At the Atlantic, Michael Chabon explains how hip-hop music returned to his life.

Rocks Off lists the 11 best rock duos.

Members of Oh No Oh My talk to Speakeasy about being music blog darlings.

Now punctuation-free, the members admit being a music blog darling helped their career, but they don't necessarily think blogs represent bands very well. "They [blogs] just burn through different bands so fast," Hoxmeier says. "You have such a wealth of music to go through. People just make snap judgments based off of five seconds of music or something in the comment section or some word somebody said instead of listening to the music." he added: "It[s a great way of discovering music, but I don't think it’s a good way of judging music."

PopMatters recaps 2010 in music journalism.

Guest of a Guest predicts this year's Coachella music festival lineup.

Hey Ladies shares a streaming music mix featuring the women of post-punk.

The Granny Smiths - “Boom Boom” I went gay when you left. Well, I tried, it didn't stick. I sold my pants and my clothes. I shaved "ex-greatest" into my head. I got a tattoo, temporary, of a whirlpool. I was stoned and staring at it in the mirror and just saying "Portal in, or way out?" over and over. Being apart feels like everything. When we get together, you and i, we can still remember what it's like to be apart and that's perfect. When we met it was so easy to remember what it was like before we met. It's when we forget what being apart feels like that we really lose it. I'm not talking in hypotheticals, in theory, I'm talking about this, your wrist and your ankle and my pointy hips. About your letters, all addressed to "P", and your socks, all dirty and white, and my kitchen, with only one chair.

[Buy the Mongrel Zine comp]

FacebookHow do you like your British Sea Power? Abrasive and anarchic as on their debut The Decline Of British Sea Power? Slick and anthemic as on the follow-up Open Season? Or are you loathe to choose between the two and prefer the middle ground that album number three – Do You Like Rock Music? – treads upon?

If you raised your hand for option c), then the Brighton-based Brits’ fourth effort Valhalla Dancehall – out today – should be on your “to-buy” list because it confirms that BSP have established their own little musical kingdom between the aforementioned territorial extremes where their eccentricities and populist tendencies intermingle and coexist. And if you preferred either a) or b), then Dancehall still has much to offer because, let’s face it, they’re too inherently weird to ever be too conventional and their musical vision is too widescreen to ever allow them to go soft.

Though it treads familiar terrain, Dancehall still carves its own niche, distinct from its predecessors. While opener “Who’s In Control?” sets a frenzied tone, overall the titular qualities the defined Rock Music has been dialed down slightly with grandeur taking priority over bombast. There’s still plenty of the latter, make no mistake, but it’s delivered in a more polished manner with some of the white noise having resolved into more atmospheric qualities and they’re balanced with truly gentle moments such as “Baby” and plenty in between. If Valhalla‘s place in the BSP canon is to be summed up in one word, it’s “refinement” in that it takes all their by-now familiar touchstones and dresses them up in just the right amount of classy. To some that might sound like maturing and/or getting boring, but if it gives us more gems like album closer “Heavy Water”, with its subtle motorik pulse, then call it what you like – I’ll take it.

Clash has excerpted a portion of an interview with the band from their latest issue and The Fly also has a feature piece.

MP3: British Sea Power – “Who’s In Control?”
MP3: British Sea Power – “Living Is So Easy”
Video: British Sea Power – “Living Is So Easy”
Stream: British Sea Power / Valhalla Dancehall

The Line Of Best Fit and The Fly have feature pieces on Esben & The Witch, whose debut Violet Cries is out on February 8. I said after seeing them open for Foals back in September that I’d wait until I heard the album before passing judgement on whether they were worth paying attention to… and having heard it, I’m still paying attention.

The Quietus talks to PJ Harvey about her new record Let England Shake, due out February 15.

The first single from Noah & The Whale’s forthcoming Last Night On Earth has a video and the album itself has a proper release date – it will be out on March 8.

Video: Noah & The Whale – “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.”

NME reports that Glasvegas have given their second album the title of Euphoric Heartbreak; sorry Glasvegas dudes, but I will not indulge you with including the “///” or “\\\” when writing the title because it is, how you say, bullshit. Only M.I.A. got away with that because she’s batshit. The first single from said record will be made available this weekend and the record is due out sometime in the Spring.

The Fly checks in with Patrick Wolf, who’s in the studio working on his next album – it’s still untitled but will be out in May. twentyfourbit has some live video of Wolf previewing new material at a recent London show.

The Radio Dept. talks to Spinner about some of the more political angles of their work. Their compilation album Passive Aggressive is out January 25.

Spin is streaming the new single from Lykke Li; her new record Wounded Rhymes will be out on March 1.

Jens Lekman has taken to his blog to announce that 2011 will, if the stars align, see him release a new album. And an EP. If the stars align.