The Dears Slowly Take Over The World

Oh, Dears... What can the matter be?

If there was truly an all-powerful god (and He had a half-decent taste in music), by this time the Montreal musical majesties would be doing arena shows all over Europe and having U2 open for them. Of course, if there WAS an all-powerful god with strong sonic sensibilities, then the top three spots in this week's Soundscan charts probably wouldn't have been occupied by the Backstreet Boys, Enrique Iglesias and Mikey Jackson. But I digress...

Even if The Dears aren't international noir-romantique superstars at this point, there's still a whole lot of good news on the immediate horizon. First off, is the big announcement: the band will be embarking on a tour through Western Canada to follow up their successful Ontario/Quebec dates with Sloan (and a T-Dot gig with Jane's Addiction).

This means that the aural appetites of people all over this country who've never had a chance to see the sextet live will finally be sated.

As well, The Dears are up for a bunch of the CASBY Awards that Toronto radio station Edge 102.1 FM is presenting on December 8 at T.O.'s Phoenix Concert Theatre. The CASBYs (or, "Canadian Artists Selected By You"... ugh) can be voted on through Now Magazine or here and the award ceremonies will be aired online, on the radio and on Edge TV. You can also vote on whom you'd like to see performing that night, so Dearphiles should bombard the CASBY-people with votes — if only to confuse all the teenyboppers that are going in expecting to see Sum 41 and Our Lady Peace.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of Toronto's new rock station, you'll also be able to check out Murray Lightburn on it tonight as he talks baseball with Dave Bookman at 11 p.m.

Of course, The Dears are also nominated in a bunch of Chart's reader's poll categories, but it would be shamelessly self-serving to mention our own survey here, so we won't (but, uh, feel free to vote by clicking on the link at the right side of this page).

With regards to The Dears' new album and EP, both rumours and facts are still a wee bit too murky to confirm at this point. We're not sure when the long-awaited follow-up album (tentatively titled "Deuxieme Partie") is coming out, though we do know that they've been demoing and playing tons of new songs in concert. And we know that Nor The Dahlias: The Dears 1995-1998, the proposed collection from Grenadine Records is coming... we're just not sure when.

As for stuff we do know, the band will be playing "Autotomy" this Tuesday on Tele Quebec's Choix De Sophie at 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. The song will also be featured on TV in another format, when it gets used in an upcoming episode of Kiefer Sutherland's 24. We already reported that Dirtmitts, Fearless Freep and Rocket Science were featured in the show's first episode.

In other news, The Dears' song "This Is A Broadcast" (from the band's debut, End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story) will be included on the new Cimitere Des CD compilation and, according to the band's website, "Left Out" will be out soon on a Shipbuilding Records compilation. Dear-completists should also keep in mind that their "Le Pauvre Chanteur" is on Grenadine's Syrup & Gasoline, Volume 2 anthology. And newer fans who will one day fancy themselves Dears-completists should probably pick up their current EP, Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique before it completely disappears off shelves.

For now, check out Monsieur Lightburn et Co. at the following cross-Canada stops. November 14 London ON @ The Wave (with the lads from Sloan)
November 19 Thunder Bay ON @ Armanis
November 21 Regina SK @ TBA
November 22 Saskatoon SK @ The University of Saskatchewan
November 23 Edmonton AB @ Tin Pan Alley
November 24 Calgary AB @ The Night Gallery
November 25 Whistler BC @ The Boot
November 27 Vancouver BC @ The Gallery Lounge (UBC - closed show)
November 28 Nanaimo BC @ Queen's Hotel
November 29 Vancouver BC @ The Piccadilly Pub
November 30 Victoria BC @ Lucky Bar
December 6 Barrie ON @ The Foundation
December 7 Ottawa ON @ Zaphod's