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Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
$100, Brides, Hooded Fang, The Luyas and The Element Choir at Wavelength 450
Frank YangSo yes I’m a bad Torontopian. I know it’d been a while since I’d been to Wavelength, but a little archive digging revealed that it’d been almost four years since I last darkened Sneaky Dee’s doorway on a Sunday night. That’s a long time. And so with the local institution not only celebrating its ninth anniversary but its upcoming final year this past weekend, I got off my butt and headed out.
Don’t get me wrong – I’ve always loved and supported the idea and mission of Wavelength, but I’m a pop guy and in recent years their programming has gotten more eclectic and less personally interesting to me. And late Sunday nights are hard. So anyways, of the four nights of anniversary shows I opted for the one the Saturday night soiree at the Polish Combatants Hall (a community centre now hosting shows), which featured a few bands I wanted to see and was (therefore) the most “conventional” lineup of all the Wavelength parties.
Or so I’d thought – any notions that this was going to be an evening of just guitar rock were dispelled with the very first act, The Element Choir. An improvisational choir featuring a couple dozen members, they gathered in the centre of the hall’s floor and proceeded to create a downright mesmerizing sound sculpture constructed of just their voices. The troupe utilized yelps, hums, moans, animal noises and random chatter to create an ever-morphing soundscape that was hypnotic to listen to and also fascinating to watch, as they took direction from conductor Christine Duncan. Certainly not something I’d ever seen before.
Next up were The Luyas, who despite having been around for a while sounded like a work in progress – not incomplete but more in the process of deconstructing what they were and seeking to become something new. There were vestiges of the pop leanings from Jessie Stein’s last band, the SS Cardiacs and from what I’d heard from the Luyas before, but it seemed like they were trying to become something more oblique or inscrutable. Not the most enthralling performance, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and check back in if/when they get where they’re going.
Faring much better were pop collective Hooded Fang. I had figured that since I saw them just a month ago that they’d deliver much the same set, but in fact they were much more assured and polished yet managed to not sacrifice any of the playful whimsy they’d demonstrated before. Considering how much better they’d gotten in just a month and factoring in the fact that they’ve only been in existence for a year, it seems like a mathematical certainty that they’ll be the best band on the planet in another two years. Okay, probably not, but if being the next Los Campesinos! is something that anyone would aspire to, it could well be in their grasp.
Though you could accurately describe Guelph’s Brides as atonal, skronky, and not at all pop – generally things I don’t look for in music – they more than surprised by turning out to be the highlight of the night. I’m at a bit of a loss to articulate exactly what it was about their performance that I found so engrossing. Perhaps it was the way that they managed to be all the things mentioned above without being deliberately difficult and sacrificing some structure or even melody for the sake of exploration, and deliver it all with intensity. I don’t really know what it was, but I liked it.
The last act of the night was $100, and after the stylistic smorgasborg of the night leading up to their finale, their decidedly traditional country songs seemed almost out of place. But straightforward isn’t a slight when you’re talking about hurtin’ songs and the directness of their approach, in particular the raw, honest rasp and twang of singer Simone Schmidt, conveyed that emotion quite effectively. I’ve gotten so used having country used in a hybrid sense with other styles that hearing it in such a pure, undiluted form was pretty eye- and ear-opening. There’s good reason that people are talking about $100.
Though the Polish Combatants Hall is certainly not Sneaky Dee’s – there’s no way I’d have sat on the floor at Sneaks – the evening was a terrific reminder of what makes Wavelength great. You may not like everything you see, but it’ll almost never be uninteresting. Happy birthday to a great Toronto institution and hopefully it won’t be a year before I see you again. But no promises.
BlogTO also has a review of $100’s set if not the rest of the evening.
Photos: $100, Brides, Hooded Fang, The Luyas, The Element Choir @ The Polish Combatants Hall – February 14, 2009
MP3: $100 – “No Great Leap”
MP3: $100 – “Forest Of Tears”
MP3: $100 – “Nothing’s Alright”
MP3: Hooded Fang – “Land Of Giants”
MP3: Hooded Fang – “The Pageant”
MP3: The Luyas – “Cats In A Bag”
MP3: The Luyas – “Tantamount”
MySpace: $100
MySpace: The Luyas
And speaking of the Polish Combatants Hall (a nice and large community centre-type building by the University, if you were wondering), if you didn’t have tickets for Bruce Peninsula’s record release show there next Sunday (still some left but not many) or just couldn’t make it, take heart because they’ve already announced another show for March 28 at Lee’s Palace, tickets $8. And I don’t recommend sitting on the floor there. The National Post has a video performance and interview with the band.
Making it a three-peat, the “Rolling Tundra Revue” featuring Constantines and Weakerthans has added a third and final show at the Phoenix for April 2. Tickets $25. If you manage to miss out on this one as well as the two previously announced ones for March 31 and April 1, then congratulations – you are the absolute worst procrastinator in the world.
Tricky, who was here for a show at the Phoenix last September, returns for a much more intimate performance at the Mod Club on April 2. Tickets $29.50.
It’ll be all about the UK dance-rock at the Kool Haus on April 10 when The Whip and Late Of The Pier roll into town. Both are touring behind their debut albums – X Marks The Spot (out March 3) and Fantasy Black Channel respectively. Please don’t ask me what the mash-up below is, I really don’t know. It’s just there.
MP3: The Whip – “Trash”
MP3: The Whip Vs. Britney Spears – “Trash Circus” (Ruben X Trashmash)
The polar opposite of the previous bill – Damien Jurado and Laura Gibson – will folk things up at the Drake Underground on April 14. Jurado released Caught In The Trees last year and Gibson’s Beasts Of Seasons is out next week, though you can stream it right now at NPR. The song below is an older one. The Daily Vanguard has an interview. Full dates at BrooklynVegan.
MP3: Damien Jurado – “Gillian Was A Horse”
MP3: Laura Gibson – “Hands In Pockets”
Stream: Laura Gibson / Beasts Of Season
The Dears have scheduled at date at the Mod Club for April 30, tickets $20. The Montreal Mirror talks to Murray Lightburn.
Students.ch and The News interviews White Lies, whose debut To Lose My Life is out Stateside March 17 and they play Lee’s Palace on March 31 with Friendly Fires and The Soft Pack.
MP3: White Lies – “Death”
Video: White Lies – “Farewell To The Fairground”
Paste declares Alela Diane their artists of the week. Her new record To Be Still came out yesterday and is streaming at Spinner. She plays an in-store at Soundscapes this Saturday at 6:30PM and at the Horseshoe that night with Blitzen Trapper. That’s sold out, if you were wondering. Billboard has an interview with Blitzen Trapper.
Stream: Alela Diane / To Be Still
Also new this week and streaming – M Ward’s Hold Time. He also gave a solo performance and interview you can stream at NPR.
Stream: M. Ward / Hold Time
And to wrap up this week’s other new release streams of interest – Asobi Seksu’s Hush – they’re at the ElMo on March 3 – and Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3’s Goodnight Oslo. They play the Mod Club on April 16.
Stream: Asobi Seksu / Hush
Stream: Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 / Goodnight Oslo
Monday, February 16th, 2009
An introduction to The Joy Formidable
MySpaceSo even though I’ve got a mighty backlog of stuff to cover and even though this has been a long weekend (or maybe because), I’ve still not had time to get to any of it properly. So coverage of the past few days worth of showgoing will start tomorrow. For today, you get this. A free album. Which is probably better than my concert reviews.
Welsh trio The Joy Formidable know how to get media attention. Last Summer, they had a video for debut single “Austere” banned from YouTube on account of it being comprised of video clips of people… well, I’d rather not have my site indexed for THOSE particular keywords but even though it was just a fan-made clip, the band gave it their seal of approval by posting it on their own website. And it’s probably NSFW. The band also made an official clip, but it’s far less controversial. And now, they’ve opted to take their debut album A Balloon Called Moaning and give the whole thing away for frees via NME. It was already released in a limited edition box set which sold out in a heartbeat and will be out in physical form tomorrow, but you can have it digitally now.
Now both of these might seem like gimmicky ways to get people talking about the band, but fact is that even without these talking points, The Joy Formidable would be more than worthy of your attention. Its eight tracks veer from dreamy to wide-awake and in-your-face but always maintain a gleeful enthusiasm, propelled on a wave of fuzzy, barbed hooks and snarlingly saccharine vocals. It sounds like a being hit in the face with a sack of sugar. When anyone asks me next week what I did over the long weekend, I’m going to say (and truthfully) that I listened to this record ad nauseum and didn’t tire of it at all. Is that sufficient endorsement to get you to go download and listen? It’s free for goodness sake. Just go get and listen. Thank me later.
Uncensored has an interview with the band.
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Cradle”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Cradle”
MySpace: The Joy Formidable
The Joy Formidable had been listed as one of the acts heading to SxSW next month and surely would have been one of my highlights, but with the release of the official schedule last week, they’re nowhere to be found. Actually, instead of heading to Texas, they’ve opted to go out on a UK tour as support for Howling Bells, another band I was hoping was going to be in Austin. In fact, the entire Sx lineup is looking pretty weak. I know I said the same thing last year around this time and ended up having the best time ever anyways, but there’s going to be a lot of digging to find acts that will get my attention. But on the plus side, I already know how my Saturday night is ending – seeing Echo & The Bunnymen play a gay Texan cowboy bar.
If you missed the numerous edits to last week’s post about Polly Scattergood, allow me to sum up – rather than her debut album being entitled Other Too Endless and being released on March 9, it will now be self-titled and be coming out on May 19. But there’s a new video for the next single, which would have been the title track but is now just a song. A great song.
Video: Polly Scattergood – “Other Too Endless”
Emmy The Great week at Drowned In Sound wrapped up with another set of interviews conducted by Emmy. First off, she talks with Aidan Moffat, formerly of Arab Strap and who’s just released a new album in How To Get To Heaven From Scotland. There’s also a piece with Darren Hayman, formerly of Hefner and also with a new solo record in Pram Town, a talk with Mica Levi of Micachu. And to wrap up, a heart-to-heart with Dev Hynes, aka Lightspeed Champion, about the genius of Steve Martin. She also lets Metro have a look at her iPod (though they evidently look at her as they’ve run a picture of Los Campesinos with the piece, and helpfully identify the one of them as Emmy) and gives an interview to Virgin Music.
BBC profile Saint Etienne.
This Is Nottingham talks to Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong. They have two dates at the Kool Haus on March 13 and 14.
The Boston Globe, Boston Music Spotlight, Metro and The Village Voice have interviews with various member of Los Campesinos!, in town at the Opera House on April 1.
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 may be saying Goodnight Oslo on their new album, out tomorrow, but they’ll be saying “hello Mod Club” when they come to town on April 16. Tickets $20.
Monday, February 11th, 2008
The co-headline tour must be a tricky proposition. The “co-” implies that the acts are of an equal stature and that one should take no higher billing than the other, but pragmatically when it comes to showtime, someone opens and someone closes. When the Keren Ann/Dean and Britta tour was initially announced, it was Ms Zeidel who appeared to be getting the nod as far as getting to pick songs for an encore but as Saturday night’s date at the Mod Club drew near, listings appeared to flip the order and give Mr and Mrs Luna the top billing, possibly causing issues for people planning out their evening. For me, it was academic. Though I thought it a bit of an odd pairing, it worked for me and I was there well early enough to catch the whole show, whatever the order.
As it happened, Keren Ann took the stage first. I’d lost track of her since seeing her in 2006 2005 in support of her English-language debut (and third album overall) Not Going Anywhere, a beguilingly low-key blend of folk and jazz with some dashes of rock thrown in for flavour that I don’t listen to nearly as much as it deserves. In the interim, she’s released two more albums – 2004’s Nolita and last year’s self-title – and, based on Saturday’s set, discovered her inner rocker. Fear not – her inner rocker looks and awful lot like her inner folkie, just wielding a big, hollowbody electric guitar for a few numbers that rather suited her. Also very complimentary was her band, consisting of an electric guitarist/bassist and drummer that was a far cry from the two-piece acoustic/keyboard configuration I saw her with last time. That extra musical oomph, coupled with her beautifully breathy voice, turned what I had expected to be a pleasant performance into a rather stunning one. If this is the direction she’s taken her recordings in, then I have some catching up to do.
The last time Dean & Britta came to Toronto in March 2007 was also the first time and for myself and presumably other Toronto Luna fans, a real occasion. For part of the reason for Luna’s dissolution was Dean Wareham’s weariness of life on the road so I never really expected any proper touring to occur, let alone make it up here. There was also the question of how much of Wareham’s musical legacy would be acknowledged and if it was, how would it sound without Sean Eden and Lee Wall? The answer to these questions was “lots” and “just fine” and with that show, the spectre of Luna (and to a lesser extent Galaxie 500) was essentially exorcised (lovingly so) and Dean and Britta were free to be Dean & Britta.
My thoughts previously about it being an odd pairing with Keren Ann proved completely off base as D&B’s languorous, Euro-flavoured retro pop exists very much in the same dimension as Keren Ann’s in a way that Luna’s guitar-centric rock never did. Welcome to the present, I guess. So while the show opened with a shot of G500’s “Snowstorm” and Luna’s “Moon Palace” made an appearance three songs in, the bulk of the set didn’t make the same efforts to straddle all of Wareham’s career and the delivery was pure Dean & Britta. Appropriately, there were far fewer guitar solos than last time and the songs and set were much more compact, though that may have been due more to the looming curfew than any aesthetic choice. Wareham also took more lead vocals than last time and handled the bulk of the banter, picking out familiar faces in the crowd, commenting on films (he didn’t like Juno). plugging his forthcoming book (Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance – out March 13!) and generally seeming more at ease than I can recall ever seeing him. A fine show and if the vibe eleven months ago was that of the return of the long-lost prodigal son, this show felt more like an old friend stopping by for a visit. Can’t wait for next time.
The Westender talks to Wareham about his band, his book and film scores while The Weekly Dig features Keren Ann. And while Zoilus was a bit of a victim of the shifting lineup/set-times, he came for the Keren Ann but stayed for the D&B.
Photos: Dean & Britta, Keren Ann @ The Mod Club – February 9, 2008
MP3: Dean & Britta – “Words You Used To Say”
MP3: Dean & Britta – “Singer Sing”
MP3: Keren Ann – “Not Going Anywhere”
Video: Dean & Britta – “Words You Used To Say”
Video: Dean & Britta – “Night Nurse”
Video: Dean & Britta – “Knives From Bavaria”
Video: Keren Ann – “Lay Your Head Down”
Video: Keren Ann – “Chelsea Burns”
Video: Keren Ann – “Not Going Anywhere”
MySpace: Dean & Britta
MySpace: Keren Ann
Cutesiness abounds as Uberdrivel interviews Los Campesinos! (Hold On Now, Youngster… out April 1) and Music Snobbery chats with Tilly & The Wall (untitled third album due June 3).
Stephin Merritt talks to The Boston Globe about The Magnetic Fields’ Distortion.
The Age discusses White Chalk with PJ Harvey.
PopMatters asks Robyn Hitchcock 20 questions. Robyn Hitchcock gives PopMatters 20 answers.
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
For the last few years, Steve Earle has been pissed. About what, who knows – surely there’s nothing going on south of the border that a fiercely left-wing, politically active, self-declared Communist could possibly take exception to. And yet his last two studio releases – The Revolution Starts… Now and Jerusalem – have bristled with politically charged vitriol towards the powers that be, sometimes to the detriment of the songcraft but never casting any doubt on the strength of Earle’s convictions. He’s apologized for the absence of “chick songs” from his recent repertoire and promised they’d return when things got better in the USA.
And they must have improved because on Washington Square Serenade, Earle is positively mellow. And it’s not from resignation to the fact that his country is doomed, but more a sense of peace from realizing that for all that’s wrong, there’s still a lot right. The impetus for this change of heart was brought on by two big life events for Earle – moving to New York City and marrying Allison Moorer. New York infuses every inch of the record from the title on down while Moorer duets on a couple songs and is the subject of more. Politics still permeate, but they’re less pointed and balanced by love.
Sonically, it’s a change of pace as well. Though the songs are primarily acoustic, it’s not as stripped down and bare as Train A-Comin’ – there’s still a full band at work and the production by John King of The Dust Brothers casts most everything in a deep groove that might sound a bit unnatural to some, myself included. It’s not necessarily obtrusive or even detrimental, but it is a very noticeable element and I’m not sure that the production should ever be that evident. Interestingly, it’s not on one of Earle’s compositions that it seems most odd but on his cover of Tom Waits’ “Down In A Hole”. Perhaps it was given the more urban treatment since it’ll also be the theme for the upcoming season of The Wire, but I have to think it’d have been more powerful with just Earle, his guitar and a mic.
Washington Square Serenade won’t go down as one of Earle’s best records – for my money, Train, I Feel Alright, El Corazon and Transcendental Blues are untouchable – but it is a worthy addition to a pretty fearsome discography. I can appreciate the need to take a breather from raging against the machine for so long but Earle may have turned the fire down just a bit too much on this outing. I’ll chalk it up to newlywed lightheadedness – I mean, c’mon, Allison Moorer – but maybe by the next time out Earle will have remembered that there’s still plenty out there to be pissed off about.
And while Steve’s heart is in the Big Apple, don’t be too surprised if you see him around Toronto on Thursday, maybe composing a Dundas Square Serenade. There’s no North American touring plans confirmed as of yet but he’s going to be in town to record an episode of Live At The Rehearsal Hall for Bravo and thanks to Fontana North, who handle Earle’s label New West in Canada, you can be there.
I’ve got ten spots to give away for the taping, which is happening on Thursday evening (November 15) at 6PM at the ChumCity Building at 299 Queen St W (you know the one) and if you want one, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Steve Earle” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Also, VERY IMPORTANT, tell me if you’d need a plus one or if it’d be just you. I want to make sure all of the seats get used so only enter if you can actually be at Queen and John at 6PM on Thursday (if you finish work at 5 and need to commute in from Thornhill, that doesn’t mean you) and if your date/companion/whomever can also be there for then. I will draw winners randomly from all entrants and assign spots, depending on how many said person wants, until all are gone. So if everyone flies solo, that’s ten winners. If everyone has a friend (and come on, what are the odds of THAT), five winners. All entries must be in my 5PM today Update: Contest closed! Thanks to all who entered, I’ll be in touch with the winners this evening with instructions. To everyone else… check out Steve on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic as a consolation prize. And he’s on CBC’s The Hour Thursday night at 11.
And for a taste of what the session might be like, check out the one he did for the World Cafe last week via NPR.
eCard: Steve Earle / Washington Square Serenade
Video: Washington Square Serenade electronic press kit
MySpace: Steve Earle
Speaking of Steve Earle and The Wire, Paste reports that coinciding with the start of the show’s final season, we will finally see a soundtrack album for the show. This is interesting because The Wire has no conventional musical score, no proper soundtrack. Any music that appears in the show generated within the scene, from a car stereo or boombox or what have you, with the obvious exception of the theme song – a different version of “Down In A Hole” for each season – and a song overtop the clip montage that closes each season. The soundtrack will contain three of the five theme songs, excepting Waits’ original from season two and Earle’s from season five, and a selection of Baltimore-centric hip-hop alongside tracks from The Pogues and Paul Weller. Earle, who portrays recovering addict Waylon on the show, is represented by “I Feel Alright”, which closed out season two. An eclectic record? Yeah. The final season begins on January 8 and the soundtrack is out January 10. City Paper ran a feature a couple years ago about the use of music in The Wire, and there’s a behind the scenes preview of the new season below.
Video: The Wire season five – Invitation To The Set
Josh Ritter talks to The Independent about the rather awkward experience of running into his tribute band in a Dublin bar.
Robyn Hitchcock explains his need to go backwards to The AV Club. He just released the I Wanna Go Backwards box set yesterday, which you can stream in its entirety and grab the title track MP3 below, and he’s also performing at the Mod Club tonight.
MP3: Robyn Hitchcock – “I Wanna Go Backwards”
Stream: Robyn Hitchcock / I Wanna Go Backwards
What does arm-wrestling have to do with Ted Leo’s “Colleen”? Nothing. And everything.
Video: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “Colleen” (MySpace)
Rhett Miller of Old 97s will be doing his solo thing at the Horseshoe on December 19, tickets $15.
Part three of the Soft Focus interview with My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields is now streaming. And tangentially via Tiny Mix Tapes, Athens instrumental/orchestral outfit Japancakes yesterday released a cover album of Loveless… and based on the couple of samples streaming on their MySpace, damn if it isn’t pretty. Now whether pretty and not bludgeoning volume was the point of Loveless is up to you. If you like pretty, I suspect you’ll like this. If not, you’ll think this is elevator music. But hearing “Only Shallow” done with strings and pedal steel certainly works for me. eMusic has it too, if you’re curious and have downloads to burn.
Pitchfork talks to Sigur Ros’ Jonsi Birgisson about their Heima documentary, which is out on DVD November 20 and is screening at the Royal Cinema on November 24.
The Tripwire catches up with British Sea Power. Do You Like Rock Music? is out February 12.
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
Unlike most everyone else out there, I wasn’t especially taken with Beirut’s 2006 debut Gulag Orkestar. I don’t have any hard, specific reasons but if pressed, I’d say that while I found the Gypsy/Balkan orchestra aesthetic novel, with a couple exceptions it seemed to be more about sound than song and anyways I am inherently prejudiced against wunderkinds, as the teenaged Zach Condon obviously was. They always remind me of how little I’ve accomplished in my life. Anyway, I gave the record a few listens and moved on.
Fast forward to this past March and their 4AD showcase at SxSW, which was a gloriously ramshackle event that gave me a glimpse of what everyone else was seeing in the band – now fully a band and not just a Zach Condon solo project. After returning home, I revisited Gulag Orkestar and while I took to it more warmly, it still didn’t make it into any sort of heavy rotation.
Skip ahead yet again to just a few weeks ago, when the folks from Le Blogotheque asked me to do a write-up for one of the videos they’d shot for each of the songs on the new Beirut record The Flying Club Cup, out today. Hosted at www.flyingclubcup.com, they shot a video, Take Away Shows-style, of Condon and cohorts performing each of the songs from the new record around Brooklyn and I was given a couple to choose from. One pass through “Forks And Knives” and I was sold. My commentary for the video is (uncharacteristically) brief but I was having so much fun watching the clip over and over again and really, it speaks for itself.
And perhaps that experience made me more favourably inclined towards the album but with it, I think I’m feeling what everyone else was over a year ago. Even though it’s still much the same recipe as Gulag, it simply sounds so much more cohesive and alive than its predecessor. I would credit much of that to the fact that Beirut is now a full and proper band rather than Condon on his own and recorded the record as such – there’s just no replacing the chemistry of musicians playing together, especially ones who’ve been forged into a cohesive unit from relentless touring. Additionally, the songwriting just seems stronger, with the orchestration now serving the song rather than the other way around, which was the impression I got from Gulag.
In short – Beirut? I get it now. And I’m giving Gulag Orkestar one more go-around.
The Los Angeles Times talks to Condon about the new album and Chart gets some insight as to Owen Pallett’s contributions while SFist chats with bandmember Jason Poranski.
MP3: Beirut – “A Sunday Smile”
MySpace: Beirut
Also from the Blogotheque – a Takeaway Show with St Vincent. Only en Francais for now (et maintenant en Anglais), but St Vincent is the universal language, n’est pas? And while you’re basking in live vids of Annie Clark, My Old Kentucky Blog has a vid of her performance at Hot Freaks in Austin a few weeks ago. There’s another Takeaway Show with Elvis Perkins, in town at the Horseshoe on November 28.
Wilco have made some more goodies available in their Roadcase – streams of their shows in Edmonton on August 18 and Berkeley, California on August 24. And note that their Austin City Limits session (which I attended last month) will be airing on PBS the week of November 3, specific day contingent on whenever your local PBS affiliate airs the show. And instead of the usual half-hour segment that most bands get on the show, Wilco will get the whole hour which means that the wonderfully botched version of “Too Far Apart” may well see the light of day! I can’t wait. And the Arcade Fire episode will air the following week, also an hour-long.
Pitchfok interviews Mr “#1 record in Sweden” Jens Lekman, whose Night Falls On Kortedala is released in North America today.
Also out today – Cease To Begin from Band Of Horses, who talk to The State about the decision to license the use of their songs in commercials. They’re at the Phoenix on November 9. And you can stream both the Horses and Lekman albums at Spinner.
Stream: Band Of Horses / Cease To Begin
Stream: Jens Lekman / Night Falls On Kortedala
Drowned In Sound talks to PJ Harvey about her new album White Chalk.
Josh Ritter discusses conquering history with Express.
Robyn Hitchcock, whose I Wanna Go Backwards box set is out October 30 November 13, will be at the Mod Club on November 14. You can stream the whole box set – five discs worth – below.
Stream: Robyn Hitchcock / I Wanna Go Backwards
And Celebration, whose The Modern Tribe is out today, will be at the El Mocambo on November 26. Check out a couple tracks.
MP3: Celebration – “Evergreen”
MP3: Celebration – “Hands Off My Gold” (SMD Remix)
And finally, all of Voxtrot’s Canadian shows – aka the ones I was giving away prizes for – have been cancelled. This obviously includes the one scheduled for tonight at the Mod Club. Singer Ramesh Srivastava had some emergency surgery in Philadelphia the other night and while he’s going to be fine, they’ve elected not to cross the border. So my contest is moot and all shows are off. Best wishes to Ramesh for a quick recovery. Update: Concerts off, but contest still on. For Montreal and Ottawa, anyways. Click on the thingie to the right for details. Or scroll down. Whichever.
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