This interview with My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields is worth a read even without the conspiracy theory that Britpop was pushed by the Labour Government in the mid-90’s (ha!).

‘But when it is jokingly suggested that, had Shields released m b v in 1994, as initially planned, he could have kiboshed Britpop, his mood changes. “Britpop was massively pushed by the government,” he says. “Someday it would be interesting to read all the MI5 files on Britpop. The wool was pulled right over everyone’s eyes there.”

However, this interview by Ian Svenonius of Nation of Ulysses and The Make-Up over at Vice is probably more fun, though:

David Yow fronting Girls Against Boys covering Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control” doesn’t really need an introduction, but Yow’s is funny nonetheless: “If you like boring? songs by bands from the 70s and 80s, you might like this song.”

The Throwing Muses’ trajectory of out of left field alterna-art-pop has been anything but normal, which makes perfect sense when you consider bandleader Kristin Hersh’s mental health rollercoaster over the years. The band broke up in the late 1990’s only to return in the early aughts with just as much fire and intensity as when it had begun two decades prior. The return was an aberrant blip because the Muses haven’t been heard from since, which makes a forthcoming 32-song double album even more beguiling. The record is being packaged with a photo art book and musings (intended) by Hersh. The first fruits of those mammoth sessions, “Sleepwalk-1,” can be heard below. And it rocks with stuttering gusto, replete with Hersh’s maniacal vamping. Purgatory/Paradise is out November 11, 2013 on the Harper Collins subsidiary It Books.

Laura Marling is such a force to behold in a live setting. She’s both entreating and more than a little intimidating. This live version is just as sinister as the video for this song from one of my top albums of the year.

Tears for Fears have entered the studio to record the follow up to 2004’s reunion effort Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, which didn’t find near the audience it probably should have. That Donnie Darko momentum didn’t quite have the legs the duo was counting on, but never a band to give a wit about time TFF will reinvent itself once again almost a decade on. The band just posted a stream of the first fruits of its recent labors with a cover of The Arcade Fire’s “Ready to Start,” which sees the band embracing its synth-heavy origins to great effect. If this is the sonic direction, then Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith may reignite some of that lost momentum. [via Slicing up Eyeballs]

These guys make up for the roll call of references with a shit-kicking rock ‘n roll sound. I hadn’t thought of the Bruce Springsteen connection before I saw this live version of “Adrenaline NightShift,” but it’s definitely there. And also forgiven. Remember when people said The Killers sounded like Springsteen? Man, people are idiots.

I have to admit I think the new Nine Inch Nails song is great. Trent Reznor injects this comeback single with everything that was ever good about his band: Bracing synths, machine beats, aggro guitars, and Reznor’s idiosyncratic whisper/wail combination. All of it works exactly as it should in “Came Back Haunted.” It’s already one of the best NIN singles, hands down. Reznor knows exactly what he wants to do and, more importantly, he knows exactly how to do it. David Lynch directed this video. If you have epilepsy, you should probably not watch it.