FacebookI took to watching the British TV show Skins a little while back and in keeping with popular opinion, found the first two seasons to be compellingly done and only mildly ridiculous overall whereas the next generation was rather astoundingly charisma-free and so over the top that even the most outrageous soap opera writers would have gone, “really? You did that?”.

If there was some solace to be taken as I endured the later episodes (once I start watching something it’s very difficult to stop, no matter how bad), it was that the show’s reputation for excellent music direction didn’t waver over the show’s run. A fact which helped remind me that I hadn’t yet written up On This Island, the latest effort from London’s 6 Day Riot, when I heard soundtracking various scenes of English adolescent angst during season four.

Not that there’s anything particularly angsty about On This Island. Like its predecessors Folie a Deux and 6 Day Riot Have A Plan, it’s a frequently jubilant collection of songs that fully exploit the uptempo potential of their ukulele/violin/horn-led folk-klezmer musical recipe book. It’s a sound that’s become more in fashion in recent years, but 6 Day Riot have been at it since their inception and topping it all off with Tamara Schlesinger’s sweet vocals, they’ve crafted their own distinct personality from it. There are moments on the record when they stray from their strengths – some of the slower numbers don’t have the necessary momentum to get them where they need to be – but when on top of their game, as they are on cracking album opener “Take Me” and the sweeping “I Am You, You Are Me”, the results are terrific.

Video: 6 Day Riot – “Take Me”
Myspace: 6 Day Riot

Noah & The Whale are giving away the lead track from their third record Last Night On Earth, due out in March of next year, and a another new song is streaming over at Soundcloud. If these are a good indicator of what the album has to offer, then that nu-folk tag is going to be a thing of the past and that’s fine with me. These tunes are good. They play the Mod Club on March 24.

MP3: Noah & The Whale – “Wild Thing”

Spin presents an acoustic video session with The Joy Formidable, whose full-length debut The Big Roar is out January 24 in the UK and March 15 in North America.

The Futureheads have released a video for their new holiday single. The Surrey Comet chats with guitarist Ross Millard.

Video: The Futureheads – “Christmas Was Better In The ’80s”

The Pipettes are also feeling festive, giving away an MP3 of “Santa’s On His Way” in exchange for your email.

Sky Larkin are giving away another track from their latest Kaleide. The trio also check in with The Daily Growl for their Seven Songs feature.

MP3: Sky Larkin – “Year Dot”

Patrick Wolf gives Clash a glimpse into his state of mind going into the recording of his next record, due out in the early part of next year.

Twin Shadow, whose presence very nearly overshadowed Glasser when he opened for her here last month, will have his own show at The Horseshoe on January 12, tickets $10.

MP3: Twin Shadow – “Castles In The Snow”

Seattle’s Moondoggies – who will do nothing to undermine Seattle’s reputation as a factory for plaid-clad harmony-loving beard-folk – will make an appearance at The Horseshoe on February 2 in support of their debut Tidelands, tickets $10. The Standard-Examiner interviews Kevin Murphy from the band.

MP3: The Moondoggies – “It’s A Shame, It’s a Pity”

The Love Language will be opening for Telekinesis at The Horseshoe on March 6, making the bill doubly pop-tacular. Tickets for that one are $11.

MP3: The Love Language – “Heart To Tell”

The short list for the BBC Sound Of 2011 is up and if nothing else, should offer a bluffers guide to the acts you might be getting sick of hearing about next year. NME has done you the service of assembling download links for each act.

Frank YangSome, like myself, felt that Stornoway and their debut album Beachcomber’s Windowsill were the perfect soundtrack to Summer. Others find their rich yet subtle orchestral pop to be more Autumnal than anything else. For the Oxford, England quartet’s visit on Tuesday night, the seasonal backdrop neither – instead, they made their Canadian debut on a wet and dreary eve right on the cusp of Winter.

With them was a face who’d visited many times before, though not in his current guise – Franz Nicolay, formerly of The Hold Steady but now of himself and his band Major General. Some have wondered what would possess someone to leave a band as popular and fun as The Hold Steady, but as terrific as his contributions to that band were, his musical (and sartorial) style always seemed at odds with The Hold Steady’s unabashed bar rock-ness. And just a few songs of what he’s done on his own made the reasoning for leaving abundantly clear; his own artistic ambitions can’t play second fiddle to anyone. Fronting a five-piece band of upright bass, drums, violin and keys, Nicolay himself would rotate through guitar, accordion and banjo whilst running through material from his new album Luck & Courage that was rich with old world influences while retaining a pop immediacy – more DeVotchKa than Hold Steady, to be sure. And music aside, Nicolay clearly enjoyed the frontman role, offering up almost as much banter as music – someone as loquacious as he staying in Craig Finn’s shadow for long? Not likely.

For as good of a record as Stornoway released this Summer, they seemed to have flown largely under the popular radar and as such I wasn’t sure how many people would turn up for this show – Toronto’s inherent Anglophilia would certainly help, but I’ve also seen English bands play to empty rooms before. That wouldn’t be the case here, though – whatever numbers were dispersed throughout the ElMo for the opener ignored the rules of Toronto concert-going etiquette of feigning indifference and converged immediately at the front of the stage when Nicolay and company began their tear-down; everyone who was in attendance was seriously keen.

Much of the charm of Beachcomber’s Windowsill comes from its beautifully understated aesthetic, so it was a bit of a surprise that the show opened not with the band shyly taking the stage, but with violinist Rahul Satija offering up a plaintive looped violin solo before the rest of the band, with multi-instrumentalist Adam Briggs making their number six, strode on stage and launched into a reading of “The Coldharbour Road” that was markedly more dynamic and dramatic than the recorded version. And really, that was the recurring theme of the show – everything you liked about Beachcomber’s Windowsill was very much in evidence, but instead of just being good, it was great. Despite or perhaps because of his somewhat awkward banter and stage presence, Brian Briggs was an engaging and curiously magnetic frontman but was clearly far more confident when actually performing, and why not? His voice was a much more powerful instrument than certainly I ever expected.

Equal credit must also go to his bandmates, though. One of the talking points of the album was that over 100 instruments were utilized in its creation and while not that many were brought on tour, an impressive number were pressed into service over the course of the show, all in the name of recreating as much of Windowsill‘s rustic yet sophisticated textures as possible, to say nothing of their contributions on backing vocals. All of which is to say that Stornoway sounded incredible up there. Why they’ve not gotten more attention is a mystery to me – perhaps because they haven’t been seeking it out – but an upside to this is the sense of surprise that can result when you see and hear for yourself how good they actually are, and beyond just having made a terrific record are in fact an even more terrific band and will surely make even better records in the years to come. And if anyone had any doubts of this, then they didn’t stay for the encore when the band played a pair of songs almost completely unplugged (bassist Oliver Steadman remained tethered for one song but plucked gently), the audience inviting themselves into a call-and-response with Briggs on a stirring “The End Of The Movie”.

Earlier in the show, Briggs expressed amazement that so many people had come out to see them and knew their material so well, but would later declare – and sincerely, I believe – this to be the best show of their tour, a sentiment equally held by the devoted audience. I won’t lie, I’ve been kind of burnt out on going out and seeing bands for the last little while – not unusual for this time of the year – but shows like this recharge my batteries and renew my faith in live music.

Chart also has a review of the show. The Georgia Straight profiles Stornoway while aux.tv, The Phoenix and The Minnesota Daily talk to Franz Nicolay. Stornoway’s North American tour runs another two weeks. Really do go see them.

Photos: Stornoway, Franz Nicolay & Major General @ The El Mocambo – November 30, 2010
MP3: Stornoway – “Fuel Up”
MP3: Stornoway – “On The Rocks”
MP3: Stornoway – “Zorbing”
MP3: Franz Nicolay – “This Is Not A Pipe”
Video: Stornoway – “Zorbing”
Video: Stornoway – “I Saw You Blink”
Myspace: Stornoway
Myspace: Franz Nicolay

NME reports that Richard Hawley has completed work on an album with guitar god Duane Eddy. No word on when it’ll be released but that thing is going to have some deeeep twang.

Baeble Music is streaming video of a full show from Blood Red Shoes at New York’s Bowery Ballroom.

A North American release date has been set for The Joy Formidable’s full-length debut – The Big Roar will be out on this side of the pond on March 15 of the new year, some time after its January 24 UK release. And in addition to the normal CD (and hopefully LP) formats, there will be a fancy pants box set edition that throws in a live CD, two DVDs and assorted sundry tchotchke including, for the first 300 orders, a piece of Ritzy’s smashed guitar.

The New York Press talks career ambition and lack thereof with The Radio Dept’s Johan Duncanson. They’ve made an acoustic reading of “Heaven’s On Fire”, recorded for KEXP earlier this week, available to download and will release their career-spanning Passive Aggressive on January 25. They play Lee’s Palace on February 7.

MP3: The Radio Dept. – “Heaven’s On Fire” (acoustic)

Spinner talks to Lisa Milberg of The Concretes. They have a date at The Horseshoe on January 17.

Blurt engages Nick Cave and Jim Sclavunos of Grinderman in conversation, The Georgia Straight gets Warren Ellis on the phone and The San Francisco Chronicle and LA Weekly talk to Cave alone, the latter sending Henry Rollins to do their dirty work.

Keren Ann’s new album 101 will be out on March 22.

Frank YangThe easy thing to do would be to go back to early May and just copy and paste my review of The Joy Formidable’s Toronto debut. After all, that show was just six months ago (almost to the day) at the same venue and even with the same supporting band in New York’s The Dig, and they haven’t released any new material in the interim, their full-length debut The Big Roar not due out until the new year. But considering that at the start of the year, I didn’t expect I’d get the chance to see The Joy Formidable live without hopping on a plane (which I almost did), already taking their visits for granted would simply be untoward.

I had mixed feelings about The Dig the first time around, finding half of their material sonically interesting and moderately adventuresome pop and the other half kind of rote, leaden garage rock. This outing made a more favourable impression, their set for whatever reason coming across catchier and punchier and with some standout material introduced as new numbers that were some of the best stuff they had to offer. They still felt the need to close with the more leaden, rawk material but even those were delivered with more verve than last time. The Dig might not be doing anything particularly fresh, but at least they’re getting better at it.

The Joy Formidable were already an impressively seasoned live act when the were here in the Spring, but still seemed to find room to improve over the past half year. For starters, drummer Matt Thomas was set up at the side of the stage rather than the back, opening up a lot more stage space for guitarist Ritzy Bryan and bassist Rhydian Dafydd to roam, lurch and dance, which they did with gusto (and the mid-song kiss whilst tearing it up was particularly sweet – they’re a couple, it’s cool). Their delivery seemed to be a bit less manic, but heavier-sounding and more dramatic in delivery – Bryan was still all wide-eyed smiles on stage between guitar freak-outs, but there was a crazed edge to her stage presence that wasn’t evident before and reflected the extra snarl in their attack.

I was surprised that with a new album in the can, though apparently without a firm track list, there was hardly any new material in the mix. Lead single “I Don’t Want To See You Like This” and the pulverizing “Magnifying Glass”, which had been present in set lists all year, represented The Big Roar but the bulk of the set came from the A Balloon Called Moaning mini-album. Not that this is in any way a complaint; that debut remains as dizzyingly great as it did when I first heard it in February, I just thought that they’d be eager to road test more new material by this point.

Consequently, the set was shorter than I’d have liked – barely an hour including encore – but executed with more energy and intensity than a lot of bands could muster if they played all night. Plus they ended it with the sort of extended gear-abusing, feedback-inducing cathartic antics you might expect at the end of an extensive stint on the road and not the very start of a two-week North American jaunt. Assuming their equipment survives the experience, it’s going to be a hell of a trip. This is how you start a tour.

The Smith College Sophian has an interview with Ritzy Bryan.

Photos: The Joy Formidable, The Dig @ The Horseshoe – November 3, 2010
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Greyhounds In The Slips”
MP3: The Dig – “You’re Already Gone”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “I Don’t Want To See You Like This”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Popinjay”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Cradle”
MySpace: The Joy Formidable

Manic Street Preachers have released a video for the second single from Postcards From A Young Man, and both song and clip feature Ian McCulloch from Echo & The Bunnymen, in case you couldn’t quite place the croak or the shades. The Sydney Morning Herald has a conversation with James Dean Bradfield.

Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Some Kind Of Nothingness”

Drowned In Sound meets Let’s Wrestle. Wrestling ensues.

I don’t know what a “lyric video” is, but Patrick Wolf has cobbled one together for the first single from his next album and it sounds great. The record was once called The Conqueror but is no longer and will be out in May.

Video: Patrick Wolf – “Time Of My Life”

The Fly has a feature on Foals.

Pitchfork is streaming a new song from Ladytron, who’ve not announced specifics on a follow-up to 2008’s Velocifero but are certainly due for one. A decade-spanning best-of is due in the Spring.

Under The Radar reports that the 7″ single Laura Marling recorded for/at Jack White’s Third Man Records will be out on November 9 – it features two covers, Jackson C. Frank’s “Blues Run the Game” and Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done”.

Oh, and if you’re the sort who likes free concert tickets and the like, I’d humbly suggest following me on Twitter at @fyang because while I’ll still be keeping Saturday the day of free stuff, short turnaround giveaways will now be happening via the Twitter. Starting today.

Frank YangOne of the perks of being my own boss, as it were, is that no one can tell me what I have to cover when I’m out and about, particularly at a festival like Halifax Pop Explosion. And since I’ve already had and taken the opportunity to see many of the big names playing the festival, I went into this week with the mandate of seeing stuff I hadn’t seen before, be it on recommendations from others, positive MySpace first impressions or just because it’s located nearby and I’m lazy.

The Wednesday night festival programme was bit lighter than the rest of the week, basically offering one show per genre of interest. There was the pop show, the metal show, the electro-dance show, the punk show, the GWAR show. Having seen The New Pornographers not three weeks ago, I skipped the pop-friendly bill at The Forum and headed to the Paragon Theatre – conveniently located around the corner from the hotel – for some synth-driven action, kicked off by Halifax’s The Modern Men. Their online samples implied an ’80s-indebted New Wave/New Romantic-ish outfit, and that’s pretty much what was delivered, though more organic and meaty-sounding than expected. Propelled by two drummers with nary an electronic kit or laptop in sight, they had songs that weren’t especially deep – like their influences – but heavy on hooks and groove. The quality of the tunes made up for the general lack of stage presence and mood-killing stage banter – there’s really no need to introduce each song with the title and the style it’s in.

Photos: The Modern Men @ The Paragon Theatre – October 20, 2010
MySpace: The Modern Men

I’d intended to see the next act, Styrofoam Ones, a number of times back in Toronto but apparently we both had to travel to the east coast for that to happen. And interestingly, their set was the inverse of Modern Men’s, in both the positive and negative sense. Delayed by some technical issues, when the trio finally got underway they seemed a bit out of sorts, audibly out of time with one another and when your MO is tightness, that’s a problem. This, however, was offset to a degree by the fact that they didn’t seem to notice or care and kept playing with enough on-stage attitude and swagger that you almost believed that this was how they meant to sound. Within a few songs they did get it together, though, and from then on their showmanship was working with and not in spite of their tunes – good-time synth-rock that favoured vintage combo organ sounds rather than ’80s square waves and reliant more on punkish energy than sophistication.

Photos: Styrofoam Ones @ The Paragon Theatre – October 20, 2010
MP3: Styrofoam Ones – “Blue Lines”
Video: Styrofoam Ones – “Blue Lines”
MySpace: Styrofoam Ones

I had been advised to check out San Francisco’s Ty Segall – whom I’d never heard a note of – on the basis that his shows in Toronto not long ago were “intense”. After being in the front line (or kill zone) of his show at the Seahorse Tavern last night, I’d say that yeah, that’s pretty accurate. And it’s not because his stuff – garage rock with a goodly amount of pop melodicism injected – is especially aggressive or even his performance. It’s because his fans – jammed into the small underground space – were intent on creating bedlam and he was perfectly happy to soundtrack it, and woe to anyone who was so unfortunate as to be up front innocently trying to take some pictures. But besides being kicked in the head by a crowdsurfer and mashed into the stage ad nauseum, it wasn’t really that bad – I’ve been in worse – and for the most part it was just people having fun. Amidst material that I presume was from his latest record Melted, we got a cover of Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and the kids going nuts somehow managed to find another gear. Fun times, nothing broken, night one finis.

Photos: Ty Segall @ The Seahorse Tavern – October 20, 2010
MP3: Ty Segall – “It #1”
Video: Ty Segall – “Finger”
Video: Ty Segall – “Lovely One”
Video: Ty Segall – “Cents”

Spinner has a profile on the Halifax Pop Explosion.

For Folk’s Sake and Blast interview Dan Mangan. He plays Trinity-St. Paul’s on October 28.

NOW talks to both halves of the Diamond Rings/PS I Love You bill playing the Garrison on Tuesday, while eye features just PS I Love You.

Crystal Castles have a date at the Sound Academy on April 2.

Video: Crystal Castles – “Baptism”

The National have released a video for the version of “Terrible Love” that appears on the deluxe edition of High Violet which is coming November 22.

Video: The National – “Terrible Love” (alternate version)

The Line Of Best Fit talks to The Joy Formidable; their forthcoming debut The Big Roar is out in early 2011 and they kick off a North American tour on November 3 at the Horseshoe.

Laura Marling tells NME that she no longer intends to release a second album in 2010 but will instead finish off new material early next year and release that instead. Which is fine, but one hopes that at least some of the material that was recorded alongside I Speak Because I Can will eventually see the light of day in some form.

Frank YangI’m not going to suggest that there were stars – or planets, as the case may be – in alignment this week over Toronto but it did strike me as interesting that in the span of 72 hours, there’d be no less than four recent Mercury Prize nominees – and two winners – in town to play shows, three of them on Monday night alone. So while fellow 2010 shortlisters Villagers were at The Drake and 2007 champs Klaxons were at the Mod Club, Oxford’s Foals were at Lee’s Palace in support of their shortlisted new record, Total Life Forever (tonight’s xx show at Massey was number four, if you were wondering). And while I’m sure all the other artists made (or will make) solid cases for themselves as the cream of the current British and Irish musical crops, I’m pretty sure none of them managed to get quite as… angry, as Foals did. But more on that in a bit.

First were supporting act and subject of some modest buzz themselves, Brighton’s Esben & The Witch, who made people take notice when it was announced they’d signed to Matador for the release of their debut album next year. And if Matador was looking to up the interesting/odd quotient of their roster, then Esben certainly fit the bill. The lazy comparison – which I’m obviously not above – would be a more primal and primitive Portishead, and not just because of the gender makeup of the trio. By whatever instrumental means necessary – including all three beating the tar out of a single floor tom simultaneously – they focused on creating an unsettling and foreboding atmosphere over which Rachel Davies’ vocals – sometimes like a ghost, other times like a banshee – could ride upon. The songcraft wasn’t as sophisticated as I’d have liked or even as the recordings I’ve heard, but it was evident that it was intensity and not refinement that they were interested in conveying in performance. I’d have preferred a better balance of the two, but will wait to hear the record before firming up any opinions.

I’ve already admitted to being late to the Foals party, but even though it took me until Total Life Forever to appreciate the band, I’d always heard and believed that they put on an impressive live show. And their punchy, dancey math-punk is tailor-made for a great show – powered by a taut, ultra-tight rhythm section and steered by the dueling, palm-muted guitar symphonies of Yannis Philippakis and Jimmy Smith, they’re all about escalation and after about an hour or so of steadily building musical momentum – just about a set length, coincidentally – they’d be ready to explode and send everyone home exhausted and satisfied. I’ve no doubt that that was and is the Foals game plan, when all goes well. On Monday night, Toronto got to see what it’s like when things don’t go according to plan, and it’s actually better.

Playing in front of a completely sold-out house, things got off to a great start with the title track off Total Life Forever – the set was front-loaded with newer material – and the band playing so tightly, it was as though they were tied together by some invisible wire that kept them in perfect synchonicity but also allowed spontaneous outbursts of chaos with a swift, sudden tug. About mid way through, however, it became clear that Smith was having issues with his gear and the rest of band found themselves jamming on extended intros and instrumental passages as he and the guitar tech tried to sort it out. It seemed, from the audience’s point of view at least, that they had things sorted a few times but the look on Smith’s face to side stage made it clear that no matter what guitars, amps or cables they swapped out, things weren’t getting fixed. And while the equipment woes were technically all Smith’s, watching Philippakis while all this was going on was far more interesting.

Though on the surface he seemed to take it all stoically, it became clear that he was getting angrier and more on the edge of violence as things went off-script and was channelling said anger through his guitar; never missing a beat or a note but absolutely raging while remaining stony-faced. Fittingly, as the set progressed and the spikier Antidotes material surfaced, he began acting out; knocking over mics and stands, pounding the hell out of his floor tom, taking advantage of his wireless guitar lead to descend into the audience, climb onto the back bar, set his mic up and play from the far front corner of the room and generally express his frustration in every way he could while keeping the show going – they even came back for their encore – and not completely flipping out and destroying everything. The intensity was not lost on the crowd, who fed on it and reflected it right back at the band and helped ensure that despite the obstacles, the night was a triumph. Though if anyone after the show saw a bonfire in back of Lee’s consisting of a couple of sweet Gibson guitars and guitar amp heads… those might have been Foals’.

Panic Manual, Singing Lamb, Exclaim and Chart have reviews of the show while The Toronto Star has an interview with Foals.

Photos: Foals, Esben & The Witch @ Lee’s Palace – September 27, 2010
MP3: Foals – “Spanish Sahara”
MP3: Foals – “Balloons”
Video: Foals – “2 Trees”
Video: Foals – “Miami”
Video: Foals – “Spanish Sahara”
Video: Foals – “This Orient”
Video: Foals – “Cassius”
Video: Foals – “Balloons”
Video: Foals – “Hummer”
Video: Foals – “Mathletics”
Video: Esben & The Witch – “Marching Song”
MySpace: Foals
MySpace: Esben & The Witch

DCist, The Phoenix and The Miami Herald talk to Tim Booth of James, who will be at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre tomorrow night, September 30.

The Vaselines are the subject of a feature in The Big Issue; they have a date at the Horseshoe on October 30.

The Joy Formidable have released a video for the lead single from their debut album The Big Roar, due early next year. They’ll be at the Horseshoe on November 3.

Video: The Joy Formidable – “I Don’t Want To See You Like This”

Support for Kate Nash’s upcoming Fall tour – which includes a November 13 date at The Phoenix – has been announced as British folk trio Peggy Sue. The Daily Titan has a conversation with Nash.

Video: Peggy Sue – “Watchman”

Ryan Jarman of The Cribs talks to Spinner about the band’s upcoming hiatus.

The Guardian has an update on the condition of Charlatans drummer Jon Brookes and an optimistic timetable for his return to the band.

The Von Pip Musical Express talks to Jim Reid about the 25th anniversary of The Jesus & Mary Chain’s debut Psychocandy.

The Quietus wonders if anyone remembers Irish trio JJ72, who made some noise a decade ago. Former frontman Mark Greaney does, and talks to them about the band’s accomplishments.

Video: JJ72 – “October Swimmer”