Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
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You may have heard the rumblings as such, but it’s official – Wilco will be streaming their new album, Sky Blue Sky, in its entirety starting tonight at 11PM EST/10PM CST on their own little pirate radio station. Just the thing for those of us… I mean YOU who’ll be sitting at home in front of the computer on Saturday night. It will run into the “wee-hours”, but no doubt show up on finer P2P networks within an hour of their starting the stream. Ah, technology.
Thanks to More Cowbell for the tip. |
Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
The long rumoured Stars remix record is finally coming out. Entitled Do You Trust Your Friends?, it will feature what they’re calling “re-mixes, re-interpretations and re-imaginings” of songs from their last album Set Yourself On Fire by a variety of Canadian indie rock luminaries, including Final Fantasy, The Dears and Metric, amongst many others. Billboard has the complete tracklisting of the record, in stores May 22, and you can hear one of the tracks – the Junior Boys redo of “Sleep Tonight” – at their MySpace.
The band is currently at work on their new album with an eye towards a Fall 2007 release and Amy Millan continues to ply her solo career. She’s doing a slew of dates at SxSW – her main showcase is March 16 at 11PM at the Habana Calle 6 Annex but she’s also doing day shows March 15 at Emo’s Jr and 16 at Red Eyed Fly, if not more. And she’ll also be opening for Ron Sexsmith May 4 at Massey Hall. Torq Campbell’s Memphis, in the meantime, will release their second album A Little Place In The Wilderness in the US on March 27. Check out a video from the release.
Video: Memphis – “I’ll Do Whatever You Want” (YouTube)
Exclaim talks to Malajube about being Francophones in an Anglo music world. They’re at the Phoenix on April 4 as part of Exclaim‘s Spring Fling tour.
I’ve called the sound of The Acorn “quintessentially Canadian” before, but according to this conversation between head Acorn Rolf Klausener and Chart, their debut full-length is aspiring to capture the spirit of another country – Honduras. Their Tin Fist EP will be rereleased on March 20 and they’re in town at the Whippersnapper Gallery March 10 and the Drake Underground April 12.
Hour and The Montreal Mirror converse with TV On The Radio, who will be in town at the Kool Haus tomorrow night.
The Tripwire has an expansive two–part interview with Brett Anderson, whose solo debut Brett Anderson is out March 26. Check out the first video for “Love Is Dead”.
Video: Brett Anderson – “Love Is Dead” (YouTube)
And while I’m posting vids, here’s the first single from Fields’ debut full-length Everything Last Winter. It’s out in North America May 8 and they’re at the Opera House in Toronto May 11 opening for Blonde Redhead. Blonde Redhead, incidentally, are currently featured in AOL’s 3×3.
Video: Fields – “Charming The Flames” (YouTube)
M Ward guest lists for Pitchfork.
Friday, March 2nd, 2007
Last week I directed you to a stream of Cortney Tidwell’s new album Don’t Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up. While I can’t tell if the stream still works – it’s still reachable through the navigation but I couldn’t get it to play – I still want to talk about the record.
Though you can’t hear the whole thing anymore, the one MP3 that has been made available – the opener “Eyes Are At The Billions” – really tells you all you need to know. It opens with a delicately fingerpicked acoustic guitar figure and is joined the second time around by some gentle keyboards and Tidwell’s airy, voice – gentle, but obviously capable of huge things. Then, two minutes in the drums appear, as though miced in a cavern and it explodes into a sonic wash worthy of Slowdive – launched into space but somehow never leaving the countryside.
That essentially tells the tale for the record. Not that they all go from folk-to-shoegaze in under two minutes (though that wouldn’t be a bad thing) but that they take Tidwell’s traditional folk/country upbringing and wrap them up in sounds and ideas that come from much farther away than her native Nashville. In addition to the celestial rock vibe that crops up a few more times, there’s a pervasive Bjork-ish feel to the production, both in her vocal timbre and acrobatics (nothing excessive, don’t worry) and in the electronic production sheen that rests over much of the album. The finished product is hazy and dark, a little creepy and a lot beautiful.
Stars was released in the UK last year but has only come out in North America last week. Drowned In Sound and Indie London talked to Tidwell last Summer on the occasion of the record’s British release. She’s playing SxSW with an official showcase Wednesday night at midnight at the Ale House and an in-store at Cheapos at 5PM on Saturday afternoon. Obviously I advise you to catch one or the other but if you can’t (or won’t be in Austin), check out the live performances assembled in this AOL 3×3 feature. Sorry about the commericals.
MP3: Cortney Tidwell – “Eyes Are At The Billions”
MySpace: Cortney Tidwell
And also looking back to last Friday’s post, The Rich Girls Are Weeping celebrates (and takes a little credit for) Shearwater’s signing to Matador by posting the three available versions of “Red Sea, Black Sea” (nee “Turn Your Transmitters Off”).
eye and NOW talk to Sarah Assbring of El Perro Del Mar, in town for a show at Mod Club on Monday and also doing an instore at Soundscapes on Sunday at 6PM. New City Chicago and The Boston Herald also talk to the singer.
UK brothers in arms (and by birth) The Cribs are at the El Mocambo on April 30.
Lucinda Williams complains to The Globe & Mail about some of negative reviews her latest album West has been getting. Williams is at Massey Hall on April 17.
Drowned In Sound reports that Camera Obscura will squeeze another single out of Let’s Get Out Of This Country. “Tears For Affairs” will be out as a single in the UK on April 16 and be b-sided by a cover of ABBA’s “Super Trouper'”. Oh yes please. X-Press talks to keyboardist Carey Lander about missing John Peel.
Malajube are discovered by the American west – witness interviews by Tuscon Weekly, The Arizona Star, Seattle Weekly and The Portland Mercury as they try to make heads or tails of the Francophones. Oh – and in a bit of Hot Freaks news, due to scheduling issues Malajube are no longer able to play our party. However we’ve found a pretty decent pinch-hitter and even manage to maintain our Can-con quotas – the 1PM slot on Saturday, March 17 at the Mohawk will now be taken by Victoria, BC’s Frog Eyes.
Dirty On Purpose have released a new video and seriously, these guys make the best vids. Trebuchet! Awesome. They’re playing the other SxSW party I’m involved with, the LiveDaily/Spaceland jag now dubbed “The Bomb” (hopefully not a prediction). Like the poster says, the show is at Antone’s on Thursday March 15 and DoP are on around 1:20PM.
Video: Dirty On Purpose – “Car No Driver” (MOV)
Pitchfork talks to National frontman Matt Berninger about their new record Boxer, out May 22.
Dylan Hears A Who – this is one part brilliant, one part demented and all parts too well-executed.
Thursday, March 1st, 2007
Elvis Perkins has a backstory, and while it may seem sensationalistic to discuss it, it’s rather essential to any discourse on his debut album Ash Wednesday. In brief – his father was Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in Psycho and died of AIDS in 1992 and his mother was actress Berry Berenson, who was on board the plane that hit the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. So you could say he’s had some heaviness in his life.
So while Ash Wednesday, written in the years following his mother’s death, would have every right to be a dark and depressing work – and It is melancholic and sad to the very core – it’s presented in a way that’s also suffused with lightness and beauty. Based around Perkins’ warbly tenor, evocative lyricism and sparse, folky arrangements, the record alternately invokes the timeless elegance of Nick Drake, another artist adept at wrapping up sadness in gorgeous melody, and the anguished psychedelic folk of Neutral Milk Hotel, especially when the musical saw shows up. Ash Wednesday may be rooted in sadness but it still grows upwards, hopefully reaching for the sun or the sky or perhaps the aeroplane over the sea.
The record was originally released independently last year but was picked up by XL Recordings and re-released last week. Perkins was originally slated to play the Mod Club in April with his band Dearland but that show was canceled in order to tour in support of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah including April 14 at the Kool Haus. I’m going to try and catch him at SxSW though I’m not sure I’ll be able to make any of his shows – more than likely I’ll have to hope he comes back on his own later this year.
A couple months ago Filter ran what they claimed was the first interview Perkins ever granted and addressed the topic of his parents head-on, though it’s written in an elliptical (and rather awful) metaphor involving Indian mythology. The Boston Herald and Metro have much more concise conversations with Perkins and last week offered up a session with him, including four downloadable songs and an interview. Metacritic is also on the job, doing what it does.
MP3: Elvis Perkins – “While You Were Sleeping”
MP3: Elvis Perkins – “All the Night Without Love”
MP3: Elvis Perkins – “Ash Wednesday”
Video: Elvis Perkins – “All the Night Without Love” (YouTube)
MySpace: Elvis Perkins
So you thought the cast of Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan – Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, Christian Bale and Richard Gere, amongst others, all of whom portray Dylan – was odd? Pitchfork reports that director Todd Haynes is taking a simliar approach with the soundtrack, with the likes of Stephen Malkmus, the Hold Steady and Calexico (with a variety of guest vocalists) all covering Dylan at various points in his career. Uncut also recounts a portion of an interview with Cate Blanchett where she talks about her part in the film. The film is set to premiere this May in Cannes.
Billboard and The Toronto Star examine another version of Dylan on celluloid – the expanded DVD edition of D.A. Pennebaker’s 1965 tour doc Don’t Look Back
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The schedule for this year’s edition of the Over The Top Fest, taking place May 3 to 6 around Toronto, is now up and tickets go on sale today. Honestly, a whole lot of names I’m not very familiar with there so I’m going to have to do some research before deciding what to see but The Hylozoists with The Explorer’s Club at the Tranzac on the 3rd seems like a pretty rock-solid bet. Any recommendations on the other shows?
Chart talks to Robert Schneider of Apples In Stereo.
A pile of new release dates and news came out yesterday – let’s take it chronologically, starting with a couple of North American releases for UK bands. May 8 will see the domestic release of new ones from Maximo Park and Fields, via Pitchfork and Tripwire respectively. Both the former’s These Earthly Desires and the latter’s Everything Last Winter are out in the UK on April 2.
Fields will also be conducting a short North American tour following their Coachella appearance including a May 11 date at the Opera House in Toronto. If this tour is with them headlining, I find the choice of venue more than a little perplexing – they were here in October of 2006 and played to a couple dozen people. Have they seriously worked their way up to 800-capacity venues in the intervening seven months? I kinda don’t think so. And while I enjoyed that show and their EP 7 From The Village, I’ve only put that show in my calendar tentatively. My distaste for the venue is well documented and I don’t know if that’s where I really want to spend my 32nd birthday. Update: Thanks to Dimitri for pointing out that Fields will be opening for Blonde Redhead, which I probably could have learned if I could be bothered to do a modicum of digging. That makes it more enticing, 23 is a wicked record, though I will be seeing them at SxSW and don’t know if that’ll be a better use of my evening than getting drunk and throwing up like I used to when I was young. Which isn’t to say I couldn’t do both.
Anyway. Voxtrot have thought long and hard about it and finally came up with a name for their debut full-length, out May 22. It will be called… Voxtrot. Ask for it by name! Pitchfork has more info and a track list. Also note that they’re at Sneaky Dee’s on June 8 with Au Revoir Simone and Favourite Sons.
Aaron Dessner talks to Billboard about The National’s Boxer, also out May 22.
Ryan Adams will release Easy Tiger on June 5. It’s unclear if this’ll be credited just to him or with The Cardinals.
CMJ reports that Saturday Looks Good To Me’s next record, originally conceived as a double-CD opus, has now been pared down to an economical 11 tracks. Look for Fill Up The Room on September 11 via K Records.
CBC looks at the art of selecting a band name.
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
It was two years ago today that Luna, my dear, beloved Luna, played their final show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City and yes, it still brings a tear to my eye (figuratively, at least) to think that one of my favourite bands in the world is gone.
But then I hear things like Back Numbers, the new record from Dean & Britta and their first post-Luna release, and realize that there is life after Luna and it actually sounds great. Like their first release as a duo, 2003’s L’Avventura, Back Numbers blends covers and originals in a sonic haze that’s as retro as it is timeless-sounding. Keyboards, vibes and drum machines burble in the background and Wareham’s distinctive guitarwork is still present though without the presence of Sean Eden, his six-string sparring partner for over a decade, he sounds more interested in textures than leads.
Wareham also opts to cede most of the lead vocals to Phillips but those who’ve come to this record via Luna, and I imagine that’s pretty much everyone, fear not – Dean’s narcoleptic twang is still here, it just seems he’d rather listen to his wife sing rather than do so himself. And you can’t really blame him – her voice is like honey, especially in such a musical context, and whether she’s wrapping it around melodies like that on “White Horses” (the theme to an old ’60s television program) or belting out the chorus to Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra’s “You Turned My Head Around”, it’s a thing of beauty. You really can’t fault him for wanting to sit back and let her go.
If it makes any sense, Back Numbers feels very much like but also entirely unlike a Luna record. You could easily imagine any of these songs appearing on an album or as a b-side, yet as a whole you couldn’t imagine the collection ever coming out under that name. But while their old band was never what you’d call tightly wound, this record sounds relaxed and laid back in a way that none of Luna’s ever did. It was evident in their swan song tour, documented in Tell Me Do You Miss Me (which I still have to watch the commentary for!), that Wareham was worn down and just plain tired with the grind of being in a touring band – perhaps this is the sound of a man with a few hundred hours of sleep under his belt and a renewed interest in creating music? But whatever it is, if this is a sign of things to come than Wareham may become the (very) rare artist who can lay claim to helming not one, not two but three excellent and distinct bands over the course of his career, and not one of them a formal solo project. Who else can say that?
Village Voice catches up with Dean and Britta about the record and their other post-Luna projects (she does voice work for Adult Swim’s Moral Orel, he’s been writing a memoir which should be done this year) and in a couple weeks they head out on tour in support of the record, including a March 12 show at the Mod Club. The Jewish Legend supports. The record is also doing well early on at Metacritic, and deservedly so.
MP3: Dean & Britta – “Words You Used To Say”
MP3: Dean & Britta – “Singer Sing”
Video: Dean & Britta – “Words You Used To Say” (YouTube)
MySpace: Dean & Britta
Dean and Britta aren’t the only former Luna members being productive – Sean Eden’s new outfit Elk City will release their new album New Believers on April 17 and what I’ve heard sounds great. Again, not especially Luna-like but Eden’s distinctive style is easy to pick out and it fits well. Looking forward to hearing the full album and four out of five Wolf Notes agree.
MP3: Elk City – “Cherries In The Snow”
MP3: Elk City – “Los Cruzados”
And finally, just because. Yes I do miss you.
MP3: Luna – “Friendly Advice” (live)
Thanks to Bradley’s Almanac for the tip off that Centro-Matic will be releasing an 8-track EP called Operation Motorcide this Spring.
Miss out on tickets to Of Montreal’s sold-out show at the Opera House on March 13? Want to maximize your odds of seeing Kevin Barnes whip it out? Head to Soundscapes at 4PM on the day of the show where Of Montreal will be doing an acoustic in-store set.
And The New Pollution talks to Emil Svanangen of Loney, Dear who are touring with Of Montreal, though not the Toronto date. Hopefully he/they will be coming through town later in the year, though I’m definitely intending to catch on of his/their many shows at SxSW next month.
Artwork you should be looking for on record store shelves in May – More Cowbell has the cover for Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky, out May 15, and Pitchfork has the art and tracklisting for The National’s Boxer, out May 22.
JAM! talks to Emerge honcho Jacob Smid about the plans for this year’s edition of VFest, happening in May in Vancouver and September 8 and 9 in Toronto. They’ll be announcing the lineup in a month or two, but expect it to number around 40 acts, though if the acts are in line with Vancouver’s alt.rock-heavy lineup – which as I’ve said before certainly makes better business sense than catering to the mythical indie kid disposable income – I may give it a pass. There’s never a shortage of great stuff coming through town in early September and wouldn’t want to miss one of those in exchange for seeing My Chemical Romance.
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