Les Savy Fav – “Precision Auto” (Superchunk) From SCORE! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers, out 4/7 on (duh) Merge.

Department of Eagles – “No One Does It Like You”

Produced by the Directors Bureau, directed by Patrick Daughters and Marcel Dzama, featuring costumes and sets designed by Dzama. Premiered at MoMA‘s PopRally, 3/24/09.

The Juan MacLean – “One Day”

NPR is streaming Leonard Cohen's Live in London concert, which is out March 31st as a 2-CD set and DVD.

Will Oldham plays guest DJ at All Songs Considered.

Brendan Canty, director of the Wilco live film, Ashes of American Flags (out April 28th on DVD), talks about the experience with Creative Loafing Sarasota.

But to hear Canty tell it, he made the film for the same reason you or I probably would. "I'm a f**king fan," the 43-year-old says over the phone from the D.C. production studio he shares with Green. The result of Canty and Green's effort is Ashes of American Flags: Wilco Live, an 88-minute feature being screened twice next week as part of the Sarasota Film Festival. Discussing Wilco, Canty sounds downright giddy: "I see my favorite songwriter, Jeff Tweedy, coming together with my favorite guitarist, Nels Cline, and Glenn Kotche..." The sentence trails off in fanboy awe.

Lala.com is offering an mp3 download of the new Decemberists album, Hazards of Love, for only $3.99.

Minnesota Public Radio's The Current has the Broken West in the studio for a streaming performance and interview.

Daytrotter's Tuesday session features in-studio mp3s from High Places.

Lullabyes shares mp3s from one of Wavves' SXSW performances.

The Decemberists - “The Rake’s Song” Colin Meloy’s nasal, needling, nerd-like voice tends to miss the mark when he plays the part of the heroic protagonist in his songs, but it is very well suited to portraying villains and creeps, as he does in this atypically simple verse-chorus-verse rocker from the Decemberists’ latest album of English folk/prog/metal amalgamations. “The Rake’s Song,” a tune sung from the perspective of an effete widower recounting the way he murdered his young children in order to gain freedom from responsibility, gives Meloy full license to chew the scenery, and to allow the least attractive elements of his voice to become an asset in selling the character. He sounds perfectly smug and affected, which in combination with the unrepentant creepiness of the lyrics adds up a sort of refined menace comparable to Michael Emerson work as Lost’s primary antagonist Benjamin Linus.

Buy it from Amazon.

MySpaceThis post at BrooklynVegan made me first do a double-take, and then fire up Expedia to check prices for flights to New York City over the May long weekend. Why? The Radio Dept are coming to North America. It’s just a single show so far on May 16 at the Bell House in Brooklyn as part of NYC Popfest, but this interview with the band at Ca Va Cool reveals there’s one more NYC date to come and maybe - maybe - some more North American touring come Fall. But I will say this - if I’m not Barcelona-bound at the end of May, I could very well be en route to Brooklyn for the May 2-4. Hell, maybe even either way. Who wants to come?

To say that the ways of the Radio Dept are mysterious doesn’t even begin to cover it, as there’s been no word in many months as to the status of their third album Clinging To A Scheme, originally scheduled for a September 2008 release and then pulled. And so we wait. And we wait.

MP3: The Radio Dept - “Freddie and the Trojan Horse”
MP3: The Radio Dept - “The Worst Taste in Music”
MP3: The Radio Dept - “Pulling Our Weight”

Clash and New York Magazine talk to Peter Bjorn & John, whose Living Thing is out next week but streaming at their MySpace.

Stream: Peter Bjorn & John / Living Thing

Pitchfork reports that Norway’s Ida Maria will give her 2008 debut Fortress Around My Heart a North America release on April 14.

Video: Ida Maria - “Oh My God”

Patrick Wolf has released the first video from The Bachelor, out June 1, and if it were a film it’d have a big ‘ol NC-17 rating attached to it. Oh my. Stereogum gets an update from Wolf on how the album is coming along.

Video: Patrick Wolf - “Vulture”

CMJ reports that Elvis Costello is suddenly prolific again, with a new country-Americana album in Secret, Profane And Sugarcane set for release on June 2. The last time he walked this stylistic path, we go the sublime King Of America. Can he do it again? If he even comes close, it’ll be a worthy record.

The new album from The Rumble Strips has a name and release date. Look for Welcome To The Walk Alone on June 8. Details at NME.