John WrightThe last time that Pet Shop Boys were in town, it was for V Fest 2009 and while I was excited for their performance, it was more because I wanted to see their audience intersect with the Nine Inch Nails fans who were there to see Trent and company, who were playing immediately afterwards, than out of any real sort of fandom. Their show, however, blew me away with its technicolour visuals, elaborate choreography, and top-notch pop songcraft that they were easily the highlight of the weekend and, having since gotten to know their discography much better, I’ve been patiently waiting for them to return.

It didn’t happen for last year’s electro-orchestric Elysium, but apparently the duo decided to head back into the studio rather than stay on the road and record their just-announced new dance-centric album Electric, due out July 15, behind which they WILL be touring North America. Slicing Up Eyeballs has their full, worldwide, 2013 itinerary but Toronto can circle September 25 on their calendars as the date messrs Tennant and Lowe will be at The Sony Centre For The Performing ARts. Tickets will run $49.50, $69.50, or $99.50 and go on sale this Friday, May 3, at 10AM.

Stereogum has an interview with the band about the new record, and they’ve released a video for the album’s opening track (though it’s not an official single).

Video: Pet Shop Boys – “Axis”

Lovelife – whom you may remember in a previous incarnation as Brit-rock also-rans Brother/Viva Brother though they’d prefer you didn’t – will bring their new synth-powered sound to The Mod Club on May 13, tickets $16. They’re interviewed by Noisey and will release the Stateless EP on June 11.

Stream: Lovelife – “Dying To Start Again”

Under The Radar has the first North American dates in support of Laura Marling’s new album Once I Was An Eagle, coming May 28. She’ll be in Toronto on May 25 at 99 Sudbury, which is indeed a venue.

MP3: Laura Marling – “Sophia”

With their second album Limits Of Desire set for a May 14 release, Brooklyn electro-pop purveyors Small Black will be at Wrongbar on May 31, tickets $13.50.

MP3: Small Black – “Free At Dawn”
Video: Small Black – “Free At Dawn”

The Uncluded may not have much name recognition but their component parts of Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson rather do. They’ve got a show at The Black Box Theatre in The Great Hall on June 2, tickets $20, as part of a tour in support of their debut Hokey Fright which comes out May 7 but is streaming now at The Current.

Video: The Uncluded – “Delicate Cycle”
Stream: The Uncluded / Hokey Fright

Alaska’s Portugal. The Man are readying a new album in Evil Friends for June 4 and will be at The Phoenix shortly thereafter – June 11 – to promote it; tickets for the show are $18.50 in advance. Jambands.com has an interview and The Fader has premiered a video from the new record.

Video: Portugal. The Man – “Purple Yellow Red & Blue”

Montreal’s Braids talk to Exclaim about their new, more electronic direction which will be previewed on the “In Kinds/Amends” 12″ when it comes out June 11 as prep for the release of their second full-length album in the Fall. They’re streaming one of the new tracks and will be playing NXNE on June 13.

Stream: Braids – “Amends”

Oakland’s Soft Moon have also been confirmed for NXNE; their showcase will be at The Garrison on June 14. Their last release was 2012’s Zeros.

MP3: The Soft Moon – “Breathe The Fire”

Florida’s garage-pop-making Beach Day are another NXNE confirmation, previewing the June 18 release of their full-length debut Trip Track Attack with festival appearances on June 14 and 15.

Video: Beach Day – “Beach Day”

Ireland’s Villagers will also be NXNE-ing it up behind their new record {Awayland}, anchoring the June 15 lineup at The Great Hall.

Video: Villagers – “Passing A Message”

San Diego’s Crocodiles will be supporting Japandroids at Adelaide Hall on June 17, just in case you needed a little more rock in the linuep; presumably they’ll be previewing material from the follow-up to last year’s Endless Flowers. Tickets for that are $25.

MP3: Crocodiles – “Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9)”

It might be the Toronto Jazz Festival, but things will get Motown-awesome on June 21 when Smokey Robinson and Martha Reeves & The Vandellas play Nathan Phillips Square – for free. You won’t find a better legend-to-dollar value than that.

Video: Smokey Robinson – “Tracks Of My Tears”
Video: Martha Reeves & The Vandellas – “Nowhere To Run”

Australian up-and-comers Atlas Genius have put their geographic know-how to work and booked a North American tour behind their debut When It Was Now; they’ll be at The Opera House on June 23. The Daily Cougar and Tonedeaf have interview with the band.

Video: Atlas Genius – “Centered On You”

Though quiet for the last few years, Atlanta’s Snowden are back with a new album – their first in seven years – in No One In Control coming out May 14 and an accompanying tour which brings them to The Drake Underground on June 25.

Stream: Snowden – “So Red”
Stream: Snowden – “The Beat Comes”

Indiana’s not especially southern, but Houndmouth have got some pretty convincing twang to them; with their debut From The Hills Below The City coming June 4, they’ll be swinging through town a couple times shortly thereafter – on June 20 supporting Alabama Shakes at Echo Beach, and just a week later for a headlining show at The Garrison on June 28. Their session for The AV Club Undercover is also now up, featuring their take on Billy Bragg, Wilco, and Woody Guthrie.

Video: Houndmouth – “On The Road”
Video: Houndmouth – “Penitentiary”

California Wives – who are not, in fact, wives from California but indie rocker types from Chicago – will bring their carnival of lies and deception to The Drake on June 30, tickets $12. Their debut Art History came out last year.

MP3: California Wives – “Blood Red Youth”
MP3: California Wives – “Purple”

Cayucas, on the other hand, do hail from California – Santa Monica to be precise – but their hearts lie in New York, specifically Brooklyn or wherever Vampire Weekend are hanging out. Their debut Bigfoot just came out – you can stream it at Stereogum – and their tour itinerary brings them to The Drake on July 1.

MP3: Cayucas – “East Coast Girl”
Stream: Cayucas / Bigfoot

With their debut Tradition Ritual Habit finally out, Vancouver’s Belle Game will come east for some shows including a free show at Harbourfront Centre on July 12, part of the Soundclash festival thing that Born Ruffians are also playing. Green Couch Sessions have also posted a video session with the band and The Georgia Straight an interview.

MP3: The Belle Game – “Blame Fiction”

Chicago soul saviours JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound are back for a gig at the Horseshoe on July 12 in support of their new album Howl, out May 21. Tickets are $12.50 in advance, and MTV Hive has a quick band chat as well as a stream of a new song.

Stream: JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound – “Howl”
Stream: JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound – “Rouse Yourself”

Cleveland punk rock pioneers Pere Ubu will be at Lee’s Palace on September 18 behind their new album Lady From Shanghai, released back in January. Tickets for the show are $20 in advance.

MP3: Pere Ubu – “Free White”

Though just here in March, New Zealand/American psych-rock outfit Unknown Mortal Orchestra will be at Lee’s Palace on October 16 as part of a tour still in support of II. So if you’re into making plans half a year off, tickets are $15 in advance.

MP3: Unknown Mortal Orchestra – “So Good At Being In Trouble”

JagjaguwarWho: Delorean and Small Black
What: Two electro-dance-pop acts with big debuts hailing from either side of the Atlantic – Delorean bringing Subiza from Barcelona and Small Black crafting New Chain in Brooklyn.
Why: With both of their tours hitting Toronto on the same night, rather than force Torontonians to choose one or the other, they’ve teamed up for one big dance party, Voltron-style
When: Thursday, November 18, 2010
Where: The Mod Club in Toronto (19+)
Who else: Delorean brings Lemonade as support while Small Black brings Class Actress along for the ride.
How: Tickets are $15 in advance – there’s value for ya – but courtesy of Embrace, I have three pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want a Small Black Delorean” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, November 16.
What else: Austinist chats with Delorean while Small Black tell Spinner they’re going to work with Brian Eno if it kills them.

MP3: Delorean – “Real Love”
MP3: Small Black – “Photojournalist”
MP3: Small Black – “Search Party”

Frank YangIt’s not quite a French invasion, but the success of acts like Phoenix and Daft Punk in North America – and to a lesser degree M83 – certainly made the idea of bands hailing from France making inroads over here a plausible idea, not something you could have said a few years ago. Seeking to be part of this wave are Franco-Finnish duo The Dø, whose debut album A Mouthful was a hit in France when it was released in 2008. And while it’s not nearly as accessible a record for the masses as a Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, it has plenty to offer the more adventurous listener and singer Olivia Merilahti is the sort of woman who could sell anything to anyone. And so it was that the album was released in North American back in May, when the band would otherwise have been hard at work at album number two, and a Fall tour that brought them to Toronto’s Wrongbar on Saturday night.

The show was originally scheduled for the fancier digs of The Mod Club but was relocated to cozier digs late last week to provide a more compressed concert-going experience. And if anyone thought that having to downsize venues at the last minute was a bad luck, then having the club’s power go out entirely as the band were soundchecking would have been a veritable bad omen. The darkness only lasted a few minutes, though, and would be as bad as things would get – from there, everything got considerably better.

Though A Mouthful is almost dizzyingly eclectic in the sounds and styles it encompasses, The Dø live were a much more focused entity, operating in a conventional four-piece band configuration and locked into “rock” mode. This didn’t mean that they were all about extended solos or feet up on monitors (though both of those things did happen), but many of the jazz and folk idiosyncrasies of the album were checked in favour of focusing on their more immediate pop material – and a few smouldering ballads – and putting on a more direct, impactful performance. With co-conspirator Dan Levy handling bass duties, Merilahti – occasionally armed with a guitar but always with her fascinatingly plaintive voice and considerable charisma – led the band through a set including much Mouthful material, a good crop of new material and an extended and deconstructed rendering of Janelle Monáe’s “Tightrope”. When they left the stage after an hour, they seemed to think they were done – as did the house DJ and roadie, who was shutting off amps – but the audience demanded more and they returned for one final song. Encores that are unplanned are great; so are shows that are over by nine. Yeah.

Photos: The Dø @ Wrongbar – September 11, 2010
MP3: The Dø – “At Last”
MP3: The Dø – “Tammie”
Video: The Dø – “At Last”
Video: The Dø – “On My Shoulders”
Video: The Dø – “The Bridge Is Broken”
Video: The Dø – “Stay (Just A Little Bit More)”
MySpace: The Dø

Spinner and The Line Of Best Fit interview Tim Burgess of The Charlatans, who are in town at Lee’s Palace on Friday night. Still not cancelled!

A non-geoblocked version of the new Manic Street Preachers video startting Anna Friel (I hear you Kristen Chenoweth) and Michael Sheen is now up on the internets, though the official making-of video is available to all to see. The Guardian’s stream of Postcards From A Young Man, out September 28, is still for residents of the UK only though.

Video: Manic Street Preachers – “(It’s Not War) Just The End Of Love”

I’m not sure what the context for this just-released Clientele live video is – the song is from 2007’s God Save The Clientele and not the new Minotaur EP – but it’s pretty so it’s worth watching regardless.

Video: The Clientele – “Somebody Changed”

Build-A-Beard talks to Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit about his beard.

Gigwise chats with Blood Red Shoes, in town at the Horseshoe on October 27 with Sky Larkin as support.

Drowned In Sound talks to Owen Brinley of the just-disbanded Grammatics about why the Leeds outfit called it a day.

MP3: Grammatics – “Double Negative”

Brazil’s Os Mutantes will be at the Opera House on November 17 with Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti.

MP3: Os Mutantes – “Anagrama”
MP3: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – “Round And Round”

Australian electronic-rock artist formerly known as Pivot – and now going by PVT – will be on tour in support of his new album Church With No Magic and be at Wrongbar on October 26.

MP3: PVT – “Quick Mile”

When tours collide! The just-announced tour teaming Small Black and Class Actress will be hitting Toronto on the same day as Delorean and Lemonade, so naturally they’ll be teaming up for one uber-show at the Mod Club on November 18.

MP3: Delorean – “Real Love”
MP3: Small Black – “Photojournalist”
MP3: Lemonade – “Lifted”
MP3: Class Actress – “All The Saints”

Marathonpacks’ Eric Harvey has a great piece at Pitchfork on the parallels and intersection of the aesthetics of photography and independent music.