So today was supposed to be the day you could go out and get a copy of Sufjan Stevens’ latest opus, Illinois, but as I reported Saturday, it’s been shelved thanks to the threat of legal action from DC Comics due to the inclusion of one Superman image on the album art.

As a result, Asthmatic Kitty has ended online sales and recalled all copies of CDs already shipped to stores. The Big Ticket has got a nice, concise summary of the story thus far, including links to commentary from around blog-ville and links to an interview with Sufjan by Dusted in happier, pre-recall times. He also has a link to an MP3 of the song for which this post is titled really, the song that’s the impetus for all this legal kerfuffleing. Big Ticket, we salute you.

MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts”

Of course, if shops have already sold copies, there’s naught to be done, but if you haven’t already gotten one, you’ll have to wait until August 2 for the new versions with the Supes-less artwork. I expect they’ll just replace the booklets in the already-pressed CD packages… hmm, opening thousands of sealed CDs and swapping booklets? Sounds like someone’s going to be hiring some interns… So yeah, while you can’t buy the album until its new release date of August 2, you CAN buy this sharp poster featuring Sufjan and his Illinoisemakers (née The Michigan Militia).

And as I’ve said before, the album is marvelous and still worth the wait (easy for me to say since I’ve already got a copy, yeah). I’d only had Seven Swans to this point and was surprised by the lush orchestration of the 50 States albums (I assume Michigan is similar in treatment – I’ll have a copy of that one this week), considering how spare and meditative Seven Swans was. Both are so very pretty, but in very different ways. I tell ya, that Stevens boy. He’s got game. Pitchfork concurs.

The new Big Star album has a title – In Space. It’s in stores August 23. I heard one of the tracks off of it yesterday – it was alright, I’m still not really sure what I can reasonably expect from this record. Has Alex Chilton done anything really worthwhile since the Third/Sister Lovers session? Is there any reason to believe that just because he’s calling it Big Star again, that he can find his muse? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Magnet’s featured artist of the month is Aimee Mann.

A Silver Mount Zion are going to be at the Tranzac Club for a three-night stand running July 27, 28 and 29, tickets $10 per night. Now I don’t know ASMZ and I know they’re not GYBE!, but would being a fan of the latter mean that I’d necessarily like the former, or would it just leave me confused and disappointed? Because I can do that without their help.

np – Northern Picture Library / Alaska

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