Arcade Fire will release their new full length CD via Merge on Tuesday. The Suburbs is a remarkable collection of songs that demand to be heard as a whole. In the New York Times, Jon Pareles says “the album doesn’t resolve its own questions; it expands their mystery.” Read more about the band in his article today.

When copies of Arcade Fire’s forthcoming record, The Suburbs, become available in stores, they will feature 8 different album covers. Paste revealed all 8 yesterday. The differences are quite subtle, and identify well with the themes of the new songs. Here’s my favorite:

A wonderful unreleased Pearl Jam song called “Better Days” was recently unearthed and leaked. Suspected to be from the sessions for 2002’s Riot Act, the song is rumored to appear on the forthcoming soundtrack for Eat, Pray, Love.

We’re beginning to select songs for the Non-Commvention Music Meeting taking place on Saturday, June 5th at WXPN in Philadelphia. Most of you know the drill already but we’ll spell it out briefly for newcomers: we play ten songs that registrants — radio programmers, bloggers, record company personnel, artists, trades, syndicators, independent promoters, waiters and Dan Reed — have not yet heard. The music is discussed and rated in an effort to simulate what goes on in weekly music meetings across the country.

So we want the new stuff. And it has to be great: marquee names, brilliants unknowns, and everything in between. Send us your best candidates digitally or via the mail; please mark clearly that they’re for the Non-Comm Music Meeting and throw in bio and release information. Finally, full albums are always preferred over single songs.

Sean Coakley
Songlines
68 South Moger Avenue
Mt. Kisco, NY 10549

Or, email me.

We need your music before Memorial Day weekend – the cutoff date for submissions is May 28th.

Check your release schedule and cherry-pick the best of June, July and beyond and get your music exposed to this very important group of tastemakers.

Hope to see you in Philly!

The great Dan Reed

Each day this week, Hype Machine has been posting 10 of the top 50 albums of 2009, calculated based on the top 10 lists of 550 music bloggers, to reveal an altogether different sort of an end-of-year rundown. For Triple A programmers and listeners, this list is worth a look for several reasons.

Because bloggers tend to be weary of artists that have found a comfortable innertube on which to float down the mainstream, this list highlights scads of records that you may not have had an opportunity to hear (or even hear of). What’s more, the posting is beautifully designed, clean and bold, with an image of each album cover set against a live performance shot of each artist, as well as a quote from a featured blogger. You can also click for screenshots of every blog that chose a particular record. (Find an album you love, and you might find a few great new blogs to follow.) And best of all? There’s a full album stream of all 50 choices for your listening pleasure.

Bravo, Hype Machine!

Check out NPR Music’s terrific memoriam of important musicians lost in 2009.

We’d like to extend our congratulations to many artists on the Songlines roster this year who have been nominated for Grammys (and the clients who represent them)!

Dave Matthews Band, Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King (RCA) — Album of the Year / Best Rock Album

Rosanne Cash and Bruce Springsteen, “Sea of Heartbreak” (Manhattan) — Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals

Booker T. Jones, Potato Hole (Anti-) — Best Pop Instrumental Album

Bob Dylan, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” (Columbia) — Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance

Coldplay, “Life in Technicolor II” (Capitol) — Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals / Best Short Form Music Video

Booker T. Jones, “Warped Sister” (Anti-) — Best Pop Instrumental Performance

Pearl Jam, “The Fixer” (Monkeywrench) — Best Rock Song

Depeche Mode, Sounds of the Universe (Capitol) — Best Alternative Music Album

The Greencards, “The Crystal Merchant” (Sugar Hill) — Best Country Instrumental Performance

Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel, Willie and the Wheel (Bismeaux) — Best Americana Album

Bob Dylan, Together Through Life (Columbia) — Best Americana Album

Levon Helm, Electric Dirt (Vanguard) — Best Americana Album

Loudon Wainwright III, High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (2nd Story Sound) — Best Traditional Folk Album

Neko Case, Middle Cyclone (Anti-) — Best Contemporary Folk Album / Best Recording Package

Depech Mode, “Wrong” (Capitol) — Best Short Form Music Video

If you ask us (and even if you don’t, because hey, it’s our blog), the Kooks are one of the most underrated bands in Triple A. We can’t wait to hear what they have to offer on their next studio record, but in the meantime, we were happy to come across this link. It offers streams of some great acoustic covers of theirs. Four terrific tunes that we either worked or wished we had: “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley, Coldplay’s “Violet Hill,” MGMT’s “Kids,” and “Young Folks” by Peter, Bjorn and John.

Beck’s current means for intellectual and creative stimulation is to bring together like-minded musicians to record cover versions of entire albums in a single day–no rehearsals, no arrangements. The most recent undertaking was an homage to Leonard Cohen’s Songs of Leonard Cohen with a group including Devendra Banhart, as well as members of MGMT, Wolfmother, and Little Joy. Will the results put you in mind of Jeff Buckley’s take on “Hallelujah”? No. But there’s something refreshing and downright spunky about the lo-fi approach. One track per week is posted each week at Beck’s Record Club site.

All next year, NPR will be doing features on 50 of the greatest voices of recorded history. Right now, they’re asking for input from listeners and experts on who they should feature, and why. I’m nominating Stevie Wonder. You can make a case for your favorite singer by leaving a comment at their site, or emailing GreatVoices@npr.org.