Shervin IainezRose Cousins is not a new artist. The Charlottetown by way of Halifax artist has been releasing music for the better part of a decade and I’ve technically heard her before as she’s guested on any number of Maritime-born records including Joel Plaskett’s, but I’d not heard any of her own material until her third full-length album We Have Made A Spark, released at the end of February. And clearly that’s been my loss.

It’s not a record that stops you in your tracks – describe it as singer-songwriter that’d be comfortable at an adult contemporary party and lists towards the rootsy end of things and you wouldn’t be wrong – but that wouldn’t give credit to the emotional richness that Cousins infuses her work with. Her voice has that special blend of wistfulness and resignation that’s put to good use throughout Spark and ably supported by the lean and tasteful arrangements. But the sense of something ineffably special about this record really emerges on the record’s back half, with “For The Best” and “This Light” acting as a particularly powerful one-two punch and the cover of Springsteen’s “If I Should Fall Behind” finishing the listener off. Predominantly slow and sad, yet still standing tall, Spark articulates the sorts of feelings and experiences that everyone has either known or will know soon enough.

Uptown and The Edmonton Journal have feature pieces on Cousins and Southern Souls recently posted a video session with her. She plays The Rivoli on May 3.

MP3: Rose Cousins – “The Darkness”

The Elwins are helping celebrate Record Store Day with an in-store at Soundscapes on the evening of April 21 at 7PM; details over at Facebook. They’ve also been added to the support bill for Zeus at The Phoenix on June 9.

MP3: The Elwins – “Stuck In The Middle”

Sonic Boom is also once again celebrating Record Store Day with their own in-store mini-festival; this year they’ll have Army Girls, The Darcys, Born Ruffians, Plants & Animals, Bloodshot Bill, Fresh Snow, Lioness, Eight And A Half, and Diemonds. Now that’s a lineup and the schedule for the day looks like this.

MP3: Plants & Animals – “Song For Love”
MP3: The Darcys – “Shaking Down The Old Bones”
Video: Diemonds – “Take On The Night”
Video: Eight And A Half – “Scissors”
Video: Lioness – “You’re My Heart”

Though she figures to be around six months pregnant by that time, Coeur de Pirate has made a date at The Opera House for June 1, tickets $22.50 in advance. Rock!

Video: Coeur de Pirate – “Golden Baby”

The 2012 LuminaTO arts festival schedule is out, and from the music end of things, it’s got quite a bit to offer, mostly for free. Highlights include a Rufus Wainwright show on June 10, a Dan Mangan/Kathleen Edwards double-bill on the afternoon of June 16 (hopefully Ms. Edwards’ voice will be back) and an Ohbijou show on the afternoon of June 17; all of these are at David Pecault Square and are free. And yes, that second weekend is the same time as NXNE. So much culture you’re going to choke. The Line Of Best Fit has a video session and interview and Black Cab Sessions do their thing with Wainwright and NPR has a Tiny Desk Concert and Beatroute and The Calgary Herald have feature stories on Kathleen Edwards.

MP3: Kathleen Edwards – “Change The Sheets”
MP3: Dan Mangan – “Oh Fortune”
MP3: Ohbijou – “Anser”
Video: Rufus Wainwright – “Out Of The Game”

The Great Hall gets dark and synthy on July 13 when it hosts a show featuring Toronto’s Trust and New York’s Light Asylum; tickets for that are $12.50 in advance.

MP3: Light Asylum – “A Certain Person”
Video: Trust – “Bulbform”

I don’t remember the last time Little Scream played her own headlining show hereabouts – has she ever? – but she has great luck with opening gigs, having been added as warm-up for Beirut at The Sound Academy on July 19.

MP3: Little Scream – “Cannons”

Kind of an mish-mash of a bill, both in terms of genre and geography, but you’ve got The Sam Roberts Band, Bombay Bicycle Club, and The Jezabels at Echo Beach on July 26 – tickets $39.50 for general admission and $55.00 for VIP.

MP3: The Jezabels – “Try Colour”
Video: Sam Roberts – “I Feel You”
Video: Bombay Bicycle Club – “Shuffle”

Beatroute, The Georgia Straight, and here profile Chains Of Love, who’re in town at The Great Hall opening up for Said The Whale on April 14.

With the release of the new Moonface record With Sinai: Heartbreaking Bravery nigh – it’s out April 17 – it’s time for some premieres; a new video over at Spin and a stream of the whole record at The AV Club.

MP3: Moonface – “Teary Eyes And Bloody Lips”
Video: Moonface – “Teary Eyes And Bloody Lips”
Stream: Moonface / With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery

The fourth part of The Wooden Sky’s Grace On A Hill video series has premiered at IFC. They’re at The Opera House on April 20.

Still no specifics on the “why”, if there are any, surrounding the Fucked Up show at The Power Plant on May 1, but the band have announced that it’ll be free. So the “why” now matters that much less than “when do we line up”, yes?

CBC Music has got a video session with PS I Love You wherein they preview material from Death Dreams ahead of its May 8 release. They’re at The Garrison on May 15.

JAM, The Victoria Times-Colonist, Banff Cragg & Canyon, and Beatroute talk to Joel Plaskett. He’s at The Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 18 and 19.

Spinner and The Globe & Mail chat with Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers, who’ve made a track from New Wild Everywhere available to download and also released a new video. There’s also clips from their performance at the Glenn Gould Studio last month at CBC Music. They play The Music Hall on June 2.

MP3: Great Lake Swimmers – “The Great Exhale”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “New Wild Everywhere”

Guelph disco-pop ensemble The Magic are streaming the first single from their debut Ragged Gold, due out June 25.

Stream: The Magic – “Mr. Hollywood”

Feist has released a new video from Metals.

Video: Feist – “Bittersweet Melodies”

NPR serves up a World Cafe session and Planet S an interview with John K Samson.

Daytrotter has posted a new session with Timber Timbre.

Frank YangWhat’s better than hearing a new album on the day that it’s released? How about hearing it live? Okay, the former might have carried a little more weight a decade ago when records weren’t consistently available to stream online well before they were available to buy, but there’s still something special about the latter. So it was pretty nice of Great Lake Swimmers to mark the release of their fifth album New Wild Everywhere this past Tuesday with a full-band, plugged-in in-store performance at Sonic Boom where they showcased ten of the record’s twelve tracks with a one-song encore from their back catalog.

Even if you hadn’t heard the recorded versions, it was pretty clear from the new material that this was far from the same band that recorded their spare, almost spectral self-titled debut in an abandoned grain silo a decade earlier. Each subsequent record has fleshed out their sound a little more, certainly, and Tony Dekker’s songwriting hasn’t changed dramatically over that time but with New Wild Everywhere – the band’s first album recorded in a proper studio – it feels as though the reverberations of that grain silo have finally faded to silence and the fields that surrounded it have been gradually built up to the point that the landscape is no longer recognizable. There’ve been subtle changes from record to record, certainly, but for a band who deals in subtleties it doesn’t necessarily take a lot to effect a dramatic change.

In specifics beyond just the aesthetic, Everywhere seems to complete the transformation into a folk-pop band that their past releases had just flirted with; tempos are zippier and choruses bigger and live, there’s considerably more electric guitar in play. This shift was more pronounced live as there just seemed to be more everything – guitar, banjo, fiddle, vocals – in the mix; whereas previously the space left open was as much a part of their sound as what they played, now it sounded busy almost to the point of distraction. Which is not to say it sounded bad – though initial impressions are that this batch of songs don’t quite measure up to Dekker’s best compositions, they’re solid and the players behind them skilled – but for those who’d followed the band since those early recordings, it’s hard not to feel like something of what made them unique has been buried or left out in a field.

The band performed the whole of the new album for CBC Music and that recording should be available to stream in whole later today; currently they’ve got one song available. NOW has video of one of Tuesday evening’s performances, while aux.tv, The Vancouver Sun, The Montreal Gazette, and The Toronto Star all have features on the band. After touring North America and Europe, they return home for a show at The Music Hall on June 2.

Photos: Great Lake Swimmers @ Sonic Boom – April 3, 2012
MP3: Great Lake Swimmers – “Pulling On A Line”
MP3: Great Lake Swimmers – “Your Rocky Spine”
MP3: Great Lake Swimmers – “I Am A Part Of A Large Family”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Easy Come Easy Go”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “River’s Edge”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Stealing Tomorrow”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Palmistry”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Pulling On A Line”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Still”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Back Stage With The Modern Dancers”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Your Rocky Spine”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “To Leave It All Behind”
Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Bodies & Minds”

The Line Of Best Fit is streaming a new track from Cold Specks’ debut album I Predict A Graceful Expulsion, due out May 22, and The Guardian a profile piece. She opens up the aforementioned Great Lake Swimmers show on June 2 at the Music Hall.

Stream: Cold Specks – “Blank Maps”

No longer timely, but prior to last weekend’s Juno awards Spinner ran a number of interviews with nominees – there was this piece with Coeur de Pirate about her appreciation for Drake and The Weeknd, this one with Patrick Pentland and Jay Ferguson of Sloan about their odds of winning and this chat with The Rural Alberta Advantage about what their roles at the awards ceremony might be as well as this one, post-awards. For the record, none of the three won – maybe they should have made a Christmas album.

Rolling Stone has posted up a video session with Patrick Watson recorded at SXSW. His new album Adventures In Your Own Backyard comes out April 17 and they’ve a gig at The Music Hall on May 29, but before that is a special show at the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio on April 11 which you can win tickets for at CBC Music.

NPR has premiered a video for the title track of Plants & Animals’ latest effort The End Of That. They’re at Lee’s Palace on April 21.

Video: Plants & Animals – “The End Of That”

Tiny Mix Tapes interviews Claire Boucher of Grimes.

Cheers to Herohill, who’s assembled a tribute album to Leonard Cohen featuring artists such as Kathryn Calder and Woodpigeon. The Bard Of Montreal is available to download for freesies.

Frank YangDespite only seeing four bands, I like to think that I covered a fair bit of ground – stylistically, geographically, exploratorily (?), what have you – on the first night of Canadian Musicfest. The Friday night stuck slightly closer to home on all fronts but yielded much better and consistent results.

The evening kicked off at Rancho Relaxo with Neufovin in all the way from Finland (I mistakenly called them Norwegian in my festival preview and apologize profusely). Besides having an affinity for anything Scandinavian, the foursome impressed me with the samples posted online – they’ve yet to release a debut album but already sound like a tight and creative unit only somewhat all over the place with respect to what they want to sound like. But based on their set, they were leaning towards a low-level orbit brand of space-rock, propelled by their nimble drummer whose work reminded me of The National’s Bryan Devendorf and that’s basically the highest praise I can give a drummer; I could have just sat and listened to him play all night. The vocals could use a little more expressiveness but hearing their confident transitions from sonic grace to chaos and back again, I would definitely like to hear that debut whenever it’s done.

Photos: Neufvoin @ Rancho Relaxo – March 23, 2012
MP3: Neufvoin – “Drunken Captain”
MP3: Neufvoin – “Polar Song”
MP3: Neufvoin – “Villasukka”
MP3: Neufvoin – “Mouse On Mars”
Video: Neufvoin – “Polar Song”

I’m not sure who booked New York’s The Big Sleep into The Painted Lady, but it was a weird venue for them, being better suited to singer-songwriter acts than heavy, lumbering rock acts – to wit, they kept getting asked to turn down their amps through their set. But while the band had a track record, their third album Nature Experiments had just come out in January and was their first in four years; they probably had to work to get back onto peoples’ radars. I for one had lost track of them after seeing them at Pop Montreal 2006 circa their debut Son Of The Tiger, but remembered them well enough to know I wanted to see/hear them again, given the chance. Happily, time hadn’t messed with my memory and they were as good as I recalled, coming across equal parts intense and cool and heavy all around. Sonya Balchandani and Danny Barria have distinct vocal styles but maintain a similarly detached personality, offering a nice balance to their decidedly pummelling guitar-bass-keys instrumental groove. I imagine it’d make great car chase music.

Photos: The Big Sleep @ The Painted Lady – March 23, 2012
MP3: The Big Sleep – “Ace”
MP3: The Big Sleep – “Bad Blood”
MP3: The Big Sleep – “Pinkies”
MP3: The Big Sleep – “Murder”
MP3: The Big Sleep – “You Can’t Touch The Untouchable”
Video: The Big Sleep – “Ace”
Video: The Big Sleep – “Valentine”
Video: The Big Sleep – “Murder”

At this point, the best laid plans kind of fell apart as catching a streetcar across College from Ossington to Spadina turned into walking across College from Ossington to Spadina, an exercise that took quite a bit longer than intended (it wasn’t by choice). But being late for an 11PM showcase means you’re early for an 11:30 one, so I managed to slip into the El Mocambo between sets and get in position for one of the festival’s hotter acts, Vancouver’s retro-soul revivalists Chains of Love. They’d been a highlight of last year’s NXNE and their just-released debut Strange Grey Days was a solid one, so I was pretty content with this plan B. This show was somewhat less gleefully chaotic than that Silver Dollar show – the ElMo stage affording enough space that the band weren’t falling over each other up there – but while that was part of the fun last time, its loss was mitigated by the fact that the band were more polished and all-around better sounding than last time, and the extra space allowed for frontwoman Nathalia Pizarro’s dance moves and tambourine workout. They wisely stuck to their uptempo material for the set and while that meant that it was all over extra fast – I don’t think it even clocked in at half an hour – they definitely proved that NXNE show wasn’t any kind of fluke. Spinner has an interview with the band.

Photos: Chains Of Love @ The El Mocambo – March 23, 2012
MP3: Chains Of Love – “In Between”
MP3: Chains Of Love – “Breaking My Heart”
MP3: Chains Of Love – “You Got It”

And if Chains Of Love were going to pass on their title of “best new discovery at The Silver Dollar during a music festival” – it’s a real thing, look it up – then across the street July Talk were ready to take it. I didn’t know a thing about them ahead of time, but The Silver Dollar is usually a pretty safe bet during either CMF or NXNE – at the very least, whatever you see will be loud and rocking and at the very most, it’ll be amazing. That might be overselling July Talk a bit, but they were definitely one of the most entertaining sets I’d see all week. Fronted by the duo of Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay, they offered a sort of rowdy, sleazy blues punkabilly take on June & Johnny/Gram & Emmylou with not a little Sailor & Lula/Mickey & Mallory dynamic thrown into the mix. They two were electric onstage, whether playfully shoving, biting or rubbing up against each other or working the audience – Fay graciously put lipstick on more than a few members of the crowd – all the while leading their band through some foot-stomping, ass-shaking tunes that were almost as tuneful as they were theatrical. Tremendously fun, and I don’t know what is says about me that I assumed they were an out-of-town act from Los Angeles or the like… and not from right here in Toronto. Who knew we had it in us?

Photos: July Talk @ The Silver Dollar – March 23, 2012
M4A: July Talk – “Paper Girl”
M4A: July Talk – “The Garden”

PS I Love You are gearing up for the May 8 release of Death Dreams with a second MP3 and a set of tour dates that includes a May 15 date at The Garrison.

MP3: PS I Love You – “Princess Towers”

The AV Club gets to know Army Girls; they’re opening up some of those PS I Love You dates, no word if they’re going to be doing so in Toronto but one can hope. Update: Yup, they’re opening the Garrison show.

And not to give up the title of pre-eminent loud Canadian rock duo, Japandroids will release their new one Celebration Rock on June 5 and have plotted their own Summer tour which brings them to The Horseshoe on June 23. A stream from the new record is available now.

Stream: Japandroids – “The House That Heaven Built”

It almost goes without saying that the just-announced Fucked Up show at The Power Plant art gallery space at Harbourfront on May 1 will be something more than just a concert, but they haven’t said what yet. But if you’re looking to get some Fucked Up in you life, keep the date open.

MP3: Fucked Up – “Queen Of Hearts”

The Wooden Sky have released the third instalment of their “Grace On A Hill” video session series at Chart. They play The Opera House on April 20.

Exclaim and The Awl talk to Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers, whose new album New Wild Everywhere is out next week and streaming in full over at aux.tv. They’re at The Music Hall on June 2 and have just announced an in-store at Sonic Boom for April 3 at 6PM.

Stream: Great Lake Swimmers / New Wild Everywhere

Opening up that Great Lake Swimmers show will be Cold Specks, who was profiled by NOW and The Globe & Mail. I Predict A Graceful Explosion will be out May 22.

The Globe & Mail, Willamette Weekly, Edmonton Journal, and NOW talk to John K Samson.

Exclaim and aux.tv talk to Joel Plaskett about his new record Scrappy Happiness. He’s at The Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 18 and 19.

The National Post and Spinner chat with John O’Regan of Diamond Rings about his second album and how it feels to be a Juno nominee.

Also up for a Juno is Dan Mangan; The Vancouver Sun has an interview with the singer-songwriter.

Spin points to a stream if another of Arcade Fire’s contributions to the Hunger Games soundtrack.

Stream: Arcade Fire – “Horn Of Plenty”

Pitchfork reports that Caribou’s performance at the 2009 ATP festival as the Caribou Vibration Ensemble is available to watch in its entirety at Vimeo. Caribou opens up for Radiohead at Downsview Park on June 16.

A track from Moonface’s new album With Sinai: Heartbreaking Bravery is now available to download. It’s out April 17.

MP3: Moonface – “Headed For The Door”

DIY interviews Claire Boucher of Grimes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Malibu Rum”

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

Video: The Acorn – “Misplaced”

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

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

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

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

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

MP3: Rae Spoon – “Crash Landing”

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

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

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

Stream: Fucked Up / Chinese Zodiac singles

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

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

Frank YangThough his punk credentials are beyond reproach thans to his tenure in Propagandhi, John K. Samson has always cut a bit of a curious figure in front of The Weakerthans. While his bandmates are more than willing and able to play the part of rockers in turning out muscular guitar riffs and solos, Samson by comparison has always been a bit slight of stature, reedy of voice, sheepish of grin; the thoughtful and verbose folksinger who somehow ended up fronting a rock band. I don’t know if the contrast between he and his mates has especially struck anyone else, but it’s always been one of those things I’ve noticed – particularly live – and been one of the key facets to The Weakerthans’ collective charms.

So the idea of Samson taking a solo sidebar, as he does for the first time on the just-released Provincial, is an interesting one. His songwriting style – photographically-detailed and emotionally evocative vignettes of everyday life in distinctly Canadian settings – is a well-established and well-loved one by this point, but what it would sound like without the extra sonic heft that the rest of The Weakerthans could be counted on to bring to the table? Not too different, as it turns out. Although it still has a lot of range amidst its dozen compositions and “Longitudinal Centre” comes wrapped in some nasty fuzztone, Provincial doesn’t get as punchy as a proper Weakerthans record might. It lays back some and moves at a more casual pace that feels different, but also entirely natural; it might be heretical to say, but Samson solo seems to suit Samson better than Samson as bandleader does. This is in no way a wish for the end of The Weakerthans, but if Samson wants to be himself for a little while longer, it’s alright with me.

It was Samson himself and alone who was marking the release day for Provincial with an acoustic in-store performance at Soundscapes last night, following up a reading from his also just-released Lyrics and Poems: 1997-2012 at Type the night before. It wasn’t a long set, as the clock ticked, but Samson still managed to showcase half his new record and reaffirm himself as a special kind of performer whose show you can go into knowing exactly what you’re going to get, get exactly that, and still somehow find yourself marvelling at how it was still somehow better than you expected. I’d listened to “Heart Of The Continent” and “The Last And” through the album quite a lot in the past month or so, and yet hearing it straight from his mouth still revealed unknown details. The album might be called Provincial but there’s no question that Samson is a national treasure.

There’s features on Samson and Provincial at Uptown, The Winnipeg Free Press, and Spinner while Exclaim and CBC talk to him about his lyrics book. Mechanical Forest Sound is sharing a recording of one of the songs from the in-store. Samson returns with a full band for a show at the Great Hall on March 22.

Photos: John K. Samson @ Soundscapes – January 24, 2012
Stream: John K. Samson – “Letter In Icelandic From The Ninette San”
Stream: John K Samson – “When I Write My Master’s Thesis”

Ohbijou are helping The Drake Hotel mark its eighth anniversary by playing a special, intimate show at The Underground on February 8 – tickets for the super-intimate show are $20 in advance.

MP3: Ohbijou – “Anser”

The Elwins will celebrate the February 21 self-release of their debut full-length And We Thank You with a release show on February 24 at The Burroghes Building at Queen and Bathurst (no, not the new CB2 – beside it), with support from The Meligrove Band and The Bicycles. Tickets $8 in advance.

MP3: The Elwins – “Stuck In The Middle”
MP3: The Meligrove Band – “Halflight”

And down the street the same night, Hooded Fang will be at The Great Hall; if you think that’s a bit of an ambitiously-sized room for them to try and fill, note that they’re bringing a lot of friends and only charging $10 in advance.

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

Treble Charger aren’t the only band from my college years getting back together for Canadian Musicfest; The Inbreds are digging their bass and drums out of the attic for a reunion show at Lee’s Palace on March 24.

Video: The Inbreds – “Any Sense Of Time”

Montreal’s Plants & Animals will follow up the February 28 release of The End Of That with an immense Spring tour; the April 21 show at Lee’s Palace will be the end of that. Tickets are $15 in advance and oh, there’s a cover they did of a Wolf Parade tune that’s making the rounds, have a boo.

MP3: Plants & Animals – “Lightshow”
Video: Plants & Animals – “I’ll Believe In Anything”

Clearly, it was all the saxophone on Kaputt that did it; Destroyer is coming back to town for a show at The Opera House on June 23 as part of The Toronto Jazz Festival – tickets are $22.50 in advance.

MP3: Destroyer – “Chinatown”

Exclaim has some details on a show at The Horseshoe on February 4 as part of Junofest 2012. I’m not really sure what it is but it involves people who play in bands like Sloan, Fucked Up and Broken Social Scene doing stuff together. I dunno, read the piece and you tell me.

Kathleen Edwards continues to rack up the press clippings with Voyageur – there’s pieces on her at Paste, aux.tv, The Grid, NPR, eMusic, and The Globe & Mail. With this kind of momentum, her February 11 show at The Phoenix will be sold out right soon.

The Balconies have released a video for the title track of their Kill Count EP, which will get a physical release on February 28.

Video: The Balconies – “Kill Count”

Islands are streaming another new track from A Sleep & A Forgetting. It’s out February 14 and they’re at The Music Gallery on February 28.

Stream: Islands – “Hallways”

The Boston Globe has a feature piece on The Darcys, whose cover album of Steely Dan’s Aja is, like their self-titled debut, available to download for free from their website – or stream if you don’t want to commit – and to buy on LP. Consequence Of Sound has also premiered an alternate version of “Josie” for your listening pleasure. They’re at The Phoenix on March 1 opening for Bombay Bicycle Club and are also part of Edgefest at Downsview Park on July 12.

MP3: The Darcys – “Josie”
MP3: The Darcys – “Josie (Vol 2)”
Stream: The Darcys / Aja

CBC Radio 3 talks writing method with Dan Mangan. He’s at The Royal York on March 24 as part of the CMW Indie Awards.

Paste has premiered the first video from Great Lake Swimmers’ new album New Wild Everywhere. It’s out April 3 and they’re at The Music Hall June 2.

Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Easy Come Easy Go”

The Line Of Best Fit has a feature interview with Bruce Peninsula, and also premiere a new video from Open Flames and are offering a mixtape of all the artists who’ve been part of the band.

Video: Bruce Peninsula – “In Your Light”

Xtra and Calgary Herald talk to Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon on the occasion of the release of their new EP For Paolo.

Mike Haliechuk of Fucked Up talks to Eater about eating.

The Guardian talks to Leonard Cohen and Drowned In Sound reports on a tete-a-tete between he and Jarvis Cocker about his new record Old Ideas, out next Tuesday and streaming in whole now at NPR.

Stream: Leonard Cohen / Old Ideas

Neil Young in the news – MTV reports that he still hates digital music but likes Mumford & Sons, while Rolling Stone reveals that he’s been working on a new album with Crazy Horse.

If you enjoyed last year’s video session collaboration between Southern Souls and Paper Bag Records, you’ll be pleased to know that the recordings have been collected into a compilation entitled Paper Bag Sessions and it’s available to download and keep for free.

And because that’s what the CBC is for, CBC Radio 3 has compiled a list of all the notable Canadian releases due out in the first half of 2012.