Posts Tagged ‘Allo Darlin’’

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

To The End

Blur turn 21, clearly believe adage about leaving a beautiful corpse. In a box.

Photo via FacebookFacebookIf you accept that Damon Albarn is speaking truth and that these are the end times for Blur, you have to admit they’re doing it right. They’ve got their August 12 date at Hyde Park in London earmarked as the swan song, a lovely new (final) single in “Under The Westway” in the can and ready to surely top the charts one last time, and before they go, they’re clearing out the archival cupboards well and proper.

On July 31, to mark the 21st anniversary of their debut album Leisure and presumably the end of their career, they’ll release Blur 21 – a massive, career-spanning box set that will be made available in two formats. The digital box will contain all seven studio albums in remastered and expanded double-CD format, four discs of rarities not redundant to the material on each album’s bonus disc, three DVDs of live performances and videos, a 7″ of a Seymour-era single, and a fancy hardbound book about the band. The vinyl box will contain all seven albums on vinyl. And for the fans who aren’t insane collectors, each gussied-up album will be available individually in both CD and LP formats.

Yes that is a lot of Blur, but if you’re any degree of fan, try watching the trailer for the set and not thinking, “man I want that set”. If you’re curious, the pricing in Canada comes in at around $320 for either the vinyl box or the digital.

Trailer: Blur 21

If you’re interested in what Albarn will do with himself since he’s bringing the curtain down on both Blur and Gorillaz, then this stream at NPR of his Dr. Dee solo album/opera might offer some idea of his direction.

Stream: Damon Albarn / Dr. Dee

And while on the topic of reissues from seminal British bands from the ’90s, Exclaim points out that Ride are marking the 20th anniversary of Going Blank Again with a deluxe reissue consisting of a remaster of the album and a DVD of their 1992 show at the Brixton Academy (though probably in Region 1 and PAL format). It was also just pointed out to me that Going Blank Again got a vinyl reissue in February of this year thanks to Japanese archival label Obscure Alternatives.

Video: Ride – “Twisterella”

The Guardian and The Independent talk to Tim Burgess of The Charlatans about his forthcoming memoirs Tellin’ Stories, due out May 29. Slicing Up Eyeballs reports that their 1997 album of the same name will get its own 15th anniversary reissue on May 28 in double-disc format.

Video: The Charlatans – “North Country Boy”

Exclaim talks to Jason Pierce of Spiritualized. They’re at The Phoenix on May 5.

Austin City Limits is offering a tease of their recent Radiohead performance which was recorded in March but won’t air until the Fall. They’re at Downsview Park on June 16.

Video: Radiohead – “Lotus Flower” (live on Austin City Limits)

Pitchfork gets Jonny Marr to recount his musical influences through the years.

Clash talks literary influences with Gerard Love of Lightships.

Pitchfork talks to Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne about their new album Words And Music By Saint Etienne, due out on May 21; they’ve also got a stream of a new song from the album.

Stream: Saint Etienne – “Answer Song”

Pitchfork reports that Field Music will be collecting all the covers they’ve recorded over the years and releasing them in album form this Fall. I like Field Music covers. This pleases me.

State and Metro talk to Mystery Jets about their new record Radlands, out May 1, while NME has a stream of the whole thing. They’re at The Sound Academy on June 19 opening up for Keane.

Stream: Mystery Jets / Radlands

The Big Pink have released a new video from Future This.

Video: The Big Pink – “Lose Your Mind”

DIY has both a stream of Europe, the lovely new record from Allo Darlin’, and song-by-song commentary by the band. It’s out on May 1 over here but if you were to get it in the UK via Rough Trade, you could get it with a limited edition bonus CD containing six cover songs including this Go-Betweens tune, which they’re also offering as a stream.

Stream: Allo Darlin’ – “Dive For Your Memory”
Stream: Allo Darlin’ / Europe

We don’t have details on her second album yet, but Little Boots has released a second MP3 from it (“Shake” was offered up as a stream last November).

MP3: Little Boots – “Every Night I Say A Prayer”

Emmy The Great has released the second of her “God Of Loneliess” comics at Drowned In Sound along with another remix; that’s the third, another came out late last week. The Virtue deluxe edition and “God Of Loneliness” single are both out May 7.

MP3: Emmy The Great – “God Of Loneliness” (Dems remix)

Glide has a chat with Dry The River, who’ve released a new video from their debut Shallow Bed.

Video: Dry The River – “No Rest”

Daytrotter has posted a session with Johnny Flynn and The Guardian has an interview.

Friday, March 9th, 2012

Some Written

A Metronomy giveaway and some other stuff of a random nature

Photo by Phil SharpPhil SharpIt took me a while to warm to England’s Metronomy – perhaps not unusual considering how deliberately chilly their particular vein of electro-pop tends to be. But warm to it I did, or at least to their 2011 Mercury-shortlisted album The English Riviera; just not quite in time to catch them on their last pass through town last October. I was still recovering from Iceland Airwaves and had something like four or five other shows that week – something had to give, and it was Metronomy.

Well, thank goodness for Coldplay and remixes. Yeah, that’s not something I ever thought I’d write, but thanks to being tapped to open up for some of Coldplay’s western North American dates and also the release this week of The English Riviera: Unreleased Remixes in the US, the band has enough cause to cross the Atlantic again. Okay, getting asked to play Coachella and having sold out at least some of the dates on that Fall tour were probably also some incentive. In any case, they’re back in town at The Hoxton on April 2, and I won’t miss them this time around.

Thanks to Embrace, you don’t have to either. I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show and to win them, just email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Metronomy” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, March 25.

And while you’re waiting to find out if you won, maybe put their just-posted Daytrotter session on repeat while reading this interview with bandleader Joe Mounts in The Independent.

MP3: Metronomy – “The Look”
Video: Metronomy – “Everything Goes My Way”
Video: Metronomy – “The Look”
Video: Metronomy – “The Bay”
Video: Metronomy – “She Wants”

I’ve never prayed for autotune to be utilized on anything, let alone a live record, but there’s a not insignificant part of me that hopes the Florence & The Machine MTV Unplugged album just announced gets a little pitch polishing before it’s released on April 9. If you’ve heard her live – and you can do so on August 4 at The Molson Amphitheatre – then you know what I’m talking about. And oh yeah, there’s another new video out from Ceremonials.

Video: Florence & The Machine – “Never Let Me Go”

The Quietus chats with Elizabeth Morris of Allo Darlin’, whose new album Europe is due out in May. And as disappointed as I was that their Spring tour is just American and not North American, I’m very excited that they’re going to be part of this year’s NYC Popfest and that I’ll be in New York on the day – May 20 – that they’re playing. Huzzah!

Breakthru Radio has got a video session and The San Francisco Examiner an interview with Slow Club.

Veronica Falls compiles and annotates a mixtape for The Fly.

It escaped my notice until now that Elvis Costello – and presumably “The Spectacular Spinning Songbook” – was going to be back in the general geographic region this Spring. If you missed he and The Imposters last Summer, consider a trek up to Casino Rama on April 19; it’s a fantastic show.

MP3: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – “Radio Radio” (live at The El Mocambo)

Billy Bragg talks to Billboard about the forthcoming Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions set coming out on April 21.

DIY, The Irish Times, and Clash have features on Lianne La Havas, whose debut album Is Your Love Big Enough will be out on July 19 in the UK.

The Twilight Sad are featured in a video session at Beatcast.

Mystery Jets are streaming a first taste of their new album Radlands ahead of its release date of April 30.

Stream: Mystery Jets – “Someone Purer”

The Cribs, on the other hand, are onto their second preview track from new record In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull. It’s out on May 8 and they’ll be showing off other new songs from it at Lee’s Palace on April 11.

Stream: The Cribs – “Come On, Be A No One”

London’s Dry The River are featured in pieces at The Fly and Spin and perform in a DIY video session. Shallow Bed gets a North American release on April 17 and they’re at The Garrison on March 27 opening for Bowerbirds.

This is an interesting little release – Swervedriver main man Adam Franklin has released a new 7″ consisting of a Wolf Parade cover on the a-side and his interpretation of a rare Clientele track on the reverse. You can stream both sides at Soundcloud.

Stream: Adam Franklin – “Shine A Light”/”Elm Grove Window”

The Guardian examines the thriving Scottish music scene.

DIY has a video session with Loney Dear.

The Guardian declares Amanda Mair their new artist of the day. Her self-titled debut gets a North American release on June 5.

State talks to The Jezabels, who just won The Australian Music Prize for Prisoner and are in town at The Mod Club on April 18.

It’s funny that not too long ago, I was toying with the idea of building another website for the sole purpose of listing local shows with as much useful, accurate information as possible. Clearly I didn’t get around to it, and it’s just as well because in addition to JustShows.com, which popped up a few months back and gets kudos for being clean, timely and accurate, we now have Show Gopher, which distinguishes itself with a handy grid layout and streaming audio for as many of the artists as possible. Which just goes to show – if you want something done, just procrastinate long enough and someone else will do it for you.

Friday, March 2nd, 2012

Not Sleeping

The Twilight Sad and Odonis Odonis at Lee’s Palace in Toronto

Photo By Frank YangFrank YangAs I understand it, conventional wisdom is that Leap Day should be taken as an opportunity to try something new. But seeing as how prior to this year I’ve never thought of February 29 as anything more than an extra day of Winter every four years, I don’t feel bad that I spent it seeing a band I’ve seen many times before – Scotland’s The Twilight Sad, in town in support of their third album No One Can Ever Know.

“Trying something new” points should still be award for showing up early for opening act Odonis Odonis, who despite hailing from Toronto I’d not heard before the took the stage. A little research revealed that they were in fact labelmates with The Twilight Sad, being signed to the UK’s esteemed Fat Cat imprint for their debut album Hollandaze; this would normally be a good indicator of quality, but I recall another Toronto outfit signed to Fat Cat – Ten Kens – whom I was totally unimpressed with. And as it turns out, Odonis Odonis is the project of a former Ten Kens member. So. It’s probably just as well that I didn’t know that beforehand because I likely wouldn’t have given them a shot, and as it turned out, I liked them better. Relatively, at least. The trio either took a garage/surf-rock thing and buried it under noise layers or art-rock or took a noisy, art-rock thing and gave it a garagey/surfy friendly vibe – the coin flipped a few times over the course of their set. It was pretty loud and heavy, either way, and by the time it was over, I think the scorecard tipped in favour of tuneful over discordant, but just barely.

As noted in my review, No One Can Ever Know certainly found The Twilight Sad trying something new – synth-rock. An unexpected move given their signature sound to this point had been James Graham’s inconsolable bellow over Andy Macfarlane’s massive guitars, but one that works surprisingly well. So while I had a pretty good idea of what to expect of the band live by this point, I was curious to see how this new dimension would be incorporated into the show.

Taking the stage to a slow, pulsing synth tone that could well have been a fire alarm, they opened with No One‘s “Kill It In The Morning” – about half the set was comprised of new material, the rest split evenly between Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters and Forget The Night Ahead – and made it clear that though they had the same five-piece lineup that opened for Mono last time through, Martin Doherty’s keyboard responsibilities – while certainly more important this time out – were not going to supplant Macfarlane’s six-string duties anytime soon. The synthetic sheen of the new material was given a proper steel wool scrub courtesy of Macfarlane’s Fender Jaguar and Marshall stack and made loud, fuzzy and loud. Did I mention loud?

The combination of their old sound and new was quite a potent one, the resultant chaotic squall with a mechanical pulse coming across as more urgent and menacing than ever before and proving the new direction did not come at the expense of old strengths. At some points, the mix fell out of balance and Graham’s vocals – no wallflower of an instrument – were buried under the tumult but it always managed to right itself before becoming an issue. It was also interesting to see how far Graham has come as a frontman, his lurch-dance moves providing a welcome bit of onstage activity relative to his bandmates.

The show moved with a steady but unrelenting momentum for just over an hour, Graham taking the time to sincerely thank everyone for coming out to see them and promising a return visit soon before finishing with a scorched-earth double-shot of “And She Would Darken The Memory” from Fourteen Autumns and “At The Burnside” from Forget The Night Ahead. There was no encore, but there didn’t need to be; that was the proper finish.

Exclaim also has a review of the show.

Photos: The Twilight Sad, Odonis Odonis @ Lee’s Palace – February 29, 2012
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Another Bed”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Kill It In The Morning”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Reflection Of The Television”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Cold Days From The Birdhouse”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy”
MP3: Odonis Odonis – “Ledged Up”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “Another Bed”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “Sick”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “The Room”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “Seven Years Of Letters”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “I Became A Prostitute”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “And She Would Darken The Memory”
Video: Odonis Odonis – “Ledged Up”
Video: Odonis Odonis – “Blood Feast”
Video: Odonis Odonis – “Mr. Smith”

Nick Lowe returns to town with a full band for a show at The Phoenix on April 23, tickets $34 in advance and there will be limited seating available. It’s in support of last year’s The Old Magic, from which Lowe has released his first music video in almost two decades – NPR premiered it alongside a conversation with Lowe about the tune.

Video: Nick Lowe – “Sensitive Man”

Finally apparently getting over her fear of playing venues appropriately sized to her fanbase, Laura Marling has announced a June 17 visit to The Phoenix, the final date of a Summer tour. Tickets will be $25 in advance.

Video: Laura Marling – “All My Rage”

Daytrotter has posted a session with Noah & The Whale.

Interview and The Quietus interviews Beth Jeans Houghton, whose Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose is up to stream in whole at Spinner; I wrote this record up a month ago – but the North American release was just this week. But to make up for the delay, there’s a new video!

MP3: Beth Jeans Houghton – “Dodecahedron”
Video: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny – “Atlas”
Stream: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny / Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose

Arctic Monkeys have released a new video for a non-album track. They’re at the Air Canada Centre opening for The Black Keys on March 14.

Video: Arctic Monkeys – “R U Mine?”

The lead single from The Wedding Present’s new album Valentina is now available to download. The record is out March 20 – North Americans can preorder the LP version over here – and they play The Horseshoe on March 25.

MP3: The Wedding Present – “You’re Dead”

The most appealing part of the new Belle & Sebastian-curated Late Night Tales compilation coming on March 26 – the band’s cover of The Primitives’ “Crash” – is now available to stream.

Stream: Belle & Sebastian – “Crash”

Also out March 26 is In Time To Voices, the new record from Blood Red Shoes; Artrocker talks to drummer Steve Ansell about the new album.

Allo Darlin’ have released a new video from their forthcoming album Europe, which will be out on April 17.

Video: Allo Darlin’ – “Capricornia”

In conversation with producer Stephen Street, Louder Than War learns that the Blur back catalog is in the process of being remastered for reissue in the near future. And the video from Graham Coxon’s new solo record A+E for which he was soliciting dance audition clips is now live; the album is out April 26.

Video: Graham Coxon – “What’ll It Take”

Pitchfork reports that Hot Chip have completed work on their new album and will release it under the title of In Our Heads on June 12.

Summer Camp has released a new video from their debut album Welcome To Condale.

Video: Summer Camp – “Losing My Mind”

Le Blogotheque has posted a Take-Away Show with Anna Calvi, while Time Out talks to her about her forays into the fashion world and The Music Network inquires about her music.

The Quietus talks to Stuart Staples and David Boulter of Tindersticks about their new record The Something Rain.

DIY talks dating with Charles and Rebecca of Slow Club.

aux.tv gets Los Campesinos! to provide a running commentary of their video for “By Your Hand”.

The Quietus checks in with British Sea Power, presumably working away at their next album.

The Line Of Best Fit salues Black Cab Sessions on the occasion of their 100th episode, and we (I) salute The Line Of Best Fit on the occasion of their fifth anniversary. The Guardian also marks the occasion by picking their five favourite performances.

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Circles And Squares

We Were Promised Jetpacks tour North America; may not be powered by jetpack

Photo By Neil Thomas DouglasNeil Thomas DouglasAs I understand it, yesterday was Robbie Burns Day and while I may have missed out on my annual tradition of posting something suitably Scottish to mark the day – a tradition I’ve marked exactly zero times in the past forever years – I’m going to make up for it a little bit by leading with some Scots-related content.

Firstly, We Were Promised Jetpacks have finally scheduled a second North American tour in support of last year’s In The Pit Of The Stomach; they did a leg of touring Stateside in the later part of the year but routing didn’t bring them up through town that time. This time, they’ve got an April 27 date at Lee’s Palace, with advance tickets running you $15 in advance. I wasn’t quite bowled over with their 2009 debut These Four Walls, but am on record as saying that Stomach shows some pretty significant artistic growth. And their live shows have always been good, loud and intense so yeah. Mark this one down.

MP3: We Were Promised Jetpacks – “Act On Impulse”
Video: We Were Promised Jetpacks – “Human Error”

Meanwhile, labelmates and countrymen The Twilight Sad continue to ramp up to the February 7 release of their new record No One Can Ever Know. They’ve released a second video from the record and there’s also an interview with frontman James Graham and guitarist Andy MacFarlane at The Spill. They’ll be at Lee’s Palace on February 29.

Video: The Twilight Sad – “Another Bed”

Exclaim reports that Belle & Sebastian are will be curating a second Late Night Tales compilation which, in addition to including tracks selected by the band, will include a cover of the Scots covering The Primitives’ “Crash”. That’s one to file under, “worth the price of admission”. It’s out March 26 and will hopefully keep fans appeased while Stuart Murdoch continues to round up funding for his God Help The Girl film project.

No Ripcord interviews Allo Darlin’, whose second album Europe will be out in April.

Florence & The Machine has released another new video from Ceremonials. Florence Welch talked to MTV about her staging plans for their just-announced US tour, which doesn’t have a local date. I’m genuinely curious where she’ll play (and how much it’ll cost) when she eventually winds her way up to Canada – I’m guessing Air Canada Centre, even if just theatre mode, but wouldn’t be shocked if they went for the whole hog. Anyways.

Video: Florence & The Machine – “Lover To Lover”

There’s a new Laura Marling video taken from A Creature I Don’t Know, and a clip for a live reading of “Night After Night” has also surfaced.

Video: Laura Marling – “I Was Just A Card”
Video: Laura Marling – “Night After Night” (live)

They Shoot Music goes hunting for Wild Beasts and finally corner them in a Copenhagen freight elevator. Video ensues.

Drowned In Sound meets Metronomy, who have a date at The Hoxton on April 2.

DIY reports that Brighton’s Blood Red Shoes have set a March 26 release date for their new record In Time To Voices. Steve Ansell – the non-guitar half of the duo – penned a piece for Drowned In Sound about the state of guitar music in the UK right now.

If it seemed like Arctic Monkeys have been releasing a tonne of videos from Suck It And See, well they have. And now they’ve released a clip for the b-side from the forthcoming “Black Treacle” single, a tune which features vocals from the inimitable Richard Hawley.

Video: Arctic Monkeys – “You & I” (featuring Richard Hawley)

The Guardian reports that Saint Etienne are giving away a track from their first new album in seven years via their website in exchange for your personal details. Word is the album will be entitled Words and Music by Saint Etienne, no word on release date.

Stream: Saint Etienne – “Tonight”

Richard Thompson talks to Billboard about his plans for his next album, which will be electric, recorded in a trio format and probably be out before the end of the year.

Kate Bush has released a new animated video from 50 Words For Snow.

Video: Kate Bush – “Elder Falls At Lake Tahoe”

The Psychedelic Furs have made a date at Lee’s Palace for March 29, tickets $36.50 in advance.

Video: The Psychedelic Furs – “Love My Way”

Fanfarlo are paving the road to the February 28 release of Rooms Filled With Light with the release of a series of live session videos of songs from the record. The first is for the lead single from the record. They’re at The Mod Club on March 24.

Video: Fanfarlo – “Shiny Things” (live session)

The Line Of Best Fit has premiered a track from The Mary Onettes’ forthcoming Love Forever EP, due out February 28.

MP3: The Mary Onettes – “Love’s Taking Strange Ways”

Australians The Jezabels have made a headlining date for The Mod Club on April 18; tickets are $15.50 in advance.

MP3: The Jezabels – “Try Colour”

Just a week after wondering when that first single would show up, DIY points to a stream of the first taste of Ladyhawke’s Anxiety. The US release date for the record has now been pushed back a week to March 27.

Stream: Ladyhawke – “Black, White & Blue”

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

A Heavy Abacus

The Joy Formidable and A Place To Bury Strangers team for tour; loudness ensues

Photo via Big HassleBig HassleBoth Wales’ The Joy Formidable and New York’s A Place To Bury Strangers know a thing or two about the merits of turning one’s amplifiers up as far as they’ll go, destroying their instruments, and making their audience wish that it were possible to wear more than one pair of earplugs at a time. So with the announcement yesterday that the two acts were teaming up for a trans-Atlantic summit on (inflicting) hearing loss, those who like it loud responded with excitement. And fear.

A Place To Bury Strangers have a legitimate reason to be hitting the road – they’re releasing the Onwards To The Wall EP on February 7, and have just put out an MP3 and video from said release to build anticipation. The Joy Formidable are still working last year’s debut The Big Roar, and though they’ve said they’re working on the follow-up and want to have it out this year, it’s hard to imagine how they’ll find the time as it seems they’ve been touring non-stop for years now – they were here thrice in the span of a year and the April 2 stop at Lee’s Palace will make it four times in under two years. Tickets for that are $16.50.

And rounding out the bill will be New York’s Exitmusic, who aren’t all that loud – their 2011 EP was called From Silence, after all – but whose frontwoman Aleksa Palladino might be familiar if you watch Boardwalk Empire (and if you do, you know she’s got a lot of time to devote to her music now).

The Vinyl District has an interview with The Joy Formidable and, as a bonus, over the holidays the band shared a cover of their tune “I Don’t Want To See You Like This” as done by long-time Elvis Costello keyboardist Steve Nieve. Random, but nice. And not loud.

MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”
MP3: A Place To Bury Strangers – “So Far Away”
MP3: Exitmusic – “The Sea”
MP3: Steve Nieve – “I Don’t Want To See You Like This”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”
Video: A Place To Bury Strangers – “So Far Away”
Video: Exitmusic – “The Hours”

The Twilight Sad – themselves no strangers to the joys of noise – have made a second MP3 from their forthcoming No One Can Ever Know – out February 7 – available via Spin. They’re at Lee’s Palace on February 29 and there’s interviews with the band at The Skinny and Delusions Of Adequacy.

MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Another Bed”

The Big Pink give Spin a track-by-track tour of their new record Future This, and you can follow along at NME as they’re streaming the whole thing ahead of its release next Tuesday, January 17. Drowned In Sound also has an interview with the band.

Stream: The Big Pink / Future This

The Stool Pigeon talks to David Lewis Gedge of The Wedding Present; they’re at The Horseshoe on March 25.

Laundromatinee has got a video session with Yuck for the sharing.

While I’m beyond disappointed that Allo Darlin’s Spring American tour isn’t a NORTH American tour – which is to say there’s no Canadian dates – that sting is lessened just a bit by the fact that the first proper single from Europe is now available to stream. The record is due out sometime in May.

Stream: Allo Darlin’ – “Capricornia”

Fanfarlo have premiered a new video from Rooms Filled With Light over at NPR. The record is out February 28 and they play The Mod Club as part of Canadian Musicfest on March 24.

Video: Fanfarlo – “Shiny Things”

Arctic Monkeys have put out another new video from Suck It And See; they’re at The Air Canada Centre on March 14 supporting The Black Keys.

Video: Arctic Monkeys – “Black Treacle”

BBC6 talks to Richard Hawley about his next record, which will be much more “guitar-centric”. Can. Not. Wait.

New Jersey Underground reports that British Sea Power’s New Year’s resolution appears to have been to release a shit-tonne of new music. Starting now – BSP EP1 is already available – the band will release an EP every month for the next six months, each featuring in-progress new material that may surface in different forms in future albums.

Loud & Quiet talks to Greg Hughes of Still Corners.

Australian dance-rock outfit The Temper Trap have made a March 25 date at The Phoenix. They’ve still yet to follow up 2009’s Conditions, but planning shows on the other side of the world could be a sign that that’s going to change. Or maybe they just want to do some shopping.

Video: The Temper Trap – “Sweet Disposition”

Snow Patrol will be at Massey Hall on April 17. Their latest album Fallen Empires came out in Europe last year but only just came out in North America yesterday – Billboard has a track-by-track tour of the record from frontman Gary Lightbody.

Video: Snow Patrol – “This Is Everything You Are”

Spin talks family bands with First Aid Kit. They’ve released a new video from their forthcoming The Lion’s Roar, out January 24, and will play The Great Hall on April 4.

Video: First Aid Kit – “Emmylou”

Swedish singer-songwriter Amanda Mair has set a February 15 release date for her self-titled debut.

MP3: Amanda Mair – “Doubt”

The AV Club interviews Anthony Gonzalez of M83. They play The Sound Academy on May 6.