The Pixies will be touring Canada in suppport of the 20th Anniversary of "Doolittle"

photo via The Coast

The Pixies are on there way to Canada in support of a tour for the 20th anniversary of their classic album Doolittle(via AUX.TV) They'll be going from coast to coast, and will be playing several dates around the Golden Horseshoe including April 17 in Kitchener at The Center in the Square, April 18 at Massey Hall in Toronto, and April 20 in Hamilton at Wentworth Room. Who's excited? I imagine this will sell out in minutes. Be half-prepared to be disappointed.

Coachella 2011 Rumblings

  photo via College Humor

It's not the entire lineup for Coachella that's been released yet, but sources have confirmed to Billboard that The Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons and PJ Harvey are booked for this year's festival. Other rumored acts include Crystal Castles [who do have a bunch of North America dates leading up to Coachella including a stop in Toronto at Sound Academy on April 2], Cut Copy[who just confirmed some North American dates including a stop in Toronto at Sound Academy on April 7], as well as The Strokes, Duran Duran, OMD[who recently confirmed a date in Toronto at the Phoenix on March 5] and Gary Numan. If you head on over to the Coachella website right now, they're featuring a music video of an artist called Monarchy, and according to Billboard the site has been featuring music bands/artists all week including Trentemoller, Lightning Bolt, Phantogram, and Fanfarlo, all artists presumed to be playing this year's festival. Consequence of Sound has been weighing the odds of a number of different acts playing this year's festival - worth checking out because CoS provides links to evidence to support the expectations/rumours [although some of the evidence links are no longer valid unfortunately]. I keep saying I want to go back to Coachella - my one and only time was in 2004 - but I'm also pondering a return trip to the Primavera Festival(whose lineup is already shaping up nicely) in Barcelona this year as a few music blogger friends of mine are also going. Let's see how this Coachella lineup rounds out before I make any decisions.

Update[January 19, 2011]: Coachella just HAD to announce the lineup for this year's festival just after I put up this blog post yesterday evening, rendering it somewhat redundant. Check out the full-lineup or check out the official poster. There's alot of highlight and alot of buzz bands, some unknown entities, but overall looks like a pretty good fest. I know they're big, and I don't hate them, but c'mon why does King of Leon have to close the first night? And to point out the Canadian contingent they include, Crystal Castles, Rural Alberta Advantage, The Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, a reunited Death From Above 1979, Chromeo, City and Colour, and Gord Downie - anyone else I have forgotten?

PJ Harvey "The Words That Maketh Murder" / "The Last Living Rose" (music videos)

The new video for PJ Harvey's song "The Words That Maketh Murder" made it's way online last week. Her last album 2007's piano-based, stark White Chalk was the biggest musical departure yet for PJ Harvey whose music had previously been quite entrenched in a raw, sort of punk aesthetic, but by the likes of this newest song from her upcoming new album Let England Shake (out February 14 in the UK and February 15 in the US) shows a folkier side, with a hint of perhaps an Appalachian Folk influence, melded with a more conventional rock rhythm section. The more I listen to it, the more it's growing on me:

PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder


Uploaded by spektorholic (via Pitchfork)

According to info at NPR, this 'film' directed by Seamus Murphy is one of a series of 12 shorts to accompany the 12 songs that make up PJ Harvey's forthcoming album, Let England Shake.

And somehow I missed the first Seamus Murphy directed short film released last month for PJ Harvey's "The Last Living Rose", a song also from the upcoming new album. Musically, it sounds more like PJ Harvey - uncomplicated drum arrangement, stark vocals, simple guitar melodies, - oh and a bit of saxophone? Great song:

PJ Harvey - The Last Living Rose

Glasvegas "The Word Is Yours"

Unfortunate to me and everyone else outside of Europe, but the new Glasvegas singe "The World Is Yours" is available for free download today only for those in Europe. So for the moment get your stream on and listen to the track below. The new album is entitled EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\ and according to NME is set for release this spring:



Or listen to the track below via SoundCloud:



For smart phone users - go to Soundcloud directly to stream the track which, at least for me, is compatible with my iPhone.

The band's only headlining date around these parts was in April 2009 for a foundation-shaking performance at The Mod Club - I think they also opened for Kings of Leon after that - and it's been far too long since I've seen them.

The Concretes, All Day

Since Lisa Milberg took over lead vocals for Swedish pop outfit The Concretes in 2006 (when original lead vocalist Victoria Bergsman left to devote her time to her own solo project, Taken By Trees), she's taken vocal duties towards a slightly more sultry direction, the music also following suit IMO as illustrated by a few of the songs below (off the band's newest album WYWH, released late last year):





And via The Line Of Best Fit the band perform an acoustic version of "My Ways" as part of TLOBF Sessions



The band just kicked off their North American tour (check out their dates at their MySpace) and will be in Toronto this Monday January 17 for a show at the Horseshoe Tavern with openers Hooray For Earth.

Jenn Grant Gets Us Good

I'm so happy to see how far East Coast singer-songwriter Jenn Grant has come since her humble beginnings when I'd first saw her live back in 2005. Having already released two terrific albums of alternatingly lush and folky pop confections, 2007's Orchestra for the Moon and 2009's Echoes, Ms. Grant has kept on her current two-year cycle with her just-released new album entitled Honeymoon Punch. I've not yet picked up the album, but the first single is a fun up-tempo, approaching-on-rockin' pop number - the video itself is also pure fun:



Also Jenn is X3's Artist of The Month, for which Jenn and band were filmed for a session of X3's Camera Music, performing acoustic versions of "How I Met You" and "Getcha Good":



Finally, Jenn took part in The Craig Norris Hour on CBC Radio 3, as part of the X3 Artist Co-Host Initiative. Speaking with Mr. Norris from a studio in Halifax, NS he chatted with Jenn then they listened to her new album Honeymoon Punch in its entirety track-by-track, with Jenn offering reflections on each song. Listen to the program below:

Audio: Jenn Grant X3 Artist Interview (The Craig Norris Hour / CBC Radio 3)

Jenn Grant's upcoming tour dates are up at Six Shooter Records. She'll be in Toronto for a show at the Horseshoe Tavern on February 19 with doors at 9 pm and the show starting at 10 pm. I will do my best to be there and you should too.

(VIDEO)The Walkmen - "Juveniles" (live on Late Night With David Letterman)

When The Walkmen passed through town last October for a show at the Phoenix, in was in support of their new album Lisbon. They'd obviously performed several tracks from the album although nothing sunk in at the time nor had I ever had a chance to listen to the new album. But the band's performance on Late Night With David Letterman does provide more reason than ever to check the new album out. Performing a song entitled "Juveniles", the song shows a dare-I-say more mature side of the band, showing more emphasis on melody and a cleaner, more succinct approach to their instrumentation. Terrific song. The band has some select US and UK dates coming up over the next several months and then the Primavera Festival in Barcelona, Spain in May - tour dates are posted at the band's MySpace.

ps. You may have noticed my abbreviated blog posts as of late. I plan to keep posting a bit more streamlined at least for now, and saving more detailed posts for concert reviews (when I go to shows, of course). I also hope to get back to posting about more local artists/eventt. Posting (both in content and frequency) will be fairly random but I hope you'll stick around.

We Can Be Heroes, Just For One Day

Happy Birthday Mr. Bowie.

PJ Harvey - "The Words That Maketh Murder" (new single)

When's PJ Harvey making return to Toronto? Ok so I don't have that breaking news since there isn't any. The last time she came to town was back in October 2004 when she played a most fantastic show at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in support of her album Uh Huh Her. And she never did come to Toronto for her 2007 album White Chalk which was such a shame because that album was so starkly beautiful. She's currently only has some select dates in Europe coming up (with a promise to the festival stage this summer) but with her 8th studio album entitled Let England Shake coming out this Valentine's Day, at least that's something to look forward to.

The first single from the new album is entitled ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ and will be available for digital download on January 17th. The single will also be available on 7” vinyl on February 7th, and will feature an exclusive B-side - ‘The Guns Ca...lled Me Back Again’ – which was recorded during the Let England Shake album session.

You can sample the first single over at Amazon UK. And yes, that's the artwork for the single above.

Fanfarlo - "Atlas" (new music video)

Of the last several years, one of the bands I love the most is London, UK indie-folk group Fanfarlo.

The band filmed a video for their song "Atlas", a song which was originally released on the soundtrack for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse this past summer. As the band describes the video:

"We filmed the video for Atlas ourselves on the 3rd and 4th of August over a couple of hours (probably less), in between playing shows at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney last year. Brian Gonzalez edited it and then it was a slow wait until we had the green light to post it online. So here it is!"

The band shot the video backstage at the Enmore Theatre while on tour in Australia last year.

And yes here it is: