Undercover, Australia — A guitar stolen from R.E.M.`s Peter Buck in Helsinki in September 9th has been returned. more info

Kings of A&R — Blessing in Disguise? New York based Singer/songwriter Ryan Star was one of the standout contestants on 2006’s “Rock Star: Supernova”, but was booted earlier than many expected after a few solid performances, including an excellent... more info

XFM.co.uk — Mike Mills and Michael Stipe confess that punk ethic was vital to REM's early development. more info

All About Jazz — Umphrey's McGee Announces 2008 New Year's Run Umphrey's McGee For the past eight years, Umphrey's McGee has celebrated the final days of December in their hometown of Chicago, ringing in the New Year with a run of concerts at some of the city's f... more info

Pitchfork — Hope you like Tool, 'cuz this thing's a veritable Home Depot (zing!). The full setlist for Guitar Hero World Tour, the fourth major installment in the carpal-tunnel-inducing joyride, has been announced, and it's a doozy. (Though not as much of a dooz... more info

Rolling Stone — Photo: Rose/Retna It was a busy week on the crime front, as Kanye West was arrested in Los Angeles, R.E.M. had their signature guitar stolen, torrent operators were sentenced and some Canadian dude assaulted Noel Gallagher on stage. For all the felon... more info

Pop Candy — It's Friday! We've made it through another week! Yesterday a migraine put me out of commission for a few hours, but today I'm back on the scene. Check out a few headlines while I make some oatmeal: - We have... more info

Totally Fuzzy — Lazy Rod said... New stuff: The FALL - Janice Long Session '87, DJ HYPE - Mixtape, INSTIGATORS - Demo '93 plus singles in various formats by R.E.M., KING PRAWN, DEFTONES, INSTIGATORS and PEARL... [Visit the blog for the full post] more info

Stereogum — When Fluxblog proprietor and Drive XV essayist Matthew Perpetua launched PopSongs 07-08, he gave it the tagline: "I'll write about every R.E.M. song, eventually." And eventually, he did (save Accelerate, which needs time and the 2008 election resul... more info

Said the Gramophone — [photo source] Alina Simone - "Half My Kingdom". A Brooklyn singer born in the Ukraine, singing a song by the Russian folk-punk Yanka Dyagileva - the title translated but the rest still Russian. But this is not as impenetrable as it sounds. Simon... more info