Name: Silk Flowers
From: New York, New York
Story: No Age bros know weird
Sound: Fuzzy, muffled, proto-electro gloom

When Dean Spunt from No Age says, of Silk Flowers, "they're probably the weirdest band I know," it's not hyperbole out to hype a record he's putting out on his own Post Present Medium label. Because Silk Flowers are a weird band.

It starts with Aviram Cohen's weird singing; an affected, self-parodying baritone moan that sounds like a stand-up comedian doing a mocking impersonation of Scott Walker. Drawing from the proto-electro dissonance of '70s pioneers Suicide or nasty early-'80s provocateurs Throbbing Gristle, the music matching Cohen's comic crooning is full of clunky, lumpen drum-machine think and eerie synthesizer sound.

Recorded by Fred Thomas —the longtime frontman of indie-pop outfit Saturday Looks Good to Me who, this year, reinvented himself as experimentalist with his City Center project— the album has a fuzzy, muffled, no-fidelity sound. In fact, it sounds a lot like Ariel Pink's warped, wobbly take on archaic analogue sound.

Since forming in New York last year, Silk Flowers have opened up shows for Animal Collective, Crystal Stilts, Blank Dogs, Grouper and High Places, and have toured with their label-bosses, No Age, themselves. Post Present Medium has just released Silk Flowers' debut, self-titled LP, and the band will be taking their weird music onto the road in support of such. Dates, and single "Flash of Light," below.

• Listen: Silk Flowers, "Flash of Light"

Silk Stalkings
July 18: New York, NY - Cake Shop
July 29: New York, NY - Home Sweet Home
August 1: Long Island City Queens, NY - Sculpture Center
August 15: Chicago, IL - Golden Age Records
August 15: Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
August 16: Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
August 17: San Francisco, CA - The Knockout
August 20: Portland, OR - Backspace

The Year: 1997
The Album: Elliott Smith, Either/Or
Who It Influenced: Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Grizzly Bear, José González, Jeff Hanson

12 years after Either/Or was released —and six years after Elliott Smith died young and left a scarred, abused, beaten-down corpse— and the magnum opus for Portland's most famous songwriting son has a definite ghostly tinge. To discover it now, either anew or all over again, is to hear an album whispered as if from beyond the grave.

Yet, as someone old enough to have bought Either/Or upon its 1997 release, I remember it when the album was not a veritable death-poem, but a record fresh and alive, filled with tender, melodic, romantic songs that made their author's misery seem inspiring. Death Cab for Cutie beefcake Ben Gibbard told me, in 2001: “I remember the summer of '97 as the summer of Either/Or, because that's all that anyone I knew was listening to.”

It's hard, a dozen years, one Oscars telecast, one (possible) suicide, and two posthumous albums later, to divorce the art from the artist. But, doing so reveals a near-perfect pop-record merely made by someone with problems.

Smith's hushed lullabies may be riddled with heartache and depression, abuse and self-loathing, addiction and optimism, but they're also pure, simple, defiant, and weirdly beautiful. Smith's knack for hooks and gift for melody would come to bold fruition on later albums, but here he's so low-key it somehow gets overlooked. More than some cry-for-help, Either/Or is an album of timeless simplicity, one bound to strike a chord with lovelorned loners for years to come.

• Full review: Elliott Smith, Either/Or
• Top 10 Kill Rock Stars Albums

Photo © Autumn DeWilde

When turgid corporate-rock embarrassments Nickelback started cleaning up Canada's Grammy-equivalent, the Juno Awards, in the '00s, something needed to be done. Taking inspiration from the UK's long-running Mercury Music Prize, in 2006, a crew of enterprising Canadians established the Polaris Music Prize; an award given to the best Canadian album based on artistic merit alone.

Putting their money with their mouths were, the Polaris peeps handed over their first-ever oversize-novelty-cheque ($20,000 cash!) to Final Fantasy's wondrous He Poos Clouds. With the Prize having grown in size and scope since then, the 2009 'Shortlist' nominees have been revealed, setting a field of 10 to be in the running for that fat wad of filthy lucre.

2009's field is headlined by Metric's shiny radio-pop pleaser Fantasies, Chad VanGaalen's junkyard death poem Soft Airplane, Great Lake Swimmers' alt-country oil painting Lost Channels, F**ked Up's noxious hardcore mess The Chemistry of Common Life, the Jeff Buckley-ish balladry of '07 winner Patrick Watson's Wooden Arms, and Somali ex-pat rapper K'Naan's major-label debut, Troubadour.

Arcade Fire-wannabes Hey Rosetta! already won the fan-voted fake Polaris, the 'Verge,' last year for Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart and on through your blood), and they're definite contenders to add more cash to their band coffers. There's also albums by people named Elliott Brood, Joel Haskett, and Malajube, who you probably have to be Canadian to have heard of.

Taking a look at the 40-strong 'Long List' that the Short List was whittled down from reveals that voters, for reasons known only to themselves ignored albums by Japandroids, Land of Talk, Women, and Wolf Parade. Not to mention Handsome Furs' secretly great and wildly-underrated Face Control, the work of Wolf Parade co-songsmith, Dan Boeckner.

The winner will be unveiled at a gala ceremony on September 21. Let's hope the winner's name is VanGaalen.

• Interview: Chad VanGaalen
• Interview: Metric
• Introducing: Japandroids
• Interview: Land of Talk
• Interview: Women

When Lou Barlow released his first "proper" solo album, Emoh, in 2005, he told me it was a "completion of a journey." Barlow had made piles of ostensibly-solo albums as Sentridoh and Sebadoh in the early-'90s, and issued the ultra-scarce live set Lou Barlow Plays Waterfront in '95, but, years removed from those hyper-prolific days, he stood behind a stand-alone, high-fidelity album with his own name on it.

Completing this "journey" lead Barlow back to something that, in 2005, was completely unexpected: the Dinosaur Jr reformation. "It just feels perfect, to me, like it’s some written-in-the-stars thing," Barlow said, of the band he was controversially kicked out of getting back together.

In the four years since, Dinosaur Jr's born-agan status has gone from unlikely to unbelievable; their latest LP, Farm, their best since, like, 1993's Where You Been.

When not knocking out insanely-loud bass for Dinosaur Jr, Barlow's found time to polish off another album of sad, solo songs. Goodnight Unknown will be released, by Merge Records, on October 6.

In support of such, Barlow will marry his two musical extremes on one long tour. Across six weeks of Dinosaur Jr shows, Barlow will be the opening act; playing his solo songs along with backing-band The Missingmen. It'll be one long Rocktober, then, for Barlow.

Goodnight Unknown Track List:
1. "Sharing"
2. "Goodnight Unknown"
3. "Too Much Freedom"
4. "Faith in Your Heartbeat"
5. "The One I Call"
6. "The Right"
7. "Gravitate"
8. "I'm Thinking..."
9. "One Machine, One Long Fight"
10. "Praise"
11. "Take Advantage"
12. "Modesty"
13. "Don't Apologize"
14. "One Note Tone"

Laughin' Lou Barlow's Double-Duty Tourin':
September 30: Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre
October 1: Montreal, QUE - Pop Montreal Festival
October 2: Cambridge, MA - Middle East
October 3: Cambridge, MA - Middle East
October 4: Clifton Park, NY - Northern Lights
October 7: New Haven, CT - Toad's Place
October 8: Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
October 9: Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of the Living Arts
October 10: Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
October 11: Pontiac, MI - The Crofoot
October 13: Madison, WI - The Majestic Theatre
October 14: St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
October 15: Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
October 16: Louisville, KY - Headliner's Music Hall
October 17: Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
October 26: Kansas City, MO - The Beaumont Club
October 27: Omaha, NE - Slowdown
October 29: Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater
October 30: Fort Collins, CO - Aggie Theatre
November 3: Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre
November 4: Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern
November 6: San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
November 7: Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom