Frank YangIt probably amounts to some sort of Can-rock heresy, but I think I actually like Bry Webb on his own more than I ever did with Constantines. I fully acknowledge why many hold the Cons up as one of the greatest Canadian rock acts of the past however many years/decades/centuries – I’ve seen them live, I know what they were capable of – but the fact is, his solo debut Provider has captivated me more than any of the Cons studio releases ever did. The whys of it, I’ve already covered but it’s telling that even though I had opportunities to catch the Constantines a couple years ago one last time before they went on their indefinite hiatus, I never got around to it whereas when it was announced that Webb would be playing a couple of intimate shows at The Music Gallery on Saturday night to properly mark the record’s release – he technically debuted the new songs in December at Massey Hall opening for Feist – the early show went straight into the calendar.

Opening up both sets was local fixture Doug Tielli, who came armed with just his voice and guitar; the former a slow, warm instrument with effortless falsetto, the latter a virtuosically-handled Stratocaster. Not much, but still plenty when wrapped around a half-dozen songs that ranged from country-western shuffles about cows to jazzy-yet-visceral croons to shimmering atmospheric pop and also a cover of Aretha’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”. Short but sweet.

I’d actually seen Webb solo before back in December 2009 when he was operating under the guise of Harbour Coats. I don’t know how much, if any, of that material made it onto Provider but that show did affirm that Webb was as compelling a performer on his own as with a band. For this occasion, he again had a band – dubbed The Providers – but they were hardly a conventional setup, with Webb mainly on acoustic guitar and backed by an upright bass, lap steel and pedal steel. The configuration was an inspired one, evoking a heartbeat and blood flow while Webb gave his songs breath and spirit. Even though no one doubted that Webb’s vocals, known across Canada for their rough bark, could be just as affecting as a sigh, hearing it fill the church sanctuary on gorgeous and moving moments like “Asa” and “Persistent Spirit” was still revelatory. The heaviest moment of the night came with set closer “Ex-Punks”, wherein they were joined by a drummer to add enough hammering percussion that if you looked and listened close enough, you could perceive the ghosts of the Constantines hovering overhead; not invoked, but acknowledged. For the one-song encore, they offered a cover of The Mills Brothers’ “Smoke Rings” and sent us on our way and the ready themselves to do it all over again.

Mechanical Forest Sound has a recording of “Ex-Punks” from the show he’d like to share, and BlogTO has a review. NOW, The Guelph Mercury, The Toronto Star, Spinner, Brock Press, and BlogTO have profile pieces on Webb.

Photos: Bry Webb, Doug Tielli @ The Music Gallery – February 4, 2012
MP3: Bry Webb – “Rivers Of Gold”
Stream: Bry Webb – “Undertaker”
Stream: Doug Tielli – “Deer”
Video: Doug Tielli – “Deer”

Paste has offered up a new download from the forthcoming Wooden Sky album Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun, due out February 28. They play The Opera House on April 20.

MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Malibu Rum”

Almost a couple years on from its release, a new video from The Acorn’s last album No Ghost. Odd timing, but there’s never a bad time to be reminded of a great band and album.

Video: The Acorn – “Misplaced”

The schedule for this year’s Canadian Musicfest is probably still a ways off, but some showcases lineups are trickling out, including this Quebec-centric one at The El Mocambo on March 22, which will feature a super-solid lineup of The Dears, Martha Wainwright, Galaxie, and Adam & The Amethysts. Advance tickets are $20 or you can try your luck with a festival wristband, of which a limited number will be admitted.

MP3: The Dears – “Blood”
MP3: Adam & The Amethysts – “Prophecy”
Video: Martha Wainwright – “You Cheated Me”
Video: Galaxie – “Piste 01”

PopMatters gets to know Dan Mangan, who will be in town to play the Indies at the Royal York on March 24.

Exclaim talks to The Darcys, who are at The Phoenix on March 1 opening for Bombay Bicycle Club and at Downsview Park for Edgefest on July 12.

A track from Rae Spoon’s new album I Can’t Keep All Of Our Secrets is now available to download. If you’re into that sort of thing. There’s also interviews at The Dalhousie Gazette and Beatroute.

MP3: Rae Spoon – “Crash Landing”

Great Lake Swimmers are streaming a second selection from their new album New Wild Everywhere, due out April 3. They play The Music Hall on June 2.

Stream: Great Lake Swimmers – “Les Champs des Prog´lniture”

Pitchfork is streaming all of Fucked Up’s Chinese zodiac singles to date; that’s five so far, including the “Year Of The Tiger” one due out on February 21.

Stream: Fucked Up / Chinese Zodiac singles

Consequence Of Sound reports that Neil Young’s getting back together with Crazy Horse may yield as many as two albums – the one called Americana is apparently already recorded and a second is in the works. Or, it being Neil, maybe nothing will actually come of this.

Whole lot of talking about Leonard Cohen in the wake of last week’s release of Old Ideas: The AV Club has a primer to his recorded works, Exclaim has assembled a timeline of his career, and Spinner and The National Post have both assembled panels of musicians to talk about the influence of the man and his music. Also, two more installments of the Old Ideas With New Friends covers series have surfaced, with The Guardian presenting Cults covering “Everybody Knows” and Pitchfork hosting Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox doing his take on, “Seems So Long Ago, Nancy”.

JagjaguwarYou’ll excuse the brevity of today’s post as I try to pretend I’m still on some kind of holiday schedule. Hope everyone in Canada had a lovely long weekend and everyone in America is still enjoying theirs; today is a sort of belated Canada Day-ish post. Note the “ish”.

Many were disappointed when Wolf Parade made good on their promise to call it a day – at least for the foreseeable future after a couple of final shows at the end of may, but if anything that means fans will have even more opportunity to hear their two principal songwriters’ distinctive voices. For starters, while Spencer Krug kept a ridiculous number of side project going concurrently with Wolf Parade over the years – Sunset Rubdown and Swan Lake chief amongst them – his “proper” solo project has him operating under the name of Moonface, and following an 12″ EP in Dreamland EP: Marimba and Shit Drums last year, he’s readying his debut album Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped for an August 2 release. One album track and one non-album track are available to preview, and for those looking for a more up close and personal experience with the songs, Krug kicks off a month-long tour leading up the album’s release next Wednesday night, July 13, at The Horseshoe in Toronto.

MP3: Moonface – “Fast Peter”
MP3: Moonface – “The Way You Wish You Could Live in the Storm”

Meanwhile, Dan Boeckner’s Handsome Furs talk to The Vine and are profiled by Billboard in the capacity of taking the dubious honour of having the fastest album announcement to leak in recent history with their latest release, Sound Kapital. They’re at The Horseshoe on August 1 and 2 – if you were one of those who downloaded the leak, make good by buying a Handsome Furs t-shirt or tea cozy.

Herohill marked Canada Day in style by posting the Gordon Lightfoot tribute album Turning Back The Pages Of My Sweet Shattered Dreams, featuring reinterpretations of Lightfoot’s songs but the likes of Olenka Krakus, Slow Down Molasses and Shotgun Jimmie, amongst many others.

The latest instalment in Bruce Peninsula’s “Fire Sale” series is out, and it’s a video for new song “Leaves”. They play Summerworks at the Lower Ossington Theatre on August 11.

Video: Bruce Peninsula – “Leaves”

Miracle Fortress has released a couple of tunes from the mostly-abandoned Hoop Dreams sessions as a free digital single. Some of the songs made it onto Was I The Wave?, others are just laying around and Graham Van Pelt still wants them to be heard. They’re playing Summerworks at the Lower Ossington Theatre on August 12.

MP3: Miracle Fortress – “Gestures”
MP3: Miracle Fortress – “Possession”

Origin: Orphan might be a couple years old at this point but that doesn’t mean The Hidden Cameras can’t continue to mine it for singles or videos. Which they’ve done.

Video: The Hidden Cameras – “Do I Belong”

The Galway Advertiser chats with Katie Stelmanis of Austra.

JAM profiles The Dears.

And some show announcements – this one slipped a bit under the radar, but could be of interest – UK electro-producer SBTRKT brings his self-titled debut to Wrongbar this Friday, July 8 – tickets $12.50 in advance. He’s interviewed by Clash and was recently The Guardian‘s new artist of the day.

MP3: SBTRKT – “Wildfire”
Video: SBTRKT – “Wildfire”

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart will be in town a day before their August 2 show at The Opera House and they’ll spend it playing an in-store at Sonic Boom on August 1 at 9PM; not sure if Sonic Boom will have moved to its new digs around the corner by this date or if this will be one of the final hurrahs for the best in-store space in the city, but either way it will be a good time. Admission free, canned good donations highly appreciated.

Video: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – “Heart In Your Heartache”

If you missed the update to Thursday’s post, Wilco has announced all kinds of things – like a September 27 release date for their new album The Whole Love, album art for said record and a first leg of North American touring that includes September 16 and 17 dates at Massey Hall in Toronto and will feature pop legend Nick Lowe as support. On-sale dates will be announced this week, so expect pre-sales to go next week. Details at Exclaim, and if you need a fix now, there’s three live shows available to stream at Wilco’s Roadcase.

Though they were both just here a couple weeks ago for NXNE, the first couple of Cali-garage rock – Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles – are teaming up for a Fall tour that brings the double-bill to Lee’s Palace on October 16; the occasion being the September 27 release of the Dum Dum Girls’ second record Only In Dreams.

MP3: Dum Dum Girls – “He Gets Me High”
MP3: Crocodiles – “Sleep Forever”

Okay, that wasn’t as brief as I thought it’d be.

Jessica EatonThough they should be – and probably are – at work on their next album, a follow-up to last year’s The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night, Montreal’s Besnard Lakes have put together a little something something that will not only slake their fans’ appetite for some new outer space-scale rock, but give them an excuse to get out of the studio and back on the road for a spell. On September 20, they’ll release You Lived In the City, a new 12″ EP that contains music the band prepared for the documentary film Welcome To Pine Point, which chronicles the short life of a town in the Northwest Territories.

As for the aforementioned tour, it will kick off in late September on the west coast and wind its way across the continent – largely in Canada but with some forays south of the border – before wrapping mid-October in Ottawa, though you have to think that there’ll be a hometown show to cap it off. Toronto gets our fix on October 13 at Lee’s Palace, tickets $20 in advance. And sweetening the deal, as though it needed sweetening, is the fact that Malajube will be opening up all dates – that’s two bands with four Polaris shortlist appearances between them – five if Malajube’s La caverne gets the nod in a couple weeks. Not bad.

MP3: The Besnard Lakes – “Albatross”
MP3: Malajube – “Synesthésie”
Trailer: Welcome To Pine Point

Scenes From The Subrubs, the Spike Jonze-directed short film assembled to give Arcade Fire a music video and an excuse to re-release The Suburbs, is currently available to stream in its entirety over at mubi.com. The deluxe edition of The Suburbs is out August 2.

Video: Scenes From The Suburbs

Filter talks to Graham Van Pelt of Miracle Fortress. They play The Lower Ossington Theatre on August 12 as part of Summerworks. And speaking of Summerworks, the festival has run a bit afoul of the current federal government and had their funding cut; donations to help make up the shortfall are welcome (and tax deductible).

The Alternate Side has a session and interview with The Dears.

Their August 1 show in support of new album Sound Kapital presumably long sold out, Handsome Furs have added a second date at The Horseshoe for August 2, tickets $15 in advance. Exclaim has an interview.

MP3: Handsome Furs – “Repatriated”

The Corkman chats with Owen Pallett, who has two dates at the Phoenix – August 2 and 4 – opening up for Beirut.

While there hasn’t been much to draw music fans to the Toronto Islands this Summer – no V Fest, no Olympic Island shows, just the Sarah Harmer, Serena Ryder and Skydiggers free show on July 16 – Wavelength has put together a good reason to hop on the ferry for the weekend of August 13 and 14. That’s when the annual ALL CAPS! all-ages festival goes down, this year featuring performances from Julie Doiron, The Wooden Sky, Monogrenade, Steamboat, Muskox, Rich Aucoin, Dog Bus, More or Les, Evening Hymns, Moon King, Jennifer Castle and DD/MM/YYYY. And this is in addition to art installations, BBQs, general fun and frivolity and – get this – overnight camping on the island. Tickets and specifics still to come.

MP3: Julie Doiron – “Consolation Prize”
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Something Hiding For Us In The Night”
MP3: Monogrenade – “Ce Soir”
MP3: Evening Hymns – “Cedars”
MP3: Rich Aucoin – “10,342 Cuts For The US”
MP3: Jennifer Castle – “Neverride”
MP3: DD/MM/YYYY – “Infinity Skull Cube”

Hooded Fang are not resting on their Polaris long-list laurels for their debut album Album; they’ve got a new album entitled Tosta Mista coming out July 26 – check out a couple new songs below and see them when they play the Lower Ossington Theatre on August 6 for Summerworks.

MP3: Hooded Fang – “ESP”
MP3: Hooded Fang – “Den Of Love”

Sloan have taken their turn in the AV Club’s Undercover studio, covering Gary Numan’s “Cars”. There’s also an interview at BrooklynVegan.

Southern Souls has posted a video session with Chad VanGaalen. Post City also has an interview.

Woodpigeon have put out a video from last year’s Balladeer: To All The Guys I’ve Loved Before and, via their blog, made a new song built off a poem by Marie Cecilia Ryan available to download. And head over to YouTube to see a set of live videos recorded in a disused London schoolhouse.

MP3: Woodpigeon – “The Way To Happiness”
Video: Woodpigeon – “Featherstone”

The Guardian contemplates the appeal of soft rock with Dan Bejar of Destroyer.

There’s a little photography-tilted interview with me over at Live In Limbo.

Norman Wong I never really liked Katie Stelmanis. I am not referring to the person – I don’t know her but I’m sure she’s lovely – but her musical project which, circa 2008 at least, was named simply for herself. In Spring of that year, I saw her twice in the span of a week and a bit and while I acknowledged that she was up to something interesting with her distinctive, operatic voice and skeletal synth-and-percussion backing, but it wasn’t doing it for me and as such, I didn’t pay much heed to her debut album Join Us. I did note, however, that her musical identity continued to publicly morph – for a while she was going just by her surname, and then adopted the guise of Private Life before changing once again to Austra. And while there’d always been a degree of local chatter about what she was up to, that’s when I heard people really begin to talk.

And putting aside past prejudices to give Feel It Break, her debut as Austra, a listen I could understand why. Stelmanis’ most distinctive characteristic has always been her voice but it needed the proper context. Obviously I didn’t think the classical/medieval/gothic atmosphere of her eponymous project worked, unless unsettling was what she was going for, but in giving Austra a sleek, synth-heavy, New Wave/80s-industrial personality, she’s found a winning formula that balances mystery and experimentalism with melody and accessibility.

It’s interesting how so much of what makes Austra was already there three years ago, including percussionist Maya Postepski, but now with the addition of ex-Spiral Beach bassist Dorian Wolf and a greater focus on making the songs danceable and memorable, it all sounds completely fresh and new. Okay, perhaps that’s not the most accurate way of putting it since what Stelmanis’ was doing in her self-titled days was technically far more original, but giving Austra its more familiar-sounding reference points has inarguably made her better. Enough so that you can consider me convinced, which is honestly not something I ever thought I’d be saying. Back in 2008, when people around town were talking about how great Katie Stelmanis was, all I could say was, “really?”. Now, when people everywhere are talking about how great Austra is, all I can say is, “really”.

Feel It Break is out next Tuesday, May 17, and Austra plays a hometown record release show a couple nights later on May 19 at Lee’s Palace.

MP3: Austra – “Lose It”
MP3: Austra – “The Beat And The Pulse”
Video: Austra – “Lose It”
Video: Austra – “The Beat And The Pulse”
Stream: Austra / Feel It Break

Bruce Peninsula have released installment three in their Fire Sale series; a Pentangle cover that you can both listen to and watch. Open Flames is out in the Fall.

MP3: Bruce Peninsula – “Light Flight”
Video: Bruce Peninsula – “Light Flight”

Southern Souls serves up a video session with Woodpigeon, who in turn have made MP3s of a recent show in Turin, Italy available to download.

MP3: Woodpigeon – “Knock Knock” (live in Turin)

Spinner has an interview with The Rural Alberta Advantage’s Nils Edenloff and has also premiered another Southern Souls-produced live video, this one for “Tornado 87”.

Beatroute and The Vancouver Sun talk to Taylor Kirk of Timber Timbre.

Wood & Wires has posted a couple of basement session videos from The Darcys.

Beatroute, The Winnipeg Free Press, Uptown and The Leader-Post talk to Graham Van Pelt of Miracle Fortress, while aux.tv gets him to unplug for a Camera Music performance. He may be similarly unamplified (or not) when he plays an in-store at Soundscapes this Friday, May 13, at 4PM. He’s at The Phoenix with Junior Boys on June 9.

MP3: Miracle Fortress – “Raw Spectacle”

Chart talks to Fucked Up frontman Damian Abraham about the inadvertent bloodletting that occurred at a recent show, which you can watch for yourself thanks to the magic of YouTube. Exclaim also reports that the band have put up a mixed tape – as in an actual cassette – of Fucked Up rarities, tracks from friends and side-projects and whatnot – for sale in their webstore. Their new album David Comes To Life is out June 7.

The Balconies are finally back with some new material; while a release date for their second album is still forthcoming, a new 7″ a-sided by “Kill Count” will be released on June 14, just ahead of their June 18 NXNE showcase at Sneaky Dee’s.

The Fly invites The Dears into their courtyard for an acoustic session. The notoriously self-serious band also paid Funny Or Die a visit.

With the release this week of The Double Cross, the twentieth anniversary of Sloan is well underway. Blurt has a feature interview with the band, Chart has unearthed a bunch of interviews with the band over their long career and the first of ten tribute videos wherein actors, musicians and general celebrities reminisce about what Sloan has meant to them has been released – so far, there’s “First Heard Sloan” and “Favourite Sloan Song”. They play an in-store this Saturday at Sonic Boom at 4PM and the Mod Club on June 22.

Chad Van Gaalen’s new record Diaper Island is streaming in whole at MuchMusic in advance of its official release next week. He plays The Great Hall on June 18 as part of NXNE.

Stream: Chad Van Gaalen / Diaper Island

Pitchfork has more details on the forthcoming Scenes From The Suburbs CD/DVD set from Arcade Fire. It will be out on August 2.

Exclaim talks to Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Efrim Manuel Manuck about his various ongoing projects, including the Godspeed reunion and his forthcoming solo record High Gospel, out May 24.

Ticket info for the Weeping Tile/King Cobb Steelie/Have Not Been The Same book release I mentioned a couple weeks back has been revealed – advance tickets will be $18, on sale tomorrow, with proceeds going to the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health.

And some Can-con love across the pond; Drowned In Sound takes a look at what’s happening musically in Toronto right now and The Line Of Best Fit have released their sixteenth (16th) Oh! Canada compilation of downloadable goodness.

Canvas MediaThere’s records that you hear and, regardless of how you personally feel about them, you know that they will be a big thing, that their contents will resonate with the masses and will prove to be game-changers for the artist who created it. Timber Timbre’s 2009 self-titled album was not one of these, or at least I didn’t hear it. Building swampy textures and tempos around Taylor Kirk’s low, drawling Randy Newman-ish vocals, it didn’t seem the sort of record with a lot of crossover appeal and yet it did find an audience beyond lo-fi folk/blues enthusiasts and would be one of the most highly-regarded Torontonian and even Canadian releases of the year. What can I say, I’m wrong a lot. I’m okay with that.

And so I’m not at all surprised that people are rubbing their hands together in anticipation of Timber Timbre’s new record, the marvelously-titled Creep On Creepin’ On, which is out on April 5. It keeps much of the dark, out-of-time atmospherics of its predecessor, but with Kirk’s live band Simon Trottier and Mika Posen now full-fledged members, offers a more dynamic sound with some rather rich-sounding instrumental passages. I already like it more than Timber Timbre, so everyone else is probably going to love it.

Exclaim thinks enough of it to put the band on the cover of their new issue with accompanying feature story. The record is streaming in whole at Spinner and they’ve just released a video from it as well. Months of touring begin in earnest this weekend and include a sold-out hometown show at Trinity-St. Paul’s next Friday night, April 8.

MP3: Timber Timbre – “Black Water”
Video: Timber Timbre – “Woman”
Stream: Timber Timbre / Creep On Creeping On

PS I Love You have released a new video from Meet Me At The Muster Station and support for their April 7 show at The Garrison has been revealed as Matters. Whom you may have known better as The D’Urbervilles. Which you may know as John O’Reagan’s – aka Diamond Rings – rock band. Exclaim has some info on the change in identity, both sides of their new single – which is out next week and already has a video – is streaming at Bandcamp and NOW has a chat with the director of the last Diamond Rings video.

Video: PS I Love You – “Get Over”
Video: Matters – “Get In Or Get Out”
Video: Diamond Rings – “It’s Not My Party”

Creative Loafing and Ca Va Cool check in with The Rural Alberta Advantage, who will be at The Phoenix on April 29.

Spinner and Simcoe.com talk to Tokyo Police Club.

A new MP3 from Sloan’s forthcoming The Double Cross is up for grabs. The record is out May 10.

MP3: Sloan – “Unkind”

Matablog announced that the lead-up to the June 7 release of Fucked Up’s new record David Comes To Life would consist of four digital singles, the first of which is already up for grabs. Exclaim also reports that the band will put out a compilation of fake ’70s-era punk bands as part of Record Store Day on April 16, and are offering a track from that to wrap your head around.

MP3: Fucked Up – “The Other Shoe”

Apparently coming out of SxSW as one of the buzz bands, Austra have scheduled a hometown show at Lee’s Palace for May 19 to go with the May 17 release of Feel It Break. The Guardian declared them “New band of the day” last week.

MP3: Austra – “The Beat & The Pulse”

The Meligrove Band have released a new video from last year’s Shimmering Lights.

Video: The Meligrove Band – “Really Want It”

The National Post chats with Basia Bulat.

Stars have released a new video from last year’s The 5 Ghosts, and congratulations to Amy Millan and Evan Cranley on the birth of their daughter last week.

Video: Stars – “Changes”

PopMatters talks to Natalia Yanchak of The Dears while The Village Voice chats with Murray Lightburn.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s show in Brooklyn in mid-March. Their sold-out three-night, four-show stand at Lee’s Palace runs April 22 to 24.

Exclaim talks to Little Scream, whose debut The Golden Record arrives April 12. She opens for Antlers at The Mod Club on June 14.

Exclaim has details on Miracle Fortress’ long-awaited second album Was I The Wave?, due out April 26 and previewed impressively (though in the dark) back Canadian Musicfest. A track from the record is available in exchange for your email address.

Ottawa post-pop instrumentalists My Dad Vs. Yours have released a video from their gorgeous new record Little Symphonies. The Link has an interview with guitarist Jose Palacios.

Video: My Dad Vs Yours – “Happy Wanderer / Carry The Weight”

The Take talks with Juno award winner Shad, who by way of thanks is giving away a new track recorded with Skratch Bastid. There’s also a video interview with Shad from the Junos by the Province of Ontario. Our tax dollars at work!

MP3: Shad & Skratch Bastid – “Give You All I Can”
Video: Shad & Skratch Bastid – “Give You All I Can”

eye, The Chicago Tribune, The Riverfront Times and Austinist talk to Dan Bejar of Destroyer, who are playing a sold-out show at Lee’s Palace tonight.