Maoya BassiouniHaving made up my mind about the whole wave of garage-bred, white-noise, guitar-drum duos that seemed to saturate the scene a few years ago before even hearing Japandroids – three guesses what I decided about said wave, first two don’t count – they didn’t stand much chance of winning me over. And while I won’t deny their debut Post-Nothing had a certain charm within all the fuzz, it wasn’t enough to make a lasting impression. Which is why on first hearing their new one Celebration Rock, out today, I needed to ask someone – anyone – if they’d always sounded like this.

And by “this”, I mean like Hüsker Dü covering The Hold Steady. It’s a reductive description, sure, but the more I listen to Celebration Rock the more accurate I feel it is. To the former reference point, it’s a compact, intense, and driving nine songs over 35 minutes that’s intent on shredding drum skins, guitar strings, and vocal cords in a manner that the legendary hardcore trio would surely approve. To the latter, they may still rehearse in a garage but with the fist pump-friendly choruses, odes to partying, and singalong “oh oh oh oh” lyrics, they’re aiming to bring the roof down at the local bar. Or arena. The duo may hail from Vancouver but their hearts belong to the Twin Cities.

Celebration Rock is big, unapologetic rock that manages to feel both vitally youthful and nostalgic at the same time while more than succeeding at its titular mission statement of making the kids freak out. It’s hard to say exactly what kind of shelf life it will have – records that rely on full-on intensity from start to finish have a tendency to exhaust after a while – but the only way to find out is to keep it turned up loud and set to repeat. No problem there.

Japandroids play Lee’s Palace on June 23. DIY, Spinner, and Pitchfork have interviews with the band and NPR is streaming the album in whole right now – the US release is next week, it was only released today in Canada to make it Polaris Prize-eligible. It may prove to be a wise move.

MP3: Japandroids – “The House That Heaven Built”
Stream: Japandroids / Celebration Rock

The Line Of Best Fit has a video session with PS I Love You, who’ve released a new video from Death Dreams.

Video: PS I Love You – “Princess Towers”

Coeur de Pirate warms up for hsr show at The Opera House on June 1 with an in-store at Sonic Boom the night before, that’s May 31, at 7PM. The Georgia Straight also has an interview with Beatrice Martin.

Video: Coeur de Pirate – “Golden Baby”

With her June 2 date at The Music Hall supporting Great Lake Swimmers just about here, Cold Specks has announced her own headlining date on August 8 at The Great Hall with Snowblink supporting; tickets are $15 in advance. The National Post and Shaw Connect have interviews with Al Spx while CBC Radio 3 talks to her about her songwriting process.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse have another two videos out for Americana, out next week but streaming in whole at Rolling Stone right now. Meanwhile, Exclaim has details on some forthcoming retrospective releases that aren’t music – the Jonathan Demme-directed documentary Neil Young Journeys will get a theatrical release on June 29 and Neil’s memoirs Waging Heavy Peace will be released on October 2.

Video: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “God Save The Queen”
Video: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “Clementine”
Stream: Neil Young & Crazy Horse / Americana

A new song from Metric’s forthcoming Synthetica has been made available to stream. The album is out June 12.

Stream: Metric – “Speed The Collapse”

Like The Wooden Sky but hate their songs? Well you may be a freak, but your ship has come in – the band are playing an all-covers show at The Burroghes Building on June 15 as part of a benefit for Dream.Love.Cure; tickets are $10 in advance, details at Facebook. And Paste has premiered the final installment of their “Grace On A Hill” video series – forewarned, they’re playing their own songs.

Dan Snaith talks to Under The Radar about how things are progressing on the next Caribou record. They open for Radiohead at Downsview Park on June 16.

No Joy will release a new EP entitled Negaverse on June 19, from which you can stream a track right now. They’ve also been announced as support for Lower Dens’ July 17 date at Lee’s Palace.

Stream: No Joy – “Junior”

Daytrotter has a session with The Darcys, whose next hometown show is July 12 at Downsview Park as part of Edgefest.

The Quietus interviews Grimes, rolling into town (on a train) at Fort York on July 13.

FacebookNestled amidst some concert announcements in a post last week were a couple of odd one-offs for No Joy and PS I Love You which were not part of any announced tour or timely promotional cycle. It didn’t occur to me to ask why, but just a little bit of thought would have made the answer obvious – Wavelength. The dates of their shows corresponded to the four-day weekend of the Toronto music series’ twelfth anniversary festival, and though neither of those acts is properly local – they hail from Montreal and Kingston, respectively – it makes perfect sense that they’d be invited to perform.

The rest of the lineup was announced earlier this week and as with every year it’s a doozie, occupying a different venue around the city each night and boasting a loaded and eclectic bill of bands. Tickets are available for each show or you can get a festival pass for $36, which is a bargain any way you look at it. They go on sale January 17 and the schedule shakes out as follows – for the “who they are / where they’re from / what they do”, head over to the Wavelength website.

Thursday, February 16 @ Parts & Labour: Metz, Odonis Odonis, Slim Twig, Man Made Hill, Eucalyptus ($10 advance)
Friday, February 17 @ Steam Whistle Brewing: Fucked Up, Bonjay, Catl, Silver Dapple, Hut ($17 advance)
Saturday, February 18 @ The Great Hall: No Joy , Sandro Perri, Nat Baldwin, Off The International Radar, The Weather Station ($12 advance)
Sunday, February 19 @ The Garrison: PS I Love You, Burning Love, Army Girls, Mötem, Most People ($10 advance)

MP3: Nat Baldwin – “Weights”
MP3: Fucked Up – “Queen Of Hearts”
MP3: No Joy – “Hawaii”
MP3: Sandro Perri – “Love And Light”
MP3: PS I Love You – “Get Over”
MP3: The Weather Station – “Everything I Saw”
Video: Bonjay – “Stumble”
Video: Odonis Odonis – “Blood Feast”
Video: Off The International Radar – “Sans Olo”
Video: Silver Dapple – “(Pauses)”

Islands are going small for their tour in support of A Sleep & A Forgetting, due out February 14 – the Toronto date is February 28 at the tiny Music Gallery, tickets for that are $22.50 in advance.

MP3: Islands – “This Is Not A Song”

Hot on the heels of the release of their self-titled debut, The Darcys have announced the release of their next album, a redo of Steely Dan’s Aja. The record will be available on January 24 and Rolling Stone has got the first MP3 from it available to download, while NOW asks drummer Wes Marskell, “why Aja?”. They play The Phoenix on March 1 in support of Bombay Bicycle Club and are also on the bill for Edgefest at Downsview Park on July 12.

MP3: The Darcys – “Josie”

The video surfaced at the end of last year, but the title track from Woodpigeon’s new For Paolo EP is now available to download.

MP3: Woodpigeon – “For Paolo”

Spinner spends some quality time chatting with The Wilderness Of Manitoba.

NPR is streaming the whole of Kathleen Edwards’ new record Voyageur ahead of its release date next Tuesday. She plays The Phoenix on February 11.

Stream: Kathleen Edwards / Voyageur

Austra has released a new video from the breakout Feel It Break, and if that’s not enough there’s also an interview and session at The Alternate Side to read and watch.

Video: Austra – “Spellwork”

Yours Truly has a video session with Grimes to share. Visions is out February 21 and she plays The Horseshoe on March 19.

NPR welcomes Kathryn Calder for a World Cafe session while The Province has posted an interview.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of a recent Suuns show in New York.

The second single from Leonard Cohen’s new album Old Ideas is available to stream. It’s out January 31.

Stream: Leonard Cohen – “Darkness”

Frank YangJoel Plaskett is a guy who’s established that he’s not averse to applying a little bit of high concept to his brand of friendly, meat-and-potatoes rock – recall that his last release of new material, 2009’s Three, was both triple-disced and triple-themed – so one shouldn’t be too surprised that his next record also has to come with a bit of an explanation.

As aux.tv reports, Plaskett and his band The Emergency will endeavour to record and release a new song every week – and endeavour they’re likening to the pace of artists in the ’50s and ’60s – and calling it “Rock’n’Roll in Record Time”; probably a bit of an overstatement but a noble mission statement nonetheless. Each week’s track will be premiered on CBC Radio 2 on the Tuesday starting on January 10 and straight through to March 13, with the ten tracks then being collected as Scrappy Happiness and released as an album proper on March 27.

Shortly thereafter, they’ll set out on a cross-Canada tour that stops in Toronto for two nights at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 18 and 19, though the itinerary listed at Exclaim certainly leaves plenty of room for more dates, including his native Maritime stomping grounds.

Since each song reveal is going to be an event unto itself, there’s obviously no preview tracks – so instead lend your ears to a couple samples from his last couple releases, the attic-clearing EMERGENCYs, false alarms, shipwrecks, castaways, fragile creatures, special features, demons and demonstrations comp and the aforementioned triple-threat Three.

MP3: Joel Plaskett – “When I Go”
MP3: Joel Plaskett – “Deny Deny Deny”

Exclaim is streaming Rae Spoon’s new record I Can’t Keep All Of Our Secrets ahead of its official release next Tuesday, January 10; Spoon plays the Gladstone Hotel on January 27.

Stream: Rae Spoon / I Can’t Keep All Of Our Secrets

Salon talks to Kathleen Edwards about her new record Voyageur, out January 17. She plays The Phoenix on February 11.

Though I declared last Fall that labels should be tripping over each other for an opportunity to release And We Thank You, the debut album from The Elwins, the band have opted to not wait for a knight in shining armour and will put it out independently on February 21. NOW has a conversation with the band about the decision to DIY it. They just played The Silver Dollar last night but will also be at 918 Bathurst on January 21 if you’ve not yet caught them live.

MP3: The Elwins – “Stuck In The Middle”

Exclaim is streaming another new song from John K. Samson’s forthcoming solo debut Provincial. It’s out January 24 and he plays The Great Hall on March 22 as part of Canadian Musicfest.

Stream: John K. Samson – “Letter In Icelandic From The Ninette San”

Montreal noise merchants No Joy have made a date at the Great Hall for February 18; with their debut Ghost Blonde coming up on being a year and a half old, perhaps this is an opportunity to preview some new material?

MP3: No Joy – “Hawaii”

PS I Love You, just seen a couple weeks ago opening up for Fucked Up, have made a date of their own at The Garrison on February 19.

MP3: PS I Love You – “2012”

Pitchfork reports that Montreal electro-pop artist Grimes, who entered 2012 with a good bit of buzz already, will be taking it up a notch what with having signed to legendary label 4AD for the February 21 release of her new album Visions. Expect her March 19 show at The Horseshoe to be jammed. And have jams.

MP3: Grimes – “Genesis”

Paste invites The Wooden Sky into their kitchen to play a few songs; the band have just released the first MP3 from their forthcoming album Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun, due out February 28. They play The Opera House on April 20.

MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Child Of The Valley”

Frank YangWho: No Joy
What: Montreal outfit fronted by dual, guitar-wielding walls of hair who bridge the worlds of garage rock and shoegaze in a pop-friendly middle ground.
Why: Though their debut Ghost Blonde came out last Summer, their ascent has been a slow and steady one, which is to say they’re still touring it and the masses are glad for it.
When: Friday, September 23, 2011
Where: Wrongbar in Toronto (19+)
Who else: This show is part of a co-headline tour with guitar goddess Marnie Stern, so if women demolishing their guitars is your thing, you know where you should be.
How: Tickets for the show are $14 in advance, but courtesy of Embrace, I have two pairs of passes to give away to the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want No Joy” in the subject line and your full name in the body and have that in to me before midnight, September 18.

MP3: No Joy – “Hawaii”
Video: No Joy – “Maggie Says I Love You”
Video: No Joy – “Hawaii”

Frank YangYou might not have guessed it to listen to their records, as laid-back and fuzzy blanket-like as they were, but the American Analog Set were an amazing live act. Not through on-stage antics or pyrotechnics or the like, but by how unbelievably tight they were as a unit. The sound of Andrew Kenny’s soft voice and echoing guitar overtop the bed of vibraphone and Farfisa was the very definition of hypnotic and each of the two Toronto shows I saw prior to their disbanding in 2006 were magical. So given that Kenny’s new outfit The Wooden Birds shares many stylistic attributes with AmAnSet, it wasn’t unreasonable to hope that their first visit in support of their new record Two Matchsticks last night at The Drake would recreate some of that magic.

Support for the evening came from locals Heartbeat Hotel, whose psych-pop-laden Fetus Dreams I’d recommended picking up (for free) and who’d made a decent live impression back in December. They’d played out a fair bit since then, though, and some growth was to be expected. Even so, I didn’t expect that the echoey, slow burn that opened their set would be more the rule than the exception. The freewheeling sonic experimentation that marked Fetus Dreams seems to have been reined in, or the approach of flinging everything against the wall has served its purpose and they’ve now identified what stuck and what works; either way, Heartbeat Hotel circa Summer 2011 is a much more controlled, groove-oriented entity, yet still capable of getting noisy when needed. They’ve learned a lesson in musical economics that some bands take albums to master, if ever, and though it’d be nice if some of the energy of the LP could find its way back into their sound, based on the new material showcased – due for release in EP or album form this Fall – they’ll do well on the exam.

Even before The Wooden Birds played a note, it was pretty clear that this wasn’t going to be American Analog Set unplugged. For starters, Leslie Sisson was handling the acoustic guitar duties I’d assumed were Andrew Kenny’s on record, Kenny had no six-string of any kind, instead holding down the low end with a Thunderbird bass and whereas on the recordings electric guitar was used for texture or the occasional lead, the two electric setup implied that live, it would be decidedly otherwise. And indeed, it didn’t take very long to understand and appreciate that The Wooden Birds were no extension of anyone’s old band, but their own thing entirely; whereas AmAnSet shows were like exercises in hypnosis, this performance was wide-eyed and fully awake.

As the band showcased material from Two Matchsticks and its predecessor Magnolia, I couldn’t help think how someone for whom their first impression of the band was this show might find those decidedly mellower-sounding records. Because the live presentation of The Wooden Birds was definitely a much louder and more sprightly and widescreen-sounding affair. Tempos were stepped up appreciably, and rhythms given an almost country-western shuffle which would prove especially complimentary to the subtle twang of Sisson’s vocals. Those vocals were more than complimentary to Kenny’s voice – they sounded as lovely together as any two voices could – and for an hour or so, they led the band through a set of splendid pop. And for the AmAnSet fans in the audience – which I would assume to be most of them – they did Toronto the pleasure of honouring a request made the last time AmAnSet was in town, which is to say half a decade ago, and offered a reading of “Aaron & Maria” which they segued into a cover of Jackson Browne’s “Somebody’s Baby”. I went into this show hoping to relive a little AmAnSet magic but The Wooden Birds would have none of that; as stated they’ve got their own thing going on and that thing is simply lovely. If they’re coming through your town on their way back down to Austin, do go see them.

The Fort Worth Weekly and Sloucher have interviews with Andrew Kenny. There’s also a writeup and recording of much of the show over at Hater High.

Photos: The Wooden Birds, Heartbeat Hotel @ The Drake Underground – July 10, 2011
MP3: The Wooden Birds – “Two Matchsticks”
MP3: The Wooden Birds – “False Alarm”
MP3: Heartbeat Hotel – “Fins Of A Shark”
MP3: Heartbeat Hotel – “Walls Of Dry Clouds”
MP3: Heartbeat Hotel – “The Hello Barrel”
Video: The Wooden Birds – “Two Matchsticks”
Video: The Wooden Birds – “Hometown Fantasy”
Video: Heartbeat Hotel – “Windowsill #1”

Though just announced as support for The Vaccines show at The Phoenix on September 27, Young Buffalo will do a little advance work with a free show at The Horseshoe on July 26.

MP3: Young Buffalo – “Only We Can Keep You From Harm”
MP3: Young Buffalo – “Anthems For A 17-Year Old Girl”

On the NXNE schedule in June for like a nanosecond, Massachusetts’ Dom will be in town for real for a show at The Garrison on August 9, the same day their new Family Of Love EP is released.

MP3: Dom – “Living In America”

Marnie Stern and No Joy team up for a show at Wrongbar on September 23. The Riverfront Times has an interview with Ms Stern.

MP3: Marnie Stern – “Transparency Is The New Mystery”
MP3: No Joy – “Hawaii”

Suuns have slated a show at The Garrison for October 2 and there’s a new video session up over at For No One.

MP3: Suuns – “Up Past The Nursery”

Shonen Knife will be at The Horseshoe on October 20 to kick of a 30th anniversary tour and next week’s release of their new record Osaka Ramones, a Ramones tribute record. Tickets for the show are $14.50 in advance, full dates at Exclaim.

Video: Shonen Knife – “Ramones Forever” (live)

Spinner has the first sample of the first Ivy album in six years, All Hours due out September 20, and it seems that in the time away they’ve discovered their inner discotheque. They wear it well.

MP3: Ivy – “Distant Lights”

USA Today profiles The Head & The Heart.

Spin checks in with Stephen Malkmus about his new solo record Mirror Traffic, due out August 23. He and his Jicks play The Phoenix on September 21.

NBC San Diego, The Georgia Straight and San Diego City Beat chat with The Rosebuds, in town on August 9 at The Sound Academy opening up for Bon Iver.

Stereogum talks to the director of Handsome Furs’ racy new video. They’re at The Horseshoe on August 1 and 2.

Video: Handsome Furs – “What About Us”

Spin gets a guided tour of Fucked Up frontman Damian Abraham’s domicile. Their next date is August 9 at the Air Canada Centre with Foo Fighters.

Sax-toting Polaris shortlister Colin Stetson has an interview in The Globe & Mail and a session up at Daytrotter. He plays The Drake Underground on August 26.

Loud & Quiet talks to Timber Timbre.

Southern Souls has posted a video session with Jenn Grant.

The Wilderness Of Manitoba are featured in an interview and video session with The Alternate Side.

The documentary film which led to a rather nasty exchange between filmmaker Vincent Moon and Arcade Fire management – Miroir Noir: Neon Bible Archives – will be getting a screening at the TIFF Lightbox on Wednesday evening at 7:30PM as part of Images Festival. Probably safe to say neither filmmaker nor subjects will be in attendance.

Trailer: Miroir Noir: Neon Bible Archives