Dears Album Re-Released On Universal

Y'know, I liked Is This It as much as the next guy, but didn't the "The Strokes-are-the-new-rock-messiahs" hype get to be a bit much?

Everyone from the NME to Rolling Stone to CMJ was happily climbing on the Casablancas bandwagon, extolling the virtues of "Hard To Explain" and "The Modern Life" to the point where the actual music was being lost.

Yes, The Strokes are good, but do we really need to heap on super-sized spoonfuls of sycophant praise on them in hopes of them achieving mainstream success through some sort of self-fulfilling cyclical prophecy of acclaim?

Anyway, on an unrelated note, The Dears are the best Canadian band ever, are poised to save contemporary music from itself, are awesome live, and are waaaay better than whoever your favourite rock band are.

If you haven't listened to their End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story album or Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique EP yet, you're retarded. And stupid. Of course, it's entirely possible that you've overlooked adding OPNR to your CD collection simply because you haven't been able to track it down yet. If that's the case, we've got some good news for you. It seems that industry giant Universal Music has picked up the EP and will be redistributing it throughout this beautiful country of ours next month.

OPNR v. 2.0 will feature the exact same four songs as the Shipbuilding Records version, but it will be remastered and repackaged and feature such distinctly non-indie fare as "liner note photos." Ooooh.

As for the "real" new album, the band has stated that they now have somewhere between 20 and 30 songs to choose from. In an email to loyal dearciples, the sextet wrote that the "next album is beginning to take a whole new direction: the newer songs include a very slow disco tango and a fast, early eighties-style, post-punk, two-chord rocker," as well as a "Roxy Music-Rolling Stones-John Barry disco number."

Those whose curiosities have been piqued may want to tune in to CBC Radio 2's Radiosonic on Saturday, February 16 at 8 p.m. EST. The show will be airing a live studio session the band completed while out in Vancouver. Along with an acoustic version of "Heartless Romantic" and the upliftingly feel-good "There Is No Such Thing As Love," the band will be playing two currently unreleased pieces: "Aeroport Goodbye Teenage Lyric" and "Expect The Worst/Cos She's A Tourist."

Sadly, that radio show may be the last Dears you get for awhile — starting with a March 16 show in Austin, Texas for SXSW, the band will embark on a mission of continental dominance and attempt to do what many before them have failed: become famous in America. The guys and girls will be doing a whole slew of dates along the Eastern Coast of the States with the Stars, though nothing official has been announced as of yet.

In other Dears news, the band is currently up for a Montreal Independent Music Initiative award. If you're so inclined, feel free to help the band take home the MIMI by voting for them, beginning this Thursday. As well, you can check out the new, Michel Pelland-directed video for the group's "No Return" on Umbrella Music.

Alternately, you could just watch the nation's music station all day and hope to see said video emblazoned on your very own television set. You never know, what with all of the band's growing critical success, it's quite possible that Much will start slotting "No Return" into their regular, daily rotation and before you know it, Ed The Sock will be interviewing Murray Lightburn. Riiiight.