I’ve been assured by the folks in San Francisco’s Birdmonster, who were foiled in their last attempt to come to Canada back in September, that this time their paperwork is all in order and they will indeed be at the Horseshoe on Wednesday, March 28, to make their T.O. debut.
Accompanying them on this evening will be Mason Proper from Detroit and Toronto’s The Coast and The Visit. If that seems like a lot of bands, it is, but all of them seem quite certain that they’re playing that night so I’ll let them sort it out. My job is just to get you there. Courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got five pairs of passes to give away for this show. Since notice is short, I’m going to take the names of the first five people to email me at contests AT chromewaves.net for my winners. So if you’re bored and cruising the internet on a Sunday afternoon, it’s all about to pay off for you. Passes all gone! Congrats to Dmitri, Erik, Matt, Moira and Marc.
I usually try to enforce a show-going moratorium for at least a week or so after SxSW, just to get my head back together, but this year it lasted but 72 hours. The draw was Maria Taylor and Basia Bulat and despite being medicated to a degree far more suitable for seeing Spiritualized (got me a Texas-sized cold, y’all!), I was off to the ‘Shoe on Wednesday night.
When I saw her at the Drake back in January, I described Basia Bulat’s music as “springtime smiling” – a bit of a throwaway metaphor at the time but now rather prescient. This show came on the evening of the Spring Equinox and watching Bulat and her band perform was like watching one of those time-lapse films of Winter thawing and Spring blooming. The rich, effervescent orchestral pop of her forthcoming debut Oh, My Darling sounded wonderful and Bulat was an effortlessly charming frontwoman (even if she doesn’t seem to realize it). It was also nice to hear their cover of The Strokes’ “Someday” live, sounding much more fully-realized than the off-the-cuff version on her MySpace. The album is due out in May in Europe but there’s still no domestic release confirmed – I got an advance copy of it last night and it sounds as good as the live show would have you hope. Labels should be fighting each other in the street to put this thing out. I don’t understand the world, sometimes.
If Basia Bulat’s set was like a time-lapse film, then Maria Taylor took everything down to slow motion. Whatever project she’s been in, from the power-popping Little Red Rocket through the electronic-y Azure Ray to her recent solo material – including her latest Lynn Teeter Flower – has been defined by her sad, sleepy and lovely vocals. And while it makes for great headphone listening, it’s not an aesthetic that necessarily translates into a compelling live show – which Taylor appears to appreciate. To that end, she was touring with a six-piece band (including her brother and sister) and featuring three guitars – which sort of goes without saying considering they’re from Alabama. Though the more muscular backline definitely helped give her material the extra oomph it needed to translate live but not at the expense of the delicacy and intimacy of the songs. The balance struck was actually good, I thought, and the lound jam of “Song Beneath The Song”, was a good finale – even when the random guy from the audience leapt onstage to an open mic to continue singing the outro. The look of incredulousness on Taylor’s face was priceless and at least he was in key.
The Clientele and Beach House will make the El Mocambo a very sleepy place to be on June 4, tickets $22.50 in advance. And the lounge-poppy Postmarks are in town April 21 for a show at the Amp’d Studio, and no, I don’t know what it is. But you can apparently get free tickets here (not for the Postmarks gig yet, but others).
This weekend is the sold-out double-shot of Explosions In The Sky at the Opera House. Chart, JAM!, The Express and New City Chicago talk to the band while Filter gets them to offer a tour of their hometown of Austin, TX – info that may have been useful a week ago but now? Not so much. And NPR has their recent show in DC available to stream or download from their site.
Courtesy of the good folks at Beggars, an exclusive sneak peek at not only another track from The National’s new album Boxer but also the A Skin, A Night documentary film being assembled by unofficial band videographer Vincent Moon.
And it’s also my first YouTube embed, but that’s probably not so interesting to you. But this should be – the first official MP3:
The thing about a new Ted Leo record is that you’re probably never going to be surprised by what you get, but you’re also very unlikely to be disappointed – unless of course you were hoping to be surprised. His latest effort, Living With The Living, picks up not far where Shake The Sheets left off – the world is still frakked, Ted’s still mad about it – but since that was one of my top albums of 2005, I’ve no problem with that.
The opening track (technically track two but “Fourth World War” is just a radio static intro) “Sons Of Cain” is Leo at his fieriest, the tonsil-shredding “hey”s of the outro making you really hope, for his sake, that it was a first-taker. From there, and for the remaining 14 tracks, Leo covers familiar ground with his distinctive brand of jangle-punk with dashes of Celtic, reggae and soul influences (with varying degrees of effectiveness). It could be argued that a few tracks could have been cut to make it a tighter, more concise album but complaining about too much Ted Leo is like complaining about too much… something that it’s not possible to have too much of. I’m sorry, I’m on cold medication and about as sharp as a rubber ball.
But really, the best thing about a new Ted Leo record is the fact that it will inevitably be followed by a new Ted Leo tour. The man and his band are unquestionably one of the hardest working and hardest rocking in the biz, and after catching them three times in 2004, I’ve only seen them once since and that was over a year ago at SxSW 2006. Way too long, so I’m pretty stoked for their May 2 show at the Mod Club.
Leo discusses his politics with Chart, the inspiration behind “Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.” with The Georgetown Voice and you can stream the album in its entirety over at Spinner.com. Update: Thanks to Eric for pointing out this AV Club interview with Ted, as well.
Hold Steady news: Pitchfork reports that the band will release a live, 5-song EP on April 17 entitled Live At Fingerprints, named for the CA record store where it was recorded. It’s an acoustic set and the CD will only be available at stores that are part of the Think Indie organization – technically only in America but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen other releases with the same distribution at Soundscapes in Toronto. And if not, I’m sure any of the participating stores would be happy to sell you one online. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Daily Collegian and The Phoenix chat with keyboardist Franz Nicolay, who appears to have drawn the press duties straw for this tour. The band have also released their second video from Boys & Girls In America – far straighter than the one for “Chips Ahoy!” but stick around to the end, there’s still a guffaw in there.
Spinner has got Midlake in session for their latest edition of The Interface.
Bloc Party have got a sold-out show at the Kool Haus this Sunday evening but if you’re not one of the lucky 2000 in attendance or simply need a little more BP in your diet, hit up MTV Live for free tickets to their performance in the Yonge & Davenport studios Monday evening at 6PM. That’s going to be crazy. Guaranteed. And since they’re going to be hanging out in Toronto an extra day, NOW asks Kele Okereke about his favourite Hogtown haunts and he tells The Toronto Sun that Toronto is one of their favourite cities to play. The Toronto Star caught up with Okereke at SxSW to talk about the new record. Finally, AmpCamp has got a b-side from the single for The Prayer available to download. Update: Also been informed that there’s an afterparty this Sunday night following the show – Okereke will be playing DJ and it’s possible/likely that others from the band and opening acts will be in attendance. It’s happening at The Social, check out the flyer for more info.
Low’s 2005 effort The Great Destroyer was a polarizing record for their fanbase. While they’d steadily moved away from the ultra-slow, ultra-quiet sound that defined them early on, that record abandoned the incremental steps they’d taken previously and dived headlong into the realm of loud guitar rock. For some, it was the last straw for a band that had obviously lost its way, for others, it was a bold sign that they still had a sense of adventure and were not going to be constrained by others’ expectations. I was firmly of the latter mindset and The Great Destroyer was one of my favourite records of that year.
But for anyone who thought that record would be a sign of things to come, Low have confounded expectations again. Their latest record Drums And Guns, released yesterday, is in some ways the polar opposite of The Great Destroyer and in others, its perfect companion piece. It’s an utterly stark and skeletal record, even for Low, that favours spare electronic textures, abrasive percussion and guitar tones and an unrelenting lyrical bleakness and vitriol that’s unmistakably political. Dave Fridmann once again produced this record and whereas the the last effort called for the bombast he’s known for, this time he’s crafted an atmosphere of desolation. There are still moments of beauty – Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk’s vocals are still angelic throughout and the strings that rise in “Belarus” are like flowers growing out of the rubble, but such punctuations are rare. In the wake of The Great Destroyer, Drums And Guns are what crawl from the wreckage.
Alan Sparhawk talks to Harp about the undertones of violence in the new record while JAM! offers a capsule history of the band from then to now. Metacritic is tracking a typically positive response to the new record and the band is touring to support, but are not making any stops in the Toronto area this time around.
The AV Club asks Win Butler of Arcade Fire why he smashed his guitar on SNL, Student Life talks to brother Will, while Billboard asks Merge how they prepared for what would turn out to be the #2 album in America (Neon Bible, that is).
The incomporable Richard Thompson will be releasing a new album on May 29 entitled Sweet Warrior and he talks to The Associated Press about the politicism of the album and his work in general. He’s also made a track from the record available to download.
eye talks to Basia Bulat, opening up tonight for Maria Taylor at the Horseshoe. Her debut Oh, My Darling is out sometime in mid-May in Europe but information on a domestic release remains elusive. She’s also got a few gigs opening for Great Lake Swimmers though not their April 14 shows at the Church Of The Redeemer in Toronto. Their new one Ongiara is out next Tuesday and I Heart Music has a CBC Radio 3 session the band recorded a few years ago available to share. Express talked to Taylor about life on the road.
Audio previews of The National’s new album Boxer, out May 22, haven’t seeped onto the internet yet, so these two live videos at Take Away Shows are pretty much the first taste we’ve got of the new material. WANT. MORE. They’re at the Opera House on June 8.
Entertainment Weekly caught up with Spoon’s Britt Daniel at SxSW and discussed his pants. He also mentioned that their new album is slated for a July release.
And a few big shows announced in the last while – Modest Mouse are at the Hummingbird Centre on April 24, tickets $36.50 and $42, while Dinosaur Jr are at The Phoenix on June 8. I’m wondering if it’ll be a NxNE show of the sort where they let a half-dozen badge holders and wristbands in and sell tickets for the other 950 spots? Either way, that conflicts with the Voxtrot show at Sneaky Dee’s so unless it’s an early show, I’m guessing I’ll miss out on having my eardrums assaulted by J and Lou again. And finally, BrooklynVegan reports that the White Stripes date announced at the Molson Amphitheatre for September 16 isn’t legit, but probably isn’t too far off from the truth.
I’ve been assured by the folks in San Francisco’s Birdmonster, who were foiled in their last attempt to come to Canada back in September, that this time their paperwork is all in order and they will indeed be at the Horseshoe on Wednesday, March 28, to make their T.O. debut.
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I usually try to enforce a show-going moratorium for at least a week or so after SxSW, just to get my head back together, but this year it lasted but 72 hours. The draw was 
The thing about a new 
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