James D. KellyWho: The Raveonettes
What: Danish duo who continue to refine the art of melding big, fuzzy, guitar rock with sweet bubblegum pop instincts while wearing nothing but black and white.
Why: The band just released their sixth studio album in Observator. And since they love being on the road, they taking it on the road.
When: Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Where: The Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Parisians http://melosechochamber.tumblr.com/ – who are themselves getting no small amount of buzz – are opening up the tour.
How: Tickets for the show are $19.50 in advance but courtesy of Collective Concerts, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see The Raveonettes” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, September 30.

MP3: The Raveonettes – “She Owns The Streets”
MP3: The Raveonettes – “Observations”

Frank YangIt would have been nice to think that the many well-dressed folks milling about on King West Saturday evening were winding their way to The Hoxton, where New Zealand’s Pip Browne – aka Ladyhawke – was set to make her first Toronto appearance in almost three years exactly. But no, they were probably just out taking in the final night of TIFF, because The Hoxton was basically empty when I got there.

Being an early show with a curfew, waiting around for the more fashionably late wasn’t an option to Computer Magic got to play for a mere handful of people. The project of Brooklyite Danielle Johnson, they played as a two-piece with Johnson on keys and vox and a drummer. It wasn’t much and their on-stage mobility was decidedly limited, but they more than made do. Johnson’s synth-pop melodies were both hooky and interesting, and while her drummer favoured the pads on his hybrid acoustic/electronic drum kit, the fact that he could hit the conventional drums and hit them hard gave it all a lot more power and presence than you would have expected. My understanding is that some live versions of the band have guitar and bass to fill things out, and while I don’t doubt the extra bodies make for a more compelling live show, Computer Magic as a duo had all they really needed to make a good impression – namely, solid tunes.

For reasons entirely not her fault, Ladyhawke’s first Toronto show in September 2009 was something of a clusterfuck. It was part of a seemingly-cursed tour presented by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, beset by low attendance, a patchwork bill, and a self-destructing headliner in Ida Maria who bailed from the tour entirely the day of the Toronto show. Ladyhawke’s first set as the de facto sole headliner of the tour was actually fine, showcasing the ridiculously catchy ’80s-styled pop of her self-titled debut, but it’s hard to separate the performance in memory from the circus that surrounded it.

This outing came without the sideshow, thankfully, but also without the degree of buzz that was there the first time around. Her second album Anxiety has been rather unjustly dismissed for being built more on guitars than synths, but the electro-pop movement that she was lumped into back in 2009 was no longer fashionable anyways and if she’d stuck with the same formula, the complaints would probably be that she was sounding dated. Fact is, the change in instrumentation is more cosmetic than fundamental; the songs on Anxiety are less immediate than those on Ladyhawke, but also less obvious. Pip Browne’s melodic instincts are still more than intact, though, and it’s a solid work that will age quite nicely.

It also meant that the couple hundred people in attendance – the room had thankfully filled in some – were genuine fans, else three years behind on hearing what was supposed to be hip. Fronting a five-piece band where, perhaps fittingly given their shift in direction, the massive drum sounds and big, fuzzy guitars often drowned out the keyboardist, the Ladyhawke live experience hadn’t necessarily become more exciting. Though friendly, they’re still very businesslike on stage, having evidently drawn on plenty of glittery/glammy ’80s sonic influence but not the excess of presentation. Browne’s vintage Bryan Adams t-shirt got the most audience approval and the guitarist Danny Blanco provided most of the on-stage animation, which wasn’t really much. But the low-key presentation meant that they were able to power through an extensive set list, cramming eighteen songs into an hour and change including an unexpected cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” to open the encore. See, she knows her ’60s as well! And she knows how to write great songs that don’t need the benefit of a gossip blogger patron or fleeting musical fashionability to impress.

Computer Magic has a bunch of EPs available for free download.

Photos: Ladyhawke, Computer Magic @ The Hoxton – September 15, 2012
MP3: Ladyhawke – “Sunday Drive”
MP3: Ladyhawke – “Sunday Drive” (acoustic)
MP3: Ladyhawke – “Black White & Blue” (acoustic)
MP3: Computer Magic – “Grand Junction”
MP3: Computer Magic – “Electric Fences”
Video: Ladyhawke – “Blue Eyes”
Video: Ladyhawke – “Sunday Drive”
Video: Ladyhawke – “Black White & Blue”
Video: Ladyhawke – “Magic”
Video: Ladyhawke – “Paris Is Burning”
Video: Ladyhawke – “My Delirium”
Video: Ladyhawke – “Dusk Till Dawn”
Video: Ladyhawke – “Back Of The Van”
Video: Computer Magic – “Trinity”
Video: Computer Magic – “The End Of Time”

Evidently with a little time to kill before hitting the stage at The Great Hall on the evening of September 18, DIIV will be setting up at Sonic Boom’s Kensington location for an in-store on Tuesday afternoon at 5PM. They just released a new video from their debut Oshin last week.

MP3: DIIV – “Sometime”
Video: DIIV – “Doused”

Australian folkies Husky have a date at The Drake Underground on November 12 in support of their debut Forever So. They were here back during Canadian Musicfest, if you think you might had seen or heard them before. A Daytrotter session with the band also just went up.

MP3: Husky – “Tidal Wave”
MP3: Husky – “History’s Door”

NPR’s big-deal advance album stream this week is Piramida, the latest from Denmark’s Efterklang. It’s out September 25.

MP3: Efterklang – “Apples”
Stream: Efterklang / Pirmada

Even though their latest Observator just came out, Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes tells Paste he’s already compiling ideas for their next album. They’re at The Phoenix on October 2.

Interview has an interview and I Love Sweden a video session with Amanda Mair.

The Quietus has an exit interview with the retiring Soundtrack Of Our Lives.

Interview talks to ascendent Swedish electro-pop duo Icona Pop.

PopMatters poses twenty questions to múm.

Rolling Stone has premiered a new video from Of Monsters & Men’s debut My Head Is An Animal.

Video: Of Monsters & Men – “Mountain Sound”

Dash Shaw and John Cameron Mitchell offer more a short film than video as their contribution to Sigur Rós’ Valtari “Mystery Film Experiment”, using both “Rembihnútur” and “Ekki múkk” as a soundtrack to their clip.

Video: Sigur Rós – “Seraph”

Laetitia Sadier has premiered a new video from Silencio. She plays The Drake on September 18 and Laetitia Sadier – “Find Me The Pulse Of The Universe”

NPR is streaming M83’s recent concert at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.

Kristen LidellMany adjectives can and have been used to describe the songwriting of Swedish troubadour Jens Lekman – wry, witty, classic, charming, hilarious, to list but a very few – but “personal” is not necessarily one of the first you’d use. He’s a masterful storyteller in song, and no doubt the seeds of many of his songs come from his own life experiences or observations, but in crafting his perfect little narratives he’s usually able to distance himself from them, always a character whether he’s operating in the third person or the first. This isn’t any sort of condemnation – I’d not want “A Letter To Nina” or “You Are The Light” any other way – but is necessary to point out to understand why his third proper album, I Know What Love Isn’t, feels subtly but significatly different.

On the surface, it’s not dissimilar to his earlier efforts. Lightly but exquisitely arranged orchestral pop, albeit better-recorded this time out, and a suite of songs filled with witty couplets, brilliant plays on words, and songs about and to girls. But while the female leads in his tales have a number of different names – Danae, Catherine, Samantha, Erica, Jennifer, take a bow – there’s a sense they’re all perspectives of the same woman. As the album title implies, What Love Isn’t is a break-up album and whether Lekman sought to only use the failed romance as inspiration and not fuel is known only to him, that sadness sublimates its way into the entire record and makes the fourth wall translucent, giving it an emotional potency that his other records can’t lay claim to.

Opening with the simple, piano-led instrumental “Every Little Hair Knows Your Name” – reprised in vocal form to close the record – the front end of Love finds Lekman indulging his more emo side. Lead single “Erica America” is a smoky, jazzy piece equally tinged with nostalgia and regret and while “Become Someone Else’s” brightens up marginally thanks to a chipper piano line, it and “She Just Doesn’t Want To Be With You Anymore” wear their sentiments openly in their titles. It would be understandable for Lekman to choose to inhabit this end of the musical spectrum to work through things, but also overly obvious. And heavens forfend Lekman be obvious.

It turns out he’s playing the (relatively) long game with this record, allowing it to gradually build in tempo, and brighten in outlook as it progresses and by the time it reaches the triumvirate of “The World Moves On”, “The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love”, and “I Know What Love Isn’t”, it’s Lekman at his best, spinning vignettes and telling tales over some of his most indelible melodies, memorable choruses, and richest arrangements to date, all combining for his most cohesive and satisfying album yet. I Know What Love Isn’t may sound like a typically Lekman play on words, but it also speaks to a truth of lessons learned the hard way – the couplet “you don’t get over a broken heart/you just learn to carry it gracefully” from “The World Moves On” is the album’s thesis and triumph, and while you don’t have to have had your heart broken to appreciate it, but it doesn’t hurt.

Rolling Stone, Exclaim, DIY, Tiny Mix Tapes, eMusic, RCRDLBL, and Interview, The Quietus talk to Lekman about his new record, while The Line Of Best Fit and Pitchfork also cajole a video session. Lekman is at The Phoenix on October 4.

MP3: Jens Lekman – “Erica America”
Video: Jens Lekman – “I Know What Love Isn’t”
Video: Jens Lekman – “Erica America”

Opening up that show at The Phoenix is Taken By Trees, and they’ve just released a stream of another new song from Other Worlds, set for release on October 2.

Stream: Taken By Trees – “Large”

Maria Lindén of I Break Horses gives DIY some insight to where she’s headed with album number two. Room 205 has also posted the first installment of a video session with the band that gives you an idea of what the live incarnation of the band sounds like (awesome). The next two will follow over the next fortnight.

Video: I Break Horses – “Wired” (live at Room 205)

Clash has got a download of Amanda Mair performing an acoustic version of “Doubt”, from her self-titled debut.

MP3: Amanda Mair – “Doubt” (acoustic)

Rolling Stone gets to know Swedish electro-pop duo Icona Pop. They have a new single which they’re thoughtfully streaming for all to hear.

Stream: Icona Pop – “Ready For The Weekend”

Spin, The Georgia Straight, and Seattle Weekly talks to Niki & The Dove, in town at The Drake on October 2.

Efterklang have made a track from their new album Piramida available to download, sample, and savour. It’s out September 25.

MP3: Efterklang – “Apples”

4AD has announced the signing of Denmark’s Søen Løkke Juul – aka Indians – by way of a 4AD Session. Their full-length debut won’t be out until early in the new year, but he and his band will introduce themselves at The Horseshoe on November 23 in support of Other Lives.

MP3: Indians – “I Am Haunted”
Video: Indians – “Magic Kids”
Video: Indians – “New”

NPR and DIY interview The Raveonettes. Observator is out today – they’ve released a new video for the occasion – and they’re at The Phoenix on October 2.

Video: The Raveonettes – “The Enemy”

DIY, Spinner, and Clash say “what’s up” to Of Monsters & Men

The 405 and Under The Radar interview Laetitia Sadier. She plays The Drake on September 18.

Nick Cave is still in screenwriter mode, but in discussing Lawless conversation inevitably turns to music and it’s been confirmed that a new Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album is already complete and is due out in February of next year. Exclaim has some details.

The Wall Street Journal interviews Takaakira Goto of Mono, who bring their new record For My Parents to the Horseshoe tomorrow night.

Frank YangAn interesting thing about Rouyn-Noranda: for a town its size, the venues – though not plentiful – are really nice. Unsurprisingly, FME took most of them over for the weekend and large temporary outdoor stages aside – and those were also nice – each had good sound, lighting, and its own distinct character. The converted church of Agora des arts, the roadhouse vibe of Caberet de la dèrniere chance, the multi-level club attached to a music store of Salle Évolu-son, and for the first part of Saturday night, the converted theatre of La Scène Paramount.

I think I missed the first act but arrived in time to see Julien Sagot, another Karkwa member taking advantage of the band’s hiatus to engage in some solo work – I saw frontman Louis-Jean Cormier the previous night, if you’ll recall. And if Cormier’s set had me marvelling at how accessible his work outside of Karkwa was, percussionist Sagot’s compositions were more what I would have expected. His whole set had a distinct arc, starting with moody pieces built on intricate acoustic guitar figures, moving through some boozy ballads that fit his rough, Waits-y vocals well, and eventually ramping up to some Floyd-worthy prog rock. Sagot’s stage presence also matched this progression, as he started out seated amidst his five-piece band, occasionally looking around at them to inspect their performances and nod in approval, before eventually standing up with his guitar and leading them onwards.

Photos: Julien Sagot @ La Scène Paramount – September 1, 2012
Stream: Julien Sagot / Piano mal

Marie-Pierre Arthur also had a Karkwa connection – besides featuring Cormier and Sagot as guest players on her 2012 Polaris long-listed Aux alentours, Karkwa keyboardist François Lafontaine produced the record. Not that she needed the cachet of her collaborators to get attention – her big, joyous pop-rock sound was maybe the most conventional thing I’d hear all weekend, but in the best sense. Fronting her six-piece band on bass, it was big, melodic, energetic affair and the songs had hooks that transcended any language barrier while leaving room for dueling guitars and drum solo without feeling forced or excessive. Thoroughly enjoyable and it was nice to have some proof that not all rock coming out of Québec had to be some degree of proggy. Though let’s be honest, a lot of it is.

Photos: Marie-Pierre Arthur @ La Scène Paramount – September 1, 2012
Video: Marie-Pierre Arthur – “Pourqoi”
Video: Marie-Pierre Arthur – “Si tu savais”
Video: Marie-Pierre Arthur – “Déposer les armes”
Video: Marie-Pierre Arthur – “Droit devant”
Video: Marie-Pierre Arthur – “Elle”

Prog is one of the many adjectives that could reasonably be applied to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, one of the festival’s headliners by measure of international repute, but obviously that’s insufficient. You’d also have to hypen up post-rock, experimental, political, metal, ambient, orchestral, terrifying… basically the only way to describe Godspeed would be to call it Godspeed. This show came two and a half years after the unexpected announcement that the Montréal collective would be ending their hiatus and touring again, and even though I’d seen them last Spring as part of their four-show run in Toronto, there was still a real sense of occasion around this performance given the scale and setting (Agora des arts holds about 400 people on a good day).

Silently taking the stage a little after midnight – though I think one of them waved to the audience – they started with an orchestra-type tune-up that quickly turned into what I can best describe as industrial strangulation reading of “Hope Drone”. The Toronto version was intense, but this one seemed considerably moreso and that really applied to the show as a whole. While never necessarily refined, this show felt extra primal in its sonic fury and for the first while, any melody or beauty that would escape the tumult would have to do battle to do so. As the nearly two-hour show progressed, the band silent and semi-circled while bathed in film projections (which included scenes of industrial bleakness, interesting imagery to show in a mining town) the brutality was gradually dialed back but not before the crowd had thinned to maybe half of the packed house that it was at the start. One wonders if some were unprepared mentally or physically for what they’d be enduring for the show. For those who lasted throughout – and I admit I was only barely among them – it was an impressive, intimate, and inscrutable experience.

And was poutine consumed after? I’m not saying it was, but I’m not saying it wasn’t.

Photos: Godspeed You! Black Emperor @ Agora des arts – September 1, 2012
MP3: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven”
MP3: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “The Buildings They Are Sleeping Now”

Some more album streams that didn’t quite make Tuesday’s post, starting with The Raveonettes. Observator is out September 11 and NME has the stream. They play The Phoenix October 2.

MP3: The Raveonettes – “She Owns The Streets”
Stream: The Raveonettes / Observator

MTV Hive has a Q&A with Neil Halstead, whose lovely Palindrome Hunches hits next week and is streaming now. He’s at The Dakota Tavern on October 8.

MP3: Neil Halstead – “Digging Shelters”
MP3: Neil Halstead – “Full Moon Rising”
Stream: Neil Halstead / Palindrome Hunches

Stereogum has the new Bob Dylan album Tempest available on demand before being available for sale on Tuesday. Ol’ Bob is at the Air Canada Centre on November 14.

Stream: Bob Dylan / Tempest

Calexico’s new one Algiers is streaming over at Virgin.com. It’s out Tuesday and The Arizona Daily Star and Wall Street Journal have interviews.

MP3: Calexico – “Para”
Stream: Calexico / Algiers

Eliot HazelIt feels a bit anticlimactic to try and sit down and formally review Instinct, the debut album from Sweden’s Niki & The Dove, and the reasons for this are many. Besides the fact that I’ve been talking about them since last August and already seen them twice at Iceland Airwaves and again at SXSW over the past year, there’s the fact that though it’s only formally out in North America this week, Instinct was released in Europe and the UK back in May and was easily heard online all Summer. And even if you didn’t happen across a full album stream, fully a quarter of the album already appeared on last Fall’s The Drummer EP and more tracks were released as singles. All of which is to say that I feel like I’m trying to find some fresh words for a record that already feels very lived-in and familiar to me.

Niki & The Dove – their name is in reference to neither singer Malin Dahlström or keyboardist Gustaf Karlöf – draw inspiration from the bold, bright tones of the ’80s synth-pop without sounding anything like a throwback act. Like the similarly avian-inspired Ladyhawke, they instead look to the songwriting of the era and share in the belief that there’s no such thing as a chorus, hook, or sentiment that’s too big. Indeed, tracks “Tomorrow”, “Somebody”, and “Under The Bridges” – incidentally the album opener, midpoint, and closer – are irresistible pop confections that make the absolute most of Dahlström’s raspy range; people compare her voice to Stevie Nicks but not being any kind of Fleetwood Mac fan, I am in no position to comment. That same voice gives the dancier and slinkier numbers the emotional dimension that elevates them above dancefloor fodder. Karlöf also deserves credit for programming a musical world that is almost entirely artificial, yet sounds perfectly natural and organic in the context of what they’re doing. You might call it an innate talent. Or an instinct.

They’re embarking on their first full North American tour this Fall and while most are as support for Twin Shadow, their October 2 date at The Drake Underground in Toronto is their own headlining show. Tickets for that are $15 in advance, but courtesy of Embrace, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests@chromewaves.net with “I want to see Niki & The Dove” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, September 24.

And if there is an upside to waiting for the North American release of Instinct, it’s that the Sub Pop edition comes with two extra tracks over the European version. One of those – “The Beach” – is available to stream below.

MP3: Niki & The Dove – “Tomorrow”
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “Mother Protect”
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “DJ, Ease My Mind”
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “The Drummer”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “Tomorrow”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “The Fox”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “DJ Ease My Mind”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “Mother Protect”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “The Drummer”
Stream: Niki & The Dove – “The Beach”

The Line Of Best Fit, The Stool Pigeon, and Exclaim have interviews with Jens Lekman about his gorgeous new record I Know What Love Isn’t, which is out September 4 and from which a video for the title track has just been released. Lekman is at The Phoenix on October 4.

Video: Jens Lekman – “I Know What Love Isn’t”

Daytrotter is feeling all kinds of Swedish, posting a session with The Deer Tracks and another one with The Concretes.

The Line Of Best Fit talks to Sarah Assbring of El Perro Del Mar, whose new record Pale Fire will be out some time in November.

MTV has a video session with First Aid Kit, who play The Danforth Music Hall on September 26. NPR is also streaming their set at the Newport Folk Festival last month.

Drowned In Sound talks to Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes. Their new record Observator is out September 11 and they’re at The Phoenix on October 2.

The Arts Desk talks to Rasmus Stolberg of Efterklang, who have released the first video from their new album Pirmada. The album is out September 24.

Video: Efterklang – “Hollow Mountain”

Sigur Rós have released another video from Valtari; Filter also has a feature piece on the band.

Video: Sigur Rós – “Varðeldur”

Ólafur Arnalds has revealed the name of his next album via Twitter; For Now I Am Winter is done and in post-production, with a release date hopefully coming soon. Some clips of the new material can be heard via his YouTube channel.

The final song from Blur’s Hyde Park show on Sunday – and maybe the final live Blur song ever – is available to download. It comes from their Parklive set which is available digitally now and on CD in November.

MP3: Blur – “The Universal” (live in Hyde Park – August 12, 2012)

Psychology Today talks to Dev Hynes of Blood Orange about living and working with synesthesia.

The Line Of Best Fit is streaming a new track from Neil Halstead’s forthcoming Palindrome Hunches, out September 11, while LA Music Blog has an interview.

Stream: Neil Halstead – “Digging Shelters”

The xx go through their new album Coexist track-by-track for Spin while CBC Music also caught a quick word when they came through town last month. The album is out September 11.

NPR has a video session with Hot Chip.

The Guardian interviews The Vaccines about their new record Come Of Age, out in North America on October 2.