Frank YangEven without the “NME Presents” endorsement attached to the tour, I suspect the White Lies/Friendly Fires/Soft Pack show at Lee’s Palace on Tuesday would have been a sell-out. All three acts came with their own built-in buzz, so in fact the venerable British publication may have been counting themselves lucky to be associated with the tour rather than the other way around.

Sole non-Brits on the bill, The Soft Pack – formerly known as The Muslims – were tasked with kicking things off. The San Diego quartet got to play to a not-especially full house, evidence that all the North American buzz that they’ve been generating since last Fall didn’t necessarily translate to the Anglophile demographic. And though I’d been hearing about them for months, this was my first time actually hearing them and I can’t say I was tremendously impressed. They certainly had a good sound – the ingredients of their surf-garage pop aesthetic sufficiently familiar but their particular recipe still reasonably fresh – but none of the songs particularly jumped out as being remarkable and their performance was pretty staid.

But most things would probably come across staid when held up against middle act, St Alban’s Friendly Fires. I wasn’t especially won over by their self-titled debut but I now realize that sitting and listening to it in the comfort of home is really the wrong environment for it. The proper setting is in a club, in front of the stage, as their dual drummer/percussionists make a glorious, rhythmic racket, the guitarist freaks and flails and singer/keyboardist Ed Macfarlane dances and shakes his hips non-stop despite the fact that, let’s be honest, he really doesn’t have any. It’s a good thing. I’ve heard them described as indie, pop, dance and various combinations thereof, and sure they all apply to some degree, but watching them go, I’d just put them down as disco and go. No, there were no glitter balls and the fashions were pretty tame, but the spirit of the unbridled, unending party? That was real. And while it did end after 40 minutes, it did so with an audience invasion and a speaker climb and mass percussive instrument abuse. The sort of thing you’d hate for any band to have to follow.

But this far into the tour, watching their countrymen bring the house down every night before they took the stage, White Lies must have been used to it. Now as I intimated in my review of their UK chart-topping debut To Lose My Life, White Lies require a certain amount of buy-in on the part of the listener. Kind of like how horror films require you to suspend disbelief, to accept that monsters exist and that their potential victims really are that stupid, White Lies need you to believe their angst is real, and that there’s genuine weight behind their vague pronouncements of profundity. Manage that, and for the most part I have, and they’re reasonably enjoyable. Behind the stark lighting, all-black outfits and Harry McVeigh’s dramatic baritone – decidedly scratchy-sounding by this point in the tour – are some truly catchy pop songs that will have you singing along, even if you feel kind of guilty about it. Get into it enough and you won’t even question the rather contrived posing and self-seriousness (it’s amusing seeing McVeigh’s baby face trying to look intense) – at least it’s entirely in character. Like Friendly Fires (and Cut Off Your Hands the night before, White Lies seemed to put stock in the notion of leaving the audience wanting more, keeping things at a very compact 40 minutes and eschewing the encore. Of course with only ten songs in their repertoire they couldn’t have gone on much longer even if they’d wanted, but closing out the night when they did and getting folks out on the streets before midnight with a solid night of tunes under their belt? Nothing wrong with that.

Chart also has a review of the show while Exclaim and The Herald Bulletin have interviews and Shockhound a video interview with White Lies.

Photos: White Lies, Friendly Fires, The Soft Pack @ Lee’s Palace – March 31, 2009
MP3: White Lies – “Death”
MP3: White Lies – “Death” (Crystal Castles remix)
MP3: Friendly Fires – “Jump In The Pool”
MP3: Friendly Fires – “Paris” (Aeroplane Remix)
MP3: The Soft Pack – “Nightlife”
Video: White Lies – “Farewell To The Fairground”
Video: White Lies – “Death”
Video: White Lies – “Unfinished Business”
Video: Friendly Fires – “Skeleton Boy”
Video: Friendly Fires – “Paris”
Video: Friendly Fires – “Jump In The Pool”
Video: Friendly Fires – “On Board”
Video: The Soft Pack – “Extinction”
MySpace: White Lies
MySpace: Friendly Fires

The Toronto Sun and Metro interview Glasvegas, in town for an early and sold-out show at the Mod Club tonight.

Clash talks Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite. They’re at the Phoenix on May 4.

Doves talk to The Quietus and The Irish Independent about their forthcoming album Kingdom Of Rust, out on Tuesday and streaming at the band’s MySpace right now. They play the Kool Haus on June 1.

Stream: Doves / Kingdom Of Rust

Clash and Perth Now interview Elbow. They accompany Coldplay to the Rogers Centre on July 30.

Denver Westword, The Detroit Free Press and Singing Lamb have conversations with Los Campesinos.

Matablog has details on the closest thing we’ll see to a new Belle & Sebastian record any time soon – the soundtrack to Stuart Murdoch’s God Help The Girl, which was originally supposed to be a film but there’s no mention of that aspect in the release. Take that as you will. The album is out June 23 but you can get the first MP3 for free by singing up to their mailing list on the project’s website.

Idolator reports that Charlotte Hatherley’s Cinnabar City now has a US label in Minty Fresh and have got a track from said record to hold you over until the vague Summer release date gets more specific.

Bat For Lashes, whom Hatherley is now a part of, gives an interview to The Irish Independent. They’re at the Mod Club on April 25.

In the mid-80s, XTC created ’60s psychedelic pop alter-ego in The Dukes Of Stratosphear wherein they got their Barrett on and released an EP and album that were henceforth spoken of in hushed, reverential tones by those lucky enough to have heard them. Which will now soon be everyone, potentially. Both releases, the 25 O’Clock EP, which has been padded out with goodies to album length, and Psionic Psunspot, which was already album length but is now super-size, will be out in deluxe reissue packaging come April 21.

MP3: The Dukes Of Stratosphear – “My Love Explode”
MP3: The Dukes Of Stratosphear – “Braniac’s Daughter”

BeggarsSooo this will be a brief – super-brief – one on account of me actually writing it up more than a week in advance while my head tries to process everything I need to get done before decamping for Austin.

UK indie-dance outfit Friendly Fires seem to have a Forrest Gump-like knack for getting on tours with some of the buzziest acts of the day. They’re here next week – March 31 – for a sold-out show at Lee’s Palace alongside White Lies and The Soft Pack and last year, they rolled in as support for Lykke Li, who you could understatedly say had a good 2008.

To mark their good fortune, the band decided to record a cover of one of Ms Zachrisson’s songs and did a pretty decent job of maintaining its slinkiness, which is no mean feat considering that they don’t have her innate qualities – which is to say being Swedish and sexy.

And I know that Friendly Fires are a trio – but I couldn’t make them all fit in the image crop. My apologies to unnamed, excised Friendly Fire dude.

MP3: Friendly Fires – “I’m Good I’m Gone”
Video: Lykke Li – “I’m Good I’m Gone”

Steve GullickBritish music is full of long, rich traditions. There’s the long rich tradition of bands sounding like Joy Division. And there’s the long rich tradition of bands denying that they sound like Joy Division. White Lies don’t actually sound like Joy Division. They sound like Editors, who sound like Interpol, who sound like The Chameleons and Joy Division (there’s also a long, rich tradition of bands sounding like The Chameleons and no one noticing, but I digress). And yeah, you can call them on it and dismiss them for the same reasons, but to do so would be to miss the point. The world needs bands that sound like this, for vaguely disaffected alt.kids to glom to and for snootish muso-types to rage against. Without such, well sir, there’d be anarchy.

And while the critics have a valid point in that White Lies bring nothing especially new to the gloom/anthem-rock canon, it’s impossible to deny that when they get the formula exactly right, as they do a few times on their debut To Lose My Life, it’s just as potent as when their forebears did it – “A Place To Hide” in particular is a bullseye and a half. Harry McVeigh isn’t the most elegant or eloquent lyricist but his vocal range covers Ian Curtis lows and Mark Burgess highs, he’s able to turn a phrase with at least as much vague import as Editor Tom Smith and can deliver the choruses with the necessary drama to sell it. Bolster it with stadium-size guitars, a thick bed of synths and some strategically placed strings at the really profound points and you’ve got a number one record. Congratulations.

Having topped the charts in the UK with the record’s release in January, White Lies now set their sights on North America, with the record hitting stores next Tuesday. They’re also touring North America starting with SxSW next week in Austin, Texas. The Toronto date is March 31 at Lee’s Palace and is, unsurprisingly, sold out. but courtesy of Universal Music Canada, I’ve got a pair of tickets to said show to give away as well as a copy of To Lose My Life on CD and last year’s “Death” EP for good measure. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to tell White Lies” in the subject and your full mailing address in the body. Contest closes at midnight, March 22.

MP3: White Lies – “Death”
MP3: White Lies – “Death” (Crystal Castles remix)
Video: White Lies – “Farewell To The Fairground”
Video: White Lies – “Death”
Video: White Lies – “Unfinished Business”
MySpace: White Lies

Also on that March 31 bill are Friendly Fires, with whom Clash has an interview.

NOW and hour.ca talk to Bloc Party’s Matt Tong – they’re at the Kool Haus tonight and tomorrow.

Prefix seems to think that Patrick Wolf has already assigned a release date to his second album of 2009, before the first one is even out. They’ve got The Conqueror down as a December 29 release (good luck making the year-end lists), following the already-announced June 1 release of The Bachelor.

Pitchfork recounts the story of the Jesus & Mary Chain.

Magnet plays over/under with The Smiths, tabulating their five most overrated and underrated songs.

There’s finally a proper first video from Bat For Lashes’ new album Two Suns, out April 6. She has a date at the Mod Club for April 25.

Video: Bat For Lashes – “Daniel”

Crawdaddy interviews Bishop Allen.

Spinner talks to Jason Lytle about the end of Grandaddy and the start of Jason Lytle. Yours Truly, The Commuter is out on May 19 and Stereogum has a track from it to download.

Wireless Bollinger interviews AC Newman.

BlogTO has a large photograph of and interview with Nils Edenloff of The Rural Alberta Advantage. They play the Trash Palace tomorrow afternoon – doors at 1, tiny room. Go early.

Those who enjoy watching their music rather than just listening will find lots of time to kill at rockpeaks.com, who are trying to become the online authority of televised live music performances. It will be interesting seeing them trying to do this legally – be prepared to find lots of “clip removed” notices – but there’s plenty of stuff that still manages to stay online and is worth a browse.

DovesJoyous news to start the day yesterday when it was announced that Doves had not only assigned a release date to their fourth album and first in over four years – Kingdom Of Rust will be available on April 7 in North America – but they were also offering the lead track from the record, “Jetstream”, available as a free download on their website for a fortnight in exchange for signing up to their mailing list. Curiously, said offer seems to have disappeared for the moment but I expect that’s due to technical difficulties and it’ll be back soon.

And though the breathless press release verbiage that accompanied the news heralded the new record as their “most sonically adventurous, intimate, cerebral, propulsive to date”, I suspect it’ll be much like the previous three Doves records. Take two parts soaring anthemicism, two parts atmospheric melancholy, season with equal portions of dance and dreampop influences and serve. Guaranteed to be mostly brilliant. Doves arrived almost fully-formed with their 2001 debut Lost Souls and have basically been refining their sound ever since, oblivious to musical trends. Never quite fashionable, but still successful – it won’t surprise me one whit to see Kingdom hit #1 on the UK charts as its predecessor Some Cities did – and basically forging a… what’s it called? Oh yes, a career.

Though it’s amusing to think back to a couple of their first gigs in Toronto, where they displayed a knack for picking support acts who would manage to break quite big. Their first visit in March 2001 was in the company of a scruffy band of New Yorkers called The Strokes and their third in September of 2002 introduced the city to a band of beards who called themselves My Morning Jacket. So if the music thing hadn’t taken off as well as it did, they’d have quite possibly had a promising career in A&R.

Doves expect to tour North America sometime in the Spring. Pitchfork has a tracklist for Kingdom Of Dust.

MySpace: Doves

Spin is streaming Elbow’s contribution to the War Child: Heroes compilation coming out on February 24 – a cover of U2’s “Running To Stand Still”.

The Toronto Sun, The Globe & Mail, Stuff NZ and Out converse with Franz Ferdinand.

NPR welcomes Laura Marling for a World Cafe session.

The Shield Gazette interviews Emmy The Great about the darkness of her debut album First Love, out February 9.

Patrick Wolf discusses his battle to release Battle independently with The Quietus.

That March 31 Friendly Fires show of indeterminate locale I pointed out a couple weeks ago has come into much sharper focus – it will be happening at Lee’s Palace and also feature White Lies, currently holders of the #1 record in the UK, and The Soft Pack, formerly The Muslims. That, kids, is a ridiculously buzzy tour. Full dates at the Windish Agency. The Telegraph and The Shields Gazette have features on who is probably the headliner of that little troupe, White Lies.

Since it was Hot Press who first informed me last Summer that Irish dreampop outfit Butterfly Explosion had split up, it seems appropriate that it be Hot Press be the ones to inform me that they’re not so finished after all. Granted, with a number of lineup changes including the departure of keyboardist/vocalist Sorcha Brennan, it’s not the same band who impressed in April 2007 but still, it’s good that they’ll have another chance to fulfill the potential I saw in them.

MP3: The Butterfly Explosion – “Sophia”
MP3: The Butterfly Explosion – “Chemistry”

Soundproof interviews Mercury Rev.

Rolling Stone gets to know M83. They’ll be playing a one-off show with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in March wherein Anthony Gonzalez will supply each and every member of the orchestra with their own distortion pedals.

Cut Off Your Hands have released a new video, and a local tour date is forthcoming very soon.

Video: Cut Off Your Hands – “Turn Cold”

Magnet finds out what the members of The Smiths are up to these days.

The Guardian seeks the formula to the perfect pop song, consulting at length with Jarvis Cocker, amongst others, on the topic.

Catherine LosingFor The Records pointed out a curious concert listing for UK indie-dance act Friendly Fires at the website for Beggars Canada – it puts the St Alban’s trio in town on March 31, but only narrows the venue down to two possibilities – Mod Club or Lee’s Palace. So all I can accurately say is that they’ll be in Toronto at an approximately 500-capacity venue on that date. And wherever they are, odds of a dance party breaking out are pretty much one to one. Personally, I think that Mod would be a much more suitable venue – the ass-shaking, slick and scratchy new wave/disco goodness of their self-titled debut demands spectacle, which Mod’s famously over-the-top lighting system is equipped to provide. Lee’s doesn’t even have a disco ball.

MP3: Friendly Fires – “Jump In The Pool”
MP3: Friendly Fires – “Paris” (Aeroplane Remix)
Video: Friendly Fires – “Skeleton Boy”
Video: Friendly Fires – “Paris”
Video: Friendly Fires – “Jump In The Pool”
Video: Friendly Fires – “On Board”
MySpace: Friendly Fires

Toronto vibraphone mavens The Hylozoists will release their new album L’ile de Sept Villes on February 3 and showcase it at the Mod Club on February 21. Update: They’re also playing a Soundscapes instore on February 10 at 7PM. Here’s some older stuff.

MP3: The Hylozoists – “Smiley Smiley”
MP3: The Hylozoists – “Strait Is the Gate”

Marissa Nadler, whom I believe ended up cancelling her last scheduled date here last Summer, will try and pay us a visit again on April 21 at the El Mocambo. She has a new album due out early this year. Here’s some older stuff.

MP3: Marissa Nadler – “Diamond Heart”
MP3: Marissa Nadler – “Thinking Of You”

Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains are doing an in-store at Sonic Boom on January 29 at 7PM.

MP3: Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains – “American Names”
MP3: Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains – “By Cover Of Night (Fire Fight)”

Putting lie to the notion that bands can only play larger venues as they get bigger, Born Ruffians and Akron/Family have a date at Sneaky Dee’s on March 24. Tickets are $13 and on sale now.

Earlier yesterday Uncut speculated that the release of that Neil Young video for “Fork In The Road” implied not only the impending release of a new album with the same name, which may well be true, but to also mean that the Archives set has been pushed back indefinitely to accommodate. They’ve since been corrected with the same information that one of the official Archive-ists left on a post at Thrasher’s Wheat – “NYA Vol 1 has been completed in BD, DVD, CD and Digital Download editions. The only thing remaining is announcement of a street date”. Which is good news, though it does put lie to the February 24 release date that most had been clinging to. In short, there’s lots of material coming from Neil this year. Only no one knows what and when.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer interviews Kathleen Edwards, who is at Trinity-St Paul’s on February 13.

MP3: Kathleen Edwards – “Asking For Flowers”

The Quietus talks politics with Death Cab’s Nick Harmer.

Beirut have released a video from their forthcoming EP March Of The Zapotec, out February 17.

Video: Beirut – “La Llorona”

The Village Voice profiles Antony & The Johnsons. The Crying Light is out Tuesday and they play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on February 17.

Muzzle Of Bees asks five questions of Los Campesinos!

The Decemberists are giving away a track from their forthcoming album The Hazards Of Love, out March 24. All you have to do is sign up to their mailing list. Colin Meloy was also on NPR’s World Cafe yesterday for an interview.

Clash talks to Kathy Foster of The Thermals, who will release Now We Can See on April 7.

The previously-mentioned untitled Bob Mould album also set for an April 7 release now has a title – Life And Times.

Filter talks to Ra Ra Riot, Daytrotter videotapes them playing in a park.

Pitchfork has an MP3 from M Ward’s Hold Time, out February 17. This track features the She to his Him, Zoey Deschanel, on vocals.

MP3: M Ward – “Never Had Nobody Like You”

Drowned In Sound solicits a mixtape from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, the buzz around whom is growing at a pace that’s considerably larger than Neutral, the room they’re slated to play here in town on February 12. If you’re curious, an advance ticket may be a good idea. Their self-titled full-length is out February 3.

NPR has an acoustic session with The Hold Steady while Wireless Bollinger has an interview.

Former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle will return to active musical duty on May 19 with the release of his first solo record, Yours Truly, the Commuter.