Laine HurleySo after long, long last we’re less than a month out from the release of Emmy The Great’s debut album First Love. Longtime readers (or anyone who’s been here for the past year) know that I’ve been anxiously awaiting this record for what seems like forever, making do with a makeshift compilation of singles, compilation tracks, demos and live recordings.

But the February 2 release is locked in – it’s already available to pre-order via Rough Trade (with bonus live disc!) and the final tracklisting was recently announced – and I’m pleased that I’m only familiar with six of the 13 tracks, so more than half the record will still be new to me. And I’m also pleased that “24” made the cut – it’s one of my favourite Emmy songs, using the television show as a launching point for a poignant and pointed farewell to a dysfunctional relationship. It’s Emmy at her most mesmerizing, an opinion that puts me completely at odds with this otherwise mostly positive Gigwise review of the album. What can I say, besides that I’m right and he’s wrong.

The MP3 is an audio rip of a videotaped performance from the online program Welcome To Our TV Show, which appeared to be just documents of living room concerts from English artists – watch the Emmy clip (starts at around 1:10) but there’s lots of good stuff to enjoy in the archives.

The Daily Growl has also declared this an Emmy day, and is offering audio rips of a recent BBC session to add to the collection. Which will also bring my percentage of the album’s songs heard up a tad.

MP3: Emmy The Great – “24” (live on Welcome To Our Show, January 2008)
Video: Emmy The Great – “24” (live on Welcome To Our Show, January 2008)

As for the show from which the song draws its inspiration, I justifiably washed my hands of the whole thing after the abominable sixth season but was still persuaded to check out the 24: Redemption TV movie that ran a couple months ago… and it wasn’t bad. Stuck with a two-hour timeline, it was lean and focused and actually pretty engrossing, so I’ll be giving it one more chance when the new season starts up this Sunday night – but it’s on a very, very short leash. The fact that this season is set in DC rather than LA gives hope that the useless mooks from CTU won’t show up too much, but there’s plenty of time for things to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Trailer: 24 season seven

NME lists off their top 10 new acts to look out for in 2009, led by Florence & The Machine, who I’ve already told you to look out for. BBC also thinks she’ll do well this year, placing her third in their “Sound of 2009” new music list.

Pre-orders of Sky Larkin’s debut The Golden Spike will get you the album in MP3 form immediately, as well as a live recording of the album to go along with it. It’s out February 9.

Rumour is now fact – Glasvegas will make their Toronto debut on April 3 at the Mod Club. Tickets are $21 and go on sale this Saturday, January 10. There’s interviews with the band at The San Jose Mercury News and Kansas City Star.

Filter has a typically entertaining interview with Oasis’ Noel Gallagher.

XLR8R gets nostalgic about shoegaze, gets in touch with members of Ride, Chapterhouse, Lush and Slowdive amongst others and charts the scene’s rise, fall, and recent resurrection.

The Guardian checks in on former Long Blondes guitarist Dorian Cox, still recovering from the stroke that felled him last Summer and led to the band’s dissolution.

Electroqueer talks to Patrick Wolf about forthcoming album Battle and getting beaten up by security at a Madonna show.

Robyn Hitchcock discusses the new Venus 3 album Goodnight Oslo, due February 17, with Chart.

Marius HansenLast July, I was introduced to Spanish site Buffet Libre on account of their releasing a massive compilation of covers – mainly of ’80s pop tunes – by a slew of artists I’d mostly never heard of, but also the likes of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Electric Soft Parade. That was only the first salvo, however, and they’ve rung in the new year with part the second – another massive batch of covers, this one featuring the likes of Headlights, Au Revoir Simone and Amiina… and a whole pile of bands I’ve never heard of. Lots to wade through, and a bit fortuitously timed since I was just soliciting cover versions a couple days ago.

So why the picture of Ms Charlotte Hatherley, who does not appear on the aforementioned comp? Well hearing Headlights’ sleepy cover of XTC’s “Making Plans For Nigel” reminded me how much I enjoyed Hatherley’s own take on Swindon’s favourite sons in “This Is Pop”, recorded for a radio session in 2007. And it also reminded me to check on the progress of her third album, and what do you know? It’s completed and has a title – Cinnabar City – and is set for release in the first part of this year. According to the flowery language of the official release, it was tracked in a single week in London, has uber-producer Alan Moulder’s fingerprints on it in some capacity (probably mixing) and features “prog-pop, pop-punk and electro-junk”. Alls I know is that I’ve really enjoyed both Grey Will Fade and The Deep Blue, so whenever this one sees the light of day, I’ll be there.

Rewinding (ahem) a moment back to Champaign, Illinois’ finest pop band, Headlights, they released a remix record in the cryptically-titled Remixes late last year. It’s limited to 1000 copies so if you want, move it. All racing, no stopping.

I’ll tie up this twisty bit of blog with a trio of XTC covers – Hatherley’s, Headlights’ and SSLYBY’s from the first Rewind comp – and point you to XTC’s MySpace blog, which features extensive interviews with both Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding about a different song of theirs each week… and they’ve been doing this since October 2006. I know some of y’all are crazy XTC fans, so if this is news to you, consider your day/week wasted. You’re welcome.

MP3: Charlotte Hatherley – “This Is Pop”
MP3: Headlights – “Making Plans For Nigel”
MP3: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – “Another Satellite”

The AV Club talks to Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard while Alternative Press has an interview with Chris Walla. I somehow doubt that Walla is going to get his wish for a louder, angrier Death Cab – becoming Mr Zoey Deschanel isn’t really the sort of thing that’d press Gibbard’s “rage” buttons.

Paste declares Gemma Hayes their artist of the week.

Matador continues to play “what the fuck” in announcing the release of a Condo Fucks album in March entitled Fuckbook. The Condo Fucks are a long-running joke alias for Yo La Tengo and it’s unclear if this is actually a new YLT record, an actual YLT side-project record or just an excuse for the Beggars Group to add yet another Fuck band to their roster though I have to say, if they’re not from Toronto – fictionally or otherwise – the critical acclaim isn’t guaranteed.

MP3: Condo Fucks – “Whatcha Gonna Do About It”

NPR profiles Blitzen Trapper, in town at the Horseshoe on February 21.

New York Press and The Daily Record talk to Glasvegas, whose self-titled debut gets a North American release today.

Daytrotter has a session with Thao.

Pitchfork interviews Love Is All’s Josephine Olausson.

WikipediaFirstly – some of you who make this a weekly Sunday stop may have been a mite confused as to why the area to the right formerly reserved for the cover of the week is now vacant… well, henceforth that feature is now going to be rolled into the regular blog.

The benefit of this to you is that it’ll now show up in the RSS feed, like a number have asked for, and you can comment, which is always amusing. The benefit to me is that I now no longer have to have these things locked and loaded before midnight Saturday night for fear of the site breaking. Same thing about missing a week – no breakie. I mean, I’ve been churning out these things one a week for six years now, the well is starting to run a little dry, so by segue – if anyone’s got a stash of cool or interesting covers that they’d care to donate, drop me a line. It’d be appreciated. And links will still be going down after a week.

Anyways, that’s the PSA portion of things.

Glasgow’s Glasvegas rather ably conquered the UK in 2008, and are turning their eyes to America for 2009. Their self-titled debut, released back home in September, will come out in North America this Tuesday and be accompanied by a couple of bonus tracks to annoy those of us who sprung for the import.

Not amongst them, however, is this cover of Phil Spector via The Ronettes, which proves they’re not shy to own up to one of their most obvious influences. It was a b-side to their “”It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry” single.

They also kick off a North American tour tonight in Boston. No Toronto date yet, but Google certainly seems to think they’ll be at the Mod Club on April 3. I’ll confirm that when I can. Update: Date confirmed, tickets $21 on sale Saturday.

Features on the band have recently popped up at The Boston Herald, The Boston Globe and The Daily Record.

MP3: Glasvegas – “Be My Baby”

Steve GullickWhen I first wrote up Scotland’s Glasvegas, I went so far as to declare “there’s definitely something there” – a summation that would prove to be a bit of an understatement. Their debut self-title would turn out to be a massive hit in the UK, charting as high as #2 and going gold, making them easily one of the breakthrough acts of 2008 on that side of the pond.

Having acquired a copy of the album on import, it’s not hard to see why. They’ve learned their lessons from the Phil Spector school of pop but unlike many of their cohort, who’ve chosen to take things in a primitivist direction, they’ve taken that wall of sound and built a stadium out of it. Glasvegas is an utterly massive-sounding record, with sky-high sheets of guitar and cavernously echoing drums, but most of all singer James Allan’s huge and mournful bellow. Truly, this is stuff tailor-made to be sung-along with by tens of thousands.

And as they sing along, one would hope they’re too caught up in the moment to realize just how awful the words they’re singing are. Actually that’s overly harsh. Only some of the lyrics on Glasvegas are truly awful. In an effort to make the songs as broad and earnest as possible, Allan has eschewed any sort of lyrical finesse and instead relates things in the simplest, most literal and direct means available. Now sometimes this works – his delivery, all anguish and brogue, is a blunt instrument and when it hits, it’s a gut-wrenching body blow. But when it doesn’t – and I don’t think there’s any good way to present a line like “You don’t want to stab me/You don’t know my family/Or our capabilities” (taken from the Beethoven-backed song about someone about to be stabbed entitled, creatively, “Stabbed”) – it just sits there in all its awkward glory.

So it’s saying something when an avowed fan of clever and wordy songsmithery such as myself is still able to be won over by something as decidedly not as Glasvegas. Despite all its flaws, it’s undeniably rousing in the way that the very best anthems are, and Allan sings it with such earnestness and conviction that it’s hard to remain that critical. Some of the words may be graceless, but when it’s turned up loud and you’re singing them at the top of your lungs with everyone else, you don’t notice so much.

Even so, Glasvegas’ appeal has a distinctly British accent – I can envision them playing soccer stadiums, but not football, and the streets of America are littered with the bodies of acts who tried to recreate UK successes on this side of the pond. But they’re still going to try. Glasvegas will release their debut Stateside on January 6, bolstered with two bonus tracks, and coincide it with a short North American tour and some choice late-night television appearances. Their first US release, however, will technically be the A Snowflake Fell Christmas EP which is being made available via certain US independent retailers to anyone who pre-orders the album – full details and a live download of “Daddy’s Gone” available here. No idea if this deal is available in Canada, however.

The Belfast Telegraph, The Independent and The Telegraph have features on the band and their rise to stardom, The Daily Star talks to the band about their Christmas EP and Deadline Scotland gets a timeline for album number two.

Video: Glasvegas – “Please Come Back Home”
Video: Glasvegas – “Daddy’s Gone”
Video: Glasvegas – “Geraldine”
MySpace: Glasvegas

Drowned In Sound checks in with some other Scots who’ve had a big year – Frightened Rabbit. And even though they just released a live acoustic album in Liver! Lung! FR!, DiS also report that another one will be coming next year on March 30 in the form of Quietly Now! – Midnight Organ Fight Live and Acoustic at the Captain’s Rest, which comprises a live and acoustic reading of The Midnight Organ Fight.

Having just released her first post-Pipettes single in “Another Version Of Pop Song”, Rose Elinor Dougall is offering a sample of her forthcoming solo album, which is set to finish recording in January and hopefully come out come Summer. I daresay that the solo material sounds quite classy – there is indeed life after polka dots.

MP3: Rose Elinor Dougall – “May Holiday”

BBC gets a new album update from Noah & The Whale. BrooklynVegan notes that the band have a late February date in New York City, which may mean that a make-up for their cancelled December jaunt to North America is being rescheduled. Or they just want to visit New York.

I’ve just made a new year’s resolution – to take the time to properly investigate Tindersticks. They’ve been recommended to me from more than a few quarters and it’s not like I have any excuse – I have a number of their albums on hand, including their latest The Hungry Saw, as well as a solo Stuart Staples album, and hey – they’re coming to town for a March 10 show at the Opera House. It’d be a crying shame if I finally got into them AFTER that, wouldn’t it? Full North American dates at BrooklynVegan, interviews at Prague Post and The Irish Independent.

MP3: Tindersticks – “The Hungry Saw”

The Quietus talks to Warren Ellis about goings-on with The Bad Seeds and Grinderman.

Billboard talks to Aaron Dessner of The National about the follow-up to Boxer and the Dark Was the Night AIDS benefit album due out February 17.

Heroes, the War Child benefit album originally slated to come out in November, has now been given a release dae of February 16. Details at NME.

MySpaceJust a quick one today. When America goes on holiday, things slow waaaaay down and, apparently, I get stuck in Northern Britain.

Now free of record labels, Scotland’s Idlewild are taking the “cutting out the middleman” ethos to heart by going direct to their fans to finance their next record. As The Guardian reports, they’re soliciting pre-orders even before recording has commenced, and for the tidy sum of fifteen quid, fans can get a fancy edition of the CD when it’s released next Spring, a thank-you in the liner notes of said CD, access to 15 live downloads culled from their upcoming residency at King Tut’s in Glasgow where they’ll be playing all their albums in their entirety and a sense of immense self-satisfaction in the knowledge that they’ve supported the band in a more meaningful way than buying a t-shirt. Full details and the ability to partake are available at idlewildmusic.com. The album is still untitled – perhaps they’re coming up with a special “gold sponsor” package that allows the donor naming rights? Raffle off the cover art? I’m just having fun, I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all though fifteen pounds is a fair bit of cash.

In keeping in the “Don’t Look Back” theme of those King Tuts gigs, Drowned In Sound got frontman Roddy Woomble to ruminate track-by-track on their 1999 debut Hope Is Important, incidentally the only one of their records I don’t have.

Video: Idlewild – “When I Argue I See Shapes”
Video: Idlewild – “I’m A Message”
MySpace: Idlewild

This Is Fake DIY has a video session with Frightened Rabbit.

And keeping things Scottish a bit longer, Franz Ferdinand talk to The Guardian about one false start in seeking a producer for Tonight, which is out January 27 and will look like this. And congratulations to Stephanie, who won the tickets for next week’s show at Lee’s Palace. To the other billion people who entered, sorry!

Clash and The Indpendent talk to Glasvegas.

This Is Fake DIY reports that Maximo Park have completed recording their third album, but also that mixing and mastering still has to happen, so don’t look for it too soon.

And yeah, that’s it. Told ya.