Thursday, October 18th, 2012
Fucked Up dig in for a Long Winter
Frank YangOne thing I’ve never understood about the festive season: all the pop cultural gestures we use to celebrate the Winter – the songs, the movies, what have you – are invariably pegged to Christmas or thereabouts, and that’s basically all over a week after the season formally begins. Which means we spend the next three months mired in dark, snowy, slushy despair with no sort of mental respite whatsoever.
Fucked Up apparently understand, and are trying to do something about it with what they’ve dubbed Long Winter. Not, as the name might imply, a John Roderick collaboration – though come on how awesome would that be – but a concert series that vaguely follows in the footsteps of last year’s holiday season charity two–night stand at The Great Hall.
It’s being described as, “a monthly night of immersive and interactive music, installations, visual art, readings, food, and dance to help Toronto get through our long and cold Winter” and the first edition goes November 9 at The Great Hall – circle December 14, January 11, and February 8 for subsequent editions – and will feature live performances from Fucked Up – natch – as well as Diana, the disco-pop intersection of Army Girls’ Carmen Elle and Destroyer’s Joseph Shabason, and pre-teen rockers Unfinished Business. Admission is pay what you can.
BlogTO talked to Fucked Up’s Mike Haliechuk about what they hope to do with the series. He also talked about it with Exclaim back in September when the broad strokes of the series was first announced.
MP3: Fucked Up – “I Hate Summer”
MP3: DIANA – “Born Again”
The release of Diamond Rings’ second album Free Dimensional is almost upon us, and Hype Machine has the record streaming in its entirety before it’s out next Tuesday. The hometown release show for the record goes November 29 at The Mod Club and there’s interviews at The Columbia Tribune, Idolator, Exclaim, and Death & Taxes.
MP3: Diamond Rings – “I’m Just Me”
Stream: Diamond Rings / Free Dimensional
Toronto’s blues-punk outfit July Talk are have just released their self-titled debut and are streaming the whole thing over at Exclaim. They’re at The Horseshoe tomorrow night, October 19.
Stream: July Talk / July Talk
Vancouver’s Pink Mountaintops are heading out on a Fall tour that hits The Garrison on December 11, tickets $15.
MP3: Pink Mountaintops – “Rock’N’Roll Fantasy”
MP3: Pink Mountaintops – “New Drug Queens”
NPR has a World Cafe session with Patrick Watson.
Clash has a feature piece on Cold Specks, who has been added as support for Adam Cohen at Trinity-St. Paul’s on October 25.
The Halifax Chronicle Herald talks to Purity Ring, whose song featuring Danny Brown which was made available to stream a little while ago is now available to download, if carrying it around is your speed. Also, their February 1 show at The Phoenix has just been mad an all-ages affair – celebrate/despair as you see fit.
MP3: Purity Ring w Danny Brown – “Belispeak II”
Neil Young has popped another video out of Psychedelic Pill, which is October 30. He rides Crazy Horse into The Air Canada Centre on November 19.
Video: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “Twisted Road”
Wednesday, October 17th, 2012
Review of Choir Of Young Believers’ Rhine Gold and giveaway
Nina MouritzenAs a confirmed musical Scandiphile – I don’t know if that’s a real world but I like it regardless – I like to think each nordic country has a particular strength and style to them: Swedes excel at mating melody to melancholy, the best Icelandic music is evocative of the mystery and otherworldliness of the environment from which it springs, and Norway has given us black metal and a-ha. But Denmark… for a long while, they gave us Aqua. And also Mew and The Raveonettes, sure, but only recently have I began to detect a particular musical thread running through their emerging artists.
Artists like Efterklang and Indians trade in a sort of dense, meticulously crafted, and occasionally proggish pop that prefers measured movements to grand gestures and can prefer to render emotions in infinte greyscale rather than technicolor. And while three acts don’t really constitute a national aesthetic, the aforementioned also applies to Copenhagen’s Choir Of Young Believers, the miniature orchestra led by singer-guitarist Jannis Noya Makrigiannis. Their second full-length Rhine Gold is a sumptuous collection of songs that are stoic and weighty, but still move with grace whether Makrigiannis is working with an elegant croon or lonesome yodel and benefit from arrangements that flirt equally with baroque orchestrations and electronic processing. Certainly, there are points where you wish that the band would crack a smile or let some light in, but it’s hard to argue when the stoicism sounds this good and anyways – it wouldn’t be very Danish, would it?
Choir Of Young Believers are at The Drake Underground on Monday, October 22 in support of Daughter, and courtesy of Big Hassle, I have a pair of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests@chromewaves.net with “I want to join the Choir Of Young Believers” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that to me by midnight, October 20.
MP3: Choir Of Young Believers – “Sedated”
MP3: Choir Of Young Believers – “Patricia’s Thirst”
MP3: Choir Of Young Believers – “Nye Nummber Et”
MP3: Choir Of Young Believers – “Paint New Horrors”
Speaking of Indians, 4AD have offered details on their forthcoming debut: Somewhere Else is out January 29, and a preview MP3 has been provided for your listening pleasure. They’re at The Horseshoe on November 23, and for anyone in New York right now, they’re also at Brooklyn Bowl tonight for my co-presented Hype Machine showcase.
MP3: Indians – “Cakelakers”
PopMatters and Washington City Paper interview Jens Lekman.
PopMatters asks twenty questions of Victoria Bergsman of Taken By Trees.
Death & Taxes interview Icona Pop, whose new EP Iconic is available to stream. They open up for Marina & The Diamonds at The Phoenix on December 2.
Stream: Icona Pop / Iconic
Interview and The Toronto Star talk to Ellie Goulding.
The xx have released a new video from Coexist. They’re at Massey Hall on October 23.
Video: The xx – “Chained”
The Quietus has premiered a video from Sylver Tongue’s new Something Big EP and you know, watching her take that guitar solo, I don’t think anyone would have complained if she had simply released it as Charlotte Hatherley…
Video: Sylver Tongue – “Something Big”
Daytrotter welcomes Still Corners to their studios for a session.
Drowned In Sound has an interview with former Supergrass leader Gaz Coombes.
MusicOmh talks to Beth Orton.
Maxïmo Park visits Daytrotter for a session.
Chart solicits a list of favourite albums from Matt Taylor of Dry The River, who will be releasing an acoustic version of their debut Shallow Bed digitally on December 17; details on that at Live4Ever.
The Fly profiles Tame Impala.
Tuesday, October 16th, 2012
Beach House at The Kool Haus in Toronto
Frank YangA little into Beach House’s show at the Kool Haus on Saturday night, Victoria Legrand mentioned that this was their twelfth time playing Toronto. And while I was glad she’d saved me the trouble of trying to assemble their 416 gigography, I was surprised that they’d been through so many times in the past six years, since I’m pretty sure the first was in November 2006 when they played to a dozen or so people in the front room of the Tranzac. I hadn’t personally caught any of the subsequent ten shows, but have followed them around the world – Austin, Chicago, and Reykjavik – so they’ve hardly been off my radar. Just not on the local scale.
In any case, checking back in with Beach House in Toronto with some 2000 others revealed a band that had somehow managed to grow and evolve without seemingly changing at all. Which is to say that if you were to compare their latest, the rather exquisite Bloom, with their self-titled debut, there’d be no arguing it’s the same band – the balance of Victoria Legrand’s smoky voice, whirring keyboards and Alex Scally’s slippery slide guitar remains as it ever was, as does their deliberately slow and hazy sonic aesthetic – but there’s also no denying that it’s an exponentially more creative and interesting Beach House that operates circa 2012, one that gleams through the mist. Truly, they’re an example of a band taking the few elements that define what they are and completely mastering them.
The same can also be said for their live show. Early on, there wasn’t much disputing that they were a… understated pair of performers, the best way to experience their shows being to close your eyes and drift away – that’s certainly what they did. Along the way, though, they’d made some tweaks – most notably trading in their rickety drum loops and machines for real-live sticksman Dan Franz – and learned how to become a compelling, if still unconventional, live act. This isn’t something I’d have expected to say a year prior (to the day, actually) when I saw them – or more accurately their silhouettes – as their entire Iceland Airwaves set was doused in smoke and terribly backlighting but for this tour, which they dubbed the “Frightened Eyes” tour, they had wisely prepared something for the eyes to focus on.
With Scally seated stage right, Legrand set back a bit in centre, and Franz stage left, they set up in almost a straight line in front of some horizontally-striped wall panels. These on occasion shone lights out onto the audience but more often gave something for the stage lights to project against for simple but striking visual effects. On paper it doesn’t sound like much – and even to see it it wasn’t much – but like Beach House’s aesthetic, the simplicity of it and the lighting design in general was perfectly matched to the music and it just worked. And though it would have been easy enough to leverage their visual presence for an air of mystery, Legrand was actually rather chatty, at various points giving a shout out to local music shop Paul’s Boutique as a great place to buy a keyboard, running down the band’s history of performances in the city, and while happy to be playing their largest headline show to date, declared prior to “Silver Soul” that they wanted it to feel nice and intimate – or more precisely, “tight and hot”.
For all of this, though, it would be the music and music alone that people left talking about. Almost the entire set drew from either Teen Dream or Bloom, with only a couple nods to Devotion, and as good as it was to hear them touring behind their breakout record last year, the difference of having two albums of superb, dynamic pop to work with can’t be overstated. From the opening beat of “Wild” breaking into Scally’s chiming guitar and then being given form and focus by Legrand’s breathy, wholly enveloping voice, they were able to lift off and not come close to touching the ground for the duration of the show. It’s funny – airborne metaphors would have been the last thing I’d expect to use to describe Beach House at that first show, but in their finest moments – of which there were many on this night – they simply soared.
The National Post also has a review and Metro and The Boston Globe have features on the band.
Photos: Beach House @ The Kool Haus – October 13, 2012
MP3: Beach House – “Lazuli”
MP3: Beach House – “Myth”
MP3: Beach House – “I Do Not Care For The Winter Sun”
MP3: Beach House – “Zebra”
MP3: Beach House – “Norway”
MP3: Beach House – “Gila”
MP3: Beach House – “Heart Of Chamber”
MP3: Beach House – “Master Of None”
Video: Beach House – “Lazuli”
Video: Beach House – “Zebra”
Video: Beach House – “Lover Of Mine”
Video: Beach House – “Walk In The Park”
Video: Beach House – “Silver Soul”
Video: Beach House – “Used To Be”
Video: Beach House – “You Came To Me”
Video: Beach House – “Heart Of Chambers”
Titus Andronicus have released one of those newfangled “lyric videos” for the second single from their new one Local Business. Which is great if you want to learn the words to sing along whilst moshing when they roll into Lee’s Palace on November 27, but if you just want to hear the new songs, you’re probably better off just hitting the NPR stream of the album. It’s out next week.
MP3: Titus Andronicus – “Upon Viewing Oregon’s Landscape with the Flood of Detritus”
Lyric Video: Titus Andronicus – “Still Life with Hot Deuce and Silver Platter”
Stream: Titus Andronicus / Local Business
Also now streaming over at Drowned In Sound is Banks, the new solo record from Interpol frontman Paul Banks. It’s out next week.
MP3: Paul Banks – “The Base”
Stream: Paul Banks / Banks
Members of Band Of Horses chat with Spinner, nooga.com, and The Miami New Times. They play Massey Hall on December 5.
Opening up that Band Of Horses show will be Jason Lytle; The Big Takeover and NPR have interviews with the once and future Grandaddy frontman.
The Boston Herald, Red Eye, and The Boston Globe have interviews and NPR a World Cafe session with Divine Fits. And over at Seattle Weekly, Dan Boeckner analyzes last week’s vice-presidential debate.
Filter talks to Of Montreal. Their new Daughter Of Cloud compilation is out next week.
Release day for Benjamin Gibbard’s solo debut Former Lives bring feature pieces at Consequence Of Sound, PopMatters, Toronto Star, Huffington Post, NOW, Rolling Stone, Interview, and CBC Music.
Clash and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette talk to Calexico.
Filter asks Blouse about their impending journey to Iceland Airwaves.
Consequence Of Sound finds out what Peter Buck has been up to, post-R.E.M..
Monday, October 15th, 2012
Frightened Rabbit at The Mod Club in Toronto
Frank YangFor most bands, an EP is a stopgap between albums meant to keep their name out there, their fans appeased, and to buy some more time while they work on the next proper full-length. For Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit, their new State Hospital short-player was an excuse to stop work on their third album, jet across the Atlantic and play a batch of North American dates. They kind of did the same thing last Summer, though A Frightened Rabbit EP was less an excuse to tour than to have something new at the merch table after they were invited out to support Death Cab For Cutie on the amphitheatre circuit. In either case, both the tour and releases were pretty good distractions from the fact that their last album – The Winter Of Mixed Drinks – is now over two and a half years old.
But if you thought that the sold-out house at The Mod Club last Wednesday night were on hand to tell the band off in person for being tardy with new music, well you’d have been wrong. Lots of young bands have fanbases of a certain size have to accept a percentage of “oh I like that one song” and “these guys are hip so I should be here”-types amongst them, but Frightened Rabbit seem to have managed to keep theirs disproportionately, “I love this band more than life itself”. Which is impressive, if not a bit unsettling, and a proven benefit of touring constantly, being accessible to your fans, and finding that songwriting sweet spot where introverted miserablism intersects big rock action.
The last time I saw the band was a few tours ago – two sets at SXSW 2010 – and so any notes I might have on how they’ve evolved as a live act have significant gaps in them. That said, I don’t think anyone will take great offence is I say that big “FR” stage backdrop aside, they haven’t changed much at all which is to say they’re still wonderfully down to earth and earnest, and no, no one besides frontman Scott Hutchison really does much besides steadily and stolidly going about their business. And while I’m the last person who’d complain about being faced with a phalanx of Telecasters, one does have to question why they’d necessarily need a four-guitar lineup for some songs – though to their credit, they never let the arrangements get messy or overdone. But when you have more guitarists than Iron Maiden, you gotta wonder.
The set strongly favouring 2008’s Midnight Organ Fight but touched on all points of their discography to date, including reaching back to their debut Sing The Greys for “Square 9”. It’s a song that’s hardly small on record, but live had been built up to arena-scale set-closer proportions. Impressive, and brought back down to Hutchison on solo acoustic for the front half of the encore, eventually bringing the band back out for a grand “Living In Colour” to close things out for good. And here was one of the benefits of the between-album tours: there’s nothing to sell, so give the fans what they want.
It was a bit surprising that aside from a couple State Hospital selections, there wasn’t any new material at all in the fold. But even so, it’s pretty easy to guess what formula next album – due out early next year – will utilize: make it sad, make it big, give it a Scottish accent. Some might bristle at the suggestion that Frightened Rabbit work by formula, but it’s not a slight – if Scott Hutchison’s songwriting stays at the same high level that it has since the band emerged, and there’s little reason to think it won’t, then it’ll make for another bracing album of anthemic angst that will give them another excuse to tour and their fans to celebrate. And what’s wrong with that?
Exclaim also has a review of the show.
Photos: Frightened Rabbit @ The Mod Club – October 10, 2012
MP3: Frightened Rabbit – “Scottish Winds”
MP3: Frightened Rabbit – “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”
MP3: Frightened Rabbit – “Old Old Fashioned” (live)
MP3: Frightened Rabbit – “The Modern Leper”
Video: Frightened Rabbit – “State Hospital”
Video: Frightened Rabbit – “Living In Colour”
Video: Frightened Rabbit – “The Loneliness & The Scream”
Video: Frightened Rabbit – “Nothing Like You”
Video: Frightened Rabbit – “Nothing Like You” (alternate version)
Video: Frightened Rabbit – “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”
Video: Frightened Rabbit – “Heads Roll Off”
Video: Frightened Rabbit – “The Greys”
DIY, Drowned In Sound, and Gigwise talk to Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes about her new album The Haunted Man It’s out October 23 and streaming now at NPR.
MP3: Bat For Lashes – “Laura”
Stream: Bat For Lashes / The Haunted Man
The Line Of Best Fit chats with Beth Orton.
Field Music muse to Gigwise about their odds of taking home the Mercury Prize in a few weeks.
Rolling Stone have made one of the tracks from Ash’s A-Z singles series – being released on triple-vinyl in North America in time for their North American tour, which brings them to Lee’s Palace on November 17.
MP3: Ash – “Return Of White Rabbit”
DIY has got a stream of the new Patrick Wolf set Sundark & Riverlight, finally out physically tomorrow. Clash talks to Wolf about the decade-marking double-set.
Stream: Patrick Wolf / Sunlight & Riverdark
Clash profiles The xx, back in town at Massey Hall on October 23.
Two Door Cinema Club have released a new video from Beacon and also have a chat with The Belfast Telegraph.
Video: Two Door Cinema Club – “Sun”
Interview and The Line Of Best Fit have interviews with Tame Impala, in town at the Phoenix on November 12.
Sunday, October 14th, 2012
Cat Power covers Fleetwood Mac
Shawn MortensonSince Sun, Cat Power’s first record of original material in some six years – really does seem to mark a new chapter for her creatively as well as personally, I’m dialing it back – way back – for this week’s track, all the way to 1998.
This Fleetwood Mac cover was recorded as part of a radio session for Radio Munich in November of that year, and it’s pure Moon Pix-vintage Cat Power, all smoky, mysterious, and slightly wounded Chan Marshall vocals subtly improving on the melody while backed by a couple of spidery guitars. It falls into the class of the best Cat Power covers, which are easily mistakable for her own songs – no matter how well-known and well-loved they may be – but with a little effort, the original is audible and intact underneath.
Cat Power is back for her first show back in Toronto in some four and a half years this coming Saturday, October 20, at the Kool Haus. Fleetwood Mac haven’t released a new record since 2003, but confirmed earlier this year that they will be touring in 2013, their first time on the road since 2009’s Unleashed tour.
MP3: Cat Power – “Dreams”
Video: Fleetwood Mac – “Dreams” (live, 1977)
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