Joe FudaThis week’s eye has a feature piece on local label Out Of This Spark, whose second anniversary is the impetus for your best entertainment option this Saturday night as the label’s entire roster will take the stage at the Tranzac. That’s the lineup that includes a couple of personal faves and a couple others I’m just starting to make the acquaintance of.

In the former camp are post-punkers The D’Urbervilles, whose rather excellent full-length debut from last year, We Are The Hunters, is going to be getting a much-deserved US release, and Forest City Lovers (pictured), whose beautifully understated album Haunting Moon Sinking was one of the overlooked gems of 2008. It’s been a while – too long – since I’ve seen either act live, and I’m looking forward to rectifying that. In the “less known to me” department are Jenny Omnichord, whose special guest-laden Charlotte or Otis : Duets for Children, Their Parents and Other People Too is a sweetly odd and charming little childrens’ album and Timber Timbre, who are releasing their new self-titled album next week and whose amalgam of folk and blues is a bit unsettling, but also compelling. They’re also playing an in-store at Soundscapes next Thursday at 7PM.

Admission to the to-do is $10, $8 with a donation of canned food.

MP3: The D’Urbervilles – “Hot Tips”
Videos: Forest City Lovers – “Pirates”
Videos: Forest City Lovers – “Please, Don’t Go”

Pitchfork has more tour dates for Human Highway, including a date and venue for their previously announced appearance at Canadian Musicfest – look for them March 13 at the Horseshoe.

MP3: Human Highway – “The Sound”

And speaking of Canadian Musicfest, the lineup has fleshed out a little more with some of the bigger-name additions including The Ting Tings and… well, that’s all I noticed that was new since last time. Precise date and venue for that one still forthcoming.

Rollo & Grady interview Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon and filch one of my photos in the process. This is me shaking my fist. Treasury Library Canada is out Februrary 3.

To the surprise of no one, a second date for the Constantines/Weakerthans “Rolling Tundra Revue” tour has been added – there’s now an April 1 date to go along with the previously-announced March 31 one at the Phoenix. No foolin’.

The Henry Clay People, whose For Cheap Or For Free was endorsed in November, will be joining The Airborne Toxic Event on their Spring tour which passes through the El Mocambo on March 4.

MP3: The Henry Clay People – “Something In The Water”
MP3: The Henry Clay People – “Working Part Time”

The Sydney Morning Herald gets an update on Nick Cave’s literary aspirations.

XLR8R talks to Ben Curtis of School Of Seven Bells.

Okkervil River were on Letterman last night. It looked (and sounded) a little like this:

Video: Okkervil River – “Pop Lie” (live on the Late Show with David Letterman)

The Georgia Straight interviews Glasvegas, in town at the Mod Club April 3.

Anathallo have a date at the El Mocambo on February 3, tickets $12. Their new album is Canopy Glow.

The New Year, who must feel tremendous pressure to be topical and interesting every January, oblige with a new video, a brief interview and free download at Stereogum and an interview at the Dallas Observer.

Video: The New Year – “Seven Days And Seven Nights”

Is this Frightened Rabbit video an official one? Not sure, but it is cool. And that’s good enough.

Video: Frightened Rabbit – “I Feel Better”

The Daily Yomiuri amuse Stuart Braithwaite and Barry Burns of Mogwai by calling them a “shoegaze” band.

Wireless Bollinger talks to Andrew Bird, who is releasing Noble Beast on January 20 and playing the Queen Elizabeth Theater on April 3.

www.thisisyesterday.comIt’s pretty typical for veteran bands who might be a little ways from their most creatively fertile periods to periodically come out and say that their next album will be a stripped-down affair, a return to their roots, what have you. And it’s generally all marketing-speak to try and convince their fans or former fans that they still have something left in the tank and that they’re still viable artistic entities.

For the Manic Street Preachers, it’s not that hard of a sell as their last album Send Away The Tigers was a very decent effort, certainly head and shoulders above the previous few records, and showed that the band wasn’t ready to be dismissed just yet. But with the posting of message on their website earlier this week, the Manics seem to be looking to simultaneously return to their roots without actually sounding anything like they ever did.

They announced they’re currently in the US recording with legendary producer Steve Albini, whose analog-only, ultra-dry aesthetic is light-years from the ’80s-era glam-gloss that defined their first few albums, not that any of their albums have ever been less than slick-sounding. And further, they’re using lyrics left behind by former Manic Richey Edwards who disappeared back in 1995. Though he’s turned in more than his share of clunkers, Nicky Wire has done a more than respectable job as lyricist for the Manics in the years since Edwards’ disappearance but there’s a reason that The Holy Bible is still held up as the band’s masterpiece after all these years. Edwards has been over-mythologized in the past decade plus, to be certain, but he was undoubtedly a compelling writer.

While I’m not thinking the above equals instant classic by any means, it is an interesting combination of factors that could make for one of the more compelling Manics records in recent years. I don’t, however, expect there’ll be anything as gloriously poppy as the Nina Persson duet from the last album (vid linked below) but you can’t have everything. The band are targeting an April or May 2009 release and are toying with typically sunny titles like Journal For Plague Lovers or I Know I Believe In Nothing But It Is My Nothing.

Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough”

BBC reports that The Kinks reunion is finally a go and that the writing of new material, with an eye towards a new album, has commenced.

Also at the BBC, Damon Albarn refuses to close the door on the possibility of a Blur reunion.

Oasis have released a second video from Dig Out Your Soul.

Video: Oasis – “I’m Outta Time”

Laundromatinee welcomes Supergrass to their studios for a video session.

The Tripwire interviews James Allan of Glasvegas and offers up a non-album MP3 that really doesn’t capture the sonic grandeur of the record. Their self-title is coming out in North America on January 6.

MP3: Glasvegas – “I’m Gonna Get Stabbed”

NME reports that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have released The Effect Of 333, an ambient/instrumental album, and are making it available online.

Paste catches up with Nick Cave on matters of novels, films and Grinderman.

Sigur Ros premiered their latest video from Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust, the deluxe version of which is out November 24.

Video: Sigur Ros – “Vio spilum endalaust”

The Line Of Best Fit interviews Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal.

Amanda MertenIt’s not often that the the first taste I get of a new band or album sends me scrambling to blog, but that’s what happened in August when I got the first taste of Alpinisms, the debut album from School Of Seven Bells. And while it’s not as though they were an unknown to me – I was more than familiar with their collective past projects (On!Air!Library!, The Secret Machines, Daylight’s For The Birds) but even with those expectations, the first two MP3s released from said album – “Conjurr” and “Half Asleep” – still floored me.

I got a full copy of the album not long after and though there’s nothing that matches those two tracks for pure pop glory, it’s because they don’t really attempt to. Though favouring the dream-pop and electronica musical niches, Alpinisms is a remarkably diverse collection that, for all its eclecticism, still manages to craft a distinct sonic identity. Much of that can be attributed to the dual vocals of sisters Alley and Claudia Deheza, whose tightly intertwined, angelic and otherworldly voices really sound unlike anything else out there. And its this uniqueness that allows the musical backdrop to liberally borrow from the last 20 years or so of sonic ideas – a little Peter Hook bass line here, a little Kevin Shields glide guitar there – and make it sound fresh.

Not everything works – some pieces meander a little more than you’d like, but given the soaring heights of the record’s high points and the obvious talent and creativity the band has on tap, it’s hard not to get excited about what else they might come up with in the future. I only hope that this project has a longer lifespan than their previous ones.

School Of Seven Bells are at the Opera House on November 20, opening for M83. Exclaim! has a review of the record and a short interview with guitarist and former Secret Machinist Benjamin Curtis.

MP3: School Of Seven Bells – “Connjur”
MP3: School Of Seven Bells – “Half Asleep”
MP3: School Of Seven Bells – “Chain”
Stream: School of Seven Bells / Alpinisms
MySpace: School Of Seven Bells

Bradley’s Almanac has got MP3s of My Bloody Valentine’s show at All Tomorrow’s Parties New York in September. Amazingly, they sound quite good and not just like “KKKKKHHKHKHKKKKK”. And if you want to full experience of the “holocaust” section of “You Made Me Realise”, I suggest standing in front of an oscillating fan so that your pants flap while simultaneously getting a full body massage. That’s a start.

Paste talks to Matt Tong of Bloc Party and Le Blogotheque ambushes the band in Paris into giving them a Takeaway Show.

NME reports that White Lies will release their debut album To Lose My Life on January 12.

Nick Cave brags to Spinner about the size of his unit.

Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips talks to The Los Angeles Times about the release – finally – of Christmas On Mars on November 11 (straight to DVD, natch) and the soundtrack of which will pretty much constitute the new Flaming Lips album.

Trailer: Christmas On Mars

Stars have added a third date to their residency at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in December. In addition to the 12th and 13th, they’re now also playing on the 11th.