Sambassadeur – “Stranded” The opening track from the forthcoming long-player European, out 2/22 from Labrador.

Black Tambourine – “For Ex-Lovers Only”

NPR is streaming the new Clem Snide album, The Meat of Life (out February 23rd), in its entirety.

Pitchfork interviews the members of Beach House about the band's new album, Devotion.

The A.V. Club lists fictional characters assigned questionable taste in music.

7. Nick Sobotka loves TVT artists indiscriminately, The Wire

David Simon’s The Wire has been praised for many things, including its remarkable veracity. At first glance, it looks like that attention to detail extends even to the posters on the wall of dockworker Nick Sobotka in season two: He’s got images of anger-spreading bands Disturbed and Filter decorating his dreary bedroom. But nerdy Guided By Voices fans noticed another poster up there, for the Ohio indie band’s Universal Truths And Cycles—a disc Nick Sobotka would likely never have heard of. (He probably isn’t reading Magnet while waiting to see whether he’s managed to get scheduled for a dockyard shift.) But maybe, just maybe, Sobotka somehow found a kindred spirit in Robert Pollard. After all, they both love to pound beer and whiskey.

Ars Technica examines Google's recent shutdown of several music blogs.

PopMatters interviews XTC's Andy Partridge about the Dukes of Stratosphear reissues.

The Free Music Archive now contains 16,776 free and legal mp3 downloads.

The Rawking Refuses to Stop! shares live Elliott Smith covers.

At the Huffington Post, Michael Glitz lists the best albums of 2009.

The New York Times reviews the remake of "We Are the World."

Stream the final album by Yellow Swans, Going Places (out March 2nd).

Monsters of Folk – “Dear God”