Rock, thy name is Ted Leo.

It was going to take something pretty fierce to keep me awake last night, and New Jersey’s favorite son (who is not named Bruce or Bon.. Jovi…) was able to get me worked up enough that I was again up till 2:30 AM and am now even more tired than I was a day ago, which is saying something. But enough about me.

First openers The Black Maria did nothing for me except prompt me to wonder, “is this that emo music the kids are going on about these days”? Overwrought vocal histrionics, heavy chugging guitars, blah blah blah. Billy Talent called – they want their snotty vocal affectations back. Gentlemen, your invitation to Edgefest is in the mail. Moving on.

Electrelane are a four-piece outfit from Brighton, England who were primarily an instrumental band but with their second album Power Out, have been writing more vocal pieces. Based on last night’s performance, their instrumentals are better. At their best, they had very cool Stereolab/Velvets/Krautrock thing going on with some interesting arrangements and dynamics, but when they brought in the vocals, they seemed to tense up and fall back on much simpler structures that ended up sounding unfinished and the vocals themselves weren’t very strong – think Nico (or think of what Nico sounds like to someone who doesn’t think Nico is much of a singer). They were at their best when they were more relaxed and just jamming songs out. But hey, it was their first time in Canada – maybe they were just nervous. We do that to people.

And then there was Ted. It was good to see that he had drawn a crowd exponentially larger than the one that showed up at the Rivoli last Spring (a show I wasn’t at, just to be clear). He has to be the hardest-sweating man in indie rock, because it wasn’t three numbers in before he was already drenched. Touring short a Pharmacist as a three-piece, Ted took full advantage of the extra stage space to rock out and proving he deserves his reputation as an amazing live performer. Playing material from Hearts Of Oak and Tyranny Of Distance as well as some new material, Leo was chatty and engaging and just seemed to be overjoyed at playing his music for the audience. I’m having trouble coming up with any descriptives that don’t overuse the adjective ‘rock’, so I’m not going to try. But yes, Ted Leo = rock. Only disappointment was that they were sold out of pins and t-shirts (the merch booth was being manned by Ted’s brother Chris Leo, formerly of The Lapse and The Van Pelt, who is apparently looking for a drummer and is willing to move to Canada…?) I had also thought that the Leo/Springsteen comparisons would extend beyond their Jersey roots and mean a 3-hour show, but a good hour-and-change at his intensity level was still plenty. In a word? Fantastic.

I’ve complained in the past that the Horseshoe relies on red stage lights almost exclusively, making it difficult to take photos that aren’t oversaturated with the one hue. Well it turns out they also have blue ones which are even worse for pics. The ones I took with the flash turned out well though – I don’t think it was possible to take a bad picture of Ted’s performance.

For more information about Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, visit your local library. Or read this profile in yesterday’s Globe & Mail.

Noam Chomsky has a blog. Who knew.

np – Sarah Harmer / All Of Our Names

As I said before, I don’t have the new Wilco album for you to listen to, but I do have the cover art for you to look at. So pretend you’re outside a record store with your nose pressed up against the window. It’s just like that. Trés élégant, non? I was hoping to see the boys decked out in Ghostbusters garb or something, but alas. Someone photoshop up me an alternate cover with Jeff Tweedy as Peter Venkman, s’il vous plait?

Update: Five Seventeen delivers. Check it out. I think we need to put the rest of the band in as well. Sigourney, however, can stay.

Concerts! This first one I’m very excited about – The Cardigans are at Lee’s Palace May 13. They haven’t been in town for many a year, and even longer since they’ve been in such a small venue, if ever. What a lovely late birthday present for me. Swedes! My Morning Jacket are at the Opera House May 28 (tickets $20), and Muse are at the Mod Club May 19. I actually don’t care so much about Muse, which is to say I don’t care at all, but that info might be of interest to someone.

After her show at the ElMo tonight, Nellie McKay will be hanging around the city for another day to do an in-store performance and signing at Sam’s on Yonge St. I’d like to go, but alas the 4:30 start time doesn’t gel to well with my work hours. Here’s a piece on Nellie from JAM!.

eye has a quick Q&A with The Decemberists, who are at the Horseshoe this Monday.

Old Enough To Know Better is Merge Records’ 15th anniversary triple-CD compilation. Click here to see the tracklisting.

Paco, the side project of Ivy’s Andy Chase and Dominique Durand, have completed a new record. This Is Where We Live will be out May 18 on Chase’s own Unfiltered Records label.

Guelph cartoonist Seth is designing The Complete Peanuts, which will compile every strip Charles Schulz ever drew into a 25-volume set spread out over 12 years. eye talked to Seth about the work and the sociological evolution of the strip. I think.

The show last night went pretty well – certainly a decent crowd for a wet Wednesday night. It turned out to be a pretty solid night of music, too. Mnemosyne opened things off with some fine instrumental shoegaze/space rock, then we were up next. With a couple hiccups, we played pretty well, I thought, though the tightness and confidence of a band that plays out more than once every five months still eludes us. Apparently we were too quiet, which is odd because it sounded pretty damn loud onstage. Anyway. Friday Morning’s Regret came out after us and impressed me again with their polished set of country-rocking tunes. Their time spent touring out west has really made them a solid live act and the vocal harmonies were particularly impressive. I really enjoyed the opportunity to play with them. I missed League Champs’ set on account of having to haul all the gear back to the rehearsal space, so I can’t comment on the finale of the evening, but I like to think that everyone who came out had a good time and heard some good music. Many thanks to Garry for taking these pics of our set.

The biggest problem with shows on weeknights isn’t getting people out, it’s the morning after at work. Even though it was an early night, relatively speaking, I am still completely spent. When that adrenaline kick wears off, I crash pretty hard, I guess. I hope I can get some energy back in time for Ted Leo tonight – write me a prescription for rock.

np – Jale / So Wound

Elvis Costello has gotten a deal to write a couple books in 2005. The first will be a “series of intimate narrative chapters taking their cue from the styles, themes and characters found in a number of Costello’s lyrics,” and the second is “work of comic philosophy” entitled “How to Play the Guitar, Sing Loudly and Impress Girls … or Boys.” If only I’d had the latter on my bedstand when I was growing up. My experience has been that great songwriters do not necessarily make great authors – more often, they make authors whose work reads like their songs but without the ripping guitar solos, which tends to be kinda ‘bleh’. But – if anyone is going to be the exception to the rule, ol’ Declan is as good a candidate as anyone. Unless they turn out to be romance novels devoted to Diana Krall. No one needs that. Either way, at least I know what I’m getting Five Seventeen, the world’s #1 Elvis Costello fan, for his next couple birthdays!

More CBC love – Just Concerts is a massive, ginormous archive of complete concerts in both audio and video formats. I can’t even begin to get into who they’ve got on tap, but if you’ve never been you absolutely owe it to yourself to go digging through the vaults.

The website for Grand Theft Parsons is up and they’ve got a trailer. It actually looks alright. From Burned By The Sun.

Flak considers Preston School Of Industry’s Monsoon in the context of other sidemen gone solo. I can’t tell if they’re taking a dig at Tanya Donelly or not, but if they are… oh, boy is someone gonna pay. PSOI are at the ‘Shoe next Thursday. From LHB.

Lists, lists, everywhere a list. Stylus has compiled their Top 200 records of all time but excluded the first 100 as being too predictable. A neat idea, it makes for a much more interesting read. Kinda reminds me when I ran a hockey pool and to mix things up a bit, eliminated the top, like, 20 scorers from the year before from eligibility, leaving only the lesser lights of the NHL to duke it out. Nothing like spending a season pulling for the guy on the second penalty-kill unit and hoping he doesn’t get sent down to the minors, let me tell you. Go Paul Ranheim!

And speaking of hockey, the Leafs disgust me. They really do.

Tonight will be our first proper show in seven months or so. These seasonal layoffs between gigs have simply got to stop.

np – Galaxie 500 / This Is Our Music

Traffic to my site has gone up by something on the order of 100000% (give or take an order of magnitude) due to Google hits from people looking for the leaked A Ghost Is Born, and by simply typing those words right there, I’ve probably ensured that I’ll be getting twice as much traffic on the topic henceforth. I will refrain from chastising the lot of you for trying to download the record and give you the benefit of the doubt that you’d rush out and buy the record on June 8 to support the artist, so deserving of your hard-earned dollars. Anyway, while you won’t now, nor in the future, find the album to download here, I can give you this – word is that Wilco will be streaming the album off their website starting April 1.

This isn’t unprecedented – they made Yankee Hotel Foxtrot available to stream some eight or nine months prior to its release last time around. Of course, they were label-less at the time and no higher power was going to slap their wrists… Regardless, if true then everyone – even me – can bask in the glory of the new record in the week or so with a clear conscience. If you’re the sort to be bothered by your conscience on these matters, that is. In any case, if there will indeed be streamy Wilco goodness next month, I’ll let you know. And if it’s just a cruel April Fool’s joke, then I will weep along with you. And keep in mind, this has your standard ‘guy who knows a guy who knows a guy’ level of credibility, but what’s the internet for if not the spreading of totally unsubstantiated gossip?

I tried celebrating the release of Sarah Harmer’s new album a couple weeks ago but was foiled by the fact that it wasn’t actually released. So I’ll try again this week – All Of Our Names is out today, and to commemorate the event, a rare Weeping Tile tune. “South Of Me” was the first single from their sophomore (and final) record Valentino, and as is sometimes the fashion, they recorded a French version for the Quebec market, which I’m posting for your cross-cultural edification. It’s taken from a Warner Bros radio-only promo sampler. Also, a piece on the new record from JAM!. And Claire – if you think my obsession with Ms Harmer is unhealthy now, just wait until she’s in town next month! It’ll be stalker-iffic! Hahahahahaha… Oh man, they’re totally going to use that against me in court.

Weeping Tile – “Au Sud De Moi”

Ricky Brennan Jr of Wheat has started a blog for the band. Ricky’s been really good about keeping the mailing list informed as to Wheat happenings so hopefully he’ll update regularly. And offer some dirt on what it’s really like on the road with Liz Phair.

Good news – The New Year will be touring in June and July to support The End Is Near, out May 18. Bad news – they’re not coming to Toronto, and I know it’s not for lack of trying on the part of local promoters. Boo.

Two of the most quoted yet reviled voices of our time square off… Pitchfork interviews Ryan Adams. Interesting if for the sole fact that neither is nearly as asshole as they normally are, as though each is afraid of being the pot calling the kettle black. It’s almost surreal.

And speaking of the ‘Fork, they’ve got some details about a My Bloody Valentine box set which isn’t the mother lode the faitful are hoping for. Instead, you get four EPs from just before and just after Isn’t Anything – remastered, natch – and a second disc of unreleased material. I’ve already got about half the stuff on offer so it’s not sending me over the moon, but it’s promising that anything at all is happening on the MBV release front.

Batman Begins has a website. Just a teaser right now, but a good one.

Dawn Of The Dead beat out The Passion for top spot at the box office this weekend. I can’t remember the last time two films about dudes who come back from the dead squared off at the theatres. Freddy Vs Jason? I guess the zombies won out on account of their willingness to eat brains. Jesus just isn’t willing to do what it takes to win.

np – Old 97’s / Satellite Rides

I was in Vortex yesterday picking up a CD for my brother and as the clerk was ringing up the purchase, I was just scanning the back shelf.

Me: “Oh. Man.”

Clerk: “The Stax box set?”

Me: “Yeah. Gimme.”

I’ve never seen the Complete Stax-Volt Singles box set used, though I’ve been looking for sometime now. Seeing as how I’d just done my taxes the night before and am in line for a decent return (or an audit, I don’t really know what I’m doing), I was able to justify dropping the C-note on the 9-disc collection. That’s right, NINE. DISCS. That’s a lot of music – I’ve never needed to double-bag a music purchase before. According to AMG, it’s over 640 minutes (10 hours!) of music. I’m never going to be able to get through all of that, but it’ll be fun to try.

Information Leafblower has a rumour on the lineup for Lollapalooza 2004. It’s reported that it’ll be a 2-day event with day one reserved for the indie/alt scene and day two for unwashed dirty hippies, lineup so far as follows:

Day 1

Morrissey (headlining)

Sonic Youth

The Flaming Lips

Black Rebel Motorcyle Club

Day 2

The String Cheese Incident (headlining)

Gomez

The Polyphonic Spree

For the sake of rumour mongering, let’s assume there’s truth here. I’m still puzzled – firstly, as devoted as Moz’s fans are, I can’t believe there’d be enough of them to warrant putting him in the headlining slot for a touring festival, at least not one that’s doing the venues that Lollapalooza has done in the past. Maybe we’re talking about a much scaled down amphitheatre tour this year? But then if that’s the case, why two days? They must have a slew more bands they’re hoping to add to justify the logistics of such a thing. Curious. This may merit some watching.

Some more news on the Galaxie 500 double-DVD being released by Plexifilm. Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste (1987-1991) has gotten a June 29 release date and will feature “all their music videos, their only TV appearance, and an archive of over 40 songs performed live from seven concerts, including two unreleased songs. The deluxe booklet contains exclusive photos and a new interview with members Dean Wareham, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, conducted by Yo La Tengo’s James McNew”. Woo-hoo. Full tracklisting at Pitchfork.

Orange Twin has the video for “Never Believe”, the new single from Elf Power, on their website. Walking With The Beggar Boys is out April 6. Link from Largehearted Boy.

Also from LHB – a massive repository of TV show theme songs. Man, I never realized just how white the guy singing the theme from Diff’rent Strokes sounded. And am I the only one who now hears a very sexual undertone to the Charles In Charge song? That girl wants “Charles in charge of our days AND our nights”. I bet – that Scott Baio is tough to resist.

np – Stars / Heart