Washed Out – “Belong” From Washed Out‘s forthcoming cassette for Mirror Universe, High Times.
(via Fader)

39 Clocks – “PLO” OtherMusic calls them “one of the finest rock and roll bands Germany ever spawned,” but you’ve probably never heard of them. 39 Clocks were a duo (or a trio if you count the drum machine) who operated between the German music and art worlds (they were once thrown out of a show because “their sounds had disturbed Joseph Beuys) in the late ’70′s and early ’80s. The recent Zoned collection from DeStijl cull Clocks’ material from 1981-1987 (interestingly, in reverse chronological order). It’s worth checking out, particularly if you dig the VU-ey chug of a song like “PLO.”

The Asheville Citizen-Times interviews Matthew Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces.

Q: Eight albums since 2003 — how do you explain your prolific output?

A: It's fun to play music. Even while getting a chance to do it as a job, it's still fun, so we do it a lot. That leads to trying to make a lot of records. Also, the size of our band helps. If we were a bigger band, we'd have to do a lot of promotion and touring behind our latest record. If we were a smaller band, we wouldn't be able to release records. So we're in just the right place.

BBC News talks to Clint Boon of Inspiral Carpets about the Manchester music scene of 1989.

Former Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan talks to the Irish Independent about her new solo album, No Baggage (out next week).

Pitchfork wraps up its list of the top 500 tracks of the 2000s.

The A.V. Club offers gateway points into the world of classic Afro-pop.

Drowned in Sound editors choose 90 songs of the "noughties."

Thrill Jockey Records is launching a 12" subscription series.

Clickmusic interviews singer-songwriter Imogen Heap.

saddle-creek.comLand Of Talk was supposed to spend this year promoting the hell out of their excellent 2008 full-length debut Some Are Lakes but unfortunately the band had to go on an extended break while frontwoman Liz Powell underwent and recovered from vocal cord surgery.

They returned to live duty with some shows over the course of the Summer, but have now put together a proper if shortish tour for the Fall, and also releasing a new EP on October 27. Fun And Laughter will contain four new songs and three videos from Some Are Lakes. The clip for the title track emerged a few months ago, the one for “The Man Who Breaks Things” has just hit the interwebs and the last one for “Troubled” will probably surface closer to the actual release date.

Video: Land Of Talk – “The Man Who Breaks Things (Dark Shuffle)”
Video: Land Of Talk – “Some Are Lakes”

Spinner talks to Victoria Bergsman of Taken By Trees, whose new album East Of Eden is out September 8.

NPR is streaming a radio session with A Camp.

The Galway Advertiser talks to Okkervil River’s Will Sheff on the Irish influences on his writing and songwriting inspiration in general.

Joe Pernice talks to The Portland Mercury and Oregon Live.

The Luyas - “Spherical Mattress” I considered apologising. She had gone into the other room already, had put on a record she knows I don't like. I stood in the hallway hearing it, piano-notes like a dripping tap. No, I thought, I won't. I started putting on my sneakers but then stopped, untied them. I slipped into my rainboots. The door slammed behind me. Outside, the sky was heavy. Cars snarled past me. I could feel the rubber soles of the boots and the lines in the asphalt. My heart was pounding. I wondered if she was still listening to that record, or whether she had turned it off now that I had gone. I imagined her alone at the table, eating an apple, baring her canines. I imagined me sitting at the other end of the room, leaning on the fridge, eating an ice-cream cone. Eating an ice-cream cone and grinning, maple ripple rolling down my arm. (MySpace/from the Luyas' forthcoming new album, and a 7" to be released on You've Changed)

Ast0r - “So What” (Miles Davis) The moon floated like a bored Podoboo. It was hot. Too hot. I know something was up in Mushroom Kingdom and I wasn't going to wait for that peachy minx to tell me. I patrolled the tubes, visited the usual Shy Guy haunts. No sign of the Hammer brothers or even the Phanto from the other night at the castle. Sweat dripped off my moustache like the trailing fizz of an invincibility star. I stopped in at the Toad House and got the usual runaround from Lemmy Koopa. I told him to go flip on his back. I knew Bowser had been there, even if Lemmy wouldn't say so. I was on my way out when who should I see but Yoshi, lurking behind a pillar like a goomba on a bad day. His day had just got worse. I scurried over there like a Bob-omb that was about to go, swallowed my fire-flower and then jumped on his head a couple times. I wasn't going to let this be a repeat of World 3-4. Listen you salamander, I said; tell me what happened to the raccoon-tail. I was bigger than he remembered. I dared him to stick out his tongue. [buy the chiptune take on Kind of Blue, Kind of Bloop]