Yuula Benivolski When you’ve become gotten to know a band exclusively through their live performances, it can be difficult to accept them as a recorded entity. Especially so when the band in a live setting possess a sort of elemental energy that you can’t imagine being done justice in a studio environment. This was the case with Toronto’s Bruce Peninsula, who made a serious impression with a series of shows back in 2007 which established the band, ten members deep when at full strength, as a potent new force on the local music scene.

A listen to their first recorded output last Summer – a 7″ of traditional folk recordings – verified that they’d somehow managed to capture their sonic potency, but it took some time with their debut album A Mountain Is A Mouth – out on Tuesday – to confirm that they’d really made a record that fulfilled all the expectations that had accumulated since August of 2007. And they have.

Mountain seems to have been crafted to emulate nothing less than a massive gathering storm. Opener “Inside/Outside” coalesces from a gentle, ghostly breeze into an ominous stomp whose energy remains mostly unrelenting through the whole of side one. Pounding yet surprisingly nimble percussion alongside singer Neil Haverty’s gruff field holler provides the foundation from which the choir’s angelic voices rise. And these aren’t the touchy-feely kind of angels – they’re the flaming sword-wielding kind. But for all the effectiveness of their sound and fury, it’s the eye of the storm – the delicate “Weave Myself A Dress” – that really pulls it all together. Misha Bower’s weary-beyond-her-years vocals are devastatingly vulnerable in contrast to tumult that surrounds them. The song provides a brief but essential respite before the winds again begin to whip.

The other revelation of the album is how solid the songwriting is. By choosing to work in such an old sort of blues/gospel/folk aesthetic, the band had to face the conundrum of how to sound authentic and yet still bring something new to the table and it’s saying something that the two traditional songs they’ve included in the set fit seamlessly with the original material. It’d have been easy enough to just rely on the intensity of their delivery to impress, but they’ve still taken the time to create something richly melodic and with real depth. It’s safe to say that A Mountain Is A Mouth is most unlike anything else you’ll hear this year, and for that reason alone it’s worth your attention. And if you need another, I’ll throw in the fact that it’s excellent.

Bruce Peninsula play the Horseshoe tomorrow night in support of The Tom Fun Orchestra, play an in-store at Soundscapes on February 4 to mark the album’s release and do a proper record release show on February 22 at the Polish Combatants Hall. You can miss one, or even two of these shows. But miss all three? Not an option. Exclaim documents the formation and formulation of the band, they talk to NOW about the process of capturing their sound on tape and there’s further interviews over at Echo and The Hamilton Spectator.

MySpace: Bruce Peninsula

Stereogum is offering up an MP3 from the new Great Lake Swimmers record Lost Channels, due out March 31. They play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on April 25.

The Globe & Mail profiles Laura Barrett, complete with awful, awful headline.

Rolling Stone reports that Metric will release their new album Fantasies on April 14.

Final Fantasy have a new video from his Plays To Please EP.

Video: Final Fantasy – “Horsetail Feathers”

The Seattle Post-Intelligencier talks to Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene.

Paste and Exclaim have features on AC Newman, playing Lee’s Palace on March 11.

Neko Case sounds off on animal rights to Spinner and verifies that you shouldn’t expect to see her in any PETA ads anytime soon. Her April 18 show at Trinity-St Paul’s is almost sold out and the April 17 date probably won’t be far behind. Hesitate and lose.

Popmatters plays 20 questions with Jason Isbell. He has a date at the Horseshoe on March 4 and is swapping an MP3 from forthcoming album Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, out February 17, in exchange for your email.

Drowned In Sound finds out what’s next for The Magnolia Electric Co.

The Daily Texan speaks briefly to Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater, who aim to have a new album out this year.

NOW talks to Gary Louris on the circumstances surrounding Ready For The Flood, his collaboration with former Jayhawks partner Mark Olson. They play the Mod Club February 4 and you can stream the album right now at Spinner.

Stream: Mark Olson and Gary Louris / Ready For the Flood

Drowned In Sound offers up a three-part interview with M Ward. Hold Time is out February 17.

WrensFor most bands, a gap of five and half years and counting since your last record would be cause for concern amongst the fanbase, but for The Wrens it seems right on schedule. The Meadowlands came out way back in September 2003 and that was a full seven years since their previous effort Secaucus, though that was as much the fault of their evil label as anyone else. None of this, of course, makes it any easier for fans eager to hear something new from the band.

But things are finally afoot, perhaps spurred by the good-natured fun that Magnet was having at their expense. They’ve begun recording album number four and have marked the occasion by releasing a new song entitled “Pulled Fences”, recorded live at Abbey Road studios in England and available digitally. Of course, the fact that they’ve only just BEGUN recording means that we likely won’t see any new material this year (it’s sad to be writing off the year in January) but at least it’s finally happening.

And if you needed some reminding of why hearing from Wrens again is cause for celebration, dig into their audio/visual vault.

MP3: The Wrens – “Everyone Choose Sides”
MP3: The Wrens – “This Machine”
MP3: The Wrens – “Built In Girls”
MP3: The Wrens – “Grey Complexion”

Loney Dear previews the release of Dear John on January 27 with a Bandstand Busking performance.

MP3: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”

And maybe while they were playing, this Black Cab carrying a warbling Ryan Adams drove by. Hey, could have happened.

CNN discusses Sweden, Cardigans and A Camp with Nina Persson. Colonia, the new A Camp record, is out February 2 in Europe and April 28 in North America.

Scotland On Sunday, The Independent and New York Magazine have features on Antony & The Johnsons, whose new album The Crying Light isn’t out until next week, but is available to stream now at Spinner. They play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on February 17.

Stream: Antony & The Johnsons / The Crying Light

Franz Ferdinand recently released the new video from their new album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, out January 27. They also released an EPK video about the record.

Video: Franz Ferdinand – “Ulysses”

The Boston Globe discusses the touring life with Frightened Rabbit.

The Quietus reports that Bat For Lashes’ sophomore effort Two Suns will be released on April 6.

Jason Lytle, ex of Grandaddy, recently recorded an acoustic session for Maps.

MP3: Jason Lytle – “Birds Encouraged Him” (live on Maps)

Blurt has the complete tracklisting for the star-laden, covers-heavy War Child: Heroes compilation due out on February 24.

The old inbox was simply overflowing with concert and tour announcements yesterday… in chronological order – A Brooklyn double-bill of High Places and Soft Circle will be at the Horseshoe on February 9, tickets $10.

Mekon and Waco Brother Jon Langford has a date at the Horseshoe on February 27. Ticket details forthcoming.

Lisa Hannigan, formerly a singer with Damien Rice but now gone solo with the release of Sea Sew on February 3, will be hitting the road this Winter and be at the Mod Club on March 1, tickets $15. The Times ran a feature on her last month.

Bloc Party have added a second show at the Kool Haus, this one on March 13, to go along with the previously-announced and presumably almost sold-out March 14 date. Tickets $35.

Also on the 13th and also a Canadian Musicfest show, Handsome Furs are at the Horseshoe. Exclaim reports that their new album Face Control has been pushed back from its originally-announced February 3 release date to March 10. The duo talked to Black Book about the new record back in December.

Clem Snide, presumed dead but apparently not, will release Hungry Bird on February 24 and follow that up with a tour that stops in at the El Mocambo on March 21. Tickets for that are $10.50.

Great Lake Swimmers will follow up the March 31 release of Lost Channels on March 31 with a show at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on April 25, tickets $20.

2:30 PublicityI was reading a piece in the latest issue of Exclaim wherein Nicholaus Sparding of Love Is All commented on the band’s inability to get arrested in their native Sweden, perhaps on account of their refusal/inability to adhere to what’s typically thought of when you talk about Swedish indie – that is, elegant pop of the orchestrally twee persuasion.

And perhaps that’s why I ultimately ignored their debut, 2006’s Nine Times That Same Song – I really like that elegant, orchestrally twee pop, particularly delivered in a Swedish accent, and that’s most definitely not what Love Is All are about, except maybe the accent part. From Josephine Olausson’s gleeful caterwaul to James Ausfahrt’s skronking saxophone, Love Is All are resolutely scrappy, abrasive and frantic. The Cardigans, they are not.

But score one for personal growth, as I’ve given the follow-up A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night more of a chance and am pleased to find myself coming around to its charms. Within Hundred‘s ten tracks there reside a handful of lustrous pop jewels that no amount of sonic dirt can dull – manic lead single “Wishing Well” and the Spector-iiffic “When Giants Fall” chief amongst them – and the numbers that don’t reach the same level of inspiration do their best to compensate with loads of anarchic energy. I can’t say that Love Is All are an outfit that I necessarily see myself forming a long and lasting relationship with, but for a good night out, you could do far worse.

And on that note, Love Is All are about to kick off a North American tour which will bring them to the Horseshoe next Thursday night, December 11. Courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “Love Is All I need” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, December 8.

Exclaim has posted up the complete transcript of the interview that seeded the feature mentioned above, and The San Francisco Bay Guardian also has an interview with Josephine Olausson.

MP3: Love Is All – “Wishing Well”
Video: Love Is All – “Wishing Well”
MySpace: Love Is All

One of the nicest things to show up in my inbox lately is from New Yorkers The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, whose ’80s-vintage jangly/fuzzy brand of pop is as twee-friendly as their name. Pretty much what you might expect from a band on the venerable Slumberland marque, and totally scratching an itch I’d forgotten I had. Their self-titled debut will arrive on February 3 and a short Winter tour brings them to Toronto on February 12 for a show at Neutral.

MP3: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – “Everything With You”
MP3: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – “Come Saturday”
Video: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – “Everything With You”
MySpace: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

The Wedding Present, for whom POBPAH are currently opening a string of dates in the UK, have released a download-only, throwaway (my subjective opinion) Christmas single, complete with video. The Gedge is really into this Californian lifestyle thing, from the looks of it.

Video: The Wedding Present – “Holly Jolly Hollywood”

The title track from Los Campesinos’ new record We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed is now available to download.

MP3: Los Campesinos! – “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed”

Contact Music interviews Asobi Seksu. Their new album Hush is out February 17.

BBC talks to Noah & The Whale, who are set to release a mini-album under the guise of their A-Sides punk band persona, just in time for Christmas though just barely – it’s out December 22. They also give some hints about the direction album number two – currently in production and the reason for their cancelled North American tour – is taking.

And also cancelled is CSS’s December 15 date at the Opera House. I guess the Brazilians finally discovered that December is COLD in the northern hemisphere (actually they say it’s due to visa issues).

And those of you who didn’t get tickets to Franz Ferdinand’s show at Lee’s tomorrow night – which is most of you – may be heartened to know that they’re doing another tiny show at the Masonic Temple (aka MTV Canada studios) on Friday but the only way to get tickets is to listen to CFNY (aka “The Edge”, to those of you under 30). Whether you’re willing to make that great a sacrifice to try and get tickets is up to you.

March will prove to be a good month for those whose tastes run towards the rootsier end of things. First, March 3 brings the Middle Cyclone (artwork!), the new album from Neko Case (she talks to Paste about making the album and buying a farm – A farm, not THE farm), and on March 31 Great Lake Swimmers will release their latest, Lost Channels.

Kyle HuttonOh No Forest Fires are having a good time. That much is obvious, listening to The War On Geometry, the debut mini-album from the Toronto four-piece that follows up an excellent demo EP that has been kicking around for a while. Even though adding those four tracks to the seven on Geometry would have made for a more traditional-length album, their omission – as excellent as those songs were – is a sensible one. Compared to the new recordings, the songs from the EP were equally if not even more immediately and indelibly catchy, but the execution was more well-mannered and polite.

Geometry, on the other hand, is the sound of that band hepped up on pixie sticks, volume and nostalgia for how distortion pedals sounded in the ’90s. It’s bigger, louder and more abrasive-sounding, though the extra grit also helps those hooks stick just that much harder. Bursting with energy and ideas, it knows when a musical tangent is called for and when its best to simply take the shortest distance between two points to get the point across, particularly by means of big, loud power chords. It takes a skeleton of tempo shifts and melodic complexity that could only have been built by people who really know their way around their instruments, and decorates it in party hats, funny sloganed t-shirts and oversized sunglasses. It’s math-rock if math were singalongable and the most exhilarating subject in school.

A lot of bands spend their careers trying to capture the energy of their live shows on record, and while Geometry doesn’t quite catch the full experience – I’ve listened to the album a good deal and haven’t yet had any of my musical equipment in the vicinity spontaneously demolish itself or find myself soaked in beer/sweat/other fluids – it does a good job of conveying just how… trying not to use the word “energy” again… animated the band can be whilst performing. I’ve seen them twice now and both times have been wonderful bouts of anarchy. And when they play the Horseshoe tomorrow night with Hey Rosetta! and Museum Pieces, both visiting from the Maritimes, I expect nothing less. Cover is $8, ONFF are on first at 9.

Chart has an interview with the band.

MP3: Oh No Forest Fires – “It’s Not Fun And Games Until Someone Loses An Eye”

The Tennessean talks to Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning. They’re at the Sound Academy on November 27 and 28.

Though hard at work at the next Great Lake Swimmers record, Tony Dekker also crafted the score to Song Sung Blue, a forthcoming documentary about a Neil Diamond tribute act. Hear a couple of the pieces below and for clips from the film, hit up their YouTube channel.

MP3: Tony Dekker – “Old Milwaukee”
MP3: Tony Dekker – “Encore”

Final Fantasy has released another video from his Spectrum, 14th Century EP.

Video: Final Fantasy – “Blue Imelda”

Chad Van Gaalen is offering up a new MP3 from Soft Airplane. The Calgary Herald has an interview.

MP3: Chad VanGaalen – “City Of Electric Light”

Neil Young floats some ideas for saving the automotive industry at The Huffington Post.

The Thermals will return on April 7 with a new label – Kill Rock Stars – and album, in Now We Can See.

mel.opho.be interviews the boys from Wheat about small successes and the link between their music and visual art endeavours. They’ve completed a new album entitled Black Ink and are aiming to release it in Spring 2009. Via Bradley’s Almanac.

The December 9 Noah & The Whale show at the Rivoli has been cancelled, as has the entire North American tour. As they explain in a MySpace blog entry, between their European tour commitments and working on their second record, they just couldn’t make it over. But they promise to return in March of next year, presumably scheduled around an appearance at SxSW.

The Star-Tribune talks to Patterson Hood and Craig Finn, frontmen of tourmates Drive-By Truckers and The Hold Steady. The Seattle Times settles for talking to just Finn.

The Chicago Sun-Times contemplates the fates of the Chicagoan bands set to conquer the alt.rock world way back in 1993.

Frank YangThere had been a plan, back at SxSW earlier this year, to follow – “stalk” is such an ugly word – Emmy The Great to as many of her various day shows and performances as possible. As it happens, I failed utterly and was only able to see her play once, at her official showcase but it was as good as I’d hoped.

And so I planned to spend Saturday afternoon in New York City again following Ms Moss around and though I got a late start, having to hoof it from Greenwich Village to the Lower East Side – I was actually running through the subway at 14th and 8th – I managed to make her first show of the day on the roof of The Delancey. Now while I’m sure the building housed a proper stage somewhere in its environs, but the roof was just a shadowy patio with dense foliage with Emmy set up to one side with only a very basic PA – the very opposite of fancy. But she and her band do scrappy, stripped-down arrangements well – they were like a gang of buskers – so the setting wasn’t any real sort of detriment, though the sound could have been a bit better and they were basically playing in darkness. With only a handful of people paying attention – I guess 1PM was a bit early for the last day of CMJ, most likely everyone was still hung over in bed – they zipped through a set that contained songs both familiar and not, but presumably focused on the songs that had made the cut for her debut album, First Love. It was short but sweet and highlighted by drummer Pete Baker adding percussion to “Gabriel” by banging his shoe on a plastic drum case.

It was a few hours till the next engagement so I wandered the Lower East Side a bit before impending foul weather drove me to the venue – the cozy upstairs lounge at Pianos – early. This turned out to be fortuitous as the acts preceding her were certainly worth my time. The Dutchess & The Duke, a Seattle outfit built around the dual voices and guitars of Kimberly Morrison and Jesse Lortz who sound like a ’60s blues-rock band who decided to become a folk-pop band and turned out to be quite good at it. There’s melody and harmony a-plenty, but also a gruff sort of swagger that gives it all a nice bit of edge. Though they played a short set on account of a late start, but it made an impression – when I got home I dug up their new album She’s The Dutchess, He’s The Duke and will spend some time with that.

The were followed by Brooklyn’s The End Of The World, a four-piece best described as dealing in an appealing blend of classic rock and country-noir – not especially groundbreaking, but well-written and executed. Their set fell victim to a drum kit seemingly hell-bent on self-destructing, but what they did manage to get through was promising. Their new album French Exit is out November 4 and in addition to the MP3 below, another is available for frees at RCRDLBL.

Emmy’s second set of the day started out much like her first, but with a better sound system behind her and a much larger audience in front of her. Interspersing her casually confessional folk songs with hilarious between-song banter (requests for “M.I.A.” were met with, “she’s not here – she’s knocked up”), she and her band were entertaining and beguiling. It was initially disappointing when she broke a string midway through and it turned out they didn’t have a spare, but instead she borrowed bandmate Euan Hinshelwood’s guitar and completed the set solo, including absolutely stirring readings of “24” and “City Song”, the latter accented by Hinshelwood’s note-perfect harmonies. I don’t know if they’d have made the set otherwise, and if so if they’d have been as affecting, so let’s just say thank goodness for happy accidents.

I had been saving a place on my year-end list for First Love, but with its September release now moved to January of next year, I guess it’ll have to keep for another year. Based on what I saw and heard this past Saturday afternoon, I have no problem keeping that particular seat warm – this record is going to be an absolute gem.

Photos: Emmy The Great @ The Delancey, New York City – October 25, 2008
Photos: Emmy The Great, The End Of The World, The Dutchess & The Duke @ Pianos Lounge, New York City – October 25, 2008
MP3: Emmy The Great – “Easter Parade”
MP3: Emmy The Great – “Two Steps Forward” (live)
MP3: Emmy The Great – “MIA” (live from Black Room Sessions)
MP3: Emmy The Great – “The Hypnotist’s Son” (live from Black Room Sessions)
MP3: The End Of The World – “I Don’t Wanna Lose”
MP3: The Dutchess & The Duke – “Reservoir Park”
Video: Emmy The Great – “We Almost Had A Baby”
Video: Emmy The Great – “Gabriel”
Video: Emmy The Great – “Easter Parade”
Video: Emmy The Great – “MIA”
MySpace: Emmy The Great
MySpace: The End Of The World
MySpace: The Dutchess & The Duke

Duffy has a new video for a single that doesn’t appear on Rockferry, but does appear on the forthcoming deluxe edition of Rockferry, due out November 24. It’ll feature seven new tracks, including the aforementioned single. Details at MTV.

Video: Duffy – “Rain On Your Parade”

Patrick Wolf gives NME some details about half of his next record, which will be a double-album. Battles will feature his much-discussed collaboration with Alec Empire while the as-yet untitled other half will be much mellower in mood. He’s aiming for a February release.

Thousand Islands Life talks to Great Lake Swimmer Tony Dekker about choosing the Thousand Islands as the recording locale for their fourth record.

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats talks to The Arizona Daily Star while both Darnielle and collaborator Kaki King discuss their EP Black Pear Tree with The North County Times.

Okkervil River’s Will Sheff talks The Stand-Ins with Chart. And congratulations to Corey Higgins, who won the Insound poster.

Only a trickle of concert announcements rolling in as the year winds down, but while there may not be so much in terms of volume, ones like this certainly make up for it in density – case in point, the “Jingle Bell Rock” tour which features Metric, Tokyo Police Club, The Dears and Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains winding their way across Canada in a one-horse open sleigh. Look for them December 13 at the Sound Academy and experience the special kind of hell that is being on the waterfront at night in December.