Frank YangTerrible news yesterday out of Athens, Georgia as it was announced that Bill Doss, co-founder of The Olivia Tremor Control and The Sunshine Fix and one of the original members of the Elephant 6 movement, had passed away at the too-young age of 43. Details on the cause of death have not been revealed, but it must have come as a shock considering that Doss had been playing with The Olivia Tremor Control as recently as last week at a hometown show in Athens.

I feel extra-fortunate to have caught the recently reunited Olivia Tremor Control when they came through Toronto last September but had really hoped that the vague intentions Doss and Will Cullen Hart had for new recordings would come through and bring them back again and again with new material. Alas, it was not to be but there is some comfort to be found in the two masterpieces of psychedelic-pop he made with the OTC – Dusk At Cubist Castle and Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1 – and the more classically pop work he did with The Sunshine Fix is also worth hearing.

A lack of details on what happened and an overall sense of shock have mostly limited coverage of Doss’ death to straight reportage, but expect heartfelt tributes from friends and fellow musicians in the coming days and weeks. A couple worth reading are already up at Chunklet, You Ain’t No Picasso, Pitchfork, and NOW. And if you’re new to or unfamiliar with the legacy of the Elephant 6, this primer at Spin is a good entry point; they’ve also assembled a playlist of some of his work. NPR still has the Olivia Tremor Control’s New York show from that Fall 2011 tour available to stream and a couple of clips from their appearance at Pitchfork Fest a couple weeks ago are up on YouTube; hopefully more will follow.

Rest in peace, Bill Doss.

MP3: The Olivia Tremor Control – “Love Athena”
MP3: The Olivia Tremor Control – “A Familiar Noise Called Train Director”
MP3: The Sunshine Fix – “Age Of The Sun”
Video: The Olivia Tremor Control – “Jumping Fences” (live at Pitchfork Festival 2012)
Video: The Olivia Tremor Control – “The Games You Play In Your Head” (live at Pitchfork Festival 2012)

For a while it seemed like Rich Aucoin was never going to play a regular, non-festival-type show in Toronto. Well now he is. He and presumably his crowd-surfing surfboard will be at Lee’s Palace on September 20, tickets $12.50.

MP3: Rich Aucoin – “It”

If you thought that Lee’s Palace was an awful small a venue for an artist having as good a year as Grimes, you’d be right. She’s added a second show at Lee’s on September 22 to go with the one on the 21st, tickets again $20. The Globe & Mail has a feature piece on Ms Claire Boucher.

MP3: Grimes – “Circumambient”

John Lydon brings his Public Image Limited to The Opera House on October 18 in support of their first record in some twenty years, This Is PiL, tickets $39.50.

Video: Public Image Limited – “(This Is Not A) Love Song”

As the October 2 release date of Transcendental Youth draws lazily closer, The Mountain Goats have announced the first leg of North American touring in support, which includes a Toronto date at The Phoenix on October 20, tickets $21.50 in advance. Word is they’re bringing horns! And also in Goats news, they recorded the theme song for this week’s episode of Weeds so you can download that if you want to hear it but don’t want to watch the show. Which is totally reasonable.

MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Cry For Judas”
MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Little Boxes”

London’s Wolf Gang are at Wrongbar on October 22, part of an extensive North American tour in support of their debut album Suego Faults.

Video: Wolf Gang – “The King And All Of His Men”
Video: Wolf Gang – “Lions In Cages”

It’s been hard to say if this counts as a reunion or if they’ve been reunited for years but just not very active, but in any case The Super Friendz will be getting off their duffs for a show at Lee’s Palace on November 16, tickets $15. Power pop will ensue.

Video: The Super Friendz – “Up And Running”

Because some folks were asking – tickets for the New Order show at the Sony Centre on October 23 go on sale tomorrow. No they’re not remotely cheap. Why did you think they would be cheap?

Pitchfork and Spin talk to Jack Tatum about Nocturne, the new Wild Nothing album due out August 28. They’re at The Great Hall on September 18.

Bob Dylan discusses his new record Tempest, out September 11, with Rolling Stone. He brings it to the Air Canada Centre on November 14.

Pitchfork is has posted the first sample of the new Dum Dum Girls EP End Of Daze, out September 25.

MP3: Dum Dum Girls – “Lord Knows”

The Phoenix New Times and Minnesota Daily talk to Sharon Van Etten.

Another of Wilco’s New York shows from this past week are up to download at NYC Taper.

That unexpected Feist/Mastodon split 7″ released for Record Store Day has yielded a cool interactive video that allows you to choose your preferred ratio of Feist-to-Mastodon. Check it out at Pitchfork.

Video: Feistodon – “A Commotion”

Kathleen Edwards picks her top five albums of the last two decades for CBC Music.

The 405 has a video interview and session with Memoryhouse.

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.

Derek O’DonnellWho: Memoryhouse
What: Toronto dreampop duo putting people to sleep (in the good way) with their debut album The Slideshow Effect.
Why: They’ve been touring the record through America since its release at the end of February and are now bringing it in for an adopted hometown record release show.
When: Friday, April 13, 2012 (Facebook)
Where: The El Mocambo in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Paradise Animals and Volcano Playground will support.
How: Tickets for the show are $13 in advance but courtesy of Embrace and Gold Soundz, I’ve got one pair of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to live in a Memoryhouse” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, April 9.
What else: The band recently stopped in at The AV Club for an Undercover session wherein they covered The Police.

MP3: Memoryhouse – “Walk With Me”
MP3: Memoryhouse – “The Kids Were Wrong”
Video: Memoryhouse – “The Kids Were Wrong”

Katie SadieSo yeah, Canadian Musicfest kind of screwed me over this year. For the past however many years, we’ve had a good arrangement: Canadian Music Week, as it was once know, runs the week before SXSW and allows me to a) get into some semblance of game shape for a club-hopping festival, b) check out some bands that I might otherwise have to find time to see in Austin, and c) allow me to build up a backlog of content to allow me to keep posting while I’m experiencing taco country. Everybody wins. But for this year, for some inexplicable reason, CMW/CMF decided to move to the week AFTER SXSW, not only invalidating all of the above points but also making next week doubly busy as I try to plough through gigs of SXSW content and still hit the clubs for CMF. And oh yeah, go back to work.

All of which would be more acceptable if the schedule shift had been to accomodate some impressive talent in the festival lineup; I don’t think I’m creating any scandals by saying that that is not so much the case. Compared to past years, there’s seems to be a real dearth of either breakout or on-the-cusp acts, be they local or international – or maybe I’m just not up on what the kids are into these days. They still like the I Mother Earth? Really? Anyways, none of this is to say there’s nothing worth seeing next week – not at all – it just might take a little more research to fill out one’s schedule. I’ve done some of that research. Let me share some of it with you.

Army Girls – It’s a bit cruel that the only showcase I could theoretically make for this duo – my pick for the best up-and-coming act in Toronto – is at the most remote venue in the city and appears to be scheduled so that the set’s no longer than 20 minutes, but even so I will bet that it’d be worth the trek. Amazingly hooky guitar pop with the right amount of abrasiveness.

Thursday, March 22, 10:30PM @ Parts & Labour
Friday, March 23, 2:00PM @ The Toronto Institute For The Enjoyment Of Music

Stream: Army Girls / Close To The Bone

Lake Forest – you might think that a solo project from The Wilderness Of Manitoba’s Will Whitwham a touch redundant since he sings lead and writes most of the WOM material, but his debut album Silver Skies stands apart enough to justify itself while offering plenty to appeal to fans of his band.

Thursday, March 22, 1:00AM @ The Cameron House

MP3: Lake Forest – “Autumn Skies”

Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Singer-songwriter whose debut Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm has made him something of a rising star in his native England; nothing wrong with taking the opportunity to see him in an intimate setting in case he catches on similarly over here.

Thursday, March 22, 11:00PM @ The Cameron House
Friday, March 23, 9:10PM @ Supermarket

MP3: Benjamin Francis Leftwich – “Ticket To Ride” (Beatles cover)
Video: Benjamin Francis Leftwich – “Pictures”

Neufvoin – solidly anthemic guitar rock from hailing from the fjords of Norway wilds of Finland. They’re still young – a debut album is supposed to be out this Spring – but they already sound sophisticated and assured. Was originally just looking for something to fill a time slot but now I quite want to see these guys.

Thursday, March 22, 12:30AM @ El Mocambo (upstairs)
Friday, March 23, 9:00PM @ Rancho Relaxo

MP3: Neufvoin – “Drunken Captain”
MP3: Neufvoin – “Polar Song”
MP3: Neufvoin – “Villasukka”
Video: Neufvoin – “Polar Song”

Fred – I’m pretty sure I’ve seen these Cork (Ireland) natives on the lineups for past CMWs and NXNEs both, so they’re no strangers to our city. But if they’re still strangers to you, and you like big, friendly pop-rock of the sort that fills their new record Leaving My Empire, then you ought to get acquainted.

Thursday, March 22, 11:00PM @ The Rivoli

MP3: Fred – “Eleven”
Video: Fred – “Eleven”

Husky – recent signees to SubPop who fit the label’s rustic/bearded division perfectly, despite hailing from Australia rather than the Pacific Northwest. Their debut Forever So is out July 10; get on board now.

Saturday, March 24, 2:45PM @ The El Mocambo
Saturday, March 24, 9:00PM @ The Garrison
Sunday, March 25, 9:00PM @ The Velvet Underground

MP3: Husky – “The Woods”
Video: Husky – “The Woods”

Louise Burns – Vancouver artist whose debut Mellow Drama made my shortlist for the 2010 Polaris Prize; I wasn’t surprised she didn’t make the shortlist but I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had. For some reason, she’s got no official showcase – just this day show. So if you’re free, take advantage of the opportunity. Update: An official showcase has been added.

Wednesday, March 21, 10:00PM @ The Drake Underground
Thursday, March 22, 4:00PM @ The Toronto Institute For The Enjoyment Of Music

MP3: Louise Burns – “What Do You Wanna Do?”
MP3: Louise Burns – “Drop Names Not Bombs”

And this isn’t all I’d recommend at all, but I need to save some stuff for my actual festival coverage, yeah? Yeah. And the full, three-day sched for those Toronto Institute For The Enjoyment Of Music afternoon shows is over here

BlogTO gets to know The Elwins, whom they declare one of the city’s breakout bands for this year. I don’t disagree. Their next show is March 25 at Rancho Relaxo as part of the Canadian Musicfest grace note and if you ever wanted to see the band, along with Luke Lalonde of Born Ruffians cover Beyonce – this is your lucky day. There’s also an interview at Exclaim where they talk about how they personalised their tour down to SXSW for each tour stop.

Video: The Elwins with Luke Lalonde – “Countdown”

Exclaim and The Georgia Straight talk to Memoryhouse; they play a record release show for The Slideshow Effect at The El Mocambo on April 13.

Forest City Lovers have made a date at The Great Hall on April 19. Tickets $12 in advance.

MP3: Forest City Lovers – “Light You Up”

American Songwriter is hosting the second instalment of The Wooden Sky’s “Grace On A Hill” video session series. The band is at The Opera House on April 20.

Billboard talks to Patrick Watson about his new record Adventures In Your Own Backyard, out April 30. He’s at The Music Hall on May 29.

Congratulations to the newly pregnant Coeur de Pirate, who has just released a new video from Blonde.

Video: Coeur de Pirate – “Golden Baby”

Beatrice Martin is also featured in a fashion spread for Brixton. Which in and of itself wouldn’t necessarily be noteworthy, but it also allows me to point at this fashion shoot for The Bay featuring some familiar local musician faces belonging to Diamond Rings and Fucked Up, amongst others. Sassy!

Clash and State profile Grimes. She plays The Horseshoe March 19.

Macleans looks at the ongoing trend of ’90s Can-rock bands hopping on the reunion bandwagon, including The Inbreds and Treble Charger, both of whom are getting high billing at Canadian Musicfest next week.

The Grid salutes Exclaim on the occasion of their 20th anniversary. I am doing the same. Exclaim, I salute you!

Pedro WinterSo yes, Radiohead was far and away the big concert announcement of yesterday, but not far behind was the announcement of the lineup for this year’s HARD, an electronically-oriented festival that’s made Toronto stops the last few years. It’s existed on the periphery of my radar, but the 2012 edition has my firm attention.

HARD will bring some French electro action in electro-disco duo Justice – supporting last year’s Audio, Video, Disco – and retro-futurist shoegazers M83 – marking their third show in Toronto in support of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming – to Fort York on August 4 with Toronto’s own Austra and Portugese dance crew Buraka Som Sistema as the undercard. And if you’re Osheaga or Lollapalooza lineup-spotting, well it seems a safe bet that both fests will have some synthetically Gallic flavour this year.

A national historic site – particularly one that’s celebrating the 200th anniversary of being blown up – seems an odd place for a rave-up, but also somehow perfect. Either way, I’m just super-keen for any kind of festival in the city’s downtown and even though this is maybe dancier than I’d normally hit up, I’m surprisingly keen on it. Tickets are $49 and are on sale now; there were a limited number of $39 early birds, but I think they’re all gone now. Alas.

MP3: Austra – “Lose It”
Video: Justice – “Audio, Video, Disco”
Video: M83 – “Midnight City”
Video: Buraka Som Sistema – “Hangover (BaBaBa)”

Joel Plaskett – who is eight weeks into the recording of his one-song-a-week album Scrappy Happiness – still due out March 27 – has been announced as the main attraction at this year’s Canadian Musicfest kick-off party way up on top of the CN Tower on March 21. Admission is gained only by winning a contest, so if you want to be there, get on that. And if you want to see him a little closer to sea level, there’s still the May 18 and 19 dates at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Spinner and The Globe & Mail talk to Plaskett about the Scrappy Happiness experience so far.

Video: The Joel Plaskett Emergency – “Somewhere Else”

Memoryhouse will play an (adopted) hometown record release show for The Slideshow Effect on April 13 at the El Mocambo.

MP3: Memoryhouse – “The Kids Were Wrong”

With his debut album Acousmatic Sorcery set for an April 3 release, up-and-coming Chicago singer-songwriter Willis Earl Beal has made an April 30 date at The Drake Underground as part of a Spring tour. Pitchfork has a profile on him.

Video: Willis Earl Beal – “Evening’s Kiss”

Los Angeles hippy-rock collective Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes will be at the Kool Haus May 13 to preview songs from their new album Here, due out May 29. Tickets for that are $29.50 in advance.

MP3: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes – “40 Day Dream”

The Big Pink have released a new video from Future This

Video: The Big Pink – “Give It Up”

Pitchfork talks to both Claire Boucher and director Emily Kai Bock about the new Grimes video from Visions; D also has an interview. She plays The Horseshoe on March 19.

Video: Grimes – “Oblivion”

The Guardian talks to folks responsible for creating Chairlift’s new, “choose your own adventure”-styled video from Something. They’ll be at The Horseshoe on March 28.

Video: Chairlift – “Met Before”

Blouse have released a new video from their self-titled debut. They play The Garrison on May 5 supporting Bear In Heaven.

Video: Blouse – “Ghost Dream”

Hot on the heels of the first video from Port Of Morrow – out March 20 – comes a second one from The Shins, though this much simpler than the one for “Simple Song”. At this rate, there’ll be clips for every song on the album by the time they hit The Molson Amphitheatre on August 4, opening for The Black Keys.

Video: The Shins – “Bait And Switch”

Bjork goes all “fantastic voyage” in the new video from Biophilia, just premiered at NPR.

Video: Bjork – “Hollow”