No Joy Release A Little Bit Of Happiness + Other New Music & News

Montreal indie gazing band No Joy seems to have done a 180 degree sound shift on this new track off of their forthcoming new album. There is still a hint of shoegaze, but they have traded in their wall of sound grunge for  much cleaner sounding dream pop- at least it sounds that way on their new track "Lunar Phobia".

The band were originally supposed to record their new LP, Wait To Pleasure, with the Raveonettes Sune Rose Wagner, but that never materialized and No Joy decided to work with Jorge Elbrecht (Chairlift). The result is a lot more keyboard and pianos, much cleaner production and an overall much more happier sounding group. At this rate they may have to change their name. Listen to "Lunar Phobia" below:

Wait To Pleasure is out April 23rd via Mexican Summer

No Joy- Lunar Phobia


Lots of new music, videos and news from the first few days of the week including:

French alt pop band Phoenix finally released a preview from their new album this week. "Entertainment" sees the band progress in to more anthemic territory as they try to equal the popularity of Coldplay and Mumford & Sons. Much better than those bands though. Listen below:

Phoenix will release Bankrupt on April 23rd via Glassnote.

Phoenix- Entertainment

Primal Scream finally made it official that they have recorded a new album after hinting about it for several weeks. Surprise!!! Kevin Shields does make a guest appearance, playing guitar on the lead single, "2013" Watch the creepy video for the track below:

The album is titled More Light and will be out in May.

Primal Scream- 2013

Young Galaxy have released a second track from their upcoming new album. Listen to "Fall For You" from Ultramarine which will be released on April 23rd.




Doldrums is streaming his new album, Lesser Evil, over at Pitchfork Advance. You can also download the song "Golden Calf" from the album below:




Listen to the title track, " Hit The Waves'',  from Swedish indie poppers The Mary Onettes new album. The LP will be out on March 12th.




Bat for Lashes has released a new video from her excellent The Haunted Man LP. Watch the Where The Wild Things inspired clip for "Lilies" below:

Bat For Lashes- Lilies

Jangle rockers DIIV keep on rolling and have put out a video for their Oshin track "Wait" which features a cast of indie girls, including 'it girl" Sky Ferreira. Watch the NSFW video below

DIIV- Wait

The Juno Awards nominations were announced yesterday and with it the usual parade of awful bands and singers. There are some bright spots amongst the deadwood, mostly in the Alternative and Electronic categories, including nods to Metric, Grimes, Purity Ring, Japandroids, Daphni and Crystal Castles. See the full list here:

Metric- Breathing Underwater

Jack White was named Record Store Day Ambassador. Watch a video of his acceptance over at the Record Store Day website and also read his diatribe about all things impersonal.

Jack White- Freedom at 21

Last week we told you about a new Music Festival happening in Toronto in the first week of July called The Toronto Urban Roots Festival. They have announced a few more artists that will take part including Belle & Sebastien, Neko Case, Flogging Molly and The Joel Plaskett Emergency. More acts will be annouced throughout February and March.

Belle & Sebastian- Another Sunny Day
Neko Case- Deep Red Bells

Robbie Furze has announced through his band's Facebook page that Milo Cordell has left The Big Pink. Cordell will leave to concentrate on his up and coming record label, Merok, while Robbie Furze has confirmed he will continue to work on the new Big Pink album.

The Big Pink- Crystal Visions

Finally, another week, another rock 'n roll death. This time the founding member, singer and bassist Kevin Ayers of the legendary 60's psychedelic band, The Soft Machine, has passed away. The singer died in his sleep last night at the age of 68.

Soft Machine- Moon In June

DIIV & Wild Nothing- Live at The Great Hall

When I first heard the song Doused by DIIV, the first thing I thought of was is that it sounded similar to Wild Nothing. It is both fitting that DIIV signed to the same label as Wild Nothing, Captured Tracks, and that the two bands decided to tour together. That tour brought the two groups to The Great Hall in Toronto last Tuesday night.

When I first heard that DIIV and Wild Nothing were playing The Great Hall I had reservations about the sound quality of the show. The last time I was at this venue was in 2010 for Women and Best Coast and the vacuous theatre swallowed up the sound and left it a big echoey mess. Luckily, there were no such sound issues on this night.

First, I need to talk about how fantastic opening band Yacht Club were. Fucked Up member Ben Cook's new side project is pure 80's inspired dance greatness. Cook even acted the part, looking his preppy best, wearing a white polo shirt, rolled up skinny blue jeans and loafers with no socks. The highlight of their set was the cheesy good synth pop single Flash which was featured on this blog earlier this week.

Next up, DIIV took the stage and looked a lot more coherent and clean than the last time I saw them in June. That night lead singer Zachary Cole Smith had disheveled hair, was sporting sweats and looked like he just got out of bed. He probably had a reason to be unkempt because I believe he played with Beach Fossils in New York the day before and rushed up to Toronto for his own gig.

DIIV dived (excuse the pun) right into things with the instrumental track Druun. Their were a few technical problems to start the song but the issues were quickly rectified. The set was similar to the set they played last June at Lee's Palace. The band ripped through most of the songs off of their debut album, Oshin, and also included a cover a Nirvana's Geist B-side classic Bambi Slaughter. The band ended with their must well known song, Doused, which featured a duelling guitar battle between Smith and his childhood buddy, guitarist Andrew Bailey.

Wild Nothing and DIIV might have similar jangle guitar sounds but there are a lot of differences between the two bands. Jack Tatum is a very quiet guy and it sort of comes across in his music. The band started out with the Gemini songs Confirmation and Chinatown which are classic dream pop masterpieces. I have to admit I love Gemini more than Wild Nothing's recently released LP Nocturne which features a lot more synth pop.

The band then preceded to play an hour long set with most of the tracks from the album Nocturne, including the single Paradise, and a few a Golden Haze & Gemini classics. I saw the band play last year and was more enthralled with their performance than on this night. At last year's performance I got lost in Wild Nothing's dream pop shimmering guitar haze while this year I just didn't feel the vibe. That doesn't mean the band weren't good, just a lot different. The crowd didn't help much as there were more than the usual amount of yappers and drunken dancers who always try to ruin everyone else's experience.

Music Video: DIIV- Doused

Watch as DIIV leader Zachary Cole Smith plays with little army men and then realize that he is late for a gig. The rest of the video features Smith hurriedly running down the street, with guitar in hand, while the rest of the band tear frantically through their song Doused. Smith eventually makes it, but only to play on the last 20 seconds of the song. Lesson learned: Mr. Smith should learn to stick to guitar playing as a hobby.


DIIV's album Oshin is available now through Captured Tracks or buy it on iTunes.

DIIV are about to go on tour with Wild Nothing and will play a date at The Great Hall in Toronto on September 18th. Check your local listings for a gig near you.

DIIV- Doused

Video courtesy of Rolling Stone.com