Cat StevensloresThe general assumption as to whoy Teenage Fanclub release albums so infrequently – 2010’s Shadows was just their third effort in the 21st century, assuming you count 2000 as part of this millenium – is that despite having three superb songwriters in their ranks, they just work very, very slowly; if this is true, then clearly bassist Gerard Love isn’t the limiting factor. Based on Electric Cables, the debut album from his solo project as Lightships, he has no shortage of songs at the ready and most are as good as anything he’s contributed to the Fannies over the past decade.

Backed by a band of Scottish all-stars recruited from Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian and The Pastels, Love has crafted a record of gorgeously bucolic pop songs marked by Love’s airy vocals and guitar and flute lines gently bouncing off of one another. The notes aren’t content to simply jangle and decay, but rather hang suspended, shimmering in the air. Cables possesses enough energy and buzz to keep from coming across as too ephemeral, but the prevailing vibe is the return of and a return to nature and given the prevalence of pastoral themes in the song titles – “Photosynthesis”, “Sunlight To The Dawn”, “Muddy Rivers” to name a few – one can only assume that this is deliberate and not just a happy coincidence.

Let this be your soundtrack to Spring, and if it just so happens to linger in your ears through the rest of the seasons, then so be it. Norman Blake may have been first with his breezy Jonny side-project and while he’s not fronting it, it’s good to see Raymond McGinley active extra-circularly in Snowgoose, but Lightships is what every Fannies fan hopes for in a Teenage Fanclub side-project in that it sounds like Teenage Fanclub. Which is to say beautiful.

Video: Lightships – “Sweetness In Her Spark”
Video: Lightships – “Two Lines”
Stream: Lightships / Electric Cables

NPR is streaming the whole of Spiritualized’s Sweet Heart Sweet Light ahead of its release next week. Rolling Stone talks to Jason Pierce about the new album and Pitchfork finds out what he was thinking when he selected the album art. They play The Phoenix on May 5.

Stream: Spiritualized / Sweet Heart Sweet Light

JAM, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Georgia Straight talk to Elvis Costello about busting out the “The Spectacular Spinning Songbook” for his recent tours, though it won’t be in play when he’s at Casino Rama on April 19 – guess they prefer people do their gambling on the casino floor than in the theatre. The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook live CD/DVD culled from the Summer 2011 leg of the tour came out last week.

Pitchfork points out that Field Music are streaming their contribution to this year’s Record Store Day release schedule; a 7″ featuring a cover of Pet Shop Boys’ “Rent”, which kicked off a mini PSB marathon over these parts; never a bad thing.

Stream: Field Music – “Rent”

Daytrotter has posted a session with Clock Opera, whose debut Ways To Forget was supposed to be out now but has been pushed back until April 23 in the UK.

DIY talks to Mystery Jets about their new album Radlands, due out April 30. They’re at The Sound Academy on June 19 in support of Keane.

Interview talks to Hot Chip about their new record In Our Heads, coming out June 12 and justifying a visit to the Sound Academy on July 15.

Stylist talks fashion with Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine. She’s at the Molson Amphitheatre on August 2.

Loud & Quiet talks to Trailer Trash Tracys.

Django Django have released a new video from their self-titled debut.

Video: Django Django – “Storm”

The Quietus tags along with British Sea Power as the band plays a concert at the CERN project in Switzerland.

Slicing Up Eyeballs has complete video of one of The Wedding Present’s shows at SXSW last month.

In the, “karmic balance for Anglophiles” department: Jarvis Cocker and Kevin Shields, in conversation with Shortlist and Pitchfork respectively, reveal that new material from both Pulp and My Bloody Valentine could be in the works – Pulp were also on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night – but Damon Albarn tells The Guardian in very few uncertain terms that Blur – and Gorillaz if you care about Gorillaz – are probably over following a final single and the Hyde Park show this Summer. DIY looks at what the definitive end of Blur would mean for the band’s legacy.

New to my ears lately are Swedish duo The Deer Tracks, whose two mini-albums so far – The Archer Trilogy P1 1 and The Archer Trilogy Pt. 2 (part three is out this Fall) – remind me not a little of early Múm, which is a good thing indeed. Also good is their North American tour this Summer is missing a Toronto date at the moment, but there’s a conspicuous two-day gap between Chicago and Montreal that just happens to fall during NXNE. So yeah.

MP3: The Deer Tracks – “Dark Passenger”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Ram Ram”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Fra Ro Raa / Ro Ra Fraa”

Pitchfork reports that another co-ed Swedish duo with a penchant for electronics – jj – will release a new single/EP/something entitled jj n° 4 on May 8, and the first track from it is now available to download.

MP3: jj – “Beautiful Life”

Anna Ternheim has announced the June 5 North American release of her new record The Night Visitor and offered a first sample for downloading and listening purposes.

MP3: Anna Ternheim – “The Longer The Waiting (The Sweeter The Kiss)”

Knox Road, The Boston Herald, Metro, and USA Today speak with Of Monsters & Men, in town at The Phoenix on April 12.

The second video from Ladyhawke’s Anxiety, out May 29, is now available to watch.

Video: Ladyhawke – “Sunday Drive”

Frank YangOstensibly, SXSW is a festival meant to expose new music to the world and vice versa, so the fact that I’d spent the past evening and afternoon seeing established artists – I think Springsteen counts as established – rather than seeking out something new wasn’t lost on me. So the festival’s Friday night was devoted wholly to discovery. Onwards!

Los Angeles’ Tashaki Miyaki are working the “mysterious” angle, declining to offer information about their identities – she sings and drums and goes by Lucy, he plays guitar and is called Rocky and at Latitude 30 they were joined by an unnamed bassist/vocalist – and letting the music speak for them. I’d briefed myself with their debut EP on the way down to Austin and was led to expect some lo-fi, fuzzy garage pop but live, they were much cleaner and more precise with the vocals more up front, the harmonies intricate and the guitars reminiscent of Neil Young at his Crazy Horsiest. Their debts to The Velvet Underground are obvious – “If Not For You” is basically “Sweet Jane” – but they spend it in a boutique dealing in ’90s shoegaze. Despite looking, um, great, they weren’t the most charismatic outfit and are operate in a pretty clearly defined niche – it just happens to be my niche.

The longer you go to SXSW, the more venues show up on your no-go list; some rooms are just terrible for seeing a show. Of course, that the rooms seem to change names every year or so makes it difficult to maintain said list – it has happened that I’ve gone to what I thought was a new room and discovered it was an old hated room, Vice/Exodus I’m looking in your direction – but rarer is finding the same name in a different location. So it was that I gave Karma Lounge another shot, seeing as how it was no longer a gross upper level on 8th St but a new (?) street-level bar on 5th. So of course when I got there, everyone was dancing to Ginuwine. Maybe ironically. I don’t know. The point of this story is also unclear to me. But I was there, I was a bit confused and I was waiting for New York’s Fort Lean, whom I’d not heard but had heard good things about. And once they got underway, they were fine but not especially inspiring. The musicianship was impressive and there was clearly lots of ideas and creativity at work, with a base of old school rock’n’roll and jazzy/r&b flourishes to the vocals, but the songs seemed to lack passion. It’s not something that I’d say was specific to Fort Lean but is rather endemic in American indie rock nowadays. Wonder what things are like in, oh, Norway?

Well if Razika, playing the Iron Bear not far from where the original Karma Lounge was, were any indication, ska-pop is much more in vogue in Bergen – at least amongst the early-20’s girl-band set. Okay, probably not a good sample group but still a fun time. They were playing their seventh and final show in three days and despite being justifiably and visibly tired, they mustered up the energy for a strong finish. They played simple, bouncy pop tunes – clean and strummy without a distortion pedal in sight – and though the Norwegian half of their bilingual set was incomprehensible to me, the singalong qualities were pretty clear – you don’t need Google Translate for “whoa whoa whoa”. Basic but plenty likeable, even beyond the foreign novelty factor.

Here’s a thing about SXSW – where else can you see two young Norwegian bands, back to back, in different venues? Besides in Norway, that is. Post-Razika, I hoofed it back to the chaos of 6th St to see Oslo’s Team Me, whose debut To The Treetops! had gotten a worldwide release at the end of February. The musical gang of exuberant youths angle isn’t any new thing – every country seems to have at least a few – but if you were to put Team Me into a Hunger Games/Battle Royale scenario against, say, Los Campesinos!, I would give the edge to the Norwegians and not just because they come from Viking stock. Like their peers, they specialized in amped up twee-pop that made it feel like a drag to be old, but they managed to keep things on the right side of the enthusiastic/annoying line throughout the course of their set. I’d only heard their EP before arriving in Austin so I was pleased to hear by way of the unfamiliar material that they’d already matured in the songwriting department from those tunes. It’s to their credit that the irresistible fun of their performance was able to get me to shelve my, “I’ve seen/heard this before” reservations and just enjoy it.

Minnesota’s Howler came into the festival with a pretty good head of hype behind them – mostly thanks to the enthusiasm of the UK music press – and were perhaps even ready for the backlash stage of the media cycle; I get the sense that some would have been perfectly happy for them to fall flat during SXSW so they could play the “overrated” card. That backlash may yet happen, but it wouldn’t be because of their official showcase back at Latitude 30. They looked a combination of stylishly tousled and lazily disheveled but didn’t come with any sort of pretense – the Strokes comparisons they’re frequently saddled with certainly didn’t extend that far. Instead, they were exactly what they purported to be – five young men with a sharp if occasionally sophomoric sense of humour and a propensity for writing and playing good rock music and having a blast doing it. They blew through their 30-minute set with gusto and no small amount of anarchy – more than you might expect from their debut America Give Up and largely thanks to the axe flailing – meant in the best way – of lead guitarist Ian Nygaard. Despite liking the record, I counted myself somewhat skeptical heading into the show – consider me convinced. Howler play The Drake Underground on April 5.

The venue went from Brit-beloved to Brit-bred for the final act of the night, 2:54. Led by a pair of sisters, the four-piece has been framed as a dreampop/shoegazey kind of band but really, they’re more aggressively seductive than dreamy, with dark, goth-y tones. Lead guitarist Hannah Thurlow might prefer to examine her shoes than put on a show, but guitarist-vocalist Colette Thurlow has no problem making eye contact and holding it, all with a bit of a snarl; certainly more Siouxsie than Slowdive. I could do with a little more melody and less moodiness in their sound, but with the band having just signed with Fat Possum for the North American release of their self-titled debut on May 28, I’ll probably be hearing more of them either way.

See? All new bands on Friday night. Get off my case.

Elsewhere: Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard have reconvened as Dead Can Dance and are targeting a Summer release for a new record. So confident are they that this will be the case, that they’ve booked a North American tour – their first in some seven years – for late Summer that includes an August 23 date at the Sony Centre in Toronto, with tickets at the $49.50, $67.50, and $99.50 price points.

Video: Dead Can Dance – “The Carnival Is Over”

Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine tells NME that there may some sort of collaboration with Dev Hynes of Blood Orange in the works. Blood Orange is opening up some of her dates this Summer, though not August 2 at The Molson Amphitheatre.

eMusic and The AV Club chat with David Gedge of The Wedding Present. They’re at The Horseshoe on Sunday night, March 25.

So those My Bloody Valentine remasters/reissues that have been promised since the band reunited four years ago but have been constantly pushed back? Well DIY reports that they’re finally really truly going to come out on May 7, and in addition to the double-disc sets of Loveless and Isn’t Anything, there’ll be a third release entitled EP’s 1988-1991 which, as the name cryptically implies, collects the EPs and singles of the era as well as some unreleased material. I guess we may as well believe it will happen because it doesn’t really make a difference if we don’t.

Video: My Bloody Valentine – “Soon”

Whilst we’re back in the UK of the ’90s, let’s meet up with PopMatters who’ve a piece on the greatness of Swervedriver and another one that celebrates the 20th anniversaries this month of The Charlatans’ Between 10th and 11th and Ride’s Going Blank Again. Twenty. Yes. Old. You. Me. All.

Taking the noise-pop and eading back to Norway, Drowned In Sound talks to The Megaphonic Thrift, who’ve just released their second self-titled album last week.

Stream: The Megaphonic Thrift – “Raising Flags”
Video: The Megaphonic Thrift – “Moonstruck”

The Village Voice and The New York Daily News profile First Aid Kit, in town at The Great Hall on April 4.

eMusic talks to the founders of the great Swedish label Labrador. Who’d have guessed that a desire to not sign Stars would lead to their “Swedes only!” roster policy!

Frank YangComing via The Guardian, here’s an unexpected collaboration to wind out the week – Paul Weller has completed work on a new album entitled Wake Up The Nation and while a release date is still forthcoming, the first single from has been released and it features the fruits of a collaboration with none other than My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields. “7 & 3 Is The Striker’s Name” pairs the Modfather with the godfather of shoegaze (Shields doesn’t have a catchy nickname that appropriately describes his stature) and while the tune is a bit out of Weller’s typical wheelhouse, it’s still pretty recognizable as him – even with Shields layering jet plane noises overtop.

The tune is is available to download for 99p via 7Digital, or you can just watch the trippy albeit Shields-less video. NB – The one on Weller’s own website has better audio and video quality than the YouTube one linked.

Video: Paul Weller with Kevin Shields – “7 & 3 Is The Striker’s Name”

On the subject of My Bloody Valentine, both Amazon.co.uk and CDWow has the long-rumoured, oft-delayed reissues of Loveless and Isn’t Anything available for pre-order with a January 4 on-sale date noted. Could these finally be coming out?

Ian McCulloch of Echo & The Bunnymen submits to a Q&A with New York Magazine.

Spinner reports that Graham Coxon hopes Blur aren’t done for good, just for now.

Both eye and NOW welcome The xx to town for their first-ever Toronto gig at the Phoenix next Wednesday with Friendly Fires. Their second-ever Toronto gig is already scheduled for April 20 at the Kool Haus in support of Hot Chip. The Seattle Times also has an interview.

Also making their first visit to Toronto is The Big Pink, who are at the under renovation Lee’s Palace on Sunday night. NOW has an interview with the English duo.

Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine tells BBC that she’s preparing to start recording the follow-up to Lungs in January of the new year. In the meantime, the super-deluxe version of her debut is coming out next week and she’s released a second video for “You’ve Got The Love” which also functions as an advert for Stella Artois. But is a cool video first.

Video: Florence & The Machine – “You’ve Got The Love”

The Sydney Morning Herald chats with Patrick Wolf.

For a limited time, The Futureheads are giving away a free download of a song from album number four. No dawdling. Emirates Business has an interview with the band.

BBC talks to White Lies about their plans for recording album number two.

RockFeedback has an acoustic video interview and session with Sky Larkin.

Tom Campesinos of Los Campesinos talks Romance Is Boring, out February 1, with Drowned In Sound.

Highland News talks to Frightened Rabbit about recent lineup changes and their forthcoming record The Winter Of Mixed Drinks, out on March 1. A Daytrotter session with the band has just gone up; only old songs, though – no sneak peaks at new.

Chris ShontingHaving now gotten to the point where I can listen to The Antlers’ Hospice without having a panic attack – mostly – I’ve set about checking out some of their earlier recordings via the interwebs. Beyond that latest record the trio are mostly a tabula rasa to me, so there’s no real reason for me to be surprised that they’ve done a My Bloody Valentine cover… but I was.

And yet the way they’ve reinterpreted it makes perfect sense. Replacing Kevin Shields’ trademark “glide” guitar with heavily effected slide maintains the original’s wobbly intent without resorting to mimicry and Peter Silberman’s hazy, quaaluded vocals come at the dream-pop standard from a different angle. Fresh, yet faithful. Best I can tell, this recording was never part of a formal release, just one of those things that trickles out online from the ether. And thank goodness for that.

The Antlers are on the road and will be in Toronto on Thursday evening for two performances – an in-store at Criminal Records at 6PM and a headlining show at the Horseshoe later that night. Either/or/both highly recommended. You can stream a session with the band at KDHX. The touring portion of the My Bloody Valentine reunion has mostly wound down, with just a single festival appearance in December remaining, so hopefully they’ll get to dealing with those long-promised reissues, unreleased and new material. Yeah, right.

MP3: The Antlers – “When You Sleep”
Video: My Bloody Valentine – “When You Sleep” (live in San Francisco 2008)

BeggarsSince I went to the trouble last week of making my generally meaningless predictions for the 2009 Mercury Prize nominees, it only makes sense that I take a look at the actual shortlist – announced this morning – and compare. And the first thing that I find is that the UK’s bookies, who ostensibly do this sort of thing for living, don’t have any more clue than I do. While only one of my picks made the actual list – and really the only one I expeted to – neither of the oddmsakers’ two favourites – Doves’ Kingdom Of Rust or Little Boots’ Hands – were to be found in to this morning’s announcements, whereas perennial critical kicking bags Kasabian did. Of course, if The Horrors can put out a career-salvaging album and garner a nod, why not Kasabian? I haven’t heard it – maybe it’s brilliant. Maybe. Also surprised that La Roux made the list while Little Boots did not because, well, I much prefer Little Boots to La Roux. Go figure.

Anyways, the nominees for this year are as follows:

Bat For Lashes / Two Suns / MP3: “Glass” (live)
Speech Debelle / Speech Therapy / Video: “Go Then Bye”
Florence & The Machine / Lungs / MP3: “Kiss With A Fist”
Friendly Fires / Friendly Fires / MP3: “Jump In The Pool”
Glasvegas / Glasvegas / Video: “Geraldine”
Lisa Hannigan / Sea Sew / MP3: “Lille”
The Horrors / Primary Colours / MP3: “Sea Within A Sea”
The Invisible / The Invisible / Video: “London Girl”
Kasabian / West Rider Lunatic Pauper Asylum / Video: “Vlad The Impaler”
La Roux / La Roux / MP3: “Bulletproof” (Joe & Will Ask remix)
Led Bib / Sensible Shoes / MP3: “Yes, Again”
Sweet Billy Pilgrim / Twice Born Men / MP3: “Truth Only Smiles”

I’m sure there’ll be complaints and criticisms galore, but with almost half the list being female artists the Mercury will at least avoid the “solo white male” complaints leveled at the Polaris Prize shortlist this year, and similarly you’d never find something like contemporary jazzers Led Bib on a nomination list open to 140 critics. I don’t necessarily advocate the exclusive jury approach over the inclusive, but it does yield some interesting results.

Anyways, my money remains on Bat For Lashes – obvious, sure, but I stand by it – but I can also get behind Florence or The Horrors. Either way, I don’t really have a horse in this race, I’m just a curious bystander. BBC has launched their Mercury minisite complete with interviews with the nominees, The Guardian has already gotten fresh odds from a bookie on the shortlist, Clash comments on the list and NME‘s editors have also chimed in on who they think will take the big prize come September 8. NME has also provided a bluffer’s guide to the nominees so you can sound all knowledgeable and stuff at the water cooler (though you could probably say whatever the hell you want about any of them because your co-workers probably won’t know what the hell you’re talking about).

The Guardian talks to Friendly Fires – they’re at Lee’s Palace on August 10.

Paper declares Little Boots to be one of their sounds of Summer and Stuff New Zealand and The Mirror also have features. She’s in town at Wrongbar on September 14.

Oh, hello three unreleased songs from My Bloody Valentine. Did you get lost en route to the studio to be added onto those Isn’t Anything/Loveless reissues which never came out? That’s okay, leaking to the internet is probably best for everyone involved.

I had completely forgotten about the UK’s Engineers, purveyors of Pink Floyd-esque ambient rock on their self-titled debut back in 2005 but they’re still kicking and have just released their second album with Three Fact Fader, which is just as dreamy but with some more kick. The Quietus and The Line Of Best Fit have interviews with the band about their time away and their return.

Video: Engineers – “Clean Coloured Wire”

The Village Voice talks to Frightened Rabbit, who have a sold-out show at the Horseshoe on Wednesday night, July 22.

The Quietus has details on the new Editors album In This Light And On This Evening, which appears to have been pushed back a few weeks and is now set for an October 12 release.

Oasis were apparently (almost) attacked (hugged) onstage again. Hey guys, maybe it’s you.

Stepping back from life as a Raconteur, Brendan Benson will release a new solo album in My Old, Familiar Friend on August 18 and follow that up with a spot of touring, including an August 24 date at the Mod Club in Toronto – tickets $13.50.

Aussies An Horse must like it here – they’re back for their fourth Toronto show in six months on September 11 at the Drake Underground, tickets $10.

MP3: An Horse – “Postcards”

Brazilian psych legends Os Mutantes will release their first album in over 35 years in Haih, out September 7, and are at the Opera House on October 2, tickets $25.

Yo La Tengo are at the Opera House on October 3, meaning I have to choose between Yo La and Destroyer that same evening at the Horseshoe. I do not like these sorts of dilemmas. Their new album Popular Songs is out September 8.

MP3: Yo La Tengo – “Periodically Double Or Triple”

Those who worship the drone and get unnerved by unnecessary key changes – hell, chord changes – will be thrilled to hear that The Raveonettes are hitting the road this Fall with The Black Angels. Full dates are still trickling out but the Toronto stop will be October 22 at the Phoenix, tickets $18.50. The Raveonettes talk to Spinner about their just-completed their new album In and Out of Control, which has a shiny release date of October 6. The Black Angels haven’t been up to much since last year’s Directions To See A Ghost. Billboard has full dates and words with Sharin Foo.

MP3: The Raveonettes – “Dead Sound”
MP3: The Black Angels – “The First Vietnamese War”

Peter Bjorn & John are back again on November 11 for another date at the Phoenix – tickets $20. They’re also at the Molson Amphitheatre this Friday, July 24, opening for Depeche Mode but if that’s news to you, you’re probably not going.

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

Spinner.ca’s endless feature series on the history and future of Canada’s independent music scene turns its lonely eyes to Montreal in its latest installment, talking to members past and present of Arcade Fire, The Dears and The Stills.