Thursday, October 6th, 2011
Rocktober giveaways: Wild Flag vs Fucked Up and more
Frank YangThey don’t call it Rocktober for nothing. Only March, with its legions of bands crossing the continent en route to SXSW offers nearly as many live music options as October and with such a plethora of shows to choose from, conflicts are inevitable.
October 11, in particular, offers a tough choice for Toronto concert-goers: on one hand, you’ve got Sleater-Kinney/Helium/Minders supergroup Wild Flag making their Toronto debut at Lee’s Palace on the back of their excellent self-titled debut, and on the other you’ve got hometown hardcore heroes Fucked Up playing their first local non-festival/non-opening show at The Mod Club in support of their latest opus David Comes To Life. I can’t even tell you which I’d choose. Wild Flag put on a fantastic rock show, all dueling guitars and Carrie Brownstein scissor kicks, while Fucked Up’s anarchic live shows are legendary and frequently bloody. As sad as I am to be missing both of these what with being in Iceland, I’m glad I don’t have to make a tough decision. I’d probably just end up sitting at home watching television.
But to help you resolve the dilemma, I’m at least taking the financial factor out of the equation. Courtesy of the good folks at Collective Concerts and Embrace, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away to each show (the Wild Flag tix are $20 in advance, Fucked Up $17). To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to spend Rocktober with…” in the subject line and in the body, put your full name and which show you want to see. If you refuse to get off the fence or just want to hedge, you can put both but rank them in order of preference. And if you’re underage, just put Fucked Up – Wild Flag is 19+. Contest closes at midnight, October 9.
NOW interviews Wild Flag’s Carrie Brownstein, Cleveland Scene Rebecca Cole.
MP3: Wild Flag – “Romance”
MP3: Wild Flag – “Glass Tambourine”
MP3: Fucked Up – “The Other Shoe”
MP3: Fucked Up – “Ship Of Fools”
MP3: Fucked Up – “A Little Death”
MP3: Fucked Up – “Queen Of Hearts”
Video: Wild Flag – “Romance”
Video: Fucked Up – “The Other Shoe”
Video: Fucked Up – “Queen Of Hearts”
But wait! There’s more! Embrace and LiveNation have been extra-generous with a pile of shows next week that they want to let people into; some are very much within my usual wheelhouse of coverage, some not so much, so it’s a free-for-all-for-free. Basically, if you want a shot at passes to any of the following then email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see (insert name of band)” in the subject line – and you actually put that verbatim I may well delete your entry – and your full name in the body. Winners will be drawn and notified on October 10; feel free to enter as many as you like but if you win multiple shows on the same night, I reserve the right to send you to whatever one will allow me to spread the prizes around the most – but you can note in your entries which you’d prefer and that will be taken into account. ANYWAYS. I have two pairs of passes to give away for each of the following:
Swedish electro-pop outfit Little Dragon @ The Hoxton, October 12 (19+)
MP3: Little Dragon – “Feather”
Brit-pop/Bro-pop revivalists Viva Brother @ The Horseshoe, October 13 (19+)
Video: Viva Brother – “Darling Buds Of May”
Toronto space-pop up-and-comers Volcano Playground @ The Garrison, October 13 (19+)
MP3: Volcano Playground – “Waiting”
Mercury-nominated Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan @ The Mod Club, October 15 (19+)
Stream: Lisa Hannigan – “A Sail”
PJ Harvey fans and Southwest Airlines non-fans Uh Huh Her @ The Phoenix, October 15 (19+)
Video: Uh Huh Her – “Black & Blue”
Black Crowe gone solo Rich Robinson @ The El Mocambo, October 15 (19+)
MP3: Rich Robinson – “Lost & Found”
Victoria, BC-based electro-pop duo Data Romance @ Wrongbar, October 15 (19+)
Stream: Data Romance – “Spark”
And in other news.
PS I Love You has made their cover of Rush’s classic “Subdivisions”, which appears on their just-released Figure It Out compilation, available to download. Paul Sauliner talks to Rolling Stone about his appreciation for the Canadian standard.
MP3: PS I Love You – “Subdivisions”
The Besnard Lakes will warm up for their October 13 show at Lee’s Palace with an in-store at Sonic Boom’s Annex location that afternoon, starting at 4PM. Madison.com talks to Jace Lasek of the band.
MP3: The Besnard Lakes – “Albatross”
One of the best acts I saw at NXNE this year was Vancouver garage-soul outfit Chains of Love. Do yourself a favour and see them when they play The Horseshoe on November 8, and you don’t have being broke as an excuse because it’s free, yo. FREE.
MP3: Chains Of Love – “You Got It”
Bruce Peninsula have released a video from their just-released Open Flames. They’ll be at Lee’s Palace on October 27 to play it live.
Video: Bruce Peninsula – “As Long As I Live”
Canadian Interviews interviews Canadian Nils Edenloff of The Rural Alberta Advantage. They play The Phoenix on November 17.
Paste and NOW profile Feist, who has a date at Massey Hall on December 1.
Already scheduled to be there on October 25 supporting Still Corners, California’s Ganglians will headline their own show at the Drake Underground on November 25. Friends – as in the band from Brooklyn, not as in “Dionne Warwick and” – will open up.
MP3: Ganglians – “Jungle”
Video: Friends – “Friend Crush”
Just in time for their show at Lee’s Palace tonight, Ra Ra Riot have a new video from The Orchard.
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Shadowcasting”
Phantogram will release a new mini-album on November 1 entitled Nightlife; the first MP3 from it is now available to download.
MP3: Phantogram – “Don’t Move”
Paste has The Hold Steady by for a video session.
Billboard chats with Wilco’s Pat Sansone about how they almost released The Whole Love as a two-part album, Deathly Hallows-style.
NYC Taper is sharing a recording of Explosions In The Sky’s NYC show from earlier this week. They’re at The Sound Academy tomorrow night. The Detroit News, Toro, The Des Moines Register, The Tulane Hullabaloo, and The Pitch all have features on the band.
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Review of Crooked Fingers’ Breaks In The Armor
Justin EvansAfter a prolific career of twenty years, an artist can be forgiven for choosing to settle into some manner of creative comfort zone or perhaps repeating themselves. And while Eric Bachmann isn’t necessarily continuing to break new artistic ground, he’s covered enough terrain over the years that even revisiting past efforts remains a wonderfully unpredictable exercise.
Reach back to Archers Of Loaf for some ragged and jagged proto-indie rock, early Crooked Fingers or his solo work for stark yet rich folk-rooted singer-songwriter fare, later Crooked Fingers for gorgeous Spanish-inflected rock or polarizing studio experimentation. He hasn’t revisited the instrumental sound-sculpting of the Barry Black project but give him time. But not right now as he’s got more balls in the air now than perhaps he ever has, simultaneously looking back with a much-heralded Archers reunion and album reissue series and forwards with a new Crooked Fingers album – Breaks In The Armor – out next Tuesday.
Toronto was treated to a preview of the latest incarnation of Crooked Fingers when Bachmann stopped by while shepherding Archers gear between cities in July and, given that they were just a two-piece consisting of himself and Liz Durrett, it wasn’t unreasonable to expect that Armor would be a stripped-down affair and a hard turn from the unfairly panned Forfeit/Fortune. And if that were the case, it’d have been fine – few do stripped down as affectingly as Bachmann – but Armor is a surprisingly fleshed-out record that sounds less like it’s revisiting past records than pulling inspiration from all of them simultaneously.
If you had to choose one reference point in the Bachmann oeuvre, Armor would be most reminiscent of Red Devil Dawn, which marked the transition of Crooked Fingers as pseudonym for a mostly-solo act to a full band project but rather than sounding at all transitional, it sounds arguably like the most representative Crooked Fingers record yet. Drum machines keep time on the simpler numbers, as on opener “Typhoon”, but when live rhythm is needed to allow a song like “The Counterfeiter” to really soar, the drums are there. And that little atonal guitar skronk that opens “Bad Blood”? Little bit of Archers right there, I’d say.
Bachmann has consistently flown under the radar of popular acclaim and finally seems to be receiving his critical (and commercial) due thanks to the Archers Of Loaf reunion, but one hopes that it doesn’t overshadow the fact that he’s still putting out excellent new music. Someday, Eric Bachmann will be properly recognized as being one of the great American songwriters of the last twenty years and Breaks In The Armor will be another strong argument why. I won’t go so far as to say that’s the best Crooked Fingers record to date – there is a place in my heart from which Dignity & Shame will never be dislodged – but it’s certainly one of the strongest and most consistently satisfying.
Spin talks to Bachmann about making the new record following a sabbatical from music to teach English in Taiwan and is also offering a stream of the whole thing while The AV Club has a video performance of “Your Apocalypse” filmed on a Chicago rooftop. Their Fall tour in support of the record kicks off later this month and hits The Drake Underground in Toronto on November 8.
MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Typhoon”
Stream: Crooked Fingers / Breaks In The Armor
Filter makes an argument for Bachmann’s greatness via his Archers Of Loaf work. And did anyone see Archer last week? “Archers Of Loaf-crosse”? Eh? EH? What do you mean you don’t watch Archer what the hell is wrong with you.
California’s High Places have announced a date at The Garrison on November 14 in support of their new record Original Colors, out Tuesday. Tickets are $11.50 in advance. Eater has an interview with the duo about, well, eating.
MP3: High Places – “On Giving Up”
Video: High Places – “Altos Lugares”
Brooklyners White Rabbits have been pretty quiet since the success of 2009’s It’s Frightening. But there are signs they’re getting ready to release something new – such as their scheduling a date at The Horseshoe for November 30, tickets $15.
MP3: White Rabbits – “Percussion Gun”
I’m not sure what is more confounding – the people getting worked up about Lana del Rey or the people getting worked up about the people getting worked up about her. But she of the enormous hype, controversial backstory, contentious lips and just-okay-but-hardly-spectacular two songs is bringing her show to Toronto’s Mod Club on November 30, tickets $12.50 and on sale at 10AM Friday. For a taste of the buzz, check out the interviews with her at The Quietus, The State, GQ, New York Magazine and Pitchfork (who also have a think piece about her divisiveness) and to let the music (and visuals) speak for themselves, her entire recorded output in video form.
Video: Lana del Rey – “Video Games”
Video: Lana del Rey – “Blue Jeans”
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – who know a thing or two about both edges of the hype machine – are hoping you call their third album Hysterical a comeback and go see them when they play The Opera House on December 9. That one will cost you $20.50 in advance.
MP3: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – “Same Mistake”
The director of the video for St. Vincent’s “Cruel” talks to Pitchfork about the making of the clip.
The AV Club chats with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco.
The Sun has an extensive interview and Exclaim a short one with Ryan Adams, whose new record Ashes & Fire is out on Tuesday. The Alternate Side also has an interview as well as a session. Adams is at The Winter Garden Theatre on December 10.
eMusic has posted the results of their Twitter-powered interview with Mates Of State, The Baltimore Sun publishes the results of a stock questionnaire and The Charlotte Observer settles for a simple conversation.
NYC Taper has posted a recording of Nicole Atkins’ recent set at Webster Hall in New York, and if you stop by her website on October 6, she tweets that there’ll be a free live EP to be had.
NPR has posted a WFUV session with Beirut.
And finally, rest in peace, Bert Jansch.
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Veronica Falls, Army Girls and Persian Rugs at The Shop at Parts & Labour in Toronto
Frank YangIf you have a look over the last couple weeks of posts, you may notice that I’ve been to a number of shows lately; certainly the busiest stretch in some months. So when I say that to get me out of the house for a late Sunday night show on the other side of town would require something pretty dang special, I mean it. Fortunately or unfortunately, I’m not sure which, The Shop at Parts & Labour was hosting just that.
I’d have probably gone if it was just Veronica Falls on the bill. Their debut album, also called Veronica Falls, has been in very heavy rotation hereabouts since its release a couple of weeks ago. Now I knew from seeing them at SXSW that I would like the record – by blending the lyrical and musical darkness of The Velvet Underground with the irresistible melodicism of ’60s girl-group pop and C86 charm, how could I not? – but the sheer addictiveness of the record still took me by surprise. The songwriting is top-notch, the performances scrappy in all the right places but still boast note-perfect harmonies from Roxanne Clifford and James Hoare and runs the exact right length to want to hit repeat on as soon as it ends. If you’re in a certain mood, it’s just about a perfect record. So yeah, when I heard they had added their own show to an off-day whilst on tour in support of The Drums, I pretty much had to be there, school nights be damned.
So yes, the headliners were the draw but the local support was more than gravy. Okay, I didn’t know who Persian Rugs were at first, but when they got up to play and were revealed to be three-fifths of The Airfields – whom I can only assume are either defunct or deeply in mothballs right now – then I figured I knew what I should expect. And yes, the songs led by guitarist Ian Jackson didn’t fall far from the jangly indie-pop sound that made The Airfields a treat, even though he wasn’t the principal songwriter, but it was keyboardist Kaye Hamilton’s songs that really made you take notice. More classically-styled pop and certainly less specific in influence, her songs had sophistication and verve and while the band is clearly still finding its voice, it could well be one worth hearing in the near future.
That’s approximately what I’ve been saying about Carmen Elle over the last few years based on shows in 2006 and last year, and if that sounds like a long time for an artist to develop, note that at that first show she was just 17 and already clearly prodigiously talented. Now, at 22 and fronting the two-piece Army Girls, she’s arrived. On both their debut EP Close To The Bone and live, Army Girls impressed with a lean and incisive guitar-and-drum attack that showcased Elle’s balance of attitude and tunefulness. What I’m most reminded of is the earliest incarnations of Land Of Talk and their urgent, aching rawness and folks, that’s a great thing. Already so assured in what they’re doing, I’m sure the day will come wherein their recipe calls for more – more production, more players, more whatever – and what ensues will probably be wonderful. But for now, just getting started, let us enjoy the moment of being on the cusp of great things and hope they don’t grow up too too fast.
Not that emerging fully-formed on your debut is a bad thing; see my earlier notes on Veronica Falls’ debut album. That degree of polish extended to their live show and even though the basement of Parts & Labour is decidedly less fancy than the stages they’d been playing with The Drums, they still sounded great, taking the opportunity to stretch out beyond their standard opening set and throwing in some new songs and a cover of Roky Erickson’s “Starry Eyes”. It took a few songs to get the mix right but they performed with the perfect balance of cool aloofness and earnest appreciation for the few dozen people who’d come out. It certainly wasn’t enough to fill the place, but was still enough to justify the show and many in attendance had copies of the LP in hand, so there was also that. One hopes that the response on this tour is strong enough to encourage a return, headlining tour because if it doesn’t, well the issue is clearly with us because it’s certainly not with them. They’re simply grand.
DIY has a video session with Veronica Falls and OTM a feature interview with Army Girls.
Photos: Veronica Falls, Army Girls @ The Shop at Parts & Labour – October 2, 2011
MP3: Veronica Falls – “Come On Over”
MP3: Veronica Falls – “Found Love In A Graveyard”
MP3: Persian Rugs – “Always All”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Bad Feeling”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Come On Over”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Beachy Head”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Found Love In A Graveyard”
Stream: Army Girls / Close To The Bone
Esben & The Witch will be releasing a new EP entitled Hexagons come November 7, which you can read about at Matablog and download a track from below.
MP3: Esben & The Witch – “Hexagons II (The Flight)”
Filter and Wales Online interview The Joy Formidable.
The first video from Florence & The Machine’s forthcoming Ceremonials is now out. The album will be released on November 1.
Video: Florence & The Machine – “Shake It Out”
The Line Of Best Fit, The Phoenix, The Vancouver Sun, and The Georgia Straight interview members of Ladytron, in town at The Phoenix tomorrow night.
It’s release day for Feist’s new record Metals! Hence the full slate of features at The Toronto Star, National Post, Vancouver Sun, Winnipeg Free Press, Toronto Sun, and The Wall Street Journal. She’s at Massey Hall on December 1.
aux.tv has an interview with Tasseomancy, who play The Great Hall on October 20 and then The Phoenix on December 1 opening for Austra.
When is a new Fucked Up video not a new Fucked Up video? When it’s for a song from their fake Record Store Day compilation David’s Town. Fucked Up (as Fucked Up) play The Mod Club on October 11.
MP3: Fucked Up (as Animal Man) – “Do You Feed?”
Video: Fucked Up (as Animal Man) – “Do You Feed?”
It looks like the complete, first video from Coeur de Pirate’s forthcoming Blonde is out. The record itself comes out November 8 and she plays The Mod Club on November 11.
Video: Coeur de Pirate – “Adieu”
Forest City Lovers have released a new video from last year’s wonderful Carriage.
Video: Forest City Lovers – “Keep The Kids Inside”
Adam & The Amethysts’ new record Flickering Flashlight has a new download and video to mark its official release today. They play a record release show at The Piston tomorrow night.
MP3: Adam & The Amethysts – “Dreaming”
Video: Adam & The Amethysts – “Dreaming”
Their album release show for Metal Meets in the books as a success, Ohbijou have announced they’ll be playing an in-store at Soundscapes on Friday, October 7, starting at 7PM.
MP3: Ohbijou – “Niagara”
Emily Haines gives Spin an update on how progress is coming on the new Metric album.
Kevin Drew tells The Huffington Post that this time the Broken Social Scene breakup/extended hiatus rumours are quite possibly true this time. Really. He means it.
The Line Of Best Fit has posted their eighteenth “Oh! Canada” download compilation for you to download, share and enjoy. So go download, share and enjoy.
And finally, all the whining about the Bon Iver show at The Sound Academy in August – even though it was completely and utterly sold out – appears to have paid off because everyone’s favourite sensitive autotuned falsetto has scheduled a return engagement for December 6 in the infinitely more appropriate environs of Massey Hall. Tickets are $44.50 to $49.50 plus fees and the presale begins on Wednesday at 10AM; hit up collectiveconcerts.com at 10PM tonight for the link and password, and if you strike out on getting seats, the public onsale is Saturday morning.
MP3: Bon Iver – “Calgary”
MP3: Bon Iver – “Holocene”
Monday, October 3rd, 2011
Wild Beasts at The Mod Club in Toronto
Frank YangIt’s right here, in these very pages, the fact that I didn’t dig on Wild Beasts’ last record Two Dancers and only after some persistence was able to reach a point of understanding it if not appreciating it. But mayhap that exercise softened me up enough that even though it wasn’t as acclaimed as its predecessor, I took to this year’s Smother almost immediately and also put Two Dancers back into rotation. All of which is to say that while I had no problem skipping the band’s visit to the Mod Club last Summer, I was not going to be missing this year’s go-around last Thursday.
The quartet intended to make a dramatic entrance onto the stage but a technical hiccup a few bars into “Lion’s Share” sabotaged that, forcing them to sheepishly say, “hello” rather than just get into it but the net effect was endearing rather than embarrassing and it would basically be the only misstep the entire evening. Why did no one tell me how good of a live band they were? And while we’re at it, why did no one tell me that the swooping and swooning vocals on their recordings were not just courtesy of Hayden Thorpe, but also of Tom Fleming? Here I was thinking that it was Thorpe alone with the inhumanly multi-octave range, when in fact it’s both of them. Which is ridiculous. That they should both be equally adept at playing guitar, bass and keyboards whilst utilizing those voices is even more ridiculous. And that Katie Harkness of Sky Larkin was on board as touring keyboardist was just a nice surprise.
Trying to describe Wild Beasts live requires a lot of adjectives that are typically more suited to blue movies than live music, but that’s just how it is – it’s the sound of sex, however you like it, and quite the contrast from the sentiments of love that Elbow brought to town the night before.. Seductive and dangerous, romantic and rough, primal and sophisticated, they build off a deep, swaying groove heavy on toms and accented with exotic percussion and alternately powered by keys or guitars, their songs are lifted by the intertwined vocals of Thorpe and Fleming in a way that just induces shivers. They split the set about evenly between Two Dancers and Smother and threw long-time fans a bone with “The Devli’s Crayon” from their debut Limbo, Panto and apologizing for never touring their that album. So rhythmically hypnotic was their hour-long main set that when it ended with “Hooting & Howling”, you didn’t even notice the finale coming until it was done – you might say the “End Come Too Soon” but the band saved that one to wrap the encoure, which thankfully ran a good three songs and allowed you the time to mentally prepare to extricate yourself from the music’s embrace and ready yourself to go back out into the cold world.
Prefix, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal and The Daily Texan have interviews with members of Wild Beasts.
Photos: Wild Beasts @ The Mod Club – September 29, 2011
MP3: Wild Beasts – “Thankless Thing”
MP3: Wild Beasts – “Albatross”
MP3: Wild Beasts – “Loop The Loop”
MP3: Wild Beasts – “All The King’s Men”
Video: Wild Beasts – “Bed Of Nails”
Video: Wild Beasts – “Albatross”
Video: Wild Beasts – “We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues”
Video: Wild Beasts – “Hooting & Howling”
Video: Wild Beasts – “All The King’s Men”
Video: Wild Beasts – “The Devil’s Crayon”
Video: Wild Beasts – “Treacle Tin”
Video: Wild Beasts – “Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants”
Billboard has posted their upcoming cover story on Florence & The Machine, whose much-anticipated Ceremonials is out on November 1.
Wears The Trousers points to a video session by EMA in Vienna wherein they reinvent “Butterfly Knife”; worth watching.
Exclaim and The Chicago Tribune have interviews and NPR a World Cafe session with St. Vincent.
Spinner, The Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News and Paste talk to Dee Dee of Dum Dum Girls. They’re at Lee’s Palace on October 16.
Asobi Seksu recorded a session for Daytrotter, gave interviews to OC Music Magazine and The Vindicator and also posted up a Walkmen cover, well, just because. They’re at Lee’s Palace on October 23 opening for Boris.
The Von Pop Musical Express interviews Juanita Stein of Howling Bells.
NPR welcomes Ryan Adams for a World Cafe session. Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre welcomes him for a show on December 10.
Gary Louris and Karen Grotberg take The Boston Globe down the long and winding road to the Jayhawks reunion.
The Illinois Entertainer talks to Craig Finn of The Hold Steady.
Men’s Health and The Sydney Morning Herald< talk with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco while The National Post gets some of Pat Sansone and John Stirratt’s time.
The Decemberists are still promising to take an extended break after they’re done working The King Is Dead, but that won’t be until after they’ve released the Long Live The King EP on November 1 – Exclaim has specifics.
Crystal Stilts are in town for a show at the Horseshoe on December 1.
MP3: Crystal Stilts – “Through The Floor”
Video: Crystal Stilts – “Through The Floor”
Okkervil River have released a new video from I Am Very Far, starring a very young Will Sheff.
Video: Okkervil River – “Your Past Life As A Blast”
Pitchfork takes Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks onto a New York City rooftop to play some songs. Or else.
The Quietus talks to Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields.
NPR has a KCRW session with Fleet Foxes.
Salon investigates why, in a time when record labels are supposed to be dying, Merge Records are thriving.
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
The Twilight Singers cover Bjork
WikipediaGreg Dulli has the sort of voice that you can’t help but want to hear your favourite songs played through, if just so you can hear them seasoned with the distinctively whiskey-soaked, cigarette-stained blend of soulful seediness and fiery longing that’s his trademark. Happily, he’s never been one to shy away from doing covers from all over the musical spectrum – the Afghan Whigs’ takes on the likes of The Clash, TLC and Barry White are some of the favourite reinterpretations I have in my collection.
After putting the Whigs to bed in 2001 and starting up The Twilight Singers, his willingness to apply his take to others’ works didn’t abate – if anything, it grew. The third Twilight Singers record, 2004’s She Loves You, was a covers album and while the source material was largely drawn from the realms of soul and jazz, it still packed a couple surprises including this melty take on Bjork’s elegant “Hyperballad”.
Dulli returned to The Twilight Singers this year after five away with the release of Dynamite Steps, after releasing and touring his long-awaited Gutter Twins collaboration with fellow 21st-century bluesman Mark Lanegan. Bjork is preparing for the release of her first studio album in four years with Biophilia on October 11.
MP3: The Twilight Singers – “Hyperballad”
Video: Bjork – “Hyperballad”