Of Montreal and Jon Brion are a match made in heaven, apparently: according to the band’s Twitter, they “Just had a rad meeting with sir jon brion.looks like were gonna work together on the new album! Dreams do come true:•).” Kevin Shield’s penchant for body paint and riding horses onstage meshes perfectly with Brion’s production style. The musician/producer, who has written the scores for a variety of soundtracks (including those for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I Heart Huckabees, and Synecdoche, New York) in addition to producing albums by the likes of Aimee Mann, Robyn Hitchcock, Elliott Smith, Kanye West, and Spoon, among others, is already listed on his Wikipedia page as the producer for Of Montreal’s Jon Brion Remix EP, due out this year- looks like the title expands upon the band’s tweet, promising some super cool Of Montreal remixes in your future.

Ever find yourself wishing you had children? How about wishing that Colin Meloy would tuck those imaginary children in and read them a bedtime story? Well, sometimes dreams do come true. Word just leaked that Meloy and his wife/artist Carson Ellis have teamed-up to write a children’s book together, with Meloy handling the words and Ellis tackling the illustrations. Though you might not recognize Ellis’ name, you probably recognize her work: he’s been responsible for the art of every Decemberists and solo Meloy album. Ellis recently dropped some hints regarding the book on her blog, but the details were slim. What we do know is that it will be titled The Unfortunate Demise of Whitley Rackham and it’s due for a limited-edition, letterpress-printed release.

No word yet though on when the perfect gift for hipster parents will be published. In the meantime, I suggest they put on their copy of Lullaby Renditions of Radiohead.

Contrary to what their psychedelic rock n’ roll music may suggest, Crystal Antlers are actually quite lovely. They are dream boats floating atop a bathtub lake of Budweiser and ice. Sound insane? Well, it’s true! Please find the proof in the puddin’ below, video gold of the Long Beachers visiting our Hotbox and setting sail on a bountiful Bob Dylan “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” cover adventure. But you know what? IT IS NOT ALL OVER NOW. It is only the beginning…

His words, not mine, folks. Either way, you can probably stop that long running bet with your bro who writes for the university paper about whether or not Oregon, New Jersey or Rhode Island will be the next Sufjan States record, because, well, it probably ain’t going to happen. In an interview with Paste, Stevens calls the absolutely ambitious and totally NPR-worthy States Project “a joke.” The dude who wrote tunes about a holiday that celebrates a Revolutionary War officer from Poland and the pot-holed mess of a raised motor path known as the BQE, goes as far as saying “I took it too seriously. I started to feel like I was becoming a cliché of myself.” Sufjan then goes into detail about his BQE project, which debuted over two years ago at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and is just now being issued to the public. “In all honesty, that piece is what really sabotaged my creative momentum.” Apparently, considering he hasn’t done anything but issue old stuff (the BQE), rearrange older stuff (Run Rabbit Run), contribute re-arranged, remixed, re-worked 10 minute-plus old track works to a high profile AIDS comp and probably made a Grilled Cheese or two. Anyway, sounds like someone’s developed a really hefty weed habit, is spending too much time hitting the Volcano and not enough time researching the Battle of Appomattox Court House. And for a second, I totally thought this dude could pull a Jandek and release hundreds of albums in a lifetime.

Photo: Gail Butensky

Unfortunately, it doesn’t include new material, but Pavement guitarist Spiral Stairs told NME.com that the band plans to release a best of compilation album sometime next year, which will feature previously unreleased radio sessions. He explained that the album would feature outtakes along with some of Pavement’s most popular songs, and that its release would coincide with some of the band’s reunion shows scheduled for next fall.

“There’s talk of doing a best of, with some really cool outtakes on that,” he explained. “The very first radio show that Pavement ever did has never been released. I don’t think anyone’s heard it, so we’ll put that out there sometime.”