The Young & Sexy show at the ‘Shoe last night was my first club show in over a month – and I missed it (the club shows, not this show in particular – I was there in plenty of time). Gentleman Reg started things off with some pleasant and light pop – it took a few numbers for his voice to reach full elasticity but once warmed up they were sounding pretty good. Second act Hotel… the less said about them, the better. The headliners took the stage at 11:30 sharp – isn’t it nice when bands stick to the schedule? – and played a pretty good set. I think they were a little discombobulated from coming in from the west coast because they didn’t seem totally in sync with one another, but still were sounding alright. Not mind-blowing (though a little ear-blowing until I decided that standing right next to the keyboard monitor wasn’t such a good idea), but enjoyable. Particularly nice was the “A Day In The Life” breakdown in the middle of “Television” and the set closer, a nicely arranged cover of Big Star’s “Thirteen”. Yeah, it’s been covered a million times, but when it’s done well, it’s still a treat. The crowd was smaller than I’d expected, but there were a lot of other hot ticket shows in town last night so I guess the hipsters were scattered. Graig has his own review of the show here.

It was also nice to be able to bust out my camera again for some photos, though the Horseshoe’s drably unchanging lighting didn’t make for really interesting photo ops.

The Wrens show at the Horseshoe has been confirmed for February 7th, not the 6th as I’d initially said. Rotate This already has tickets – $8.50.

The Jayhawks and Josh Rouse will be playing the Phoenix on January 20. The Jayhawks kicked ass opening for Lucinda Williams back in October, a full set will be even better. I think this will be thir first headlining show in T.O. in a long, long time. Can’t wait. Tickets are $17.50, on sale next Friday.

Congratulations to Fountains Of Wayne for the “Best New Artist” Grammy nomination. It only took them seven years and three major-label albums for the powers that be to acknowledge they exist. And in case you didn’t notice, there’s a big “Sarcasm” light flashing on and off above my head right now. Dumbasses. The Grammy people, not you. I would never call my readers dumbasses.

Radio.Plus has scads of downloads – legal and supplied by the artist, no less – of songs performed on John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 radio show over the last few years. Some tracks are actually taken from the John Peel session, others are the album versions of the songs. Either way, there’s lots of good stuff here.

A neat selection of music videos available online at Domino Records. See those Pavement videos that MuchMusic won’t touch with a ten-foot pole anymore. Link from the newly dressed-up for the holidays Slatch.

Blundership Of The Ring – Peter Jackson acknowledges and explains where and why they goofed in making The Lord Of The Rings.

np – Wilco / A.M.

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