John ShearerThe era of the touring festival has by and large given way to massive destination and regional festivals – it seemingly being easier to bring a bunch of bands and tens of thousands of fans to one place than it is to bring a bunch of bands to hundreds of thousands of fans in a bunch of places – but sometimes a touring bill is so impressive that it warrants a fancy name of its own. And the bill of Bob Dylan, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, and Richard Thompson which will be hitting amphitheatres across North America this Summer is one of those bills; ergo “AmericanaramA”.

Even though he’s the headliner and by far the biggest act – though if there was justice in the world, Thompson wouldn’t be far behind – Dylan is also the biggest question mark on the lineup. As I mentioned last Summer when the Fall tour in support of his latest album Tempest, Dylan is not someone who suffers nostalgiasts lightly and based on the tweets I saw the night of that Air Canada Show about people walking out after just a few songs, his penchant for rendering his songs nigh unrecognizable live remains undiminished. So caveat emptor, but also know that each of Wilco, My Morning Jacket, and Richard Thompson are also absolute known quantities at the other end of the spectrum – they’re incapable of putting on a bad show, even if they’ll most likely be allotted much less than their usual marathon set times.

So whether that math is persuasive enough to convince you to shell out the $49.50, $69.50, or $89.50 for reserved seats or $35.50 for lawns to see them at The Molson Amphitheatre on July 15 is between you and your accountant. But don’t forget to factor in the cost of an “AmericanaramA” t-shirt. The presale goes Saturday, April 27 Tuesday, April 30, at 10AM, with the regular onsale following on Friday, May 3, at 10AM.

MP3: Bob Dylan – “The Times They Are A-Changin’”
MP3: Wilco – “Whole Love”
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “Heartbreakin’ Man”
MP3: Richard Thompson – “The Sights & Sounds Of London Town”

Austin shoegaze aficionados Ringo Deathstarr have made a date at The Shop Under Parts & Labour for June 3 in support of their second album, last year’s Mauve. Tickets for the show are $7 in advance.

MP3: Ringo Deathstarr – “Imagine Hearts”

Aussie-fronted Swedish electro-pop up-and-comers Kate Boy have slated a short North American tour that includes a Toronto stop at Wrongbar on June 9. Tickets are $12.50 and if you need to catch up on some of the buzz behind them, there are these features at Pitchfork and Billboard.

MP3: Kate Boy – “Northern Lights”
Video: Kate Boy – “In Your Eyes”
Video: Kate Boy – “Northern Lights”

There was both curiosity and concern when London’s Still Corners canceled their North American tour in support of the forthcoming Strange Pleasures, out May 7, and the reasons for the itinerary change was made clear yesterday – instead of headlining their own Summer tour, they will supporting CHVRCHES on theirs. Exclaim has the new dates, which still include a Toronto date – June 12 at The Hoxton – but raises questions about their participation in NXNE. On one hand, even though that CHVRCHES date falls on the first night of the festival, there’s no sign that it will be associated with it at all – get your $16 ticket while you can – but on the other hand, they’ve got two off days before they need to be in Montreal so there’s technically no reason that their previously-announced June 14 NXNE showcase can’t still happen. Anyways.

MP3: Still Corners – “Berlin Lovers”

With a new album out in Change Becomes Us, British post-punk legends Wire will be at Lee’s Palace on July 10, tickets $25. There’s interviews with the band at Rolling Stone, PopMatters, and Rock Cellar.

MP3: Wire – “Dot Dash” (live)

Born Ruffians will be playing a presumably free show at Harbourfront Centre on July 13 as part of their Sound Clash festival thing.

MP3: Born Ruffians – “Sole Brother”

Guelph’s Hillside Festival announced their 2013 lineup this year, and if you were interested in seeing the likes of Fucked Up, Colin Stetson, Diamond Rings, Hayden, Jim Guthrie, Lee Ranaldo, METZ, The Sadies, Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, or World Party (!) with easy access to swimming, camping, and drum circles, then Guelph Lake the weekend of July 26 to 28 is probably where you want to be. If you hate hippies, you may want to reconsider.

Further cementing the possibility that he might just be homeless, Josh Tillman will bring Father John Misty back to town for his fifth show in 15 months, this time headlining the Danforth Music Hall on August 3 with Minneapolis’ Night Moves as support. Tickets will run from $15.50 to $19.50, depending on floors or balcony.

MP3: Father John Misty – “Nancy From Now On”
MP3: Night Moves – “Headlights”

With the new Guided By Voices album English Little League out next week, April 30, the five lead-up 7″ singles have been conveniently collected into a single Soundcloud playlist, and while The Quietus has collected all of the b-sides, as well.

Stream: Guided By Voices / English Little League sampler
Stream: Guided By Voices / English Little League b-sides

Deerhunter have put their new album Monomania up on NPR to stream before it comes out May 7.

Stream: Deerhunter / Monomania

MTV Hive talks to Robert Levon Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club about his relationship with his late father. BRMC are at The Kool Haus on May 9.

Exclaim, Creative Loafing, The Island Packet, and Charleston City Paper interview Charles Bradley, in town at The Phoenix on May 11.

Mudkiss checks in with Nicole Atkins, who continues work on her third album Slow Phaser, due out later this year.

Janelle Monáe has made the first track from her new album The Electric Lady available to stream, and Erykah Badu has helped her do it. The record is due out later this year.

Stream: Janelle Monáe (featuring Erykah Badu) – “Q.U.E.E.N.”

CBC Music and Exclaim have interviews with Steve Earle about his new album, The Low Highway.

Sam Beam of Iron & Wine discusses his new album Ghost On Ghost with Clash.

Elle profiles Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, covering topics including her brush with breast cancer, the end of her marriage to Thurston Moore, and what’s next.

Chan Marshall of Cat Power discusses her personal style with MTV Style.

As much as I love Galaxie 500, they’ve never struck me as a band that required multiple books to be written about them. Of course, Dean Wareham’s Black Postcards obviously had its bias, so maybe Temperature’s Rising – Galaxie 500: an oral and visual history – released last week and featuring input from all three members – will be more balanced and accurate. And if not, it will at least be larger and offer more pictures.

Norman WongIncreasingly, Friday posts are for clearing off the decks of whatever hasn’t gone out earlier in the week, but that doesn’t mean the content isn’t quality – this ain’t no fire sale, son. But it also doesn’t mean I’m not giving some stuff away. Because I am.

Earlier this week, Toronto electro-operatic sensation Austra announced details of their second album, to be entitled Olympia and due out June 18. And because they believe in deeds, not words, they also made the first single from the new record available to stream. And if you want to hear more new material – or are now in the mood to hear some Feel It Break material – you’ll probably want to be at The Danforth Music Hall next Saturday night, March 23, for their late-add Canadian Musicfest performance.

Though a limited number of festival wristbands and passes will be admitted, lineups and attendant stresses can be eliminated with advance tickets. Those are going for $24 in advance, but courtesy of Embrace, I’ve got four pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests@chromewaves.net with “I want to see Austra” in the subject line and your full name in the body and have that me by midnight, March 20.

Stream: Austra – “Home”

The Line Of Best Fit talks to Alan Sparhawk of Low, who are in town at The Great Hall on Saturday night and release their new record The Invisible Way on Tuesday.

Brett Anderson of Suede chats with DIY. Their new record Bloodsports is out on March 18.

Brightest Young Things has an interview with Philip Ekstrom of The Mary Onettes about their new album Hit The Waves, due out next Tuesday, March 19. Ekstrom also proves game for mini Swede-pop summits, with The Line Of Best Fit having Sambassadeur’s Joachim Läckberg interview Ekstrom and vice-versa – Sambassadeur’s new record is due out later this year – and Q gets his label boss – Johan Angergård of Labrador – to ask him some questions.

Southern Souls has a video session with July Talk, taking part in Canandian Musicfest at Lee’s Palace on March 21.

The National Post has a feature interview with Nick Cave; he leads The Bad Seeds into Massey Hall on March 23.

The Strokes have rolled out the first video from their forthcoming Comedown Machine, out March 26.

Video: The Strokes – “All The Time”

The first video from The House Of Love’s forthcoming She Paints Words In Red – the one that went up last month and was almost immediately pulled – is back up, hopefully for good. The album is out April 1.

Video: The House Of Love – “A Baby Got Back On Its Feet”

In addition to announcing a local tour that includes a free show at the Parkdale Library on April 27, Dusted have made an unreleased track available to download and another rarity available to stream.

MP3: Dusted – “No Trouble”
Stream: Dusted – “In Yr Skull”

Exclaim and MTV Hive have interviews with Rachel Zeffira, coming to town as part of a two-date North American tour on May 2 at The Drake Underground.

MTV Hive talks to Airick Wooded of Doldrums. He’ll be at The Horseshoe on May 11.

I don’t know that a musical from the pens of Stephen King and John Mellencamp is something that I’d necessarily want to know existed, let alone hear, but that the Ghost Brothers of Darkland County soundtrack features performances from the likes of Neko Case and Elvis Costello, I can’t not pay a little attention. The album is out June 4 and a couple tracks are available to stream now. Neko Case is in town at the Toronto Urban Roots Fest at Garrison Commons on July 7.

Stream: Neko Case – “That’s Who I Am”
Stream: Elvis Costello – “That’s Me”

The 405 meets Ra Ra Riot, coming back to town on June 8 for Field Trip at Garrison Commons.

Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo compiles a list of his favourite albums for The Quietus. They’ll be at Garrison Commons for TURF on July 7.

The Von Pip Musical Express brings the good news that Nicole Atkins has just about completed her third album, entitled Slow Phaser, and while specific release details are still forthcoming, a first track from it is available to stream.

Stream: Nicole Atkins – “Red Ropes”

The AV Club is running a series of video session musical tributes to various states, and have kicked off in Texas – of course – with Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam offering an unreleased Texas-themed song in the first one and Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg covering Roy Orbison in another.

Also in interesting covers: Joanna Newsom tackling a Sandy Denny song in a performance for a Los Angeles clothing designer; watch the video at Spin and get a little background on the session at Style.com.

Exclaim talks to Mark Perro of The Men.

If you hadn’t heard, School Of Seven Bells guitarist Benjamin Curtis was recently diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. While treatable, they have set up a website through which they are soliciting support and donations to help cover the costs. Help out if you can.

Robyn Hitchcock discusses his new album Love From London with Spinner.

Carlie ArmstrongNot much stays fresh after 30 years, particularly something as fleeting as creativity, and not even a band that’s as stylistically rangy as Yo La Tengo is immune to the of feeling of repeating themselves. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as their last release – 2009′s Popular Songs – was an enjoyable summation of everything Yo La Tengo has done well over the past three decades or so, from concise poppers to sprawling rockers on the x-axis and quiet to loud on the y, but didn’t really offer much as a jumping-off point for where they’d could go next.

As it turned out, the “where” would be Chicago, to work with John McEntire of Tortoise, rather than Nashville and Roger Moutenot, who had been behind the boards for every one of their records since 1993′s Painful – that’s their last seven releases. And while it’s not necessarily clear that a change in producer would have that drastic an effect on a band that’s as assured in what they do and how they do it as Yo La Tengo, if they were looking to come away with something different, it’s reasonable to say that the fruits of those sessions – Fade, out tomorrow – accomplished that.

The songs still follow the familiar Yo La Tengo templates, but the presentation feels compressed. Not in the technical studio sense of being less dynamic, but it’s not hard to imagine bookend tracks “Ohm” and “Before We Run” stretching past the 10-minute mark on other records instead of being constrained to their relatively concise six-and-change running times here. And those are the longest tracks on the album – almost everything else clocks in at under five minutes. Not to get too hung up on matters of time – what’s more remarkable than the fact that the whole thing could be dubbed onto a single side of a 90-minute cassette is that it seems to have been done without compromising any of the band’s trademark atmospheric indulgences or rushing their gentler, languid tempos.

On the quiet side, “Two Trains” exists in a sumptuous, phase-shifted dream-state, and “I’ll Be Around” hums along, carried by whirring organs and Ira Kaplan’s fingerpicked guitarwork, yet maintain enough presence to avoid becoming pretty aural wallpaper, and at the other end of the spectrum, “Well You Better” and “Paddle Forward” are welcome additions to the crunchy pop nugget section of their songbook. Fade may not necessarily break any new ground for the band – that may well be mathematically impossible for them at this point – but it does offer a fresh perspective on much of what they do best.

Spin and DIY have interviews with Ira Kaplan. They’re at The Phoenix on February 9.

MP3: Yo La Tengo – “Stupid Things”
Video: Yo La Tengo – “Ohm”
Video: Yo La Tengo – “Before We Run”
Stream: Yo La Tengo / Fade

It’s not as good as, say, her own tour in support of a new album, but it’s worth noting that Nicole Atkins will be in town on February 25 opening up for Eels at The Phoenix.

MP3: Nicole Atkins – “Vultures”

And if you missed the post addendum last week, Low have announced a local date in support of their new record The Invisible Way. The album is out March 19 but they’ll be here a few days earlier, on March 16, at The Great Hall. Tickets for that are $18.50 and on sale now.

MP3: Low – “Just Make It Stop”

Chelsea Light Moving – aka Thurston Moore’s new post-Sonic Youth band – will be at Lee’s Palace on March 31 in support of their self-titled debut, out March 5. Tickets are $19.50, details on the release available at Matablog and there’s quite a bit of the new record available to preview; spoilers – it sounds like Thurston Moore.

MP3: Chelsea Light Moving – “Burroughs”
MP3: Chelsea Light Moving – “Frank O’Hara Hit”
MP3: Chelsea Light Moving – “Empire Of Time”
MP3: Chelsea Light Moving – “Groovy & Linda”

Los Angeles electro-pop outfit Fol Chen will be at The Drake Underground on April 7 in support of their new album The False Alarms, due out March 19.

MP3: Fol Chen – “Cable TV”
Stream: Fol Chen – “200 Words”

Good news for those anticipating/dreading the auction later this week for the new Replacements benefit EP, Songs For Slim; while that limited edition of 250 will still be auctioned off to raise money for former ‘Mats guitarist Slim Dunlap’s medical bills, a regular edition of the recordings will be made available for sale to the general public. Details on that at Consequence Of Sound.

NPR interviews Christopher Owens, whose solo debut Lysandre is out tomorrow and who hits The Mod Club this Friday night.

NPR has got the whole of the new Widowspeak album Almanac available to stream ahead of its January 22 release.

MP3: Widowspeak – “Ballad Of The Golden Hour”
Stream: Widowspeak / Almanac

Hit up Consequence Of Sound to hear a stream of a track from the new Guided By Voices EP Down By The Racetrack, due out January 22. Their next full-length English Little League will follow on April 30.

Stream: Guided By Voices – “Copy Zero”

The Line Of Best Fit talks to Caitlin Rose, whose second album The Stand-In is out February 25 and who plays The Garrison on April 5.

Charles Bradley has given his second album Victim Of Love an April 2 release date. Details over at Exclaim.

The Flaming Lips have announced plans to release their 1997 mind-fuck opus Zaireeka as a vinyl reissue for Record Store Day this year, which is to say April 20. Which sounds great but when you factor in the fact that you’d not only need four turntables instead of the original issue’s quad-CD player setup, but you’d need to swap sides and records for each disc… yeah. No.

Memory Tapes have released a new video from last year’s Grace/Confusion.

Video: Memory Tapes – “Sheila”

The Alternate Side has a studio session with Dinosaur Jr.

Glasswerk have a video session with Crooked Fingers.

Elle Canada has an interview with Janelle Monáe.

Popmatters talks to Wild Nothing’s Jack Tatum.

Jody KivortI’m not diversifying into the adult entertainment industry, despite what some ads that occasionally get served here might imply, but am instead talking about New York’s Escort. Sometimes a lean five-piece band, sometimes a proper orchestra numbering as many as 17 – but always fronted by diva Adeline Michele – Escort have been busting out old-school yet thoroughly contemporary dancefloor disco electro-soul since 2006 but only just released their full-length debut Escort earlier this year and are now taking their legendarily slick and irresistibly fun live show on the road.

They’re hitting The Horseshoe this Saturday night, November 10, and if you’re thinking there’s no way they’d fit 17 people on that stage, you’re right – it’s going to be a smaller-form Escort that rolls into town, but if you think that means it’ll somehow be a smaller party… no. Just no. Tickets for the show are $16.50 in advance, but courtesy of Webster Media Consulting, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests@chromewaves.net with “I want an Escort” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, November 8.

Metro has an interview with Michele about the genesis of the band, and the band’s just-released remix album – Escort Remixed – is available to stream in full.

MP3: Escort – “Love In Indigo”
MP3: Escort – “Make Over”
Video: Escort – “Why Oh Why”
Video: Escort – “All Through The Night”
Stream: Escort / Escort Remixed

School Of Seven Bells have made a track from their new EP, Put Your Sad Down, available to download. It’s out November 13.

MP3: School Of Seven Bells – “Secret Days”

The Antlers have released a new video from their last EP, Undersea.

Video: The Antlers – “Drift Dive”

Ahead of their appearance warming up for Titus Andronicus at Lee’s Palace later that night, Ceremony will play an in-store at Sonic Boom’s Kensington location on November 27 at 6:00PM.

MP3: Ceremony – “Hysteria”

And speaking of Titus Andronicus, The Village Voice has a profile piece on the band. As mentioned – Lee’s Palace, November 27. Them.

Passion Pit will team up with Matt & Kim for a Winter tour that stops in at The Kool Haus on February 16; tickets for that are $32.50 in advance.

MP3: Matt & Kim – “Let’s Go”
Video: Passion Pit – “Take A Walk”

Denver Westword and The Seattle Times have interviews with Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs, who also just recorded a World Cafe session with NPR.

Benjamin Gibbard submits to a questionnaire from Exclaim and answers some more questions beyond that. He also performs video sessions for The Fly and NPR, and has released a video from his solo joint Former Lives.

Video: Benjamin Gibbard – “Teardrop Windows”

MTV Hive talks to Jason Lytle, opening up for Band Of Horses at Massey Hall on December 5.

Nicole Atkins talks to The Village Voice about the damage that Hurricane Sandy did to her beloved New Jersey shore. She’s re-recorded the title track of her 2007 debut album, Neptune City, and re-released it to raise funds to rebuild the shore.

Stream: Nicole Atkins – “Neptune City (For The Shore)”

Bob Mould plays a video session for NPR.

Sam Fogarino reflects on Interpol’s past ten years to Spin. The Turn On The Bright Lights anniversary edition is out November 19. They’ve also shared a live video taken from their first Los Angeles show in 2002.

Video: Interpol – “Obstacle 1″ (live at The Troubdaour, 2002)

Congratulations on doing several right things last night, America. First time I haven’t been bitterly disappointed by the outcome of an election in, oh, four years. I’ll be down there later this week to give some of you a big hug.

Vanessa HeinsIt’s gotten to the point where the Tuesday before an album is officially released is as much a day to look forward to as the day an album is actually released. That’s because it’s standard practice these days to make any record anyone might care to buy available to stream at least a week before its official street date – it theoretically helps offset downloads of leaks, gets the promo cycle revved up, all of that sort of thing. It’s a trend I’m fully in favour of.

And based on this, it would seem that there’s a lot of anticipated Can-con coming out next week, starting with The Slideshow Effect from Guelph-via-Toronto duo Memoryhouse. It may be just their first album, but it already sees them trying to expand their sound beyond the slow-motion dreampop that got them attention in the first place without diluting that appeal. Does it work? Let’s find out. The Quietus has a song-by-song annotation of the record from the band and 77 Square and DIY have interviews.

MP3: Memoryhouse – “Walk With Me”
MP3: Memoryhouse – “The Kids Were Wrong”
Stream: Memoryhouse / The Slideshow Effect

Further over in the electronic spectrum is another Toronto-born debut; TRST, the first record from Trust – it should hold much appeal for goths who still like to get their dance on. They have a record release show at Wrongbar on March 3. The Grid has an interview.

Video: Trust – “Bulbform”
Video: Trust – “Candy Walls”
Stream: Trust / TRST

The new Wooden Sky album Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun is also much anticipated by fans of the rootsier side of things, and it’s now up to stream at Paste. They play The Opera House on April 20.

MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Malibu Rum”
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Child Of The Valley”
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Angelina”
Stream: The Wooden Sky / Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun

And if you needed more evidence that Paste loves them some Canadian acts, they’ve also got the new Plants & Animals record The End Of That available to hear. They play Lee’s Palace on April 21.

MP3: Plants & Animals – “Song For Love”
MP3: Plants & Animals – “Lightshow”
Stream: Plants & Animals / The End Of That

You don’t have to wait until next week to get a hold of PS I Love You’s collection of Meet Me At The Muster Station radio session tracks – the Kingston duo are giving The Muster Sessions away via Facebook in exchange for an email address, and is streaming over at Exclaim if you’re the sort who wants to know what they’re getting for their email address before they hand it over. Their official second album Death Dreams is out May 8 and they’re at Lee’s Palace on March 23 for Canadian Musicfest.

Stream: PS I Love You / The Muster Sessions

Patrick Watson will bring their new record Adventures In Your Own Backyard to The Music Hall on May 29, tickets $29.50 and $24.50 in advance. The album is out April 30 and I’ve noticed in the SXSW schedule, they’re listed as “Patrick Watson & The Wooden Arms” – are they done with pretending “Patrick Watson” refers to the band and not just the man?

MP3: Patrick Watson – “Into Giants”

CBC Radio 3 chats with The Elwins, whose debut And We Thank You is officially out now. They have a release party for it at the Burroghes Building this Friday, February 24, and are also Rancho Relaxo on March 25 for Canadian Musicfest.

Nick Thorburn tells Exclaim that if you think the new Islands record is dark, you haven’t seen anything yet. They’re at The Music Gallery on February 28.

Billboard, Blurt, The Montreal Gazette, The Ottawa Citizen, and The Edmonton Journal have feature pieces on Grimes. She’s at The Horseshoe on March 19.

Exclaim reports that the next Black Mountain record will come in the form of a soundtrack for the surfer film Year Zero; it will be out on April 3 and the first track is available to download.

MP3: Black Mountain – “Mary Lou”

The Toronto Standard has a video session with Army Girls. Still waiting on the where and when of their Canadian Musicfest gig; it will be a highlight of the fest, guaranteed.

Jenn Grant gives CBC Radio 3 a look into her songwriting process.

Daytrotter has posted a session with Kathleen Edwards.

Watch this Evening Hymns performance from Belgium wherein they perform “Dead Deer” with a big-ass band. Majestic. Still waiting on Spectral Dusk details. And waiting.

Video: Evening Hymns – “Dead Deer” (live at Transmusicales de Rennes)

Syncopated Sound talks to Damian Abraham of Fucked Up.

The Old Ideas With New Friends Leonard Cohen cover series continues, with Exclaim hosting a clip of Nicole Atkins doing “Bird On A Wire” and Matablog offering up AC Newman covering “Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye”.