Watch Oberst/Ward/James/Mogis Folk Supergroup Monsters of olk Perform With the Roots on Late Night; Experience Shock as the Four of Those Guys Approach Some Level of Danceability for the First Time in their Lives; See Oberst Hear Bass for the First Time [Prefix]

The Fiery Furnaces’ Matthew Friedberger Calls Out Radiohead for Releasing Song About WWI Veteran Harry Patch, Claiming They “Brazenly Associate” With Things Others Find “Cool;” Meanwhile, Friedberger Thought Radiohead Released the Song About Music Innovator Harry Partch, and the Fiery Furnaces Are Releasing an Album that Contains Absolutely No Music [NME]

Stream New Asobi Seksu Track “Thursday,” Which is Pretty Good; Moreover, It is Thursday! Tripwire, Saving a Song Called Thursday, For Thursday? You Cheeky Devils. [Tripwire]

Scottish Post-Rockers Mogwai to Release Live Album, Special Moves and Live Documentary, Burning; Expect Them to Be Abrasive, Angry, Angular, and Contain Very Little Alliteration [Pitchfork]

Sufjan Stevens Calls the “50 State Project” a Joke, Implies It Will Never Happen, Confirming What All Intelligent Fans Realized When he Didn’t Release Another Album Two Weeks After Illinois [Paste]

Strap on Your Petticoats and Climb the Parapets! The Decemberists’ Antiquated and Verbose Frontman Colin Meloy is Writing a Children’s Book, More than Appropriately Called The Unfortunate Demise of Whitley Rackham; If the Book is Anything Like the Decemberists Career, Kids Will Find it Full of Promise, But Ultimately Just Kinda Shitty [Pitchfork]

Vivian Girls Launch Record Label, World Wide Records – Begin by Releasing a Compilation by Yellow Fever, and the Debut Single from Woods/Vivian Girls Super (Only in Extremely Scenester Circles) Group Babies [Brooklyn Vegan]

Pavement to Release Collection of Radio Sessions and Outtakes “Sometime;” NME Runs Story With Headline “Pavement Planning New Album Release.” NME Remains Hotspot for Facetious, Hyperbolic, and Counterfactual Headlines, Journalism Cries [NME]

compiled by Max Sebela

DAILY NEWS PICKS

Joe Satriani’s Lawsuit Against Coldplay, Claiming That “Viva La Vida” Had Ripped-Off “If I Could Fly” Dropped, Most Likely Due To Out of Court Settlement (Too Bad – Satriani v. Coldplay Could’ve Split As Many Lines As Roe v. Wade [Brooklyn Vegan]

Stream “N/A,” A Track By Seattle Locals Naomi Punk, All Sung By Rwandan Children (Meanwhile, Ryan Gosling Feels He Loves Children More…But Not In That Way) [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Stream a Piece of Sufjan Stevens’ Indie-Orchestra Suite The BQE, Entitled “Movement VI – Isorhythmic Night Dance with Interchanges” (First Impression: Eh, It’s Not Tha — Oh! So Pretty!) [Asthmatic Kitty]

Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah Records Lewdest Song Possibly Ever Recorded; Watch Video (Read: Pornography); You’ve Been Dethroned, Three 6 Mafia, Your “Knobs” Will Be “Slobbed” No More [Videogum]

Stream New Times New Viking LP Born Again Revisited In Its Entirety; Released September 22 [Matablog]

San Francisco’s In the Tube-d Girls Announce Fall Tour; Album Released October 22 (And I Promise It’s Really, Really Good! Stream It Here!) [Brooklyn Vegan]

Masked Rapper DOOM, Formerly Known As MF DOOM, Announces Odds and Ends Compilation Unexpected Guests; Allegedly Working With TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek [Pitchfork]

Scarlett Johanson, Courtney Love, and U2 To Headline AIDS Benefit Concert At Carnegie Hall…(Not) More Importantly, Spin Calls The Trio “Music’s Biggest Stars;” Blows Last Vestige Street Cred [Spin]

New York’s Favorite Ivy-Leage Post-Afro-Poppers (New York Hates You, Chester French) Vampire Weekend Formerly Announce Sophomore Album Contra; Released January 12, 2010 [Spin]

Stream Jim James’, Conor Oberst’s, and M. Ward’s Supergroup Monsters of Folk’s Debut Self-Titled LP; Released October 22 [Stereogum]

compiled by Max Sebela

DAILY NEWS PICKS

Now a Monster of Folk, Conor Oberst Says Goodbye to Bright Eyes with Final LP  [Prefix]

Leonard Cohen Announces Fall US Tour, Playing MSG [Pitchfork]

Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3 to Feature MGMT, Inexplicably [Stereogum]

Stream New Times New Viking Track — Now with More Tape Hiss! [The Tripwire]

Modest Mouse Set August 4th Release Date for Long Awaited Odds-and-Ends EP [Pitchfork]

Os Mutantes to Release First Album in 35 Years on ANTI- [BrooklynVegan]

Yo La Tengo Announce Fall Tour, NYC Date with Black Lips [Prefix]

compiled by Sean Hallarman

Record label Team Love, founded by Conor Oberst and Nate Krenkel, is quite familiar with giving away something for nothing. In fact, the New York-based label has let people download free MP3s of Team Love artists for five years. Now Team Love has established a rotating music library offering full albums for free.

Albums featured on the Team Love Library will rotate every month or so, and as extra incentive the label will post unreleased songs, live performances and remixed versions. The Team Love Library allows you to download 128 kbps MP3s individually or full albums in a zipped package. In return for access to the library, you have only to provide an e-mail address and login information.

The Team Love Library website says that it has always tried to skirt around the whole issue of music piracy and illegal downloads by giving away music for free. The success of the pay-what-you-want method further encouraged the label to establish the music library.

The first library round includes the following:

Capgun Coup – Brought to You by Nebraskafish
David Donder – Simple Love
McCarthy Trenching – McCarthy Trenching
The Berg Sans Nipple – Along the Quai
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat
Tilly & the Wall – Wild Like Children

by Ben Benson

Beirut main-man Zach Condon took a step back (or perhaps forward) to record a double disc, split-project EP, due out February 17 on Condon’s own label, Pompeii Records. The first disc, entitled March of the Zapotec, features six new Beirut songs and was partly recorded in Mexico (are Condon and Conor Oberst starting a new geographical-recording trend?); the second disc, Holland, comes from Realpeople, the name of Condon’s pre-Beirut project, and features five solo-Condon tracks.

One can’t help but wonder just what the difference is between Beirut and solo Zach Condon, and similarly Bright Eyes and solo Conor Oberst. Perhaps the two will head south of the border to record something altogether new…

Perhaps the most significant release coming in the near future, especially for indie/folk music, is Conor Oberst’s self-titled album. This will be the Bright Eyes’ mastermind’s first solo album since 1996. Oberst will still have a backing band, this time in the form of the Mystic Valley Band. Listening to lead single "Danny Callahan" and a few other tracks, it doesn’t seem like a far-reach from his past work, but still a solid effort. For those who cannot wait for the August 5 release, you can stream the entire album on conoroberst.com/album.

Other noteworthy upcoming releases for the end of summer/fall include David Byrne/Brian Eno Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (8/18), Calexico Carried To Dust (9/9), Ray Lamontagne Gossip in the Grain (9/9), Ben Folds Way to Normal (9/30), and Oasis Dig Out Your Soul (10/6).

by Jeff Goncalves