Roger DeckkerA little before the holidays rolled in, Swedish songstress Lykke Li gave her fans an early Christmas gift by releasing a three-song EP of stripped-down versions of this year’s Wounded Rhymes. They’re decidedly spare and more downbeat than the finished versions, but if you liked the moodiness that pervaded her second album, then you might well like these versions better than the album versions because they’ve got shadowy atmosphere to spare.

And if the version of “Jerome” sounds familiar, it’s because a video of the performance of “Jerome” came out in the early part of the year – which implies that there might well be more videos lurking in her vaults, just as the Volume 1 implies there might be more songs to give away; perhaps to keep folks interested while she works on album number three.

MP3: Lykke Li – “I Follow Rivers” (The Lost Sessions, Vol. 1)
MP3: Lykke Li – “Jerome” (The Lost Sessions, Vol. 1)
MP3: Lykke Li – “Youth Knows No Pain” (The Lost Sessions, Vol. 1)
Video: Lykke Li – “Jerome” (The Lost Sessions, Vol. 1)
Stream: Lykke Li / The Lost Sessions, Vol. 1

Also offering gifts from Sweden were Stockholm pop outfit Acid House Kings, who offered a free download (and a remix) of one of the highlights of their delicious 2011 release The Music Sounds Better With You, a record I didn’t get around to reviewing but which is, indeed, delicious. And with this offering, that’s three of the album’s ten tracks available as free downloads via Labrador… those Swedes are generous folk.

MP3: Acid House Kings – “Are We Lovers Or Are We Friends?”
MP3: Acid House Kings – “Would You Say Stop?”
MP3: Acid House Kings – “(I’m In) A Chorus Line”
MP3: Acid House Kings – “(I’m In) A Chorus Line” (Dave DaG remix)

Filter chats with Adam Olenius and Markus Krunegård of Serenades.

jj have released a new video. Yes, it’s weird.

Video: jj – “VI”

“Lúppulagið” – the one new song included on Sigur Ros’ Inni live album – is now available to download.

MP3: Sigur Ros – “Lúppulagið”

And Jonsi has released a video for one of the songs on the We Bought A Zoo original soundtrack. Have you seen the film? I think they buy a zoo.

Video: Jonsi – “Gathering Stories”

The Irish Times, Daily Record, and The Skinny talk to Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream.

Bandstand Busking reaches back to the Summer for a session with Veronica Falls; they’re at The Garrison on February 14.

Lanterns On The Lake offer a list of their favourite records to DIY, chats with The Irish Independent and play a session for Beatcast.

The Quietus marks the twentieth anniversary of Teenage Fanclub’s classic Bandwagonesque.

Want to hear an early demo version of a new xx song? No? Then don’t click on the link below. And then the play button on the page that link leads to.

Stream: The xx – “Open Eyes”

Elbow have announced deluxe reissues of their second and third albums for next year; 2003′s Cast Of Thousands and 2005′s Leaders Of The Free World will be released on March 5 with a second disc of period-correct bonus material and a DVD of videos and live performances.

Frank YangIt’s hard to believe it was only a month ago that I was roaming the streets of Reykjavik, getting ready to dive headlong into Iceland Airwaves. Not that long ago, but enough to welcome a reminder of how much fun it all was, which I got from the Toronto Iceland Arts Festival at the El Mocambo on Sunday night, which as part of its celebration of all things Icelandic included the importing of a couple of the country’s finest up-and-coming bands.

I had thought that being the relative veterans, For A Minor Reflection would close out the evening but the quartet was instead up first, perhaps as a public service announcement as to what happens when you forget your earplugs at home. Which is to say they were loud. Really loud. But then volume is necessarily part of the equation for instrumental post-rock bands, and that’s unequivocally what For A Minor Reflection are – imagine Explosions In The Sky without the foreplay, combined with some of the hard rock riffage of Mogwai and you’re about there. Though more dynamic and punishing live than on record, they push no boundaries but are instead deft and enthusiastic practitioners of what’s already been mapped. Or in more appropriate cinematic terms, they’re a genre film that stays true to formula but is superbly executed and thrills all the same.

Of Monsters & Men were the first band I saw at Airwaves and the experience gave me a crash course in just how rabid Icelandic music fans were. Though the band had only just released their first album domestically in My Head Is An Animal, NASA – one of the city’s larger venues – was jammed with fans and the atmosphere was electric. I would later come to understand just how hot this seven-piece was their native land, having just signed a worldwide deal with Universal and being tapped to be the country’s next big musical export. Starting, it would seem, with Canada.

Though the crowd was obviously smaller than they had in Reykjavik, there were still at least a few hundred people in attendance and to judge from their enthusiasm, many seemed to already count themselves as big fans of the band. And it’s not hard to understand why – though I maintain their sound is easily summed up as Stars meets Fanfarlo, thanks to their catchy tunes, big arrangements and the boy-girl lead vocals of Raggi Þórhallsson and Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, that should in no way diminish its catchiness or ability to inspire swoons from the listener. And while they clearly didn’t have far to go to win over the audience, they came across more focused than I found their hometown set as though they were bound and determined to impress. That was one reason I enjoyed this show more than the Airwaves one, the other being that I wasn’t distracted with trying to acclimate to the Airwaves experience – trust me, 800 screaming Viking descendants at your back are distracting.

Of Monsters & Men didn’t offer any timetable for when My Head Is An Animal might be available in Canada and blamed their not having any copies for sale on their own stupidity but made amends by burning sampler CD-Rs and tossing them into the audience; I know that physical media is passe these days, but it was still fun seeing folks scramble for the freebies. And it was also great to see that the phenomenon I witnessed at Airwaves, of foreign acts arriving in that country to play for the first time without knowing what to expect and being greeted by raving fans, worked in reverse as well.

I miss Iceland. Airwaves 2012 is already scheduled for October 31 to November 4 of next year. You should go.

Photos: Of Monsters & Men, For A Minor Reflection @ The El Mocambo – November 13, 2011
MP3: For A Minor Reflection – “Dansi Dans”
MP3: Of Monsters & Men – “Little Talks”
Video: For A Minor Reflection – “A Moll”

While director Vincent Morriset has handled most of the press duties surrounding the release of Sigur Rós’ live film and album Inni – out today – the band have stepped up to talk to The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, revealing that they’re intending to release a new album in the Spring. You can also watch a video of the band at a Q&A for the film at the British Film Institute.

And over at NPR, Jonsi has premiered a stream of a new song from the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe’s We Bought A Zoo, the album of which is out December 13.

Stream: Jonsi – “Gathering Stories”

NPR solicits a Tiny Desk Concert from Jens Lekman.

Beat has a quick Q&A with Niki & The Dove.

The San Francisco Chronicle talks to Lykke Li, in town at the Sound Academy tonight.

Head over to The Quietus to download a free compilation of Scandinavian tunes put together by Scandinavian music blog Ja Ja Ja.

France’s Herman Dune have made a date at The Horseshoe for January 19.

Video: Herman Dune – “Be A Doll And Take My Heart”

DIY talks to Twilight Sad frontman James Graham about their new album No One Can Ever Know, which has been given a release date of February 7 – Exclaim has details on the release and the first video from the album has just been made public.

Video: The Twilight Sad – “Sick”

Clash chats with Veronica Falls.

Los Campesinos! are celebrating the release of their new record Hello Sadness with a video for the title track.

Video: Los Campesinos! – “Hello Sadness”

Friendly Fires have released a new video from Pala.

Video: Friendly Fires – “Hurting”

Summer Camp have a new video for a song that doesn’t appear on their just-released debut Welcome To Condale; it was written for a nail polish. But don’t let that put you off – the song and the vid are both super-cute. JUST LIKE THE NAIL POLISH. Wait, what just happened.

Video: Summer Camp – “You Might Get Stuck On Me”

Emmy The Great and Tim Wheeler have premiered a video from their forthcoming This Is Christmas album over at The Guardian.

Video: Emmy The Great & Tim Wheeler – “Home For The Holidays”

And on the “oh no not the holidays already” tip, Darren Hayman has put his Christmas EP Christmas In Haworth up for stream and for sale. And less seasonally, he’s released a new video from his latest album The Ship’s Piano.

Video: Darren Hayman – “I Taught You How To Dance”
Stream: Darren Hayman / Christmas In Haworth

Ladytron have put out a new video from Gravity The Seducer; the band are profiled in The Signal and Rolling Stone.

Video: Ladytron – “Mirage”

The Quietus has an interview with Kate Bush, whose new record 50 Words For Snow is out next week.

Stream: Kate Bush / 50 Words For Snow

The Sydney Morning Herald talks to Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine.

Little Boots has released a stream of the first single from her forthcoming second album, presumably due in 2012. And a sort-of video. But probably not the real video.

Stream: Little Boots – “Shake”
Video: Little Boots – “Shake”

Le Blogotheque have posted a Take Away Show with Wild Beasts.

The Quietus talks to Esben & The Witch about their just-released Hexagons EP.

Noel Gallagher extends an olive branch to brother Liam, telling The Mirror that the guy who attacked him onstage in Toronto in 2008 should have been targeting his younger brother. All in jest. I think. He’s a little more on topic with music and his solo career in this chat with MusicRadar and offers a guide to life via MTV.

Over at The Telegraph, meanwhile, Liam Gallagher talks Beady Eye.

The Von Pip Musical Express interviews The Jezabels, in town at The Phoenix on November 24 and 25 supporting Hey Rosetta!.

Frank YangWhile I don’t expect anyone loses any sleep over anything I write, I feel compelled to offer a formal mea culpa for my thoughts on Loney Dear’s last record Dear John. Said review wasn’t a thumbs down by any means nor was it inaccurate, but “yeah it sounds like all his other stuff but that’s okay” now feels at best faint praise and at worst, dismissive. And considering how much I’ve grown to properly appreciate the work and vision of Emil Svanängen, I’d like to take the opportunity of Saturday night’s show at the Drake Underground in support of his latest album Hall Music to properly praise him.

As I mentioned, it’s true that all the Loney Dear albums share a similar vibe and dynamic – that of orchestrally ornate pop that ruminates on love and melancholy the ebbs and crests with Svanängen’s falsetto – but rather than imply a lack of new ideas, Svanängen continues to find new angles to observe from and depths and heights to explore within those parameters. That every one of his albums offer a fully-realized suite of songs and are as worthy a point of entry into his catalog as any other is remarkable, and also necessary – his works have been released in North America in as non-chronological a sequence as mathematically possible, with Hall Music being pretty much the first to count as the “new” Loney Dear album everywhere in the world at once.

Within the parameters of what is Loney Dear, Hall Music could be considered a bit of a revolution, particularly when compared to its predecessor, Dear John. Whereas John was sonically dense and had a distinctly sleek and synthetic sheen to it, Hall Music feels sparer but bigger, no doubt a result of the chamber orchestra tour undertaken prior to its recording. It makes full use of the reverberant space around things to create a more stately, almost spiritual, frame to present Svanängen’s compositions, the net result being what may be the most cohesive and beautifully rendered album in the Loney Dear canon.

So you might think that reproducing all of the grandeur live would require a full band if not a full orchestra. Instead, his brief North American tour was billed as a solo one, which might have raised concerns about the material being done full justice – my reviews of his past two visits in June 2007 and October 2009 hailed his band for being able to bring his complex arrangements to life – but when you consider that the Loney Dear recordings are largely done by Svanängen alone, this might have actually been the more faithful presentation. And considering the stage setup consisted not of a single acoustic guitar but of a fortress of gear arranged on four sides around a single seat, I was pretty confident this wouldn’t be a thin-sounding show.

And indeed, “thin” was about the last thing you could call the hour-long set. Deftly working an array of effects, bass pedals and loopers with his feet while singing and playing 12-string acoustic, Svanängen did a remarkable job of recreating and reinventing material from all of his albums, even adding live percussion by playing an array of drums and cymbals and looping them into the mix. One-man band? One-man orchestra, more like. It wasn’t completely strictly solo – he solicited a choral F# note from the audience and had a tour companion named Susanna (missed the surname but she hails from a town about 10km from where original Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was killed – this was the banter on offer) on backing vox and keys for a few songs. Nor was it flawless as a runaway note from a stuck bass pedal during “My Heart” forced him to dash back to his laptop to silence the offending tone, though full points for not missing a single lyric while doing so.

At one point, Svanängen apologized for the slowness of the material chosen for the set, a consequence of the church settings he’d been playing at home of late, but no apology was necessary as it suited the sit-and-listen mood of the audience quite well. If there was any regret, it was that long-time bandmate Malin Ståhlberg wasn’t on hand to not only add backing vocals but to take lead on my favourite song from Hall Music, “What Have I Become?”. But to have her there would have made it a completely different show, and this one was just about perfect in its way; as beautiful and heartswelling as I’ve learned to expect Loney Dear shows to be, but in a completely new way.

Gimme Indie is streaming a live recording from Sweden a couple weeks ago.

Photos: Loney Dear @ The Drake Underground – November 5, 2011
MP3: Loney Dear – “Calm Down”
MP3: Loney Dear – “My Heart”
MP3: Loney Dear – “Ignorant Boy, Beautiful Girl”
MP3: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”
MP3: Loney Dear – “I Was Only Going Out”
MP3: Loney, Dear – “I Am John”
MP3: Loney, Dear – “A Few Good Men”
Video: Loney Dear – “Young Hearts”
Video: Loney Dear – “I Was Only Going Out”
Video: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”
Video: Loney, Dear – “I Am John”
Video: Loney, Dear – “Saturday Waits”

Q solicits a soundtrack for a meal from Amanda Mair.

Björk talks to Clash about Biophilia, from which she has released another new video.

Video: Bjork – “Thunderbolt”

Aux.tv talks shop with Vincent Morriset, director of the film component of the new live Sigur Rós document Inni, out next week. And Jonsi’s solo projects continue with the announcement that he will score the new Cameron Crowe film We Bought A Zoo with new and old material. The soundtrack will be out on December 13 and the film will be released on December 23. Exclaim has specifics, and that title? Not a metaphor.

Trailer: We Bought A Zoo

Franco-Finn duo The Dø will be releasing their second album Both Ways Open Jaws on November 15. An MP3 for a single which came out on their Dust It Off is available now to preview, along with a video.

MP3: The Dø – “Slippery Slope”
Video: The Dø – “Slippery Slope”

If you’re heading to Massey Hall tonight for the first of two shows by Noel Gallagher and are concerned you haven’t heard any of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds because it’s not released until tomorrow, fear not – Rolling Stone has the former Oasis songwriter’s solo debut available to stream so you can get acquainted with all the songs you’ll be patiently waiting through before you hear “Don’t Look Back In Anger”. And apparently a half-hour film documenting the recording sessions of said album is out there; Rolling Stone also has those details.

Stream: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds / Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Beatroute profiles The Jezabels, who’ve released a new video from Prisoner – out tomorrow – and will be at The Phoenix on November 24 and 25 supporting Hey Rosetta!.

Video: The Jezabels – “Trycolour”

Anthony BacigalupoOkay so I know I probably said I was done with all things Iceland when I wrapped up my Iceland Airwaves coverage a couple weeks ago, but this is actually relevant for those who won’t be hopping on a plane to the Blue Lagoon anytime soon. You see, while a large part of Airwaves’ mandate is to bring bands and fans from the rest of the world to Iceland, it also works hard to export its own talent beyond the Bjorks and Sigur Ros’, and one of its targets is none other than Toronto.

On November 13, the Toronto Best Party will present the Iceland Arts Festival at the El Mocambo, starting in the afternoon with a Kolaport market featuring all manner of Iceland goods for sale – hopefully including some Pylsur hot dogs – and a screening of the Iceland Airwaves documentary film Of Monsters & Men, who were incidentally the very first band I saw at Airwaves this year and instrumental post-rock practitioners For A Minor Reflection, who I gave up on seeing because of a scheduling conflict and knowing that I could see them here. Both acts very different but very good and very Icelandic.

Tickets for the film screening are $5 and the show $10, available at Eventbrite – but courtesy of Toronto Best Party, I have one pair of passes to give away for the concert. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want some Iceland in Toronto” in the subject line and your full name in the body; contest closes at midnight, November 8. And there’s also a second related event, more electronic music-oriented, taking place on November 18 at Nocture – details here.

Paste has a feature piece on Of Monsters & Men, who are being tipped to make some serious inroads in the North American market. Their debut My Head Is An Animal was released in Iceland in September and is set for a major label worldwide release next year.

MP3: For A Minor Reflection – “Dansi Dans”
MP3: Of Monsters & Men – “Little Talks”
Trailer: Where’s The Snow?!

While on the topic of things Icelandic, INNI – the Sigur Ros concert film just concluded its run at the TIFF Lightbox last night. If you’ve yet to see it, the DVD/live album will be out on November 15 – Spinner and North Shore News talk to director Vincent Morriset about making the film.

The Line Of Best Fit talks to Swedish singer-songwriter Amanda Mair. Her debut album is due out this Winter.

Spin has premiered the video for the title track from from First Aid Kit’s new record The Lion’s Roar; the album is not out until January 24 of the new year but they’re in town at The Sound Academy on November 15 opening for Lykke Li.

Video: First Aid Kit – “The Lion’s Roar”

Serenades are a new Swedish band, half of whom are Alec Olenius from Shout Out Louds. Their debut album Criminal Heaven is presently only available in Sweden, but they have international aspirations – check out a couple of tunes from the record and a video.

MP3: Serenades – “Birds”
MP3: Serenades – “Oceans”
Video: The Serenades – “Oceans”

DIY, The Dallas Observer and The Vinyl District have interviews with We Were Promised Jetpacks.

The Horrors share some gripes about the state of music journalism with Spinner and talk about touring Mexico to The Guardian.

DIY talks to Summer Camp about their debut Welcome To Condale, out November 8.

Field Music have announced a February 14 release date for their new record Plumb; Exclaim has details and you can swap an email for an MP3 at the band’s website.

Stream: Field Music – “(I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing”

Rolling Stone have premiered a new MP3 from The Jezabels’ forthcoming debut Prisoner, out November 8. They’re at The Phoenix on November 24 and 25 supporting Hey Rosetta!.

MP3: The Jezabels – “Try Colour”

Frank YangCalling this “day one” of Iceland Airwaves isn’t strictly correct. Though the festival did really start in earnest on the Thursday, there was a fair bit of programming on the Wednesday night and though I was on the fence about leaving the comfort of the apartment late at night, I fell on the side of heading to NASA, one of the festival’s main venues, facing onto Austurvöllur square a couple blocks away.

The attraction were Iceland’s own Of Monsters & Men, whom although a new band – their debut album My Head Is An Animal only came out in September – were clearly already a hot commodity locally as the venue was jammed to the rafters. And watching them perform, it wasn’t hard to understand why; their sound fell somewhere between Arcade Fire and Fanfarlo with not a little Stars to be found in the vocal interplay between Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar Þórhallsson – in other words, eminently likeable. They were neither as dramatic or twee as those reference points might imply, nestled comfortably in the middle, but still big-sounding and making the most of their 10-piece lineup. Normally they numbered six, but this was a special occasion after all and so there were plenty of handclaps, gang vocals and a brief cover of Kool & The Gang’s “Celebrate”. I don’t know that the songs are quite up to the level of the delivery, but they were fun – no question. And word is they’ll be bringing their show to Toronto next month… details will be forthcoming.

Photos: Of Monsters & Men @ NASA – October 13, 2011
MP3: Of Monsters & Men – “Little Talks”

Slipping back into travelogue mode for a moment, Thursday saw another attempt to get out of the city and though it was hardly a nice day, the elements didn’t stop us from getting out to Þingvellir national park and Þingvallavatn. On the way, there were stops at Mosfell to check out one of those churches that just pops up out of nowhere and befriend a couple of extraordinarily friendly and pretty Icelandic ponies as well as some stunning fields of volcanic rock. As the park was situated across the continental divide between the North American and European tectonic plates, chasms and cliffs were the norm and landmarks were the thousand year-old, man-made waterfall called Öxaráfoss and the site of the first Icelandic parliament – Alþing – dating back to 930 AD. Yes, it just looked like a mound near a cliff face but still. HISTORY. Flickr has been updated with visuals and oh, on the way back into town, I completely forgot how roundabouts work just for a moment and hit an SUV for some hot Hyundai on Hyundai action. At Icelandic roundabouts, the inner lane has the right of way; that’s one to grow on, kids. While the other car was undamaged, the front end of mine was kind of mashed – but no one was hurt except my Visa card in covering the insurance deductible. Le sigh.

Back in town, we attempted to cheer the home team in seeing Owen Pallett play an afternoon off-venue – the Airwaves name for day shows – but it turned out that our support wasn’t needed; Kaffibarinn was beyond jammed and while I could hear him and Les Mouches, I didn’t lay an eye on them the whole time there. Pallett and company had been in the country for a couple of weeks leading up to the festival recording, and accordingly their set was split between old favourites, albeit somewhat reconfigured to be more keyboard-heavy, and new songs which further imply a synthier direction for the new record. The crush of humanity kept me from staying to the very end and anyways, I had a banged-up car to return.

MP3: Owen Pallett – “A Man With No Ankles”
MP3: Owen Pallett – “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”
MP3: Final Fantasy – “The Butcher”
MP3: Final Fantasy – “Ultimatum”
Video: Owen Pallett – “The Great Elsewhere”
Video: Owen Pallett – “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”
Video: Final Fantasy – “Horsetail Feathers”
Video: Final Fantasy – “The Butcher”
Video: Final Fantasy – “He Poos Clouds”
Video: Final Fantasy – “This Lamb Sells Condos”

The evening program began literally two doors down from our apartment – didn’t I mention it was conveniently located? – at the Tjarnarbíó theatre for Danish septet Raised Among Wolves. As you might expect from a band with that many players, they traded in orchestrally-inclined pop not far removed from what Of Monsters & Men were serving up the night before though Wolves were more stereotypically Scandinavian, being more elegantly polished in performance and romantically melancholic in tone. They were also better-dressed, with a decidedly northlander-ish marching band dress code in effect. It doesn’t appear that they’ve got any proper releases yet, but while their catalog is lean their ambitions are extensive – there’s no doubt they’ll be looking to replace those synth patches with a proper orchestra and the toy piano with a full grand. Though they’ll probably still paint their name on the side. Charming and brimming with promise.

Photos: Raised By Wolves @ Tjarnarbíó – October 13, 2011
MP3: Raised By Wolves – “Boys Will Be Kings” (demo)
MP3: Raised By Wolves – “Tin Foil Empire” (demo)
MP3: Raised By Wolves – “The Bear” (demo)

By the time I got to the gorgeous Kaldalón room in the Harpa opera house to see Iceland’s Nóra, I was thinking that I’d have to fit some black metal into my itinerary to offset all the orch-pop that was making up my Airwaves experience so far. But I like what I like, I suppose. Cheekily introducing themselves as “celebrated Icelandic rock band Nóra”, the brother-and-sister-led fivesome initially seemed to have some trouble with the clean acoustics of the room, with their vocals turned up considerably louder than their instruments and consequently sounding detached from the music though inviting a three-piece horn section out for a portion of the set helped fill out the mix. Singing in Icelandic and drawing from their debut Er einhver aö hlusta?, they were largely upbeat and peppy though a couple numbers at the end of the set proved they could get tense and angsty when called for and they were sonically ambitious throughout. A reliance on keyboards kept their stage presence rather static, but some dry stage banter helped endear them nonetheless.

Photos: Nóra @ Harpa Kaldalón – October 13, 2011
MP3: Nóra – “Opin fyrir morói”
Stream: Nóra / Er einhver aö hlusta?

Any fears of the festival getting too “all twee, all the time” were stopped dead with Retro Stefson at Listasafn, the Reykjavik Art Museum and another major venue. They were many things – disco, funk, hip-hop, rock, electro – but certainly not twee. And definitely a party. Though there’s something like seven of them in the band, it was hard to pay any attention to anyone besides singer/guitarist Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson and percussionist/dancer Haraldur Ari Stefánsson, and not just because the rest of the band was completely obscured in smoke and strobes. The former Stefánsson was more than a little Prince-like with his virtuostic guitar-playing and singing even he seemed restrained compared to the latter Stefánsson’s gyrating, thrusting and audience-invading/crowd-surfing antics. I think it’s safe to say they were one of the strangest lead-in acts that Beach House has ever had.

Photos: Retro Stefson @ Listasafn – October 13, 2011
Video: Retro Stefson – “Kimba”
Video: Retro Stefson – “Medallion”

I don’t think it’s a real slight to say that Beach House aren’t a conventionally great live act. Both Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand are generally content to sit or stand stock still with their instruments and let their hypnotic songs and maybe the light show do the work. In the case of the Listasafn show, billed as one of the festival’s headlining slots and marking the band’s first time in the country, they maybe let the light show get away from them as the combination of blinding backlights and smoke made it so that both were little more than stationary silhouettes for the show. It was frustrating to watch (and photograph) but did work from time to time, most notably for “Norway” when the lights went white and the entire stage lit up in tiny LEDs, presenting Legrand as a disembodied voice in a field of stars. Whatever they looked like, though, they sounded grand with the tinny canned beats segueing into huge live drums and Legrand’s smoky vocals filling the hall along with thousands of Icelanders, dancing and swaying in a giant collective swoon.

Photos: Beach House @ Listasafn – October 13, 2011
MP3: Beach House – “I Do Not Care For The Winter Sun”
MP3: Beach House – “Zebra”
MP3: Beach House – “Norway”
MP3: Beach House – “Gila”
MP3: Beach House – “Heart Of Chamber”
MP3: Beach House – “Master Of None”
Video: Beach House – “Walk In The Park”
Video: Beach House – “Silver Soul”
Video: Beach House – “Used To Be”
Video: Beach House – “You Came To Me”
Video: Beach House – “Heart Of Chambers”

Having already released a couple of videos, Fanfarlo have finally revealed details of their second album – Rooms Filled With Light will be available on February 28, details at Under The Radar.

Video: Fanfarlo – “Replicate”
Video: Fanfarlo – “De.Con.Struc.Tion”

DIY gets to know Amanda Mair, the teenage singer-songwriter who’s the latest addition to the Labrador Records roster. She’s released two singles in advance of a debut album due in late 2011 or more likely early 2012.

MP3: Amanda Mair – “Doubt”
MP3: Amanda Mair – “House”

Studio360 and The Los Angeles Times talk Biophilia with Bjork.

Sigur Rós have made another track from the Inni live set available to download. The audio/video document is available as of November 8, but is currently screening at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto.

MP3: Sigur Rós – “Ný Batteri”

Interview and Billboard talk to Anthony Gonzalez of M83 on the occasion of the release of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming this week. They’ve also just released a new video from said record. Look for them at Lee’s Palace on November 18.

Video: M83 – “Midnight City”

The hour-long Phoenix documentary From A Mess To The Masses is now available to watch in full online.

Video: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – From A Mess To The Masses