Saturday, October 13th, 2012
Beau GrealyWho: The Presets
What: Australian synth-rock duo out to show the world how they dance in the southern hemisphere… which is basically the same as in the northern, except they spin counter-clockwise.
Why: They released their third album Pacifica at the start of September and are traveling halfway around the world to share it with their North American friends.
When: Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Where: The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto (19+)
Who else: YACHT – who typically have no problem filling a good-sized room themselves – are opening up.
How: Tickets for the show are $22.50 in advance but courtesy of Embrace, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see The Presets” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me by midnight, October 18.
What else: The Sydney Morning Herald has a couple of features on the band; The Bay Bridged has just one.
Video: The Presets – “Youth In Trouble”
Video: The Presets – “Ghosts”
Saturday, October 13th, 2012
Scott MunnWho: Wintersleep
What: Haligonian-bred rock outfit whom no less than The Junos declared to be Canada’s best new artist in 2008. Don’t hold that against them.
Why: They’ve been through town a few times in support of this year’s Hello Hum, but each time is in a bigger room so clearly, more and more people want to see them.
When: Sunday, October 21, 2012
Where: The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto (all-ages)
Who else: The cross-Canada tour is a co-headline with Elliott Brood
How: Tickets for the show are $25.50 in advance but courtesy of Webster Media Consulting, I’ve got prize pack consisting of a pair of passes to the show and a complete Wintersleep discography – Wintersleep, Untitled, Welcome To The Night Sky, New Inheritors, and Hello Hum – on CD, with their latest coming autographed by the band. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to Wintersleep” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the body, and have that to me before midnight, October 17.
What else: PopMatters has an interview with the band, and they’ve just made a new b-side entitled “Martyr” available for download from their website.
MP3: Wintersleep – “Resuscitate”
Friday, October 12th, 2012
Go to my co-presented CMJ show because, well, I can’t
Piper FergusonI suspect most of your inboxes aren’t reminding you of it quite as insistently as mine is, but the fact is that the CMJ Music Marathon kicks off in New York next week. Retirement or no, heading down is always on the table because hey – week/end in New York that I can write off. What’s not to like? Unfortunately, that’s not happening this year because of work and other logistics, and it’s especially unfortunate because this year I’ve teamed up with the good folks at Hype Machine and some other blogger types from YVYNL, All Things Go, and No Fear Of Pop to put on a couple nights of free shows.
My night is Wednesday, October 17, at Brooklyn Bowl where you can, indeed, bowl as well as see live music – what will they think of next – and the impressively international bill stacks up as follows: New York’s own Virgins, who had no small amount of buzz circa their 2008 party-friendly self-titled debut and are looking to recapture that with a new lineup and a second album, due out in early 2013. Ameri-Kiwi psych-pop trio Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who’ve been turning heads whilst opening for Grizzly Bear on their Fall tour and have just announced they’ve signed to Jagjaguwar for the February 5 release of their second album II. From Los Angeles, The Neighbourhood do a kind of dark, neo-soul writ rock and have been making an impression with their debut EP …I’m Sorry. Copenhagen’s Indians, who recently found the perfect home for their dream-induced folk-pop with legendary label 4AD; their debut full-length is due out in 2013 and they’re opening up for Other Lives on tour this Fall – which is good, because it means I can catch them at The Horseshoe on November 23. And finally, there’s JJAMZ, the improbable West Coast electro-pop supergroup drawing DNA from Rilo Kiley, Phantom Planet, The Like, and, um, Maroon 5. Hey, it’s eclectic!
So if you’re going to be in New York next week – be it visiting or residing – do RSVP and show up, knock down some pins, cut a rug, whatever being in Williamsburg compels you to do. And if you do go, let me know how it is, yeah?
MP3: The Virgins – “Venus In Chains”
MP3: Unknown Mortal Orchestra – “I’ll Come Back 4 U”
MP3: Indians – “I Am Haunted”
Video: The Neighbourhood – “Female Robbery”
Video: JJAMZ – “Heartbeat”
Closer to home, it really doesn’t seem like there’s been a time in the past few years when Ty Segall didn’t have an album coming out and/or a show coming up. His third record of 2012, Twins, just came out this week and even though he was just here at The Hoxton a few weeks ago, he’s already scheduled a return engagement – and this time the show will be Phoenix-sized. He’s back on February 6, tickets $16.50 in advance.
MP3: Ty Segall – “Don’t Talk To Me”
Video: Ty Segall – “The Hill”
Savoir Adore gets some blog love as BrooklynVegan has premiered a new video and My Old Kentucky Blog has a stream of their new album Our Nature, out next Tuesday. They’re at Rancho Relaxo tomorrow night.
MP3: Savoir Adore – “Sparrow”
MP3: Savoir Adore – “Dreamers”
Video: Savoir Adore – “Empire Of Light”
Stream: Savoir Adore / Our Nature
Spinner talks to Benjamin Gibbard about his solo debut Former Lives, out next Tuesday but available to stream in whole now. He’s at the Danforth Music Hall on Sunday, October 14.
MP3: Benjamin Gibbard – “Teardrop Windows”
Stream: Benjamin Gibbard / Former Lives
The Aquarian, amNY, and PopMatters talk to John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats while The AV Club solicits a goth playlist and The Fader a reading list. The Mountain Goats are at The Phoenix next Saturday, October 20, and they’ve just released both a new video and download from Transcendental Youth.
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1”
Video: The Mountain Goats – “Cry For Judas”
There’s been a flurry of Sharon Van Etten goodness over the last few days – a new video from Tramp, a Black Cab Session, and a stream of a duet with Rufus Wainwright taken from a forthcoming Starbucks-assembled holiday compilation called Holidays Rule, available where you buy coffee come October 30.
Video: Sharon Van Etten – “Magic Chords”
Stream: Rufus Wainwright and Sharon Van Etten – “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”
Spin reports that Dinosaur Jr will release a vintage live recording on vinyl come November 19; Chocomel Daze (Live 1987) is available to preorder now and a sample from it is streamable below.
Stream: Dinosaur Jr – “The Lung” (live 1987)
DIY talks to Jason Lytle, in town opening for Band Of Horses at Massey Hall on December 5.
A new video from M. Ward’s A Wasteland Companion has premiered over at Team Coco.
Video: M. Ward – “Me And My Shadow”
Paul Westerberg talks to Rolling Stone about the covers benefit EP that will eventually be coming out credited to The Replacements.
Toro has an interview and Chart a video session with The Antlers.
The Alternate Side welcomes Bob Mould to their studios for a video session.
Thursday, October 11th, 2012
Review of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
Yannick GrandmontUntil recently, Montréal’s Godspeed You! Black Emperor has been inexorably associated with a very certain moment in time, specifically the end of the last century and the dawn of this one. In addition to emerging at a time when post-rock was still an amorphous musical concept which was better felt than explained and Canada was only beginning to take steps towards becoming an international presence as home to exciting new music, Godspeed’s trilogy of albums – F# A#, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven, and Yanqui U.X.O. rather perfectly captured the millennial tension of the time. By turns anxious, angstful, and angry, sounding simultaneously beautiful and terrifying, their mysteriousness gave Godspeed a sense of universality that spoke to people without the use of words. So while many were disappointed when the band went on hiatus in 2003, it also felt like a logical thing to do; their moment was ending.
One couldn’t help but wonder how they would have soundtracked the 21st century, though, what with society arguably declining further in disarray and injustice on so many fronts – if they were angry about the state of the world then, surely they’d be furious now. When they unexpectedly returned to action with live performances in 2010, it was mostly with old material that gave a generation of fans who’d only grown up with the legend a taste of what the reality was like. And though unfamiliar compositions did appear in their live sets, the band’s steadfast refusal to do interviews or offer any sort of public comment gave no hint if or when they would do anything further with them. Which, of course, was precisely how they liked it – else they wouldn’t have had the satisfaction of watching a portion of the internet blow up when they announced just last week that their fourth album, ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!, not only existed but was already available for sale at their live shows and would be out worldwide in a fortnight.
As ever, describing Godspeed remains a largely futile task. At least with the live shows, one could attempt to articulate the visceral experience of being assaulted with sound for night on three hours. Discussing the album, and what its intentions are, is much more difficult. Comprised of two 20-minute compositions and two six-minute drones – provided on vinyl via a 12″ and 7″ intended to be played in alternating sides – it’s unquestionably a Godspeed record from the first moment: a sample of what sounds to be a preacher leading into an electric guitar drone with violin lines dancing overtop, all evocative of a gathering storm.
It’s probably only really relevant to discuss Godspeed in terms relative to Godspeed. From that perspective, ‘Allelujah is surprisingly concise and impressively powerful, condensing the sprawl and swirl of Skinny Fists and eschewing the hazy ambiguity of Yanqui into two focused movements that build steadily and determinedly, but also surprisingly melodically. There’s still plenty of their signature unease, but as the main compositions build, they become more anthemic and, one might almost say, optimistic. Only almost, mind you. To Ascend may be the destination, but ‘Allelujah makes it no easy trip – the two drone pieces might seem superfluous, but really do serve a purpose – “Their Helicopters’ Sing” as base camps of a sort, to regroup and recover, and “Strung Like Lights At Thee Printemps Erable” as the view from the summit. Unexpected but wholly welcome, with ‘Allelujah, Godspeed You! Black Emperor prove they not only continue to have their fingers on the pulse of our present, but actually offer some hope for the future.
‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! is out next Tuesday, October 16, but available to stream in its entirety right now at Exclaim. And, against all expectation, the band have given an insightful interview to The Guardian about the band, their music, their politics, and their return. The full transcript of the email exchange is damn near poetry. Even the part about being “stoked”.
Stream: Godspeed You! Black Emperor / ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
The impressive demand to see The Weeknd live continues – they’ve added a fourth night at The Sound Academy for November 5, tickets $34.50. The physical release of his three mixtapes – Trilogy – is out November 12, and a new video was recently released.
MP3: The Weeknd – “Life Of The Party”
Video: The Weeknd – “Rolling Stone”
Army Girls have announced a November 14 date at The Garrison, tickets $8. Still no sign of those multiple full-lengths we were promised in the Summer, though.
MP3: Army Girls – “Cold & Alcohol”
Quiet for most of this year, Ohbijou will be at Lee’s Palace on December 1, tickets $15. This is a benefit show; specifics are still forthcoming. And tangentially, Ohbijou spin-off Warm Myth has released a new video.
MP3: Ohbijou – “Anser”
Video: Warm Myth – “Working”
Purity Ring have spent most of this year blowing up on the back of their debut Shrines, but really haven’t played a proper Toronto show to capitalize – their last appearances were opening for Dirty Projectors and an undersized NXNE showcase. They’re rectifying that if not soon, but on a large scale, wrapping up a North American tour at The Phoenix on February 1 of next year, tickets $15. The Creator’s Project talks to them about the lightshow that will surely accompany their performance, and they’ve also just released a collaboration of sorts with hip-hop artist Danny Brown.
MP3: Purity Ring – “Belispeak”
Stream: Purity Ring – “Belispeak” (with Danny Brown)
The Dumbing Of America, The Grid, The Line Of Best Fit, NOW, The Globe & Mail, and Pitchfork all talk to Toronto’s METZ about their self-titled debut, which has spawned a new video and gets a hometown release show at The Horseshoe on Friday night, October 12.
Video: METZ – “Wet Blanket”
Spin and The Winnipeg Free Press talk to Caribou’s Dan Snaith about his Daphni alter-ego and its debut album Jiaolong, out October 16.
Exclaim talk to A.C. Newman, who kicks off the tour for his new record Shut Down The Streets at Lee’s Palace on October 21.
The Guardian has an interview with Neil Young, who has released an epic-length video from Psychedelic Pill, out October 30. He and Crazy Horse play The Air Canada Centre on November 19.
Video: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “Ramada Inn”
Jenn Grant lists of five of her favourite songs of the last 20 years for CBC Music and also talks to The Edmonton Journal. She’s at The Winter Garden Theatre on November 24.
The Wooden Sky goes over Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun track by track with The Line Of Best Fit. They’re at The Phoenix on December 1.
Snowblink have put out a new video from Inner Classics. Daniela Gesundheit lists off her five favourite albums for The 405 and also chats with The Cornell Daily Sun.
Video: Snowblink – “Goodbye Eyes”
Maisonneuve talks to Alaska B of Yamantaka/Sonic Titan.
The Austin Chronicle profiles Grimes.
Exclaim has details on a new compilation of rarities and being released as a soundtrack of sorts for Have Not Been The Same, the definitive tome of Can-rock in the ’90s. It’s out November 13 and features tracks from Sloan, Doughboys, Skydiggers, and other bands of that vintage, and all proceeds will go to Kids Help Phone.
Wednesday, October 10th, 2012
Neil Halstead and Jim Hanft with Samantha Yonack at The Dakota Tavern in Toronto
Frank YangIt’s really a travesty that Neil Halstead’s isn’t venerated as a musical trailblazer. This is, after all, a man whose work in Slowdive was groundbreaking for both the shoegazing and ambient electronic genres and who created some of the finest alt.country moments from the UK via Mojave 3, the say nothing of the increasingly deep catalog of works under his own name, most recently with Palindrome Hunches. And yet for the recognition that he should but mostly does not get, he seemed perfectly content to just roll into the Dakota Tavern on Monday evening, guitar in hand, to play some songs and just play some songs. Must be that surfer lifestyle.
Supporting Halstead on these dates was Californian Jim Hanft, who in turn brought with him collaborator Samantha Yonack. Hanft offered up some decent singer-songwriter fare, and any points deducted for having an overly affected rasp and twang in his delivery was made up for by his genial demeanour and willingness to move around and make use of the stage. For her part, Yonack earned her almost-equal billing both with her harmonies and impromptu roadie skills, on display when Hanft accidentally unplugged his guitar during one of the aforementioned wanders. Not the most memorable stuff, but pleasant enough.
Halstead was last here in November 2008 for Oh! Mighty Engine, and just like his solo record have gotten progressively more stripped-down, so to has his live show become simpler in execution. Whereas that show featured a couple backing players, this time Halstead was joined by an accompanist on only a handful of songs – crucially so, with the simple bass, guitar, and piano embellishments adding a lot – but mostly just himself. And as always, that’s all he really needed.
As is typical with his solo shows, the set was divided up fairly evenly between solo and Mojave 3 material, though I think that the balance this time out leaned more to the band material. Playing without a written-out set list, Halstead was agreeable to shouted requests and surprisingly to me, whose fandom stretches back to the Slowdive days, a lot of the requests were for his solo material (and one request for “Souvlaki Space Stating” was indulged to the point of playing the opening chords and demonstrating that he had a delay pedal handy). I suppose that made sense with the crowd being younger than I would have expected – these people weren’t Slowdive or Mojave 3 fans first, but Neil Halstead fans. What a thing it must be to have three distinct and beloved catalogs to work from. The audience also gave Halstead a song back, singing him, “Happy Birthday” in honour of his turning 42 the day before.
Though Mojave 3 had technically been in action this year – some lineup had played a few gigs in China, of all places, this Summer – it had been a good six years since they last toured through and it was so great to hear those songs again: “Prayer For The Paranoid”, “Who Do You Love”, “In Love With A View”, “Some Kinda Angel”, “Life In Art”… all moments of gorgeousness that I’d somehow let slip from my memory. In addition to refreshing my Mojave affections, my appreciation for Halstead’s solo works also increased as the performance went on – it’s easy to begrudge those solo records for not being Mojave 3 or Slowdive records, for not showcasing Halstead’s talents at crafting widescreen sonic landscapes, but that would ignore just how good a pure songwriter Halstead now is, and how he doesn’t necessarily need all that presentation to make beautiful and affecting music.
After closing the main set with a gorgeous, “Full Moon Rising” off of Palindrome Hunches, Halstead returned and soliciting more requests, addressed the Slowdive reunion question which he himself set up in August – fitting, since this was the city that hosted the final two Slowdive shows in 1994. And while I’d like to think that it was all part of a carefully planned campaign to lead up to an official return in the near future, his explanation that he was being interviewed at 7AM in China and that a Slowdive return had never officially been off the table but wasn’t necessarily any closer to a reality than it ever was seemed more likely; he closed the discussion by suggesting those really keen on it happening should petition Rachel Goswell for it to happen, and then for the first time since I’ve been seeing either him or Mojave 3 live – some 13 years – he played a Slowdive song. And then another. His solo acoustic arrangement of “Alison” had already surfaced thanks to the free tour EP at Noisetrade, but the rendition of “40 Days” was new to my ears and beautiful. The magic the man can work with just the addition of a delay pedal is remarkable; someone needs to hand him a Telecaster, stat. “Hi-Lo and In Between” from Sleeping On Roads closed the show after a good hour forty-five and Halstead bid farewell, at least until the next time.
The Singing Lamb also has a review of the show. Metro and The Philadelphia Inquirer have interviews with Halstead.
Photos: Neil Halstead, Jim Hanft with Samantha Yonack @ The Dakota Tavern – October 8, 2012
MP3: Neil Halstead – “Tied To You”
MP3: Neil Halstead – “Digging Shelters”
MP3: Neil Halstead – “Full Moon Rising”
MP3: Neil Halstead – “Paint A Face”
MP3: Neil Halstead – “Two Stones In My Pocket”
MP3: Mojave 3 – “In Love With A View”
MP3: Mojave 3 – “Return To Sender”
Video: Neil Halstead – “Hey Daydreamer”
Video: Neil Halstead – “Digging Shelters”
Video: Neil Halstead – “Elevenses”
Video: Neil Halstead – “Witless Or Wise”
Video: Neil Halstead – “Paint A Face”
Video: Neil Halstead – “Queen Bee”
Video: Mojave 3 – “Breaking The Ice”
Video: Mojave 3 – “Some Kinda Angel”
Video: Mojave 3 – “Love Songs On The Radio”
Video: Jim Hanft – “Television”
Video: Jim Hanft – “Superhero”
Gold Flake Paint and DIY have interviews with Frightened Rabbit, in town for a sold-out Mod Club show tonight.
Ellie Goulding goes over her new album Halcyon for Billboard. She brings it to the Sound Academy on October 14.
CBC Music talks to The xx, coming to Massey Hall on October 23.
Spinner interviews Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes. Her new album The Haunted Man comes out October 23 and a six-song preview is now streaming at The Guardian.
Stream: Bat For Lashes / The Haunted Man sampler
Ritzy Bryan of The Joy Formidable talks to DIY about their new album Wolf’s Law, out January 23 of next year. They’re at The Sound Academy on November 25 supporting The Gaslight Anthem.
The Vaccines have a new vid from Come Of Age. They’re at The Phoenix on February 4.
Video: The Vaccines – “I Always Knew”
Muse will bring whatever ridiculous over-the-top live spectacle they dream up – think “The Wall” – for their new album The 2nd Law to the Air Canada Centre on April 9. NPR has a brief interview with the band.
Video: Muse – “Survival”
The National Post and Under The Radar have features on Two Door Cinema Club.
NPR has a World Cafe session and JAM and State interviews with Beth Orton.
Bloc Party have released a new video from Four.
Video: Bloc Party – “Kettling”
Echo Lake have put out another video from their debut Echo Lake.
Video: Echo Lake – “Another Day”
Billboard and BBC have features on Mumford & Sons.
Adele’s theme song for the new James Bond film Skyfall is now available to “watch” via lyric video. Which is kind of like the movie’s opening credits but with lyrics instead of credits and no silhouettes of femme fatales. It opens in North American on November 9.
Lyric Video: Adele – “Skyfall”
Austin City Limits is streaming their season premiere episode, featuring a little band called Radiohead.
3 Comments
facebook
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.chromewaves.net/images/interface/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}