Jamie AdamsonWho: Two Door Cinema Club
What: Northern Irish electro-pop trio whose peppy-as-hell debut Tourist History has been a hit with the kids
Why: I’m not ashamed to admit that I thought their catchy but slight sound would make them one of the soundtracks of Summer 2010 but fade shortly thereafter. I guess that now, a year and a half and three ever-escalating North American tours later, it’s safe to say I was wrong.
When: Saturday, September 17, 2011
Where: The Kool Haus in Toronto (all-ages)
Who else: Support comes from fellow UK club-goers Bombay Bicycle Club, with whom they’ve sadly chosen to team up with rather than have a Mods-vs-Rockers-type throwdown on the pierside, and Seattles The Lonely Forest, who are no club at all and presumably have to ride in the trailer.
How: Tickets for the show are $21 in advance but courtesy of Embrace, I have two pairs of passes to give away to the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to join the Two Door Cinema Club” in the subject line and your full name in the body and have that in to me before midnight, September 12.

Video: Two Door Cinema Club – “What You Know”
Video: Two Door Cinema Club – “I Can Talk”
Video: Two Door Cinema Club – “Undercover Martyn”
Video: Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”

VCPNew Zealand’s Cut Off Your Hands made some noise a couple years ago with their debut You And I, an enjoyable if not especially original collection of hepped-up, post-punk pop tunes intended to incite pogoing. And they worked that record pretty hard in North America, eventually losing both founding guitarist Mikey Ramirez to the rigours of touring and drummer Brent Harris to damaged hearing.

A couple years on and both are back in the fold to some degree and the band is back with a new album in Hollow, out in North America August 16, and they really want you to hear some of it. There’s a download of the more-Bunnymen-than-Bunnymen “Hollowed Out” along with some commentary at Spin, a video has been released for the first single and over at Facebook, a Like will get you another download from the new record. And oh hell, the whole thing is available to stream at Soundcloud. It’s definitely a more jangly/shimmery/classically Kiwi-pop record than the debut, more romantic-sounding and less in-your-face – still not breaking any new ground but it’s kind of nice to know that they’ve got a broader record collection to steal from than the first album implied.

Under The Radar has an interview with frontman Nick Johnson.

MP3: Cut Off Your Hands – “Hollowed Out”
Video: Cut Off Your Hands – “Fooling No One”
Stream: Cut Off Your Hands / Hollow

DIY and The Irish Independent with New Zealand’s current top musical export, The Naked & Famous. They play Lee’s Palace on August 9.

Billy Bragg has done what all good protest singers do and written a song about the News International phone hacking scandal currently unfolding in the UK – download the song for free, watch the video, read an op-ed by Billy in The Guardian and do what the man says – same applies in Toronto, by the way.

MP3: Billy Bragg – “Never Buy The Sun”
Video: Billy Bragg – “Never Buy The Sun”

The Guardian has premiered another new video from Cat’s Eyes’s self-titled debut.

Video: Cat’s Eyes – “Over You”

The Alternate Side has a session and interview with James Blake while inthemix and Time Out have feature pieces. He plays The Phoenix on September 30.

A public service announcement: The Two Door Cinema Club show originally scheduled to take place at The Phoenix on September 17 has been moved to Kool Haus. Also, Metro discovers frontman Alex Trimble listens to Lady Gaga.

Blood Orange has released a video from his debut Coastal Grooves, which is now set for an August 30 release.

Video: Blood Orange – “Sutphin Boulevard”

One of the new tracks from Ladytron’s forthcoming Gravity The Seducer, out September 13, is now available to download. They’re at The Phoenix October 5.

MP3: Ladytron – “White Elephant”

NPR are streaming a KCRW session with Friendly Fires, in town at The Phoenix on October 23.

Veronica Falls have supplemented the recent audio preview of their debut album, out in October, with a video.

MP3: Veronica Falls – “Come On Over”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Come On Over”

Allo Darlin’ will release a new non-album single in “Darren”, named for and inspired by Darren Hayman, former frontman of Hefner and featuring as a b-side a cover of “Wu Tang Clan”, originally by his project The French. Stream the a-side at Bandcamp.

The Daily Star chats with Florence Welch about some of the studio shenanigans that have gone into recording the second Florence & The Machine album.

PopMatters uses the occasion of the recent reissues as an excuse to reexamine the legacy of Suede. BBC also has an audio interview with Brett Anderson about getting the band back together; his new solo record Black Rainbows is out September 26. And regarding those Suede reissues; just noticed that eMusic has both Suede and Dog Man Star listed under “London Suede”. If you have an account and wanted to cherry pick the bonus material without re-buying everything a third time (like I do/don’t).

And alas, Gomez have cancelled the remainder of their North American tour due to illness, including Sunday’s show at The Phoenix.

Alex LakeOne of my most anticipated records of the last few years was First Love, the debut from London’s Emma-Lee Moss, aka Emmy The Great. I’d spent well over a year with my own custom compilation of her various singles, EPs and random releases on repeat before the album proper came out and perhaps inevitably felt a bit let down, though for reasons entirely my own and even so, it still made my 2009 year-end list.

There was no such weight of expectation surrounding her second album, which isn’t to say that I wasn’t anxious to hear it – I most certainly was – but even not having heard any of the new material, I figured I had a pretty good idea what to expect: acoustically-built pop songs with wonderfully clever lyrics delivered in Moss’ distinctively precise diction; more of First Love would have been just fine with me. So of course, it goes without saying that Virtue pretty much floored me. The backstory of the record isn’t essential to appreciating it, but understanding what the last couple of years have been like for Moss provides some invaluable context for the record. Read the unabridged feature from The Guardian for the full story but in brief, Moss was engaged until her formerly atheist fiancee found God and left her for the life of a missionary.

Life-altering stuff, to say the least, and so it’s no surprise that whereas the songwriting on First Love felt like a collection of tales told through characters, Virtue feels considerably more personal, even filtered through the allegories – many religious and/or mythical – that suffuse the songs. Though it’d be justified if it was, Virtue is anything but a pity party – the songs constantly struggle for some critical distance from their inspiration, adding a certain tension to the proceedings, but on “Trellick Tower” that struggle ends, the tension evaporates and the album closes on its most emotionally unguarded and affecting moment.

Virtue is a darker and weightier record than the debut, both lyrically and musically. The latter point comes thanks to the addition of more electric and electronic textures to go with the more conventional acoustic instrumentation, courtesy of producer Gareth Jones and long-time collaborator Euan Hinshelwood. Moss was never comfortable being associated with the “anti-folk” tag that tied her to some of her peers and former bandmates, but only the most stubborn would call Virtue a folk record; it’s diverse and rangy enough that anything more specific than “pop” would be debatable. If you needed more adjectives, however, I would submit any or all of “contemplative”, “elegant”, “wistful”, “gorgeous” and “essential”.

The Westmoreland Gazette has an interview with Moss about the new record. Being independently released in the UK, there’s not much chance of a North American release but Virtue is available digitally at both eMusic and iTunes. Similarly, touring over here seems unlikely but Emmy is doing two US dates in Philadelphia and New York next month, and yes, I may well have moved my flight to New York up a day so as to be able to make the show at The Studio At Webster Hall. What of it?

MP3: Emmy The Great – “A Woman, A Woman, A Century Of Sleep”
Video: Emmy The Great – “Iris”

The Guardian has an extended feature on Antony Hegarty of Antony & The Johnsons.

The Vaccines are back in town for the third time this year, this time headlining a show at The Phoenix on September 27. It’ll be all-ages, tickets $15 in advance and Tennis and Young Buffalo support.

MP3: The Vaccines – “Norgaard” (live)
MP3: Tennis – “Take Me Somewhere”

Gearing up for the release of Skying next week – everywhere but North America at least, we have to wait until August 9 – The Horrors have made the whole album available to stream and have also released a first video from the new record. They play Lee’s Palace on September 27.

Video: The Horrors – “Still Life”
Stream: The Horrors / Skying

DIY and AOL Music UK have chats with the lads of Two Door Cinema Club; they have a date at The Phoenix on September 17.

Everyone expecting a new Spiritualized record this Fall, get ready to wait a little longer – State reports that a series of UK dates have been postponed until next year, wit said new album now targeted for a February 2012 release.

Liam Gallagher of Beady Eye tells The Sun that he’s gone clean and sober. His band has also put out a new video from Different Gear, Still Speeding.

Video: Beady Eye – “The Beat Goes On”

And Gallagher the elder – that’s Noel – has just announced details of his first post-Oasis projects. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds will release their self-titled debut on October 17 and next year, look for a collaborative record with psychedelic-electronia outfit Amorphous Androgynous. Or don’t. Fuller details at The Quietus.

The Quietus reports that Jarvis Cocker will be publishing a collection of his lyrics in book form Mother, Brother, Lover: Selected Lyrics will be out in October.

The Independent checks in on some of the one-time heroes of Britpop, including Louise Wener of Sleeper; she’s now an author and I just realized that the two volumes of her Britpop memoirs – Different For Girls and Just For One Day are actually the same book under different titles. I wish I’d realized that before I bought them both.

Slicing Up Eyeballs reports that The Jesus & Mary Chain will be embarking on an extensive catalog reissue campaign this Fall; it begins on September 19 with double-CD/single-DVD sets for Psychocandy and Darklands, followed by Automatic and Honey’s Dead the following week and final two albums Stoned & Dethroned and Munki on October 3.

Post-punk forebears The Raincoats will be remastering and reissuing their 1981 album Odyshape on September 13 and follow that up with some North American touring that includes a September 23 date at Wrongbar in Toronto.

Video: The Raincoats – “Don’t Be Mean”

Frank YangYou’re not wrong, it really had been forever since Low last headlined a show in Toronto – well over five years, to be exact. It may not have seemed that long, what with them having been here supporting Wilco at Massey Hall in July 2007 and Alan Sparhawk having brought his Retribution Gospel Choir through town a number of times in the interim, but yes. Low sightings in Toronto have been, well, low.

The drought finally ended on Monday night at the Mod Club, however, with Duluth’s finest in town to support their latest effort C’Mon, their first in four years and that, I suppose, is all the explanation you’d need for why they haven’t visited. And as a return, it feels like a “where we’ve been” over the last decade or so. It predominantly resembles 2002′s Trust, with its warm, organic tones and relatively unadorned production, but you don’t have to dig too deep to uncover some of The Great Destroyer‘s overt rock moves or Drums And Guns‘ dark and crushing paranoia. It’s noteworthy that while that sequence of records confused and alienated much of their long-time fanbase – but won new devotees – blended together as they are on C’Mon they actually make a lot of sense and as such, it might be their most broadly satisfying record in some time.

Support for the evening were local dreampop ensemble and recent Sub Pop signees Memoryhouse. I first saw them back in December and while I liked much of what they were doing musically, those who criticized their live performances as being rather sleepy had a point. Perhaps in response, the Memoryhouse who took the stage on this evening were a full and proper band, with a rhythm section joining principals Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion and made for a still low key but more confident band up there than the one I saw a few months ago. Nouvion, in particular, was clearly more comfortable in the role of frontwoman, even working some dance steps into the show. And while this configuration certainly did what one would hope, filled out the sound and gave it some weight, it also made them more conventional-sounding; not necessarily a bad thing, but when there was all that space, it left more to the imagination. But even so, as a preview of their debut full-length due out before the end of the year, it ably demonstrated why one of the premier record labels around would be so keen to get them under contract. I look forward to seeing and hearing them grow.

Ask people what they’d expect a Low show to sound like and they’d probably respond with one or all of: slow, solemn, with beautiful harmonies from Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker and maybe a guitar freakout or ten. But handclaps and drum machines? Maybe not so much. So that their show opened exactly so with “Breaker” would serve as notice that the evening might not be so predictable. Okay, it was still all of the things noted above, but still surprising in a number of respects, not least of all that they were here as a quartet with Sparhawk’s compatriots from the Retribution Gospel Choir on bass on keys. But most significant was that despite having released their warmest-sounding record in years and playing just about all of it over the course of the show, live it took on a decidedly different character. It was slower, starker and aside from a few moments of lightness, if you hadn’t heard the record you might have thought the band was continuing on with the grim Drums And Guns aesthetic.

Perhaps the tension was just reflecting on the unspoken mood of the crowd, what with this being federal election night and the returns coming in over the course of their set not reflecting what the presumably left-leaning audience would have liked to see. Adding to the atmosphere was the fact that Sparhawk didn’t speak a word to the audience through the entire show, and only then because he flubbed the intro to their final song. At that point he chastised his own country for taking to the streets to celebrate an assassination and lauded ours, only to be informed that we might not be far behind – at which point they closed out, perhaps appropriately given the topics of conversation, with “Murderer”. The encore offered a bit of uplift, with Sparhawk not so subtly inquiring as to where one might acquire some pot and dedicating to us “Canada” before closing things out with a grand reading of “When I Go Deaf”, offering a most welcome bit of a catharsis and making the next four years – whether until the next election or when Low finally return again – seem just a bit more bearable.

The National Post has a review of the show, while The Boston Globe and New Haven Advocate have interviews. The Alternate Side has an interview and session.

Photos: Low, Memoryhouse @ The Mod Club – May 2, 2011
MP3: Low – “Especially Me”
MP3: Low – “Try To Sleep”
MP3: Low – “Silver Rider”
MP3: Low – “Murderer”
MP3: Low – “Breaker”
MP3: Low – “California”
MP3: Low – “Monkey”
MP3: Low – “In Metal”
MP3: Low – “Sunflower”
MP3: Memoryhouse – “Lately (Deuxieme)”
MP3: Memoryhouse – “Lately (Troisieme)”
MP3: Memoryhouse – “Gian Lorenzo Bernini”
Video: Low – “Try To Sleep”
Video: Low – “Belarus”
Video: Low – “In Silence”
Video: Low – “Breaker”
Video: Low – “California”
Video: Low – “Death Of A Salesman”
Video: Low – “Monkey”
Video: Low – “Hatchet”
Video: Memoryhouse – “Heirloom”
Video: Memoryhouse – “Bonfire”
Video: Memoryhouse – “Lately (Deuxieme)”

The disappointment at there not being any local dates for the Archers Of Loaf reunion has been mitigated somewhat by the fact that Eric Bachmann is still coming to town this Summer – he is bringing Crooked Fingers to the Horseshoe on July 3, tickets $13.50. Who knows what they’ll be playing – a new record is due out sometime this year – or even who’s in the band, but happiness is still the correct response. Update: The new record is called Breaks in the Armor and it’s out in October.

MP3: Crooked Fingers – “Angelina”

Urge Overkill are readying their first new record in pretty much forever with Rock & Roll Submarine, out next week, and are coming to town for the first time since NXNE 2007. Look for them and their medallions at The Horseshoe on July 7, tickets $15.50. Illinois Entertainer and Music Radar have feature pieces on the band’s return.

Video: Urge Overkill – “Positive Bleeding”

Cold Cave – last seen (or not seen given their fondness for playing in the dark) opening up for The Kills this past weekend – have scheduled a headlining date at The Horseshoe on July 14 as part of a Summer tour, tickets $15.

MP3: Cold Cave – “Villains Of The Moon”
MP3: Cold Cave – “The Great Pan Is Dead”
Video: Cold Cave – “Villains Of the Moon”

Sonny & The Sunsets bring their new record Hit After Hit to Sneaky Dee’s on July 24.

MP3: Sonny & The Sunsets – “I Wanna Do It”
Video: Sonny & The Sunsets – “Reflections On Youth”

Acknowledging that making people choose between themselves and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart show at The Opera House on the same evening, Beirut and Owen Pallett & Les Mouches have added an August 4 show at the Phoenix to go along with the previously announced and sold out August 2 show at the same venue. Tickets are again $32.50 and will again surely sell out.

MP3: Beirut – “Postcards From Italy”
MP3: Owen Pallett – “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”

Continuing their mandate of only playing with other bands who are nonsensical clubs, Two Door Cinema Club are teaming up with Bombay Bicycle Club for a Fall North American tour that includes a September 17 stop at The Phoenix. Joining them will be The Lonely Forest, who have apparently convinced the other two that they are also a club. Or maybe just have a clubhouse.

MP3: The Lonely Forest – “Coyote”
Video: Two Door Cinema Club – “What You Know”
Video: Bombay Bicycle Club – “My God”

Kings Of Leon have made an October 11 date at the Air Canada Centre with Band Of Horses supporting.

MP3: Band Of Horses – “Factory”
Video: Kings Of Leon – “Sex On Fire”

elbow.co.ukThe overarching storyline to Elbow’s career can generally be summed up as, “slow and steady wins the race”, with the race in question perhaps referring to the prestigious Mercury Music Prize, which they were nominated for in 2001 for their debut Asleep in The Back and finally won in 2008 for album number four, The Seldom Seen Kid. The adage could also apply to my own relationship with the band, which started with indifference to Asleep, complete ignorance to 2003′s Cast Of Thousands (though better late than never), respect with their third record Leaders Of The Free World (thankfully in time to see them live) and, in line with the Mercury jurors, something akin to love for The Seldom Seen Kid.

All of which is to say that the Mancunians’ fifth album build a rocket boys! was the first of theirs that I had been awaiting with hand-rubbing glee and though it’s not quite what I had expected, it hasn’t disappointed one bit. To the point of it not being what I was expecting, it’s hard to articulate what I mean by that as I don’t really know what I was expecting. Another record with the grandeur of Kid was unlikely, but the overt leanness of rocket was still surprising. From start almost to finish, it keeps things low and tight, the songs often built around a single unwavering chord or bass note like a pulse that must be kept strong and steady. The drama that Elbow excel at still manifests itself in swells and blooms throughout, but it’s not until the final tracks “Open Arms” and “Dear Friends” that it feels like the record is allowed to really exhale.

But despite the way things are constructed, tension is the last feeling that rocket evokes. Instead, it’s an almost preternaturally calm record – lead single “Neat Little Rows” is the only tune that you could consider a rocker – infused with a grace and sentimentality that’s distinctly Elbow. With orchestral and choral accents, it’s a recipe that from other bands’ kitchens might end up overly sappy but in Elbow’s masterful hands and delivered through Guy Garvey’s rough and yearning vocals, it deftly sidesteps melodrama pitfalls and is never anything less than gorgeous. For bystanders, the band’s Mercury win may have represented the culmination of a long career but clearly, for the band, it was just an affirmation that they were on the right track and people (like myself) were coming around. But they’re not done yet, not even close.

Though released in the UK and Canada since last month, build a rocket boys! gets a physical US release this week. The band plays its first North American show since Summer 2009 at Coachella and all indications are that a proper tour will follow later this year. Paste has an interview with Guy Garvey and the band have just released a video for the new record’s second single.

Video: Elbow – “Open Arms”
Video: Elbow – “Neat Little Rows”

Also making a return to America at Coachella – though a much longer hiatus – is Suede. The extensive reissue program for their back catalog which starts at the end of May in the UK and runs through the end of June will apparently also be happening in the US, though firm release dates haven’t been announced. Here’s hoping that it also includes more North American dates – even if they are with Fat Richard and not Bernard. Filter is marking the band’s return with a series of features all week including a history of and an interview with former Suede guitarist and Elastica leader Justine Frischmann. More will follow this week, and here’s one of the remastered tracks from last year’s The Best Of compilation.

MP3: Suede – “The Beautiful Ones”

NME reports that Bloc Party, their post-Intimacy hiatus apparently now at an end, will reconvene to work on a new record in September.

Pitchfork solicits a guest list from Ian Parton of The Go! Team while frontwoman Ninja has a quick chat with aux.tv.

Daytrotter serves up a session with Yuck, who also have a TunnelVision clip up at Pitchfork. They will be at The Phoenix on May 1.

The release of Patrick Wolf’s new album Lupercalia has been pushed back a couple of weeks from May 31 to June 20 worldwide, with a North American release date to be announced. DIY has the official statement from Wolf on the delay and an interview that talks about other things (almost certainly conducted before the delay was announced).

Spinner seems to have dug up an old interview with Dev Hynes of Lightspeed Champion, as it talks about last year’s Bye Bye EP and makes no mention of the fact that Hynes has shelved his Lightspeed Champion persona in favour of the funkier Blood Orange. That project’s debut release – the “Dinner”/”Bad Girls” 7″ – will be out on April 26 with a full-length to follow later this year.

Originally slated to come out in March, NME reports that Emmy The Great’s second album Virtue will now be out on June 13.

Noah & The Whale have put out a new video from Last Night On Earth.

Video: Noah & The Whale – “Tonight’s The Kind Of Night”

Interview speaks to Anna Calvi about the arm injury that forced the rescheduling of her North American debut dates. She will now be at The El Mocambo on May 27 and I hope that her inclusion on the just-released Osheaga lineup means there’ll be a return engagement come late July/early August.

Another day, another PJ Harvey video from Let England Shake.

Video: PJ Harvey – “On Battleship Hill”

The Fly reports that Johnny Marr has left The Cribs to devote more time to his solo project with The Healers and not reforming The Smiths. The Cribs have released a statement about the amicable parting of ways.

The latest Brit buzz band Brother will be at The Horseshoe on May 3 for a free show. The Slough Observer has an interview with their native sons; Live 4 Ever also has a chat.

Video: Brother – “Still Here”

Art Brut will bring their new record Brilliant! Tragic! to The Mod Club on June 17 as part of NXNE. The record is out May 23 and a second track from the album is available to download at Pledge Music.

MP3: Art Brut – “Lost Weekend”

Gomez will follow up the June 6 release of Whatever’s On Your Mind with a date at The Phoenix on July 17; tickets $26 in advance.

Though Guillemots frontman Fyfe Dangerfiend has done quite well for himself solo, he and his band have reconvened for a new record in Walk The River and it is streaming in whole right now at Hype Machine in advance of its release next week. The Independent has a feature piece.

Stream: Guillemots / Walk The River

Wild Beasts have released a video from their new record Smother, due out May 10.

Video: Wild Beasts – “Albatross”

Interview does its thing with James Allan of Glasvegas. Euphoric Heartbreak is out today.

The Georgia Straight, Vancouver Sun and Montreal Gazette chat with Two Door Cinema Club.