Sunday, April 24th, 2011
Foals cover The Police
Frank YangOn a component level, Foals’ take on The Police’s non-single but still sort-of hit from 1979’s Regatta De Blanc doesn’t differ that much from the original. That keyboard-y bit overtop is new, certainly, but the bassline stays true to what Sting originally laid down and while thankfully de-chorused, the guitar parts are also pretty faithful.
But by making the drums double-time, their version gets a pretty solid kick in the ass and is essentially de-reggaefied and made all tense and post-punky; throw in Yannis Philippakis’ decidedly more anxious vocal delivery – he’s really not cool with the size of the bed – and things are pretty full-on Foals-y. This recording was made in a session for Zane Lowe’s BBC1 radio show in April of 2010; I am telling myself the abrupt stop is deliberate and not just a bad recording.
Foals are in town this Saturday, April 30, for a show at The Phoenix – their second in support of last year’s Total Life Forever following last September’s thrown-down at Lee’s Palace. Having done their cash in reunion in 2007 and 2008, The Police will probably remain broken up for the rest of time.
MP3: Foals – “The Bed’s Too Big Without You”
Video: The Police – “The Bed’s Too Big Without You”
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
Patrick HeagneyWho: Of Montreal
What: Veteran Athens, Georgia psychedelic electro-soul survivors with a bit of a flair for the theatrical and/or full-out batshit.
Why: Touring plans for last year’s False Priest didn’t include Canada, but now that their new EP thecontrollersphere is due – it’s out Tuesday – they’re finally on their way to visit both their namesake and Toronto.
When: Wednesday, May 3, 2011
Where: The Phoenix in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Joining the named-after-Canadians will be signed-to-Secretly Canadian duo Painted Palms and actual Canadians Braids.
How: Tickets for the show are $28 in advance, but courtesy of We Are Busy Bodies, I’ve got three prize packs to give away; an analog prize will consist of a pair of passes to the show, a copy of thecontrollersphere on 12″, False Priest on LP and 2008’s Skeletal Lamping on CD and two digital prizes will consist of a pair of passes and a copy of thecontrollersphere, False Priest and Skeletal Lamping, all on CD. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want Of Montreal in Toronto” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address and format preference (CD or LP) in the body and have that in to me before midnight, April 30.
What else: Rolling Stone is streaming the whole of thecontrollersphere, while The Democrat & Chronicle and The New Haven Advocate have feature pieces on the band.
MP3: Of Montreal – “Black Lion Massacre”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Sex Karma”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Coquet Coquette”
Stream: Of Montreal / thecontrollersphere
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
Sarah MeadowsWho: YACHT
What: Portland duo steered by Jona Bechtolt who, in fact, have nothing to do with yacht rock but instead craft and austere yet danceable sort of electro-pop.
Why: Their last release was 2009’s See Mystery Lights but this tour will be previewing the June 21 release of their new album Shangri-La.
When: Monday, May 2, 2011
Where: Lee’s Palace in Toronto (19+)
Who else: New Yorker’s Light Asylum will be first mate on this tour.
How: Tickets for the show are $16 in advance but courtesy of Embrace, 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 YACHT” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, April 27.
What else: The Signal and examiner.com have interviews with Bechtolt.
MP3: YACHT – “Dystopia”
MP3: YACHT – “Voodoo City”
MP3: YACHT – “Summer Song”
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Are we not men? We are the NXNE 2011 lineup
Warner Bros.Or at least we are the first batch of acts officially announced on Tuesday for this year’s NXNE festival, running June 16 through 19 around Toronto. It’s certainly not all of them, but there’s some moderate to big names in there and perhaps most key, the headliners for the free shows at Yonge-Dundas Square that have become the centrepiece of the fest have been revealed.
While there’s no one quite of the stature of last year’s Saturday night marquee of Iggy & The Stooges, New Wave legends Devo have certainly got the pedigree to act as a worthy centrepiece for this year’s event. They and their energy domes and jumpsuits will be headlining the YDS Stage on the Saturday night, closing off what will likely be a full day’s slate of acts. They were here in Fall 2009 offering full-album performances of Q: Are We Not Men and Freedom Of Choice, but have since released their first new album in forever with last year’s Something For Everybody. Which, I’m sure, the masses will want to hear lots of material from at this show. Mm hmm.
And while there’s enough tapped for the free stage that you could have a fine weekend just camped out in front of the Eaton Centre, NXNE is still a club-level fest and there’ll be hundreds more artists from near and far vying for your attention. The schedule won’t be out for a while yet but I’ve managed to cobble together a very early list of who will be playing where and when – obviously all subject to change – and while some of this was previously announced, a lot of it is new:
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Descendents, OFF!, Rusty, Metz @ Yonge-Dundas Square
Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield, The Luyas @ Lee’s Palace
Snowblink, Forest City Lovers, Evening Hymns @ The Music Gallery
The Dodos, Deerhoof, Gauntlet Hair @ The Phoenix
Ty Segall, The Dig @ The Garrison
Woodsman @ The El Mocambo
Friday, June 17, 2011
Stars, Land Of Talk, Diamond Rings @ Yonge-Dundas Square
Suuns, No Joy, PS I Love You @ The Horseshoe
Bouncing Souls, Anti-Flag, The Flatliners @ The Phoenix
Art Brut @ The Mod Club
Braids @ The Garrison
Dum Dum Girls, Cults, Superhumanoids, Writer @ Lee’s Palace
Ty Segall, Julianna Barwick, Daniel Pujol, Secret Cities @ Wrongbar
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Devo, Men Without Hats, Cults, Writer @ Yonge-Dundas Square
Twin Shadow, Wild Nothing @ Lee’s Palace
Foster The People @ The Mod Club
Hot Water Music, A Wilhelm Scream, Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, Sharks @ The Opera House
Talk Normal, Prince Rama, AIDS Wolf, Grimes, Doldrums @ 918 Bathurst
Chad Van Gaalen, Braids, Jennifer Castle, Duzheknew, Grimes @ The Great Hall
The Balconies @ Sneaky Dee’s
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Wild Nothing @ The Garrison
The Pharcyde, Digable Planets @ Yonge-Dundas Square
And some of the acts who don’t have any more specific information available besides “they’ll be there” are Crocodiles and Lower Dens. Yeah, I think I can find enough to occupy myself for four evenings or so.
MP3: Art Brut – “Lost Weekend”
MP3: Julianna Barwick – “The Magic Place”
MP3: Braids – “Lemonade”
MP3: Jennifer Castle – “Neverride”
MP3: Cults – “Go Outside”
MP3: Deerhoof – “The Merry Barracks”
MP3: Diamond Rings – “Something Else”
MP3: The Dodos – “Don’t Stop”
MP3: Evening Hymns – “Broken Rifle”
MP3: Forest City Lovers – “Light You Up”
MP3: Foster The People – “Pumped Up Kicks”
MP3: Grimes – “Vanessa”
MP3: Land Of Talk – “Quarry Hymns”
MP3: The Luyas – “Tiny Head”
MP3: No Joy – “Hawaii”
MP3: OFF! – “I Don’t Belong”
MP3: Prince Rama – “Lightening Fossil”
MP3: PS I Love You (featuring Diamond Rings) – “Leftovers”
MP3: Ty Segall – “Girlfriend”
MP3: Snowblink – “Ambergris”
MP3: Stars – “We Don’t Want Your Body”
MP3: Suuns – “Up Past The Nursery”
MP3: Talk Normal – “In A Strangeland”
MP3: Chad Van Gaalen – “Sara”
MP3: Twin Shadow – “Castles In The Snow”
MP3: Woodsman – “Insects”
Video: Devo – “What We Do”
Video: The Descendents – “I’m The One”
Video: Digable Planets – “Rebirth Of Slick”
Video: Men Without Hats – “Safety Dance”
Video: The Pharcyde – “Drop”
If you prefer your festivals a little more rustically-set, Exclaim has the lineup announcement for this year’s Hillside Festival, happening in Guelph from July 22 to 24. The roster reads like a who’s who of up-and-coming Canadian talent, including The Rural Alberta Advantage, Dan Mangan, Karkwa, Little Scream and really too many more to list. Tickets go on sale May 7 at 10AM at $110 for a weekend pass and these sell out quickly every year so don’t dither too long if at all.
And while talking Canadian fests, it’s worth noting that Montreal’s Osheaga added a bunch more acts including Janelle Monae and Broken Social Scene among them, and broken things down day by day.
In other live music news, Steve Earle will be at the HMV at 333 Yonge for a signing and in-store on April 28 at 6PM – you’ll just have to buy a copy of I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive when it comes out next Tuesday for tickets. Or wait for his show opening up for Blue Rodeo at the Amphitheatre on August 20.
San Diego’s The Donkeys are in town at a venue to be determined Sneaky Dee’s on May 21 in support of their new record Born With Stripes, out on Tuesday.
MP3: The Donkeys – “Don’t Know Who We Are”
The Baseball Project – aka Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, Peter Buck and Linda Pitmon celebrating America’s pastime in song – will bring their second album Volume 2: High & Inside to Lee’s Palace on June 1. And yeah, the Jays are at home that evening against Cleveland. Oregon Live has a feature on the band.
MP3: The Baseball Project – “1976”
Louisiana’s Givers, just here supporting Wye Oak a couple weeks ago, will return for their own show at The Garrison on June 21. Their album In Light is out June 7.
MP3: Givers – “Up Up Up”
With their new record D due out May 24, White Denim have announced a date at The El Mocambo for June 28.
MP3: White Denim – “Anvil Everything”
Antony & The Johnsons have released a new video from last year’s Swanlights
Video: Antony & The Johnsons – “Swanlights”
Spinner reports that one of The National’s next projects will be curating a Grateful Dead tribute album for charity. I can only hope that everyone involved covers “Touch Of Grey” because that’s about the only Dead song I know.
Exclaim talks to Explosions In The Sky guitarist Munaf Rayani about their new record Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, out on Tuesday.
My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James goes over some of his influences for Spin. Their new record Circuital comes out May 31 and they play The Kool Haus on July 11.
Titus Andronicus discusses his love of Fucked Up and plans for following up The Monitor with Spinner.
NPR has a World Cafe session with Iron & Wine while The Washington Post and Boston Herald have interviews with Sam Beam.
Spectrum Culture and Spin interview Michael Benjamin Lerner of Telekinesis. They’re at Lee’s Palace on May 27.
Bon Iver has declared their intention to make the Summer solstice a little more wintry by releasing their new self-titled album on June 21. Details at Pitchfork.
And finally, sympathies to family, friends and fans of TV On The Radio bassist Gerard Smith, who lost his battle with lung cancer yesterday morning. Fuck you, cancer. Just fuck you.
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
Review of Malajube’s La caverne and giveaway
Joseph YarmushIt’s almost certainly too much to read an excess of meaning into the title of Malajube’s last albums, but when you’ve only got a (very) rudimentary working knowledge of the French language, you do what you can do. That said, there’s something to the fact that 2009’s Labyrinthes was as dark and dense as the title implied – at least relative to the almost giddily carefree nature of 2006’s Trompe L’Oeil (“deceive the eye” in English, if you were wondering) – and a far less immediate listen. Still, it rated highly enough to score the band its second Polaris Prize shortlist placement in as many records and basically confirm the band as the ambassadors of Francophone rock to the rest of Canada, even if it would be Karkwa who would score the first win for French Canada last year.
Those seeking to find similar meaning in the name of their new record, the just-released La caverne, may be disappointed to learn that it comes not from the dark, subterranean underworld of their collective psyches mined for inspiration but more likely the fact that the album was recorded in a house shaped like a geodesic dome. But listening to the new record you wouldn’t have to go very far to imagine that they decked the studio out with lasers and mirror balls, given it’s surprisingly sleek and dance-friendly vibe. Lead track and single “Synesthésie” gives immediate notice that things are different for the band this time out, applying a fresh shimmer to both guitars and synths and mating them with an irresistible rhythm.
While signature elements like Julien Mineau’s smooth/raspy vocals keep things familiar, La caverne is leaner and more focused than either Trompe-l’oeil or Labyrinthes and also possibly their most immediate. So what happens when a band that’s already twice been acclaimed as having made one of the ten best Canadian records in a year makes their big pop move? Three guesses.
Malajube are currently on tour in Quebec and southern Ontario, with a few US dates thrown in, and will be at The Horseshoe Tavern on May 30. JAM, The Montreal Gazette, aux.tv, Montreal Mirror and The National Post have interviews with the band.
And courtesy of the label, I’ve also got three copies of La caverne on vinyl to give away – to enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “Je veux la caverne” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the body. Contest is open to residents of Canada and closes at midnight, April 28.
MP3: Malajube – “Synesthésie”
Video: Malajube – “Synesthésie”
With the April 26 release – in Canada, anyways – of sophomore album Was I The Wave? nigh, check out one the new Miracle Fortress songs. Americans
MP3: Miracle Fortress – “Raw Spectacle”
Sometime Miracle Fortress-er Adam Waito’s own project Adam & The Amethysts have put out a video from their still-forthcoming second album Flickering Flashlight, due out sometime.
Video: Adam & The Amethysts – “Prophecy”
Pitchfork reports that Arcade Fire are going to let their Suburbs sprawl a little more this Summer, by way of a deluxe CD/DVD package due out on June 27. The DVD component will be the Spike Jonze-helmed mini-feature Scenes From The Suburbs and the CD will be their super-hit album with a couple of new songs added on for extra value.
Fucked Up have released the second of four MP3s leading up to the release of David Comes To Life on June 7 via Matablog, who also have details of a “Buy Early Get Now” presale promotion for the record in which you buy early…
MP3: Fucked Up – “A Little Death”
Caribou has elected to give away the complete recordings of the live Vibration Ensemble set from All Tomorrow’s Parties in upstate New York circa September 2009 – just hit their Soundcloud and make with the downloading. And while you wait, maybe refresh your memory as to what the Vibration Ensemble was with the writeup of their performance in Toronto the week prior.
MP3: Caribou Vibration Ensemble – “Every Time She Turns Round It’s Her Birthday”
Planet Notion interviews Stephen Ramsay of Young Galaxy.
Crawdaddy has got a nice live performance video of The Rural Alberta Advantage in a Toronto church. I don’t think it’s an official video, but it’s nice; it could be. They’re playing the Phoenix on April 29.
Spinner, The Vancouver Sun, dose.ca and The Leader-Post, See check in with Tokyo Police Club as they tour across Canada. Their next local gig is Edgefest at Downsview Park on July 9.
And though it’s their eighth birthday, Toronto label Paper Bag Records are the ones offering the gifts – in the form of True Blue, a free compilation of Madonna covers by their artists, including the aforementioned Young Galaxy and Rural Alberta Advantage, PS I Love You and more, but my favourite would be the title track by Montreal’s Winter Gloves and guest vocalist Hannah Georgas. And as a sidenote, I apparently don’t know nearly as much of Madonna’s oeuvre as I thought I did. And am okay with that.
MP3: Winter Gloves w Hannah Georgas – “True Blue”
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