Sunday, October 2nd, 2005
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Grandaddy / Excerpts From The Diary Of Todd Zilla (V2)
Some two plus years have gone by since Modesto, California’s Grandaddy released Sumday – since then, there have been some rereleases of old material and one of those weird mixtape compilation CDs, but no properly new material. The Diary Of Todd Zilla rectifies that situation as a stopgap before the release of their next full-length next year. An EP clocking in at just over 30 minutes, Diary is a perfectly-sized portion for those who enjoy their Grandaddy in smaller doses, like myself. I’ve always had some difficulty maintaining interest through an entire album, so the seven tracks here don’t overstay their welcome. Anyone wondering if their sound has evolved at all while they’ve been away need not worry, this is the Grandaddy you know and love. There’s spacey, lightly stoned anthems about technology built on fuzzed guitars and thrift store keyboards, all seasoned with Jason Lyttle’s plaintive whine and served up in both speeds, fast and slow. It’s actually a little surprising how by-the-numbers the material is, you’d have thought that with the time off they’d be trying something new. Perhaps they’re saving the groundbreaking stuff for the album. |
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Silversun Pickups / Pikul (Dangerbird)
Silversun Pickups make their debut with the Pikul EP which marrys tense riff-rock with atmospheric production touches in a manner not unlike fellow SoCal-ers Autolux. Brian Aubert’s hoarse vocals skirt with grating but with further listens become easier to take. Bassist Nikki Monninger’s sweet harmonies help take the edge off and when she takes lead vocals, as she does on the delicate “Creation Lake”, it’s positively delightful. The songwriting is a little too much on the lumbering, dirgey side but lead single “Kissing Families” is quite solid and hopefully proves to be the rule and not the exception. Their debut album is due out next year. |
np – Elbow / Leaders Of The Free World
Saturday, October 1st, 2005
October already?
Comic Book Resources has a 13-page sneak preview from the third volume of Scott Pilgrim, Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness, due out December 14 (or thereabouts). The fact that the first page of the preview is a double-page spread of the interior of (pre-renovation) Lee’s Palace makes me happy. According to creator Bryan Lee O’Malley’s blog, the cover they have up (and I have) is still a rough mockup. Scott Pilgrim also has a MySpace page… I haven’t heard anything more about the Edgar Wright-helmed Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life movie, but this newsitem makes it sound like it’s still an ongoing concern.
I’m not sure where my Scott Pilgrim trade paperbacks have gone. I hope I lent them to my brother.
Have you missed the Sufjan posts? Sure you have. I assume Stevens’ roadshow passed through DC just recently, because The Washington Post has a pretty straight bio/interview while The Washington Times takes the spiritual angle in drawing parallels between Stevens and C.S. Lewis.
Chart discovers Bob Mould no longer hates alternative rock.
Exclaim! profiles Metric.
The Guardian surveys the UK’s tastemakers about what the “next big things” will be. Odds are, I will hate every one of their picks. ‘Cause I’m contrary like that.
Junkmedia has clips from the forthcoming live Pixies DVD, Pixies Sell Out, out next week.
Zoilus lends his voice to the Bob Dylan commentary chorus, addressing points made in the Slate article I linked earlier this week.
Just two episodes into the new season and SF Gate is already writing (another) obituary for Arrested Development. I want to call them crazy, but sadly they’re probably more right than wrong. People are stupid. That’s all I have to say.
I’ve moved webhosting yet again, hopefully for the last time. I’ve gone with the highly-recommended Dreamhost, and things seem to be running pretty smoothly now. Let me know if you find anything amiss, though.
np – Idlewild / Warnings/Promises
Friday, September 30th, 2005
It is doubtful you’ll find any articles or reviews regarding Neil Young’s Prairie Wind that don’t include the words, “mortality” or “aneurysm”. Understandable, since most of the record was recorded in the week between Neil’s being diagnosed with a brain aneurysm this past March and the surgery to remove it and that experience certainly informs the record. Now just a few weeks shy of his 60th birthday, he talks about that difficult period with Time in an expansive and revealing interview (via Salon’s Audiofile). Philly.com (Bugmenot), USA Today and NorthJersey.com all have pieces set at Neil’s performances at the Ryman in Nashville in August that touch on the same themes and Canada.com talks to Neil about the new album and where it came from.
NOW talks to Jon Auer in advance of The Posies’ show at Lee’s Palace on Monday. The Metro Times does the same for their Detroit show. Though it’s been on my concert calendar for some months now, I still don’t have tickets. I have this strange premonition that I won’t be able to make it and don’t want to get stuck hanging onto a ticket. Maybe I’ll get tickets at the door… To anyone who’s seen them on this tour – are we talking lots of old stuff or are they actively trying to push Every Kind Of Light? This review of a show in Philadelphia the other night is encouraging.
And to play six degrees of Ken Stringfellow – Paste documents the resurrection of Big Star, whose In Space is not doing well critically. And Stylus reconsiders REM’s Up, running it through both their Playing God and On Second Thought features. I’m inclined to agree with them that Up is far better than it was expected to be – everyone thought that Bill Berry’s departure would spell the end of the band and yet they managed to come out with one of their best albums of the decade. No, the horrible decline started with the NEXT album.
Drowned In Sound talks to Sigur Ros.
Carl Newman of The New Pornographers disputes the band’s status as a “supergroup” to Sign On San Diego. “Supergroups are supposed to come out of bands that are popular”. The man has a point – I think it’s safe to say that The New Pr0ns have raised the profiles of each member’s individual projects far more than the converse is true. Via Largehearted Boy.
Check out the trailer for Shining – surely the feel-good film of the holiday season.
Congratulations to Neil Gaiman on having his new novel Anansi Boys debut at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. You’ve come a long way from writing biographies for Duran Duran.
np – The National / Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers
Thursday, September 29th, 2005
The AV Club is helping build excitement for the release of Mirrormask this Friday with interviews with both Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. You can also read the outtakes from the interviews here (via Neil Gaiman) and Zap2It asks if Hollywood is ready for Neil Gaiman. Furthermore, IGN has an exclusive clip from the film. There’s not many reviews yet, but what is out there looks reasonably positive, if not overwhelming. It doesn’t look like Mirrormask is getting a Toronto release, at least not today. I don’t have huge hopes for this film, I fully expect it to have more style than substance, but I definitely do want to see it nonetheless.
Paste declares New Zealand’s Brunettes a band to watch. I agree. They’re currently recording their third album. They’ve also got a MySpace page and there’s some videos up on their website. Yay.
Cameron Crowe gives Paste a list of albums you have to own on vinyl as well as a few choices that don’t sound bad on CD. Why the original version of Blood On The Tracks? The remaster offend you in some way, Cam? Moviehole also has an interview with Crowe, whose Elizabethtown opens November 3.
All of the press surrounding No Direction Home was sure to incite a little backlash against Bob Dylan, or since that’s a scared cow that cannot be toppled, against his deification. The Telegraph’s Mark Hudson argues ain’t nothing but a pop star while Slate wonders why everyone seems to dismiss all of Dylan’s post-60s work. His answer? Blame the Boomers (via Pop (All Love).
City Pages talks to Bob Mould about outing himself back in the 90s (via Largehearted Boy) while Pioneer Press finds that Bob is quite happy these days, thank you very much. Mould plays the Mod Club this Sunday, and gets the lead plug in this week’s Torontoist week in shows.
Even though the release of Metric’s Live It Out appears to have been pushed back a week, you can still listen to the whole thing as they’re the featured band in MySpace’s Booth. And The National Post has indeed run a Metric feature – it’s just not on their website anywhere. Adam Radwanski has it on his, though.
Ex-Swervie Adam Franklin is in town for a couple shows in November – a solo acoustic show at a venue to be announced on the 10th and a full band set with Toshack Highway on the 12th at the Drake in support of SIANspheric. A new Toshack album is in the can and should see the light of day early in ’06.
Thanks to Zoilus for naming me one of his favourite blogs in the new blog-centric issue of Toronto Life. Apparently I am the “most compulsive music blogger in the game in this country”. Thank you!
np – Elbow / Leaders Of The Free World
Wednesday, September 28th, 2005
I’m still catching up on stuff that happened while I was away. But at least I’m not jet lagged anymore. Much.
I may have missed The National’s show in Toronto a couple weeks ago, but apparently I still got a t-shirt out of the deal. Nice. Chart took the time to talk to the band in advance of the show and as they continue their North American tour, press clippings follow – here’s one from Salt Lake City Weekly last week.
I’ve also found a couple videos from Alligator (a 2005 best-of shoo-in. Yes we’re talking about that already) – a gorgeous one for “Daughters Of The Soho Riots” and another for “Lit Up”, featuring a different, friendlier mix of the song behind it. Beggars has also updated the band’s e-card to feature a remix of “Secret Meeting”, which they’re offering as an digital single with a live recording of “Geese Of Beverly Road” from a 2004 Black Session as a b-side.
And to everyone who’s gone to see the National/Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on tour and left before the headliners came on? You are foolish. Billboard and Pitchfork agree.
Also under “missed shows” – Sigur Ros. I’m not certain Takk has earned a place on the 2005 best-of list, though. I’m not feeling it in that way yet, hopefully “yet” being the operative word. Paste and Pitchfork both have interviews with the band and you can see a 30-minute long electronic press kit (Real) for Takk detailing the making of the album. And the band has been keeping a tour diary over the course of their North American tour.
Junkmedia and Pitchfork both ran interviews last week with Carl Newman of The New Pornographers. Twin Cinema continues to grow on me and inch up my 2005 best-of list, which we continue to talk about. But at least I didn’t miss their show in a couple weeks at the Phoenix. Getting more and more excited about that one.
Nellie McKay evidently doesn’t care about getting Pretty Little Head on my or anyone’s 2005 best-of lists… the new release date for her second album is December 27.
Also going down in the past fortnight, the Austin City Limits festival featuring performances from, um, everyone. The Austin Chronicle ran brief features on some of the participants, including Arcade Fire and Doves (via Achtung Baby!).
Neil Young tells JAM how he took a journey through the past to revisit his early days in Winnipeg informed the writing of his new album, Prairie Wind. Reviews are decent, though I’m not sure it’s something I need to own. I haven’t bought a new Neil release since 1995’s Mirror Ball, and quite honestly, I rarely listen to anything later than 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps. I’m thrilled that Neil remains creatively vital, but I’m just partial to the old stuff, I guess.
PopMatters says it’s tough being a Malaysian Death Cab fan.
The rest of my Europe photos are now up.
np – The American Analog Set / Set Free
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