In my post last month wherein I sought to introduce you to Reverie Sound Revue, I likened the band – formerly of Calgary and now based mostly in Toronto – to a unicorn or your mythical creature of choice, on account of their extended hiatuses and exceedingly slow pace of working. But they get significantly more real as of this week when their debut, self-titled album – over a year and a half in the making – is finally released.

And while they're still declining to tour or generally be seen in the harsh light of day, they have deigned to record a series of live studio performances and embark on an online tour of sorts, and I'm pleased to be able to present the first installment. It features guitarist Patrick Walls and singer Lisa Lobsinger performing "Arrows", rendered in even more delicately subdued tones than the recorded version, if that's possible.

Frank Yang

Just before the start of NXNE, I was asked a few questions by The National Post for a festival preview piece along the lines of how NXNE differed from and was similar to SxSW. My answers were basically that there was no comparing the two, acronyms notwithstanding, as nothing anywhere really compares to SxSW in terms of scale and importance, but that in recent years NXNE has come a long way to being a worthy event in its own right. Friday evening, however, I got to experience a couple of shows that were quite reminiscent of March in Austin, both in the positive and negative sense.

To the former, there was an in-store set -- the closest we've come to creating the massive day show culture of SxSW -- at Sunrise Records from Dark Mean. The Hamilton outfit is a relatively new one, but has already made an impression in some blog circles -- that's where I first heard of them -- and this unconventional showcase was their Toronto debut.

Frank Yang

With a lead-up week that had included rather insane shows from each of Patrick Wolf, Phoenix and The Dead Weather, it wasn't surprising that I was half-dead before NXNE even began this year. I don't even want to speculate what kind of shape I'd have been in if I hadn't taken the week off from work. But the will and energy to hit the clubs would be found. Somehow.

There were many options to kick things off, but I opted for the secret-but-not-really show at the Whipper Snapper Gallery featuring Los Angeles duo No Age. I wasn't especially won over by last year's Nouns but had heard good things about their live show and the venue's location would allow me to grab a tasty panzerotti at Bitondo's.

Frank Yang

I went digging for a Sonic Youth cover for this week, to mark not only the release of their latest album The Eternal a couple weeks ago but also their sold-out show at Massey Hall next Tuesday, but as it turns out I didn't have any that I really liked. I did, however, find this live Raveonettes cover which I didn't even realize I had and quite liked.

Having the Danish duo take on this particular Sonic Youth track doesn't require a real stretch of imagination -- it being one of the more straightforward selections from their oeuvre and well-suited to the Raveonettes' stripped-down aesthetic. But even though it's no reinvention, it's still a good rendition and snarly in all the right places.

Paper Bag

So hey, did you hear? Vinyl is the next big thing! All the cool kids are doing it, spinning those groovy wax platters on their vintage gramophones and getting down with that analog sound! Digital is for squares!

Do you want to be one of those hep cats with the milk crates full of LPs, but don't know where to start? Paper Bag Records wants to help! Courtesy of them and Stage Fright Publicity, I've got a special set of limited edition vinyl featuring some of Canada's top up-and-coming acts for you to spin -- the pack includes Woodhands' Heart Attack, Winter Gloves' About A Girl, Josh Reichmann/Oracle Band's Crazy Power and Life Is Legal EPs and Slim Twig's Contempt! and Derelict Dialect / Vernacular Violence EPs.

Frank Yang

Sure, it was billed as the Nylon Summer Music Tour, implying a traveling roadshow with all performers on some sort of equal footing, but everyone knew that this was the Patrick Wolf tour and the other three acts were just the openers. Or at least that's what I'd thought going into Wednesday night's stop at the Mod Club in Toronto -- and even if the audience was on board with that train of thought, it was obvious from the get-go that the bands didn't necessarily agree and were set to make the most of their time on stage to win over the Wolf disciples.

Lead-off hitters Jaguar Love seemed to me the most curious additions to the bill, at least considering their pedigree.

MySpace

What do you get when you have a pile of random news and links, not a lot of time and definitely not enough caffeine in your system? A post like this.

NME reports that British prog-rock space cadets Muse have announced the release of their fifth studio album, The Resistance, for September 14 with massive world touring to follow. I had thought they might make feasible V Fest Toronto headliners, following their shiny red-jumpsuited performance at the first edition in 2006 but they seem to have all their record promotion ducks in a row with the US U2 support dates and the European headlining dates -- any visits to Canada will probably come much later.

Frank Yang

You might think the novelty of seeing Phoenix (the band) at the Phoenix (the venue) might have worn off during the two months between the announcement and the actual show on Monday, but it really didn't. But besides that, the prospect of seeing the French band perform their superb new album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix live was plenty of reason to be excited, and I wasn't alone in that sentiment -- the show was completely sold out.

Their tourmates for this jaunt were Amazing Baby, hailing from the slightly less glamorous locale of Brooklyn. Though the band had played our Hot Freaks showcase at SxSW back in March, I missed them on account of being terrorized by Peelander-Z -- I had given their new album Rewild, out next week, a few spins so they weren't a complete unknown. The album is a melting pot of rock styles, most prominently glam in the '70s sense of the word, but in live presentation the band's aesthetic was more garage/80s rock-correct than anything else -- lots of hair whipping and even some two-handed guitar tapping. You don't see that every day.

Frank Yang

It wasn't technically a secret show -- when the announcement was made, it was very clear as to what was going on -- but considering the announcement came less than 36 hours before gig time, it was most definitely a surprise. The occasion was a show by The Dead Weather, a band whose existence was only revealed three months ago, but who by virtue of their pedigree were already one of the most talked-about new acts of the Summer. And it's not hard to see why -- their lineup features Jack White of White Stripes and Raconteurs fame, Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Dean Fertita of Queens Of The Stone Age and Jack Lawrence, also of The Raconteurs.