Saturday, May 19th, 2012
Frank YangWho: Cœur de Pirate
What: Montreal’s Béatrice Martin, already a star in Francophone parts of the world thanks to her piano-based Gallic pop, has finally set her sights on conquering English Canada.
Why: Following a triumphantly sold-out show at The Mod Club last November in support of her second album Blonde, she’s touring right up until the doctor tells her to stop – on account of her first baby being due in early Fall. So see her while you can!
When: Friday, June 1, 2012
Where: The Opera House in Toronto
Who else: Victoria’s Kandle opens things up.
How: Tickets for the show are $22.50 in advance but courtesy of Livenation and Grosse Boite, I’ve got a prize pack consisting of a pair of passes and a deluxe CD edition of Blonde to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Coeur de Pirate” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, May 27.
What else: Martin was recently listed as one of Macleans‘ Canadians under 25 to watch – which, if you think about it, is exactly what I’m facilitating here.
Video: Cœur de Pirate – “Golden Baby”
Video: Cœur de Pirate – “Adieu”
Saturday, May 19th, 2012
Frankie BatistaWho: Mayer Hawthorne
What: Ann Arbor-born, Los Angeles-based artist who specializes in giving a classic, old school soul sound a modern sensibility.
Why: His second studio album and major label debut How Do You Do was released late last year.
When: Friday, May 25, 2012
Where: The Hoxton in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Connecticut’s own The Stepkids open up.
How: Tickets for the show are $20 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 Mayer Hawthorne” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, May 23.
What else: The Indianapolis Star and Billboard have feature pieces on Hawthorne and if you dial back to last year, a covers EP he released for free is still available to download.
Video: Mayer Hawthorne – “Henny & Gingerale”
Video: Mayer Hawthorne – “Dreaming”
Friday, May 18th, 2012
Handsome Furs call it a day
Liam MaloneyThe Canadian music scene got a little/lot less rock last night when word got out that Handsome Furs – the Wolf Parade spin-off that arguably equalled or bettered that project – had hung it up. Word came via a blog post without much in the way of explanation, and considering the previous post was in reference to cancelling European tour dates in March due to an “urgent health issues”, one can only hope that this is a decision that Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry are choosing to make rather than having it forced upon them.
Boeckner’s fans are surely reeling considering this is two of his bands retired in the past eighteen months, but according to the The Victoria Times-Colonist, he’s already got a new project in the pipe – based out of his new apparent homebase of Los Angeles – so maybe people won’t have to wait to hear his distinctive yelp coming out of their speakers again. Maybe he’s just trying to keep up with former bandmate Spencer Krug in terms of bands on their CV?
In any case, this announcement makes last year’s fist-clenchingly synth-soaked Sound Kapital the final word from the band. Not a bad note to go out on. And, of course, the fact that Canadian journos will go into the long weekend with Handsome Furs on the brain and a little over a week to assemble our Polaris Prize ballots may give the already favoured Sound Kapital a little extra push… not to mention if they make the short list, maybe they could be persuaded to play one, final gig for the gala in September. Hey, I’m just spitballing here.
MP3: Handsome Furs – “Repatriated”
MP3: Handsome Furs – “What About Us”
MP3: Handsome Furs – “Radio Kaliningrad”
MP3: Handsome Furs – “I’m Confused”
MP3: Handsome Furs – “Cannot Get, Started”
MP3: Handsome Furs – “What We Had”
Video: Handsome Furs – “Serve The People”
Video: Handsome Furs – “What About Us”
Video: Handsome Furs – “I’m Confused”
Video: Handsome Furs – “Cannot Get Started”
Video: Handsome Furs – “Dumb Animals”
Blurt gets to know Patrick Watson. He’s at the Music Hall on May 29.
Denver Westword and The San Francisco Chronicle profile Plants & Animals; they play Yonge-Dundas Square the evening of June 15 for NXNE.
The AV Club interviews Paul Saulnier of PS I Love You.
Feist hits the street for the latest video from Metals.
Video: Feist – “Cicadas & Gulls”
Yeah that’s all for today. I need to slink into the long weekend and get away for a bit.
Thursday, May 17th, 2012
Sigur Rós present Valtari hour, which is like Earth Hour but with Valtari
Lilja BirgisdottirAdvance album streams are pretty par for the course these days, but if anyone can make it a special occasion, it’s Sigur Rós. And they’re certainly trying to. Though their new record and first in four years Valtari isn’t out until May 29, the band will be offering an advance stream of the record on May 17 – that’s today, people – but for only one hour.
Dubbed “Valtari Hour”, it will roll across the globe at 7PM local time for every time zone – those Samoans get everything first – until everyone has had a chance to hear the record. Terrestrial radio stations will be playing the album and select record stores hosting listening parties, but the band’s own website is the place to go to hear it online. Until our turn comes around – at this writing, they’re currently in India – you can follow along with things via the #ValtariHour tag on Twitter.
I can’t imagine the event-ness of this will preclude an on-demand advance stream as per usual starting on or around next Tuesday, but it’s neat regardless. Hear Valtari live – and other smash hits – when Sigur Rós play Echo Beach on August 1.
Video: Sigur Ros – “Ekki Mukk”
Spinner and Gigwise converse with Of Monsters & Men.
Virgin Music and Holly Rubenstein interview Niki & The Dove, who also give Gigwise a track-by-track commentary on their debut Instinct. IT gets a physical release on August 7 in North America.
Sweden’s The Deer Tracks have released a new video from their The Archer Trilogy, Part 2 mini-album. Their tour itinerary puts them at The Rivoli on June 16, but the NXNE schedule – yes, that finally went live yesterday – makes no mention of them though there’s still openings in the Riv lineup for that evening that they could fit. In any case, hope it happens because I’m really quite enjoying their stuff.
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Tiger”
Rolling Stone has premiered a new MP3 from The Tallest Man On Earth’s forthcoming There’s No Leaving Now, out June 12. He plays a sold-out Queen Elizabeth Theatre on June 16.
MP3: The Tallest Man On Earth – “1904”
The Line Of Best Fit, Spinner, and Drowned In Sound meet The Hives, that DIS piece happening in two parts. Their Lex Hives is out June 5 and they’re at The Sound Academy on June 26.
The Line Of Best Fit points out that Norway’s Team Me have made their new single from To The Treetops available for free download.
MP3: Team Me – “Weathervanes & Chemicals”
Rolling Stone talks to Hot Chip about their new album In Our Heads. It’s out June 12 and they’re at The Sound Academy on July 15.
I Like Music solicits a guest editorial (read: list of things) from Emmy The Great.
Summer Camp will release a new EP entitled Always on July 10 and are streaming the first single from it right now.
Stream: Summer Camp – “Life”
The Guardian is streaming Gaz Coombes’ solo debut Here Come The Bombs ahead of its release in the UK next Monday, May 21. The Fly also has a video session.
Stream: Gaz Coombes / Here Come The Bombs
Q talks to Victoria Hesketh of Little Boots about her second album, still untitled but definitely out before the year is out.
Florence & The Machine has released a new video, taken not from Ceremonials but from the soundtrack for Snow White & The Huntsman; there’s also an interview at Rolling Stone. Florence is at The Molson Amphitheatre on August 2.
Video: Florence & The Machine – “Breath Of Life”
Squarepusher, better known as electronic artist Tom Jenkinson or the act that got namechecked a thousand times when Radiohead released Kid A, will be at The Music Hall on November 2 in support of his new album Ufabulum; tickets are $27.50 in advance. Exclaim has an interview with Jenkinson and the full North American itinerary and Spin also has a chat.
Video: Squarepusher – “Dark Steering”
Spin and The National talk to Pip Browne of Ladyhawke about her new record Anxiety, out May 25.
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
Father John Misty and Har Mar Superstar at The Horseshoe in Toronto
Frank YangCosmic questions: What makes an artist put a respectable if underappreciated solo career on hold in order to play drums for a band that’s sold hundreds of thousands of records and gone platinum in the UK? And what makes that same artist leave that band in order to not resurrect their former solo career but start a completely new one? Okay, the first one is kind of a no-brainer but the second one is more of a puzzle, one that Baltimore-born, Los Angeles-based Josh Tillman is uniquely positioned to answer. He was plugging away as J Tillman since 2005 before joining Fleet Foxes in 2008 to tour behind their self-titled debut and while he continued to release solo albums, following the end of the Helplessness Blues touring cycle he announced he was leaving the band – but not to go back to being J. Tillman; instead to begin being Father John Misty.
If you do find yourself in a position to pose the above questions to Tillman, don’t be surprised if by way of an answer he just hands you a copy of Fear Fun, the just-released Father John Misty debut because it does, indeed, tell you why. Whereas the J. Tillman-branded material was pretty easily slotted as acoustic singer-songwriter fare, Fear Fun is nowhere near as easy to categorize. Suffused with ’70s-era country-rock vibes , it sounds as though Tillman gathered inspiration on his drive home from Seattle by routing through Bakersfield, the Laurel Canyon, Joshua Tree National Park, and Reno, Nevada before pulling up in Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. Gram Parsons’ “cosmic American music” quote gets trotted out a lot when describing music with a country-rock lineage but it applies to Father John Misty more than anything I’ve heard in recent years. Parsons would have approved of the album art as well, I think. In short, it’s not called J. Tillman because it sounds nothing like J. Tillman. Or Fleet Foxes, for that matter, though you can bet that was the hook for many/most of those who piled into the Horseshoe on Monday night for the band’s Toronto debut.
Support came from another Tillman, the unrelated Sean who himself had a few musical projects to juggle. I had seen him with Sean Na Na when they opened up for The Hold Steady in this same room back in 2006, but rather than showing off that project’s classic rock stylings, he was here as Har Mar Superstar and he was going to take off his pants. But that’s getting a bit ahead of things. Things started with Tillman fully-dressed – overdressed, really – and fronting a four-piece band that included Josh Tillman on drums but as their set progressed and their funk-soul groove gathered steam, he stripped down item by item until, by the final song of their set, it was just Tillman in his short, sweaty, paunchy glory clad only in a pair of briefs (and socks and shoes). Even a cursory bit of research about Har Mar beforehand would have revealed this was what they were about but even if you knew what was coming, it was still something to behold. Like with Sean Na Na it was almost a shame that Tillman’s onstage persona overshadowed the music – which was more than legit – but the net entertainment value was nothing to complain about. Though I wish there was more breakdancing.
Besides being a superb drummer and vocalist, Josh Tillman’s main contribution to Fleet Foxes was as the comic relief during their live shows – the guy was all kinds of funny from behind the kit. So while seeing him up front with no instrument in hand was a bit odd, you at least knew that there’d be no feeling awkward about being the centre of attention and really, you can’t keep presence like his behind a drum kit. Tillman was a litany of stage moves – shimmies, points, mic stand dancing – while leading his five-piece band through bigger, more rockier renderings of the Fear Fun material that emphasized the psychedelic aspects of the material. And of course there was the banter, which was random and hilarious and came with the added bonus of Tillman feeling extra punchy thanks to the Pitchfork review of his album earlier in the day, which despite being positive caused great offense. Towards the end of the show, Tillman mentioned that he had been “way too stoned” for the entire show – and the band passed around a lit joint as emphasis – and while that might have explained some of the the more out-there comments he made through the night, it made how tight and note-on their performance was even more impressive. Some folks may have came to the show as J. Tillman fans, most were probably Fleet Foxes fans but by the end of the show, they were all Father John Misty fans.
NOW also has a review of the show and Father John Misty already have a return engagement scheduled for July 12, when they open for Youth Lagoon at the Opera House.
Photos: Father John Misty, Har Mar Superstar @ The Horseshoe – May 14, 2012
MP3: Father John Misty – “Nancy From Now On”
MP3: Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
MP3: Har Mar Superstar – “Cry 4 Help”
MP3: Har Mar Superstar – “Power Lunch”
MP3: Har Mar Superstar – “Brothers And Sisters”
Video: Father John Misty – “This Is Sally Hatchet”
Video: Father John Misty – “Nancy From Now On”
Video: Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “Tall Boy”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “DUI”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “Power Lunch”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “EZ Pass”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “Brothers & Sisters”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “Body Request”
I don’t really know who Jonathan Coulton is – I gather he’s big on/via the internet – but the fact that he’s touring with John Roderick of The Long Winters makes the fact that said tour includes a June 6 date at The Mod Club worth noting. As is the fact that we are well overdue for a new Long Winters record.
MP3: Jonathan Coulton – “Washy Ad Jeffy”
MP3: The Long Winters – “Pushover”
The NXNE schedule is due out any day now, but word of some of the bigger shows are coming out a little beforehand. Like that White Rabbits and Vacationer will be at The Mod Club on June 14. The Independent ran a feature on the band a few weeks back.
MP3: White Rabbits – “Heavy Metal”
MP3: Vacationer – “Trip”
Your festival wristband will also be good for admission to see A Place To Bury Strangers at The El Mocambo on (I believe) June 14, where they’ll be previewing their new record Worship, out June 26. The Stool Pigeon has an interview with the band about the new record.
MP3: A Place To Bury Strangers – “You Are The One”
Rolling Stone is offering for download a version of the title track from Guided By Voices’ next record Class Clown Spots A UFO from when it was a Robert Pollard song. Which it still is, technically. The album is out June 19.
MP3: Robert Pollard – “Class Clown Spots A UFO”
State interviews Lower Dens, who’ve released a new video from Nootropics. They’re at Lee’s Palace on July 17.
Video: Lower Dens – “Nova Anthem”
DIY talks to Andrew Bird, who plays Echo Beach on July 19.
It being release week for Best Coast’s new one The Only Place, there’s plenty of press going around with Bethany Cosentino. Check out pieces at LA Weekly, The Guardian, Under The Radar, GQ, The Line Of Best Fit, and Vice. They play The Phoenix on July 21.
By the same token, lots of people are talking to Beach House about their just-released Bloom – people like The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Interview, and eMusic.
Loud & Quiet talks to Chairlift.
Daytrotter has a session with Shearwater and The AV Club an interview with Jonathan Meiburg.
Greg Dulli talks to The Village Voice and John Curley to Cincinnati.com about the Afghan Whigs reunion, which finally gets underway next week in New York.
NPR welcomes Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt for a WFUV video session.
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