Friday, January 21st, 2005

Against The Tide

I owe Mystery & Misery a big heapum thanks for introducing me to The Radio Dept (XL Recordings artist page). I was hankering for something new and his post on these Swedes was just what the doctor ordered. To my ears, they’re the perfect mix of Belle & Sebastian folksy tweeness, eclectic Boo Radleys-ish pop, the gentle electronic flourishes of Trembling Blue Stars and a healthy dollop of Jesus & Mary Chain-approved fuzztones – a perfect mix of grit and delicacy.

It’s like being wrapped in a warm, static-y blanket with soft boy-girl vocals. Bassist Lisa Carlberg only takes lead vocals on one track, but hopefully there’ll be more of her on future recordings. Despite being wonderfully poppy, it took a little time for it to properly sink into my consciousness but now it’s definitely in heavy rotation – highly recommended. Their debut, Lesser Matters, came out in North America last November and they released the This Past Week EP consisting of five all-new songs, uh, this past week. I expect to have a helluva time getting a copy.

I’m not the only one who’s discovered the joys of The Radio Dept., either – Bradley’s Almanac has just twigged onto them and Bob Mould describes one of their b-sides, “You And Me Then”, as “one of the most haunting pieces of music I’ve heard in a while” – he’s got the track available to download from his site. If you want to hear more, check out Labrador Records for mp3s, streams and videos, or this BBC interview.

The Fiery Furnaces tell Billboard their master plan for 2005 – release as many albums as humanly possible.

The House Of Love message board recently conducted a brief interview with Guy Chadwick about the reunion and the new album Days Run Away, out February 28. Read it here, thanks to Joyce for the link.

That Donnas show at the ACC I mentioned yesterday on April 12? Don’t quote me, but it could be opening for U2… Interesting that the date has disappeared from Pollstar’s listings – mayhap someone in Camp Donna jumped the gun in announcing the dates? Conjecture! Hearsay! Shazam! I blame Tori Spelling, or “evil Donna”. Update: So all the press is saying that Kings of Leon are opening the U2 tour… so who’s at the ACC on April 12?

Watch Feist’s new video for “Inside & Out” – very stylish and sexy, a shame about the stream quality. If anyone finds a better one, let me know s’il vous plait. From Brooklynvegan.

Thanks to More Cowbell for bringing the Lawrence.com Turnpike to my attention – there’s a tremendous archive of video interviews and live performances with a slew of great artists, like Arcade Fire, The Shins, Spoon and Neko Case dating back over the past couple years. Great stuff.

Tonight’s Bright Eyes show is early to a ridiculous degree. Doors are at 5pm, Tilly & The Wall start things off at 5:30 and I expect the whole to-do to be over by 9/9:30. The curfew is on account of the fact that the Phoenix turns into a meat market discotheque later in the night, and they have to clear out all the sensitive and impressionable Conor-ites before the debauchery begins. But what this means, practically, is that even if I high-tail it outta work at 5 sharp, I will still probably not make it before things start (assuming they stick to schedule, which honestly is not likely). Never mind trying to get any dinner, either. Oh, and did I mention it’s ridiculously frigid out today? Yeah, that pretty much goes without saying.

Sympathies to Information Leafblower on the passing of his cat, Jarvis.

np – Trembling Blue Stars / Alive To Every Smile

By : Frank Yang at 9:17 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. travis says:

    Hey I like Radio Dept too. I also noticed it was cold out today. Let’s be friends.

    http://…/

  2. shaunananannanana says:

    hey, for all we know conor could be at the phoenix later in the night doing lines of coke off girls’ clevage or something! heh, see ya tonite.

  3. Frank says:

    hey, that’s what *I* was going to do after the show!

  4. bozairzere says:

    just wondering how much conor whatshisname is charging for tx up there. we gotta pay $30 to see jesse sykes open on the west. but i’d give that to see jesse.

  5. Frank says:

    I think tickets were $25 CDN after service charges. When Jesse Sykes played here last Fall, it was free! hahaha.

  6. karen says:

    Check out Labrador labelmates/fellow Swedes The Legends!

  7. Rachel says:

    But you promised you gave up coke, or at least, you weren’t doing any more lines unless it was off *my* cleavage. Liar. I believe Luna’s farewell show here in Big D is in an art museum. I thought that might appeal to you, Frank.

  8. Carla says:

    Hey The Radio Dept. appear to be labelmates with fellow Swedes Corduroy Utd. I’m digging the stuff though! Thanks for the heads up!

  9. Bob says:

    I don’t want to sound insensitive, but your sympathy comment to the Information Leafblower is as lame as his endless posts about the cat. Nothing personal, but let that be a lesson to bloggers everywhere. If you’re a single guy, the only thing gayer than having a cat is posting about it everyday. It’s a cat you had for a couple months, there are a million more where that came from. Get over it.

  10. Frank says:

    now how could that possibly sound insensitive?

    A friend is upset, I offer sympathies. End of story.

  11. nun says:

    hmm…

    lisa carlberg doesn´t play bass in the radio dept anymore… and the female vocals on "strange things will happen" belongs to elin alemered, the cover artist.

  12. Frank says:

    thanks for the update, nun. It’s hard to find any current information on them without an official website. And I should have checked that vocal credit, I just sort of assumed.