The first thing that occurred to me when I stepped in the Horseshoe tonight was, “Shit, I forgot my earplugs”. Because I did. And since Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand aren’t really known for their gentle acoustic lullabies, it was off to the washroom to snag some toilet paper to cram in my ears. That stuff actually works pretty well, to be honest. I was also sorry that the Leafs game didn’t make it into overtime, because that would have allowed me to miss more of Anagram’s set. I’d seen them before so I pretty much knew what to expect, but the big Scotsman behind me put it best: “Please stop. For the love of God, stop”. Nuff said.

The hype around Franz Ferdinand is pretty big right now, but to call them this year’s Strokes is unfair and inaccurate. One, they sound nothing like The Strokes – instead of ripping off 70s NYC punk bands, they crib from a lot of 80s NYC post-punk bands. I was hearing Talking Heads and Blondie, as well as some Gang Of Four. Secondly, I don’t think they’ve got the same commercial potential as The Strokes. Note that this is no comment on their music, as I don’t really like The Strokes, but FF are considerably less accessible. Jagged guitars, four-on-the-floor disco drums-and-bass, jerky vocals with the right balance of tunefulness and abrasion don’t go down too easy with the suburban kids. And no bridges stolen from Tom Petty. That certainly doesn’t mean that they can’t kick some ass amongst the indie kids, though. The ‘Shoe was sold out and packed with hipsters and the curious but the crowd was surprisingly restrained. There was some dancing and enthusiastic applause, but I didn’t get the feeling that people were having their worlds spun around. Could be because with these buzz bands, the crowd will be evenly split between the zealous, the curious and the skeptical, and there’s little chance they’ll win them all over. Whatever it was, it wasn’t because of a lack of effort on the band’s part – FF played a highly energetic albeit short set (one hour including encore, but understandable since they have but one album), displaying some impressive stage presence for such a young band. There was just the right amount of in-your-face confrontational attitude mixed in with their eagerness to impress. These guys are pretty good. Not life-changing, but definitely deserving of some attention. And, of course, photos here.

I was checking out the Canadian Music Week schedule for next weekend, and to my surprise there’s actually a few shows that look interesting. Friday night at the 360 is the Boompa Records showcase, featuring The Salteens, Sekiden, Girl Nobody, Kevin Kane, Natasha Thirsk, Billy & The Lost Boys and Reverie Sound Revue. Some of this bill will also be playing on Sunday afternoon at the same venue. On Saturday night at Healeys, you’ve got Endearing Records’ showcase – I went to this last year, and it was a pretty good time. This year’s lineup has The Meligrove Band, The Heavy Blinkers, Aaron Booth, Novillero and The Waking Eyes. I may do that one or the Weewerk show the same night at Sneaky Dees. Acts on tap for that one are Jon-Rae Fletcher and The River, The Barmitzvah Brothers, Great Lake Swimmers, The Two-Minute Miracles, Elliott Brood and Singing Saw Shadow Show. If you think I’m linking to each of these bands individually, you’re nuts. However, each label page has info on the band and some samples.

After side projects with The Blake Babies and Some Girls, Juliana Hatfield is finally putting out another record under her own name. The self-produced In Exile Deo is out May 18.

Rounder has track previews from the whole of Sarah Harmer’s new record.

We’ve been asked to take part in a Smiths tribute night at the ElMo March 13, but the ridiculously short lead time and the fact that our drummer is in England till the end of the month will probably force us to decline. Which is both a shame and a relief. A shame because those tribute nights are fun, but a relief because I won’t have to learn how to play “Bigmouth Strikes Again”. I have the tab and could conceivably learn the parts, but my right hand simply doesn’t move that fast. But at least its gotten me to dust off my Smiths CDs, which I haven’t played in ages.

Gotta say though, I don’t understand why everyone’s getting so hot and bothered about a new Morrissey record. Sure, he hasn’t done one in seven years, but he hasn’t made a decent one in ten (Vauxhall And I). I suppose hope springs eternal for the daffodil-wielding, but I’m one of those who thinks he really needed Marr to make interesting music and its been a slow decline since Strangeways.

np – The Smiths / The Queen Is Dead

It’s been brought to my attention this weekend that I may be packing a few extra pounds lately. First, my friend Will whom I haven’t seen since last summer commented on my waistline, and then yesterday the first thing my mom says to me when I walk in the door is, “You’re fat!” (the second is, “Your hair looks awful!” Thanks, mom). For the record, I am not fat and my hair doesn’t look awful. BUT, as mothers know best, I could stand to shed some of the winter hibernation reserves and get a bit of a maintenance trim on the ‘do. So, it’s time for some tweaks to the diet. There’ll be no dramatic tossing out of foodstuffs or anything like that, but it’s time to pay some attention to what I eat. I’ve always had a really fast metabolism that kept me thin (excessively so in high school), but I don’t think I can count on that as much as I’m closer to 30 than 20, and my diet has been loading up on the carbs and whatnot that everyone else is now shunning (jokes about the Fatkins diet are done, now). Combine this with a sedentary winter lifestyle and… I had though that once Spring rolled around and I was back on my bike, that’d be that but I suspect I’m going to have to be a little more conscious of my eating habits.

So with this grand revelation, the question is where to start? It’s times like this I need to stop and ask myself, W.W.B.M.D? What would Bob Mould do? Bob has been on a self-improvement kick (read Transformer pt 1 and Transformer pt 2) and has posted his own diet and routine. As good a place as any to start educating myself, I think. I find it ironic that he says “Avoid most white foods… Sugar… not so good”. Bob is being too hard on himself. Copper Blue was an amazing record.

Universal Music has a couple of tracks from the new Sarah Harmer album available to preview. All Of Our Names is out March 9. And not to be shallow or anything, but my compliments to whoever took the publicity photos for the new record. She looks fantastic.

It’s a slow Monday, but at least it’s sunny and warm (for February), so there’s no complaining here.

np – American Music Club / Everclear

Just for kicks, Sun Media has ranked their 25 best TV shows ever as well as their 25 worst TV shows ever. I think it’s a little early to call Curb Your Enthusiasm one of the best ever, let alone rank it ahead of Cheers, and I wonder is someone really objectively tried to compare Twin Peaks with Sesame Street… “Yeah, okay we’ve got Oscar the Grouch on one hand, but he’s got nothing on the dancing backwards-talking midget”.

And what a task it must have been to come up with the worst list, considering that such a high percentage of new shows every season are suck dreck. They’d almost need two lists – worst shows ever that lasted more than a half-dozen episodes and those that didn’t. Manimal! Har har. Anyone else remember Automan? Man, TV Tome has more info on crap television than shoud ever be compiled in one place. And finally, while I’m disappointed that the genius of Sledge Hammer! wasn’t recognized for being genius, I suppose I should be thankful that it didn’t make the naughty list, either. I loved that show, I really did. Though I can’t explain why. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing”. Gold, pure gold. Whither David Rasche?

I assume everyone’s heard about the story of 80s band The Alarm charting with a new single while pretending to be a new, young band called the Poppyfields. Alarm-ist Mike Peters says the stunt was intended to prove that “there’s so much music that gets played based on image”. Well, uh, yeah. Did anyone ever say differently? While clever, isn’t that kind of like jumping into a lake to prove that it’s wet? We already knew that.

Grab a couple of excellent-sounding Cardigans live shows from last year. Link from Largehearted Boy.

np – The Band / Music From Big Pink

American Music Club have given their website a shiny new makeover. They’ve also released details of a new compilation of singles, demos and b-sides cleverly titled 1984-1995 coming out March 1. It’s only available on their website and at shows and is going to be a very limited edition. I think there’s enough material on it that I don’t have to make a purchase worthwhile. They’re doing a small US tour in March that’s hitting major cities only, but will hopefully be touring the new record a little more throughly. I’m still remembering how amazing Mark Eitzel’s way too short set opening for Low a few years ago was. I get tingly at the notion of a full AMC show. Tingly.

Six By Seven have pushed back the release of their new album as they’ve gotten Dave Fridmann of Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev fame (amongst countless others) to mix the record. Fridmann worked with the band previously, remixing “Candlelight” for the EP of the same name. That single also had another Fridmann connection, featuring a cover of Mercury Rev’s “Young Man’s Stride”. Which, I might add, I have been desperately seeking for some time now. If you’ve got it…

Of The Record has posted mp3s of a Pernice Brothers show in London at the Borderline. Exact date unknown, but it’s from just before the release of The World Won’t End. Plus: Sound quality is really good. Minus: No “7:30”. There’s also a recent Quasi show up for grabs.

Stolen Wine Social indie pop night in Toronto this PM. I want to start a pool as to how many Belle & Sebastian songs they play. Submit your guesses in increments of 10.

Finally, some confirmation of something I’ve suspected for a while now – The writers of 24 have no idea what they’re doing. This comforts me for some reason.

Some of the funniest shit ever – Zug.com decides to try some Viagra. From Stereogum.

np – Mojave 3 / Spoon And Rafter

Holy shit, major technical difficulties on the part of my webhosting yesterday. I was down far more than I was up, unfortunately. Obviously I’m not very happy with it, but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt as they’ve been pretty much rock-solid for me for the year and a half I’ve been with them. They told me they had a hardware problem, apologized profusely and things seem to be back up to snuff now, though.

Release dates for Rachel Goswell’s (Mojave 3) solo record Waves Are Universal and the lead-up EP The Sleep Shelter are confirmed. The short-player comes out April 26 and the full-length May 17, both on 4AD. These dates are for the UK, there’s no word of a domestic North American release yet. Also, the second North American tour in support of Spoon And Rafter, which was supposed to happen this month, has been put on ice but the band reassures the faithful that this is not an ill omen about the future of the band – they will be releasing a fifth album on 4AD.

The Cultural Gutter is a new site run by a few Toronto columnists about the “geeky triumvirate of science-fiction, comics and videogames”. eye did a piece on them and their site launch this week, and not just because they’re eye columnists. Okay, maybe that’s the only reason.

I was listening to Catherine Wheel’s Adam And Eve last night for the first time in ages. Man, what a great record – I listened to it constantly in fourth year university. Such a shame that after the uneven follow-up Wishville, they just went on indifferent hiatus. The website hasn’t been updated in four years. Alas.

Not much going on today. I’m going to take a nap.

np – Ivy / Realistic