PulpHope everyone had a nice holiday. Just popping my head up to clear the decks before taking seasonal cover once again. Because despite very little technically happening over the last few days, a few noteworthy things floated their way up to the top of the internet, not least of which is a new old song from Pulp.

Though the safe return to port of the S.S. Coachella last week marked the band’s final engagement for the foreseeable future, they don’t go back into hiatus without some parting gifts. Passengers on the cruise were given gift cards with download codes which as of Christmas Day were redeemable for a new recording of an old song; “After You” had existed in demo form for many years, but recorded properly in November and given finishing touches on the cruise itself by James Murphy before being released to the cruise passengers, and then via Consequence Of Sound, onto the internet at large. The exact vintage of the tune is unclear but it certainly sounds like it predates their Common People/This Is Hardcore/We Love Life golden age, but hey. New! Old! Pulp! Happy! Christmas!

Stream: Pulp – “After You”

Wild Beasts have also offered up something from their archives, a track from the sessions for last year’s Smother.

Stream: Wild Beasts – “Stray”

Frightened Rabbit celebrated Christmas by giving away a holiday-themed track to their fans. Too late to make the caroling rounds this year, but an easy pick for your Christmas mixes next year. Their new album Pedestrian Verse is out February 5 and they play The Phoenix March 31.

MP3: Frightened Rabbit – “She Screams Christmas”

In what may the musical equivalent of constantly hitting refresh on the FedEx package tracking page, many were all agog about the announcement that My Bloody Valentine had completed mastering their new album, and while it seems unlikely that they’ll make good on Kevin Shields’ promise to release it this year, it’s done – as in out of Shields’ hands – and that much closer to being a reality. Exclaim has some specifics and design house IMeUs has some of the artwork that they submitted for consideration for the album’s packaging.

Radiohead Bonnaroo is a site that was set up to share a soundboard recording of Radiohead’s 2006 headlining set at said festival, though for a working download link you’ll have to hit Consequence Of Sound or, by now, your friendly neighbourhood bit torrent site.

Slicing Up Eyeballs have premiered a new Pet Shop Boys b-side, taken from “Memory Of The Future”, the latest single from Elysium.

Stream: Pet Shop Boys – “One Night”

Under The Radar interviews Django Django; they’re at The Opera House on March 12.

Wild Honey Pie has a video session with Daughter.

Editors frontman Tom Smith talks to The Daily Star about recovering from the departure of guitarist Chris Urbanowicz and their plans for their next album.

The Deer Tracks also offered up a Christmas gift to fans in the form of an unreleased track in both MP3 and video form. Their Archer Trilogy Pt. 3 full-length is due out on February 12 and there’s an interview with the band at MTV.

MP3: The Deer Tracks – “Bucket Of Sunbeams”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Bucket Of Sunbeams”

Low are streaming the first taste of their new album The Invisible Way, out March 19.

Stream: Low – “Plastic Cup”

Under The Radar has details on the fourth (!) Guided By Voices reunion album – English Little League is coming April 30. Ready yourself.

Hey, you know Color Me Obsessed, the Replacements documentary from a few years ago that featured no appearances from or music by The Replacements? You can now watch all two hours of it online. If you want.

Video: Color Me Obsessed: A Film About The Replacements

CBC Music talks to Japandroids about their killer 2012.

NOW has a video session with Evening Hymns.

The lineup for the third installment of Fucked Up’s Long Winter series has been announced – hit the Great Hall on January 11 for sets from Buck 65, Picastro, Moon King, and more. Cover is PWYC.

Salmon PauloGetting this year’s best-of post out of the way yesterday, was a big relief, no question, but I can’t pretend the final list was exactly what I’d intended. You see, for most of this year, I’d been holding a spot for Swedish duo The Deer Tracks, who had promised a Fall 2012 release for the final part of their fantastically epic synth-pop opus, The Archer Trilogy. The first two installments had been released in 2011 and while I didn’t discover them until this year, both releases – an EP and album respectively – went into heavy rotation and their live show was pretty much the highlight of NXNE. They were easily one of my acts of the year but since I don’t tabulate such things, I had intended that The Archer Trilogy Pt. 3 would allow me to give them their due. After all, there was no way it wouldn’t be up to the level of its predecessors. It would not be X-Men 3.

Alas, as the Fall came and went it became pretty clear that the Archer would miss the Autumn target, what with the band Tweeting and Instagramming photos from the studio well past any reasonable deadline for a release this calendar year. But I can officially shunt my high expectations to 2013 because they yesterday announced that The Archer Trilogy Pt. 3 would be getting a release on February 12 of next year. Too late to make this year, obviously, but certainly early enough to set the bar for everything else that might seek to impress my ears next year. All we need are some live dates and we’re in business.

They released one song from the album, “W”, last Summer when they expected to have the album out soon after, and have also released a b-side from these latest sessions at Black Book, and if this is a taste of what didn’t make the cut, I can’t wait to hear the songs that did pass muster. There’s also an acoustic video session with the duo at Triggerfish.

MP3: The Deer Tracks – “W”
MP3: The Deer Tracks – “Okta Crash”

The Amazing, who share more than a few members with Swedish psych-folk heroes Dungen and spent part of this year opening up for Tame Impala if you need reference points, will be at The Horseshoe on January 21 in support of their second album Gentle Stream. Tickets for that are $11.50 in advance.

Video: The Amazing – “Gone”

Though I never thought they seemed particularly interested in trying to replicate their UK success stateside, London’s Maccabees will be seeing if their being Mercury shortlisted for their excellent latest album Given To The Wild has generated any buzz. They’re staging a North American tour this Winter that hits The Mod Club on February 11.

MP3: The Maccabees – “Go”

Coming all the way from New Zealand with new album Christopher in tow are psych-popsters The Ruby Suns. The record is out January 29 and the show is at The Garrison on February 26.

MP3: The Ruby Suns – “Kingfisher Call Me”

Their show at The Mod Club in October rather deliberately undersized to keep things cozy, Frightened Rabbit have announced a Spring tour that hits venues more appropriately sized to match the interest that will surely greet their new record Pedestrian Verse when it comes out on February 5. They’ll be at The Phoenix on March 31, tickets $20 in advance. MTV recently interviewed the band about the new record.

MP3: Frightened Rabbit – “Scottish Winds”

We officially live in a world where Muse is big enough to play two arena dates in North America. They’ve added a second show at the Air Canada Centre in support of The 2nd Law for April 10, tickets $39.50, $59.50, and $65.00.

Video: Muse – “Survival”

The Alternate Side has a session with Daughter, who will be releasing their debut album in the new year.

The Quietus solicits a list of The House Of Love frontman Guy Chadwick’s favourite albums. It’s all well and good that the House Of Love’s seminal debut album is being reissued for like the third or fourth time this week, but they can go ahead and reveal specifics about their new studio album any time now…

TOY have rolled out a new video from TOY.

Video: TOY – “Make It Mine”

The Village Voice and Billboard profile Jessie Ware as she prepares to conquer America. No really, she will. Just watch.

The Creators Project interviews Anthony Gonzalez of M83.

And if laying odds on next year’s next big thing is your bag, BBX has announced the longlist for their Sound Of 2013 thing. A little local flavour there in the form of The Weeknd, but I’m mostly interested in the likes of Chvrches, Palma Violets (here at The Horseshoe on January 24), and Savages.

Eliot HazelIt feels a bit anticlimactic to try and sit down and formally review Instinct, the debut album from Sweden’s Niki & The Dove, and the reasons for this are many. Besides the fact that I’ve been talking about them since last August and already seen them twice at Iceland Airwaves and again at SXSW over the past year, there’s the fact that though it’s only formally out in North America this week, Instinct was released in Europe and the UK back in May and was easily heard online all Summer. And even if you didn’t happen across a full album stream, fully a quarter of the album already appeared on last Fall’s The Drummer EP and more tracks were released as singles. All of which is to say that I feel like I’m trying to find some fresh words for a record that already feels very lived-in and familiar to me.

Niki & The Dove – their name is in reference to neither singer Malin Dahlström or keyboardist Gustaf Karlöf – draw inspiration from the bold, bright tones of the ’80s synth-pop without sounding anything like a throwback act. Like the similarly avian-inspired Ladyhawke, they instead look to the songwriting of the era and share in the belief that there’s no such thing as a chorus, hook, or sentiment that’s too big. Indeed, tracks “Tomorrow”, “Somebody”, and “Under The Bridges” – incidentally the album opener, midpoint, and closer – are irresistible pop confections that make the absolute most of Dahlström’s raspy range; people compare her voice to Stevie Nicks but not being any kind of Fleetwood Mac fan, I am in no position to comment. That same voice gives the dancier and slinkier numbers the emotional dimension that elevates them above dancefloor fodder. Karlöf also deserves credit for programming a musical world that is almost entirely artificial, yet sounds perfectly natural and organic in the context of what they’re doing. You might call it an innate talent. Or an instinct.

They’re embarking on their first full North American tour this Fall and while most are as support for Twin Shadow, their October 2 date at The Drake Underground in Toronto is their own headlining show. Tickets for that are $15 in advance, but courtesy of Embrace, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests@chromewaves.net with “I want to see Niki & The Dove” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, September 24.

And if there is an upside to waiting for the North American release of Instinct, it’s that the Sub Pop edition comes with two extra tracks over the European version. One of those – “The Beach” – is available to stream below.

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”
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”
Stream: Niki & The Dove – “The Beach”

The Line Of Best Fit, The Stool Pigeon, and Exclaim have interviews with Jens Lekman about his gorgeous new record I Know What Love Isn’t, which is out September 4 and from which a video for the title track has just been released. Lekman is at The Phoenix on October 4.

Video: Jens Lekman – “I Know What Love Isn’t”

Daytrotter is feeling all kinds of Swedish, posting a session with The Deer Tracks and another one with The Concretes.

The Line Of Best Fit talks to Sarah Assbring of El Perro Del Mar, whose new record Pale Fire will be out some time in November.

MTV has a video session with First Aid Kit, who play The Danforth Music Hall on September 26. NPR is also streaming their set at the Newport Folk Festival last month.

Drowned In Sound talks to Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes. Their new record Observator is out September 11 and they’re at The Phoenix on October 2.

The Arts Desk talks to Rasmus Stolberg of Efterklang, who have released the first video from their new album Pirmada. The album is out September 24.

Video: Efterklang – “Hollow Mountain”

Sigur Rós have released another video from Valtari; Filter also has a feature piece on the band.

Video: Sigur Rós – “Varðeldur”

Ólafur Arnalds has revealed the name of his next album via Twitter; For Now I Am Winter is done and in post-production, with a release date hopefully coming soon. Some clips of the new material can be heard via his YouTube channel.

The final song from Blur’s Hyde Park show on Sunday – and maybe the final live Blur song ever – is available to download. It comes from their Parklive set which is available digitally now and on CD in November.

MP3: Blur – “The Universal” (live in Hyde Park – August 12, 2012)

Psychology Today talks to Dev Hynes of Blood Orange about living and working with synesthesia.

The Line Of Best Fit is streaming a new track from Neil Halstead’s forthcoming Palindrome Hunches, out September 11, while LA Music Blog has an interview.

Stream: Neil Halstead – “Digging Shelters”

The xx go through their new album Coexist track-by-track for Spin while CBC Music also caught a quick word when they came through town last month. The album is out September 11.

NPR has a video session with Hot Chip.

The Guardian interviews The Vaccines about their new record Come Of Age, out in North America on October 2.

Frank YangFor a band for whom a large part of their appeal is being unknowable and otherworldly, there’s been a high degree of predictability with Sigur Ros, at least when it comes to their Toronto shows. For over a decade, they’ve come through town in support of each record for an exquisite show at Massey Hall that would send 2700 or so of their fans dazed into the night. For the last time they set up anywhere besides the Grand Old Lady of Shuter Street, you’d have to go back to May 2001 when they made their local debut with a legendary show at Palais Royale. On Wednesday night, it was back to the shores of Lake Ontario they returned with a show at Echo Beach, the outdoor setting ensuring that the vibe of things would be different than what we were used to, to say nothing of allowing more than twice as many people as usual to witness the Icelanders in action.

Support for their short run of headlining dates before entering the festival circuit came from Perfume Genius, an unexpected but welcome choice. Mike Hadreas’ work elicits many of the same adjectives as Sigur Rós – beautiful, heartbreaking, transcendent, what have you – but whereas the they work in mystery and epic-scale sounds, Perfume Genius is all about being laid bare and raw in small, perfectly imperfect pieces. Though distracted by the planes coming in to land at the island airport and suffering from a cold – though he mentioned that he could still “smell weed and pork” – Hadreas proved that the intimate piano songs which would have seemed to be tailor-made for cozy rooms like the Drake, where he was in April, or 918 Bathurst, where he’ll be on October 5, also sounded great loud; the drums on “Dark Part” were particularly dramatic at that volume. The set was mainly comprised of material from this year’s excellent Put Your Back N 2 It and his 2010 debut Learning, as well as a couple covers – Madonna’s “Oh Father” and a surprisingly perfect cover of Neil Young’s “Helpless”, Hadreas’ vulnerable warble and piano phrasing doing the near-impossible and making the classic almost seem like it was his own.

Leave it to Sigur Rós to release their most ambient and abstract record in a decade with Valtari and then take it on the road not to the theatre settings that it might be best served live, but to the big outdoor stages of fests and amphitheatres where its intricacies would most certainly not be appreciated. Or so you’d think. Opening up with two selections from the new record, Sigur Rós took advantage of the fact that their audience would be so enraptured with their first local appearance in almost four years that they’d just stand there and take it all in – which they did. “Ekki Múkk” and “Varúð” were met with as close to total silence as you’ll likely get from 6000 people. Then they turned back and up for “Ný Batterí” from Ágætis Byrjun and it was within their back catalog that they would remain for most of the rest of the night.

Though core member Kjartan Sveinsson elected to sit this tour out, the band were hardly shorthanded – performing as an 11-piece, with horns and strings and all the trimmings, it was as big-sounding a Sigur Ró as we’d ever seen in these parts, performing on a stage lit with incandescent bulbs and projections shone onto three sides of the band. And yet for all the power at their fingertips, the prevailing mood of the evening was of serenity and celebration – a perfect fit for a warm Summer’s night with a breeze off the lake and a full moon in the sky. There were certainly dramatic moments, often courtesy of Jonsi’s bowed Les Paul, but even those were more of the awe-inspiring majesty of nature sort, like a glacier cutting through land and centuries.

The breadth of the catalog was well-represented, though Ágætis Byrjun did get extra attention, perhaps at the expense of the lighter tones of Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, which was represented only – but well, thanks to a horn-powered finale – by “Festival”. Some may have bemoaned the absence of “Gobbledigook”, but perhaps it was for the best – if it hadn’t ended in a massive explosion of confetti the way it did at Massey in September 2008, it would have felt a touch disappointing.

And disappointing is not a word that should ever be associated with a Sigur Rós show. For almost two hours, and benefitting from really immaculate sound – no compromises with an outdoor venue here, thankfully – it was as good a show as they’ve ever put on here, but thanks to the setting, even for those with an extensive catalog of live Sigur Rós memories, it will be a standout.

The Toronto Sun, BlogTO, and National Post were also in attendance. NPR has their show from Tuesday night in Brooklyn available to stream and Stereogum and The Montreal Gazette have interviews.

Photos: Sigur Ros, Perfume Genius @ Echo Beach – August 1, 2012
MP3: Sigur Rós – “Gobbledigook”
MP3: Sigur Rós – “Hoppípolla”
MP3: Sigur Rós – “Popplagio / The Pop Song”
MP3: Sigur Rós – “Staralfur”
MP3: Sigur Rós – “Svefn-G-Englar”
MP3: Sigur Rós – “Nýja lagið”
MP3: Perfume Genius – “Rusty Chains”
MP3: Perfume Genius – “Hood”
MP3: Perfume Genius – “Dark Parts”
MP3: Perfume Genius – “All Waters”
MP3: Perfume Genius – “Learning”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Rembihnútur”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Fjögur Píanó”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Varúð” (version two)
Video: Sigur Rós – “Varúð” (version one)
Video: Sigur Rós – “Ég anda” (version two)
Video: Sigur Rós – “Ég anda” (version one)
Video: Sigur Rós – “Ekki Múkk”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Við Spilum Endalaust “
Video: Sigur Rós – “Inní mér syngur vitleysingur”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Gobbledigook”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Sæglópur”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Hoppípolla”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Glósóli”
Video: Sigur Rós – “(Vaka)”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Viðrar vel til loftárása”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Svefn-G-Englar”
Video: Perfume Genius – “Dark Parts”
Video: Perfume Genius – “Hood”
Video: Perfume Genius – “Lookout, Lookout”

Sessions From The Box is streaming a studio session with The Deer Tracks.

Drowned In Sound talks to Maria Lindén of I Break Horses, who are aiming to have their second album out in Spring of next year.

Maxïmo Park gives The Line Of Best Fit a track-by-track walkthrough of their latest album The National Health.

Ellie Goulding has announced an October 9 release date for her second album, entitled Halcyon. She recently released an Active Child cover because why not and has also been declared one of Rolling Stone‘s “Women Who Rock”.

MP3: Ellie Goulding – “Hanging On”

The San Francisco Examiner and DIY get to know Alt-J, in town at Wrongbar on September 19.

DIY checks in with Mica Levy of Micachu. A couple more tracks from Never have also been made available to download.

MP3: Micachu & The Shapes – “Low Dogg”
MP3: Micachu & The Shapes – “You Know”

Kele Okereke talks to Spin about how cracking a joke turned into a productive crisis for Bloc Party in completing their new album Four, out August 21. This hot on the heels of another quote he gave The Music about this maybe being the band’s last record, which he’s already taken to his blog to clarify. Oh, Kele. Bloc Party are at The Danforth Music Hall on September 10 and their gig at Terminal 5 in New York next week, August 8, will be streaming live on YouTube.

Rolling Stone has a video of Neil Halstead playing a song off his new solo record Palindrome Hunches, out September 11.

Elbow namedrops some very tasty reference points to The Worksop Guardian with regards to their next studio album. Their Dead In The Boot rarities comp is out August 27.

Spinner chats with Lætitia Sadier, in town for a show at The Drake on September 18. She’s just released a new video from Silencio.

Video: Lætitia Sadier – “The Rules Of The Game”

DIY investigates the many creative phases of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds; kudos to them for not making it about his facial hair.

Mono turns to Iceland for inspiration in the new video from For My Parents, out September 4. It’s enough to make you want to hop on a plane to Reykjavik – which I wholly endorse – but maybe wait until after their show at The Horseshoe on September 12.

Video: Mono – “Legend”

Frank YangJune 16 had been circled on many calendars of Toronto music-goers for months, thanks to the intersection of Radiohead, The Flaming Lips’ free headlining set at NXNE, and LuminaTO events. So, of course, I ended up doing none of the above and even only hit three NXNE-related shows… but at least they were good ones?

And I got started early; Vancouver’s Brasstronaut were on early at Yonge-Dundas Square, auspiciously following a 14-year old cover band. That was just a circumstance of scheduling, though, as there was little in common between the tweens reinterpreting Guns’N’Roses and the sophisticated six-piece jazz-pop ensemble. It’s no small thing to make an argument for the clarinet as a rock instrument, but they managed to do just that with a set drawn from 2010’s Mount Chimaera and their just-released Mean Sun that sounded simultaneously driving and mellow, a good match for the prevailing festival-goer’s mood of being both exhausted and excited. Or maybe just mine.

The Vancouver Sun, The Ottawa Citizen, The Georgia Straight, Pique, and Uptown have features on the band while Exclaim talks to frontman Edo Van Breeman about his upcoming Swiss prison sentence. No, that’s not a metaphor.

Photos: Brasstronaut @ Yonge-Dundas Square – June 16, 2012
MP3: Brasstronaut – “Hollow Trees”
Video: Brasstronaut – “Requiem For A Scene”
Video: Brasstronaut – “Old World Lies”

After an afternoon of record shopping, sweaty bike rides and general hangs, it was back to Yonge-Dundas for the start of the evening’s main programme and Of Montreal. When the original NXNE lineup was announced, it seemed like a no-brainer that Of Montreal would lead into The Flaming Lips and the combined psych-rock impact would result in Guinness record for spontaneous simultaneous lobotomies. No such luck – Portugal. The Man were inserted in between to mitigate the effects – but Kevin Barnes and company certainly set the tone for what the headliners would be offering.

This was actually my first time properly seeing Of Montreal since SXSW 2006; technically I saw them at Primavera Sound last year – where they were also on several hours before The Flaming Lips – but only sort-of paid attention on account of the “holy shit I’m in Spain” thing. There had been opportunities since then but I just hadn’t taken them, what with the band’s albums over that time becoming increasingly strange and patchy and despite the promise of over the top visuals, not enticing me to check it out. As such it was interesting to see them again up close and note that rather than the ringleader of the shenanigans, Barnes now looked a bit nonplussed about it all – as though he’d accepted that his lot was to be the epicentre of it all, and that he was mostly okay with it. I certainly remember him seeming more engaged before.

And there was plenty to be engaged in, what with the band’s performance being augmented with technicolour dancers in outrageous costumes, but all of it also a good reminder that with the likes of the giant breasts hidden under the glittery capes of the dancers’ first costume change, they really weren’t so family friendly but more subversive – like a musical Ralph Bakshi cartoon, but so ridiculous that it was unlikely that anyone would legitimately take offense. And for as difficult as some of their recent albums have gotten, they were able to cherry pick enough perfect disco-pop to make up a set that was nigh-impossible to not dance to. And if someone’s kid got an eyeful of some giant, shiny fake breasts, what of it?

Spinner, The National Post, and Paste have feature pieces on Of Montreal.

Photos: Of Montreal @ Yonge-Dundas Square – June 16, 2012
MP3: Of Montreal – “Wintered Debts”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Dour Percentage”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Coquet Coquette”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Famine Affair”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Id Engager”
MP3: Of Montreal – “An Eluardian Instance”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse”
MP3: Of Montreal – “The Party’s Crashing Us”
MP3: Of Montreal – “So Begins Our Alabee”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Rapture Rapes The Muses”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Disconnect The Dots”
MP3: Of Montreal – “A Question For Emily Foreman”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Pancakes For One”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Penelope”
MP3: Of Montreal – “One Of A Very Few Of A Kind”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Dustin Hoffman Gets A Bath”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Dustin Hoffman Thinks About Eating The Soap”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Spoonful Of Sugar”
Video: Of Montreal – “Spiteful Intervention”
Video: Of Montreal – “L’age D’or”
Video: Of Montreal – “Famine Affair”
Video: Of Montreal – “Coquet Coquette”
Video: Of Montreal – “Mingusings”
Video: Of Montreal – “An Eluardian Instance”
Video: Of Montreal – “Id Engager”
Video: Of Montreal – “Gronlandic Edit”
Video: Of Montreal – “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse”
Video: Of Montreal – “Suffer For Fashion”
Video: Of Montreal – “Wraith Pinned To The Mist And Other Games”
Video: Of Montreal – “So Begins Our Alabee”
Video: Of Montreal – “Requiem For OMM2”
Video: Of Montreal – “Disconnect The Dots”

For many festival-goers, if you weren’t at Yonge-Dundas Square for The Flaming Lips on Saturday night then you were doing it wrong. Perfectly fair, but as I’d said since my festival preview, my one must-see band for the weekend was Sweden’s Deer Tracks and if it came down to a conflict with Wayne Coyne bubblewalking over the gathered throngs, then Wayne was going to lose out. And it did and he did.

The decision was certainly helped along by reports from earlier dates on the tour that confirmed that their live show was great; if there was a question, it was whether there’d be many people there to see it. They were clearly the odd band out in the lineup at The Rivoli, amidst singer-songwriters and following a blues trio to say nothing of being on at the same time as The Lips, so I expected that it would be lightly attended and whomever was there probably wouldn’t be their audience. And who was? Well, anyone who liked gorgeous electro-pop that was simultaneously dancey, demure, and dramatic and unabashedly arty without any of the attendant aloofness. With two-thirds of their Archer Trilogy released – the third instalment is due this Fall – David Lehnberg and Elin Lindfors (and their keyboardist and drummer) crammed what seemed like an epic tale into just over 30 minutes, rendered with synths, guitars, bowed saw, glockenspiels, clarinet (again!) and both Lehnberg and Lindfors’ soaring, emotive voices.

It was a more than welcome set of otherworldly beauty in a festival too easily described by adjectives like “garage”, and when the show was over and I turned around to hightail it to my next stop, it was more than gratifying to see that a good-sized crowd had gathered and looked to have enjoyed the show as much as I had. It deserved an audience.

NOW talked to The Deer Tracks ahead of their festival appearance.

Photos: The Deer Tracks @ The Rivoli – June 16, 2012
MP3: The Deer Tracks – “W”
MP3: The Deer Tracks – “Dark Passenger”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Meant To Be”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Tiger”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Fall With Me”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Fra Ro Raa / Ro Ra Fraa”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Ram Ram”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Slow Collision”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “12sxfrya”

That wasn’t the final stop of the night – more on that tomorrow – but it was the last NXNE 2012 showcase; a great end to another great fest, though despite being as exhausted or moreso than I normally am, I didn’t actually see as many showcases as I typically do. Not sure how that happened, exactly. But as we wrap things up, for more festival-y things check out this oral history of NXNE as told to aux.tv and this conversation with festival found Andy McLean at Billboard.

Since Spinner footed the bill for the big Flaming Lips show, they get the big interview with Wayne Coyne. Them’s the rules.

The Toronto Star and Toronto Sun chat with Janelle Monáe, who kicks off the Toronto Jazz Festival at Nathan Philips Square tomorrow night.

Clash talks to Kristian Mattson about what it’s like being The Tallest Man On Earth.

PopMatters asks 20 questions of We Are Serenades.

First Aid Kit have released a new video from The Lion’s Roar. They’re at The Danforth Music Hall on September 26.

Video: First Aid Kit – “Blue”

Swedish punk rock newcomers Holograms have made a date at The Shop Under Parts & Labour for September 11, tickets $10.50 in advance. Their self-titled debut is out July 10. Tupac does not make an appearance.

MP3: Holograms – “Chasing My Mind”
MP3: Holograms – “ABC City”
Stream: Holograms – “Monolith”

The Line Of Best Fit has premiered the new single from El Perro Del Mar, which is also available to download. It comes from her new album Pale Fire, due out later this year.

M4A: El Perro Del Mar – “Innocence Is Sense”
Video: El Perro Del Mar – “Innocence Is Sense”

Sigur Rós has rolled out another video from Valtari, though this one comes with a warning that it may not be suitable for people with good taste as it contains Shia Labeouf. No, it really doesn’t matter that he’s naked – that he’s in it is bad enough.

Video: Sigur Rós – “Fjögur píanó”

NPR has a World Cafe session with Of Monsters & Men.