Patrick FordHad the weekend not already wiped me out before Sunday even began, I might well have made it a three-for-three for shows-in-evenings – or five-for-three if I had attempted to make any of the in-stores happening around town – by catching Peggy Sue at Sneaky Dee’s on Sunday night. And if that had happened, you might be reading a live review of their show. But I didn’t, and so you’re not.

But even without my notes from the Toronto stop of their ongoing North American tour – Friends With Both Arms was and has some thoughts and remember, I caught them last time they visited – there’s plenty to talk about with regards to the English trio. They just released their debut album Fossils And Other Phantoms in North America – hence the tour – and melange of folk, soul and blues that their Lover Gone EP hinted at arrives on it fully-formed. It’s a darkly-hued and unexpectedly sensual record filled with tales of love gone wrong, gone off or just gone away, all delivered in the affectingly unvarnished voices and multi-instrumentalism of Katy Young and Rosa Slade and backed by the clattering percussion of Olly Joyce. It’s not the most immediate record, but given the proper attention its a rewarding listen.

As part of their tour, the band are recording a live video on location in each city – I’m pleased to be able to present their communiqué from Toronto, a reading of “February Snow” done by the garden car in Kensington Market. Enjoy it and check out the rest of the series at their YouTube channel.

And on top of that, there’s a Daytrotter session from this Spring and a video from Fossils – not a bad grab bag for having missed the show, eh?

Video: Peggy Sue – “Watchman”

Interpol have finalized details on the release of their fourth album. The previously announced window of mid-September has been clarified and the self-titled effort will be released on September 13, and somewhat surprisingly, it will be coming out on their original label of Matador. Their move to Capitol for 2007’s Our Love To Admire was one of the first in a run of indie rock stalwarts leveraging that success for life in the major leagues – and now they’re one of the first to return. Interesting.

The Line Of Best Fit chats with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.

Following the August 24 release of their Burning/Special Moves live video/audio documents, Mogwai will be screening the film component around North America – the Toronto date will comprise two screenings at the Drake Underground on September 14. There’s a new clip from the film available to watch.

Video: Mogwai – “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead” (live)

School Of Seven Bells will follow up the July 13 release of their sophomore effort Disconnect From Desire with an Autumn North American tour, supported by Active Child and including a September 15 date at the Mod Club in Toronto.

MP3: School Of Seven Bells – “Babelonia”

Laura Veirs and The Watson Twins will team up for a Fall tour that stops in at the Horseshoe on September 29. Veirs’ latest album July Flame came out in Jaunary, while The Watson Twins released Talking To You, Talking To Me a month later. Veirs’ Daytrotter session just went up as well.

MP3: Laura Veirs – “Wide-Eyed, Legless”

Stereogum has premiered an MP3 from the new Superchunk record Majesty Shredding, out September 14.

PitchforkTV has added a couple more segments to their video session with The Hold Steady. They play the Kool Haus on July 17.

Spinner, The Guardian and Billboard talk to Kele about The Boxer. The record is out next week and he plays the Mod Club on July 29.

Interview puts M.I.A. and the director of her “Born Free” video in conversation with one another.

Frank YangThis past Saturday night was one of those evenings with absolutely no shortage of options for Toronto concert-goers – and that’s even before Arcade Fire showed up to siphon off another 1000 people or so to the east end – so I wasn’t sure how well the Toronto debut for both Sweden’s First Aid Kit and Oklahoma’s Samantha Crain at The Rivoli would do, particularly since I heard that First Aid Kit’s free in-store at Criminal Records earlier that afternoon – which I had to miss – was only lightly attended. Any concerns about possibly being the only one there, however, evaporated when I got to the Rivoli’s back room and literally had to squeeze my way through throngs of attendees to get near the front. Yeah, people were there.

I was there to see the headliners but the addition of Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers to the bill – which required them to drive for 14 hours straight following their set at Bonnaroo the night before – actually had me more excited. I’d been hearing great things about Crain for over a year – before last year’s SxSW, I think – but had managed to not get around to hearing any of her music beyond a few drive-by MySpace visits, so her set promised to combine the joy of a new discovery with the assurance that it’d be good. And it was. Classifying Crain as a folk-pop singer-songwriter type is technically accurate, but really doesn’t do the scope of her talents justice. As her set ably demonstrated, in addition to writing songs that are both melodic and affecting, she delivers them in a voice rich with soul and a touch of twang and on top of all that, she’s a fierce guitarist – acoustic and electric, thanks. And she’s funny. Needless to say, everyone who’s been telling me that she’s great over the last however long – you were right. And to everyone who hasn’t heard her yet… you should. Her latest album is the just-released You (Understood). Seek it out.

Crain might have set the bar high, and First Aid Kit were well-set to clear it, thanks in no small part to being frighteningly tall. Both Klara and Johanna Söderberg measure in at close to six feet tall (the former just shorter, the latter a good deal taller) and considering they’re just 20 and 17 years old respectively, they might have a spurt or two left in them. But even so, their statures aren’t the most remarkable things about them – that’d be their voices. I’ve talked about how their respective quirks complimented each other perfectly on record, but it’s live that you really can’t help but be impressed by how perfect their pitch was – hearing them sing was like a master class in harmony. Accompanying themselves simply but effectively on acoustic guitar and keyboard (and occasionally accordion and autoharp), the duo and touring drummer showcased material from their debut Drunken Trees EP and the full-length follow-up The Big Black & The Blue, punctuated by sharp and sassy between-song banter (“we’d like to do a cover by a band called Fleet…. wood Mac”). The set highlight came about midway through when they stepped away from the mics to sing the beautifully sad “Ghost Town” unamplified to the full house. A close second was their encore, for which they brought out Samantha Crain and performed her “Dam Song”, complete with absurdly great three-part harmonies. There may have been plenty of other higher-profile entertainment options in town on Saturday, but I don’t think any of the hundred or so people who chose to hit the Rivoli had any regrets.

First Aid Kit have added another installment to their Filter tour blog (though the Toronto show only gets a passing mention – apparently we have nice architecture). Samantha Crain is profiled by The San Francisco Examiner, Oklahoma Gazette and The Oklahoman and also recently recorded a session for Daytrotter.

Photos: First Aid Kit, Samantha Crain @ The Rivoli – June 12, 2010
MP3: First Aid Kit – “I Met Up With The King”
MP3: First Aid Kit – “You’re Not Coming Home Tonight”
MP3: Samantha Crain – “Traipsing Through The Aisles”
Video: First Aid Kit – “Hard Believer”
Video: First Aid Kit – “I Met Up With The King”
Video: Samantha Crain – “Santa Fe”
Video: Samantha Crain – “Traipsing Through The Aisles”
MySpace: Samantha Crain

The St. Louis Tribune, Uptown and AV Club talk to John Darnielle and Peter Hughes of The Mountain Goats.

Spinner talks to Joe Pernice about the new Pernice Brothers record, Goodbye, Killer. It’s out today and available to stream for the next week at Spinner.

Stream: Pernice Brothers / Goodbye, Killer

The Flaming Lips have a new video from Embryonic available to gawk at. You can gawk at the band in real life at the Molson Amphitheatre on July 8 and get a preview of what to expect via this NPR stream of this past weekend’s Bonnaroo set, though you really need to get all your senses in play when experiencing a Flaming Lips show.

Video: The Flaming Lips – “The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine”

The Books will be on tour this Fall in support of their new record The Way Out, out July 20, and will be at the Mod Club on October 25.

MP3: The Books – “Beautiful People”

PitchforkTV solicits a live performance of “The Sweet Part Of The City” from The Hold Steady. They have a July 17 date at the Kool Haus.

Spinner is hosting a series of web videos from Fanfarlo entitled Under The Reservoir.

Magnet talks to Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake as the Fannies prepare to take over the editor’s desk of their website this week. Blake also talks to The AV Club about their new record Shadows and to Metro about moving to Canada (he now resides in Kitchener-Waterloo).

Spinner talks to The Joy Formidable about making their debut EP A Balloon Called Moaning.

Kele gives an interview to The Quietus and eye about his solo debut The Boxer, due out next week. He’s at the Mod Club on July 29.

Chart sics Narduwar on Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine.

That The xx are coming back to town isn’t remarkable in and of itself – they’ve already been here thrice since last December. What is remarkable is that for their Fall tour, they’ve booked their September 29 date… for Massey Hall. Tickets will be $25 to $45 with presale starting tomorrow, regular onsale come Friday. Presumably there’ll be a new record released between now and then, and say what you will about their suitability for such a not-so-basic space, but there’s no question that their show will sound great. Their Bonnaroo set is also up to stream at NPR.

MP3: The xx – “Basic Space”

Islands have set a date at the Mod Club for July 14 – tickets $13.50 in advance.

MP3: Islands – “Vapours”

July 21 brings Jason Collett out for a show at the Mod Club supported by Daniel, Fred & Julie; tickets $16.50 in advance.

MP3: Jason Collett – “Love Is A Dirty Word”
MP3: Daniel, Fred & Julie – “The Gambler & His Bride”

With his own show at the Opera House last Saturday in the books, Shad has been announced as support for K’Naan’s October 1 show at the Kool Haus. Best of Canadian hip-hop, anyone?

Miike Snow have a date at the Kool Haus on October 9, tickets $25.

Video: Miike Snow – “Black & Blue”

@superchunkbandThough they’d insisted since touring for 2001’s Here’s To Shutting Up wrapped up that Superchunk weren’t finished but just taking a break, for most of this century the evidence was rather to the contrary. There was the attic-clearing compilation, video retrospective and series of live documents – not typically signs of an active band. Mac McCaughan became exceedingly prolific with Portastatic, Jon Wurster became full-time sticksman for The Mountain Goats and comedian and the label that McCaughan and Laura Ballance started back in 1989 started putting out some records that proved to be rather successful in certain circles.

Sporadic one-off live shows kept the flame alive but it wasn’t until last Spring when the Leaves In The Gutter EP arrived that the notion of Superchunk as an ongoing proposition begane to feel very real. And while it wasn’t an immediate precursor to a new full-length, Superchunk have finally put a date to the release of their ninth album and first in nine years – Majesty Shredding will be released on September 14 and the world will be a better place for it. Pitchfork has the salient details such as track listing and album art and a handful of Fall tour dates which do not, at present include anything north of the border. This is slightly less of an imperative for me as I finally got to see Superchunk live back at SxSW – a short set but one that completely affirmed that the ‘Chunk could still rock and pogo with the best of them – but I would still love to see them in a proper setting with a full set.

To be fair though, the band have put in more than their share of time on the road over the years and it’s not their fault i missed them all – if a visit to Toronto isn’t in the works then I will happily make do with playing the new album to death. And until that comes out, there’s this teaser video previewing some of the songs and showing scenes from the making of the record. And since you can only loop a one-minute video so many times before going batty, there’s last year’s comeback EP to enjoy. And oh yeah, a decade plus’ worth of albums and singles before that. Ohhhh Superchunk, welcome back.

MP3: Superchunk – “Misfits & Mistakes”
Stream: Superchunk / Leaves In The Gutter

The Toronto Star, eye and NOW prepare to welcome The National to town for their two shows at Massey Hall next week, June 8 and 9.

The Antlers, opening up both of those National shows, turn in a Black Cab Session. CMU also has an interview.

Spinner talks to Joe Pernice about the new Goodbye, Killer, due out June 15.

Clash talks to Robert Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

The new Christina Hendricks-powered video from Broken Bells is now available to watch. There’s an interview with James Mercer at The Boston Globe.

Video: Broken Bells – “The Ghost Inside”

Both The Dodos and Pixies are giving away live (digital) records on their websites in exchange for your email. The Dodos are at the Sound Academy on June 15 opening up for The New Pornographers; Pixies are not.

The Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post talk to Ben Bridwell and Liverpool Echo to Tyler Ramsey of Band Of Horses, who’ve just released a new video from Infinite Arms. They’re playing the Toronto Island Concert on June 19.

Video: Band Of Horses – “For Annabelle”

Carissa’s Weird, the Seattle band from whose ashes rose Band Of Horses, Grand Archives, Sera Cahoone amongst others, is releasing a retrospective collection entitled They Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003 on July 13.

MP3: Carissa’s Weird – “Die”

Phantogram return to town for a show at Wrongbar on July 8, tickets $14.50 in advance. You may wonder how good a two-piece electro-rock band could be live, and the answer is very good. Donewaiting is hosting a video session with the band, if you need more convincing.

MP3: Phantogram – “When I’m Small”
Video: Phantogram – “Mouthful Of Diamonds”

NYC Taper is sharing a live recording of The Depreciation Guild.

Four Tet will hit the road this Fall in support of new record There Is Love In You and stop in at the Mod Club on October 20.

The Music Slut asks eight questions of Mogwai’s Barry Burns. Their Burning/Special Moves live DVD and CD will be out on August 24.

Bandstand Busking invites The Twilight Sad to play one of their bandstand sessions. The Twilight Sad agree. The Washington Examiner and Nashville Scene also have interviews.

The Scenestar talks to Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison.

To all who asked – presale tickets for Belle & Sebastian’s October 12 show at Massey Hall will go on sale at 10AM next Wednesday, June 9 – password/instructions will be posted at www.collectiveconcerts.com. Prices range from $57.50 for premium floors/balcony to $47.50 for rear floors and centre gallery to $39.50 for side gallery, plus fees.

For Folk’s Sake and Gigwise interview Johnny Flynn about his new record Been Listening, out June 7.

Interview gets to know Peggy Sue. Their debut full-length Fossils & Other Phantoms came out this week and they’re at Sneaky Dee’s on June 13 to support.

Kate Nash has released a new video from My Best Friend Is You.

Video: Kate Nash – “Kiss That Grrrl”

The Line Of Best Fit talks to Richard Hawley, whose False Lights From The Land EP is out next week.

Kele talks to BBC about going solo with The Boxer, out June 21. He’s at the Mod Club on July 29.

The Phoenix has an extensive feature on Robyn Hitchcock, who has two intimate shows at the Drake Underground next week on June 11 and 12.

Paul McCartney – yeah, THAT guy – will be at the Air Canada Centre on August 8. Tickets will cost far too much yet still be easily rationalized.

And while pretty much obvious what with the radio silence all the way into June, it’s been made official that Virgin Festival Canada is taking 2010 off to regroup and hopefully come back next year.

Frank YangNear as I can tell, there’s no great narrative that explains why or how Two Door Cinema Club’s sold-out show at Wrongbar earlier this week became the hottest show in town, with tickets in huge demand and scalpers having apparently missed the boat entirely. There’s been no soundtrack appearance, no ad placement, no celebrity scandal, nothing that could explain why people were lined up hours in advance of doors to see the Northern Irish trio (quartet live) except that, well, they liked the songs from their debut album Tourist History. Which is reasonable.

Not that folks had necessarily intended to line up for hours. The quoted door and set times proved to be completely wrong, but as it turned out, with good explanation – Miami’s MillionYoung, who was supposed to open things up, had all their gear stolen in Montreal the night before (really, Montreal? Again?) and consequently had to cancel, throwing the evening’s schedule into disarray. The way it all shook out, doors opened an hour later than planned – thankfully the weather was nice out – and the sole support act, Cincinnati’s Bad Veins, rolled out a little after 9.

As the duo pointed out early, it was their first time playing in Toronto though it wasn’t their first time here – they had already crossed the border last Summer en route to a date at the El Mocambo when headliner Now Now Every Children’s van self-destructed and the gig had to be canceled at the last minute. This I know because I was one of a handful of people standing around outside a shuttered ElMo that evening, wondering what the what. The delay may have proved to be a blessing, though, as they can now say they made their Toronto debut in front of a packed house instead of an empty one. And while the duo’s aesthetic might have appeared junk-store – drums and guitar were handled live, but additional backing tracks were run off a reel-to-reel analog tape recorder and singer Ben Davis often sang through an old telephone handset (and through the earpiece, no less) – their songs were stadium-sized, all heart on sleeve emotional and built on big choruses. I had forgotten that I actually quite liked their 2009 self-titled debut, but their set more than reminded me not only that I did, but why.

For Two Door Cinema Club, this show marked the finale of a two-week tour that saw them criss-cross the continent and a peak to the buzz that they’d been steadily building along the trek. And really, their appeal isn’t hard to understand – it’s upbeat, hooky, danceable guitar pop delivered by young men with accents. It’s not especially deep or rich in variety – the musical equivalent of empty calories – but it is fun and when the whole room is bouncing up and down and singing along, you’d have to be an exceptionally determined stick in the mud to not play along. With just the one album clocking in at a touch over half an hour, their set list was predictable with the whole of Tourist History being aired along with three non-album tracks. All were played tightly and nearly note-perfect to the recorded versions, but theirs is not the sort of pop with a lot of room for side trips or on-the-fly reinterpretations; it’s meant to be delivered fast and fun and to keep the kids moving. Countless bands have made it work for them in the past, countless more will do so in the future. For now, however, the moment appears to belong to Two Door Cinema Club.

Paste declares Two Door Cinema Club amongst their “best of what’s next”; after a Summer of European touring, they’ll be back in North American in the Fall – expect another and larger Toronto date in October-ish. Bad Veins will be back in town sooner than that on June 15 at The Phoenix, opening for Thrice.

Photos: Two Door Cinema Club, Bad Veins @ Wrongbar – May 17, 2010
MP3: Two Door Cinema Club – “I Can Talk”
MP3: Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”
MP3: Bad Veins – “Gold & Warm”
MP3: Bad Veins – “Go Home”
Video: Two Door Cinema Club – “I Can Talk”
Video: Two Door Cinema Club – “Undercover Martyn”
Video: Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”
Video: Bad Veins – “Gold And Warm”
MySpace: Two Door Cinema Club
MySpace: Bad Veins

State talks to Kele about his solo debut The Boxer, due out June 21. He plays the Mod Club on July 29.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of yet another Joy Formidable show from New York, this one from the Mercury Lounge on May 10.

The Twilight Sad will release a new EP on July 26 entitled The Wrong Side Of The Car; details at Clash. They’re at Lee’s Palace on May 26.

MPR is streaming a studio session with Frightened Rabbit.

Filter and The Atlantic have feature pieces on Laura Marling.

Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine talks to BBC6 about how her second album is shaping up. But before that, a new and final video from her first album.

Video: Florence & The Machine – “Cosmic Love”

Rose Elinor Dougall has also put out a new video and her debut album Without Why has finally been given a release date – it will be out on August 30.

Video: Rose Elinor Dougall – “Find Me Out”

Patrick Wolf has reported via blog that work is complete on his new record The Conqueror and it will be coming out on a new subsidiary of Mercury Records later this year, thus returning the Wolf to the major label fold. Here’s hoping it turns out to be a more enjoyable experience than last time…

Le Blogotheque scores a Take-Away Show with Echo & The Bunnymen. The song they convince Mac to play for them? One guess.

To accompany the deluxe reissue of Disintegration on June 8 in bonus-laden triple CD or bonus-less double LP form, The Cure have set up a minisite on which they’re streaming 20 live and unreleased tracks from the era which are not included in the reissue. Hit up Slicing Up Eyeballs for details on the set, the site, and a way to save those streaming tracks for your very own.

Frank YangSo yeah, I see a lot of bands live. And as a result, the list of bands that I want to see and haven’t – at least amongst those artists currently on active duty – has gotten pretty small, made up mainly of smaller acts for whom North American touring is an economical improbability. I’d placed Welsh trio The Joy Formidable in this category since discovering them last February, and so was more than a little frustrated that the place I thought I might have a chance to see them – SxSW – just wouldn’t happen. They canceled their 2009 appearance and opted for a UK tour instead this year and while they’d made a few surgical strikes to New York, there never seemed to be a greater design for conquering America… until there was.

A modest plan, perhaps, but the North American release of their most excellent debut A Balloon Called Moaning – which was one of my favourites of last year and would have been noted as such in year-end lists had I not been so pedantic about albums versus EPs – in advance of the release of their first full-length later this year was certainly a good start. The short tour that brought them to the Horseshoe in Toronto on Tuesday for a free Nu Music Nite engagement was a fantastic next step.

Their tourmates for their first expedition through the wilds of the northeast of the continent were Brooklyn’s The Dig, who were themselves readying their debut in Electric Toys, slated for a June 8 release. My advance copy of the record hadn’t made a huge impression, coming across mainly as decent if not especially distinctive college rock, but live the differences between their strengths and weaknesses were clearer. At their best, they combined the pop sense and garage-y attitude of The Strokes with a musical approach built on insistent bass riffs and dreamy, atmospheric touches. At their worst, they turned in unremarkable and plodding rote bar/blues-rock. Sadly, these seemed to be the songs that were best-received. Here’s hoping that in the long run, The Dig don’t give the people what they want and instead, make interesting music.

Though I hadn’t noticed much chatter about this show going into the evening and most of the city’s Brit-rock fans were at the Opera House selling out the Frightened Rabbit show, there was a good-sized crowd in place to welcome The Joy Formidable to Toronto. And it’s a good thing, because their brand of big guitar rock really demands an audience for full effect. To my ears, A Balloon Called Moaning is a pretty much perfect blend of sugary pop hook, spiky attitude and aesthetics that are little too effervescent to count as shoegazey (though that influence is quite evident) and live, The Joy Formidable were somehow able to make it all sound even better. There were initially some technical problems – a broken strap here, a split drum skin there – but the band made up for those early lulls with extra intensity when they were able to get everything working and when there were no more equipment glitches, that energy just snowballed. Ritzy Bryan was a tiny but magnetic frontwoman, handling both vocal and Stratocaster sonic attack duties with aplomb, and while it was hard to take your eyes off her, much credit must also go to her bandmates Rhydian Dafydd on bass and backing vocals and Matt Thomas on drums for both laying the foundation for their monolithic wall of sound and lifting her up on top of it. Though their set was just 45 minutes or so, that was more than enough time to run through the Balloon material along with some new material, cement existing fans and completely win over new ones. So completely worth the wait and, with promises to return within months – presumably when the new album arrives later this Summer – the next wait won’t be quite so long.

Photos: The Joy Formidable, The Dig @ The Horseshoe – May 4, 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 – “Popinjay”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Austere”
Video: The Joy Formidable – “Cradle”
MySpace: The Joy Formidable

Clash talks to Editors guitarist Chris Urbanowicz about some of the most important events in his life.

The Riverfront Times and Chicago Tribune interview Frightened Rabbit.

Jez Williams of Doves looks back on the band’s career for Under The Radar.

eye interviews Massive Attack’s 3D in advance of their two shows at the Sound Academy, tonight and Sunday.

Kele has released a video for that first single from The Boxer, due out June 21. He plays the Mod Club on July 29.

Video: Kele – “Tenderoni”

Jon Wurster gives Stereogum an update on the new Superchunk record, which has been given the title of Majesty Shredding and will be out this Fall.

BBC6 talks to The National’s Matt Berninger about High Violet, out Tuesday, while Vanity Fair has a rather pointless piece wondering if The National are America’s Radiohead… yeah. Nice photos, though. The National are at Massey Hall on June 8 and 9.

Drowned In Sound meets Band Of Horses, whose Infinite Arms arrive May 18 and who play the Toronto Islands on June 19.

Spinner welcomes The Hold Steady to their studios for an Interface session, while Paste and The Herald have interviews. They play the Kool Haus on July 18.

Daytrotter is offering a session with Lambchop.

Grab “Babelonia”, the first MP3 from the new School Of Seven Bells record Disconnect From Desire, by signing up for their mailing list. The record is out July 13.

Karen Elson – who may well be known as a singer-songwriter first and foremost but for now will have to settle for being a top model and Mrs Jack White – has a date at the El Mocambo on June 16 as part of a tour in support of her solo debut The Ghost Who Walks, out May 25 in the UK and later this year in North America. Tickets for the show are $15 in advance. Black Book has an interview.

Video: Karen Elson – “The Ghost Who Walks”

The Fiery Furnaces, who seem to have played every room – big and small – in the city, will be doing the small when they return on June 21 for a show at the Drake Underground. Their last release was 2009’s I’m Going Away.

MP3: The Fiery Furnaces – “The End Is Near”

Maps & Atlases – just here on Tuesday opening for Frightened Rabbit – return for a show at the Horseshoe on August 7 in support of their new record Perch Patchwork, out June 29.

MP3: Maps & Atlases – “Solid Ground”

Spin talks to Antony Hegarty of Antony & The Johnsons about their just-announced new record Swanlights, which will be out October 5.