Doron GildThere’s a lot of New York in Eyelid Movies, the debut album from the duo of Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel known as Phantogram, and while the pair do indeed have Empire State license plates on their cars, they don’t hail from a Brooklyn bedsit or East Village walk-up, but the town of Greenwich way upstate – as close to Montreal as it is to Manhattan.

But you couldn’t tell that from just listening to the record – Its synthetic dream-pop owes a lot to bands who hail from Gotham, recalling in particular recent Blonde Redhead, though poppier and dancier than that trio. The similarities lie in their borrowing ideas liberally from a wide range of styles, incorporating meaty synth textures, cut-and-paste sampled hip-hop beats and guitars that are as inclined to jangle as drone and tying them together with a devotion to melody and Barthel and Carter’s contrasting vocals – hers dulcet and emotive, his rougher and anguished. It’s a combination that makes for an interesting yet accessible listen that’s honest in its influences while crafting its own identity.

Eyelid Movies is out February 9, and is currently streaming in its entirety at NPR. They set out on an east coast tour this week that stops at the Drake Underground in Toronto on February 20. Bloginity.com has an interview with Josh Carter.

MP3: Phantogram – “When I’m Small”
Stream: Phantogram / Eyelid Movies

PitchforkTV has a fancy video session with Beach House while Daytrotter has posted an audio session you can download for your very own. Not wanting to feel left out, Grand Crew points out they’ve got a complete show from last Summer in Paris to watch. The San Francisco Chronicle also has an interview with the duo, whom you can see at the Opera House on March 30.

Pitchfork talks to The National’s Matt Berninger about their new album, which is due out in May and has yet to be titled. They are at Massey Hall on June 8.

Filter has a two-part interview with The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, while Exclaim reveals that one of his upcoming projects will be performing a live score to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea – the 1916 silent film, not the Kirk Douglas-powered Disney version. Also newsworthy is the fact that 69 Love Songs is being reissued as a set of six 10″ LPs limited to only 3000 editions. You can pre-order it now with delivery coming around the April 20 release date. The Magnetic Fields are at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre next Monday evening.

MTV gets The Shins’ James Mercer to clarify statements made to NME about the band’s hiatus and his current involvement in Broken Bells with Danger Mouse, whose self-titled debut comes out March 9. Short version – Broken Bells now, Shins next year. Probably. Here’s their first video.

Video: Broken Bells – “The High Road”

JamBase converses with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats.

If you missed the free download of The Denton Sessions from The Guardian this weekend, it’s up for grabs at the Midlake website and the interview at The Guardian is still up. Their new album The Courage Of Others is out today.

Spinner talks to Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg about The Golden Dossier booklet which will accompany The Golden Archipelago on its release come February 23. They play Lee’s Palace on April 1.

NPR is streaming a live show by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists on the World Cafe last week. Their new album The Brutalist Bricks is out March 9.

And moving onto the concert announcements portion of the post – Snailhouse and Evening Hymns team up for a show at the Tranzac on March 25, admission $10 at the door.

MP3: Evening Hymns – “Broken Rifle”
Video: Snailhouse – “Salvation Army”

Jon Langford will team up with his Sadies for a show at the Horseshoe on March 26, tickets $13.50.

It’s ladies’ night at the Phoenix on April 9, when Girls and Dum Dum Girls roll in as part of a Spring tour. Girls are still riding last year’s Album while Dum Dum Girls’ debut I Will Be arrives March 30.

MP3: Girls – “Laura”
MP3: Girls – “Lust For Life””
MP3: Dum Dum Girls – “Jail La La”

The Album Leaf will set out this Winter and Spring on a North American tour in support of their new album A Chorus Of Storytellers, out today, and stop in at Lee’s Palace on April 28 – tickets $12.50, Sea Wolf support.

MP3: The Album Leaf – “Falling From The Sun”
MP3: Sea Wolf – “Wicked Blood”

Let’s Wrestle – discussed previously – have been added as support for Quasi’s upcoming east coast tour, including the April 18 date at the Horseshoe. Let’s Wrestle’s debut In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s gets a North American release on March 23 while Quasi’s American Gong is out February 23.

MP3: Quasi – “Repulsion”
MP3: Let’s Wrestle – “We Are The Men You’ll Grow To Love Soon”

Anyone who’s ever asked exactly what is meant by “gypsy punk” would do well to be at the Sound Academy on April 20 when Gogol Bordello and DeVotchKa come to town. Gogol’s live Live From Axis Mundi came out last year while DeVotchKa’s last release was 2008’s A Mad And Faithful Telling, though they haven’t been to Toronto since June 2006 – far, far too long.

MP3: Gogol Bordello – “Wonderlust King” (BBC Sessions)
MP3: Gogol Bordello – “Troubled Friends” (Gypsy Punk Sessions)
MP3: DeVotchKa – “Transliterator”
MP3: DeVotchKa – “Along The Way”

Sigur Ros can easily sell out Massey Hall, but for frontman gone solo Jonsi to schedule two (2) nights at the Sound Academy – April 30 and May 1 – to perform numbers from his solo album Go… well it’s ambitious. To say the least. The album is out March 23. Either they’re expecting it to be a hit or want their fans to have lots of elbow room.

MP3: Jonsi – “Boy Lilikoi”

NonesuchI recently finished reading Our Noise, the book about Merge Records’ 20th anniversary (which is excellent and highly recommended, by the way), and was struck by three of the bands covered in-depth, and the paths they’ve taken. There was Spoon, who despite becoming more successful with each album have chosen to stick with the label that got them there; Neutral Milk Hotel, who retired after crafting their masterpiece; and The Magnetic Fields, who used their own career-defining work as a stepping stone to the majors, and a deal with Nonesuch. And much like the problem of a sports team signing a free agent player after a career year, there was no guarantee that they’d ever be able to repeat the feat.

While hardly idle in the past decade – Stephin Merritt has tried his hand at soundtracks and musicals – the output from the formerly prolific Magnetic Fields has slowed down considerably, with this week’s Realism only their third release in the past decade and, perhaps more importantly, the final part of their self-declared “no synths” trilogy. Important not so much because it represents the climax of another creative masterwork, but because the return to synthesized sounds on the next record will hopefully mean a return to form for the band.

This is not to suggest that the problems with The Magnetic Fields’ 21st century output have been chiefly tied to their choice of instrumentation or their choice of label. It’s just that since the concepts behind their albums switched from thematic to aesthetic, they’ve been consistently less memorable. And it’s not that writing songs whose titles began with the letter “i” – as on i – or are recorded with an early Jesus & Mary Chain production style – as on the aptly-titled Distortion – couldn’t yield good records; it’s just that they haven’t been up to the standard of earlier Magnetic Fields works and I’d rather blame the conceit than the creator.

Realism‘s angle is that it’s the folk-pop record, recorded almost completely with acoustic instruments, and as such it’s sonically lovely; the guitars, strings and woodwinds far more pleasing to these ears, at least, than the unrelenting square wave-ism of Distortion. On the songwriting side of things, however, it sadly fits with its predecessors as feeling decidedly detached and not measuring up to what Merritt has already proven himself capable of. Certainly it’s melodic and more than few clever turns of phrase, but the honest, emotional vulnerability that was present in his Merge-era work and which seemed to evaporate post-Love Songs remains elusive, hidden behind a shield of irony. But Merritt has always been more interested in the craftsmanship of the song rather than its potential as a means of personal, emotional expression so perhaps this isn’t a surprise, and more the natural and inevitable evolution of his art. I personally hope that’s not the case, and somewhere in the closet with all his synths also lies his heart and they’ll all be back in play with the next record.

The Magnetic Fields play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on February 8. Exclaim has assembled a timeline following the career of Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields. The National Post, CBC, Metro Weekly, Spinner, Pitchfork and Drowned In Sound all have interviews with Merritt and DiS also has a stream of the album. There’s also a series of videos about the making of the record over at Nonesuch and How Fucking Romantic is a wonderful blog dedicated to rendering 69 Love Songs in illustration.

MP3: The Magnetic Fields – “Everything Is One Big Christmas”
Video: The Magnetic Fields – “We Are Having A Hootenanny”
Stream: The Magnetic Fields / Realism
MySpace: The Magnetic Fields

Exclaim and NPR have interviews with Spoon. They’re at the Sound Academy on March 29.

Paper and The Baltimore Sun have feature interviews with Beach House, whose Teen Dream was finally released this week. Of all the videos they briefly premiered last week, the one for “Silver Soul” has stuck around. The others can be seen on the DVD component of the album. They play the Opera House on March 30.

Video: Beach House – “Silver Soul”

Prefix talks to Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasser and Andy Stack. They’ll be at Lee’s Palace on April 1 opening up for Shearwater.

Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg has penned a piece for The Huffington Post on the topics of climate change and population explosion. Their new album The Golden Archipelago is out February 23.

Dallas Observer has a huge feature on Midlake while The Line Of Best Fit and QuickDFW interview frontman Tim Smith. Their new album The Courage Of Others is out next week but streaming at NPR now, while The Guardian will be giving away five studio session tracks from the band this Saturday.

Stream: Midlake / The Courage Of Others

Pitchfork has some details on and a stream of a new song from Joanna Newsom’s forthcoming triple – you read that right – album Have One On Me, out March 23. She plays The Phoenix on March 13.

Tulsa World interviews Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan.

Sterogum gets a progress report from School Of Seven Bells on their second album Disconnect From Desire, due out this Spring.

Spinner talks to Rogue Wave’s Zach Schwartz about their new record Permalight, due out March 2. They’re at the Mod Cub on February 26.

MP3: Rogue Wave – “Good Morning”

Black Book talks to Steve Earle.

Full dates for the Serena Maneesh North American tour have been announced, but contrary to what the listing says the April 2 Toronto show will indeed be at The Great Hall, as previously reported, and not the Opera House. I asked; it’s cool. S-M 2: Abyss In B Minor is still out March 23 and a second MP3 from the record has just been put out into the world.

MP3: Serena Maneesh – “I Just Want To See Your Face”

Frank YangThe post title, taken from one of the song titles on Superioryouareinferior, kind of says it all. Since discovering Albertan Rae Spoon’s 2008 release earlier this year and slipping it onto my Polaris ballot, I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to see him play live. And while most of the Summer was spent overseas, the Fall brought some local dates including last night’s show at the Rivoli.

“Noise”, however, isn’t the first word I’d use to describe Spoon’s music. Delicate? Certainly. Affecting? Absolutely. Noisy? Well, come to think of it, it’s not inappropriate. Spoon’s voice – high, tremulous and possessed of a light twang and operating at the resonant frequency of heart-rending – is made for the quiet, folk-country that makes up a large part of his repertoire, but his ambitions range well beyond that particular nook, as this show would prove.

The show began with just Spoon, his acoustic guitar and songs of exactly the sort of aforementioned stark beauty but this wouldn’t be a set of vulnerable, heart-on-sleeve weepers. Spoon’s between- and during-song anecdotes were too funny and entertaining for the mood to get maudlin, and it wasn’t long before the laptop at his side was brought in for rhythm and loop duties and then the distortion pedal at his feet. Noise? Yes. In addition to material from Superioryouareinferior, there were selections from Worauf wartest du? his concept album with Alexandre Decoupigny about the Berlin subway and a few new songs including one foray into electro-pop that sounded like the most natural (and catchy) thing in the world. Pigeonhole Rae Spoon as a sensitive singer-songwriter at your peril. Tourmates Mark Bragg & The Butchers joining him onstage for “Come On Forest Fire Burn The Disco Down” (fitting, since Rajiv from Oh No Forest Fires was handling bass), closing out a set that was short but almost everything I’d hoped it would be. I’d drop the “almost” if he’d deigned to play “Great Lakes”, but that’s a negligible complaint.

Rae Spoon’s eastern Canadian tour continues through November and swings back in December, where he has another Toronto date on December 5 at the Tranzac.

Photos: Rae Spoon @ The Rivoli – November 11, 2009
MP3: Rae Spoon – “Come On Forest Fire Burn The Disco Down”
Stream: Rae Spoon / Superioryouareinferior
MySpace: Rae Spoon

Chart talks to Joel Gibb of The Hidden Cameras while Spinner solicits a list of Gentleman Reg’s five favourite covers. Reg opens up for The Hidden Cameras at The Opera House on December 5 and releases his Heavy Head EP on December 2.

eye previews The Wooden Sky’s show at Lee’s Palace tomorrow night.

Digital Spy interviews Patrick Wolf.

Jarvis Cocker talks film in a couple interviews with The Quietus, discussing his voice acting role in Fantastic Mr. Fox animated feature, in theatres this Friday, and contributing songs to the Russell Brand vehicle Get Him To The Greek, out next year.

Ladytron’s Reuben Wu tells Spinner that the band’s 10th anniversary seemed as good a reason as any for assembling their first best-of collection, due out mid-2010.

Check out the new, ultra-nude, ultra-NSFW Flaming Lips video. Then go wash your eyes. Then read this interview with Wayne Coyne at The Quietus.

Video: The Flaming Lips – “Watching The Planets”

Pitchfork talks to Midlake’s Tim Smith about their new album The Courage of Others, out February 2.

You know things are slowing down in blog-land when I have to resort to getting a show review up the next morning to put a post together and it’s still this short.

MySpaceOpening up with the sound of bird noises might be a bit of an over-sell, but forgiveness comes easily when the multi-layered harmonies of Toronto’s The Wilderness Of Manitoba arrive and usher in their debut EP, Hymns Of Love And Spirits. Sharing members with Provincial Parks and Key Witness, The Wilderness of Manitoba come with a very clear and direct mandate – to craft gentle, intricate folk songs of the sort that no one seems to make anymore. Of course, that’s a mandate that many have taken on in recent years and so, ironically, there’s a good number of artists presently making those sorts of songs.

The Wilderness Of Manitoba still manage to stand tall amongst their peers, however, and stand out. Obviously drawing inspiration from both the English and American folk revivals of the 1960s, they place an emphasis on choral vocals that give the mini-album a certain dreamy quality that splits the difference between spiritual and ghostly. The musical arrangements are similarly kept ethereal, all gentle acoustic guitar, spare percussion with an occasional guest appearance from a banjo, cello or keys and carried aloft on a plush cloud of reverb. It’s a record that drifts by prettily, seemingly untethered from earthly concerns yet tangible enough to still carry a very real emotional heft. It haunts, like a fond but faded memory.

The Wilderness Of Manitoba are playing The Garrison tomorrow night with Olenka & The Autumn Lovers and Slow Down Molasses. BlogTO interviewed the band at the end of the Summer while The Line Of Best Fit had a more recent conversation.

MP3: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “Bluebirds”

Timber Timbre has made his self-titled debut available as a free download through the end of Saturday, October 31. He plays a free show at the North York Central Library on November 7. It’s all about the free.

MP3: Timber Timbre – “Demon Host”
Video: Timber Timbre – “Demon Host”
Video: Timber Timbre – “We’ll Find Out”
ZIP: Timber Timbre / Timber Timbre

Examiner.com talks to Liz Powell of Land Of Talk.

Blurt reports that Midlake will finally release their new record The Courage of Others on February 2.

Fazer has got an interview with Logan Kroeber of The Dodos.

Tiny Mix Tapes talks to Thao. Aaah, that’s some good alliteration right there. Thao plays the El Mocambo on November 1.

The Quietus asks Alison Mosshart what’s up with each of her bands, The Kills and The Dead Weather – new records from both in 2010. There you go.

PitchforkTV has added a video interview segment with Yo La Tengo to go with their Don’t Look Down session performances. The Skinny, San Diego News Network, The San Francisco Examiner and Vail Daily also have interviews.

Magnet picks their five most overrated and underrated Galaxie 500 songs. Is it really possible for a band that’s chronically underrated to have overrated songs?

Sweden’s Shout Out Louds have completed their new album and named it Work – look for it February 23 of next year.

Mid to late December is usually a real dead zone for tours coming through town, so what are the odds that two shows I’d want to see would arrive on the same night? Apparently pretty good. There’s no way I’m not going to be seeing Fanfarlo at the El Mocambo that night, but am sad that it means missing seeing Blue Roses – aka English singer-songwriter Laura Groves who released a lovely self-titled debut back in the Spring – at the Drake Underground, opening up for Marcus Foster, whom I don’t know at all. There’s no reason I can think of not to be at Fanfarlo, but if you can come up with one it better be because you’re at this show instead.

MP3: Blue Roses – “Doubtful Comforts”
MP3: Blue Roses – “I Am Leaving”

It’s not new album news, per se, but NME’s reporting that Lightspeed Champion will have a new single out entitled “Marlene” on January 25 is certainly a good omen that record number two is coming.

Exclaim talks to The xx. They’re at the Phoenix on December 2.

Frank YangIt’s been almost a year since Caribou’s Dan Snaith walked off the stage, giant cheque in hand, having been crowned the 2008 Polaris Music Prize winner for his stunning record Andorra. But since then, things have been largely silent in camp Caribou since then, as Snaith was presumably hard at work on the follow-up record.

Then in May, word of a live show for the Fall. Not a tour, but the sort of special event that happens when Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips calls up and asks you to come out of hiding and play a show at an old country club in the Catskills, aka ATPNY. And as befits such an occasion, rather than just call up his usual co-conspirators and play a typical Caribou show, Snaith went through his rolodex, gathered together folks from Four Tet, Junior Boys and Enon, amongst many others, and essentially assembled a super-sized Caribou, an uber-Caribou – The Caribou Vibration Ensemble.

So while the ATP performance this past weekend in Monticello, New York was the big event, Thursday night’s show at the Opera House in Toronto was much more than just a dress rehearsal. The opening act for the evening however, Koushik, may have been. Though Koushik is billed as a downbeat electronic/pop/hip-hop artist, on this night he/they were essentially 3/4 of the Caribou Vibration Ensemble – of which Koushik Ghosh was part of – in jamming mode. Not jamming in the sense of everyone on stage trading solos, but more establishing a solid, unshowy groove and building simple melodies over top. They played pretty much straight through, trading instruments and letting things go where they would, then wrapping it after about 30 minutes – right about where hypnotic began to give way to tedious. Wise.

After about a half-hour intermission, Caribou took the stage, less a band than an orchestra with distinct sections (brass over here, massive percussion setup in the middle, strings in back, keys and electronics over here) and at a full fifteen members, dwarfed the nine-piece configuration of the openers. Now at this point, I have to offer context – or lack of. I’d only gotten into Caribou during the Polaris process last year, so I’d never seen them live and further had never really listened to any of the albums previous to Andorra, so frames of reference for the performance and reinvention of the songs is limited at best. But in this instance, I think that’s alright because doing things the way they were was entirely beside the point of the evening.

Across approximately 90 minutes and ranging through the two Caribou records and one Manitoba album, the Ensemble took Snaith’s already widescreen compositions and enhanced by an impressive light show, blew them up into IMAX-scale. Describable at various points thought the set – and sometimes within a song – as electronica, jazz, tribal, psychedelic or noise but never losing sight of the pop roots, the Caribou Vibration Ensemble was a sight to behold and a sound to be heard. The high points would have been the vocal numbers – a choral “Melody Day” and Jeremy Greenspan-sung “She’s The One” – had they been properly audible. Note to sound guy – when six people gather around the mics at the front of the stage, that might be a hint that you should turn them on in the PA. As it was, from up front they were still audible enough to impress but those should have been the show-stoppers.

Those complaints aside, it was still a wholly impressive and memorable evening and I can only imagine how terrific their set was at ATP – surely standouts of an absurdly stacked lineup. And now Snaith returns to crafting the third Caribou record and the rest of us return to waiting patiently, though he’s already on record as saying it will be a departure from the classic pop of Andorra. Holding up this experience as a benchmark for future Caribou live performances is also probably unreasonable, but that’s fine – it works quite well as one of those unique experiences that I feel lucky to have been able to witness. eye and Exclaim have reviews of the show while NOW was on hand to catch some video.

Photos: The Caribou Vibration Ensemble, Koushik @ The Opera House – September 10, 2009
MP3: Caribou – “Melody Day”
MP3: Caribou – “Barnowl”
Video: Caribou – “She’s The One”
Video: Caribou – “Melody Day”
Video: Caribou – “Irene”
Video: Caribou – “Hummingbird”
MySpace: Caribou
MySpace: Koushik

And to anyone who enjoyed – as I did – watching Caribou’s touring drummer Brad Weber beat the tar out of his kit for both the Caribou and Koushik sets, note that he has his own band in Pick A Piper and they will be at the Horseshoe this coming Friday, September 18, as part of the 100th show celebrations for local promoters No Shame. Also playing are Green Go, Ruby Coast and The Skeletones Four. This is something you should attend.

Land Of Talk have released a new MP3 from their forthcoming Fun & Laughter EP, out October 13. It dost scorch.

MP3: Land Of Talk – “May You Never”

The Hidden Cameras have finally added the hometown finale to their massive Fall tour in support of new album Origin:Orphan, out September 22, by scheduling what’s sure to be an over-the-top show at the Opera House on December 5.

Video: The Hidden Cameras – “In The NA”

And if you don’t want to wait till Winter for a little Hidden Cameras fix, consider heading out to James St in Hamilton come October 9 for Supercrawl, a combination street fair, art show and music festival that will be headlined by the aforementioned Hidden Cameras and also feature performances from Ohbijou and many more. And it’s an excuse to go to Hamilton. Who doesn’t want to go to Hamilton?

A whole mess of new videos meeting Can-con requirements hit the web last week. Great Lake Swimmers released a new one from Lost Channels. There’s features on the band at The Courier-Journal and Nashville Scene.

Video: Great Lake Swimmers – “Still”

ChartAttack talks to Amy Millan about her new solo record Masters Of The Burial, out next week, as well as what’s going on with her bands Stars and Broken Social Scene. She plays the Mod Club on October 14 and has a new video from her new album.

Video: Amy Millan – “Bury This”

Also with a new vid are Cuff The Duke, who’ve got a two-night stand at the Horseshoe on October 16 and 17. There’s interviews with the band at Metro and The Corrie Tandem.

Video: Cuff The Duke – “Promises”

Oh No Forest Fires went wandering in a Newfoundland forest and refrained from setting any fires, instead they shot a live video. They’re part of a stacked bill at Lee’s Palace next Friday night, September 25, with The Balconies, Fox Jaws and Whale Tooth.

Video: Oh No Forest Fires – “New Cove Road Back Home” (Live in a Forest)

ChartAttack spends some time with Two Hours Traffic. They’ve got a gig at Lee’s Palace on October 16.

Threadless has a video interview with t-shirt models The Rural Alberta Advantage, and they’re also asking for help to name a new song.

The Line Of Best Fit declared last week Bella Union week, in honour of the UK label who brings the likes of Ohbijou and The Acorn to adoring British masses, and in an apparent show of solidarity with the label’s website, which went AWOL, TLOBF too went offline. But they’re back now and I can point you at a few of the features they offered including a guide to west Scotland from My Latest Novel, an interview between label boss Simon Raymonde and Midlake (new album forthcoming entitled The Courage of Others) and Ohbijou have put together a “get to know Canada” crossword puzzle. Of course, Line Of Best Fit readers are already well-acquainted with the Great White North thanks to their series of Oh! Canada posts and mixes, the fourth volume of which is now available to download.