Stereogum just dropped a new Wolf Parade track upon the world, from their forthcoming but still-as-yet-officially-titled-I-think followup to Apologies To The Queen Mary.

No Age skulpt their noize into a fairly harmonious song in “Eraser,” the first mp3 from their forthcoming Subpop disc, Nouns:

The Feist/Constantines “Islands In The Stream” cover that started circulating today got me thinking of some older Constantines covers that I’ve always dug.

First is the Cons covering Neil Young’s “Don’t Be Denied,” from their vinyl-only split with The Unintended from a few years back:

And then there’s the Cons’ Will Kidman, aka Woolly Leaves, and this, his cover of the INXS classic, “Never Tear Us Apart:”

Yes, the sound quality sucks on both. The first is a vinyl rip and the second is a live recording. Let’s call the sound issues “charming” instead of “crappy.”

Merge is offering a new Rosebuds digital EP for download, and all you gotta do is register with the site, if yain’t already. Sweet Beats, Troubled Sleep (Night Of The Furies Remixed) is a digital-only EP, released yesterday (the one year anniversary of Night Of The Furies), and features 10 remixes from artists bearded and not.

Starbucks Launches Record Label, Red Bull, Matt Pinfield Team Up To Save Rock and Roll, Dupri To Lead TAG-Branded Record Label

New York Press points out that Indie Rock = Adult Contemporary, and shocks the hell outta me by not mentioning The National in the story.

Phonelopie wonders if brick-and-mortar stores can/should sell downloads. I’m not so sure it’s a workable idea, Coolfer thinks the exact opposite.

Last.FM is reporting that its full-track streaming feature has boosted music sales by quite a bit over the last 12 weeks.

Last.FM’s Martin Stiksel:

In just over two months, it’s become clear that people will buy CDs and downloads if they get access to the kind of service we offer.

I do believe it to some degree, it’s just plain common sense. People don’t often buy music blindly any more. And sorry, but offering only a few seconds sampling of a track is about as worthless as no sampling at all.

B-but, you say, if the people can listen the whole track streamed for free, why would they want to pay for it? Well, for now at least, the answer is portability, of course. People want to listen to their music wherever, whenever they choose. And that’s why “ownership” works now in Music. But underlying that portability, at the root of the matter, is really convenience. Whatever is easiest, whatever is most convenient, is what wins. And we’ve already started to reach that tipping point where “owning” all your music, that is, managing thousands of files, enormous multi-gig libraries, various ipods / cellphones / computers etc, is starting to kinda be a drag. Wouldn’t it be so much better if you just had one device, and you could (streamingly) listen to anything you wanted, anytime, anywhere? I know, I know, the “Celestial Jukebox” is a very, very old concept, and plagued by the issue of “how do artists get paid,” but I think it’s inevitable. (FWIW, I still believe that a monthly charge is not such a crazy idea. Seriously, you don’t even think twice about it, but how much do you pay EVERY month for cable? For Internet? For Cell Service? )

Oh, and does the existence of the Celestial Jukebox mean that suddenly all ipods, cd players, and vinyl records disappear from the face of the earth? No, of course not. Those would still exist for folks that wanted them– but, the thing is, there are more and more folks out there every day who don’t want to have to deal with any of those formats. There are easier ways for them to get to the music they want to hear.

Canny VC guy Fred Wilson, a guy I’d like to have a beer with, has the right idea in his “Something Important Is On The Horizon In The Music Business” essay from a few days ago.

I’ve said before that Steve Jobs’ proclamation, “People want to own their music” was true WHEN HE SAID IT, but that it becomes less and less true every day. I still believe that, only, damn, I didn’t realize how fast this was all going to move.

Imagine if there were 2 different bands, Beatles and THE Beatles… or Arcade Fire and THE Arcade Fire… or Radiohead and THE Radiohead. Things would probably get pretty confusing pretty fast, huh? That’s why I was befuddled to read the PR email about “THE WOODS TO OFFER DEBUT ALBUM ON PLUG RESEARCH.” I assumed, naturally, they were talking about the Meneguar side project Woods that I’m always on about (though, granted, the “debut” part threw me). But in the end, it wasn’t Woods at all– the subject of the email wasn’t Woods at all, it was THE Woods, a singer-songwriter from Florida.

And I would’ve just let this whole thing pass, but the thing is, this THE Woods guy is actually pretty good. lilting, lo-fi, atmospheric bedroom folk:

I also like “Bedwreck on Rabbit Island,” which you can stream at Myspace. At any rate, though, I think perhaps a name change is probably going to be a good idea at some point in the near future. I recommend “Woods Jr,” “The Woods (UK),” or “Iron and Woods.”

The Woods album is out May 13th on Plug Research.

Now, just to confuse you even more, I’m now going to inform you about how Woods not THE Woods have an all-new album out RIGHT NOW on Time Lag. Woods have added one more player this time around, making Woods Family Creeps a trio.

Hey, every journalist in the universe, listen up: you can stop comparing/acting like there’s a battle between Pitchfork.TV and Videogum, like, NOW.

Pitchfork.TV: MUSIC videos, original MUSIC programming, live MUSIC tapings, special MUSIC features.

Videogum: coverage of MOVIES, TV, WEB VIDEOS, and GAMES.

So that’s that, ok? I don’t want to see another article comparing the two. It’s beyond comparing apples to oranges, it’s like comparing apples to hammers.