Peter EllenbyWhen Bob Mould looks back on his 2012, he should be able to reflect on a very busy and productive year. First, he released his memoirs See A Little Light – a very direct and enlightening, if somewhat dryly written, accounting of his professional and personal life over the past half-century, back in June. Shortly thereafter came the release of the complete output of his second most-important power trio in Sugar, which he’d also marked by playing the entirety of the seminal Copper Blue on tour throughout the year. And oh yeah, on top of all that, he released his first album of new material since 2009′s Life & Times in The Silver Age, rightly heralded as his strongest – and most all-out rocking – work in some time.

One thing Mould didn’t get time to do this year, though, was come north of the border to play some shows. It would have been great to have one of the Copper Blue shows up here, but it didn’t happen – which makes me feel extra-fortunate that I was able to catch on at SXSW, not that that does the rest of his Toronto fanbase much good. But while it seems improbably that 2013 will be as busy for Bob as 2012, he’s added a few more dates including his first local show since Fall 2009, on March 1 at The Horseshoe. Yes he could easily play a bigger room – which is why this will be extra-great. It won’t be a Copper Blue recital – he officially retired that in November – but one of the perks of having thirty years worth of material to draw from is that he can assemble a near-infinite number of different set lists and they’ll all be fantastic. Bob will bring the tunes, you bring the earplugs. Tickets for the show are $24.50, on sale tomorrow.

Another thing Mould has been doing this year? Turning to Kickstarter to fund a release of the See A Little Light: A Celebration of the Music and Legacy of Bob Mould concert film recorded in Los Angeles last November, wherein a collection of musicians including Dave Grohl, Britt Daniel, Craig Finn, and Britt Daniel came together to perform works from Mould’s entire career. Sound like something you’d want to see? Me too – so chip in if you can.

And finally – last thing – Mould is doing a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” on Monday, December 17, starting at 1PM. So if there’s something you’ve been wanting to ask him – that’s your chance.

Video: Bob Mould – “The Descent”

Also hellaciously busy this year were Guided By Voices, with the reunited indie rock icons releasing fully three new albums in barely 11 months. So what do you do for an encore? As Tobin Sprout tells Ghettoblaster, one more album and an EP in January for sure, and maybe another album after that.

The Afghan Whigs, who set stages on fire (figuratively) with their reunion tour through much of this year, play a video session for NPR.

It would be reasonable to assume that Alan Sparhawk would be focusing on Low next year, what with a new album in The Invisible Way coming out March 19, but no – his Retribution Gospel Choir will release a two-track, Nels Cline-starring third album entitled 3 on January 22, with some touring scheduled for the early part of the year. A warm-up for Low, I guess. Details on the release over here. And back to Low, there’s a mini-documentary film at BYUtv about the band’s 20-year history together.

NYCTaper has recordings of the first two nights of Yo La Tengo’s Hannukah shows at Maxwell’s this week. New album Fade is out January 15 and they’re at The Phoenix on February 9.

Funny Or Die has got a pretty damn funny video short featuring Cat Power singing to a class of second-graders while being Cat Power.

Josh Ritter has announced the return of Josh Ritter in both recorded and live formats. To the former, his new record The Beast In In Tracks will be out March 5 – stream a new song below – and to the latter, he’s announced a Spring tour that brings him to the Danforth Music Hall on April 16.

Stream: Josh Ritter – “Joy To You Baby”

Widowspeak have premiered a stream of another new song from Almanac over at Paste. The album is out January 22.

Stream: Widowspeak – “The Dark Age”

Also doing the preview stream thing is Ra Ra Riot; Entertainment Weekly brings you the second taste of Beta Love, out January 22. They’re at Lee’s Palace on March 6 and there’s an interview with the band at The Shreveport Times.

Stream: Ra Ra Riot – “When I Dream”

Spinner chats with Christopher Owens about his solo debut Lysandre. It’s out January 15 and he plays The Mod Club on January 18.

PopMatters interviews Savoir Adore.

Chairlift are giving away an EP’s worth of demos for Something via Soundcloud.

Eliot HazelDays like yesterday are kind of my favourite. Those are the days where the inbox/RSS/Twitter feed is like a non-stop barrage of concert announcements and they’re great because not only do they put interesting things on my calendar to look forward to, but they also make the next day’s blog post an easy one.

Of all the announcements to come down the pipe, the one that I’m most pleased about is that Swedish electro duo Niki & The Dove will be at The Drake Underground on October 2, tickets $15 in advance. I had originally been disappointed that their first proper North American tour supporting Twin Shadow didn’t include his two nights at Lee’s Palace at the end of July, but they tacked on a handful of headlining dates after that tour wrapped including Toronto. I’m a bit surprised about the size of the venue – having seen them at both Iceland Airwaves last Fall and at SXSW this Spring, their stardom seemed assured and considering those dates were coming a good while after the August 7 release of their debut Instinct, I would think that the buzz would demand a decidedly larger room.

All of which is to say that when tickets go on sale this Friday, if you’re at all interested in seeing this band – which you should be – you should get on tickets quick.

MP3: Niki & The Dove – “Tomorrow”
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “Mother Protect”
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “The Drummer”

Also confirmed rolling through the 416 in the last few days, in chronological order:

Peppy Louisiana five-piece Givers, who had one of the songs of the Summer last year with “Up Up Up” hope that their debut In Light has the legs to keep toes tapping through another Summer tour. They’re at The Drake on July 31, tickets $10.50 in advance.

MP3: Givers – “Up Up Up”

Echo Beach is a far, far cry from the intimate environs of The Drake Underground where Perfume Genius played in April, but the sum beauty that the pairing of him and Sigur Rós could bring to the waterfront gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. They open for the Icelanders there on August 1, one of four dates they’re doing with them.

MP3: Perfume Genius – “Hood”
MP3: Perfume Genius – “Dark Parts”

I had thought that Franco-Finnish duo The Dø might be giving us a pass in support of their latest album Both Ways Open Jaws – it came out in November and they hadn’t been through since September 2010, but they’ve just taken their time getting around to it. They’ll be at Lee’s Palace on August 3, tickets $15 in advance.

MP3: The Dø – “Slippery Slope”

With their new, self-titled album out today, Australia’s Temper Trap have made a date at The Phoenix for August 7 since they’ll be over this way for Lollapalooza anyways. Tickets for that are $26.50 in advance. There’s interviews with the band at MySpace and FasterLouder.

Video: The Temper Trap – “Trembling Hands”

San Franciscan country/garage-pop – maybe barn-pop? – outfit Sonny & The Sunsets have put together a Summer tour in support of their new record Longtime Companion, out June 26. They’re at The Silver Dollar on August 11, tickets $11.50.

MP3: Sonny & The Sunsets – “Pretend You Love Me”
MP3: Sonny & The Sunsets – “I See The Void”

Having made his name with The Frames and The Swell Season (and The Commitments, but we don’t talk about that), Glen Hansard is looking to do the same for Glen Hansard. His solo debut Rhythm & Repose is out June 16 and he’s put together a North American tour that brings him to The Music Hall on September 16; tickets range from $25.50 to $35 in advance. There’s chats with Hansard at Spinner and Exclaim.

Video: Glen Hansard – “Philander”
Video: Glen Hansard – “Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting”

Los Angeles art-rock weirdos Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti have yet to formally announce their follow up to 2010′s Before Today, but that they’ve announced a Fall tour that includes a September 19 date at Lee’s Palace – tickets $20 – implies that it’s not far off.

MP3: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – “Round And Round”

Chairlift are coming back to town for Something and they’ve graduated from The Horseshoe to The Molson Amphitheatre! Of course, it’s in support of Gotye, whom you may know from that one song and whom you won’t remember in a year, but still. That’s September 20, and I suspect if you sit tight there’ll be a lot of tickets made available super-cheap in the days leading up to the show. PopMatters has a feature on the Brooklyn band.

MP3: Chairlift – “I Belong In Your Arms”
MP3: Chairlift – “Cool As A Fire”

Though they released the Into The Night EP this Spring as a stopgap, The Raveonettes also have a new album in the works and some Fall tour dates to go with it. They’ll be at The Phoenix on October 2, tickets $18.50.

MP3: The Raveonettes – “Into The Night”

Punk rock veterans Social Distortion have announced a Fall tour that brings them to the Sound Academy on October 20.

Video: Social Distortion – “Machine Gun Blues”

With their Americana album of traditional folk songs grunged the hell up out today, Neil Young & Crazy Horse decided it’s as good a time as any to announce their Fall tour in support of it. They’ll be at The Air Canada Centre on November 19 with Los Lobos as support, tickets on sale June 15. Pricing still not announced but odds are it won’t be cheap; it never is and yet it’s always worth it. Rolling Stone talks to Neil to find out why it’s Crazy Horse and not Buffalo Springfield.

Video: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “God Save The Queen”

Frank YangIf anyone were to ask – and really they’re not – this long weekend jaunt to New York was most definitely not a music trip. It was a shopping/eating/visiting/just getting out of Toronto trip, yes, but not a “music” trip as so many of my getaways tend to be. So that I ended up at shows the first two nights I was in town was purely mostly coincidence.

I mean, I hadn’t even thought about Denver’s Dressy Bessy in the better part of a decade. I saw them at The Horseshoe way back in 2002 circa Sound Go Round – pre-blog era, yo – but lost interest not long after that and they haven’t exactly fought their way back onto my radar, having not released an album since 2008′s HOLLERandSTOMP. But here they were, still together and getting ready to put out a series of singles this Summer, and here I was, in an apartment just a few blocks from Littlefield in Brooklyn and in town with friends who wanted to go. And so we went.

And though Dressy Bessy were ostensibly the headliner on the bill over former Dream Syndicate leader Steve Wynn and his Miracle 3, they went on first – just as well since the day was beginning to catch up with me. The turnout was relatively light – perhaps some of their audience was peeled off by NYC Popfest, which this show could easily have been part of but wasn’t – but the band seemed bound and determined to have a good time of it regardless. Though they’re associated with the Elephant 6 scene and all the tweeness that can come with that, they were refreshingly loud and garagey/glammy in performance – I really wished I had earplugs – yet still bouncy and fun, with the energy of a band that doesn’t play much live but still really enjoys it. And as I remembered from that one time I saw them a decade ago, Tammy Ealom still has a curious relationship with the concept of pitch – her singing isn’t accurate, at least not with respect to the Western musical scale, but it is precise. It’s really kind of interesting.

Only stuck around for a little bit of Steve Wynn’s set – see above about being tired – but stayed long enough to a) hear Dream Syndicate’s “That’s What You Always Say”, which I know mostly from Luna’s cover, and b) acknowledge that Steve Wynn is a shit-hot guitarist. ‘Tis true.

Photos: Dressy Bessy @ Littlefield – May 19, 2012
MP3: Dressy Bessy – “Ringalingaling”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Hey Alice!”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Pretty Pleaze”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Automatic”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Anyone Can See”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Ease Me Down”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Dressed The Part”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Do You Whisper”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Roundabout”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “In Your Headphones”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Left To The Right”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Simple Girlz”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Shoot I Love You”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Ten Million Stars”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Electrified”
Video: Dressy Bessy – “Better Luck”

The Afghan Whigs have released their first single in a half-decade, a cover of Marie “Queenie” Lyons’ “See And Don’t See”, and have made it available as a free download. They kick off their 2012 reunion tomorrow night at New York’s Bowery Ballroom – if I were staying here one extra day, I’d have moved heaven and earth to get a ticket. Instead, I will go home and feed the cat.

MP3: The Afghan Whigs – “See And Don’t See”

The Alternate Side has a video session with White Rabbits, playing the Mod Club on June 14 for NXNE.

The first track from Major, the second album from Fang Island, is available to download. The record is out July 12.

MP3: Fang Island – “Asunder”

Having had to cancel last week’s show at The Horseshoe, Maps & Atlases have rescheduled for July 17, same venue. The New York Daily News and Courier-Post have interviews.

MP3: Maps & Atlases – “Winter”

DIY, Seattle Times, and Clash talk to Best Coast. They’re at The Phoenix on July 21.

Merge Records continues their duties as archivists of the ’90s with remasters and reissues of all of the Sugar albums. Copper Blue and Beaster will be collected as one double-LP/triple-CD set and File Under: Easy Listening on its own, both with attendant b-sides and live material. There will probably not be a more essential musical release this year, folks. They’re out July 24 and you can download live versions of three Copper Blue songs by Bob Mould earlier this Spring at Slicing Up Eyeballs.

Filter and The Telegraph have features on Sharon Van Etten, playing the Phoenix on July 31.

For No One has a video session and Drowned In Sound an interview with School Of Seven Bells.

Ardent Studios welcomes Shearwater for a video session and Under The Radar has a feature piece.

Spinner interviews Chairlift.

The Guardian has a feature interview with Beach House and The Line Of Best Fit points to where you can watch the whole of their record release show in New York last week.

Perfume Genius has made a non-album track that’s been showing up in live sets available to download.

MP3: Perfume Genius – “Rusty Chains”

The AV Club has posted part five of their R.E.M. timeline/retrospective.

Frank YangCosmic questions: What makes an artist put a respectable if underappreciated solo career on hold in order to play drums for a band that’s sold hundreds of thousands of records and gone platinum in the UK? And what makes that same artist leave that band in order to not resurrect their former solo career but start a completely new one? Okay, the first one is kind of a no-brainer but the second one is more of a puzzle, one that Baltimore-born, Los Angeles-based Josh Tillman is uniquely positioned to answer. He was plugging away as J Tillman since 2005 before joining Fleet Foxes in 2008 to tour behind their self-titled debut and while he continued to release solo albums, following the end of the Helplessness Blues touring cycle he announced he was leaving the band – but not to go back to being J. Tillman; instead to begin being Father John Misty.

If you do find yourself in a position to pose the above questions to Tillman, don’t be surprised if by way of an answer he just hands you a copy of Fear Fun, the just-released Father John Misty debut because it does, indeed, tell you why. Whereas the J. Tillman-branded material was pretty easily slotted as acoustic singer-songwriter fare, Fear Fun is nowhere near as easy to categorize. Suffused with ’70s-era country-rock vibes , it sounds as though Tillman gathered inspiration on his drive home from Seattle by routing through Bakersfield, the Laurel Canyon, Joshua Tree National Park, and Reno, Nevada before pulling up in Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. Gram Parsons’ “cosmic American music” quote gets trotted out a lot when describing music with a country-rock lineage but it applies to Father John Misty more than anything I’ve heard in recent years. Parsons would have approved of the album art as well, I think. In short, it’s not called J. Tillman because it sounds nothing like J. Tillman. Or Fleet Foxes, for that matter, though you can bet that was the hook for many/most of those who piled into the Horseshoe on Monday night for the band’s Toronto debut.

Support came from another Tillman, the unrelated Sean who himself had a few musical projects to juggle. I had seen him with Sean Na Na when they opened up for The Hold Steady in this same room back in 2006, but rather than showing off that project’s classic rock stylings, he was here as Har Mar Superstar and he was going to take off his pants. But that’s getting a bit ahead of things. Things started with Tillman fully-dressed – overdressed, really – and fronting a four-piece band that included Josh Tillman on drums but as their set progressed and their funk-soul groove gathered steam, he stripped down item by item until, by the final song of their set, it was just Tillman in his short, sweaty, paunchy glory clad only in a pair of briefs (and socks and shoes). Even a cursory bit of research about Har Mar beforehand would have revealed this was what they were about but even if you knew what was coming, it was still something to behold. Like with Sean Na Na it was almost a shame that Tillman’s onstage persona overshadowed the music – which was more than legit – but the net entertainment value was nothing to complain about. Though I wish there was more breakdancing.

Besides being a superb drummer and vocalist, Josh Tillman’s main contribution to Fleet Foxes was as the comic relief during their live shows – the guy was all kinds of funny from behind the kit. So while seeing him up front with no instrument in hand was a bit odd, you at least knew that there’d be no feeling awkward about being the centre of attention and really, you can’t keep presence like his behind a drum kit. Tillman was a litany of stage moves – shimmies, points, mic stand dancing – while leading his five-piece band through bigger, more rockier renderings of the Fear Fun material that emphasized the psychedelic aspects of the material. And of course there was the banter, which was random and hilarious and came with the added bonus of Tillman feeling extra punchy thanks to the Pitchfork review of his album earlier in the day, which despite being positive caused great offense. Towards the end of the show, Tillman mentioned that he had been “way too stoned” for the entire show – and the band passed around a lit joint as emphasis – and while that might have explained some of the the more out-there comments he made through the night, it made how tight and note-on their performance was even more impressive. Some folks may have came to the show as J. Tillman fans, most were probably Fleet Foxes fans but by the end of the show, they were all Father John Misty fans.

NOW also has a review of the show and Father John Misty already have a return engagement scheduled for July 12, when they open for Youth Lagoon at the Opera House.

Photos: Father John Misty, Har Mar Superstar @ The Horseshoe – May 14, 2012
MP3: Father John Misty – “Nancy From Now On”
MP3: Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
MP3: Har Mar Superstar – “Cry 4 Help”
MP3: Har Mar Superstar – “Power Lunch”
MP3: Har Mar Superstar – “Brothers And Sisters”
Video: Father John Misty – “This Is Sally Hatchet”
Video: Father John Misty – “Nancy From Now On”
Video: Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “Tall Boy”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “DUI”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “Power Lunch”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “EZ Pass”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “Brothers & Sisters”
Video: Har Mar Superstar – “Body Request”

I don’t really know who Jonathan Coulton is – I gather he’s big on/via the internet – but the fact that he’s touring with John Roderick of The Long Winters makes the fact that said tour includes a June 6 date at The Mod Club worth noting. As is the fact that we are well overdue for a new Long Winters record.

MP3: Jonathan Coulton – “Washy Ad Jeffy”
MP3: The Long Winters – “Pushover”

The NXNE schedule is due out any day now, but word of some of the bigger shows are coming out a little beforehand. Like that White Rabbits and Vacationer will be at The Mod Club on June 14. The Independent ran a feature on the band a few weeks back.

MP3: White Rabbits – “Heavy Metal”
MP3: Vacationer – “Trip”

Your festival wristband will also be good for admission to see A Place To Bury Strangers at The El Mocambo on (I believe) June 14, where they’ll be previewing their new record Worship, out June 26. The Stool Pigeon has an interview with the band about the new record.

MP3: A Place To Bury Strangers – “You Are The One”

Rolling Stone is offering for download a version of the title track from Guided By Voices’ next record Class Clown Spots A UFO from when it was a Robert Pollard song. Which it still is, technically. The album is out June 19.

MP3: Robert Pollard – “Class Clown Spots A UFO”

State interviews Lower Dens, who’ve released a new video from Nootropics. They’re at Lee’s Palace on July 17.

Video: Lower Dens – “Nova Anthem”

DIY talks to Andrew Bird, who plays Echo Beach on July 19.

It being release week for Best Coast’s new one The Only Place, there’s plenty of press going around with Bethany Cosentino. Check out pieces at LA Weekly, The Guardian, Under The Radar, GQ, The Line Of Best Fit, and Vice. They play The Phoenix on July 21.

By the same token, lots of people are talking to Beach House about their just-released Bloom – people like The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Interview, and eMusic.

Loud & Quiet talks to Chairlift.

Daytrotter has a session with Shearwater and The AV Club an interview with Jonathan Meiburg.

Greg Dulli talks to The Village Voice and John Curley to Cincinnati.com about the Afghan Whigs reunion, which finally gets underway next week in New York.

NPR welcomes Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt for a WFUV video session.

WikipediaIt’s not secret that Prince is no fan of people covering his songs (though I suspect his lawyers are because it gives them something to do) but when Spin marked the 25th anniversary of his masterpiece Purple Rain back in 2009 with a cover story and tribute album – Purplish Rain – I assume it was with his permission, either overt or tacit. Because, well, otherwise the whole endeavour would have been kind of dumb on their part.

One of the artists who contributed to said comp was New York’s Chairlift, who at the time were still a trio and still riding high on their iPod ad-powered debut Does You Inspire You?, who opted to dial down the overt lasciviousness of the original “Darling Nikki” and give it a bit of a slower, synthetic makeover – more literally “Computer Blue”?

Chairlift are in town at The Horseshoe on Wednesday night, March 28, in support of album number two, Something. Prince wrapped up his “Welcome 2 Canada” tour last Fall and has gone back into seclusion. As he does.

MP3: Chairlift – “Darling Nikki”
Video: Prince – “Darling Nikki” (live)