Jason SummersThis isn’t a review of the double-disc edition of Icky Mettle, released earlier this week and the first of four Archers Of Loaf reissues to come over the next year and a bit – for that, hit up the excellent Pitchfork writeup. I’ve had Icky Mettle for years but it hasn’t become such a part of me that I can offer any sort of explanation as to why it’s such a great record – in fact, I’ve only really come to that realization recently. So go read Matt LeMay’s writeup.

This also isn’t a broader discussion of why Archers were such a great and important band, and why their reunion is so exciting, even for those who are super-jaded about reunions in general. For that, check out this The Village Voice piece that gets The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn, Band Of Horses’ Ben Bridwell and members of Les Savy Fav to articulate their love for and influence of the band.

No, this is just me trying to clear out some links and make it to the weekend while listening to All The Nation’s Airports. So if you’re looking for some Archers content, check out the interviews with the band at The Village Voice and Washington Post and hope that the promises that Eric Bachmann made last month while here with Crooked Fingers to bring Archers through town sometime next March prove to be true.

MP3: Archers Of Loaf – “What Did You Expect”
Video: Archers Of Loaf – “Web In Front”

Also being reissued with bonuses is Superchunk’s 1994 album Foolish, out on September 13. Full details available at Exclaim.

Video: Superchunk – “Driveway To Driveway”

Pitchfork reveals that super-deluxe, super-limited remastered reissues of Olivia Tremor Control’s two albums – Dusk At Cubist Castle and Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One – are coming on November 15. That’s too late to grace the merch table on their upcoming Fall tour, including the September 16 show at Lee’s Palace, but considering there’s only going to be 1000 of each made, it’s doubtful they’d make it past the first few cities on the itinerary anyways.

Not a reissue, but Old 97s are revisiting their past by giving away MP3s of all the demos for their 1997 album Too Far To Care.

MP3: Old 97′s – “Daybed” (demo)
MP3: Old 97′s – “Timebomb” (demo)

The Chicago Daily Herald talks to John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats.

The Awl has an interview with Amy Klein of Titus Andronicus.

My Morning Jacket drummer Patrick Hallahan discusses the band’s approach to playing live with Billboard. The Indianapolis Star also chats with guitarist Carl Broemel.

Writers On Process and Blurt go under the creative hood with Richard Buckner. Both are two-parters though the back half of the Writers piece is still forthcoming.

Drowned In Sound talks to Ra Ra Riot bassist Mathieu Santos. They play Lee’s Palace on October 6.

Exclaim reports that Ryan Adams – who apparently ended his retirement last year and has already released like fifteen albums – will put out his first proper solo record in some time with Ashes & Fire, due out October 11.

Rachael Yamagata will release a new album in Chesapeake on October 11; grab the first MP3 below.

MP3: Rachael Yamagata – “Starlight”

Spin has premiered the video for EMA’s contribution to their Nirvana tribute album Newermind.

Video: EMA – “Endless Nameless”

Decemberists bassist Nate Query confirms the band’s upcoming hiatus to Billboard but assures them it’s just a break, nothing permanent. The Arizona Republic and Cincinnati Citybeat also get to query Query (oh come on).

Brooklyn rockers Obits have set an October 25 date at The Rivoli in support of their second record Moody Standard & Poor. Tickets are $13 in advance.

MP3: Obits – “Shift Operator”
MP3: Obits – “You Gotta Lose”

San Francisco’s Wooden Shjips will release their latest West on September 15 and follow up with a show at The Horseshoe on November 7.

MP3: Wooden Shjips – “Lazy Bones”

NOW has put Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon on their cover with accompanying interview, while NPR is streaming their show in DC from earlier this week. Bon Iver play The Sound Academy on Monday night, August 8.

NOW also checks in with Kathleen Edwards, whose next album will be produced by Vernon. And who’s also his girlfriend. Not that that matters.

The Toronto Star and NOW welcome The Doughboys back to active duty – they’ll play a free show at the Bovine Sex Club on Monday night as a warm-up to opening up for Foo Fighters at the Air Canada Centre the next night.

Emily Haines gives The Grid a status report on the next Metric record.

MTV gets Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew to respond to comments made by guitarist Andrew Whiteman about the band’s last video for “The Sweetest Kill”.

The Line Of Best Fit has a video session with Dan Mangan, whose next record Oh Fortune is out September 27 and who plays The Queen Elizabeth Theatre on October 28.

The Thrill Is Back got Rural Alberta Advantage into the back of their van at Hillside a few weeks ago and videotaped him playing a couple songs, including one new one.

Metro chats with The Wilderness Of Manitoba.

Windish AgencyI’ve no doubt that Dayve Hawk loathes the term/scene/epithet “chillwave” that was attached to his musical identity of Memory Tapes when he emerged last year, and fairly so – its connotations were rarely positive, or at least applied without some snark, and many of the acts who would been considered his peers were kind of terrible. But if I hadn’t done the cursory, “so what the hell is this all about” investigation, I might not have ever heard his debut Seek Magic and that would have been a shame.

Though it technically passed the chillwave checklist test – homemade dreamy textures made with burbling synths and ’80s electropop echoes – Seek Magic possessed a degree of craftsmanship and songwriting that lifted it well above the also-rans. And the fact that he made it compelling in live performance, as I saw at SXSW 2010, confirmed that while it was probably safe to ignore anything bearing the aforementioned metatag, Memory Tapes deserved to stay on my radar.

The just-released second Memory Tapes record Player Piano takes everything that was good about Seek Magic and reinforces it, offering stronger songs, sharper hooks and less instrumental haze. The guitars still shimmer and echo and Hawke’s voice remains high and pleasantly pinched, but the overall experience is just bigger, in both dynamics and sonic scope – some of Player Piano is M83-scale ambitious. I do find myself wishing there was a little more weight in the low end, be it in the drums or bass, to give it that extra bit of presence but that’s a minor complaint and weighed against Player Piano‘s many merits, a negligible one. File under one of the best dream-pop records you’ll likely hear this year.

Memory Tapes is currently on tour and will be at Wrongbar in Toronto on August 13. Tickets for the show are $12 in advance but courtesy of Embrace, I have two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want Memory Tapes” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, August 10.

SF Weekly has an interview with Dayve Hawk.

MP3: Memory Tapes – “Wait In The Dark”
MP3: Memory Tapes – “Today Is Our Life”
Video: Memory Tapes – “Yes We Know”

After some time off turned into a hiatus turned into a disbandment, James Mercer and a new passel of bandmates have reconvened as The Shins and while a new record won’t be out until next year, there will be some Fall tour dates to get folks reacquainted and one of them is September 22 at The Phoenix in Toronto. Ticket prices still TBA but they’ll go on sale Friday.

MP3: The Shins – “So Says I”
MP3: The Shins – “Kissing The Lipless”

Everyone’s favourite family-friendly hip-hop collective Odd Future are coming back to town as part of a massive Fall tour that will allow them to get up close and personal with their fans, and possibly kick them in the faces. The Toronto date comes October 16 at the Sound Academy. Interview has a talk with Wolf Gang leader Tyler The Creator and the collective are featured on the cover of this month’s Exclaim

Video: Tyler The Creator – “Yonkers”

The Black Angels will be back in town at Lee’s Palace on October 24 with Dead Meadow; both are continuing to work 2010 releases – the former with Phosphene Dream and the latter with Three Kings.

MP3: The Black Angels – “Telephone”
MP3: Dead Meadow – “Good Moanin’”

New York DFA-affiliated electro-poppers Holy Ghost! will be at 69 Bathurst on November 1 in support of their self-titled debut.

MP3: Holy Ghost! – “Do It Again”
MP3: Holy Ghost! – “I Will Come Back”
MP3: Holy Ghost! – “Wait & See”

Wears The Trousers interviews Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs. She plays Lee’s Palace on September 24.

Spin finds out some of Mates Of State’s favourite things. The indie-pop duo are readying their latest album Mountaintops for a September 13 release and will be at The Phoenix on September 28.

They Shoot Music has a video session with Wye Oak, who will be at The Sound Academy on October 7 opening up for Explosions In The Sky.

My Morning Jacket have released a video from their latest record Circuital.

Video: My Morning Jacket – “Holdin’ On To Black Metal”

Pitchfork has got a nice Yours Truly-shot video of EMA at the recent Pitchfork Festival.

Magnet Q&As Richard Buckner in advance of making him their website guest editor for the week.

The Montreal Gazette, Boston Herald, Detroit Free Press and Tourisme Montreal talk to members of Death Cab For Cutie.

Frank YangIn case anyone was wondering – and I certainly was earlier on on Saturday night – there is no air conditioning at The Garrison. Had I known this for sure beforehand, it would have been another compelling reason – right behind a week-old broken bone and backlog of television to watch – to stay home and just not deal with the world. But EMA was in town and easing myself off prescription meds as I was, getting out for a show was the sort of distraction I could use.

I confess to no familiarity with Erika Anderson’s last band Gowns, but her debut under the acronym identity Past Life Martyred Saints has been on fairly heavy rotation over the past couple months. Its a fascinating balance of rawness and poise, grunge and folk, all tied together with Anderson’s almost uncomfortably bare and confessional lyrics – I quite wanted to see how it would all come off live.

As did a healthy number of other people – a couple hundred by my guesstimate – all adding to the general sweatiness of the proceedings but also providing plenty of incentive for Anderson and her three bandmates to turn in an impressive show despite looking like hot messes before even playing a note. Throughout their hour-long set they alternately and simultaneously evoked Sonic Youth – thanks in no small part to Anderson’s Kim Gordon-esque vocals – and The Velvet Underground – duelling violins in a rock context will do that – all with a distinctly ’90s alt-rock vibe that was equal parts Nirvana and Pavement.

Between songs Anderson was chatty, a bit dorky and a lot funny, a decidedly different character than you might expect given the open wound vibe of the album’s stream of consciousness confessionals. But expecting every live show to be some sort of catharsis would be unreasonable and probably unhealthy – instead the show contained a healthy dose of attitude and snarl and was delivered with a surprising degree of theatricality. Things weren’t so polished, however, that after closing the set with a properly intense and stage-messing “California”, Anderson had to spend a little while putting her pedals and gear back together before being able to close out with one more song. Short, sweet and satisfying. And sweaty. Oh so sweaty.

Photos: EMA @ The Garrison – July 23, 2011
MP3: EMA – “Milkman”
MP3: EMA – “The Grey Ship”
Video: EMA – “California”
Video: EMA – “Milkman”

St. Vincent has set up a StrangeMercy.com to build anticipation for album number three, Strange Mercy, before its release on September 13 and via a Twitter campaign, the first MP3 from the album was made available last week.

MP3: St. Vincent – “Surgeon”

Dum Dum Girls have also offered the first preview of their new record Only In Dreams, due out September 27. They play Lee’s Palace on October 16.

MP3: Dum Dum Girls – “Coming Down”

And Ume have shared the first sample of their new record Phantoms, out August 30.

MP3: Ume – “Captive”

The Chicago Tribune gets to know Wild Flag, whose self-titled debut drops September 13. They play Lee’s Palace on October 11.

Exclaim and The Globe & Mail talk to Eleanor Friedberger about her solo works and what’s next for The Fiery Furnaces. Though here just last week for a solo show, word is Friedberger will be back with a full band sometime in October. A new video from Last Summer also came out a few weeks ago.

Video: Eleanor Friedberger – “Roosevelt Island”

The Calgary Herald profiles The Head & The Heart.

Black Book checks in with Ivy about their return to active duty with All Hours, in stores September 20.

The Big Takeover, AV Club and Austin 360 have chats with Andrew Kenny of The Wooden Birds.

The Quietus interviews Zach Condon of Beirut. They play The Phoenix on August 2 and 4 and release a new album in The Rip Tide on August 30.

The new single from Bon Iver is up for grabs. Their just-started tour hits The Sound Academy on August 8.

MP3: Bon Iver – “Holocene”

Spinner has got a new MP3 from Richard Buckner’s next album Our Blood available to download while NPR is streaming the album in whole ahead of its August 2 release date.

MP3: Richard Buckner – “Escape”
Stream: Richard Buckner / Our Blood

Stereogum gets a progress report on the new Crooked Fingers record Breaks In The Armor, due out October 11, and the Archers Of Loaf reunion.

Pitchfork has streams of the latest Flaming Lips releases – the ones that come on USB sticks embedded in gummy fetuses – and there’s also a video for a track they recorded with Lightning Bolt. The Boston Herald and Montreal Gazette have interviews with Wayne Coyne.

Video: The Flaming Lips with Lightning Bolt – “I Want To Get High But I Don’t Want Brain Damage”

FFWD and The Montreal Gazette chat with Yo La Tengo.

The AV Club offers a newcomer’s guide to the works of R.E.M..

Crawdaddy talks memoirs with Bob Mould.

Alexandra ValentiIf Will Sheff has ever felt too predictable in what people expect from Okkervil River, he’s really got no one to blame but himself. Since their breakout 2005 record Black Sheep Boy, the band in which he’s been the only real constant has made a habit (okay, twice) of releasing literarily-inclined multi-volume sets with a very specific narrative and musical themes; Black Sheep Boy being a mythically-tinged folk-rock study of the Tim Hardin song and the 2007-08 season’s production of The Stage Names/The Stand Ins was his ruminations on fame and the rock’n'roll life set to a soundtrack appropriately indebted to classic sounds of the ’60s and ’70s.

It’s an approach that has worked, clearly; each of Okkervil’s releases has brought the band more and more acclaim and all have been favourites around these parts. But based on their new record I Am Very Far, it’s one that required a little shaking up. Or a lot. While time will tell if there’ll be a companion record released in the near future, those looking for an easy angle on what Very Far is about, thematically, will be disappointed – having essentially put novels and memoirs to song, Sheff has now assembled his short story collection with each of the record’s eleven songs standing self-contained, both lyrically and musically. And it’s on the latter point that I Am Very Far really stands apart from its predecessors.

With a markedly different lineup from their last recordings, it’s inevitable that Okkervil would sound at least a little different. But rather than simply accept those variances, Sheff has opted to exploit them and give the band a new sonic identity. His own perfectly imperfect vocals remain the most identifying trait, but everything around it is bigger and broader-sounding than ever before. This is easily Okkervil’s most produced record ever, but rather than the extra gloss that that usually implies, here it means density. Overdubs and extra players, musical styles heretofore unexplored – dig the almost disco-ish groove of “Piratess” – and crazy echos and reverbs pervade the record as does an almost manic (or maniacal) sense of relentless restlessness; its bloodshot energy is almost as uncomfortable to listen to as it is invigorating. Some might suggest that I Am Very Far is the band’s bid to break into the mainstream but I think that if that was their intention, they’d sound like they’d have gotten a little more sleep before pressing “record”.

But for all the tumult that has obviously gone into making I Am Very Far, after a few acclimatizing listens, something quite beautiful emerges. The freedom gained from putting everything that defined Okkervil on the table with this record combined with Sheff’s already formidable skills as a songwriter, lyricist and arranger have produced the sort of album that I imagine most bands of a certain tenure long for; one that the more you thought you knew what the band were about, the more you’d be surprised by and which is like discovering one of your favourite bands again for the first time.

Spinner talks to Will Sheff and Pat Pestorius about making the new album. They play The Phoenix on June 10.

MP3: Okkervil River – “Wake And Be Fine”
Video: Okkervil River – “Wake And Be Fine”
Stream: Okkervil River / I Am Very Far

San Diego’s Crocodiles, whom I’d begun to think had some personal issue with Toronto for their never touring up this way, will make up for their absence in a big way for NXNE as they will play a three-night residency at The Silver Dollar over the course of the festival, June 17, 18 and 19, with a different undercard each night.

MP3: Crocodiles – “Sleep Forever”

Chicago emo/math-rock veterans Joan Of Arc have a date at The Garrison for August 5, ticket $12.50. Their new record Life Like is out today.

MP3: Joan Of Arc – “Love Life”

The best of news, the worst of news. With their self-titled album due out on June 21, Bon Iver have announced a Summer tour that brings Justin Vernon and company back to Toronto on August 8… to The Sound Academy. Well at least it’ll be warm. Tickets are $35 general admission, $45 VIP and go on sale Friday. Support will come from Vernon’s old bandmates The Rosebuds, who themselves have a new record out in Loud Planes Fly Low, out June 7.

MP3: Bon Iver – “Blood Bank”
MP3: The Rosebuds – “Second Bird Of Paradise”

New York singer-songwriter Lia Ices has announced a date at The Rivoli for August 9, tickets $12, and has also released a video for the title track of her debut album Grown Unknown. The Georgia Straight has a profile.

MP3: Lia Ices – “Daphne”
Video: Lia Ices – “Grown Unknown”

The National have taken their two recent non-album releases – songs from the Win/Win film and Portal 2 video game soundtracks – and put them on a 7″ single for those who like physical things made of vinyl.

Sufjan Stevens talks to The Guardian about the nervous breakdown that informed The Age Of Adz.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of an Antlers show in New York from earlier this week. Their new record Burst Apart is out today and Pitchfork has an in-studio video performance of one the new songs with an assist from Neon indian. There’s interviews with the band at The Huffington Post, eMusic and Village Voice. They play The Mod Club on June 14.

The AV Club chats with Bon Iver drummer S Carey about his solo work.

Pitchfork talks to Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes. They’re at Massey Hall on July 14 and tonight’s show in Austin is going to be webcast live on NPR.

Richard Buckner fields questions from Aquarium Drunkard about his new record Our Blood, due out August 2.

PopMatters interviews Lissie, in town for a show at The Phoenix on May 28.

Death Cab For Cutie have released a second video from Codes & Keys, out May 31. They’ve got two local dates coming up – May 18 at The Phoenix and July 29 at The Molson Amphitheatre. Tickets for the latter will range from $29.50 to $49.50 and go on sale Friday at 1PM. Black Book talks food with Ben Gibbard.

Video: Death Cab For Cutie – “Home Is A Fire”

NYC Taper has posted a recording of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart’s show at New York’s Webster Hall last week. The band are at The Opera House on August 2.

Beatroute interviews Explosions In The Sky.

Low steps into The AV Club’s Undercover studio and records a cover of Toto’s “Africa”, and damn if they don’t sound amazing.

Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips discusses the viability of gummy skulls as the next medium of music delivery with Billboard.

Kelley JacksonHere’s a somewhat disturbing trend – bands of young’ns drawing influence from the music I grew up with, despite the fact that they probably weren’t even out of diapers when it was contemporary. Disturbing mainly in the fact that it implies I’ve crossed some sort of generational checkpoint and the cycle of influences is looping in on itself, as it does.

Case in point, Tampa sextet Sleepy Vikings, whose acquaintance I first made at NXNE last year. Despite making a non-stop 26-hour drive from there to here and playing their showcase half-dead as a result, they still impressed with their decidedly ’90s-vintage sound, all beautifully sullen jangle and fuzz. The only recordings they had to offer then were a three-song EP dubbed Ghost, but it certainly augured well for the future.

And the future is now – or more accurately, next Tuesday when their debut They Will Find You Here is released. It takes those three songs from Ghost – which remain the standout moments – and adds another half-dozen compositions that mostly reinforce what they’ve already proven excellent at. But what’s most remarkable about They Will Find You Here isn’t so much the music itself but the mood that it, as a whole, conjures. Led by singer Tessa McKenna’s subtle twang and Julian Conner’s rough harmonies, Sleepy Vikings evoke the sense of ennui and melancholy that’s one of the less-celebrated aspects of being young. They sound too resigned to be called angsty, even in their more fiery moments, but with that comes an honesty and vulnerability that would have been lost if delivered with more bluster.

I initially liked Sleepy Vikings because they sounded a lot like bands I used to – and still do – enjoy; now I like them because they remind me of things I used feel – though thankfully not nearly as much.

Orlando Weekly and therepubliq have band features.

MP3: Sleepy Vikings – “Calm”
MP3: Sleepy Vikings – “Flashlight Tag”

am New York talks to Kip Berman of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, in town at The Opera House on August 2.

Spinner talks to Warpaint about the Interface session they’ve just posted.

The Kills’ Jamie Hince talks to Spinner and The Georgia Straight.

According to Pitchfork, Ted Leo will be recording a none-more-analog live set for Jack White’s Third Man Records next week, to be released on vinyl shortly thereafter.

Interview talks to The Antlers’ Peter Silberman about their new record Burst Apart, due out on Tuesday. They play The Mod Club on June 14.

Consequence Of Sound reports that the Soft Bulletin live shows that The Flaming Lips have been performing will produce a live album in the near future.

eye, The AV Club and Cleveland Scene interview Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal.

Simultaneously tending to both their their present and their past, R.E.M. has released another new video from Collapse Into Now while also revealing details of their next super-deluxe reissue set; next up is 1986′s Life’s Rich Pageant, which will be released in loaded-with-bonuses double-disc form on July 25. Interview has a talk with frontman Michael Stipe.

Video: R.E.M. – “Discoverer”

Fracture Compound interviews Superchunk.

It’s a J Mascis video bonanaza. In addition to a new official clip from Several Shades Of Why, there’s a set of in-studio performances over at Pitchfork.

Video: J Mascis – “Is It Done”

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of Buffalo Tom’s recent visit to the Bowery Ballroom in New York.

In conversation with Hitfix, Zach Condon reveals that a new Beirut record should be out sometime this Summer. Presumably before they play two nights at The Phoenix, August 2 and 4.

Hitfix also gets the scoop on Matt Ward’s return to being M Ward – solo artist – rather than Him or a Monster.

Fleet Foxes have posted up another MP3 from the just-released Helplessness Blues. They’re at Massey Hall on July 14.

MP3: Fleet Foxes – “Grown Ocean”

On May 31, My Morning Jacket will mark the release of Circuital that day with a live-to-YouTube concert at Louisville’s Palace Theater. The New York Times talks to filmmaker Todd Haynes, who will be directing the performance, as to what he’s got planned.

NOW finds out what’s going on in the world of Joe Pernice; home renovations, a new record due out this Fall, a possible/probable tour as Pernice Brothers and a solo show at the Dakota Tavern tonight.

Exclaim has details on the first new Richard Buckner record in five years; Our Blood will be out on August 2 and the first taste of what he’s been up to in that time is available to download.

MP3: Richard Buckner – “Traitor”

Old 97′s will follow up the release of last year’s The Grand Theatre, Vol. 1 with – wait for it – The Grand Theatre, Vol. 2 on July 5. Spinner talks to Rhett Miller about the record.

The Toronto Star, Houston Chronicle and The Daily Herald talk to Steve Earle. He’s at The Molson Amphitheatre on August 20.