thejoyformidable.comProving that cliches are both true and false, Welsh trio The Joy Formidable are setting out to prove that good things do indeed come to those who wait but also that sometimes you can’t get too much of a good thing. To the former, there’s the fact that while those in the UK were able to celebrate “Big Roar Day” yesterday in honour of the release of their debut album The Big Roar, North Americans will have to wait until March 15 for the domestically-released edition. And while I appreciate the necessity of staggered release dates in different territories from a business point of view – there’s only so much press and promo a band is able to do in a given time frame – the fact that it’s so easy to get records irrespective of where you live (legally, of course) makes the notion that something is available elsewhere but not where you are hard to swallow. And don’t get me started on geoblocked videos… but I digress.

But the upside to the exercise in delayed gratification is the fact that the North American release will be accompanied by a North American tour, anchored by appearances at SxSW and Coachella, that brings them back to Toronto for their third date at The Horseshoe in less than a year on April 2, tickets $13.50. It’s hard to believe that not too long ago I was afraid I’d never get the chance to catch them live and nearly flew to New York on one occasion and rescheduled a work trip around making sure I was able to see them last May. Not that I’ve any complaint about their regular visits – both shows here were barnburners and I expect no less of this next one.

Virtual Festivals and Stereoboard have interviews with the band, while Rolling Stone declares them “Band Of The Week” and The Quietus has a video session.

MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”

Daytrotter has posted up a session with Little Boots.

Spinner learns the rather unsustainable source of Adele’s songwriting inspiration. Her second album 21 arrives February 22.

Arriving just a smidge to late to piggyback on last week’s tour announcement, Stereogum is streaming the whole of Esben & The Witch’s debut album Violet Cries a week ahead of its January 31 UK release and a bit longer ahead of the February 8 North American street date. Clash has also declared them a “band to watch”.

Stream: Esben & The Witch / Violet Cries

Also up for stream early is the debut album from Gorky’s Fanclub side-project Jonny. Well, early for North America – in another case of territorial differences, the self-titled effort is out in the UK next Monday but not until April 12 over here.

Stream: Jonny / Jonny

Lucky Soul get animated in the video for the final single to be taken from their terrific A Coming Of Age. The band are taking a bit of a break while Andrew and Ali have a baby then it’s back to work for record number three.

Video: Lucky Soul – “Upon Hilly Fields”

Patrick Wolf has released the first proper video from his forthcoming Lupercalia, a beach-frolicking little number shot in Santa Monica, California. The record is out May 23.

Video: Patrick Wolf – “The City”

Spin talks to Andy Bell and Liam Gallagher of Beady Eye about their debut album Different Gear, Still Speeding, which will get a North American release on March 1. I keep reporting on this for Andy’s sake. You know that.

MP3: Beady Eye – “The Roller”

Brett Anderson tells XFM he’d like to take a mulligan on the last Suede record, the eminently forgettable A New Morning. Where’s the positivity, Brett? This, of course, opens the question of a new record from the reformed band but first they’re going to reissue the whole of their back catalog – including A New Morning – with previously unheard rarities and participation in the archive diving from prodigal guitarist Bernard Butler but perplexingly there don’t appear to be plans for vinyl editions of any of the records. The band will also be diving into storage to dig up their “The London Suede” merch as they’re making their first trip to the US in probably at least a decade for an appearance at Coachella, though hopefully that’s not their only show on these shores. HINT HINT.

A British band who knows how to treat their audio/analogphile fans are Spiritualized, whom Exclaim reports are putting out their first two record Lazer Guided Melodies and Pure Phase on vinyl later this month. And rumours persist that a new record will be arriving from Mr. Pierce/Spaceman before the year is out.

Having successfully brought the complete Ocean Rain to Toronto in October 2009, Echo & The Bunnymen will return with their first and fourth records Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here rehearsed and ready for recital on May 16 at The Phoenix, tickets $37.50. Full dates at Pitchfork.

Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “Crocodiles” (live)

Steve GullickThe last time Oxford’s Foals were in town back in September, guitarist Jimmy Smith’s constantly malfunctioning amp and pedals provided frontman Yann Philippakis with enough rage-fuel to transform a technical disaster into a seething, edge-of-violent triumph, much to the delight of the completely jam-packed Lee’s Palace.

One expects they’ll have the state of their gear checked and double-checked before their return engagement on April 30 at the Phoenix (tickets $16.50), though. And that’s fine because as memorable as that last show was, it’ll be nice to hear them showcase their Mercury Prize-shortlisted record Total Life Forever with two fully functioning guitars.

The date is part of a Spring tour that is presumably built around a Coachella appearance and will feature a rather odd bill of Foals, Brooklyn twee-poppers Freelance Whales, still touring last year’s Weathervanes, and hotly-tipped New Zealanders The Naked & Famous, whose debut Passive Me, Aggressive You will be out on March 15.

MP3: Foals – “Spanish Sahara”
MP3: Freelance Whales – “Generator Second Floor”
Video: The Naked & Famous – “Young Blood”

Other Mercury Prize alumni coming back to town are Friendly Fires, who’ve made a May 30 date at The Phoenix, tickets $20. There’s been no official announcement about the release of their second album but one assumes that it will be out before they head over here. Update: Full North American dates are up, album has working title of Pala.

MP3: Friendly Fires – “Jump In The Pool”

Australia’s Cut Copy have slated a North American tour in support of their new record Zonoscope, due out February 8. Look for them at The Sound Academy on April 7 and download a track from the new record over here.

MP3: Cut Copy – “Lights & Music”

Last week they announced the April 4 release of their new record Blood Pressures and now, via NME are this Spring’s world tour dates for The Kills; Toronto gets them May 1 at the Sound Academy. That’s right, groan away. I’ll wait.

MP3: The Kills – “URA Fever”

Milo Cordell of The Big Pink tells NME they’re considering a hip-hop direction for their second album.

The Scotland Herald talks to Stuart Braithwaite ofMogwai in Japan. Their new record Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will arrives February 15 and there’s a new MP3 and video from said record available to download. Mogwai play The Phoenix on April 26.

MP3: Mogwai – “San Pedro”
Video: Mogwai – “Pano Rano”

The Guardian has a feature piece on British Sea Power. They play Lee’s Palace on March 30.

“The World Is Yours”, the lead track from Glasvegas’ Euphoric Heartbreak, is currently available to stream – the record is out April 4.

Music For Kids Who Can’t Read Good wins today’s Patrick Wolf news prize – they’ve got the name of Wolf’s new record – Lupercalia – and a download of the first single from the record, “Time Of My Life”. A quick look on the Twitter indicates that said album has been given a May 23 release date in the UK and a stream of the second single, “The City”, is available on Soundcloud. I daresay that if these songs are indicative of what the album will be like, Mr. Wolf has managed to outdo himself yet again.

Baeble Music has a Guest Apartment session and The Herald-Sun an interview with Kate Nash.

The Fly has an acoustic video session with The Joy Formidable, whose debut The Big Roar is out in the UK next week and in North America March 15.

Elly Jackson of La Roux discusses collaboration plans for album number two with NME.

Clash interviews Adele, whose second record 21 arrives February 22.

MusicOMH talks to Anna Calvi, whose self-titled debut arrives March 1 and who plays Wrongbar on March 11.

NPR has a second video from PJ Harvey’s forthcoming Let England Shake, due out February 15.

Video: PJ Harvey – “The Words That Maketh Murder”

In talking to Gigwise, Blur’s Dave Rowntree confirms the band will do “something” this year, but offers no more information than that. And yes, as I was typing that out I realized how pointless a news item this was but whatever.

MusicOmh has words with Richard Thompson.

And do swing by the recently-launched Aggregation Magazine, whose mandate is simple but too long for me to recap here but whose latest issue includes contributions from yours truly on topics that have nothing to do with music. And the latest issue of Under The Radar – the Sufjan cover – has an interview with myself and other music bloggers on the topic of blog hype; the issue has been out since December but I only just got a copy so I made sure I didn’t sound like a total ass before mentioning it. Only a partial ass, as per usual. End self-promo/flagellation.

Norman WongAs of right now, I’m perfectly happy to see the 2010 concert season – as wonderful as it’s been – winding down, but talk to me in a few weeks when resting up begins to turn into getting bored, and I may be getting itchy for something to do or see. Which is where The Drake Hotel has come in handy since 2006, running a week of (mostly) live music programming in The Underground for the next-to-nothing cover charge of $5.

This year’s lineup was just unveiled and as always, there’s some choice stuff on the schedule. The evening of Tuesday December 28 should be particularly tasty, being headlined as it is by local instrumental monsters Do Make Say Think, who usually play much larger rooms and cost much more than a fiver. Also appearing throughout the week will be Kingston’s buzz/fuzz merchants PS I Love You, up-and-comers Ruby Coast, veterans By Divine Right and many more. And again: $5. Beat that with a stick, I dare you.

MP3: PS I Love You – “Facelove”
Video: Do Make Say Think – “In Mind”
Video: Ruby Coast – “Whatever This Is”

aux.tv has posted up a 3-song Camera Music session with Diamond Rings, Oregon Music News an interview.

NPR talks to Born Ruffians.

Emo-rock forebears The Get-Up Kids have set a date at The Phoenix for March 8 of next year in support of their new record There Are Rules, out January 25. Tickets $24.50 in advance.

John Darnielle has revealed details of The Mountain Goats’ next record – All Eternals Deck is coming on March 29 and may or may not have a little death metal seasoning in the brew.

Spinner talks to Editors frontman Tom Smith.

This excerpt from a documentary about a man who bicycled around the world is being used as the first official Mogwai video from Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, out February 15. They’re at the Phoenix on April 26.

Video: Mogwai – “How To Be A Werewolf”

Adele has rolled out the first video from her new record 21, due out February 22. She talks to Spinner about making the clip.

Video: Adele – “Rolling In The Deep”

The Radio Dept have made the whole of their acoustic radio session at KEXP available to download. Their Passive Aggressive compilation comes out January 25 and they play Lee’s Palace on February 7.

John Eriksson gives Spin a status update on the new Peter Bjorn & John record, due out in the early part of 2011.

New York Magazine talks to Nick Cave about Grinderman while The Los Angeles Times looks at how a Bad Seeds song made it onto the latest Harry Potter soundtrack. BBC reports that Cave crashed his car this week, but is alright.

Gary Isaacs2010 has been kind of a watershed year for great records. I did some math back in April about how many acts who’ve appeared on past year-end lists were in contention for this coming one, and the result was pretty impressive, and that doesn’t account for new discoveries in the past 10 months. To wit, 2011 will have a hell of an act to follow. But, as a flurry of announcements and press releases yesterday will testify, it’s not without a few releases worth getting excited about.

Starting with Portland folk-rock faves The Decemberists, who invite no shortage of “January-ist” jokes by slating the release of their follow-up to 2009’s rock opera The Hazards Of Love for January 11 18. Presumably less conceptual than its predecessor (it couldn’t possibly get more), it will wear Colin Meloy’s Morrissey adoration on its sleeve/spine, being entitled The King Is Dead. Direct Currents has details and the track listing. Update: The first MP3 is available to download, via email widget, on their website now. Update 2: Release date confirmed as January 18 by Pitchfork.

Ritual, the second album from UK’s White Lies has gotten a confirmed North American release date of January 18.

MP3: White Lies – “Death” (Crystal Castles remix)

Denver’s DeVotchKa have announced details of their first album since 2008’s A Mad & Faithful Telling. The record will be entitled 100 Lovers and be out February 15. Telling didn’t elicit as much swooning as its 2004 predecessor How It Ends, but when no one else out there operates in the same terrain where gypsy, mariachi, folk and rock stylings overlap, any new release is cause to celebrate. Hopefully they’ll include Toronto in any tour routing, as they haven’t played a headlining show here since June 2006 – they were here this past Spring, but only as support for the more popular but less interesting Gogol Bordello.

MP3: DeVotchKa – “Along The Way”

Adele has revealed her second album will be entitled 21, ensuring that it’s at least two better than her debut 19, and be released on February 22 of next year. She talks to Spin about the new record.

Drive-By Truckers had originally intended to release two albums this year – the first being The Big To-Do back in March – but sanity has prevailed and they’ll settle for releasing two albums in the span of less than a year. Go Go Boots will come out on February 15 and, leading up to its release, the band will be previewing the new songs via live performance video clips.

Video: Drive-By Truckers – “Used To Be A Cop”

Death Cab For Cutie haven’t gotten so far along with album number seven to be able to give it a title or release date, but as Ben Gibbard tells Spin that it’ll be out in the Spring and that he really likes it.

Fact reports that Patrick Wolf will be giving vinyl-philes an early taste of his next record, making the 7″ of his new single available on December 6 but hanging onto the CD and download editions until March, a much more sensible timeframe considering the album is out in May. Personally, I’m more interested in hearing the b-side to that 7″ – a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem”. I have no idea what that might sound like but I really want to find out.

The Toronto date of the just-announced Winter tour teaming up Tokyo Police Club with Two Door Cinema Club clearly should have been booked into the Mod Club, but instead it will be happening on January 15 at the Kool Haus, tickets $20. They should at least borrow/duplicate Guided By Voices’ “The Club Is Open” sign.

MP3: Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”
Video: Tokyo Police Club – “Bambi”

If you’ve no interest in catching them open up for U2 at the ACC next Summer (July 12) and either missed or didn’t get enough at their Kool Haus show in August, Interpol are going to be at the Sound Academy on February 15, tickets $30 in advance. Creative Loafing interviews drummer Sam Fogarino.

MP3: Interpol – “Lights”

The Los Angeles Times talks to Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal.

Local Natives have put out another video from Gorilla Manor.

Video: Local Natives – “Who Knows Who Cares”

The Vine talks to Laura Ballance of Superchunk, who celebrated Hallowe’en this weekend by giving away a Misfits cover. They play the Sound Academy on December 9 opening up for Broken Social Scene.

MP3: Superchunk – “Horror Business”

Pitchfork gets all POV in session with Titus Andronicus.

JAM talks to Elvis Costello, whose new record National Ransom is out today.

Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai tells NME where they came up with the title of their new record. Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is out on February 15 of next year.

Mother Jones chats with Basia Bulat.

Spinner talks to Daniel Lanois about he and Neil Young’s pet names for one another whilst making Le Noise, and I’m embarrassed to say I did not make the connection between the album title and Lanois’ surname until, well, right now.

MySpaceIf I were a more paranoid person, I’d say that Norway’s Ida Maria was deliberately avoiding me. Back in March, she was a no-show for both her official SxSW showcases showcases and at almost the same time, she cut her stint as opener for Glasvegas to just a handful of dates, dropping off the tour just a couple shows before she’d have played Toronto. Maddening, right?

Getting a handle on her debut album Fortress ‘Round My Heart really isn’t any simpler. It was originally released in the UK in the Summer of 2008 on Sony and though a goodly amount of buzz was generated, the relationship between artist and label didn’t work out and she was cut loose. The record was re-released in February of this year independently with rejigged track listing and artwork and it was expected this indie version would be the one to trickle over to North America but it was instead picked up by Mercury Records and pushed back until April, when it came out over here with yet another track listing and different cover art.

It’s ironic that things should be so complicated around Ms Borli Sivertsen, because what she does is about as simple as it gets. Raw, irresistible guitar-rock with whiffs of garage and bubblegum, simultaneously anchored and buoyed by Sivertsen’s rough and giddy vocals. “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked” might seem like a gimmicky tune with limited shelf life, but has hooks that go far beyond the titillating title. The rest of the album barrels along with tales of booze and bawdiness, all recounted with reckless glee only pausing for breath a couple of times. It has remarkably high re-play value, helped along by the fact that the whole thing clocks in at barely 32 minutes and offering a super sugar buzz without being saccharine-sweet.

Having already made some late-night TV appearances, garnering all kinds of attention of the right kind and now set to play Lollapalooza in August, more North American touring seems like a given. Perhaps late Summer is a reasonable assumption for her first Toronto date? After all, she can’t evade me forever.

There’s features on Ida Maria at Interview, Black Book, Elle and Canadian Press.

Video: Ida Maria – “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked”
Video: Ida Maria – “Oh My God”
Video: Ida Maria – “Stella”
MySpace: Ida Maria

This week also marks the North American release of A Camp’s second album, the strangely polarizing Colonia. Some really like it, some really dislike it. I opted for “sorta like” when I reviewed it back in February. There’s interviews with head Camp counselor Nina Persson at The Glaswegian, State, Prefix and Birmingham Mail while Black Book asks her about her favourite NYC hangouts. A Camp are at the Mod Club on June 1 and the album is streaming this week at Spinner.

MP3: A Camp – “Stronger Than Jesus” (Harlem session)
Video: A Camp – “Stronger Than Jesus”
Stream: A Camp / Colonia

Uncensored Interview has a chat on video with Emil Svanangen of Loney Dear. They’re at the Rivoli next Friday night, May 8.

Daytrotter offers up a session with Cut Off Your Hands.

There’s a couple new videos from little blonde English girls with debut albums coming out soon. Little Boots’ Hands is out June 9, Polly Scattergood’s debut self-title gets a North American release on May 19.

Video: Little Boots – “New In Town”
Video: Polly Scattergood – “Please Don’t Touch”

The Globe & Mail talks to Adele, who plays Massey Hall tonight. It was also announced that she’ll be the first artists to perform on the new incarnation of MTV Unplugged – wow, it’ll be such a relief to be able to finally hear her sing without the wall of electric guitars drowning her out.

The Sun quotes Graham Coxon as saying that the Blur reunion should cover all the band’s material – even the stuff he wasn’t a part of.

Interview talks to Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie.

Clash talks to Super Furry Animals drummer Dafydd Ieuan, Wales Online to frontman Gruff Rhys.

The Daily Growl gets Mumford & Sons to pick seven songs.