Frank YangEven without the “NME Presents” endorsement attached to the tour, I suspect the White Lies/Friendly Fires/Soft Pack show at Lee’s Palace on Tuesday would have been a sell-out. All three acts came with their own built-in buzz, so in fact the venerable British publication may have been counting themselves lucky to be associated with the tour rather than the other way around.

Sole non-Brits on the bill, The Soft Pack – formerly known as The Muslims – were tasked with kicking things off. The San Diego quartet got to play to a not-especially full house, evidence that all the North American buzz that they’ve been generating since last Fall didn’t necessarily translate to the Anglophile demographic. And though I’d been hearing about them for months, this was my first time actually hearing them and I can’t say I was tremendously impressed. They certainly had a good sound – the ingredients of their surf-garage pop aesthetic sufficiently familiar but their particular recipe still reasonably fresh – but none of the songs particularly jumped out as being remarkable and their performance was pretty staid.

But most things would probably come across staid when held up against middle act, St Alban’s Friendly Fires. I wasn’t especially won over by their self-titled debut but I now realize that sitting and listening to it in the comfort of home is really the wrong environment for it. The proper setting is in a club, in front of the stage, as their dual drummer/percussionists make a glorious, rhythmic racket, the guitarist freaks and flails and singer/keyboardist Ed Macfarlane dances and shakes his hips non-stop despite the fact that, let’s be honest, he really doesn’t have any. It’s a good thing. I’ve heard them described as indie, pop, dance and various combinations thereof, and sure they all apply to some degree, but watching them go, I’d just put them down as disco and go. No, there were no glitter balls and the fashions were pretty tame, but the spirit of the unbridled, unending party? That was real. And while it did end after 40 minutes, it did so with an audience invasion and a speaker climb and mass percussive instrument abuse. The sort of thing you’d hate for any band to have to follow.

But this far into the tour, watching their countrymen bring the house down every night before they took the stage, White Lies must have been used to it. Now as I intimated in my review of their UK chart-topping debut To Lose My Life, White Lies require a certain amount of buy-in on the part of the listener. Kind of like how horror films require you to suspend disbelief, to accept that monsters exist and that their potential victims really are that stupid, White Lies need you to believe their angst is real, and that there’s genuine weight behind their vague pronouncements of profundity. Manage that, and for the most part I have, and they’re reasonably enjoyable. Behind the stark lighting, all-black outfits and Harry McVeigh’s dramatic baritone – decidedly scratchy-sounding by this point in the tour – are some truly catchy pop songs that will have you singing along, even if you feel kind of guilty about it. Get into it enough and you won’t even question the rather contrived posing and self-seriousness (it’s amusing seeing McVeigh’s baby face trying to look intense) – at least it’s entirely in character. Like Friendly Fires (and Cut Off Your Hands the night before, White Lies seemed to put stock in the notion of leaving the audience wanting more, keeping things at a very compact 40 minutes and eschewing the encore. Of course with only ten songs in their repertoire they couldn’t have gone on much longer even if they’d wanted, but closing out the night when they did and getting folks out on the streets before midnight with a solid night of tunes under their belt? Nothing wrong with that.

Chart also has a review of the show while Exclaim and The Herald Bulletin have interviews and Shockhound a video interview with White Lies.

Photos: White Lies, Friendly Fires, The Soft Pack @ Lee’s Palace – March 31, 2009
MP3: White Lies – “Death”
MP3: White Lies – “Death” (Crystal Castles remix)
MP3: Friendly Fires – “Jump In The Pool”
MP3: Friendly Fires – “Paris” (Aeroplane Remix)
MP3: The Soft Pack – “Nightlife”
Video: White Lies – “Farewell To The Fairground”
Video: White Lies – “Death”
Video: White Lies – “Unfinished Business”
Video: Friendly Fires – “Skeleton Boy”
Video: Friendly Fires – “Paris”
Video: Friendly Fires – “Jump In The Pool”
Video: Friendly Fires – “On Board”
Video: The Soft Pack – “Extinction”
MySpace: White Lies
MySpace: Friendly Fires

The Toronto Sun and Metro interview Glasvegas, in town for an early and sold-out show at the Mod Club tonight.

Clash talks Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite. They’re at the Phoenix on May 4.

Doves talk to The Quietus and The Irish Independent about their forthcoming album Kingdom Of Rust, out on Tuesday and streaming at the band’s MySpace right now. They play the Kool Haus on June 1.

Stream: Doves / Kingdom Of Rust

Clash and Perth Now interview Elbow. They accompany Coldplay to the Rogers Centre on July 30.

Denver Westword, The Detroit Free Press and Singing Lamb have conversations with Los Campesinos.

Matablog has details on the closest thing we’ll see to a new Belle & Sebastian record any time soon – the soundtrack to Stuart Murdoch’s God Help The Girl, which was originally supposed to be a film but there’s no mention of that aspect in the release. Take that as you will. The album is out June 23 but you can get the first MP3 for free by singing up to their mailing list on the project’s website.

Idolator reports that Charlotte Hatherley’s Cinnabar City now has a US label in Minty Fresh and have got a track from said record to hold you over until the vague Summer release date gets more specific.

Bat For Lashes, whom Hatherley is now a part of, gives an interview to The Irish Independent. They’re at the Mod Club on April 25.

In the mid-80s, XTC created ’60s psychedelic pop alter-ego in The Dukes Of Stratosphear wherein they got their Barrett on and released an EP and album that were henceforth spoken of in hushed, reverential tones by those lucky enough to have heard them. Which will now soon be everyone, potentially. Both releases, the 25 O’Clock EP, which has been padded out with goodies to album length, and Psionic Psunspot, which was already album length but is now super-size, will be out in deluxe reissue packaging come April 21.

MP3: The Dukes Of Stratosphear – “My Love Explode”
MP3: The Dukes Of Stratosphear – “Braniac’s Daughter”

Marius HansenLast July, I was introduced to Spanish site Buffet Libre on account of their releasing a massive compilation of covers – mainly of ’80s pop tunes – by a slew of artists I’d mostly never heard of, but also the likes of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Electric Soft Parade. That was only the first salvo, however, and they’ve rung in the new year with part the second – another massive batch of covers, this one featuring the likes of Headlights, Au Revoir Simone and Amiina… and a whole pile of bands I’ve never heard of. Lots to wade through, and a bit fortuitously timed since I was just soliciting cover versions a couple days ago.

So why the picture of Ms Charlotte Hatherley, who does not appear on the aforementioned comp? Well hearing Headlights’ sleepy cover of XTC’s “Making Plans For Nigel” reminded me how much I enjoyed Hatherley’s own take on Swindon’s favourite sons in “This Is Pop”, recorded for a radio session in 2007. And it also reminded me to check on the progress of her third album, and what do you know? It’s completed and has a title – Cinnabar City – and is set for release in the first part of this year. According to the flowery language of the official release, it was tracked in a single week in London, has uber-producer Alan Moulder’s fingerprints on it in some capacity (probably mixing) and features “prog-pop, pop-punk and electro-junk”. Alls I know is that I’ve really enjoyed both Grey Will Fade and The Deep Blue, so whenever this one sees the light of day, I’ll be there.

Rewinding (ahem) a moment back to Champaign, Illinois’ finest pop band, Headlights, they released a remix record in the cryptically-titled Remixes late last year. It’s limited to 1000 copies so if you want, move it. All racing, no stopping.

I’ll tie up this twisty bit of blog with a trio of XTC covers – Hatherley’s, Headlights’ and SSLYBY’s from the first Rewind comp – and point you to XTC’s MySpace blog, which features extensive interviews with both Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding about a different song of theirs each week… and they’ve been doing this since October 2006. I know some of y’all are crazy XTC fans, so if this is news to you, consider your day/week wasted. You’re welcome.

MP3: Charlotte Hatherley – “This Is Pop”
MP3: Headlights – “Making Plans For Nigel”
MP3: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – “Another Satellite”

The AV Club talks to Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard while Alternative Press has an interview with Chris Walla. I somehow doubt that Walla is going to get his wish for a louder, angrier Death Cab – becoming Mr Zoey Deschanel isn’t really the sort of thing that’d press Gibbard’s “rage” buttons.

Paste declares Gemma Hayes their artist of the week.

Matador continues to play “what the fuck” in announcing the release of a Condo Fucks album in March entitled Fuckbook. The Condo Fucks are a long-running joke alias for Yo La Tengo and it’s unclear if this is actually a new YLT record, an actual YLT side-project record or just an excuse for the Beggars Group to add yet another Fuck band to their roster though I have to say, if they’re not from Toronto – fictionally or otherwise – the critical acclaim isn’t guaranteed.

MP3: Condo Fucks – “Whatcha Gonna Do About It”

NPR profiles Blitzen Trapper, in town at the Horseshoe on February 21.

New York Press and The Daily Record talk to Glasvegas, whose self-titled debut gets a North American release today.

Daytrotter has a session with Thao.

Pitchfork interviews Love Is All’s Josephine Olausson.