Frank YangIt’s far too easy to be cynical about Glasvegas. Emerging from the UK as they did last year on a massive wave of hype with a sound that was unabashedly retro and a matching ’50s-greaser gang image, the Glasgow-based quartet were quick targets for those who wanted to dismiss them as contrived and calculated, not that that stopped them from topping the charts and becoming massive at home.

For my part, I went from intrigued on first listen to mildly suspicious after spending time with their self-titled debut and then somewhat won over following their daylight SxSW set. At the time, I figured that seeing them in neutral environs such as a SxSW day show, stripped of their light show and adoring fans, would provide a truer indication if they were for real or not. And yes they sold me, but it wasn’t until Friday night’s show at the Mod Club – their long-awaited Toronto debut – that I realized what I was missing out on by skipping the formal sales pitch.

Glasvegas are not ashamed to aspire to stadium-scale grandeur, with massive Spector-via-JAMC sonics and anthemic choruses designed to rouse the cheap seats and while the Mod Club is hardly Wembley Stadium, packed as it was with fans hollering along with every song, it wasn’t far off. From the opening notes of “Geraldine” through end end of their just under an hour-long set, it was clear that Glasvegas weren’t there to convince anyone they were a great band – they were there to celebrate that as fact with those who already knew it. Looking not a little bit Strummer and clad in a leather jacket (later swapped for a tank top and donated tartan scarf), frontman James Allan displayed dollops of rock star charisma, basking in the adoration of the audience but returning every bit of it right back to the crowd.

It was the sort of rapport that made me ashamed to have ever questioned the sincerity of the band. That doesn’t necessarily excuse some of the overly-direct earnestness of the songwriting, but it does mitigate it. Seeing and hearing Allan bellow the words with unquestionable emotion, no matter how clumsy, then back off while the enraptured audience take over while more than matching his passion… yes, on paper it’s kind of cliche but in person? It’s still pretty stirring. The band will probably always have more than it’s share of critics and naysayers, but I know where I stand now – over there with the other folks singing, “here we fucking go”.

The Toronto Sun has a glowing review of the show and reports that the band will be back this Fall, eye has another review. Music Snobbery has an interview with the band. And congrats go to Jarita, Ashlee and Mark who won the signed Glasvegas albums.

Photos: Glasvegas @ The Mod Club – April 3, 2009
Video: Glasvegas – “Please Come Back Home”
Video: Glasvegas – “Daddy’s Gone”
Video: Glasvegas – “Geraldine”
MySpace: Glasvegas

NME has a video interview and The Line Of Best Fit and The Herald text ones with Doves. Kingdom Of Rust is out tomorrow, they play the Kool Haus on June 1.

Tourdates UK talks to Emmy The Great.

Maximo Park have released the first video from their forthcoming album Quicken The Heart, out May 12.

Video: Maximo Park – “The Kids Are Sick Again”

And also with a new video are The Joy Formidable for their latest single “Whirring”, off the excellent A Balloon Called Moaning.

Video: The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”

Drowned In Sound chats with Ryan Adams on the occasion of his retirement from the world of music. He interviews Marianne Faithfull for Black Book while The Guardian profiles Adams and other rockers turned authors including Nick Cave and Billy Bragg.

The Hold Steady are offering up an MP3 from their new live album A Positive Rage, out tomorrow.

MP3: The Hold Steady – “Chips Ahoy” (live)

I saw almost 50 shows at SxSW this year, but one of the ones I missed – and regret – was The Uglysuit, who only played like three shows. Could they not have taken one of the Vivian Girls’ two dozen shows? They’ve released a new MP3 from their fine 2008 self-titled debut, reviewed here.

MP3: The Uglysuit – “…And We Became Sunshine”

Paste and The Skinny catch up with The Thermals. Their new one Now We Can See is out tomorrow and currently streaming at their MySpace. They’re at the Horseshoe on May 3.

Stream: The Thermals – “Now We Can See”

Blurt, BBC1, The New York Times and Filter have profiles on The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Askmen talks to Metric’s Emily Haines. Their new album Fantasies is out tomorrow, they play an in-store at HMV on Yonge St on Thursday and a show at the Mod Club next Tuesday.

I Heart Music is sharing MP3s of the CBC Fuse session with The Sadies and The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie from a couple years ago. I saw them team up at the Horseshoe in December 2007 and it was intense. The Sadies’ new album backing John Doe, Country Club, is out April 14 and they play the Horseshoe together on April 30. The Tragically Hip’s new one We Are The Same is out this week and they have a six-night stand at Massey Hall the week of May 11.

WOXY has posted MP3s from a slew of Lounge Act sessions recorded during SxSW, including sets from The Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart, Ume and The Wooden Birds. They also welcomed The Rural Alberta Advantage in for a session last week.

PitchforkTV is streaming the new Arcade Fire documentary Miroir Noir, which is now available in DVD form.

Soundproof has a guest column from Alan McGee wondering why people would actually want The Stone Roses to reunite.

The National Post has an interview with yours truly about blogs and stuff and includes what I hope is one of the worst pictures of me in existence. If anyone tells me that’s actually a good photo, I will despair.

Frank YangI don’t think many would argue the fact that Ryan Adams’ skull must be a fascinating and somewhat frightening place to be – probably less an efficient expressway than a random series of backwoods laneways, dead ends and cul de sacs. His entire career has been marked with odd public behaviour, countless career left turns, bizarre online personas and an incomparable creative prolificness punctuated with with moments of brilliance. Or put more succinctly, the man is batshit but it works for him.

And apparently he’s tired of it. He announced earlier this year that he was retiring from music after the end of this current tour, which wraps this Friday in Atlanta, and will instead be turning his attention to his burgeoning career as an author and new wife Mandy Moore. It’d be foolish to assume that this shift in professions will be permanent – a man who put out three albums in a year is not someone who can just hang it up – but it looks as though we might have a little less DRA to gawk at for the next while.

This Sonic Youth cover was a regular part of he and the Cardinals’ repertoire in the mid-00s, an interesting detour in a set heavy with Grateful Dead-ish numbers. This particular recording dates to a July 2005 show in Melbourne, Australia. Sonic Youth’s next album The Eternal is due out on June 9.

MP3: Ryan Adam – “Expressway To Yr Skull”
Video: Sonic Youth – “Expressway To Yr Skull” (live @ Bonnaroo 2006)

WrensFor most bands, a gap of five and half years and counting since your last record would be cause for concern amongst the fanbase, but for The Wrens it seems right on schedule. The Meadowlands came out way back in September 2003 and that was a full seven years since their previous effort Secaucus, though that was as much the fault of their evil label as anyone else. None of this, of course, makes it any easier for fans eager to hear something new from the band.

But things are finally afoot, perhaps spurred by the good-natured fun that Magnet was having at their expense. They’ve begun recording album number four and have marked the occasion by releasing a new song entitled “Pulled Fences”, recorded live at Abbey Road studios in England and available digitally. Of course, the fact that they’ve only just BEGUN recording means that we likely won’t see any new material this year (it’s sad to be writing off the year in January) but at least it’s finally happening.

And if you needed some reminding of why hearing from Wrens again is cause for celebration, dig into their audio/visual vault.

MP3: The Wrens – “Everyone Choose Sides”
MP3: The Wrens – “This Machine”
MP3: The Wrens – “Built In Girls”
MP3: The Wrens – “Grey Complexion”

Loney Dear previews the release of Dear John on January 27 with a Bandstand Busking performance.

MP3: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”

And maybe while they were playing, this Black Cab carrying a warbling Ryan Adams drove by. Hey, could have happened.

CNN discusses Sweden, Cardigans and A Camp with Nina Persson. Colonia, the new A Camp record, is out February 2 in Europe and April 28 in North America.

Scotland On Sunday, The Independent and New York Magazine have features on Antony & The Johnsons, whose new album The Crying Light isn’t out until next week, but is available to stream now at Spinner. They play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on February 17.

Stream: Antony & The Johnsons / The Crying Light

Franz Ferdinand recently released the new video from their new album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, out January 27. They also released an EPK video about the record.

Video: Franz Ferdinand – “Ulysses”

The Boston Globe discusses the touring life with Frightened Rabbit.

The Quietus reports that Bat For Lashes’ sophomore effort Two Suns will be released on April 6.

Jason Lytle, ex of Grandaddy, recently recorded an acoustic session for Maps.

MP3: Jason Lytle – “Birds Encouraged Him” (live on Maps)

Blurt has the complete tracklisting for the star-laden, covers-heavy War Child: Heroes compilation due out on February 24.

The old inbox was simply overflowing with concert and tour announcements yesterday… in chronological order – A Brooklyn double-bill of High Places and Soft Circle will be at the Horseshoe on February 9, tickets $10.

Mekon and Waco Brother Jon Langford has a date at the Horseshoe on February 27. Ticket details forthcoming.

Lisa Hannigan, formerly a singer with Damien Rice but now gone solo with the release of Sea Sew on February 3, will be hitting the road this Winter and be at the Mod Club on March 1, tickets $15. The Times ran a feature on her last month.

Bloc Party have added a second show at the Kool Haus, this one on March 13, to go along with the previously-announced and presumably almost sold-out March 14 date. Tickets $35.

Also on the 13th and also a Canadian Musicfest show, Handsome Furs are at the Horseshoe. Exclaim reports that their new album Face Control has been pushed back from its originally-announced February 3 release date to March 10. The duo talked to Black Book about the new record back in December.

Clem Snide, presumed dead but apparently not, will release Hungry Bird on February 24 and follow that up with a tour that stops in at the El Mocambo on March 21. Tickets for that are $10.50.

Great Lake Swimmers will follow up the March 31 release of Lost Channels on March 31 with a show at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on April 25, tickets $20.

Stefano GiovanniniDepending on how familiar you are with early-’90s American college rock, Gramercy Arms’ resume will either read impressively or anonymously. Led by former Dambuilders honcho Dave Derby, the New York-based outfit also boasts drummer Kevin March (also Dambuilders and the final lineup of Guided By Voices), guitarist Sean Eden (of the late, loved Luna), guitarist Hilken Mancini (Boston power-poppers Fuzzy) and bassist Rainy Orteca (also of Joan As Policewoman, who aren’t circa ’90s but whose Joan Wasser was also in the Dambuilders). So to say there’s many lifetimes of playing dingy clubs wound into their collective DNA would be an understatement, and that doesn’t even begin to include the number of guest stars who appear on their recordings.

But save for Derby and Manicini, none were ever frontpersons or even main songwriters for their respective bands so to expect Gramercy Arms to sound like any sort of amalgam of their histories would be unfair. And it’s just as well, because they really don’t. Their self-titled debut – released this past Summer in the UK and set for a March 3, 2009 domestic release – is like an east coast interpretation of west coast pop. The mood is light and breezy, but whether by design or circumstance doesn’t sound as sun-kissed as one might expect, nor as eccentric.

Those who come to the band from an affection for the participants’ past works may be somewhat disappointed at how conventional the power pop on offer is. For myself, if I wasn’t told that Sean Eden was on this record I probably wouldn’t have known from casual listening. His idiosyncratic guitar genius is mostly kept restrained, and was put to far better use with Elk City. But as stated above, it’s unfair to come to Gramercy Arms with such weight of expectation and taken for what they do, there’s still much to like for aficionados of guitar pop. But really, would one more ripping Eden solo have been too much to ask?

The Guardian made Gramercy Arms their band of the day back in June. And the band made a Christmas tune featuring Mascott’s Kendall Jane Meade on vocals. Grab it before it’s just so out of season that it’s awkward to listen to.

MP3: Gramercy Arms – “Automatic”
MP3: Gramercy Arms – “Looking At The Sun”
MP3: Gramercy Arms with Kendall Jane Meade – “This Christmastime”
MySpace: Gramercy Arms

The Acorn have put together a little holiday gift for their fans in the form of Ear Worms, a collection of 12 songs 30 seconds in length each, and Little Elms, a short 4-song EP. Both are available for free download at their website right now.

ZIP: The Acorn / Ear Worms
ZIP: The Acorn / Little Elms

Arcade Fire are offering a free download of an unreleased track in exchange for your email address.

Magnet reports that Bob Mould will be releasing a new solo album, still untitled, on April 7, and are going so far as to call it his best record since Sugar’s File Under: Easy Listening. That there’s some high praise – be interesting to see if its warranted.

New Jersey Springsteen/punk acolytes who’ve been popping up on no shortage of year-end lists, The Gaslight Anthem will be a the Opera House on March 20, tickets $15.50.

AOL Sessions is currently featuring an in-studio performance from Ryan Adams.

Spin asks tough questions of The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne. He also gives Exclaim! a list of reasons why Christmas is great, be it on Mars or wherever. And head over here to see some fun behind the scenes footage of the Lips’ recording of the NBC promo theme/jingle-thing. You know, the three notes thing. Whatever that’s called.