First, Sufjan Stevens is releasing a companion piece to last year's amazing Illinois on July 25. Entitled The Avalanche, the set compiles outtakes, alternate versions, and music "rooted in" songs from Illinois. Stevens' label, Asthmatic Kitty, and Billboard have more info.
Next, one of my favorite power poppers, Matthew Sweet, has teamed up with Susanna Hoffs (formerly of the Bangles) to record a covers album of 60's pop, Under the Covers Vol 1. You can hear samples of the album streaming on their website, and I have to say, it sounds pretty good, if perhaps rather faithful to the original versions. Aside from that minor gripe, their voices sound great together and they covered a couple of my favorite songs (The Beatles "And Your Bird Can Sing" and Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"), so I'll definitely be picking this up when it drops on April 18. Rolling Stone talked to the duo for the scoop.
And finally, some small amount of news continues to trickle out about the new Radiohead album, which as far as I can find still doesn't have a release date, although they are touring this summer. Canada's Chart Attack cribs notes from NME, calling the new stuff "terrifying". What's more terrifying to me, though, is Thom Yorke's bloggish ramblings on the official Radiohead site. Whew. Abbatoir noises, indeed.In non-music news, I've always thought Sportscenter's commercials were pretty genius, but this new one takes the cake (course, I'm a big Crocodile Hunter fan from way back, so maybe I'm biased). Unfortunately, this clip cuts off about a second early, but that doesn't stop me from laughing every time I watch it.
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