Pitchfork reviews White Hinterland's Luniculaire EP.

Luniculaire uncovers a surprising side of Casey Dienel. We knew her as the deviser of jazzy, brightly melodic, and somehow disarmingly childlike tunes. This EP introduces an artist willing to embrace the ugly sound, to forgo indie-pop politesse for art-rock attitude, to sing in a language she can't flawlessly speak.

Mike Doughty talks to the Ithaca Journal about songwriting and blogging.

In addition to an adept songwriter, Doughty is articulate, thoughtful and forthcoming about matters musical in general. He maintains an active blog, something he has updated consistently for more than five years. "I blog because I want to blog. I guess I do it because my audience is interested and I just dig it, and I want to write about things that are a little bit more linear than things you can put in a rock song."

The Guardian examines the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah breakup rumors.

MTV wonders if the United States is ready for Barack Obama's "emo America."

Living in the U.S.S. (the United States of Sufjan) would be great. We would all wear sweaters and rejoice and be seen as the weird, asexual cousins of the world. We would be sensitive and join hands and sing songs like "The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'" in warbling, threadbare falsettos. Some of us would wear angel wings and play ukuleles. America would certainly be a kinder, gentler place. And that would definitely be a step in the right direction.

The Village Voice's 2008 Pazznjop music critics poll results are online.

Daytrotter's Thursday session features in-studio mp3s from Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter.

With Britney Spears in talks to sign a book deal for her autobiography, PopSugar asks, would you read it?

Kaki King talks to AfterEllen about religion and her dislike of The L Word.

The Santa Barbara Independent also profiles King.

The New York Times' The Caucus blog has news of the private Arcade Fire/Jay-Z show for President Obama's staff.

Drowned in Sound has news of a Thom Yorke biography, Thom Yorke: Radiohead & Trading Solo (out February 26th).

Ear Farm lists 10 Brooklyn bands you should hear right now.

Slidejams shows you a slideshow of your favorite band in concert while the site streams their music.

NPR's All Things Considered examines the genesis of Woody Guthrie's anthem, "This Land Is Your Land."

He was irritated by Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," sung by Kate Smith, which seemed to be endlessly playing on the radio in the late 1930s. So irritated, in fact, that he wrote this song as a retort, at first sarcastically calling it "God Blessed America for Me" before renaming it "This Land Is Your Land."

Liam HenryIt’s really of no surprise whatsoever that I misread the offer tied to pre-orders of Sky Larkin’s debut album The Golden Spike, which I reported on a couple weeks back. I had thought that by committing to the purchase, you’d immediately get MP3 downloads of both the album proper and the live recordings of the same songs. As it turns out, you just get the live set.

But that’s okay, because February 9 isn’t that far off and the live version of the record is really pretty good. It’s obviously a bit rawer than I expect the album to be - though not that much, I expect it to be raw - but the je ne sais quoi that I really like about this band is very much in evidence. I think it’s how they disguise a surprising melodic sophistication behind a youthful energy and directness. At first it sounds like scrappy, jagged pop - which it is - but it’s also much more than that. The already-released singles have been consistently terrific and the rest of the album isn’t far off. Can’t wait to hear the proper thing, and they’re definitely on my “to-see” list for SxSW this year.

They recently gave Drowned In Sound a song-by-song commentary on the record and there’s also interviews at This Is Fake DIY and The Yorkshire Evening Post.

MP3: Sky Larkin - “Molten”
Video: Sky Larkin - “Beeline”
Video: Sky Larkin - “Fossil, I”
Video: Sky Larkin - “Molten”
Video: Sky Larkin - “One Of Two”
MySpace: Sky Larkin

In curiously parallel fashion, The Reading Evening Post has album annotations for the other British debut record I’ve got coming to me in the mail hopefully not long after February 9 - Emmy the Great’s First Love, so in the interest of consistency I’ll link up all the videos released so far for songs appearing on the record (though I suspect “Easter Parade” and “M.I.A.” have been re-recorded for the album). And if you thought I was overly effusive about her, check out Drowned In Sound’s review of the album - they make me look positively measured in comparison.

Video: Emmy The Great - “First Love”
Video: Emmy The Great - “We Almost Had A Baby”
Video: Emmy The Great - “Easter Parade”
Video: Emmy The Great - “M.I.A.”

Camera Obscura haven’t let slip many details about album number four, now complete and set for a release sooner rather than later in 2009, but they did post a MySpace blog yesterday announcing that it when it was released, it would be by the venerable 4AD label.

Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison tells The Chicago Tribune how a failed relationship inspired The Midnight Organ Fight. You know, in case it wasn’t abundantly clear from the lyrics.

eye, The Telegraph and The List talk to Franz Ferdinand on the occasion of the release of Tonight, in stores on Tuesday.

Glasvegas have released a new video from Glasvegas.

Video: Glasvegas - “Flowers & Football Tops”

Incidentally, support for the Glasvegas tour has been announced as Ida Maria, who is herself getting no small amount of attention. Her album Fortress Round My Heart got a major label release last year, but now that she’s gone indie again, she’s re-releasing a different version on February 9.

Video: Ida Maria - “Oh My God”
Video: Ida Maria - “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked”
Video: Ida Maria - “Stella”

Decider interviews Anthony Gonzalez of M83.

Animal Collective – “My Girls”

Animated by Jon Vermilyea with visual effects by Chad von Nau, “My Girls” is the first official video from Merriweather. Hi-Resolution Youtube HD here.

Richard Swift – “Lady Luck”Secretly Canadian‘s bastion of classic pseudo-pastiche, singer-songwriter Richard Swift, is releasing his fourth record for SC, The Atlantic Ocean, on 4/7. The “Lady Luck” track linked above, is an irresistable (to me, at least) piece of AM Gold-cum-Motown that appears on the new record, but was also available on last year’s digital-only Ground Trouble Jaw EP.

Whitest Boy Alive – “Island”From their upcoming full-length, Rules, out on their own label, Bubbles, on 3/30.

Marissa Nadler – “River of Dirt”From her forthcoming album Little Hells, out 3/3 on Kemado.