Here we are, another September 2, another year, another “oh my god am I still doing this” post. As far at themes go, I was torn between the good ol’ Eveready cat logo or some of Gustave Doré’s illustrations from the ninth circle of Dante’s Inferno – but I’ve gotten some grief lately over being a bit of a gloomy gus so I went with the cartoon kitty. And the “nine lives” bit? Maybe, but I’m certainly not on number one.

So yes, still here, doing what I’m doing while noting that the landscape of things continues to change around me and the traditional-form blog, such as this one here, are becoming increasingly archaic. That’s cool with me; I can appreciate the vintage vibe, yo. And as I can feel a pointless ramble coming on, I will check myself and simply say that I have now been doing this for a quarter of my life and can’t remember not doing it… so for reading and validating that effort, I thank you. That’s about all I’ve got to say for this annual state-of-the-whatever post. Kind of weak, but don’t worry – I’ve already got next year’s decade post a-brewing. It’ll be a doozie.

Did you know the traditional ninth anniversary gift is pottery and the modern ninth anniversary gift is leather? Me neither. So what else we got?

The Independent has an interview with Emma-Lee Moss of Emmy The Great.

NOW previews tonight’s Male Bonding show at The Horseshoe by talking with the band about their just-released second album Endless Now. The Boston Globe and I Like Music also have interviews.

The Guardian has a feature profile on Laura Marling, whose third album A Creature I Don’t Know is out on September 13. She is at The Great Hall on September 23.

Spin has posted up a video session with Annie Clark of St. Vincent, whose latest Strange Mercy arrives September 13.

Aquarium Drunkard interviews the members of Olivia Tremor Control, whose reunion tour hits Lee’s Palace on September 16.

Veronica Falls have released a new video from their self-titled debut, due out September 20. They’re at The Mod Club opening up for The Drums on October 1. And speaking of The Drums, they’ve released the second video in their Visiomento series promoting Portamento, out September 13.

Video: Veronica Falls – “Bad Feeling”

Spinner and The Irish Independent talk to Yuck, who will be at The Horseshoe on September 24.

Slicing Up Eyeballs reports that the principals of New Order have put aside their seething hatred of one another enough to agree to release some outtakes from their last studio album, 2005′s Waiting For The Sirens’ Call though they’re still debating the exact format of the release. Live4Ever has an interview with Peter Hook, who brings his new outfit The Light playing material from his old outfit Joy Division to town for a show at The Phoenix on September 24.

Video: New Order – “Jetstream”

Rolling Stone declares Dum Dum Girls a “band to watch”, just in time for the September 27 release of Only In Dreams. They’re at Lee’s Palace on October 16 and if you missed it earlier this week – I added it to a post a little late – a second superb MP3 from the album has been made available to download.

MP3: Dum Dum Girls – “Bedroom Eyes”

It won’t be here in time for his September 30 show at The Phoenix, but James Blake has announced the release of a new six-track EP entitled Enough Thunder for October 10; details at The Independent.

Blurt has a feature interview with Explosions In The Sky, in town at The Sound Academy on October 7.

Pitchfork reports that the release date for Bjork’s new album Biophilia has been pushed back from September 27 to October 11.

San Francisco psych-rockers Thee Oh Sees have made a date at The Horseshoe for October 21 in support of this Summer’s Castlemania, though Prefix reports they’ve already got another album ready to go in Carrion Crawler/The Dream, due out November 15.

MP3: Thee Oh Sees – “I Need Seed”

I talked last week about how much I was looking forward to Welcome To Condale, the debut album from Summer Camp; well to go along with a brand-new website, the duo have confirmed that the album will have a North American release one week after the UK release on November 8.

The Line Of Best Fit reports that Los Campesinos! will release their fourth album, entitled Hello Sadness, on November 15. And while that’s good news for fans, there’s also some bad news as it was announced via blog that violinist Harriet Campesinos! would be following in keyboardist Aleksandra’s two-year old footsteps and leave the band in favour of university and re-assuming her old surname. Perhaps that’s the sadness the album’s title is referring to?

NPR has a World Cafe session with Anna Calvi. It’s amazing how small her speaking voice is, compared to how massive her singing voice is. Whew. She will be at Lee’s Palace on December 8.

TV On The Radio have a new video from Nine Types Of Light

Video: TV On The Radio – “Second Song”

Also with a new clip are White Lies, from Ritual.

Video: White Lies – “The Power & The Glory”

American Songwriter rounds up some of the releases that will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie’s birth next year, including but certainly not limited to a Wilco/Billy Bragg Mermaid Avenue box set.

FacebookWho: White Lies
What: London-based gloomy gusses who, following the chart-topping success of their debut To Lose My Life, sought to prove they had more than just Joy Division albums in their collection. Ritual is evidence they also own some Depeche Mode.
Why: Immediately following Ritual‘s release back in January, the band played an undersized club show at The Mod Club to whip up excitement. For this return engagement, they’re playing a room a little more appropriately-sized.
When: Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Where: The Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto
Who else: Not sure if support has been announced or if I just can’t find it. Either way… surprise!
How: Tickets for the show are $27.50 in advance but courtesy of LiveNation, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see White Lies” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, August 1.

MP3: White Lies – “Death” (Crystal Castles remix)
Video: White Lies – “Holy Ghost”
Video: White Lies – “Strangers”
Video: White Lies – “Bigger Than Us”

Jean-Baptiste MondinoThanks to the fact that the United Kingdom exists five hours into the future, I woke up yesterday morning just in time to see the short list for this year’s Mercury Prize – awarded annually to the best album in the UK and Ireland – commandeer my Twitter feed for a short while. The process by which the shortlist and winner is selected isn’t entirely clear to me – it’s not as transparent as Canada’s Polaris Prize – but in a way that mysteriousness makes it more interesting.

Even though the “how” isn’t clear, a few years of Mercury-spotting has made the “what” pretty easy to peg, at least in a manner of speaking. History shows that about half the list is the cream of the Brit-indie pop/rock crop and the other half is pulled from all manner of other genres, from jazz to pop to hip-hop to what have you and the net result is eleven or twelve – interesting there’s no fixed size to the short list – albums that offer a good amount of grist for the conversational mill. The dozen records competing for the prize are:

Adele / 21 / Video: “Rolling In The Deep”
James Blake / James Blake / MP3: “To Care (Like You)”
Anna Calvi / Anna Calvi / MP3: “Blackout”
Elbow / build a rocket boys! / MP3: “Open Arms”
Everything Everything / Man Alive / Video: “Final Form”
Ghostpoet / Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam / Video: “Cash And Carry Me Home”
PJ Harvey / Let England Shake / MP3: “Written On The Forehead”
Katy B / On A Mission / Video: “Carry Me Home”
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins / Diamond Mine / Video: “Bubble”
Metronomy / The English Riviera / Video: “The Look”
Gwilym Simcock / Good Days at Schloss Elmau
Tinie Tempah / Disc-Overy / Video: “‘Til I’m Gone”

I can only speak to first-hand experience with about half the list, but it’s not unreasonable to think that the winning album will be amongst that subset. Indeed, many have already narrowed it down to a two-artist race between Adele and PJ Harvey, and if it’s down to those two I’d give the edge to Polly Jean if for no other reason than last year’s XX win was the eminently obvious choice. I don’t necessarily see them doing that again. And while I’d have no problem with either, both of their records being massive achievements by a number of standards, I’d be pretty happy to see Anna Calvi sneak up the middle to take it. I do love her self-titled debut and am sad that her appearance at Osheaga next week will not come with a stop down the 401. Perhaps a Mercury win would encourage her to do another North American tour and give me the opportunity to finally see her live. I also continue to love Elbow’s latest but think the odds of them winning for two albums in a row are pretty slim – they don’t have the underdog card to play anymore.

In any case, the winner will be announced on September 6.

Washington City Paper talks to Wild Beasts, whose Smother seems to be the consensus surprising omission from this year’s short list. They also do a couple video sessions for WNYC and The Fader and will be at The Mod Club on September 29.

Spin talks to Daniel Blumberg and The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel to Max Bloom, both of Yuck.

Emmy The Great talks to Clash about her personal grassroots campaign against News International.

Interview and The Sydney Morning Herald talk to Patrick Wolf about his new record Lupercalia while The Independent finds out how he and Patti Smith became friends.

JAM has a feature on White Lies, in town at The Phoenix on August 3.

NPR has a World Cafe session with Beady Eye.

The Grid is starting rumours that Noel Gallagher will be in town for a show the week his solo debut Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds is released in North America, which is to say November 8. Bookie’s not one to just make stuff up, so keep an eye out. Also, in conversation with The List, Gallagher says he takes no joy in Beady Eye’s failure to tear up the charts.

The Guardian talks to Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow of Portishead, who have two shows at The Sound Academy on October 9 and 10; word is the first night is sold out and the second not too far behind.

Artrocker chats with Tim Burgess of The Charlatans.

eMusic talks reunions and reissues with Brett Anderson and Mat Osman of Suede.

According to The Guardian, the New Order split is about as final and acrimonious as you imagined it to be.

French dance-pop veterans Tahiti 80 are back with a new record in The Past, The Present & The Possible and a tour which brings them to The Horseshoe on September 22, tickets $13.50 in advance.

MP3: Tahiti 80 – “Keys To The City”

M83 has finally revealed specifics on and an MP3 from their next album, which will be a double-set entitled Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. Pitchfork has details on the record, which will be out on October 18. M83 plays Lee’s Palace on November 18, tickets $20 in advance.

MP3: M83 – “Midnight City”

DIY has a profile of I Break Horses, whose debut Hearts is out August 15.

Spinner talks to Lykke Li.

Adult Swim is giving away a new song from The Tallest Man On Earth. Just because, I guess.

MP3: The Tallest Man On Earth – “Weather Of A Killing Kind”

In a perfect world, this would be an item about a new Jens Lekman album and world tour including a local date. But it’s not a perfect world so instead, it’s an item about a new EP entitled An Argument With Myself, due out September 20, and a US tour that doesn’t cross the border. The Secretly Canadian press release consists of an interview with Jens.

Stereogum has the first MP3 from the new Loney Dear record, entitled Hall Music and out on October 4. There’s also rumours/promises of North American dates in November.

Labrador Records, purveyors of the finest in Swedish pop, have put out a free label sampler entitled Stockholm Belongs To Us which collects tracks from all their active roster. Needless to say, it’s wonderful.

Consequence Of Sound and Pitchfork both have more details on Bjork’s Biophilia project, the album of which will be out September 27 and the app of which was released today – The Guardian takes it for a spin.

And speaking of Bjork, guess who’s going to Iceland Airwaves this October? Lots of people. Me amongst them. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to swing tickets to Bjork’s Reykjavík Concert Hall shows, but hey. Iceland!

Frank YangI’ll admit that sometimes I get a bit protective of bands. Particularly those who tour from far and distant lands without the benefit of a lot of buzz behind them; I’ve seen too many bands play too less than double-digits of people and just felt bad for them… and for myself because you’re unlikely to get the best show out of a band who thinks they’re playing to no one.

These were the sorts of concerns I had leading up to the Toronto debut of Allo Darlin’ – in all the way from London – at the El Mocambo on Saturday night. None of the band, tour or show seemed to be particularly well-promoted (though I did my part) and even if they were, the timing was tough as the indie/Brit-pop contingent also had Gruff Rhys and Architecture In Helsinki shows that evening to choose from. I had fallen quite in love with the band’s self-titled debut, but had fears of walking into the El Mo and finding a near-empty room.

Happily, such was not the case and by the time the foursome took the stage at half-eleven, I guesstimated just shy of eighty or so people in attendance. Not a packed house by any means, but certainly a respectable one and one that got treated to about as adorable and entertaining a show as anyone could have hoped for. Their hour-long set was a study in fun, with frontwoman Elizabeth Morris proving that the ukulele was as headbanging an instrument as anything else, dancing and pogoing around the stage. And really, for a band that’s rather instantly and mostly fairly pigeonholed as twee-pop, they brought some seriously punk rock energy to the proceedings, Morris’ sweet voice and phrasing taking an unexpected but entirely welcome Louise Wener-ish edge in the live setting.

In between some colourful banter – apparently the show in Montreal the night before was interrupted when someone smashed the club doors with a sledge hammer – they melted hearts with a selection of songs from their debut, a few new tunes from their second album – entitled Europe and presumably finished though apparently not out anytime too soon – and a cover of The French’s “The Wu Tang Clan” to close the main set out. By this point a call for an encore was assured and they obliged with their hilarious single “Henry Rollins Don’t Dance”, wrapping a wonderful little set. Morris mentioned earlier in the show that she heard Toronto doesn’t get much in the way of indie-pop coming through town, and that’s probably true enough. If they want to up our regular dosage of Allo Darlin’, I won’t complain a bit.

Allo Darlin’s North American tour has less than a week to go (though they’ve sworn to reschedule the week of west coast shows cancelled on account of late vias) – if you’re in one of the cities remaining on the itinerary, go. Just go.

Photos: Allo Darlin’ @ The El Mocambo – June 11, 2011
MP3: Allo Darlin’ – “My Heart Is A Drummer”
MP3: Allo Darlin’ – “Dreaming”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “My Heart Is A Drummer”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “If Loneliness Was Art”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “Dreaming”
Video: Allo Darlin’ – “The Polaroid Song”

A couple big British concert announcements over the last couple days; The Horrors will follow up the July 26 release of Skying with a Fall North American tour that includes a September 27 date at Lee’s Palace. Tickets $20 in advance.

MP3: The Horrors – “Sea Within A Sea”

And at long last, Elbow are coming back to Toronto for their own, non-Chris Martin-tainted show as part of a Fall tour. Not even the fact that the September 28 show is at The Sound Academy can dampen my happiness about this. Tickets are $38.50, on sale Saturday.

Video: Elbow – “Open Arms”

White Lies have a new video. They’re at The Phoenix on August 3.

Video: White Lies – “Holy Ghost”

Spin puts Arctic Monkeys on their latest cover. Well, one of their latest covers.

Emmy The Great has posted an unabridged version of the feature that ran in The Guardian last week, making a worthy read even better. The Stool Pigeon has also posted a mixtape from Emmy as relates to her new album Virtue.

Nouse have an interview with Slow Club, whoe are gearing up for the release of their second album with a new website and a new video for their new single “Two Cousins”, though you have to sign up to their mailing list to watch the thing.

Belle & Sebastian have rolled out a new video from Write About Love and are teasing the release of another one coming later today – I’ll update when it’s up. And while we wait for the future to arrive, Magnet takes us back to the past by posting their cover feature on the band circa 2006, back when they were a magazine and had covers.

Video: Belle & Sebastian – “Come On Sister”
Video: Belle & Sebastian – “I Didn’t See It Coming”

Sons & Daughters are streaming their new record Mirror Mirror at The Guardian. It’s out now in the UK but not until July 12 in North America.

Stream: Sons & Daughters / Mirror Mirror

The Irish Independent, Star-Observer, Irish Times and SX News have feature pieces on Patrick Wolf, whose new album Lupercalia is out next wek.

NME talks to Stornoway about what they might have planned for album number two.

The Guardian declares that Pulp are more important, culturally speaking, than ever.

NPR has posted a World Cafe session with a couple of songwriting legends currently on tour together, Richard Thompson and Loudon Wainwright III. Thompson is here solo on September 8 for a show at Koerner Hall.

Danish post-punk teen act Iceage will be at Parts & Labour on August 17 in support of their debut album New Brigade, out next Tuesday. Pitchfork has full tour dates.

MP3: Iceage – “Broken Bone”
MP3: Iceage – “White Rune”

Spin and NPR have video and audio sessions, respectively, with Peter Bjorn & John, while The Huffington Post talks food with John Erikkson. They’ve got a two-night stand scheduled for Lee’s Palace on September 2 and 3.

Frank YangI’m not sure what purpose Barcelona’s Parc del Forum, a fairly massive, considerably paved waterfront park on the edge of the city, is used for the rest of the year – it seems to built up and out of the way for just hanging out in – but for one weekend in May, at least, it’s a pretty terrific spot to hold a music festival. Some more grassy spaces would be welcome and being long and narrow, it can be a haul from one stage to the next, but when you realize you’re seeing a fantastically well-curated lineup of artists right on the shores of the Mediterranean, then a little bit of walking doesn’t seem like such a big deal.

As a North American festival-goer used to things kicking off at the crack of noon, it was odd to see Primavera Sound’s schedule not getting underway until late afternoon each day and going until almost the crack of dawn. But as it turned out, this was a pretty sweet arrangement – assuming you didn’t have to work in the morning – as it saved you from being in a wide open space during the hottest part of the day and let you do touristy things while still packing in a full slate of acts.

My Thursday began at the San Miguel mainstage for Of Montreal and though it had been a few years since I last saw them live, it was good to see that they hadn’t tamed things down at all in the interim. Quite the opposite, actually, as in addition to the psychedelic electro-funk that you find on their records, the show was crammed with such curiosities as costume changes, balloon acrobats, Mexican wrestlers and epic man versus she-pig battle re-enactment. For any other band, these technicolor shenanigans would probably constituted doing something special for the festival but for Of Montreal? Just another day at the office.

Post-Of Montreal, it was time to wander the grounds a bit and get the lay of the land and coming across the ATP Stage, I stopped to listen to London’s Seefeel for a bit, having read something about them on the Twitters. I caught about 10 minutes of their set but apparently this was just the outro of their final song, consisting of a pulsing, groovy bit of drone-dub that played quite nicely against the backdrop of the sea. Might have been nice to have actually heard a song, but what can you do.

By this time, night had fallen and ater verifying that none of the festival’s wifi points were working – no surprise but really, why even pretend they’ll work? – it was over to the Ray-Ban Stage where I was susprised to find Big Boi on stage and punctual. Maybe he was jet-lagged and thought he was two hours late. Either way, his crew had been hard at work pre-set to round up pretty girls from the audience – and this being Spain there were a lot of them – and had them on-stage as dancers. Fun to watch for a bit but after hearing the couple of Big Boi/Outkast songs I knew, it was time to move on.

The first can’t-miss act of the festival, for me at least, as Grinderman. Yes, I’d seen Nick Cave and company’s alter ego at their North American debut last Fall but whereas some acts excel in a club-sized environ, I posit that the potency of Grinderman actually comes across better in a big outdoor setting. With the extra stage and pit space to move around in, Cave seemed extra unhinged as though he amped up his intensity to make sure all the thousands in attendance got their fair share. In particular, the camera shots of Cave stalking the pit between audience invasions during “Kitchenette” reminded of ringside footage from a prize fight and in “Honey Bee”, he proved that he may be the only man on earth who can make bee noises and arm flapping come across sinisterly. Grinderman were loud, raw and exhilarating and it’s a good thing that at set’s close when Cave encouraged everyone to Suicide, he specified the band playing the next stage over and not the act. Because after their performance, this was not a man you wanted to say no to.

Circa their latest self-titled album, there’s been much talk about how Interpol’s time is past, how they’re on the decline – that’s not a position that would have gotten much traction with the thousands who showed up for their 1AM set on the Llevant Stage. And for as much as you can complain that Interpol does the same thing over and over again, there were a few new things to come out of their set. For instance, Daniel Kessler speaks Spanish – at least I think it was Kessler who addressed the audience fluently in their native tongue, I suppose it could have been Paul Banks. I couldn’t tell from way back in the field. And also different was the speed at which they plowed through their songs – tempos on most numbers were ratcheted up from the norm, perhaps for a more efficient set. It wasn’t necessarily better, but it was different. But otherwise, Interpol was Interpol. And I have no idea who’s playing bass for them now.

I left their set early so as to stake out prime bubble walk/confetti cannon position for The Flaming lips. There was some ambiguity about exactly which show they were going to be performing and I was mildly disappointed this didn’t turn out to be a Soft Bulletin show as I’m one of those who hold that album up as their masterpiece and material from it doesn’t get aired out in regular sets nearly as much as it should. But if it being otherwise meant that I’d get a repeat of last year’s stellar Molson Amphitheater show, then okay – I can deal. And a lot of it was the same, but that didn’t diminish the fun of it, particularly when you’re surrounded by people who’re witnessing the spectacle for probably the first time. Because it remains a hell of a thing. Twists on this particular show included bringing out a translator to greet and advise the audience of the opening space bubble walk, a Wizard Of Oz theme for the dancers with dozens of cute Dorothys whooping it up on either side of the stage, the giant exploding confetti balloons were new, the firing of laser hands at a giant disco ball was an inspired move and there was even a new song in the set with Steve Drozdt showing off some manner of iPhone app that he used to generate noises Kaos Pad-style. It’s nice to see their show continue to evolve with new material while maintaining the elements that are now basically trademarks of the Lips’ shows. Always a blast and you would hear people singing “Race For The Prize” into the night, long after the show was done.

I should note that I started to fade at 4am. I am allowed to fade at 4am. But it wasn’t done. The evening/morning closer was back at the Llevant Stage where Greg Gillis – aka Girl Talk – was flown in from Pittsburgh specifically for this show and when you only have to work for one hour, I imagine you give it your all. Of course as a mash-up artist/DJ, “giving it your all” is more just a figure of speech but for a guy with a laptop, Girl Talk live was a lot of fun. He also filled the stage with dancers and would periodically step out in front of or on top of his desk to dance it up himself, and then there were the thousands of partygoers getting down in sea of feathers, presumably left over from El Guincho’s set beforehand. Yes, it was a sight. Musically I only knew about half of the stuff he played – typically the Top 40/pop half, not the hip-hop half – but I can see why people enjoy his stuff so much. I stuck around for a while but eventually the rising sun and falling stamina forced an end to the day.

A new Flaming Lips EP done in collaboration with Prefuse 73 is available to stream at Paste.

And in other news.

Last night’s Friendly Fires show at The Phoenix has been rescheduled for October 23 at The Phoenix after drummer Jack Savidge was hospitalized “due to exhaustion”. Details at Exclaim. There’s a pre-exhaustion interview with the band at Interview.

White Lies are back for a show at The Phoneix on August 3, tickets $27.50 in advance.

Video: White Lies – “Bigger Than Us”

The Village Voice interviews Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles. They’re at The Phoenix on June 10.

Low play a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR and talks to The Skinny.

Exclaim reports that Stephin Merritt will be releasing a compilation of rarities spanning all of his various bands and projects in Obscurities, due out August 23 on Merge.

MP3: Stephin Merritt – “Forever And A Day”

NPR welcomes TV On The Radio for a World Cafe session.

Drowned In Sound and NPR interview Death Cab For Cutie. They play The Molson Amphitheatre on July 29.

Diamond Rings’ remix series continues with an interpretation of Austra’s “Lose It”. Diamond Rings plays Echo Beach on June 3 and Yonge-Dundas Square and Wrongbar on June 18 for NXNE.

MP3: Austra – “Lose It” (Diamond Rings remix)

Fucked Up’s new opus David Comes To Life is now streaming in whole at NPR, in advance of its release on June 7. They’re playing Yonge-Dundas Square and Wrongbar on June 16 for NXNE and the Air Canada Centre on August 9. Tourdates UK has an interview with Damian Abraham.

Stream: Fucked Up / David Comes To Life

Evening Hymns are featured in a Takeaway Show; they play the Music Gallery for NXNE on June 16.

Dan Mangan has cobbled together some tour footage into a new video, presumably the last from Nice, Nice, Very Nice before his third album Oh, Fortune arrives in September. You can also stream his set this weekend at Sasquatch over at NPR.

Video: Dan Mangan – “Sold”

JAM interviews Sloan. They have two dates at the Mod Club for June 21 and 22.