Vanessa HeinsIt’s fitting that there was on The Rural Albeta Advantage’s debut album Hometowns a song called “The Ballad Of The RAA” because really, theirs was a nearly perfect story. The Toronto trio went from sparsely-attended open mic nights around town through a whirlwind of buzz – including a glorious, crystalline moment in an packed Austin church – that saw them become critical and popular darlings, all on the back of that batch of perfect, almost bewilderingly-simple but heartfelt songs. If this were the feature film adaptation of their story, then the final scene might well have played out at Lee’s Palace in December 2009 with the band playing a jam-packed hometown homecoming show and basking in the love of friends and family, faded to black.

Real life, however, doesn’t get to just let the credits roll and short of disbanding, a sequel was guaranteed and a couple years on, has arrived in Departing. Now for some bands, saying that they’ve made the same record over again would be a slight but for The RAA, at least in this case, it’s meant as high praise. Their sonic signature was distinctive from day one, relying on just a handful of musical tools to bring their songs to life, and success hasn’t been converted into truckloads of new instruments to play with. They just took a break, took a breath, and got back to it.

On the similarities, Departing is still built on Nils Edenloff’s nasal rasp and battered acoustic guitar, Amy Cole’s humming keyboards and sweet harmonies and Paul Banwatt’s insane drumming; elements that might seem at odds with one another on paper yet are perfectly complimentary in practice. The songs are yearning and wistful, still informed by Edenloff’s past life as a young Albertan in love. Even so, Departing is far from redundant – it represents a further honing of the above elements, the sort that you only get from endlessly touring. The production is more consistent throughout the album – Hometowns sometimes bore the fingerprints of its drawn-out gestation – and the arc of the songs from start to finish feels more considered and fluid. And while it covers the same lyrical terrain as its predecessor, the emotional range is broader, featuring some of the band’s most gentle and raging moments. On an individual song basis, Hometowns might retain the edge in highlights but as a collection and an arc, Departing is every bit its equal if not better.

All that said, one has to wonder how much more mileage can be gotten from this formula which has served them so well thus far, both with regards to sound and songwriting. The tidiness of a trilogy aside, it’s hard to imagine a third record of this not entering diminishing returns territory and surely a band as talented as they would want to push their boundaries as well. That, however, is a deliberation for later. All that matters for now is that Departing, while not having the ineffable x-factor that comes with discovering one of your new favourite bands, is another superb record from a singular band and should be treasured.

The Rural Alberta Advantage play their biggest hometown show yet at The Phoenix on April 29. Paste, Spinner and The Wall Street Journal have interviews with the band, NPR a World Cafe session and Billboard coaxes an Abba cover out of them.

MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “North Star”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Stamp”
Video: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Stamp”

Pitchfork talks to Tom Scharpling about directing the latest New Pornographers video for “Moves”, outtakes from which have now surfaced on Vimeo.

Wireless Bollinger exchanges words with Dan Bejar of Destroyer. He plays Lee’s Palace on March 31.

BBC, The New Zealand Herald and Herald Sun talk to Dan Snaith of Caribou, who has released a new video from last year’s Swim.

Video: Caribou – “Jamelia”

Beatroute has an interview with Born Ruffians, who have a show at The Opera House on April 16.

The New Haven Advocate and Spinner catch up with Tokyo Police Club.

Exclaim rounds up various goings-on in the world of Fucked Up, including a live record and GG Allin tribute 7″. Their next studio record David Comes To Life is due in May.

Spinner talks to John O’Regan of Diamond Rings.

Muzzle Of Bees has premiered a new video from Great Lake Swimmers.

Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Chorus In The Underground”

PopMatters interview Rolf Klausener of The Acorn. They’ve just announced an April 28 date at The Horseshoe with Evening Hymns.

MP3: The Acorn – “Restoration”

Beatroute discusses Degeneration Street with Murray Lightburn of The Dears.

Soundproof, Prefix and Filter have features on Young Galaxy, playing at Lee’s Palace on Thursday night as part of Canadian Musicfest.

NOW, eye and The Waterloo Record talk to Karkwa in advance of their local appearances next week – March 5 at Lee’s Palace opening for Plants & Animals, March 11 at Wrongbar for Canadian Musicfest and an in-store at Sonic Boom at 9PM on March 12.

Ottawa XPress, The Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen and Brock Press have feature pieces on Jenn Grant.

FacebookOf all of the remarkable things that Feist has done in the past few years, one of the most impressive is managing to go from a state of almost complete ubiquity circa The Reminder to one of relative obscurity. Over the last two years, there’ve been the occasional guest appearance on others’ records and even rarer live appearances with Broken Social Scene, but by and large she’s done a fine job of keeping a low profile – presumably working on a new record but no one really knows.

That profile has risen again of late with the upcoming release of Look At What The Light Did Now, a documentary film culled from footage taken during The Reminder tour. Coming out on DVD on December 7 with an accompanying CD of recordings taken from and around the film, it received a hometown screening last night at the Royal Ontario Museum… which probably seemed like a good idea but proved to be an almost disastrous one thanks to the horrible acoustics in the main atrium. But if there was an upside to it, it was that you were forced to pay almost unnatural attention to the film to extract anything comprehensible from the echo- and reverb-drenched audio.

With regards to the film itself, some have questioned if there’s really a need for a Feist documentary when her career isn’t a decade old, and if Light was a biography of any sort, it’d be a valid question. But rather than focus on Leslie Feist the person, it spends most of its running time examining the art around The Reminder – not only the songs and the album itself, but everything surrounding it. The portion focusing on Clea Minaker’s shadow puppet/projections were particularly fascinating; I already regretted not seeing any of The Reminder shows – I last saw Feist perform way back in the Summer of 2005 – and now regret it even more now that I see what I missed.

Other segments recounted the recording of The Reminder in France, the filming of videos for “1, 2, 3, 4”, “I Feel It All” and “Mushaboom”, the last of which is not Reminder period-correct but offered some terrific anecdotes from director Patrick Daughters, and the assemblage of the artwork for The Reminder. Though there were some segments focusing on her early days and ascendancy to stardom, they were kept to a minimum, as were the behind the scenes tour footage that’re typically the bread and butter of musician docs (though the scenes of Feist and her band and crew playing ball hockey was pretty great). Instead, the topic of who she is and how she got where she is was left to be implied by her work, how she approaches her work and how and why she works with others. In focusing on the what and how rather than the who, Look At What The Light Did Now manages to be an engaging and entertaining document of one of Canada’s biggest and brightest musical stars while barely acknowledging that fact.

And in the Q&A with Feist following the screening, the inevitable question of “when is the next record coming” was raised and all that she’d offer in return was that she’d be recording over the Winter – based on that, I wouldn’t expect a new album before next Fall.

Video: Feist & Little Wings – “Look At What The Light Did Now”
Trailer: Look At What The Light Did Now

Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene talks about the KC Accidental days with Spinner. Broken plays the Sound Academy on December 9 and 10.

Planets profiles Dan Mangan.

The Guardian talks to Dan Snaith of Caribou.

Away from the city for far too long – she played here four times in eight months circa Neptune City – Nicole Atkins returns to Toronto for a show at the Horseshoe on February 26 with support coming from Cotton Jones; tickets $15 in advance. Her new record Mondo Amore arrives January 25.

MP3: Nicole Atkins – “Vultures”
MP3: Cotton Jones – “Gotta Cheer Up”

Keren Ann 101, the new record from, Keren Ann will be out February 21 – the rather divine first single “My Name Is Trouble” is currently streaming at her website.

John Vanderslice has set a Janury 25 release date for his next record, which will bear the title of White Wilderness, a record recorded over three days with the assistance of the Bay Area Magik*Magik Orchestra.

The Depreciation Guild have released a new video from their latest Spirit Youth.

Video: The Depreciation Guild – “Blue Lily”

Prefix and The Toledo Blade chat with Craig Finn of The Hold Steady.

Kyle JohnsonHaving pepped up the Summer of 2009 with his self-titled debut album, Seattle power-pop prodigy Michael Benjamin Lerner – aka Telekinesis – aims to make the Winter of 2011 a little more bearable with his/their sophomore effort 12 Desperate Straight Lines. Due out on February 15, the first sample is available at download courtesy of Spin and yeah, it’s as punchy and instantly hummable as anything on the debut.

And not to be content with just delivering musical sunshine via your speakers and/or headphones, Lerner and touring band will be hitting the road almost immediately after the record’s release to deliver it directly to your ears. Their North American tour takes them from west to east and back west again and includes a March 6 stop at The Horseshoe in Toronto.

MP3: Telekinsis – “Car Crash”

Spin talks to Colin Meloy of The Decemberists about their new record The King Is Dead, out January 18. No further details on the rumoured February 1 Toronto show but it occurred to me that if they’re looking to move up – capacity-wise – from their usual Kool Haus digs and Massey isn’t available… there’s the Sound Academy. Shudder.

MBV Music is streaming a new single from Sharon Van Etten, consisting of two tracks not found on her latest Epic. The 7″ is out November 16.

Spinner talks to The Radio Dept.’s Martin Larsson about some of the band’s less obvious musical influences. Their double-disc singles set Passive Aggressive is out January 25 and they play Lee’s Palace on February 7.

QRO, The Daily Tribune, The Quad and The Columbus Dispatch have interviews with Kate Nash, currently winding her way across North America and in town at the Phoenix tomorrow night, November 13.

Two Door Cinema Club talk to aux.tv. They’re back for their third local show in eight months on January 15 at the Kool Haus with Tokyo Police Club.

Modern Superstitions, who impressed when I saw them at the Halifax Pop Explosion, have released a new video and will have a release party/show for their debut EP All The Things We’ve Been Told at The Silver Dollar on November 19.

MP3: Modern Superstitions – “Visions Of You”
Video: Modern Superstitions – “Visions Of You”

The Journal has words with Dan Snaith of Caribou.

The Line Of Best Fit, Calgary Herald and See chat with Dan Mangan, who’s gone and gotten himself a shiny new website.

aux.tv asks five music and movie-related questions of Forest City Lovers’ Kat Burns.

Mia KirbyI somehow managed to see Los Angeles’ Warpaint no less than four times this year before hearing their debut album The Fool, so you could say that their live shows have coloured my impressions of their music just a touch. And that’s a good thing because as a cursory scan of past write-ups will attest, I find their performances to be swirling, mesmerising affairs anchored by the pulsing, organic rhythm section and lifted by the airy vocals and shimmering guitar lines. More often than not, it seems that the band is willing to simply surrender themselves to the musical chemistry that occurs between the four of them and let it take them where it may.

That sense of spontaneity is successfully captured on The Fool, wherein Warpaint allow the nine songs here to grow into themselves in real time. Sometimes it sounds like they’re jamming them out, other times that they’re following a meticulous blueprint, but they always come across as though they’re following their collective muse like it was magnetic north. Songs often start from a single musical element and bloom and/or sprawl through time signature shifts and clouds of reverb and delay into their sometimes amorphous but always fascinating and emotive final forms. They clearly bear the influence of ’80s 4AD dream-pop and that era’s post-punk/goth forebears, but those are evident as reflections, echoes and shadows of Warpaint’s own, distinctive creations.

The Fool is more opaque and requires more work to absorb than I’d have expected, and the relative pop conciseness of their debut EP Exquisite Corpse is missed a little. One suspects that every outtake ended up in a significantly different place than the version of the song that was selected for the album, and while it’s hard to not want to hear some of those to compare and contrast, that way lies madness. What matters is that The Fool succeeds as more than just a solid album; it also confirms Warpaint as a unique and exciting new act with an immensely deep well of ideas to draw on, hopefully for many albums to come. Maybe the debut of the year not for what it is, but what it augurs.

Check out a behind-the scenes video of their cover shoot for NME, this video interview at Dirty Laundry and a video session at Yours Truly.

MP3: Warpaint – “Undertow”
Video: Warpaint – “Undertow”
MySpace: Warpaint

The Chicago Tribune talks to Sharon Van Etten about her transition from solo artist to bandleader. See her as the latter on Friday night at Lee’s Palace opening up for Junip. hour.ca also has a short chat.

eye talks to Morning Bender Chris Chu in advance of their show at the Mod Club on November 5.

Stereogum checks in with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart on the status of their second album Belong, currently being recorded and due for a March 2011 release.

The Line Of Best Fit interviews The Thermals.

Beatroute talks to Dean Wareham about his decision to revisit Galaxie 500 on his current tour.

Dan Snaith of Caribou talks with Soundproof.

Kathryn Calder has released a second video from her solo debut Are You My Mother?.

Video: Kathryn Calder – “Arrow”

Dan Mangan chats with Beatroute.

Also with a new video are The Wilderness Of Manitoba, taken from their debut When You Left The Fire. They’re at the Horseshoe on November 25.

Video: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “November”

Murray Lightburn of The Dears talks to aux.tv about their new record Degeneration Street, out on February 15.

Beatroute’s latest issue has a feature piece on Diamond Rings.

Frank YangThere’s been no secret about where, were I a betting man, my money would have gone in guessing who’d walk away with the 2010 Polaris Music Prize last night. From my first ballot through the announcement of the short list right up through yesterday, I’ve been pulling for Shad’s TSOL and amongst my informal polling, that seemed to be the consensus choice. Well if there’s one thing that I should have learned by now is that the Polaris will always surprise you. And surprised would be the best word to describe my reaction when Damian Abraham of Fucked Up – last year’s surprise winner – announced the $20,000 prize and accompanying year in the spotlight would go to Montreal’s Karkwa for their record Les Chemins De Verre.

It’s a record that I listened to a moderate amount in the course of my juror duties, but had only made it as far as my “I should listen to this more when I have the time” list. And since the members of this year’s grand jury obviously spent much more time with the record, it’s apparently an album that merits that further attention. It’s not as though it’s inaccessible, beyond the language thing (it’s all in French if that wasn’t clear) – it’s beautifully melodic, dynamic and expertly performed atmospheric rock that certainly doesn’t require a working knowledge of the language to enjoy. In fact, that aside, it’s probably one of the more conventional yet interesting records on the short list – but I had assumed that being virtually unknown outside of Francophone Canada before their Polaris nomination, they didn’t really stand a chance.

Well, I clearly underestimated both the record and the jury because after hours of deliberations, they came to a decision that should put to rest at least one of the complaints constantly leveled against the Polaris Prize – that it’s inherently biased towards English Canada and any Francophone artists included are there on a token basis. Well Karkwa just took twenty thousands tokens to the bank and the honour of having crafted the best album in Canada in the past year – congratulations to them. Yes, they’re still all white men who play guitars but one complaint at a time, alright?

As for the gala itself, it did a fine job of keeping the hundreds in attendance at the Masonic Temple in Toronto entertained whilst the 11 men and women of the grand jury went about their duties. For the second year, they had all ten nominees on hand to perform and though no one went as all-out with hijinks or antics as they did last year, all of them made splendid arguments for why they belonged on the short list and why after all the debate and discussion over who should and should not win the prize, it’s nice to just sit back and appreciate the depth of musical talent this country has to offer.

One of the big guns of the short list kicked things off, Broken Social Scene something like a dozen members strong opening the show with the rousing instrumental “Meet Me In The Basement”, which functioned as a sort of theme song to the evening. Their set was followed by The Sadies and a demonstration of why, powered by the Good brothers’ absurd guitar-slinging and spiritually bolstered by Dallas sporting Tommy Hunter’s suit borrowed from the CBC, they’re one of the country’s most fearsome live acts.

At this point, thing shifted both geographically (to Acadia), linguistically (regional dialect Chiac) and stylistically (hip-hop) with Radio Radio. I’ve made no secret that they were my least favourite of all of the shortlisters and I’d be dismayed if they actually won, but will freely admit that they delivered a good, fun and energetic performance with the three of them trading off MC duties whilst backed by a couple members of Karkwa. Entertaining? Sure. Best album in the country? No. The performance then swung out west for Dan Mangan, who couldn’t help but deliver one of the most understated performances of the night – his singer-songwriter fare is about intimacy, not grand gestures – not even when bolstered by strings, horns and handclappers. He did, however, stage the closest thing to an audience invasion the night would see when he pulled his mic stand into the audience and climbed onto a table to lead the singalong finale to “Robots”. At first I thought he had invaded another nominee’s table as a challenge, but it turned out to be his own. Which, I suppose, was the only nice thing to do.

It seemed as though Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes were the only act to play just one song but technically, “Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent” is a two-parter – it just happened to be an epic space-rock jam that gave Jace Lasek a chance to show off his guitar chops and guitar face. Karkwa – who would in less than an hour become the talk of the town, if not country – followed with a pair of songs that you didn’t need to understand to appreciate, showcasing their impressive musical chops and probably had more than a few people wondering, “who are these guys and why haven’t I heard of them before this?” – soon to be a moot question.

It was about this time that word began circulating a winner had been selected, just when Owen Pallett – winner of the inaugural Polaris Prize a half-decade ago – was up next. His horn-augmented performance that reaffirmed him as one of Canada’s premiere musicians in the pop music sphere, his two selections from Heartland veritably crackling with creativity and imagination. Shad’s performance also crackled and, featuring a guest spot from Broken Social Scene’s Lisa Lobsinger on “Rose Garden”, certainly looked like a champion up there, closing out with a freestyle that could have been cheesy but was instead wholly inspiring.

Though arguably the most successful act on the short list, Tegan & Sara kept their set intimate with just the two sisters backed up by Pallett, who continued the trend of nominees guesting with other nominees Canada, eh? I’d not paid much attention to Tegan & Sara since their debut arrived with no small amount of hype and didn’t do anything for me, but they really did sound great up there and their banter was as entertaining as advertised. And finally, there was Caribou who, along with his sizable band all dressed in white, closed things out with a well and proper disco party although no one actually got up to dance (there wasn’t a lot of room). Like every act before them, they presented a strong case for why they should be dubbed owners of the best album in Canada, even though it had already been decided by a group who saw none of their performances.

But in the end, it was Karkwa, who were stunned and humbled and gracious as they were declared the winners by last year’s prom queens Fucked Up – an unexpected but worthy choice which should make for some interesting debate and discussion in the coming days and months. I personally had no dog in this race, my part in the process was done with the submission of the second ballot months ago. What I mainly got out of it – besides an evening of entertainment and a late night of photo processing and writing – is the certainty that with the Polaris, the best strategy appears to be as unknown as possible, somehow sneak onto the short list, be hardly rated to win by anyone and then walk away with the cash while the heavily favoured stand around and shrug. I think the only year that a dark horse didn’t take the prize was Caribou, which means that I had the honour of being part of the most predictable grand jury so far… yay us?

Check out photos from the gala below and watchables and listenables from the shortlisted albums after the jump.

Photos: Polaris Music Prize Gala 2010 @ The Masonic Temple – September 20, 2010

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