Blog Rock

More Cowbell has Liz Phair tourdate info which includes a Toronto show at the Phoenix on October 23rd. I've been listening to Liz' new single "Everything To Me" over at her MySpace site and I'm afraid to say it but she's gone mainstream on us, if that hadn't already happened with her last album which I never actually got around to listening to. Mainstream success would be good, but sounding like mainstream radio is very bad. I want to say it's not a band bad song but...I can't, especially when the lyrics of the chorus are totally cheeseball. And now I got to whip out my copy of "Whip-Smart" just to remind me why I liked Liz Phair in the first place. I'm hoping that Liz redeems herself on the rest of the new album, entitled "Somebody's Miracle" which will be released this Fall. [photo from http://../]

So are The Willowz one of America's most promising young bands? The Village Voice thinks so. I still haven't heard a note of their music but Dan Burke things they are "the future of American rock". With kudos like these, who wants to bet that in six months The Willowz are "the next big thing". We shall see.

Aversion, Billboard, and Pitchfork report that Bright Eyes is hitting the road again for tourdates in October and November. Southern Ontario-ans can drive to Buffalo to catch him on November 21st @ Center for Arts @ University of Buffalo.

Thanks to One Louder for pointing me towards the Echo and The Bunnymen site which is currently hosting audio clips from the upcoming new album entitled "Siberia". Echo and The Bunnymen will be coming to Toronto for a show at The Carlu on November 23rd.

Check out the new main page at the Broken Social Scene official site which features the artwork for their upcoming self-titled second album. Ok, old news to you, but new news to me.

While over at the Arts & Crafts site I noticed that The Most Serene Republic are playing a show at a venue called Hype in Brampton on August 20th. According to canada411.com, the venue is located at 1701 Queen St. East in Brampton. Anyone know what this venue's like?

I just checked out the festival schedule for the upcoming Ear To The Ground festival and it's looking stellar, yet I'm freaking out at all the overlapping sets, especially the overlapping sets between the Ruckus and Bandshell stage on the Sunday night in particular. I guess that's inescapable with a festival setup. I'm expecting to scurry between stages ALOT that weekend.

Somehow over the weekend, my blog got linked to The Village Voice 's blog rock column which at the time featured a blogger's commentary on the band Louis XIV. Just to let you know but, I did NOT write that. However, I did appreciate the extra web traffic. ;-)