Saturday, November 21st, 2009
Frank YangThings that you can take to the bank: one, that every couple years Scotland’s Camera Obscura will return with a new album of gorgeous, increasingly orchestral pop and two, that they’ll tour North America at least twice in support of said record, if not more.
To point one, we have their latest record My Maudlin Career, released back in April, and to point two, we have a two-week trek that started earlier this week and which rolls into The Phoenix in Toronto next Thursday, November 26, and which follows a Summer tour that saw them play Lee’s Palace back in June. And actually, this was their third North American jaunt in 2009, with them having played some dates at SxSW in March, though that itinerary didn’t bring them up this way.
Tickets for the Toronto show are $20.50 in advance, but courtesy of Against The Grain, 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 Camera Obscura” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Get that to me before midnight, November 23.
MP3: Camera Obscura – “My Maudlin Career”
MP3: Camera Obscura – “French Navy”
Video: Camera Obscura – “The Sweetest Thing”
Video: Camera Obscura – “Honey In The Sun”
Video: Camera Obscura – “French Navy”
Friday, November 20th, 2009
Holly Miranda prepares to check debut out of library
Sebastian Mlynarski When I rounded up all the bits of information around Holly Miranda’s solo project back in January, I had no notion that interest in it would eclipse that given to her main band, The Jealous Girlfriends. But her more atmospheric approach is certainly more in line with what people expect/want to hear wafting out of Brooklyn these days and it has apparently tickled more ears than the Girlfriends’ heaver, more guitar-driven rock did.
So while the Girlfriends take a deserved break, Miranda has been busy – a debut limited edition EP in Sleep On Fire was released earlier this Summer and followed up with some high-profile touring supporting The Antlers, and with the release this week of the Forest Green Oh Forest Green 7″ single, she’s back on the road with Friendly Fires and The xx. All of which should generate no small amount of anticipation for her debut full-length, details of which were just announced.
The Magician’s Private Library will be out on February 23 of next year on XL Recordings, and while it was unclear at the start of the year if that was the album title or just the name of her blog, apparently it’s both. And if it lives up to expectations, it’ll be great. Hopefully not so great as to render the Jealous Girlfriends unnecessary and defunct, though – that’d be a shame.
Dummy has an interview with Miranda about her solo work while The Daily Growl solicits a list of seven songs.
MP3: Holly Miranda – “Forest Green Oh Forest Green”
MySpace: Holly Miranda
Laundromatinee has posted up the second part of their studio session with The Antlers, the first part having surfaced back in September. The Dallas Observer also has an interview with Peter Silberman.
Pitchfork and Spinner talk to The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn about the impending digital reissues of his first band Lifter Puller’s entire oeuvre.
Paste talks to Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino, who reveals that they’re aiming to have their fourth album out in the early part of 2010. After Paul Banks is done pretending he’s someone else who, in turn, is a skyscraper. Or something. Banks attempts to clarify in talking to Spinner.
Magnet picks out Sonic Youth’s five most overrated and underrated songs. Carrie Brownstein interviews Thurston Moore for NPR and The Boston Globe puts his iPod on shuffle.
The Bay Bridged and WOXY have downloadable sessions with Thao with The Get Down Stay Down. Thao has also contributed a piece to Bitch about the art of the break-up song.
Pitchfork reports that The Decemberists have commissioned a full-length animated version of their latest album Hazards Of Love. Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized will be available for download from iTunes as of December 1, and will look something like this.
Trailer: Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized
The Globe & Mail, Canada.com and Dose.ca have features on The Rural Alberta Advantage, who have a sold-out show at Lee’s Palace tonight.
Sloan will release a digital-only EP entitled Hit & Run next week, on November 23.
Nouvelle Vague, the French outfit whose gimmick of recasting ’80s punk and New Wave songs as loungey ’60s Bossa Nova numbers has proven surprisingly resiliant – NV3 is their third album – have set a date at the Opera House on January 27, tickets $24.50 in advance.
MP3: Nouvelle Vague – “Master & Servant” (featuring Martin Gore)
MP3: Nouvelle Vague – “Ca Plane Pour Moi”
MP3: Nouvelle Vague – “Guns Of Brixton”
Noah & The Whale have released a video for the title track from their latest, First Days Of Spring.
Video: Noah & The Whale – “First Days Of Spring”
NPR is streaming a World Cafe session with Fanfarlo while The San Francisco Examiner talks to frontman Simon Balthazar. They’re at the El Mocambo on December 15.
Pitchfork talks to Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip. Their new record One Life Stand is out February 9 and they play the Kool Haus on April 20.
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Billy Bragg and Ron Hawkins at The Phoenix in Toronto
Frank YangQ: Without a new record to promote – Mr. Love & Justice has been out for close to two years – what reason did Billy Bragg have for staging an ambitious cross-Canada tour?
A: Who cares? Any time you get the opportunity to see Billy Bragg live, you take it, no questions asked.
Of course, I say that having missed his last three appearances in Toronto – the September 2006 show at the Music Hall for not one but two weddings, the June 2008 in-store at HMV because I was working and the show that same night at Harbourfront for no reason I can recall. So Tuesday night’s show at the Phoenix marked the first occasion I’d see him perform since March 2006; in other words, far too long. The fact that this tour was somewhat without context was extra exciting, because the two proper shows of his I’d seen before were great but a little too rich with context – the 2006 show was to promote his Volume 1 box set and as such, only included material from that era and the July 2003 show at the El Mocambo was part of his “Talkin’ Woody” tour and as such, was almost 100% Woody. So it goes without saying that there was a LOT of material I’d been waiting a long, long time to hear live.
Support for the tour was perfectly chosen, with none other than hometowner Ron Hawkins – former frontman for my beloved Lowest Of The Low – kicking things off. It was an eminently logical choice as The Low and Bragg had played together back in the ’90s and Hawkins’ sharp folk-punk songwriting owes Bragg more than a few debts. Performing solo and acoustic, Hawkins showcased material from his new album 10 Kinds Of Lonely amidst some great banter, a tune from his other old outfit The Rusty Nails and a gorgeous and unexpected cover of Ryan Adams’ “Oh My Sweet Carolina”. Damn, Adams had the goods before he lost his mind. And Hawkins, happily, still does. He plays a show at the Dakota Tavern tonight before hitting the road out west with Bragg.
I’ve never seen Billy Bragg play with a band, but having heard live recordings of he with The Blokes, I’m perfectly fine with that. Not that they sound bad – not at all – but when it comes down to it, all Bragg needs is an electric guitar. And a cup of tea. Kicking things off with the oldest of the old school “World Turned Upside Down” before leaping ahead to a sublime pair of those aforementioned never-heard-live tunes from Don’t Try This At Home – “Accident Waiting to Happen” and “Cindy of A Thousand Lives”. Yeah, this was going to be a good night. At first, however, it seemed that Billy might disagree. Though sounding fine, he seemed a bit distracted or even perturbed at first – at least not the gregarious rabble-rouser he usually was.
A few songs in, when he got chattier, he revealed one of the reasons for his mood – just a couple days prior, it was announced that the execrable leader of the ultra-right British National Party, Nick Griffin, was going to be running for Parliament in Bragg’s very own home riding of Barking – the sort of news would drive any sensible person up the wall, let alone one as politically-minded and leftist as Bragg. He quickly got into proper form, however, and that along with myriad other injustices in the world – politicians, bankers, the military, North American football (or “runny runny catchy”, as he called it) – were called out and used as fuel for his performance.
As always, his between-song banter was as essential a part of the show as the songs themselves, and while we didn’t get a Morrissey story this time out, but there were fine tales about Woody Guthrie’s tumescence (with regards to “Ingrid Bergman”), his reaction to the misreported death of Margaret Thatcher, guitar quotes of “Seven Nation Army” and “Smoke On The Water” during the implied trumpet solo in “The Saturday Boy” and a profanity-riddled reading of poet John Cooper Clarke’s “Evidently Chickentown” to name but a few high points.
For all the funning, though, Bragg never travels without a message or two and those were well conveyed through anthems like “NPWA” and “O Freedom”, the latter introduced with a pointed comment about Canada’s handling of the Omar Khdar affair. But rather than accuse and criticize, Bragg was aware that he was largely preaching to the converted with the mostly-packed Phoenix audience and devoted most of his efforts to inspiring and mobilizing, decrying cynicism as the real enemy. To punctuate the point, the main set wrapped with a rousing run of “All You Fascists”, “I Keep Faith” and “There Is Power In A Union”. Heady stuff, indeed.
And it wasn’t done. Coming back out for the encore almost as soon as he stepped off stage, Bragg would do his own version of the “Don’t Look Back” movement of playing complete albums live, running through his debut mini-album Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy almost in sequence, saving “A New England” for the grand, singalong finale to two glorious hours of Bragg. The absence of “St. Swithin’s Day” or anything from Worker’s Playtime was a bit disappointing, but for someone with a catalog as deep as Bragg’s there’s just no way to satisfy everyone. The only answer, I suppose, is for him to keep coming back – no excuse needed.
JAM and Panic Manual were also in attendance at the show. The Scope, Vue, FFWD, Canada.com, See, JAM and The Coast have all been conducting interviews with Bragg as he travels the country. Ron Hawkins gets some attention from Vue and Buffalo News.
Photos: Billy Bragg, Ron Hawkins @ The Phoenix – November 17, 2009
MP3: Billy Bragg – “I Keep Faith”
MP3: Billy Bragg – “Take Down The Union Jack”
MP3: Billy Bragg – “Must I Paint You A Picture?”
MP3: Billy Bragg – “Valentine’s Day Is Over” (live)
Video: Billy Bragg – “NPWA”
Video: Billy Bragg – “The Boy Done Good”
Video: Billy Bragg – “Sexuality”
Video: Billy Bragg – “Waiting For The Great Leap Forward”
Video: Billy Bragg – “You Woke Up My Neighbourhood”
Video: Billy Bragg – “Levi Stubbs’ Tears”
MySpace: Billy Bragg
MySpace: Ron Hawkins
The Telegraph and The Sheaf talk to Dan Mangan.
Rolling Stone talks to Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard about their Jack Kerouac project One Fast Move or I’m Gone.
Drowned In Sound meets We Were Promised Jetpacks.
Matablog has a video teaser trailer for Shearwater’s new album The Golden Archipelago, due out February 23 in North America, a week later than the rest of the world.
Rogue Wave have set a March 2 release date for their new record Permalight.
Mumford & Sons have released a new video from Sigh No More, which will be getting a North American release in the early part of 2010.
Video: Mumford & Sons – “Winter Winds”
Bandstand Busking has session with Micachu & The Shapes.
Self-Titled talks about Bonfires On The Heath’s non-musical inspirations with The Clientele’s Alasdair MacLean.
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Review of The Hidden Cameras’ Origin: Orphan and giveaway
Norman WongEven though he coined it himself, I often wonder if Joel Gibb regrets encouraging the use of “gay church folk music” as a description for the music of The Hidden Cameras. Certainly they got a lot of mileage out of it in the band’s earlier days, as it was both attention grabbing and accurate, but now, four albums in, it probably deserves to be retired.
It’s not that it’s no longer descriptive – Gibb is still gay (one assumes), it’s still music and it’s still built on foundations of folk and church traditions – but it doesn’t give them due credit for evolving from record to record and shedding some of the Cameras’ more titillating/explicit facets in exchange for more musical and lyrical sophistication. Case in point, their latest album Origin: Orphan. It remains unmistakeably a Hidden Cameras record – Joel Gibb’s muse is simply too distinctive for it to be anything else – but there’s a clear effort to broaden the definition of exactly what a Hidden Cameras record is. I’ve always found past albums to feel a bit static, so the ranginess Origin: Orphan is a real eye-opener.
There’s also a heaviness to the record that’s new, and maybe it’s just the excitement of being surprised by a Hidden Cameras album, but I think they wear it well. While the signature whimsy remains, it’s accented by sounds and textures that give them a real weight – the shrieking outro of “Do I Belong?”, the insistent descending riff of the title track, and the glorious foreboding of orchestral centerpiece “Walk On” – and end up the most memorable moments. And it’s the contrast of those dark pieces that give the brighter pop numbers even more jump, like the giddy almost-closing pairing of “Underage” and “The Little Bit” which sound as buoyant as anything they’ve ever recorded. Having reached a point in their existence where they seemed to be faced with the choice of sticking to the tried and true and becoming predictable or trying something new and risking not playing to their strengths, The Hidden Cameras have somehow managed to not only do both, but turn in maybe their best record yet in the process.
The Hidden Cameras are currently in the midst of an extensive North American tour with Gentleman Reg that will wrap with a homecoming show at the Opera House in Toronto on December 5. Tickets for the show are $15 in advance but courtesy of Rootmeansquare, 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 The Hidden Cameras” in the subject line and your full name in the body and get that in to me before midnight, November 25.
Gibb talks to Spinner about how a trip to Berlin inspired the direction of the new album.
MP3: The Hidden Cameras – “Walk On”
Video: The Hidden Cameras – “In The NA”
MySpace: The Hidden Cameras
The Magnetic Fields will take the theme of their next album Realism to heart by playing songs from it in the flesh on a North American tour that kicks off shortly after the album’s January 26, 2010 release date. That includes a February 8 date at the Queen Elizabeth Theater in Toronto, their first visit since a two-night stand at Trinity-St. Paul’s in July 2004. Tickets are $30.50 plus fees, onsale this Saturday though a presale started yesterday – I got second row centre tickets, so they had good ones blocked off.
Beach House have released the first MP3 from their third album Teen Dream, due out January 26. I kinda think I like this song better than anything they’ve done yet.
MP3: Beach House – “Norway”
Ever wish you could make your birthday last forever? Constantines do – their tenth anniversary celebrations have extended from a two-night stand at Lee’s Palace to a three night engagement, the third night taking place a full week after the second. So that’s December 11, 12 and 19 and with different support each night. The 11th will feature Attack In Black and Weakerthan John K Samson doing a solo set, the 12th has Oneida and Metz warming things up and the 19th has Julie Doiron and Ladyhawk on the bill.
Ohbijou’s Casey Mecija talks to Spinner, The Canmore Leader and See.
A slew of in-stores have been announced by Sonic Boom. You’ve got Koushik on November 19 at 7:30PM, Lullabye Arkestra on November 21 at 7PM, Malajube on November 25 at 7PM, The Schomberg Fair on November 28 at 4PM and Everything All The Time on December 2 at 7PM. All shows are free, though a donation of canned food is encouraged and appreciated.
MP3: Lullabye Arkestra – “We Fuck The Night”
MP3: Malajube – “Porte Disparu”
MP3: Everything All The Time – “Lazy Days”
The Toronto Public Library’s Make Some Noise series continues through this month, with a number of performances and discussions of interest to, well, probably anyone reading this site. Katie Stelmanis will give a performance at the Bloor/Gladstone branch this Friday, November 20, at 8PM, Colin Medley of Morning Noon Night will discuss the finer points of videography and “Documenting the Local Music Scene” at the Kennedy/Eglinton branch on November 24 at 7PM and Steve Jordan, grand poo-bah of the Polaris Music Prize, will get into the nitty-gritty of just how much of a bribe it takes to make the long list, short list and win the whole she-bang, respectively. Kidding – he’ll be talking about the Prize and Canadian music industry in general at the Northern District branch on December 1 at 7PM.
Paper Bag Records is celebrating seven years of not going under with a special covers compilation featuring their artists entitled 7 Year Itch and available to grab for free.
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
An introduction to Theoretical Girl
Pavla KopecnaAll throughout Theoretical Girl’s set at SxSW back in March, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out who Amy Turnnidge, she who is the central abstract idea of the band, reminded me of. This didn’t keep me from enjoying her set, but it was a relief and head slap when I finally put it together a week or two later – the name I’d been trying to dig out of my memory banks was Sarah Blackwood. Not the icy electro-pop queen she now is with Client, but the wistful synth-n-jangle ingenue she was in Dubstar. Though not dead ringers – Blackwood’s voice is higher, to say nothing of the differences in production values – they’re close, and the archness of their accents and clarity of their diction, struck me as uncanny. Also helping the parallels are that they both sing songs infused with spirited defiance and resignation, usually simultaneously, and with melody to spare.
But this is not a post about Blackwood (that was largely covered a couple years ago), but Turnnidge and Theoretical Girl. And, by extension, her debut record Divided, which came out back in August. Topically, it stays quite focused on topics of romance and regret, often interchangeably and rendered with unblinking candor, and as noted earlier, they’re themes Turnnidge is quite well-suited to articulating. Musically, Divided is rangier and deftly incorporates pop stylings of the chamber-, electro- and twee- varieties, favourably recalling the likes of Pet Shop Boys, Saint Etienne and Field Mice. The gentler, more nuanced pure pop numbers feel more effortless and natural than the rockers, but by no means can Turnnidge’s compositions not handle a little grit and volume.
But just as I left her SxSW showcase satisfied but not overwhelmed, Divided is an eminently listenable record that lacks that ineffable “something” that would firmly embed it in one’s psyche. It might be just a little too polite, too measured. Where it should be utterly heartbreaking, it only manages to elicit a mild heartache, easily remedied with a few fingers of scotch and a good night’s sleep. Next time out, and be assured I believe the next effort will be closer to the mark, I demand total emotional devastation.
This Is Fake DIY got a track-by-track breakdown of the record from Turnnidge around the time of the album’s release and The Daily Growl solicited a list of seven songs. Artrocker offers up the chord changes to “Biggest Mistake” for those inclined to sing and play along.
MP3: Theoretical Girl – “Rivals”
Video: Theoretical Girl – “Red Mist”
Video: Theoretical Girl – “Rivals”
Video: Theoretical Girl – “The Hypocrite”
MySpace: Theoretical Girl
NME reports that Florence & The Machine will be taking the deluxe edition double-dipping trend to an absurd degree with the release of a 3-CD/1-DVD edition of Lungs on November 30. In addition to the album, it’ll have a disc of live material, one of remixes, rarities and outtakes and the DVD will contain a live show and all her videos. More Florence than any rational person could reasonably want or need? Almost certainly. The Globe & Mail has a fashion spread and interview with Florence Welch about developing and maintaining her style.
Hot Chip are set to return with their fourth album One Life Stand on February 9 and have already scheduled a short North American tour to promote – they’re going to be at the Kool Haus on April 20 with The xx, who still have a prior appearance scheduled for December 2 at the Phoenix. Tickets are $23.50 in advance and go on sale November 23. What do you mean you don’t like committing to plans five months in advance? Why on earth not?
Much-feted UK outfit Wild Beasts have scheduled a Winter North American jaunt with Still Life Still in support of their new record Two Dancers and will be at the Horseshoe on February 22, tickets $15 in advance. There’s a full show from this Summer available to watch up at Domino Records and Clash has a short feature.
MP3: Wild Beasts – “All The King’s Men”
Video: Wild Beasts – “All The King’s Men”
The full dates for The Cribs’ North American tour hinted at last week have been revealed and the January 15 Toronto date at The Phoenix now sits a few dates in to a fairly extensive schedule and yes, all indications are that Johnny Marr is going to be on the tour. Billboard talks to Marr and the band have also just released a new video.
Video: The Cribs – “We Share The Same Skies”
Frightened Rabbit’s sublimely-titled new record The Winter Of Mixed Drinks has been given a release date of March 1.
MPR welcomes Fanfarlo to their studios for a session. They make their Toronto debut at the El Mocambo on December 15.
Spinner talks to Camera Obscura’s Carey Lander about their selection for a Christmas single, available digitally this week. They play The Phoenix on November 26.
British Sea Power have blogged an update as to the status of album number five.
The Chronicle Herald and The Telegram talk to Billy Bragg, in tonight for a show at The Phoenix.
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