Big site overhaul today, so some general wonkiness is to be expected.  If you experience any legitimate site “issues,” drop me an email and let me know. General complaints about the redesign can be directed here.

And please: take these 2 seconds right now to update your Feed link.

The 2007 Idolator Pop Critics Poll Results are now live (…and feature artwork by me).

Fresh from its Stereogum premiere, the first mp3 from Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s Pershing:

::: SSLYBY - Glue Girls :::

The guys sent me the pretty-much-finalized mixes of Pershing a few weeks ago, and they sounded great. Whereas Broom was lovely, languid record, this new one captures more of the pepped-up energy of SSLYBY’s live shows, and with a newly-present sunny West Coast pop vibe, to boot. There are some great new songs I’d never heard before, plus new arrangements of some old favorites (besides Glue Girls, there are new versions of Boring Fountain, Modern Mystery, You Could Write A Book…) — and girls in bedrooms across the land are going to be swooning on repeat to John Robert’s ballad, “Some Constellation.”

Matt offered up a good review of the new Magnetic Fields, Distortion, (8.0) yesterday. I, too, am definitely liking what I’m hearing from this one; you can stream the whole album over at the Mag Fields Myspace; go check it out for yourself.

Subpop’s latest signees are Seattle’s Fleet Foxes, who have a very pleasant Band Of Horses-y sort of sound. I smell a blog-hit…

::: Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal :::

I haven’t even listened to it yet, but if I know me like I know me, I think I can go ahead and say with some certainty that this is one of my favorite records of 2008.

I should point out that two unrelated twee-y groups of young folks from the left coast have some stuff worthy of note right now: Antarctica Takes It!, who you may remember from this June ‘06 post, have a newly remastered edition of their album The Penguin League now available on London’s How Does It Feel To Be Loved? label.

…and the Wrong Trousers, who you may remember from this Youtube video, have completed their first full-length, One and Counting…, and it’s available now at CD Baby. You can stream samples via CDBaby, but they’re cropped, so you’re probably actually better off listening to the tracks on Myspace.

First mp3 from the upcoming (and much-anticipated by me) Kelley Stoltz record, Circular Sounds:

::: Kelley Stoltz - Your Reverie :::

Go make fun of this new Vampire Weekend video (”A-Punk”) in front of your friends, then go home and secretly, self-loathingly, rock out to your pirated download of their full-length like you always do.

Stream the new Xiu Xiu album in its entirety, assuming that bug-ridden, fucked-up Myspace player doesn’t konk out. Or just download the first track:

::: Xiu Xiu - I Do What I Want, When I Want :::

I’m digging that Times New Viking stuff more and more every day.

::: Times New Viking - Drop Out :::

Their new one on Matador, Rip It Off, is out in just a few weeks.

Very interesting Techcrunch summary of a “future of music” presentation recently given by Yahoo Music’s Ian Rogers (though I can’t decide if I should award him points or deduct them, when he says “Yngwie Malmsteen = Quality“).

The 001 Collective, a new and totally free music distro- er, uh, “music blog / BitTorrent index / record label / authentic freak folk / new twee / 8 bit scene.” 3.5 Gigs of artists who are giving it away. [via FMU]

Silicon Alley media poster boy Jakob Lodwick apparently has his sights now set on revolutionizing music:

“I’m sick of people saying “oh, [the Radiohead In Rainbows strategy] will only work for Radiohead, it’s not the new model for the industry.” Those people need to stop look [sic] for the silver bullet, stop looking at what Radiohead is doing *specifically* … the muse they are following *will* work for others, even if the execution is different.”

“The right way will not be as concrete as the old way. It will be a framework which can be applied by any artist, producing infinite variety. A variant of such a system already exists, but has not been applied to music yet… I will soon apply the framework to music and if I am correct, it will mean more money AND better art.”

Is his NORBUM thing actually just a portmanteau of “NORmative alBUM” or something along those lines?

Jakob, call me, I’ll be able to tell you in 2 seconds whether or not your idea is gonna work.

So that you can have a nice picture on your iPod when Destroyer’s Foam Hands comes on, here’s the Trouble In Dreams cover art icon.

The first MP3 from the upcoming Mountain Goats record has been turned loose:

::: The Mountain Goats - Sax Rohmer #1 :::

Heretic Pride is out 2/19 on 4AD.

Design site Behance just did a really nice feature on Catbird Records; swing by and check it out.

(and please note, we’ll be discontinuing the CBR Holiday Specials at the end of this week.)