Sunday, January 25th, 2009
azizisbored.comTo the best of my knowledge, Canadians are not privvy to the wonders of Human Giant, at least not by conventionally “legal” means. But that doesn’t mean we don’t know who Aziz Ansari is. After all, that Clell Tickle video was inescapable for a while. And he was that racist fruit vendor in Flight Of The Conchords. And he’s going to be in the Office-but-not-Office-spinoff show The Untitled Amy Poehler Project on NBC, premiering this Spring.
In other words, you already know him, or will. Or maybe you don’t and never will. I don’t know. What I do know is that he’s doing a stand-up tour right now cheekily entitled ” Glow In The Dark” (well, cheeky if you’re Kanye) and the final date of said tour is this Friday night, January 30, at the Mod Club. And courtesy of REMG, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away to the show. If you like your comedy standing up and luminescent, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to glow in the dark” in the subject line and your full name in the body and have it to me before midnight Wednsday, January 28.
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
Frank YangCalgary’s Woodpigeon will be rectifying a grievous wrong next week when they re-release their originally limited-edition (and completely sold out) Treasury Canada Library album, this time accessorized with a bonus album in the form of Houndstooth Europa. The album was one of my favourites of last year and I’m pleased that more will be getting to hear it.
But by giving older works their proper due, the band is having to postpone – at least for a little while – their newer works which are already starting to pile up. Not only is there a plan to release another album of new works entitled Die Stadt Muzikanten for this Fall, but demos are already complete for the album after that one. It’s from sessions for that record, currently called Thumbtacks + Glue and which almost certainly not to see the light of day until sometime in ’10, that this simple and haunting ABBA cover comes.
Following a couple of Vancouver dates next week, the band is set to head out on a European tour for most of February. Eastern Canada types take heart, though – they’ll be here in June for NxNE. Yet another reason to look forward to Summer. In case no longer dealing with -30 wind chills wasn’t quite sufficient.
MP3: Woodpigeon – “Lay All Your Love On Me”
Video: ABBA – “Lay All Your Love On Me” (fan video)
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
Jealous Girlfriend Holly Miranda goes it alone
Celeste Danger, Elisabeth YoungHaving spent most of 2008 on the road and working their self-titled debut to death, Brookyln’s Jealous Girlfriends are quite understandably taking the first part of this year off to recover and recharge. And, in the case of singer/guitarist Holly Miranda, work on a solo record. Well, judging from her MySpace blog, work on the solo record has been ongoing for some time – since late 2007 at least – but presumably the time available now will allow it to wrapped up and hopefully see the light of day.
Details are scarce, but production duties appear to have been handled by TV On The Radio’s David Sitek and it will feature appearances from Celebration’s Katrina Ford and TVOTR’s Kyp Malone. The project may or may not be named Raven Mayhem and the album may or may not be called The Magician’s Private Library. Whatever it’s called, there’s a good number of tracks – demo or completed is unclear – at her MySpace and they sound quite compelling. Some distance away from the Jealous Girlfriends’ rock attack, they’re more atmospheric and sonically adventurous while remaining firmly rooted by her marvelous, sleepy yet soaring rasp of a voice. Who/what/whenever this stuff comes out, I’m definitely interested to hear more.
Thanks to Spicy Times for not only letting me know that this project existed but also pointing the way to this FabChannel solo show recorded in Amsterdam last May, wherein we see some of Miranda’s singer-songwritery side. And Get Glucky got her to assemble and comment on a playlist of favourite songs.
MySpace: Holly Miranda
Spinner premiered the new video from TV On The Radio yesterday.
Video: TV On The Radio – “Stork And Owl”
Prefix reports that the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album has a name – It’s Blitz. It’s due out sometime in the Spring.
Peter Bjorn & John are set to release their new record Living Thing on March 31 and will tour it across North America starting in April. Their Toronto date is April 25 at the Phoenix, and support for the whole tour will be Chairlift, who were featured in a Daytrotter session last week. PB&J have already released a video from the new album and Pitchfork premiered a remix MP3 of the first single earlier this week.
MP3: Peter Bjorn & John – “Lay It Down (Golden Filter remix)
Video: Peter Bjorn & John – “Lay It Down”
There’s a video from the new Loney Dear album Dear John, coming out next Tuesday.
Video: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”
Stereogum has premiered the first MP3 from Marissa Nadler’s new album Little Hells, due out March 3. This ties in nicely with her previously-announced April 21 date at the El Mocambo with The Handsome Family. The Times talked to Nadler as part of a feature on what they call “goth-folk”.
David Berman has dissolved the Silver Jews. Maybe I should have gone to see them at Lee’s in September after all… Pronouncement from the man himself at the Drag City forums.
Clash interviews Of Montreal, who have released a track from their digital-only Jon Brion remix EP.
MP3: Of Montreal – “First Time High” (Of Chicago acoustic version)
NME talks to Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallet about his contributions to the new Rumble Strips record, currently in production.
It turns out the Born Ruffians/Akron/Family double-bill at Sneaky Dee’s reported on last week is also a double-header. In addition to the already-announced and nearly sold-out March 24 date, there’ll be a March 23 show, also at Sneaks, and the two will pair up again on the 25 and 26 at Il Motore in Montreal.
Franz Ferdinand’s Tonight is currently streaming at the band’s MySpace. It’s available this Tuesday. Conversations with the band are up at Clash, Metro and dose.ca.
Stream: Franz Ferdinand / Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Neil Halstead drops by the Paste offices to play a song.
The Toronto Sun and The Ubyssey talk to M83 mastermind Anthony Gonzalez. They’re at the ACC tonight opening up for The Killers.
Send Me Dead Flowers talks to The Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner.
Aquarium Drunkard gets a Robyn Hitchcock guide to New York City. Goodnight Oslo, his new album with the Venus 3, is out February 17.
JAM reports that the threatened new Neil Young concept album Fork In The Road (which concerns bailouts of banks and automotive manufacturers as well as electric cars) will indeed be released on March 31 and the promised Archives have indeed been pushed back. It’s probably safe to say this will be the least-welcome Neil Young album in the history of ever.
A farewell to Mr Mick Harvey, who has elected to leave Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Details at the ANTI Blog.
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
Sky Larkin and Emmy The Great annotate debut albums
Liam HenryIt’s really of no surprise whatsoever that I misread the offer tied to pre-orders of Sky Larkin’s debut album The Golden Spike, which I reported on a couple weeks back. I had thought that by committing to the purchase, you’d immediately get MP3 downloads of both the album proper and the live recordings of the same songs. As it turns out, you just get the live set.
But that’s okay, because February 9 isn’t that far off and the live version of the record is really pretty good. It’s obviously a bit rawer than I expect the album to be – though not that much, I expect it to be raw – but the je ne sais quoi that I really like about this band is very much in evidence. I think it’s how they disguise a surprising melodic sophistication behind a youthful energy and directness. At first it sounds like scrappy, jagged pop – which it is – but it’s also much more than that. The already-released singles have been consistently terrific and the rest of the album isn’t far off. Can’t wait to hear the proper thing, and they’re definitely on my “to-see” list for SxSW this year.
They recently gave Drowned In Sound a song-by-song commentary on the record and there’s also interviews at This Is Fake DIY and The Yorkshire Evening Post.
MP3: Sky Larkin – “Molten”
Video: Sky Larkin – “Beeline”
Video: Sky Larkin – “Fossil, I”
Video: Sky Larkin – “Molten”
Video: Sky Larkin – “One Of Two”
MySpace: Sky Larkin
In curiously parallel fashion, The Reading Evening Post has album annotations for the other British debut record I’ve got coming to me in the mail hopefully not long after February 9 – Emmy the Great’s First Love, so in the interest of consistency I’ll link up all the videos released so far for songs appearing on the record (though I suspect “Easter Parade” and “M.I.A.” have been re-recorded for the album). And if you thought I was overly effusive about her, check out Drowned In Sound’s review of the album – they make me look positively measured in comparison. There’s also an interview over at Oxford University’s Cherwell.
Video: Emmy The Great – “First Love”
Video: Emmy The Great – “We Almost Had A Baby”
Video: Emmy The Great – “Easter Parade”
Video: Emmy The Great – “M.I.A.”
Camera Obscura haven’t let slip many details about album number four, now complete and set for a release sooner rather than later in 2009, but they did post a MySpace blog yesterday announcing that it when it was released, it would be by the venerable 4AD label.
Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison tells The Chicago Tribune how a failed relationship inspired The Midnight Organ Fight. You know, in case it wasn’t abundantly clear from the lyrics.
eye, The Telegraph and The List talk to Franz Ferdinand on the occasion of the release of Tonight, in stores on Tuesday.
Glasvegas have released a new video from Glasvegas. Their April 3 show at the Mod Club is totally sold out.
Video: Glasvegas – “Flowers & Football Tops”
Incidentally, support for the Glasvegas tour has been announced as Ida Maria, who is herself getting no small amount of attention. Her album Fortress Round My Heart got a major label release last year, but now that she’s gone indie again, she’s re-releasing a different version on February 9.
Video: Ida Maria – “Oh My God”
Video: Ida Maria – “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked”
Video: Ida Maria – “Stella”
I was dismayed to have missed Asobi Seksu’s visit to the Horseshoe back in October – way too much going on to go, if I recall – but will get the chance to make that up on March 3 when their tour in support of Hush, out February 17, brings them to the El Mocambo.
The Von Pip Musical Express has an interview with Juanita Stein of Howling Bells. The moving target of a release date for Radio Wars seems to have settled on March 2, but I need to confirm that. Update: NME is also saying March 2. We’ll go with that.
Minipop stopped in for a Daytrotter session last week.
Decider interviews Anthony Gonzalez of M83, in town at the Air Canada Centre in support of The Killers tomorrow night.
It’s an odd bit of contesting, but Annuals are giving away tickets to their show at the El Mocambo on Saturday night as well as a pair of passes to the Art Gallery Of Ontario. Yeah, I dunno. Enter here.
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Bishop Allen, Hooded Fang, Electric Owls at the El Mocambo in Toronto
Frank YangI couldn’t offer any excuse for not discovering Bishop Allen sooner when I finally got around to reviewing their album The Broken String back in December, but maybe I could have just said “I hadn’t seen Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist yet”. Apparently the exposure gained from an appearance in said film has done wonders for the Brooklyn band’s profile and helped explain why the El Mocambo was so healthily full on Saturday night, despite yet another snowstorm. Ideally I’d like to chalk it up to the fact that they’re just a great pop band, but that’s probably expecting too much from the world.
Somewhat unusually, the local support was slotted between the two touring acts so up first was Electric Owls, the new project of Andy Herod, formerly of The Comas (though that outfit is technically just on hiatus right now). I’d seen that outfit some years back and had a copy of their Conductor record for a while, so I knew that Herod was a decent pop singer and songwriter, traits carried forward to his new incarnation. He played acoustically, both solo and occasionally accompanied by full arrangements on a laptop and it was the latter that made the best impression – Herod’s compositions are definitely at their best when buoyed by the proper accompaniment, even of the canned variety. Even so, his set was enjoyable and delivered with a goodly dose of humour and the polish of someone who’s been at it for a while.
In comparison, Toronto’s Hooded Fang came out with both the enthusiasm and slight awkwardness of an outfit that was still wet behind the ears. The co-ed six-piece outfit were unrelentingly peppy, swapping both instruments and lead vocalists from song to song. They also traded musical styles almost as much, initially to their detriment as it they sounded more like a mixtape than a band with an actual identity. But about midway through their set, things suddenly seemed to snap into place and what had been a liability now felt like a strength. A little more focus wouldn’t be a bad thing, but they’re onto something. We’ll see how much progress they make in a month when they play one of the Wavelength anniversary shows on February 14 at the Polish Combatants Hall.
The short tour two months before the release of Bishop Allen’s new album Grr… (out March 10) was obviously intended to road-test the new material, but it didn’t seem like the band wanted to make too big a deal of it – they got the new material out of the way early and only really seemed to get their glee on when they started into the old. The new stuff sounded very much in the jaunty pop vein of the old, and will surely require time spent with the recorded versions to properly appreciate the lyrical richness at which the band excels – it’s so easy to overlook that facet of things when everything is so melodic and wonderfully hooky even without having to listen closely.
As for the old, some of my favoured slower numbers from String were omitted from the set list, but it’s hard to argue with the selections that were aired as they got the band bouncing around the stage (or in the case of singer Justin Rice, showing off his running man proficiency), enlisting Andy Herod back onstage to generally help make a racket and just generally putting on a power pop party. The final two songs, the raucous “Middle Management” wrapping the main set and the beauteous “Flight 180” as the encore were the perfect way to finish things off – the former being the one from the movie and the latter the most cinematic. While it’s true that I’ve only spent a couple of months now with The Broken String, but it’s quickly worked its way into heavy rotation for exactly the reasons noted above and I can add being a terrific live band into the list of reasons to enjoy Bishop Allen. It’s not so much that they do anything new or outrageous, it’s just that like their songwriting, they do it exceedingly well and with such joy.
Photos: Bishop Allen, Hooded Fang, Electric Owls @ The El Mocambo – January 17, 2009
MP3: Bishop Allen – “Click, Click, Click, Click”
MP3: Bishop Allen – “Middle Management”
MP3: Bishop Allen – “Like Castanets”
MP3: Bishop Allen – “Rain”
MP3: Bishop Allen – “Things Are What You Make Of Them”
MP3: Bishop Allen – “Eve of Destruction”
Video: Bishop Allen – “Click, Click, Click, Click”
Video: Bishop Allen – “Middle Management”
MySpace: Bishop Allen
MySpace: Electric Owls
Clash, Rolling Stone and Paste talk to Antony Hegarty of Antony & The Johnsons. They’ll play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on February 17 and have just released a new video from The Crying Light, which was released yesterday.
Video: Antony & The Johnsons – “Epilepsy Is Dancing”
Muzzle Of Bees interviews Gary Louris & Mark Olson – you know, saying both their names is a bit of a mouthful. They need to come up with something a little more compact, more memorable. How about… The Jayhawks? No? Just thought I’d put that out there. Ready For The Flood is out next week and they play the Mod Club on February 4.
Filter thinks you ought to know Calexico… but you already do, right?
Animal Collective have announced their world tour in support of the much gushed-over Merriweather Post Pavilion and the Toronto date will bring them to the much-beloved Sound Academy on May 16. Did I say beloved? I meant reviled. The album is currently streaming at Spinner and I may tune in just to see what all the hubbub is about.
Stream: Animal Collective / Merriweather Post Pavilion
Also on the stream is Grand, the new album from Matt & Kim. Pitchfork and Metromix have interviews with Matt, Black Book talks to Kim.
Stream: Matt & Kim / Grand
And you can also listen to the whole of You And I from Cut Off Your Hands, out yesterday and reviewed last week.
Stream: Cut Off Your Hands / You And I
Magnet follows up last week’s announcement that The Wrens were getting back to work on album number four by ringing up Charles Bissell.
MTV has dollops of casting news about the Scott Pilgrim film, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. Joining Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers) are a whole pile of people who I won’t pretend to know (besides Brandon Routh from Superman Returns). But the news of progress on the film is very exciting, and according to the AV Club, shooting is set to begin in March here in Toronto. Which still doesn’t answer the question of whether Toronto will actually be portraying Toronto in the film. It would be fun if they actually shot the requisite scenes at Sneaky Dee’s and Lee’s Palace, though. Anyways, volume five of the Scott Pilgrim chronicles – Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe – is out February 4. Update: Thanks to Scott (Pilgrim?) for pointing out the photo gallery in the comments, and in particular this cast collage. I’d actually thought for a second about doing one myself, but realized that it’d be a lot of work and probably suck. So I didn’t. But based on this, the casting does indeed look terrific.
You see what I did there? Started with a Michael Cera reference, ended with a Michael Cera reference. Mad skills, I tell ya.
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