Saturday, September 11th, 2010
FacebookWho: Menomena
What: Portland-based, Grammy-nominated (for packaging) prog-pop trio adept at balancing experimental and melodic inclinations and whose name apparently isn’t a Sesame Street salute
Why: Their fourth album Mines was released back in July – naturally extensive touring must follow
When: Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Where: The Mod Club in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Support comes from Suckers and Tu Fawning, both of whom have their own respectable head of buzz going on
How: Tickets are $15 in advance, but courtesy of Barsuk, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away to the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Menomena (do doo do doo doo do)” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, September 24.
What else: The band are marking the kick-off of the tour with a 30-minute mixtape/sound collage that they’ve dubbed “Magichat”. Seattle Weekly talks to Menomena’s Danny Seim.
MP3: Menomena – “Taos”
MP3: Menomena – “Five Little Rooms”
MP3: Menomena – “Magichat”
Saturday, September 11th, 2010
Bil ZelmanWho: Rogue Wave and Midlake
What: Rangy Californian power-pop merchants and dusty Texan folk-rock throwbacks team up for a bill that’s all about value.
Why: Rogue Wave are working the peppy, electronically-enhanced Permalight from this past Spring and Midlake released the determinedly mid-tempo The Courage Of Others back in February
When: Friday, September 24, 2010
Where: The Opera House in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Minnesotan up-and-comers Peter Wolf Crier round out the bill
How: Tickets are $19.50 in advance but courtesy of Collective Concerts, I’ve got five pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see a Rogue Wave on the Midlake” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, September 21.
What else: Revue interviews Tim Smith of Midlake, who just rolled out a new video over at Stereogum.
MP3: Rogue Wave – “Good Morning”
MP3: Midlake – “Acts Of Man”
Friday, September 10th, 2010
Diamond Rings prepares to show you his stuff
Jess BaumungBy the standards of the inherently attention deficient internet, a year can be an eternity – so it’s remarkable that Diamond Rings has not only managed to sustain the interest that began last Summer with the release of his debut single “All Yr Songs”, but steadily build it on both sides of the Atlantic with just three singles and accompanying videos. While it took those at home a little while to comprehend that this wasn’t just the guy from local rockers The D’Urbervilles in eyeshadow, those abroad seemed quick to embrace his unique brand of DIY-chic glammy synth-pop.
So while the careers of some acts have already arced over the past 12 months, anticipation for his debut album Special Affections is hitting just the right degree of fever pitch as its October 26 release date draws near. But before that happens, there’ll be one more single for “Something Else”, due out on limited edition 7″ on September 28, but more interesting (to me) is the choice of b-side – a cover of a song by Milla – as in Jovovich – in that brief period of time between being a model and actress when she was a pop singer. I liked this song, and not just because the video featured Jovovich wandering around in a nightgown. Partly, but not entirely. But the cover is also interesting as it shows Diamond Rings exercising a little more vocal range than he does on his own material, and it works well. Stereogum has a stream of the Diamond Rings version, which was orchestrated by Owen Pallett.
Live shows are also in the works – first a free show at the Parkdale branch of the Toronto Public Library on October 8 at 8PM, and then a series of live dates that bring him across North America (though mostly Canada), including a hometown record release show at The Garrison on October 26, and dates in the UK and Iceland. Exclaim talks to Jon O’Regan about making his glittery debut record.
MP3: Diamond Rings – “All Yr Songs”
MP3: Diamond Rings – “Wait And See”
Video: Diamond Rings – “Show Me Your Stuff”
Video: Diamond Rings – “All Yr Songs”
Video: Diamond Rings – “Wait & See”
Owen Pallett has released a track from his forthcoming A Swedish Love Story 10″ EP, out September 28. The Toronto Sun has a chat.
MP3: Owen Pallett – “A Man With No Ankles”
Dose talks to Broken Social Scene’s Andrew Whiteman. Broken Social forebear K.C. Accidental will be getting a reissue of their sole recorded output – Captured Anthems For An Empty Bathtub + Anthems For The Could’ve Bin Pills – as a double LP or CD on October 26.
Pitchfork has got a track from the new Caribou live album Live at ATP New York. It will be on sale on their upcoming Fall tour, which includes a September 17 date at the Phoenix. The Toronto Sun talks to Dan Snaith about his odds of repeating as Polaris winner on September 20.
MP3: Caribou Vibration Ensemble – “Every Time She Turns Round It’s Her Birthday”
The Toronto Sun also talks to The Besnard Lakes about their Polaris Music Prize chances.
Spinner talks to Black Mountain’s Amber Webber about their new album Wilderness Heart, out next week. They play The Phoenix on October 31.
The Arcade Fire show at Madison Square Garden is back up and streaming at YouTube for a limited time. Pitchfork talks to the fellow who “directed” the video/online experience for “We Used To Wait”.
G-Man chats with Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon, currently touring in Europe but back hereabouts in time for a free October 6 noontime show at Yonge-Dundas Square.
Exclaim talks to Salteens frontman Scott Walker about their first record in seven years – Grey Eyes, out October 12.
MP3: Salteens – “Hallowed Ways”
Southern Souls has a video session and Sticky an interview with Newfoundland’s Gramercy Riffs.
Thursday, September 9th, 2010
Robyn returns again
FacebookGood news for everyone who wanted to see Swedish electro-pop diva Robyn when she was in town at the end of July but didn’t want to shell out to see an odd, patchwork-ish lineup headlined by Keane – she’s coming back to town on November 12 as part of a North American Fall tour. Bad news for those who hate going to shows at the Sound Academy – it’s at the Sound Academy. Good news for those who don’t like shelling out a crapload of money for concert tickets – ducats for this show are a very reasonable $23.50. Bad news for those who forget about ancillary costs – that’s before service charges and definitely doesn’t include the cost of a cab to or parking at the Sound Academy. And the price probably wasn’t that big a deterrent for the July Amphitheatre show since I think by the end, they were basically giving tickets away… but I digress.
Robyn was easily the highlight of day one of Pitchfork Fest this past Summer and one of the best performers of the festival, so anyone who gets past their issues with the venue and heads out – and thousands will though they’ll still grumble about it – the show in support of this year’s Body Talk albums – part one released back in June, part two just this week and part three before the year is out – will have a great time of it.
Video: Robyn – “Hang With Me”
Video: Robyn – “Dancing On My Own”
In other Toronto concert-goer news, Saturday night’s The Dø show has been moved from The Mod Club to Wrongbar; still an early show though – expect the opener on around 7:30 and for it all to be over by 10. NOW interviews the Franco-Finnish duo.
Jamie Lidell’s September 14 show at the Opera House has also been moved – it’s now happening at Lee’s Palace and Zeus have been added as support. NOW has a conversation with Lidell.
South Africa’s Die Antwoord are back on October 24 for a show at The Phoenix.
Video: Die Antwoord – “Enter The Ninja”
Mt. Desolation, the new countrified project from two guys in Keane, will release their self-titled debut on October 19 and play the Drake Underground on October 28; tickets $18.50 in advance.
With their date opening up for Vampire Weekend over and done, it has been made official that Dum Dum Girls will be opening up for The Vaselines at The Horseshoe on October 30.
MP3: Dum Dum Girls – “D.A.L.”
MP3: Dum Dum Girls – “Jail La La”
Electro-pop artist Mikhaela Yvonne Maricich, AKA The Blow, has a date at The Horseshoe on November 17, tickets $13.50.
MP3: The Blow – “Pile Of Gold”
MP3: The Blow – “What Tom Said About The Girls”
German experimentalists and bearers of one of the funnest band names to say, Einstürzende Neubauten have made a date at The Phoenix on December 11 and another at Lee’s Palace for December 12. Tickets for the first show are $30, the second are $25 and if you buy tickets to both, it’s $45 total.
Video: Einstürzende Neubauten – “Stella Maris”
Belle & Sebastian have released details on some of the various formats that their new album Write About Love will be available in, and the first MP3 from said record is now available – get on that, kids. They’re at Massey Hall on October 12, the same day the album is released.
MP3: Belle & Sebastian – “Write About Love”
PopMatters talks to Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub. They’ll be at the Horseshoe on September 22 and 23.
The Vaselines’ new record Sex With An X is now up to stream at The Guardian in advance of its release next week. They’re at the Horseshoe on October 30.
Stream: The Vaeslines / Sex With An X
eye has an interview with Mogwai guitarist Stuart Braithwaite about their Special Moves/Burning live document, which screens at the Drake Underground on September 14.
4AD is offering up a video session with Stornoway.
Aced chats with Katie Harkin of Sky Larkin. You know, I only now realized that those rhyme. Update: Sky Larkin are opening up for Blood Red Shoes on their North American tour, including October 27 at the Horseshoe! Awesome!
In what should have been a surprise to no one, The xx won the Mercury Prize earlier this week. While certainly not a guarantee of superstardom, it does make their being booked into theatres the size of Massey Hall, where they’ll be on September 29, more prescient than bewildering. Out of curiousity, I checked what the best seat available on Ticketmaster was – halfway back on the balcony. So they’re doing alright.
Manic Street Preachers express their discontent with the state of British politics to Wales Online. Politely, of course. Their new record Postcards From A Young Man is out September 28.
The Tallest Man On Earth will release a new EP entitled Sometimes the Blues Is Just A Passing Bird on November 9, though it’s available to download now via iTunes. He’ll be at Lee’s Palace on September 24.
MP3: The Tallest Man On Earth – “Like The Wheel”
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Review of Superchunk’s Majesty Shredding
Jason ArthursIf you’ve not yet read Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small, then get up right now, go out, buy a copy, and read it cover to cover right now. It’s okay, I’ll wait. And when you’re done, we can discuss plans to road trip down to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to give Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance big hugs, because the story of Merge is as much the story of them, and as such, is the story of Superchunk.
And though they’ve almost always coexisted, the arcs of each story don’t necessarily run concurrently – Superchunk’s heyday was the 1990s when they were one of the prototypical college rock bands laying the blueprint for what the kids now call indie, and though they’ve been around over 20 years, Merge only really became a powerhouse label in the past eight or nine years, after Superchunk went on hiatus following 2001’s perhaps prophetically titled Here’s To Shutting Up. If that were the final word, from the band, it would have been a fitting one as it found the once fuzz-coated pogo-tastic rockers in a relatively gentler frame of mind and while their songwriting was still in top form, it felt like they were looking forward to a break. And a break they took, with McCaughan taking his solo project Portastatic into rockier, full-band realms accompanied by guitarist Jim Wilbur, drummer Jon Wurster becoming both Mountain Goat and comedian and Ballance shepherding Merge to greatness. If the ‘Chunk were done, they should have had no regrets.
But sometimes a hiatus is actually a hiatus. Although they’d done sporadic shows since taking Shutting Up off the road, starting with the Merge XX anniversary celebrations last Summer, Superchunk began edging back into active status and following the release of the Leaves In The Gutter EP last year, there came word of a new album, their first in almost a decade. That record – Majesty Shredding – arrives next week and when I say it sounds just like a Superchunk record, I mean that with the highest possible praise. It fuses the pop perfection they’d reached with Shutting Up with a consistent level of energy, excitement and volume that you’d have to go back over 15 years in their discography to match. From the whine of feedback that opens “Digging For Something”, Shredding collects everything great about all that is Superchunk into eleven great, pogo-worthy tracks that individually might not measure up to the very best songs the band has ever written but as an album is as satisfying a listen as anything in their discography. It’s probably unrealistic to hope that this will be the start of a run of equally good records every year or two, but considering that I wouldn’t have even expected this record to exist as recently as a year ago, it’s kind of the best gift ever.
Majesty Shredding is streaming at NPR a week ahead of its release. I had previously hoped that the September 23 date in Montreal would imply a Toronto one the following night, apparently it’s not to be. I finally got to see them at SxSW in March and will do so again in a month at Matador 21, but still have my fingers crossed that a local show will appear on the books sooner rather than later.
MP3: Superchunk – “Digging For Something”
Stream: Superchunk / Majesty Shredding
Also up for stream at NPR and out next week is Blonde Redhead’s new long-player Penny Sparkle. They’re in town at The Phoenix on October 17.
Stream: Blonde Redhead / Penny Sparkle
NPR’s album stream slam continues with Of Montreal’s False Priest, out next Tuesday. Spin also gets in on the act with a new MP3 from said record available to download.
MP3: Of Montreal – “Sex Karma”
Stream: Of Montreal / False Priest
And out this week and streamable is Interpol’s latest Interpol. JAM, The National Post and Spinner have conversations with guitarist Daniel Kessler, presumably conducted when they were in town last month.
Stream: Interpol / Interpol
Deerhunter have put out a video from their forthcoming record Halcyon Digest, due out September 28. They’re at the Opera House on October 19.
Video: Deerhunter – “Helicopter”
Both NYC Taper and Bradley’s Almanac are sharing live recordings of Built To Spill shows from the past month or so.
Spin finds out how The Thermals got their name, while PopMatters turns in a regular old interview. They play Lee’s Palace on October 9.
Ra Ra Riot explain their cat-powered new video to Chart.
Black Cab Sessions runs the gamut with featuring Lissie, in town at the El Mocambo on October 19, and this one with The Flaming Lips – no bubble walk.
Rolling Stone takes Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy back to the days of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot for some insight on what that tumultuous period was like while Muzzle Of Bees has assembled a tribute album to Summerteeth recorded by all Wisconsin artists.
JEFF The Brotherhood are in town on October 20 at The Horseshoe.
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