Mark down June 16 for the return of Radiohead to Toronto—the Oxford five will play Downsview Park with special guests Caribou on June 16. Tickets go on sale at livenation.ca this Friday (March 9) at noon.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=if05nLsUHyk
MERCER MERCER ME
It’s a big week for fans of The Shins. While the new record, Port of Morrow, isn’t out until March 20, the band will play Saturday Night Live on March 10, and that’s the same day tickets go on sale for their Aug. 4 show at the Molson Amphitheatre in support of The Black Keys. There’s an Inside Edge pre-sale on Friday from 10 a.m.-10 p.m.. While it’s been five years since the last Shins release (2007′s Wincing the Night Away), the new record is really the next step in the musical evolution of James Mercer. He has surrounded himself with a new cast of characters (as well as a few who travelled from New Mexico and Portland with him), and the LP is being released on Mercer’s new label, Aural Apothecary (through Columbia Records), the home of Mercer’s collaboration with Danger Mouse, Broken Bells. As for the new record, standouts include the first single “Simple Song,” opener “The Rifle’s Spiral” and the Steely Dan-ish “Fall of ’82.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoLTPcD1S4Q&feature=player_embedded
SAY YES TO MBF
Calgary’s Michael Bernard Fitzgerald likes to keep things impulsive and grand: He welcomed some 250 extra players up on stage with him at a hometown show last week. The upbeat tunesmith is in the midst of a cross-country tour that brings him to The Rivoli this Saturday (March 10). He’ll be previewing tunes from his new body of work, Yes Side A and Yes Side B—An EP. The Yes Side A disc, which features the new single “Follow,” was recorded in Los Angeles with Jon Levine and Brian West (Nelly Furtado, K’naan) and hits the shelves via Lazers and Danger/EMI on April 24. Yes Side B is a five song EP recorded in Calgary and produced and mixed with longtime MBF collaborator Russell Broom and will be available at shows.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M0lzWGdSNM
