Todd WeaverHere are some things I didn’t know about Islands. That though their history is pretty firmly tied to the early aughts Montreal scene that spawned The Unicorns and from whose ashes the first of many incarnations of the band were based, Wikipedia now says they’re based in Los Angeles. Of course, this is probably based on the fact that where Nick Thorburn, the only constant in the band since its inception, lays his hat is where they’re based, and circa their last record – last year’s A Sleep & A Forgetting – Thorburn was indeed working out of the city of angels. I also didn’t know that Evan and Geordie Gordon, principals of Guelph’s disco-tastic The Magic, had been members since 2009. Who knew?

But what I do know is that the stylistically eclectic pop outfit already have a new record ready to go, that they’ve called it Ski Mask, that it’s about being angry – the next logical step from Forgetting‘s prevailing themes of heartbreak, I guess – and that it will be out on September 17, and the first sample from it is available to stream below. Also confirmed is a North American tour that brings them to The Garrison in Toronto on October 10 for a ticket price of $12.50. And if you don’t believe me, consult Pitchfork – surely they’re a reliable source?

Stream: Islands – “Wave Forms”

While there’s no local Two Hours Traffic show per se, the band will be in the area to play Hillside over in Guelph and so are throwing their local fans a bone by playing a free in-store at Sonic Boom’s Annex location on July 27 at 5PM.

MP3: Two Hours Traffic – “Territory”

Summerworks added a musical component to their established theatre festival starting back in 2008, and while the showcase they provided to many of the area’s local on-the-verge talents was a great one – The Rural Alberta Advantage, Diamond Rings, Evening Hymns, the aforementioned Magic, Miracle Fortress, Hooded Fang, and Hidden Cameras to name but a few – they’ve only in the last couple years begun realizing the potential of really connecting the musical acts with their theatre roots. With this year’s programme, it seems they’ve finally figured out a way to make the music series really distinct and have enlisted The Wooden Sky, Snowblink, The Bicycles, and Maylee Todd to participate in some unique collaborations with other multi-disciplinary artists, and really, it’s just easier if you go and read about them than me try to explain. Oh, and there’s also more conventional live music performances at the Performance Bar. Summerworks runs August 8 to 18 in and around the Lower Ossington Theatre and Great Hall; tickets for the musical series shows will be $15 a piece.

MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Angelina”
MP3: Snowblink – “Unsurfed Waves”
Video: Maylee Todd – “Baby’s Got It”
Video: The Bicycles – “Nap Trap”

It’s unfortunate that Summerworks overlaps the fifth and final ALL CAPS! festival taking place at Gibraltar Point on the Toronto Islands the weekend of August 10 and 11 because they’re really catering to the same audience. In fact, Summerworks alumnis Hooded Fang were just added to the lineup, along with Magneta Lane. Torontoist talked festival organizers at Wavelength about why they’re calling it after five years and what will come next.

Video: Hooded Fang – “Bye Bye Land”
Video: Magneta Lane – “Lady Bones”

You may recall at the end of last Summer, I decamped to the wilds of northern Quebec for Festival de music émergent, a fun and fascinating little festival in the town of Rouyn-Noranda. They’ve just announced this year’s lineup, and while it’s not the Feist-Godspeed! one-two punch they got for their tenth anniversary, it’s a solidly trippy bill headlined by Montreal space-cadets The Besnard Lakes, New York art-rockers Blonde Redhead, and Quebec prog-metal legends Voivod, amongst many others of both Francophone and Anglophone persuasion. It’s off the beaten path, to be sure, but it’s a unique experience if you’re looking for something along those lines for the Labour Day long weekend. And if the music isn’t enough to persuade you, the words 24-hour poutinerie might. Exclaim has more details on this year’s FME, as the locals call it.

MP3: Blonde Redhead – “Missile++”
MP3: The Besnard Lakes – “People Of The Sticks”

Somewhat closer to home, local emergent synth-pop heroes Diana have scheduled a hometown record release show for their debut album Perpetual Surrender; the record is out August 20, they’re at The Great Hall on September 26, and there’s a brand-new video from said record to win your hearts and minds and eyeballs.

MP3: Diana – “Born Again”
Video: Diana – “Perpetual Surrender”

Remember when The Weeknd was all shy and would play shows or give interviews and stuff? Well no more. With his first proper – as in you pay for it – album due out this fall in Kiss Land, Abel Tesfaye has booked not one, not two, but three nights at Massey Hall to sing you some songs. He’s there on October 17, 19, and 20 and tickets run from $45 to $75 in advance. A video for the title track of the new record was released earlier this Summer.

MP3: The Weeknd – “Wicked Games”
Video: The Weeknd – “Kiss Land”

Kat Burns of Kashka – and formerly of Forest City Lovers – talks to NOW about her new identity and direction. She plays Harbourfront’s Soundclash festival this Saturday afternoon, July 13, at 1:30PM; that’s free.

Exclaim has premiered the new video from Louise Burns’ just-released new record The Midnight Mass; she talked a bit to Ion Magazine about making the clip.

Video: Louise Burns – “Emeralds Shatter”

The Effects Bay gets a look at Jimmy Shaw’s pedalboard with Metric, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Claire BoucherWhereas the Polaris Music Prize already has a seven year track record of honouring the top Canadian album, the Prism Prize is new on the scene – unaffiliated but sharing a similar mandate, but focused on the art of the music video rather than the album.

And while some may have assumed the art form was on the decline due to the fact that their traditional medium – broadcast television – no longer plays them, the internet as well as the low cost of entry to powerful high-definition recording equipment and editing software has given creators unprecedented means to make some seriously impressive shorts. And the Prism Prize aims to reward them with both recognition and a $5000 prize to be split between the artist and the video production team.

A jury of Canadian music media types have been voting on any video created in the 2012 calendar year and as of yesterday, the short list of ten finalists was announced. It’s not an unfamiliar set of names for those who keep up with the Can-indie – congratulations to Rich Aucoin, Drake, Grimes (twice), METZ, Mother Mother, Maylee Todd, Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, and Young Rival – but what’s nice about this sort of prize is a) even if you don’t care for the artist or the song, you can still find the video worthy, and b) it takes well under an hour to get through every candidate. Handy if you’re a juror. Which I am, I should mention, and I should probably get started on my ballot.

The winner will be announced on March 24.

Video: Arcade Fire – “Sprawl II” (Vincent Morriset)
Video: Rich Aucoin – “Brian Wilson Is A.L.I.V.E.” (Noah Pink)
Video: Drake – “HYFR” (X)
Video: Grimes – “Genesis” (Claire Boucher)
Video: Grimes – “Oblivion” (Emily Kai Bock)
Video: METZ – “Wet Blanket” (Scott Cudmore)
Video: Mother Mother – “The Sticks” (Chad VanGaalen)
Video: Maylee Todd – “Baby’s Got It” (Reynard Li)
Video: Yamantaka//Sonic Titan – “Hoshi Neko” (Emily Pelstring & Ruby Kato Attwood)
Video: Young Rival – “Two Reasons” (John Smith)

And this seems a good time to point out some recent domestic video released. Hayden just put out one to coincide with the release of Us Alone. There’s conversations with Mr. Desser at The National Post, NOW, Exclaim, and Spinner. He plays The Dakota, Cameron House, and Rivoli next week on February 20, 21, and 22 respectively.

Video: Hayden – “Rainy Saturday”

Two Hours Traffic have put out the first video from their new record Foolish Blood as well as making a stream of the whole thing available at Exclaim. It’s out next Tuesday, February 19, and they’re at Lee’s Palace on March 21 for Canadian Musicfest.

Video: Two Hours Traffic – “Amour Than Amis”
Stream: Two Hours Traffic / Foolish Blood

This would be the second video from the second Suuns record Images du Futur. It’s out March 5 and they headline Lee’s Palace on March 23, the Saturday night of Canadian Musicfest.

Video: Suuns – “2020”

Brasstronaut have a new clip from last year’s Mean Sun.

Video: Brasstronaut – “Bounce”

It’s not an official video, but this live clip of Evening Hymns covering Big Star in France (I think) is well worth watching. They play The Great Hall on Saturday night as part of Wavelength’s thirteenth anniversary series, which is underway now and is the subject of features in NOW and BlogTO. And tangentially, Wavelength talks to The Magic – also featuring Evening Hymns’ Sylvie Smith and playing Wavelength’s Sunday night showcase at The Garrison.

Video: Evening Hymns – “Thirteen” (live)

Spinner talks to Rachel Zeffira about her solo debut The Deserters, which is out March 12. A new, non-album bonus track is streamable at Chart.

Stream: Rachel Zeffira – “Wintertime”

Consequence Of Sound has premiered a new song from the forthcoming Chains Of Love album Misery Makers, due out this Summer. Surely I can’t be the only one to notice that singer/guitarist Rebecca Marie Law Gray is no longer in the promo photos, or audible on this recording…?

Stream: Chains Of Love – “Come And Play”

Daytrotter has posted a studio session with Destroyer.

A.C. Newman records a World Cafe session for NPR.

Beatroute talks to Purity Ring, who’ve made a new Soulja Boy cover available to download. Because apparently there exists someone called Soulja Boy and he writes songs.

MP3: Purity Ring – “Grammy”

Canadian University Press has a sit-down with Jay Ferguson of Sloan.

aux.tv talks to some of the artists who contributed rarities to the Have Not Been The Same compilation of ’90s Can-rock that soundtracked the book of the same name.

Derek MaWhat: The fourth annual ALL CAPS! Island Festival – if this is a new thing to you, read this and come back after.
Who: Day one features Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, Maylee Todd, Choir! Choir! Choir!, Tyvek, Wet Hair, Esther Grey, and Triple Gangers. Day two welcomes A Place To Bury Strangers, Lioness, Absolutely Free, OG Melody, Young Mother, Canadian Winter, and Ivy Mairi. Plus artists. Plus workshops.
When: August 11 and 12, 2012
Where: Gibraltar Point on the Toronto Islands (all ages)
How: Two-day non-camping passes for the festival are $30 in advance but courtesy of Webster Media Consulting, I’ve got one pair of festival passes (good for both days but no camping) to give away for the event. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I WANT ALL CAPS” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me by midnight, August 6.
What else: Yes, even festivals have trailers now.

Trailer: ALL CAPS!
MP3: A Place To Bury Strangers – “You Are The One”
MP3: Lioness – “The Night”
MP3: Choir! Choir! Choir! – “I Want It That Way”
MP3: Ivy Mairi – “I Can See You”
Video: Yamanta//Sonic Titan – “Hoshi Neko”
Video: Maylee Todd – “Heart Throb”
Video: OG Melody – “Change Gon Come”

Emily BergerWhile it’s true that Toronto’s days of having a BIG annual music festival out on the islands appear to be over – the locally-grown, Wavelength-affiliated ALL CAPS fest has been more then happy to step in for those needing to combine a ferry crossing with live music to make their Summer worthwhile.

Since their inaugural edition in 2009, they’ve put together bills that have showcased a lot of local and a little bit of imported talent, combined with art and film components and as of last year, overnight camping but this year’s lineup – set to take place on August 11 and 12 at Gibraltar Point – has quite surprised me with its all-out aggressiveness.

The first night is headlined by Montreal’s Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, whom I’m not going to try and find new words to describe but were a real highlight of NXNE, with an eclectic undercard consisting of Maylee Todd, Choir! Choir! Choir!, Tyvek, Wet Hair, and Esther Grey. The Sunday night will be closed out by Brooklyn noise-and-strobe freaks A Place To Bury Strangers, following sets from Lioness, OG Melody, Young Mother, and Canadian Winter. Many/most of these acts are only peripherally known to me – if that – so I suggest checking out the Wavelength site for capsule descriptions, but I will say that they won’t be boring. Unless you’re bored of interesting things.

A limited number of two-day passes including camping on the island are available for $65, two-day passes that force you to go home and sleep in your own bed on Saturday night will run you $30 and single-day tickets are a very reasonable $17; ferry tickets are not included in the price. They go on sale on July 12 but you can also get them now via the IndieGogo fundraising site. And while Gibraltar Point is way on the other end of the islands from the residences at Ward’s Island and faces out into the lake, I can’t help but hope that there’s a southwesterly wind that wafts just a little bit of Oliver Ackermann’s sonic armageddon over their cottages. Just a little.

Guitar World, The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, and CultureMob talk to Ackermann about the new APTBS album Worship.

MP3: A Place To Bury Strangers – “You Are The One”
MP3: Lioness – “The Night”
MP3: Choir! Choir! Choir! – “I Want It That Way”
Video: Yamanta//Sonic Titan – “Hoshi Neko”
Video: Maylee Todd – “Heart Throb”
Video: OG Melody – “Change Gon Come”

Interview and The Georgia Straight profile Japandroids, who’ve made another couple track from Celebration Rock available to download.

MP3: Japandroids – “The Nights Of Wine And Roses”
MP3: Japandroids – “Younger Us”

Daytrotter has posted a session with Memoryhouse.

Rolling Stone and NPR profile Metric, bringing it home to the Air Canada Centre on November 14.

Brightest Young Things and The AV Club talk to Spencer Krug of Moonface.

Exclaim gets Brian Borcherdt to discuss the state of Holy Fuck even as he focuses on his new project Dusted, whose debut Total Dust is out on Tuesday, is available to stream now at Chart, and they open up for Chad VanGaalen at The Mod Club on July 26.

MP3: Dusted – “(Into The) Atmosphere”
Stream: Dusted / Total Dust

Beatroute and Chart have interviews with Vancouver’s Chains Of Love.

NPR gets into Americana with Neil Young, adding a World Cafe session on top of the Fresh Air interview.

The Mountain Goats celebrate their 40,000th Twitter follower by giving away an old demo track.

MP3: The Mountain Goats – “All Devils All Devils”

That first preview of the new Antlers EP Undersea is now available to download. It’s out July 24.

MP3: The Antlers – “Drift Dive”

DIY and Prefix have features on Dirty Projectors, in town tonight at the Danforth Music Hall.

Spinner talks to Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells.

Myspace Toronto’s venerable Wavelength might have closed out their weekly showcase series last year in favour of intermittent events throughout the year, but they’ve not given up their tradition of throwing a killer birthday party or five. As they’ve done in years past, Wavelength Eleven (or event #515 if you’re keeping track) will commandeer venues around this city from February 16 through 20 and fill them with many of the finest acts the city and outlying regions have to offer, spanning all styles and genres, frequently on the same bill.

I missed last year’s festivities but hit up one of the 9th anniversary shows in 2009 and it’s interesting to see that one of the undercard acts at that show – Hooded Fang – has already graduated to headline status. This they’ve done on the strength of their debut Album, released last October to considerable praise. And indeed, it’s an impressive first effort that reflects the remarkable rate at which they’ve improved as a band since first making noise in late ’08/early ’09 – I saw them three times over the course of 2009 and each time, most flaws I’d have pointed out for the time before had been sorted without diminishing the amount of fun they were clearly having on stage. Album‘s orchestrally-inclined power pop still tends a bit more to the precious/twee side of things than I’d like and can feel a bit samey over the course of its dozen songs, but the degree of songwriting, musicianship and genuine joy it captures is undeniable. As was clear in each of those live reviews from 2009, big things seem an inevitability for this crew.

Hooded Fang will be closing out the Saturday night of Wavelength Eleven at The Great Hall. The rest of the week’s events look like this – tickets for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday shows are $11 while Wednesday and Sunday are PWYC. There is also a $33 all-access passes available. Check in at Wavelength for descriptions of each act. aux.tv has an interview with Hooded Fang.

Wednesday, February 16 @ Teranga – Anagram, Bruised Knees, The Guest Bedroom, The Jim Storie Juniors
Thursday, February 17 @ The Music Gallery – Kite Hill, Eiyn Sof, Gordon Grdina’s East Van Strings, Not The Wind, Not The Flag
Friday, February 18 @ The Steam Whistle Roundhouse – Woodhands, Minotaurs, Pat Jordache, Romo Roto, Doldrums
Saturday, February 19 @ The Great Hall – Hooded Fang, Maylee Todd, Little Girls, Eric Chenaux Electric Trio, Grimes
Sunday, February 20 @ The Garrison – Lullabye Arkestra, Neon Windbreaker, Simply Saucer, Ghostlight

MP3: Hooded Fang – “Laughing”
MP3: Hooded Fang – “Mutant Beart”
MP3: Woodhands – “Dissembler”
MP3: Eric Chenaux – “Warm Charleston”
MP3: Little Girls – “Growing”
MP3: Lullabye Arkestra – “We Fuck The Night”

In other just-announced live music happenings – guitar goddess Marnie Stern and prog-rockers Tera Melos will be at Wrongbar on March 8 as part of an extensive North American tour.

MP3: Marnie Stern – “For Ash”
MP3: Tera Melos – “Frozen Zoo”

We’re still some ways out from having a Canadian Musicfest schedule to pore over, but you’d be just silly to not keep staying at the Opera House all night – that’s the Billions showcase – circled on your calendar. The lineup will read like Land Of Talk, Hollerado, Cadence Weapon, Isis (ex. Thunderheist) and Little Scream, so while club-hopping is part of the CMF experience, there’s something to be said for staying put all night.

MP3: Land Of Talk – “Quarry Hymns”
MP3: Hollerado – “Americanarama”
MP3: Cadence Weapon – “Real Estate”

And I’m very excited that Sharon Van Etten, after many visits in a support capacity, will be playing her first headlining show here at the Drake on April 12 with Little Scream supporting – there’s a recording of her show at the Bowery in New York City last week up at NYC Taper. You may recall that her epic was one of my favourite albums of 2010, and she’s already started work on the follow-up with Aaron Dessner of The National.

MP3: Sharon Van Etten – “Love More”

The New Zealand Herald talks to The National’s Matt Berninger about their breakout year of 2010.

There’s a new video from Retribution Gospel Choir’s album 2.

Video: Retribution Gospel Choir – “Your Bird”

The Skinny talks to Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam about his new record Kiss Each Other Clean, due out January 25.

Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance discuss their visual artistic pursuits with Design Sponge.

Inara George of The Bird & The Bee chats with Spinner.

Pitchfork has a feature interview with Dan Bejar of Destroyer. His sax-y new album Kaputt arrives January 25 and he plays Lee’s Palace on March 31.

The Line Of Best Fit and NOW talk to Jonas Bonnetta of Evening Hymns about their new, nude video for “Dead Deer” from Spirit Guides. The band are currently out in the wilds of Ontario somewhere recording their next album, already dubbed Spectral Dusk – the proceedings are being documented on their Tumblr.

Video: Evening Hymns – “Dead Deer”

Diamond Rings’ John O’Regan discusses the therapeutic aspects of music with Spinner. He’s at the Sound Academy January 26 opening up for Robyn.