K'Naan

Because nothing works better for procrastinating studying for exams quite like sharing some music-related news with you…

Ah, the FIFA World Cup. The only international sporting tournament where Canadians can cheer for pretty much any country that they want, and not be persecuted, because let’s be honest – we kind of suck when it comes to soccer. But hey, that doesn’t mean we can’t fiendishly cheer for other teams (myself, I’m going to be playing up my slightly Deutsch heritage – go Oranje! ) and Toronto being such a multi-national city, people can get pretty passionate about the beautiful game. The draw for next summer’s World Cup in South Africa took place last week, and I noticed yesterday that the Adidas store was displaying the snazzy new team jerseys and the official ball in the store’s front windows. WTF does this have to do with music, you ask? Because Somalia-born, Toronto-raised rapper K’Naan’s song “Wavin’ Flag” was selected in September as the official anthem of the 2010 World Cup, and will be featured in online and television commercials leading up to the event. Now we have a video to go with the reworked version of “Wavin’ Flag” – with new soccer-centric lyrics – watch it here. While you’re at it, check out K’Naan performing the song in-studio on CBC’s QTV with Jian Ghomeshi.

Speaking of new albums, rumours from various sources have been flying around on the Internet this week, as to the status of the third Arcade Fire album. Here’s what we do know: there will be a new Arcade Fire album this year, and its being produced by Markus Dravs, who worked on 2007’s Neon Bible. Early speculation suggested a May release date for the album, but now it appears that fans will have to wait until the second half of 2010. The Montreal outfit also are planning to headline some major festivals this summer (including Toronto dates?), but no word yet on where and when these dates will be.

Forty-three dollars is a pretty hefty ticket price, but that’s what its going to cost you if you want to see a double bill of legendary New York City MC Mos Def and British-born, American underground rapper MF Doom, who’ll be performing at Kool Haus on January 27th. Both are touring behind stellar new albums: Def’s The Ecstatic was recently nominated for the Best Rap Album Grammy, while Doom’s Born Like This (featuring production from the likes of the late J Dilla and Californian producer Madlib) received glowering reviews from music critics and fans alike. This bill is sweetened by the additional of local support by Toronto’s http://www.myspace.com/dsisive D-Sisive. Here’s a small taste of what you can expect – Def performing “History” (with Talib Kweli, The Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman and Hayley Dekkle, and The Roots!) on Jimmy Fallon, and Thom Yorke’s remix of Doom’s “Gazzilion Ear”.

Last weekend, I got the chance to catch the second of the Arkells’ two sold-out Toronto shows, and I have to say that I was completely blown away by their live performance. After a solid opening set from Burlington’s Sandman Viper Command (look for my long overdue interview with these guys soon), and an incredibly unremarkable one from St. John’s, Newfoundland’s The Novaks, the Hamilton five-piece hit the stage to the loudest ovation I’ve ever heard a Lee’s Palace audience give a band. They opened up with “Heart of the City”, before playing the rest of their 2008 debut album, Jackson Square, in its entirety. Everything about the songs sounded bigger – the harmonica intro on “No Champagne Socialist”, the “hey, hey, hey!” chants on “The Ballad of Hugo Chavez”, the soaring vocals on “Oh, the Boss Is Coming!” – live than on the record. And when lead singer Max Kerman broke into the chorus from the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby”, during the band’s own “John Lennon”, there wasn’t a person left in the audience that wasn’t singing along. For the encore, the Arkells called on the opening bands to come up on-stage, and proceeded to cover the Temptations’ “Ain’t To Proud to Beg” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark”. Want more proof that these guys have moved beyond their “Canada’s best kept secret” status (the phrase that so many music websites and blogs are still using to describe them)? Only hours after I posted a positive review of the show in my Facebook status, my friend who attends the University of Georgia commented, and said that he had heard of them before. The Arkells are definitely getting around, and its a thrill to see this success happen to such a hard-working, down-to-earth Canadian band. Also, if you haven’t seen the band’s literally-themed new music video for “Pullin’ Punches“, then you can do so here.

Toronto folk-rockers The Wooden Sky will be appearing on MTV Live this Wednesday. For free tickets to the performance, email liveaudience@mtv.ca. More details can be found on the Facebook event page here.

If you are fans of “krautrock”; the experimental style of rock music invented in Germany during the 1970s characterized by improvisation and strong, hypnotic rhymes, and made popular by bands including Neu!, Can, Faust and Kraftwerk (who in turn, has influenced a wide list of artists afterwards including Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, Holy Fuck, Radiohead and The Velvet Underground) than you need to check this documentary out. The BBC Four documentary Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany looks at how an entire counter-culture rose from the ruins of post-World War II Germany – fascinating stuff.

That’s it for me for tonight. Back to studying [insert sad emoticon here].