Keith KlenowskiJust to be clear: filling Massey Hall for two nights in a row is no mean feat. Not many bands can do it once, let alone twice, but when The National did just that last June in support of their breakout album High Violet, it felt like an arrival – the best and most natural setting for a band that had graduated from the bar circuit and were taking their rightful place in the city’s most hallowed room, hopefully for years to come.

Except clearly, they weren’t done. A year and a half on from their last album’s release, though a couple of high-profile singles released over this Summer as well as plenty of touring have kept them front of mind, The National have gotten big enough that their next North American tour will bring them to the Air Canada Centre on December 8. Granted, it will probably be the approximately 5200-capacity theatre configuration, which is about the same size as their Massey shows held, but still – it’s a remarkable thing (and a depressing thing for those who hate arena shows). The band are apparently conscious of the fact that their fanbase may not be especially keen on seeing them play such a large room, so they’ve sweetened the deal via the support acts – joining them for this show will be none other than Neko Case and Wye Oak. Yeah, that ACC isn’t looking so unappealing anymore, is it? Tickets range from $43.50 to $59.50 plus fees and presale goes Wednesday morning, public onsale Friday.

Express Night Out chats with bassist Scott Devendorff while NME gets the Dessner twins on camera talking about this and that, including their next record.

MP3: The National – “Bloodbuzz Ohio”
MP3: Neko Case – “Middle Cyclone”
MP3: Wye Oak – “Civilian”

By the same token, people were incredulous when Mumford & Sons sold the hell out of the Sound Academy last Fall – hadn’t they just played Lee’s Palace that February? – but indeed, they were really that popular and now it seems they’re even more popular. Again, it’s probably the theatre configuration, but that doesn’t change the fact that when Mumford & Sons hit the Air Canada Centre on October 25, they’ll have taken their bluegrass-pop anthems arena-scale. And just to prove it’s not a fluke, they’re doing the same thing down the 401 in Hamilton when they play Copp’s Coliseum the following night and then Montreal’s Bell Centre the night after that. Maybe their quickie Canadian tour is just them trying to catch some hockey games? Tickets for both Ontario shows are $34.50 and $49.50 plus fees.

Video: Mumford & Sons – “The Cave”

Certainly not on the same scale of “really” but still a bit surprising is Coeur de Pirate making what I think is her first regular and proper club show in Toronto at a room the size of The Mod Club on November 11. I assume this means that her new album Blonde, out November 8, will be getting a hefty push to get folks interested before then. Tickets for the show are $21 in advance and they’ve released a little trailer for the new record.

Trailer: Coeur de Pirate / Blonde
Video: Coeur de Pirate – “Comme des enfants”

The Rural Alberta Advantage, on the other hand, seem to have settled quite comfortably into The Phoenix as their home away from home while at home – November 17 will be their third show in a row there, I think. Don’t think there’s any particular occasion for this show besides, well, why not? Tickets are $20 in advance.

MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “North Star”

Zeus will be at Lee’s Palace on November 24, tickets $15 in advance.

MP3: Zeus – “Marching Through Your Head”

Formerly operating as Harbourcoats, former Constantines frontman Bry Webb has decided to go with his own name for his solo debut Provider, which will be out on November 15. And he’ll be introducing the songs live in a pretty daunting setting – he’s opening for Feist at Massey Hall on December 1.

And finally, as far as show announcements yesterday go, Tokyo Police Club will be rolling into The Phoenix on December 8 leading a Can-rocking bill that also features Born Ruffians and Said The Whale. Tickets for that are $25 in advance. Northern Star chats with TPC drummer Greg Alsop.

MP3: Tokyo Police Club – “Party In The USA”
MP3: Born Ruffians – “Sole Brother”
MP3: Said The Whale – “Camilo (The Magician)”

Pitchfork has an interview with Carl Newman of The New Pornographers, who’ve put out a new video from last year’s Together.

Video: The New Pornographers – “Up In The Dark”

Also with a new video is Diamond Rings, from Special Affections. He’s at The Mod Club on October 3.

Video: Diamond Rings – “You And Me”

Exclaim has got a new track from Ohbijou’s forthcoming Metal Meets, out September 27. They play Trinity-St. Paul’s in honour of its release on September 30 and PostCity chats with bandleader Casey Mecija about the new record.

MP3: Ohbijou – “Anser”

Pitchfork has a stream of Kathleen Edwards’ first new material in a while which will be released on 7″ on September 27 and oh yeah, features contributions from some guy who goes by Bon Iver.

Stream: Kathleen Edwards – “Wapusk”

The Line Of Best Fit chats with the sisters of Tasseomancy, whose record release show for Ulalame happens at The Great Hall on October 20. They also open up for Austra at The Phoenix on December 1. And speaking of Austra, a new b-side is available to stream, which is noteworthy because it’s kind of as good as their a-sides, and Prague Post has an interview with Katie Stelmanis.

Stream: Austra – “Identity”

The new Memoryhouse EP The Years has been available to stream for a while before its release today, but Drowned In Sound has sweetened their stream with track-by-track commentary from the band.

Southern Souls has an interview with Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon.

Canadian Blast chats with The Wilderness Of Manitoba.

Le Blogotheque has a Take-Away Show filmed in Toronto with Little Scream.

Rockerzine chats with Sloan bassist Chris Murphy.

Under The Radar and The Victoria Times-Colonist interview Handsome Furs.

Kandle OsborneWhen I last wrote up Timber Timbre back in March, shortly before the release of their latest Creep On Creepin’ On, I commented on how unlikely it seemed that the Toronto trio’s murky goth-blues should make them stars (relatively speaking), but how that seemed to be exactly what was going to happen. And indeed, it’s been a good 2011 for them, to say the least. The decidedly positive critical response and popular demand kept the band on the road through all of North America and Europe through the Spring and Summer, and with their placement on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist, they’ve announced a Fall tour that will keep them living in a van through the rest of the year, covering locales from Ontario through to the Maritimes with a handful of European dates for good measure.

They’ll get a chance to sleep in their own beds and do some laundry, though, as the itinerary now includes their first hometown date since the Trinty-St. Paul’s album release show way back in April – and it’s coming at the decidedly fancy digs of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on November 26. Tickets for that show are $25 in advance and despite it being a seated venue, will be general admission; they’re on sale today at 10AM. And the merch table at this and other shows will have a little something special in the form of vinyl reissues of the first two independently-released Timber Timbre records – Cedar Shakes and Medicinals – dating from when the band was a pseudonym for Taylor Kirk solo.

The band have also released a new, appropriately creepy animated video from Creep On Creepin’ On and over at BlogTO, violinist Mika Posen talks about the Polaris nomination.

MP3: Timber Timbre – “Black Water”
Video: Timber Timbre – “Too Old To Die Young”

Tasseomancy have released another video from their just-released record Ulalalme, which was co-produced by Taylor Kirk. They’re playing The Great Hall on October 20 and will support Austra at The Phoenix on December 1.

Video: Tasseomancy – “Soft Feet”

Also with a new video from a Polaris-shortlisted record is Destroyer, from Kaputt.

Video: Destroyer – “Savage Night At The Opera”

Julie Doiron has a couple of local live dates lined up, as she usually seems to, with a free in-store on September 10 at 3PM to inaugurate the recently-opened Kensington Market location of Sonic Boom. She will also open up for Ohbijou at Trinity-St. Paul’s on September 30.

MP3: Julie Doiron – “When Brakes Get Wet”

If you’re the sort of person who needs an introduction to the works of Sloan, then you’re probably not someone who’s hung around here much – welcome! – but if you do, head over to Noisetrade to grab a pay-what-you-can 17-track sort-of best-of compilation. And yes, you can pay nothing if that’s how you roll.

The Line Of Best Fit gets acquainted with Chad VanGaalen and his unique brand of interview awkwardness. VanGaalen is at The Mod Club on October 28.

Rolling Stone has gotten on the Louise Burns bandwagon, having a quick chat with the singer and offering a new track for download.

MP3: Louise Burns – “Drop Names Not Bombs”

Beirut have discovered one of the perks of staggered digital and physical releases – double the press cycles. There were a flurry of pieces when The Rip Tide came out through online sources back at the start of August, and now that the vinyl and CD are available? Features in The National Post, Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, Irish Times, Paste, Pitchfork and Time. That Zach Condon is a clever boy.

The Line Of Best Fit talks to Jason Lytle about the legacy of Grandaddy on the occasion of the vinyl reissues of The Sophtware Slump and Sumday.

The Fly gets a courtyard video session from The Antlers.

NPR has a KCRW session with My Morning Jacket.

Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard talks drinking and excessive drinking with Spinner.

The Grid and NOW chat with Peter Bjorn & John, who kick off a two-night stand at Lee’s Palace tonight.

Frank YangI’ve been trying to do piggyback a write up of Sloan’s latest The Double Cross on a live review all Summer but have been constantly foiled. For their album launch in-store at Sonic Boom back in May, a perfect storm of non-functional transit made a 10-minute trip take 45 and while I could hear the show, I couldn’t see a damn thing. Then for their two-night stand at the Mod Club I was felled by a post-NXNE cold so those didn’t happen. It certainly looked as though my post explaining my Polaris ballot – on which The Double Cross earned a spot – was going to be all the opportunity I’d get to sing the record’s praises.

Though really, I think that little blurb said a lot. By rights, Sloan should be national treasures, but by getting their narrative drama over and done with so early on in their career – remember the post-Twice Removed break up/One Chord To Another reunion – they’ve only been able to make headlines with a long career of making consistently good and oft times brilliant guitar pop. That should be more than enough but it also makes them easy to take for granted – something I’ve been more than guilty of, particularly over their last few albums which may have tailed off in quality but still deserved more time than I gave them.

It’s a trend which The Double Cross reversed; not because I decided it was time to revisit Sloan but because the record demanded that I do. It opens with a dizzying pop medley of indelible melodies and seamless transitions that’s formally divided up as three songs but really feels like five or six, rotating through each of Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland as lead vocalists and with each at the very top of their games. It’s as high a high point as they’ve achieved in their two-decade run so there’s no shame in the rest of the record not quite getting back up there again. One one hand, it’s Sloan by the numbers with the requisite Pentland and Murphy rockers, Ferguson pop gems and Scott oddities but when you factor in that the band sounds as tight, energized and focused as they have in many, many years, the whole record is like a wonderful, unexpected gift.

Not unlike their free show at the shiny and new Echo Beach waterfront venue last Friday night. Though not especially well-advertised, it was part of Ontario Place’s 40th anniversary celebrations and a “through the decades” theme that had been going on for a few weeks; somewhat humorously, Sloan were tapped as a band representative of the ’00s but whatever – it was Sloan, sun and sand, all underwritten by our tax dollars.

Warm up acts numbered two, starting with locals Whale Tooth. I’d seen them back in early 2009 and had been impressed with their energy and presence. This time out they still had plenty of both thanks to frontwoman Elise LeGrow but whereas I felt they came across a bit overly breezy before, the past couple years had definitely seen the five-piece Tooth acquire some bite. LeGrow is still a formidable frontwoman and vocalist but she now sounds more like a rock singer than a jazz singer in a rock band and the band, to their credit, has toughened up and expanded their sound – it might tilt a little too U2 at points, but ambition is a commendable thing and they remain all sorts of catchy and entertaining. Pleased to make their re-acquaintance. Whale Tooth play the Summerworks closing party on August 14 at the MOCCA / Edward Day Gallery Courtyard and that show is free.

The middle act was similar to Whale Tooth in being an up and coming local rock act with a frontwoman who looked great in shorts, but Modern Superstitions differed in taking more of a garage/punk approach to things and also in that I’d seen them just a month and a half ago at NXNE. As at that show, it was quite a different band from the one on their debut EP All The Things We’ve Been Told, incidentally produced by Sloan’s Patrick Pentland. Not even a year on from that first recording, the band are tougher-sounding and carry themselves with an attitude that doesn’t feel like a front – they weren’t at all intimidated by the thousands on hand waiting to see the headliners. I said in June that the next time I saw the band, I expected they’d be ready to take on the world – I still think that’s true, their debut album currently being mixed would hold the key to that – but if I’ll be deferring that declaration until our next encounter.

It’s been a bit of an ongoing puzzle to me as to just how big Sloan is these days – see above notes about their being generally taken for granted. Using the size of their shows as a reference point, as is usually relevant for other bands, is difficult given that they rarely tour Canada conventionally in clubs and such, instead playing festivals and special events where the onus isn’t necessarily on them to fill a venue on their own. This is especially true in their adopted hometown of Toronto, where the last few times I’ve seen them were at instores or at festivals – even those Mod Club shows I missed, though sell outs, were deliberately undersized. So while this show didn’t do much to answer that question, it did offer proof that you could easily get 4000 or so to come out and chant “Slooooaaaaaaan” if you don’t charge em for it.

Though they kicked things off perfectly with the aforementioned Double Cross opening salvo, the clock was then turned right back to the Peppermint/Smeared era for “Underwhelmed” and so began a musical joyride through their greatest hits. If anyone wanted to debate whether or not Sloan have been one of this country’s best bands over the past two decades, they offered up a convincing 100-minute argument for the “aye” side. The five-piece (including touring keyboardist Gregory Macdonald) brought their A-game to go with their A-sides and the result was pretty much pure win.

Picking out highlights was both a challenge and futile, but if pressed I’d submit “Coax Me”, which remains possibly their finest three-plus minutes overall, their bringing out Brett Caswell & The Marquee Rose’s horn section to serve up duelling solos over “Everything You’ve Done Wrong” or maybe when they all simultaneous fell apart during “Shadow Of Love” – hey, it’s not a proper Sloan show unless someone or everyone fucks up at least once. Also inspired was bringing out Nyssa from Modern Superstitions to lead a cover of the Martha & The Muffins song that gave the venue it’s name. If I had to pick a lowlight of the show, it’d have to be the inclusion of “The Other Man” as the penultimate selection – it’s a song that should probably never have been written, let alone made a single – but at least it didn’t end on that note. “Money City Maniacs” may have been entirely predictable as a finale and lacked the actual air raid siren that’s appeared at other shows, but that didn’t make it any less great.

And the same pretty much goes for Sloan themselves – yeah they’ve been around forever and yeah they’re pretty content trading in classically-styled pop music and not pushing boundaries, but none of that takes away from what they’ve done and continue to do. And while I don’t understand why they shun the Smeared material live – a little “Sugartune” or “I Am The Cancer” would have been a nice treat – that’s also a small complaint. What’s important is that we’ve had twenty years of Sloan and there’s no signs they’ll be slowing down anytime soon.

The Barrie Examiner has an interview with Sloan guitarist Patrick Pentland.

Photos: Sloan, Modern Superstitions, Whale Tooth @ Echo Beach – August 5, 2011
MP3: Sloan – “Follow The Leader”
MP3: Sloan – “The Answer Was You”
MP3: Sloan – “Unkind”
MP3: Sloan – “I’m Not A Kid Anymore”
MP3: Modern Superstitions – “Visions Of You”
Video: Sloan – “Unkind”
Video: Sloan – “Witch’s Wand”
Video: Sloan – “Emergency 911”
Video: Sloan – “All Used Up”
Video: Sloan – “The Rest Of My Life”
Video: Sloan – “The Other Man”
Video: Sloan – “Friendship”
Video: Sloan – “Losing California”
Video: Sloan – “She Says What She Means”
Video: Sloan – “Money City Maniacs”
Video: Sloan – “The Lines You Amend”
Video: Sloan – “Everything You’ve Done Wrong”
Video: Sloan – “The Good In Everyone”
Video: Sloan – “People Of The Sky”
Video: Sloan – “Coax Me”
Video: Sloan – “500 Up”
Video: Sloan – “Underwhelmed”
Video: Modern Superstitions – “Mercy Line”
Video: Modern Superstitions – “Visions Of You”
Video: Whale Tooth – “Hibernation Song”

aux.tv checks in with The Doughboys, who officially returned to active duty last night with a show at the Bovine Sex Club. They open up for Foo Fighters at The Air Canada Centre tonight… and allegedly did so last night at The Bovine as well?

It was already announced that Tasseomancy would be supporting as well as performing as part of Austra at their show at The Phoenix on December 1, but the August 30 release of their debut album Ulalume will also come with it’s own record release show – October 20 at The Great Hall. The Gauntlet also has an interview.

MP3: Tasseomancy – “Healthy Hands”
MP3: Tasseomancy – “The Darkest Of Things”

Feist talks to Rolling Stone about Metals, her first record in four years. It’s out October 4 and she plays Massey Hall on December 1.

And the Halifax Pop Explosion announced their 2011 lineup yesterday and it’s pretty stellar. I went last year and had a great time – terrific fest and terrific city; if I wasn’t in Iceland the week before I’d consider a return engagement.

Mary RozziI forget who I was talking to but it was just in the last couple of weeks and it was about how Feist has done a pretty good job of not having anyone notice it’s been a long time since her last record – almost four years, three months and counting. Sure, the first couple years of that was spent touring and promoting The Reminder as it blew up worldwide, but after that wound down she’s struck a pretty good balance between guest appearances – whether occasionally onstage with Broken Social Scene or on record as a duet partner with Wilco – to make people happy just to see and hear her, and staying out of sight enough that those same people don’t wonder why she’s not hidden away, working on a new record.

Well it turns out she has been, and with her website now taken over by the first of a dozen “vignettes” – short videos soundtracked by what we can probably assume are samples of the new record. And while I’m sure they’d like to keep details tantalizingly obscured, women’s magazine Chatelaine revealed, while nominating Ms Leslie as one of their “women of the year”, that the new record was targeted for an October 2011 release. Presumably they’re not just making that up – after all, it’s Chatelaine. In any case, the timeline indicated by the vignette calendar on Feist’s website – the third clip is dated July 25 – implies that this won’t be a long, drawn-out reveal; you’ll probably be able to pre-order whatever this is before the August long weekend is over.

Video: Feist – “My Moon My Man”

Broken Social Scene guitarist Andrew Whiteman slags his own band’s latest video and videos in general to Spinner and tells The Calgary Herald they didn’t deserve a book to be written about them, while Paste compiles a list of the bands that make up the Broken Social family tree.

FFWD chats with Beatrice Martin of Coeur de pirate, herself way overdue for a new album though at least she allows that when it arrives, it will likely be entitled Blonde.

Room 205 has another performance in their video session with Austra online while The Georgia Straight has a feature.

The Globe & Mail, The Georgia Straight and Uptown have interviews with Louise Burns.

Exclaim solicits a rooftop performance from The Darcys, who should be announcing details about the release of their second self-titled album soon. One would hope.

Bay Of Quinte and Napanee Guide interview Patrick Pentland of Sloan, who’re clearly in cottage country right now but will be back in the city playing a free show at Echo Beach on August 5.

The reconstituted Doughboys will warm up for their August 9 date opening up for Foo Fighters at the Air Canada Centre with a free show at the Bovine Sex Club the night before, August 8. I would like to go to this but I fear that my broken collarbone (hey guys I broke my collarbone for the third time) won’t be healed enough to survive the mosh pit that’ll surely ensue, even if it is a middle-aged mosh pit.

Video: The Doughboys – “Fix Me”

Mudhoney have a date at The Horseshoe on September 10, tickets $22.50 in advance.

MP3: Mudhoney – “I’m Now”
MP3: Mudhoney – “Sonic Infusion”

Paste catches up with Portugal. The Man while Mashable finds out about their sled dog-powered new video. They bring their new album In The Mountain, In The Cloud to the Opera House on October 18; tickets are $16.50 in advance.

Video: Portugal. The Man – “Got It All”

Neon Indian will follow up the September 13 release of Era Extraña with a North American tour that hits Lee’s Palace on October 18.

Video: Neon Indian – “Heart: Decay”

Flush with their second Polaris shortlist appearance, maritimers Hey Rosetta! are embarking on a cross-Canada tour and bringing aussies The Jezabels along with them. The Toronto stop is November 24 at The Phoenix, tickets $20 in advance. Hey Rosetta will also be the subject of a Polaris Salon on August 9 at the Drake, wherein a juror will talk to the band about their record, and The Jezabels are prepping their debut Prisoner for a Spring 2012 release.

MP3: Hey Rosetta! – “Yer Spring”
MP3: The Jezabels – “Mace Spray”

NOW, The Village Voice, Boston Phoenix and hour talk to Erika Anderson of EMA, who makes her Toronto debut at The Garrison tomorrow night.

Spin pokes around Stephen Malkmus’ home. Malkmus’ latest Mirror Traffic is out August 23 and he plays The Phoenix on September 21.

Hot on the heels of announcing their new record – Father, Son, Holy Ghost out September 13 – and Fall tour – The Mod Club on September 27 – Girls have put out a first MP3 from said record.

MP3: Girls – “Vomit”

NPR has a World Cafe session with Warpaint while The Japan Times and New Zealand Herald have interviews.

TV On The Radio have released a new video from Nine Types Of Light.

Video: TV On The Radio – “Caffeinated Consciousness”

Peter Silberman of The Antlers goes into some of the influences that went into Burst Apart for Stereogum.

Spin is marking the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind with a tribute album – available for free – featuring the likes of Titus Andronicus, EMA and The Vaselines, amongst others.

Cloud RecordingsI don’t think anyone really expected 2011 to be any sort of banner year for fans of the Elephant 6 American psychedelic pop movement of the 1990s, but that’s what it’s turned out to be. The Holiday Surprise tour back in March seemed like a late Christmas gift filled with members and songs from Elf Power, Music Tapes, Sunshine Fix and Circulatory System as well as much of their extended family. And though the Jeff Mangum sightings many hoped for didn’t happen, any ensuing disappointment was tossed out the window when the reclusive songwriter scheduled a series of North American live dates starting later this Summer, his first proper shows in many, many years.

And now, we’ve got scene founders Olivia Tremor Control back in action. Okay, they’ve technically been back in action since around 2005 or so, but only intermittently and in one-off fashion; certainly there hasn’t been anything in the way of a proper tour – until now. With a few festival dates on the calendar, Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss and company have decided to make the most of rehearsals and slate a proper tour this Fall, wherein they’ll play old favourites and preview material from a new album that is allegedly in the works. Toronto will get its first OTC show since, like, 1999 on September 16 at Lee’s Palace, so if you were trying to decide which Wilco show to go to and are an Elephant 6 fan, well your decision just got a bit easier.

MP3: Olivia Tremor Control – “Hideaway” (live in Athens, GA – April 15, 2005)

And speaking of those Wilco shows, presales for both the September 16 and 17 shows at Massey Hall are set for next Wednesday, July 13, at 10AM. The appropriate links will go up on their website in due course, I would imagine.

If for whatever reason you weren’t able to catch Eleanor Friedberger’s free show at the Horseshoe on the evening of July 19 – early morning meeting, who knows – you may be pleased to know that she’ll be doing an in-store at Soundscapes that afternoon at 5:30PM. Her solo album Last Summer is also up to stream in its entirety at NPR in advance of its release next week.

MP3: Eleanor Friedberger – “My Mistakes”
Stream: Eleanor Friedberger / Last Summer

If you missed their two Mod Club shows last month – like I did on account of the sick – then happy days, Sloan will be playing a free show at Ontario Place’s Echo Beach on August 5. That’s right – free. Sun, sand, Sloan. And if the weather doesn’t cooperate, rain, mud and Sloan. But still free. And if you missed it yesterday, they’ve released a new video from the excellent Double Cross.

Video: Sloan – “Unkind”

Pop scion and generally bearded and sweaty mess – though a wholly entertaining one – Liam Finn will be at Lee’s Palace on September 22 in support of his new album Fomo. Stuff and The Australian have interviews.

Video: Liam Finn – “Cold Feet”

Cults have been added as support for Foster The People’s show at The Sound Academy on October 1. It’s like the sound of 2011 – like it or not – on the waterfront. The headliners, meanwhile, are featured in an NPR World Cafe session.

MP3: Cults – “Most Wanted”

Ladytron are returning with their new record Gravity The Seducer on September 13 and are returning to North America shortly thereafter; look for them at The Phoenix on October 5.

MP3: Ladytron – “Playgirl”

Though it’s taken him a while to do so, Sam Beam brings Iron & Wine back to Toronto in support of Kiss Each Other Clean on October 15 at The Sound Academy.

MP3: Iron & Wine – “Belated Promise Ring”

Cold War Kids return for a date at The Phoenix on November 4, ticket $20.50 in advance.

Video: Cold War Kids – “Audience”

There’s no firm details on their new record – only that it’s coming – but French electronicists M83 have already put together a North American tour in support of it; look for them at Lee’s Palace on November 18.

Video: M83 – “Graveyard Girl”

Spin talks to Girls about their new record Father, Son, Holy Ghost, which has been announced with a September 13 release date.

NOW has word with My Morning Jacket, in town at The Kool Haus on Monday night, July 11.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have released a new video from Belong; they have an in-store at Sonic Boom on August 1 at 9PM and play the Opera House the following evening.

Video: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – “The Body”

The clip for the new Strokes single is some cutting-edge ’90s video editing technology, yo.

Video: The Strokes – “Taken For A Fool”

Sufjan Stevens is giving away the MP3 and premiering the video for the new and probably last single from The Age Of Adz.

MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “Get Real Get Right”
Video: Sufjan Stevens – “Get Real Get Right”

Warpaint have premiered a new video from The Fool; NPR talks to the director of the super-underwater clip. The Birmingham Post talks to frontwoman Emily Kokal.

Video: Warpaint – “Warpaint”