Concert Announcements, Music News (May 20, 2009)

BlogTo has a Q & A with Apostle of Hustle. Check out full tour dates at their MySpace - they'll play a two-night stint at The Music Gallery on May 28-29.

Phoenix performed some acoustic numbers for The Alternate Side. They play the Phoenix Concert Theatre on June 15.

Perhaps you already have the DVD but you'll get another chance to see Wilco documentary "Ashes of American Flags" on a big screen when it screens at this year's NXNE.

Emily, Jimmy and Josh of Metric each compile their own mixtape for Drowned In Sound. Metric play Edgefest at Downsview Park on June 20 and Virgin Festival Halifax on July 4. Full dates at their MySpace.

Via Against The Grain, The New York Dolls will play what I anticipate will be a very sought-after ticket for their scheduled date at Lee's Palace on June 30. Opener is Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. Tickets $29.50 in advance.

Bowerbirds and Megafaun play Sneaky Dee's on July 14, tickets $11.50 in advance. New Zealand rock n' rollers The Datsuns will be at the Horseshoe on July 20, tickets $15 in advance.

Just a drive down the QEW, Buffalo, NY's Buffalo Place has it's summer concert schedule now up, many of which are free and take place at the city's Lafayette Square. Neko Case with opener Jason Lytle play Lafayette Square on July 23. I'll probably skip the show but only because I splurged on a ticket for her July 14 show at Massey Hall (and I got FRONT ROW!).

Julie Doiron is featured in the most recent edition of web video program Sound Check. Julie opens for City and Colour at Massey Hall on May 26, then play North American dates through June and July. She'll be at Hillside Festival in Guelph on July 25-26.

Before heading to Europe in the latter half of September, The Cult will be hitting the North American tour circuit through the summer with a stop at Massey Hall [the venue's keeping busy this year, hmmm?] on September 14. This date's part of their "Love Live" tour which'll feature the band playing their 1985 album "Love" in it's entirety (via chartattack). I don't feel quite the same way about them now(ok, I'm being a little sarcastic) like I did back in highschool when I thought they were amazing (they were my first real concert actually, circa their "Electric" album).

Chartattack reports that Kings of Leon have added several more Ontario dates for this coming September with openers Glasvegas - Sept. 17 Ottawa @ Scotiabank Place, Sept. 19 Hamilton @ Copps Coliseum, and Sept. 20 London @ John Labatt Centre.

Final Fantasy and other indie heavyweights(of various degrees) have contributed to a Judee Sill tribute compilation album entitled "Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill" to be released on September 22 through American Dust. Via Pitchfork.

With The Libertines recent surprise one-off reunion, they've now said they aren't ruling out further get-togethers, hinting at a full reunion in 2010. That's good news.

Heard Them Stirring

Well I was looking forward to seeing five-piece Sub Pop outfit Fleet Foxes tonight at the Phoenix (opening for Stephen Malkmus) but it appears they've cancelled due to 'exhaustion'. Oh well. No sense in complaining about it, I guess. I picked up their debut full-length over the weekend in anticipation of their show and have grown really fond of it. It's a great blend of vocal harmonies, melancholy melodies and modest folk-rock instrumentation. The Beach Boys influence jumped right out at me with Fleet Foxes' delectable vocal harmonies as on 'White Winter Hymnal', though they manage to prevent their own songs from being mere fascimiles (though 'Heard Them Stirring' does remind me, in a good way, of a long lost Beach Boys "Smile"-era vocal-harmony, instrumental outtake). There's a sombreness at times like on 'Meadowlarks' but overall their album's more melancholy than gloomy. On more straight-ahead-vocal-sung (ie. less harmony-laden) tracks like 'Ragged Wood' and 'Tiger Mountain Peasant Song' vocalist Robin Pecknold comes off sounding a bit like My Morning Jacket's Jim James, which is not a bad thing necessarily, but when the band's so strong out of the gates with their harmony-laden songs, the straight-ahead-vocal-sung tracks come off slightly disappointing. When a lot of indie rock these days is (or has been) about the instrumentation and or casually slack vocals (and this is not meant as a knock against you Mr. Malkmus), it's refreshing to see the emphasis that Fleet Foxes put towards vocal harmonies. And that distinction sets them apart. [photo by David Belisle)

MySpace: Fleet Foxes
Video: Fleet Foxes - 'White Winter Hymnal' (music video)
Video: Fleet Foxes - 'Crayon Angels' (Judee Sill cover - Black Cab Sessions)
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Coming up soon, Calgary's Jane Vane and The Dark Matter, plus Toronto's The Coast (on a bill rounded out by The Salingers and Adam Bell) will be at the Horseshoe Tavern on July 26, tickets $6.00. Chartattack points out the tour itinerary of Jane Vain and The Dark Matter (who will also be playing an early set 9:10 pm set at the Horseshoe on July 29 as I pointed out in my previous post.)

Halifax's Dog Day will be at the Silver Dollar on August 19.

San Francisco's The Dodos and Portland's Au will be at the Horseshoe Tavern on October 6.

Henry Rollins has a show (I'm assuming a spoken-word show) at Queen Elizabeth Theatre on October 27.

I wonder when the next set of acts will be announced for this year's Virgin Festival in Toronto but if it's any consolation, the DJ 'B-Live' tent is shaping up with Switch, Sebastian, Flosstradamus, Drop The Lime, Thunderheist, Let's Go To War, Mario J and Nasty Nav scheduled for September 6 and Moby, Deadmau5, Lee Burridge, Doman and Pettigrew, Sydney Blu, Evan G and Harmonik Rage scheduled for September 7.

American Names

I'm not quite up on the musical efforts of ex-Death From Above 1979 drummer Sebastian Grainger except that he has his own solo project with his band The Mountains, but he just got signed to Saddle Creek Records in the US. Saddle Creek just released his digital EP "American Names", which you can stream here. Or check out his MySpace.

Adding more twang to the proceedings, Chicago's Freakwater will be opening for Merge's She & Him at The Opera House on July 23. (via Ground Control Touring)

If you aren't already going (or even if you are going) to one and or both of the King Khan and The Shrines shows at the Horseshoe on July 23-24, you'll be glad to know they'll also be bringing the rock to Sonic Boom for an instore performance at 7 pm on July 24.

Winnipeg Calgary's hotly-tipped Jane Vain and The Dark Matter take part on Nu Music Nite at the Horseshoe Tavern on July 29 playing an early set at 9:10 pm.

The Phoenix will feature the poppy, folk sounds of Matt Costa and the country-folk of Sub Pop's Sera Cahoone on August 6. (via Inland Empire Touring)

90's indie rock stalwarts, Shellac, will be at Horseshoe Tavern on September 16, tickets $18 onsale July 17. (via Stille Post)

NYC's A Place To Bury Strangers' sonic guitar assault comes to Lee's Palace on September 19 with newcomers-to-me UK's Sian Alice Group. There's something quite nice about Sian Alice Group in particular - at least based on their MySpace tunes, they have a nice 4AD-ish quality encompassing pretty(though not quite ethereal) vocals with nicely varied instrumentation and good atmospherics. (tour info via Pollstar)

The psych-rock experience of Black Mountain (whose album "In The Future" was just shortlisted for this year's Polaris Music Prize) and the gentle psychedelia of Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Here After take over The Opera House on September 27. Tickets $18.50, onsale now.

Props to Chromewaves for pointing out (well, it's on his sidebar) that The Wedding Present will indeed be in Toronto for a show on October 3 at Lee's Palace. Thanks, thanks, thanks!

I am so psyched for the bizarre and scary events lined up for this year's Nuit Blanche ('Toronto’s free, all-night contemporary art thing') happening/starting the evening of October 4.

The Notwist come to Lee's Palace on October 10, tickets $18.

Girl Talk and The Death Set come to Kool Haus (really?) for a show on November 12, tickets $20. (last couple items via rootmeansquare)

A venue I've yet to experience, Queen Elizabeth Theatre will have Of Montreal playing a show on October 28, tickets $25.

One Man Show

Jarvis Cocker will be in the virtual Bowery Ballroom for a Q & A session tomorrow April 30 at 3 pm EST followed by the broadcast of a full concert from the last time he visited NYC.

A new Stereolab album, "Chemical Chords" will be released August 19 in the US, and worldwide a day prior [via Pitchfork].

Maybe this year'll be the year I finally attend the Hillside Festival (July 25-27) in Guelph. Some names have already been announced like Cowboy Junkies, Hawksley Workman, Hayden and The Sadies but a little digging on my part reveals more names to look forward to including Six Shooter Records artists Elliott Brood, Jenn Grant, and Justin Rutledge. Other artists scheduled to be there, according to their respective MySpace sites, are akron/family, The Luyas, The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, po' girl, and Spiral Beach.

Chromewaves is on the ball as usual with some interesting/exciting concert news that includes some NXNE-related shows such as Money Mark at Horseshoe Tavern on June 12, Evan Dando at the Horseshoe on June 13 and Redd Kross at Lee's Palace on June 14.

Further down the road, Ohbijou are at Harbourfront on June 28, and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds are at Kool Haus on October 1.

At the end of this week, sister duo(or is that trio now?) Smoosh are playing an instore at Sonic Boom on May 2 at 7 pm prior to their opening slot for Tokyo Police Club at The Opera House later that evening.