Frank YangAs I understand it, conventional wisdom is that Leap Day should be taken as an opportunity to try something new. But seeing as how prior to this year I’ve never thought of February 29 as anything more than an extra day of Winter every four years, I don’t feel bad that I spent it seeing a band I’ve seen many times before – Scotland’s The Twilight Sad, in town in support of their third album No One Can Ever Know.

“Trying something new” points should still be award for showing up early for opening act Odonis Odonis, who despite hailing from Toronto I’d not heard before the took the stage. A little research revealed that they were in fact labelmates with The Twilight Sad, being signed to the UK’s esteemed Fat Cat imprint for their debut album Hollandaze; this would normally be a good indicator of quality, but I recall another Toronto outfit signed to Fat Cat – Ten Kens – whom I was totally unimpressed with. And as it turns out, Odonis Odonis is the project of a former Ten Kens member. So. It’s probably just as well that I didn’t know that beforehand because I likely wouldn’t have given them a shot, and as it turned out, I liked them better. Relatively, at least. The trio either took a garage/surf-rock thing and buried it under noise layers or art-rock or took a noisy, art-rock thing and gave it a garagey/surfy friendly vibe – the coin flipped a few times over the course of their set. It was pretty loud and heavy, either way, and by the time it was over, I think the scorecard tipped in favour of tuneful over discordant, but just barely.

As noted in my review, No One Can Ever Know certainly found The Twilight Sad trying something new – synth-rock. An unexpected move given their signature sound to this point had been James Graham’s inconsolable bellow over Andy Macfarlane’s massive guitars, but one that works surprisingly well. So while I had a pretty good idea of what to expect of the band live by this point, I was curious to see how this new dimension would be incorporated into the show.

Taking the stage to a slow, pulsing synth tone that could well have been a fire alarm, they opened with No One‘s “Kill It In The Morning” – about half the set was comprised of new material, the rest split evenly between Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters and Forget The Night Ahead – and made it clear that though they had the same five-piece lineup that opened for Mono last time through, Martin Doherty’s keyboard responsibilities – while certainly more important this time out – were not going to supplant Macfarlane’s six-string duties anytime soon. The synthetic sheen of the new material was given a proper steel wool scrub courtesy of Macfarlane’s Fender Jaguar and Marshall stack and made loud, fuzzy and loud. Did I mention loud?

The combination of their old sound and new was quite a potent one, the resultant chaotic squall with a mechanical pulse coming across as more urgent and menacing than ever before and proving the new direction did not come at the expense of old strengths. At some points, the mix fell out of balance and Graham’s vocals – no wallflower of an instrument – were buried under the tumult but it always managed to right itself before becoming an issue. It was also interesting to see how far Graham has come as a frontman, his lurch-dance moves providing a welcome bit of onstage activity relative to his bandmates.

The show moved with a steady but unrelenting momentum for just over an hour, Graham taking the time to sincerely thank everyone for coming out to see them and promising a return visit soon before finishing with a scorched-earth double-shot of “And She Would Darken The Memory” from Fourteen Autumns and “At The Burnside” from Forget The Night Ahead. There was no encore, but there didn’t need to be; that was the proper finish.

Exclaim also has a review of the show.

Photos: The Twilight Sad, Odonis Odonis @ Lee’s Palace – February 29, 2012
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Another Bed”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Kill It In The Morning”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Reflection Of The Television”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Cold Days From The Birdhouse”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy”
MP3: Odonis Odonis – “Ledged Up”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “Another Bed”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “Sick”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “The Room”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “Seven Years Of Letters”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “I Became A Prostitute”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “And She Would Darken The Memory”
Video: Odonis Odonis – “Ledged Up”
Video: Odonis Odonis – “Blood Feast”
Video: Odonis Odonis – “Mr. Smith”

Nick Lowe returns to town with a full band for a show at The Phoenix on April 23, tickets $34 in advance and there will be limited seating available. It’s in support of last year’s The Old Magic, from which Lowe has released his first music video in almost two decades – NPR premiered it alongside a conversation with Lowe about the tune.

Video: Nick Lowe – “Sensitive Man”

Finally apparently getting over her fear of playing venues appropriately sized to her fanbase, Laura Marling has announced a June 17 visit to The Phoenix, the final date of a Summer tour. Tickets will be $25 in advance.

Video: Laura Marling – “All My Rage”

Daytrotter has posted a session with Noah & The Whale.

Interview and The Quietus interviews Beth Jeans Houghton, whose Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose is up to stream in whole at Spinner; I wrote this record up a month ago – but the North American release was just this week. But to make up for the delay, there’s a new video!

MP3: Beth Jeans Houghton – “Dodecahedron”
Video: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny – “Atlas”
Stream: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny / Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose

Arctic Monkeys have released a new video for a non-album track. They’re at the Air Canada Centre opening for The Black Keys on March 14.

Video: Arctic Monkeys – “R U Mine?”

The lead single from The Wedding Present’s new album Valentina is now available to download. The record is out March 20 – North Americans can preorder the LP version over here – and they play The Horseshoe on March 25.

MP3: The Wedding Present – “You’re Dead”

The most appealing part of the new Belle & Sebastian-curated Late Night Tales compilation coming on March 26 – the band’s cover of The Primitives’ “Crash” – is now available to stream.

Stream: Belle & Sebastian – “Crash”

Also out March 26 is In Time To Voices, the new record from Blood Red Shoes; Artrocker talks to drummer Steve Ansell about the new album.

Allo Darlin’ have released a new video from their forthcoming album Europe, which will be out on April 17.

Video: Allo Darlin’ – “Capricornia”

In conversation with producer Stephen Street, Louder Than War learns that the Blur back catalog is in the process of being remastered for reissue in the near future. And the video from Graham Coxon’s new solo record A+E for which he was soliciting dance audition clips is now live; the album is out April 26.

Video: Graham Coxon – “What’ll It Take”

Pitchfork reports that Hot Chip have completed work on their new album and will release it under the title of In Our Heads on June 12.

Summer Camp has released a new video from their debut album Welcome To Condale.

Video: Summer Camp – “Losing My Mind”

Le Blogotheque has posted a Take-Away Show with Anna Calvi, while Time Out talks to her about her forays into the fashion world and The Music Network inquires about her music.

The Quietus talks to Stuart Staples and David Boulter of Tindersticks about their new record The Something Rain.

DIY talks dating with Charles and Rebecca of Slow Club.

aux.tv gets Los Campesinos! to provide a running commentary of their video for “By Your Hand”.

The Quietus checks in with British Sea Power, presumably working away at their next album.

The Line Of Best Fit salues Black Cab Sessions on the occasion of their 100th episode, and we (I) salute The Line Of Best Fit on the occasion of their fifth anniversary. The Guardian also marks the occasion by picking their five favourite performances.

Frank YangJust so we’re clear, I am not stalking Veronica Falls. It’s pure coincidence that I’ve seen the London-based band three times in the past year in three different countries – America, Canada, and Iceland – on two different continents. Really. Okay, it’s not as though I was running into them on the street while they were playing – their self-titled debut was one of my favourites of last year (and barely missed my year-end list) so when the opportunity to see them live has presented itself, I’ve taken it. And when a fourth chance came around as it did on Tuesday night at The Garrison, I also took that.

It also gave me the opportunity to see what local outfit Hands & Teeth were about, what with them garnering a fair bit of attention hereabouts for their just released their debut full-length Hunting Season. That the five-piece were talented and had no shortage of ideas was unquestionable but like many young bands with a surplus of talent and ideas, it felt like they hadn’t quite figured out how to manage it all. Their sound was a solid balance of pop and prog but came across as busy as it was catchy. Having four capable lead vocalists made for some exquisite harmonies but also made their overall personality hard to pin down. Similarly, the instrument swapping seemed showy and unnecessary; rather than trying so hard to demonstrate that they’re good, they’d be better off simply being good. Because despite all this, they clearly were.

No one should have had to be told that San Francisco’s Brilliant Colors were Veronica Falls’ labelmates on Slumberland; the quartet rather embodied the label’s aesthetic of scrappy, lo-fi American ’80s indie pop with a dash of New Zealand/Flying Nun thrown in for good measure. They had to fight through an inordinate number of sound issues for such a simple, straight-ahead band (two guitars, bass, drums, one vocal) but eventually got sorted enough to get through their set, which had decent energy if not a lot of charisma and included a cover of The Who’s “So Sad About Us” as well as material from their latest Again & Again. As familiar-sounding as their material was, it wasn’t the most memorable but if you had that vintage of indie pop in your veins, there was no way it wouldn’t resonate at least a little.

It was nice to considerably more people out to see Veronica Falls this time out than that gathered in the basement at Parts & Labour last October – even with it being Valentine’s Day – and the band were dressed for the occasion with guitarist/vocalists Roxanne Clifford and James Hoare and drummer Patrick Doyle all done up in matching red-and-white striped shirts; bassist Marion Herbain might have had the same on under her sweater, I couldn’t tell. Not that any of that really mattered, it was just a fun detail. What did matter was that they came to play, powering through their set of darkly-hued, C86-vintage pop with punk rock efficiency – the dozen-song set, which included a few new tunes, plus one-song encore of undetermined cover was over in just 35 minutes.

As with past performances, Doyle again reaffirmed his position as the band’s secret weapon keeping super-tight time with his stripped-down, mostly cymbal-less kit, all while contributing backing vocals but unlike past performances, Clifford and Hoare weren’t as tight as they typically were. It was actually a bit funny to hear their vocals completely out of sync for the opening verse of “Wedding Day”, though they got it together once Doyle came in with the beat – we’ll blame that on persistent stage sound issues. So while technically less than perfect, the band still seemed to have a good time – Clifford was dancier onstage than I’d seen her – and no one was complaining; we’ll still call it a pretty good Valentine’s Day.

Vice and The Montreal Mirror have interviews with Veronica Falls.

Photos: Veronica Falls, Brilliant Colors, Hands & Teeth @ The Garrison – February 14, 2012
MP3: Veronica Falls – “Come On Over”
MP3: Veronica Falls – “Found Love In A Graveyard”
MP3: Brilliant Colors – “How Much Younger”
MP3: Brilliant Colors – “Value Lines”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Bad Feeling”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Come On Over”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Beachy Head”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Found Love In A Graveyard”
Video: Brilliant Colors – “‘Round Your Way”
Video: Brilliant Colors – “How Much Younger”
Video: Brilliant Colors – “Hey Dan”
Video: Brilliant Colors – “Highly Evolved”
Video: Brilliant Colors – “English Cities”
Stream: Hands & Teeth / Hunting Season

Blood Orange has put out a new video from Coastal Grooves.

Video: Blood Orange – “Forget It”

Also with a new video is Laura Marling, this one the closing song from last year’s A Creature I Don’t Know.

Video: Laura Marling – “All My Rage”

I don’t know what Mulberry is, but they deserve props for getting Summer Camp and Big Deal to record videos of them covering Fleetwood Mac and The Jesus & Mary Chain, respectively, for some Valentine’s Day campaign.

Video: Summer Camp – “Everywhere”
Video: Big Deal – “Sometimes Always”

Artrocker reports that The Futureheads’ next album will be completely a capella, entitled Rant and out April 2. It will consist of instrument-less reworkings of some of their songs and covers of others; I’m particularly keen to hear their cover of Richard Thompson’s “Beeswing”. But for now, we will have to settle for this stream of their new version of “Robot”.

Stream: The Futureheads – “Robot” (a capella)

The Cribs – now Johnny Marr-less again – have completed their fifth album and will release In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull on May 8. A download of the first single is up for grabs courtesy of Spin and they’ll be at Lee’s Palace on April 11 as part of a North American tour, tickets $17.50 in advance.

MP3: The Cribs – “Chi-Town”

Norwegian electro disco virtuoso Lindstrøm has made a date at Wrongbar for May 26, tickets $15 in advance.

MP3: Lindstrøm – “De Javu”

The Line Of Best Fit reports that Swedish songstress Frida Hyvönen has a new album entitled To The Soul coming out on April 18 and the first single is available to stream.

Stream: Frida Hyvönen – “Terribly Dark”

NYC Taper has one of the shows from Björk’s New York residency available to download. A-yup.

FacebookAfter writing up some bands lately whose names have either undersold or misrepresented the music they present, it’s rather refreshing to have an artist whose public identity promises exactly what they have to offer. And that artist is Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny. A grandiose name, to be sure, and one that’s matched by the title of their just-released debut album Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose.

There’s no way that labels like those could herald anything less than grandiose ambitions, so the question is really whether the 21-year old Newcastle-Upon-Tyne native who gives the band their name can deliver on them. And the answer is an unequivocal, “yes”. Nature has given Houghton not only a richly smoky voice and operatic range, but a tremendously vivid imagination upon which to draw on for her songwriting. All these gifts are combined to impressive effect on Cellophane Nose, which is by turns whimsical and dramatic, dark and technicolour and enchanting throughout.

Houghton’s roots as a folkish/singer-songwriter are perceptible in the record’s quieter moments, but more often they take a backseat to the ornate, often baroque-ish arrangements that adorn everything. By rights they should be overpowering, even with veteran producer Ben Hillier on hand to keep things on track; a case of too much too soon for an artist let loose in the sonic costume shop filled with horns, strings, choirs and harpsichords. And yet, rather than collapsing under the weight of it all, Cellophane Nose finds Houghton not only standing straight and tall in all her finery, but galloping off towards greater things. Hooves of destiny, indeed.

DIY and The Quietus have interviews with Beth Jeans Houghton.

MP3: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny – “Dodecahedron”
Video: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny – “Sweet Tooth Bird”
Video: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny – “Liliputt”
Video: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny – “Dodecahedron”

NPR is streaming the whole of the new Field Music LP Plumb, ahead of its release next week. MusicOhm also has an interview with the David half of the Brewis brothers.

MP3: Field Music – “A New Town”
Stream: Field Music / Plumb

Though The Big Pink’s second album Future This has been out a few weeks now, the band has only now made a track from it available to download. So download it. And read these interviews with Milo Cordell at The Skinny and The Province.

MP3: The Big Pink – “Give It Up”

The video for M.I.A.’s new single surfaced last week, just in time for her appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show this weekend. It’s her video that’s got everyone talking, right? Right?

Video: M.I.A. – “Bad Girls”

The Line Of Best Fit welcomes Lianne La Havas for a video session; her debut album is due out in the Spring, to be preceded by the Forget EP on March 6 in North America.

Video: Lianne La Havas – “Forget”

Daytrotter sessions up with Anna Calvi.

The 405 enlists Summer Camp’s Elizabeth Sankey as an advice columnist.

A Heart Is A Spade and STV have interviews with The Twilight Sad and Le Blogotheque offers up a Take-Away Show with the band. No One Can Ever Know is out today and they’re at Lee’s Palace on February 29.

Band Of Skulls will follow up the release of Sweet Sour next week with a North American tour that hits Lee’s Palace on May 15, and if you can’t wait that long they’re also at The Phoenix on March 30 opening for We Are Augustines. The band takes Gigwise and Spin through the new record track-by-track, with Spin also offering a stream of the whole thing. And over at The Independent, bassist Emma Richardson talks about her painting.

MP3: Band Of Skulls – “Sweet Sour”
MP3: Band Of Skulls – “The Devil Takes Care Of His Own”
Video: Band Of Skulls – “Sweet Sour”
Stream: Band Of Skulls / Sweet Sour

Ca Va Cool caught up with Los Campesinos! on their recent Canadian tour for an interview.

In conversation with The Daily Mail, Noel Gallagher reveals he thought that the Iron Lady was great. No, not the movie.

Liam Gallagher of Beady Eye sounds off to The Daily Mail about fashion, fitness and family.

The Quietus talks to XTC’s Andy Partridge about the making of English Settlement.

Dose gets to know First Aid Kit, in town at The Great Hall on April 4.

The video for the first single from Ladyhawke’s forthcoming Anxiety is now out. The album arrives March 27 in North America.

Video: Ladyhawke – “Black White & Blue”

Frank YangIt may have sounded like Tuesday night’s grand Fucked Up throwdown at The Great Hall was going to be an untoppable finale to the 2011 concert season in Toronto, but remember – that was just the first of a two-night event and if you were going to try and top a recital of one of 2011’s best albums (that’s David Comes To Life, for the record) then a front-to-back performance of one of the best Canadian albums of the past 15 years is a pretty good place to start. That would be Sloan, by the way, and 1996’s One Chord To Another.

But that’s not why I was there, if we’re being honest. Though 2011 has been a fantastic year for remembering why Sloan were/are great, thanks in large part to their excellent The Double Cross and the attendant 20th band anniversary reminiscences, I figured my Sloan needs had been met by the marathon-length, career-spanning set at Echo Beach in August and anticipating that the Fucked Up show would verily kick my ass (which it did), a night off to recover would be well-advised. But then it was announced that The Rural Alberta Advantage would be added to the bill that already included Ohbijou and Bonjay, and it occurred to me that though The RAA and Ohbijou are acts I’ve loved and followed since their humble local beginnings, I hadn’t seen either live in over two years – a consequence, I guess, of having seen them so much in their salad days that now that they were filling much larger rooms, the experience would just feel odd. But to catch both of them, plus Bonjay, plus Sloan, for just $20 in support of worthy causes and in a cozy setting the likes of which they’ll rarely if ever play again? Duh. Tickets were purchased, and THEN came the One Chord announcement and any remaining tickets vanished lickety-split. And I may have high-fived myself just a little.

I can’t be sure I’ve ever seen Bonjay live. Certainly I’d seen singer Alana Stuart’s other band (or one of them) – the electro-poppy Everything All The Time, but what’s presumably her main gig and I had yet to cross paths. I had heard them before, though, so had a sense of what to expect even though their set opening up the night would essentially be a first impression. Though formally a singer-DJ duo, they had a live drummer with them for most of this performance helping make their electro-reggae/soul concoction even funkier and heavier than I expected, and an ideal backdrop for Stuart’s dynamic stage presence; something that her EATT performances didn’t do justice. Amidst their own compositions they dropped a couple of covers – Feist’s “Honey Honey” and Caribou’s “Jamelia” that they managed to deconstruct completely and make their own in impressive fashion. They’ve currently only got the Broughtupsy EP to their name as far as releases go, but are putting the finishing touches on their full-length debut for next year. Expect to hear much more of them in 2012.

Much of the narrative around Ohbijou’s Metal Meets revolved around how working with producer Jace Lasek of The Besnard Lakes helped them grow their orch-pop roots into something bigger and more electric for their third album. I don’t know if that was it, or if it was just a result of the endless touring and simply getting better as a live act but in the time since I last saw Ohbijou in June 2009, they’ve become a much more impressive live act. This isn’t to suggest they weren’t before, but in the past much of their appeal came from the delicacy of their sound, even though they were usually plugged in on stage even then. But there was undeniably something more to them this time out, and it primarily came from frontwoman Casey Mecija. She was exceptionally charismatic on stage, singing and playing with heretofore unseen fervor – the intensity of the set-closing guitar solo and attendant noise squalls quite suited her – and perhaps taking her lead, the band played with more weight and conviction than I’d could recall. It was grand to hear the new material and old favourites rendered in a way that reminded that expressing emotion and demonstrating strength are hardly cross-purposes; after all, the heart is a muscle.

What I said earlier about not having seen The RAA since November 2009 isn’t technically true – they played the Tranzac New Year’s Eve thingie I went to last year, but since that was a personal and non-blog event and thus wasn’t covered, it didn’t actually happen. In any case, contrary to the Ohbijou experience, The Rural Alberta Advantage show was still largely and comfortingly the same as I remembered. Not entirely surprising considering how distinct and deliberately bare-bones their aesthetic is, but the combination of Nils Edenloff and Amy Cole’s sandpaper-and-sugar vocals is as potent as ever over top acoustic guitar and keys – I think the Moog pedals were new, though – and of course Paul Banwatt’s madman virtuoso drumming. Months on the road had made them tighter, certainly, but more polished? Not so much, and that was a good thing – it’s their rough edges that endear. This was my first time hearing much of the Departing material live – plus their seasonal cover of “Little Drummer Boy” – and yeah, I loved that record. And I love this band.

The full album recital thing isn’t a new phenomenon, but not a lot of Canadian bands have taken up the trend because, I imagine, not a lot have the combination of longevity and catalog of classics that could make such an effort feel like a genuine occasion. So that Sloan were able to do this for not one but two of their albums – Twice Removed got a few performances last year – is a real testament to how impressive their career has been. Someday, after they’ve finally called it a day, the country and the world will probably come to appreciate just what a musical treasure they’ve been but until then? We get to savour shows like this one.

If we had a national archive of audio clips, then I would submit the “Will you please… welcome to the stage… SLOAN!” intro from “Good In Everyone” for inclusion. Indelibly familiar to an entire generation of music fans, it’d have been unthinkable that it wouldn’t also kick of this night’s performance and while it was unlikely that they’d have dug up one-time CFNY DJ Brother Bill (I believe it was him on the album) to do the honours, surely someone would. And of course that someone was the MC of the past two nights, Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham. He did a fine job of recreating the cadence of the original and as for the screaming crowd noises – the audience had that covered.

With the obvious exceptions, I don’t think I’d ever heard a lot of these songs live before thanks to more than a decade-long gap in Sloan experiences, dating from a Twice Removed-era show in first year university (I found the set list!) to one in early 2007 for Never Hear The End Of It. And I suspect that it had been some time since the band had played most of the as well; in this piece about prepping for the show at The Grid, Patrick Pentland confirmed that “Junior Panthers” had never been played live and it had been at least ages for many other songs. So yeah, expecting perfection wasn’t realistically on the table, but then this was a Sloan show so technical perfection wouldn’t ever have been on the table anyways. For example, Pentland’s guitar crapping out during his solo for “Can’t Face Up”. It was just gonna happen.

But like for Fucked Up’s show, what we got was arguably better than a perfect performance. Sloan, rocking out like young(er) men again and seemingly having a blast of it, once again making a case that they truly were Canada’s Beatles. Melodies and hooks for miles, equal facility with doing it hard or soft and always more creative and all-around weird than you’d expect from initial listens. Interestingly, much of the audience – particularly those up front – looked like they hadn’t been out of grade school when One Chord originally came out a decade and a half ago, but they sang along with every song just as well as those of us who’d lived with it since the day it was released. Also interesting was being reminded that once upon a time, it was Pentland who was the band’s sharpest popsmith; this was before he decided he wanted to be the hard rock guy and handed that title over to Jay Ferguson, but hearing him step up on the likes of “Good” and “Everything You’ve Done Wrong” – complete with horn section, of course – in the context of the album as a whole, you had to tip your hat. Going through the main set seems pointless – they played One Chord To Another, people, and somehow needed a set list to do it – sufficed to say that it was everything that we could have wanted, and if that had been the end of the evening, there’d have been nary a disappointed face in the house. But it wasn’t.

The encore started with Twice Removed‘s “Snowsuit Sound”, which besides being just a great song also gave Ferguson another opportunity to step up to the mic, but it took a few chords for my brain to register that the second song was, in fact, what I thought I was hearing. “500 Up”. Quite possibly my favourite song from Smeared, I’d never heard it live before, assuming that there was some logistical issue with the rotating vocals that made it too much trouble to play. Which there may well have been but they did it anyways and again – not perfect, but arguably better for the sloppiness in it. “500 Up”. Man. And then – THEN – Damian Abraham retook the stage and duetted – if that’s the right word – on a cover of Black Flag’s “Nervous Breakdown” that featured, among other things, plenty of horseplay, hip-hop posing, and Abraham picking Murphy right up off the stage and just… I don’t even know. Let’s just say it was bananas. And if that wasn’t quite enough, one Can-rock star tagged in another with Feist coming out onstage and getting back in touch with her inner rocker by playing guitar on a gloriously pounding “She Means What She Says”. Amazing.

I mentioned as much in the writeup of night one, but it’s worth noting again: those who know me have probably heard me complain about the state of all kinds of things in Toronto, be it political or personal or all points in between – come on, who doesn’t have a complicated relationship with their hometown? – but nights like these ones, where the people, the community, the art, the everything that makes it special, comes together so perfectly? Yeah, I love this town.

Mechanical Forest Sound was on hand with audio recorder in hand and has “Everything You’ve Done Wrong” available to download. NOW, BlogTO, Exclaim and Panic Manual have also got reviews of the show.

Photos: Sloan, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Ohbijou, Bonjay @ The Great Hall – December 21, 2011
MP3: Sloan – “Follow The Leader”
MP3: Sloan – “The Answer Was You”
MP3: Sloan – “Unkind”
MP3: Sloan – “I’m Not A Kid Anymore”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “North Star”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Stamp”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Frank, AB”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Don’t Haunt This Place”
MP3: Ohbijou – “Anser”
MP3: Ohbijou – “Niagara”
MP3: Ohbijou – “Black Ice”
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: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Tornado 87”
Video: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Muscle Relaxants”
Video: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Stamp”
Video: Ohbijou – “Niagara”
Video: Ohbijou – “New Years”
Video: Ohbijou – “The Woods”
Video: Bonjay – “Stumble”

And to wrap up with some stuff that’s a bit time-sensitive for the season…

As previously mentioned, Cat Power will mark Christmas Eve with the release of a new charity single/video – details on the what are now up on her website.

Summer Camp love them some holiday tunes – they’ve made a new, grammatically questionable Christmas song available to stream.

Stream: Summer Camp – “All I Wonderful Christmas Is You”

Emmy The Great and Tim Wheeler tell The Guardian how they wrote “Home For The Holidays” from their This Is Christmas album and also offer a video performance of said tune. Clash also interviews Emmy about the project.

The AV Club has wrapped up this year’s edition of Holiday Undercover, wherein acts like The Mountain Goats, Wye Oak and Little Scream record their takes on holiday tunes.

And on that note, happy holidays, y’all. I’ll be in and out through next week, but posting will be light. This year, more than most, I need some time to defrag the brain. Enjoy whatever time off you have.

FacebookThey’d announced some time ago that these were coming, but to actually see the dates and have something on the calendar to circle is still pretty exciting. I am referring, of course, to The Wedding Present’s just-announced North American tour wherein they will not only preview material from their forthcoming eighth album – title and release date still to come – but mark the twentieth anniversary of their third full-length Seamonsters by performing it live, in its entirety.

They did this on their last visit in April 2010, celebrating Bizarro turning 20 with a recital, but this show is extra-special because Seamonsters is, quite simply, the band’s best record. It took the romantic casualty archetype that populated David Gedge’s earlier compositions and rather than make him hapless again, it took the jilt and turned it into anger. At the same time, producer Steve Albini – who’d worked with the band on some EPs – was brought in to give the record a correspondingly dry, rough and muscular sonic signature; whereas the band’s signature churning guitars had previously been more effective as bludgeons, now they carried blades and weren’t afraid to use them. The result was the band’s most aurally and emotionally dynamic album and it’s going to be amazing to see and hear live.

Of course, it won’t be the same lineup performing it as who recorded it – Gedge has long been the only constant in The Wedding Present and his bandmates all many years his junior, but it will be odd to not see Terry de Castro on bass for the first time. She left the band in August of last year, ending a 12-year run as Gedge’s bassist and backing vocalist, dating back to his tenure as Cinerama. The new girl is one Pepe le Moko. I am guessing that’s not her real name but it’d be awesome if it was.

The Toronto date goes March 25 at The Horseshoe. Tickets are $18.50 in advance and as it comes at the tail end of Canadian Music Week, a limited number of wristbands will be admitted.

Video: The Wedding Present – “Dalliance”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Crawl”

Los Campesinos! will kick off 2012 with a North American tour in support of Hello Sadness that includes a two-night stand at Lee’s Palace, January 21 and 22. Tickets for each show are $20 in advance. DIY has an interview with the band.

MP3: Los Campesinos! – “By Your Hand”
Video: Los Campesinos! – “By Your Hand”

Hey, remember The Darkness? They had a huge hit in 2003, kind of broke up amidst drugs and booze abuse, had some unremarkable side projects and then reunited earlier this year? Yeah, that Darkness. Well they’re crossing the pond next year and will kick off their tour at The Phoenix on February 1, tickets $29. I’m not sure why I posted this bit of news – maybe just to have an excuse to listen to that song. You know the one.

Video: The Darkness – “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”

Bombay Bicycle Club have slated an enormous North American tour in support of their third album A Different Kind Of Fix; the Toronto date is March 1 at the Mod Club and tickets are $18.50 in advance.

Video: Bombay Bicycle Club – “Shuffle”

And because the karmic balance of concert announcements must be maintained, take note that Still Corners have had to cancel their upcoming North American tour in support of The War On Drugs, including the December 9 show at The Horseshoe. Similarly, those looking forward to a (relatively) intimate club show from Kasabian on March 29 may be disappointed to know that it’s been moved to the twice-as-large Kool Haus. Those who missed out on tickets when they sold out in hours, however, will be pleased. See? Karma.

Loud & Quiet interview Veronica Falls, in town at The Garrison on February 14. They’ve also put together a mixtape for your listening pleasure over at Clash.

Summer Camp has a sit-down with Loud & Quiet.

Clash checks in with Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit, hard at work on album number four.

Loud & Quiet talk to Mogwai, a band who knows a thing or two about both loud and quiet.

LA Weekly solicits some choice quotes from Liam Gallagher of Beady Eye.

And while most people are still busy listifying 2011, BBC has their eyes squarely on the future with the long list of their annual Sound Of 2012 poll. Guaranteed that at least some of the artists listed, you will be hearing about in the near future. If just in the context of not winning the BBC Sound Of 2012 poll.