New WestBlue Rodeo’s annual Summer shows at the Molson Amphitheatre are pretty much a Toronto tradition and they never have a problem getting people to come down to the lake’s edge and lounge about listening to old favourites, whether there’s a new record to support or not (their last release was 2009’s The Things We Left Behind). But this year’s edition is notable for offering the extra incentive of having Steve Earle & The Dukes and Duchesses on board as support.

That’s right, after a good long while of being Dukes-free – the last album with them on board was 2004’s The Revolution Starts Now – Earle has regrouped his long-time backing band to support his forthcoming album I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, though I’m not certain if they’re actually on it – haven’t gotten my hands on the record or its liner notes yet. What is evident is that the band has gone co-ed, and presumably includes more than just Earle’s missus, Allison Moorer.

In any case, the record is out April 26, Earle’s debut novel of the same name is out on May 12, the new season of Treme, on which Earle appears, begins April 24, and the show in question goes down August 20. Right now, however, you can download an MP3 of the album’s opening track and a chapter of the novel by liking Earle’s Facebook. Yeah, that doesn’t sound very outlaw but what can you do.

Video: Blue Rodeo – “Diamond Mine”
Video: Steve Earle & The Dukes – “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied”

In other show news – having sold the hell out of her show at the Opera House back in January, Lissie returns for a show at the Phoenix on May 28, tickets $24.

MP3: Lissie – “Everywhere I Go”

Austin instrumental outfit This Will Destroy You will bring their new record Tunnel Blanket, out May 10, to Lee’s Palace on May 30. Tickets $13.50 in advance.

MP3: This Will Destroy You – “The World Is”

Sweden’s Wildbirds & Peacedrums will be coming to town for a show on May 30 at the Drake Underground in support of last year’s Rivers, an album made up of their Retina and Iris EPs. Supporting them will be New York’s Yellow Ostrich, whose album The Mistress came out earlier this year.

MP3: Wildbirds & Peacedrums – “Fight For Me”
MP3: Yellow Ostrich – “Whale”

Ireland’s Bell X1 have made a date for The Mod Club on June 1 in support of their new record Bloodless Coup, out April 12.

Video: Bell X1 – “Velcro”

There’s no specific venue announced yet but Julianna Barwick, recipient of a “Best New Music” for her new record The Magic Place, will be in town on June 17 as part of NXNE, though that’s some interesting routing – Salt Lake City to Toronto to Seattle is not an especially common path to take across the continent.

MP3: Julianna Barwick – “The Magic Place”

Wrongbar gets just a little bit punk when JEFF The Brotherhood, The Strange Boys and White Fence hit Wrongbar on June 21.

Video: JEFF The Brotherhood – “Mind Wire”
Video: The Strange Boys – “Be Brave”

Montreal by way of Michigan saxophonist Colin Stetson, whose new record New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges is getting a lot of praise, will be at the Music Gallery on June 29. Timber Timbre talk to Exclaim about Stetson’s contributions to their new record and NPR is streaming one of his SXSW showcases from last month.

MP3: Colin Stetson – “Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun [ft. Laurie Anderson and Shara Worden]”

NYC Taper is sharing another live recording of Godspeed You! Black Emperor from last month. They’re at Lee’s Palace from April 22 to 24.

Also on offer from NYC Taper – a recording of Destroyer’s show at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan last week. Uptown and Square have conversations with Dan Bejar.

Owen Pallett has put out a new video from Heartland and a live show from Paris is available to watch at Grand Crew.

Video: Owen Pallett – “The Great Elsewhere”

Beatroute talks to The Rural Alberta Advantage, whose April 29 show at The Phoenix is almost sold out if not already.

It’d be nice if Southern Souls had a more scannable/searchable index of their content, but the sheer volume of on-the-street video sessions with Canadian artists still makes it worth becoming intimately acquainted with. And if that’s not enough, I just noticed that there are MP3s of many of the performances available to download – don’t know if that’s a new offering or if I just never noticed before, but yeah. Go to it.

Frank YangFinal night reminiscences over here.

Donald Glover
– Community star who raps under the guise of Childish Gambino. Will team up with himself for the IAMDONALD comedy/music tour which hits The Opera House on May 16.
Photos: Donald Glover @ Red 7 Patio – March 19, 2011
Video: Childish Gambino – “Freaks & Geeks”

Veronica Falls
– throwback London pop outfit whose retro-pop gets nice and fuzzy around the edge have released a series of singles with an album still to come.
Photos: Veronica Falls @ Latitude 30 – March 19, 2011
MP3: Veronica Falls – “Found Love In A Graveyard”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Beachy Head”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Found Love in A Graveyard”

Intimate Stranger
– Cinematic Anglo-Chilean quartet have two albums out, the latest being 2009’s Under. Their 2007 debut Life Jacket was just remastered and reissued.
Photos: Intimate Stranger @ Maggie Mae’s – March 19, 2011
MP3: Intimate Stranger – “Moments”
MP3: Intimate Stranger – “Nighttime”
MP3: Intimate Stranger – “Under”
MP3: Intimate Stranger – “Beastie Queen”
MP3: Intimate Stranger – “Gone And Buried”
MP3: Intimate Stranger – “Held”
MP3: Intimate Stranger – “In The Black”
MP3: Intimate Stranger – “Five More Minutes”
Video: Intimate Stranger – “Moments”
Video: Intimate Stranger – “Nighttime”
Video: Intimate Stranger – “Under”

Puro Instinct
– Los Angeles sister-fronted combo whose brand of dream-pop apparently appeals to someone, somewhere. Their debut Headbangers In Ecstasy was released earlier this year.
Photos: Puro Instinct @ The PureVolume House – March 19, 2011
MP3: Puro Instinct – “Stilyagi”
Video: Puro Instinct – “Stilyagi”

Owen Pallett
– inaugural Polaris Prize winner and string arranger for pretty much everyone released Heartland, the first album under his own name, early last year. Spinner has an extensive interview with Pallett.
Photos: Owen Pallett @ The PureVolume House – March 19, 2011
MP3: Owen Pallett – “A Man With No Ankles”
MP3: Owen Pallett – “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”
MP3: Final Fantasy – “The Butcher”
MP3: Final Fantasy – “Ultimatum”
Video: Owen Pallett – “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”
Video: Final Fantasy – “Horsetail Feathers”
Video: Final Fantasy – “The Butcher”
Video: Final Fantasy – “He Poos Clouds”
Video: Final Fantasy – “This Lamb Sells Condos”

And to wrap up the SxSW coverage, check out this piece at Spinner about the festival’s growth over the past quarter-century (this year was their 25th anniversary) and this video feature at The Guardian about the highs and lows of Summer Camp’s experience. For the record, they were one of the very best acts I saw this year and deserve nothing but rainbows and chocolates.

Frank YangAs mentioned, Saturday nights at SxSW have traditionally been kind of slow as far as options go, but this year seemed especially lean – when The Bravery are your headliner at Stubb’s, you have a problem. For my part, I had a number of options circled but nothing that I’d classify as a tentpole show to build my night around and so was glad to see an 8PM listing for IAMDONALD at Red 7 that I’d somehow missed in past schedule scans – and it was a 90-minute show! Double score.

The titular “Donald” was Donald Glover, aka “Troy” from Community, aka all-around funny dude. This, however, wasn’t going to be stand-up. It would be a preview of the IAMDONALD tour which would be kicking off in April and offer both comedy and music, the latter in the form of Glover’s Childish Gambino hip-hop persona. So would this particular showcase be one or the other or both? No one in line was particularly sure, but all were pretty keen to find out. Especially when Community co-star Danny Pudi was spotted entering the venue, briefly raising hopes of a full “Troy & Abed In The Morning” taping.

What it would end up being was more of a dry run than anything else. Much time both pre- and during the show was spent hovering over laptops, working out the synching of multimedia elements and technical details of the live instrumentation, but when they finally got down to brass tacks, it was… alright. The combination of a really bad sound mix – instruments way too loud, vocals mixed too low and yet distorting – made it really difficult to understand what Glover/Gambino was saying, and so a lot of the time it was just, “hey it’s the guy from that TV show jumping around on stage!”. Perhaps if I’d done some prep work like a lot of the audience appeared to have, it’d have gone over better – folks around me were dancing and rapping along with what I gathered were rather graphic and weird descriptions of Gambino (and hopefully not Glover’s) sexual proclivities. Content aside, Glover was an impressive rapper and singer – there was some soul/R&B-style grooves in there as well – and while there’s humour in what he’s doing, it’s pretty clear he’s serious about it. I was a bit disappointed that the stand-up portion of the IAMDONALD tour wasn’t part of this show, though the offhand between-song banter was pretty great, and I can only hope that it allows them to smooth things out before the actual tour. Like turning down the keyboards. Gawd.

Things were much more conventional over at Latitude 30, where London’s Veronica Falls were setting up. Though 50-50 co-ed, Veronica Falls is a “they” and not a “she”, offering a distinctly English take on the ’50s retro garage pop movement. Rather than invoking the sun and beach of their American peers, they’re decidedly darker in outlook though twee-er in sound and come off as though their garages were located in dreary landlocked council estates. Though prevailingly cute, they offered more intensity than you’d expect from the style and were capable of getting right loud when necessary.

And around the corner from the British Music Embassy (as Latitude 30 was dubbed for the week) was the Chilean Music Showcase at Maggie Mae’s, and at the Chilean Music Showcase was a band called Intimate Stranger who, despite the unfortunate name, got my attention during a random schedule browse. Not that this should be interpreted as a broadening of my musical horizons to include more international flavours; Intimate Stranger are fronted by a Brit and sound more like they hail from London than from Santiago. Their guitar-driven tunes are relatively simple, built on tight, unrelenting grooves that bloom and evolve with deviations and improvisations on the theme as it progresses. From that description you might call it jamming but the focus on the song and the melody always keeps things in line. Like many of the acts I saw this week, they were laden with potential but the charisma wasn’t quite there yet – frontwoman Tessie Stranger was a stunner but didn’t seem entirely comfortable with herself and her bandmates preferred to keep their heads down and just go about their business. They owe it to themselves to do better than that.

To cap off the festival, I went off the grid somewhat and hit the Stereogum-sponsored unofficial after party at the Purevolume House, determined to catch Owen Pallett before the clock struck 12 (figuratively speaking) and SxSW turned back into a pumpkin. And in the process, I was introduced to what would be my stock answer should anyone ask me, “what was the worst thing you saw at SxSW?” – Puro Instinct. The Los Angeles outfit has apparently been getting some buzz of late and I can only imagine it’s because of the angle of being fronted by two sisters, one 23 and the other 16. It surely can’t be because of the music. Actually, musically they weren’t bad, with kind of a bubble-goth thing going on and the younger sister, Skylar Kaplan, a perfectly decent guitarist. But big sis Piper… well, if she was going for the drunken aunt at a wedding thing, she nailed it. Possessed of nothing resembling a singing voice, she rasped and croaked her way through their mercifully short set, unable to carry a tune and unwilling to put her drink down as she tried. It was a sad, sad thing to behold and I may be mistaken but I think I saw Courtney Love standing at the side of her stage, shaking her head with disdain.

I’ve mentioned my general boycott of Canadian acts when I’m at SxSW and a sort of extension of that is my habit of taking local acts for granted, in the “I’ll see them next time, they play all the time anyways” sense. And that is how, with the exception of his two-song set at last year’s Polaris gala, I’d gone nearly three years since seeing Owen Pallett live, either as himself or Final Fantasy. And that, kids, was simply far too long – especially since his Twitter feed was implying a format change after the festival, though that may just be recruiting a band. And if that’s the case, I’m sure it’ll be marvelous but part of the wonder of Owen live was how he was able to recreate his miniature symphonies entirely on his own (and with a little help from technology). A wonder I was finally able to get reacquainted with after a couple of near misses over the week. Granted the Purevolume House was kind of an odd setting for him, what with it’s over the top light show and underage afterparty vibe, but you take what you can get. And what we got was a shortish but satisfying set that served to either remind or reveal, depending on how well you knew his work, his musical brilliance. I may not constantly sing his praises hereabouts, but make no mistake that I think he’s one of the most creative talents working in Canada right now, and any time he gets on stage he proves it. For me, a terrific way to close out the festival and for the kids, I think they liked his Mariah Carey cover.

And that, folks, is SxSW 2011 in the books. There’s still the A/V posts with pics (all of which are up), MP3s, videos and links but those will be mixed in with your regularly scheduled news and spews starting tomorrow. I appreciate your sticking through this somewhat decompressed reportage schedule, at least compared to years past – it’s amazing how much you better you feel when you’re not up until 4AM trying to write up the past day. And to anyone who’s heard me insisting loudly that this would be my final SxSW, that I’ve got other/better things I want to do with my travel budget and vacation time… I have nothing better to do. See you next year?

jmonae.comBack in mid-December, I pointed out that the website for the 2011 edition of Canadian Musicfest had gone live with the first batch of showcasing artists for the festival. And while there was enough in that initial list to get my attention, in the last couple of weeks the information available has really ramped up and, methinks, another round-up of acts who will be filling Toronto clubs from March 9 to 13 is in order.

Perhaps most exciting is the return of cyber-soul firecracker Janelle Monáe, though if you were hoping to see her play a conventional headlining show then “frustrating” might be the more accurate word. She made Canadian debut last Summer on Olympic Island as part of the Arcade Fire mini-fest and this time she’s performing as part of the CMW/CMF-associated Indie Awards, the exact mandate of which I’ve never understood. But whatever the reason, Monáe will top a bill that also includes Shad, Hollerado, Bombay Bicycle Club, Hannah Georgas and Desperate Union. Obviously, it’s an awards ceremony as well as a show, but my understanding is that Monáe, at least, will play a full set so the $30 ticket price would still be worth it; a festival wristband will also get you in. The Indies take place in the Canadian Room of the Royal York on March 12.

Other “big” shows that week: Land Of Talk, Hollerado, Cadence Weapon, Isis (ex. Thunderheist) and Little Scream show at the Opera House on March 10 (already reported I know), admission $18 or with a wristband. For those who like dudes with their hair hanging over their faces while they play guitar, the pairing of J Mascis and Kurt Vile at The Great Hall on March 11 is not to be missed – that one’s limited wristbands, advance tickets $27.50. It won’t get roots-rockier than Dawes and Deer Tick to say nothing of their Voltron-like supergroup Middle Brother (which includes Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit), all three of whom will be at the Opera House on March 11, all wristbands accepted or $18.50 for advance tickets.

Also noteworthy and festival-related if not necessarily in my wheelhouse – a Big Sugar reunion at the Sound Academy, Good Charlotte at the Phoenix, Melissa Etheridge at Massey Hall – all on the Friday, March 11 – and the can’t miss (with a rocket launcher, ideally) pairing of Buckcherry and Papa Roach at the Sound Academy on March 12. Something for everyone? And less renowned/reviled but of more interest to me – Brits Esben & The Witch (date/place TBA) and Anna Calvi (Wrongbar, March 11), Australians The Jezebels (Lee’s Palace, March 11) and surely many more that still haven’t been announced – they’re expecting some 800 showcasing bands when all’s said and done and the official artist list is only at around 560. Of course, as always, it’s logistics that will ultimately determine what I end up seeing – the schedule has just started going up and already, I’m seeing some tough choices that are going to have to be made about where to be and when.

And let’s not even get started on the fact that SxSW’s showcase listings are slowly coming together.

MP3: Land Of Talk – “Swift Coin”
MP3: Dawes – “Love Is All I Am”
MP3: Esben & The Witch – “Warpath”
MP3: Anna Calvi – “Jezebel”
MP3: The Jezebels – “Mace Spray”
Video: Janelle Monáe – “Tightrope”

I mentioned a little while back that the release of Bruce Peninsula’s second album was on the back burner while frontman Neil Haverty was being treated for acute promyelocytic leukemia; now his friends and bandmates are staging a fundraiser to help mitigate some of the financial burdens of being ill. On January 29, two fundraisers will be held at the Music Gallery – a matinee show with Snowblink, Kith & Kin, The Deep, Steve McKay and Lake Andrew Drowning and an evening show with Timber Timbre, Austra (former BP-er Katie Stelmanis newly signed to Domino) and Evening Hymns. Admission is a $10 suggested donation for the matinee and $20 for the evening show, or if you just want to donate a PayPal account has been set up. More details at the Facebook event.

MP3: Timber Timbre – “Demon Ghost”
MP3: Austra – “The Beat & The Pulse”
MP3: Evening Hymns – “Broken Rifle”
MP3: Snowblink – “Ambergris”

If Do Make Say Think’s show at the Drake Underground during Boxing Week was too big or expensive for you, take heart – they’ll be going smaller, cheaper (free with canned good) and just as below grade with an in-store at Sonic Boom on February 3.

MP3: Do Make Say Think – “Other Truths album mix”

Halifax’s Jenn Grant will be bringing her shiny new record Honeymoon Punch – which finds her going a little less jazzy and a little more poppy with great results – at the Horseshoe on February 19, advance tickets $15. The National Post and aux.tv have features on Grant, who’s just released a new video from the album.

Video: Jenn Grant – “Getcha Good”

Broken Social Scene’s January 18 show at Terminal 5 in New York City will be broadcast live on YouTube starting at 9PM.

QTV has a video interview with Feist.

Volume 1 Brooklyn talks books with Owen Pallett.

eye puts Tokyo Police Club on this week’s cover and solicits their New Year’s resolutions in honour of Saturday’s show at the Kool Haus.

Beatroute has an interviews with Dan Bejar while NOW talks to one of the Toronto-based horn players who’s all over Destroyer’s new record Kaputt. out January 25. They’ll play Lee’s Palace on March 31.

Nils Edenloff of The Rural Alberta Advantage discusses the inspiration behind the song “Tornado ’87” with Spinner. Said song appears on their new album Departing, out March 1.

Fucked Up frontman Damian Abraham talks to eye about his new gig as veejay of MuchMusic’s back-from-the-dead alternative nation show The Wedge which returns to the air on January 26 at 10PM, and to Chart about the new Fucked Up record David Comes To Life, which could be out as soon as May.

Frank YangThat I’m a fan of the once-celebreated, then-maligned, now-celebrated-again genre of indie rock called “shoegaze” is no secret (if this is news, then welcome – you’re new around here). But if you think that gives me a soft spot for bands who invest more than is reasonable in effects pedals, you’d be right but also wrong.

Sonic architecture was only part of what those British bands in the early ’90s incredible – they also wrote fantastic songs and that’s something that some of their followers either forget or unable to replicate. Far too often I’ll come across bands that seem promising on paper with all the right RIYLs and while there’s plenty of sturm and/or drang, there’s a woeful lack of hooks or, live, they’ve made the mistake of going so far as to emulate their forebears’ onstage social anxiety disorder.

So Thursday night’s “Wintergaze” mini-festival out at the Twist Gallery in Parkdale was met with both anticipation and trepidation; here we had five acts who were ostensibly among the top new dream-pop purveyors in the greater Toronto area with only a couple sort-of known to me and the rest total unknown quantities. Never been to the venue before, either. A night of mysteries awaited!

Lead-off hitters Heartbeat Hotel weren’t quite a mystery – I’d written up them and their debut album Fetus Dreams back in July but had never seen them live. Most of the pros of the record were present live – songs with a good balance of catchiness and atmospherics and equal dexterity at poppers and drifters. None of the songs were immediately memorable but they had a good sound that good things will come of it.

Ostrich Tuning come by their name, attributed to Lou Reed circa the Velvet Underground, legitimately. Their music utilized a tidal approach, with VU-styled dirges building, cresting and ebbing with the occasional melodic or chordal shift to keep you on your toes. There were vocals but they were buried – probably deliberately so – and while I would like to see their melodic side attended to, their sense of dynamics was impressive.

Volcano Playground‘s set may not have been the most polished but they more than made up for it with an impressive mix that melded synthetic tones, danceable rhythms, emotive vocals and an innate pop sensibility. There was still the sense that there were maybe too many ideas in play for them to juggle effectively but the potential contained in what they’re doing is immense.

Warren Hildebrand, who operates under the name Foxes In Fiction, apparently hails from my own hometown and it seems I have to reconsider my long-held notion that Oakville is a artistic black hole from which nothing of value can emerge. The one-man band, who looked as though he’d been plucked straight out of his bedroom and onto the stage (not that there was a stage), was armed with a guitar, sampler and array of pedals and used the tools on hand to deliver a well-orchestrated if dynamically-limited set of slow-motion dreampop that has more than a little Deerhunter-ish value. It wasn’t hard to see why his debut Swung From The Branches has put him in the radar of sites like Pitchfork.

By the time Memoryhouse came to close things out, things had run well behind schedule and in addition to general exhaustion, the attached dance club was in full swing and the gallery was resonating to the obnoxious dance beat from downstairs. Not the best situation to immerse oneself in their hazy, nostalgic pop but having waited for some time to see them live, it had to be endured. And dance leakage and bouts of feedback aside, they did not disappoint. Performing as a three-piece with an extra guitar augmenting Evan Abeele’s piano and guitar and Denise Nouvion’s vocals, their crisp, clean textures and country-tinged vocals weren’t the standard sonic implements of shoegazing but the net effect of their approach was just as dreamy. They mentioned that this was an unusually stripped-down show for them, and while I’d like to see/hear/feel them in a presumably louder configuration, this was pretty nice. And while on the topic of “wants”, a full album would also be welcome – I suspect that as good as they are with singles, a complete song cycle would be even more impressive.

In the end, any fears of being disappointed by those who’d claim to be worshipping at the alter of Creation were wholly misplaced. None of the bands on the bill were trying to be the second coming of Ride – even the labelling of them as “shoegaze” seemed inaccurate and not giving them nearly enough credit. They’re making new and interesting, atmospheric rock music and if you feel inclined to look at your feet while you listen to it, then that’s your business. Just make sure you listen.

eye was also on hand and has a review.

Photos: Memoryhouse, Foxes In Fiction, Volcano Playground, Ostrich Tuning, Heartbeat Hotel @ Twist Gallery – December 16, 2010
MP3: Memoryhouse – “Lately (Deuxieme)”
MP3: Memoryhouse – “Lately (Troisieme)”
MP3: Memoryhouse – “Gian Lorenzo Bernini”
MP3: Foxes In Fiction – “School Night”
MP3: Foxes In Fiction – “Lately (Deuxieme)”
MP3: Foxes In Fiction – “Flashing Lights Have Ended Now”
MP3: Foxes In Fiction – “15 Ativan (Song For Erika)”
MP3: Volcano Playground – “Anywhere”
MP3: Heartbeat Hotel – “Fins Of A Shark”
MP3: Heartbeat Hotel – “Walls Of Dry Clouds”
MP3: Heartbeat Hotel – “The Hello Barrel”
Video: Memoryhouse – “Heirloom”
Video: Memoryhouse – “Bonfire”
Video: Memoryhouse – “Lately (Deuxieme)”
Video: Volcano Playground – “Waiting”
Myspace: Memoryhouse
MySpace: Heartbeat Hotel

Their sold-out show at Lee’s Palace last week now in the books, it can be announced that The Rural Alberta Advantage will be playing the New Year’s Eve party at The Tranzac alongside the likes of Hooded Fang, Laura Barrett, The Wilderness Of Manitoba and more. Tickets $15 in advance.

PitchforkTV has got videos of Dan Bejar previewing songs from the next Destroyer record Kaputt, due out January 25.

Spinner interviews John O’Regan of Diamond Rings. He opens up for Robyn at the Sound Academy on January 26 and NYC Taper is sharing a recording of his show in New York earlier this month.

Owen Pallett is giving away an EP’s worth of demos, collectively entitled Export, over at Soundcloud. Today Online also has an interview.

Torontoist interviews Mitch Fillion, the video session auteur who runs Southern Souls.