Tom Henry JonesBy nature, I’m an album guy and prefer to let my impressions of an artist unfold over forty minutes or so. But sometimes I get swept up in the joy of the single – the one individual song – and give the “repeat” button on my CD player a workout that more than makes up for its usual state of neglect. Such was the case of “Nitrogen Pink”, the first single from UK singer-songwriter Polly Scattergood (her real name).

Musically, it unfurls from a simple, unadorned intro to a thing of great sonic grandeur in the span of five minutes, sounding like the finale to a musical set in the distant future. Not a new trick, but when executed properly – as it is here – it’s always impressive. But the centerpiece is Scattergood’s voice, a wonderfully expressive and elastic thing capable of evoking tremendous strength and utter frailty within a single phrase. Like many of her female English singer-songwriters peers do these days, Scattergood owes an immense debt to the influence of Kate Bush but like the best of that group – Bat For Lashes and Florence & The Machine come immediately to mind – she takes that inspiration and interprets it in a way that’s very much her own.

Her self-titled debut album Other Too Endless is set for a March 9 May 19 release and based on the additional samples available on her Myspace, the addictiveness of “Nitrogen Pink” isn’t a fluke – it sounds like the record will carry forward a fine balance between theatricality and vulnerability. It’s probably a tall order to expect the entire record will tickle my ears to the extent that the first taste has, but I’m hopeful.

MP3: Polly Scattergood – “Nitrogen Pink”

Yesterday was – after long last – the release date for Emmy The Great’s debut First Love and as much I’d have liked to be able to mark the occasion with a review, my copy is still somewhere between the UK and here (hopefully). So my gushing praise will have to wait for another day – instead, I’ll link to the slew of press clippings that have accompanied the release, which are worth the read because Emmy is as entertaining an interview as she is a songwriter. There’s features on Ms Moss at For Folk’s Sake, MusicOhm, BBC, Dazed Digital and The Irish Times. And though she did a quick song-by-song annotation of the record forThe Reading Evening Post a few weeks ago, the one she does for Drowned In Sound is considerably more in-depth. And also as part of what Drowned In Sound have declared “Emmy The Great week”, Emmy turns from interviewee to interviewer turning the spotlight on artists she deems worthy of attention. So far she’s talked to a couple of her bandmates about their own projects – with Tom Rogerson about Three Trapped Tigers and with Euan Hinshelwood about Younghusband – as well as with with Shilpa Ray of Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers. And to wrap my own “Emmy The Great day”, her session at Bandstand Busking is now up, with three songs and an interview.

And it’s interesting/amusing that a running theme through the interviews is Emmy’s disavowal of the whole “UK anti-folk” scene, particularly between her band and Noah & The Whale, because that’s one of the threads running through this piece in The Independent about, well, the so-called UK anti-folk scene.

And speaking of Noah & The Whale, they’re finally making up that December show which was cancelled when they decided they’d rather work on album number two – entitled First Days of Spring and due out sometime in the Spring – rather than drive around North America in Winter. They’ll be at The Mod Club on April 27, tickets $12.50. The Times checked in with the band while they were in the studio.

MP3: Noah & The Whale – “2 Bodies 1 Heart”

Camera Obscura have released details of their next album and first for new home, 4AD. My Maudlin Career will be out April 21 and they’ve made the title track available to sample.

MP3: Camera Obscura – “My Maudlin Career”

Frightened Rabbit have a new video from The Midnight Organ Fight.

Video: Frightened Rabbit – “Bright Pink Bookmark”

Duffy documents a day in the life of Duffy for The Times.

The Quietus talks to PJ Harvey and John Parish about their forthcoming collaboration A Woman A Man Walked By, out March 30.

Exclaim reports that Beth Orton’s debut album Trailer Park will be getting the deluxe double-CD reissue treatment – look for it March 10.

Sky Larkin, whose debut The Golden Spike was released yesterday, have been keeping a tour diary for Clash and Tourdates.co.uk has an interview with singer Katie Harkin. Said album will be getting a proper North American release this year as their label Wichita Recordings is setting up shop Stateside. They’ve made available a sampler of the first batch of artists they’ll be looking to introduce to folks on this side of the Atlantic.

ZIP: Wichita Recordings sampler

Some additional updates and clarifications on a few recently announced shows. Firstly, the Neil Halstead show at the Drake Underground on March 21 is open to everyone, tickets $20. The invite-only anniversary thing is something else entirely.

MP3: Neil Halstead – “Paint A Face”

Would it have killed Ladytron to have released their new video alongside the announcement of their Spring tour so that I could have rolled it all into one post? Apparently so. Tickets for their April 6 show at the Phoenix go on sale this Friday and will cost your $28.50.

Video: Ladytron – “Tomorrow”

Lily Allen’s April 22 show at the Phoenix has been moved to the Sound Academy, on account of selling out in no time flat. Additional tickets now on sale. Chart has an interview.

Good news – Elbow are coming to town. Bad news – it’s as opener for Coldplay. They’ll be at the Molson Amphitheatre on July 29. Is seeing them play a half-hour set worth buying Coldplay tickets for? That is a question only you can answer.

And last but not least… Le Blogotheque has a Take-Away Show with Tom Jones.

Dustin Rabin/Epitaph.comBack in the Spring of 2005, two of the finest rock bands Canada had to offer came up with a great idea and a great name for that great idea. The bands were Constantines and The Weakerthans, the idea was a tour that would traverse all of Canada, not just the obvious markets, and the name they gave it was “Rolling Tundra”. And it was good.

Since then, both the Cons and Weakerthans have grown in audience and profile have released highly-acclaimed records in Kensington Heights and Reunion Tour respectively, but a good idea remains a good idea so next Spring, they’re totally going to do it again. As Chart reports, the 2009 edition of The Rolling Tundra Revue will kick off on March 19 in St John’s, Newfoundland and wind its way across our home and native land before wrapping up May 4 in Whitehorse in the Yukon.

As far as local dates go, they’ll be at the Phoenix on March 31 for an all-ages show – tickets are $25 and go on sale Thursday Friday – but looking at the itinerary, it’s notable that there’s two off days on either side of the scheduled date. Keeping in mind that the 2005 edition had three Toronto shows, one an all-ages matinee, do you think they’ve got a second date ready to go, at least? Yeah, me too.

MP3: Constantines – “Hard Feelings”
MP3: The Weakerthans – “Sun In An Empty Room”
MP3: The Weakerthans – “Night Windows”
Video: Constantines – “Credit River”
Video: Constantines – “Our Age”
Video: Constantines – “Hard Feelings”
Video: The Weakerthans – “Civil Twilight”
Video: The Weakerthans – “Tournament Of Hearts”
MySpace: Constantines
MySpace: The Weakerthans

Solo Pornographer AC Newman will hit the road in support of his new album Get Guilty!, due January 20, and roll into Lee’s Palace on March 11. Tickets $15. And cheers to Matablog for pointing the way to this New Pornogaphers show in Australia, available to watch in its entirety at Moshcam. Update: New MP3 and full tour dates now available!

MP3: AC Newman – “Submarines Of Stockholm”

The Toronto Sun talks to Stars frontlady Amy Millan. Stars are doing three nights at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre starting Thursday night.

Malajube will finally follow up their Polaris-nominated release Trompe-L’oeil with Labyrinthes, out February 10.

eye profiles Oh No Forest Fires. They’ll play Wavelength at Sneaky Dee’s on January 25.

It seems the rehearsals went well, because Blur are back – the first officially announced reunion gig will take place at Hyde Park in London on July 3, though more gigs around that date both before and after are likely to come. Details at NME. Hey V Fest, I think I’ve found your 2009 headliner. Make it happen.

Billboard gets a status update from Doves about album number four. Still untitled, but targeting an April release.

Clash talks to Maximo Park frontman Paul Smith about the making of their third album, which he describes as “Upbeat, upfront, uptight, uppity, uplifting”.

The Quietus talks to ex-Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall about going it solo. Her debut single “Another Version Of Pop Song” was released this week.

Drowned In Sound disassembles and examines the component parts of Florence & The Machine.

The AV Club has an interview with Gareth Campesino of Los Campesinos!.

Clash and Drowned In Sound chat with The Futureheads.

ES Magazine profiles Duffy.

Frank YangThere had been a plan, back at SxSW earlier this year, to follow – “stalk” is such an ugly word – Emmy The Great to as many of her various day shows and performances as possible. As it happens, I failed utterly and was only able to see her play once, at her official showcase but it was as good as I’d hoped.

And so I planned to spend Saturday afternoon in New York City again following Ms Moss around and though I got a late start, having to hoof it from Greenwich Village to the Lower East Side – I was actually running through the subway at 14th and 8th – I managed to make her first show of the day on the roof of The Delancey. Now while I’m sure the building housed a proper stage somewhere in its environs, but the roof was just a shadowy patio with dense foliage with Emmy set up to one side with only a very basic PA – the very opposite of fancy. But she and her band do scrappy, stripped-down arrangements well – they were like a gang of buskers – so the setting wasn’t any real sort of detriment, though the sound could have been a bit better and they were basically playing in darkness. With only a handful of people paying attention – I guess 1PM was a bit early for the last day of CMJ, most likely everyone was still hung over in bed – they zipped through a set that contained songs both familiar and not, but presumably focused on the songs that had made the cut for her debut album, First Love. It was short but sweet and highlighted by drummer Pete Baker adding percussion to “Gabriel” by banging his shoe on a plastic drum case.

It was a few hours till the next engagement so I wandered the Lower East Side a bit before impending foul weather drove me to the venue – the cozy upstairs lounge at Pianos – early. This turned out to be fortuitous as the acts preceding her were certainly worth my time. The Dutchess & The Duke, a Seattle outfit built around the dual voices and guitars of Kimberly Morrison and Jesse Lortz who sound like a ’60s blues-rock band who decided to become a folk-pop band and turned out to be quite good at it. There’s melody and harmony a-plenty, but also a gruff sort of swagger that gives it all a nice bit of edge. Though they played a short set on account of a late start, but it made an impression – when I got home I dug up their new album She’s The Dutchess, He’s The Duke and will spend some time with that.

The were followed by Brooklyn’s The End Of The World, a four-piece best described as dealing in an appealing blend of classic rock and country-noir – not especially groundbreaking, but well-written and executed. Their set fell victim to a drum kit seemingly hell-bent on self-destructing, but what they did manage to get through was promising. Their new album French Exit is out November 4 and in addition to the MP3 below, another is available for frees at RCRDLBL.

Emmy’s second set of the day started out much like her first, but with a better sound system behind her and a much larger audience in front of her. Interspersing her casually confessional folk songs with hilarious between-song banter (requests for “M.I.A.” were met with, “she’s not here – she’s knocked up”), she and her band were entertaining and beguiling. It was initially disappointing when she broke a string midway through and it turned out they didn’t have a spare, but instead she borrowed bandmate Euan Hinshelwood’s guitar and completed the set solo, including absolutely stirring readings of “24″ and “City Song”, the latter accented by Hinshelwood’s note-perfect harmonies. I don’t know if they’d have made the set otherwise, and if so if they’d have been as affecting, so let’s just say thank goodness for happy accidents.

I had been saving a place on my year-end list for First Love, but with its September release now moved to January of next year, I guess it’ll have to keep for another year. Based on what I saw and heard this past Saturday afternoon, I have no problem keeping that particular seat warm – this record is going to be an absolute gem.

Photos: Emmy The Great @ The Delancey, New York City – October 25, 2008
Photos: Emmy The Great, The End Of The World, The Dutchess & The Duke @ Pianos Lounge, New York City – October 25, 2008
MP3: Emmy The Great – “Easter Parade”
MP3: Emmy The Great – “Two Steps Forward” (live)
MP3: Emmy The Great – “MIA” (live from Black Room Sessions)
MP3: Emmy The Great – “The Hypnotist’s Son” (live from Black Room Sessions)
MP3: The End Of The World – “I Don’t Wanna Lose”
MP3: The Dutchess & The Duke – “Reservoir Park”
Video: Emmy The Great – “We Almost Had A Baby”
Video: Emmy The Great – “Gabriel”
Video: Emmy The Great – “Easter Parade”
Video: Emmy The Great – “MIA”
MySpace: Emmy The Great
MySpace: The End Of The World
MySpace: The Dutchess & The Duke

Duffy has a new video for a single that doesn’t appear on Rockferry, but does appear on the forthcoming deluxe edition of Rockferry, due out November 24. It’ll feature seven new tracks, including the aforementioned single. Details at MTV.

Video: Duffy – “Rain On Your Parade”

Patrick Wolf gives NME some details about half of his next record, which will be a double-album. Battles will feature his much-discussed collaboration with Alec Empire while the as-yet untitled other half will be much mellower in mood. He’s aiming for a February release.

Thousand Islands Life talks to Great Lake Swimmer Tony Dekker about choosing the Thousand Islands as the recording locale for their fourth record.

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats talks to The Arizona Daily Star while both Darnielle and collaborator Kaki King discuss their EP Black Pear Tree with The North County Times.

Okkervil River’s Will Sheff talks The Stand-Ins with Chart. And congratulations to Corey Higgins, who won the Insound poster.

Only a trickle of concert announcements rolling in as the year winds down, but while there may not be so much in terms of volume, ones like this certainly make up for it in density – case in point, the “Jingle Bell Rock” tour which features Metric, Tokyo Police Club, The Dears and Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains winding their way across Canada in a one-horse open sleigh. Look for them December 13 at the Sound Academy and experience the special kind of hell that is being on the waterfront at night in December.