Nick Thorburn of Islands

Here’s a quick round-up of some news for you today!

Edmonton’s Shout Out Out Out Out will be at Lee’s Palace on Saturday April 25; tickets are $15!

For those looking for something to do on Valentine’s Day, Hunter Valentine will again host a show at the Reverb. This show is all-ages.

Ex-Galaxy member, Emma McKenna will be playing tonight at the University of Toronto as part of Xpression Against Oppression at the Hart House (Arbor Room). McKenna will be on at 7:00 pm sharp!

Ryan Gosling is apparently releasing a concept album in the summer with friend, Zach Shields, under the name Dead Man’s Bones. Click here for more information and a video clip. Hmmm, I’m intrigued…

Brad Weber (Caribou, Winter Equinox), Angus Fraser (Tenth of May), Dan Roberts (Winter Equinox) and Clint Scrivener are part of a new band called Pick A Piper. New songs can be streamed on their MySpace and no news of a release yet, but I like what I hear so far.

Stereogum gives a nice update on Islands’ Nick Thorburn. Apparently he’s quite busy working on new Islands material (they’re eight days into recording in New York), working on a solo album entitled I Am An Attic, and even working on a comic book called This is Howie Doo. According to the interview, the new Islands album will be “electronic-based, with plenty of drum machine and programming” and much shorter as “most don’t even break the 3 minute mark”. Whoa. Even content-wise, Thorburn says that they will veer away from the theme of death and touch on more topics such as “teenage rebellion, lazy music critics, the underclass, trust, mistrust, and good old fashioned self-doubt”. Nice. I’m excited. Click here to read the article and download a rough mix of a track from I Am An Attic.

B(oot)log is offering up a couple of bootleg tracks from Land of Talk’s set at the Wolfe Island Music Fest last year. Click here to download.

Speaking of Land of Talk, I had stumbled upon this quite some time ago, but I had failed to mention it. Lead singer Liz Powell used to perform under the name of Ele_K* and play straight up pop tunes. It’s actually not as bad as it sounds though! Click here for her CBC Radio profile and listen to some classic Powell! It’s no Land of Talk, but I like it!

That’s it for now!

Happy Listening!

Musically,
Melody