November 3rd, 2009 8:31am
Live: Noah & The Whale
Frank YangWhen Noah & The Whale made their debut Toronto appearance back in September of last year, I noted how effectively they were able to offset the inherent twee-ness of their debut Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down in a live setting simply by turning up the rock – not only did those songs survive being run through a distortion pedal, they actually benefited from it. That being said, the gig still only rated about an “all right” – they were a band who wrote some good pop songs and delivered them well, but I didn’t sense that certain something that implied they could be more than that.
Their second record First Days Of Spring certainly went a long way to changing that opinion. Both the emotional rawness of the subject matter and the spare, orchestral dressings were unexpected and certainly earned the band a re-think in these parts, so Saturday was dedicated to seeing them perform not once, but twice in Toronto. The first opportunity came courtesy an in-store performance at Criminal Records bright and early at noon...
Read more at Chromewaves →Photos: Noah & The Whale – October 31, 2009
MP3: Noah & The Whale – “The First Days Of Spring”
Friendly Fires tell BBC they’re working on album number two and are targeting a May release date.
JAM, The Toronto Star and The Boston Herald interview The Swell Season, who’ve just released a new video.
Video: The Swell Season – “Low Rising”
Paste talks to Sufjan Stevens, whom they credit with creating the best album of the decade. Oh I’m sorry, did I ruin the list for you? NPR also has a short feature.
Pitchfork has details on the next Spoon record, entitled Transference and out January 26. Britt Daniel talked to Spinner about what to expect from the new album.
The Antlers are featured in a downloadable Daytrotter session.
Loft Life gets a tour of the fabled Wilco loft.
Austin City Limits (the television show) is streaming videos of performances from their shows online – check out this one featuring M Ward and Okkervil River or this one with Andrew Bird and St. Vincent to get started. And yes indeed, those archives do go back.
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