LHB’s Shorties (Passion Pit, John Vanderslice, and More)

Passion Pit's new 11-track Manners album is on sale at Amazon MP3 fpr $2.99.

The Boston Globe profiles the band and reviews the album.

Ecstatic is the key word here as melodies arrive in a sugar rush; lyrics spill out in long, ornate lines full of bright imagery; and Michael Angelakos's rough-hewn falsetto vocals practically burst at the seams as he attempts to get all his points across at once.

Decider Bay Area interviews John Vanderslice.

D: So what do you think of acts like No Age—bands that intentionally shirk self-consciousness, or make a point of being shambolic?

JV: If you’d asked me what I’d wanted to do five years ago, I’d have told you I wanted to be Viktor Vaughn or The Game— I would want to be a rapper with an eight ball of coke in my pocket and a wad of hundreds. Because that kind of freedom— well, perceived freedom— is where I want to be. And that’s probably as far away from what I could do. To make a live record—something that has a lot of lice in it— is difficult. After slaving away for years in the studio, when I hear a No Age record or when I hear Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first EP or when I hear DRI or really early punk stuff, it’s just so powerful, so raw—and I know how hard that is to create. It’s very deceptive. It’s like a Dardenne brothers film— it seems like just a handheld camera following some people around in a trailer park, but it’s incredibly difficult to do that.

The Bay Bridged also interviews Vanderslice.

ABC News Inside Amplified blog interviews Thermals frontman Hutch Harris.

The Monolith Festival has announced its first batch of bands, and will be announcing new additions on Twitter.

PopMatters excerpts from Zachary Mexico's book, China Underground.

American Songwriter interviews Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets.

NPR is streaming a Drive-By Truckers acoustic set.

- David Gutowski