Goldest EggIf there’s a rule that bands are supposed to mellow and get more introspective as they age, no one told Sunderland, England’s Futureheads. After briefly making Newcastle the next epicentre of Brit-rock with their 2004 self-titled debut – Maximo Park and Field Music would emerge from the same scene – the quartet would release two more records of their distinctive, harmony-laden jerky New Wave with less success than their debut, some complaining that the breakneck rhythms and energy that made The Futureheads so infectious were lacking on the follow-ups.

I can’t comment on the veracity of those comments, as I don’t think I heard either News & Tributes or This Is Not The World though I did see them on tour for the former in Summer of 2006, and they certainly had as much energy as I could have expected. And having made the acquaintance of their newest record The Chaos – out today – I think I can say that if the last couple records were indeed a bit soft, then this can be considered a return to form as sonically, it’s pretty much monolithic. The four-part harmonies, with their clipped phrasing and sharp accents, are still exceptionally tight and as far from a barber shop quartet as you can get and the guitars, if aptly described as “wiry” circa their debut are now akin to electrical transmission lines in girth. Coupled with songs that are maybe a notch or two less immediate than their earlier material but still eminently catchy and performed at a pace that only a bona fide speed freak would call anything but barrelling, The Chaos has all the manic energy promised by its title, encapsulated in compact 3-minute pop packages. Some more dynamics – or just an opportunity to catch one’s breath – over the course of the record would have been welcome, but there’ll be time enough for that when they’re older.

The Futureheads are kicking off a North American tour tonight in New York and will be rolling through Toronto on June 10 for date at the Mod Club. Advance tickets are $18.50 in advance but courtesy of Goldest Egg, i’ve got a pair of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to have a Futurehead” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and get that in to me before midnight, June 7.

Futurehead guitarist Ross Millard talks to Spinner about some of the political themes that have worked their way into the new record.

MP3: The Futureheads – “Struck Dumb”
Video: The Futureheads – “Heartbeat Song”
Stream: The Futureheads / The Chaos
MySpace: The Futureheads

Drowned In Sound reports the new Manic Street Preachers record – the one Nicky Wire compared to Aerosmith’s Pump – will be entitled Postcards From A Young Man and be out in the UK on September 20. Was not expecting new MSP so soon; very happy.

Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes talks to Billboard about some of the ideas she’s kicking around for album number three, including working with Beck.

aux.tv have premiered a new video from Vampire Weekend, who are at the Molson Amphitheatre on September 7.

Video: Vampire Weekend – “Holiday”

Flagpole and The Daily Record have interviews with The Hold Steady while NPR has the band in for a World Cafe session. There’s an MP3 now available to download from Heaven Is Whenever, which they’ll be performing at the Kool Haus on July 17.

MP3: The Hold Steady – “Hurricane J”

Chart talked to LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy before their show in Toronto last week. The Vancouver Sun and The New York Times also have interviews.

The National’s Aaron Dessner talks to The Boston Herald. They’re at Massey Hall next week on June 8 and 9.

The Guardian chats with Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste.

NYC Taper has a recording of Holly Miranda’s homecoming show in New York City last week available to share while Aux.tv has a video session recorded on the University of Toronto campus which includes a cover of Sparklehorse’s “Hundreds Of Sparrows”. If one good thing comes out of the passing of Mark Linkous, let it be more and more beautiful Sparklehorse covers. The Sydney Morning Herald also has an interview with Ms Miranda.

Uncensored has an extensive video interview with Nicole Atkins.

The Times-Union profiles Phantogram.

NPR talks to Josh Ritter and premieres the new video from So The World Runs Away.

Video: Josh Ritter – “The Curse”

Chart, The Windsor Star, Chart, The Colorado Springs Independent and NOW profile Broken Bells, in town at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre tomorrow night.

The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle gets sombre with The Georgia Straight.

NPR is streaming Blitzen Trapper’s new album Destroyer Of The Void in advance of its release next week. Learn all the words and sing along when they play the Opera House on August 3.

Stream: Blitzen Trapper / Destroyer Of The Void

The Brother Kite’s Isolation has finally been granted a release date – look for the CD on September 14 and a vinyl edition to follow in November. Preview a few tracks at their website and count the days.

Before playing the Horseshoe that evening, tUnE-yArDs will do an in-store at Soundscpaes on June 13 at 3PM in the afternoon, perfect for those – like myself – who are curious but not ready to commit an evening to see her.

MP3: tUnE-yArDs – “Sunlight”
Video: tUnE-yArDs – “Real Live Flesh”

Fresh off opening up for Sharon Jones at the Sound Academy last week, UK funk-soul brothers The Heavy will play a free show at Harbourfront Centre on July 9 at 8PM as part of this year’s edition of Beats, Breaks & Culture.

MP3: The Heavy – “Colleen”

Langhorne Slim, who was great supporting Drive-By Truckers back in April has his own date at the Horseshoe on July 21, tickets $12.50 in advance.

MP3: Langhorne Slim – “I Love You But Goodbye”

It’s being billed as “Disco Lemonade”, but other appropriate names might be “You Got Your Sensitive Singer-Songwriter In My Dance Party”, “When Disparate Tours Collide”, “I Want The Venue No *I* Want The Venue” or just plain “WTF”. I speak of the show taking place at the Molson Amphitheatre on July 30, which will feature Keane, Robyn, Ingrid Michaelson, Kelis, Fran Healy, Dan Black and Far East Movement. Tickets range from $29.50 to $49.50, the show begins at 3:30PM – yes, that’s on a Friday – and it’s reasonably safe to say that everyone who goes to this show will see something they probably would never have gone to see otherwise. I actually saw this bill on Pollstar a couple weeks ago and assumed it was a typo. Silly me.

Video: Keane – “Clear Skies”
Video: Robyn – “With Every Heartbeat”
Video: Ingrid Michaelson – “The Way I Am”
Video: Kelis – “Milkshake”
Video: Travis – “Why Does It Always Rain On Me?”
Video: Dan Black – “Symphonies”
Video: Far East Movement – “Fetish”

Goth godfather Peter Murphy has a date at Lee’s Palace on August 10, tickets $29.50 in advance.

Video: Peter Murphy – “Cuts You Up”

Mice Parade have a date at the El Mocambo on September 29.

Frank YangPeople seemed generally disappointed on Tuesday when I answered their queries of, “so what are you doing for your birthday?” with “having sushi, watching TV and editing photos”. Apparently the correct answer was some permutation of “getting loaded and causing shit” but fact was, I had been out a lot in the past few days and a quiet night at home getting caught up on whatever sounded like a great plan. It would have taken a lot to get me to abandon that plan.

Something like a last-minute, surprise show from Band Of Horses.

The band were in town, enjoying a day off from their tour supporting Pearl Jam in Buffalo the night before and doing press for their forthcoming album Infinite Arms when the opportunity arose to insert themselves into the weekly free Nu Music Nite series at the ‘Shoe. After the decision was made and thanks to the marvels of modern mobile and social technology, I got word of the show around 7:45PM, a decision that those two episodes of The Pacific would keep at least another night was made by 7:47PM and I was one of just a few people at the Horseshoe by 8:30PM when the doors opened. This guaranteed a front-row spot but also meant waiting through the other bands on the bill, an experience that’s not really worth recounting. Band Of Horses were due to start at or around 11:15PM and by 10:30 or so, coincidentally just about the time that people who’d opted to stay home and watch Lost would have been able to get in gear, the ‘Shoe was full to an extent befitting the specialness of the occasion.

I’d only seen Band Of Horses live twice before, circa their debut Everything All The Time at SxSW 2006 and again a few months later at Lee’s Palace. What I remembered most about the Lee’s show was that while the show sounded marvelous, it wasn’t the most energetic affair what with frontman Ben Bridwell spending most of the show seated at the pedal steel. Well with no steel guitar on hand this night – all of their equipment was begged and borrowed – Bridwell would have to stand on his own legs and this would have to be a more physically engaging show. To say the least. Bridwell and bandmates rolled out on stage around 11:30, greeted by a packed house – congratulations Toronto, you’re capable of hustling when you need to – and, after prefacing their set with the disclaimer of, “we never do this”, put on as tremendous a display of flying by the seat of your pants as you’ll ever see.

Understand that Band Of Horses, by indie rock standards, are getting pretty big – and with Infinite Arms as their major label debut, can probably expect to just get bigger – so performing in a small bar setting is probably a rare opportunity for them, and as far as cutting loose and having a good time goes, they didn’t squander it – it was hard to gauge who had the bigger grins on their faces, the audience or the band. Unequipped to properly recreate their more atmospheric side – as stated, Bridwell was steel-less and, after breaking a number of strings, more often than not guitar-less, and Ryan Monroe was on six-string duty rather than keyboards – they opted to indulge their more raucous side, which doesn’t get to rear its head on record all that often. And any concerns about Bridwell’s willingness to move around and play frontman were wholly unfounded – the man was all over the stage, singing to the audience, singing to the sky (or ceiling, whatever), and proving without a doubt that there was nothing wrong with his legs.

Unsurprisingly, a number of tunes from Infinite Arms were previewed and while some have fairly criticized the album as being overly soft around the edges, they certainly toughened them up this time out. A few more familiar songs from Cease To Begin and handful of well-chosen covers – Gram Parsons’ “Song For You” and head-spinning encore of The Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait” among them – filled out the hour-long set. They even thoughfully snuck in a “Happy birthday” into the set – ostensibly for drummer Creighton Barrett, but I just imagined it was for me. Not that they needed to – simply showing up and playing a fantastic set for my impromptu 35th birthday party was plenty. Though handing out the beer from their rider to the audience at show’s end was a nice touch. There should always be loot bags.

NOW, eye and Panic Manual all made it to the ‘Shoe in time for the show but the weeklies didn’t seem to have a great time, for some reason. Band Of Horses return for the show at the Toronto Island Concert on June 19 – expect them to play the “majestic” angle at that show. Infinite Arms is out on Tuesday.

Photos: Band Of Horses @ The Horseshoe – May 11, 2010
MP3: Band Of Horses – “Factory”
MP3: Band Of Horses – “No One’s Gonna Love You”
MP3: Band Of Horses – “Is There A Ghost”
MP3: Band Of Horses – “The Great Salt Lake”
MP3: Band Of Horses – “The Funeral”
Video: Band Of Horses – “NW Apartment”
Video: Band Of Horses – “Compliments”
Video: Band Of Horses – “No One’s Gonna Love You”
Video: Band Of Horses – “Is There A Ghost”
Video: Band Of Horses – “The Great Salt Lake”
Video: Band Of Horses – “The Funeral”
Stream: Band Of Horses / Infinite Arms
MySpace: Band Of Horses

Also playing Toronto Islands that day are Beach House; the DVD they made to accompany Teen Dream, comprising a video for each song on the album, is streaming this week at PitchforkTV.

Video: Beach House / Teen Dream

Spin investigates how Blitzen Trapper got their name. Their new record Destroyer Of The Void is out June 8 and they bring it to the Opera House on August 3.

Crooked Fingers have managed to fan-fund Reservoir Songs 2 in its entirety via Kickstarter, and as a thank-you, are offering an MP3 of the John Hartford cover. The 12″ EP will be out on July 6; a new Crooked Fingers full-length will follow later this year.

MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Gentle On My Mind”

NPR has a World Cafe session and Drowned In Sound an interview with She & Him. They’re at the Sound Academy on June 9.

Josh Ritter talks to Spinner about his new record So The World Runs Away.

Joanna Newsom trash talks some Lady Gaga in an interview with The Guardian, while her chat with The Quietus stays much more focused on Have One On Me. She’s also the cover girl on the current issue of Under The Radar; the piece isn’t online but Stereogum has a bit of a precis.

BrooklynVegan interviews Laura Marling.

Music Snobbery talks to Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons.

Sky Larkin have announced their sophomore album will be entitled Kaleide and be available in August; you can download a mini-EP consisting of the title track and a couple of b-sides from their website right now.

The Georgia Straight and Twin Cities Daily Planet profile Shout Out Louds.

For Folk’s Sake has an interview with Basia Bulat, who will be at the Phoenix on June 3.

Chart talks to Hannah Georgas.

Broken Social Scene is featured in Clash, Spinner and The Independent. They play the Toronto Islands on June 19.

Mick RockFor those of us who’ve become accustomed to the all-encompassing scale, splendour and chaos of that grandaddy of all club-level music festivals – that’s SxSW, in case you were wondering – It can be kind of fun to pick on the Toronto versions CMW/CMF and NXNE for, essentially, not being South-by. It’s not a fair comparison by any means, but it’s inevitable. We’ve had to check those darts and break out some laurels in recent years, however, as both fests have made significant improvements in terms of organization, public relations and most importantly, bookings. NxNE, in particular, has been wise in making use of the public space at Yonge-Dundas Square to get right in the faces of Toronto for the middle of June and make it feel like much more of a major city event, instead of one of many things going on in the Big Smoke at a given time. They started out with modestly interesting day shows but as of a couple years ago, began booking some of the biggest names of the fest there for shows that were completely open to the public. That is how you build good will.

And with the initial announcement of artists coming to town from June 17 to 20, they’ve really kind of outdone themselves. The big coup is clearly Iggy & The Stooges, who will play for free at Yonge-Dundas Square on the evening of June 19, and the punk legends set the tone for many of the other names announced yesterday, many of whom come from the big, loud and sloppy side of the tracks. Obviously the actual schedule is still a ways away, but some digging has revealed at least some of the when and where of some of the acts playing the festival – just to give you a taste of some of the tough choices that the Toronto club-hopper will have to make (besides the obvious one of Iggy vs Pavement/Broken Social Scene). These are not complete and are subject to change, but do come from legitimate sources.

Thursday, June 17 2010
X, Mudhoney @ Yonge-Dundas Square (free)
Warpaint, Free Energy, Elliott Brood @ The Horseshoe
The Besnard Lakes, Young Galaxy @ The Mod Club
HEALTH, Gold Panda, Indian Jewelry @ Sneaky Dee’s

Friday, June 18 2010
Sloan @ Yonge-Dundas Square (free)
Man… Or Astro-Man?, Mudhoney @ The Horseshoe
AA Bondy, Simone Felice, Avi Buffalo @ The Great Hall
Japandroids, Wavves @ Lee’s Palace
Inlets @ TBA

Saturday, June 19 2010
Iggy & The Stooges, Wavves @ Yonge-Dundas Square (free)
Quintron & Miss Pussycat, JEFF The Brotherhood @ The Garrison
Cold Cave, Avi Buffalo @ Lee’s Palace

Sunday, June 20 2010
De La Soul, Kid Sister, Phenomenal Handclap Band @ Yonge-Dundas Square (free)

And playing free shows at Yonge-Dundas at some point during the week will be The Raveonettes and Surfer Blood, while confirmed but still without a date or venue are Les Savvy Fav, Thee Oh Sees, The Soft Pack and The Strange Boys, amongst many, many others. And these are just the “bigger” names – by June, surely there’ll be a whole new batch of buzz bands to complain about being booked into undersized venues. Such is the joy of NXNE. But at least it will be warm.

Elsewhere and/or elsewhen. Rae Spoon has just released the thereisafire EP as a preview of his new record Love is A Hunter, due out in August. The EP is available to download for free and he will be at the Holy Oak in Toronto on Friday night, April 16, for a show.

MP3: Rae Spoon – “Come On Forest Fire” (CPI Remix)
MP3: Rae Spoon – “There Is A Light”
ZIP: Rae Spoon / thereisafire

Her time as a Decemberist at an end, at least for now, Shara Worden is returning to work as My Brightest Diamond and will be at the El Mocambo on May 4, presumably to showcase material from the follow-up to 2008′s A Thousand Shark’s Teeth. Tickets for that show are $10.50 in advance.

MP3: My Brightest Diamond – “Inside A Boy”
MP3: My Brightest Diamond – “The Diamond”

Local heroes-in-waiting Zeus have set a date at the Mod Club for May 27. Tickets for that will be $12 in advance.

MP3: Zeus – “Marching Through Your Head”

Blitzen Trapper have added a Toronto date to the end of their North American tour in support of their new record Destroyer Of The Void, due out June 8. Look for them on August 3 at the Opera House, accompanied by Avi Buffalo who – with their two NxNE shows – are going to be hanging around Toronto a lot this Summer.

MP3: Blitzen Trapper – “Heaven & Earth”
MP3: Avi Buffalo – “Remember Last Time”
MP3: Avi Buffalo – “What’s In It For?”

Dan Snaith of Caribou talks to Chart about new album Swim, out April 20. Caribou play the Phoenix on May 3.

MySpace Transmissions has a watchable/listenable/downloadable session with Broken Bells. They are at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on June 2.

A second MP3 from The National’s High Violet is now available. The record is out May 11. They play Massey Hall on June 8 and 9.

MP3: The National – “Afraid Of Everyone”

Filter gets to know She & Him; they have a sold-out show at The Phoenix on June 9.

BBC6 talks to Ryan Monroe of Band Of Horses about their new record Infinite Arms, from which they’re previewing another new track on their website. The record is in stores on May 18 and they play the Toronto Island Concert on June 19.

Mother Jones and Spinner talk to Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, who’ve just released a new video. Yeah, it’s weird.

Video: The Flaming Lips – “Powerless”

Josh Ritter previews his new record So Runs The World Away via Daytrotter session. The record is out May 4.

Le Blogotheque is hosting a Take-Away Show with Megafaun.

aux.tv Q&As Liz Powell from Land Of Talk, who also stopped in at Explore Music to perform a Big Star cover.

Video: Land Of Talk – “Thirteen” (live at Exploremusic)

Woodpigeon have a video for the title track of their new Spirehouse EP, which also appeared on Die Stadt Muzikanten. You can download the song for free in exchange for your email at Bandcamp.

Video: Woodpigeon – “Spirehouse”

OMG Blog has premiered a new video from Gentleman Reg for his cover of Stevie Nicks’ “Wild Heart” from his Heavy Head EP.

Video: Gentleman Reg – “Wild Heart”

Forest City Lovers have christened album number three as Carriage. Look for it around July.

Frank YangAs of Monday night, it had been four and a half years since I saw Spoon live and just over four years since I’d been to The Sound Academy (nee The Docks) for a show. One of these streaks I was anxious to break; the other I was not. To be fair, I only missed one of their Toronto shows – a 2008 appearance at the Kool Haus in support of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga – but apparently that was the one where they officially crossed over to “rock star” status. That last time at The Phoenix in November 2005, it felt like a show for Spoon fans – this time, at a room three times the size but just as full, it felt more like the show was simply the place to be that night. That’s not intended with any snarkiness, just an observation.

This tour saw the band bringing two others on tour with them – one who surely benefited from being shown off in front of such-sized audiences and another that probably could have packed a respectably-sized room all on their own. The former of these were The Strange Boys, who hailed from Austin, Texas and proudly carried on that city’s tradition of psychedelic-garage rock. Granted, they weren’t overly trippy, preferring focused pop structures over sprawling jams and weren’t above injecting some twang into their sound, but their roots and skill at said stylings were clear. A little more energy or stage presence wouldn’t have been unwelcome, but still a solid start to the evening from a band making their first visit to Canada.

Deerhunter, on the other hand, were probably responsible for drawing no small percentage of the audience, if not just for themselves then for tilting the decision of whether to see Spoon in one the city’s least-favoured venues into the “yea” column. Though their psychedelic/shoegazing/pop affinities would make them seem the sort of thing I’d really be into, I had not listened to Deerhunter much before and certainly hadn’t seen them live. And now I wish I had, because their set was pretty superb – musically, they were far more direct (read: less wall of noise) than I’d expected, but with enough bludgeoning volume and droning excursions to keep it sufficiently trippy and the show itself was livened up with Bradford Cox’s space cadet stage banter, an unexpected stage invasion from one of The Black Lips (or perhaps expected considering that before they began the song, Cox dedicated it to his fellow Atlantans) and another guest appearance from Spoon’s Britt Daniel, who took over on guitar from Cox while the gangly bandleader engaged in some on-stage shenanigans I couldn’t actually see from my angle – see the eye review for specifics. As far as their recorded works go, I’ve only really spent time with Microcastle – further recommendations are welcome.

I don’t, however, need any help getting acquainted with the collected works of Spoon, having followed them attentively since 2001′s Girls Can Tell, and if there’s a downside to their consistently excellent output over this decade – hell, century – it’s that it can cause one to take them for granted a bit. Some have criticized this year’s Transference as being less focused than its pop-friendly predecessor Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, I – for reasons I can’t quite articulate – prefer it. Both sides of the argument would have been perfectly happy with Monday night’s set list, then, as it opened with Transference’s sublime closer “Nobody Gets Me But You” and drew heavily from both records – seven tracks from each – while also hitting most of the essential notes from all the other Merge releases, even going as far back as 1997′s Soft Effects for the unexpected, “I Could See The Dude”.

In total, they ran through an impressive 25 songs over an hour and forty minutes, aptly showcasing the band’s unique sound and dynamic. Britt Daniel – he of the scratchy voice and stabby six-string – is front and centre, dancing around the stage in his herky-jerky manner as if pulled uncontrollably by his guitar but the contributions of his bandmates can’t be overstated, even if they seem perfectly happy to stay in the background. Eric Harvey’s keys provided the melodic underpinnings that allow Daniel’s guitar lines to wander while he impossibly tight and just funky enough rhythm section of Jim Eno and Rob Pope were omnipresent on this night – possibly because the Sound Academy’s acoustics leaned way towards the bassy. And don’t get me started on the sightlines – it’s a sad situation when you find yourself pining for the environs of the Kool Haus.

In my comments from that Phoenix show in 2005, I noted that ‘I will have to amend my one-line synopsis on Spoon live from “they put on a good show” to “they usually put on a good show, but sometimes they put on a GREAT show”. If Monday was a proper indication of how far they’ve progressed as a live act in the past half-decade, then their work on stage is almost on par with in the studio and I’ll have to update my notes to read, “they put on a great show” – no qualifiers.

Westword, NOW, CBC, The Quietus, The Toronto Star, The Chronicle Herald,NPR, The Toronto Sun and The San Francisco Chronicle have feature pieces on Spoon. Spin has excerpted this month’s feature piece that puts Britt Daniel in conversation with Ray Davies and New York Magazine talks to him about the art of the set list. Chart, The Globe & Mail and Exclaim have reviews of the show. The Fly profiles The Strange Boys.

Photos: Spoon, Deerhunter, The Strange Boys @ The Sound Academy – March 29, 2010
MP3: Spoon – “The Underdog”
MP3: Spoon – “I Turn My Camera On”
MP3: Spoon – “The Way We Get By”
MP3: Spoon – “This Book Is A Movie”
MP3: Spoon – “Mountain To Sound”
MP3: Spoon – “Chips & Dip”
MP3: Spoon – “Idiot Driver”
MP3: Deerhunter – “Wash Off”
MP3: Deerhunter – “Rainwater Cassette Exchange”
Video: Spoon – “Written In Reverse”
Video: Spoon – “The Underdog”
Video: Spoon – “Don’t You Evah”
Video: Spoon – “The Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine”
Video: Spoon – “I Turn My Camera On”
Video: Spoon – “Sister Jack”
Video: Spoon – “Jonathan Fisk”
Video: Spoon – “Small Stakes”
Video: Spoon – “Everything Hits At Once”
Video: Deerhunter – “Agoraphobia”
Video: Deerhunter – “Strange Lights”
Video: The Strange Boys – “Be Brave”
Video: The Strange Boys – “Woe Is You And Me”

The Line Of Best Fit and Montreal Gazette have interviews with Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater; The Gazette has also posted the full transcript of their interview. Shearwater play Lee’s Palace tomorrow night, April 1.

Also on the bill for that show are Wye Oak, who played a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR.

Daytrotter is featuring a session with Richard Buckner.

Paste reports that Tift Merritt will release a new record entitled See You On The Moon on June 1. The Fayetteville Observer has an interview with Merritt.

Pitchfork has details on Blitzen Trapper’s new album Destroyer Of The Void, due out June 8.

MP3: Blitzen Trapper – “Heaven & Earth”

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco is interviewed by The Miami Herald, Palm Beach Pulse and The Weekender while Le Blogotheque has a Take-Away Show with the band.

The Fly talks to The National frontman Matt Berninger about their new album High Violet, out May 11. They play Massey Hall on June 8 and 9.

LAist and The Dallas Observer chat with Ted Leo, who’s released a new video from The Brutalist Bricks. A Toronto show has also finally been announced – Ted and the Pharmacists will be at Lee’s Palace on June 26, tickets $15.

Video: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “The Mighty Sparrow”

Spinner, Prefix and Blurt have features on the Drive-By Truckers, who bring their new album The Big To-Do to Lee’s Palace for two nights next week, April 6 and 7.

Their respective members have moved on to new projects for the time being, but that hasn’t stopped Monsters Of Folk from releasing a new video from their self-titled album.

Video: Monsters Of Folk – “Dear God”

Crawdaddy profiles John Vanderslice.

NPR is streaming the entirety of Joanna Newsom’s concert in Washington DC last week.

Under The Radar talks to School Of Seven Bells’ Alejandra Deheza about their new album Disconnect From Desire. She says it will be out this Spring; it now being Spring, I am less confident than her about this point – it will be out this year, though.

Phantogram have released a new video from Eyelid Movies. If you’ve been having trouble finding in stores in Canada, there’s a reason – apparently it’s not out here until April 6, their deal with Barsuk not counting north of the 49th? Don’t know, but it’s worth seeking out wherever you have to go to do it. Playtonic Dialogues has an interview.

Video: Phantogram – “Mouthful Of Diamonds”

Portland atmospheric electronicist Eluvium will be at the Drake on May 22 in support of his new album Similes; tickets $12 in advance.

MP3: Eluvium – “The Motion Makes Me Last”

tUnE-yArDs brings her much-feted (but not really understood by me) debut BiRd-BrAiNs to the Horseshoe on June 13 – tickets $12 in advance. I tried, really I did.

MP3: tUnE-yArDs – “Sunlight”
Video: tUnE-yArDs – “Real Live Flesh”

Blurt, Pitchfork and Paul Westerberg – via The New York Times – eulogize Alex Chilton of Big Star.

Frank YangWould Robin Pecknold have a guitar strap?

That was really the only burning question in my mind going into Tuesday night’s Fleet Foxes show at Massey Hall in Toronto. The initial one when this show was first announced back in April – could this band who didn’t even play to a full house at the El Mocambo last April in support of Blitzen Trapper now fill a venue as large and storied (to say nothing of expensive) as Massey Hall – was answered by the fact that the 2750-seat hall was completely and utterly sold out, their appeal apparently transcending demographic and generation and drawing young and old, hippies and hipsters, businessmen and alt.bros.

So really, whether or not the 23-year old frontman still preferred to perform seated or if he would deign to stand up and give his fans a good look at him was the only unknown. That, and would they be as good as everyone obviously expected they would be. Certainly, based on the adulation their 2008 self-titled debut received, topping numerous year-end lists, expectations were high. For myself, I didn’t love the record as much as many though it was impossible to not be impressed by the talent and craft that went into it – I just found it was a record I respected more than I adored. Still, the opportunity to see them return to town not as buzzy up-and-comers but bona fide stars was not one I wanted to pass up.

Support on this tour seemed a bit unusual to me, coming in the form of Swedish psychedelic merchants Dungen. My only previous encounter with them was their 2005 album Ta Det Lugnt and re-reading my review, I didn’t appear to be too taken with them. I suspect I’d have had a different opinion if I’d seen them live, however, as their set was a pretty impressive musical slap upside the head. It did start out as the sort of pastoral, folkish-psychedelia I’d remembered but as their set went on, it got more intense and jammed-out like a delayed-effect acid trip. By the end of their 40 minutes, I could fully understand why Fleet Foxes would later declare them to be their favourite band in the world. That was some heady stuff.

Playing a venue like Massey Hall is enough to unnerve any artist, but there was no sense of nervousness amongst Fleet Foxes when they finally ambled out to roaring applause that you’d normally expect for local heroes or the like. And it wasn’t due to a lack of appreciation for the history of the stage on which they stood – the Neil Young between-set mix and historical facts about the building rattled off by Pecknold (courtesy Wikipedia) were proof of that. It was simply confidence that not only did they belong on that stage, but that they’d own it.

And from the opening a capella of “Sun Giant”, they did just that. Their performance was nothing short of amazing, with their pristine four-part harmonies filling every nook and cranny of Massey’s beautiful acoustics. Hearing them sing, it wasn’t a question of whether they could play the room but whether they should ever be allowed to play anywhere else. Their set covered almost their entire recorded output as well as three new songs, one of which featured some unexpected but effective synth textures. Between songs, Pecknold – who was indeed performing upright – made casual and entertaining banter with the audience though it was drummer J Tillman who provided the most comic relief. Again, if these guys were at all nervous about the show, they were hiding it well.

Highlights were difficult to pick out – they pretty much dazzled for the full hour forty-five – but when Pecknold started the encore at the edge of the stage, unplugged and unmiked, to sing traditional folk song “Katie Cruel”, that was easily a moment for the ages. He doesn’t have the biggest voice, necessarily, but given the space and the dead silent audience, it sounded stunning. And while they surely intended to finish with “Blue Ridge Mountains”, as good a note as any to go out on, Toronto – who had waited a long time for them to return – refused to let go and a humbled and appreciative Pecknold came out again for a solo reading of “Meadowlark”. I still can’t say as though I love Fleet Foxes – the whys of that I’m not entirely clear on either – but I am awed by them and their abilities. These are some ungodly talented boys.

Chart, eye and NOW also have reviews of the show, and The Montreal Mirror and The Oakland Press have interviews. Daytrotter recently trotted out a session with Dungen.

Photos: Fleet Foxes, Dungen @ Massey Hall – August 4, 2009
MP3: Fleet Foxes – “Mykonos”
MP3: Fleet Foxes – “White Winter Hymnal”
MP3: Dungen – “Satt Att Se”
Video: Fleet Foxes – “Mykonos”
Video: Fleet Foxes – “He Doesn’t Know Why”
Video: Dungen – “Familj”
Video: Dungen – “Festival”
Video: Dungen – “Panda”
Video: Dungen – “Stadsvandringar”
Video: Dungen – “Solen stiger upp”
MySpace: Dungen

Blitzen Trapper have released an MP3 to go with the new video they rolled out from Furr a couple weeks ago. On Milwaukee has an interview.

MP3: Blitzen Trapper – “Black River Killer”
Video: Blitzen Trapper – “Black River Killer”

NPR Wilco is streaming a World Cafe session with Wilco and American Songwriter has finished counting down their top twenty Jeff Tweedy compositions of all-time. Pre-sale for Wilco’s October 14 show at Massey Hall go on sale next Wednesday at 10AM via Front Gate (the show’s not listed yet) and public on-sale is next Friday at 10AM. Oh, and if you’re looking for Wilco and Wilco-related downloads a-plenty, Owl & Bear is your new best friend.

Austin360 talks to M Ward, who will be at Massey Hall on November 2 as part of the Monsters Of Folk. Their self-titled debut album is out September 22.

And fellow Monster Of Folk Jim James this week released his debut solo effort as Yim Yames, the George Harrison tribute EP Tribute To. Paste, The New York Times and The Courier-Journal have interviews with James/Yames and the EP is streaming at Spinner.

Stream: Yim Yames / Tribute To

JamBands talks to Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers. Hood is also featured solo in a Daytrotter session.

The Courier-Journal and Metromix talk to Josh Ritter.

NPR is streaming Neko Case’s set at the Newport Folk Festival last weekend. The Edmonton Journal and SEE also have interviews.

Pitchfork reports that Devendra Banhart’s major-label debut What We Will Be is due out in October.

Soundproof has a quick feature on Dog Day.

The Deadbolt has an interview with Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers.

Black Cab Sessions takes Woodpigeon for a ride.