Weird serendipities aplenty this week: versions of "O, Death" on two albums I downloaded one after another, by Mike & Cara Gangloff and Bessie Jones; dovetailing into Sea Island overlap between Jones and Loscil. It makes for a nice blurring between time and genre with, say, the Gangloffs using esoteric strategies to achieve a similar kind of transcendence that Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers reach through more orthodox, albeit uncommonly raw, Gospel routes in these Lomax recordings from the early '60s.

All Leonard Cohen wants for his 80th birthday is a cigarette. He smoked, he estimates, for around 50 years, before he gave up a decade or so ago. “I think a lot about smoking,” he reflects. “I’m thinking about it right now.”

The Entertainment Retailers Association have called U2's album giveaway "as damaging as piracy", saying that it devalues music.

Bruce Springsteen is to perform at this year's Stand Up For Heroes benefit in New York, reports Rolling Stone. Springsteen has played at every benefit since it began in 2007. Last year, he performed a three-song acoustic set.

Mark Kozelek reportedly insulted The War On Drugs during a US festival at the weekend, describing the band as "beer-commercial lead-guitar shit."

When Sinéad O’Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992, she brought into focus her gifts for music, controversy and self-publicity in one fairly explosive package.

The Doors’ documentary Feast Of Friends, which the band filmed themselves on their 1968 summer tour, will be released next month. The documentary, which was never completed, was screened at film festivals during Jim Morrison's lifetime, but has never been formally released due to legal issues.

To coincide with the releases of his first new studio album in five years, Tell ‘Em I’m Gone, on October 27, Yusuf / Cat Stevens is set to answer your questions in our regular An Audience With... feature. So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask the legendary singer-songwriter? What does he remember about touring with Jimi Hendrix and the Walker Brothers in 1967? What is his favourite of the many cover versions of his songs? How did he come to work with Will Oldham and Rick Rubin on his new album?

Jam - deluxe-packed! The legendary Fillmore stand just got longer...

Leonard Cohen is streaming his new studio album, Popular Problems, ahead of its official release on September 22. The LP, which comes out the day after his 80th birthday, is the singer's 13th studio album. It was co-written and produced by Patrick Leonard, who worked with Cohen on his last album, 2012's Old Ideas. Cohen is not planning any live dates around the release. Visit NPR to listen to the album early.