Marshall AngusIf you can think waaay back to last year (or last week), I talked about the new, made-in-a-day debut EP from Novels, the band that counted Graham Wright of Tokyo Police Club, Luke Lalonde of Born Ruffians, Will Currie of The Country French, Ex-Po’s Dean Marino and Jay Sad as members. In the piece it was mentioned that the band were keen to get their record to go viral both online and in the real world, so in addition to giving the thing away as a download, they were encouraging fans to burn copies of the record and hand them out to friends, family and strangers, drop them off in peoples’ mailboxes, leave them unattended in airports to be detonated by security, whatever. And they asked them to report back on their efforts, which are now being documented in a blog.

And if you haven’t found much luck finding a copy of the CD either dumpster diving or filed amidst the “Memories Of” sauces at Loblaws, here’s another way. The band made up a limited run of 200 CDs with silkscreened cardboard packaging and are offering a couple of them – that’s a whole 1% of all copies in existence – for me to give away. So if you’d like a copy without all the hassle of clicking “download” or, more understandably, would prefer to hear things uncompressed (presuming they ran the CDs from the original recordings and not just burned MP3s), send me an email at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to hear a Novel” and include your full name and mailing address… and the name of the last good novel you read. I need something new to read. Contest closes at midnight, January 16.

MP3: Novels – “Mr. Foster’s Teenage Daughter”
MP3: Novels – “This Wouldn’t Be The Last Time”
ZIP: Novels / Novels

Marshall AngusChristmas may be a distant memory now – it was a whole WEEK ago – but the giving continues thanks to Can-indie supergroup Novels. The outfit, comprised of Tokyo Police Club keyboardist Graham Wright, Born Ruffians guitarist/singer Luke Lalonde, Will Currie of The Country French, Ex-Po’s Dean Marino and Jay Sad, have completed their self-titled debut – though at five songs and not even 12 minutes in length, perhaps novella (or short story, or paragraph) would be a better name – and are looking to get the word out by not only giving it away as a free download off their website, but encouraging people to burn CDs, hand them out, leave them in conspicuous places…

And if you’re the sort who takes anonymous discs you find in a phone booth or jammed under your front door and were to pop it into your CD player, you’d hear a short and snappy collection of tunes, made familiar and distinctive by Lalonde’s yodel, Currie’s fancy piano work and everyone involved’s cumulative pop savvy. It doesn’t manage to be more than the sum of its parts but it’s friendly and fun – that all involved are having a blast is clear – and should tide fans over as they await the new, as-yet untitled TPC record and Born Ruffians’ Say It, both due out in the early part of next year.

The Toronto Star talks to Wright about the one-day recording session which yielded Novels, videos of which you can watch here.

MP3: Novels – “Mr. Foster’s Teenage Daughter”
MP3: Novels – “This Wouldn’t Be The Last Time”
ZIP: Novels / Novels

Woodpigeon have posted up a live and demo versions of Bjork’s “Aurora”. Their new album Die Stadt Muzikanten is out January 12 and they play the Drake Underground on February 11. New Canadian Modern has an interview with Woodpigeon violinist Foon Yap.

MP3: Woodpigeon – “Aurora” (live)
MP3: Woodpigeon – “Aurora” (demo)

JAM interviews Malajube bassist Mathieu Cournoyer.

Clash puts Los Campesinos! guitarist Tom Campesinos! and Broken Social Scene leader Kevin Drew on the phone with one another. The new Los Campesinos! record Romance Is Boring is out February 1.

The Scotsman talks to Adam Thompson, frontman of We Were Promised Jetpacks.

The Guest Apartment has a video session and interview with Peggy Sue, whose debut album Fossils And Other Phantoms is set for an April 2010 release.

The AV Club goes digging through Clientele frontman Alisdair Maclean’s music collection. The Clientele have a date at the Horseshoe on March 19.

The Line Of Best Fit polled a variety of Canadian artists and at least one blogger (ahem) for their thoughts on the year that was and the one that might be in Canadian music.