Patrick Wolf @ Mod Club (Photo Credit: Jackman Chiu)

I was having lunch with a friend around mid-afternoon, several hours before the opening shows of this year’s NXNE, when the rain began pelting the streets of downtown Toronto. I was woefully prepared for this weather; despite having checked the forecasts online days in advance, and arrived soaked at the place of another friend on Bathurst Street (where I would be basing myself and – occasionally – sleeping for the week’s festivities). However after toweling off and heading to catch my first of many shows, Patrick Wolf, with openers Jaguar Love, Plasticines, and Living Things, I realized that from the small crowd outside the Mod Club (a venue that I was eager to experience for the first time) that the weather had done nothing to dampen the spirits of concert-goers. This tour should have been called the “Blond(e)s Have More Fun” Tour. With the exception of the dark-haired boys in Living Things, all of the other lead singers (Jaguar Love’s Johnny Whitney, Katty Besnard of Plasticines, and the main man himself, Mr. Wolf) were sporting various golden coiffures. The lineup was curated by the folks at hipster fashion magazine (let’s call it what it is) NYLON, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more eclectic group of artists on any summer tour elsewhere. Can you think of another tour where you’d see a freak electro-tinged hardcore duo, a French girl pop-punk group, a mopish-haired, anti-Bush, anti-religion garage rock band and a cabaret pop star all perform on the same bill? That’s what I thought. I can’t wait to see who these guys come up with next year to top themselves. Yet for such diverse styles of music, the acts all seemed to complement each other perfectly and the mostly all-ages crowd at the Mod Club were treated to a solid show. Ladies and gentlemen at NYLON, take a bow. You’ve deserved it.

Jaguar Love
Perhaps the most unlikeliest band to be on the tour, Portland duo Jaguar Love got the night started off with a bang, playing their party-starting anthems full of dirty guitar riffs and buzz-saw electronic flourishes. Anyone that has seen the band before might have noticed the former trio is now a duo, having gotten ridden of drummer Pretty Girls Make Graves’ Jay Clark and instead utilizing a drum machine, with the exception of“Highways of Gold” and one or two others, played all new songs. Lead singer Whitney’s high-pitched girlish voice is one that you either love or hate (depending on your feelings for the now-defunct Blood Brothers – there’s no middle ground), and with Cody Votolato (also in a pastel-coloured shirt) adding some honest-to-goodness melodies, they make for a high energy duo that has the possibility of self-combusting at any moment. The duo got the audience into it early by jumping into the crowd for a sing-along, and by my account, stayed on the ground for more than they were on-stage. Oh, and those two cardboard tigers (what, couldn’t Whitney and Votolato find any cardboard jaguars?) that adorned the stage during their set? Good call.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/jaguarloveband
Website: http://takebacktheradworld.com/

Plasticines
Before the Plasticines started, I had my doubts that this was a real band, and not a quartet of gorgeous, waifish models plucked from the runways of Paris, and thrown money at to start a band by some fat cat producer. And while Andy Warhol himself couldn’t have came up with a more-perfect dream band, the truth is that these gals can play. The band takes their name from a lyric in The Beatles’ “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” (“plasticine porters with looking glass ties”) and are one of several Parisienne teenage bands, referred to collectively as “les bebes rockers”. Dressed in a black sequin dress, lead singer Besnard looks a little like Blondie, sings like Le Tigre’s Kathleen Hanna with the tongue-in-cheekiness of CSS’ Lovefoxxx (the band does have a song called “I’m A Bitch”), and got the straight boys in the audience wound up as she flaunted and teased. The rest of the band – guitarist Marine Neuilly, bassist Louise Basilien and drummer Anais – were dressed in long t-shirt dresses, leggings and flats, as if they’d stepped out of the pages of NYLONthemselves. To describe their sound as “riot grrl pop-punk” might seem like an insult but their songs, full of catchy hooks and bratty come-ons, definitely fit that description without making the Plasticines any lesser of a band. These girls may speak in French and sing in English, but any language barriers were bridged with their rockin’ cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/plastiscine

Living Things
Judging by the lack of people singing along to their songs, it was pretty obvious that the majority of the audience hadn’t heard of the Living Things before tonight. But that seemed to suit the band from St. Louis just fine; that just meant that they had to work harder to win the crowd over. The quartet (three siblings and one childhood friend) came out of seemingly nowhere to release the fantastic debut Ahead Of The Lions in 2005, which Rolling Stone named to their year-end best album list, and the single “Bom Bom Bom” was featured in a cellphone commercial (a curious choice considering the song’s anti-war themes). After that though, the band just disappeared into thin air and no one knew what they were up to until now. Touring behind their new album, entitled Habeas Corpus, the band was eager to bring their straight-up politically and socially-charged garage rock (Mama was a Black Panther) to the Toronto audience. They played a mix of older and newer material including the new single “Oxygen”, which with its huge drawn-out chorus, shows these guys might just have some stadium ambition after all. Critics decry these guys’ songs as sounding all the same, but Living Things believe in the “if it ain’t broke, why fix it” approach. After “Bom Bom Bom” got a rise out of the crowd – with Lillian Berlin shaking his hips in a manner that would suggest he’s spent some spare time watching footage of Mick Jagger in concert – the lead singer decided that it was due time to jump into the frenzied crowd. The biggest thrill of the night for me came when I was handed the microphone during the acronym-laden, “I Owe”, and I got to sing along after my voice had cracked from yelling a long time ago. Perfect.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/livingthings
Website: http://www.livingthingsmusic.com/

Patrick Wolf
From the get-go, Wolf made it clear that this was his show, and everybody else was just lucky to be along for the ride. Dressed in an outfit that is impossible to describe unless you were there (but included smeared red glitter, a large black flower brooch, a high-waisted black trousers and a white overcoat – you can see pictures of the whole show at Chromewaves here, Wolf was determined to put his recent troubles with San Francisco police behind him and put on a memorable show. The bisexual singer easily commanded the stage with a theatrical performance worth of Bowie; snarling, preening, posing and singing on his knees. I wasn’t familiar with his music, but compared to the opening acts, Wolf has had a pretty prolific career. His set varied from sweeping folk-pop violin solos (“Damaris”) to piano ballads, and aggressive spoken word (the end of “Count Of Casuality”, were the singer howled “Ten thousand human lives”). Unfortunately the show ended on a sour note as Wolf threatened the sound guy, threw the microphone stand, and walked off during “Tristan”. Given Wolf’s reputation as a prickly character, there were no doubts in the audience that this wasn’t staged. Apparently after I left, Wolf eventually returned to the stage in nothing but an open shirt and a thong and proceeded to tear through several more tracks. Just further proof that Wolf is one singer that truly plays by his own rules.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/officialpatrickwolf
Website: http://patrickwolf.com/

Woodhands @ Drake Underground
It started out as a “secret show”, but by the time I arrived at the packed-to-capacity Drake, its clear this set from Toronto’s favourite electro-poppers Woodhands was anything but. These guys have been on my must-see list of artists ever since I arrived in Toronto, so after waiting about half an hour to get into the basement of the Drake where they were playing, I was excited to finally see them live. They didn’t disappoint. Woodhands’ music is for everybody, from jocks to nerds to music fans. Dan Werb wields his keytar like its his….well, you know what, and exudes a confidence on stage that reminds me of a nerd that got into a party thrown by the cool kids. If Werb is the geeky brains of the group, Paul Banwatt (who also drums in the decidedly more-mellow The Rural Alberta Advantage) is the brawn, thumping away on the drums like there was no tomorrow. You can tell these guys are having fun onstage and it reflects on the crowd. Their chemistry was highlighted when Banwatt messed one of his vocals, and told the crowd that, “He [Dan] said its cute when I fuck up.” Back-dropped by a velvet curtain and a large disco ball, with movie projections on the walls, their set inspired tons of sweaty, alocohol-fuelled, spontaneous dancing. The crowd was treated to all the hits from the duo’s debut Heart Attack LP; “I Can’t See Straight”, “Under Attack”, their now set-staple cover ofEddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue (those shouting out requests for their version of were unfortunately turned down) and the thunderously received “I Wasn’t Made For Fighting”. Maybe it was the fact that I had abused my media pass to get into one of Toronto’s swankiest watering holes, maybe it was the several vodka and cranberries that I had tipped back, but this show was one of the week’s best.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/woodhands

The Weakerthans

For those who missed out on the Weakerthans and Constantines tour this past March, you’re in luck! The Weakerthans will be at the Mod Club on September 23rd; details TBA. The Constantines will also be in town to play a free show at Harbourfront on Canada day, alongside Chad Vangaalen.

The new Two Hours Traffic record will be called Territory and as the band said in a Facebook message, “should be finding its way to your local record store in September.” Exciting!

Sub Pop has a free digital sampler right now online, featuring tracks from Vetiver, Handsome Furs, Flight of the Conchords and more! Click here to download!

Patrick Wolf has a new video out for “Hard Times”. Watch here.

Wye Oak has a new song out entitled “Take It In” from their upcoming album, The Know (out later this year).Click here to listen!

Toronto’s Madrid will be opening for M83 at the Phoenix on July 17th. Tickets for that show are still available for $22.50; this is a 19+ show. For more Madrid, the duo will also be at the Supermarket on June 5th with Miike Snow and June 19th with TMDP, Kidstreet and more (as part of YYZ Records’ NXNE showcase).

Valery Gore will be opening for The Sea and Cake at the Supermarket on June 27th, as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival.

BidiniBand will be playing an in-store at Soundscapes on Saturday June 6th at 4:30 pm.

Place Hands, The Guest Bedroom, The Rescue and Fall of Heroes will be playing an all-ages show at the Matty Eckler CRC on June 12th. Proceeds from this show will go to the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre ($5.00 at door), so go out, support a good cause and listen to some good music!

And last but not least, congrats to Toronto’s Ohbijou for signing a North American deal with Last Gang Records (home to Metric, MSTRKRFT, Crystal Castles, etc.). The band will be celebrating their CD release at the Opera House on June 25th, with Great Bloomers and Evening Hymns opening. Tickets are on sale now for $13.00 and this is an all-ages show.

Happy listening!

Musically,
Melody

The Dead Weather

I finally had the day off work, and what do I get for weather? Drizzle and foggy skies. Not impressed. Oh well, at least this is the perfect weather for catching up on my Singing Lamb writing, which I have fallen incredibly behind on this past week. On a day like this, I’d recommend you curl up on the couch with a hot beverage and a good book or watch a good movie (not endless sports highlight shows like I’ve been watching all morning). And in case you don’t have anything to read, here is some news for you!

Is there anything that Jack White can’t do? Let’s see: frontman, singer, guitar hero, drummer, record label owner, Nashville Music Council consultant, amateur bullfighter and Elvis impersonator – now he can addwedding host to his resume. Recently his ex-wife Meg White got married to a guy named Jackson Smith, whose parents Patti and the late Fred Smith are pretty much singlehandedly responsible for the CBGB New York City punk scene in the 1970s, in Jack’s Nashville backyard. Oh, and Jack’s new band with Alison Mosshart, The Dead Weather? They just released a new single, the swampy, blues-rock barn-burner “Treat Me Like Your Mother”, which you can get for free in exchange for your email address here. Its been awhile since I’ve been this excited for a new album, but I’m already counting down the days till Horehound drops on July 14th, and I bought my ticket for their July 22nd show at the Kool Haus.

How ’bout that new Grizzly Bear album? Pitchfork likes it, so it must be good. News flash: it actually is – even people who usually decry “white indie boy rock” are nodding their heads along to this one. Alas, their show at the Phoenix next Friday is already sold-out (sheds tears).

Perennial Lamb favourite, and the pride of Guelph, Ontario, electro-poppers Green Go have just announced a string of high-profile shows including opening for New York’s Fischerspooner at the Phoenix next Tuesday, some shows with Halifax’s Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees, and opening for Edmonton’s Shout Out Out Out Out. Great to see these guys getting the attention they deserve. Check out their MySpace for more details, including an upcoming NXNE appearance with B.c.’s You Say Party! We Say Die!.

Apparently hipster-girl fashion magazines know a thing or two about putting together a pretty kickass music tour; who knew? NYLON magazine; the leading glossy publication for lovers of Lookbook, leggings (you know – those ones from American Apparel with the semi-pornographic ads?) and Lily Allen, are bringing their tour to the Mod Club on June 17 as part of NXNE. Patrick Wolf will be headlining, with the likes of Living Things, Plasticines, and Jaguar Love (ex-members of Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves) opening. This show is all-ages, tickets are $20, and a limited number of NXNE wristband holders will be accepted. More details here.

Just in case you hadn’t listened to enough Yeah Yeah Yeahs remixes, here are three more: “Heads Will Roll” re-imagined by Philly new-wave weirdos Weird Tapes and Canadian-based DJ/producer duo FoulHouse, and LA DJ’s Them Jeans remix of the acoustic version of “Soft Shock”. I promise these ones don’t suck either.

The Proclaimers are coming to Toronto! Everyone’s favourite Scottish folk-rocker brothers, Charlie and Craig Reid, will be at the Mod Club on July 9th. The childhood nostalgia of listening to “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” (if you don’t know it, we can no longer be friends) on my father’s tape cassette has me excited for this one. Tickets are on-sale now.

Finally, I have a story so unusual I couldn’t help but sharing with you. It appears that Fucked Up’s controversial frontman Damian Abraham, also know as Pink Eyes, will be joining as a consultant on the Fox news show Red Eye hosted by Canadian military-baiting hack (erm…I mean “host”) Greg Gutfield. Seriously? I mean its not the strangest thing we’ve seen a member of the Toronto hardcore band do, but it certainly ranks up there. Full story here.

Have a good weekend!

Cheers,
Max

Regina Spektor

As previously reported, Regina Spektor’s new album, Far, will be released on June 22nd. Click here to listen to a new track from Far, “Laughing With”. Not as upbeat and cheerful as we’re used to hearing from a track like “Fidelity” but “Laughing With” is a beautiful, sweet tune with fantastic lyrics, more reminiscent of songs like “Ode to Divorce” or “Summer in the City”. Definitely a huge thumbs up and I’m terribly excited to hear the rest of the album in June!

Patrick Wolf will be at the Mod Club on June 17th, as part of NXNE, with Living Things, the Plastiscines, and Jaguar Love. Tickets will be $20.00 and this is an all-ages show. Doors will be at 7:00 pm, so this will be an early show.

Fever Ray will be at the Kool Haus on October 2nd.

NXEW interviews Two Hours Traffic. Click here to read!

The Sounds have a new song out, entitled “No One Sleeps When I’m Awake”. Click here to download!

According to Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees’ MySpace, the Halifax band will be playing an all-ages show on June 20th (during NXNE; they will also be playing on June 19th as part of the festivities). This is just a huge hunch, but I have a feeling this may be for the next edition of Daps Duo’s all-ages series, seeing as how they’re holding an all-ages show on the same day. Call me crazy…anyway; this is just speculation on my part. We’ll just have to wait for confirmation.

Afie Jurvanen, who’s backed up for artists such as Feist, The Stills and Hayden, has finally announced a solo album. Under the name, Bahamas, his upcoming record Pink Strat will be released on July 6th. Here’s the tracklisting:

Pink Strat
01 “Lonely Loves”
02 “Hockey Teeth”
03 “Southern Drawl”
04 “For Good Reason”
05 “You’re Bored, I’m Old”
06 “Sunshine Blues”
07 “Already Yours”
08 “What’s Worse?”
09 “Let The Good Times Roll”
10 “Try, Tried, Trying”
11 “Till the Morning”
12 “Whole, Wide, World”

Also, watch out for Bahamas at the Dakota Tavern on August 6th.

The Music Gallery will be celebrating their Summer Courtyard Series, starting next month. Here’s a rundown of all the fun!

Last but not least, don’t forget to catch Rah Rah at the Boat tonight and El Mocambo on Tuesday! Got plans already and won’t be able to catch them? It’s okay as the band’s MySpace indicates that they’ll be back at the El Mocambo on June 18th, for NXNE!

Happy listening!

Musically,
Melody

Patrick Wolf

Here’s a really brief one for you!

Patrick Wolf will be releasing his follow up to 2007′s The Magic Position, entitled The Bachelor on June 1st. Here’s the tracklisting:

The Bachelor:
01. “Kriegsspiel (Wargames)”
02. “Hard Times”
03. “Oblivion”
04. “The Bachelor”
05. “Damaris”
06. “Thickets”
07. “Count of Casualty”
08. “Who Will?”
09. “Vulture”
10. “Blackdown”
11. “The Sun Is Often Out”
12. “Theseus”
13. “Battle”
14. “The Messenger”

Originally slated as a double album, The Bachelor will only be a single album, with the second one to be released sometime next year. I’ll keep you posted on that! More information on the release can be read here!

In other release news, Montreal native Tiga will be releasing a new album entitled Ciao! on April 20th. For more info go here!

Show Updates:
- Mogwai and The Twilight Sad will be at the Phoenix on May 4th
- Dan Deacon will be at the Deleon White Gallery on May 10th with Teeth Mountain and Future Islands
- Lemonade will open for Sebastien Tellier at the Mod Club on April 8th
- Vetiver and Papercuts will be at the Music Gallery on May 15th
- Late of the Pier will be at the Kool Haus on April 10th

Looking for something to do on Sunday night? The new March lineup for Sneaky Dee’s Wavelength series is up right now on Stillepost. Exciting shows include great artists such as Steve McKay, We Take Lovers, Pete Samples and Adam and the Amethysts! See it all here!!

I guess I’ll leave you with this lovely duet. ENJOY!

Happy listening!

Musically,
Melody