It just so happens we've been compiling a pretty sweet list of various musical podcasts that might be of interest to the indie music sect:

Ahh... God, I love it when so much fantastic news and music spews forth that it's tough to keep up with the news.

First off, there's lots of news involving sonic terrorist bravecaptain, otherwise known in a former life as Martin Carr of the Boo Radleys. If you haven't been paying attention all year, Brave Sir Melton has been releasing an mp3 singles club throughout 2005. Every month, a new track has shown up at the Captain's website available for inexpensive download (1 pound per track.) And it's well worth the investment, if you ask us.

It's also well worth the investment if you ask the Captain himself... as he's just announced a pretty cool deal. If you have downloaded all 12 of the 2005 Singles-of-the-Month by January 15th, 2006, you'll get sent COMPLETELY FREE a limited edition CD of bravecaptain's 'Eyeless in Canton' session for BBC Radio Wales. No charges, not even shipping. The 'Eyeless in Canton' session is a 24-minute mix featuring the likes of the Human League, Kool Keith, Akira the Don, Blondie & MF Doom alongside special mixes of tracks from the new bravecaptain album, 'Distractions'.

That enough good news for you? PSHAW. Let's talk about the new bravecaptain album, "Distractions," released on January 30th. We've been lucky enough to hear an advance copy, and it's definitely the most mature, sonically evolved bravecaptain record yet. Here's the best part: In an attempt to expand the bravecaptain fanbase across the world, "Distractions" will NOT be coming out on Martin's most recent label, Wichita. In fact, "Distractions" will NOT be coming on any label period. Starting on Mon., Jan. 30, you can simply log onto bravecaptain.co.uk and download it COMPLETELY FOR FREE. That's right, Martin's GIVING us his new record FREE OF CHARGE!!!

Think that's enough Boo Radleys news to keep you going? Hardly. Now you need to go to www.paperlung.com. PAPERLUNG is Sice's new band. That's right, the voice of the Boos is back after nearly a decade with a new project. There are 3 downloadable demos that are everything you'd want this band to sound like and then some.

Talk about one great Christmas.

bravecaptain website: bravecaptain.co.uk
bravecaptain on MySpace: myspace.com/bravecaptain

Paperlung website: www.paperlung.com
Paperlung on MySpace: myspace.com/paperlung

It seems like the radio world is abuzz this week with transition. If you live on Planet Earth and have been within earshot of any kind of buzz-worthy talk show, you're probably aware that Friday morning is Howard Stern's last day in terrestrial radio before making the move to Sirius Satellite Radio in the new year. Whoopedy-doo, I say, and apologies go out to our New York City-based Excellentians who get to deal with the parade and craziness tomorrow.

Meanwhile, if you live in MY town, you're probably aware that one of the two Top 40 stations here in the Quad Cities has announced that they're going under within two months. I mention this only because it means that the only surviving Top 40 station will be the one run by my good friend Jeff, and I wanted to publicly congratulate him and tell anyone that if you're traveling from one important place to another important place and happen to find yourself on the Illinois/Iowa border, tune your dial to KBEA 99.7 FM for some horrible music and to hear a buddy of mine. Congrats, man.

However, the REAL news in radio this week is that not only is Friday the final day for Howard Stern, it saddens me to also announce that tomorrow is the final day of Air America's "Morning Sedition" featuring Mark Riley and MARC MARON. As you guys may recall, Marc Maron was one of our favorite underground comics when we asked him to contribute material to our "FLIRT" mp3 compilation which we bore to the world a few Valentine's Days yonder.

Sources are confirming today that DEPECHE MODE have been confirmed to headline the first night of the 2006 Coachella Music & Arts Festival, to be held as always in Indio, CA this spring. More artists are expected to be announced as the festival draws closer.

Earlier this year BBC 4 released (what I've heard is a fantastic) documentary called The Fall: The Wonderful, Frightening World of Mark E. Smith. Unfortunately it couldn't be seen in the US, until now. Fall fans in Philadelphia will be treated to a rare glimpse of this rockumentary at The International House on December 16 and 17th. Fake Jazz called this documentary a "must-see":

"This documentary on BBC4 was a notch above the usual rockumentary. If you've forgotten that you love the Fall, this is a must-see. Mark E. Smith is pretty much unintelligble in his 2004 interviews (they really shoulda subtitled) but the glimpses into the most recent Peel Session reveal that he's still 'got it', even he's just moaning through a cover of the Move's "I Can Hear the Grass Grow." This was probably filmed just before John Peel passed, so maybe it just seems appropriate to see the Fall in there since they did 20+ Peel Sessions."

BBC 6 Radio and BBC 2 are honoring the memory of John Lennon all day. On this 25th anniversary of this death the collected stations have compiled a spectacular tribune to the musical legend:

• Working Class Hero featured as the Record of the Day - 6 Radio
• Exclusive interview with John Peel interviewing John and Yoko in 1968.
• Throughout the day the station will be playing music that inspired John (ie. Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, etc).
• Several guest artists have gone into Abbey Road to record cover tracks specifically for the ocassion. Guests include: Paul Weller, Trashcan Sinatras, Lulu, Gomez, Badly Drawn Boy and more (even... the Sugababes with a cover of 'Come Together').

You can listen live to both stations today or the material will remain up on the web for at least a week.

This came to our attention last week and we were so stunned by it that we completely forgot to pass the information along, sorry. Mike Joyce (ex-Smiths, eh?) went on BBC 6 last week to declare he was in such dire financial straits that he had to sell all his rare Smiths stuff on eBay. By rare we mean UNRELEASED demos and such that true Smiths enthusiasts would drool over (if they weren't all getting their knickers in a twist about Mike doing this on his own without the approval of any of the other members).

So you've gathered up your pile of CDs (or playlist of mp3s) of music released in 2005 and are about to sit down to ponder the best and the brightest of the year. Oh where to start? My Blog is Poop offers a music enthusiast a few tips laughs. You could take a peek at a few of the already released lists like Indie Interviews, Large Hearted Boy or Stylus Magazine's top 50 Singles (which is being revealed 10 at a time throughout this week). Perhaps you'd like to know what a few celeb's thought of 2005... how about Shirley Manson of Garbage or Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs.

Yeh I know it's not yet Christmas, you think I'm jumping the gun on announcing Valentine's news. Me? Never. SAINT ETIENNE have announced tour dates for the new year (hot on the heels of their new US record label news). They're flying over for a quick US tour to be your valentine. Dates are up on our tour page and the record (with 3 more tracks than the UK release) is due out January 24. Fingers crossed but perhaps on this US tour we could get a few DJ sets from Bob Stanley. (nudge nudge)

So there's news everywhere on the new MORRISSEY record. Well, it's got a title, Ringleader Of The Tormentors, and it's expected out in March. As for the tracklisting and everything else, Morrissey has offered up the details to Billboard. Or you could view the Q & A at the NME. Or you could take a peek at the Questions posed by fans on True-To-You.Net to find out such things like Moz being drawn to people who question authority. Or you could read the book that was reissued last month, Saint Morrissey : A Portrait of This Charming Man by an Alarming Fan. Or you could read the Pitchfork review that compares Jens Lekman to Morrissey, but that last one probably isn't what you're after.