LHB’s Shorties (Steve Earle, The Decemberists, and More)

Steve Earle talks to the Aspen Times about his current artistic pursuits.

Earle sees himself not simply as a songwriter, but as an artist. His creativity has overflowed into acting — he had a recurring role as a recovered drug addict in the HBO series “The Wire” — and fiction — he is finishing a novel, “I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive,” and has published a play and a collection of short stories.

The Guardian reviews The Beatles Rock Band videogame.

Visually, The Beatles Rock Band absolutely marmalises previous versions of Rock Band and Guitar Hero: it looks lush. There are visual evocations of the Cavern Club, the US tour which took in the Ed Sullivan Show and Shea Stadium and the rooftop gig, and then things take a more psychedelic bent with Yellow Submarine, Sgt Pepper and so on. The game is split into two distinct parts: the early touring years, then the sessions in Abbey Road's Studio 2 which changed the face of pop music irrevocably.

The Golden Bloom's Shawn Fogel talks to the Bangor Daily News about releasing his new album Fan the Flames for free online through music sites and blogs.

“I wish I could say it was my idea. It was my manager, Janelle’s,” said Fogel. “Music blogs and music magazine sites are the way I get my music news, and I know a lot of people are the same way. They do so much for getting my music out there, as well as countless other unknown bands, so I figured I could give back to them and promote my record both by doing that.”

A.V. Twin Cities interviews Colin Johnson of Vampire Hands.

Colin Meloy of the Decemberists talks to the Philadelphia Inquirer about the band playing a folk festival.

"At first blush, with a casual listen to the record without knowing anything about it, you would maybe view it as a strange thing for a folk festival," says Meloy from a tour stop in Louisville, Ky. "Even though it has these loud guitars on it, I think it's the folkiest record we have made to date. It owes everything to the 'folk' tradition. The entire premise, the entire narrative is built of common motifs from old folk songs.

The Guardian's Music Weekly podcast chats with David Byrne.

Paste reports that Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar are working on a Jack Kerouac album together.

- David Gutowski