Sunday, July 13th, 2008
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For Against / Shade Side Sunny Side (Words On Music)
Readers of the long-running indie/punk-rock journal The Big Takeover have likely learned to take the recommendations of editor Jack Rabid seriously, since if you read the magazine your musical tastes probably align reasonably well with his. So when you’ve got a band like Nebraska’s For Against whose last two releases, not counting last year’s reissue of In The Marshes, have been Rabid’s #1 ranked review in the issue they’re featured in, they’re probably worth investigating.
Despite their middle America origins, For Against’s influences are wholly Anglo – in particular, the transitional period between ’80s post-punk and ’90s shoegaze that appeared on labels such as 4AD and Factory and produced such underappreciated acts as The Chameleons and Kitchens Of Distinction (though neither was associated with those two labels, I know). Shade Side Sunny Side, their first album in six years following some lineup shuffles and a hiatus, is another collection of shimmering guitars, keening vocals and melodies that always seem to drift towards the unconventional. And while the ingredients may be the same as those typically used to craft hazy dreampop, For Against infuse everything with an urgency and darkness that’s decidedly atypical for the genre. The ensuing listening experience is a bit difficult and a bit unsettling, but ultimately rewarding.
MP3: For Against – “Glamour”
MP3: For Against – “Underestimate”
MySpace: For Against |
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A Classic Education / First EP (independent)
Italy is well known for exporting all sorts of wonderful goods, but rock music is not usually one of them. Bologna-based outfit A Classic Education is a welcome exception, though it should be noted that they have Canadian roots as well in the form of singer Jonathan Clancy. Their first release – available only as a 12″ EP – is a collection of songs recorded at various points in the band’s young existence and despite a morphing lineup and their obviously trying to pin down their sonic identity, is a commendably solid effort. Lead track “Stay, Son” sets the bar high by putting Clancy’s rock’n’roll rasp and the band’s orchestral inclinations to grandiose use and while the rest of the recordings don’t quite measure up to that first salvo – some tracks don’t feel as fully realized as they probably/possibly could – but as a debut it’s an achievement.
MP3: A Classic Education – “Stay, Son”
MySpace: A Classic Education |
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
The Tranzac – Toronto Australia New Zealand Club – is a little gem of a Toronto institution, nestled just of Bloor on Brunswick in the Annex. The non-profit, volunteer-run community centre plays host to a wide variety of under the radar cultural events ranging from the musical through the theatrical, comedic, literary or what have you, and on Saturday July 19th they’re holding their annual open house event to celebrate the year past, the one upcoming and raise funds to keep it all going.
To help celebrate, they’ve assembled a suitably eclectic range of programming for the night, featuring Fembots, Castlemusic, Burning Hell, The Mantler Band, Tusks, Josh Thorpe’s “You Do” (featuring Jason Benoit, Allison Cameron, Jennifer Castle, Eric Chenaux, and Marcus Quin), Great Aunt Ida, Jenny Omnichord, Griffin & The True Believers and DJ duties from Glissandro 70.
Courtesy of the club, I’ve got a pair of passes to give away for the festivities – to enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to party with the Tranzac” in the subject line and your full name in the body. The winner will be drawn at the stroke of midnight (or thereabouts) on July 15. Tickets for the event are $10 in advance at Soundscapes and Rotate This and will also be available at the door.
MP3: Fembots – “Count Down Our Days”
MP3: The Burning Hell – “The Things That People Make”
MP3: Castlemusic – “Heaven”
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Photo via
MySpaceSome might have been surprised to see Dallas-via-NYC psych/space-rock outfit The Secret Machines lineup up for a date at Lee’s Palace tomorrow night. Some might be surprised that the band is even still together – after all, when one third of a band quits, as guitarist Ben Curtis did last Spring, questions about their future are logical.
But as it happens they’re not only still carrying on as a duo with support players, they’ve got a new album in the can, their third and first since 2006’s Ten Silver Drops. Billboard reports that the band’s third album will be a self-titled affair and be released independently this Fall, most likely in October.
There’s been no hint as to what the reconfigured band sounds like, though Spin visited them in the studio earlier this year and talked to Josh Garza, so in the meantime make do with some older stuff.
MP3: The Secret Machines – “Nowhere Again”
Video: The Secret Machines – “Nowhere Again”
Video: The Secret Machines – “Lightning Blue Eyes”
Video: The Secret Machines – “All At Once (It’s Not Important)”
MySpace: The Secret Machines
BeatRoute talks to Steve Earle. They also offer up a concise history of alt.country. Or tries to, at least.
Filter talks to Stephen Malkmus and director Todd Haynes about Bob Dylan while eye, JamBase and hour.ca feature Fleet Foxes. Both are at the Phoenix on Wednesday night, July 16.
A reason to stop catching up on Nick Cave’s back catalog for the immediate future – Uncut reports that his entire catalog will be getting remastered and expanded starting with his first four records by year’s end. Of course, it’s going to take them some time to get to the next ones I was planning on picking up so maybe I can splurge that $8 right now. Cave is at the Kool Haus on October 1.
Sloan have released the first video from their new album Parallel Play. Here welcomes the band to New Brunswick.
Video: Sloan – “Believe In Me”
Also with a new video clip are Death Cab For Cutie, the second from Narrow Stairs.
Video: Death Cab For Cutie – “Cath…”
NOW features local boys The Coast, who will do their damnedest to fit in at Edgefest up at Downsview Park tomorrow.
Wolf Parade talks to The Seattle Times and The Georgia Straight. They’re at the Kool Haus August 9.
Muzzle Of Bees chats with Centro-Matic’s Will Johnson.
Matt Berninger of The National talks to An Aquarium Drunkard.
Drowned In Sound and The Quietus feature Primal Scream, who release Beautiful Future on July 21.
Neil Halstead tells Exclaim to not hold their breath for a Slowdive reunion. His next solo record Oh! Mighty Engine is out July 29.
Wayne Coyne gives Billboard some vague notions about what the next Flaming Lips record might sound like, whenever it’s finished.
The Quietus visits Iceland, Bjork and Sigur Ros.
Steve Albini’s Shellac will make their Toronto debut at the Horseshoe on September 16. Tickets $18.
MP3: Shellac – “Watch Song”
Though they ended up bailing on their NxNE appearance, The French Kicks will be coming to town for a show at the Horseshoe on September 17 with The Whigs in tow, tickets for that are $11.50. Their new album Swimming is out now and the band was featured on Daytrotter last month.
The September 24 Mogwai show will not be at the Kool Haus, as originally announced, but once again at the Phoenix. The Hawk Is Howling is still coming out September 23.
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
Photo by Andy Willsher
The whole blogging thing usually necessitates looking straight ahead, musically speaking, for whatever’s coming up next be it a new artist, a new album, a new tour, whatever. New new new. But sometimes that’s at the expense of a record that’s either not gotten to or doesn’t click until after the so-called “press cycle” for the album has already elapsed, and commentary on it seems dated.
Case in point, The Clientele and their 2007 album God Save The Clientele though the aforementioned scenario doesn’t exactly apply. While I was completely nonplussed by them the first time I saw them opening for Spoon in 2005, I was won over by God Save early enough to thoroughly enjoy their set at last year’s V Fest. But in the past month or so, I’ve found myself craving the album more than I ever did last year for reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me, and it’s been living in fairly heavy rotation. Sufficed to say, I am completely turned around on this band.
Perhaps it’s partly some nostalgia for my recent visit to the UK. The Clientele are so very distinctly and classically English, evoking a London that I didn’t actually experience and quite possibly/probably doesn’t exist – of long walks along the Thames in the fog, warm pints by a fire or watching sunsets on Hampstead Heath – but the romantic in me still very much yearns for. Less metaphorically, it’s a lovely and cozy blanket of a record, all low-rise structures of classic pop built around Alasdair Maclean’s warm vocals and shimmering guitar work. There are enough string and key embellishments to earn it the appellation of chamber pop, but the record is extroverted enough that that doesn’t quite fit – it’s like it got tired of hanging out in the chamber and went to the local for a smoke and a beer.
Of course, since I’m well past the press and touring cycle for this album, there’s not a whole lot to report but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing. The band has made a habit of releasing between-album EPs and will do so again with That Night A Forest Grew, due out on the Spanish Acuarela label on July 21 or thereabouts. No idea when the next full-length is due out, but lucky for me in the meantime I’ve got their entire back catalog to explore and it’s entirely possible I’ll be spending all of this month’s eMusic subscription on it.
MP3: The Clientele – “Bookshop Casanova”
Video: The Clientele – “Bookshop Casanova”
MySpace: The Clientele
Though NME has no one but themselves to blame for building hype (and the ensuing disappointment) around Bloc Party’s recent countdown stunt, a new single and video is nothing to be upset about. Billboard has some details about the new song, “Mercury”, and indicate that the band’s third album should be due out before year’s end. Hopefully the new song is being released on its own because it doesn’t fit in with the new album on account of the fact that it’s not very good and the album material is… hopefully. They’ll be playing day one of V Fest at the Toronto Islands on September 6.
Video: Bloc Party – “Mercury”
Tiny Mix Tapes and The Daily Yomiuri talk to Jason Pierce of Spiritualized, also gracing the stage on the first day of V Fest. And over at www.spiritualizedharmonies.com, they’re running a contest to give away a pretty comprehensive Songs In A & E prize pack, consisting of two CD versions and the LP along with an autographed poster.
The Verve, continuing with a pretty steady stream of newsworthy activity leading up to the release of Forth on August 19, have released a video for the the first single from the aforementioned album, “Love Is Noise”.
Video: The Verve – “Love Is Noise”
Drowned In Sound reports that Portishead have elected to quit touring for the foreseeable future in favour of working on their fourth album.
If Amazon.co.uk is to be believed, the My Bloody Valentine reissues will now be out September 1. Still plenty of time to get acquainted with the material before their show at Ricoh Coliseum on September 25… Oh wait, that’s what we’ve been doing for the past 20 years. Right.
CMJ chats up The Futureheads.
Glasgow’s Glasvegas – who piqued my interest way back in December – have finally completed their debut full-length and will release the self-titled album in the UK on September 9. NME has details and I, for one, am curious to see if I still care. They’ve just released a new vid, as well.
Video: Glasvegas – “Geraldine”
Deaf Indie Elephants has got a bunch of live recordings of new Mogwai songs available to download, to hold you over until the release of the Batcat EP on September 9, which will hold you over until the release of The Hawk Is Howling on September 23, which will hold you over until they play the Kool Haus on September 24.
This week’s Spinner album previews include both a David Bowie live album and tribute album.
Stream: David Bowie / Live Santa Monica ’72
Stream: various artists / Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Covered
The National Post examines the Summer of music festival saturation from the point of view of some of the Canadian events, namely Hillside in Guelph (July 25 to 27), Rogers Picnic in Toronto (July 20) and Osheaga in Montreal (August 4 and 5).
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
After a weekend of beatings and breakings and the finest musical stylings that technology had to offer, it was good to shift gears Sunday night and get back to something a little more homespun and for getting back to roots, you can’t do much better than Calexico. They stopped in at the Mod Club in the midst of a Canadian tour, two years to the day since their last visit and almost two months before the release of their next album Return To Dust on September 9.
In keeping with the Canuck theme of their jaunt, they had invited along Calgary folk-chestra Woodpigeon along as support. I’d had the pleasure of making their acquaintance at Pop Montreal last year but in this setting, with a full eight-piece band in a more rock club atmosphere (as opposed to the five-piece configuration and community centre setting that time), they were more impressive. Lovely four-part harmonies and gentle yet swelling songs were still the order of the day, but the extra instrumentation gave them more dynamics and dimension. The grand scope of their sound recalls Sufjan Stevens, but rendered in woodcut and sepia. Lovely and enthralling. They have a new record set for self-release soon and are offering an old EP, Houndstooth, for free download from their site.
I’ve always enjoyed seeing bands with deep catalogs on tour between album cycles because they feel less obliged to promote a certain record and instead seem to just play what they enjoy, and that was very much the case here. You knew it wasn’t going to be the same old same old when the show opened with just Joey Burns and John Convertino taking the stage and ripping through the surf-punk instrumental “Scout” from their debut Spoke before being joined by the rest of the band for “Roka”, from their last effort, the underwhelming Garden Ruin. And with those bookends represented, the remainder of the set drew from Feast Of Wire, The Black Light and Hot Rail as well as previewing some material from Carried To Dust. The entire show was a joy start to finish, with one of the finest live bands around in a party mood and focusing on their more Mexicali-influenced and rollicking material. As the set went on, the band just got tighter and the groove deeper and damn if just about everyone wasn’t dancing, just a little.
As for the new material, it was a bit difficult to tell with a live mix that very much emphasized the guitars, drums and vocals (at least on my side of the stage) but the new songs seemed to maintain the more conventional, compact pop structures of Garden Ruin but incorporate much more of the distinctive southwestern instrumentation and flavour that is uniquely Calexico and which was far underutilized last time out. It sounds like they left the studio door open to let the sand blow in, and that’s pretty much all I could have asked for. I’m much more excited now for the release of Return To Dust and whether you believed they’d ever gone away or not, Calexico are back.
The Caliposa archive has the set list from Sunday night’s show and in advance of the new record, there’s a short preview video shot in their hometown of Tuscon now up.
Photos: Calexico, Woodpigeon @ The Mod Club – July 6, 2008
MP3: Calexico – “Cruel”
MP3: Calexico – “Convict Pool”
MP3: Calexico – “Alone Again Or”
MP3: Calexico – “Quattro (World Drifts In)”
MP3: Calexico – “Crystal Frontier”
MP3: Calexico – “The Black Light”
MP3: Woodpigeon – “In Praise Of The West Midlothian Bus Service”
MP3: Woodpigeon – “Oberkampf”
Video: Calexico – “Cruel”
MySpace: Calexico
MySpace: Woodpigeon
And staying in Arizona for a bit, Giant Sand’s new one proVisions was originally supposed to come out in May, but since that obviously didn’t happen, fans can now look forward to it hitting stores on September 2 courtesy of Yep Roc.
One of the guests on said Giant Sand record is Neko Case, and she also lends her pipes to another record from a veteran performer dusting off a band name again after flying solo for a bit – Eric Bachmann and Crooked Fingers. Pitchfork has details on the new Crooked Fingers record Fortune/Forfeit, which is set for an October 7 release amidst touring that will find them at the Phoenix with Okkervil River later that week on October 12.
And checking in on she whose voice graced the last Crooked Fingers record Dignity & Shame – Ms Lara Meyerratken aka El May – she’s made some tracks from her ever-in-progress record available to stream on her site and her MySpace. Worth a listen.
An Aquarium Drunkard interviews Alejandro Escovedo.
David Berman of Silver Jews talks to BeatRoute. They’re at Lee’s Palace on September 2.
Today, in Fleet Foxes news – they’ve released a new video (see below), have a recent gig streaming at NPR, are the subject of an interview with The Chicago Tribune and have been declared “Band of the Week” at Paste. They’re at the Phoenix on July 16 with Stephen Malkmus.
Video: Fleet Foxes – “White Winter Hymnal”
It’s a foregone conclusion that Of Montreal will tour in support of their next album Skeletal Lamping after it’s released on October 7 but while only a handful of dates have been announced, Steve helpfully pointed out in yesterday’s comments that TicketMaster is already listing one of them in Toronto on October 28 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre down at the CNE grounds. That’s not a commonly used venue, but it holds around 1300, seated. Because obviously you’d want to sit for Of Montreal. Tickets for that show are general admission, $25 and go on sale Friday.
I’d originally said The Walkmen’s September 10 show was at Lee’s Palace – in fact, it will be at the Horseshoe. Their next album You & Me will still be out August 19.
Rob Crow of Pinback gives Drowned In Sound a guide to writing the perfect pop song. Pinback will be at Lee’s Palace on October 7.
Pitchfork reports that Portastatic will be doing some housecleaning in the form a double-disc compilation chock full of rarities and covers and entitled Some Small History, due out September 9.
Merge is giving away free non-album MP3s from the likes of M Ward, Destroyer and Wye Oak. Because they’re swell.
Blurt congratulates Juliana Hatfield on the release of her tenth solo record, How To Walk Away, out August 19. She’ll also be releasing her memoirs in a tome entitled When I Grow Up and set to his stores September 29.
Pitchfork presents Broken Social Scene presents Brendan Canning presents Something For All Of Us… presents the video for “Hit The Wall”. Stores present the album July 22. Hillside presents Broken Social Scene on July 27.
Video: Brendan Canning – “Hit The Wall”
Chart talks to Young & Sexy.
The National Post points the way to the trailer for Generation Kill, the new Gulf War II-themed HBO miniseries from David Simon, the man behind The Wire. The seven-part series premieres next Sunday, July 13. Season five of The Wire is available on DVD on August 12.
Trailer: Generation Kill
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