His Clancyness – “Summer Majestic” His Clancyness has a new cassette release (Always Mist) coming out soon on Mirror Universe, and although this track doesn’t come from that, it is, nonetheless, brand new and enjoyable.

The Mynabirds - “What We Gained In The Fire” The Mynabirds’ debut album opens with “What We Gained In The Fire,” a song that feels more like a climax than a beginning. Nevertheless, the sequencing makes perfect sense. Musically, it puts the most dramatic and immediately impressive track at the start of the record, and thematically, it’s about finding a new path following the emotional upheaval of a traumatic break-up. You can sense the shock and confusion from the start of the song, but as it progresses and builds toward its cathartic release, the feeling is calm and hopeful. The fear subsides, the anguish fades, and what remains in the end is the faith that it all happened for a reason: “What we lose in the fire, we gain in the flood.” The song provides a feeling of closure and resolution, but its ending is only just the beginning of a new story.

Buy it from Saddle Creek. So many options!

New York magazine profiles singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright.

The Telegraph reports that Hilary Mantel is the bookmaker's favorite to win this year's Orange Prize with her novel, Wolf Hall.

MTV reports that Phoenix is scoring the new Sofia Coppola film, Somewhere.

The Atlantic delves into Salman Rushdie's archives, both on paper and digital, at Emory University.

Author Jon McGregor shares a music playlist with Paper Cuts.

PopMatters interviews singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne about her new album, Tears, Lies, & Alibis.

The Guardian lists literature's top 10 absurd classics.

The Village Voice profiles comics legend Jaime Hernandez.

On sale at Amazon MP3: Charlotte Gainsbourg's latest 13-track album IRM for $3.99.

The Chicago Tribune interviews author, chef, and television celebrity Anthony Bourdain.

Den of Geek lists the 10 best songs in kids movies.

Flavorwire lists 40 better reasons to get excited about music than the 40 artists featured in this month's Rolling Stone.

NPR reviews and excerpts from The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg.

Eisenberg is tenacious. She finds her way into characters' lives slowly; her first story, "Days," took three years to write, and she worked on some in her 2007 collection, Twilight of the Superheroes, for more than a year each. The depressive perceptual acuity that results from all this effort is uniquely hers; to compare it is to reduce it, and yet at its best her lucid but rambling narrative melancholia recalls all at once the passion of Anita Brookner, the furious remove of Jean Rhys, the detached abstraction of David Foster Wallace, the deft compression of Alice Munro and, occasionally, the downbeat, absurdist humor of Lorrie Moore.

Win the new Willie Mays biography, Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, and a $100 Threadless gift certificate in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

Atomic Books Comics Preview (highlights of the week's comics & graphic novel releases)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (highlights of the week's book releases)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

In honor of their forthcoming LP (High Violet) release, The National are taking over the vacant space adjacent to Other Music, and will curate events throughout the week of the album’s release. Full text of the press release below:

THE NATIONAL TO CURATE 5 NIGHTS OF EVENTS AT ‘THE HIGH VIOLET ANNEX PRESENTED BY OTHER MUSIC’

Celebrating the release of ‘High Violet’ (May 11, 4AD), The National will take over the now-vacant space at 13 E 4th St next to Other Music in downtown NYC. Dubbed ‘The High Violet Annex’ the space will be the site of National curated events throughout the week.

More details to be revealed over the coming weeks at HighViolet.com

The Annex will be open:

Tue 5/11 (7PM-9PM)
Wed 5/12 (7PM-9PM)
Thu 5/13 (7PM-9PM)
Fri 5/14 (8PM-10PM)
Sat 5/15 (6PM-8PM)