Facebook Everyone 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 [...]
Wikipedia True story - I was letting my iTunes run on random a couple weeks ago, and when the opening guitar riff to this week's selection rang out, I sat up and thought, "why do I have Stone Temple Pilots in my music library?". Because, you see, I never listened to Led Zeppelin as a young'n - like really never - and only knew "Dancing Days" because it was released as a single from 19952s Encomium , a Zep tribute album. But no, it was my beloved Luna [...]
Marc Pannozzo It's true that Crystal Castles had to push the release of their third album (III) back a week from this past Tuesday to next, but they only barely needed the extra time. The record went up as an advance stream earlier this week at MuchMusic , offering further evidence that the Toronto duo of Alice Glass and Ethan Kath have come a long way since the glitchy, more spectacle than songcraft hype of their 2008 self-titled debut . (III) is still built on bent beats, shrieked [...]
Facebook I don't think that anyone out there would suggest that Kevin Shields is not a man of his word; it's just his punctuality that people take issue with. After all - those remastered reissues of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless , Isn't Anything , and their collected EPs did eventually see the light of day this Spring - it just happened that they were about four years later than they'd originally been promised. So when NME [...]
Jody Kivort I'm not diversifying into the adult entertainment industry, despite what some ads that occasionally get served here might imply, but am instead talking about New York's Escort . Sometimes a lean five-piece band, sometimes a proper orchestra numbering as many as 17 - but always fronted by diva Adeline Michele - Escort have been busting out old-school yet thoroughly contemporary dancefloor disco electro-soul since 2006 but only just released their full-length debut Escort earlier this year and are now taking their legendarily slick and irresistibly fun live show on [...]
Memphis Industries It's been interesting tracking the musical evolution of El Perro Del Mar , the musical project of Sweden's Sarah Assbring. Her 2006 self-titled debut cast her as the mournful ghost of a '50s doo-wop girl while the 2008 follow-up From The Valley To The Stars invited fuller arrangements into the mix - even getting jaunty at points - while keeping the sentiments beautifully downcast. 20092s Love Is Not Pop was took great strides towards feeling more modern, mostly via studio-slick musical [...]
Andréa de Keijzer Shaking out the "Made in Canada" box to kick off the week. L Con is the sort-of but not-really pseudonym for Lisa Conway, perhaps better known as the voice of Toronto's moody, art-orch ensemble Del Bel , who've been wholly endorsed in these parts. Conway just released her solo debut as L Con in The Ballad Project and while it doesn't necessarily put a lot of sonic distance between itself and Del Bel's Oneiric [...]
Wikipedia Skyfall , the twenty-third film in the James Bond franchise, is now here and with it comes another Bond theme, this one courtesy of Adele . "Skyfall" is a solid tune in the Bond tradition and charted respectably - number two in the UK - but only time will tell if it becomes as famous a contribution to the Bond canon as, say, Carly Simon's theme for 19772s The Spy Who Loved Me , though "Nobody Does It Better" is arguably one of the least Bond-like themes [...]
Barsuk Who: Yellow Ostrich What: Brooklyn-based trio led by Alex Schaaf who deal in indie rock the way it used to be - jagged guitars, keening vocals, hooks a-plenty. Why: They already released a new full-length in Strange Land earlier this year, but have just put out a follow-up EP in Ghost . And of course touring in support of two releases instead of just one is just efficient. When: Monday, November [...]
Kate Moross In all honesty, I intended to write up Jessie Ware's debut Devotion today whether or not it took the Mercury Prize last night or not - it went , as expected, to the heavily-favoured and bewilderingly dull Alt-J - I don't need the validation of a shadowy cabal of British music industry types to tell me what the best British (or Irish) album of the past year is. Not to say that I'm bestowing that title on Devotion myself, but with [...]
Anna Palma Who: Yeasayer What: Brooklyn psych-pop outfit who rolled out their third album Fragrant World back in August. Why: When this show was originally announced back in May , it was to take place in the much larger Sound Academy and on the exact day of the record's release. Then for reasons unknown, the show was both postponed and relocated to the date and place noted above. But at least now fans have had time to live with [...]
Facebook The last time that Evening Hymns graced a Toronto stage, it was back in August as part of the Summerworks festival and came a few days before the official release of their gorgeously heavy second album Spectral Dusk . After that show, which featured a band and lightshow specially assembled for that performance, Jonas Bonnetta and Sylvie Smith - the Evening Hymns principals - jetted across the ocean to tour the record across Europe with friends and album collaborators The Wooden Sky , only returning a couple [...]
Arno Frugier Usually when a band says, "we'll see you soon" as they walk off the stage, it's a mostly-empty platitude that means "we'll see you when we've got a new record to push", or "we'll see you when our next single becomes a huge hit and allows us to come back and play a much bigger room". For New York rock stalwarts The Walkmen and Los Angeles psych-folk bard Father John Misty , though, at least lately, it's been an ironclad promise. The Walkmen were here twice already this year - once [...]
Amazon I was going to make this the first Sunday in almost a decade I didn't post a cover, but then I remembered that this selection from Where The Pyramid Meets Eye - the 1990 tribute album to Roky Erickson - existed and even though I used it three years ago , I don't care. Hallowe'en-themed songs are tougher to find than you might think. And in those three years, a lot has changed. R.E.M. , who at that time were coming off their celebrated return [...]
Frank Yang Who: Rose Cousins What: Maritime singer-songwriter whose stella , Polaris long-listing third album We Have Made A Spark came out back in February. Why: After a wonderfully intimate record release show at The Rivoli in May , Cousins brings it back to Toronto in some decidedly more upscale digs. When: Saturday, November 3, 2012 Where: The Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto (all ages) Who else: Nova Scotia's [...]
Frank Yang So after a five year layoff, following the almost-simultaneous implosion of all my bands, I've begun picking up the guitar again on a regular basis. Mostly just messing around, getting my chops back in order and my calluses back, but certainly with more seriousness than I have in a very long time (though if anyone wants to start a band that sounds like The Afghan Whigs meets Catherine Wheel, get in touch). This is relevant because the last time Saint Etienne were here in 2002, despite the fact that two acts I liked - [...]
Patrick Jeffords It's still October, but for all intents and purposes, 2012 is over. How so? Not only is every new album being announced slated to come out in the new year, but pretty much every tour announcement as well. Still hoping that December dance card was going to fill up? Maybe get a jump on your Christmas shopping instead. But at least you have something to look forward to, including the third album from South Carolinan electronic pop - let's not call it electro-pop - artist Chaz Bundick, aka Toro Y Moi . Entitled [...]
Frank Yang I guess I should blame Letterman. When it was announced that English trio Daughter were doing a short North American tour around their CMJ appearance, I was quite excited as I figured with their full-length debut not due out until the new year, and only a couple of low profile EPs in The Wild Youth and His Young Heart to their name, their Monday night showcase at The Drake would be a intimate, even secret, occasion for those [...]
rheostatics.ca It was a pretty sweet get for Toronto's Legendary Horseshoe Tavern to enlist Joel Plaskett for five nights of shows from December 12 to 16 to mark its 65th birthday, but they weren't done. Canadian art-pop icons Rheostatics , who formally disbanded after eleven studio albums, four live albums, and a farewell show at Massey Hall in 2007, are getting back together for two nights at The 'Shoe on December 5 and 6. It's not quite the record-setting twelve shows in twelve nights "Fall Nationals" concert series they held at [...]
Frank Yang Every good thing you've heard about Cat Power live is true, and also a lie; the same goes for every bad thing. The reputation that Chan Marshall gained as a fragile, erratic performer over the first decade or so of her career may have seemed overstated to mythic proportions, but few have made great efforts to dispute it. I can't speak from experience - though a modest fan since Moon Pix , I'd avoided seeing her in concert because of that reputation and reports from the Toronto shows I'd [...]
Chromewaves
Luce, Silvia Capasso: testo e video della finalista di The Voice of Italy
Ta-ku – Love Lost (Daughter edit/cover)
Sam Thomas – I’m Gonna Be A Witch (Alt-J Remix)
