Pop Tarts Suck Toasted — Local Natives - "Sun Hands"; At some point next year you're going to wonder how many more times you can possibly listen to the fantastic debut record from Local Natives. Gorilla Manor will be out in February, but after getting the first taste with th... more info

NME - The Daily Download — So The Daily Download is taking a little break until January 5, but before we go we wanted to load up your iPods with new tunes as a little early Christmas present. See you in 2010! ---First up, Xmas goes Krautrock as '70s pioneers Can take on 'Sile... more info

Culture Bully — Footage of Andrew W.K. spending the holidays with Pancake Mountain. more info

Live Daily — Brian Setzer [ tickets ] spent last night (12/14) in a New Mexico hospital after collapsing just two songs into his holiday set with the Brian Setzer Orchestra in Albuquerque. The former Stray Cats frontman was approximately 20 minutes into the Ch... more info

Pitchfork - Forkcast — From a recent live show comes this cover of an unreleased Girls song (!), the heartbreaking "Oh, Boy", delivered in a male-female rendition by Alex Bleeker and the Freaks with Mountain Man's Molly Sarle (via Chocolate Bobka). MP3:> Alex Bl... more info

Guardian Music — Bass player and key figure in the US bluegrass sceneJack Cooke, who has died aged 72, was one of the most familiar faces on the US bluegrass scene for almost 40 years. As a young man he played and sang with Bill Monroe, the Stoneman Family and other ... more info

L.A. Times - News — Yulong Snow Mountain, which used to be a brilliant white, is now mostly gray, worrying those who study it and see it as a sort of canary in a coal mine. If you... more info

Dlisted — The NYC Health Department doesn't want even a single drop of sugary soda passing through your lips, so they are trying to scare you straight with this PSA featuring a dude drinking a giant glass of liquid fat. It's not working on me. Ye... more info

Live Daily — Vans Warped Tour [ tickets ] organizers have announced dates for the 2010 edition of the traveling punk-rock festival/carnival, but fans will have to wait a bit longer to find out what this year's lineup will look like. With an initial roster of m... more info

Altsounds — After a specatacular launch in September the *Vin Du Select Qualitite *label is off the ground and running! *The Mark McGuire* (of Cleveland's drone hero's *Emeralds*) LP* sold out *in a matter of weeks and is being repressed as we speak. The *Joshua... more info