Saturday, February 18th, 2012
FacebookWho: Teitur
What: Faroe-born, Copenhagen-based singer-songwriter Teitur Lassen is something of a star in Denmark thanks to his strummy, sad songs of broken hearts and such.
Why: His fourth English-language album Let The Dog Drive Home came out in 2010 and though it didn’t get a proper North American release, that doesn’t mean he can’t tour it over here anyways.
When: Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Where: The Great Hall in Toronto (all-ages)
Who else: Support is still TBA.
How: Tickets for the show are $15 in advance but courtesy of LiveNationa, I’ve got three pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Teitur” in the subject line and your full name in the body; contest closes at midnight, March 1.
Video: Teitur – “Freight Train”
Saturday, February 18th, 2012
Liam MaloneyWho: Islands
What: Endlessly malleable Montreal pop outfit led by Nick Thorburn.
Why: Their latest album A Sleep & A Forgetting, an uncharacteristically dark and stark meditation on love and loss, was released earlier this week.
When: Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Where: The Music Gallery / St. George the Martyr Church in Toronto (all-ages)
Who else: Kentucky’s Idiot Glee support.
How: Tickets for the show are $22.50 in advance but courtesy of Union Events, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Islands” in the subject line and your full name in the body; contest closes at midnight, February 23.
What else: There’s interviews with Thorburn at Exclaim, The Ottawa Citizen, Sticky, and The National Post while MTV asks for some advice on dating indie rockers (don’t) and The Los Angeles Times solicits a playlist of sad songs.
MP3: Islands – “This Is Not A Song”
Friday, February 17th, 2012
Grimes’ Visions; let her show you them
Raphaël OulletWho would have thought that the title of Canada’s queen of electro-pop would be such a contested one? Just last year, Toronto’s Katie Stelmanis-fronted Austra seemed to have the title locked down, having collected numerous accolades both at home and abroad for their debut album Feel It Break. And yet just a few months later, it’s Vancouver native and Montreal resident Claire Boucher who operates as Grimes that everyone is talking about, what with her new record Visions set for release next week.
Not that it’s a competition, of course, and beyond the superficial there’s not that much in common; Visions is Grimes’ fourth album (but her first for indie juggernaut label 4AD) so if it is indeed her breakout album – and the just-awarded “Best New Music” won’t hurt – it’s been a long time in coming. And her sunnier sound, defined by Boucher’s affection for both dream-pop and R&B and her infectious chirp of a voice, is rather a far cry from Austra’s darker, goth-indebted aesthetic and Stelmanis’ operatic vocals. So why draw parallels? Lazy writing, of course, and the fact that it’s nice to have someone at the ready to pick up the Canadian electronic flag and run with it while Austra lays low and recovers from a whirlwind year.
The Georgia Straight, The Washington Post, The Province, Exclaim, Pitchfork, Prefix, The Guardian, The National Post, and SF Station all have feature pieces on Grimes and NPR has Visions available to stream in its entirety. Grimes is at The Horseshoe on March 19 and you’re damn skippy it’s sold out.
MP3: Grimes – “Oblivion”
MP3: Grimes – “Genesis”
Stream: Grimes / Visions
It’s not a total dearth of Austra happenings, though – their recent jaunt to Australia has yielded this video of a radio session wherein they cover Robyn.
Video: Austra – “None Of Dem”
Southern Souls has an interview with The Elwins, who are celebrating the release of their debut And We Thank You this coming Tuesday with a new video premiered at aux.tv and an album stream at Exclaim. They play a record release show at the Burroghes Building on February 24 and will also look to chase your CMW hangover away with a set at Rancho Relaxo on March 25 at 11PM.
MP3: The Elwins – “Stuck In The Middle”
Video: The Elwins – “Stuck In The Middle”
Stream: The Elwins / And We Thank You
Contra gets to know Army Girls. Their next show is March 10 at the Bovine Sex Club opening up for Carole Pope and they’re waiting to be scheduled in for Canadian Musicfest at the end of the month.
Cold Specks has announced details of her debut album, to be called I Predict a Graceful Expulsion and due out on May 22 on Arts & Crafts at home and Mute worldwide. A video for the first single has just been released and she will be at The Music Gallery on March 22 as part of Canadian Musicfest – a much better setting for her than The Phoenix, I’d say. This show is in addition to the already-announced June 2 appearance at The Music Hall opening for Great Lake Swimmers.
Video: Cold Specks – “Holland”
John K Samson talks to Exclaim about what’s in store for the next Weakerthans album, which he’ll get started on when he’s done being a solo act. Samson does the solo thing at The Great Hall on March 22.
Beat and Nine To Five help introduce Dan Mangan to Australia. He plays The Indie Awards at The Royal York on March 24.
Spencer Krug’s Moonface has announced the April 17 release of With Sinai: Heartbreaking Bravery, a collaboration with the Finnish band Sinai. The first MP3 sounds like this.
MP3: Moonface – “Teary Eyes And Bloody Lips”
The new Miracle Fortress video from Was I The Wave? has premiered at IFC; a must-see for anyone who’s ever wanted to set Graham Van Pelt on fire.
Video: Miracle Fortress – “Raw Spectacle”
Bry Webb gets into the end of the Constantines with Spinner.
Southern Souls chit-chats with Olenka Krakus of Olenka & The Autumn Lovers.
NPR has posted a World Cafe session with Kathleen Edwards.
It’s not the specifics of the new album Spectral Dusk that I’ve been patiently waiting for, but this unexpected Evening Hymns cover of a Trembling Blue Stars tune is pretty nice as well. Spectral Dusk is due out sometime in the Spring.
Stream: Evening Hymns – “If I Handle You With Care”
Torotonist, The AV Club, and NOW (in two parts) salute Toronto music showcase Wavelength on the occasion of its twelfth anniversary; the party goes all weekend.
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
Veronica Falls, Brilliant Colors and Hands & Teeth at The Garrison in Toronto
Frank YangJust so we’re clear, I am not stalking Veronica Falls. It’s pure coincidence that I’ve seen the London-based band three times in the past year in three different countries – America, Canada, and Iceland – on two different continents. Really. Okay, it’s not as though I was running into them on the street while they were playing – their self-titled debut was one of my favourites of last year (and barely missed my year-end list) so when the opportunity to see them live has presented itself, I’ve taken it. And when a fourth chance came around as it did on Tuesday night at The Garrison, I also took that.
It also gave me the opportunity to see what local outfit Hands & Teeth were about, what with them garnering a fair bit of attention hereabouts for their just released their debut full-length Hunting Season. That the five-piece were talented and had no shortage of ideas was unquestionable but like many young bands with a surplus of talent and ideas, it felt like they hadn’t quite figured out how to manage it all. Their sound was a solid balance of pop and prog but came across as busy as it was catchy. Having four capable lead vocalists made for some exquisite harmonies but also made their overall personality hard to pin down. Similarly, the instrument swapping seemed showy and unnecessary; rather than trying so hard to demonstrate that they’re good, they’d be better off simply being good. Because despite all this, they clearly were.
No one should have had to be told that San Francisco’s Brilliant Colors were Veronica Falls’ labelmates on Slumberland; the quartet rather embodied the label’s aesthetic of scrappy, lo-fi American ’80s indie pop with a dash of New Zealand/Flying Nun thrown in for good measure. They had to fight through an inordinate number of sound issues for such a simple, straight-ahead band (two guitars, bass, drums, one vocal) but eventually got sorted enough to get through their set, which had decent energy if not a lot of charisma and included a cover of The Who’s “So Sad About Us” as well as material from their latest Again & Again. As familiar-sounding as their material was, it wasn’t the most memorable but if you had that vintage of indie pop in your veins, there was no way it wouldn’t resonate at least a little.
It was nice to considerably more people out to see Veronica Falls this time out than that gathered in the basement at Parts & Labour last October – even with it being Valentine’s Day – and the band were dressed for the occasion with guitarist/vocalists Roxanne Clifford and James Hoare and drummer Patrick Doyle all done up in matching red-and-white striped shirts; bassist Marion Herbain might have had the same on under her sweater, I couldn’t tell. Not that any of that really mattered, it was just a fun detail. What did matter was that they came to play, powering through their set of darkly-hued, C86-vintage pop with punk rock efficiency – the dozen-song set, which included a few new tunes, plus one-song encore of undetermined cover was over in just 35 minutes.
As with past performances, Doyle again reaffirmed his position as the band’s secret weapon keeping super-tight time with his stripped-down, mostly cymbal-less kit, all while contributing backing vocals but unlike past performances, Clifford and Hoare weren’t as tight as they typically were. It was actually a bit funny to hear their vocals completely out of sync for the opening verse of “Wedding Day”, though they got it together once Doyle came in with the beat – we’ll blame that on persistent stage sound issues. So while technically less than perfect, the band still seemed to have a good time – Clifford was dancier onstage than I’d seen her – and no one was complaining; we’ll still call it a pretty good Valentine’s Day.
Vice and The Montreal Mirror have interviews with Veronica Falls.
Photos: Veronica Falls, Brilliant Colors, Hands & Teeth @ The Garrison – February 14, 2012
MP3: Veronica Falls – “Come On Over”
MP3: Veronica Falls – “Found Love In A Graveyard”
MP3: Brilliant Colors – “How Much Younger”
MP3: Brilliant Colors – “Value Lines”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Bad Feeling”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Come On Over”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Beachy Head”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Found Love In A Graveyard”
Video: Brilliant Colors – “‘Round Your Way”
Video: Brilliant Colors – “How Much Younger”
Video: Brilliant Colors – “Hey Dan”
Video: Brilliant Colors – “Highly Evolved”
Video: Brilliant Colors – “English Cities”
Stream: Hands & Teeth / Hunting Season
Blood Orange has put out a new video from Coastal Grooves.
Video: Blood Orange – “Forget It”
Also with a new video is Laura Marling, this one the closing song from last year’s A Creature I Don’t Know.
Video: Laura Marling – “All My Rage”
I don’t know what Mulberry is, but they deserve props for getting Summer Camp and Big Deal to record videos of them covering Fleetwood Mac and The Jesus & Mary Chain, respectively, for some Valentine’s Day campaign.
Video: Summer Camp – “Everywhere”
Video: Big Deal – “Sometimes Always”
Artrocker reports that The Futureheads’ next album will be completely a capella, entitled Rant and out April 2. It will consist of instrument-less reworkings of some of their songs and covers of others; I’m particularly keen to hear their cover of Richard Thompson’s “Beeswing”. But for now, we will have to settle for this stream of their new version of “Robot”.
Stream: The Futureheads – “Robot” (a capella)
The Cribs – now Johnny Marr-less again – have completed their fifth album and will release In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull on May 8. A download of the first single is up for grabs courtesy of Spin and they’ll be at Lee’s Palace on April 11 as part of a North American tour, tickets $17.50 in advance.
MP3: The Cribs – “Chi-Town”
Norwegian electro disco virtuoso Lindstrøm has made a date at Wrongbar for May 26, tickets $15 in advance.
MP3: Lindstrøm – “De Javu”
The Line Of Best Fit reports that Swedish songstress Frida Hyvönen has a new album entitled To The Soul coming out on April 18 and the first single is available to stream.
Stream: Frida Hyvönen – “Terribly Dark”
NYC Taper has one of the shows from Björk’s New York residency available to download. A-yup.
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
Review of Shearwater’s Animal Joy
Shawn BrackbillHow to follow up a career-defining record is hard enough question for most bands fortunate enough to find themselves in the position of having to do so. For Austin’s Shearwater, it’s triply difficult as they released not one but three interlinked albums over a span of four years – the so-called “Island Trilogy” of Palo Santo, Rook and The Golden Archipelago – which transformed them from Okkervil River sidebar into one of America’s finest, if still underappreciated, art-rock bands.
Not that continuing on in the same vein wouldn’t have been a viable option – after all, the marriage of ambitious prog-folk arrangements, nature-centric lyrics and Jonathan Meiburg’s otherworldy vocals had resulted in three superb albums; there’s no reason to think that it couldn’t yield more. But then we wouldn’t have gotten Animal Joy, the band’s just-released seventh album and that would have been an enormous shame.
On one level, Animal Joy isn’t that far removed from its predecessors but on another, it’s a polar opposite. Meiburg’s vocals are as dramatic and bracing as ever and as an ornithologist and scientist, his songwriting will naturally (pun intended) gravitate to certain themes; in that sense, Animal Joy is immediately recognizable as Shearwater. Where it breaks from the band’s catalog is in how it, to put it simply, rocks hard. Each of the preceding albums had its swells of intensity, it’s gloriously jagged moments that grabbed you and shook, but they were balanced by gentle, ethereal moments that settled over the proceedings like a mysterious fog. Animal Joy rarely sits still long enough for that to happen, taking advantage of the leaner arrangements – most everything on the record is the work of the core trio of Meiburg, Kim Burke and Thor Harris – to move quickly and determinedly. It eschews the elegant hollow bones of the trilogy for something more of sinew and blood, and crackles with life.
It’s those with the longest histories with the band who will be most surprised by Animal Joy offers, but also the most rewarded as its raw energy and sense of excitement – even danger – reveals a heretofore unexplored aspect of what Shearwater is. It’d have been understandable if the band had chosen to take some time off or creatively reinvent themselves following a project as massive as “The Island Trilogy”, but coming right back with such an invigorated follow up that may well be one of their very best? That’s better.
77 Square, DCist, PopMatters, Austin 360, and The Other Paper have interviews with Meiburg about the new record and Rolling Stone talks to him about the just-released first video from Animal Life. Shearwater are at Lee’s Palace on February 21 opening for Sharon Van Etten.
MP3: Shearwater – “You As You Were”
MP3: Shearwater – “Breaking The Yearlings”
Video: Shearwater – “Breaking The Yearlings”
Stream: Shearwater / Animal Joy
Speaking of Sharon Van Etten, the press cycle around Tramp shows no signs of abating. There’s interviews at The Stool Pigeon, Paste, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Tar Heel, and Black Book and NPR is streaming a World Cafe session and Le Blogotheque has a Take-Away Show.
Paste gets to know Hospitality, in town at The Horseshoe on February 29.
Spin points at the new video from The Head & The Heart, released just in time for their Winter tour which brings them to The Opera House on March 13.
Video: The Head & The Heart – “Down In The Valley”
Also in town on March 13 – at The Garrison – is EMA, who has released a new video for an anti-bullying benefit single; details at Pitchfork.
Video: EMA – “Take One Two”
Paste talks to Texas pop family Eisley, whose new EP Lights Out was just released and is available to stream. They’re at The Drake Underground on March 22.
Stream: Eisley / Lights Out
The New York Times is the place to go if you want to hear the whole of the new Sleigh Bells record Reign Of Terror before it’s out February 21. The duo are at The Phoenix on March 26 and also The Air Canada Centre on April 27 and 28 supporting Red Hot Chili Peppers.
MP3: Sleigh Bells – “Comeback Kid”
Stream: Sleigh Bells / Reign Of Terror
Daytrotter has a session with Chairlift, who are at The Horseshoe on March 28.
Spinner talks to Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. Love At The Bottom Of The Sea is out March 6 and they’re at The Sound Academy on March 30.
Put Your Back N 2 It, the new album from Perfume Genius, is available to stream in whole at Spin ahead of its February 21 release and the official bio has track by track annotations from Mike Hadreas. He plays The Drake Underground on April 8 and offers The Quietus and DIY interviews.
MP3: Perfume Genius – “Hood”
MP3: Perfume Genius – “All Waters”
Video: Perfume Genius – “Hood”
Stream: Perfume Genius / Put Your Back N 2 It
DIY checks in with School Of Seven Bells, whose Ghostory arrives February 28. They’re at The Hoxton on May 2.
When Joshua Tillman announced he was abdicating his throne as drummer for Fleet Foxes, it was assumed that he was doing so to concentrate on his solo career as J. Tillman. In fact, he was doing so to start a new solo career as Father John Misty and will be releasing his debut album in that guise, Fear Fun, on May 1. He will be taking said record on the road shortly thereafter and be at the Horseshoe on May 14, tickets $11.50 in advance.
MP3: Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
Video: Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
The Avett Brothers haven’t formally announced the follow-up to 2009’s I And Love And You, but the fact that they’ve booked two nights at The Music Hall for May 15 and 16 certainly implies something will be out by then. Or maybe they just want to visit.
MP3: The Avett Brothers – “I And Love And You”
Lambchop have released a video from Mr. M; it’s out next Tuesday, February 21.
Video: Lambchop – “Gone Tomorrow”
Spin chats with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver post-Grammy win.
Alison Mosshart of The Kills reminisces about the band’s first gig to NME as they celebrate its tenth anniversary.
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