Bella LieberbergI will admit that to this point this year, I’ve taken a bit of pride in not having written about Los Angeles sister act Haim; not because I especially dislike them or anything – they’re fine, though I’ll keep my sliced bread, thanks – but my contrarian side reflexively made me resist on account of their quite successfully blowing up on the back of their debut Days Are Gone without any of my help, thank you very much.

But being in a time crunch and wanting to just get these links out the door, I give. They’ve finally announced their debut Toronto show as part of a North American tour in support of said debut and it’s happening May 15 of next year at The Kool Haus, tickets running a reasonable $25. That date, interestingly, is exactly one year less a day from when their original debut Toronto show supporting Vampire Weekend at The Sony Centre was supposed to happen; a date they quietly canceled not long before it was supposed to happen. Presumably they intend to keep this date.

There’s some recent interviews with the trio at Las Vegas Weekly, The Georgia Straight, and The Irish Independent.

Video: Haim – “The Wire”

The Skinny and The AV Club talk to Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater about their new album Fellow Travelers, due out November 28, while The Current has another download from the album available. They’re at The Horseshoe on March 27.

MP3: Shearwater – “A Wake For The Minotaur”

Pitchfork is streaming Beachwood Sparks’ previously unreleased debut album Desert Skies, coming out next week.

MP3: Beachwood Sparks – “Make It Together”
Stream: Beachwood Sparks / Desert Skies

NPR has premiered another new video from Pixies; they’re at Massey Hall on January 15.

Video: Pixies – “What Goes Boom?”

Brooklynite Jordan Lee – who has been making noise figuratively and literally as Mutual Benefit – has announced a North American tour behind his debut Love’s Crushing Diamond and will be at The Drake Underground on January 15, tickets $12. The album is out December 3 and Stereogum has an interview.

Video: Mutual Benefit – “Golden Wake”

Noisey has premiered a stream of the first taste of Ume’s new record – still untitled, but coming out in January of the new year.

Stream: Ume – “Black Stone”

Pitchfork has specifics on the release of Olivia Tremor Control’s John Peel Session from 1997, coming out on vinyl in January.

Tone Deaf, American Songwriter, and Under The Radar chat with The Head & The Heart.

A Heart Is A Spade talks to Cameron Mesirow of Glasser.

A new Solange song has surfaced on Saint Heron, a compilation of acts signed to the younger Knowles’ new label of the same name.

Stream: Solange – “Cash In”

Because they needed to wait for a whole bunch of factors to fall into place – like for music videos and the internet to exist – Bob Dylan has released the first official video – an immersive and interactive clip – for “Like A Rolling Stone”, just in time for its fiftieth anniversary. Rolling Stone talks to Danny Brown about how he ended up involved in its making.

Video: Bob Dylan – “Like A Rolling Stone”

Christopher WilsonBecause clearly I’m shit at this retirement or even just taking a day off thing… Some recent concert announcements with on-sales earlier than I’d have likely gotten to them otherwise. This is me. Thinking of you.

Band OF Horses were just here in August, yes, but that was in a sort of support role for My Morning Jacket and it was a good month before their new record Mirage Rock came out – today, I believe. And so to go with the new record are a batch of North American tour dates, including a stop back in Toronto at Massey Hall on December 5. Tickets for that are $42.50 to $49.50 and go on sale this Friday at 10AM. Presales are also likely, I leave those to you to sniff out.

There’s band features at Toro, Spotify, aux.tv, and Under The Radar. NPR also has a World Cafe session with the band.

Video: Band Of Horses – “Knock Knock”

Also back for seconds are The xx. They previewed Coexist here at the end of July, but are back as part of their full North American tour – as I predicted – with a show at Massey Hall on October 23. Tickets for that will range from $39.50 to $59.50 and go on sale this Thursday at 10AM. JAM has an interview with the band. Update: Beggars Canada has some presale info for Wednesday at 10AM.

MP3: The xx – “Angels”
MP3: The xx – “Sunset”

A little bit of an odd pairing, but a good one if you like guitars big and loud – The Gaslight Anthem and The Joy Formidable team up for a trans-Atlantic rock summit at The Sound Academy on November 25, tickets $26.50 general admission and $39.50 VIP, on sale Friday at 10. The Gaslight Anthem released Handwritten back in the Summer and The Joy Formidable are readying their second full-length Wolf’s Law for release next January.

MP3: The Joy Formidable – “Wolf’s Law”
Video: The Gaslight Anthem – “Handwritten”

Also offering a healthy amount of guitar pyrotechnics are Six Organs Of Admittance. They’re at The Drake on November 28 in support of their new record Ascent. Tickets are $13.50 in advance.

MP3: Six Organs Of Admittance – “Waswasa”

And while I’ve got you here, I may as well direct you to Rolling Stone where The Mountain Goats are streaming their new record Transcendental Youth ahead of its official release next week; Time also has a feature. They’re at The Phoenix on October 20.

MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Cry For Judas”
Stream: The Mountain Goats / Transcendental Youth

Wilco also have a new video, taken from The Whole Love. So watch that.

Video: Wilco – “Sunloathe”

Dum Dum Girls also have a new video, taken from their new EP End Of Daze, out today.

Video: Dum Dum Girls – “Lord Knows”

Ume have turned to Kickstarter to help record their next record.

Exclaim, Spinner, and The AV Club have features on The Afghan Whigs. They’re at The Phoenix on October 3.

Exclaim chats with Annie Clark of St. Vincent.

CBC Music talks to Josh Tillman of Father John Misty, in town at Lee’s Palace on October 27.

JAM and NOW talk to Dinosaur Jr, whose second of three nights at Lee’s Palace is tonight.

Exclaim, Austinist, NPR, and NOW profile Grizzly Bear, in town at Massey Hall tomorrow night.

Damnation.

AntiJust as yesterday offered a flurry of tour announcements, today we’ve got a few pretty high-profile artists offering details on new albums; two from artists who have been away for some time and one from an act that’s barely taken a moment to breathe.

First, you’ve got Tuscon’s Calexico. They’ve kept fans appeased with the Road Atlas compilations of previously tour-only material, but no one’s forgotten it’s been some time since they released 2008’s Carried To Dust – almost four years to the day by the time their new record Algiers is released on September 11, their first for Anti- what with their long-time label Quarterstick having folded in 2009.

The band already have a full slate of Fall tour dates lined up, but they’re mostly all in Europe – fear not, though, the chances they won’t be rolling through so soothe your soul with the sounds of the desert soon enough are slim to none. And in the meantime, there’s a new video that offers the first sample of the new album to savour.

Video: Calexico – “Para”

It’s been three years since we last heard from Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear and their breakout Veckatimest, and while their break has been well-earned and peppered with solo projects, news that their new album will finally be out on September 18 should please many out there. And while it doesn’t yet have a name, it does have a first track available to stream and a world tour to support it; Toronto can look forward to hearing those harmonies fill Massey Hall on September 26; tickets are $45.89 – fees included – and go on sale Friday at 10AM. Album details and full tour dates can be had at Exclaim.

Stream: Grizzly Bear – “Sleeping Ute”

I don’t think anyone was necessarily expecting to hear from The Antlers anytime soon – they released Burst Apart just over a year ago and even just released a final single from it in the UK at the end of April. But clearly taking a break isn’t for them, as they’ve announced a new release – also their first for Anti- – entitled Undersea due out on July 24. No samples or specifics yet, but there is a website and a trailer. Update: Pitchfork reports that Undersea isn’t a full-length, but a four-song EP.

Trailer: The Antlers / Undersea

The final two installments in the Archers Of Loaf remaster and bonus-laden reissue program – All The Nation’s Airports and White Trash Heroes – will be released simultaneously on August 7; a track from the latter has been made available to download. While it’s great that these editions will finally be out, one hopes that this doesn’t mark the end of the Archers Of Loaf reunion… They’re at The Phoenix on June 16.

MP3: Archers Of Loaf – “Dead Red Eyes”

Bob Mould talks to Clash about the Sugar years, the recorded output of which will be re-released on July 24.

The whole of The Afghan Whigs’ set at Primavera Sound in Barcelona last weekend is available to watch in quite-good audio and video. And if you want to further pretend you were in Spain for the festival, WFMU has audio streams of many of the sets from the first two days; one assumes the third day will be forthcoming.

Video: The Afghan Whigs @ San Miguel Primavera Sound – May 31, 2012

The sixth and final part of The AV Club’s retrospective look at R.E.M. is now up.

Ted Leo writes for Spin about a youth informed by the musical works of Rush.

NPR has a World Cafe session with The Magnetic Fields.

Daytrotter has posted a session with Eisley.

The final installment of Room 205’s video session with Blouse is now up.

Spinner chats with Bethany Cosentino and The Dallas Observer with Bobb Bruno, both of Best Coast. They’re in town at The Phoenix on July 21.

Guitar World talks six-strings with Lauren Larson of Ume. There’s also an interview at Houston Press.

Anna PalmaIt used to be that the room that every concert-goer in Toronto hated was The Kool Haus, a ridiculously-named concrete box on the waterfront that usually marked the point where a percentage of long-time fans would decide a band had gotten too big and would peel off to find the next big thing, only to have their places happily taken by folks from the more mainstream side of things who could care less that said band had been grinding it out in the clubs for years – they were that band with that one song that they’d heard on the radio/on a soundtrack/in and ad/whatever.

It was the circle of life, and it still applies now except that instead of the 2000-capacity Kool Haus marking that demarcation point, lately bands have been jumping straight from the clubs to the Sound Academy – an even more despised concrete box on the waterfront that, despite the number of people who swear they will never go to a show there, still sells out its 3000+ capacity with regularity. But on the plus side, people look at the Kool Haus a lot more affectionately these days.

All of which is to say that I’m mildly surprised – and yet not – that Brooklyn’s Yeasayer have booked themselves into The Sound Academy this Summer for their North American tour in support of their third album, Fragrant World. I guess I just didn’t think that Yeasayer had the sort of mass appeal that would justify a move from the 1000-person Phoenix, where they were their last time through in June 2011, to a room three times larger this time out. But hey, it’s happening – much to the dismay of many, I’m sure – on August 21, which also happens to be the day that the new album comes out. Tickets for that one will be $22.50 general admission and $32.50 for VIP balcony seats.

The first track from Fragrant World has been made available to download, and there’s a piece in Spin from last Fall where singer Chris Keating talked about the song, specifically.

MP3: Yeasayer – “Henrietta”

In other show announcements – The Dandy Warhols will play an in-store at Sonic Boom’s Annex location on June 3 at 4:30PM before their show at The Phoenix later that night. There’s interviews with the band at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Phoenix, and Vancouver Observer.

MP3: The Dandy Warhols – “Country Leaver”

Brooklyn’s Ava Luna have made a date at The Drake Underground for July 14, tickets $10 in advance. Their debut album Ice Level was released earlier this Winter.

MP3: Ava Luna – “Wrenning Day”

California’s RACES – yes, I believe the all caps is mandatory – will be at The Drake on July 23 in support of their debut Year Of The Witch, which is also available to stream in its entirety.

MP3: RACES – “Big Broom”
Stream: RACES / Year Of The Witch

Los Angeles ambient-electronic artist Julia Holter will be at The Horseshoe on September 22 in support of her widely-acclaimed second album Ekstasis. Tickets for that are $12 in advance and The Quietus has an interview.

Video: Julia Holter – “Our Sorrw”

Beachwood Sparks have released a second MP3 from their comeback record The Tarnished Gold, out June 26.

MP3: Beachwood Sparks – “Sparks Fly Again”

Rolling Stone has premiered the new animated video from Andrew Bird, taken from Break It Yourself. He plays Echo Beach on July 19.

Video: Andrew Bird – “eyeoneye”

Filter has a video session with School Of Seven Bells.

Room 205 has posted the second installment of their video series with Blouse.

Pitchfork solicits a guest list from Jana Hunter of Lower Dens, in town at Lee’s Palace on July 17.

Coup de Main and Tulsa World talk to Annie Clark of St. Vincent.

Ume’s Lauren Larson chats with The Dallas Observer.

The Village Voice finds out what Amy Klein has been up to since leaving Titus Andronicus last Fall – mainly starting a new band, Leda. Which sounds like this.

MP3: Leda – “Halfway”

The Stool Pigeon talks to both Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally of Beach House.

The Quietus profiles The Men, doing up NXNE with shows at The Garrison on June 14 and Wrongbar on June 15.

Blurt talks to Brett Netson of Electronic Anthology Project about synth-ing up the likes of Built To Spill and Dinosaur Jr.

Rolling Stone has a video interview with Greg Dulli about the Afghan Whigs reunion.

Bob Mould takes an in-depth look back at the Sugar years for The Quietus. Their catalog gets reissued in fancy form come July 24.

Frank YangFull writeup of the SXSW 2012’s abbreviated programme can be seen over here.

Guards
– New York-based garage-psych outfit led by Cults-bro Richie James Follin whose debut self-titled EP is available as a free download at Bandcamp.

Photos: Guards @ Parkside – March 13, 2012
MP3: Guards – “Hear You Call”
MP3: Guards – “Resolution Of One”
MP3: Guards – “Do It Again”
MP3: Guards – “Don’t Wake The Dead”
Stream: Guards / Guards
Video: Guards – “Feels Like That”

Ume
– Austin-based power trio led by the flailing hair and guitar of Lauren Larsen; their long-awaited album Phantoms finally came out last year

Photos: Ume @ Bat Bar – March 13, 2012
MP3: Ume – “Captive”
MP3: Ume – “The Conductor”
MP3: Ume – “Pendulum”
MP3: Ume – “Wake”
Video: Ume – “Captive”
Video: Ume – “The Conductor”