eveninghymns.comThey say you can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep, and nowhere is this more true than in the case of Peterborough’s Jonas Bonnetta, aka Evening Hymns, who first earned notice in these parts back in June opening up for Ohbijou. The liner notes of his second album, the just-released Spirit Guides, reads like a who’s who of the Bellwoods crew, including members of Forest City Lovers, Ohbijou and The Wooden Sky, to name but a few, and if you want to take that as an implicit “RIYL”, then you won’t be disappointed.

Throughout Spirit Guides, Bonnetta echoes the sounds of his peers – Ohbijou’s orchestral flourishes, the Wooden Sky’s rustic melancholy, Bruce Peninsula’s ghostly chorals, The Acorn’s nimble balancing of folk and rock – and as such, sounds and feels immediately comfortable to anyone who’s been following the sound of Toronto/southern Ontario over the last few years. Sublimated together, however, they form something that’s so cohesive and perfectly suited to the songs they adorn, that focusing on its familiarity is to miss the point entirely.

Wearing reverb like an early morning fog, Spirit Guides is the sound of Bonnetta wandering through the wilderness, both literally and allegorically, burdened by memory and regret and searching for salvation, shelter, something – anything. His voice is warm and worn, inherently a thing of the earth, but it still seeks to soar and when buoyed by the host of ethereal backing vocals, manages to do so. And for all the weightiness that’s implied, Spirit Guides is still every bit a pop record, full of wonderful melodies and hooks and, most importantly, the ability to make the deepest melancholia feel uplifting. It’s a lonely record that never feels alone. And though I didn’t realize it on initial listens, perhaps too busy playing “who does this remind me of”, it’s wholly remarkable and quite possibly essential.

Evening Hymns is marking the record’s release with a couple of shows next week – a free in-store at Soundscapes on Wednesday, December 2 at 7PM and a full and proper show at the Tranzac on December 4. Tickets for that will be $10 at the door but courtesy of Out Of This Spark, I’ve got a copy of Evening Hymns on CD to give away along with a couple of passes to the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to sing an Evening Hymn” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me by midnight, December 1.

MP3: Evening Hymns – “Dead Deer”
MP3: Evening Hymns – “Broken Rifle”
MP3: Evening Hymns – “Cedars”
MySpace: Evening Hymns

Gavin Gardiner of The Wooden Sky teaches QTV – and you! – how to play “Something Waiting For Us In The Night” on guitar.

Brian Borcherdt, who opened up for The Wooden Sky at Lee’s a couple weeks back has made good on his promise to release a free album – Torches is available to grab from his website now. And it’s a double-set, no less. Or it would be if it actually existed in physical form. But you could burn it onto two discs and pretend. I will shut up now. Or after I mention he’s also got a new video from his last record Coyotes.

ZIP: Brian Borcherdt / Torches
Video: Brian Borcherdt – “While I Was Asleep”

The Hylozoists have scheduled a show at the Whipper Snapper Gallery on December 17 to celebrate the release of a new video for “Bras d’Or Lakes”. Until then, it remains heard and not seen.

MP3: The Hylozoists – “Bras d’Or Lakes”

Stereo Subversion has a feature piece on Broken Social Scene and what it sees as the advent of collectives over traditional bands.

A track from Fucked Up’s forthcoming singles collection – Couple Tracks, out January 26 – is now available to download. I Heart The Music has posted an interview with frontman Damian Abraham just before their Polaris Prize win in September.

MP3: Fucked Up – “Neat Parts”

Spinner talks to Sloan’s Chris Murphy about the hit-and-run accident which broke his collarbone this Summer and inspired the title of their just-released digital EP Hit & Run. A primarily east-coast tribute album to Sloan was also just released – Take It In is available digitally; check out The Acorn and ex-Plumtree bassist Catriona Sturton do “Snowsuit Sound” on the label’s MySpace.

Frank YangIn leading up to Friday night’s show at Lee’s Palace, I’d wondered aloud as to why it had taken The Wooden Sky so long to play a proper hometown show, what with their latest record, the ex If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone having come out all the way back in August. Walking into Lee’s, I got my answer – they were building their sets. The stage was breathtakingly decorated with all manner of props and sculptures built of paperback books and pages, which my iPhone photo does not do justice (yes I had my regular gear with me and no, I didn’t take a proper picture – shut up). In both concept and execution, it was one of the coolest things I’d seen as far as art installations go, certainly better than stuff I’d seen at Nuit Blanche – big salute to artists Chris Mills and Tim Oakley for their work. So yeah, I was wholly impressed before a single act had taken the stage. A good sign.

Brian Borcherdt is certainly best known as co-leader of Holy Fuck, but before achieving instrumental electronica fame he plied his trade in a range of rock bands and as a solo artist, and it was the latter that kicked things off Friday. Armed with just a Jazzmaster and material from last year’s Coyotes, he showed off his more atmospheric if not quieter side, songwriting chops and an impressive voice that obviously doesn’t get called on much in Holy Fuck. He was joined by Julie Fader, with whom he’s setting out on tour, and then invited his drummer/collaborator on brand-new project Fields Of Fur and turned the rest of the set into a rehearsal of sorts, showing off his more rock-worthy side.

I had caught Hooded Fang a few times at the start of the year. Even then, over the span of just a month, they became a much more improved outfit, trading some amateurishness for assuredness without giving up the sense of fun and whimsy that gives them much of their charm. They still sound like Los Campesinos! crossed with Saturday Looks Good To Me, trading some of the former’s frantic tendancies and the latter’s Motown debt for an extra dose of tweeness and some of the distinctively Toronto big-band chaos (Hooded Fang numbered seven members). They still add a little more saccharine than I like in my musical diet, but there’s no arguing their upwards trajectory – look for their debut album early in the new year.

Not to suggest in any way, shape or form that they don’t deserve it, but when did The Wooden Sky get so many fans? The last few times I saw them were in basements or as openers and while they’ve certainly been around long enough to have amassed an audience, the size and enthusiasm of the crowd on this night was a surprise. Mind you, the fact that much of the audience seemed to be dewy-eyed girls implies the band has an appeal beyond their songcraft that I hadn’t picked up on before… Regardless, Lee’s was damn near full and dressed to the nines and The Wooden Sky took full advantage of the opportunity.

Their last Toronto performance, an intimate in-store at Sonic Boom in August, showcased the band’s intimate side just as Gone largely does – plumbing the still, deep reservoir of wistfulness and melancholy to impressive effect – and while they didn’t give that facet of their music short shrift, it was good – no, great – to see them get loud and raucous again. Featuring guest appearances from members of The Magic, Forest City Lovers and Evening Hymns, the set drew from both Gone and their first record under the Wooden Sky mantle, When Lost At Sea and presented a portrait of a band whom you could still accurately call roots-rock, but who were clearly using roots as precisely that. A foundation on which to draw on and grow something new from, and with Gone as a watershed record for the band and one I have no shame in saying I didn’t realize they had in them, I can’t wait to see where they go from here. The (wooden) sky is the limit.

BlogTO also has a review of the show. The Wooden Sky continue touring through Ontario and Quebec the rest of the month and there’s interviews with frontman Gavin Gardiner at Pulse Niagara and Brock Press. The Yarmouth County Vanguard talks to Brian Borcherdt.

Photos: The Wooden Sky, Hooded Fang, Brian Borcherdt @ Lee’s Palace – November 13, 2009
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Bit Part”
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Something Hiding For Us In The Night”
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “North Dakota”
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “The Wooden Sky”
MP3: Hooded Fang – “Land Of Giants”
MP3: Hooded Fang – “The Pageant”
MP3: Hooded Fang – “Circles And Blocks”
Video: The Wooden Sky – “Oh My God (It Still Means A Lot To Me)”
Video: The Wooden Sky – “When Lost At Sea”
Video: Brian Borcherdt – “Scout Leader”
MySpace: Hooded Fang
MySpace: Brian Borcherdt

The two sides of Forest City Lovers’ imminent “Phodilus and Tyto” 7″ single are currently available to stream on the band’s MySpace. The 7″ should be available for purchase on November 20, the tracks will also be available to purchase digitally and a video for the b-side of “If I Were A Tree” is also imminent – all of which does a good job of building excitement for the band’s third album, currently targeted for a late Spring/early Summer 2010 release.

Most of the live music-oriented New Year’s Eve events around town tend towards the country-rock vein – which is fine – but for those who prefer a little less twang in their “auld lang syne” – also fine – there’s an impressive to-do at the Tranzac that evening featuring performances from Gentleman Reg, The Magic, Jim Guthrie, Diamond Rings and Laura Barrett, amongst others. Tickets are $12 in advance and do not include cold buffet or little plastic cups of flat champagne.

There’s a video session with The Wilderness Of Manitoba up at Southern Souls and another MP3 from Hymns Of Love And Spirits available to beguile. They play The Holy Oak (Bloor and Landsdowne) on November 21.

MP3: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “Bluebirds”

Another Monsters Of Folk video.

Video: Monsters Of Folk – “Say Please”

Chart talks to Alela Diane, who plays the Horseshoe tonight.

Spinner gets a new album status update from Alison Mosshart of The Kills, who denies that Kate Moss ever threw a laptop containing all their demos into a swimming pool.

Black Cab Sessions drives School Of Seven Bells around Austin in exchange for a song. Alejandra Dehaza talks to NME about preparing to record album number two, entitled Disconnect From Desire and due out sometime in the middle of next year.

The nebulously-maned Music Reviews blog interviews Dean Wareham. The third Dean & Britta album appears targeted for a mid-2010 release.

The Line Of Best Fit and Epigram interview Christian Mazzalai of Phoenix. They’re at the Sound Academy on December 5.

Frank YangThe post title, taken from one of the song titles on Superioryouareinferior, kind of says it all. Since discovering Albertan Rae Spoon’s 2008 release earlier this year and slipping it onto my Polaris ballot, I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to see him play live. And while most of the Summer was spent overseas, the Fall brought some local dates including last night’s show at the Rivoli.

“Noise”, however, isn’t the first word I’d use to describe Spoon’s music. Delicate? Certainly. Affecting? Absolutely. Noisy? Well, come to think of it, it’s not inappropriate. Spoon’s voice – high, tremulous and possessed of a light twang and operating at the resonant frequency of heart-rending – is made for the quiet, folk-country that makes up a large part of his repertoire, but his ambitions range well beyond that particular nook, as this show would prove.

The show began with just Spoon, his acoustic guitar and songs of exactly the sort of aforementioned stark beauty but this wouldn’t be a set of vulnerable, heart-on-sleeve weepers. Spoon’s between- and during-song anecdotes were too funny and entertaining for the mood to get maudlin, and it wasn’t long before the laptop at his side was brought in for rhythm and loop duties and then the distortion pedal at his feet. Noise? Yes. In addition to material from Superioryouareinferior, there were selections from Worauf wartest du? his concept album with Alexandre Decoupigny about the Berlin subway and a few new songs including one foray into electro-pop that sounded like the most natural (and catchy) thing in the world. Pigeonhole Rae Spoon as a sensitive singer-songwriter at your peril. Tourmates Mark Bragg & The Butchers joining him onstage for “Come On Forest Fire Burn The Disco Down” (fitting, since Rajiv from Oh No Forest Fires was handling bass), closing out a set that was short but almost everything I’d hoped it would be. I’d drop the “almost” if he’d deigned to play “Great Lakes”, but that’s a negligible complaint.

Rae Spoon’s eastern Canadian tour continues through November and swings back in December, where he has another Toronto date on December 5 at the Tranzac.

Photos: Rae Spoon @ The Rivoli – November 11, 2009
MP3: Rae Spoon – “Come On Forest Fire Burn The Disco Down”
Stream: Rae Spoon / Superioryouareinferior
MySpace: Rae Spoon

Chart talks to Joel Gibb of The Hidden Cameras while Spinner solicits a list of Gentleman Reg’s five favourite covers. Reg opens up for The Hidden Cameras at The Opera House on December 5 and releases his Heavy Head EP on December 2.

eye previews The Wooden Sky’s show at Lee’s Palace tomorrow night.

Digital Spy interviews Patrick Wolf.

Jarvis Cocker talks film in a couple interviews with The Quietus, discussing his voice acting role in Fantastic Mr. Fox animated feature, in theatres this Friday, and contributing songs to the Russell Brand vehicle Get Him To The Greek, out next year.

Ladytron’s Reuben Wu tells Spinner that the band’s 10th anniversary seemed as good a reason as any for assembling their first best-of collection, due out mid-2010.

Check out the new, ultra-nude, ultra-NSFW Flaming Lips video. Then go wash your eyes. Then read this interview with Wayne Coyne at The Quietus.

Video: The Flaming Lips – “Watching The Planets”

Pitchfork talks to Midlake’s Tim Smith about their new album The Courage of Others, out February 2.

You know things are slowing down in blog-land when I have to resort to getting a show review up the next morning to put a post together and it’s still this short.

Frank YangIt’s been over two months since The Wooden Sky released their fine new album If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone, and in that time they’ve toured across this country and the one below, made a documentary and gathered accolades wherever they’ve gone, but they’ve yet to play a proper hometown show in support of the new record. They’ve done little gigs in basements and on rooftops but nothing in what you’d call a conventional space – a situation they’ll be rectifying next Friday evening when they put down stakes for an evening at Lee’s Palace.

Tickets for the show, which also feature Hooded Fang and Brian Borcherdt on the bill, are $12.50 in advance but courtesy of The Musebox, I have two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to live under a Wooden Sky” in the subject line and your full name in the body and get that in before midnight, November 11.

MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Bit Part”
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Something Hiding For Us In The Night”

Frank YangLast Thursday night was spent at The Garrison, the newly–opened west-end venue that’ll be home to the final year of Wavelength as well as a plethora of other local music happenings. A fine example of this was this evening’s bill, featuring bands with long names from near, far and sorta-near-but-not-that-close: The Wilderness Of Manitoba, Slow Down Molasses and Olenka & The Autumn Lovers.

Slow Down Molasses represented the “far”, hailing from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and were up first. I’d spent some time with their debut I’m An Old Believer in advance of the show and while the seven-piece outfit obviously has no shortage of ideas, largely revolving around a heartbreaking, widescreen country-rock epic I can definitely get behind, but I didn’t find Believer to be as focused or immersive a listening experience as it’d have probably needed to be to really wow me. Live, however, they make it work a lot better – all the many pieces come together nicely and the punchier delivery makes up for some of the thinner/wispier production choices and sometimes hesitant delivery on record. And bonus points for not only thinking to use a typewriter as a musical instrument but for making it work.

The Wilderness Of Manitoba got some face time here last week and were certainly a big part of the draw for this show. Though still a relatively new act, the word of mouth around them and the harmony-laden folk songs of their debut mini-album Hymns Of Love And Spirits has been spreading quickly so there was a pretty good size crowd assembled for their performance. And, indeed, the harmonies were pretty impressive – not divine, as the more hyperbolic might want to believe, but certainly rich and well-arranged. They brought more to the table than just their voices, though, and tastefully filled out their sound with cello, singing bowls and ukulele in addition to the more traditional guitar, bass and drums. As with the preceding band, I found the live Wilderness Of Manitoba more engaging than the recorded one, mostly thanks to the additional sonic weight of the live instrumentation – whereas Hymns seems to float above, on stage they sounded decidedly more anchored and some of the new material would certainly seem to demand that extra oomph. I know the EP just came out but I look forward to hearing what they do next.

I know I’d been intending to see London, Ontario’s Olenka & The Autumn Lovers for a long time – at least a year, and certainly they’re on my schedule every time CMW or NXNE rolls around – but it just hasn’t happened until now. So I won’t dwell on time and opportunities lost and just be thankful that finally, I am enlightened to their myriad charms. Calling them a folk band is accurate but insufficient; however trying to get more specific can be tricky. Their musical roots are Olenka Krakus’, which is to say the Old World/Eastern European/Balkan traditions which have been well-plied by the likes of Beirut and DeVotchKa in recent years, but rather than destinations as they are for those acts, for the Autumn Lovers they’re more of a starting point and they go wherever Krakus’ rich voice and vivid songwriting would go – brassy country twang one moment, mysterious Gallic chanteuse the next and all points in between. All of that was on display on Thursday night, as Krakus led her band through a spirited set which showed off their musicality and versatility and the sort of tightness that a couple weeks on the road tends to provide. I can’t provide much more specifics than that on account of not really knowing their material at the time but I’ve been rectifying that, having already put their recent Papillonette EP on heavy rotation and can say that what the cover of “Dancing In The Dark”, with which they closed the encore, lacked in polish, it more than made up for in enthusiasm and manpower. Joyous stuff, and be assured I won’t be missing them again.

Olenka’s just-wrapped eastern Canadian tour yielded features in BlogTO, JAM and The Chronicle Herald while BlogTO also talked to Slow Down, Molasses in advance of their show.

Photos: Olenka & The Autumn Lovers, The Wilderness Of Manitoba, Slow Down Molasses @ The Garrison – October 29, 2009
MP3: Olenka & The Autumn Lovers – “Eggshells”
MP3: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “Bluebirds”
MP3: Slow Down, Molasses – “I’m An Old Believer”
MySpace: Olenka & The Autumn Lovers
MySpace: Slow Down Molasses

And this segues nicely into the second half of this post as Olenka & The Autumn Lovers placed an impressive 27th in the 2009 edition of I Heart Music’s “Hottest Bands In Canada” poll, the results of which were announced at the end of last week and which was topped by The Rural Alberta Advantage – which, really, was the only possible sensible outcome. As always, it’s a far from comprehensive survey of Canadian online music writer/blogger types, but does give a decent impression of who’s being talked about… by Canadian online music writer/blogger types. Eight of my ten picks made the final list, and as in past years, my picks were a melange of subjective opinion and objective fact, served with a healthy dose of rushing to get it in before the deadline. My full ballot with pithy blurbage is below.

1. The Rural Alberta Advantage – To hear them or see them is to love them, and while buzz had been growing steadily since last Fall, it was a storybook SxSW this past Spring that made them arguably one of the hottest Canadian exports of the year and it’s a tale that shows no signs of ending anytime soon.

MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Don’t Haunt This Place”

2. Fucked Up – Winning the Polaris Prize should pretty much guarantee you a top-5 spot in this poll, and by doing so, Fucked Up have taken hardcore just a little bit further into the mainstream and are as unlikely and appropriate ambassadors for Canadian music as you’ll find.

MP3: Fucked Up – “No Epiphany”

3. Metric – The tale of the tape doesn’t lie – they scored their second Polaris nomination for “Fantasies”, sold tens of thousands of records and are selling out large theatres across the country. they may be hated by many but are loved by even more.

Video: Metric – “Sick Muse”

4. Ohbijou – They released a glittering jewel of a sophomore effort in “Beacons”, toured relentlessly across Canada, the United States and Europe and with their Bellwoods house, now a thing of myth, essentially acted as a fulcrum for a new wave of bands coming out of Toronto. And somehow managed to raise almost $20,000 for the food bank at the same time.

MP3: Ohbijou – “Black Ice”

5. Woodpigeon – Calgary’s best-kept secret has started getting the sort of accolades at home that they’ve been earning abroad and turned a limited run record of non-album tracks into a Polaris long-listed record. Just imagine what they’ll do when they release Die Stadt Muzikanten in January, an album that’s actually meant to be an album.

MP3: Woodpigeon – “Love In The Time Of Hopscotch”

6. Final Fantasy – Getting ranked for a record that’s not out yet and a hot year that’s not actually occurred yet is a bit like winning the Nobel Peace Prize without having actually brokered any peace, but the anticipation for Owen Pallet’s first record in almost four years is substantial enough to warrant it.

MP3: Final Fantasy – “Ultimatum”

7. Chad Van Gaalen – I will personally probably never take a seat on this particular bandwagon, but there’s no denying that the cult of Chad continues to grow with every record he puts out. And if this were a poll of Canada’s oddest musicians, he’d be number one with a bullet.

MP3: Chad Van Gaalen – “City Of Electric Light”

8. The Wooden Sky – Long-time fixtures of the Toronto scene, their new record “If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone” feels like a game-changer for the band in every sense. They’ve made records, they’ve toured their asses off and now, people are talking. A lot.

MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Bit Part”

9. Dan Mangan – while I still think that declaring him “artist of the year”, as Verge XM did, is a bit premature, there’s no question that “Nice, Nice, Very Nice” is a watershed record for the Vancouver artist and one that could and should elevate him to the ranks of the finest new songwriters in the country.

MP3: Dan Mangan – “Road Regrets”

10. The Balconies – “Hottest in Canada” is probably an overstatement as they’re still hardly known outside of Ottawa and Toronto, but this power trio have got the songs and the style to ensure that by the time this poll runs next year, they’ll have made a much bigger name for themselves. Consider this a pre-emptive move.

MP3: The Balconies – “300 Pages”

And a couple related notes – The Rural Alberta Advantage will play an in-store at Soundscapes on November 17 at 7PM as a warm-up to their big show at Lee’s Palace on the 20th. Oh, and they’re playing the Olympics, too.

The Torture Garden has an interview with Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallett. Heartland is out January 12.

Dan Mangan has released a new video for “Robots” from Nice, Nice, Very Nice. Brace yourself for adorableness.

Video: Dan Mangan – “Robots”

The Line Of Best Fit has posted a sixth “Oh! Canada” downloadable mixtape, chock full of the best new Canadiana as judged by the British.