Few took notice when Kath Bloom retreated from the New York folk scene in the 1980s. Her disappearance is neither as romantic like Vashti Bunyan's bucolic sojourn nor as storied as Cat Stevens' conversion: On hard times, Bloom moved to rural New England to raise her sons. Two decades later, Australian label Chapter Music has reissued the bulk of...

It spans three weeks, about as many performing arts genres as you can muster, and all kinds of venues in the most populous city in Australia. And as you might imagine, the lineup for the Sydney Festival-- going down all over Sydney, Australia January 10-31, 2009-- is quite a thing to behold. Santogold, Bon Iver, Bill Callahan, Sharon Jones and t...

On this 3xCD anthology Christian Kiefer, Jefferson Pitcher, and J. Matthew Gerken write songs for each of the 43 U.S. presidents. Among the many guests are Bill Callahan, Califone, and Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart.read more

SCORE!? You can say that again. The brass at Merge Records have revealed quite a few more of the folks laying covers and remixes of their favorite Merge catalog classics on subscribers to the label's 20th anniversary SCORE! box set series-- which, to recap, is due to include 14 celeb-curated comps of Merge favorites, a covers disc, a remix colle...

Sam Fogarino of Interpol favors selflessness! Sam Prekop of the Sea and Cake appreciates his own autonomy! Dan Snaith of Caribou loves math! Torquil Campbell of Stars likes love! Lambchop's Kurt Wagner likes eggs with his breakfast! These revelations from some of indie rock's bigger names come from 99Matters, a German website centered around ask...