best tour announcement ever!

OK, so I was pretty happy that Brand New announced their fall US/Canada Tour! Then I was surprise that they will be playing twice in Toronto... and I pretty much died of excitement when I found out that they are bringing GlassJaw!!!!!!! OMFG!!!!!!!!!!

Oct. 1st - Time Warner Cable Amphitheater - Cleveland, OH*
Oct. 2nd - The Fillmore - Detroit, MI*
Oct. 3rd - Aragon Ballroom - Chicago, IL*
Oct. 4th - Myth Nightclub - St. Paul, MN*
Oct. 6th - The Pageant - St. Louis, MO*
Oct. 7th - Uptown Theatre - Kansas City, MO*
Oct. 8th - Fillmore Auditorium - Denver, CO*
Oct. 9th - Salt Palace Conv. Center - Salt Lake City, UT*
Oct. 13th - Roseland Theatre - Portland, OR*
Oct. 15th - Rabobank Arena & Conv. Center - Bakersfield, CA*
Oct. 16th - Event Center at San Jose State Univ. - San Jose, CA*
Oct. 17th - Hollywood Palladium - Los Angeles, CA*
Oct. 20th - House of Blues - San Diego, CA*
Oct. 21st - House of Blues - San Diego, CA*
Oct. 22nd - Mesa Amphitheatre - Mesa, AZ*
Oct. 23rd - House of Blues - Las Vegas, NV*
Oct. 25th - Lonestar Amphitheater - Lubbock, TX†
Oct. 27th - Stubb’s BBQ - Austin, TX†
Oct. 29th - Cain’s Ballroom - Tulsa, OK†
Oct. 30th - The Palladium Ballroom - Dallas, TX†
Oct. 31st - Verizon Wireless Theater - Houston, TX†
Nov. 3rd - The Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA†
Nov. 4th - House of Blues - Orlando, FL†
Nov. 5th - The Ritz - Tampa, FL†
Nov. 7th - House of Blues - North Myrtle Beach, SC†
Nov. 9th - The Fillmore Charlotte - Charlotte, NC†
Nov. 10th - The National - Richmond, VA†
Nov. 11th - Sonar - Baltimore, MD†
Nov. 13th - The NorVa - Norfolk, VA†
Nov. 14th - Electric Factory - Philadelphia, PA†
Nov. 15th - Electric Factory - Philadelphia, PA^
Nov. 17th - House of Blues - Boston, MA^
Nov. 18th - House of Blues - Boston, MA^
Nov. 20th - Olympia De Montreal - Montreal, QC^
Nov. 21st - Kool Haus - Toronto, ONT^
Nov. 22nd - Kool Haus - Toronto, ONT^
Nov. 24th - Main Street Armory - Rochester, NY^
Nov. 25th - Chevrolet Theatre - Wallingford, CT^
Nov. 28th - Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum - Uniondale, NY^

*Dates played with Manchester Orchestra
†Dates played with Thrice
^Dates played with Glassjaw

that's when the audience died

Head over to Now Magazine to watch a video of Final Fantasy playing through a rainstorm @ Hillside!

sky through the curtain, good things coming soon

According to Pitchfork, Atlas Sound and Broadcast will be touring together this fall!!!!

Oct 15 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
16 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
17 Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat
18 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church Sanctuary
20 New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
21 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
22 Boston, MA - The Paradise
23 Montreal, Quebec @ Le National
24 Toronto, Ontario @ Lee's Palace
25 Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center
26 Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge (sans Broadcast)
27 Northfield, MN @ The Cave
30 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richards On Richards
31 Seattle, WA @ Nuemos

Nov 01 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
03 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
04 Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
05 Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
07 Denton, TX @ Hailey's

Hopefully, this means a new Broadcast record is on the way; but for now, dig up the duo’s 2003 classic, Haha Sound!

Broadcast: Valerie [super-wicked-cool song]

you know in a year, i'm be happy

Check out the trailer for The First Days of Spring, a film/album by Noah And The Whale!



The film will be shown at the following dates:

7th + 8th August—Belladrum Festival (Read Bed Stage)—Inverness
9th August—Big Chill Festival (Film Four Tent)—Malvern Hills
10th August—Cameo Picturehouse—Edinburgh*
30th August—Watershed—Bristol*
31st August—Cornerhouse—Manchester*
1st September—Film Theatre—Glasgow*
2nd September—Showroom—Sheffield*
4th September—ICA—London*

* = includes Q&A with Charlie Fink

Blue Skies (Yacht Remix)
Blue Skies (Death To The Throne Remix)
My Broken Heart [wicked-cool song]

You can pre-order the deluxe edition of The First Days of Spring (CD+DVD) over at Recordstore.co.uk.

what are you waiting for?

Time To Die, the brand new record by The Dodos is available digitally today over at Amazon MP3 for only $2.99!

free show

The Junction will be play a free in-store at Criminal Records tomorrow at 6 pm!

the antlers: hospice

The Antlers’ Hospice is one epic sounding record! It features songs with triumphant melodies, atmospheric buildups, and crashing climaxes... so yes, in terms of its musically style, Hospice sounds like Sigur Rós and Explosions in the Sky!

The album is exceedingly depressing as well. Hospice is a concept album that tells the story of a caregiver—the narrator—who recounts his relationship with a distressed bone cancer patient name Sylvia (“you’d been abused by the bone that refused you”). Let me warn you again, all the songs are quite gloomy, especially "Two". Do not let the cheery melodies and Peter Silberman’s gorgeous falsetto voice fool you; with lyrics such as "There was nothing that I could do save you, the choir’s gonna sing, and this thing is gonna kill you.../...it tore apart the canyon running down your femur, (I thought that it was beautiful, it mead me a believer.) And as it opened I could hear you howling from your room, but I hid out in the hall until the hurricane blew..." and the sadness goes on and on, "Two" is easily the darkest song on the album! Although Hospice is a concept album, each song can stand on its own—every track is like a short story—it works and makes sense independently, but they are most effective as a whole.

Hospice is ambitiously emotional and hauntingly beautiful. The Antlers has crafted something that is incredibly pure and moving; Hospice is a masterpiece, and at the moment, it is in my top five albums of 2009!

Sylvia [wicked-cool song]
Bear [wicked-cool song]
Two [super-wicked-cool song]

visit The Antlers' MySpace here
Hospice comes out on August 18th, you can pre-order it here
The band is selling the CD version of Hospice on their tour with Frightened Rabbit, tonight is the last night of the tour, go see this amazing band live and buy Hospice!

you must be a masochist to love a modern leper

Frightened Rabbit with The Antlers—July 22, 2009 @ The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern

The Antlers






Frightened Rabbit






see more photos at my flickr page

support your local band!

I don’t usually plug bands that I don’t really know, but a friend asked me to do this favour for her, so here is it:

A local Toronto band called Broken Bricks is having their CD release party this Saturday (July 25) at The Monarch Lounge, go check out that show!

I visited their MySpace page the other day and heard a few tracks... enjoyed what I heard and actually wouldn’t mind hearing their album!

lots of free songs + mercury prize shortlist

Last week, Fader released an exclusive premiere of "Walkabout"—the brand new Atlas Sound track featuring Noah Lennox, you can hear/download it here.

You can hear Cancer Bats’ cover of "So Jealous" by Tegan and Sara over at their MySpace page.

Wavves posted an awesome new demo entitled "Mickey Mouse" on his blog.

Finally, the track "Say Please" by the indie folk supergroup, Monsters of Folk is available for free here.


The Mercury Prize shortlist was announced today, it is slightly (just slightly) less disappointing than the Polaris Music Prize shortlist.

I really hope The Horrors win with their brilliant sophomore Primary Colours; however, I think it will either go to Bat For Lashes or Florence + The Machine... well, in that case, I am cheering for Bat!

If I were to pick the shortlist, I would’ve chosen the following:
Bat For Lashes: Two Suns
Bibio: Vignetting The Compost
Dananananaykroyd: Hey Everyone!
Emmy The Great: First Love
Gallows: Grey Britain
Glasvegas: Glasvegas
Grammatics: Grammatics
The Horrors: Primary Colours (...and I would still pick this as the winner!)
The Maccabees: Wall Of Arms
Micachu: Jewellery
The Shitty Limits: Beware the Limits
Patrick Wolf: The Bachelor

here is a church and here is a steeple

Timber Timbre—July 17, 2009 @ The Church of the Redeemer





see more photos at my flickr page

make a decision with a kiss

Check out Grizzly Bear's gorgeous performance of "Ready, Able" on the Late Show with David Letterman" last night:

sound travelled in the air then they blew it back

Micachu and The Shapes—July 14, 2009 @ El Mocambo

Anni Rossi was supposed to open for Micachu, but I was extremely disappointed to find out at the doors that she wasn’t there... don’t really know the reason, maybe she had problems crossing the border.





see more photos at my flickr page

listen to new dodos now!

In response to having their third album, Time to Die leaked on the internet last week, The Dodos has launched a site where fans can listen to a high-quality version of the album for free! The site also includes a free download of the first single "Fables" and a video message from the band.

In addition, the new record will be available to download (legally) starting July 28th, go to the Time to Die website for more info.

Oh, and make sure you pre-order the album!

the shitty limits: beware the limits

The Shitty Limits is a band that is not afraid to give away their music for free. On the band’s MySpace page, you can download a handful of 7-inches for free! What a great move! I probably would have missed out on this band if it wasn’t for the free downloads of Yesterdays Heroes and Limits Appear. Well, that’s probably a lie... I would have definitely wanted more after hearing their songs from their music player! The Shitty Limits plays DIY 80s hardcore punk style music, and their debut full-length, Beware the Limits, sounds like a mixture of Chronic Sick, Rites Of Spring, Gorilla Biscuits, and my personal favourite—JFA! I don’t know what more I can say, Beware the Limits is fast, loud, explosive... it is just a frakking great punk record! The Shitty Limits is for fans of 80s hardcore punk who are longing for something new and nostalgic. If you get a chance, download the two mind-blowing 7-inches I mentioned above for FREE here!

Your Limits Are My Limits
Wonderflow [wicked-cool song]
Show Me [wicked-cool song]

visit The Shitty Limits' MySpace here
buy Beware the Limits here

is your work of art so heavy that it will not let you live?

Check out the gorgeous Patrick Wolf session over at Daytrotter!
Too bad he didn’t perform "The Bachelor", I think it would’ve been the perfect addition to the set.

Patrick Wolf—Daytrotter Session (July, 6 2009):
Bluebells
The Sun Is Often Out [wicked-cool song]
The Messenger

brand new album

The new Brand New record is called Daisy, and it is coming out on September 22nd!!!!

the drums: the drums ep

So something called The Drums EP by the The Drums surfaced on the world wide web almost a month ago. I have been looking for more music from these guys ever since I heard their incredibly catchy songs from their MySpace a while back. Naturally, I downloaded the EP and was absolutely blown away by it! It features some of the catchiest songs I have heard this year—yes, even catchier than Discovery’s LP and the new Pheonix album. After discovering my love for the EP, I wanted to buy the thing. However, I couldn’t find it anywhere; in fact, there is absolutely no information about the release online. My conclusion is that the EP is not an official release—it is either only available on tour/unreleased demos or it was just something put together by a fan/people on the interweb, sort of like that Noah And The Whale EP. Regretless, it is a collection of wonderful lighthearted pop songs that reminds me tremendously of The Tough Alliance; I would go as far as to say The Drums are the North American version of The Tough Alliance! If you are looking for an official release by The Drums, an EP entitled Summertime! is coming out on September 15, which is becoming one of my most anticipated releases of the year after hearing what the band has to offer on the unofficial S/T EP.

Best Friend [wicked cool song]
I Felt Stupid [wicked-cool song]

Download Let's Go Surfing Digital Single from rcrdlbl.com!
("Let's Go Surfing" is an amazing song... there are a couple of great remixes on this digital single as well!)

visit The Drums' MySpace here
Summertime! EP comes out on September 15th, you can pre-order it here

canada day!

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears—July 1, 2009 @ Criminal Records






see more photos at my flickr page

this post is a little late, but i was out all day...

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!