The Montreal Gazette looks back on the career of Neil Young.

BBC 6 Music's Steve Lamacq has declared December 4th "Wear Your Old Band T-shirt to Work Day."

ChartAttack interviews Carl Newman about songwriting.

You must be constantly writing songs. What is your process like? Do you write a new song everyday?

There're a lot of songs that nobody gets to hear. For me, it's not a compact thing. I don't sit down and write a song and then six hours later or a day later the song is done. A lot of the time, they just evolve over months and months. So over a period of a year, I might have written 16 songs or whatever, but I don't know how long each of them took or when I finished them or when I started them. There are songs I just don't know where they came from. Like, I honestly can't remember them at all. It's like I didn't even write them.

The Times Online recommends the best Christmas gifts for music lovers.

Drowned in Sound interviews Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls.

Musically your sound seems to owe a lot to British bands like Talulah Gosh, The Shop Assistants and The Rosehips. How did you first discover those artists and would you say they've had a major influence on the Vivian Girls' sound?

Actually, hardly any. It was more of an accident. I liked Talulah Gosh a lot when I was a teenager but I'd never even heard the Shop Assistants until people started comparing us to them and I still don't think I've ever heard the Rosehips. Our primary influences were the Wipers, Dead Moon, punk bands like the Ramones and Descendents, and girl groups - but with a definite Wall Of Sound/shoegaze aesthetic in mind.

Architecture In Helsinki “That Beep”

“That Beep” is overflowing with immediately enjoyable hooks and melodic turns, but it’s far from overstuffed. The track is clean and spacious, and it moves gracefully from one bit to the next in a way that never seems even remotely fragmented. The connecting thread, and I suppose it is technically the dominant hook, is the “beepbeepbeepbeep” chorus, but to my ears it works more like a mellow refrain bracketing the more expressive moments in the song, particularly the sections that slip into this sort of neo-80s ersatz gospel mode. Kellie Sutherland’s voice is wonderful on this song, especially in the way she comes off as assertive while shying away from extreme feelings, and leaning more on very nuanced phrasings that subtly shift her meaning and emotional context from line to line, or even from word to word.

Buy it from Architecture In Helsinki.

I don’t really spend a lot of time with hip hop mixtapes, mainly because I just get so totally annoyed by the voice overs and/or audio clips that get mixed all up and through them. In the case of this new Lil’ Wayne mixtape, you have to deal with these stupid, highly aggravating clips of some guy saying stuff like “The Empire!” and “Holy s–t, where’d you get this?” In most cases, it totally ruins the song, and renders them unlistenable. Thankfully, whoever was charged with editing in those announcements in this particular number at least had the sense to slip them in so that they were mostly on the beat, and didn’t get in the way of music so much. It’s lucky, really — “Red Magic” is certainly the best cut on the mixtape, not simply for its abundances of hooks, but for its sharp guest performance from The Game, and it’s definitely good enough that I can deal with this Empire douchebag.

Get it from this Sharebee link.

The Toledo Free Press profiles Madhouse Designs, a local poster designer.

Designers at Madhouse, a graphic arts firm located Downtown on Jackson Street, has begun creating and selling concert posters for rock shows in the region. In the past couple of years, Madhouse designers have done posters for bands such as Wilco, The Black Keys, Crowded House, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Explosions in the Sky, Bon Iver and Blitzen Trapper. Printings generally run from 50 to 400 posters, which Madhouse designers sell at the shows for $10 to 20 a piece (also available for sale on the company’s Web site, www.madmadmad.com under the “Capital A” link).

The Scotsman profiles the new Under the Radar online venture.

Under the Radar has always had a strong online presence: every month Derick and Olaf pick a track they like by an unsigned band and post it on scotsman.com for readers to listen to. But Under the Radar's online operation is going to step up a gear. As of today, it won't just be a place where we tell you what we like – it will become a forum for people from all four corners of the Scottish music scene to come together and swap music and ideas.

The Irish Independent interviews Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello.

Are you still channelling MacGowan today?

Maybe not so much. In the past, I was influenced very much by traditional music. My goal was to put new words to old melodies, which I think is something The Pogues have excelled at. Today, my head is in a different place. The members of the band bring their own influences: I'm into Ethiopian music and Brazilian music and Greenlandian music. It's all in there.

Amazon.com is selling their 50 bestselling mp3 albums for $5.

Daytrotter's Friday session features mp3s from Golden Boots.

The Independent profiles Glasvegas.

Their intense and deafening epic Phil Spector-esque wall of sound with the fuzzy droning guitars of The Jesus and Mary Chain is balanced by James Allan's sensitive vocals in his soft Glaswegian burr. And beneath the intimidating appearance (leather jackets, towering hairstyles and stoic stares) is a vulnerable side revealed by songwriter James's thoughtful and poetic lyrics – not to mention their ever approachable attitude towards their fans.

Selena SalfenSometimes stuff sits on my shelf for ages before I get around to listening to it, and all I can do is slap myself upside the head for having wasted time that could have been spent with that record. Such is the case with the self-titled debut from Oklahomans The Uglysuit - it was released back in mid-August, which implies that I probably got the promo sometime in early August, and since I only gave it an airing in the last few weeks, that’s like two and a half months lost.

Two and a half months I could have spent basking in its sun-kissed, pastel-coloured, prog-adelic pop made up of sounds and styles all dear and familiar, yet combined so seamlessly and perfectly that you’d believe that they were invented for the sole purpose of crafting this record.

Full review at Chromewaves →

MP3: The Uglysuit - “Chicago”
Video: The Uglysuit - “Chicago”

Matt Pond PA are celebrating (American) Thanksgiving by giving away a free EP lovingly entitled Freep. Sample the lead track or just grab the whole thing.

MP3: Matt Pond PA - “Hearts & Minds”
ZIP: Matt Pond PA / Freep

Muzzle Of Bees reports that Jason Isbell will return with his second solo album on February 19 of next year, though it’s not technically a solo album anymore since it’ll be named for he and his band - Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit. Catchy.

Muzzle Of Bees also has an interview with Calexico’s Joey Burns, while Minnesota Public Radio is offering up a studio session with the band.

The Hold Steady have finally released the first video from Stay Positive, for the title track. The Los Angeles Times has an interview with Craig Finn.

Video: The Hold Steady - “Stay Positive”

The first single from A Camp’s Colonia is currently available to stream. The album is out February 2.

Stream: A Camp - “Stronger Than Jesus”

NPR is currently streaming the whole of Neil Young’s forthcoming Sugar Mountain - Live At Canterbury House 1968 live set, which is going to be released next Tuesday. The first set of Archives is set for a January 27 release and Neil is at the Air Canada Centre on December 4 and 5.

Stream: Neil Young / Sugar Mountain - Live At Canterbury House 1968