Take-Away Show with Anna Calvi, while Time Out talks to her about her forays into the fashion world and The Music Network inquires about her music.
The Quietus talks to Stuart Staples and David Boulter of Tindersticks about their new record The Something Rain.
DIY talks dating with Charles and Rebecca of Slow Club.
aux.tv gets Los Campesinos! to provide a running commentary of their video for “By Your Hand”.
The Quietus checks in with British Sea Power, presumably working away at their next album.
The Line Of Best Fit salues Black Cab Sessions on the occasion of their 100th episode, and we (I) salute The Line Of Best Fit on the occasion of their fifth anniversary. The Guardian also marks the occasion by picking their five favourite performances.
Thursday, March 1st, 2012
Saturday Looks Good To Me decides Saturday still looks pretty good, reforms for new album and tour
PolyvinylUsually when an interesting press release shows up in my inbox, the contents show up ad nauseum in my RSS, Twitter, Facebook, whatever over the next few hours – such is the nature of the press cycle in the digital age. But one of the best pieces of news over the last few days, at least for me, hasn’t yet found its way into the internet echo chamber, and that’s the anouncement of the return of Saturday Looks Good To Me.
Not that I’m entirely surprised; the Ann Arbor, Michigan outfit never quite set the world on fire despite producing two nearly perfect records of Motown/Northern Soul revivalist pop in 2003’s All Your Summer Songs and 2004’s Every Night and had been basically in drydock since the release of 2007’s Fill Up The Room. Songwriter Fred Thomas and vocalist Betty Marie Barnes regrouped in 2010 as Mighty Clouds and released one decent self-titled effort but remained largely under the radar.
But anyways – back to the presser. Basically, it announced that Thomas had reconvened a new version of the band with long-time bassist Scott DeRoche, Ryan Howard (with whom he formed City Center in SLGTM’s downtime) and new singer Carol Gray for a Spring tour (though no local date), a re-release of All Your Summer Songs on heavy vinyl for Record Store Day and a new album due out in the Fall. There’s no guarantee that it will reach the greatness of their earlier records – the constantly shifting lineup doesn’t always gel and sometimes Thomas’ more experimental urges can be to the detriment of the songs, but I’m optimistic nonetheless. If you’re unfamiliar with them, do get acquainted – there’s MP3s and full album streams below, and a sampler mix over at Soundcloud.
MP3: Saturday Looks Good To Me – “Make A Plan”
MP3: Saturday Looks Good To Me – “The Girl’s Distracted”
MP3: Saturday Looks Good To Me – “Until The World Stops Spinning”
MP3: Saturday Looks Good To Me – “The Sun Doesn’t Want To Shine”
MP3: Saturday Looks Good To Me – “Meet Me By The Water”
Stream: Saturday Looks Good To Me / Every Night
Stream: Saturday Looks Good To Me / All Your Summer Songs
Stream: Mighty Clouds / Mighty Clouds
The Drums, with Brooklyn’s Craft Spells in tow, will make a return engagement on April 27 at The Phoenix – tickets $17.50 in advance – part of another tour in support of last year’s Portamento. They’ve also just released a new video from said record and sat for an interview with The Daily Record.
MP3: The Drums – “Down By The Water”
MP3: Craft Spells – “You Should Close The Door”
Video: The Drums – “Days”
Baltimore’s Future Islands will bring last year’s On The Water to The Horseshoe on May 3, tickets $11.50 in advance.
MP3: Future Islands – “Before The Bridge”
With a new album in Always ready for release next Tuesday, Xiu Xiu have announced a Spring tour with Vancouver’s Dirty Beaches that brings them to Lee’s Palace on May 12, tickets $13.50 in advance.
MP3: Xiu Xiu – “Hi”
MP3: Xiu Xiu – “Hi” (acoustic)
MP3: Dirty Beaches – “Lord Knows Best”
If you’re thinking, “wait – their March 14 show at The Air Canada Centre doesn’t happen for another two weeks”, you are correct – but that hasn’t stopped The Black Keys from announcing another Toronto date for August 4 at the Molson Amphitheatre, this time with The Shins. Tickets for that will be $35 and $60 in advance. What can you say – their El Camino just keeps going and going; The Shins can only hope Port Of Morrow has remotely the same momentum when it arrives on March 20 – The Quietus has an interview with James Mercer about the new record.
MP3: The Shins – “Know Your Onion!”
Video: The Black Keys – “Gold On The Ceiling”
DIY and The Daily Tar Heel interview Bowerbirds, whose new album The Clearing, is out next week. They play The Garrison on March 27.
Paste and The Quietus profile Andrew Bird, whose new album Break It Yourself is out Tuesday. You can watch a video performance of one of the new songs at PitchforkTV.
In conversation with DIY, Howler reveal they’ve already begun work on the follow-up to America Give Up; they’ll showcase that first album at The Drake on April 5.
The AV Club has got the artwork and tracklist for the Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions box from Billy Bragg and Wilco, as well as the official release date of April 21.
Ben Curtis of School Of Seven Bells talks to Spinner and picks some of his favourite records for The Skinny. They’re at The Hoxton on May 2.
The Retribution Gospel Choir is in a giving mood, offering a new EP entitled The Revolution for free download from their website in exchange for an email address.
MP3: Retribution Gospel Choir – “The Stone (Revolution!)”
NYC Taper is sharing a recording of Sharon Van Etten’s New York show this past weekend, while Blare and The Calgary Herald have interviews.
Clash has a feature piece on Real Estate.
Toronto Standard has an interview with yours truly about the topic of blogging in advance of a panel I’m on this Friday evening for the Toronto Music Industry Association, also on the topic of blogging. I will be fielding any questions about anything except blogging.
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
The Tragically Hip attempt something novel, plan Canada Day shows
AmazonYesterday was a pretty busy one as far as festival announcements went – the first acts for this year’s Pitchfork Festival, happening July 13 to 15 in Chicago’s Union Park, were revealed; Sled Island made a pretty compelling argument for visiting Calgary from June 20 to 23; and though an official announcement is still a little ways off, the fact that Florence & The Machine, The Walkmen, tUnE-yArDs, Black Keys and The Shins will all be passing through during the August long weekend gives you a good notion of who Osheaga will be bringing to Montreal.
All of which serves to remind that we here in Toronto are again a festival-free town, at least as far as big outdoor to-dos are concerned. Sure, we may get an Olympic Island show but those aren’t ever a sure thing, Hillside is reasonably local but keeps things pretty grassroots, and club-level stuff like CMW and NXNE don’t quite stir the same amount of excitement, though the free shows at Yonge-Dundas Square during NXNE come pretty close. And yeah I know there’s stuff like Edgefest and Warped and HeavyTO, but those never interest me and are thus invalid. All of which is to say that for all the problems that it ran into over its four-year existence, I miss V Fest.
But hey, the field isn’t completely fallow – The Tragically Hip, as they often do, have announced a couple of multi-act shows in honour of the 200th anniversary of the War Of 1812 and Canada Day to take place at Butler’s Barracks in Niagara-On-The-Lake on June 30 and Burl’s Creek outside of Barrie on July 1, respectively. Not in the 416 like last year’s Weezer co-headline bro-fest at Downsview, but as good as it gets for now. Joining them for both dates will be Death Cab For Cutie, The New Pornographers, and The Rural Alberta Advantage. I’m assuming Death Cab will play the Americans in the historical re-enactment of the Battle Of Beaver Dams. It’s not as mammoth a linuep as they’ve sometimes assembled for the country’s birthday, but it’s a solid one.
Tickets are $69.50 for either show and there will be a limited number of two-days passes for $99.50 for the extra patriotic. Details at thehip.com.
MP3: Death Cab For Cutie – “Photobooth”
MP3: The New Pornographers – “(Your Hands) Together”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “North Star”
Video: The Tragically Hip – “My Music At Work”
The Wilderness Of Manitoba will warm up for their trip down to Austin for SXSW and preview songs from their forthcoming second album with a show at The Drake Underground on March 8.
MP3: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “Hermit”
Acknowledging that barely a fraction of their fanbase will get to see them at The Horseshoe on March 23 during Canadian Musicfest, Zeus have made a properly-sized hometown date at The Phoenix on June 9, tickets $15. Their second album Busting Visions is out March 27.
MP3: Zeus – “Anything You Want Dear”
Exclaim welcomes Grimes to the cover of their March issue. She’s at The Horseshoe on March 19.
Pitchfork has premiered the first track from PS I Love You’s sophomore effort Death Dreams, out May 8. They’re also playing Lee’s Palace on March 23 for Canadian Musicfest and Toronto Standard has a conversation with them and Diamond Rings, whose own second album is the process of being wrapped up.
MP3: PS I Love You – “Sentimental Dishes”
The Alternate Side welcomes Dan Mangan for a video session and interview. He plays The Indies at The Royal York on March 24.
Interview has premiered the first of a series of performance videos by The Wooden Sky showcasing songs from their new record Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun, while Exclaim has an interview with the band in this month’s issue as well as an online piece about the other projects the band are pursuing, and The Link also has a chat. They’re at The Opera House on April 20.
Interview, CBC Radio 3, Montreal Gazette, and National Post talk to Plants & Animals about their new album The End Of That, from which they’ve just released a new video. They’re at Lee’s Palace on April 21.
Video: Plants & Animals – “Lightshow”
Metric have announced a June 12 release date for their new record, which will be entitled Synthetica. I suspect that some synths went into the making of this record.
The Line Of Best Fit, Exclaim, and Minnesota Daily talk to Memoryhouse about their debut full-length The Slideshow Effect, out now and sporting a brand-new video.
Video: Memoryhouse – “The Kids Were Wrong”
Islands have released a new video from A Sleep & A Forgetting while NPR has posted a World Cafe session and Exclaim, Blurt, JAM, and Seattle Weekly interviews with the band.
Video: Islands – “Hallways”
The Scotsman talks to Kathleen Edwards, who also gives Clash a peek at some of her literary influences. The Hamilton Spectator also has some questions for their former resident.
Uptown, The Calgary Herald, and Prairie Dog interview Calgary singer-songwriter Rae Spoon.
Happy Leap Day! It’s a great day to do things you normally wouldn’t… like lead a post with The Tragically Hip! Woo!
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
Review of School Of Seven Bells’ Ghostory
Justin HollarI had actually forgotten how weird Alpinisms, the 2008 debut from New York’s School Of Seven Bells was. It basically inverted the balance of pop-to-experimentalism of the Deheza sisters’ former outfit On! Air! Library! and made itself it much more accessible than O!A!L!’s self-titled effort but was still willing to forgo the pop in parts to play with textures, exotic sounds and the interesting harmonies that their twin frontwomen could create.
2010’s Disconnect From Desire was decidedly slicker, dancier and more straight-ahead in comparison – at least relatively speaking in a dream-pop/post-shoegaze frame of reference. It successfully grew their audience but not without cost – keyboardist/vocalist Claudia Deheza left the band in the middle of a Fall tour that year, leaving the official band lineup as just sister Alejandra and guitarist Ben Curtis, replacing the musical chemistry between the two with another singer being pretty much impossible.
You would think that losing a third of the band would have more dramatic impact on their sound, but had you no knowledge of the personnel changes and just came to their just-released third album Ghostory with a familiarity of their previous efforts, you would be forgiven for assuming that everything was business as usual. Losing their keyboardist hasn’t meant losing the keys as the album still leans heavily on sequenced rhythms and synthetic atmosphere and through the magic of overdubs the band’s signature harmonies are superficially intact if less inherently magical. In fact, though the band is officially now a pair of guitarists, Ghostory is arguably less guitar-driven than before, instead favouring a more ’80s-era 4AD sheen than any overt ’90s shoegaze aesthetic; anyone who still wants to pigeonhole them as such is working with outdated information.
Perhaps the most notable thing about Ghostory is how steady on it finds the band in what they do despite the upheavals. Parsing the lyrics, which ostensibly center around a young girl literally haunted by ghosts, you can find traces of deeper, more personal emotions – loss, regret, what have you – but this is not music meant for soundtracking deep introspection. It’s for drifting, dreaming, dancing. No more, no less. The school may experience staff turnover but the lesson plan remains the same.
Ghostory is out today and available to stream in full at Spinner. After a jaunt in Europe, their North American tour brings the band to The Hoxton in Toronto on May 2. Alejandra Deheza talks to Spin about her interest in tarot cards and to Rolling Stone about the just-released first video from the album.
MP3: School Of Seven Bells – “Lafaye”
MP3: School Of Seven Bells – “The Night”
Video: School Of Seven Bells – “Lafaye”
Stream: School Of Seven Bells / Ghostory
Blurt chats with Amber Papini of Hospitality, in town at The Horseshoe on February 29 and The Garrison on May 4 in support of Tennis and Eleanor Friedberger, respectively.
Stereogum is streaming in whole The Clearing, the new album from Bowerbirds, out next Tuesday. They play The Garrison on March 27.
MP3: Bowerbirds – “Tuck The Darkness In”
MP3: Bowerbirds – “In The Yard”
Stream: Bowerbirds / The Clearing
NPR is streaming the whole of Milk Famous, the new one from White Rabbits, a week ahead of its March 6 release date.
MP3: White Rabbits – “Heavy Metal”
Stream: White Rabbits / Milk Famous
Young Prisms will warm up for their March 10 show at The Drake Underground with an in-store at the Kensington location of Sonic Boom that afternoon at 5PM. Their second album In Between is out March 27 and Stereogum just premiered the first video.
MP3: Young Prisms – “Floating In Blue”
Video: Young Prisms – “Floating In Blue”
James Mercer of The Shins stops in at The Alternate Side for an interview and video session. Port Of Morrow comes out March 20.
Spin has posted online the Sleigh Bells cover story from the all-new, redesigned magazine, and dang is it pretty. The magazine, not the story, but if Alexis Krauss does it for you, then it’s both. There’s also features at eMusic, AltSounds, The Guardian, and The Stool Pigeon. Sleigh Bells are at The Phoenix on March 26 and The Air Canada Centre on April 27 and 28 with Red Hot Chili Peppers.
NPR is streaming a World Cafe session and The Fly has an interview with with Chairlift, who are at The Horseshoe on March 28.
Pitchfork has a +1 interview and video session with Perfume Genius while Stereogum gets Mike Hadreas on the phone for an interview about Put Your Back N 2 It. He plays The Drake Underground on April 8.
Maps & Atlases have made a May 16 date at The Horseshoe in support of their forthcoming album Beware And Be Grateful; the album is out April 17, tickets for the show are $11.50 and the first MP3 is available to download courtesy of Rolling Stone.
MP3: Maps & Atlases – “Winter”
It’s happy news that the Luna back catalog is finally going to be reissued on vinyl, at least some of it. Record Store Day will see their last two albums, Romantica and Rendezvous, come out on wax (that’s April 21) and there’s plans to press my personal favourite Bewitched in early Summer and Penthouse will eventually follow. I said I was largely done re-buying albums I already owned on LP, but this is an exception. Oh yes. And coincidentally, the band played their final show seven years ago today. Sigh.
MP3: Luna – “Black Postcards”
Lower Dens have released a video for the first single from their forthcoming album Nootropics; it’s out May 1.
Video: Lower Dens – “Brains”
A visit to France has yielded some live Blouse videos worth watching; a full show at arte.tv and a session for Faits Divers; there’s also one recorded stateside at Yours Truly and an interview with the band at Drowned In Sound. Blouse are at The Garrison on May 5.
The original release has since been redacted – someone broke embargo, apparently – but it seems likely that the new Beach House album will be out on May 15 and be called Bloom. Unless, of course, it’s not – in which case, it’s another case of “oh, internet!”.
Girls have gone to Conan O’Brien to premiere the new video from Father, Son, Holy Ghost.
Video: Girls – “My Ma”
Bon Iver has released a new video from Bon Iver.
Video: Bon Iver – “Towers”
NPR has got a World Cafe session with Real Estate.
Daytrotter has posted a session with CANT.
CBC Radio 3 and CNN have conversations with The Kills, who are streaming the Velvet Underground cover that appears on the “Last Goodbye” 10″.
Stream: The Kills – “Pale Blue Eyes”
Annie Clark of St. Vincent talks to The New Zealand Herald, The Guardian, and Drowned In Sound while the director for her “Cheerleader” video explains the clip to Pitchfork.
Culture Mob talks to Ume.
Pitchfork talks to James Murphy about his life post-LCD Soundsystem.
Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs talks to Spin about the band’s reunion. No word of lie, there is no show announcement I await more eagerly than this one.
Billboard talks to Bob Mould about Sugar’s Copper Blue, which he’s taken to performing in its entirety for a handful of mostly European shows.
1 Comment
facebook
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.chromewaves.net/images/interface/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}