Two years on from his last record, Calika refines his sound processing and delivers two quite radically different EPs on Audiobulb and Highpoint Lowlife.

-- Improvised solo piano albums: So hot right now. Former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle has recorded his own solo piano album, Merry X-Mas 2009, and he's giving it away for free on his website. Sample song title: "Wild Animals Slowly Approaching the Lovely Country Funeral". -- On December 11, Danny Tamberelli and Mike Maronna, stars of the beloved Nickelodeon show "The Adventures of Pete & Pete", will reunite at the New Haven, Connecticut club Toad's Place. The occasion: A benefit show for former Miracle Legion frontman and...

When Pitchfork spoke with hard partier Andrew W.K. back in September, he talked a bit about his new London-based record label, Skyscraper Music Maker. He said that he'd signed an artist named Aleister X and that he'd just completed an EP with the kabuki-makeup-rocking, drum-machine-addled goth guy. Bangers and Beans, that EP, is out now.

Andrew W.K. has also signed two more artists to his label: balloon-headed dance act Bad Brilliance (aka Girl Talk/White Williams album cover designer Andrew Strasser) and New York electro-pop chick Cherie Lily. These...

Neko Case is not just the world's pre-eminent maker of haunting, big-voiced country-soul-folk. She likes old movies, too. And she's got damn good taste. Tonight, Case is programming some of her favorites for the Turner Classic Movies channel.

pagebreakThe Neko-picked run starts at 8 p.m. with Woody Allen's Radio Days and continues until the wee hours with harrowing rags-to-riches tale A Face in the Crowd, the Orson Welles classic A Third Man, and director Albert Lewin's 1945 take on The Picture of Dorian Gray. Case will introduce the movies along with host Robert Osborne-- not a bad way to spend a chilly Tuesday night. (Check out the schedule here.)...

The Noise Pop Festival, which takes over venues around San Francisco, tends more toward pop than noise. Next year's festival is no different. The 18th Noise Pop fest, which which goes down February 23 - March 1, will feature plenty of all-stars. Among the bands participating: the Magnetic Fields, Atlas Sound, Rogue Wave, Four Tet, the Soundtrack of Our Lives, Mark Kozelek, John Vanderslice, Foreign Born, Zee Avi, the Limousines, and We Were Promised Jetpacks.

pagebreakThe festival also includes an music industry mini-conference called Industry Noise, which will feature speakers, panels...

One of the more "awwwww" stories to come down the P4k news chute this year was Bon Iver leader Justin Vernon's set with his old high school jazz band. On April 19, Vernon teamed up with Eau Claire, Wisconsin's Memorial High's Jazz Ensemble I for a set of jazz standards and Bon Iver tunes. Proceeds from the show went towards a band trip to New York for the "Essentially Ellington" competition at Lincoln Center (where they ranked third).

Now there's an official release of the live show, dubbed A Decade With Duke, the Eau Claire, Wisconsin publication Volume One reports. The disc is available to purchase in physical form only in Eau Claire, at Brickhouse Music, Morgan...

A couple of months back, we reported that Animal Collective MVP Panda Bear would guest on Black Noise, the forthcoming album from German minimal dance producer (and Animal Collective remixer) Pantha Du Prince.

Now, "Stick to My Side", the Panda/Pantha collaboration, is up online. It's an icy, slowly percolating eight-minute tick-tock with a muffled, faraway vocal from Panda Bear. You can hear it at I Guess I'm Floating. UPDATE: Song has been removed

pagebreakRough Trade will release Black Noise on February 9 in the U.S. and February 8 in the UK. (It also features the track "The Splendour".) Panda Bear is also working on a new solo album of his...

Reclusive Neutral Milk Hotel leader Jeff Mangum hasn't released any new music in forever, so any news of a new Mangum track is a big deal. In July, we reported that Mangum would show up on Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox, a tribute album dedicated to New Zealand indie forefather and stroke survivor Chris Knox. But when the tracklist for the New Zealand release of Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox came out last month, Mangum wasn't on it. Well, good news: Mangum is on the U.S. version of the album, which is out now digitally via...

When you name your first album Volume One, coming up with a title for your second album is fairly easy. And Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward are not about to ruin a good thing. She & Him's Volume Two is due March 23 on Merge.

The record contains 13 songs, including covers of NRBQ's peppy-but-sad "Ridin' in My Car" and 50s/60s country-pop starlet Skeeter Davis's "Gonna Get Along Without You". One of the new originals, "In the Sun", features guest vocals from indie-pop group Tilly and the Wall. In a recent interview, Zooey said a She & Him tour is also in the works for 2010. Click on for the full Volume Two tracklist:

pagebreak Volume Two: 01...