The thing about studying for finals is you end up surfing the web a lot before you actually get productive. (It's just like working again!) So let's go:

- Through their email list, Ira from Yo La Tengo reports that their new album will be out in September. In the meantime, we have Yo La Tengo Is Murdering The Classics to keep us busy. That's the new 70-minute compilation of highlights from YLT's annual WFMU all-request sets - each year they take over the station for a few hours in March and play whatever people want. (And the requests are literally all over the map.) The band hasn't published a tracklist for the disc yet, but it should be an entertaining listen if nothing else. (I'll let you know once my copy arrives!) YLT will be playing Prospect Park on July 13 and, according to Brooklyn Vegan, Wilco will also be on the bill. Odds are it'll be a benefit show, but we should still probably get in line now.

- Update your bookmarks - Nick Sylvester is blogging again over at Riff Market. Pretty much all of it is worth reading, but this fantastic Jukebox Jury interview with Juan Maclean is where you should start.

- You don't hear his name as often these days, but Michael Mayer will be at Cielo on April 27. A great 3.5 hour Mayer mix is available here - the bitrate isn't the best, but it looks worse than it sounds.

- Had a great subway moment last week when a guy started playing the sax in my car while I had "Can You Feel It?" by Mr. Fingers going on the iPod. They fell into synch for a couple minutes and the world was right.

- Chris Ott uses a commemorative Jane's Addiction $25 Hard Rock Hotel casino chip to segue into an excellent discussion of Jane's and the first Lollapalooza. I disagree with some of his points - the Relapse tour was fantastic IMO and I thought Strays was forgettable - but the post is a must-read if you ever were a fan.

- Speaking of those days, MTV's 120 Minutes was hugely influential on my early CD collection. The Dave Kendall years predated me (unlike Jason + Paul), but I used to always tape the Lewis Largent shows (back when Belly owned the charts) and watch them habitually after school everyday. My first viewing of the "Cut Your Hair" video was a watershed moment, in retrospect. Anyway, it seemed half those shows had guest hosts, and I've always remembered the episode with Thurston Moore interviewing Beck (circa Mellow Gold) as being one of the best. A couple weeks ago, I finally thought to search YouTube for that episode and, of course, I found it! (Well, clips at least.) It's actually not *quite* as classic as I remembered, but seeing Beck be so deliberately weird is wild in light of everything he went on to do. I had forgotten about Mike D's appearance near the end. If only they kept a Superdrag video somewhere in between.

- Recent obsessions: the Psychic Ills' Dins (my album of 2006 so far), the Fiery Furnaces' Bitter Tea (naturally), Press Play by the Idjut Boys, Minilogue's "The Girl from Botany Bay" (what Jason said), and "Que Belle Epoque 2006" (MP3) by Ricardo Villalobos.

- Oh and before I forget - head over to the Optimo site to grab First Hour, their latest web mix. A little different than what you'd expect, and that's why we love 'em.