WOOM – “Quetzalcoatl’s Ship” Oakland’s WOOM are deconstructing-and-rebuilding pop music much like recent sonic mavericks like Micachu and Tune-Yards– and I like it. Their debut full-length, Muu’s Way, (from whence the track above comes) is out 6/28 from Ba Da Bing– and make note if you’re from “The Continent:” the band is also joining Xiu Xiu on tour in Europe next month (just after their 2 NYC shows-- 5/18 @ Xake Shop and 5/19 Death by Audio).

Neverever – “Young and Dumb” From the band’s forthcoming full-length Angelic Swells (download another track here), out 5/25 on Slumberland.

RIAA wins lawsuit against Limewire

Tracey Thorn - “Oh, The Divorces!” “Oh, The Divorces!” is written from the perspective of an outsider looking in on other people’s lives, sorting through all the second hand news of heartbreak and divorces, and trying to figure out what it all means, if anything at all. The subtext is what makes this song so poignant: If this is what happens to everyone, isn’t this just going to happen to me? When is it our turn? Tracey Thorn invests her song with a great deal of empathy for her subjects, but there’s no shaking that unspoken dread at the core of it, that nagging fear that most every partnership is subject to entropy. She sounds resigned to all the predictable dramas, but she wouldn’t be singing this if she didn’t hold out some hope that these things can work out, and that love can endure.

Buy it from Amazon.

NPR Music streams songs from the remastered and expanded Rolling Stones album, Exile on Main Street (out May 18th).

The Telegraph discuses the "blasphemy" of audience members talking during music concerts.

The Georgia Straight profiles the Shout Out Louds.

The result of all the eating, drinking, and fresh Pacific Northwest air, Work is a collection of stripped-down songs peppered with jangly guitars, catchy hooks, and dreamy, tone-perfect harmonies between Olenius and Stenborg. Conceived as a cross between Fleetwood Mac and the Velvet Underground, Shout Out Louds' third album was a hard slog through the relentless perfectionism of Ek, but don't assume that's the premise of the project's title.

Carl Newman of the New Pornographers puts his iPod on shuffle for the Montreal Gazette.

Morning Edition interviews Dave Tompkins about his book, How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop.

NPR is streaming last night's Washington performance by the reunited Public Image Ltd.

Frank YangI’ve taken a bit of ribbing in the last while about not only attending Monday night’s a-ha show at Massey Hall, but for being excited about it. Which is sort of fair, I suppose, as the Norwegian trio largely fell off the North American radar around 1987, despite not only maintaining but growing a massive fanbase worldwide over the past two decades plus. But those who assumed the band had been creatively fallow since Hunting High And Low – or even no longer in existence – not only missed out on 25 years or so of great pop music, but by ignoring the Toronto stop on the band’s farewell tour, an amazing show as well.

Read more at Chromewaves →

Photos: a-ha, Ray Materick @ Massey Hall – May 10, 2010
Video: a-ha – “Take On Me”
MySpace: a-ha

Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit will release their debut full-length The Big Black & The Blue on May 25.

MP3: First Aid Kit – “Hard Believer”
MP3: First Aid Kit – “Sailor Song” (live)

Delays, whose a-ha cover remains this week’s cover selection for a few more days, have released a first MP3 from their new record Star Tiger, Star Ariel, due out June 21.

MP3: Delays – “Find A Home (New Forest Shaker)”

Field Music have released a new video from (Measure).

Video: Field Music – “Let’s Write A Book”

Damon Albarn tells NME that new Blur singles are likely, but not a proper album. Until they collect said singles into an album.

M.I.A. has named her new album /\/\/\Y/\. Yeah, someone needs to talk to her handlers. It’s out July 13.

The Fly checks in with Ritzy of The Joy Formidable to see how work on their debut full-length is going. It’s targeted for an Autumn release. Blare also has an interview.

The Big Pink have premiered a new video from last year’s A Brief History Of Love.

Video: The Big Pink – “Tonight”

Michael Gira’s newly-reformed (as in formed again, not as in served hard time but feeling much better) Swans have put together a Fall tour.