Spoon have made only one big misstep in their ten-plus years of recording albums: Gimme Fiction. The 2005 album, a follow-up to 2002's absolutely brilliant Kill the Moonlight, marked a step backward for the band's music and a step forward for its accessibility––an album of decent, friendly, straightforward, catchy, and ultimately forgettable rock songs, an album able to retain the band's old fans while hooking tons of new ones. Gimme Fiction––save for (pictured) lead......

At the end of the second verse of one of Bright Eyes' new songs, "Reinvent The Wheel"—a eulogy for a dead musical idol, possibly Elliott Smith—lead singer Conor Oberst laments to his fallen hero that "you never understood what we loved you for." Coming as the line does in the song, with guitar chords and drums emphatically struck together to highlight Oberst's voice and the backing vocals, the moment is both uplifting and tragic, a......

A look at some choice live music going down over the next week: Sunday nights are turning into the nights for rock in Toronto. Case in point, this Sunday you can either catch Austin's indie gods Spoon at the Opera House with the UK's The Clientele to promote their latest platter, Gimme Fiction. It's an interesting pairing - following up The Clientele's gentle chamber pop with the lean rock attack of Britt Daniel and co.,......