Saturday, May 20th, 2006

11:11

San Francisco’s Film School were a little behind the eight-ball with me before last night’s show at the Horseshoe. A very long and rainy day/week combined with a late scheduled start time wasn’t exactly getting my gig-going heart aflutter, but I managed to haul my ass down to the ‘Shoe just in time for their midnight set (apologies to Uncut and The Anti-Q’s for missing their sets). And thank goodness I did.

I’ve seen them live and have been living with their self-titled full-length for a few months now, but somehow they managed to surprise the hell out of me with the intensity of their show. Compact, taut and powerful the five-piece tore through much of their album as well as a couple of older songs from their Alwaysnever EP and a new one to cap off the encore. The band may be insisting they’re not part of any shoegazer revival (at least that’s what they told The Boston Globe) but there’s little question what sort of audience their stuff appeals to. Take the drive and aggression of Swervedriver, who themselves never quite fit into the “shoegaze” tag, and the atmospherics and vocal traits of The Cure, throw in a touch of American hardcore and UK post-punk danceability and you’ve got a pretty damned good sound. The crowd was smallish for the band’s first Canadian show (and only one of the tour since the Montreal date for tonight has been cancelled) but seemed totally into it from my vantage point and were even dancing by the end. Dancing. In Toronto. Think about that.

Gig photos here. Got to try out my new Sigma 30mm f1.4 and am quite pleased with the results – hooray for more light! Check out one of the tracks from Film School and the new video for “11:11”. And there’s also the requisite MySpace account.

MP3: Film School – “Pitfalls”
Video: Film School – “11:11” (MOV)

Starting Sunday night, Film School will be teaming up with Indianapolis’ Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s for what should be two weeks of a stupidly good bill. Coincidentally, I saw both Margot and Film School back to back at SxSW in March – of course, I had to run across halfway across downtown Austin between their sets, but whatever. Half of Margot recently stopped in at AOL Music for an acoustic session/podcast/Q&A/thingee.

Another band in the “we are NOT looking at our shoes!” genre are Norway’s Serena Maneesh – though rather than take Film School’s tense, tightly-wound approach they instead infuse it all with a healthy dose of glam. They’re offering a free MP3 of a remix of “Sapphire Eyes” which originally appeared on a limited-edition Insound-only split 7″, but you have to sign up to their official mailing list to get it. The band’s self-titled album came out domestically either two weeks ago or on this coming Tuesday, depending on who you ask. Either way, it’s available over here – if you’re looking. Check out some audio at their MySpace, download a track and watch a new video at Insound:

MP3: Serena Maneesh – “Un-Deux”
Video: Serena Maneesh – “Drain Cosmetics” (YouTube)

Sigur Ros tells The Independent about a recent close encounter of the Tom Cruise kind. And while you’d generally figure them to be one of the great, uncoverable bands – New York’s We Are Scientists (not We Are Scientologists) gave it a shot anyway with a rendition of “Hoppipolla” off of Takk. Stereogum’s got it and you know what? It’s… actually quite good. Huge props for trying and not failing – if you want my respect and admiration (for whatever it’s worth) by covering some Sigur Ros, I’ll send you here first. We Are Scientists will be in town June 17 at the Kool Haus supporting Arctic Monkeys.

Everyone wants to talk to Tom Verlaine. The New York Times (Bugmenot) gets a pretty good piece – The New York Post does not. Verlaine is in town as a keynote speaker the second weekend of June for NxNE and will saddle up with Television for a hugely anticipated show (by me) at the Phoenix June 9.

Elvis Costello is (almost) coming to town. He’ll be at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls on July 7 and 8. A casino, Declan? I think you might be taking this namesake thing a little far. A line has been crossed. His new album with Allen Toussaint, The River In Reverse, will be out June 6.

np – The Like Young / Last Secrets

Tuesday, April 11th, 2006

Blue In Yr Eye

Broken Socialite and Stars star Amy Millan will hold a CD release party for her solo disc Honey From The Tombs at the Mod Club on June 10. This will be a NxNE-related event and as such, some wristbands will be admitted but otherwise tickets will run you just $12. The CD itself is out May 30 in Canada but not until the 29th of August in the US of A.

In addition to the first MP3 for “Skinny Boy”, which you can grab for free from Arts & Crafts and which Pitchfork was kind of “eh” about, there’s a second track streaming at Amy’s MySpace page. She also recently talked to Dose about the new record.

And in other local show news, Grizzly Bear are making themselves comfy in Toronto with a show at the Drake on Thursday and another at the Music Gallery on May 4. Drama-rockers Ambulette will support Rainer Maria at the Horseshoe on May 15, tickets $10.50, and Wolfmother will be back at the Opera House on May 16 with Deadboy & The Elephantmen.

Bardo Pond, still kicking and most likely still hellaciously loud, are at Lee’s Palace on June 11, while fans of soaring vocals and introspective lyricism are SOL on June 13 14, when instrumental acts Pelican and Mono are at Lee’s, tickets $13.50. And at a venue to be determined but hopefully somewhere quiet and vibe-y, Jose Gonzalez will be in town June 26 with Juana Molina and Psapp.

But perhaps most exciting is Television at the Phoenix on June 9? Hello? For real? Yes? YES? FINALLY. Apparently tickets are $40-ish and go on sale Thursday. I will post more details as I find ’em.

Harp gets a travelogue from road warriors Rainer Maria, whose Catastrophe Keeps Us Together was released last week.

And looking to the future, Billboard reports Spoon will be starting work on the follow-up to Gimme Fiction shortly and hope for an early 2007 release while a single-disc reissue of their Telephono and Soft Effects releases should happen before the year’s end. Also, Wilco will be taking their new stuff on the road. There’s no timetable for the new album but hopefully 2006 will still happen, though I am a little doubtful.

Apologies for the lateness of the hour. Maybe I’m a little jet-lagged after all.

np – Billy Bragg / Talking With The Taxman About Poetry