Frank YangIt’s far too easy to be cynical about Glasvegas. Emerging from the UK as they did last year on a massive wave of hype with a sound that was unabashedly retro and a matching ’50s-greaser gang image, the Glasgow-based quartet were quick targets for those who wanted to dismiss them as contrived and calculated, not that that stopped them from topping the charts and becoming massive at home.

For my part, I went from intrigued on first listen to mildly suspicious after spending time with their self-titled debut and then somewhat won over following their daylight SxSW set. At the time, I figured that seeing them in neutral environs such as a SxSW day show, stripped of their light show and adoring fans, would provide a truer indication if they were for real or not. And yes they sold me, but it wasn’t until Friday night’s show at the Mod Club – their long-awaited Toronto debut – that I realized what I was missing out on by skipping the formal sales pitch.

Glasvegas are not ashamed to aspire to stadium-scale grandeur, with massive Spector-via-JAMC sonics and anthemic choruses designed to rouse the cheap seats and while the Mod Club is hardly Wembley Stadium, packed as it was with fans hollering along with every song, it wasn’t far off. From the opening notes of “Geraldine” through end end of their just under an hour-long set, it was clear that Glasvegas weren’t there to convince anyone they were a great band – they were there to celebrate that as fact with those who already knew it. Looking not a little bit Strummer and clad in a leather jacket (later swapped for a tank top and donated tartan scarf), frontman James Allan displayed dollops of rock star charisma, basking in the adoration of the audience but returning every bit of it right back to the crowd.

It was the sort of rapport that made me ashamed to have ever questioned the sincerity of the band. That doesn’t necessarily excuse some of the overly-direct earnestness of the songwriting, but it does mitigate it. Seeing and hearing Allan bellow the words with unquestionable emotion, no matter how clumsy, then back off while the enraptured audience take over while more than matching his passion… yes, on paper it’s kind of cliche but in person? It’s still pretty stirring. The band will probably always have more than it’s share of critics and naysayers, but I know where I stand now – over there with the other folks singing, “here we fucking go”.

The Toronto Sun has a glowing review of the show and reports that the band will be back this Fall, eye has another review. Music Snobbery has an interview with the band. And congrats go to Jarita, Ashlee and Mark who won the signed Glasvegas albums.

Photos: Glasvegas @ The Mod Club – April 3, 2009
Video: Glasvegas – “Please Come Back Home”
Video: Glasvegas – “Daddy’s Gone”
Video: Glasvegas – “Geraldine”
MySpace: Glasvegas

NME has a video interview and The Line Of Best Fit and The Herald text ones with Doves. Kingdom Of Rust is out tomorrow, they play the Kool Haus on June 1.

Tourdates UK talks to Emmy The Great.

Maximo Park have released the first video from their forthcoming album Quicken The Heart, out May 12.

Video: Maximo Park – “The Kids Are Sick Again”

And also with a new video are The Joy Formidable for their latest single “Whirring”, off the excellent A Balloon Called Moaning.

Video: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”

Drowned In Sound chats with Ryan Adams on the occasion of his retirement from the world of music. He interviews Marianne Faithfull for Black Book while The Guardian profiles Adams and other rockers turned authors including Nick Cave and Billy Bragg.

The Hold Steady are offering up an MP3 from their new live album A Positive Rage, out tomorrow.

MP3: The Hold Steady – “Chips Ahoy” (live)

I saw almost 50 shows at SxSW this year, but one of the ones I missed – and regret – was The Uglysuit, who only played like three shows. Could they not have taken one of the Vivian Girls’ two dozen shows? They’ve released a new MP3 from their fine 2008 self-titled debut, reviewed here.

MP3: The Uglysuit – “…And We Became Sunshine”

Paste and The Skinny catch up with The Thermals. Their new one Now We Can See is out tomorrow and currently streaming at their MySpace. They’re at the Horseshoe on May 3.

Stream: The Thermals – “Now We Can See”

Blurt, BBC1, The New York Times and Filter have profiles on The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Askmen talks to Metric’s Emily Haines. Their new album Fantasies is out tomorrow, they play an in-store at HMV on Yonge St on Thursday and a show at the Mod Club next Tuesday.

I Heart Music is sharing MP3s of the CBC Fuse session with The Sadies and The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie from a couple years ago. I saw them team up at the Horseshoe in December 2007 and it was intense. The Sadies’ new album backing John Doe, Country Club, is out April 14 and they play the Horseshoe together on April 30. The Tragically Hip’s new one We Are The Same is out this week and they have a six-night stand at Massey Hall the week of May 11.

WOXY has posted MP3s from a slew of Lounge Act sessions recorded during SxSW, including sets from The Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart, Ume and The Wooden Birds. They also welcomed The Rural Alberta Advantage in for a session last week.

PitchforkTV is streaming the new Arcade Fire documentary Miroir Noir, which is now available in DVD form.

Soundproof has a guest column from Alan McGee wondering why people would actually want The Stone Roses to reunite.

The National Post has an interview with yours truly about blogs and stuff and includes what I hope is one of the worst pictures of me in existence. If anyone tells me that’s actually a good photo, I will despair.

Johnnie CluneyThe reasons for which Daytrotter is wonderful are myriad and self-evident, but they outdid themselves just a little this week with a couple of sessions from a couple of artists for whom the title “legendary” is an understatement (assuming you run in the circles which I assume most who read this site do), both for their most famous works with their original bands and for their substantive solo careers.

First on Monday came a three-song set from ex-Pavement leader Stephen Malkmus. With no new work due out in the near term, he recorded a grab bag of stuff with a song from his last record Real Emotional Trash, one from his second solo effort Pig Lib and a James Gang cover.

And yesterday, they welcomed Bob Mould to the studio (okay, they welcomed him some time ago but only posted the results yesterday). He showcased four tracks from his forthcoming album Life And Times, out April 17, in solo acoustic form. And if that’s not enough, Minnesota Public Radio is also streaming a radio session with the former Minneapolis resident.

Pitchfork has video footage of a songwriting workshop Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff gave to some kids at Austin non-profit centre Bat Cave. The band will release a new single for “Pop Lie”, taken from last year’s The Stand-Ins, on April 21 and the a-side is available to download.

MP3: Okkervil River – “Pop Lie”

The AV Club talks to Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy.

The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn tells MLive.com that he gave up drinking for Lent. Their live document A Positive Rage is out April 7.

Exclaim talks to Marissa Nadler, who will be at the El Mocambo on April 21.

Aquarium Drunkard is sharing MP3s from Wilco’s September 2007 Austin City Limits taping which we were both fortunate to attend. Ah, memories. In aural form. Their new album is due out in late June.

RCRDLBL is offering up a mash-up of tourmates Mates Of State and Black Kids. That bill rolls into the Phoenix on April 10.

Pitchfork talks to The National’s Aaron Dessner about the upcoming Dark Was The Night benefit show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and about how things are coming with the next National album. They play the Kool Haus on May 21.

There’s more details on how Metric will be celebrating the release of Fantasies next week – there’ll be an in-store/signing at the HMV on Yonge St on April 9 at 5:30, the gig at the Mod Club with Holy Fuck as support on the 14th has been confirmed, tickets $25 for those who’ve sleuthed out the password on their website, and there’s a secret show happening sometime this week that if you don’t know about it, you aren’t hanging out with the right people.

And the Osheaga Festival, taking place in Montreal on August 1 and 2, has announced the first names of their lineup for this year. While the headliners – Coldplay and Beastie Boys – do collectively nothing for me, the undercard of Elbow, Lykke Li, Decemberists and Arctic Monkeys have my attention. They’ll need to pad things out a bit more to get me out there, but it’s definitely on my radar and it’d be nice to have something to do for the August long weekend.

And if you think this post feels kind of slapped together, congratulations! You’re right. It was.

Frank YangThe Hold Steady
Brooklyn, New York, USA

“The best bar band in America” will release their first live album/film on April 7 in A Positive Rage, a document of an October 2007 show in Chicago
– Show review
– interviews at Rolling Stone, The Press-Enterprise and The California Chronicle

Photos: The Hold Steady @ Club DeVille – March 20, 2009
MP3: The Hold Steady – “Chips Ahoy!”
MP3: The Hold Steady – “The Swish”
Video: The Hold Steady – “Stay Positive”
Video: The Hold Steady – “Chips Ahoy!”
Video: The Hold Steady – “Stuck Between Stations”
Video: The Hold Steady – “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”
Video: The Hold Steady – “The Swish”
MySpace: The Hold Steady

Frank YangThe Hot Freaks! Yesterday was the day, the first of our third big to-do at SxSW. To say I was excited was an understatement – the past two were my highlights of SxSW if not my whole year and there wasn’t any reason to think this year would be any different.

And yes things got off to a bang. Throwing the whole notion of headliners closing things out, The Wrens agreed to open the show up at high noon on the Mohawk’s patio, and if they were feeling sluggish from their 1AM showcase the night before, it didn’t show. It had been some years since I’d seen them – over five, to be exact – but the band were manic as ever onstage, if not more. Maybe the long break since The Meadowlands has made them extra hungry to get out and play, but whatever it is, they who’ve been called the best live band in America show no signs of being ready to give up that title – give us that new record and hit the road!

As The Wrens finished up their set, I dashed inside the Mohawk where The Rural Alberta Advantage were starting theirs. They were the only band I had planned on seeing twice this week, and considering the first time was just last night, there’s not a lot else I can say. Granted, the inside of the Mohawk is a slightly different sort of room from the Central Presbyterian Church, but one thing they had in common was being filled with people discovering the band and presumably, since there’s really no other logical response, loving them.

Showing they know how to mark a tenth anniversary, Insound had stacked their stage over at Club DeVille to a ridiculous degree – this was where I was going to be spending the rest of the day, no question. I got there in time to see Handsome Furs, whom if you believe some of the coverage from CMW last week were the only band that mattered. I’ve never managed to love or even like the band as much as some, but do find their live show and its utter rawness engaging. Dan Boeckner has got rock star charisma to spare and Alexei Perry’s beats may be simple, but they’re insistent and effective. Hard not to get caught up in their set.

If they got Club DeVille worked up, then the briefly reunited American Analog Set brought things way down in the best possible way. On hiatus since 2005’s Set Free, they got back together to pull a “Don’t Look Back”-esque revisit to 1999’s The Golden Band for this show only. A special occasion to say the least. I’d forgotten how beautifully hypnotic AmAnSet was, particularly their earlier records – I’d only seen them live in their (slightly) more upbeat and poppier configurations. This show, however, was all shimmering vibraphone, whirring farfisa and Andrew Kenny’s somnambulant vocals – pure aural beauty in its sleepiest form. Though it’s great that Kenny has a new project in The Wooden Birds, I hope this isn’t the last of AmAnSet (although I sort of do, since it means I was there).

Though The Thermals were playing what seemed like a hundred and one shows at SxSW to drum up interest in their forthcoming Now We Can See, out April 7, they’re certainly giving their all to all of them, if this show was any indication. Mixing up new material with old, though tragically “Pillar Of Salt” was cut, The Thermals’ set was compact but pulverizingly good, with Hutch Harris and Kathy Foster bouncing around the stage while new drummer Westin Glass laid the foundation. Simple, direct and so good.

And finally, The Hold Steady. It’s possible they were at SxSW to promote their new live CD/DVD set A Positive Rage, out April 7, but it’s also possible they just heard that there was a big party down in Texas and there was beer. Whatever. The Hold Steady doesn’t need an excuse. Now most sets at SxSW – official or unofficial, big band or small band – clock in at around 40 minutes, and I expected The Hold Steady to do the same. But when they were setting up the stage in front of a jam-packed Club DeVille, they taped down a set list in front of me and there were 21 – Twenty-one – songs written down. This was not going to be a sampler, this was going to be a full and proper set. ZOMG, as the kids say.

And oh my god, what a set. I’ve seen the Hold Steady a number of times and it’s never anything less than a great show, but for whatever reason – maybe the small venue, maybe the party atmosphere of the festival, maybe the ruthless efficiency with which they tore through their set – this may have been the best one I’ve seen them play. Though they’ve justifiably graduated to larger venues and have proven their ability to work the large rooms effectively, they still come across best in the small scale where Craig Finn can sweat on you directly (as he did to me more than a little) and lead the audience in singalongs. And for 70 minutes, covering material from across their entire career, they just killed and killed and killed. They didn’t, however, make it all the way through the set list – they had to call it at 18, leaving out “Stay Positive”, “Cheyenne Sunrise” and “Slapped Actress”. I would have loved to hear them all, but I don’t think there’s any room for complaining of any kind here.

Fantastic.

Frank YangWhile most bands spend their entire careers trying to nail down that elusive “signature sound”, actually achieving that goal can be as much a curse as a blessing. In the case of New York’s Asobi Seksu being “that band that sounds like J-pop meets My Bloody Valentine” certainly set them apart, but there’s only so much you can do within those boundaries and considering they damn near perfected it with their last album Citrus, the very real question facing them heading into album number three would have been, “what next?”

Their answer was to first strip the roster down to just principals Yuki Chikudate and James Hanna and then head back into the studio with much more Spector on their minds than Shields. And as you might expect, the resultant album Hush requires that the listener’s expectations be adjusted. Though things aren’t nearly as subdued as the album title might imply, they have traded in much of their fuzz-pedal squall for fluffier clouds of reverb and while the leaner sonic approach actually suits them quite well, it also seems their pop instincts were dulled in the process and by making their songs more atmospheric, they’ve also lost some substance. The record sounds more like a band in the process of creating a new identity rather than presenting a completed one.

Their live show, however, remains quite familiar as Tuesday night’s engagement at the El Mocambo proved. Though they’d paid a visit just five months prior, they still managed to draw a very healthy crowd and regardless of the band’s new creative direction, if they came expecting to be assaulted and battered by sound they weren’t disappointed. Apparently all the distortion pedals that didn’t make it into the studio were in the band’s touring van, because they had all their noisemaking toys along with them and weren’t afraid to use them – their signature Christmas and strobe light stage setup was also along for the ride. I was pleased to see that they’ve also developed a distinctive stage presence, with Hanna pacing the stage looking for pedals to stomp on and Chikudate cooly cooing into the microphone and whipping her hair around. And mixed in with the Citrus material and given the more muscular delivery, the Hush songs sounded much more alive, providing a bit of respite – but only a bit – from the sonic tumult of the older songs. If Asobi are looking for some pointers on where to take their sound, perhaps listening to a recording of one of their shows would be a good start – for my money, they’ve got the perfect formula right there.

Tourmates Bell also hailed from New York and the duo – frontwoman and namesake Olga Bell on keyboards and Jason Nazary on drums and both on laptops – were excited to be on their very first tour, this being the second show. Their sound is an interesting take on electronica, melding Bell’s powerful and elastic vocals with unconventional melodies, pop structures and dynamic live drumming. It’s the sort of thing that draws you in, then pushes you away and then pulls you back, sometimes all at once. Kind of strange but definitely intriguing.

Decider has an interview with Asobi Seksu, Gothamist has one with Bell.

Photos: Asobi Seksu, Bell @ The El Mocambo – March 3, 2009
MP3: Asobi Seksu – “Me & Mary”
MP3: Asobi Seksu – “Familiar Light”
MP3: Asobi Seksu – “New Years”
MP3: Asobi Seksu – “Thursday”
MP3: Asobi Seksu – “I’m Happy But You Don’t Like Me”
MP3: Asobi Seksu – “Let Them Wait”
MP3: Asobi Seksu – “Sooner”
MP3: Asobi Seksu – “Walk On The Moon”
MP3: Bell – “Magic Tape”
Video: Asobi Seksu – “Me & Mary”
Video: Asobi Seksu – “Thursday”
Video: Asobi Seksu – “Goodbye”
Video: Asobi Seksu – “Walk On The Moon”
MySpace: Asobi Seksu
MySpace: Bell

Black Book interviews Anthony Gonzalez of M83.

Ben Curtis of School Of Seven Bells talks to Drowned In Sound and This Is Fake DIY.

Pitchfork solicits a list of this and that from Stuart Staples of Tindersticks while NOW, The Washington Post, Express and New York Press settle for interviews. They play the Opera House on Tuesday night.

NME has details on Jarvis Cocker’s forthcoming album – relevant points are that it’s out May 19, but is still untitled now entitled Further Complications (via PF) and was produced by Steve Albini… now that’ll be a 180 from the Richard Hawley-helmed romantic lushness of the first record. Can’t wait.

Clash has an extended and thoughtful interview with Ian Brown about the history of The Stone Roses on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of their debut album. Yes, the “r” word comes up. No, don’t hold your breath.

Magnet Q&As Frightened Rabbit and NPR welcomes them to for an interview and session.

Gemma Hayes has released a new video from last year’s The Hollow Of Morning. I think the “swoon” is implicit anytime I write about her, is it not?

Video: Gemma Hayes – “Home”

Wireless Bollinger, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and Clash interview Howling Bells, whose new album Radio Wars is – I’m sad to say – being rather justly pilloried. It’s just not very good and considering how much I’d been looking forward to it, is quite a disappointment. Not giving up on the band but it’s a let-down.

MP3: Howling Bells – “Into The Chaos”

Pitchfork reveals that one of the tracks on the new Wilco album – still untitled and set for a June release – will feature a duet between Jeff Tweedy and Feist.

To mark their upcoming tour in support of Neko Case, Crooked Fingers have released a new digital EP for “Your Control”, the closing track from their last album Forfeit/Fortune which is a duet between Eric Bachmann and Case. The EP also features a couple covers of Crooked Fingers tunes by Spoon and Lambchop.

Neko Case gives Spinner some of the ground rules for being in her band and talks to JAM about the naturalist themes that run through her work. She also talks to The Los Angeles Times and The Globe & Mail. She’s at Trinity-St Paul’s on April 17 and 18.

The Ithaca Journal and NOW talk to AC Newman, who is playing Lee’s Palace next Wednesday night.

Peaches has a date at the Phoenix on May 20. Her new album I Feel Cream is out May 4.

Grizzly Bear have mapped out a massive tour in support of new album Veckatimest – the Toronto date is June 5 at the Phoenix. The album is out May 26.

The National Post recorded a video feature on Ohbijou circa their show at Lee’s Palace last November, including a street corner performance backed by The Acorn. And more clarity on the status of Beacons – the band has signed a deal in the UK with Bella Union, making them labelmates – at least over there – with Fleet Foxes and Andrew Bird. Pretty good company. Beacons is set for a June 8 release there and plans are afoot for the North American release and rescheduled tour dates to fall in line with that.

Paste talks to Craig Finn about The Hold Steady about their forthcoming live CD/DVD set A Positive Rage, due out April 7.

Blurt reports that Richard Thompson will be the subject of a four-disc box set entitled Walking On A Wire: Richard Thompson (1968-2009) and due out June 30.

NOW talks to creator Bryan Lee-O’Malley and director Edgar Wright about the upcoming Scott Pilgrim and its Toronto roots.

Update: Sad news – Dutch concert webcast site FabChannel is closing its (virtual) doors next week – you have seven days to go root through their massive and beautiful archives. Get to it.