Frank YangIt seems a bit ridiculous to say that I was in New York City on Friday night with nothing to do, but right up until the middle of last week, it looked like that was what it was going to be. Which isn’t to say I would have spent the evening watching television in my hotel room… but that was certainly not beyond the realm of possibility. I’d been considering hitting up the Friday night show of NYC Popfest, despite not knowing any of the acts on the bill, mainly because Don Hill’s was conveniently located just down Greenwich Ave from my hotel, but when the “special guest” was revealed to be The Radio Dept playing a second show in addition to the one I’d booked this whole trip to see, well that sealed it.

Doors for the show opened some 70 minutes later than scheduled, so there wasn’t hardly anyone inside when local solo act Don Lennon started the evening off. An acoustic singer-songwriter sort, Lennon’s songs were interesting, tuneful and topical and certainly clever, but not especially funny. Which isn’t to suggest that lyrical cleverness needs to be delivered with humour, but Lennon’s narratives seemed to be all set up and no punchline – or maybe he was just more deadpan than I was capable of appreciating.

Los Angelenos The Tartans required no such close examination to appreciate – they wore their influences and the sound on their cardigan sleeves. The five-piece band were like factory issue twee-pop with bouncy rhythms, boy-girl harmonies, instrument and lead vocal swapping and strategically-placed melodica, glockenspiel and handclaps… but while they certainly nailed the look, they only managed to graze the sound. Certainly, their tunes were peppy, sing-song friendly and melody-laden but the lacked the sort of personality that would have been necessary to really make an impression. On the plus side, they were still very much a new band and obviously talented – there’s no reason to think that with time, the substance and focus won’t come. But at the moment, they’re not there.

The Radio Dept, I will cover tomorrow along with their headlining performance at The Bell House in Brooklyn. Patience!

I wasn’t completely truthful when I said earlier that I knew nothing of the bands playing this show – I’d gotten a few mailings last week about Swedish trio Liechtenstein, so I had a notion of what to expect from them. Unfortunately, while the samples I’d been given held some promise, their live experience didn’t do much to deliver on that. With their ’50s-primitivist retro-pop sound, the best parallel I can draw is Vivian Girls, but while Liechtenstein are unquestionably better musicians and are arguably pursuing more interesting creative paths, they don’t make it sound especially catchy – and if you’re playing something called Popfest, you better have some hooks at the ready. Their new record Survival Strategies is out June 2.

I realize that I’ve sounded rather down on everything covered so far, but don’t interpret that as my having a bad time – none of it was by any means bad, simply unimpressive and when you’re facing a large bill with a lot of unknowns, you’re hoping at least one of them will turn out to be a genuinely pleasant surprise rather than just a way to pass the time. Final band Cats On Fire, over all the way from Finland, didn’t out and out wow me but they certainly managed to get me to overcome my disdain for their name and wrapped things up on a high note. Charming and upbeat and hailing from the Smiths school of pop, they didn’t necessarily do anything new – new isn’t really the motivating factor for a lot of indiepop – but they did it well and with vigor. Mattias Bjorkas was an animated and entertaining frontman, all archness and gyrations, delivering tunes from their newly-released album Our Temperance Movement amongst others. After a sweaty set they were called back for an encore and had the crowd properly worked up for the indie-pop dance party that followed. Me, I went back to the hotel and got some sleep.

Photos: Cats On Fire, Liechtenstein, The Radio Dept, The Tartans, Don Lennon @ Don Hill’s – May 15, 2009
MP3: Cats On Fire – “Horoscope”
MP3: Liechtenstein – “Roses In The Park”
MP3: The Tartans – “My Baby Doesn’t Care For You”
Video: Cats On Fire – “Tears In Your Cup”
Video: Liechtenstein – “Security By Design”
Video: Don Lennon – “Last Comic Standing”
Video: Don Lennon – “Where Is The New Adventure”
MySpace: Cats On Fire
MySpace: Liechtenstein
MySpace: The Tartans
MySpace: Don Lennon

The Yorkshire Evening Post interviews A Camp’s Nina Persson and Spin has a couple MP3s available to download – the new single and an acoustic version of a track from Colonia. A Camp play the Mod Club on June 1.

MP3: A Camp – “Love Has Left The Room”
MP3: A Camp – “I Signed The Line” (Harlem Session)

Denmark’s Mew manage to take the blue ribbon for most ridiculous album title of the year. No More Stories Are Told Today I’m Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories The World Is Grey I’m Tired Let’s Wash Away is out August 25.

Dazed Digital has the premiere of the new video from Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, out May 29, as well as an interview with Christian Mazzalai from the band. They’re at the Phoenix on June 15.

Video: Phoenix – “1901”

Dallas Morning News and Metromix talk to Annie Clark, aka St Vincent. She’s finally announced a Toronto date and will be at Lee’s Palace on August 8 – via For The Records.

Underworld are at the Kool Haus on August 11.

For a limited time – like the rest of today – NME is offering a couple downloads to mark the release of the new Manic Street Preachers album Journal For Plague Lovers. A remix by The Horrors, James Dean Bradfield’s favourite new band and one of many contributing to a forthcoming remix album of Plague Lovers, and a cover of The Horrors’ “Vision Blurred” from Primary Colours by the Manics.

MP3: Manic Street Preachers – “Doors Closing Slowly” (Horrors remix)
MP3: Manic Street Preachers – “Vision Blurred”

NPR welcomes AC Newman to the World Cafe for a session.

Telekinesis and An Horse are teaming up for a Summer tour that includes a June 10 stop at the Horseshoe. There’s new videos from both and an MP3 from the Aussies to whet your appetite for the gig.

MP3: An Horse – “Camp Out”
Video: Telekinesis – “Awkward Kisser”
Video: An Horse – “Camp Out”

The Washington Post interviews The Thermals.

MySpaceThe first A Camp album came at an interesting time, with The Cardigans having proven themselves not just a one-hit wonder but a two-hit one (“My Favourite Game” to go along with “Lovefool”) but also rather burning out in the process. Nina Persson used the downtime to explore country music and Americana with the assistance of Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous and not only crafted an excellent record in their self-titled debut, but carried the influences back to The Cardigans to inform my personal favourite of their repertoire, Long Gone Before Daylight. That stylistic uniformity went out the window with their next record, the eclectic but still very solid Super Extra Gravity and with the Cardies again on a break, Persson has taken that grab-bag aesthetic back to A Camp.

Colonia, released in Europe last week but not out in North America until April 28, collects 11 songs that could have been Cardigans tunes in another life but could never be mistaken as such in the forms that they’ve been recorded in here. With the formal addition of Persson’s husband Nathan Larson (of Shudder To Think) and Niclas Frisk as members of A Camp, it’s now more of an official band than before but rather than imprint that band with a particular sonic identity, they instead reinvent themselves in whatever way necessary to compliment the songs. Persson’s vocals are unmistakable but the sounds that surround it incorporate elements of show tunes, electronica, glam and country to name just a very few – there’s enough of everything to make it sound familiar but never to the point of being able to place a song in a tidy pigeonhole.

If there’s a common thread, it’s the sonic richness and elegance each song is imbued with. No matter what they put in it, it sounds marvelous, even if some songs are less memorable than others. But the keepers are worth cherishing – “My America” is buoyed by jaunty horns, the languidness of “Chinatown” beautifully channels Television in its guitar lines and lead single “Stronger Than Jesus” boasts a melody that’s as indelible as anything Persson’s ever come up with. Though I wish as much as any fan that the Cardies break will be a short one – apparently Persson’s bandmates are all using the time to tend to fatherly duties – if it continues to yield more A Camp records then there’ll be no word of complaint from me.

Persson is engaged in conversation by The Sunday Mail, The Telegraph and The Independent. And perhaps as a way of making up for the fact that the album isn’t out domestically for another three months, Nettwerk have made available a live session MP3 of “Stronger Than Jesus”. Update: Stereogum is streaming another song from the record and talk to Nina about it.

MP3: A Camp – “Stronger Than Jesus” (Harlem Session)
Video: A Camp – “Stronger Than Jesus”
MySpace: A Camp

The Toronto Sun, The Province, Montreal Mirror and CityPages interview Lykke Li.

Spin gets a sneak preview of the new album from Mew, currently untitled but targeted for a June release.

There’s new videos from both bands playing The Phoenix on April 25 – Peter Bjorn & John, whose Living Thing is out March 25, and Chairlift.

Video: Peter Bjorn & John – “Nothing To Worry About”
Video: Chairlift – “Evident Utensil”

Also with a new video – School Of Seven Bells.

Video: School Of Seven Bells – “Half Asleep”

Check out the title track of The Thermals’ new album Now We Can See, set for release on April 7.

MP3: The Thermals – “Now We Can See”

Some in-stores of note to tell you about. The Von Bondies will hit up Criminal Records this Friday, February 13, at 5PM before heading down the street for their show at the Horseshoe. And next weekend,Alela Diane, whose To Be Still is coming out next Tuesday, will be at Soundscapes on February 21 at 6:30PM in advance of her show at the Horseshoe that evening opening for Blitzen Trapper and the next day (February 22) at 3PM, Sonic Boom will host Ben Kweller leading up to his show at the Mod Club that evening.

MP3: Alela Diane – “White As Diamonds”
Video: Alela Diane – “White As Diamonds”
Video: Ben Kweller – “Fight”

The National are returning. They’re at the Kool Haus on May 21, tickets $24.50.

And finally, The Chicago Sun-Times weighs in on what could be the most disturbing bit of music industry news in a sea of disturbing music industry news, the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. No good can come of this, none at all. But my question is – how does this affect the Canadian divisions of those respective companies? I ask because I remember way back in the ’90s when Pearl Jam were boycotting all US TicketMaster venues, they still played TM-serviced venues up here and said that was because TicketMaster Canada was a separate entity from the US one they were protesting. Though it could/should have been pointed out that even if that were true from a corporate POV, they were still as asshat-acular as their Stateside counterparts when it came to price gouging and exorbitant service charges. And do you have to have bought tickets for a specific show to take part in the class action suit or can you just be generally irritated?