Jumbling Towers - “Ramifications Of An Exciting Spouse” I like the way this song never lets you get a good idea of exactly what it is. It keeps mutating and shifting and adding all these musical elements that maybe shouldn’t add up. It’s like a person in a surprising outfit of mismatched items that work because they are good looking in a distinct sort of way. There’s a spot or two where the song threatens to fall off the rails — specifically the bit with the title phrase — but it snaps back into place and moves on to another oddball hook. This could do with a bit more finesse, but there is a great character to this music, and the catchy, interesting bits really do pile up.

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James Blake - “Klavierwerke” There’s a particular sound in this piece that really grabs me, and I can’t really describe it in musical terms. It’s the bit that sounds like someone being suddenly teleported somewhere against their will. It’s the part that sounds like R2-D2 unexpectedly running out of battery charge. It’s the noise that is like a little universe getting shrunk down to nothingness. Do you know what I mean? It’s ghostly and colorful and weird. The rest of the composition is like a frame for that one incredible sound.

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The Chicago Tribune interviews Tobin Sprout about the Guided By Voices reunion tour.

DC9 at Night interviews Matt & Kim's Matt Johnson.

The Economist examines the current state of the music industry.

Spoonfed interviews Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner.

PopMatters excerpts from Sean Wilentz's new book, Dylan in America.

Morning Edition interviews Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch about the band's new album, Write About Love.

Band of Horses is releasing a split single with Cee Lo that features the University of Georgia marching band.

Glasser – “Mirrorage” From Ring, out now on True Panther.

Joe FudaAnd now, a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with a certain record label that is now old enough to drink in the US.

Starting locally, with The Rural Alberta Advantage. After one of the best and busiest 2009s on record, the trio has been relatively quiet through most of this year working on the follow-up to their debut Hometowns, as these photos (sort of) attest. But you can only keep road warriors in one place for so long and they’ll be on the road again starting at the end of this month with a pretty extensive Fall tour that takes them out across the prairies to the west coast of Canada, across the Atlantic for a slew of European and UK dates and then, finally, back home to Toronto for a show at Lee’s Palace on December 16 – their first proper local show in over a year. It’ll be good to hear some of the new material that will appear on album number two when it hits sometime next year, but mostly it’ll just be nice to see them again.

MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Frank, AB”
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Don’t Haunt This Place”

The Meligrove Band have put together both a North American tour for and a video from their just-released new record Shimmering Lights. They’re at The Great Hall on November 12 and there’s interviews at The National Post and dose.

MP3: The Meligrove Band – “Bones Attack!!!”
MP3: The Meligrove Band – “Halflight”
Video: The Meligrove Band – “Racing To Shimmering Lights”

Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy, has slated a North American tour in support of his new record It’s What I’m Thinking Pt.1 — Photographing Snowflakes. The record is out next Tuesday and will be available in a variety of deluxe and standard packages, as detailed at Exclaim.

Video: Badly Drawn Boy – “Too Many Miracles”

BeatRoute discusses The Age Of Adz with Sufjan Stevens. The record is out October 12.

The Oklahoma Daily and Austinist talk to members of Local Natives.

Video: Local Natives – “Wide Eyes”

Stars are interviewed by BeatRoute and The Huffington Post.

Spinner talks to Black Mountain.

Thanks Captain Obvious, The Village Voice and Spinner talk to Sharon Van Etten about her new record Epic.

Wolf Parade have rolled out a new video from Expo 86.

Video: Wolf Parade – “Yulia”

Kevin Drew tells Spin why Broken Social Scene are called Broken Social Scene while Brendan Canning talks to The Georgia Straight and Andrew Whiteman to The Gateway.

Parlovr - “Hell, Heaven” Alex from Parlovr wrote to me to tell me what "Hell, Heaven" is about. It is about when he was a teenager living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and he fell in love with a girl who lived on a military base. Her father was a helicopter pilot. When Osama Bin Laden threatened to blow up Alex's school, the principal declared a holiday. Alex went to the military base. He went to the girl's house. He sneaked in through her window. They kissed, more than once. She was from Kentucky. They are not lovers any more. He was a teenager. This is a true story, I think. These years later, Alex lives in Montreal. He drinks beers at Casa del Popolo, at least sometimes, and coffees at Café Olimpico. There is no sand, no gleaming bone-white city. There are boulevards garlanded by falling leaves, and places to lock your bike, and girls who say Bonsoir. Alex says Bonsoir back. It means Good evening, and Alex cannot help, now and then, from imagining a hidden bomb. [the Hell/Heaven/Big/Love EP is out October 19 / MySpace]

Hello Shark - “My Life” Imagine if a garage were a person: what sort of life would she have? And imagine if a parking-lot were a person, making rich business. Imagine these dumb ideas. // I was born in a place that I didn't think had any people. The garages were not people; the parking-lots were not people; my friends and parents were not people. I decided when I was eighteen years old that no one was real except for myself. They were all made of asbestos, stuffed with straw. // I was wrong. [MySpace]

Superchunk – “Crossed Wires” (Acoustic)