Friday, June 10th, 2011
Stars schedule secret show, dig up demos
youarestars.comThe promo and touring cycle for Stars’ last record The Five Ghosts – released just about a year ago – largely wrapped last Fall, just in time to take a break and allow Amy Millan to have her first child. The Montreal quintet are ready to get back into action, though, and are doing so not with a release of new material but of old. Specifically their previous-to-last album, 2007’s In Our Bedroom After The War, or more specifically the demos for said record. That’s what has just been released as The Bedroom Demos, available digitally in compressed or lossless forms. It’s also available to stream in its entirety right now.
No doubt some of these songs will be aired out in their finished forms when the band makes their appearance at Yonge-Dundas Square next Friday night, June 17, as part of NXNE’s centrepiece free shows. And they’ll almost certainly be on the set list when the band plays a secret show at a to-be-announced location in Toronto the following night, June 18. Uncovering the location of the show is a scavenger hunt of sorts with locations of QR codes with clues being teased out via Twitter. And if you don’t figure it out to make it onto the guest list, the show will also be livestreamed on aux.tv that evening, though access to the stream also requires some sleuthing for trivia answers. Hey, no one ever said life was going to be easy.
The Take interviews Torquil Campbell in advance of their NXNE appearance next week.
MP3: Stars – “The Night Starts Here”
Stream: Stars / The Bedroom Demos
Broken Social Scene have released a new, uber-violent video from last year’s Forgiveness Rock Record. They play Downsview Park on Canada Day, July 1.
Video: Broken Social Scene – “The Sweetest Kill”
NOW interviews No Joy, who’re at The Horseshoe on June 16 at 1AM as part of NXNE.
Paste has a series of video performances from The Wilderness Of Manitoba.
The Quietus talks to Fucked Up bassist Sandy Miranda. The band have two NXNE showcases – 8PM on June 16 at Yonge-Dundas Square and 1AM later that night at Wrongbar.
Hero Hill talks to Joel Plaskett about his EMERGENCYs, false alarms, shipwrecks, castaways, fragile creatures, special features, demons and demonstrations rarities comp, out Tuesday. Plaskett plays a free show at Metro Hall tonight at 8PM.
Rock Feedback interviews Dan Bejar of Destroyer.
Interview sends Win Butler of Arcade Fire to interview Alexander Skarsgard of HBO’s True Blood. Because why not, right?
CBC, NOW, Chart and The Montreal Gazette interview the authors of Have Not Been The Same, the Canadian indie rock document which celebrates its return to in-print status with a Weeping Tile show at Lee’s Palace tonight.
With her new record The Harrow & The Harvest set for a June 28 release, Paste reports that Gillian Welch has scheduled an extensive North American tour that includes a July 25 stop at The Phoenix in Toronto. The Press Democrat has an interview with Welch.
Quite pleased to see that Memory Tapes is taking the occasion of the July 5 release of Player Piano to finally tour up to Toronto, having scheduled an August 13 date at Wrongbar. The band which is essentially one Dayve Hawk is a far more engaging live act than you might expect, as I learned at SXSW 2010. There’s both an MP3 and video from the new record kicking around.
MP3: Memory Tapes – “Today Is Our Life”
Video: Memory Tapes – “Yes I Know”
The Sea & Cake will be in town at Lee’s Palace on November 5 in support of their latest effort The Moonlight Butterfly. The Chicago Tribune talks to Sam Prekop.
MP3: The Sea & Cake – “Up On The North Shore”
The Guardian interviews Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, whose new self-titled album is available to stream a couple weeks before its June 21 release. Bon Iver play The Sound Academy on August 9.
Stream: Bon Iver / Bon Iver
Under The Radar talks to Kelly Crisp of The Rosebuds about her comedy career. She and her band open up for Bon Iver at the aforementioned August 9 Sound Academy show.
Pitchfork talks to the director of TV On The Radio’s latest video from Nine Types Of Light.
Video: TV On The Radio – “You”
Mates Of State will release a new album of original material on September 13 and it will be entitled Mountaintops. Adorableness guaranteed.
Shortlist profiles Interpol.
Shortlist has a feature piece on The Strokes, who curiously still have not announced any significant tour dates for this year. I thought they’d be all over the Summer concert circuit.
Creative Loafing and The Tampa Tribune have interviews with Sleepy Vikings.
Thursday, June 9th, 2011
Review of Allo Darlin’s Allo Darlin’
allodarlin.comIt’s of no surprise whatsoever to learn that Elizabeth Morris, frontwoman of London’s Allo Darlin’ also pulls duty as part of Tender Trap. Even without a formal connection to the works of Amelia Fletcher, the influence of the former Heavenly frontwoman is all over the band’s self-titled debut.
You can draw a pretty straight line from Heavenly’s archetypal indie pop to what Allo Darlin’ are doing, making adjustments for Morris’ Australian accent and favouring of the ukulele as rhythm instrument. But rather than go retro and try to recapture the youthful innocence of the movement circa the ’80s, Allo Darlin’ picks up in present day with the song’s protagonists perhaps in their late twenties, coloured by the anxiety, disappointment and melancholy that comes with age and experience. It’s also peppered with pop cultural references – when was the last time you heard “Max Von Sydow” as a lyric – that are less about being clever and more about trying to express reel feelings with the only frames of reference available.
I realize this sounds kind of grim and maybe unappealing, but Allo Darlin’ wraps these sentiments up in some of the most buoyant and catchy melodies you’ll hear this side of, well, a Heavenly record. It’s indie pop of the most irresistible variety with a real emotional weight to it that adds just the right amount of heartache to go with the sugar buzz. Recommended on so many levels.
I wouldn’t have thought that the band had enough profile to stage a North American tour but after having to cancel a handful of dates due to visa issues aside, they got underway last night in New York City and will roll through Toronto this Saturday night at the El Mocambo. Tickets just $10 in advance; you should go.
MP3: Allo Darlin’ – “My Heart Is A Drummer”
MP3: Allo Darlin’ – “Dreaming”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “My Heart Is A Drummer”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “If Loneliness Was Art”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “Dreaming”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “The Polaroid Song”
The Guardian gets Emma-Lee Moss – aka Emmy The Great – to annotate her second album Virtue, which is due for release next week but available to stream in whole right now. The Guardian and I Like Music both have interviews with Moss.
Stream: Emmy The Great / Virtue
The Alternate Side has an interview and session and The Dumbing Of America, The Vine, Shortlist, City Weekly, The Georgia Straight and Soundspike have interviews with Noah & The Whale.
The Globe & Mail, National Post, Georgia Straight, Canada.com and San Francisco Examiner get to know Anna Calvi.
Florence & The Machine has released a video for their contribution to the Rave On Buddy Holly tribute album, due to be released on June 28. Gigwise reports that her second album will be done by the end of next month.
Video: Florence & The Machine – “Not Fade Away”
File this one under “can’t be anything but wonderful” – English folk-rock legend Richard Thompson is coming to town for a solo show at Koerner Hall in the Royal Conservatory Of Music on Thursday, September 8. Ticket information is still forthcoming but having seen him at Toronto’s Bluesfest back in 2003 – way back when we had a Bluesfest – I can attest that whatever they charge will be worth it. The man is unbelievable.
Video: Richard Thompson – “Shoot Out The Lights” (live)
Video: Richard Thompson – “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” (live)
The San Francisco Examiner and Los Angeles Times have interviews with James Allan of Glasvegas.
The Grid chats with Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders.
Baeble Music is streaming video of a complete show by The Go! Team in Brooklyn from earlier this Spring.
Guy Garvey of Elbow ruminates on the British music scene for Shortlist.
NPR is streaming a WFUV session with Ellie Goulding, who will be at The Kool Haus on August 1.
Spin gets a notion of what Anthony Gonzalez has in store for the next M83 album. No release date or title, but apparently it will be an epic-scale double-disc set. So glad that Gonzalez is finally letting loose; all those previous M83 records being so introverted.
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Want new records from St. Vincent, Beirut and The Jayhawks? Of course you do
Tina TyrellSummer’s only just arrived – climatologically speaking, at least, druidically speaking the solstice isn’t for another fortnight – but already the music industry has us looking towards Fall, at least as far as new albums are concerned. Which is fine, at least insofar as that’s typically the season for the year’s biggest releases and while “big” is a relative measure, details on a few records I’m looking forward to hearing have come to light over the last few days.
For starters, Annie Clark – aka St. Vincent – has wrapped up her third record, the follow-up to 2009’s Actor, and given it the title of Strange Mercy. At this point details are lean – Exclaim has recapped all the salient points from the press release – but it’s coming out on September 13. Mark it down.
Backing up a couple weeks to August 30 and giving some context to their two shows at The Phoenix on August 2 and 4 is the new album from Beirut. The Rip Tide will be the band’s first full-length release in four years, following The Flying Club Cup, and while you peruse the album details and track list at The Sentimentalist, you can hear the first single from the record at Soundcloud.
Jumping ahead again, we’ve got the first proper post-reunion album from The Jayhawks, which will be called Mockingbird Time and be out on September 20. Rolling Stone has the tracklisting and a video interview with the band wherein they talk about making the first new recordings with the present lineup in over 15 years.
Not quite of the same stature as the other announcements but still of interest to me, at least, is the fact that Bloomington, Indiana’s Early Day Miners have decided that acronyms are the way to go and have renamed themselves EDM. They will release their first album under that name come July 5 with Night People.
MP3: EDM – “StereoVideo”
And because new is not always better, it’s exciting to hear that the entire Archers Of Loaf catalog will be getting reissued courtesy of Merge, complete with bonus goodies, starting with Icky Mettle on August 2. Similar treatments for Vee Vee, All the Nation’s Airports and White Trash Heroes will follow in 2012, hopefully with more tour dates – none of the announced reunion shows so far come anywhere near the 416. But we do get a Crooked Fingers gig at the Horseshoe on July 3 and NPR is streaming their set at Sasquatch last weekend.
MP3: Archers Of Loaf – “What Did You Expect”
And some show news – Cults are clearly looking to maximize their NXNE experience, adding an in-store at Kops on Queen St for June 17 at 8PM to go with their midnight show at Lee’s Palace that same evening and their 6PM time slot at Yonge-Dundas Square the next day. Their self-titled debut is streaming in whole at Spinner and there’s interviews with the band at Exclaim, Spinner, Stereoboard and The Australian and oh, there’s a new video.
MP3: Cults – “Go Outside”
Video: Cults – “Abducted”
Stream: Cults / Cults
Ours are apparently still around and have a show at Wrongbar on June 20, tickets $10 in advance.
Video: Ours – “Realize”
New Jersey’s Real Estate have a date at The Garrison for July 19, tickets $18.50. A follow-up to 2009’s self-titled debut should be due soon. Ish. Though it’s just been announced that said record will be out on Domino in October. So there’s that.
MP3: Real Estate – “Beach Comber”
MP3: Real Estate – “Green River”
DNTEL – aka Jimmy Tamborello, aka the half of The Postal Service who is not married to Zooey Deschanel – will be taking his show on the road in support of last year’s After Parties 1 and After Parties 2 EPs with a show at The Horseshoe on August 14, tickets $11.50.
MP3: DNTEL – “The Distance”
MP3: DNTEL – “Dumb Luck”
Kyuss Lives! – whom I’ve learned are not actually Kyuss, what with the absence of Josh Homme, but are close enough for Kyuss fans to get excited about – have a date at the Sound Academy on September 16, tickets $29.50 for general admission, $50.00 for balcony.
Video: Kyuss – “Demon Cleaner”
I thought I’d be waiting ages for Baltimore’s Lower Dens to come to town, and lo and behold – three shows in just over a month. In addition to their two NXNE appearances (The Garrison on June 15 at 10PM and Lee’s Palace on June 16 at 1AM), they’ll be here on July 23 at The Rivoli as support for Cass McCombs.
MP3: Lower Dens – “Hospice Gates”
Battles return to town on October 4 for a show at The Phoenix, tickets $18.50 in advance. Their new album Gloss Drop is streaming now at Spinner, who have also posted an Interface session with the band as well as an interview. Clash also has a feature piece.
Video: Battles – “Ice Cream”
Stream: Battles / Gloss Drop
Spin gets Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff and Steve Earle to play a couple of their own songs on camera. New York Magazine, City Pages and amNY also have features on Okkervil River, who are at The Phoenix on Friday night. Earle plays The Molson Amphitheatre on August 20.
Uprooted Music Revue and The Georgia Straight have features on Alela Diane, in town at The Rivoli on June 11.
Beatroute talks to Kristen Reynolds of Dum Dum Girls, who are at Lee’s Palace on June 17 for NXNE.
Esquire, The Vancouver Sun and The Wall Street Journal talk to My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James. My Morning Jacket are at The Kool Haus on July 11.
The Line Of Best Fit, Los Angeles Times, Contact Music and The Quietus get to know Erika Anderson, aka EMA. She’s at The Garrison on July 23.
Exclaim, The Daily Sundial, San Jose Mercury News and Filter have feature interviews with Death Cab For Cutie. They play The Molson Amphitheatre on July 29.
The New York Times profiles Bon Iver – the man, the band, the myth. The album of the same name is out on June 21 and they play The Sound Academy on August 8.
The Rosebuds, who open up that show and the whole tour for Bon Iver, are featured in pieces at Spin and Interview. Their new record Loud Planes Fly Low came out this week.
Matablog is offering the first listen to a song from Stephen Malkmus’ new album Mirror Traffic, set for an August 23 release.
MP3: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – “Senator”
Daytrotter serves up a session with J Mascis.
PopMatters talks to Sharon Van Etten.
Hitfix interviews Travis Morrison of The Dismemberment Plan.
John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats chats with Drop D and his band stopped in at The AV Club Undercover to turn in a Jawbreaker cover.
NPR has posted a World Cafe session with Warpaint.
The Star-Tribune talks to Sam Beam of Iron & Wine.
The Quietus gets some time with The Kills’ Jamie Hince.
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Fucked Up comes alive
Daniel BoudTo say that it has been an improbable year and a half since Fucked Up’s second album The Chemistry Of Common Life won the 2009 Polaris Music Prize would be a bit of an understatement. Beyond the long odds of a hardcore record by a band whose name is deemed unprintable by many media outlets earning the title of “best Canadian album” of the 2008-09 season, you have the band’s frontman – a big, bearded fellow with a penchant for stripping down to his shorts and smashing things on his head – becoming host of the resurrected Wedge on MuchMusic and de facto musical ambassador for Toronto across the country and abroad and the recent announcement that they’d be playing the Air Canada Centre as support for Foo Fighters. All pretty impressive accomplishments for a band whose genre of choice is by definition pretty underground and not really a common route to mainstream success.
Which makes it even more remarkable that rather than plateauing, Fucked Up may well be just getting started. Their new record David Comes To Life, out today, is one of the most-anticipated Canadian releases of the year and manages to not only meet those expectations, but exceed them. It’s billed as a concept album/rock opera and while I haven’t perused the lyrics enough confirm or deny its success in that department, I can report that whatever it’s about, David is an uplifting and invigorating pop record.
From the unrelentingly churning arena-sized riffs – maybe the ACC appearance isn’t so odd – to the backing vocals from Cults’ Madeline Follin and Jennifer Castle, David veritably bursts with melody and while Damian Abraham’s bellows still provide the most direct line to their hardcore roots, even he’s more intelligible and melodic than on past efforts. At eighteen tracks and 78 minutes, it’s still a lot to take in in a single sitting – I advise getting the vinyl for the respites that flipping sides/changing discs will allow – but any resulting exhaustion is matched by equal or greater exhilaration. I had to take peoples’ word for it that Chemistry was a great record – it didn’t quite connect with me – but with David Comes To Life, I will happily be the one spreading the word.
The Toronto Star, The AV Club, Consequence Of Sound, Spinner, Exclaim, The Globe & Mail, MTV and Pitchfork have feature pieces on Fucked Up while Toronto Standard puts Abraham in conversation with one of the other most recognizable faces in the Toronto music scene, Broken Social Scene frontman Kevin Drew.
Fucked Up play two shows at NXNE on June 16, a free 8PM show at Yonge-Dundas Square and a 1AM nightcap at Wrongbar. The aforementioned Foo Fighters/ACC show is set for August 9.
MP3: Fucked Up – “The Other Shoe”
MP3: Fucked Up – “Ship Of Fools”
MP3: Fucked Up – “A Little Death”
MP3: Fucked Up – “Queen Of Hearts”
Radio Free Canuckistan profiles Weeping Tile, who are headlining the release party for Have Not Been The Same at Lee’s Palace on Friday night. The National Post and Exclaim talk to Ian Jack and Michael Barclay, two of the authors on the tome about the ’90s Can-rock scene.
Best New Bands and The Montreal Gazette have interviews with Little Scream’ Laurel Sprengelmeyer, and if you missed it before, she backs up Sharon Van Etten at The AV Club Undercover on a cover of Fine Young Cannibals’ “She Drives Me Crazy”. Little Scream have augmented their June 14 date at The Mod Club opening for The Antlers by scheduling a free in-store at Soundscapes down the street the previous night, June 13, at 7PM.
MP3: Little Scream – “Cannons”
Spinner talks to Land Of Talk frontwoman Liz Powell. They’re playing for free at Yonge-Dundas Square for NXNE on June 17, their set starting at 8:30PM.
Spinner interviews Chad VanGaalen, who headlines the NXNE showcase at The Great Hall on June 18.
Beatroute, The National Post and The Georgia Straight chat with various members of Sloan about the band’s 20th anniversary. They’ve got two nights booked at The Mod Club for June 21 and 22.
Vancouver’s Japandroids are back, in person if not on record. There’s still no official word on a follow-up to 2009’s Post-Nothing beyond the fact that it’s out in 2012, but the fact that they’ve slated an extensive North American tour at least is evidence the duo are still, like, doing stuff. The Toronto stop is September 22 at Sneaky Dee’s and if you think that they’re probably too big for a venue that size… you’re probably right. Get a ticket for $12 when they go on sale Friday and make sure your insurance is paid up immediately afterwards.
MP3: Japandroids – “Younger Us”
MP3: Japandroids – “Heavenward Grand Prix”
MP3: Japandroids – “Heart Sweats”
Southern Souls has posted and acoustic session with Malajube.
Monday, June 6th, 2011
Jonny and Apex Manor at The Drake Underground in Toronto
Frank YangWhat’s in a name? If you were at The Drake Underground on Friday or Saturday nights, possibly a lot. Over those two nights the marquee outside the front doors read Jonny and Apex Manor, as the two acts were kicking off their North American tour with a two-night stand in Toronto, but had the top billing read Teenage Fanclub and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – as Jonny is the collaboration of those two bands’ Norman Blake and Euros Childs – then maybe there’d have been a little less elbow room for those who were in the know enough to show up.
The identity issue might have also applied to the support, as Apex Manor is the new band of Ross Flournoy, who used to front Los Angeles power pop outfit The Broken West, who once upon a time were called The Brokedown. Got that? Good. Though advance listings had stated that this show would feature Apex Manor as an acoustic duo – presumably Flournoy and bassist Brian Whelan, also from The Broken West – but when things got underway it was just Flournoy, his Martin acoustic and a brace of songs drawn mostly from Apex Manor’s debut The Year Of Magical Drinking. And though the stripped-down nature of the set necessarily diminished the “power” half of the equation, the “pop” of things was still very much in effect thanks to the sophisticated hookiness of the material. It was good to be reminded of how good a band The Broken West were – particularly when Flournoy busted out their song “Down In The Valley” – and satisfying to see that carried over into their new incarnation.
No one would accuse Jonny of being an overly serious side-project, but assuming that Childs and Blake – the former with a couple of keyboards to go with his acoustic guitar and the latter handling guitar, drum machine and laptop duties – would treat it as a joke would have been a mistake. Okay, that’s not entirely accurate; there were plenty of jokes as the duo bantered back and forth in a manner worthy of a seasoned stand-up duo, their ultimately aborted attempt to cover the Saxons’ “It Ain’t Right” was more comedy sketch than musical performance and there were running gags of a sort with Childs’ collapsing homemade keyboard stands and Blake’s orchestration of the drum machine, but with the talents on hand, even the silliest songs were immaculately executed.
Considering the Jonny album barely clocks in at 40 minutes, their set was considerably longer than you might have expected. Of course some of that was for the aforementioned between-song back-and-forth, but they also included a number of non-album songs and made what could have been a brief-ish affair not only feel like a full and proper set, but one that reinforced Jonny as its own entity, separate and distinct from the resumes of the two artists who made the band up. Not so much, however, that one of the biggest highlights of the show was the encore wherein each of them busted out a couple of the former/other bands’ tunes. Jonny was charming and all, but hearing “I Don’t Want Control Of You” and “Spanish Dance Troupe” was the guaranteed way to close the night on the highest possible note.
Photos: Jonny, Apex Manor @ The Drake Underground – June 4, 2011
MP3: Jonny – “Candyfloss”
MP3: Jonny – “Gloria”
MP3: Apex Manor – “Under The Gun”
Video: Jonny – “You Was Me”
Video: Jonny – “Candyfloss”
Video: Apex Manor – “My My Mind”
ZIP: Jonny / Free
With reunions must come reissues, and so Pitchfork reports that Pulp’s first three albums – It, Freaks and Separations – will be reissued with bonus material come August 8.
The Independent finds out Elbow frontman Guy Garvey’s secrets to staying grounded while The Sydney Morning Herald chats with guitarist Mark Potter.
Emmy The Great offers a guide to staying virtuous to Clash. Her new album Virtue is out next week.
Exclaim and Metro interview James Blake, in town at The Phoenix on September 30.
Gruff Rhys has released a new video from Hotel Shampoo, just in time to wrap up the North American tour that hits The Horseshoe on June 11.
Video: Gruff Rhys – “Honey All Over”
TapeDek gets The Vaccines to indulge in some old-school Britpop trash talk. The National Post also has a chat.
Clash interviews Ladytron, whose new album Gravity The Seducer arrives September 13.
Beatroute interviews The Raveonettes.
Billboard has got a live video session from Peter Bjorn & John, while Metro, The Province and OC Weekly have interviews. They play Lee’s Palace on September 2 and 3.
aux.tv talks to The Naked & Famous, in town at Lee’s Palace on August 9.
Austin’s Ume have finally announced details of their new long-player; The AV Club has all the details but the key information is that it will be called Phantoms, be released on August 30 and the band will be in town on June 15 at the Drake Underground as part of NXNE. This is not a song from the new record but a good reminder of why they’re a band worth getting excited about.
MP3: Ume – “The Conductor”
The War On Drugs, last seen hereabouts opening up for Destroyer back in April will be back on August 24 at a venue to be named in support of their new record Slave Ambient, out August 16. Pitchfork has full dates and check out the Springsteen-ish first MP3 below.
MP3: The War On Drugs – “Baby Missiles”
Peter Hook brings his new band the Light and their rather questionable re-production of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures to The Phoenix on September 24. “Atmosphere” isn’t from Unknown Pleasures but this video should give you an idea of how they’re doing it. The Spectator has an interview with Hook.
Video: Peter Hook & The Light featuring Rowetta – “Atmosphere”
Once again announcing a new show before their last one has actually happened yet, Foster The People will be at The Sound Academy on October 1, tickets $23.50. More immediately, they’re at The Mod Club on June 18 but that’s sold out.
MP3: Foster The People – “Pumped Up Kicks”
Officially back from Europe/vacation, and let me tell you I am thrilled about it. THRILLED.
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