Cats on Fire - "Letters from a Voyage to Sweden". A song of afternoon adultery, quickly snatched; melancholy in a blue afternoon. // My guesses: Cats on Fire keep their guitar-picks in jean-pockets when they're not using them. Matthias Bjorkas wears an embroidered Morrissey patch. They keep their accordion in a box, only take it out for a few moments in a breathless bridge. They imagine playing a concert on a ferry. They are from Finland. This is gold-flecked, jangled, finger-flicked, and good. [buy/from Skatterbrain's Best Songs of 2009]

The Octagon - "Cross Tops".
The Octagon - "Easton".
I'm fully subscribing to the new record by the Octagon, an LP with sixteen crunchy numbers like these, brambled, messy and sincere. I can say words like 'nirvana' and 'constantines'; I can say names like 'Lou Barlow' and 'Eric's Trip'. But I doubt any of these words & names were uttered as Zachary Mexico, Will Glass and a bassist called the Bunny recorded this lacquered disc of furious heart. They were too busy clutching & pitching & caring, caring keenly, sloppily; and playing hooks. When Glass lived in Montreal he was this little treasure, hoarded. Now he's one third of an eight-sided band, a group that's chipped and twinkling, all of them furiously sharing the dusty stuff of their days. [buyWarm Love and Cool Dreams Forever/previously on StG]

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At the Observer, Arcade Fire's Régine Chassagne has written stridently (and vividly) about Haiti, where her parents were born. It's worth reading - and then please donate.

(image excerpted from Thelonious Monk's Advice to Musicians)