VimeoIf your answer when people ask you what you’re doing tonight for New Year’s Eve is presently, “sitting at home in the dark playing Boggle with the cat”, take heart – The Flaming Lips are offering you a better excuse. Their hometown throwdown in Oklahoma City will be streamed live for the broadband-enabled world to enjoy via Rolling Stone starting at 10 PM EST tonight.

There’s no doubt a band whose typical shows are exercises in ridiculous excess will raise their game for a New Year’s Eve party, and in the trailer/commercial for the event, Coyne promises “the world’s biggest balloon drop” and “the world’s biggest mirror ball” and after midnight, a complete performance of their masterpiece album The Soft Bulletin. He also tells The Hollywood Reporter that it will be “out of control”. That it will also be “off the hook” is implied.

Note that OKC is in the Central time zone, so that’d be 9PM local time and so the Soft Bulletin recital won’t start till after 1AM. Which is to say that will be a marathon and half of Flaming Lips goodness. And if you actually have plans tonight that don’t involve sitting in front of a computer (not that there’s anything wrong with that), the show will be re-broadcast on Sunday night at 9PM EST.

Trailer: The Flaming Lips 2011 New Year’s Eve Freakout

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of Jeff Tweedy’s solo set opening up for one of Yo La Tengo’s Hannukah shows at the start of the month and also Yo La Tengo’s headlining set from later in the week. Fun fact: Wilco and The Flaming Lips teamed up for a New Year’s Eve show at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 2004.

Spinner talks to Mac McCaughan about the fantastic 2010s for both Superchunk and Merge.

Nowness interviews Warpaint bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg and her sister, actress and the band’s former drummer, Shannyn Sossamon.

Fucked Up have blogged about how they go about creating artwork for their album covers. Interesting reading.

The March release of Bruce Peninsula’s completed second album has been pushed back indefinitely as bandleader Neil Haverty is treated for leukemia. Details on his condition, which is very treatable, are available over at NOW. Best wishes to Haverty for a speedy recovery.

Spinner talks sexuality with Diamond Rings. He is at the Sound Academy on January 26.

And that’s 2010 in the books. Have a safe one, everybody. See you in ’11.

Frank YangMost everyone in Toronto has some personal bar for which they’ll swallow their disdain and trek down to the port lands to see a show at the Sound Academy. Some less discerning about where they see a show will accept the logistical hassles and lousy sightlines as a the price that must be paid to see acts who’ve reached that “yeah we can draw 3000 people” plateau, whereas others would probably still hem and haw if you gave them the opportunity to see a reunited (albeit half-zombie) Beatles.

I lean more towards the latter than the former but have still been persuaded to head down three times this year, the latest this past Thursday evening for the first of two nights from Toronto’s own reigning indie rock heroes, Broken Social Scene. Not that they were the draw – I’d seen them three times already this year without even trying and my relationship with the band remains tepid. No, they got me down there the same way they probably got no small number of folks down there – by having Superchunk to open.

Just as when they teamed up with another set of resurrected college rock legends back in the Summer – Pavement on the islands, if you’ll recall – I’m sure that their intentions were noble, hoping to introduce some of today’s indie kids to their musical forebears, even if those who’d been waiting the longest for their return to town would have much preferred a full-length show of their own in comfier environs. But this is what it was and at least there was a good-sized crowd in place when the North Carolinans greeted Toronto for the first time in over nine years (their Mac-and-Jim acoustic in-store earlier that afternoon notwithstanding). And even if some of the kids had already gotten a primer on the band via their most excellent comeback album Majesty Shredding, their opening number was for the oldsters as they reached way back to 1991’s No Pocky For Kitty for “Throwing Things”.

Majesty material would comprise a third of their too-short 50-minute set, the rest coming from all points of their expansive catalog and all delivered with an energy that would have embarrassed bands half their age. It wasn’t the bull-out-of-the-gates performance they gave at Matador 21 in Vegas, wherein they basically stole the weekend and incited a pogo pit for the ages, but it was a great set that – sorry to harp on it – should have gone twice as long. I’d have liked to say that they converted everyone in attendance to ravening fans, but aside from a moderate number of pockets of people freaking out – moreso during “Slack Motherfucker” because everyone likes to swear at the top of their lungs – the response was good but not overwhelming. This was still clearly Broken’s audience and everyone else, no matter how legendary in their own right, was still just support.

There are some parallels between Superchunk and Broken Social Scene – both are revered bands who’ve started successful record labels – and they’re not that far apart in age, there’s some distance between the ‘Chunk’s concise and melodic archetypal college rock and Broken Social Scene’s sprawling kitchen sink jams. It’s like punks versus hippies, and the hippies were going to have themselves a love-in.

BSS opened up relatively small, with “World Sick” from this year’s Forgiveness Rock Record and just the now-core members on stage, but restraint is never in the cards for long at a Broken Social Scene hometown show. By the third song, the sublime “7/4 (Shoreline)” from their 2005 self-titled effort, the number of players had already ballooned into double figures and they’d made good on promises of having the whole family in attendance as Leslie Feist and a very pregnant Stars’ Amy Millan came out to trade verses and Metric’s Jimmy Shaw joined the expansive horn section.

Broken Social Scene’s modus operendi has always been to indulge in the chaos in order to extract the beauty, to throw everything/everyone on stage and let their chemistry do the rest, and the pros and cons of that approach were well on display throughout the night. The set didn’t seem to have been assembled with any particular arc in mind with the momentum building and ebbing from song to song and some recontextualized songs didn’t work as well as they’d probably hoped – “Super Connected” was dragged out to the point that the hooks lost their pointedness and trading the lead guitar on “Forced To Love” for flute was just weird. The sound man was probably living a nightmare trying to keep up with the constant stream of performers grabbing mics at random and while he did a commendable job, there were points when the lead vocalist was inaudible to the house. Also in the con column was Kevin Drew’s between song chatter, which I’ve personally never warmed to, as he rambled aimlessly, emceed the comings and goings of band members and towards the end, announced he was going to crowd surf as though he was about to walk on water. Dude, you just do it.

For all that, though, when Broken got it right, they made it clear why after all these years they still hold the hearts and minds of Toronto music fans so. Though still “the new girl”, Lisa Lobsinger was terrific on her Forgiveness lead turn “All To All” and then teaming with Amy Millan on perpetual BSS high point “Anthems For a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl”, while Feist proved why she’s become the biggest star in the Broken Solar System leading the massive band through a rousing reading of her own “I Feel It All” while making you wish that she’d just rock out once in a while. And for all that they’ve done since 2002, it was still You Forgot It In People that really gave the evening its heart. Songs like “Cause=Time”, “KC Accidental” and “Almost Crimes” continue to dazzle in a way that you just can’t put your finger on and have lost none of their magic, in particular the ability to silence those who’d otherwise criticize and complain at length about Broken Social Scene.

Their set was well past the the 90-minute mark before they closed out with a massive, super-extended, false ending after false ending version of Forgiveness instrumental jam “Meet Me In The Basement” and even though many were clearing out at that point, those who stayed got an extended (of course) encore that took things close to the two and a half hour mark before calling it a night. I’m at peace with the fact that I will probably never love Broken the way that thousands, apparently, still do – which is to say that I am at peace with the fact that it will never be 2003 again – but come for the Superchunk, stay for the Broken Social Scene? I can still do that.

eye, Chart and NOW also have reviews of the show. Spinner talks to Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan about his/their relationship with Broken Social Scene and Toronto. Metro, Centre Town News, aux.tv and Spinner talk to various Broken Socialites.

Photos: Broken Social Scene, Superchunk @ The Sound Academy – December 9, 2010
MP3: Broken Social Scene – “World Sick”
MP3: Broken Social Scene – “Fire Eye’d Boy”
MP3: Broken Social Scene – “Hotel”
MP3: Superchunk – “Digging For Something”
MP3: Superchunk – “Misfits & Mistakes”
MP3: Superchunk – “Never Too Young To Smoke”
MP3: Superchunk – “Rainy Streets”
MP3: Superchunk – “Becoming A Speck”
MP3: Superchunk – “Pink Clouds”
MP3: Superchunk – “Detroit Has A Skyline” (acoustic)
MP3: Superchunk – “Nu Bruises”
MP3: Superchunk – “Skip Steps 1 & 3”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “Texico Bitches”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “Forced To Love”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “Meet Me In The Basement”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “7/4 (Shoreline)”
Video: Broken Social Scene -“Fire Eye’d Boy”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “Ibi Dreams Of Pavement (A Better Day)”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “Her Disappearing Scene”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “Major Label Debut”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “Cause = Time”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “Almost Crimes”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “Lover’s Spit”
Video: Broken Social Scene – “I’m Still Your Fag”
Video: Superchunk – “Digging For Something”
Video: Superchunk – “Art Class”
Video: Superchunk – “Watery Hands”
Video: Superchunk – “Hyper Enough”
Video: Superchunk – “Driveway To Driveway”
Video: Superchunk – “The First Part”
Video: Superchunk – “Precision Auto”
Video: Superchunk – “Untied”
Video: Superchunk – “Package Thief”
Video: Superchunk – “Mower”
Video: Superchunk – “Throwing Things”
Video: Superchunk – “Fishing”
Myspace: Broken Social Scene
Myspace: Superchunk

Natasha TyleaWhen Baltimore duo Wye Oak first came onto the scene in 2008 with their debut If Children, I felt they had all the necessary traits to attain most favoured band status – gorgeously melodic and melancholic songs built on a solid foundation of noise and twang – but didn’t pull it together quite enough to knock it out of the park. That they would do so, however, was a question of when and not if.

“When” would be the very next year with their much more dynamic and assured second album The Knot, which delivered on all the promise of the debut and then some, and this year’s My Neighbour/My Creator EP which affirmed that though they’d arrived, they weren’t slowing down even a little.

So expectations for album number three are pretty damn high, and we’ll find out if they’ve been met or exceeded come March 8, when Civilian is released. Falling short is not an option, and from the sounds of the first released MP3 – the title track of the record – there’s no worries on that count. It encapsulates everything that’s great about Wye Oak, starting out quietly folkish, and led by Jenn Wasner’s vocals, builds into an epic guitar freakout that should seem otherworldly given the song’s starting point but feels perfectly natural. Am I keen on this release? Yes.

Merge has details on the album and Winter tour dates, which will include a February 1 appearance at The Sound Academy in Toronto in support of The Decemberists.

MP3: Wye Oak – “Civilian”

And speaking of The Decemberists: while their next album The King Is Dead, out January 18, is apparently a step back from the high concept folk-rock opera of The Hazards Of Love, Colin Meloy’s apparently not done telling stories in song. In conversation with Billboard about the new record, Meloy mentions that he’s talked to a Broadway director about a future project.

Shearwater, with whom Wye Oak toured with when they visited back in the Spring, will be heading into the studio to make a new record this Spring but first, Matablog reports via a note from Jonathan Meiburg that they’ll be playing their last three releases – Palo Santo, Rook and The Golden Archipelago, aka “The Island Arc” – in order and in their entirety at Austin’s Central Presbyterian Church on January 15. I usually have a baseline state of mind of wishing I was in ATX, but I’d especially like to see that – for those of us who can’t, though, Matador has assembled a digital sampler from the three records just to remind us what we’ll be missing. Thanks. The Oklahoma Daily talks to Meiburg about islands.

MP3: Shearwater – “Red Sea, Black Sea”
MP3: Shearwater – “Sing, Little Birdie”
MP3: Shearwater – “The Snow Leopard”
MP3: Shearwater – “South Col”
MP3: Shearwater – “Castaways”
MP3: Shearwater – “God Made Me”

Superchunk make their long-awaited return to Toronto tonight, and the local media is ready to greet them. eye sends Nick Hune-Brown of local popsters Hooded Fang to interview ‘Chunk guitarist Jim Wilbur and also talk to drummer Jon Wurster about how he spent his hiatus. NOW and aux.tv also get to chat with Wurster. The Detroit News has a piece with frontman Mac McCaughan.

NYC Taper has got audio of Jeff Tweedy’s solo show in New York earlier this week available to download.

Low are giving away a live EP in exchange for your email address. A fine way to get reacquainted before their new record C’Mon arrives early next year.

The first MP3 from J Mascis’ forthcoming solo acoustic record Several Shades Of Why is now available to grab over at Sub Pop. The record comes out March 15 and it looks as though he’ll be at Canadian Musicfest in Toronto the week before.

The New York Times has assembled fourteen short films of actors… acting, soundtracked by Owen Pallett. It’s cooler than I make it sound. Some background on the project at their Lens blog.

NOW dedicates this week’s cover story to The Sadies, who continue their tradition of ringing in the New Year at the Horseshoe this coming December 31. The Press has a conversation with drummer Mike Belitsky.

The Line Of Best Fit and The New Zealand Herald chat with Carl Newman of The New Pornographers.

And also at The Line Of Best Fit is a new Oh! Canada compilation, this one extra special as its a holiday-themed one with a tonne of exclusive seasonal tracks by folk like Basia Bulat, Woodpigeon and Evening Hymns. Even if you don’t like holiday music – and between you and me and the internet, I don’t really – it’s a must-have.

AV ClubThis week’s selection again comes from that treasure trove of people-doing-other-people-but-not-in-that-way-you-sicko goodness that is the AV Club Undercover. One of the things I liked about this series, besides everything, is that they didn’t only have it set up so that is was the new guard covering the old guard, but got a couple of the latter in to tackle other artists’ material as well.

So when the back with a vengeance Superchunk got their turn in the studio – and even though their own “Detroit Has A Skyline” was still in play, if they felt like not being sporting – they reached back another generation and opted to take on The Cure. And not one of their broodier numbers, though that’d have been interesting to hear, but the 1985 single which would serve as the blueprint for most of The Cure’s unabashed pop singles and biggest hits. Mac McCaughan’s voice is about as opposite from Robert Smith’s as you’re going to find, but otherwise the ‘Chunk pay pretty faithful service to The Cure in their take.

Superchunk’s first record in almost a decade, Majesty Shredding, gives the band reason to return to Toronto for the first time in forever this week with an in-store at Sonic Boom on Thursday, December 9 at 3PM in advance of their show opening up for Broken Social Scene at the Sound Academy that evening. The Cure haven’t put out a new record since 2008’s 4:13 Dream but their classic Disintegration was given a three-disc reissue this year so they’ve not been up to nothing, and Smith has promised more archival releases in the near future. And he’s also stopped saying each record/tour is going to be their last, so there’s that.

The Twin Cities welcome Superchunk back with a studio session at MPR and an extensive interview with McCaughan at Minneapolis City Pages.

MP3: Superchunk – “In Between Days”
Video: Superchunk – “In Between Days”
Video: The Cure – “In Between Days”

MyspaceI don’t really participate in Twitter memes, but if I were to ride the one currently trending for #why90srocked, one of my contributions might be Boston’s Buffalo Tom. One of my favourite bands of that decade, their Let Me Come Over and Big Red Letter Day were two of the gateways that led me to the world of college rock (what the kids now mostly call indie) – jangly guitars, raspy vocals, big hooks all around, what’s not to like? Unfortunately they, like many of the acts of that era, didn’t find the underground to be especially profitable and eventually called it a day at the end of the 20th century when the responsibilities of real life came calling (frontman Bill Janovitz became and continues to be a realtor).

But like many of their peers, Buffalo Tom found a second act years later when they discovered their fans from back in the day were still there and so was their appetite for their music. I for one was thrilled to finally see them live not once but twice in 2007, both terrifically high energy performances with just the right amount of slop, and their comeback album Three Easy Pieces also stood tall alongside their past works. There were no disappointments here.

And I don’t expect any on their second post-reunion album, Skins. The Buffalo Tom formula isn’t necessarily a broad one, but it is deep enough to expect the veteran songwriters to be able to pull a dozen or so good tunes out of it every few years. Stereogum has the first MP3 from the album available to download, and though it starts out favouring the band’s more pensive side it builds quickly to a big rock breakdown, and Janovitz’s voice is unmistakeable. Consider the appetite whetted. Skins is out on February 15 of next year and The Alternate Side has an interview with Janovitz.

Grab the title track from their last record for a taste of their more pop-oriented side. Update: The new track is now available for anyone to disseminate. Yay!

MP3: Buffalo Tom – “Arise, Watch”
MP3: Buffalo Tom – “Three Easy Pieces”

Chunklet interviews Andy Earles, biographer of Husker Du and author of Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock.

Creative Loafing talks to Jon Wurster and City Pages to Mac McCaughan of Superchunk. They’re playing an in-store at Sonic Boom on December 9 at 3PM before hitting up the Sound Academy that evening opening up for Broken Social Scene.

The Vine interviews Doug Martsch of Built To Spill.

Rolling Stone reports that in addition to the reissues of Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow The Green Grass on January 18, the same day that a short tour kicks off at The Phoenix in Toronto, The Jayhawks will be releasing a new album under their proper name – previously a stumbling point – in the Spring of next year.

Magnet has gone archive-digging and come up with their 2002 feature piece on Wilco circa Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, arguably the most interesting period of their career.

Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller talks to Spinner about his love of hockey while bassist Murry Hammond chats with Metromix.

Conor Oberst will return to Bright Eyes for the first time since 2007 for The People’s Key, due February 15. Details at American Songwriter.

Interpol heads to Europe and does the press circuit with Metro, The Guardian and Drowned In Sound.

Spoon has collected the demos and alternate takes of songs that were posted to their website over the past couple years and are offering it for sale as the digital compilation Bonus Songs 2008-2009.

Yours Truly has a video session with S. Carey, in town at The Horseshoe on December 19.

The Fly has an acoustic session with Local Natives.

Spinner talks to Warpaint bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg while the band talks about and performs the song “Warpaint” in session for The Guardian.

The Besnard Lakes have set a date at Lee’s Palace for January 29, tickets $15 in advance.

MP3: The Besnard Lakes – “Albatross”

Scots Biffy Clyro will bring their Mercury-shortlisted Only Revolutions to The Garrison on February 16, tickets $15 in advance.

Video: Biffy Clyro – “God and Satan”

Asobi Seksu will hit the road following the the February 11 release of their new record Fluorescence and stop in at The Horseshoe on February 27.

MP3: Asobi Seksu – “Trails”

Cold War Kids will be at Lee’s Palace on March 18 in support of their new record Mine Is Yours, out January 25. Tickets $20 in advance. The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Spinner and The Hook have features on the band.

The Whig and Edmonton Journal interview Dan Mangan, who just recorded a World Cafe session for NPR.

San Francisco Weekly and Exclaim chat with The Sadies, who will be holding their annual New Year’s Eve throwdown at The Horseshoe on December 31.

Wolf Parade discuss their decision to take an indefinite hiatus with aux.tv.

Exclaim declares Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs as their pop/rock album of the year and talk to Win Butler about it.

The Dears are giving away a track from their forthcoming Degeneration Street over at Dangerbird. The record is out February 15.