Monday, October 15th, 2007
Much to do tonight, no time for preamble.
Having made their Toronto debut back in June during NxNE, Los Angeles dreampop outfit Great Northern are returning to the Great White North on Wednesday night for a show at Lee’s Palace and courtesy of Against The Grain, you can be there to greet them. I’ve got three pairs of passes to the show to give away as well as a copy of their debut CD Trading Twilight For Daylight to each winner.
If you want them, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to visit The Great Northern” in the subject line, your full name in the body and tell me from what David Lynch-produced 1990s television show about a small lumber town in the Pacific Northwest where all kinds of wacky stuff happened, did the band take their name? Hint – I’ve already referenced it once this week. And let me just add that if you get this wrong, not only do you not win but you’re banned from all contests on this site from now to eternity. Contest closes at 9PM tomorrow night, that’s Tuesday October 16.
MP3: Great Northern – “Home”
Video: Great Northern – “Home” (YouTube)
Video: Great Northern – “Low Is A Height” (MOV)
MySpace: Great Northern
Monday, October 15th, 2007
I am fully prepared to accept that I may have been the only music blogger to get excited when I received the press release on Friday afternoon announcing that the new American Music Club record was completed, had a title – The Golden Age – and would be hitting stores on February 19 of next year via Merge.
AMC were never the most popular band in their first go-around and when they reunited a few years ago, the news didn’t necessarily set the world afire. But while all the other bands from the 80s burying hatchets in hopes of a nostalgia-fueled payday might be making more money, they could only dream about releasing a new record half as vital as 2004’s Love Songs For Patriots. Of course, I bet AMC would like to have made half the money that those other bands have, but I digress. Love Songs proved that Mark Eitzel’s pen hadn’t lost any of its wit, pathos, romanticism and venom and years of driving a bus in Los Angeles hadn’t dulled Vudi’s guitar chops either – its place in my favourite albums of 2004 was well-earned.
In the three years between then and now, there’ve been membership changes in the Club – the rhythm section of Danny Pearson and Tim Mooney have left the band on account of the shift of their base of operations from San Francisco to Los Angeles, their places taken by Steve Didilot and Sean Hoffman from The Larks. I am going to resist copying and pasting the notes on the new album on the band’s website, presumably penned by Eitzel, but encourage you to click through and give a read – they’re hilarious.
Also worth noting is that the band is planning a North American tour for Spring of next year – NORTH AMERICAN. To me, that implies Canada. Unless they mean Mexico. But I’m hoping Canada. They passed us by when touring Love Songs – Toronto, anyways, maybe they played Vancouver – necessitating a trip to Chicago to properly pay homage. Which was great, but it’d be much nicer (and economical) to have them come to me this time.
No previews of the new record yet, so in the meantime sample something from the last one and their meagre pickings on YouTube. You know a band is underground when they’ve got videos out there (whither “Johnny Mathis’ Feet”?) and they haven’t made it to YouTube.
MP3: American Music Club – “Another Morning”
Video: American Music Club – “Electric Light” (YouTube)
MySpace: American Music Club
But those of us wanting to hear new material from American Music Club need not wait until February – Hard To Find A Friend has curated a holiday compilation entitled Peace on Earth: A Holiday Album that features a new track from AMC amongst offering from Great Lake Swimmers, The Long Winters and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. The comp will be available in digital form on November 13 for $7 and all profits will go to Toys For Tots. A great idea and worth your money. And I apologize for bringing up the holidays in mid-October.
But if we must look to December, let’s not look past the first week of said month for that’s when the venerable Horseshoe Tavern here in Toronto celebrates its 60th anniversary. While festivities will run the whole week, the actual birthday is December 5 and that evening, it will host the first-ever local show by former Pulp and Longpigs guitarist and producer extraordinaire, Richard Hawley. I’m only just discovering his stuff but already I’m certain it’s going to be a pretty special show and though it’s probably too much to hope he tours with an orchestra… I hope he tours with an orchestra. Or a big band at the very least. His latest album is Lady’s Bridge and you can watch the first couple videos from it below. Tickets are $15 and should go on sale this week.
Video: Richard Hawley – “Tonight The Streets Are Ours” (YouTube)
Video: Richard Hawley – “Serious” (YouTube)
Also coming to town for a little ‘Shoe-shaped cake are the Jon Langford’s Waco Brothers – they’re going to be playing on December 7 and if you were planning on seeing any of Joel Plaskett’s five gigs there from December 10th through the 13th, you better call ahead and make sure that the Waco Brothers have left the place standing.
Pitchfork has an interview with Steve Earle covering all breadth of topics (Dylan, Springsteen, Emmylou, Sex Pistols) but not his new record Washington Square Serenade. NPR is also streaming a concert recorded at the World Cafe.
Muzzle Of Bees reports that the new Drive-By Truckers album will be out in early 2008 and be called Brighter Than Creation’s Dark.
Chart and The Montreal Mirror chat with Rolf Klausener of The Acorn. They’re at the Horseshoe November 24.
Jeff Tweedy talks to Billboard about FINALLY working older Wilco material into their live setlists. Now if they could only reach back a little further into the Tupelo vaults…
Justin from An Aquarium Drunkard interviews Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers for The Arizona Republic.
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
To coincide with their upcoming tour which starts Monday in Baltimore, the folks in Dallas’ Hourly Radio are releasing a new single on November 1 for “Gun In Hand” – a sleek slice of glammy synth rock that marks the band’s first release since last year’s History Will Never Hold Me full-length. In addition to the single, it features eight remix tracks from artists and DJs that the band has toured with, met, fought and defeated, Mortal Kombat-style, over the past year.
And while the CD won’t be out until November 1, they’re latching onto a number of trends on the interweb and a) releasing it digitally in advance of the physical release, b) doing so by premiering the tracks at various sites online and c) offering it up for free. To point a), you can head over here to grab the tracks that have already been released. To point b), I’m happy to offer up the next track – a remix of “He Said / She Said” by Michael Jurin from Stellastarr*. And to point c)… well what part of free don’t you understand?
The remaining four tracks will be rolled out over the next few days, so if you like, check back there over the next week.
MP3: The Hourly Radio – “Gun In Hand”
MP3: The Hourly Radio – “He Said / She Said” (Piano Belly Remix)
MySpace: The Hourly Radio
The Georgia Straight is suspicious of John Vanderslice’s explanations of the background for Emerald City. My Old Kentucky Blog and MPR are offering slices of ‘Slice sessions for download and stream, respectively.
The Edmonton Sun tries to pay John K Samson of The Weakerthans compliments – Samson demurs. The Weakerthans are in town November 7 and 8 for a pair of shows at the Phoenix.
JAM! talks to Ted Leo about his 2007, which he calls “the most devastating year of my life”. And this was before he was revealed as an unwitting Taco Bell endorser.
The Independent Q&As Kevin Drew, who will be playing the Kool Haus on December 8 at a show that’s billed as Broken Social Scene/Kevin Drew – not Broken Social Scene PRESENTS Kevin Drew. Semantics, yeah, but perhaps speaks to more BSS material than his solo stuff in the set list.
The Chicago Tribune chats up Spoon, who’re at the Kool Haus on Monday night.
Friday, October 12th, 2007
Most everything you read about Our Ill Wills, the sophomore effort from Stockholm’s Shout Out Louds, will have a common reference point – The Cure. This is both deserved and not. To the former, it’s simply fact that singer Adam Olenius is, vocally, as dead a ringer for Robert Smith as you’ll find in Sweden and the downbeat jubilation of “Tonight I Have To Leave It”, the first single and the album’s leadoff track, is so evocative of The Cure at their poppiest – think “In Between Days” or “Just Like Heaven” – that ignoring the similarities is like ignoring the giant, mascara-laden elephant in the room.
But extrapolating that one song out to the whole record is doing it a real disservice. Over the next eleven tracks, The Cure influence doesn’t really weigh any heavier than the other ’80s British rock acts that the band obviously grew up on (Smiths, Stone Roses, New Order) though Olenius obviously sounds more Smith than Moz, Brown or Sumner. And even there, Ill Wills is more than just a rehash of the sounds of Thatcher-era England. Instead, it sounds very much like contemporary Swedish indie-pop – warm and organic but with a healthy studio sheen – thanks in no small part to the involvement of ubiquitous producer Bjorn Yttling.
Songwriting throughout is kept at a high standard throughout – always melodic and meticulously arranged – but at points, it really soars. Album centrepiece “Impossible” is a particular gem, the music slowly but insistently swelling to anthemic stature despite the gloriously defeatist lyrics they have to carry and the chorus, as simple as it is, just slays. “Time Left For Love” and “Hard Rain” are also standouts that validate the album beyond any criticisms of influence-sleeving (is that a term? Is now). Shout Out Louds may not be peddling a new sound, but it is a good one. Their North American tour kicks off tonight in Vancouver and will wind its way to the Mod Club on October 22.
The Georgia Straight tackles the Cure thing head on in talking to the band, Wireless Bollinger slips it in towards the end of their conversation, Lunapark only asks about the influence of Head In The Door and Chart doesn’t bring it up at all.
MP3: Shout Out Louds – “Tonight I Have To Leave It”
Video: Shout Out Louds – “Tonight I Have To Leave It” (MOV)
Video: Shout Out Louds – “Impossible” (YouTube)
Stream: Shout Out Louds / Our Ill Wills
MySpace: Shout Out Louds
Jens Lekman talks to Drowned In Sound about the backstory of Night Falls On Kortedala and moving to Australia. For real. Paste also has a brief feature.
Pitchfork reports that the Beirut videos assembled at www.flyingclubcup.com – I talked about them earlier this week – will be compiled on a DVD entitled Cheap Magic Inside. It’ll be available sometime around November while the band is touring Europe. Paste also has an interview with Zach Condon while Rolling Stone declares them a “breaking band”.
Bob Mould has a new home at Anti Records and will release District Line on February 5. Billboard has details.
The Portland Mercury, The Georgia Straight and The Westender feature Bat For Lashes while NPR has a World Cafe session.
Prefix interviews Amy Millan of Stars, who have a three-night stand at the Phoenix scheduled for November 26 through 28.
eye previews Spoon’s Monday night show at the Kool Haus by talking to drummer Jim Eno.
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