LHB’s Shorties (Cat Power, Vampire Weekend, and More)

Chan Marshall of Cat Power talks to the Courier-Mail about her future projects.

DEVO is streaming a 1978 15-track live set at their MySpace page.

The Guardian's music blog asks its readers, "Which albums deserve a sequel?".

The Irish Independent profiles Florence and the Machine.

PopMatters examines the revival of cassette tape culture.

The Yellow Bird Project, a charitable organization where proceeds go to the musician's good cause of choice, has new t-shirts designed by Grizzly Bear and Bloc Party.

My favorite yearly music blog list: Said the Gramophone's best songs of 2009 (with mp3 downloads).

Flavorwire uncovers a typewritten 1967 letter from David Bowie to his first American fan.

The Irish Times profiles Vampire Weekend.

Compared with their exuberant first album, the forthcoming Contra is a more considered work, the melodies taking a little more time to weave their way around, and the choppy West African guitar licks sounding more structured. It’s still reassuringly riddled with polyrhythms, and there’s a post-graduate intensity to many of the lyrics. On the debut album, they corralled a few friends from Columbia and Julliard; they’ve roped them in again for Contra, plus the legendary marimba player Mauro Refosco, who plays with David Byrne and has recently been sitting in with Thom Yorke’s band.

Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes, David Rawlings, and Gillian Welch discuss their creative process with NPR Music.

- David Gutowski