Leslie SissonIt was a sad day in late 2005 when Austin’s American Analog Set called it a day, or it would have been if they had bothered to officially do so. They announced prior to touring their last (as in most recent, not final) record Set Free that it would be their final tour before a hiatus, and that while they didn’t have any plans to do anything else together, be it recording or playing or whatever, they weren’t ruling out the possibility. And they invoked the “not dead, only sleeping” clause at SXSW 2009 when they reconvened to mark the 10th anniversary of The Golden Band by playing the whole album at a day show I had the privilege of helping present.

But that special occasion aside, the band’s signature blend of shimmering vibraphone, humming Farfisa and dreamy guitarwork has been silent with frontman Andrew Kenny trading his Jazzmaster in for an acoustic guitar and lending his gentle vocals to a new band, The Wooden Birds. AmAnSet had been extremely consistent in sound and vision throughout their existence, so it’s not surprising that despite the change-up in instrumentation and addition of female vocals from sometime AmAnSet member Leslie Sisson, The Wooden Birds’ 2009 debut Magnolia could easily have passed as a new Analog Set record. It’s more earthy than ethereal, thanks to its simpler presentation, and less drifitly droning but if you were an AmAnSet fan, it’s hard to imagine not finding much to like about The Wooden Birds. Unless, of course, you were all about the vibes, in which case you may want to keep walking.

The Wooden Birds have set a June 7 release date for their second album Two Matchsticks and having passed us by on all tour dates in support of the debut, it’s exciting to see that the first North American dates finally include a Toronto date at The Drake Underground on July 10 – the first time back as bandleader for Kenny since November 2005 (he may well have been here as a member of Kevin Drew’s “Presents…” band). And while you might not guess it from listening to the records, The American Analog Set were always a fantastic live show thanks to the mesmerizing and hypnotic nature of their sound. I expect similar head trips from The Wooden Birds. Tickets for the show are just $12.00 in advance.

Samples from Two Matchsticks aren’t available yet, but there’s no reason to believe the new material strays too far from what surfaced on Magnolia. Update: One of the new songs is streaming at MTV Hive.

MP3: The Wooden Birds – “False Alarm”
Video: The Wooden Birds – “Hometown Fantasy”

There’s been no word of a follow-up to last year’s Goodbye Killer nor would I expect one, given the pace at which Joe Pernice works, but he’s taking the time out of whatever it he’s doing to play a show at The Dakota on May 6, tickets $20.

MP3: Pernice Brothers – “Jacqueline Susann”

That same evening, Peter Bjorn & John will warm up for their show at Lee’s Palace with an in-store at Sonic Boom at 7PM. Admission is free with the donation of canned goods.

Video: Peter Bjorn & John – “Second Chance”

With a new greatest hits compilation in Golden Greats, No. 1 just released, Sweden’s The Soundtrack Of Our Lives have made a date at Lee’s Palace for June 4. Tickets for the guaranteed rock spectacle are $18.50 in advance.

MP3: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – “Karmageddon”

His show at Lee’s last month apparently a roaring (or dead silent) success, Mark Kozelek is coming back for a pair of even more intimate shows – he’s at The Drake Underground on July 8 and 9, tickets for each show $24.50 in advance.

Video: Red House Painters – “24”

The National Post Q&As Joey Santiago of Pixies; they close out their two-night stand at Massey Hall tonight.

The Antlers are giving away an MP3 from Burst Apart, out May 10. They’re at The Mod Club on June 14.

MP3: The Antlers – “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out”

Daytrotter has posted a session from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, in town at The Opera House on August 2.

I Am A Mermaid questions Stephin and Claudia of The Magnetic Fields about mermaids.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of Sharon Van Etten’s homecoming show in Brooklyn this past weekend and Express Night Out has an interview.

Pitchfork has a feature interview with TV On The Radio.

The Baltimore Sun and Philly Burbs talk to Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak, who have a new video from their new record Civilian. NYC Taper is also sharing a recording of their show in New York last week.

Video: Wye Oak – “Fish”

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of a recent Mountain Goats show while The Sound Of Young America has an interview with John Darnielle.

Hear Ya, Madison Eagle, Jam Bands, Blurt and Paste talk to Jason Isbell, whose new record Here We Rest is out now and who leads The 400 Unit into The Horseshoe on May 22.

Want to hear some of the new My Morning Jacket record, Circuital? You can download the title track below, hear it played live on VH1 Storytellers via Pitchfork and stream another new tune over at Antiquiet. The record is out May 31 and they play The Kool Haus on July 11.

MP3: My Morning Jacket – “Circuital”

Pitchfork 3D – which is exactly what you think it is – has launched with a video session featuring Deerhunter.

BBC talks to Michael Stipe of R.E.M..

NPR is streaming the whole of Steve Earle’s new album I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive a week ahead of its April 26 release. Earle plays The Molson Amphitheatre opening up for Blue Rodeo on August 20.

Stream: Steve Earle / I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive

Spinner caught up with Rhett Miller of Old 97’s before their show in Toronto a couple weeks ago.

Spin, Clash and The Line Of Best Fit have features on Explosions In The Sky, whose new album Take Care, Take Care, Take Care comes out next week and is streaming in whole right now at Exclaim.

Stream: Explosions In The Sky / Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

The Line Of Best Fit reports that Memory Tapes will release a new album in Player Piano on July 4.

Crawdaddy interviews Liz Phair.

aux.tv has a video session with Warpaint while Relix offers an interview.

Spinner talks to Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes. Their new record Helplessness Blues arrives May 3 and they’re at Massey Hall on July 14.

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

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

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

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

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

MP3: Lissie – “Everywhere I Go”

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

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

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

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

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

Video: Bell X1 – “Velcro”

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

MP3: Julianna Barwick – “The Magic Place”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video: Owen Pallett – “The Great Elsewhere”

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

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

Frank YangThis show was a week ago; I think this may actually be my longest delay between witness and writeup ever and, in fact, Jeff Tweedy’s solo tour is just about over. So if you were waiting on some kind of report from opening night at Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre to decide if it was worth picking up one of the few remaining tickets for a later date… I’m sorry. Sorry that you would allow anything I say or do to influence your decision-making – you know I’m drunk most of the time, right?

But if I had gotten this review up sooner, I could have exhorted everyone going to any of the shows to arrive early enough to catch Snowblink, as local duo had been tapped to open up every show on the tour – maybe those at Wilco HQ had seen my glowing review of their debut Long Live? Either way, even though it was a tremendous opportunity for them, as soon as the lights dimmed it was clear they weren’t just happy to be there. The pair of Daniela Gesundheit and Dan Goldman took the stage carrying lanterns and eventually set up in their own, white cloth-strewn side of the stage – they were going to put on their show. And what a show it was – Gesundheit’s voice was strong and clear and sounded divine in the theatre’s acoustics, and their simple two-guitar arrangements – including an oustanding cover of Springsteen’s “State Trooper” – were subtly embellished with loops, percussion and electronic flourishes. Gesundheit might be a California native, but Toronto now proudly claims her as our own.

Wilco might have last been here as recently as October 2009, but it’s been much, much longer since Jeff Tweedy has come to town with just his acoustic guitars and songbook – so long that Tweedy himself didn’t remember ever having done so. In fact, it had been almost a decade exactly since he played Trinity-St. Paul’s on March 1, 2001, and when reminded of that by the audience he wryly referred to those as “the bad old days”. And while that may have been true for him from both a personal and professional sense, it’s impossible to deny that those were also some of Wilco’s most creatively fertile years, but also an era not often revisited with the full band.

And for about 90 minutes, alone on stage save for a circle of five acoustics and occasional visits from his guitar tech Steve (who was celebrating a birthday), Tweedy would revisit all eras of his career as well as some of his side-projects to air out some songs which would likely never otherwise be heard in these parts. Such as the original, non-Krautrock arrangement of “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot b-side “Magazine Called Sunset” or Loose Fur selections “The Ruling Class” and “Chinese Apple”. And of course there were the couple of rare forays into the Uncle Tupelo canon – I know “Gun” would have been too much to hope for, but “Wait Up” was a most certainly welcome and the encore-closing, unamplified “Acuff-Rose” was for the ages. And from Wilco proper, there was a “Poor Places” which I thought turned out better than he seemed to, a rousing “Shot In The Arm” and a new song which has been unofficially dubbed “Open Up Your Mind”.

Considering who the Wilco dynamic has changed with the addition of virtuoso players like Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche, it was good to be reminded that without Tweedy’s songs at the core, beautiful and resonant even stripped down to their essences, it’d all be for naught. Tweedy on his own was also a different sort of performer, more inclined to engage and banter with the audience (and not berate us for not standing up this time), debate grammar, vocabulary and requests and crack more than few jokes, his best being that which accompanied the photographic evidence of his visit to local Wilco-themed sandwich shop Sky Blue Sky, and to which he added they “seemed a little safe – why not try some mulch, tinsel or fibreglass?”.

With a new Wilco album likely due out in the Summer, it’s a pretty safe bet that Tweedy will be back with his cohorts in tow for another couple nights at Massey Hall. And it’ll be expansive and filled with amazing musicianship, no doubt, but that just makes simple shows like this one all the more special.

The Toronto Sun, The National Post, The Globe & Mail and Chart were all in attendance; three out of four dentists agreed it was a great show.

Photos: Jeff Tweedy, Snowblink @ The Queen Elizabeth Theatre – March 22, 2011
MP3: Wilco – “What Light”
MP3: Wilco – “Spiders” (live)
MP3: Snowblink – “Ambergris”
MP3: Snowblink – “The Tired Bees”
Video: Wilco – “What Light”
Video: Wilco – “Outtasite (Outta Mind)”
Video: Wilco – “Box Full Of Letters”
Video: Wilco – “I Must Be High”
Video: Snowblink – “Ambergris”
Video: Snowblink – “The Haunt”

From the ashes of The Broken West and to The Drake Underground comes Pasadena’s Apex Manor; Ross Flournoy’s new band will be opening up for Jonny on June 3 and 4. Their debut The Year Of Magical Drinking is out now.

MP3: Apex Manor – “Under The Gun”

With the May 10 release date of their new record Burst Apart not really all that far off, The Antlers have put together a North American tour that includes a June 14 stop at The Mod Club with Little Scream supporting. She had to bail on the last few dates of her tour with Sharon Van Etten, including the April 12 date at The Drake, to go to Europe with Junip so this will be her next local date. Not that you needed the extra incentive to go see The Antlers, of course. The band performed the whole of the new record live at SxSW and NPR has the stream.

MP3: The Antlers – “Two”

There were here no less than four times last year, and they’re totally coming back for more – that’s Phantogram, and they’ll be at 69 Bathurst on July 28 in the company of The Glitch Mob.

MP3: Phantogram – “When I’m Small”

The Village Voice talks to Amy Klein of Titus Andronicus, who are in town for a show at The Horseshoe on April 1 and again on June 10 at The Phoenix supporting Okkervil River.

Exclaim, Billboard, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post and Mother Jones all have features on The Mountain Goats. Their new record All Eternals Deck is out now and they’re at The Opera House on April 3.

MP3: The Mountain Goats – “The Age Of Kings”

Blurt, The Huffington Post, Fogged Clarity, Los Angeles Times and The Von Pip Musical Express have profiles of Wye Oak, in town at The El Mocambo on April 9.

Sharon Van Etten is featured in The Phoenix New Times, Spin and Georgia Straight while NPR is streaming one of her SxSW performances. She’s at The Drake Underground on April 12, and yes that’s her doing backing vocals on The National’s contribution to the soundtrack for the film Win Win, which is now available to download.

MP3: The National – “Think You Can Wait”

Spinner, Pedestrian TV and Vanity Fair have interviews with The Kills, whose new record Blood Pressures is out next week. NPR is streaming one of their SxSW performances so you know what to expect when they hit The Sound Academy on May 1. The new album is also streaming in whole at their website.

Stream: The Kills / Blood Pressures

Low have made available a new MP3 from their forthcoming C’Mon, which is out April 12. They’re at The Mod Club on May 2 with Memoryhouse supporting.

MP3: Low – “Especially Me”

CNN has an interview with Shonna Tucker of Drive-By Truckers, who have a date at The Phoenix on June 15.

PopMatters and Blurt have interviews with The Dodos, who’ve put out a new video from No Color. They’re at The Phoenix on June 16 for NXNE.

Video: The Dodos – “Black Night”

Exclaim reports that My Morning Jacket have assigned a May 31 release date for their new record Circuital. They will be at The Kool Haus on July 11 to support.

Metro Pulse talks high fidelity with Asobi Seksu.

Paste and Blurt have interviews with J Masics, who has released a new Chad Van Gaalen-directied video from Several Shades Of Why

Video: J Mascis – “Not Enough”

MTV Hive has an interview with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes while NPR is streaming their show from Auditorium Shores at SxSW.

NOW interviewed those involved with the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour that rolled through town a few weeks back, while NYC Taper has a recording of one of the New York shows.

eye and The Georgia Straight check in with Warpaint.

The Los Angeles Times, Spinner, The Boot, The Telegraph and Publishers Weekly all talk to Steve Earle about I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, which is both the name of his new record, out April 26, and first novel, out May 12.

Rolling Stone chats with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, who has set a June target for their second record.

Spinner, The Phoenix and The Fly have interviews with Buffalo Tom.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart discuss their new record Belong with The Line Of Best Fit, The University Observer, Jambands and Exclaim. And oh hey new video.

Video: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – “Heart In Your Heartbreak”

Pitchfork pays tribute to the hanging-it-up LCD Soundsystem with an exhaustive analysis of the band’s catalog. Seriously, it’s exhausting.

Austinist and The Huffington Post interview Liz Phair.

NYC Taper has posted a recording of Yo La Tengo’s show at Maxwell’s in New Jersey last week.

NPR doubles up on The Head & The Heart, streaming both one of their SxSW sets and a World Cafe session. The Big Takeover has an interview with the band, whose self-titled debut gets a reissue on April 16.

Frank YangOne to file under silver linings: Lissie – or Elisabeth Maurus according to her Illinois driver’s license – was supposed to make her Toronto debut at the El Mocambo back in October in support of her debut album Catching A Tiger, but that show along with a string of others was cancelled just days before on doctor’s orders after she lost her voice. The make-up show, which went off on Monday night, had a new venue to go with the new date – the twice-as-large Opera House which still managed to completely sell out. Okay, maybe that’s not such a silver lining for those who would have preferred to see her in a more intimate setting, but if you were one of the 400 people who wouldn’t have been able to see her if not for the bigger room then you weren’t complaining.

The evening didn’t go off completely without a hitch, though, as tour support Dylan LeBlanc was held up at the border necessitating locals Bahamas to be parachuted in as openers. Not that I would have been there in time to see either of them anyways. Lissie, however, showed up precisely on schedule to the strains of the Twin Peaks theme and roaring applause – this may have been her first time here, but clearly she had an impressive local fanbase already. And though she’s technically still a new artist, she worked the room for the next hour and change like a seasoned veteran with years of performing under her belt.

I’d seen her perform at SxSW 2010 and was impressed with how good she was without having any sort of angle or gimmick – just a great voice and great country-rock songs. Tiger also impressed but introduced a little doubt with regards to the unexpectedly slick production values; the songs were still superb but the delivery seemed like it was trying a bit too hard, and unnecessarily. “Slick” was not an adjective that had any place in this show, however, as it was just Lissie, a lead guitarist and combination bassist/drummer on stage – it’s not physically possible to work any gloss into the proceedings with that configuration, so the evening was a welcome return to basics: Lissie, her songs and her hugely expressive and powerful voice – it was hard to believe just a few months ago she was at risk of losing it.

The hour-long main set didn’t fit as many songs in as you might have expected – there was lots of entertaining banter throughout – but the audience was adoringly rambunctious and demonstrated one of the perks of being an artist without a “hit” song; no one was here to hear the single and then head for the doors, they were here for the duration. Still, it can’t be ignored that for as good as her own stuff is, much of Lissie’s exposure came with her unexpected cover versions and after a moving “Oh Mississippi” to lead off the encore, she finished things out with her version of Kid Cudi’s “The Pursuit Of Happiness”… and not one of the songs I would have actually known (Metallica, Lady Gaga, Zeppelin). But still, a crowd-pleasing finish to a crowd-pleasing and excellent set.

Mountain XPress has an interview with Lissie.

Photos: Lissie @ The Opera House – January 24, 2011
MP3: Lissie – “Little Lovin'”
MP3: Lissie – “Everywhere I Go”
MP3: Lissie – “In Sleep” (live)
Video: Lissie – “When I’m Alone”
Video: Lissie – “Cuckoo”
MySpace: Lissie

Steve Earle will release a new record entitled I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive on April 26 and a novel by the same name on May 12. He talks to Billboard about the two and the themes of mortality that pervade them.

Explosions In The Sky have clearly decided that the sky is not exploding enough of its own accord and will thus release a new record in Take Care, Take Care, Take Care on April 26 to pick up the slack. Pitchfork has specifics.

The Chicago Sun-Times, Baltimore Sun and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have words with Liz Phair.

NPR interviews the reunited The Dismemberment Plan.

The Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer interview the reunited Jayhawks.

NPR is streaming a World Cafe with The Decemberists while Exclaim has made the band their cover feature this month. They play The Sound Academy on February 1 and just took The King Is Dead to number one on the Billboard albums chart.

The Antlers discuss the electronic direction of their next album with Pitchfork.

The Vinyl District goes record shopping with Nicole Atkins. Her new record Mondo Amore is out February 8 and she’s at The Horseshoe on February 26.

PopMatters, The Georgia Straight and Seattle Weekly chat with various members of Ra Ra Riot.

Nada Surf have put out a video from their Depeche Mode cover from their covers record if i had a hi-fi.

Video: Nada Surf – “Enjoy The Silence”

The release of Iron & Wine’s latest Kiss Each Other Clean has brought out the press, with Sam Beam interviews in Pitchfork, Drowned In Sound, Daily Utah Chronicle and The AV Club as well as a Take-Away Show at Le Blogotheque.

Spinner and Paste talk to John Vanderslice, who is marking the release of his new record White Wilderness by giving away a new MP3.

MP3: John Vanderslice – “Piano Lesson”

Pitchfork reports that R.E.M. do not plan to tour behind their new record Collapse Into Now when it comes out on March 8. You can stream yet another new track from the record via one of those lyric video things at Filter.

Trivia: The Thermals’ new video from Personal Life was shot on the now-unprocessable Kodachrome film. I did not know they made a Kodachrome movie film. Now I do. For all the good it does me.

Video: The Thermals – “Never Listen To Me”

Steve GullickI’m sitting here trying to figure out why I never listened to Oxford’s Foals. It’s not that I hadn’t heard of them – I made note of both tours they undertook a couple years ago in support of their debut Antidotes, but don’t think I gave them any sort of listen beyond the sample MP3 and maybe a MySpace drive-by. Maybe it was the saxophones that turned me off. But I’m revisiting them – both Antidotes and this year’s follow-up Total Life Forever – and it’s doing it for me.

I wouldn’t have thought that I needed another tense, new-wavey/post-punky English band in my life but Foals feel different enough from the stereotype to warrant some attention. They’re certainly pointy in all the right places, but don’t really get as frantic on the dance floor as some of their peers, opting instead to dwell moodily in the corner. I appreciate the moody dwellers, and there’s much more of this side of their personality evident on Total Life Forever. I can sort of see why I might have passed over Antidotes but the extra bit of groove and sophistication on Total Life Forever is pretty much demanding further listens.

And so I won’t be missing them when they come through town a third time – Filter reports that the quintet are coming over to North America for a Fall tour, and that includes a September 27 date at Lee’s Palace. See you there.

MP3: Foals – “Spanish Sahara”
MP3: Foals – “Balloons”
Video: Foals – “Miami”
Video: Foals – “Spanish Sahara”
Video: Foals – “This Orient”
Video: Foals – “Cassius”
Video: Foals – “Balloons”
Video: Foals – “Hummer”
Video: Foals – “Mathletics”
MySpace: Foals

And speaking of third time’s the charm, you can’t say The Charlatans ever give up. Just as they’ve managed to outlive pretty much every other Madchester and Britpop band, they keep trying to come back to North America. They were going to come in October 2008, then canceled almost immediately. Then they slated a tour for September of last year, which got nixed a month before as drummer Jon Brookes required shoulder surgery. Some might take this as a sign, but they’ve just announced a North American tour in support of a new record entitled Who We Touch, out September 14, and it again includes a Toronto date for September 17 at Lee’s Palace. The two cancelled engagements were supposed to be at the Mod Club; maybe they’re hoping the change of venue changes their fortunes. And all joking aside, I do hope they make it over here this time, as there’s not a lot of shows that I can go to and still feel like one of the younger people in the room.

MP3: The Charlatans – “Oh! Vanity”
MP3: The Charlatans – “You Cross My Path”

They mentioned that it was their first time in Canada when they opened up for Spoon back in March, but Austin’s Strange Boys certainly haven’t been strangers around town since then. I think they played another gig that weekend, were back during NXNE and now they’re coming back with a date at The Garrison on September 22.

Video: The Strange Boys – “Be Brave”

It’s a solid bill from top to bottom as Rogue Wave, Midlake and Peter Wolf Crier team up for a Fall tour that includes a September 24 date at the Opera House.

MP3: Rogue Wave – “Good Morning”
MP3: Midlake – “Acts Of Man”
MP3: Peter Wolf Crier – “Crutch & Cane”

James have compiled a couple of recent mini-albums for the North American market and will release them as the double-set The Morning After The Night Before on September 14, to be accompanied by a North American tour alongside Ed Harcourt that includes a stop at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto on September 30.

Video: James – “Sometimes (Lester Piggot)”
Video: Ed Harcourt – “Born In The ’70s”

Dr. Dog, who’ve just released a new record in Shame, Shame, will be hitting the road in support and bringing Here We Go Magic with them. Look for them at the Phoenix on October 16.

MP3: Dr. Dog – “Stranger”
MP3: Here We Go Magic – “Casual”

Florence & The Machine should probably be working on album number two, which is targeted for an early 2011 release, but instead she’s coming back to North America this Fall, perhaps looking to leverage an appearance on the Twilight soundtrack (the same appearance which has put a Volvo ad on her website… sigh). The itinerary is still taking shape, but in addition to dates in New York and New Orleans, she’ll be in Toronto at the Sound Academy on November 3. Tickets are $30, on sale next Friday, but Rogers Wireless customers have a $20 presale starting Thursday – kind of makes up for that monthly system access fee, doesn’t it?

MP3: Florence & The Machine – “Kiss With A Fist”

Bust out your surgical masks – Clinic are releasing a new album in Bubblegum on October 5 and crossing the Atlantic to promote it. Look for them at Lee’s Palace on November 10.

MP3: Clinic – “Family”

Richard Ashcroft tells The Guardian why this last, past Verve reunion is/was the final one.

Filter and Paste chat with Teenage Fanclub, kicking off their Fall tour with two nights at the Horseshoe on September 22 and 23.

Blurt talks to Joe Boyd, producer of R.E.M.’s Fables Of The Reconstruction. Their third record is being rereleased in double deluxe form today and you can stream it over at Spinner. Only the album, though – none of the bonus goodies.

Stream: R.E.M. / Fables Of The Reconstruction

Spin is offering up another track from Versus’ forthcoming On The Ones And Threes, due out September 14. They’re at Lee’s Palace on August 13.

Under The Radar talks to The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt.

Steve Earle talks to Offbeat about his role on Treme, his Emmy nomination and New Orleans.

Spinner talks to Sharin Foo of The Raveonettes.