Frank YangSince the schedule for SxSW was announced way back in March, I had one particular showcase circled and immutable on my schedule – Echo & The Bunnymen at Rusty Spurs on the Saturday night. One of the perks of attending SxSW is the opportunity to see big bands in venues much smaller than they’d normally play, and though the Liverpool legends were playing some bigger shows during the festival, the opportunity to see them for the first time in a tiny Texan gay cowboy bar was too good to pass up. And while that show was fine, it was a mild disappointment relative to my tremendous expectations. I had somehow wanted an arena-scale show in a club-scale setting (even though Echo & The Bunnymen have never really achieved arena-scale success), and they delivered a good club-scale show. Classic songs for sure, but considering I heard that some of their larger shows during SxSW were epic, I had to think that maybe they were a band who played up – or down – to their environs.

From that point of view, it followed that this past Tuesday night’s show at the very proper Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto would be something special and the promise of an orchestrally-enhanced reading of the band’s highwater mark Ocean Rain all but clinched it. It had to be a fantastic show – it promised too much to not be, and considering the high ticket price, the 1000 or so folks in attendance would rightfully be expecting one. The show was divided into two sets, the first for “the hits” and the second for the Ocean Rain recital, and the former was largely as advertised, leaning heavily on their early material – their debut Crocodiles comprised a third of the set list – but also including highlights from the post-reunion records. Some might think that pulling two from their latest record The Fountain to be excessive, but the fact is that lead single “I Think I Need It Too” was one of the highlights, not least of all because it was written with lead Bunnyman Ian McCulloch’s reduced vocal range in mind.

Ah yes, the voice – let’s get that out of the way right now. PopMatters is correct when they suggest that Mac’s voice is a rough, gravelly shadow of the magnificent instrument it once was. He can’t hit those notes anymore, occasionally wheezes where once he bellowed and as such, some of those indelible melodies have been rejigged to accommodate the new reality – the chorus of “Bring On The Dancing Horses” now bows where once it soared. But the songs remain as potent as ever and Mac delivered them with a swagger and charisma that went a good way towards compensating for the years – and I mean that vocally, not physically. Echo & The Bunnymen live is a most stationary experience, with McCulloch’s repertoire of stage moves consisting of standing still at the mic, getting a drink of water and occasionally crouching down. But back to the voice – as I mentioned in the review of that show back in March, he still has reserves of that old power that he can tap into at key moments, as he did in the chorus of “The Cutter” and in doing so, by god, turned the clock back a quarter century for a few, brief shining moments.

The reading of Ocean Rain, however, was one sustained 40-minute shining moment. Supported by a 10-piece (I think) string section, Echo & The Bunnymen made a fine case for it as one of the best records of the ’80s and anyone hearing “Silver”, rendered as majestically as it was on this night, would have great difficulty coming up with an argument against it. It’s true that strings applied injudiciously can render songs cheesy or overly pompous, but here they were just perfect – if anything, they made me wish for more and wonder what these shows must have sounded like with full orchestras at the Royal Albert Hall or Radio City Music Hall. Performing in front of projected black and white images of the band in their youth, their crystal days, the proceedings had a lovely, elegiac tone and felt as much like a tribute from McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant to their former bandmates, the retired Les Pattinson and late Pete De Freitas. If there was any complaint, it was that the suite ran too short but the record clocks in at under 40 minutes – there’s not a lot that can be done about that, short of calling for an impromptu orchestra jam and no one wants that.

Though they could have justifiably called it a night after that – there’s no way to top the album’s title track as a finale – they still returned for a two-song encore, finally ending the almost two-hour show (including intermission) with “Lips Like Sugar”. Finally, this was the grand, epic Echo & The Bunnymen show I’d been hoping to see. If you get the chance to see them, choose the grandest venue possible and if they promise to bring the strings, don’t dare miss it.

The Toronto Sun, Chartattack, Exclaim and eye have reviews of the show while The National Post considers the trend of bands performing classic albums in their entirety, using Echo & The Bunnymen as a case study. You can also grab a track from the new record over at RCRDLBL, in addition to the one linked below.

And yes, the photos from the show are nigh pointless – Mac hates light, and the folly of it all was compounded by having to shoot from the back of the theatre. But that’s okay, I got him good back in Austin to check those out if you want to see how well he’s aged.

Photos: Echo & The Bunnymen @ The Queen Elizabeth Theatre – October 20, 2009
MP3: Echo & The Bunnymen – “I Think I Need It Too”
Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “The Killing Moon”
Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “Bedbugs & Ballyhoo”
Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “The Cutter”
Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “The Game”
Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “Seven Seas”
Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “Bring On The Dancing Horses”
Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “In The Margins”
Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “It’s Alright”
Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “Back Of Love”
Video: Echo & The Bunnymen – “Lips Like Sugar”
MySpace: Echo & The Bunnymen

Out digitally this month in line with the UK release, Editors’ new one In This Light & On This Evening will get a proper physical North American release on January 19 and will yet-to-be-specified bonus material not available on the UK release. This news comes the day my import of the UK release arrives, of course.

altsounds talks to Charlotte Hatherley about her new record New Worlds. Stereogum also has a new song from the record available to newsletter subscribers and a brief chat with Charlotte about the tune.

The Quietus has an interview with Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine and walks away unimpressed. Massive commenting ensues. Florence plays the Mod Club on November 2.

Paste catches up with Alasdair Maclean of The Clientele.

The Daily Growl solicits a list of seven songs from Rose Elinor Dougall.

Spinner talks to The Horrors.

eMusic and Interview have features on El Perro Del Mar, who’s just released a new video from her latest album Love Is Not Pop. She opens for Peter Bjorn & John at the Phoenix on November 11.

Video: El Perro Del Mar – “Change Of Heart”

Chartattack, The Detroit News, Metro and NOW chat with The Raveonettes. They’re at the Phoenix tonight.

HeroHill gets five funky stories from Iceland’s Sprengjuhollin, who have two dates in Toronto this weekend – Saturday night at the Rivoli and Sunday at Rancho Relaxo.

Nic ShonfeldI’ve described – in spirit, if not precise words – The Twilight Sad’s debut album Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters as a sonically monolithic slab of angst, a crescendo sustained over 40 minutes, the sound of a man standing on a Scottish cliff face, arms raised and bellowing against the world. And also one of my favourite records of 2007.

Needless to say, the follow-up was anxiously awaited and though the release of a couple EPs and a collection of live tracks and rarities certainly helped make that wait bearable, that material also came largely from the timeframe of the debut. Which was fine, but didn’t really help answer the question of what sort of direction the band would take for album number two, because as much as I liked the debut, duplicating that recipe almost certainly wouldn’t work again, or at least yield greatly diminished returns and I believed them to be capable of so much more.

And while their set opening up for Mogwai back in May offered a tantalizing preview of the new material, only proper listens to Forget The Night Ahead prove that faith to be justified. With it, the band have largely managed to maintain the immensity of sound that defined Autumns, but have shed enough sonic and emotional weight to be more nimble, more dynamic. And in doing so, the Twilight Sad have opened up space for James Graham’s more sophisticated songwriting to come to the fore. Whereas the lyrics on Autumns were more on the impenetrably abstract side, Night is more evocative in imagery, almost cinematic, and less opaque while remaining sufficiently inscrutability. And glum and depressed as hell. That’s crucial.

Obviously Night doesn’t offer quite the same gut punch of discovery that Autumns – it can’t – but it may well be the superior record. That’s a subjective call, but it does prove that The Twilight Sad have more than one trick in their arsenal, or they’ve figured out how to get even more mileage out of that one. Either way, consider the sophomore slump evaded and The Twilight Sad a band to hopefully soundtrack many more nights of sitting in a dark corner, rocking gently back and forth.

The Twilight Sad are entering the second half of a North American tour that brings them to the El Mocambo on October 10. Exclaim piggybacked a short interview with Graham onto their review of the record and Clash solicited a song-by-song annotation from the band to go with their stream of the album.

MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Reflection Of The Television”
Video: The Twilight Sad – “I Became A Prostitute”
Stream: The Twilight Sad / Forget The Night Ahead
MySpace: The Twilight Sad

Also currently streaming is Richard Hawley’s new one Truelove’s Gutter. It’s excellent. In case you were wondering. There’s interviews at The Chester Chronicle and Shields Gazette and Clash asks him how he’d spend his last day on Earth.

Stream: Richard Hawley / Truelove’s Gutter

JAM and Metro talk to Arctic Monkeys. The band also stopped in for a session at MPR.

Check out the third single from former Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall’s forthcoming solo record Without Why, due out next year. I know that the point of pre-release singles is to build anticipation for the record, but in this case it’s working especially well – all three so far have been quite great.

MP3: Rose Elinor Dougall – “Fallen Over”

Music Snobbery and The Derby Telegraph interview Noah & The Whale, whose First Days Of Spring will be out in North America on October 6 and who play the Horseshoe on October 31. The album is also currently streaming at NPR.

Stream: Noah & The Whale / First Days Of Spring

Exclaim and Out interview Little Boots.

Alasdair MacLean discusses The Clientele’s new record Bonfires On The Heath with Spinner and Exclaim while multi-instrumentalist Mel Draisey talks to Rocksellout. The album is out October 6.

BBC gets a status update from The Futureheads on their next record.

The San Francisco Examiner, Pioneer Press and The Georgia Straight welcome Manic Street Preachers to North America for their first tour in a decade. Need I mention how stoked I am for this Sunday’s show at the Phoenix?

Remember when Blur who was saying that their reunion might yield more shows or an album? Not anymore. Alas. But hey, he has a new solo video. Which is almost as good. Almost.

Video: Graham Coxon – “Dead Bees”

BBC and Spinner talk to Ian Brown about his new record My Way. Exclaim also reports that he’s working with Johnny Marr on a television soundtrack.

Rolling Stone and Interview talk to Bad Lieutenant’s Bernard Sumner.

Frank YangWith a lead-up week that had included rather insane shows from each of Patrick Wolf, Phoenix and The Dead Weather, it wasn’t surprising that I was half-dead before NXNE even began this year. I don’t even want to speculate what kind of shape I’d been in if I hadn’t taken the week off from work. But the will and energy to hit the clubs would be found. Somehow.

There were many options to kick things off, but I opted for the secret-but-not-really show at the Whipper Snapper Gallery featuring Los Angeles duo No Age. I wasn’t especially won over by last year’s Nouns but had heard good things about their live show and the venue’s location would allow me to grab a tasty panzerottti at Bitondo’s. I say the show was not really secret because though the festival tried to keep it under wraps, it had been listed on the band’s booking agency’s website for over a week. But considering the modest-sized turnout, maybe it had been kept under wraps better than I’d thought. As for the show, I found the duo more entertaining live than on record, exchanging their lo-fi white noise sonic signature for something louder and meatier. Song-wise, it all sounded a blur but it was fun to watch them revel in the noise as well as pull off one of the most seamless broken guitar string changes I’ve ever seen. Metro has an interview with the band.

Photos: No Age @ The Whipper Snapper Gallery – June 18, 2009
MP3: No Age – “Neck Escaper”
MP3: No Age – “Eraser”
Video: No Age – “Eraser”
Video: No Age – “Boy Void”
Video: No Age – “Goat Hurt”
MySpace: No Age

From the Whipper Snapper, it was a short jaunt over to Neutral to welcome Austin’s Ume to town. They were one of the best things I saw at SxSW this year and I was very pleased that they’d made the long trip up to Toronto. I was also pleased that a very good-sized crowd of people were there to greet them and that the band managed to get their A-game across the border. Just as in Austin, singer-guitarist Lauren Larson was a dervish, her voice ranging from a coo to a shriek and her guitar chops several degrees past ridiculous as the band powered through selections from their Sunshower EP and some new material. In the few instances I was able to tear my eyes from the stage, I saw that others in the audience with that same look of “holy shit” I’m sure I was wearing back in March – pure rock action. Pure Grain Audio has an interview.

Photos: Ume @ Neutral – June 18, 2009
MP3: Ume – “Pendulum”
MP3: Ume – “The Conductor”
MP3: Ume – “Wake”
Video: Ume – “The Conductor”
MySpace: Ume

There were a few options for the next show, but the mental coin flip came up Kittens Ablaze, a Brooklyn act slated to play the Rivoli. Between them and Finnish outfit Cats On Fire, I detect a disturbing trend in pop bands with feline immolation-themed names. This particular one was a six-piece ensemble whom it would be impossible not to compare to Ra Ra Riot thanks to their near-identical band makeups and penchant for dizzying, uptempo orch-pop. They didn’t have the same quality of tunes, but were able to convey the sense of fun they were obviously having to the audience and made for a good time. NOW talked to the outfit before the festival.

Photos: Kittens Ablaze @ The Rivoli – June 18, 2009
MP3: Kittens Ablaze – “Gloom Doom Buttercups”
Video: Kittens Ablaze – “Strobelight”
MySpace: Kittens Ablaze

It’s not that long a haul from the Rivoli to Clinton’s by bike, but it certainly felt like it. I dragged my ass to basically the most northwest-located venue of the fest to see locals The Darcys, who’d been on my to-see list for a while. Now a lot of bands list Radiohead as an influence, which sadly usually means that the singer thinks that he’s got a great falsetto and some profound angst that needs to be expressed and thus, are generally meant to be given a wide berth. The Darcys do NOT list Radiohead as an influence (at least on their MySpace), but they were the first reference point I came up with. Not because singer Kirby Best has either a falsetto or angst (he may, I don’t know) but because of the the band’s innate creativity and their remarkably intricate arrangements of their three-guitar attack. I couldn’t help thinking that if the ‘Head had gone into their more introverted post-OK Computer phase with guitars still at the fore, The Darcys are the sort of band they’d have influenced. The recordings on their 2007 album Endless Water don’t really reflect what I heard on Thursday night – I very much look forward to what they’ll put out next.

Photos: The Darcys @ Clinton’s – June 18, 2009
MySpace: The Darcys

Anyone who missed Metric’s set at Edgefest this weekend can console themselves a bit with this full concert stream from DC last week at NPR and this session at MPR.

Islands have released details of their next album, Vapours, due out September 22. They’ll play a free show as part of Pride 2009 at the corner of Church and Wood on June 27.

Bonfires On The Heath, the new album from The Clientele, has been given a release date of October 6. Full details at Pitchfork.

Matador is streaming the whole of the God Help The Girl album of the same name, in stores tomorrow.

Stream: God Help The Girl / God Help The Girl

The Yorker has an interview with Patrick Wolf.

Emmy The Great has re-recorded a batch of songs which had been kicking around for a while but didn’t make it onto First Love, including favourites “Canopies & Grapes” and “Two Steps Forward”. Edward EP (First Songs) is out July 27 digitally and on 12″ vinyl, and will also be added to all future copies of First Love.

Bloc Party will be releasing a new non-album single on August 10. Well, not taken from any album we know of – yet. You can stream it at Pitchfork.

Stream: Bloc Party – “One More Chance”

There are new videos out from Lily Allen, Rose Elinor Dougall and Franz Ferdinand. Perhaps you would like to watch one, two or perhaps all three. I have provided links. You are welcome.

Video: Lily Allen – “Fuck You”
Video: Rose Elinor Dougall – “Stop/Start/Synchro”
Video: Franz Ferdinand / No You Girls

I can’t say as I’m that familiar with his works, but I do know that ’70s Detroit-based, psych/folk protest singer Sixto Rodriguez – who worked as just Rodriguez – is held in very high esteem by people whose opinions I respect. His two previously lost albums Cold Fact and Coming From Reality were reissued in super-deluxe format last year, and he’s been hitting the road to support – including a just-announced July 3 free show at Harbourfront Centre as part of their Hot Spot festival. I get the feeling that even if you don’t know his work, this is a show you will want to see.

MP3: Rodriguez – “Sugar Man”

Built To Spill return to Lee’s Palace for a two-night stand on October 6 and 7. Their new record There Is No Enemy is due out right about then as well.

The resurrected Jesus Lizard is coming to town – they’re at the Phoenix on November 9, tickets $20.

Nick Thornton Jones/Warren Du PreezBelieve it or not, Patrick Wolf is really just like the rest of us – he gets lonely, insecure and frustrated with life and at the end of the day, just wants to be loved. It just so happens that he’s also a 6’4″ musical prodigy with a penchant for melodrama, a sartorial sense that ranges from the unusual to the outrageous and whose inner monologue of self-affirmation sounds an awful lot like Tilda Swinton.

His new album The Bachelor – out in the UK and digitally in North America now and getting a physical release here on August 11 – is dizzying sonic mash-up of facet of Wolf’s works, from the gothic electronica of Lycanthropy through Wind In The Wires‘ ghostly folk to The Magic Position‘s giddy techniclour pop, all wrapped around the very basic theme of Wolf wondering if he’ll ever find love. In the hands of some, the collision of all these sounds might be a cacophonous mess, especially when you add in the electro-industrial textures of Alec Empire, but with Wolf it somehow sounds perfectly natural to veer from Celtic folk to 8-bit synth-pop, all of it swathed in strings and Wolf’s dramatic, emotive baritone – the enormity of his creative vision unable to be confined by any single genre. The man thinks in widescreen – no, IMAX – and the breadth of The Bachelor is simply intended to capture it in all its grandiose, over the top glory.

Wolf’s larger than life aesthetic isn’t for everyone, certainly, but for those who allow themselves to be swept up in Wolf’s epic creations, The Bachelor seems a watershed record for the young auteur. There’s never been any question that Wolf has had a very clear idea of what he’s wanted to say and how he wants to say it, but with The Bachelor, there’s the sense that the listener is now hearing what Wolf himself hears – it sounds like the sum of all his previous works, blended into one concise, chaotic statement. Though initially disappointed that the double-album Battle was split into two albums and the second part, the triumphant The Conqueror, pushed back to 2010, I suspect that’s now for the best. The Bachelor is so rich and dense that if the companion record is nearly as good – and I really hope it is – it’d really be too much to absorb. I think I’ve managed to avoid this sort of hyperbole for the year so far, so I’ll give myself a cookie now – The Bachelor will almost certainly be one of my favourite albums of the year. Just watch.

Wolf is currently on tour in North America as part of the Nylon Summer Music Tour alongside The Living Things, The Plastiscines and Jaguar Love and will be at the Mod Club in Toronto on June 17. And, courtesy of REMG, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Patrick Wolf” in the subject line and your full name in the body. The contest will close at midnight, June 14.

There’s features on Wolf at The Skinny, The Quietus, Clash and Decider, videos of a couple of exclusive acoustic performances at Out and a behind-the-scenes feature on the making of the glow-in-the-dark video for “Hard Times” has emerged.

MP3: Patrick Wolf – “Who Will?” (Buffet Libre mix)
Video: Patrick Wolf – “Hard Times”
Video: Patrick Wolf – “Vulture”
MySpace: Patrick Wolf

God Help The Girl has released one more MP3 from the forthcoming album – out June 23 – that should be extra-familiar to Belle & Sebastian fans. It also offers a pretty good reference point for how God Help The Girl differs from Belle & Sebastian, and how it’s alike.

MP3: God Help The Girl – “Funny Little Frog”

Under The Radar interviews former Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall, who is putting the finishing touches on her solo debut, due out later this year.

MP3: Rose Elinor Dougall – “May Holiday”

The Horrors talk to The Independent about being outsiders.

Sonic Youth Week is underway at PitchforkTV – first up is an A>D>D session with the band featuring a couple tracks from The Eternal, out tomorrow. They’re at Massey Hall on June 30.

Minnesota Public Radio has been on a roll with the studio sessions – last week they welcomed Jenny Lewis and also St Vincent, the latter of whom is at the Horseshoe on August 8 and was interviewed by The Chicago Tribune.

Pitchfork has details on a forthcoming Jayhawks anthology Music From The North Country, due out July 7. It’ll be available in standard and deluxe editions, the latter of which includes a disc of rarities and a DVD of the band’s videos.

The Georgia Straight and The Santa Barbara Independent talk to with Jens Lekman.

Two-thirds of the new A Camp covers EP, out tomorrow, is available to hear right now. Stream their Grace Jones cover at Spin and their Pink Floyd cover at Spinner. There’s interviews with the band at 2 Advocate, The Denver Post and The Montreal Mirror.

If you couldn’t be at The Radio Dept’s show in New York last month – and judging from the number of curses sent my way, there were a few of you – here’s the next best thing. Not one, but two live recordings of their set at the Bell House in Brooklyn, one from Bradley’s Almanac and another by a fan but made available at the band’s website.

Via Audio and Ha Ha Tonka will be at the Horseshoe on June 23 for a free show as part of Nu Music Nite.

MP3: Via Audio – “Developing Active People”
MP3: Via Audio – “Presents”
MP3: Ha Ha Tonka – “St. Nick On The Fourth In A Fervor”

Deleted Scenes will be at Sneaky Dee’s on July 5 as part of Wavelength.

MP3: Deleted Scenes – “Turn To Sand”
MP3: Deleted Scenes – “Fake IDs”

Ra Ra Riot have a date at Lee’s Palace on September 11, tickets $13.50.

MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Dying Is Fine”
MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Each Year” (EP version)

The mighty Bob Mould will bring his Life & Times to the Mod Club on October 5, tickets $22.50.

MP3: Bob Mould – “City Lights (Days Go By)”

Steve GullickWhen I first wrote up Scotland’s Glasvegas, I went so far as to declare “there’s definitely something there” – a summation that would prove to be a bit of an understatement. Their debut self-title would turn out to be a massive hit in the UK, charting as high as #2 and going gold, making them easily one of the breakthrough acts of 2008 on that side of the pond.

Having acquired a copy of the album on import, it’s not hard to see why. They’ve learned their lessons from the Phil Spector school of pop but unlike many of their cohort, who’ve chosen to take things in a primitivist direction, they’ve taken that wall of sound and built a stadium out of it. Glasvegas is an utterly massive-sounding record, with sky-high sheets of guitar and cavernously echoing drums, but most of all singer James Allan’s huge and mournful bellow. Truly, this is stuff tailor-made to be sung-along with by tens of thousands.

And as they sing along, one would hope they’re too caught up in the moment to realize just how awful the words they’re singing are. Actually that’s overly harsh. Only some of the lyrics on Glasvegas are truly awful. In an effort to make the songs as broad and earnest as possible, Allan has eschewed any sort of lyrical finesse and instead relates things in the simplest, most literal and direct means available. Now sometimes this works – his delivery, all anguish and brogue, is a blunt instrument and when it hits, it’s a gut-wrenching body blow. But when it doesn’t – and I don’t think there’s any good way to present a line like “You don’t want to stab me/You don’t know my family/Or our capabilities” (taken from the Beethoven-backed song about someone about to be stabbed entitled, creatively, “Stabbed”) – it just sits there in all its awkward glory.

So it’s saying something when an avowed fan of clever and wordy songsmithery such as myself is still able to be won over by something as decidedly not as Glasvegas. Despite all its flaws, it’s undeniably rousing in the way that the very best anthems are, and Allan sings it with such earnestness and conviction that it’s hard to remain that critical. Some of the words may be graceless, but when it’s turned up loud and you’re singing them at the top of your lungs with everyone else, you don’t notice so much.

Even so, Glasvegas’ appeal has a distinctly British accent – I can envision them playing soccer stadiums, but not football, and the streets of America are littered with the bodies of acts who tried to recreate UK successes on this side of the pond. But they’re still going to try. Glasvegas will release their debut Stateside on January 6, bolstered with two bonus tracks, and coincide it with a short North American tour and some choice late-night television appearances. Their first US release, however, will technically be the A Snowflake Fell Christmas EP which is being made available via certain US independent retailers to anyone who pre-orders the album – full details and a live download of “Daddy’s Gone” available here. No idea if this deal is available in Canada, however.

The Belfast Telegraph, The Independent and The Telegraph have features on the band and their rise to stardom, The Daily Star talks to the band about their Christmas EP and Deadline Scotland gets a timeline for album number two.

Video: Glasvegas – “Please Come Back Home”
Video: Glasvegas – “Daddy’s Gone”
Video: Glasvegas – “Geraldine”
MySpace: Glasvegas

Drowned In Sound checks in with some other Scots who’ve had a big year – Frightened Rabbit. And even though they just released a live acoustic album in Liver! Lung! FR!, DiS also report that another one will be coming next year on March 30 in the form of Quietly Now! – Midnight Organ Fight Live and Acoustic at the Captain’s Rest, which comprises a live and acoustic reading of The Midnight Organ Fight.

Having just released her first post-Pipettes single in “Another Version Of Pop Song”, Rose Elinor Dougall is offering a sample of her forthcoming solo album, which is set to finish recording in January and hopefully come out come Summer. I daresay that the solo material sounds quite classy – there is indeed life after polka dots.

MP3: Rose Elinor Dougall – “May Holiday”

BBC gets a new album update from Noah & The Whale. BrooklynVegan notes that the band have a late February date in New York City, which may mean that a make-up for their cancelled December jaunt to North America is being rescheduled. Or they just want to visit New York.

I’ve just made a new year’s resolution – to take the time to properly investigate Tindersticks. They’ve been recommended to me from more than a few quarters and it’s not like I have any excuse – I have a number of their albums on hand, including their latest The Hungry Saw, as well as a solo Stuart Staples album, and hey – they’re coming to town for a March 10 show at the Opera House. It’d be a crying shame if I finally got into them AFTER that, wouldn’t it? Full North American dates at BrooklynVegan, interviews at Prague Post and The Irish Independent.

MP3: Tindersticks – “The Hungry Saw”

The Quietus talks to Warren Ellis about goings-on with The Bad Seeds and Grinderman.

Billboard talks to Aaron Dessner of The National about the follow-up to Boxer and the Dark Was the Night AIDS benefit album due out February 17.

Heroes, the War Child benefit album originally slated to come out in November, has now been given a release dae of February 16. Details at NME.