Pitchfork — Photo by Denny Renshaw Hey look, another Sufjan Stevens project that isn't a new album! The singer-songwriter collaborated with Castanets' Raymond Raposa to score the documentary Beyond This Place, which chronicles filmmaker Kaleo La Belle's reunion ... more info

The World Forgot — I’ve been listening to an advance copy of The National’s upcoming album High Violet and let me first say, before digressing into a boring diatribe, that it is a masterpiece.  Quite simply it is brilliant and will feature prominently in almost ... more info

Guardian Music — Last time was all about avian anthems. Now we want to canvass your votes for this week's candidatesIt would be fitting, though impossible, to reduce the last thread to a tweet. After the relative disappointment of the previous week it was full to bur... more info

DrownedInSound — Hadestown is nothing short of awe-inspiring, aligning Anaïs Mitchell with the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom via its sheer, brain-welting ambition. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com more info

The Playlist — While Sufjan Stevens been busily not following through on his "50 States" project, with his Illinois-centric album "Illinois" released a long five years back, he's unexpectedly tried his hand at a new medium: the experimental short film. His first wa... more info

Pitchfork — Front page photo by Denny Renshaw. Photo on this page by Tim Kiernan. Singer-songwriter-filmmaker Sufjan Stevens screened his short film Destroy Those Irritating Memories at this year's Big Ears Festival, and a bootleg video of it has surfaced. (Via ... more info

Stereogum — When we posted about MusicNOW a couple weeks ago, I mentioned I first learned about the Ohio festival via a 2007 video of Sufjan Stevens’ moving take on “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.,” which he did with the assistance of Bryce Dessner. This year, on th... more info

Guardian Music — Can you picture a mini-pop orchestra who operate as a benign totalitarian dictatorship? That's this Welsh 14-pieceHometown: Cardiff. The lineup: Spencer McGarry (vocals, piano, guitar), Avvon Chambers (drums), Rebecca Wood (vocals), Charlie Francis (... more info

Stereogum — Shaky YouTube video of Sufjan Stevens performing a haunting “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” at MusicNOW in Cincinnati is what first put the festival in the back of my mind. (That and the city’s historic Memorial Hall as an unmistakable backdrop.) The ta... more info

Pitchfork — -- The second album by UK rock act Foals is called Total Life Forever and Sub Pop will release it in the U.S. on May 11 digitally and June 15 physically. The record is out in the band's native country on May 10 via Transgressive/Warner. -- Pin Me Dow... more info