Sunday, June 13th, 2010
Broken Social Scene covers Pavement
Joel DidriksenPast lineups for the almost-annual Toronto Island Concert (née Olympic Island) have had a charmingly random quality to them – Keren Ann on a bill with Modest Mouse? Sure! Feist back to back with Bloc Party? Why not! – but this year’s double-shot of Pavement and Broken Social Scene actually has some history behind it, besides the obvious pairing of the Summer’s biggest reunion and a hometown show for arguably the city’s biggest band.
Scott Kannberg, aka Spiral Stairs, aka Preston School Of Industry, kept busy in the years that Pavement was on the shelf. In addition to his own works, guested on Kevin Drew’s Spirit If… solo record and appeared at some of the accompanying tour dates. He teamed up with Broken as a one-off act called Human Milk when he curated Calgary’s Sled Island a couple of years ago and contributed to the new Broken album Forgiveness Rock Record. In return, Kevin Drew’s grandmother appeared on his debut record as Spiral Stairs – last year’s The Real Feel (no really) and generally – like most every band of their generation – were influenced by Kannberg and his compatriot. “Ibi Dreams Of Pavement”? Yeah. BSS + SS = BFF.
And whilst Drew was on tour as Broken Social Scene – the whole “presents” thing ditched from the concert bill early on – one of Kannberg’s best-loved Pavement compositions was trotted out as a cover. This recording of Broken Social Scene performing “Kennel District” from Wowee Zowee comes from their show in Washington DC in November 2007, recorded for posterity by and available to stream at NPR.
Pavement and Broken Social Scene are joined by Band Of Horses, Beach House and more out on the Toronto Islands this Saturday, June 19. Crawdaddy and The Prague Post have interviews with Kannberg about both the Pavement reunion and his solo work.
MP3: Broken Social Scene – “Kennel District”
Video: Pavement – “Kennel District” (live)
Saturday, June 12th, 2010
Frank YangClearly firm believers that the road to success lies on the road, Montreal’s Plants & Animals have been touring their second album La La Land relentlessly since before its release back in April, and with good reason. Their sprawling jam-happy classic rock approach works best on stage, where the trio’s musicianship and chemistry can be put front and centre – I wasn’t especially wowed be either their debut La La Land or their debut Parc Avenue, but they were one of the standouts at Canadian Musicfest thanks largely to their showmanship.
They’re putting that on display for Toronto for the third time in as many months with an all-ages show at the Opera House on June 24, following the aforementioned CMF gig and their free record release show at the Horseshoe in April. Tickets for the show are $18 in advance but courtesy of LiveNation, I have three pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Plants & Animals” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight on June 21.
Gothamist has an interview with Plants & Animals drummer Matthew Woodley.
MP3: Plants & Animals – “Tom Cruz”
Video: Plants & Animals – “The Mama Papa”
Friday, June 11th, 2010
An introduction to Lost In The Trees
D.L. AndersonA lot of bands these days lay claim to the adjective of “orchestral” – and indeed, the tasteful addition of some strings, brass and/or woodwinds to one’s aural palette can set one apart from the pack. Those following this path should know, however, that the bar for these sorts of stylings has been raised by North Carolina’s Lost In The Trees. By a lot.
Even if stripped down to just main composer Ari Picker, Lost In The Trees would be a worthy of note – his songwriting is lyrically evocative and his voice capable of ranging from an introspective grumble to a plaintive yelp – but his ambitions go far beyond folk or singer-songwriter. Their third album All Alone In An Empty House – originally released in 2008 but re-recorded and set to be re-released on August 10 – wraps him and his songs in gorgeous tapestries of strings and chorals that are clearly informed by Picker’s Berklee training in classical composition, with the vocal pieces giving way on multiple occasions to full-on insturmental suites. Mixing those in with the more austere numbers and occasional electrified rockers could – and probably should – make for a jarring listening experience but Picker and company – seven in total in the touring configuration but numbering more than a dozen in the studio – make it all blend beautifully. Those other bands can keep calling themselves orchestral – Lost In The Trees are symphonic.
Lost In The Trees are currently on tour and will be in Toronto this coming Tuesday, June 15, for a free show at the El Mocambo. That’s right – the price of admission is the effort it takes to show up. There’s interviews with Ari Picker at The Washington Examiner and hour.ca.
MP3: Lost In The Trees – “Fireplace”
MP3: Lost In The Trees – “All Alone In An Empty House”
MP3: Lost In The Trees – “Time Taunts Me”
MySpace: Lost In The Trees
QRD talks guitars with Anna-Lynne Wiliams of Trespassers William.
Author Michael Chabon offers an eloquent tribute to power pop in general and Big Star in particular.
Drive-By Truckers have a new video from The Big To-Do.
Video: Drive-By Truckers – “After The Scene Dies”
Spinner talks to Tift Merritt about her new record See You On The Moon.
eye‘s cover feature this week welcomes the Pavement reunion to town next Saturday on Toronto Island without actually talking to anyone in the band. It was just announced that the reunion is having a reunion of its own – the band’s June 24 show in their former hometown of Stockton, California will feature their original drummer Gary Young behind the kit. Stockton fans got excited, until they remembered that Young wasn’t a very good drummer.
James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem talks to Spinner.
Phantogram check in at Daytrotter for studio session and with The Visalia Times Delta for an interview; they’ll be at Wrongbar on July 8.
Spin checks in with Of Montreal, presently in the studio recording a new record.
The Drums talk to Spinner and BBC about their self-titled debut, out digitally now, and on vinyl come August 10 and on CD in September.
Sky Larkin have nailed down the release date for their second album Kaleide – it will be available in the UK on August 9.
PopMatters chats with Gareth Campesinos! of Los Campesinos!.
Exclaim reports that The Vaselines will release their first new album in some 20 years on September 14 with Sex With An X, the first MP3 of which you can get from their website.
The Telegraph interviews Richard Thompson, whose new recorded-live-in-front-of-an-audience album Dream Attic is out August 31.
New fatherhood may have kept bassist Ted Malmros from participating in the Shout Out Louds’ recent North American tour, but he kept busy producing a new video from Work. Blast and The Days Of Yore also have interviews with Shout Out Loud-ers.
Video: Shout Out Louds – “Show Me Something New”
Drowned In Sound meets Love Is All.
Thursday, June 10th, 2010
The National and The Antlers at Massey Hall in Toronto
Frank YangLike in most cities, there is a pecking order to venues that bands can play in Toronto that are commensurate to said band’s level of success. Start at the Horseshoe, move on to Lee’s or Mod, then the Opera House, Phoenix and Kool Haus. At this point the options going forward begin to diverge – the much-reviled Sound Academy has become the popular next step up (or down) but for a certain rarefied group of artists, the road ahead leads not to the city’s docklands but to the heart of downtown, at the corner of Shuter and Victoria – Massey Hall.
The National certainly followed that path, first bringing Alligator to the ‘Shoe in September 2005 and again following March, then quickly moving through the Opera House in Summer 2007 and selling out the Phoenix just a few months later on the back of Boxer. Clearly, this was a band ascendant. But even so, and even after selling out the much larger Kool Haus last May without even a new record to promote, the idea of the band graduating to Massey any time soon hadn’t occurred to me. Surely that would require some greater break into the public consciousness, or what they used to call “a hit”, and making hits has never seemed part of the National agenda. But apparently I underestimated things because The National were able to book themselves into the grandest room in the city for not one but two nights – the first of which was this past Tuesday – months before High Violet would be released and reach #3 on the Billboard charts. All this time I’d been waiting to see if they’d become big and I missed the fact that they already had.
The Antlers have found themselves on a similar upward trajectory, though theirs was even sharper. Last year’s breakout album Hospice took them from playing the Horseshoe last Fall through the Phoenix this past February supporting Editors to these two nights at Massey supporting their Brooklyn brethren. And while they were there as the openers, their set was ample evidence that they were just as suited to a setting such as this. Hospice is by no means a small-sounding record but in the live environment, The Antlers make it sound massive and as I’ve said in past reviews of their shows, they transform the record’s emotional content from anguish to something even more primal and visceral. And though I’ve seen them do it a few times now, it still packs an emotional gut punch. Given the potency of their performance and the intensity of the audience response, it’s hard to think that they’ll be playing the support role to anyone for much longer.
I’ve heard criticisms of The National’s live show as being too visually static or, more succinctly, as boring and while I protest out of principle, there’s always been some truth to it. On stage, they’ve always been very focused at the task at hand and while Matt Berninger has a certain charisma as frontman, it’s rooted in his well-documented discomfort with being on stage. It seems, however, that The National have heard some of these criticisms as well because they’ve stepped up their live game enormously. The core five piece of Berninger and the brothers Dessner and Devendorf were enhanced by a two-piece horn section and frequent collaborator Padma Newsome on keys and violin, giving them the tools to not only fully recreate the sonics of the albums but expand them even further. In particular, the subtle addition of the horns to many of the songs – as texture and punctuation, never as a solo instrument (thankfully) – gave them an extra dose of grandeur. The two hour set drew from all their releases save for their self-titled debut and ranged from the delicate (“Runaway”, “Daughters Of The Soho Riots”) to the raging (“Squalor Victoria”) to the just plain majestic (“Apartment Story”, “Fake Empire”), all of it sounding bigger, tighter and just plain better than I’ve ever heard them play. The National are truly at the top of their game, and while I’ve probably said that after each time I’ve seen them live, it’s always been true – until the next time.
The band were also far more engaging with the audience than I’d ever seen them, both between and during songs. The band engaged in more banter amongst themselves and with the audience than I think I’ve seen from them in the previous six times I’ve seen them live, joking and in Aaron Dessner’s case (I can finally tell the twins apart!) humbly acknowledging the history and significance of the room that they were now headlining. And to the latter, beyond the band simply being more animated and energetic than ever before, Berninger came off stage during “Bloodbuzz Ohio” and began pulling patrons up out of their seats, thus answering the eternal Massey question of whether to stand or not. He would again invade the audience during “Abel” and “Mr. November”, climbing through fans, over seats and even wandering out of the theatre into the hall. And on stage, his signature twitching and pacing seemed almost akin to dancing at points, though that may have just been him sliding on Massey’s polished hardwood. Certainly a far cry from the Kool Haus show, in which the tension of being between records, struggling with hammering the new material into shape and playing larger rooms for the first time was palpable… and exacerbated by the fact that Berninger seemed drunk off his ass.
In years past, the barroom setting was the perfect setting for The National’s brooding, last call barstool poetry but as their sound and audience has grown, they’ve needed a new setting and with these shows at Massey Hall – as well as those at similarly hallowed rooms such as Brooklyn Academy of Music, Radio City Music Hall and the Royal Albert Hall – it seems they’ve found one. I may not have initially thought they were at a point where they could fill rooms of this size and stature, but this show – and presumably the one last night – made it clear that they not only belong there, there’s nowhere else they should ever play.
The Toronto Sun, Chart, Spinner, Panic Manual and eye all have reviews of the show while The Toronto Star and Exclaim checked in from night two. The Montreal Gazette has a feature and has also posted the interview transcript with Matt Berninger. The Globe & Mail, Clash, Exclaim and National Post also all have interviews.
Photos: The National, The Antlers @ Massey Hall – June 8, 2010
MP3: The National – “Afraid Of Everyone”
MP3: The National – “Bloodbuzz Ohio”
MP3: The National – “So Far Around The Bend”
MP3: The National – “Fake Empire”
MP3: The National – “Son”
MP3: The National – “Beautiful Head”
MP3: The Antlers – “Two”
MP3: The Antlers – “Bear”
MP3: The Antlers – “The Universe Is Going To Catch You”
MP3: The Antlers – “On the Roof”
MP3: The Antlers – “Stairs To The Attic”
MP3: The Antlers – “Cold War”
MP3: The Antlers – “Keys”
Video: The National – “Bloodbuzz Ohio”
Video: The National – “So Far Around The Bend” (live)
Video: The National – “Mistaken For Strangers”
Video: The National – “Apartment Story”
Video: The National – “Abel”
Video: The National – “Lit Up”
Video: The National – “Daughters Of The Soho Riots”
Video: The National – “Sugar Wife”
Video: The National – “Son”
Video: The Antlers – “Bear”
Video: The Antlers – “Two”
MySpace: The National
MySpace: The Antlers
That took far too long to put together, so that’s all for today… save for this. After days of rumours and speculation, it was confirmed yesterday that The Arcade Fire would continue their string of Suburbs pre-release secret shows and stage a two-night stand this coming Friday and Saturday at the Danforth Music Hall, where they played three epic shows way back in April 2005. Tickets for the show are $37.50 after fees and go on sale at noon at the venue box office the day of each show. Cash on the barrelhead, one per customer, no savesies. Also no opener – doors are at 7, show at 8:30 sharp. Needless to say, these will be madness and people are probably already lined up. The Suburbs is out August 4 and another show for less crazy devoted fans happens August 14 on the Toronto Islands.
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
The Meligrove Band shine a light on album number four
Mat DunlapIt might be Canada’s sixth-largest city, but any burg whose downtown core is a shopping mall is likely to rank a bit low on the cultural export scale. Which is why even though The Meligrove Band is now officially based in Toronto, Mississauga should take every chance to celebrate the quartet’s Peel region roots.
And they should get more opportunities now that the band is gearing up to release their first record in four years – 2006’s Planets Conspire was their last communique – with their fourth full-length, entitled Shimmering Lights and due out on September 21 via Nevado Records. It will be preceded on August 24 with a 7″ single of “Halflight”, which stands as evidence that the time away hasn’t dulled their knack for big power pop that’s hooky, punchy and with just the right bit of angry and angsty. Shimmering Lights should put the Meligrove Band right back in the ranks of the unfairly underappreciated bands in Canada. Hey, there’s worse places to be.
The band have two gigs coming up for NXNE: an opening night show at the top of the CN Tower on Wednesday, June 15 – enter to win admission and an open-to-everyone show on closing night, June 19, at Wrongbar with Les Savy Fav.
MP3: The Meligrove Band – “Halflight”
MySpace: The Meligrove Band
Stars are gearing up for the June 22 release of The Five Ghosts by offering another couple of new songs for download – one here, one over at My Old Kentucky Blog. Amy Millan talks to Black Book about the new record.
MP3: Stars – “We Don’t Want Your Body”
Details have emerged about the new Black Mountain record and are succinctly collected – with thumbs up-worthy album art – at Pitchfork. Wilderness Heart will be out on September 14 and the first MP3 is available to download at Jagjaguwar in exchange for your email. They play The Horseshoe on July 23.
Carl Newman of The New Pornographers talks to Chart about making Together; they play the Sound Academy on June 15 and your opportunity to win passes lasts another couple days.
The Riverfront Times talks to Dan Snaith of Caribou.
And while first ballots for this year’s Polaris Music Prize were due as of midnight last night – I’ll go over my picks in an upcoming post – another Can-rock poll closed this weekend; that choosing this year’s inductees to the (Canadian) Independent Music Hall Of Fame. Joining last year’s winners Eric’s Trip and Rheostatics are Sloan and Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet. And while I nominated Shadowy Men, it’s Michael Barclay who eloquently made the case for them as worthy inductees – do read his bit at the HOF website.
Video: Sloan – “Coax Me”
Stream: Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet – “Having An Average Weekend”
And a couple show announcements – Beth Orton is hitting the road Stateside despite not having released a new record since 2006’s Comfort Of Strangers and will be at the Mod Club on August 12, tickets $25 in advance.
Video: Beth Orton – “She Cries Your Name”
Menomena have laid out their Fall tour in support of their new record Mines, due out July 27. Look for them at The Mod Club on September 28.
MP3: Menomena – “Five Little Rooms”
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