Dustin Rabin/Epitaph.comBack in the Spring of 2005, two of the finest rock bands Canada had to offer came up with a great idea and a great name for that great idea. The bands were Constantines and The Weakerthans, the idea was a tour that would traverse all of Canada, not just the obvious markets, and the name they gave it was “Rolling Tundra”. And it was good.

Since then, both the Cons and Weakerthans have grown in audience and profile have released highly-acclaimed records in Kensington Heights and Reunion Tour respectively, but a good idea remains a good idea so next Spring, they’re totally going to do it again. As Chart reports, the 2009 edition of The Rolling Tundra Revue will kick off on March 19 in St John’s, Newfoundland and wind its way across our home and native land before wrapping up May 4 in Whitehorse in the Yukon.

As far as local dates go, they’ll be at the Phoenix on March 31 for an all-ages show – tickets are $25 and go on sale Thursday Friday – but looking at the itinerary, it’s notable that there’s two off days on either side of the scheduled date. Keeping in mind that the 2005 edition had three Toronto shows, one an all-ages matinee, do you think they’ve got a second date ready to go, at least? Yeah, me too.

MP3: Constantines – “Hard Feelings”
MP3: The Weakerthans – “Sun In An Empty Room”
MP3: The Weakerthans – “Night Windows”
Video: Constantines – “Credit River”
Video: Constantines – “Our Age”
Video: Constantines – “Hard Feelings”
Video: The Weakerthans – “Civil Twilight”
Video: The Weakerthans – “Tournament Of Hearts”
MySpace: Constantines
MySpace: The Weakerthans

Solo Pornographer AC Newman will hit the road in support of his new album Get Guilty!, due January 20, and roll into Lee’s Palace on March 11. Tickets $15. And cheers to Matablog for pointing the way to this New Pornogaphers show in Australia, available to watch in its entirety at Moshcam. Update: New MP3 and full tour dates now available!

MP3: AC Newman – “Submarines Of Stockholm”

The Toronto Sun talks to Stars frontlady Amy Millan. Stars are doing three nights at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre starting Thursday night.

Malajube will finally follow up their Polaris-nominated release Trompe-L’oeil with Labyrinthes, out February 10.

eye profiles Oh No Forest Fires. They’ll play Wavelength at Sneaky Dee’s on January 25.

It seems the rehearsals went well, because Blur are back – the first officially announced reunion gig will take place at Hyde Park in London on July 3, though more gigs around that date both before and after are likely to come. Details at NME. Hey V Fest, I think I’ve found your 2009 headliner. Make it happen.

Billboard gets a status update from Doves about album number four. Still untitled, but targeting an April release.

Clash talks to Maximo Park frontman Paul Smith about the making of their third album, which he describes as “Upbeat, upfront, uptight, uppity, uplifting”.

The Quietus talks to ex-Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall about going it solo. Her debut single “Another Version Of Pop Song” was released this week.

Drowned In Sound disassembles and examines the component parts of Florence & The Machine.

The AV Club has an interview with Gareth Campesino of Los Campesinos!.

Clash and Drowned In Sound chat with The Futureheads.

ES Magazine profiles Duffy.

Frank YangMost company Christmas parties stink. This is a statement of fact. At best, you can hope that you get more than your fair share of drink tickets and that someone, preferably not yourself, gets wasted and makes an ass of themsleves so at least you have something to talk about the following Monday besides how much the Christmas party stank.

So when you get the opportunity to hit up a holiday-themed soiree that’s pretty much guaranteed NOT to stink, you should pay attention. Case in point, the “Jingle Bell Hop” presented by Audio Blood and Two-Way Monologues at Rancho Relaxo this coming Friday night, December 5. It will feature Oh No Forest Fires, well-documented in these pages, pleading acoustic-rock from Hamilton’s Bass Lions and Barrie-based pop-smith Brett Caswell & The Marquee Rose. Certainly a better time than kissing the boss’s ass or placing bets in the layoff pool.

So courtesy of Audio Blood I’ve got a holiday prize pack to give away consisting of a pair of passes to said show and a copy of Oh No Forest Fires’ The War On Geometry and Bass Lions’ More Than Islands on CD. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to Jingle Bell Hop” in the subject line and your full name in the body and get that in to me before midnight, December 3.

MP3: Oh No Forest Fires – “Swing And A Misdemeanor”
MP3: Oh No Forest Fires – “We Fit Our Charm”
MP3: Oh No Forest Fires – “It’s Not Fun And Games Until Someone Loses An Eye”
MP3: Bass Lions – “Ransom The Sunset”
MP3: Bass Lions – “Funeral Shed”
MP3: Bass Lions – “Like Ashes In My Mouth”

Kyle HuttonOh No Forest Fires are having a good time. That much is obvious, listening to The War On Geometry, the debut mini-album from the Toronto four-piece that follows up an excellent demo EP that has been kicking around for a while. Even though adding those four tracks to the seven on Geometry would have made for a more traditional-length album, their omission – as excellent as those songs were – is a sensible one. Compared to the new recordings, the songs from the EP were equally if not even more immediately and indelibly catchy, but the execution was more well-mannered and polite.

Geometry, on the other hand, is the sound of that band hepped up on pixie sticks, volume and nostalgia for how distortion pedals sounded in the ’90s. It’s bigger, louder and more abrasive-sounding, though the extra grit also helps those hooks stick just that much harder. Bursting with energy and ideas, it knows when a musical tangent is called for and when its best to simply take the shortest distance between two points to get the point across, particularly by means of big, loud power chords. It takes a skeleton of tempo shifts and melodic complexity that could only have been built by people who really know their way around their instruments, and decorates it in party hats, funny sloganed t-shirts and oversized sunglasses. It’s math-rock if math were singalongable and the most exhilarating subject in school.

A lot of bands spend their careers trying to capture the energy of their live shows on record, and while Geometry doesn’t quite catch the full experience – I’ve listened to the album a good deal and haven’t yet had any of my musical equipment in the vicinity spontaneously demolish itself or find myself soaked in beer/sweat/other fluids – it does a good job of conveying just how… trying not to use the word “energy” again… animated the band can be whilst performing. I’ve seen them twice now and both times have been wonderful bouts of anarchy. And when they play the Horseshoe tomorrow night with Hey Rosetta! and Museum Pieces, both visiting from the Maritimes, I expect nothing less. Cover is $8, ONFF are on first at 9.

Chart has an interview with the band.

MP3: Oh No Forest Fires – “It’s Not Fun And Games Until Someone Loses An Eye”

The Tennessean talks to Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning. They’re at the Sound Academy on November 27 and 28.

Though hard at work at the next Great Lake Swimmers record, Tony Dekker also crafted the score to Song Sung Blue, a forthcoming documentary about a Neil Diamond tribute act. Hear a couple of the pieces below and for clips from the film, hit up their YouTube channel.

MP3: Tony Dekker – “Old Milwaukee”
MP3: Tony Dekker – “Encore”

Final Fantasy has released another video from his Spectrum, 14th Century EP.

Video: Final Fantasy – “Blue Imelda”

Chad Van Gaalen is offering up a new MP3 from Soft Airplane. The Calgary Herald has an interview.

MP3: Chad VanGaalen – “City Of Electric Light”

Neil Young floats some ideas for saving the automotive industry at The Huffington Post.

The Thermals will return on April 7 with a new label – Kill Rock Stars – and album, in Now We Can See.

mel.opho.be interviews the boys from Wheat about small successes and the link between their music and visual art endeavours. They’ve completed a new album entitled Black Ink and are aiming to release it in Spring 2009. Via Bradley’s Almanac.

The December 9 Noah & The Whale show at the Rivoli has been cancelled, as has the entire North American tour. As they explain in a MySpace blog entry, between their European tour commitments and working on their second record, they just couldn’t make it over. But they promise to return in March of next year, presumably scheduled around an appearance at SxSW.

The Star-Tribune talks to Patterson Hood and Craig Finn, frontmen of tourmates Drive-By Truckers and The Hold Steady. The Seattle Times settles for talking to just Finn.

The Chicago Sun-Times contemplates the fates of the Chicagoan bands set to conquer the alt.rock world way back in 1993.