Listening to the famously dour, expressionless vocal from Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant on the great 1985 single "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", you might not peg him as the sort of guy who'd be overcome by the holiday spirit two decades later. But in the year of the Bob Dylan Christmas album, all bets are off. On December 15 (December 14 in the UK), Astralwerks (Parlophone in the UK) will release Christmas, the new EP from the British synthpop originators. The EP will include a new version of "It Doesn't Often Snow at...

Photo by Lilja Birgisdottir

The debut solo LP from impossibly high-voiced Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson, Go, is set to hit retail locations of all sorts on March 23 courtesy of XL. Based on the wildly symphonic new track "Boy Lilikoi" (available for download at Jónsi's site), Go does not sound like some half-assed side project. If anything, the song is more over-the-top than most of Sigur Rós's crescendo-prone oeuvre.

Indie-leaning modern classical innovator Nico Muhly (Björk, Grizzly Bear) arranged the whole record, and his flourishing touch can be heard on "Boy Lilikoi", along with several teasing snippets also available at Jónsi's web...

As she prepared her daughter for college, Anne Sweeney insisted that a television be among the dorm room accessories."Mom, you don't understand. I don't need it," her 19-year-old responded, saying she could watch whatever she wanted on her computer, at...

Three Lobed Recordings issued a statement over the weekend that Philadelphia-based acoustic guitarist Jack Rose passed away over the weekend of a heart attack; he was 38 years old. Rose was self-taught and made a name for himself originally as the guitarist in the band Pelt in the 1990s, but...

The title of the track is “With Broken Heart and Sharp Mind.” The album is the self-titled release by We Are Bright & Broken. Perhaps that mention of a “heart” helps explain the intermittent beep, a sharp bright ping that is not consonant with the light and slow guitar-like looping that is the...

Today’s quick lit [& alt.cult] links from around the web: Radio show on Flann O’Brien (via Darran Anderson) & Rare audio clip of Orson Welles & HG Wells (via @thebookslut) & Poe at auction (via @MAOrthofer) & Tao Lin on Bookworm with Michael SIlverblatt & HTMLGIANT’s 2nd...

The American Music Center (AMC) has awarded Composer Assistance Program grants totaling $31,000 to 28 American composers based in 12 states and ranging in age from 24 to 78.

By Eric Wubbels Taking off from the solo performance aesthetic of saxophonist Evan Parker, Peter Evans has devoted his early career to the cultivation and refinement of an exhaustive and totalizing virtuosity.

DECEMBER 7 — ANTONIO MACEO “The Bronze Titan.” Cuban revolutionist, anti-imperialist. DECEMBER 7, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS FESTIVAL OF PRIMORDIAL BEINGS. ALSO ON DECEMBER 7 IN HISTORY… 1872 — “Ludentologist” Johan Huizinga born, Groningen, Holland. 1896 — Cuban revolutionist, military hero...