Apologies for the lack of action round these parts this week; we’ve been finishing off the next issue of Uncut, and starting fairly intensive preparations for the one after that. We have, though, still been working our way through the new arrivals, and I guess this week’s big one is the Neil Young “Sugar Mountain” live set.

As you’ve doubtless gathered by now, we’ve started our own prestigious Uncut Music Award this year, for the most rewarding album released between September 2007 and August 2008. We've revealed the 25 albums that made it onto our longlist. Now, we’re thrilled to unveil the shortlist.

We were playing the new album by Fab Moretti and his other band, Little Joy, yesterday, when talk turned somewhat inevitably to The Strokes. The Reviews Ed was saying how much he liked the second Strokes album, and then we were trying to remember much about the third album: he recalled not rating it; I seemed to have fondish memories of about four tracks, but couldn’t remember a single title, let alone a tune.

Thanks for all your responses here, folks. We've nearly got all the initial votes in from our judges - only Edwyn Collins to come, I think.

Dylan fever continues apace here, as you may have seen with our pretty extensive series of transcripts from our current cover story. Now "Tell Tale Signs" is out, though, I wonder if the outrage over the 3CD price that came pouring out over here is still coming? If you've bought the box this week, was the third CD and the book of completely unrelated sleeve art worth that extra £80 or so?

I’ve just been playing this Art Ensemble Of Chicago thing from 1970 on Soul Jazz, “Les Stances A Sophie”, so it seems logical to follow it up with the fourth duo recording by Steve Reid and Kieran Hebden.

I don’t listen to music in headphones that often, but some kind of meeting nearby has meant the stereo has been switched off this morning, and I’ve been forced to listen to the high-end fuzz attack of Times New Viking up close.

A bit late in the day, but I just got round to reading a couple of things in this morning's Guardian. One is Matt Bolton's piece on the class war in British indie. The other is Alexis Petridis' customarily thought-provoking review of Oasis' "Dig Out Your Soul".

Over the past few weeks, I’ve seemed to accumulate a pretty impressive bunch of folk and folk-rock reissues on my desk. The most recent to turn up is a straightforward reissue of Anne Briggs’ first self-titled LP, on the excellent Water label out of San Francisco.

Not much mucking about today before I get into this week’s selection. But can I quickly plug Club Uncut tonight? Now that the Hold Steady tour has been cancelled, their support band War On Drugs will be joining Ladyhawk and The Dudes on the bill.