Frank YangI don’t really maintain any sort of live music “bucket list” – I find the very notion a bit creepy – but there are bands whom I’ve long wanted to see but never gotten the opportunity for whatever reason. Near the top of the list are New York’s Versus, whom I discovered just after they finished promoting their last record Hurrah, back in 2000. Of course, at the time I didn’t know that they’d basically be going on a decade-long hiatus after frontman Richard Baluyut moved to San Francisco. That they weren’t going to be coming around any time soon became clear as every member began rolling out their own projects and aside from very occasional one-off gigs, Versus remained dormant.

But a move back to the east coast by Baluyut took the band out of mothballs and though the band is down to a trio, their new record On The Ones And Threes sounds like almost no time at all had passed between it and Hurrah. It’s still split between guitar-driven ragers and more thoughtful pieces, marked with Baluyut and Fontaine Toups’ distinctive vocals both together and apart and though still quintessentially ’90s college rock in spirit, doesn’t feel out of time or fashion in 2010. It’s a good record and perhaps more importantly, an excuse to tour again for the first time in a decade.

This tour brought them to Lee’s Palace with Merge labelmates and fellow ’90s survivors Polvo, though a lack of history with the headliners and questionable ability to stay upright made it unlikely I’d stay late enough to see them play. I did arrive in time to see local openers Soft Copy, however, and am glad I did both for their own set and the greater role they’d play in the evening’s narrative. To the former, the trio wore their post-punk influences squarely on their sleeves, drawing in particular from Mission Of Burma’s more melodic side. They had all the tension and intensity you’d want from an act trading in that sound, but with an immediate tunefulness that made them accessible to anyone. With two albums in Wolf, Wolves & More Wolves and Vicious Modernism under their belts, they’ve been around a little while as a unit and individually in various bands a hell of a lot longer, but they were a new find to me and a good one at that.

The constants in Versus have always been Richard Baluyut and Fontaine Toups – the rest of the band has been a bit of a revolving door even though they’ve often kept it in the family. For this iteration of the reunion, original drummer Ed Baluyut was back on the drummer’s stool on the record which is why it was surprising when they started playing, accompanied by Margaret White on violin and keys, Ed wasn’t behind the kit. No one was. They played a couple songs with this setup, Toups seeming to attack her bass extra heavily for some percussive effect, and it sort of worked – especially with White’s violin adding un-Versus-ish textures – but I was starting to think that I’d have to put an asterisk beside my “yeah, I finally saw Versus” anecdote when someone came out from the side of the stage and got behind the kit: Soft Copy’s drummer, Paul Boddum.

As Richard would explain, a new baby had necessitated Ed’s return to New York, leaving the band short-handed and so Boddum – who happened to be a sizable fan of the band – was enlisted that afternoon to fill in, though only in principal. They had no rehearsal or sound check and this was their first time playing together, but even without those qualifiers Boddum did a hell of a job pinch-hitting. Fills were kept simple and a couple of cues were missed, but you could see the band get more comfortable with the arrangement as the set progressed and by the set’s end, when the older material circa The Stars Are Insane was aired out, they were practically grooving and Baluyut was able to dig in to some fierce guitar work. I don’t doubt that had the proper line-up been in place, the show might have been a bit better paced or had some more momentum behind it, but this was just cooler to see and they sounded pretty great regardless. They wrapped their set to tremendous applause, Polvo went on, I went home and Paul went with Versus to play with them in Montreal.

Soft Copy’s next show is this Wednesday night at The Shop at Parts & Labour.

Photos: Versus, Soft Copy @ Lee’s Palace – August 13, 2010
MP3: Versus – “Invincible Hero”
MP3: Versus – “Deseret”
MP3: Soft Copy – “Hot Cakes”
MP3: Soft Copy – “Extra Cirricular”
MP3: Soft Copy – “First Date”
Video: Versus – “Scientists”
MySpace: Versus
MySpace: Soft Copy

The Village Voice interviews Dean Wareham of Dean & Britta about the Warhol 13 Most Beautiful project and revisiting the Galaxie 500 ouvre on their upcoming Fall tour.

Seattle Weekly and Spinner interview Craig Finn of The Hold Steady.

Sharon Van Etten previews a couple of songs from Epic for NPR’s World Cafe. The new record is out October 5 and she’ll be at Lee’s Palace on November 5 supporting Junip.

Billboard talks to Interpol about their return to the indies for self-titled album number four, out September 7.

Filter thinks you should already know The Magnetic Fields.

Billboard profiles Ra Ra Riot as they prepare for the of their sophomore effort The Orchard, which isn’t out till next Tuesday but is now streaming in whole at NPR. There’s also a new video from the record but only Americans are allowed to see it – foreigners can watch the ad, but not the vid. They’re at the Molson Amphitheatre on August 28. Video: Non-geoblocked version of the vid now up.

Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Boy”
Stream: Ra Ra Riot / The Orchard

Paste and Filter have features on Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, who just released their new record Let It Sway, currently available to stream at MBV Music. They’re at the El Mocambo on September 4.

Stream: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin / Let It Sway

Belle & Sebastian have revealed the REAL artwork to their new record Write About Love, served up a video clip from an alleged band-themed TV show with a snippet of a new song and given the record a release date – October 12. That is, incidentally, the same day that the band will be playing Massey Hall in Toronto so yeah, that’ll be a bit of an occasion.

M.I.A. will bring /\/\/\Y/\ to the Sound Academy on September 22 – tickets $40 in advance, $75 for VIP.

Video: M.I.A – “XXXO”

Exclaim reports that Marnie Stern has a date at Wrongbar on October 3. Her new, self-title record is out on October 5.

MP3: Marnie Stern – “For Ash”

OK Go return for a show at The Phoenix on October 14, tickets $20 in advance.

Video: OK Go – “This Too Shall Pass”

California’s Avi Buffalo have made a date at the Horseshoe on October 18; The Los Angeles Times has a feature on the band.

MP3: Avi Buffalo – “Remember Last Time”
MP3: Avi Buffalo – “What’s In It For?”

So much of the chatter yesterday was about how Scott Pilgrim vs The World did so poorly at the box office (coming in #5 with $10.5 million in the US) and with some taking some schadenfreude about how despite all the online buzz leading up to its release, it still did relatively poorly. That’s bunk. This film may as well have been called Scott Pilgrim vs The Fated For Cult Movie Status – there’s nothing about it that implies it would have made big bank. Not the cast, not the director, not the premise and certainly not the setting (Toronto? Pah). In fact, it’s remarkable that it was even made in Hollywood. If it just happens that a disproportionate percentage of the otherwise small target demographic is on Twitter, well there’s nothing to be done about that and I do believe that most everyone who expressed excitement about the film before release will go out and pay to see it – it simply won’t add up to much compared to folks who’ve apparently been counting the days until a new Dolph Lundgren film came out.

Anyways, I saw it on opening night (of course) and by and large loved it. It was a little odd having it shift from following the books almost verbatim to being its own thing midway through the Lee’s Palace fight and I was disappointed that none of Honest Ed’s, Sneaky Dee’s or the Reference Library made an appearance, but by and large it was as faithful to the text and the spirit of the source as it could be while still being a decent movie. That came at the expense of some/a lot of the character depth – neither Scott nor Ramona ended up with much explanation for why they were how they were – but so be it. It was still tremendously fun and entertaining and I eagerly await the infinite iterations of the DVD/BR editions. And since there wasn’t going to be a sequel anyways, there’s really no concern about how much or little money it makes. That’s Universal’s problem, not mine.

Filter has a great piece on another film that was probably too weird for the world at the time of its release… and even now – The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. I won’t lie – I can’t see John Lithgow as anyone but Dr. Lizardo and hold out hope that someday, we’ll see Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League make it into production. And come on – best closing credits/theme music ever.

Trailer: The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Frank YangWith all sympathy to Brooklyn’s Beach Fossils, who thanks to some lost passports were unable to get across the border, and to the fans who had been waiting to see them, I can’t say I was too disappointed that they had to cancel the engagement at Wrongbar on Wednesday night because it meant that my night out would be that much shorter and that I would get to see Warpaint that much sooner. We’re talking a difference of maybe an hour, but still – I’d been waiting to see them again after they bent my mind on the opening night of NXNE in June. Yeah, that was barely two months ago, but what can I say. I’m not a patient man.

Up first, though, were Javelin – also from Brooklyn but with their papers in order. With the stage festooned with old gutted boomboxes as props, the duo staged a live mixtape/mash-up dance party built around R&B and world music sounds, even though initially not many people seemed to feel like dancing. Their energy was relentless as they multi-tasked between drums, keys, stompboxes, kazoos and cowbells overtop taped backing tracks and samples and while it got a little exhausting towards the end of their set – it went on maybe 10 minutes longer than I’d have liked – but still a fun set if oddly paired with Warpaint.

The Warpaint portion of the evening got off to a good start even before they took the stage, what with being able to pick up a copy of their debut EP Exquisite Corpse on vinyl; not an easy find in Canada. And things just got better when the Los Angeles-based quartet did come onstage and soundcheck turned into a rhythm section jam over the house DJ’s tunes and then transformed seamlessly into the start of their set, all signs were that they were going to be on this night.

The musical chemistry of this unit is remarkable to behold – more than a band, they’re like a single, wholly organic unit with drummer Stella Mozgawa the musculature, bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg the blood and the pulse and guitarist/vocalists Theresa Wayman and Emily Kokal the two hemispheres of the brain, though which is the right and left seems to change moment to moment. Together, they seem to operate almost subconsciously or on pure instinct, effortlessly pushing and pulling each other as they sculpt their dreamy, sensual rock that’s as beguiling as it is unsettling, simultaneously chaotic and utterly in control. Watching them exchange looks and smiles on stage as they did their thing, seemingly as fascinated with seeing what they created as the audience, was almost as much a highlight of the show as the music.

This performance wasn’t as beautifully brutal as the Horseshoe show, instead feeling more limber and textured, and was built mainly around the new material which seemed to allow Wayman to more equally share lead vocals with Kokal. Still, the couple of Exquisite Corpse selections they did perform, they jammed the hell out of and set closer “Elephants” was positively explosive. The only facet of the show that could be considered disappointing was that it was all over in 40 minutes, their headlining show running only slightly longer than their more rigidly-timed festival appearance. Though the promotional push around their full-length debut – due mid-October – hasn’t begun yet, the buzz has been building steadily since last Fall and using this show as a barometer, they’re ready to take that and blow it right up.

Warpaint return to town as support for The xx at Massey Hall on September 29; The Daily Times has an interview with drummer Stella Mozgawa. Daytrotter just posted a session with Javelin and another with Beach Fossils which will hopefully hold fans over until they can get new passports in hand.

Photos: Warpaint, Javelin @ Wrongbar – August 11, 2010
MP3: Warpaint – “Elephants”
MP3: Warpaint – “Billie Holiday”
MP3: Javelin – “Oh! Centra”
MP3: Javelin – “World MIDI Classics, Vol. 2”
Video: Warpaint – “Stars”
Video: Warpaint – “Elephants”
MySpace: Warpaint
MySpace: Javelin

After turning in an awesome free show at the Horseshoe back in May, great Welsh hopes The Joy Formidable will return to said venue for another show on November 3 as part of a Fall tour – this one you’ll have to pay for, but it will be worth every penny. Their full-length debut is now set for release in early 2011.

MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”

Drowned In Sound goes through Sky Larkin’s new record Kaleide track-by-track with the assistance of the band. They also interview and are interviewed by Michael Lerner of Telekinesis, who will be in town on September 4 for a show at the El Mocambo.

M.I.A. was busy on the YouTubes this week, releasing not one but two new videos from /\/\/\Y/\.

Video: M.I.A – “XXXO”
Video: M.I.A. – “Illy Girl”

Chart has the full transcript of an interview with Beach House which ran a little while back in much abbreviated form. They’re at the Molson Amphitheatre on September 7.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of a Holly Miranda show at a wine bar last week.

The Line Of Best Fit and Chart interview The Morning Benders.

Spinner has a feature and also a Q&A with Greg Edwards of Autolux; The Georgia Straight also has a chat. They’re at Lee’s Palace on August 24.

NOW previews this Saturday’s Arcade Fire show on the Toronto Islands with a cover feature. The Los Angeles Times talks to Merge head honcho Laura Ballance about their road to the #1 record in the US, UK and Canada while Nylon also talks to Ballance, but in her capacity as bassist of Superchunk. Their new record Majesty Shredding is out September 14.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World finally opens today, and the media blitz continues. eye has a cover feature interview with Edgar Wright and Michael Cera, Interview gets Jason Schwartzman to interview Cera, The AV Club talks to Schwartzman and Anna Kendrick and both Under The Radar and Spin get some face time with Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Bryan Lee-O’MalleyYesterday afternoon, the words “Scott Pilgrim” became the top trending topic worldwide on Twitter, a remarkable if probably fleeting accomplishment that kind of underscores how big a deal the release of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (the motion picture) this coming Friday is… at least to people on Twitter. And like indie rock. And comic books. And (old-school) video games. And Toronto. In other words, people like me. And possibly/probably you.

And so I present to you a selection of particularly interesting or entertaining links culled from the veritable ocean of Pilgrim-related articles, interviews, videos, games and online tchotchke related to the film. Or at least the ones I found. There’s this About.com interview with series creator Bryan Lee-O’Malley, these The Los Angeles Times and AV Club conversations with film director Edgar Wright, this The Toronto Star interview both Wright and star Michael Cera, this series overview for newbs from The Globe & Mail, this collection of fake Lucas Lee movie posters, this MTV cast interview video at their Lee’s Palace soundstage (with an explanation of why they didn’t use the real Lee’s as a set), this Newsarama interview with various cast members and this other Los Angeles Times piece interviewing music supervisor Nigel Godrich and contributor Beck about putting together the music for the film.

Advance reviews of the film are pretty good but I’m sure once you adjust for geekdom, it’s awesome. I will have to wait a while to see for myself, though, as other engagements will keep me from making it to a theatre probably until Monday or Tuesday. But to hold me over, I re-read the whole series last night and have this fascinating interactive trailer, this brilliant trailer assembled from frames of the comic, this video of Jason Schwartzman and Michael Cera doing the weather for an Atlanta news broadcast and as the domino that will finally get me to perhaps get a modern video game system (or at least borrow one for a while), the video game trailer. And both the soundtrack and original score of the film are available to stream in their entirety at Spinner.

Stream: Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Original Soundtrack
Stream: Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Original Score

Bradley’s Almanac is sharing a recording of Arcade Fire’s show in Boston a couple weeks ago while Zoilus has posted a transcript of an interview with Win Butler. They play the Toronto Islands this coming Saturday, and congratulations to the band on scoring #1 records in the Canada, the UK and USA.

Owen Pallett will release a new EP on 10″ come September 28 – details on A Swedish Love Story available at Domino Records.

Movie Entertainment profiles celebrity Basia Bulat while The Edmonton Journal finds out about her next project. She’s at the Phoenix on October 26.

Prefix interviews Stars, who will be setting up at Massey Hall on October 23.

PopMatters asks 20 questions of Tokyo Police Club, who will be opening up for Phoenix at the Ricoh Coliseum on October 26.

Paste talks to Liz Powell of Land Of Talk, whose new one Cloak And Cipher is out next week. They’re at Lee’s Palace on September 16.

American Songwriter profiles American songwriter Samantha Crain. She’s at the Horseshoe on September 26.

Spinner inquires about The Thermals’ Personal Life. It’s out September 7 and they follow it with a show at Lee’s Palace on October 9.

Daytrotter has posted a session with First Aid Kit and another with Ferraby Lionheart, who will be opening up for them at the El Mocambo on October 15.

The first video from Grinderman’s Grinderman 2 is out and yes, it’s 100% ridiculous. Grinderman 2 is out September 14 and they play the Phoenix on November 11.

Video: Grinderman – “Heathen Child”

Kate Nash, having played the deliberately undersized Mod Club back in April, brings her second album My Best Friend Is You back to town for a show at the Phoenix on November 13 as part of an extensive Fall tour. The Sydney Morning Herald has an interview.

Video: Kate Nash – “Do Wah Do”

The Cribs have just released a new video for a non-album single entitled “Housewife”.

Video: The Cribs – “Housewife”

This Is Fake DIY has got an acoustic session with Sky Larkin and The Yorkshire Evening Post an interview.

Blurt has a feature piece on The Wedding Present.

FacebookI am going to go out on a limb and say that Fetus Dreams, the debut full-length from Toronto’s Heartbeat Hotel, is the best free complete album you can and should download today. And not just because all it’ll cost you is 78 MB of hard disk space and a half hour of your time

The ambient/electro psychedelic pop of Fetus Dreams has got some of that meandering Grizzly Projector Collective vibe that the kids are so into these days – probably a selling point for some but not really for me – but they maintain focus sufficiently to make sure that the pop side of things doesn’t take a back seat to the trippy. There’s a few punchy guitar rock moments that speak to the shoegazer in me but what I find most compelling is how they manage to so effortlessly evoke the golden era of Elephant 6, particularly the Olivia Tremor Control camp, without sounding like they’re trying. In fact I would be surprised if asking them whether they preferred the songs of Will Cullen Hart or Bill Doss was met with a blank stare (though I also wouldn’t be surprised if the had a shrine erected to them in their rehearsal space).

Point being, while they don’t necessarily transcend their influences, they use them well while hanging onto their own personalities. They’re on to something and that something is good. There’s no local dates on the horizon but I’ll be keeping an eye out.

MP3: Heartbeat Hotel – “Fins Of A Shark”
MP3: Heartbeat Hotel – “Walls Of Dry Clouds”
MP3: Heartbeat Hotel – “The Hello Barrel”
Album: Heartbeat Hotel / Fetus Dreams
MySpace: Heartbeat Hotel

The Georgia Straight profiles Wolf Parade.

Radio Free Canuckistan offers some ruminations on hanging out with Arcade Fire on the (figurative) eve of release of The Suburbs while The New York Times has a feature and Exclaim talks to bassist Tim Kinsbury. The official release date is this coming Tuesday but local retailers appear to have the go-ahead to start selling the double-vinyl this weekend. Arcade Fire play the Toronto Islands on August 14 and their show at Madison Square Garden next Thursday will be streamed live on YouTube starting at 10PM EDT, and the show will be directed by Terry Gilliam – which means you can expect a giant foot to come down and crush the band at the climax of “Power Out”.

The Sadies have released a new video from Darker Circles. They join Arcade Fire on the Island on August 14.

Video: The Sadies – “Cut Corners”

Sarah Harmer has released a new video from Oh Little Fire

Video: Sarah Harmer – “Captive”

FFWD profiles Dan Mangan.

Chart talks to Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon about his upcoming record(s). The vinyl edition of Balladeer, which was originally released as a companion disc to this year’s Die Stadt Muzikanten, now exists and will be available for sale soon. Woodpigeon play a noon-hour show at Yonge-Dundas Square on October 6.

Jason Collett will make up for his cancelled show at Mod which was supposed to happen last week with a solo acoustic date at the Church Of The Redeemer on November 11, part of his coast-to-coast “Undressed Tour”.

MP3: Jason Collett – “Love Is A Dirty Word”

Spin asks Metric where they got their name. Metric explains.

They were originally supposed to unveil a new video from Forgiveness Rock Record, but Broken Social Scene have decided to keep that under wraps until next week. PitchforkTV has your BSS video fix, though, as the band is featured in the debut of a new interactive multi-camera video session series called POV.

The Line Of Best Fit and A Pocket Full Of Seeds talk to Tokyo Police Club. There’s also a video session with the band at Baeble Music.

Born Ruffians tell Chart that they dig Bill Murray. And if you do too, then this interview at GQ and this bit of satire (yes) at Christwire. Because they’re funny.

Black Mountain are sharing a couple MP3s from the forthcoming Wilderness Heart, out September 14.

MP3: Black Mountain – “Hair Song”
MP3: Black Mountain – “Old Fangs”

Boise Weekly talks to The New Pornographers’ Carl Newman.

Caribou talks to aux.tv whilst dropping a new video from Swim.

Video: Caribou – “Sun”

Spinner talks to Holy Fuck.

Pitchfork is streaming Fucked Up’s new epic-length single “The Year Of The Ox”, which will be out on 12″ come September 28.

The Toronto Star talks to Daniel Lanois about the new Neil Young record, which he is producing. He intends to premiere some of the new songs at Nuit Blanche in October. The Guardian also has some details on the forthcoming Archives : Volume Two due out… oh let’s not even play that game.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World director Edgar Wright is the cover story in this month’s Exclaim and CTV has a feature piece on the comic. And head over here for a sweet Google Maps mashup of Scott Pilgrim’s Toronto.

Pieter van HattemSo all manner of things have been piling up over the past week while I’ve been reminiscing about warm Summer sojourns to Chicago. Let’s get to them.

San Francisco’s Morning Benders are no strangers to Toronto this year, having already come through town twice – once in April for their own show just after their latest album Big Echo was released, and again in June opening up for Broken Bells. They’re back in a couple weeks supporting both Black Keys dates at the Kool Haus on August 3 and 4, but in addition to those performances, they’ve announced they’ll be playing a free acoustic show at the corner of College and Manning in Little Italy on August 4 at 5:30PM in what probably would have been a Soundscapes in-store had the weather not been so nice (or so everyone is hoping). There are rumours that there will be free BBQ and ice cream, but even without refreshments it’ll be a fine, free afternoon of pop music.

MP3: The Morning Benders – “Promises”
Video: The Morning Benders – “Promises”

At long last, after watching her Lilith Fair, Of Montreal and own dates skip us over, Toronto has a date with soul/r&b superstar-in-waiting Janelle Monáe – she is joining The Sadies in supporting Arcade Fire on the Toronto Islands on August 14. Why yes, that is a wacky-ass bill, how good of you to notice. But also an excellent one. Watch this video and tell me that Arcade Fire doesn’t run a real risk of being upstaged by her.

Video: Janelle Monáe – “Tightrope”

Unpronouncable Californian dance-punk outfit !!! (chk chk chk to their friends) have slated a North America tour in support of their forthcoming album Strange Weather Isn’t It?, due out on August 24. Grab an MP3 from their website and look for them at Lee’s Palace on September 26, tickets $16.50 in advance.

MP3: !!! – “Must Be The Moon”
Video: !!! – “AM/FM”

The Dears look to be about done with the follow up to 2008’s Missiles as they’ve scheduled a three-night stand at the Garrison from October 13 to 15 where they’ll surely be previewing new material; tickets on sale Friday (via Singing Lamb). Update: Their label reports that they’ll play the entire new album at the shows and the record isn’t due out till early 2011.

MP3: The Dears – “Disclaimer”

Only in town last month, Swedish sister act First Aid Kit are coming back to North America and will be at the El Mocambo in Toronto on October 15.

MP3: First Aid Kit – “I Met Up With The King”

Blonde Redhead have plotted a North American tour in support of their forthcoming album Penny Sparkle, due September 14. They’ll be at the Phoenix on October 17 with Pantha Du Prince as support; tickets $24.

MP3: Blonde Redhead – “Here Sometimes”
MP3: Pantha Du Prince – “The Splendour”

Helmet are still around and will be at Lee’s Palace on October 17 in support of a new album, Seeing Eye Dog, out September 7.

Video: Helmet – “Unsung”

There are apparently still enough people who want to see The Dandy Warhols live that they can not only book The Phoenix for them, but charge $30 a head. They’re there November 1.

Video: The Dandy Warhols – “Bohemian Like You”

Delorean are back on November 18 for a date at the Mod Club with Lemonade as support.

MP3: Delorean – “Real Love”
Video: Lemonade – “Big Weekend”

Blitzen Trapper tell Spinner that even though Destroyer Of The Void only came out last month, they’re already writing its follow-up. Look for them at the Opera House on August 3.

If it ever looks like Ben Curtis of School Of Seven Bells is sleepwalking through a show, it’s because he may very well be. Hopefully their new live drummer will keep him on his toes when they play the Mod Club on September 15. He also chats with New York Magazine.

Chart has a chat with Beach House; they’re at the Molson Amphitheatre on September 27.

Spinner serves up an Interface session with Stars. They play Massey Hall on October 23.

NPR has a World Cafe session with The National.

Jeff Tweedy talks to Billboard about Wilco’s future as an independent band.

Their own major label experiment come to an ignoble end, Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s will release Buzzard on September 21 on their own.

Paste catches up with John Roderick of The Long Winters, who are so overdue for a new album it’s not funny.

Interview talks to She & Him’s Matt Ward and Zooey Deschanel.

Spinner interviews Holly Miranda.

Rest in peace, Andy Hummel of Big Star.

The final volume of Scott Pilgrim came out this week – The Toronto Star and National Post look at the comic book phenomenon and the film that will be released on August 13, while Exclaim looks at the movie’s soundtrack.