Sebastian DehesdinI’m sure it’s a generational thing, but back in my day when someone said “shoegazing”, it meant guitars. Fender guitars, if we’re being particular – Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Mustangs and their offset-bodied ilk, run through as many fuzzing, phasing and flanging pedals as people could string together and turned up loud. That was how you built a wall of noise. At least that’s how you did it in the ’90s. These days, it seems that while the guit-based approach hasn’t fallen out of favour, the more ambitious and original dreampop sounds and textures are being built with more overtly electronic and synthetic materials.

An equal facility with keyboards and laptops as well as guitars has certainly helped Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez make M83 one of the leading contemporary lights of the genre, though he’d best be prepared to soon share the spotlight with Swede Maria Lindén, who plies her craft under the guise I Break Horses. Together with collaborator Fredrik Balck, their debut album Hearts is a beautiful and bewitching collection of songs born of keyboards, bred of guitars and bathed in reverb.

Hearts is possessed of a distinctly Scandinavian combination of mechanical precision and organic warmth, but rather than play against each other, those two sides blend together effortlessly and almost magically, It’s not magic, however – it’s Lindén’s vocals; airy enough to permeate everything yet carrying plenty of emotional heft and yearning, it’s the the sonic mortar that binds it all together. Sometimes the exact words are hard to discern but their meaning is never less than clear: Their name is I Break Horses but their mandate is breaking Hearts.

The album is out August 23 in the UK; two singles have been released with accompanying videos. The Iceberg inquires as to how they got their name and tangentially but interesting, Imprint has a conversation with Vaughan Oliver, who designed the Hearts album art as well as most of the 4AD catalog in its heyday. You’ve seen his work. You have.

MP3: I Break Horses – “Winter Beats”
MP3: I Break Horses – “Hearts”
Video: I Break Horses – “Winter Beats”
Video: I Break Horses – “Hearts”

Niki & The Dove are another Swedish two-piece, albeit one that treads more dancey/electronic terrain than their countrymen. So far their only output is The Fox EP, released earlier this Summer, but a full-length is due out on Sub Pop later this year and a new song was made available to stream the other day. I find them intriguing and look forward to seeing them at Iceland Airwaves.

MP3: Niki & The Dove – “The Fox”
Stream: Niki & The Dove – “Last Night”

Speaking of M83, Exclaim has the artwork for their new album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, due out October 18. They play Lee’s Palace on November 18.

Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan has set a September 20 release date for her new record Passenger and will follow that up with an October 15 show at The Mod Club. Paste has full North American dates and a stream of a new song; grab a track from her Mercury-nominated 2009 effort Sea Sew below.

MP3: Lisa Hannigan – “Lille”

The Horseshoe isn’t where you’ll normally find DJ/electronic-oriented acts but that’s what UK act Star Slinger will be serving up on November 2; it’s part of a North American tour in support of his debut album Volume 1.

MP3: Star Slinger – “Mornin'”
MP3: Star Slinger – “Minted”

I’m not sure what’s more surprising – that The Kooks are still around or that they’re apparently still big enough to play The Sound Academy. Both of these things are clearly true, as they are doing just that on November 23 with tickets being $25 for general admission and $35 for a VIP balcony view. It’s part of a North American tour in support of their new record Junk Of The Heart, out September 13.

Video: The Kooks – “You Don’t Love Me”

Though not out until August 16, Blood Orange’s pretty frickin’ excellent debut album Coastal Grooves is now streaming in whole over at Hype Machine. And making sure that the Dev Hynes love is spread evenly across the internet, there’s a Devonte-assembled mixtape up for grabs at Yours Truly, over at Fader, a New Villager cover and at Dazed, an interview.

MP3: Blood Orange – “Lighthouse”
Stream: Blood Orange / Coastal Grooves

And speaking of New Villager, the New York art collective have made a September 26 date at The Drake Underground in support of their self-titled debut, out August 16.

Video: NewVillager – “ShotBigHorixon”
Video: NewVillager – “Lighthouse”

The Line Of Best Fit reports that all those Radiohead King Of Limbs remixes that have been kicking around over the Summer will be collected into an official double-disc set under the title of TKOL RMX and out on September 19. They’ve got a few of said remixes available to preview over here. Update: Billboard has the release date as October 11.

Rolling Stone confirms that Noel Gallagher is no less quotable now that he’s out of Oasis; his solo debut Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds is out November 8.

The Joy Formidable tell NME they’ve got plenty of material ready to go for album number two, they just need to find the time to stop promoting album number one to go and record it. Look for the follow-up to The Big Roar next year. And speaking of The Big Roar, it appears that it will be getting a domestic vinyl pressing for August 30; previously, the only way to get it on LP was by the limited edition pre-order back in the Winter. So there’s that.

NPR interviews Noah & The Whale and also solicits a Tiny Desk Concert from the band.

And finally, Pitchfork has a good roundup of just how badly affected a lot of independent record labels will be by the destruction of the Sony/PIAS distribution warehouse in London during Monday night’s rioting. Short version – buy their records, buy their MP3s, help them get back on their feet and keep releasing great music.

The IndependentOne thing that should have been well-established over the run of this blog is that I am an irredeemable Britpop kid, having come of musical age in the mid-’90s with my nose buried in issues of Select and spending too much money I really couldn’t spare on import CDs on their breathless recommendations. Many were pretty terribly, in retrospect, or even worse just wholly unremarkable, but one of my enduring favourites beyond the Oasis/Blur/Pulp triumvirate is Sleeper, whose three albums of scrappy pop have aged quite nicely, unlike some of their peers.

Since splitting just before the collapse of the scene, frontwoman Louise Wener has turned her pen from song lyrics to fiction and written some well-received novels – I’ve read a few, they’re pretty good – but her memoirs, released last year as Different For Girls: A Girl’s Own True-Life Adventures In Pop and re-released last month as the more descriptive Just For One Day: Adventures In Britpop is the tome that fans have been waiting for.

Rather than attempt to document the scene, it follows Wener from her seemingly well-adjusted suburban London adolescence of wanting more than anything to be a pop star to getting swept up in the Britpop wave and managing to actually become a pop star and then walking away when it became clear their time in the spotlight was done. Aside from the breaking up with the guitarist to go out with the drummer thing, it’s not particularly rife with scandal or gossip – Sleeper were never quite on the inside of the Britpop royal court and while there was plenty of drugs and alcohol, they didn’t become casualties of it. I do question the authenticity of all the quotes used in the text – either they’re liberally paraphrased or Wener has an astonishing memory – but nothing libelous is attributed to anyone and they work well with Wener’s writing style, which is brisk and fun with the right amount of self-deprecation. It’s almost too brisk and self-deprecating at points and all over too soon, but perhaps that’s befitting the whirlwind nature of their career – their three albums came out over the minuscule span of three years. But Wener’s perspective is clear-eyed and while she looks back on things fondly, it’s pretty obvious there won’t be a reunion any time soon or ever, and that’s just fine. We’ve got the records, we’ve got the videos and we’ve got the book.

And oh, I’ve got two copies of the book – accidentally bought it under both titles – so Different For Girls is an official lending copy since it’s pretty much impossible to find on this side of the pond. And if anyone has an MP3 of Elvis Costello covering “What Do I Do Now” from the All This Useless Beauty b-sides as a bit of quid pro quo or just a gift, I’d love to get a hold of it…

MP3: Sleeper – “Statuesque”
Video: Sleeper – “She’s A Good Girl”
Video: Sleeper – “Nice Guy Eddie”
Video: Sleeper – “Sale Of The Century”
Video: Sleeper – “What Do I Do Now”
Video: Sleeper – “Vegas”
Video: Sleeper – “Inbetweener”
Video: Sleeper – “Delicious”
Video: Sleeper – “Swallow”

One of my other favourite pieces of Britpop-related literature is the Phonogram comic series. They’re sticking to their guns of not doing any more than any more series beyond Rue Britannia and The Singles Club, but writer Kieron Gillen has released the complete script for the first issue of The Singles Club, the first issue of which is also available online in its entirety to compare and contrast. I don’t recall what the official Phonogram position on Sleeper was… hopefully kinder than to Echobelly.

The Fly has a courtyard video session with Slow Club, who’re prepping their second album Paradise for a September 12 release.

Clash are offering a taste of the new Peggy Sue album, entitled Acrobats and due out on September 12 in the UK.

MP3: Peggy Sue – “Cut My Teeth”

They made their local debut back in May as support for Tame Impala and tacked an in-store set onto the visit, but Yuck have taken a surprisingly long time to bring their more ’90s than ’90s fuzz-pop to town for a headlining show. That will be rectified as of September 25, when they play The Horseshoe – tickets $13.50 in advance. eMusic has an interview with the London outfit.

MP3: Yuck – “Get Away”
MP3: Yuck – “Georgia”

Laura Marling will follow the September 13 release of her third album A Creature I Don’t Know with what she’s calling the “When The Bell Tolls” tour; it includes a stop at The Great Hall on September 23, tickets $20 in advance on sale Friday. For a two-time Mercury shortlister, she’s had a habit of playing drastically undersized venues here – her 2008 debut was at the tiny Rivoli and her last visit last February at Lee’s Palace, a month before I Speak Because I Can was released, was originally supposed to be at the Drake. All of which is to say that tickets for this show will go quickly. NME has a track-by-track breakdown of her new record, one song of which is available to stream via the YouTubes.

MP3: Laura Marling – “Ghosts”
Stream: Laura Marling – “Sophia”

Stereogum and The Telegraph talk to The Horrors, who’ve released an MP3 from their new album Skying – it gets an August 9 release in North America. The Horrors are at Lee’s Palace on September 27.

MP3: The Horrors – “Moving Further Away”

Welsh singer Anika – protege of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and Nico soundalike – will be at Wrongbar on October 8 in support of her 2010 self-titled debut, which is available to stream on her website. eMusic has an interview.

MP3: Anika – “Yang Yang”
Stream: Anika / Anika

And given that Barrow will be in town the next two nights at The Sound Academy with Portishead – October 9 and 10 – it’s not unreasonable to assume that he’ll be at Anika’s show. Pitchfork talks Geoff Barrow about the band’s upcoming North American tour.

NPR has a KCRW radio session with Friendly Fires, in town at The Phoenix on October 23.

Noel Gallagher has finally unveiled his debut solo single and listening to it and what Beady Eye have done, it’s really no wonder that Oasis fell apart. Even if the brothers Gallagher didn’t hate each other, their creative directions were pretty clearly on opposite trajectories. Think Liam would have stood for those horns? No, I don’t think so. Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds will be out on November 8 stateside.

Video: Noel Gallagher & The High Flying Birds – “The Death Of You And Me”

The Von Pip Musical Express chats with Emma-Lee Moss, aka Emmy The Great.

Gorilla Vs Bear is streaming one of the new songs from Summer Camp’s forthcoming debut album – due out whenever it’s fully funded via Pledge Music.

The first proper recording from The Kate Jackson Group – fronted by the former Long Blondes singer – is available to stream at God Is In The TV and it’s kind of fantastic. I had some concerns about Jackson’s solo output considering that Dorian Cox was the primary songwriter in that band, but if this is an indication of what Jackson can do on her own, those concerns are unfounded. Bring on the album.

The Sydney Morning Herald checks in with Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, who will be coming off hiatus later this Fall.

Fanfarlo frontman Simon Balthazar gives Paste an update on the progress of album number two, due out in the early part of next year.

I was happy enough to hear confirmed details on the new Loney Dear record Hall Music, out October 4, but to know that Emil Svanäaut;ngen and company will be back in town on November 5 for a show at the Drake Underground? That’s even better. Tickets are $13.50 in advance.

MP3: Loney Dear – “My Heart”

Lykke Li is coming back to town this Fall are part of a North American tour and she’ll be accompanied by fellow Swedes, sister act First Aid Kit. They’ll be at The Sound Academy on November 15, tickets $30 for general admission and $40 for VIP balcony. DIY talks to First Aid Kit about how work is coming on their second album.

MP3: Lykke Li – “Youth Knows No Pain”
MP3: First Aid Kit – “I Met Up With The King”

The Quietus and Billboard have feature interviews with Bjork while Billboard also chats with Michel Gondry, who directed her just-released new video. A track from her new album Biophilia is available to download; it’s out on September 27.

MP3: Bjork – “Cosmogony”
Video: Bjork – “Crystalline”

Jean-Baptiste MondinoThanks to the fact that the United Kingdom exists five hours into the future, I woke up yesterday morning just in time to see the short list for this year’s Mercury Prize – awarded annually to the best album in the UK and Ireland – commandeer my Twitter feed for a short while. The process by which the shortlist and winner is selected isn’t entirely clear to me – it’s not as transparent as Canada’s Polaris Prize – but in a way that mysteriousness makes it more interesting.

Even though the “how” isn’t clear, a few years of Mercury-spotting has made the “what” pretty easy to peg, at least in a manner of speaking. History shows that about half the list is the cream of the Brit-indie pop/rock crop and the other half is pulled from all manner of other genres, from jazz to pop to hip-hop to what have you and the net result is eleven or twelve – interesting there’s no fixed size to the short list – albums that offer a good amount of grist for the conversational mill. The dozen records competing for the prize are:

Adele / 21 / Video: “Rolling In The Deep”
James Blake / James Blake / MP3: “To Care (Like You)”
Anna Calvi / Anna Calvi / MP3: “Blackout”
Elbow / build a rocket boys! / MP3: “Open Arms”
Everything Everything / Man Alive / Video: “Final Form”
Ghostpoet / Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam / Video: “Cash And Carry Me Home”
PJ Harvey / Let England Shake / MP3: “Written On The Forehead”
Katy B / On A Mission / Video: “Carry Me Home”
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins / Diamond Mine / Video: “Bubble”
Metronomy / The English Riviera / Video: “The Look”
Gwilym Simcock / Good Days at Schloss Elmau
Tinie Tempah / Disc-Overy / Video: “‘Til I’m Gone”

I can only speak to first-hand experience with about half the list, but it’s not unreasonable to think that the winning album will be amongst that subset. Indeed, many have already narrowed it down to a two-artist race between Adele and PJ Harvey, and if it’s down to those two I’d give the edge to Polly Jean if for no other reason than last year’s XX win was the eminently obvious choice. I don’t necessarily see them doing that again. And while I’d have no problem with either, both of their records being massive achievements by a number of standards, I’d be pretty happy to see Anna Calvi sneak up the middle to take it. I do love her self-titled debut and am sad that her appearance at Osheaga next week will not come with a stop down the 401. Perhaps a Mercury win would encourage her to do another North American tour and give me the opportunity to finally see her live. I also continue to love Elbow’s latest but think the odds of them winning for two albums in a row are pretty slim – they don’t have the underdog card to play anymore.

In any case, the winner will be announced on September 6.

Washington City Paper talks to Wild Beasts, whose Smother seems to be the consensus surprising omission from this year’s short list. They also do a couple video sessions for WNYC and The Fader and will be at The Mod Club on September 29.

Spin talks to Daniel Blumberg and The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel to Max Bloom, both of Yuck.

Emmy The Great talks to Clash about her personal grassroots campaign against News International.

Interview and The Sydney Morning Herald talk to Patrick Wolf about his new record Lupercalia while The Independent finds out how he and Patti Smith became friends.

JAM has a feature on White Lies, in town at The Phoenix on August 3.

NPR has a World Cafe session with Beady Eye.

The Grid is starting rumours that Noel Gallagher will be in town for a show the week his solo debut Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds is released in North America, which is to say November 8. Bookie’s not one to just make stuff up, so keep an eye out. Also, in conversation with The List, Gallagher says he takes no joy in Beady Eye’s failure to tear up the charts.

The Guardian talks to Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow of Portishead, who have two shows at The Sound Academy on October 9 and 10; word is the first night is sold out and the second not too far behind.

Artrocker chats with Tim Burgess of The Charlatans.

eMusic talks reunions and reissues with Brett Anderson and Mat Osman of Suede.

According to The Guardian, the New Order split is about as final and acrimonious as you imagined it to be.

French dance-pop veterans Tahiti 80 are back with a new record in The Past, The Present & The Possible and a tour which brings them to The Horseshoe on September 22, tickets $13.50 in advance.

MP3: Tahiti 80 – “Keys To The City”

M83 has finally revealed specifics on and an MP3 from their next album, which will be a double-set entitled Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. Pitchfork has details on the record, which will be out on October 18. M83 plays Lee’s Palace on November 18, tickets $20 in advance.

MP3: M83 – “Midnight City”

DIY has a profile of I Break Horses, whose debut Hearts is out August 15.

Spinner talks to Lykke Li.

Adult Swim is giving away a new song from The Tallest Man On Earth. Just because, I guess.

MP3: The Tallest Man On Earth – “Weather Of A Killing Kind”

In a perfect world, this would be an item about a new Jens Lekman album and world tour including a local date. But it’s not a perfect world so instead, it’s an item about a new EP entitled An Argument With Myself, due out September 20, and a US tour that doesn’t cross the border. The Secretly Canadian press release consists of an interview with Jens.

Stereogum has the first MP3 from the new Loney Dear record, entitled Hall Music and out on October 4. There’s also rumours/promises of North American dates in November.

Labrador Records, purveyors of the finest in Swedish pop, have put out a free label sampler entitled Stockholm Belongs To Us which collects tracks from all their active roster. Needless to say, it’s wonderful.

Consequence Of Sound and Pitchfork both have more details on Bjork’s Biophilia project, the album of which will be out September 27 and the app of which was released today – The Guardian takes it for a spin.

And speaking of Bjork, guess who’s going to Iceland Airwaves this October? Lots of people. Me amongst them. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to swing tickets to Bjork’s Reykjavík Concert Hall shows, but hey. Iceland!

Alex LakeOne of my most anticipated records of the last few years was First Love, the debut from London’s Emma-Lee Moss, aka Emmy The Great. I’d spent well over a year with my own custom compilation of her various singles, EPs and random releases on repeat before the album proper came out and perhaps inevitably felt a bit let down, though for reasons entirely my own and even so, it still made my 2009 year-end list.

There was no such weight of expectation surrounding her second album, which isn’t to say that I wasn’t anxious to hear it – I most certainly was – but even not having heard any of the new material, I figured I had a pretty good idea what to expect: acoustically-built pop songs with wonderfully clever lyrics delivered in Moss’ distinctively precise diction; more of First Love would have been just fine with me. So of course, it goes without saying that Virtue pretty much floored me. The backstory of the record isn’t essential to appreciating it, but understanding what the last couple of years have been like for Moss provides some invaluable context for the record. Read the unabridged feature from The Guardian for the full story but in brief, Moss was engaged until her formerly atheist fiancee found God and left her for the life of a missionary.

Life-altering stuff, to say the least, and so it’s no surprise that whereas the songwriting on First Love felt like a collection of tales told through characters, Virtue feels considerably more personal, even filtered through the allegories – many religious and/or mythical – that suffuse the songs. Though it’d be justified if it was, Virtue is anything but a pity party – the songs constantly struggle for some critical distance from their inspiration, adding a certain tension to the proceedings, but on “Trellick Tower” that struggle ends, the tension evaporates and the album closes on its most emotionally unguarded and affecting moment.

Virtue is a darker and weightier record than the debut, both lyrically and musically. The latter point comes thanks to the addition of more electric and electronic textures to go with the more conventional acoustic instrumentation, courtesy of producer Gareth Jones and long-time collaborator Euan Hinshelwood. Moss was never comfortable being associated with the “anti-folk” tag that tied her to some of her peers and former bandmates, but only the most stubborn would call Virtue a folk record; it’s diverse and rangy enough that anything more specific than “pop” would be debatable. If you needed more adjectives, however, I would submit any or all of “contemplative”, “elegant”, “wistful”, “gorgeous” and “essential”.

The Westmoreland Gazette has an interview with Moss about the new record. Being independently released in the UK, there’s not much chance of a North American release but Virtue is available digitally at both eMusic and iTunes. Similarly, touring over here seems unlikely but Emmy is doing two US dates in Philadelphia and New York next month, and yes, I may well have moved my flight to New York up a day so as to be able to make the show at The Studio At Webster Hall. What of it?

MP3: Emmy The Great – “A Woman, A Woman, A Century Of Sleep”
Video: Emmy The Great – “Iris”

The Guardian has an extended feature on Antony Hegarty of Antony & The Johnsons.

The Vaccines are back in town for the third time this year, this time headlining a show at The Phoenix on September 27. It’ll be all-ages, tickets $15 in advance and Tennis and Young Buffalo support.

MP3: The Vaccines – “Norgaard” (live)
MP3: Tennis – “Take Me Somewhere”

Gearing up for the release of Skying next week – everywhere but North America at least, we have to wait until August 9 – The Horrors have made the whole album available to stream and have also released a first video from the new record. They play Lee’s Palace on September 27.

Video: The Horrors – “Still Life”
Stream: The Horrors / Skying

DIY and AOL Music UK have chats with the lads of Two Door Cinema Club; they have a date at The Phoenix on September 17.

Everyone expecting a new Spiritualized record this Fall, get ready to wait a little longer – State reports that a series of UK dates have been postponed until next year, wit said new album now targeted for a February 2012 release.

Liam Gallagher of Beady Eye tells The Sun that he’s gone clean and sober. His band has also put out a new video from Different Gear, Still Speeding.

Video: Beady Eye – “The Beat Goes On”

And Gallagher the elder – that’s Noel – has just announced details of his first post-Oasis projects. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds will release their self-titled debut on October 17 and next year, look for a collaborative record with psychedelic-electronia outfit Amorphous Androgynous. Or don’t. Fuller details at The Quietus.

The Quietus reports that Jarvis Cocker will be publishing a collection of his lyrics in book form Mother, Brother, Lover: Selected Lyrics will be out in October.

The Independent checks in on some of the one-time heroes of Britpop, including Louise Wener of Sleeper; she’s now an author and I just realized that the two volumes of her Britpop memoirs – Different For Girls and Just For One Day are actually the same book under different titles. I wish I’d realized that before I bought them both.

Slicing Up Eyeballs reports that The Jesus & Mary Chain will be embarking on an extensive catalog reissue campaign this Fall; it begins on September 19 with double-CD/single-DVD sets for Psychocandy and Darklands, followed by Automatic and Honey’s Dead the following week and final two albums Stoned & Dethroned and Munki on October 3.

Post-punk forebears The Raincoats will be remastering and reissuing their 1981 album Odyshape on September 13 and follow that up with some North American touring that includes a September 23 date at Wrongbar in Toronto.

Video: The Raincoats – “Don’t Be Mean”

Richard DumasA number of words serve as accurate descriptors of Nottingham’s Tindersticks – “smoky”, “noirish”, “soulful” all work – but if you had to narrow it down to just one, then “cinematic” would be as good as any. Their ability to create, define and enhance an atmosphere or mood makes them an ideal choice to provide the sounds to moving pictures, and for French director Claire Denis, that’s what they’ve done. Tindersticks, either as a group or as individuals, have scored six of Denis’ films and now those soundtracks have been collected in a box set entitled, most descriptively, Claire Denis Film Scores 1996-2009 and was released this week.

The lavishly appointed box consists of five discs (shiny plastic or black vinyl), some of the contents of which have never been released. And while I’ve not heard the whole set, the selections that I have heard are largely instrumental, though Stuart Staples’ distinctive croon does make some appearances, and lush, dark and gorgeous throughout; in other words, vintage Tindersticks. For most bands, a collection of film scores might seem like a fans-only curiosity but this set feels like as necessary a part of their discography as any studio record.

Filter and The Quietus talk to Stuart Staples about the art of scoring.

MP3: Tindersticks – “The Black Mountain” (from Lintrus)
MP3: Tindersticks – “The Children’s Theme” (from White Material)
MP3: Tindersticks – “La Rallye” (from Vendredi Soir)
MP3: Tindersticks – “Opening 35” (from Rhums)
Video: Tindersticks – scenes from Lintrus
Video: Tindersticks – scenes from White Material
Video: Tindersticks – scenes from Nénette et Boni
Video: Tindersticks – scenes from Rhums

The Aquarian and The AV Club talk to Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai.

The Fly reports that the Franz Ferdinand covers 10″ EP, wherein the Scots were reinterpreted by the likes of LCD Soundsystem and The Magnetic Fields and was one of the hot items for Record Store Day in the UK, will be getting a proper CD release on May 2. Probably still only in the UK but people can at least hear the whole thing, regardless of where they live, via Soundcloud.

Stream: various artists / Franz Ferdinand Covers

Clash interviews Roddy Woomble.

Interview talks to Guy Garvey and Music Radar to Mark Potter of Elbow.

The Music Magazine reports that former Oasis songwriter/guitarist Noel Gallagher is finished his solo debut and is targeting an October release. Meanwhile, The Irish Times talks to little brother Liam about his new outfit Beady Eye, which is at The Sound Academy on June 20.

NPR has got PJ Harvey’s pre-Coachella show in San Francisco available to stream or download while The Guardian has an extensive feature piece and video session. Two more video from Let England Shake has been released, with Spinner talking to director Seamus Murphy about the “Bitter Branches” clip.

Video: PJ Harvey – “Bitter Branches”
Video: PJ Harvey – “In The Dark Places”

Clash talks to Noah & The Whale.

Notion has one of those annoying Flash-based “ooh look it’s like a real magazine” interfaces but their feature on Patrick Wolf makes it kind of worth enduring. Wolf’s new record Lupercalia is due out June 20.

NYC Taper is sharing a recording of the finale of British Sea Power’s recent North American tour while For No One has got a video session with the band up.

DIY converses with Those Dancing Days.

Ever wonder how long Daytrotter keeps sessions in the can? They just posted one with A Camp, who haven’t toured in almost two years.

PopMatters interviews the members of Junip.

Mashable has a video documentary and interview with Peter Bjorn & John, who’ve got a show at Lee’s Palace on May 6 and an in-store at Sonic Boom earlier that same evening.

Magnet Q&As The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, who are running roughshod over their website this week. They will do the same to Lee’s Palace on June 4.

NPR serves up a World Cafe session with Phoenix.

Tiny Mix Tapes contemplates the theological aspects of Nick Cave.