LargeHeartedBoy — Lorrie Moore talks to the Observer about her latest novel, A Gate at the Stairs. The Jakarta Post interviews singer-songwriter Jens Lekman. Author Richard Russo talks about his writing with the Tulsa World. Politics Daily interviews cartoonist Jules ... more info

Guardian Music — Fans of literate pop songcraft will enjoy this Irish singer's dark tales of obsession and the horror of tediumHometown: Dublin.The lineup: Conor J O'Brien (vocals, guitar), Cormac Curran (piano, organ), Tommy McLaughlin (guitar), Danny Snow (bass), D... more info

Guardian Music — The sunny but sad dance music from this LA duo suggests Bernard Sumner jamming with Belle and SebastianHometown: Los Angeles.The lineup: Jesse Kivel (vocals) and Zinzi Edmundson (keyboards).The background: Just behind Gorillaz, Foals and RJD2 in a li... more info

The Yellow Stereo — Summer Cats are set to release a brand new 7″ as a follow up to what I considered my go-to record of choice last summer, Songs For Tuesdays, next week on the 16th. As you would expect, both tracks remain true to the formula of being deliciously ca... more info

I Guess I'm Floating — I'm not a big fan of Jens Lekman or the XX, but somewhere in the outer spheres of pop beyond those two musical acts is a dark and frigid void where clearly something should exist but, inexplicably, doesn't. Or I should say "didn't" before LA's Kisses... more info

Silent Uproar — Tracey Thorn (Everything But The Girl) will release her third solo album, Love and Its Opposite, through Merge Records on May 18th. The album features performances from Jens Lekman, Al Doyle of Hot Chip and Leo Taylor of The Invisible. Check out Thor... more info

8/1 — Love and Its Opposite is the third solo album by former Everything but the Girl singer Tracey Thorn, to be released on 17 May 2010....Love and Its Opposite was recorded in Berlin and London, and features guest contributions from Hot Chip's Al Doyle, ... more info

The Yellow Stereo — Before watching this video, The Morning Benders were absolutely nowhere near my radar.  It’s a testament to how downright gorgeous this song is, because now I find myself digging through emails to see if there’s a promo of their upcoming album... more info

Stereogum — Pedagogically minded San Francisco septet Citay's third album Dream Get Together inspired a writing project of the same name. As their label Dead Oceans notes, a dream get together could very well refer to "the concept of an ideal musical pairing, or... more info

Culture Bully — It gets my vote for best songwriting of the oughts, a decade that had some pretty fierce competition. more info