'The Drawn Blank Series' opens later this February

Band announce US festival date

This is pretty fantastic. A few days ago, Drag City streamed a song from the forthcoming Joanna Newsom album, “Have One On Me”, which I really should’ve flagged up.

Brighton bash takes place this May

This year’s Academy Award nominations have just been announced. No great surprises, I see – plenty for The Hurt Locker, Up In The Air and **whisper it** Avatar in the big categories. But it’s certainly grand to see the likes of Kathryn Bigelow, Jeremy Renner, Jeff Bridges, Michael Haneke and Jacques Audiard in there, at any rate. Anyway, here’s what’s what in the key categories, with my take on the nominations, for what it’s worth.

Tim Burgess and co celebrate the album's 20th birthday with special show

Quite a good one, this week: I think I can be more or less positive about everything here, actually, with the vague exception of the Yellow Swans live comp, which is a bit too industrial for me (John Cale, as it happens, described them thus: “The Swans’ sound grates on your nerves - like you’ve put your head in a jet engine.” Thumbs up!).

It would be a 'publishing dream' for the company to release Morrissey's life story

72-year-old suffering from MRSA bug, speech difficulties and alzheimer's according to her son

Texan dilettantes turn their hand to wintry folk-rock.