LHB’s Shorties (Guided By Voices Reunion Tour Dates, Sleigh Bells, and More)

Tour dates for the Guided By Voices "classic lineup reunion tour have been announced.

The Boston Globe profiles Sleigh Bells.

The music on the group's debut album, "Treats" (N.E.E.T./Mom + Pop), which came out this spring, torches the conventions of both indie snobbery and clean pop tastes. Combining laser-blast guitars from the noisier corners of punk, Krauss's icy vocals, and pep-rally stomps copped from cheap electric beat stations, it lacks the delicate experimentation that most music critics have recently fawned over. This stuff might have more in common with Lil' Jon than Animal Collective.

The Guardian lists pop music's "undersung" heroes.

State lists its top 25 albums of the year so far.

On sale at Amazon MP3: 4 Ike Reilly Assassination albums for $2.99 each.

Jeffrey Eugenides talks to the Guardian about the sequel to his novel Middlesex.

Kristin Hersh talks to the Irish Times about her new (and innovative) album and book release, Crooked.

"The idea came about out of frustration, really. I didn’t agree with a recording industry that stated that removing the dollar sign from the music equation (ie the cost) would result in the devaluing of music. I don't think you can devalue real music, but it was only a matter of time before the CD itself was devalued – it's just a piece of plastic. It's not a valuable object in itself, because music can only be measured in terms of its impact. I embraced that by giving music away, but many people want a shareable, tangible object they can hold. For me, it has to be intrinsically valuable, and a book still can be."

- David Gutowski