The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
& Co. Design, 2009

At Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello share a live performance and interview.

Gapers Block looks back on the 1990's music scene of Chicago.

The Georgia Straight profiles singer-songwriter Dan Mangan, calling him "the next big indie king."

Time reviews the 6-CD box set, Woodstock - 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm.

Boomers do this regularly, of course — make up stuff about how great they are. They're also eager consumers of goods that jog the memory of their greatness. This explains the current avalanche of hagiographic Woodstock products — DVDs, oral histories, "40th Anniversary Flashback Edition" paper dolls — which is not the most apt way to recall a moment supposedly unbound from commercialism. (The promoters tried to charge $24 for a three-day ticket, but the booths and turnstiles were never set up.) But picking one's way through the mess is worthwhile, if only to find Woodstock — 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm (Rhino Entertainment Co.), a six-disc collection of 77 tracks, many of which were thought lost, that strips out the mythology and reconstructs Woodstock as it was intended: a musical event.

Time also lists Woodstock's top 10 moments.

On sale at Amazon MP3: White Rabbits' 10-track It's Frightening album for $1.99.

Impose interviews J. Namdev Hardisty, author of the new book DIY Album Art.

The good folks at Lefse hooked up with the good folks at Half Machine to give us U.S. folks a chance to get our hands on some of Half Machine’s recent U.K. releases without taking it on the chin in overseas shipping costs. Head to the Lefse Shop and you can affordably pick up Woods’ “To Clean” b/w “Rain On” (Live) 7″, Real Estate’s “Fake Blues” b/w “Green River” 7″, and Banjo or Freakout’s “Upside Down” 12″.

MP3: Woods – “To Clean”
MP3: Woods – “Rain On” (Live on WVKR)

MP3: Real Estate – “Fake Blues”
MP3: Real Estate – “Green River”

MP3: Banjo or Freakout – “Upside Down”

Golden Silvers - “Please Venus” Much like Spoon, the Golden Silvers pair classy, streamlined arrangements with raspy, handsome male vocals to great effect, resulting in elegantly tuneful songs best enjoyed in the wee hours of the night. “Please Venus” is not as danceable as previous singles “Arrows Of Eros” and “Magic Touch,” but it’s a lot smoother, particularly in the way its melody rises and falls with the steady gentleness of waves rolling in along the seashore. Yes, the song is a bit lovesick, but it’s mostly just sweet and groovy — I certainly find it difficult to listen to it without smiling and swooning.

Buy it from Amazon.

Times New Viking – “No Time, No Hope” (Acoustic)

Coley Beekman & Jeremy NelsonYou might not think it – I certainly didn’t – but the shortest path between the exotic locales of DeKalb, Illinois and Winooski, Vermont runs directly through Toronto, Ontario. And that’s what brings Wisconsin-based trio The Daredevil Christopher Wright through town tomorrow evening for a free in-store at Criminal Records.

The band's debut In Deference To A Broken Back – steaming in full at their MySpace – is full of rich and whimsical orchestral-pop that’s eminently likeable, well-suited to spontaneous bouts of humming or clapping along or just soundtracking these last days of Summer (and don’t think I haven’t noticed we’ve lost about 10 degrees in ambient temperature these last few days. Nature, you’re on my list).

MP3: The Daredevil Christopher Wright – “The East Coast”
Stream: The Daredevil Christopher Wright / In Deference To A Broken Back

Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, who produced much of the Daredevil Christopher Wright record, has a new project called Volcano Choir who will release their debut album Unmap on September 22. It kind of sounds like this.

MP3: The Volcano Choir – “Island Is”

Spinner welcomes Joe Pernice to their studios for an Interface session and The San Francisco Chronicle has an interview.

Magnet Q&As Richard Thompson about his new box set, Walking On A Wire: 1968-2009

Islands will release their new record Vapours on September 22 and the first MP3 is available below.

MP3: Islands – “Vapours”

Decider and The Boston Herald talks to members of Wheat.

The Line Of Best Fit interviews Charlie Fink of Noah & The Whale, whose First Days Of Spring, is out on Monday in the UK and domestically on October 6.

Clash talks to Arctic Monkeys,