Sheena Beaston — Every year around this time, San Francisco-based DJ couple, A Plus D, duke it out, fighting over which of the past year's mashups are good enough to make it on to their Best of Bootie album, an annual compilation mix of the year's best mashes.This se... more info

Guardian Music — • HMV paying £46m to secure Mama and trump rival bid• Mama behind UK's best-known live music venuesMusic-to-books retailer HMV has ramped up its bid to capture more of the entertainment pound with a deal to buy the company behind some ... more info

Rollo & Grady — Rolling Stone Magazine 25 Best Albums of 2009 25 Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. II 24 Monsters Of Folk – Monsters Of Folk 23 Levon Helm – Electric Dirt 22 Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand 21 Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest 20 Y... more info

Shark Party, CA — All right, you know the drill - 50 best songs of 2009, with one song per album (or else there'd be a hell of a lot less diversity here). Open the links in a new tab to find what I think are the best versions of each track on the net. Now let t... more info

Guardian Music — Mini Viva are Britt Love and Frankee Connolly. They were 'manufactured' by the Xenomania hit-makers, are managed by Simon Fuller and are getting attention from NME. Better remember their name ...'When I feel something is a hit, I feel it from top to... more info

8/1 — 50 Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose 49 Neko Case - Middle Cyclone 48 Atlas Sound Logos 47 Telepathe - Dance Mother46 Gallows - Grey Britain45 Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter44 Oneida - Rated O43 Franz Ferdinand - T... more info

NME — Wright played guitar with Paul Thomson in Correcto more info

MTV.com News — MTV News' James Montgomery picks his top 25 songs of the year.By James Montgomery Jay-Z Photo: Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage/Joe Klamar/Jim Dyson/G In 2009, we killed Auto-Tune, we partied in the U.S.A., and we howled "Awooo!" at the moon (e... more info

Guardian Music — No Distance Left to Run is, apparently, 'a musing on Englishness and identity, and a portrait of friendship and resolution'. We hope that doesn't mean it's boring ...A new film chronicling Blur's 2009 reunion will appear in UK cinemas in January. No ... more info

Guardian Music — At a time when nu-metal and dad-rock ruled the airwaves, the Strokes' rewired rock'n'roll with irresistible songs, inventive guitars and arty arroganceMore top 10 albums of the decadeThe impact of the first Strokes album was immediate and dramatic. B... more info