Twin Cities:
— The Swing State Voter Awareness Tour will be hitting the Twin Cities with Beastie Boys, Ben Harper and Tenacious D – Roy Wilkins Auditorium – Nov. 1.
— While in town for a show at the State Theatre, Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields recorded a studio set at The Current. (link)
— The Star Tribune’s Chris Riemenschneider interviews Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene. (link)
— Oh, and Broken Social Scene is playing an in-store today. (link)

(Inter)National:
— Lollapalooza 2009 has been set for August 7-9. (link)
— Big news: M.I.A. performed at this weekend’s monstrous Diesel party in NYC. Bigger news: she is wicked-pregnant. (link)
— Cracked list the 7 Music Trends Whose Return Must Be Stopped. (link)

Local Concert Highlights:
— Broken Social Scene & Land of Talk @ First Avenue
Land of Talk “Corner Phone” (mp3)
(BSS Official) (BSS MySpace) (BSS Wikipedia) (LOT Official) (LOT MySpace) (LOT Wikipedia)
— Ben Kweller @ Varsity Theater
(Official) (MySpace) (Wikipedia)
— Throw Me The Statue @ The Entry
Throw Me The Statue “Lolita” (mp3)
Throw Me The Statue “About To Walk” (mp3)
(Official) (MySpace) (Wikipedia)
— Motion City Soundtrack @ U of M West Bank Auditorium
(Official) (MySpace) (Wikipedia)

Daily Audio Downloads:
— Diplo vs. Radiohead “Reckoner V1.0 (remix)” (mp3)
— Diplo vs. Radiohead “Reckoner V2.0 (Diplo in a Train Wreck Mix)” (mp3)
(MySpace) (Blog) (Wikipedia)
— Samuel Markus “Rosa” (mp3)
(Official) (MySpace)
— The Notwist “Boneless” (mp3)
(Official) (MySpace) (Wikipedia)
— Our Brother The Native “Seminal Paws” (mp3)
(Official) (MySpace)