Sleeping States - "Rivers". The guitar strings are drawn back and away. We do this with oars, too. The river Sleeping States summon is so gentle, so Saturday, that the whole world can go fuzzy. A handful of grass in the bottom of your boat - squint and it's Pavement, it's Grizzly Bear. Mistake your memories for voices, your appetites for electric guitar, bass, and drums. Sleeping States is led by a man named Markland Starkie, who lives in London. He's got the same bruised croon as Beirut's Zach Condon. And this song makes me think the Thames is much, much, much, much, much, much more lovely than I ever knew.

[MySpace/ buy a CD here, or by paypalling £4 to sleepingstates@hotmail.com / tape EP available here]

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It's Ed of Grizzly Bear who first told me about the above song, and he's since written it up in a post at the band's blog. As many of you will have heard, Grizzly Beard were victims of a horrible robbery while on tour in Brussels. Stolen: cash, instruments, equipment, personal effects... close to everything. It's a massive, massive blow to them - as much psychologically as economically. The tour's now been cancelled and the band is praying that insurance will cover the losses. (It probably won't.)

I asked Ed the best way to help the band right now. And, shyly, he said something simple: buy their record. Yellow House is, as you should know by now, one of 2006's best albums. If you've enjoyed any of the songs we've posted, any samples you've heard, or if you're simply curious - buy it. You won't be disappointed.

(Emailing the band to wish them well probably wouldn't do any harm either.)

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At Jagjaguwar there are two songs from Julie Doiron's upcoming new album, Woke Myself Up - one as mp3 and one as video. "No More" is shiny-sad, sounding more like her stuff with the Wooden Stars than the last album (where Herman Dune was backing band). And "Me and My Friend", for which there is a silly-tender video, well... we already wrote about it. And I think I'll let my words there- I think I'll let them be.

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Rishi Hargovan has written a good piece for The McGill Daily on the subject of musicblogs. It's thoughtful and deliciously ambivalent. I feature (too?) prominently, but it's my and Jordan's alma mater after all. (Special StG bonus: hunt the Daily's archives and find my blistering rant against indie-kid elitism! read my undergraduate fiction! & read the first news article ever written on the arcade fire!)