On Saturday December 5 local music blog Guilt Free Pleasures is presenting an intimate night of folk/alt-country performances at a private art space in Brooklyn, NY, featuring fine Brooklyn folkster  Reverend John Delore among others. His blues-tinged alt-country rumbles with wistful tales of yearning. His gritty vocals have been likened to those of Hayes Carll, Mason Jennings and Steve Earle. Full line up and more info about this even can be found here.

A musician since the age of 3, Elaine Lachica first knew she wanted to be a singer when she heard Liz Fraser sing “Blue Bell Knoll” by the Cocteau Twins. It was then she started songwriting, and she hasn’t stopped since. "I think I Can See the Ocean" is her third full-length, and her first label-backed one. The release is scheduled for February 23 on Stunning Models On Display Records. Contributing musicians on the album include drummer Mark Stepro (Ben Kweller), bassist Rob Calder (Ari Hest), guitarist Aaron Lee Tasjan (New York Dolls), a string quartet led by violinist Rob Moose (Sufjan Stevens, Antony and the Johnsons) and brass section led by trumpeter Jon Mizrachi (Essie Jain).

After finishing a US run with Neko Case, Deer Tick started a three week European tour last week - upon their return to the US on Dec. 13 the band will be entering the studio to put the finishing touches on its as-yet-untitled third album, which will be released in the first half of 2010.  The band will again be touring relentlessly in 2010, to SXSW and beyond. Taken mostly from a month-long recording session in upstate New York nicknamed "The Black Dirt Sessions", More Fuel for the Fire features three new studio tracks as well as a live version of "Straight Into A Storm" (from Born on Flag Day) recorded in Charlotte, NC at the Visulite Theatre.

Langhorne Slim sings Pavement songs in the shower. I learned this while drinking Yuengling with him at a Holiday Inn Express a few hours before his sold-out show at The Bell House in Brooklyn. - Read Ryan Henriquez's interview with the man here.

The guys in Fiasco create the kind of angular, wire-tight bursts of frenetic math-punk that can simultaneously move crowds and impress even the most technically-minded musicians. The songs are a mind-boggling juggling act of interlocking guitar and bass riffs and manic drums, and they always carry an underlying punk influence (Fiasco started out as a punk covers band, after all). Just check out “Oh You Horny Monster” from Native Canadians (or the entertaining A cappella version on Myspace) for a taste of the fun and complexity that makes up the band’s songs. - Read Bill Dvorak's interview with the band here.