A good week, in that I wrote a couple of new blogs about the Allah-Las and Dan Deacon albums, finally tracked down a copy of “Meet “Mississippi” Charles Bevel”, and heard the Baird Sisters’ beautiful record (one of them is Meg Baird from Espers) and Four Tet’s “Pink” comp.

Three members of Pussy Riot have appealed against their jail sentence.

The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr is the richest drummer in the world, according to a new report.

How many fans were aghast over the weekend to hear via the American broadcaster NBC that Neil Young had just died and unknown to many of them had also been the first man to set foot on the moon? Neil has been many things down the years, of course, but his secret history as an astronaut would have been news to everyone, including him.

The National are set to open up a Democratic campaign rally for incumbent US President Barack Obama.

A pair of Elvis Presley's stained underpants are set to go up for auction in Manchester next month.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse are to release their second album of this year.

Paul Weller has bemoaned the recent spate of band reunions.

On www.allah-las.com, the Los Angeles band of the same name have posted a bunch of unusually excellent mixtapes. The latest, “Reverberation #25”, is pretty typical, taking in the likes of Jim Sullivan and Tim Hardin as well as the group’s backwards-facing contemporaries: White Fence, Sonny & The Sunsets and another bunch out of what always seems to be an unbelievably small and cliquey LA indie scene, The Beachwood