Sean Pecknold

Exclaim and Spinner have conversations with Pecknold, the former about the process of writing the new record and the latter about the general awfulness of Myspace. Meanwhile, over at We All Want Someone To Shout For has a session the band played for BBC Radio 1 last week available to download and if you like Fleet Foxes but hate their songs, You Ain’t No Picasso has collected a decent-sized archive of covers they’ve performed.

Fleet Foxes are at Massey Hall on July 14.

Stream: Fleet Foxes / Helplessness Blues

Yours Truly has got a video session with The Head & The Heart which I’m sure is great, but can’t watch to confirm since it’s restricted to the US only… but they’re working on it, I’m told. In the meantime, read this interview at LAist.

Prefix talks to Charles Bissell of The Wrens about the state of their new record which will not actually be called Funeral and should be out someday. Maybe.

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy talks to both Spin and Rolling Stone about their new record which may but probably won’t be called Get Well Soon Everybody and may be out come September. Know what would be awesome? If Tweedy gave completely contrary information to both publications. But he didn’t. More certain, as Exclaim reports, is the first release on the band’s new dBpm label – a 7″ single due out sometime in July A-sided by new song “I Might” and backsided by a cover of Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label”.

NPR has a World Cafe session with Bright Eyes.

Spinner, Paste and Clash talk to Steve Earle about his just-released new record I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, acting and the Gulf of Mexico (song and region), respectively. He also sets up behind a Tiny Desk for NPR. Earle is at the Molson Amphitheatre on August 20.

PopMatters catches up with The Thermals on tour in Germany.

PO Box 607 gets to know Anna-Lynne Williams of Trespassers William about a new solo record coming out as Lotte Kestner and her new label Saint-Loup Records.

Blurt profiles Buffalo Tom while Bill Janovitz contributes a piece on being both rocker and realtor to Boston Magazine.

PopMatters tries to extract an interview from J Mascis.

The Chicago Tribune talks to The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. They’re at The Opera House on August 2.

Comic artist and musician Jeffrey Lewis is in town for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and will be whiling away the evening by playing a solo show at The Dakota on May 8, tickets $10 at the door.

MP3: Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard – “Slogans”

Back for like the third time in less than a year, Robyn is back on June 3 with this past Winter’s tourmate Diamond Rings in tow and they’re playing an actual new venue in Toronto. It’s called Echo Beach and it’s an approximately 4000-capacity general admission outdoor venue at Ontario Place, on the water, not far from the Molson Amphitheatre but far away in time. Tickets for the show are $39.50, on sale Friday.

MP3: Diamond Rings – “All Yr Songs”
Video: Robyn – “Dancing On My Own”

New York’s Gang Gang Dance will have a new record out in Eye Contact on May 10 and be at The Horseshoe on July 10 to support.

MP3: Gang Gang Dance – “MindKilla”
Video: Gang Gang Dance – “MindKilla”

Frank Yang

The evening didn’t go off completely without a hitch, though, as tour support Dylan LeBlanc was held up at the border necessitating locals Bahamas to be parachuted in as openers. Not that I would have been there in time to see either of them anyways. Lissie, however, showed up precisely on schedule to the strains of the Twin Peaks theme and roaring applause – this may have been her first time here, but clearly she had an impressive local fanbase already. And though she’s technically still a new artist, she worked the room for the next hour and change like a seasoned veteran with years of performing under her belt.

I’d seen her perform at SxSW 2010 and was impressed with how good she was without having any sort of angle or gimmick – just a great voice and great country-rock songs. Tiger also impressed but introduced a little doubt with regards to the unexpectedly slick production values; the songs were still superb but the delivery seemed like it was trying a bit too hard, and unnecessarily. “Slick” was not an adjective that had any place in this show, however, as it was just Lissie, a lead guitarist and combination bassist/drummer on stage – it’s not physically possible to work any gloss into the proceedings with that configuration, so the evening was a welcome return to basics: Lissie, her songs and her hugely expressive and powerful voice – it was hard to believe just a few months ago she was at risk of losing it.

The hour-long main set didn’t fit as many songs in as you might have expected – there was lots of entertaining banter throughout – but the audience was adoringly rambunctious and demonstrated one of the perks of being an artist without a “hit” song; no one was here to hear the single and then head for the doors, they were here for the duration. Still, it can’t be ignored that for as good as her own stuff is, much of Lissie’s exposure came with her unexpected cover versions and after a moving “Oh Mississippi” to lead off the encore, she finished things out with her version of Kid Cudi’s “The Pursuit Of Happiness”… and not one of the songs I would have actually known (Metallica, Lady Gaga, Zeppelin). But still, a crowd-pleasing finish to a crowd-pleasing and excellent set.

Mountain XPress has an interview with Lissie.

Photos: Lissie @ The Opera House – January 24, 2011
MP3: Lissie – “Little Lovin’”
MP3: Lissie – “Everywhere I Go”
MP3: Lissie – “In Sleep” (live)
Video: Lissie – “When I’m Alone”
Video: Lissie – “Cuckoo”
MySpace: Lissie

Steve Earle will release a new record entitled I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive on April 26 and a novel by the same name on May 12. He talks to Billboard about the two and the themes of mortality that pervade them.

Explosions In The Sky have clearly decided that the sky is not exploding enough of its own accord and will thus release a new record in Take Care, Take Care, Take Care on April 26 to pick up the slack. Pitchfork has specifics.

The Chicago Sun-Times, Baltimore Sun and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have words with Liz Phair.

NPR interviews the reunited The Dismemberment Plan.

The Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer interview the reunited Jayhawks.

NPR is streaming a World Cafe with The Decemberists while Exclaim has made the band their cover feature this month. They play The Sound Academy on February 1 and just took The King Is Dead to number one on the Billboard albums chart.

The Antlers discuss the electronic direction of their next album with Pitchfork.

The Vinyl District goes record shopping with Nicole Atkins. Her new record Mondo Amore is out February 8 and she’s at The Horseshoe on February 26.

PopMatters, The Georgia Straight and Seattle Weekly chat with various members of Ra Ra Riot.

Nada Surf have put out a video from their Depeche Mode cover from their covers record if i had a hi-fi.

Video: Nada Surf – “Enjoy The Silence”

The release of Iron & Wine’s latest Kiss Each Other Clean has brought out the press, with Sam Beam interviews in Pitchfork, Drowned In Sound, Daily Utah Chronicle and The AV Club as well as a Take-Away Show at Le Blogotheque.

Spinner and Paste talk to John Vanderslice, who is marking the release of his new record White Wilderness by giving away a new MP3.

MP3: John Vanderslice – “Piano Lesson”

Pitchfork reports that R.E.M. do not plan to tour behind their new record Collapse Into Now when it comes out on March 8. You can stream yet another new track from the record via one of those lyric video things at Filter.

Trivia: The Thermals’ new video from Personal Life was shot on the now-unprocessable Kodachrome film. I did not know they made a Kodachrome movie film. Now I do. For all the good it does me.

Video: The Thermals – “Never Listen To Me”

Alexandra Valenti

They’d already announced the release of lead single “Mermaid” on 12″ come February 8, but the band took to the stage on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Monday night to perform a different new song, “Wake And Be Fine”. And if not for Will Sheff’s distinctive vocals and presence, you might be forgiven for not recognizing them – besides the fact that New Pornographer Carl Newman and The Roots’ Questlove joined them for the occasion on vocals and drums respectively, Okkervil 2011 is a considerably different band from that which made The Stage Names and The Stand-Ins – Sheff remains, of course, as does multi-instrumentalist Scott Brackett and bassist Patrick Pestorius, but mainstays Jonathan Meiburg (keys), Brian Cassidy (guitar) and Travis Nelsen (drums) have all left the band in the past couple of years, replaced by Justin Sherburn, Lauren Gurgiolo and Cully Symington respectively. By no means is Okkervil a lesser band for the changes, but it is a different one and it will take a little adjusting to see them thusly, especially without the always-entertaining Nelson behind the kit.

But either way, the news of the imminent arrival of more Okkervil River was enough to make my day yesterday. Happy early birthday!

MP3: Okkervil River – “Wake And Be Fine” (live on Jimmy Fallon)
Video: Okkervil River – “Wake And Be Fine” (live on Jimmy Fallon)

Okkervil labelmates The Cave Singers and Lia Ices both have new records coming out – No Witch on February 22 and Grown Unknown on January 25 respectively – and have plotted a Spring tour that stops in at the Drake Underground on April 5. Tickets $13.50 in advance.

MP3: Cave Singers – “Swim Club”
MP3: Lia Ices – “Grown Unknown”
MP3: Lia Ices – “Daphne”

Of Montreal may already be plotting the follow-up to last year’s False Priest – or so Kevin Barnes tells Spin – but they’re not done touring said record. They’ll be coming back to Toronto for the first time in two and a half years – yes it’s been that long – for a show at The Phoenix on May 3, tickets $28 on sale now.

MP3: Of Montreal – “Sex Karma”
MP3: Of Montreal – “Coquet Coquette”

Pitchfork reports that The Dodos have recruited one Neko Case to help them out on their new record No Color, due out March 14. Her vocals will grace about half of the album, which will be great, but I think it’d have been more great if they got her to play all kinds of instruments but not sing a note. Because that’s how my sense of humour works.

The rumour mill has it that The Strokes’ fourth album will be out on March 22. Which jives with what’s already known, but until there’s an official announcement, it’s just hearsay. Hearsay I’m willing to blog, clearly.

Much more official is the word on the new record from The Kills – it will be called Blood Pressures, it will be out on April 5 and Pitchfork has specifics.

Blurt and I Like Music talk to Lissie, in town at the Opera House on January 24.

Colin Meloy tells Exclaim that The King Is Dead, the new Decemberists record due next week, could be their last for a while as they attend to other projects. So see them at The Sound Academy on February 1 while you can. There’s also and interview at The Sydney Morning Herald.

Beatroute talks to Sam Fogarino of Interpol, who have two Toronto visits on the books this year – a headlining date at the Sound Academy for February 15 and a support slot for U2 at the ACC on July 12.

Sam Beam talks to Billboard about the new Iron & Wine record Kiss Each Other Clean, out January 25, and to Spin about the origins of his band’s name.

The AV Club has words with The Dismemberment Plan’s Travis Morrison.

Beatroute has an interview with The Thermals.

MTV UK has a complete video session with Warpaint and it’s not geoblocked like the US site is.

Myspace

And yet any time I saw tour dates posted throughout the year, they’d be touring and gathering accolades in far-flung places in Europe or around the US, never close to home. The closest they seemed to get was the Wolfe Island Music Festival in Kingston in August, and that wasn’t in the cards so I’ve waited. And waited. Not impatiently, mind you – I’m still in the curious stage more than anything else – but I’m still pleased to see that they’ve finally set a couple of live dates in and around Toronto before the year is out. There’s a December 2 engagement at E-Bar in Guelph, and more importantly a December 16 show at the Twist Gallery in Toronto.

Of course, that’s the same night that The Rural Alberta Advantage make their own long-awaited live homecoming at Lee’s Palace, so there’s no guarantee I’ll be availing myself of Memoryhouse’s show anyways. But their announcement did give me the incentive to go download their The Years EP – it’s free – and do up a little post. That’s really all anyone can ask for.

MP3: Memoryhouse – “Lately (Deuxieme)”
MP3: Memoryhouse – “Lately (Troisieme)”
MP3: Memoryhouse – “Gian Lorenzo Bernini”
Video: Memoryhouse – “Bonfire”
Video: Memoryhouse – “Lately (Deuxieme)”
ZIP: Memoryhouse / The Years

Also originally hailing from Guelph are disco-pop ensemble The Magic, who will be playing a free show along with Maylee Todd at the North York Central Library tomorrow night, November 20, at 8PM. Get details on this and other goings-on at the Toronto Public Library’s Make Some Noise blog.

Director Spike Jonze has the director’s credit on Arcade Fire’s new video/short film for the title track from The Suburbs. Win Butler talks to Exclaim about potential retirement plans.

Video: Arcade Fire – “The Suburbs”

Soundproof talks to The Thermals.

Rhett Miller of Old 97′s talks to Spinner about getting permission from Bob Dylan to crib the melody from “Desolation Row” for one of his own songs.

Even though Retribution Gospel Choir’s latest 2 came out way back in January, SubPop has opted to release a second MP3 from it for giving away. Why ask why? The Minnesota Daily chats with bandleader Alan Sparhawk.

MP3: Retribution Gospel Choir – “Workin’ Hard”

The Georgia Straight, Vancouver Sun and Oregon Music News talk to Blonde Redhead about their current tour and forays into electronica.

Spin declares Two Door Cinema Club to be breaking out. They’re at the Kool Haus on January 15 alongside Tokyo Police Club.

NPR is streaming a radio session performance from Elvis Costello while AOL Music has a video session with ol’ Declan.

Spin has got the video for the new collaborative single between Hot Chip and Bernard Sumner.

Video: Hot Chip & Bernard Sumner – “I Didn’t Know What Love Was”

A second MP3 from Blood Red Shoes’ second album Fire Like This is now up for grabs. The Prague Post has an interview.

MP3: Blood Red Shoes – “Heartsink”

White Lies have released a video for the first single from their second album Ritual, which is out January 18. They’ll be at The Mod Club on January 29.

Video: White Lies – “Bigger Than Us”

Sloucher interviews The Twilight Sad.

Creative Loafing checks in with Warren Ellis and The Wall Street Journal with Nick Cave of Grinderman.

Mia Kirby

That sense of spontaneity is successfully captured on The Fool, wherein Warpaint allow the nine songs here to grow into themselves in real time. Sometimes it sounds like they’re jamming them out, other times that they’re following a meticulous blueprint, but they always come across as though they’re following their collective muse like it was magnetic north. Songs often start from a single musical element and bloom and/or sprawl through time signature shifts and clouds of reverb and delay into their sometimes amorphous but always fascinating and emotive final forms. They clearly bear the influence of ’80s 4AD dream-pop and that era’s post-punk/goth forebears, but those are evident as reflections, echoes and shadows of Warpaint’s own, distinctive creations.

The Fool is more opaque and requires more work to absorb than I’d have expected, and the relative pop conciseness of their debut EP Exquisite Corpse is missed a little. One suspects that every outtake ended up in a significantly different place than the version of the song that was selected for the album, and while it’s hard to not want to hear some of those to compare and contrast, that way lies madness. What matters is that The Fool succeeds as more than just a solid album; it also confirms Warpaint as a unique and exciting new act with an immensely deep well of ideas to draw on, hopefully for many albums to come. Maybe the debut of the year not for what it is, but what it augurs.

Check out a behind-the scenes video of their cover shoot for NME, this video interview at Dirty Laundry and a video session at Yours Truly.

MP3: Warpaint – “Undertow”
Video: Warpaint – “Undertow”
MySpace: Warpaint

The Chicago Tribune talks to Sharon Van Etten about her transition from solo artist to bandleader. See her as the latter on Friday night at Lee’s Palace opening up for Junip. hour.ca also has a short chat.

eye talks to Morning Bender Chris Chu in advance of their show at the Mod Club on November 5.

Stereogum checks in with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart on the status of their second album Belong, currently being recorded and due for a March 2011 release.

The Line Of Best Fit interviews The Thermals.

Beatroute talks to Dean Wareham about his decision to revisit Galaxie 500 on his current tour.

Dan Snaith of Caribou talks with Soundproof.

Kathryn Calder has released a second video from her solo debut Are You My Mother?.

Video: Kathryn Calder – “Arrow”

Dan Mangan chats with Beatroute.

Also with a new video are The Wilderness Of Manitoba, taken from their debut When You Left The Fire. They’re at the Horseshoe on November 25.

Video: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “November”

Murray Lightburn of The Dears talks to aux.tv about their new record Degeneration Street, out on February 15.

Beatroute’s latest issue has a feature piece on Diamond Rings.

Elizabeth Weiberg

And we’ll kick off with a new batch of fully realized, produced and presented songs from the inimitable John Vanderslice, collected under the title of Green Grow The Rushes. It’s being given away for exactly zero dollars in both high-quality MP3 and uncompressed WAV format over at his website. Why? Because he’s got these songs he wants you to hear and because he’s great. But if you want to thank the ‘Slice in some monetary way, perhaps pick up a copy of his last full-length Romanian Names? It’s not quite as free but still a great record.

MP3: John Vanderslice – “Thule Fog”
MP3: John Vanderslice – “I’ll Never Live Up To You”
ZIP: John Vanderslice / Green Grow The Rushes

Exclaim has some details on the new Iron & Wine album, entitled Kiss Each Other Clean and due out in early 2011.

Michael Benjamin Lerner of Telekinesis chats with The Washington Post.

The Thermals have released a new single from Personal Life which, in the parlance of our time, means that there’s a new MP3 to download.

MP3: The Thermals – “Never Listen To Me”

The Line Of Best Fit and Spinner talk to Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer of The Posies. Their new record Blood/Candy is out September 28.

The Boston Herald talks to drummer Bob Nastanovich of Pavement. NYC Taper has also got a recording of their Williamsburg show to share.

Clash interviews Local Natives, in town at the Mod Club on October 19.

Spin declares Lissie to be “breaking out”. She’s at the El Mocambo on October 19.

Spin gets to the root of Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s name, while Filter has a track from their new record Buzzard available to download.

MP3: Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s – “Lunatic, Lunatic, Lunatic”

Spinner serves up an Interface session with Drive-By Truckers.

R.E.M. has completed work on album number 15 and are targeting a Spring 2011 release for it.

Drowned In Sound talks to Will Sheff of Okkervil River about working with Roky Erikson on this year’s True Love Casts Out All Evil.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of Spoon’s show in the teeny tiny Cake Shop last week.

The new Deerhunter record Halcyon Digest is streaming at NPR in advance of its release next week. They’re at Lee’s Palace the Opera House on October 19.

Stream: Deerhunter / Halcyon Digest

The AV Club, American Songwriter, The Boston Herald, Pinnastorm, The Awl and NPR have interviews with Superchunk. NPR is also streaming their show in Washington DC last week and NYC Taper offering downloads of the Brooklyn show, giving you a taste of what to expect when they return to Toronto to play the Sound Academy on December 9 opening up for Broken Social Scene; you’ll just have to imagine the pogoing.

The Sydney Morning Herald talks to Interpol.

PitchforkTV has posted a POV session with The Hold Steady.

Clash declares Holly Miranda “One To Watch”.

New York Magazine talks to Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner.

Spin gets a live preview of Nicole Atkins’ new record Mondo Amore, due out on January 25 of next year, and you can download a new track from the record over at Nicole’s website.

Daytrotter has posted a session with Ra Ra Riot, who have made good on their promise to come back to town in December – they’ll be at the Mod Club on the first of that month, tickets $16.

MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Boy”

Jason Arthurs

And though they’ve almost always coexisted, the arcs of each story don’t necessarily run concurrently – Superchunk’s heyday was the 1990s when they were one of the prototypical college rock bands laying the blueprint for what the kids now call indie, and though they’ve been around over 20 years, Merge only really became a powerhouse label in the past eight or nine years, after Superchunk went on hiatus following 2001′s perhaps prophetically titled Here’s To Shutting Up. If that were the final word, from the band, it would have been a fitting one as it found the once fuzz-coated pogo-tastic rockers in a relatively gentler frame of mind and while their songwriting was still in top form, it felt like they were looking forward to a break. And a break they took, with McCaughan taking his solo project Portastatic into rockier, full-band realms accompanied by guitarist Jim Wilbur, drummer Jon Wurster becoming both Mountain Goat and comedian and Ballance shepherding Merge to greatness. If the ‘Chunk were done, they should have had no regrets.

But sometimes a hiatus is actually a hiatus. Although they’d done sporadic shows since taking Shutting Up off the road, starting with the Merge XX anniversary celebrations last Summer, Superchunk began edging back into active status and following the release of the Leaves In The Gutter EP last year, there came word of a new album, their first in almost a decade. That record – Majesty Shredding – arrives next week and when I say it sounds just like a Superchunk record, I mean that with the highest possible praise. It fuses the pop perfection they’d reached with Shutting Up with a consistent level of energy, excitement and volume that you’d have to go back over 15 years in their discography to match. From the whine of feedback that opens “Digging For Something”, Shredding collects everything great about all that is Superchunk into eleven great, pogo-worthy tracks that individually might not measure up to the very best songs the band has ever written but as an album is as satisfying a listen as anything in their discography. It’s probably unrealistic to hope that this will be the start of a run of equally good records every year or two, but considering that I wouldn’t have even expected this record to exist as recently as a year ago, it’s kind of the best gift ever.

Majesty Shredding is streaming at NPR a week ahead of its release. I had previously hoped that the September 23 date in Montreal would imply a Toronto one the following night, apparently it’s not to be. I finally got to see them at SxSW in March and will do so again in a month at Matador 21, but still have my fingers crossed that a local show will appear on the books sooner rather than later.

MP3: Superchunk – “Digging For Something”
Stream: Superchunk / Majesty Shredding

Also up for stream at NPR and out next week is Blonde Redhead’s new long-player Penny Sparkle. They’re in town at The Phoenix on October 17.

Stream: Blonde Redhead / Penny Sparkle

NPR’s album stream slam continues with Of Montreal’s False Priest, out next Tuesday. Spin also gets in on the act with a new MP3 from said record available to download.

MP3: Of Montreal – “Sex Karma”
Stream: Of Montreal / False Priest

And out this week and streamable is Interpol’s latest Interpol. JAM, The National Post and Spinner have conversations with guitarist Daniel Kessler, presumably conducted when they were in town last month.

Stream: Interpol / Interpol

Deerhunter have put out a video from their forthcoming record Halcyon Digest, due out September 28. They’re at the Opera House on October 19.

Video: Deerhunter – “Helicopter”

Both NYC Taper and Bradley’s Almanac are sharing live recordings of Built To Spill shows from the past month or so.

Spin finds out how The Thermals got their name, while PopMatters turns in a regular old interview. They play Lee’s Palace on October 9.

Ra Ra Riot explain their cat-powered new video to Chart.

Black Cab Sessions runs the gamut with featuring Lissie, in town at the El Mocambo on October 19, and this one with The Flaming Lips – no bubble walk.

Rolling Stone takes Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy back to the days of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot for some insight on what that tumultuous period was like while Muzzle Of Bees has assembled a tribute album to Summerteeth recorded by all Wisconsin artists.

JEFF The Brotherhood are in town on October 20 at The Horseshoe.

Frank Yang

The just-released follow-up The Orchard doesn’t get to make the same claim. As sophomore efforts demand, the band’s sound has grown from the debut but it’s done so in the direction of giving Miles more room to stretch out, vocally, and the result is a general sense of oversinging. Similarly, it sounds as though the faders on the strings have been pushed up sufficiently that rather than dance in and out of the mix equally with the other instruments, they seem to be overtop of things more often than not. Neither are major, game-changing shifts but as stated, it was a fragile state of equilibrium and one easily upset. It’s by no means a catastrophe, though – still intact is their collective musical chemistry and sense of melody and songcraft and underneath the slightly overcooked presentation are still some instantly catchy tunes. The Orchard‘s best moments are the uptempo ones that sound like they could have come straight off The Rhumb Line, which I prefer to interpret not as that they’ve already peaked creatively but instead have a strong foundation from which to grow in the right direction come record number three.

They’ve still got it just right on the stage, however, as Monday night’s free show at the Mod Club attested. Offered as a gift to fans who didn’t want to see them turn in a brief opening set at the Molson Amphitheatre on Saturday night, they delivered a full and proper show that served to remind that they’re an exceptional live act. Delivered with unrelenting energy and a punchiness that’s not really captured on record, nary a member of the band stopped moving for the better part of an hour, seemingly enthralled and compelled to dance by their music. That probably sounds more flowery than its intended, but it when the band is completely caught up in the sounds they’re making, it really sets the tone for the show and there was plenty of bopping up and down in the audience as well. The set list wisely stuck to the most up tempo songs in their repertoire and really showcased the talents of bassist Mathieu Santos, guitarist Milo Bonacci and drummer Gabriel Duquette. Though Miles, Lawn and Zeller understandably get the most attention, its those three who really lay down the rhythmic and melodic backbone of the band. But it’s the six of them operating as a single musical entity that impresses most with Ra Ra Riot and no reservations about their recorded work can diminish that.

There’s a decent recording of the show up at Hater High and according to the band, we can expect another local date some time in December. Seattle Weekly interviews guitarist Milo Bonacci.

Photos: Ra Ra Riot @ The Mod Club – August 30, 2010
MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Boy”
MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Dying Is Fine”
MP3: Ra Ra Riot – “Each Year” (EP version)
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Boy”
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Can You Tell?”
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Ghost Under Rocks”
Video: Ra Ra Riot – “Dying Is Fine”
MySpace: Ra Ra Riot

Magnet interviews Versus in anticipation of the band taking over the editorial reins of the website this week.

Arcade Fire continue to be disinterested in making conventional music videos, and the world is a better place for it. The clip ostensibly for “We Used To Wait” can be found at The Wilderness Downtown and uses a fascinating mash-up of HTML 5 and Google Earth to take you back to the neighbourhood you grew up in. My own personal experience was surprisingly powerful, but even if yours isn’t as much so, it’s still pretty cool. There’s some background about the technologies at play over at Chrome Experiments. Oh yeah, you’ll need the Google Chrome browser for it to work properly. It’s a good browser. Worth the download.

Video: Arcade Fire – “We Used To Wait”

Interpol are also getting into the neat video racket with a POV multi-camera session over at PitchforkTV. Their self-titled album is out next week.

Also out next week is The Thermals’ new record Personal Life, which is currently streaming in whole at NPR. They’re at Lee’s Palace October 9.

Stream: The Thermals / Personal Life

Film School’s new album Fission is available to stream over at Spinner, as is Jenny & Johnny’s debut I’m Having Fun Now; both are out this week. Film School are at the El Mocambo on October 4 and Jenny & Johnny open up for Band Of Horses at the Kool Haus on October 21.

Stream: Film School / Fission
Stream: Jenny & Johnny / I’m Having Fun Now

Stereogum has premiered the new video from The Drums’ self-titled debut, which is either out now if like vinyl or on September 14 if you like CD. They’re at the Mod Club on October 21.

Video: The Drums – “Down By The Water”

Cleveland Scene talks to Doug Martsch of Built To Spill.

Warpaint

But this one sort of ties into last week’s review of their show at Wrongbar, in that I’d originally mentioned that I got details on the name and release date of their debut album from one of the band members. Well I was asked to redact that shortly after posting as those details weren’t finalized and as it turns out, they weren’t completely correct. It was announced – complete with track list and album art – earlier this week that the Los Angeles band’s first full-length would indeed be called The Fool, but wouldn’t be out until October 26 and not October 12 as I’d originally been told. So yes, we’ll have to wait a little bit longer to hear it but I’m still certain it will be worth it.

In the meantime, there’s still last year’s debut EP Exquisite Corpse to hold me over, especially since I discovered that the digital version I’ve been living off of for the past however many months was actually short a track compared to the vinyl version, so technically that extra track – quickly acquired thanks to its appearance on a compilation at eMusic – is new to me. And additionally, their cover of David Bowie’s “Ashes To Ashes” is now available at iTunes and eMusic, proceeds from which go to benefit War Child. It will also appear on a Bowie tribute album entitled We Were So Turned On, due out later this year (precise date has been a moving target for a while).

Warpaint are opening up for The xx on September 29 at Massey Hall. There’s interviews with bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg at Nashville Scene and guitarist Theresa Wayman at The Daily Beacon. And Exquisite Corpse is streaming in its entirety – including the extra song I had no idea about until last week – at the band’s MySpace.

Stream: Warpaint / Exquisite Corpse

Singing Lamb talks to Chris Chu of The Morning Benders, who’ve made good on their promise to play their sixth show in Toronto this calendar year (including their free in/out-store a couple weeks ago with a headlining date at the Mod Club on November 5, part of an extensive North American tour.

MP3: The Morning Benders – “Promises”

Spin profiles Local Natives, who have a date at the Mod Club on October 19.

The Montreal Gazette talks to Greg Edwards of Autolux about the various factors that have sidelined the band for so long. They’re at Lee’s Palace on Tuesday night.

The previously venue-less Bad Religion show on October 14 now has a home – it will be at the Kool Haus, tickets $29.50.

Hutch Harris of The Thermals waxes nostalgic about collecting trading cards for Under The Radar. Their new record Personal Life arrives September 7 and they play Lee’s Palace on October 9. Check out their new Carrie Brownstein-powered video.

Video: The Thermals – “I Don’t Believe You”

Brownstein’s once (and perhaps someday future?) Sleater-Kinney compatriot Corin Tucker will release her solo debut 1,000 Years on October 5. Paste has an interview.

MP3: The Corin Tucker Band – “Doubt”

Filter profiles DeVotchKa.

NPR has a World Cafe session with the Retribution Gospel Choir.

The Advocate Weekly talks to Wilco bassist John Stirratt.

Broken Bells have released a new video that is apparently in 3D. I can’t say for sure because I refuse to patronize anything in 3D. I’m not kidding.

Video: Broken Bells – “October”

The Georgia Straight, Santa Cruz Sentinel and OC Weekly talk to Craig Finn of The Hold Steady.

Baeble Music is streaming video of a live show from Holly Miranda in New York from last month.

Spinner talks aspirations with Sam Fogarino of Interpol, whose new self-titled album is due out September 7.

Shoot The Player has an acoustic video session with School Of Seven Bells. They’re at the Mod Club on September 15.

Surviving The Golden Age talks to Laura Ballance of Superchunk about their first new record in forever, Majesty Shredding, due out September 13. There’s no Toronto tour date as yet but they’ve just announced an appearance in Montreal on September 23, so I’m hoping/expecting that the following night finds them in Hogtown (they’re in Philadelphia the night before). Come on, guys – we’re right here.

Of Montreal have rolled out a first video from False Priest, out September 14.

Video: Of Montreal – “Coquet Coquette”

Spinner talks songwriting with The Drums. They’re at the Mod Club on October 20.

Bryan Lee-O’Malley

And so I present to you a selection of particularly interesting or entertaining links culled from the veritable ocean of Pilgrim-related articles, interviews, videos, games and online tchotchke related to the film. Or at least the ones I found. There’s this About.com interview with series creator Bryan Lee-O’Malley, these The Los Angeles Times and AV Club conversations with film director Edgar Wright, this The Toronto Star interview both Wright and star Michael Cera, this series overview for newbs from The Globe & Mail, this collection of fake Lucas Lee movie posters, this MTV cast interview video at their Lee’s Palace soundstage (with an explanation of why they didn’t use the real Lee’s as a set), this Newsarama interview with various cast members and this other Los Angeles Times piece interviewing music supervisor Nigel Godrich and contributor Beck about putting together the music for the film.

Advance reviews of the film are pretty good but I’m sure once you adjust for geekdom, it’s awesome. I will have to wait a while to see for myself, though, as other engagements will keep me from making it to a theatre probably until Monday or Tuesday. But to hold me over, I re-read the whole series last night and have this fascinating interactive trailer, this brilliant trailer assembled from frames of the comic, this video of Jason Schwartzman and Michael Cera doing the weather for an Atlanta news broadcast and as the domino that will finally get me to perhaps get a modern video game system (or at least borrow one for a while), the video game trailer. And both the soundtrack and original score of the film are available to stream in their entirety at Spinner.

Stream: Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Original Soundtrack
Stream: Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Original Score

Bradley’s Almanac is sharing a recording of Arcade Fire’s show in Boston a couple weeks ago while Zoilus has posted a transcript of an interview with Win Butler. They play the Toronto Islands this coming Saturday, and congratulations to the band on scoring #1 records in the Canada, the UK and USA.

Owen Pallett will release a new EP on 10″ come September 28 – details on A Swedish Love Story available at Domino Records.

Movie Entertainment profiles celebrity Basia Bulat while The Edmonton Journal finds out about her next project. She’s at the Phoenix on October 26.

Prefix interviews Stars, who will be setting up at Massey Hall on October 23.

PopMatters asks 20 questions of Tokyo Police Club, who will be opening up for Phoenix at the Ricoh Coliseum on October 26.

Paste talks to Liz Powell of Land Of Talk, whose new one Cloak And Cipher is out next week. They’re at Lee’s Palace on September 16.

American Songwriter profiles American songwriter Samantha Crain. She’s at the Horseshoe on September 26.

Spinner inquires about The Thermals’ Personal Life. It’s out September 7 and they follow it with a show at Lee’s Palace on October 9.

Daytrotter has posted a session with First Aid Kit and another with Ferraby Lionheart, who will be opening up for them at the El Mocambo on October 15.

The first video from Grinderman’s Grinderman 2 is out and yes, it’s 100% ridiculous. Grinderman 2 is out September 14 and they play the Phoenix on November 11.

Video: Grinderman – “Heathen Child”

Kate Nash, having played the deliberately undersized Mod Club back in April, brings her second album My Best Friend Is You back to town for a show at the Phoenix on November 13 as part of an extensive Fall tour. The Sydney Morning Herald has an interview.

Video: Kate Nash – “Do Wah Do”

The Cribs have just released a new video for a non-album single entitled “Housewife”.

Video: The Cribs – “Housewife”

This Is Fake DIY has got an acoustic session with Sky Larkin and The Yorkshire Evening Post an interview.

Blurt has a feature piece on The Wedding Present.