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Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
Love Is Where The Smoke Is, the debut from Calgary’s Jane Vain & The Dark Matter, was discussed at some length last month, so I won’t go back over that ground again except to say that just as when I wrote that bit, it remains a very good record and worthy of your attention.
Instead, I will point you to some interviews from The Calgary Herald, The Gauntlet and The Thunder Bay Source with frontwoman Jamie Fooks and remind that cross-country tour is now well into Ontario and they’re in Toronto this Thursday night for a show at the Drake Underground and then again on Sunday night at Sneaky Dee’s as part of Wavelength.
As to the Drake show, courtesy of Killbeat Music, I’ve got a pair of passes and a copy of Love Is Where The Smoke Is to give away to one lucky duck. To enter, shoot me an email to contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Jane Vain” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the body (the winner will be mailed a CD). Contest closes at midnight, February 4.
MP3: Jane Vain & The Dark Matter – “C’mon Baby Say Bang Bang”
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
This past long weekend? It was a Matt Damon weekend. Or more accuraely, a Matt Damon sequel weekend. It just happened that both Ocean’s Thirteen and The Bourne Ultimatum – both films I wanted to see – were playing and so, with the rest of the world at Lollapalooza, I was at the movies.
We’ll start with Ocean’s. Like most, I found Ocean’s Twelve to be something of a disappointment. It was arguably as funny as the first but as a caper film, it was weak. Sure, watching attractive, well-dressed people pal around and generally have a good time goofing off one another is fun in its own right, but they managed to accomplish that AND assemble a pretty decent heist flick in the first one so anything less was a let down. Thankfully, director Steven Soderbergh seems to have realized this and gotten his game back together for the latest (and last?) installment.
Instead of a string of minor jobs told in flashback, Thirteen dives right into the thick of things with the gang taking on Al Pacino’s Willie Bank – a casino tycoon who screwed over Elliott Gould. The film plays up the ensemble cast more than I remember the first ones doing, with George Clooney not doing much besides playing business liason and looking dapper. In this one, everyone has a larger role – even the guys who you don’t know who they are. The plot barely manages to stay on the right side of absurd but is given a considerable amount of breathing room thanks to the fun and breezy performances from all involved… including Matt Damon.
As for The Bourne Ultimatum, following two top-notch action/espionage flicks like Identity and Supremacy it didn’t have anything to make up so much as to live up to. But with director Paul Greengrass, who helmed the second film, back on board there was no reason to think that the latest (and last?) film wouldn’t live up to the standards set by its predecessors – and boy, did it.
Think of any overused, hyperbolic pull-quote you’ve seen for an action film – for Ultimatum, they apply. It really was a both a white-knuckle rollercoaster ride and edge-of-the-seat thriller that, if I were to see only one film this year, it should have been this one. Okay, maybe not, but it really was an excellent action film that absolutely whizzed through two hours of intense fights, chases, espionage and exotic locales. A fitting cap to a terrific but still somehow underappreciated film franchise – I’m sorry there probably won’t be any more, but on the plus side there won’t be any more wondering if Julia Stiles is actually being directed to act like a zombie or if it just comes naturally.
Trailer: Ocean’s Thirteen (YouTube)
Trailer: The Bourne Ultimatum (YouTube)
Pitchfork interviews and alternately punchy and defensive Paul Banks about Interpol’s album art aesthetic, canine mascot and hip-hop influences.
Stylus is offering an extensive review of last weekend’s Hillside Festival, currently updated through the Saturday, Sunday recap presumably up tomorrow.
Obviously, it was something of a quiet weekend with most of the world being at Lollapalooza while I sat around the apartment and contemplated renting The Legend Of Bagger Vance. Seeing all the hoo-hah coming out of Chicago did make me a little envious, but I did all that last year and my feet hurt far less this year, propped up on the coffee table as they were. But if I am going to experience the fest vicariously through anyone, I choose The AV Club.
Hey look, I started a Facebook group. Why? I… I don’t know.
Tuesday, December 10th, 2013
Bob Mould revisits Workbook
Marc NorbergI first got into Bob Mould in the early ’90s via Sugar, but quickly found myself seeking out his older works; obviously this included Hüsker Dü, but also his two late ’80s solo records Workbook and Black Sheets Of Rain which preceded his return to a band format. At the time they seemed like oddities, sounding neither like the hardcore-punk-pop evolution of the Dü years, nor the Alternative Nation-signifying roar of Sugar.
Rain was more characteristic of what people expected from Mould, built on layers of electric guitar and Mould’s angst-filled roar and probably not as well-regarded as it should be today because of some dated production values. Workbook, on the other hand, was filled with jangling 12-string acoustic guitar, cello and mandolin adornments, and major key melodies (though raging electric guitar and throat-shredding vocals also featured) – elements that would inform the next two and a half decades of his work, but as his first post-Hüsker Dü release, it must have been a head-scratcher. I took to it immediately – remember, for me 1991 was far more about Out Of Time than Nevermind – and Mould’s contribution to the seminal No Alternative AIDS benefit album in 1993 was also along those lines and one of my very favourites off that album.
All of which is to say as much as I love Bob when he’s perforating eardrums, as he’s been lately, I also totally dig his quieter stuff and I’m glad to see that Workbook is getting the respect that it deserves. It had already been announced that Mould would be marking the 25th anniversary of the release with a performance at Noise Pop next February where he’ll presumably – but not confirmedly – play it in its entirety. But Under The Radar now reports that the milestone is getting commemorated in somewhat larger fashion. A deluxe edition of the record – Workbook 25 – will be coming out on February 25 with the original album being accompanied by a second disc containing a b-side and a complete live show from the era. Granted, many of those bonus tracks appeared on the 1994 Poison Years compilation, but there’s still some unreleased goodies in there and isn’t it the thought that counts?
It’s a shame that the expanded slate of tour dates around its release don’t make it up here, but don’t forget that those Copper Blue recitals were only supposed to be a limited engagement and he toured that everywhere. So fingers crossed.
Video: Bob Mould – “See A Little Light”
Stream: Bob Mould / Workbook
Stream: Bob Mould – “Can’t Fight It”
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks have a new video from Wig Out At Jagbags, out January 7. Look for them at Lee’s Palace on February 22.
Video: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – “Cinnamon & Lesbians”
Broken Bells have a new video from their next album After The Disco, out January 14. They play The Danforth Music Hall on March 3.
Video: Broken Bells – “Holding On For Life”
Pixies have put out a fourth video from their EP1, which should be the last because there are no more songs but then they’ve already released multiple videos for one of the songs so who knows, maybe they’ll milk it another decade before putting out EP2. They’ll be at Massey Hall on January 15 with their new bassist – no, newer – Paz Lenchantin, whom you may remember from A Perfect Circle and Zwan. Or not.
Video: Pixies – “Another Toe In The Ocean”
Rolling Stone talks to Robert Pollard about matters Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices. The new GBV record Motivational Jumpsuit comes out February 18.
Phantogram have come clean with details on their second full-length album, entitled Voices and coming out February 18. Pitchfork has details and a stream of a new song while Metro and AMNY have interviews with the band.
Stream: Phantogram – “Fall In Love”
NPR welcomes Superchunk to their World Cafe for a session.
Speedy Ortiz have released a new video from this year’s debut, Major Arcana.
Video: Speedy Ortiz – “No Below”
NPR has a KCRW session with Glasser.
Magnet talks to Will Sheff of Okkervil River about how he feels about having The Silver Gymnasium named their album of the year. What’s he gonna say? Maybe, “thanks – how about contributing to my Kickstarter to fund a short film video for ‘Down Down The Deep River’?” Maybe. Also, at Salon, Sheff talks about how he wish he knew as a kid that being nerdy would eventually be cool. Nerdy, yes, though being a touring musician, also helps.
Dazed and Confused has premiered the new video from Blouse’s second album, Imperium.
Video: Blouse – “A Feeling Like This”
Billboard Q&As Janelle Monáe, whom they have declared as Rising Star of 2013.
NPR has a World Cafe session with The Head & The Heart.
The Skinny talks to Janet Weiss about her current work with Quasi, the fact that Wild Flag is no more, and that a Sleater-Kinney reunion might be inevitable – as proven by the fact that they reunited to play “Rockin’ In The Free World” with Pearl Jam a few nights later in Portland.
Stereogum tracks the final days of the now-defunct Walkmen.
Wednesday, December 4th, 2013
Swearin’ are tourin’ and comin’ to town
Lance NelsonI won’t presume to have any insight into the relationship between Crutchfield sisters Katie and Allison, but it’s hard to imagine there isn’t at least a little competitiveness between the twins since they disbanded P.S. Eliot, the band they were in together, back in 2011 and re-emerged fronting Waxahatchee out of Philadelphia and Swearin’ in Brooklyn, respectively.
And while Katie pulled well ahead in the critical acclaim department earlier this year with the electrified folk sounds of Cerulean Salt, Allison is making a late-year run with Surfing Strange – a heady, hyper, and hooky slice of melodic punk-rock fuzz that recalls the likes of early Superchunk. Two excellent records that are similar enough to be “RIYL” for one another, but different enough to not have to choose sides.
In the battle of who’s coming to play Toronto first, though, Swearin’ wins. Though both acts spent most of the year on the road criss-crossing America and Europe – often together – a local date for Waxahatchee still hasn’t come together. Swearin’, however, have just announced a Winter tour that will bring them and their tunes to the cozy Parkdale basement we like to call The Shop Under Parts & Labour on March 14; ticket info still forthcoming.
Stereogum has an interview with Swearin’ while The San Francisco Examiner and Dots & Dashes profile Waxahatchee, who also play a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR.
And also worth noting is Great Thunder, a new project that brings Waxahatchee and Swearin’ together, but not in the sisterly way – instead, it pairs Katie Crutchfield with Swearin’ bassist Keith Spencer (who also plays in her band and is her boyfriend). They’ll release a double album in Groovy Kinda Love on December 10 and you can stream it below. As for the Crutchfield sisters together, they covered Grimes for Rookie back in May.
Stream: Swearin’ – “Watered Down”
Video: Swearin’ – “Gold In The Dust Sack”
Stream: Great Thunder / Groovy Kinda Love
Stream: Katie & Allison Crutchfield – “Oblivion”
A whole pile of other shows were announced yesterday, starting with Phosphorescent, who are taking advantage of the fact that their latest album Muchacho is popping up on – and topping – no shortage of year-end lists and have announced more Winter dates; they’ll be at The Mod Club on February 1, tickets $17.50. The Guardian also has an interview with Matthew Houck.
MP3: Phosphorescent – “Song For Zula”
It’s a trans-generational dose of Austin psychedelia as The Black Angels, who released Indigo Meadow back in April, team up with 13th Floor Elevator mastermind Roky Erickson, whose last album was the 2010 Okkervil River collab True Love Cast Out All Evil, for a Winter tour that stops in at The Phoenix on February 11. Tickets for that are $27.50.
MP3: The Black Angels – “Telephone”
Stream: Roky Erickson – “I Walked With A Zombie”
New Jersey electro-artist/producer Com Truise has announced the February 18 release of a new mini-album entitled Wave 1 – stream one of the songs below – and a Winter tour that comes to Wrongbar on February 12. Exclaim has full dates and release details.
Stream: Com Truise – “Declination”
Band Of Horses are setting out on an acoustic tour to coincide with the February 11 release of their unplugged Acoustic At The Ryman set, and will be at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on February 21, tickets $37.50 and $44.50 in advance.
MP3: Band Of Horses – “No One’s Gonna Love You”
With their first new album in three years – Wig Out At Jagbags – ready for release on January 7, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks are hitting the road with Philadelphia’s Disappears and will be at Lee’s Palace on February 22, tickets $26.50.
MP3: Disappears – “New Fast”
Lyric Video: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – “Lariat”
Xiu Xiu released their Nina Simone covers record Nina this week – stream it at USA Today – and have put together some Spring dates to support it. Look for them at The Garrison on March 9, tickets $10.
Video: Xiu Xiu – “You’d Be So Nice”
Stream: Xiu Xiu / Nina
Shearwater – who cover Xiu Xiu on their own new covers record Fellow Travelers – have announced their tourmates for their upcoming tour: On March 27 at The Horseshoe, they’ll be joined by Death Vessel, who are finally releasing a follow-up to 2008’s Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us in Island Intervals on February 25 – and Jesca Hoop, whose The House That Jack Built came out last year. Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater penned piece about the covers album for The Talkhouse.
Video: Jesca Hoop – “Ode To Banksy”
Stream: Death Vessel – “Ilsa Drown”
The War On Drugs have come clean on their new album, entitled Lost In The Dream and out March 18. You can stream a new song below, read an interview with Adam Granduciel at The Line Of Best Fit, and make plans around their Spring tour dates which include April 14 at The Horseshoe and/or April 15 at Lee’s Palace; probably not both. The band’s own website and PR says 14th at The ‘Shoe, so let’s circle that one. Update: It’s the Horseshoe, April 14, tickets $16.50.
Stream: The War On Drugs – “Red Eyes”
NPR has a video session with Darkside, who’re at Lee’s Palace on January 15.
Details are still vague, but The Line of Best Fit reports that the new St. Vincent album will be out on February 25.
Pitchfork has details on a new record from Brooklyn’s The Men; the optimistically-titled Tomorrow’s Hits comes out March 4.
Rolling Stone gets insight into the new Drive-By Truckers record, entitled English Oceans and coming March 4.
With this Fall’s Emancipated Hearts expressly called a mini-album, it’s technically accurate to call Dean Wareham’s forthcoming self-titled, Jim James-produced full-length his solo debut. It’s out March 11 and Consequence Of Sound has specifics.
Stereogum points out that The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have quietly rolled out a video for the title track of 2011’s Belong, serving as a pointed reminder that we’re well overdue for new material from them.
Video: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – “Belong”
Kurt Vile chats with Tone Deaf, Houston Press, and FasterLouder, and reacts to being named one of GQ‘s “Men Of The Year”.
The 405 and Metro Active have interviews with Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo.
NPR has a Tiny Desk Concert and Daytrotter a “stand behind whatever piece of furniture you like” session with The Dismemberment Plan.
Drowned In Sound meets Local Natives.
The AV Club gets a little more information from The Walkmen about their “extreme hiatus”, which begins after their show in Philadelphia tonight.
Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013
‘Tis the season for TOY(s), and streams thereof
Steve GullickOkay, since it’s now December I can grudgingly accept that it’s the holiday season and, helping that mental shift along are London’s TOY. I had thought it odd that the band, who built up a good bit of attention with last year’s self-titled debut and its mandate of filling deep, Kraut-y grooves with space-psych songcraft, had opted to release their second album Join The Dots on the exceedingly late date of December 9. Most music writers are in full retrospective mode by this point in the year and incapable of processing anything new, and it effectively eliminated them from any year-end list consideration.
But it’s entirely possible the band doesn’t care, and just want to get the record out into the world. Which is great for those who’ve been waiting to hear it, but I do hope it doesn’t end up getting lost in the shuffle because after a few initial listens, it certainly feels a lot better than their first one. The debut had a lot of pieces I liked but didn’t put them together in an engrossing-enough fashion to win me over the way it did many, but this one is bigger, deeper, broader, and just does it.
But don’t take my word for it – The Guardian has an advance stream of the record before it comes out next week, and their North American tour announced last week will bring them to Toronto for a show at The Horseshoe on January 14.
Stream: TOY / Join The Dots
Kate Nash has a new Christmas EP out called Have Faith This Christmas and is streaming one of the tracks from it to get you in the holiday spirit.
Stream: Kate Nash – “Faith”
Rolling Stone talks to Matt Bellamy of Muse about making the Live At Rome Olympic Stadium DVD/CD set coming out this week.
Video: Muse – “Madness” (live at Rome Olympic Stadium)
Spin has premiered a new video from Lanterns On The Lake’s second album Until The Colours Run, which gets a North American release on January 14 and brings them to The Drake Underground on February 1.
Video: Lanterns On The Lake – “Buffalo Days”
Yuck takes Clash through their second album Glow and Behold, track-by-track. They’re in town at The Garrison on January 17.
Noisey have premiered the new video and second sample of Mogwai’s forthcoming Rave Tapes. It’s out January 21 and they’ll be on tour for it at The Danforth Music Hall on May 13.
Video: Mogwai – “The Lord Is Out Of Control”
Paste gets to know Temples, whose debut Sun Structures is out February 11.
NME has details on the new album from Band Of Skulls, entitled Himalayan and due out March 31. They’ve just released a first video from the record.
Video: Band Of Skulls – “Asleep At The Wheel”
Brighton duo Blood Red Shoes are currently working on a new record – which Live4Ever reports will be self-titled and out in March – but have taken the time to stream a new song for their fans via their website.
Stream: Blood Red Shoes – “The Perfect Mess”
The Guardian profiles one of 2013’s new band success stories, London Grammar. They’re at The Phoenix on April 7.
Stereogum have got the new video from Primal Scream’s latest album More Light.
Video: Primal Scream – “Goodbye Johnny”
The Guardian gets to know Charli XCX.
Everything Is Chemical has an interview with Black Hearted Brother, and gets Neil Halstead to pin the chances of a Slowdive reunion at a qualified “improbable”.
TYCI talks to Katie Harkin of Sky Larkin.
And finally, a moment for Andrew Youssef, Los Angeles-based music photographer for Stereogum and OC Weekly, who succumbed to colon cancer this weekend. He documented his fight in the “Last Shot” column at OC Weekly, and it was as inspiring as it was saddening to read as he kept going to shows and shooting, refusing to let the cancer get the better of him until it did. I had the pleasure of meeting and hanging with Andrew back in 2010 at Matador at 21 in Las Vegas, and chatting with him via Twitter over the past few years and was pleased to learn he’d grown up – for a few years, at least – in Toronto, not far from where I did (though a few years apart). I wish I’d been able to know him better and my condolences to those who did and will miss him. OC Weekly has a fine memoriam for their photographer, as well as a slideshow of his best work. Godspeed, Andrew.
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