last.fmBefore there was Monsters Of Folk, the band, or Monsters Of Folk, the album, there was Monsters Of Folk, the tour. It was the tongue-in-cheek banner applied to the shows featuring Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Matt Ward of M Ward Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and unsurprisingly, found the three collaborating on stage as often as not.

One number that they’d lend their collective touches to was Bob Dylan’s “Girl From The North Country”, a live recording of which would find its way onto Dylan Covered, the September 2005 cover CD for Mojo magazine which featured a collection of Dylan covers. This track was credited to “M. Ward & Conor Oberst & Jim James” – I guess they hadn’t yet accepted their destiny to become the Voltron of folk. Which, I’m sure, was the original intended name for the project until the lawyers got involved.

Monsters Of Folk are on tour and will be at Massey Hall Monday night. Bob Dylan just released his Christmas album Christmas In The Heart and will be at the Memorial Auditorium in Kitchener this Saturday night, November 7.

The Lousiville Courier-Journal talks to the fourth Monster Of Folk – not officially involved with the original tour – Mike Mogis.

MP3: Monsters Of Folk – “Girl From The North Country”
Video: Bob Dylan – “Girl From The North Country”

Ingram BarssWhen it comes to rock music, there’s few things that can be said to be asking to fail more than the double album and the concept album. To the former, most artists have trouble coming up with enough quality material to pad out a conventional 10-song set and to the latter… well, I don’t think there’s any explanation needed there. And let’s not even get started on the double- concept album. So the fact that Joel Plaskett’s latest is a triple-album with a running theme should be a recipe for glorious catastrophe… and yet it’s not. Far from it, actually.

But let’s be clear – Three may be ambitious, but it doesn’t overreach. The only real “concept” at work is the number three, which applies to the number of CDs in the set, manifests itself in a number of song titles (“Pine, Pine, Pine”, “Run, Run, Run” for example) and crops up in the lyrics from time to time – hardly a rock opera. And all 27 songs could have easily fit on two compact discs, but that would have spoiled the fun. And besides the numeral three, fun is the prevailing theme of this set – proceedings are dominated by an easy, laid-back vibe that finds Plaskett knocking off the sort of genial, unpretentious roots-pop/rock that has earned him the mantle of one of this country’s most reliable songsmiths.

And that reliability applies across the entire set. By sticking to what he does best and keeping the delivery simple and straightforward, Plaskett manages the remarkable feat of not including a single standout clunker. They’re certainly not all classics – many drift by with just an amiable nod – but anything that does catch jump out and grab the ear does so because it’s exceptional, and there’s no shortage of those, particularly on disc two. Generally, these are the quieter, more thoughtful compositions – a fact that may mark Plaskett’s transition from rocker to balladeer complete, but one that should be celebrated. Unless you still light a candle nightly in hopes of a Thrush Hermit reunion, in which case I cannot help you.

Plaskett has just begun a cross-Canada tour that will place him at Massey Hall on May 23, and courtesy of Maple Music I have a pair of tickets to give away to the show, along with an autographed copy of Three. To get in on this, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Joel Plaskett” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the body, and get that to me by midnight, May 19.

There’s interviews with Plaskett about his reasonings behind crafting a triple-album at The Edmonton Journal, The Gateway, Vue, FFWD and The Vancouver Courier.

MySpace: Joel Plaskett

PopMatters and The Sun talk to Steve Earle about his new album Townes, which you can stream in its entirety right now at Spinner.

Stream: Steve Earle – “Townes”

The Arkansas Times checks in with Richard Buckner. He’s beginning work on his next album which will be out next year.

There’s a new MP3 available from Iron & Wine’s forthcoming rarities collection Around The Well, out next week. You can also stream the whole double-disc collection at their MySpace.

MP3: Iron and Wine – “Belated Promise Ring”
Stream: Iron & Wine / Around The Well

Blurt talks to Andrew Kenny of The Wooden Birds, whose debut Magnolia is out now. Imagine American Analog Set unplugged, sans vibraphone and Farfisa and you’re pretty much there. Check out a track from the album and also their WOXY Lounge Act session from SxSW in March. Muzzle Of Bees and Black Book have interviews.

MP3: The Wooden Birds – “False Alarm”
MP3: The Wooden Birds – “Sugar” (live at WOXY)
MP3: The Wooden Birds – “The Other One” (live at WOXY)
MP3: The Wooden Birds – “Believe In Love” (live at WOXY)

Bowerbirds have released the first MP3 from their new album Upper Air. It’s out July 7 and they’re at Sneaky Dee’s on July 14.

MP3: Bowerbirds – “Northern Lights”

NPR has a session with Vetiver, who will be at the Horseshoe on May 15.

Bob Dylan has a new video.

Video: Bob Dylan – “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”

Beatroute and Canadian Press interview Grizzly Bear. Veckatimest is out May 26, they’re at the Phoenix June 5.

Wayne Coyne tells Billboard that the next Flaming Lips album, due out later this year and still untitled but possibly to be called Embryonic, is looking like it’ll be a double-album.

Metromix interviews Thao, whom I won’t be seeing in New York tomorrow night because I will instead be hoofing it to Connecticut to see Leonard Cohen. I’d like to think Thao would understand.

Drowned In Sound, Express Night Out and Charleston City Paper interview The Thermals’ Kathy Foster.

KEXP has a session with Telekinesis, in town at the Horseshoe on June 10.

The Bygone Bureau talks to John Vanderslice about Romanian Names, out next week. He plays the Horseshoe July 10.

Ohbijou, who are currently gallivanting around Europe, have set a CD release show for Beacons when it comes out on June 2. The party will be on June 25 at the Opera House, tickets $13.

MP3: Ohbijou – “Black Ice”

The Veils and Foreign Born will be at the Horseshoe on July 27, both with new albums to promote – Sun Gang for the former and Person To Person, out June 23, for the latter. Tickets for that are $13.50.

MP3: The Veils – “The Letter”
MP3: The Veils – “Killed By The Boom”
MP3: Foreign Born – “Vacationing People”

Lykke Li is coming back to town yet again on August 9, and this time she’s playing the Sound Academy. Tickets are $26.50.

Caribou are returning to live action this year and have something special planned for their September 10 show at the Opera House. They’ll be performing as The Caribou Vibration Ensemble and according to Exclaim, that means “Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden, Koushik, John Schmersal, Kathryn Bint and Ahmed Gallab, along with a choir, a horn section and a quartet of drummers”. Um, okay. Bring it.

MP3: Caribou – “Melody Day”

Leigh RightonVancouver fuzz-merchant duo Japandroids chose an interesting way to celebrate the release of their new album Post-Nothing and the attendant “Best New Music” laurels bestowed upon it by Pitchfork – they cancelled nearly their entire scheduled Spring tour.

Okay “chose” is probably the wrong word, as singer-guitarist Brian King probably didn’t decide this was the perfect time to suffer a perforated ulcer and go in for emergency surgery. But that’s what happened, and so nearly a month’s worth of dates were scrapped but almost immediately rescheduled – Pitchfork has the new dates, including a July 16 date at the El Mocambo in Toronto to make up for the nixed May 9 date.

In the meantime, they can try and keep up with the increased media interest that this record is sure to generate – witness them already on the cover of the latest Exclaim. There’s also interviews with them at JAM and View, while Metro talks to them in the context of what it identifies as a new trend of “lo-fi” bands.

MP3: Japandroids – “Young Hearts Spark Fire”
Video: Japandroids – “Heart Sweats”
MySpace: Japandroids

Exclaim! and Chart talk to Dog Day about new album Concentration. They’re at Lee’s on May 28.

Metric week continues at Drowned In Sound as the band plays tour guide – bassist Josh Winstead relates his favourite things about New York City and guitarist Jimmy Shaw does the same for Toronto.

NOW features The Dears, kicking of their North American tour at the Mod Club tonight.

Fucked Up will be hosting a night of what’s sure to be musical mayhem at the Phoenix on July 16 with a bill that will include Women and Vivian Girls amongst others still to be announced. There’s features on the band at Vue and Uptown.

MP3: Fucked Up – “No Epiphany” (No Age remix)
MP3: Fucked Up – “No Epiphany”
MP3: Fucked Up – “Twice Born”

The Los Angeles Record gets the boys from No Age to interview Bob Mould. No Age will be in town in June for NxNE – specifics still forthcoming.

Aquarium Drunkard interviews James McNew of Condo Fucks.

NPR has a World Cafe session with School Of Seven Bells.

The Guardian profiles St Vincent’s Annie Clark. Her new record Actor is out next week.

John Vanderslice has let loose another MP3 from Romanian Names, out May 19.

MP3: John Vanderslice – “Too Much Time”

M Ward stops by MPR for a session. Metro also offers up an interview.

Magnet offers an over/under analysis of The Hold Steady’s five most over- and underrated songs. Some of those songs make an appearance in the band’s session recorded for Daytrotter during SxSW, which is now available to download (or will be later today – will link when it’s up). Update: There we go.

Paste goes Bob Dylan-crazy on the occasion of his new album’s release. Together Through Life came out earlier this week and is streaming at Spinner.

Stream: Bob Dylan / Together Through Life

Metromix talks to Stephin Merritt about his score for the stage version of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.

I like how much I’ve been able to swear in today’s post, and none if it was me being profane.

Annie MusselmanPrior to last year, M Ward’s career path was one of fairly slow and steady growth. His earlier works cultivated a mysterious, almost baroque tone and largely showcased his instrumental virtuosity and occasionally his world-worn rasp. Subsequent works found him acting as a sort of musical time capsule, an archivist for music of bygone eras of Americana country and folk whose increasingly confident singing and songwriting allowed him to not only pay tribute to, but contribute to that canon.

She & Him, his 2008 collaboration with singer-actress Zooey Deschanel, was probably intended as a diversion but perhaps predictably blew up into the highest-profile project Ward has been involved in, their debut album Volume One garnering no small amount of praise – much (but not all) of it deserved. The musicality was pure Ward, but Deschanel’s bright vocals and direct, simple songwriting gave it a sunnier disposition than you’d usually associate with him.

And judging from his latest record, it’s rubbed off on him. Hold Time finds a jauntier Matt Ward than on past works, still laid back and in no real rush to get anywhere besides the back porch but with a bit more spring in the step nonetheless. Though things still get evocatively sad and nostalgic where necessary – the duet with Lucinda Williams on “Oh Lonesome Me” and the title track, for example – there’s a sense of fun that runs through much of the album and makes it feel extra fresh – Ward has mastered and assimilated classic pop idioms into his fearsome musical repertoire, and the world is a better place for it. Those who long for his fearsome solo guitar pieces or transformative cover songs may find things a bit too straight for their liking, but for the rest of us who know you can throw Transfiguration Of Vincent on anytime, it’s another great effort from an artist who manages to constantly move forward by staying rooted in the past.

Ward is currently on the road and will be at the Phoenix in Toronto on Monday, April 27 and courtesy of Against The Grain, I’ve got a couple pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to hold time” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, April 23.

The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette and CNN have interviews with Ward.

MP3: M Ward – “Never Had Nobody Like You”
MP3: M Ward – “Rave On”
Video: M Ward – “Hold Time”
Video: M Ward – “Rave On”
MySpace: M Ward

The Independent lists off 20 things you probably didn’t know about Bob Dylan. His new album Together Through Life is out next week and there’s now a video for one of the songs.

Video: Bob Dylan – “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”

Filter profiles Andrew Bird.

Paste hangs out with The Decemberists. They’re at the Kool Haus on August 3.

Aquarium Drunkard talks to Jason Lytle about his new record Yours Truly, The Commuter. The record is out May 19 and Spinner has the title track to download.

MP3: Jason Lytle – “Yours Truly, The Commuter”

Originally supposed to be out yesterday, Ohbijou’s sophomore album Beacons appears to have a new release date set for June 2.

MP3: Ohbijou – “Black Ice”

Ohbijou’s Casey Mecija has also begun organizing a new music series in town entitled “Heavy Vessel”, which is intended to feature local bands playing in a sandbox in a schoolyard, but inclimate weather forced the inaugural edition to be held indoors instead. Chart has a review of the first show and some video footage has also surfaced – Sucking A Lemon with a clip featuring a scaled-down Bruce Peninsula and Colin Medley capturing a performance by The Acorn’s Rolf Klausener.

JAM talks to Gentleman Reg. He’s at the Mod Club June 1 opening for A Camp.

To mark the start of their upcoming tour, which begins April 30 at the Mod Club in Toronto, The Dears will be releasing a new b-side or unreleased track to download every week, the first of which can be grabbed below. Also check out an interview with Natalia Yanchak at Singing Lamb.

MP3: The Dears – “Halfmast”

Prefix interviews Metric.

Decider talks to Ida Maria.

The Washington Post, Duke Chronicle and Decider talk to Thao Ngyuen of Thao with The Get Down Stay Down. I’ve failed to see them every time they’ve come to Toronto and also missed every one of their shows at SxSW, but they’re playing The Bowery Ballroom in New York the evening I get there next month. I think I should make the effort to out and see them. They’ve made a puppet-powered video for a Lovin’ spoonful cover they recorded for a split 7″ for Record Store Day.

Video: Thao with The Get Down Stay Down – “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind”

Having just released their self-titled debut, The Mt St Helen’s Vietnam Band have a date at the Horseshoe on June 2. Decider has an interview with the band.

MP3: The Mt St Helen’s Vietnam Band – “Cheer For Fate”
MP3: The Mt St Helen’s Vietnam Band – “Anchors Dropped”
Video: The Mt St Helen’s Vietnam Band – “Cheer For Fate”

City Pages and Black Book Q&A Chairlift, who just reissued their 2008 album Does You Inspire You in remastered form and with a couple of bonus tracks, one of which you can hear over at Stereogum. Chairlift are in town this Saturday, April 25, at the Phoenix opening up for Peter Bjorn & John, with whom JAM and Metromix have interviews and MPR a session.

SubPopMy head is kind of, uh, fried right now on account of my powering through and processing all of my SxSW photos this weekend, as those who are unfortunate enough to be RSS subscribers or Twitter followers and been deluged with update notices can attest. But the good news for everyone is that I am done and there are 46-odd photo galleries of artists I saw a couple weeks ago along with as many MP3 and video links for each as I could find. I’m pretty happy with how everything turned out – please have a boo, or check out the Flickr set for a high-level view. And with what remains of my grey matter, I will try to cobble together some sort of blog post.

Starting with The Vaselines. You may know them as the Scottish band who existed just long enough to release a couple of EPs, one album, and exert a huge influence on one Kurt Cobain. I actually knew them better as the band that Eugene Kelly was in before Eugenius, but that’s neither here nor there. For many years, the The Way Of The Vaselines: A Complete History compilation from SubPop has been the first (and last) stop for those seeking to learn more about the outfit, but come May 5 there’s going to be a new final word. That’s the day they’ll replace the venerable compilation with Enter The Vaselines, a new double-CD/triple-LP collection that remixes much of and remasters all of Way and throws in a pile of unreleased extra material. Full tracklisting at Exclaim!.

But wait, there’s more! The band reunited last Summer for a few one-off and festival gigs, but appear to be ready to do more in order to promote the collection. Though they didn’t make it over for SxSW as they’d initially intended, they do still have their eyes on North America, or at least Toronto – they’ve got a date set for May 15 at Lee’s Palace, for which tickets will run $29.50. That’s pretty exciting, and I assume other dates for some sort of tour will be forthcoming soon.

Also on the reissue tip, dearly departed Guelphies Royal City are set to be compiled by the good folks at Asthmatic Kitty They’ll release Royal City on June 23, a collection of a dozen previously unreleased tracks that has been rumoured for over four years. Better late than never though, right? Magnet is also on board with the nostalgia, paying tribute to their second album Alone At The Microphone. Here’s one of the songs from the new comp, and a few older album tracks to remind of how good they were.

MP3: Royal City – “A Belly Was Made For Wine”
MP3: Royal City – “Bring My Father A Gift”
MP3: Royal City – “My Brother Is The Meatman”
MP3: Royal City – “Bad Luck”
MP3: Royal City – “I’m Taking The Train”
MP3: Royal City – “At Rush Hour The Cars”

Exclaim! reports that R.E.M. are giving the deluxe reissue treatment to their sophomore album Reckoning, planning a live release of their 2007 “Dublin working rehearsals” which preceded the release of Accelerate and getting to work on the follow-up to said record. No timelines for any of the releases has been provided, though.

A track from the new Bob Dylan album Together Through Life is available to download from his website through midnight (Eastern Daylight time) tonight. The album is out April 28.

Chart and See talk to Hylozoists frontman Paul Aucoin.

There’s an MP3 available from the new Super Furry Animals album Dark Days/Light Years, available digitally now and on CD April 21.

MP3: Super Furry Animals – “Inaugural Trams”

The California Chronicle talks to Dean Wareham.

Isis have a date at the Phoenix on June 7 in support of their new album Wavering Radiant, out May 5.

A few radio sessions available to stream – NPR with M Ward, who is at the Phoenix on April 27, and MPR welcomes AC Newman and another one with The Broken West.

BrooklynVegan has unveiled the lineup to this year’s All Points West festival, taking place just across the Hudson from Manhattan. It’s interesting to me mainly to give a better idea of what acts are doing the festival circuit this year and perhaps who we might expect at V Fest this year. This, of course, presumes that there will BE a V Fest in Toronto this year. The past three years, the headliners and first wave of acts had all been announced by now, and this year there’s been nary a peep – the website doesn’t acknowledge that it’s 2009 or try to build any sort anticipation and their social network pages are similarly silent. It’s almost like they’re trying to keep a low profile and hope no one notices they’re not there. I’ve asked around a bit and while no one has heard anything about V Toronto being cancelled, no one has heard anything about it actually happening either and I know just enough about goings-on on the business end of the fest to not take for granted that it’s happening. I hope I’m just being paranoid and they’re just hammering out some details to bring, oh, Blur and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs to town but each day that goes by without an effusively-worded press release showing up in my inbox is, well, another day. But if anyone out there knows something, even a cryptically-worded message along the lines of, “Stop fearmongering! The rock is en route!” or “At least you’ll be able to see more films at TIFF this year”, one way or the other would be appreciated.

Update: And this is related-interesting – Montreal’s Osheaga Festival, which was branded last year as “presented by Virgin Mobile”, has confirmed dates for 2009 – July 30 and 31 “in they city” (presumably club gigs) and August 1 and 2 “on the island” (at Parc Jean-Drapeau). Perhaps they’ll siphon off some acts from APW? Perhaps I’m going to Montreal for the August long weekend? It seems Coldplay – and thus Elbow – are a lock for that one…