Saturday, November 6th, 2010
Frank YangWho: Johnny Flynn
What: English folker from the same scene as Mumford & Sons and Laura Marling who’s set to achieve the same heights of superstardom as either of them, thus making the triple-bill of the three of them at The Rivoli in October 2008 a true thing of legend. Or that’s the plan, anyways.
Why: His second album Been Listening finally got a North American release last month he’s conducting a solo tour – his band The Sussex Wit are apparently staying home this time out – to promote.
When: Sunday, November 14, 2010
Where: Lee’s Palace in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Jonas and Sylvie from Evening Hymns will open up.
How: Tickets for the show are $12.50 in advance, but courtesy of Collective Concerts, 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 Johnny Flynn” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, November 10.
What else: Mother Jones and The Dallas Observer have interviews.
MP3: Johnny Flynn – “Kentucky Pill”
Video: Johnny Flynn with Laura Marling – “The Water”
Video: Johnny Flynn – “Barnacled Warship”
Video: Johnny Flynn – “Kentucky Pill”
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
Timothy MurrayWho: Glasser
What: Los Angeles-based purveyor of dreamy, tribal electro-pop, solo artist Cameron Mesirow’s RIYL’s unabashedly include Bat For Lashes and Kate Bush
Why: Having released her debut album Ring back in September, she’s now ready to take her show on the road.
When: Thursday, November 11, 2010
Where: The Drake Underground in Toronto (19+)
Who else: The equally if not more-buzzy Twin Shadow is also on the bill.
How: Tickets for the show are $13 in advance but courtesy of Embrace, I’ve got three pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Glasser” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, November 9.
MP3: Glasser – “Mirrorage”
MP3: Glasser – “Home”
Video: Glasser – “Apply”
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
A Drummer’s DreamFilmed in Ontario’s cottage country, A Drummer’s Dream is a documentary that gathers seven of the best drummers in the world from all musical styles and a Summer camp’s worth of students and explores the art, spirituality and joy of hitting things to a rhythm. Anyone who’s ever played with a really good drummer – or a really bad one – knows how they can make or break a musical ensemble, and even though they do make for good joke fodder their craft deserves to be celebrated.
The film screened at Hot Docs earlier this year to great reviews and has a week-long run at The Royal in Toronto starting this weekend and courtesy of the film, I’ve got a pair of passes to give away for each of four of the screenings. If you’d like to attend any of the showings on:
Nov. 7th – 7:00 PM
Nov. 7th – 9:00 PM
Nov. 9th – 9:15 PM
Nov. 11th – 7:00 PM
Then shoot me an email at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want A Drummer’s Dream” in the subject and your full name and preferred times in order in the body, I’ll give away a pair of passes in first-come, first-serve fashion.
The Globe & Mail has a review of the film.
Trailer: A Drummer’s Dream
Friday, November 5th, 2010
The Joy Formidable and The Dig at The Horseshoe in Toronto
Frank YangThe easy thing to do would be to go back to early May and just copy and paste my review of The Joy Formidable’s Toronto debut. After all, that show was just six months ago (almost to the day) at the same venue and even with the same supporting band in New York’s The Dig, and they haven’t released any new material in the interim, their full-length debut The Big Roar not due out until the new year. But considering that at the start of the year, I didn’t expect I’d get the chance to see The Joy Formidable live without hopping on a plane (which I almost did), already taking their visits for granted would simply be untoward.
I had mixed feelings about The Dig the first time around, finding half of their material sonically interesting and moderately adventuresome pop and the other half kind of rote, leaden garage rock. This outing made a more favourable impression, their set for whatever reason coming across catchier and punchier and with some standout material introduced as new numbers that were some of the best stuff they had to offer. They still felt the need to close with the more leaden, rawk material but even those were delivered with more verve than last time. The Dig might not be doing anything particularly fresh, but at least they’re getting better at it.
The Joy Formidable were already an impressively seasoned live act when the were here in the Spring, but still seemed to find room to improve over the past half year. For starters, drummer Matt Thomas was set up at the side of the stage rather than the back, opening up a lot more stage space for guitarist Ritzy Bryan and bassist Rhydian Dafydd to roam, lurch and dance, which they did with gusto (and the mid-song kiss whilst tearing it up was particularly sweet – they’re a couple, it’s cool). Their delivery seemed to be a bit less manic, but heavier-sounding and more dramatic in delivery – Bryan was still all wide-eyed smiles on stage between guitar freak-outs, but there was a crazed edge to her stage presence that wasn’t evident before and reflected the extra snarl in their attack.
I was surprised that with a new album in the can, though apparently without a firm track list, there was hardly any new material in the mix. Lead single “I Don’t Want To See You Like This” and the pulverizing “Magnifying Glass”, which had been present in set lists all year, represented The Big Roar but the bulk of the set came from the A Balloon Called Moaning mini-album. Not that this is in any way a complaint; that debut remains as dizzyingly great as it did when I first heard it in February, I just thought that they’d be eager to road test more new material by this point.
Consequently, the set was shorter than I’d have liked – barely an hour including encore – but executed with more energy and intensity than a lot of bands could muster if they played all night. Plus they ended it with the sort of extended gear-abusing, feedback-inducing cathartic antics you might expect at the end of an extensive stint on the road and not the very start of a two-week North American jaunt. Assuming their equipment survives the experience, it’s going to be a hell of a trip. This is how you start a tour.
The Smith College Sophian has an interview with Ritzy Bryan.
Photos: The Joy Formidable, The Dig @ The Horseshoe – November 3, 2010
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Greyhounds In The Slips”
MP3: The Dig – “You’re Already Gone”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “I Don’t Want To See You Like This”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Popinjay”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Cradle”
MySpace: The Joy Formidable
Manic Street Preachers have released a video for the second single from Postcards From A Young Man, and both song and clip feature Ian McCulloch from Echo & The Bunnymen, in case you couldn’t quite place the croak or the shades. The Sydney Morning Herald has a conversation with James Dean Bradfield.
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Some Kind Of Nothingness”
Drowned In Sound meets Let’s Wrestle. Wrestling ensues.
I don’t know what a “lyric video” is, but Patrick Wolf has cobbled one together for the first single from his next album and it sounds great. The record was once called The Conqueror but is no longer and will be out in May.
Video: Patrick Wolf – “Time Of My Life”
The Fly has a feature on Foals.
Pitchfork is streaming a new song from Ladytron, who’ve not announced specifics on a follow-up to 2008’s Velocifero but are certainly due for one. A decade-spanning best-of is due in the Spring.
Under The Radar reports that the 7″ single Laura Marling recorded for/at Jack White’s Third Man Records will be out on November 9 – it features two covers, Jackson C. Frank’s “Blues Run the Game” and Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done”.
Oh, and if you’re the sort who likes free concert tickets and the like, I’d humbly suggest following me on Twitter at @fyang because while I’ll still be keeping Saturday the day of free stuff, short turnaround giveaways will now be happening via the Twitter. Starting today.
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
The Radio Dept collect a-sides, offer up b-side
Max WeilandI was actually going to skip posting today entirely, so meagre was the amount of post-worthy material I had ready, but then there trickled in juuuust enough that the night/day off went out the window.
And it took some Radio Dept. news to do it. On the short term end of things, there’s the fact that their new single/EP for “Never Follow Suit”, taken from this year’s divine Clinging To A Scheme, is coming out next Tuesday. It’s limited to 1000 pieces of 12″ vinyl and is advertised as exploring the band’s dubbier side. Yeah. And to prove their point, one of the b-side tracks is available to download.
A little further out, Under The Radar has some more details on the double-disc compilation from the band due out in January 2011. Whereas initial reports made it sound like it was going to be all b-sides and rarities, and as someone who’s collected a good number of their older EPs I can attest that there’s a lot of great non-album material to be compiled, it now sounds as though it’s going to be a mix of proper singles and rarities. The set will be called Passive Aggressive: Singles 2002-2010 and I can accept it containing material I already own if it provides them the excuse to finally stage a proper North American tour in the new year, as they’ve hinted they will. And if/when that happens, you bet your sweet bippy there’ll be a blog post about it.
MP3: The Radio Dept – “The One”
NOW and Chart preview Friday night’s Junip show at Lee’s Palace.
Pitchfork has a stream of the new single from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, taken from their forthcoming record Belong, out in March.
There’s a new video from Of Montreal’s latest long-player False Priest.
Video: Of Montreal – “Famine Affair”
The Ash Gray Proclamation talks to Tobin Sprout, once again of Guided By Voices.
Even though it was just rescheduled last week, Lissie’s Toronto debut has been moved again – it will now be happening on January 24, still at the Opera House. Tickets for both the October El Mocambo show and the short-lived January 18 show will be honoured. Relix has a short feature on her.
A studio performance is doubling as the new Grinderman video, just in time for the start of their first North American tour at the Phoenix in Toronto on November 11. Guess they blew their whole budget on the special effects spectacular for “Heathen Child”.
Video: Grinderman – “Worm Tamer”
Mike Mills spills to Spin on some of the guest stars who will appear on the next R.E.M. album Collapse Into Now, due out next Spring.
No Comments
facebook
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.chromewaves.net/images/interface/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}