Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
Review of Amor de Dias’ Street Of The Love Of Days
Shoko IshikawaIf you’ve been reading this site for a little while, you may have noted that as of this Saturday – rapture notwithstanding – I’ll be en route to (hopefully) sunny Barcelona for a week and then on to London for a few days as a chaser. And if you’ve been reading this site for a while longer, you may recall that no other band more vividly conjures memories of my last visit to the England than The Clientele. Which is why the existence of Amor de Días, which is the musical pairing of Clientele frontman Alasdair MacLean and Lupe Núñez-Fernández, the Spanish half of Pipas, seems like it should be the perfect soundtrack for this trip.
As you might expect from the pairing of two artists known for delicately-rendered, beautiful pop, their debut Street Of The Love Of Days is an idyllic, gossamer-sounding collection of songs that somehow manages to sound equally English and Spanish without overtly trying (okay, the lyrics sung in Spanish was probably deliberate, but you know what I mean). And though the album is about four years in the making, recorded in the downtime between other projects, it feels breezy enough that if told it was tracked over the course of a week in some countryside villa, you’d have no reason to doubt it. No reason except for the understated but meticulous craftsmanship thats gone into it, that is – though the instrumentation is primarily acoustic, lightly orchestrated and relatively sparse, the dreamlike atmosphere that it’s used to create is sumptuous. This is the sound of long days, open skies and grassy fields; not necessarily what my actual trip will entail, but if it’s as peaceful and lovely as this record, I will happily take it.
All that said, this silver lining is not without its cloud – while I am heading over to their home and native lands, Amor de Días will be coming to mine and I will be missing their show at The Horseshoe on May 25, where they’ll be opening up for fellow musical couple Damon & Naomi. Everyone who’s said how envious they are of my trip ought to go to this show if just to spite me.
Allmusic gets the pair to list off some of the influences on their sound, complete with video samples, while TBD talks to Núñez-Fernández.
MP3: Amor de Días – “Bunhill Fields”
MP3: Amor de Días – “New Wine”
Video: Amor de Días – “Late Mornings”
Stream: Amor de Días / Street Of The Love Of Days
WBUR talks to Damon & Naomi about the Galaxie 500 days. And back in the duo’s present, News & Observer talks to them about their new record False Beats & True Hearts is out now and available to stream. As noted above, they’re at The Horseshoe on May 25.
MP3: Damon & Naomi – “Walking Backwards”
Video: Damon & Naomi – “Nettles & Ivy”
Stream: Damon & Naomi / False Beats and True Hearts
Spin sits Will Sheff of Okkervil River and Steve Earle down together for a chat while The Chronicle Herald and Riverfront Times talk to Sheff and Earle on their own, respectively. Okkervil are at The Phoenix on June 10, Earle at the Molson Amphitheatre August 20.
Pitchfork talks to Whitey McConnaughy, director of the cats-gone-wild video for Superchunk’s “Crossed Wires”.
Video: Superchunk – “Crossed Wires”
Check out the first MP3 from the new David Bazan record Strange Negotiations, due out May 24. He plays Lee’s Palace on June 14.
MP3: David Bazan – “Wolves At The Door”
Also in town on June 14, though at The Mod Club, are The Antlers. PopMatters has an interview with frontman Peter Silberman.
Spin, The Chicago Tribune and JAM talk to Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard. They play The Phoenix tonight and the Molson Amphitheatre on July 29. Codes & Keys is out May 31.
The Sentimentalist interviews The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, in town at The Opera House on August 2.
The Radio Dept. will be reissuing their entire catalog – all three albums – on vinyl come June 7, excellent news for those who like their fuzzy pop in the highest fidelity. Lesser Matters, Pet Grief and Clinging To A Scheme will all be available on wax come June 7 and this is particularly good news since Pet Grief has never been available on LP. Thank the band with a hug when they play The Horseshoe on May 29.
MP3: The Radio Dept. – “Why Won’t You Talk About It?”
MP3: The Radio Dept. – “The Worst Taste In Music”
MP3: The Radio Dept. – “Heaven’s On Fire”
It’s good of NME to want to introduce you to Sweden’s I Break Horses by way of a download of their track “Hearts”, but if you maybe don’t want a 39MB .WAV file, I’ve gone ahead and made an MP3 for you below. Think grand, M83-ish synth-gaze. It’s nice.
MP3: I Break Horses – “Hearts”
Video: I Break Horses – “Hearts”
Pitchfork has got a couple new MP3s from jj, who’re giving them away just because.
MP3: jj – “No One Can Touch Us Tonight”
MP3: jj – “Ice”
The Washington Examiner and Phoenix profile Lykke Li, in town at The Phoenix for a sold-out show on May 22.
Blurt reports that New York-based Japanese pop act Cibo Matto have reunited after more than a decade for a tour and a new album, due out sometime next year. In the meantime, catch them at The Mod Club Lee’s Palace on July 16, tickets $20 in advance.
Video: Cibo Matto – “Know Your Chicken”
Also Japanese-bred, New York-based and just a little odd are Peelander-Z; they’re coming back to town for NXNE and will be at The Silver Dollar on June 18 at midnight. Tampa Bay Online has an interview with Peelander Red and for the uninitiated, The AV Club has a Peelander primer.
MP3: Peelander-Z – “Tacos Tacos Tacos”
Grinderman have a new video. It’s animated. It’s not for kids.
Video: Grinderman – “Mickey Mouse And The Goodbye Man”
And continuing with the Nick Cave, just out and currently streaming are the four latest Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds reissues, though not the bonus material. And the fancy remastering may not have survived after the digital streaming compressions. But if you’re in the mood for some Bad Seeds and don’t have any handy, it’s your lucky day.
Stream: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / Let Love In
Stream: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / Murder Ballads
Stream: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / The Boatman’s Call
Stream: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / No More Shall We Part
Spinner talks to Howling Bells frontwoman Juanita Stein about making album number three, due out sometime this Summer.
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
Justin Townes Earle braves the border
Joshua Black WilkinsIt was an unfortunate on many levels when, last September, Justin Townes Earle got into a dust-up in Indianapolis while on tour for last year’s Harlem River Blues. Beyond the obvious downside of getting arrested for battery, public drunkenness, and resisting arrest, he had to cancel a string of dates in order to enter rehab – including a date in Toronto – and while his American commitments were rescheduled and fulfilled later in the Fall, his record (the police kind, not the musical) made trying to get back up into Canada an unlikely proposition in the short term.
But it would appear that almost a year on, the appropriate paperwork has been done, records expunged and/or promises of good behaviour made because Earle is set to make up his show at The Horseshoe on August 26 with Shovels & Rope supporting, tickets $15.50 in advance. Interestingly, that’s less than a week after his dad – who has had his own run-ins with controlled substances and the law – plays The Molson Amphitheatre. And hopefully Earle will also make up his cancelled in-store at Criminal Records, assuming he has a well-developed sense of irony about the store’s name…
The Tennessean, Grand Rapids Press and The Lantern all have interviews with Earle.
MP3: Justin Townes Earle – “Harlem River Blues”
In other show announcements, cutie patootie Australian pop singer Lenka has made a date at Lee’s Palace for June 15 in support of her second album Two. Beatweek has an interview.
Video: Lenka – “Heart Skips A Beat”
Shoegaze will rule when Hamilton drone-rock veterans Sianspheric come out of retirement to team up with Austin-based MBV-worshippers Ringo Deathstarr at The Garrison on June 30.
MP3: Sianspheric – “This All Happened”
MP3: Ringo Deathstarr – “Imagine Hearts”
North Carolinan orchestral-folk collective Lost In The Trees have set a date for The Drake Underground for July 25; all accounts I’ve heard are that they are amazing live. All Alone In An Empty House certainly offers evidence they’re amazing on record. You should go to this.
MP3: Lost In The Trees – “All Alone In An Empty House”
With the June 28 release of their new record Sound Kapital nigh, Handsome Furs have announced an August 1 show at The Horseshoe; tickets are $15 and go on sale Thursday.
MP3: Handsome Furs – “What About Us”
With both Soundgarden and Foo Fighters coming to town over the next few months, it’s only natural that Pearl Jam also schedule a visit. Their twentieth anniversary cross-Canada tour will feature two dates at the Air Canada Centre – September 11 and 12 – and feature support from Mudhoney. Grunge lives what?
MP3: Mudhoney – “I’m Now”
Video: Pearl Jam – “Even Flow”
Toro Y Moi will be at The Opera House on September 18 as part of a Fall tour in support of Underneath The Pine, released earlier this year.
MP3: Toro Y Moi – “Still Sound”
Interview talks to Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie. They’re at The Phoenix tomorrow night, May 18, and the Molson Amphitheatre on July 29. Their new record Codes & Keys is out May 31.
Peter Silberman of The Antlers takes Drowned In Sound on a song-by-song tour of new album Burst Apart. They are at The Mod Club on June 14.
Head over to Pitchfork to trade your email for the first MP3 from Bon Iver’s Bon Iver, out June 21. They play The Sound Academy on August 9.
Drowned In Sound meets Explosions In The Sky.
Laundromatinee gets all sessional with Ra Ra Riot.
Bradley’s Almanac is sharing recordings of a Pavement show in Boston last Fall.
NYC Taper has posted recordings of Yo La Tengo’s two shows at Brooklyn’s Bell House last week, The Wall Street Journal asks the band about their “Wheel Of Fortune” tour and Wine Enthusiast talks to them about eating (and drinking) on the road.
Monday, May 16th, 2011
Shad and Miracle Fortress at Wrongbar in Toronto
Frank YangThere’s not a lot of cross-Canada tours that skip over Toronto, but the Exclaim/Scion-sponsored country-wide trek headlined by Shad, and for this leg also featuring fellow Polaris shortlist alumni Miracle Fortress, looked to be doing just that with Thursday night’s show at Wrongbar presented as a private show, attended by contest winners and attendees of Exclaim’s 19th anniversary party which went before the show. But it’s not as though either artist had been strangers hereabouts lately – both performed in March as part of Canadian Musicfest, and both had more upcoming local dates over the next couple of months; if you wanted to see either of them, you will still have your chances. If you wanted some of the tasty hors d’oeuvres and free beer that was being handed out to party guests… well, sorry – can’t help you there.
But if you were curious about how the show itself went, that I can comment on. I’ve already talked about how much I like Miracle Fortress’ second album, the gorgeous blend of new wave and classic pop that is Was I The Wave?, and so was pretty excited to see/hear it live armed with an intimate knowledge of its contents rather than just the one-week head start I had in March. And while this performance was pretty similar in structure and presentation to that previous show – Graham Van Pelt on guitars, keys, and general sonic sorcery and Greg Napier on drums, a few laser-lighting and strobe effects and a lot of darkness – there were a few fresh observations.
In particular, the realization that as much as Van Pelt is often characterized as preferring to studio to the stage and only touring because it’s necessary, the live Miracle Fortress experience is as intricately arranged and choreographed in its way as the record – whereas the touring incarnation of Miracle Fortress changed a fair bit over the course of promoting 2007’s Five Roses, it’s pretty clear that Van Pelt knew exactly how he wanted Was I The Wave? to be presented live. The way that the duo are able to recreate all the nuances and textures of Was I The Wave? while incorporating a few more visceral live flourishes to keep it from feeling to pre-programmed was quite impressive, as was the fact that even with all the multi-tasking he needs to manage, Van Pelt’s vocals were pitch-perfect. In short, Miracle Fortress sounded fantastic.
And while Shad is always fantastic live as a performer, you couldn’t say that his hour-long headlining set sounded fantastic. Somehow Miracle Fortress’ elaborate setup was easier to amplify than Shad’s mic, turntable and bassist because he had to fight his way through feedback, poor levels and generally muddy sound. Luckily, though, he was in a fighting mood and despite all of that, he put on the most aggressive show I’ve seen from him yet. I don’t mean that in any sort of confrontational sense – that’s not Shad’s game – but just in the amount of energy and enthusiasm he put into it. If you’ve seen him before, you know that his baseline is pretty energetic; this was better.
For his set, he drew heavily on last year’s breakout TSOL and took advantage of the city to invite some guests out; Lisa Lobsinger of Reverie Sound Revue and Broken Social Scene to reprise her parts on “Rose Garden” and Grand Analog’s Odario Williams to take lead on their track “Electric City”, on which Shad guested. But from my perspective, the most memorable guest was the hopefully drunken girl who barged her way to the front for the last few songs of the set and proceeded to writhe and gyrate all over the stage monitors like she was auditioning for a Warrant video. I’m really not sure what she was trying to accomplish – though if it was to be laughed at by the rest of the audience, the club staff and security she succeeded – but as many points as Shad scored for the rest of his set, he gets bonus for not getting distracted. Wish I could say the same but I was doing my best to not get elbowed in the head by her dance moves. Memorable, if nothing else.
BlogTO was also on hand for wasabi mashed potatoes and a review of the show. Ca Va Cool , hour.ca, The Vancouver Sun and See interview Graham Van Pelt; Was I The Wave? gets a US release tomorrow. Shad will be playing at showcase to be announced as part of NXNE and also a free Canada Day show at Metro Square as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. Miracle Fortress will be at The Phoenix on June 9 as support for Junior Boys. Update: Shad will perform at The New Social on June 18.
Photos: Shad, Miracle Fortress @ Wrongbar – May 12, 2011
MP3: Shad – “Rose Garden”
MP3: Shad – “Yaa I Get It”
MP3: Shad – “I’ll Never Understand”
MP3: Miracle Fortress – “Raw Spectacle”
MP3: Miracle Fortress – “Have You Seen In Your Dreams”
Video: Shad – “Keep Shining”
Video: Shad – “We Myself & I”
Video: Shad – “Rose Garden”
Video: Shad – “Yaa I Get It”
Video: Shad – “The Old Prince Still Lives At Home”
Video: Shad – “I Don’t Really Like To”
Video: Shad – “Brother (Watching)”
Video: Miracle Fortress – “Maybe Lately”
Video: Miracle Fortress – “Have You Seen In Your Dreams”
DIY, Spinner and BlogTO talk to Katie Stelmanis of Austra, whose record Feel It Break is out tomorrow and who plays Lee’s Palace on May 19.
Spinner talks to Suuns, who are playing the Horseshoe on June 17 as part of NXNE.
Ottawa XPress profiles The Balconies, whose NXNE showcase goes at 1AM the evening of June 18 at Sneaky Dee’s.
Yours Truly has a stunningly-shot video performance from Basia Bulat playing a new song.
Modern Superstitions quietly rolled out a sharp new video a couple months ago. Worth a watch, as is the band themselves.
Video: Modern Superstitions – “Mercy Line”
Spinner talks to Will Whitwham of The Wilderness Of Manitoba about taking their folk-pop around the world.
Southern Souls has both audio and video from The Darcys’ show at Steam Whistle Brewing a couple weeks ago.
Five words that I never thought I’d see together – Fucked Up and Air Canada Centre (unless it was in the context of how the Leafs do on the ice). And yet Toronto’s premiere hardcore outfit will indeed be going arena-sized on August 9 when they open up for Foo Fighters. And on top of it all, Montreal pop-punkers from the ’90s The Doughboys are back together and will also be on the bill. Fun fact – my band in high school covered The Doughboys’ “Shine” because I liked playing the riff. Yes, I basically made a hash of it every time; I fail to see what that has to do with anything. Fucked Up’s David Comes To Life is out June 7 and the band have released a mini-doc video talking about the new record.
MP3: Fucked Up – “Queen Of Hearts”
Video: Foo Fighters – “Rope”
Video: Doughboys – “Shine”
Handsome Furs have made the first MP3 from their forthcoming Sound Kapital available to download without and bloodletting or having to sign up for any mailing lists. The record is out June 28.
MP3: Handsome Furs – “What About Us”
Efforts to catch Sloan’s in-store at Sonic Boom on Saturday were largely foiled thanks to the TTC, who got me there about 40 minutes later than expected. As a result, I couldn’t see anything and there won’t be much writeup beyond saying that The Double Cross continues to impress me with how top-to-bottom great it is, they’re still not nor will they likely ever be an airtight live band but that’s part of their charm and I’m going to have to hit their June 22 show at The Mod Club now. In the meantime, check out this Q&A with Patrick Pentland as the band prepare to commandeer the Magnet website for a week, this guided tour of Sloan’s rehearsal space at Metro, this review/reminiscence of the record/band from Dave Ullrich of Inbreds at Thick Specs and two more installments in their video tributes – a choral “Everything You’ve Done Wrong” and celebrities choosing their favourite Sloan albums.
Sunday, May 15th, 2011
Friendly Fires cover Lykke Li
popwreckoningI try not to repeat myself too much with this feature, but sometimes it’s impossible not to. Like back in March 2009 when St. Alban’s Friendly Fires were coming to town on the back of their self-titled debut and opening up for White Lies, just a month a bit after Lykke Li herself had been through for the third or fourth in support of her own debut, Youth Novels.
Fast-forward a couple years and both acts are back with sophomore efforts that will only elevate their status’ even higher – Lykke Li released Wounded Rhymes back at the start of March and Friendly Fires’ Pala is due out next Tuesday. Further, both are coming to town in the coming weeks – Lyyke Li has a sold-out date at The Phoenix on May 22 and Friendly Fires are at that same venue on May 30. So you can see why I feel compelled to again bust out this cover that they did of her when they toured together back in 2008; synchronicity demands it. But in the interests of mixing it up just a bit, I’ve taken a different crop of the image of Friendly Fires hamming it up with Lykke Li and cut out a different member of the St. Alban’s trio. If and when I post it a third time, I’ll just Photoshop out Ed MacFarlane entirely.
Also curiously coincidental, when I posted this last time, I was all discombobulated trying to get my shit together to head down to Austin for SXSW. And this time, I am similarly unprepared to leave for Primavera in Barcelona this Saturday.
MP3: Friendly Fires – “I’m Good I’m Gone”
Video: Lykke Li – “I’m Good I’m Gone”
Saturday, May 14th, 2011
Sharan SoorWho: Anna Calvi
What: Anglo-Italian singer-songwriter/guitar virtuoso whose dramatic and romantic self-titled debut is one of the most sumptuous things you will hear this year.
Why: After cancelling her debut North American tour back in March due to an injured arm, Calvi will be playing her first shows on this side of the pond later this month – precisely when I’m on THAT side of the pond, natch. One can only hope her August appearance at Osheaga in Montreal is part of a new batch of dates.
When: Friday, May 27, 2011
Where: The El Mocambo in Toronto (19+)
Who else: San Diego’s Cuckoo Chaos are support across the entire tour.
How: Tickets for the show are $12 in advance, but courtesy of Domino Records, I’ve got a pair of passes to the show and a copy of Anna Calvi on LP to give away. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Anna Calvi” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the body. Contest closes at midnight, May 19.
What else: Clash reports that Calvi’s next single – out June 20 – will be “Desire” and the b-side on the 7″ single will be a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Joan Of Arc”. Um, yes please.
MP3: Anna Calvi – “Blackout”
Video: Anna Calvi – “Blackout”
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