FacebookEveryone has heard the old saw about bands having “a lifetime to write the first album, a year to write the second”. Similarly, most people can think of an instance or two of “sophomore slump” being more than just a clever bit of alliteration. London’s Veronica Falls seem set on not letting the former be any kind of obstacle and sidestepping the latter entirely. Their self-titled debut came out just over a year ago, but they’ve just announced the follow-up.

Waiting For Something To Happen will be out on February 12 of next year and the first teaser track from it has been made available to stream, and as expected/hoped it’s another slice of deliciously retro, garage-punk-jangle-pop that might sound a bit sunnier with more major key wistfulness than you would have found on the debut, but it’s only one song of thirteen – there’s surely at least some of their trademark darkness still lurking in the corners. Exclaim has the full tracklisting, album art, and other bits and bobs announced about the record.

Stream: Veronica Falls – “Teenage”

A Music Blog, Yea runs some questions by guitarist Paul Rains of Allo Darlin’.

The Joy Formidable have released a new video from their own sophomore effort, Wolf’s Law. It’s out January 23 and they’re at The Sound Academy on November 25 supporting The Gaslight Anthem.

Video: The Joy Formidable – “The Ladder Is Ours”

Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes talks about her experience in the music industry with Exclaim. A new track from The Haunted Man has also been made available to download.

MP3: Bat For Lashes – “Oh Yeah”

MXDWN and Los Angeles Magazine talk to Laura Marling.

NPR welcomes Neil Halstead for a World Cafe session.

Johnny Marr has released a video for the title track from his solo debut The Messenger, due out February 26. Hear that, son? That’s the jangle.

Video: Johnny Marr – “The Messenger”

DIY has some updates on the next album from Primal Scream, targeted for release in Summer of next year.

Atlanta Music Guide has a short interview with Ash; they’re at Lee’s Palace this Saturday night, November 17.

The Fly interviews Trailer Trash Tracys.

One of the tracks from Charli XCX’s new Super Ultra Mixtape has been made available for download, if you prefer things in sub-three minute chunks.

MP3: Charli XCX – “Glow”

Rolling Stone talks to Richard Thompson about his new album Electricity – due out February 5 – and also have a stream of one of the new songs on it.

Stream: Richard Thompson – “Good Things Happen To Bad People”

Blurt reports that Dutch indie-rock veterans Bettie Serveert have targeted a February release for their new album Oh, Mayhem! and released a first video from it. Here’s hoping they take this opportunity to make up that 2010 Toronto show canceled at the eleventh hour due to visa issues.

Video: Bettie Serveert – “Had2Byou”

Sambassadeur have made the flipside of their forthcoming single “Memories”/”Hours Away” available to stream, helping to tide you over until the single is out November 20 and the new album is out sometime next year.

Stream: Sambassadeur – “Hours Away”

Under The Radar talks to Carl and Adam of Shout Out Louds about how work is progressing on their fourth album. They hope to release it near the end of February 2013.

Much Sigur Rós to report; they’ve premiered another video from the Valtari Mystery Film Experient over at Nowness, this one set to four of the songs from Valtari. Maybe it will be one of those screened at The Bloor on December 8. Further, the band have announced another North American tour for next Spring. The band made a total triumph of their last visit to Echo Beach in August, but instead of returning to their former home of Massey Hall for indoor digs, they’ll be setting up at the Air Canada Centre on March 30, albeit in the more-intimate theatre configuration. And lest you worry that arenas in any configuration are acoustic nightmares, know that The National made the same setup sound amazing last December and the magical elves that work sound for Sigur Rós did wonders with Echo Beach’s PA, so I have full confidence that this will sound incredible. Ticket details still forthcoming but public on-sale is this Saturday, so they’ll be available soon. And on top of all that, they will release a new EP to go with the tour on March 22. Hoo-rah.

MP3: Sigur Rós – “Hoppípolla”
Video: Sigur Rós – “Valtari”

Björk has also rolled out a new video from last year’s Biophilia.

Video: Björk – “Mutual Core”

Tame Impala have released a new video from Lonerism; The Chicago Tribune also has an interview.

Video: Tame Impala – “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”

Cat StevensloresThe general assumption as to whoy Teenage Fanclub release albums so infrequently – 2010’s Shadows was just their third effort in the 21st century, assuming you count 2000 as part of this millenium – is that despite having three superb songwriters in their ranks, they just work very, very slowly; if this is true, then clearly bassist Gerard Love isn’t the limiting factor. Based on Electric Cables, the debut album from his solo project as Lightships, he has no shortage of songs at the ready and most are as good as anything he’s contributed to the Fannies over the past decade.

Backed by a band of Scottish all-stars recruited from Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian and The Pastels, Love has crafted a record of gorgeously bucolic pop songs marked by Love’s airy vocals and guitar and flute lines gently bouncing off of one another. The notes aren’t content to simply jangle and decay, but rather hang suspended, shimmering in the air. Cables possesses enough energy and buzz to keep from coming across as too ephemeral, but the prevailing vibe is the return of and a return to nature and given the prevalence of pastoral themes in the song titles – “Photosynthesis”, “Sunlight To The Dawn”, “Muddy Rivers” to name a few – one can only assume that this is deliberate and not just a happy coincidence.

Let this be your soundtrack to Spring, and if it just so happens to linger in your ears through the rest of the seasons, then so be it. Norman Blake may have been first with his breezy Jonny side-project and while he’s not fronting it, it’s good to see Raymond McGinley active extra-circularly in Snowgoose, but Lightships is what every Fannies fan hopes for in a Teenage Fanclub side-project in that it sounds like Teenage Fanclub. Which is to say beautiful.

Video: Lightships – “Sweetness In Her Spark”
Video: Lightships – “Two Lines”
Stream: Lightships / Electric Cables

NPR is streaming the whole of Spiritualized’s Sweet Heart Sweet Light ahead of its release next week. Rolling Stone talks to Jason Pierce about the new album and Pitchfork finds out what he was thinking when he selected the album art. They play The Phoenix on May 5.

Stream: Spiritualized / Sweet Heart Sweet Light

JAM, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Georgia Straight talk to Elvis Costello about busting out the “The Spectacular Spinning Songbook” for his recent tours, though it won’t be in play when he’s at Casino Rama on April 19 – guess they prefer people do their gambling on the casino floor than in the theatre. The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook live CD/DVD culled from the Summer 2011 leg of the tour came out last week.

Pitchfork points out that Field Music are streaming their contribution to this year’s Record Store Day release schedule; a 7″ featuring a cover of Pet Shop Boys’ “Rent”, which kicked off a mini PSB marathon over these parts; never a bad thing.

Stream: Field Music – “Rent”

Daytrotter has posted a session with Clock Opera, whose debut Ways To Forget was supposed to be out now but has been pushed back until April 23 in the UK.

DIY talks to Mystery Jets about their new album Radlands, due out April 30. They’re at The Sound Academy on June 19 in support of Keane.

Interview talks to Hot Chip about their new record In Our Heads, coming out June 12 and justifying a visit to the Sound Academy on July 15.

Stylist talks fashion with Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine. She’s at the Molson Amphitheatre on August 2.

Loud & Quiet talks to Trailer Trash Tracys.

Django Django have released a new video from their self-titled debut.

Video: Django Django – “Storm”

The Quietus tags along with British Sea Power as the band plays a concert at the CERN project in Switzerland.

Slicing Up Eyeballs has complete video of one of The Wedding Present’s shows at SXSW last month.

In the, “karmic balance for Anglophiles” department: Jarvis Cocker and Kevin Shields, in conversation with Shortlist and Pitchfork respectively, reveal that new material from both Pulp and My Bloody Valentine could be in the works – Pulp were also on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night – but Damon Albarn tells The Guardian in very few uncertain terms that Blur – and Gorillaz if you care about Gorillaz – are probably over following a final single and the Hyde Park show this Summer. DIY looks at what the definitive end of Blur would mean for the band’s legacy.

New to my ears lately are Swedish duo The Deer Tracks, whose two mini-albums so far – The Archer Trilogy P1 1 and The Archer Trilogy Pt. 2 (part three is out this Fall) – remind me not a little of early Múm, which is a good thing indeed. Also good is their North American tour this Summer is missing a Toronto date at the moment, but there’s a conspicuous two-day gap between Chicago and Montreal that just happens to fall during NXNE. So yeah.

MP3: The Deer Tracks – “Dark Passenger”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Ram Ram”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Fra Ro Raa / Ro Ra Fraa”

Pitchfork reports that another co-ed Swedish duo with a penchant for electronics – jj – will release a new single/EP/something entitled jj n° 4 on May 8, and the first track from it is now available to download.

MP3: jj – “Beautiful Life”

Anna Ternheim has announced the June 5 North American release of her new record The Night Visitor and offered a first sample for downloading and listening purposes.

MP3: Anna Ternheim – “The Longer The Waiting (The Sweeter The Kiss)”

Knox Road, The Boston Herald, Metro, and USA Today speak with Of Monsters & Men, in town at The Phoenix on April 12.

The second video from Ladyhawke’s Anxiety, out May 29, is now available to watch.

Video: Ladyhawke – “Sunday Drive”

Frank YangIt’s said that for bands seeking exposure, television is the new radio as far as reaching a mass audience is concerned. Sheffield’s Slow Club can probably speak a little to that, having done pretty well as far as advert and show soundtracking goes. Not having cable or watch much/any broadcast TV, I had no idea about this – I found the duo the old fashioned way by having their 2009 debut Yeah So show up in my mailbox – but it did explain why instead of finding The Rivoli a quarter-full with Anglophiles on Sunday night for their Toronto debut, it was instead jammed full with Chuck fans.

Geting taken on tour with a more popular band is also a good way to garner new fans, so Air Waves lucked out there. But getting put in front of an audience is only half of it – you still have to win them over, and on that count the Brookyln quartet didn’t do so well. Frontwoman Nicole Schneit started things off solo and her fumbled guitarwork and off-key singing set the tone for the rest of their show. Bringing on the rest of the band helped mask those shortcomings to a degree, but if you cared about things like melodies or being on pitch in your music, it was still pretty poor; the songs themselves might not have been so bad but the delivery was difficult to get past. They have their fans, that much is obvious – the members of Slow Club in the audience were their loudest cheerers and Rebecca Taylor joined them on backing vox for one song – but I simply couldn’t fathom it.

At the other side of the spectrum, Slow Club made the very best of first impressions with Taylor and Charles Watson opening with an acoustic cover of Pulp’s, “Disco 2000” – a bold move but they pulled it off masterfully and then, bringing out the rest of the band, went straight into the rollicking “Where I’m Waking” off second album Paradise. That’s right – they had a band with them. Though they pulled off the duo thing with great aplomb when I saw them at SXSW 2010 and the old-school purist in me would like to bemoan the format change, it’s impossible to argue that the extra hands didn’t really improve things. The guitar-and-drums thing fit the spirit of Yeah So perfectly, but the more fully-rendered Paradise really did need the extra manpower to do justice.

While Watson stuck to guitar and vocal duties and really proved himself the anchor of the group, Taylor was constantly shifting roles – singer, guitarist, second drummer, first drummer – but always the focal point and frontwoman. The hour-long set – the band’s first sellout in North America, Watson was pleased to announced – focused mainly on Paradise material and also previewed a couple of new songs which continued on in the more soulful direction of Paradise and according to Taylor would appear on a forthcoming EP. The band’s more manic folk-rock tendencies from their debut were nodded at via the Paradise singles but their more sophisticated – albeit still energetic – side was primarily on display. Still, it was nice to see it back down to Charles and Rebecca for the encore as they headed into the audience, unamplified as they do, for a lvely reading of “Gold Mountain” before heading back onstage for a rollicking, “Giving Up On Love” to close things out. I had kind of hoped/expected to have their first show here to be a cozier, more intimate affair but hey – a big party was pretty good as well.

Photos: Slow Club, Air Waves @ The Rivoli – February 19, 2012
MP3: Air Waves – “Knockout”
MP3: Air Waves – “Keys”
Video: Slow Club – “If We’re Still Alive”
Video: Slow Club – “Where I’m Waking”
Video: Slow Club – “Two Cousins”
Video: Slow Club – “It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful”
Video: Slow Club – “Trophy Room”
Video: Slow Club – “Giving Up On Love”
Video: Slow Club – “Come On Youth”

I thought for sure they’d go for an arena date, but the Florence & The Machine date in support of Ceremonials for Toronto will be August 2 at the Molson Amphitheatre. Update: Tickets are $24.50, $39.50 and $49.50 plus fees, on sale Friday, The Walkmen are opening.

Video: Florence & The Machine – “No Light, No Light”

eMusic gets to know Veronica Falls.

The Quietus interviews Trailer Trash Tracys.

i-D talks to Greg Hughes of Still Corners, who’ve just debuted a new video from last year’s Creatures Of An Hour.

Video: Still Corners – “Endless Summer”

Clock Opera continue to pave the way to the April 9 release of Ways To Forget with videos; there’s a stripped-down performance clip of the current single and four-part “making of” series to watch at their YouTube channel.

Video: Clock Opera – “Once And For All” (under the floorboards session)

The Wedding Present have released the first video from their new album Valentina, out March 20. They’re at The Horseshoe on March 25.

Video: The Wedding Present – “You Jane”

Magnet kicks off a week of The Big Pink as guest editors with a band Q&A feature.

Field Music discusses the economics of being in a band with The Guardian.

Saint Etienne have released a video from their forthcoming album Words And Music By Saint Etienne, due out on May 21; full details on the album were just released and can be read over at The Line Of Best Fit.

Video: Saint Etienne – “Tonight”

Lightships – the new project from Teenage Fanclub’s Gerard Love – has released another video from their debut Electric Cables, coming April 3.

Video: Lightships – “Sweetness In Her Spark”

The Futureheads talk to NME about the process of recording their new a capella album Rant, out April 2.

NME has excerpted some choice passages from an upcoming feature interview with Noel Gallagher, and amongst other things the former Oasis songwriter says these days he’d rather collaborate with Damon Albarn of Blur than Radiohead.

Know who else is willing to collaborate with Albarn? Graham Coxon. The pair debuted a new Blur song the other night at a War Child benefit show, and while it’s a bit slower/ballad-y than anyone should hope a new Blur record would be, it’s unequivocally gorgeous. There’s a good quality video of the performance at Consequence Of Sound, NME antes up with a video of the full band doing a run-through of “Tender” before tonight’s appearance at The Brits and Alex James offers some thoughts on Blur as an ongoing proposition at The Sun. And oh yeah, the band is playing the closing ceremonies for the Olympics, says DIY.

Video: Blur – “Under The West Way” (live)

NPR is streaming the new Fanfarlo album Rooms Filled With Light ahead of its February 28 official release, and a third live session video has surfaced. The band are at The Mod Club on March 24.

Video: Fanfarlo – “Bones” (live session video)
Stream: Fanfarlo / Rooms Filled With Light

The Line Of Best Fit are streaming the whole of the new The Mary Onettes EP Love Forever, along with song-by-song annotations from the band. It’s out February 28.

MP3: The Mary Onettes – “Love’s Taking Strange Ways”
Stream: The Mary Onettes / Love Forever

Niki & The Dove’s debut album finally has a title and a release date, at least in Europe. Instinct will be out on May 14 on the eastern side of the Atlantic.

Black Arts PRGraham Coxon has come up with a pretty clever way to get the word out about his forthcoming eighth solo record A+E, which is due out on April 2. Sure, the giving away a free MP3 from the album via a mailing list at DIY is pretty standard these days, but still effective. Soliciting dance auditions from fans to get a chance to star in the first video is also a fun strategy. And the three video trailers he’s released so far? Also effective if you’ve got some cachet and people are interested enough to watch – I think Coxon qualifies.

But the best way to get the words “Graham” and “Coxon” on peoples’ lips is to give an interview to The Daily Record wherein you basically guarantee in as many words that there will be a new Blur record while discussing your new record and your band’s upcoming appearance at the Brit awards. This carries a bit more weight than if, say, Alex James were saying it because Coxon is the one who basically ended Blur back in back in 2002 when he walked out on the recording of Think Tank. The other three carried on with that album and tour, but for many – myself included – it wasn’t Blur without Coxon, thus making his return to the fold in 2009 and the ensuing triumphant reunion tour that much sweeter.

If there’s any caveat about getting too excited about this pronouncement, it’s that Coxon was also the one who wanted aforementioned reunion tour to continue on – presumably with a return to North America – but Damon Albarn’s commitments to his zillion other projects put the nix on that. But one remains hopeful that where there’s smoke, there’s fire and eventually a new Blur album – with loads of tasty Coxon Telecaster and no world music beats – will emerge. And they will tour again.

Update: Pitchfork gets Damon Albarn on the horn and he’s cagier about what’s going on with Blur.

Well-timed, Filter has dug up a Think Tank-era cover story on the band as part of their tenth anniversary archive dig and DIY looks at the band’s 1997 self-titled effort – fifteen years old this week – helped kill Britpop.

Trailer: Graham Coxon / A+E Part 1
Trailer: Graham Coxon / A+E Part 2
Trailer: Graham Coxon / A+E Part 3

Noel Gallagher has released a new video from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

Video: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – “Dream On”

Drowned In Sound, The Stool Pigeon, The Line Of Best Fit, and Clash all mark the release of Field Music’s new album Plumb with interviews.

Daytrotter welcomes Blood Orange to their studios for an interview.

Having just made an MP3 from the album available to download last week, Tindersticks have gone all in and their new record The Something Rain is available to stream ahead of its release next Tuesday, February 21.

MP3: Tindersticks – “Frozen”
Stream: Tindersticks / The Something Rain

The Guardian are streaming the new Slow Club single, taken from last year’s Paradise. Hear it live at The Rivoli this Sunday, February 19. The West Australian has an interview with the duo and the non-couple, amongst others, offers some Valentine’s Day reminisces for DIY.

Stream: Slow Club – “The Dog”

Drowned In Sound and Stereoboard chat with The Twilight Sad.

Los Campesinos! have a new video from Hello Sadness. There may be pole dancing.

Video: Los Campesinos! – “Songs About Your Girlfriend”

As a salute to the team of Russian scientists who’ve dug into an Antarctic lake that has been sealed in ice for 15 million years or more and not unleashed prehistoric monsters to devastate the modern world (I hope), Fanfarlo are streaming a new song that appears only as a bonus track on deluxe editions of Rooms Filled With Light. Also, a second live session video intended to get people excited for the record has just been posted. It’s out February 28 and they play The Mod Club on March 24.

Stream: Fanfalro – “Vostok, You Are Waiting”
Video: Fanfarlo – “Tightrope” (live session)

Head over to Clash to see a couple of live session videos from Trailer Trash Tracys.

There used to be a time where “European version” meant that there was at least some frontal nudity. Loney Dear must not have gotten the memo, as the European version of the new video from Hall Music trades the footage of the forlorn, masked skateboarder of the Nort American version released just last month for a pair of attractive people embracing at the seaside. Okay, then.

Video: Loney Dear – “Loney Blues” (European version)
Video: Loney Dear – “Loney Blues” (North American version)

The Independent gets Niki & The Dove to unplug for a video session while Digital Spy declares the pair “ones to watch” with a short interview.

DIY gets to know the people behind Sweden’s lovely Labrador Records.

Harley WeirNo question, the first thing that needs to be addressed is their name. Even in an era with no shortage of terrible band names, Trailer Trash Tracys is an exceptionally terrible band name; the London quartet would probably be the first to admit it. But if there’s an upside to it, it’s that it offers no clues to what their debut album Ester might hold, so you’ve no choice to experience it with an open mind, if perhaps also lowered expectations.

Not that pressing “play” is quite enough – instrumental opener “Rolling – Kiss The Universe” is an abstracted mash-up of textures and tones that may intrigue or annoy, depending on your mood. But stick it out to the deep, twanging guitar line that announces “You Wish You Were Red” and Ester pays off in spades. The band owes obvious debts to Morricone and Badalamenti soundtracks, both in sound and mood, but attempting to pigeonhole them as Brits acting as cinematic tourists doesn’t account for the angelic croon of Susanne Aztoria, the unabashedly synthetic rhythms that bubble up throughout, the general lo-fi gauziness that permeates the proceedings or the unexpected bursts of guitar tapping that remind you that guitar tapping exists.

The sheer number of ideas and influences that go into Ester makes it seem like it should be a random mess, succeeding only occasionally and despite itself, but somehow it all manages to cohere in a way that’s unsettling yet alluring. It’s dream-pop that doesn’t sound much like that which typically gets called dream-pop, perhaps because rather than attempting to evoke what people think the subconscious sounds like, all soft-focus and slow-motion, Trailer Trash Tracys make music that sounds like it actually does – abstract and unpredictable while coming across as completely logical and natural within its own frame of reference. Well, that’s how my subconscious sounds, at least.

Addict Music has an interview with the band, while Spin has an interview as well as a stream of the album, which was released last month in the UK but is out in North America as of February 7.

MP3: Trailer Trash Tracys – “Candy Girl”
MP3: Trailer Trash Tracys – “Candy Girl” (demo)
MP3: Trailer Trash Tracys – “Dies In 55”
Video: Trailer Trash Tracys – “Englehart’s Arizona”
Video: Trailer Trash Tracys – “You Wish You Were Red”
Stream: Trailer Trash Tracys / Ester

The Twilight Sad’s James Graham talks haggis with Food Republic. No One Can Ever Know is out February 7 and they play Lee’s Palace on February 29.

Amanda Mair has released a first video from her self-titled debut, due out February 15.

Video: Amanda Mair – “Sense”

The Daily Record gets to know Niki & The Dove.

Of Monsters & Men have put their international, major-label record deal monies to good use, releasing a first video from My Head Is An Animal. The album is out April 3 and they’re at The Mod Club on April 12.

Video: Of Monsters & Men – “Little Talks”

NOW welcomes The Asteroids Galaxy Tour to Toronto, where they’re playing The Hoxton on Monday night.

The Dø have decided to cover Janelle Monáe. It sounds like this. They also did a session for The Line Of Best Fit, as well as an interview back in November when Both Ways Open Jaws came out.

Stream: The Dø – “Tightrope”