Those of you who are averse to paying for music may want to consider briefly dropping that stance for You & Me, the outstanding new release by The Walkmen. Because if you buy now from Amie Street, all proceeds will go to charity, specifically, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. It's a mere five bucks for a high-quality rip of an album we'd put in the early running for Best of '08, so how can you go wrong?

Tom Korkidis of Eksi Ekso: “Top Five Songs To Go Alongside the 17 North Shore Summer of Love Stories”

1_The S.O.S. Band, “Take Your Time (Do It Right)”
2_Benny Mardones, “Into the Night”
3_Jermaine Stewart, “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off”
4_Smokey Robinson, “Being With You”
5_Matthew Wilder, “Break My Stride”

DOWNLOAD: Apollo Sunshine "666:The Coming of the New World Government"

With its fiery-good-from-front-to-back tracklist and a supporting cast sporting a crop of Boston’s best (peeps from Tulsa, Drug Rug, and Viva Viva), Shall Noise Upon, the forthcoming album from the much-beloved Apollo Sunshine (out August 5 on vinyl and via download, September 2 on CD from Headless Heroes), threatens to be the definitive statement to come out of Boston’s reburgeoning indie-rock scene this year.

We've been waiting patiently for New Hampshire/Boston indie dudes WILD LIGHT to blow up -- it's kind of inevitable, and we're not just saying that because one of 'em used to be in a band with Win from Arcade Fire -- so we're stoked to hear that they've finally wrapped up the recording of their as-yet-untitled debut record for Almost Gold Recordings (Black Kids, Peter Bjorn and John, Does It Offend You Yeah?), which was produced by superproducer Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith) and engineered by Dough Boehm (French Kicks, Katy Perry).

Tom Waits's current "Glitter and Doom Tour" didn't come anywhere near the Boston area - or anywhere in the entire northeast, really (unless you didn't mind driving to Columbus.) But for those of you who still wanted to at least hear Waits's live show, NPR has graciously taped his July 5th Atlanta performance, which they will make available tomorrow in both stream and podcast form.

We’ve been so busy wrapping our heads around the new Deerhunter album, which leaked about two months ago (and is still not out till late October), we almost forgot how much we liked Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (Kranky), the gauzy debut full-length from Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox’s solo project ATLAS SOUND, which came out way back in February.

Just in case you had any doubt, US terror policy is still ruining your summer. The latest victim: highly anticipated UK legend Bug, who was on his way to play a Basstown gig at Great Scott this Saturday. Via the Basstown facebook alert:

"For some time now, Basstown was anticipating the arrival of The Bug (UK) to make the ultimate Boston premiere.

NEW THIS WEEK: if you're too busy/lazy to get to your web browser, you can now get Tuesday Ticket Alert (or as much of it fits into a text message) zapped weekly to your mobile phone. As they say, standard text messaging rates apply. To signup, just txt HOTTIX to 22122.

JAMIE LIDELL | October 12 at the Paradise, Boston | $20 | On sale this Thursday, July 24, at noon

Bassic resident DJ Dabu: “Top Five Tracks To Get You Loving Dubstep (and Your Neighbors Hating It)”

1_Skream, “Rottan”
2_Mala, “Lean Forward”
3_Kode9 & the Spaceape, “Portal”
4_Zomby, “Spliff Dub (Rustie Remix)”
5_Bloc Party, “Where Is Home? (Burial Remix)"

The next Bassic goes down Wednesday, July 30 with Hatcha, Jam-2, and Pandai’a.

Corporate Rock Mags Still Suck: Frances Bean Cobain interning at Rolling Stone. Meanwhile, her mom's still blogging angrily on MySpace.

In other news:

• "As music retailers struggle to stay in business, a Los Angeles firm is doing nicely targeting a demographic that gets bigger every year -- prisoners."

July 19: We stayed at the Hotel Weston (i.e., Bob's house), pleasant as always. Slow getting out of town, picking up some gear. Picking up some sandwiches. Watching the endless rain coming down and feeling sorry for everyone who is at Pitchfork today. What can we do -- we're playing in Detroit tonight.

*****

Well, there's one thing you can say about Michigan -- it's one helluva lot flatter than Massachusetts.

[We asked Roger Miller to give us an insider's view of Mission of Burma's trip to this weekend's big Pitchfork blowout in Chicago, and thence to Detroit. The words and photos that follow are all his.]

JULY 18: Airports: fuck 'em. Before 911 (Bush's illegitimate ticket to bring that glorious "1984" idea to fruition: endless vague fear), airports were bad enough.