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.

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.

Frank YangMaybe it’s because I tend to exist in a very Brit/Scandi/indie-centric music bubble that I figured by the time Niki & The Dove’s first proper North American tour rolled into Toronto, they’d have already been the buzziest thing going; this based on both the power of their performances at Iceland Airwaves last year and at SXSW this Spring, the overall impressiveness of their debut Instinct. So while they did indeed sell out the Drake on Tuesday night, I had expected demand would have moved it to a bigger room, that there’d be people offering to trade their kidneys for ducats on Craigslist, et cetera. Not so. But that’s okay.

I didn’t especially rate them while they were active, but if there comes a day in the not-too-distant future when Spiral Beach are held up as one of those important Toronto bands whose DNA can be found in countless others, I don’t think I’d be surprised. Already the band’s descendants includes Austra and Doldrums, and the for those wondering what former frontwoman Maddy Wilde and drummer Daniel Woodhead have been up to, the evening’s openers Moon King were the answer. But using Spiral Beach as a reference point wouldn’t get you very far, as Wilde has shifted to guitarist and backing vocal duties while Woodhead has stepped out in front of the kit and is now the frontman. Performing as a four-piece with drummer and keyboardist, they put on an impressive set that thanks to Woodhead’s affected feyness and Wilde’s aggressively chorused guitar work, you could reasonably describe as Kevin Barnes fronting a punk rock Cocteau Twins. It’s understandable if you’re unsure that that’s something you’d want to hear, but to my ears it worked quite well. And unlike Spiral Beach, whom I found overly precocious at times, Moon King are happy to indulge their pop instincts and let their talent and inherent eccentricities keep it from getting too obvious. There’s getting to be plenty of “Moon” bands out there, but this one is worth distinguishing and remembering.

You would think that having seen Niki & The Dove twice in the past year would give me a pretty good sense of what to expect from their show, but that was far from the case. This was one of a handful of headlining dates between high-profile support slots for Twin Shadow and Miike Snow, and so they were travelling on the cheap – it was just Malin Dahlström and Gustaf Karlöf, no dancers as in Iceland and not even drummer Magnus Böqvist, who accompanied them in Austin. And also, apparently, no lights. Perplexingly, they took the stage in total darkness and remained so for the first two songs – a curious choice for such a visual band, not that the lack of illumination kept Dahlström from dancing while performing – you could see her vague outline doing so. Eventually a single dim spot was raised and the house could get a reasonable look at the Swedish duo, who certainly didn’t look like they had any reason to be hiding, what with Dahlström donning a fancy headdress and some illuminated LED rings for the occasion.

Speaking of visuals, if someone were to look at their stage setup – a haphazard array of keyboards, sequencers, samplers, and guitar pedals but no acoustic instruments besides a single floor tom and snare drum – they might assume that this was a band that would have to adhere to a rigid show structure; after all, laptops aren’t necessarily the best instruments for live improvisation. They would, however, be wrong. Their set was surprisingly jammy with Karlöf taking his time to build and manipulate layers of synthetic sounds before Dahlström would begin singing, and she herself was more than equipped to at her own electronic workstation to add to the sonic melee. Most songs were extended from their album versions to some degree of live remix, often to the benefit of those in the audience who wanted to groove or dance. “Tomorrow” didn’t fare as well as the most anthemic number in their repertoire should have, sounding all out of time with itself, but I wouldn’t assume that it wasn’t deliberate.

Though they expressed some shyness about their English – which was fine, by the way – the duo were genuinely enthused about being in Toronto and the response they go, not least of all because it allowed them to break out a cover that they said they’d been preparing especially for the occasion – a sweet, low-key reading of Joni Mitchell’s, “A Case Of You”. It was a highlight of the hour-long set which closed with a particularly free-form “Drummer”, and for an encore which I’m not entirely sure they were prepared for but that was demanded, an extended “Gentle Roar”. An auspicious debut and even in the dark, they shone.

The Stool Pigeon also had a foreign correspondent on hand. Houston Press and The Phoenix have interviews with Niki & The Dove.

Photos: Niki & The Dove, Moon King @ The Drake Underground – October 2, 2012
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “Tomorrow”
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “Mother Protect”
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “DJ, Ease My Mind”
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “The Drummer”
MP3: Moon King – “Only Child”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “Dance Floor”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “Tomorrow”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “The Fox”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “DJ Ease My Mind”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “Mother Protect”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “The Drummer”
Video: Moon King – “Only Child”

In preview of tonight’s show at The Phoenix, NOW has an interview with Jens Lekman, who has released a new video from I Know What Love Isn’t.

Video: Jens Lekman – “Become Someone Else’s”

DIY has an interview with Victoria Bergsman of Taken By Trees, who opens up for Lekman tonight.

Norway’s Team Me have released a new video from To The Treetops.

Video: Team Me – “With My Hands Covering Both Of My Eyes I Am Too Scared To Have A Look At You Now”

NPR is streaming Efterklang’s recent New York concert with the Wordless Music Orchestra and The Epoch Times has an interview.

Irish power-pop vets Ash are finally coming back to town as part of a North American tour to mark their twentieth anniversary as a band. They’ll be at Lee’s Palace on November 17.

MP3: Ash – “Burn Baby Burn”

The Skinny, The Quietus, and Spin talk to Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes about her new record The Haunted Man, due out October 22.

The New Yorker and The Chicago Sun-Times interview Beth Orton.

The Fly has a sit-down with The Vaccines.

The Stool Pigeon and FasterLouder interview Tame Impala about their new album Lonerism, out next Tuesday. They play The Phoenix November 12.

Christiaan FelberThe answer from many to the question posed by the title of The Vaccines’ debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines was, “great things”. That may have been overreaching – What Did You Expect was a solid bit of guitar rock that didn’t necessarily pin them down in any one stylistic cul de sac, ranging from punky throwaways to stadium-ambition anthems – but there’s no arguing they built up a pretty good head of steam on it before it all crashed to a halt at the end of the Summer when frontman Justin Young’s voice was shut down for vocal cord surgery.

One of the casualties of that bit of misfortune was the entirety of their Fall North American tour, including a date at The Phoenix last October, but on the bright side being put into dry dock meant they could get down to writing their second album when they would have normally kept at touring the first. As a result, they’ve put out Come Of Age – which is less rangy but maybe hookier, finding the Londoners happily settling into a simpler, garage-rock vein. And they’ve finally gone ahead and made up those North American dates – if a year and a quarter later – planning to again hit The Phoenix on February 4. Tickets for that are $18 in advance.

Video: The Vaccines – “Teenage Icon”
Video: The Vaccines – “No Hope”

Marina & The Diamonds, who’s enjoyed chart-topping success back home in the UK with her second album Electra Heart will be looking to see how much that – and her stint this Summer supporting Coldplay – has translated into in North American success. She’s coming across the pond this December and bringing Swedish duo Icona Pop – themselves riding a pretty good buzz – and will be at The Phoenix on December 3, tickets $25.

Video: Marina & The Diamonds – “How To Be A Heartbreaker”
Video: Icona Pop – “Nights Like This”

Maxïmo Park have released a new video from their latest, The National Health and The Sun talks football with frontman Paul Smith.

Video: Maxïmo Park – “The Undercurrents”

The Dumbing Of America talks to Claudette Thurlow of 2:54, in town at The Horseshoe on October 22.

Bat For Lashes has released a new video from The Haunted Man, due out October 22. The Line Of Best Fit and Loud & Quiet have interviews with Natasha Khan.

Video: Bat For Lashes – “All Your Gold”

Bat For Lashes bandmate – or at least she was the last time out – Charlotte Hatherley continues with her Sylver Tongue electro-pop project by scheduling the release of her debut EP in that guise – Something Big – for November 6. Altsounds has some details.

Black Cab Sessions has a session in a black cab with Hot Chip; eGigs also has an interview.

The Line Of Best Fit has a video session with Richard Hawley.

Pet Shop Boys have a new video from their latest, Elysium. There’s also a feature at BBC.

Video: Pet Shop Boys – “Leaving”

eMusic and The Telegraph have interviews with Beth Orton.

Mumford & Sons stop in at Daytrotter and NPR for studio sessions and also offer The National Post and New York Times interviews.

DIY has a feature on Tame Impala, who are streaming their new record Lonerism over at NPR. It’s out next Tuesday, October 9, and they are at The Phoenix on November 12.

Stream: Tame Impala / Lonerism

Amanda MarsalisCognizant, perhaps, of the fact that Other Worlds, her third album as Taken By Trees, comes out the exact same day that her North American tour supporting both it and Jens Lekman begins – that’d be next Tuesday, October 2 – Victoria Bergsman has thoughtfully made the album available to stream in its entirety; you can hear it over at Prefix.

It’s a record that keeps the wanderlust feel of its predecessor, East Of Eden, as filtered through Bergsman’s signature shy, sleepy vocals. But where that album immersed itself in the sounds and spirit of Pakistan, Worlds draws influences from a variety of places, from the Mediterranean to Caribbean to South Pacific, to create a gentle, yet danceable aural vacation.

Taken By Trees are at The Phoenix on October 4. Work has a brief Q&A with Bergsman.

Stream: Taken By Trees / Other Worlds

Room 205 has poste the third and final video from their session with I Break Horses. You can also just stream the audio of the session via Soundcloud if you don’t want to deal with the… interesting camera work.

Video: I Break Horses – “Load Your Eyes”
Stream: I Break Horses @ Room 205

Stereogum and The Toronto Star have interviews with First Aid Kit.

DIY gets to know Icona Pop.

Sigur Rós have released another instalment from their Valtari “Mystery Film Experiment” series.

Video: Sigur Rós – “Ekki múkk”

In conversation with Drowned In Sound, Andy Bell discusses what’s next for Beady Eye, what was for Ride and Oasis, and what probably should never have been with Hurricane #1.

DIY, Cool Hunting, and Drowned In Sound talk to Efterklang.

Still Corners have released a new single to precede a Fall European tour. It’s pretty.

MP3: Still Corners – “Fireflies”

CBC Music talks to Beth Orton, in town at the Mod Club on Sunday night in support of Sugaring Season, out Tuesday.

Paste is streaming Don’t Be A Stranger, the new album from Mark Eitzel, ahead of its official release date next Tuesday. He’s at The Rivoli on November 28 and another career advice video is up at SF Weekly.

MP3: Mark Eitzel – “I Love You But You’re Dead”
Stream: Mark Eitzel / Don’t Be A Stranger

Exclaim and The National Post have features on Grizzly Bear, who’ve released a new video and download from Shields.

MP3: Grizzly Bear – “Speak In Rounds”
Video: Grizzly Bear – “Yet Again”

Annie Clark of St. Vincent submits to an Exclaim questionnaire.

CBC Music and SF Weekly talk to Victoria Legrand and The Georgia Straight to Alex Scally of Beach House; they’re at The Kool Haus on October 13.

A couple of noteworthy support acts announced this week – Jason Lytle will be peddling his new solo record Dept. Of Disappearance at Massey Hall on December 5 before Band Of Horses take the stage. The album is out October 16, and a new song is available to stream.

Stream: Jason Lytle – “Get Up And Go”

And DIIV are back again, warming up for Japandroids at The Phoenix on December 11.

MP3: DIIV – “Sometime”