And The Relatives have announced that they’ll be releasing their debut full-length in February 2010 with the help of Theory 8 and yk records. Not much to report beyond that but as details emerge, we’ll be sure to share them.

In the meantime, if you haven’t procured the bands Animals EP – I suggest you go and get it now.

While Sufjan Stevens isn’t exactly a local artist his recent musing on the “death of the album” is something that just about any music lover would find interesting. With bands like How I Became the Bomb releasing digital singles / annual compilations or Billy Corgan releasing 40 individual tracks instead of a traditional release you’d think the time honored format of the LP might be in danger. Fortunately, this article does a good job of boosting the idea that the proliferation of digital distribution actually creates more options for artists, not fewer. The album format isn’t dying, it’s evolving into numerous new forms.

The following was sent to us in regards to the new track from The Zut Alors:

It’s a real rocker that we recorded on VHS tape in a cave on a dreary October Sunday morning. The archtop guitar on this song can also be heard on Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” and Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talkin'”

True or not, that’s a helluva backstory to entice someone to check out a track. Go give “Set the Sun on Fire” a listen / download.

Now that Next Big Nashville has been fully exhumed from your body it’s time to gather your thoughts on the whole event and share them with the organizers to, ideally, improve things for 2010. So, get to clicking on this survey and you could not only improve things as a whole but even score a free badge to the 2010 festivities.