Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
Slow news day pushes Vampire Weekend tour announcement to top of post
Soren Solkaer StarbirdActually that’s not entirely true – it was indeed slow yesterday morning when I decided to lead with the Vampire Weekend tour info despite my general indifference and/or distaste for the band, but since then a number of notable concert announcements have shown up in the ol’ inbox and RSS feed. But since the release of their second album Contra next week is, arguably, the first big album release of 2010 – and I already had the picture cropped and uploaded – I’ll run with it.
And so here’s the 411 – the North American tour kicks off March 14 in Edmonton (!) and takes a leisurely route eastwards, eventually stopping in Toronto at the Sound Academy on March 30. That’s right, Vampire Weekend are playing a 3000-capacity venue, and they’re charging $27.50 a head to see them do so. Tickets go on sale this Friday.
Considerably less costly is the opportunity to hear their new record a week before release. It’s currently streaming on their MySpace and additionally, PitchforkTV has a “Juan’s Basement” live video session to watch. Also worth noting is that folks who buy Contra at their local indie store rather than, say, Wal-Mart, will receive the Vampire Weekend Meets Toy Selectah bonus CD for their conscientious consumerism. Details on the what and where here. Spinner talks to bassist Chris Baio about the new record.
MP3: Vampire Weekend – “Horchata”
Video: Vampire Weekend – “Cousins”
Stream: Vampire Weekend / Contra
Certainly the most intriguing announcement of the day yesterday was that Charlotte Gainsbourg would be coming to town. Gainsbourg has many claims to fame – daughter of Serge, actress (The Science Of Sleep, Antichrist), singer – and it’s as the last of these that she will be at the Phoenix on January 29. Her third album IRM, out January 26, was produced by Beck, who also duets on the first single, and it’s his band that will be backing Gainsbourg on this tour. Tickets for the Toronto show are $21.50.
Video: Charlotte Gainsbourg – “Heaven Can Wait”
Fans of the now-defunct Be Your Own Pet may be interested to know that a couple of spin-off acts (who are not Jemina Pearl) are hitting the road this Winter. JEFF The Brotherhood, featuring former BYOP guitar and drums Jake and Jamin Orrall, are out and about including a January 29 date at Sneaky Dee’s in support of their record Heavy Days while Turbo Fruits, which is led by the BYOP guitarist and drummer at the time of their dissolution, are hitting the road in support of Echo Kid with Surfer Blood and will be at Sneaky Dee’s on March 6.
MP3: Turbo Fruits – “Pocket Full Of Thistles”
MP3: Surfer Blood – “Swim”
Video: JEFF The Brotherhood – “The Tropics”
Video: JEFF The Brotherhood – “Bone Jam”
Fucked Up have a date at the Opera House on February 26 with Kurt Vile as support, as part of a North(eastern) America tour. Fucked Up’s new singles comp Couple Tracks is out January 26.
MP3: Fucked Up – “Neat Parts”
MP3: Fucked Up – “No Epiphany”
MP3: Kurt Vile – “Overnite Religion”
MP3: Kurt Vile – “Hunchback”
Cuff The Duke have a date at Lee’s Palace on March 20.
Video: Cuff The Duke – “Promises”
Nada Surf have yet to reveal full details of their forthcoming covers album but they have put a demo version of their redo of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence” on their MySpace and announced some live dates, including a March 29 date at Lee’s Palace – tickets $16.50. Update: Some details revealed – if i had a hi-fi will initially be available only at shows starting March 25. Regular retail info still to come.
MP3: Nada Surf – “See These Bones”
Philadelphia dream-pop outfit A Sunny Day In Glasgow will make their Toronto debut on April 2 at the Garrison; tickets $10. I didn’t take to their 2007 debut Scribble Mural Comic Journal nearly as much as I thought I would/should, but am willing to give last year’s follow-up Ashes Grammar a shot, especially with a live date in the offing. Anyone care to comment on the live Sunny Day In Glasgow experience? I would imagine that reproducing the cut-and-paste sonics of the records verbatim isn’t on the agenda. There’s interviews with the band circa their US tour last month at The Village Voice, Express Night Out and Washington City Paper.
MP3: A Sunny Day In Glasgow – “Ashes Grammar/Ashes Math”
MP3: A Sunny Day In Glasgow – “Best Summer Ever”
MP3: A Sunny Day In Glasgow – “Watery (Drowning is Just Another Word for Being Buried Alive Under Water)”
Toronto’s Japandroids and Sweden’s Love Is All will make the Horseshoe loud and sweaty on April 3. Tickets $12.
MP3: Japandroids – “Young Hearts Spark Fire”
MP3: Love Is All – “Wishing Well”
With next Tuesday’s Mod Club show well and truly sold out, Owen Pallett has scheduled another hometown date for April 8 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre – tickets $25. XTRA and Reuters have interviews with Pallett, whose Heartland is out next week.
And though there’s no Toronto date to announce right now, Pitchfork’s list of Joanna Newsom tour dates has a very conspicuous three-day gap between Grand Rapids and Montreal. It does not take three days to drive from Grand Rapids to Montreal.
Monday, January 4th, 2010
An Horse continue to inspect every venue in Toronto
Amelia ShawBrisbane is a long way from Toronto. So long that many Australian artists barely make it over here once in their careers, let alone as many times as An Horse have been here in just the last 10 months. The duo of Kate Cooper and Damon Cox brought their scrappy two-piece pop to town five – that’s FIVE – times in 2009 at venues of all sizes; in March at the Tranzac as part of Canadian Musicfest, at the Horseshoe in April and again in June supporting The Appleseed Cast and Telekinesis respectively, they had their own show at the Drake Underground in September and were again in the support slot in October at the massive Sound Academy with Silversun Pickups. Sufficed to say, if you didn’t see them live last year, it’s because you were actively trying not to.
And if you want to keep that An Horse-less streak alive – and I can’t imagine why you would, they’re a charming and entertaining band and their debut Rearrange Beds well worth a listen – you’d best avoid Massey Hall on January 19 and Criminal Records on January 20. That’s because the first night they’ll be at the grand old lady of Shuter Street opening up for Tegan & Sara and then they’ll go from one of the biggest stages in the city to one of the smallest – really, it’s a floor – when they play an in-store at Criminal Records the next night at 6PM.
Auto Straddle has an interview with Cooper, who now apparently resides in Montreal. So I suppose her commute is easier, at least.
MP3: An Horse – “Postcards”
MP3: An Horse – “Camp Out”
Video: An Horse – “Camp Out”
Quiet and lovely will be the watchwords on January 21 at the Garrison when the bill will feature The Wilderness Of Manitoba, Ghost Bees and Ohbijou’s Casey Mecija. Admission $8 at the door.
MP3: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “Bluebirds”
MP3: Ghost Bees – “Vampires Of The West Coast”
MP3: Ohbijou – “Black Ice”
Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers talks to Spinner about their new album The Big To-Do, out March 16.
Guitar International talks guitars and songwriting with Joel Plaskett.
The Mountain Goats perform a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR.
Under The Radar talks to Love Is All’s Josephine Olausson about their just-completed third album, due out in the Spring.
The Brother Kite have completed their new album and while details like label and release date are still to be determined, it has a title – Isolation – and a companion EP entitled The Eye To Eye EP. As I make a point of saying every opportunity I get, their last effort Waiting For The Time To Be Right was one of my favourite albums of the last decade so expectations are high for this one. If you have a label and want to put out an awesome record, get in touch (with them, not me).
Spinner looks at the trend of uber-fancy CD packaging, as practiced recently by The Flaming Lips and Pixies. The Quietus has a conversation with one of the men responsible for the latter’s ridiculously fancy Minotaur box set (and the unique style of 4AD in general), Vaughan Oliver of 23 envelope/v23.
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
Final Fantasy covers John Cale
Frank YangLate last month, Owen Pallett announced that he was shedding the “Final Fantasy” moniker with which he’d won the inaugural Polaris Prize-winning He Poos Clouds and would be releasing its long-awaited follow-up, Heartland, under his own somewhat less exciting but infinitely less copyright-infringing name.
And so I hope I’m not getting anyone in trouble by posting this recording under his old stage name, but it does date back to 2007, when “Final Fantasy” still shone from marquees around the city (well the Tranzac and Harbourfront Centre, at least) and this John Cale cover was a fixture of his live sets though this version comes, I believe, from his CBC Fuse session with Cadence Weapon. It was also just last month that I got a copy of Cale’s Paris 1919 on LP, so the selection of Pallett’s cover of the title track seems a logical choice to start off this new year/decade. Though really, both original and reinterpretation are beautiful works that don’t need any excuse to show off and share.
Heartland is out next Tuesday and Pallett has a show at the Mod Club that evening – The Guardian talks to him about his new record and the name change decision. Cale continues to produce and record and in March of this year, will perform Paris 1919 in its entirety with The Heritage Orchestra at the Southbank Centre in London. Oh, that would be a thing to see.
MP3: Final Fantasy – “Paris 1919”
Video: John Cale – “Paris 1919” (live)
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
Emma Pollock prepares second solo release
Steve GullickI’m not quite at the point where I can refer to Emma Pollock without adding “former Delgados frontwoman”, but it’s getting there and with the release of her second solo album The Law Of Large Numbers, we’re getting there. Her 2007 debut Watch The Fireworks was a wholly enjoyable balance of intimate folkishness and scrappy rock, a recipe familiar to Delgados fans, but more immediate and accessible than her more idiosyncratic former band. If the first taste of the new record is any indication, it’s still quite direct but perhaps more ambitious, sonically speaking.
Either way, the new record is due out March 1 and one thing that’s certain is it’s certainly good to hear her voice again.
MP3: Emma Pollock – “Hug the Harbour”
And I was going to add a little bit asking what happened to Pollock’s co-lead in The Delgados, Alun Woodward, but it turns out he didn’t disappear so much as I just didn’t look. Some cursory digging reveals he released his self-titled solo debut under the name of Lord Cut-Glass this past Summer, so that’s both Delgados voices accounted for, and the drums as well, as Paul Savage appears on Woodward’s effort as well as on Pollock’s first record – though not, apparently, the second. Which only leaves bassist Stewart Henderson as MIA, but considering his wanting to retire is what caused the band to dissolve in the first place, that’s not surprising.
MP3: Lord Cut-Glass – “Even Jesus Couldn’t Love You”
Video: Lord Cut-Glass – “Look After Your Wife”
Decoding Static interviews Polly Scattergood.
Muse drummer Dominic Howard tells Spinner that touring as support for U2 earlier this year was an educational experience. Look for some of those lessons to be put on display when they play the Air Canada Centre on March 8.
The Quietus interviews Hope Sandoval.
Wears The Trousers has a conversation with Sharon Van Etten, who is in town on February 6 opening up for Great Lake Swimmers at Trinity-St. Paul’s.
Daytrotter is closing out the year with a session with The Daredevil Christopher Wright.
Interview does their thing with Kurt Wagner of Lambchop.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel talks to Spoon frontman Britt Daniel. Their new album Transference is out January 19.
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips names off some of this favourite records of the decade to Spinner. He also gives an interview to BBC6.
Their 20th anniversary year might officially end tonight, but Merge has at least one more goodie for the faithful – a new Portastatic digital EP featuring covers of other Merge artists, with proceeds going to charity.
And that’s it for this year. Have a safe New Years, everyone and – once more with feeling – fuck you 2009.
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
Novels give away debut EP for free
Marshall AngusChristmas may be a distant memory now – it was a whole WEEK ago – but the giving continues thanks to Can-indie supergroup Novels. The outfit, comprised of Tokyo Police Club keyboardist Graham Wright, Born Ruffians guitarist/singer Luke Lalonde, Will Currie of The Country French, Ex-Po’s Dean Marino and Jay Sad, have completed their self-titled debut – though at five songs and not even 12 minutes in length, perhaps novella (or short story, or paragraph) would be a better name – and are looking to get the word out by not only giving it away as a free download off their website, but encouraging people to burn CDs, hand them out, leave them in conspicuous places…
And if you’re the sort who takes anonymous discs you find in a phone booth or jammed under your front door and were to pop it into your CD player, you’d hear a short and snappy collection of tunes, made familiar and distinctive by Lalonde’s yodel, Currie’s fancy piano work and everyone involved’s cumulative pop savvy. It doesn’t manage to be more than the sum of its parts but it’s friendly and fun – that all involved are having a blast is clear – and should tide fans over as they await the new, as-yet untitled TPC record and Born Ruffians’ Say It, both due out in the early part of next year.
The Toronto Star talks to Wright about the one-day recording session which yielded Novels, videos of which you can watch here.
MP3: Novels – “Mr. Foster’s Teenage Daughter”
MP3: Novels – “This Wouldn’t Be The Last Time”
ZIP: Novels / Novels
Woodpigeon have posted up a live and demo versions of Bjork’s “Aurora”. Their new album Die Stadt Muzikanten is out January 12 and they play the Drake Underground on February 11. New Canadian Modern has an interview with Woodpigeon violinist Foon Yap.
MP3: Woodpigeon – “Aurora” (live)
MP3: Woodpigeon – “Aurora” (demo)
JAM interviews Malajube bassist Mathieu Cournoyer.
Clash puts Los Campesinos! guitarist Tom Campesinos! and Broken Social Scene leader Kevin Drew on the phone with one another. The new Los Campesinos! record Romance Is Boring is out February 1.
The Scotsman talks to Adam Thompson, frontman of We Were Promised Jetpacks.
The Guest Apartment has a video session and interview with Peggy Sue, whose debut album Fossils And Other Phantoms is set for an April 2010 release.
The AV Club goes digging through Clientele frontman Alisdair Maclean’s music collection. The Clientele have a date at the Horseshoe on March 19.
The Line Of Best Fit polled a variety of Canadian artists and at least one blogger (ahem) for their thoughts on the year that was and the one that might be in Canadian music.
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