The Hold Steady man flies solo with a debut of diverse delights

They were there: Rochdale to mark the town's musical heritage

'Heart-breaker' portrait of the Rolling Stone to raise money for charity

See the trailer for the Chris Martin-starring short film here

As you can see, plenty of interesting new things have turned up since I last posted a playlist, not least new albums from Jim O’Rourke and, amazingly, Os Mutantes. This week’s problem, though, is the immense distraction of two wonderful-sounding new boxsets from Rhino; one dedicated to Big Star, the other a four-CD set called “LA Nuggets”.

Eddie Vedder and co announce intimate show!

Willy Vlautin announces Latitude Festival warm-ups

Intimate gig follows three night stand at Wembley Stadium

First came Borat, now meet Bruno...

Apologies, but not much time to file a proper blog today, as deadlines for the mag loom. One of today’s jobs is to write a review of the forthcoming DVD release of “Flight Of The Conchords”: Series Two, so here’s my favourite song from those ten episodes, “Carol Brown”, with a video by guest director, Michel Gondry. Like the best Conchords songs, this one transcends mere comedy, or neat pastiche, and sails straight into the rare territory of fundamentally excellent music. Enjoy…