Monday, December 21st, 2009
Review of Fruit Bats’ The Ruminant Band
Annie BeedyThe last time Seattle’s Fruit Bats visited was way back in 2005, opening up for Son Volt at the Opera House and in support of their album Spelled In Bones. At the time, I couldn’t help but be disappointed in the album and show not for what they were, but what they weren’t – namely their previous effort Mouthfuls and the cozy little show at the long-defunct B-Side in 2003.
And as I stated at the time, it was mainly the departure of vocalist Gillian Lisee from the Fruit Bats lineup that I had trouble with, having been such a fan of the way she and main Bat-man Eric Johnson’s parts played off one another on that earlier record. Objectively speaking, Johnson and the new Fruit Bats lineup did just fine on their own in crafting winning and winsome folk-pop – perhaps even better, with a less sleepy and more dynamic sound – but at the time I was having none of it and subsequently paid little attention to them over the next few years. Which worked out well, as the Fruit Bats went on a hiatus of sorts shortly thereafter with Johnson bringing home paycheques as a member of The Shins. And though James Mercer has cleaned house somewhat since The Shins’ last record, at last check Johnson was not only still a member, but Fruit Bats bassist Ron Lewis had also been recruited as a Shin.
Fruit Bats has continued as an ongoing proposition, however, and this past Summer they returned with a new album in The Ruminant Band. And with the benefit of a few years perspective, it’s easier to appreciate what Johnson has done since Mouthfuls – the new record is another terrific collection of feel-good, classically-styled pop that goes down real easy. Those who like some bitter with their sweet would be well advised to look elsewhere, because angst and melancholy aren’t part of the Fruit Bats recipe – just head-nodding, toe-tapping and melody to spare. Not to say that some female harmonies wouldn’t be the perfect compliment at a few points, but that’s neither here nor there.
And Fruit Bats will be here for the first time since that Opera House show with Son Volt – they’ll be at The Horseshoe on March 24, tickets $10. Usually doctor’s orders are to hole up for at least a week post-SxSW to handle the breakfast taco withdrawal, but here an exception might be in order.
MP3: Fruit Bats – “The Ruminant Band”
MP3: Fruit Bats – “My Unusual Friend”
Video: Fruit Bats – “The Ruminant Band”
MySpace: The Fruit Bats
While the new Shins record has no more precise target than sometime in 2010, James Mercer’s side-project with the ubiquitous Dangermouse – Broken Bells – is much more real. The album isn’t out till March 8 but the duo are giving away an MP3 of “The High Road” for one day only – today – in exchange for your email address. Head over to their website to submit and receive. There’s more details on the project at Exclaim.
Paste checks in with The Long Winters’ John Roderick about an upcoming collaboration with Kathleen Edwards, which should see the light of day after the next Long Winters album is completed. Which can’t be soon enough.
Penny Black interviews Trespassers William, who also recently recorded a video session with Off The Beaten Tracks, featuring a couple of songs from Trespassers William side projects but performed by both principals of Trespassers William. Which sort of makes them covers but not. Trespassers William are recording a new album this year.
The second installment of Paste‘s “Moog Sessions” is up and features a performance from White Rabbits.
NPR is streaming a radio session with Monsters Of Folk.
Exclaim reports that the Flaming Lips cover album of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon will have the excessive but factually accurate title of The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing the Dark Side of the Moon. It will be released digitally only – tomorrow on iTunes and next Tuesday at other online retailers. Pitchfork talks to Wayne Coyne and his nephew Dennis (of the titular Star Death and The White Dwarfs) about their decision to remake the classic rock staple. NPR also has an interview with The Flaming Lips frontman about their other “proper” album, Embryonic.
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Manic Street Preachers cover Wham!
WikipediaIrving Berlin, Mel Torme, Vince Guaraldi… George Michael? Penning modern-day holiday standards isn’t easy, but I think it’s fair to put Mr. Michael in that esteemed company. Since being released as a single in 1984, Wham!‘s “Last Christmas” has become perhaps the most-covered Christmas song of the last 30 years, maybe longer. There already exists a website – last-christmas.com – dedicated to tracking the ever-increasing number of interpretations of said tune. 430 as of this writing, and that doesn’t include the Ohbijou version that was released last Friday (but does include the Montt Mardie version I linked to on Tuesday.
Also on the list is this track by Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield, recorded back in 1996 on the BBC program TFI Friday, and the video footage from the holiday special is pretty funny with Bradfield settled in at the bar, serenading pub patrons. The audio was released as a bonus/hidden track on the 2003 rarities and b-sides comp, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History.
The Manics released one of my favourite albums of the year in Journal For Plague Lovers. George Michael hasn’t released a new studio album in five years but did put out a live DVD in Live In London earlier this year. Andrew Ridgeley is still giving away copies of Son Of Albert as Christmas gifts.
MP3: Manic Street Preachers – “Last Christmas”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Last Christmas”
Video: Wham! – “Last Christmas”
Friday, December 18th, 2009
The Clientele plots most inconvenient North American tour ever
Andy WillsherOkay, most inconvenient tour ever is probably a bit of an overstatement. From a logistical/routing point of view, The Clientele’s upcoming jaunt across the pond in support of Bonfires On The Heath makes perfect sense – fly into New York, head south, west through Texas to California, up the west coast and back east along the 49th, cross the border for a couple Canadian dates, back down to New York and then home. But for me – and really, isn’t that what it’s all about? – it sucks. Because the Toronto date at the Horseshoe Tavern falls on March 19 (not the 18th, as listed in itinerary), when I will be half a continent away in Austin at SxSW.
And yeah, I’m sure some/most/all of you will have some difficulty mustering up any sympathy for me, basking as I will be in the warm Texas sun surrounded by tunes and BBQ, but missing out on their distinctively English atmosphere, particularly if they make good on the promise/threat to call it a day after this album, is definite cause for sadface. I’ve seen them before – once in Summer 2005 when I wasn’t a fan at all and last at V Fest 2007, when I was a moderate fan. Too miss them now, when I’m a full-on devotee, is all kinds of disappointing. And possibly cause for a road trip sometime down the road… though it’d probably have to be an air trip.
Anyways. Anyone local who’s reading and is planning on attending – which I would think is at least some of you (should be all but whatever…) – I may be asking you to get me a shirt, yo. In return I will bring you some BBQ sauce.
MP3: The Clientele – “Harvest Time”
MP3: The Clientele – “I Wonder Who We Are”
Stream: The Clientele / Bonfires On The Heath
MySpace: The Clientele
Pitchfork has the new video from Field Music’s comeback album (Measure), out February 16. They will be playing with The Clientele at the Horseshoe show mentioned above – the one I won’t be at.
Video: Field Music – “Them That Do Nothing”
A trailer has been released for Falling Down A Mountain, the new album from Tindersticks, out on February 16 in North America.
MP3: Tindersticks – “Black Smoke”
Trailer: Tindersticks / Falling Down A Mountain
NYC Taper is sharing a recording of Fanfarlo’s CMJ show in Brooklyn from October.
NPR is streaming a radio session with Florence & The Machine and BBC6 an interview about their next record.
BBC6 talks to Futurehead Barry Hyde about their new album, still untitled but due out in the early part of 2010.
Final Fantasy is no more! After a half-decade of paying tribute to the venerable video game franchise with his stage name, Owen Pallett has opted to retire it (possibly/probably with the assistance of legal advice) and continue on as simply “Owen Pallett”. Less memorable, but more easily Googleable and probably less costly. Heartland will still be released on January 12, but under the Owen Pallett brand and past releases will be reissued in the near future. So does that make my promo copy of Heartland, very much credited to Final Fantasy on the spine, a collector’s item? Now soliciting bids! The Music Magazine has reprinted the full official statement on the name change.
Stereogum and Under The Radar talk to Matt Berninger of The National – the former about how one of their songs came to soundtrack a Google ad and the latter about the progress of their next album.
Yours Truly has a video of Holly Miranda covering Jeff Buckley’s “Lover, You Should Have Come Over” in a living room while Paste has an interview. Her solo debut The Magician’s Private Library is out February 23.
Paul Banks of Interpol hints at an “orchestral” direction for their next album, due out next year, in conversation with BBC6. I can see them in the studio with a philharmonic now… “No, no! Only downstrokes! Pointier! Stabbier!”
Black Book and Paste talk to Peter Silberman of The Antlers, who are at the Phoenix on February 16 supporting Editors. NYC Taper is also sharing a recording of a recent Antlers show in New York.
NPR is streaming a radio session with Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard.
Elliott Smith’s Roman Candle and From A Basement On A Hill are getting the LP reissue treatment on April 6 courtesy of Kill Rock Stars, and they’ve made available a previously-unreleased song, circa 1997, to mark the occasion.
MP3: Elliott Smith – “Cecelia/Amanda”
American Songwriter has drinks with Jason Isbell.
Grant Hart tells Blurt why a Husker Du reunion is not likely to happen, ever.
Fuzzy-fi practitioners Real Estate and Woods are teaming up for a North American tour that includes a stop at the Horseshoe on March 14. I know there’s a joke to be made about, um, property values or topography or something, but damned if I can think of it right now.
MP3: Real Estate – “Black Lake”
MP3: Real Estate – “Beach Comber”
MP3: Woods – “To Clean”
A first track from Retribution Gospel Choir’s new album 2, out January 26, is now up for grabs. They play the Drake Undeground on January 25.
MP3: Retribution Gospel Choir – “Hide It Away”
Also subscribing to the philosophy of naming ones albums sequentially, Serena-Maneesh have released details on their new album S-M 2: Abyss In B Minor, now set for a March 23 release. A suitably epic first MP3 is available to download and keep in mind, it’s just an edit. The album version is almost sure to be even more… more.
MP3: Serena-Maneesh – “Ayisha Abyss”
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Woodpigeon prepare third fourth fifth album, tour
Leigh RightonFor a band that’s so good at doing things quietly, Calgary’s Woodpigeon certainly has a thing for volume. Their debut Songbook was originally released in 2006 in Canada and Japan, then reissued in Europe in 2008 to great critical acclaim. Their next release Treasury Library Canada wasn’t even intended to be a proper follow-up – just a collection of outtakes and leftovers from Songbook intended for sale as a limited run direct from the band. Thankfully, it became clear very quickly that it was too good a collection to not be made available to all – an opinion backed up by its eventual Polaris Prize longlisting – and it was reissued in early 2009, itself with another complete album appended as a bonus in Houndstooth Europa.
Which brings us to the impending release of their next album Die Stadt Muzikanten. Weighing in at 16 tracks and filled with orchestral pop finery, it’s no slight musical statement but again, Woodpigeon are all about value and North American and Japanese editions will come with Balladeer / To All The Guys I’ve Loved Before, described as an EP but at a dozen tracks and over 47 minutes, is pretty much another proper album recorded with Howard Bilerman, Steve Albini and Husky Hoskulds. And this round-up doesn’t even include all the one-offs, covers and whatnot that are regularly given away on their website. Sufficed to say, if you’re a Woodpigeon fan, you are never short of material to listen to.
Hearing said material live, however, is less easy – at least if you live in Ontario. Though the band has staged extensive tours throughout Europe, where they remain a much bigger draw than their home and native land, they rarely seem to make it out this way. Since 2007 they’ve only visited Toronto twice, opening for Calexico in July 2007 and an appearance at this Summer NxNE 2009. They’re looking to rectify that somewhat this Winter and have booked a fairly extensive tour through southern Ontario and Quebec, locally stopping at the Drake Underground on February 11.
Die Stadt Muzikanten is out on January 12 in Canada and Japan, March 1 in Europe and March 9 in the US, with Treasury Library Canada being made available domestically in the US for the first time as of that date as well. A sample track from Die Stadt is available below along with a holiday tune for the, well, holidays. Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton gave Ragged Words a list of his albums of the decade.
MP3: Woodpigeon – “Empty-Hall Sing-Along”
MP3: Woodpigeon – “xoxmas”
NYCTaper is sharing a recording of Final Fantasy’s recent show in New York, chock full of material from Heartland. Said album is out January 12 and the show that night at the Mod Club is sold right out. Way to dither.
Southern Souls has a video session with Olenka & The Autumn Lovers.
Spinner gets a rundown from Diamond Rings’ John O’Regan about how the Sony takedown kerfuffle last week shook out.
Stereogum talks to Born Ruffians about how the drummer situation that resulted in founding member Steve Hamelin giving up the throne for a spell this year was resolved, just in time to record sophomore album Say It, out early next year.
Joel Plaskett discusses the Thrush Hermit reunion with Spinner. That hits Lee’s Palace for two nights in March, the 26 and 27.
aux.tv recorded a video interview with The Rural Alberta Advantage at their instore last month at Soundscapes; The Portland Mercury also has a chat.
Toro y Moi and The Ruby Suns have a date at the Drake Underground on March 30. The former’s Causers Of This and the latter have a new one entitled Fight Softly and due out March 10.
MP3: Toro y Moi – “Blessa”
MP3: The Ruby Suns – “Tane Mahuta”
Swedes ahoy! Pitchfork reports that Taken By Trees will join Anna Ternheim as support for El Perro Del Mar on their upcoming North American tour, which stops in at the Mod Club on February 21. The Skinny talks to Victoria Bergsman.
MP3: Taken By Trees – “My Boys”
MP3: Taken By Trees – “Watch The Waves”
Video: Taken By Trees – “My Boys”
Denmark’s Efterklang have a date at the El Mocambo on March 6 as part of a North American tour in support of Magic Chairs, out February 22.
MP3: Efterklang – “Modern Drift”
The National Post talks to Bo Madsen of Mew.
Bettie Serveert will return with a new album in Pharmacy Of Love on March 23. There’s already a video for the first single.
Video: Bettie Serveert – “Deny All”
Filter solicits a list of Lightspeed Champion’s ten favourite things of 2009. Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You – which has good odds of being one of my favourite things of 2010 – is out February 16.
Fanfarlo plays a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR.
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
An introduction to The High Wire
Anorak LondonLondon trio The High Wire first got onto my radar over a year ago, as we were both headed to New York City for CMJ and while our paths would not cross – I believe their showcases were done before I even arrived – the samples I heard made a truly indelible impression. More than anything, they reminded me of my beloved Mojave 3 in the way they stitched together rootsy song structures with a threads of shimmering dream-pop, and also in the way that Tim Crompton and Canadian ex-pat Alexia Hagen’s voices intertwined overtop – the interplay was Halstead-Goswell-like, and you should know that’s not a compliment I hand out lightly. Add in touchstones like Mercury Rev and Spiritualized and there was really no way I wasn’t going to be entranced by this band.
Since my tastes always reflect the zeitgeist as a whole, I fully expected them to be one of the more talked-about bands of 2009. CMJ reports were positive and they were then tapped to open up in London for Coldplay at the end of 2008 so it certainly seemed that their ducks were getting in a row. In anticipation, I ordered up a copy of their debut album Ahead Of The Rain, released independently early this year, and waited for the buzz to build. And waited. Long story short (I could have added in a few dozen more “and waited”s), it seemed like the record and the band just disappeared. It certainly wasn’t for lack of quality, as Ahead Of The Rain delivered on much of the promise I had initially heard last year, rich in sun-kissed melodies and hazy yet substantial atmosphere. But with an online presence that was vague at best – I was a bit amazed I had managed to order a copy of the CD – I feared that they had simply gone away as nascent bands are wont to do. I revisited the album periodically throughout the year but The High Wire largely became out of sight, out of mind.
And then, around mid-November, I started to hear it. A faint, but definite buzz. An MP3 from a new album – Ahead Of The Rain‘s time had passed, apparently – followed by glowing profiles in The Guardian and Spinner… it seems like The High Wire’s time has come, if a year or so later than I’d expected. Their new record The Sleep Tape is set for a March 2010 release and based on the lead single “Odds And Evens” and other samples off their MySpace, they’ve fattened up their sound some but lost none of the sweetness that initially beguiled. Am I excited about this record? Yes, I would say that I am.
There’s recent interviews with the band at Subba-Cultcha and Amelia’s Magazine, wherein they reveal to be far less mysterious than I’d originally thought but just as lovely.
MP3: The High Wire – “Leave Me In Love”
MySpace: The High Wire
The Line Of Best Fit reports that UK folk trio Peggy Sue have signed to Wichita Recordings and will release their debut album Fossils And Other Phantoms in April 2010. A new song is available to anyone who signs up to their mailing list. An old song is available to anyone who clicks the link below.
MP3: Peggy Sue – “Lover Gone”
NPR is streaming a World Cafe session with Fanfarlo. So you know how I’d said that the only silver lining to Fanfarlo cancelling their show at the El Mocambo last night on account of a stolen passport was that I’d get to go see Blue Roses at the Drake instead? Well guess who canceled on account of a “massive passport problem”? Yeaaaaah. Maybe they can make up their dates together.
The Daily Growl is streaming “Goodbye England”, the new single from Laura Marling and offering downloads of live versions it and another new song from her next album. She’s at the Drake Underground on February 9.
The Times profiles Mumford & Sons, who will release Sigh No More on March 15 and play the El Mocambo a month earlier on February 15.
Se7en Magazine has an interview with Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit, whose The Winter Of Mixed Drinks will be out on March 16. Only five days before the start of the Spring of Jell-O shooters.
This Is London talks to Lily Allen.
Hot Chip’s Al Doyle talks to Spinner about the making of their next album One Life Stand, out February 9. They’re at the Kool Haus on April 20 with The xx, whose recent instore in Boston was recorded by Bradley’s Almanac and is now available to download.
Rolling Stone gets to know The Big Pink, who will be at the Mod Club on March 24.
Editors-in-chief Tom Smith brags to Spinner about being big in Belgium.
Portishead have released a new single is “Chase The Tear”, all proceeds from which will go to support Amnesty International.
Video: Portishead – “Chase The Tear”
The AV Club interviews Bernard Sumner of Bad Lieutenant.
Billboard reports that Elvis Costello will release another vintage live record to follow up this year’s Live At The El Mocambo. Live at Hollywood High, a recording from Los Angeles circa June 1978, will be out January 12.
Spinner has an Interface session and Filter a feature on The Swell Season.
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