The Bob Mould PR machine has been in top gear lately with the release of his latest album Body Of Song last week and his upcoming tour this Fall. Paste has an extensive interview with Bob about his storied career and rediscovering the electric guitar. Bob has been doing a good job of keeping track of his press on his own blog – here’s some pieces he found and some I found: MSNBC, Metro Weekly, The Irish Times and The Event Guide. And if you’re tired of reading, WNYC has an audio interview with Bob.

Mould fans would also do well to check out the Minneapolis cover story in the latest issue of Magnet, which functions as a nice companion to the Husker Du chapter in Our Band Could Be Your Life. There’s also a feature in the latest issue of Harp and Exclaim! chips in with a timeline history of Bob’s career. And if you’ve always wanted to play along with Zen Arcade in its entirety, here’s an excellent guitar tab archive of all of Husker Du’s albums.

Metacritic math gives Body Of Song a rather uninspiring score, which is odd considering most of the stuff I’ve read first-hand speak very highly of the record. In his blog, Bob ruminates on the inherent problems of trying to appease critics at this stage of his career. I haven’t heard the record yet but I’ve been mainlining Du, Sugar and solo Bob lately so I’ll surely be getting it soon. Probably the same time I pick up tickets for his October 2 show at the Mod Club.

Ever-prolific, American Music Club frontman Mark Eitzel continues his solo career with the release of Candy Ass in October.

Being There welcomes August with their 25 all-time greatest country albums. You know those people who say they love all kinds of music except rap and country? Those people are stupid.

Today’s daily Sufjan link is this piece in Exclaim!.

Newsweek has a web-exclusive interview with Jay Farrar about the new Son Volt. Note the new Son Volt website – it’s sharp. Via Largehearted Boy.

The Strokes’ third album, still untitled, has been given a release date of January 24.

The Onion AV Club has a double-shot of comic-creator interviews with one of the key architects of the new DC universe Geoff Johns and Eisner award-winner Brian K Vaughan.

Was one of the conditions of the new collective bargaining agreement that the NHL reverse the direction of their logo (old vs new)? Weird. Bizarro NHL.

So far this long weekend has been spent in various states of lounging – sitting around reading, watching DVDs, listening to music. Today promises more of the same. Aaaaahh.

np – Sufjan Stevens / Michigan