The Year: 1982
The Album: Jandek, Chair Beside a Window
Who It Influenced: Bill Callahan, Low, Six Organs of Admittance, The Tower Recordings, Charalambides, Sonic Youth

It's getting hard to remember that it's only been 5 years of Jandek playing live. Hard to remember that the mysterious, unknown, myth-making man from Corwood only started performing publicly in 2004, and that even a few years after that, the novelty of seeing one of the underground's most infamous recluses suddenly up on stages hadn't worn off.

That's perhaps the case now, when the revelation that Thurston Moore will be part of Jandek's live band —when he performs at Hollywood Theatre on April 29, in Portland, Oregon— is met rather with a shrug.

Jandek earnt his reputation as the farthest outpost on the musical fringe; this mythological man who refused to make any biographical details public, who never gave interviews, and never, ever played live. Now he treads the boards all the time, and it's hard not to lament the death of mystery in the internet age.

If Jandek, now, seems weirdly tangible, at least there's still mystery alive in his baffling back-catalog. If you're willing to take the plunge into the realm of borderline 'unlistenable' music, there may be no better place to start than 1982's weirdly rewarding Chair Beside a Window.

• Full review: Jandek, Chair Beside a Window

It's easy to think of El Perro del Mar's Love is Not Pop and Taken by Trees' East of Eden as a pair. Both the product of Swedish women working solo, both produced by Gothenburg woozy-disco producer-dudes Studio (Rasmus Hagg on the former, D. Lissvik on the latter), and both undoubtably amongst the best albums of 2009.

Now, Sarah Assbring and Victoria Bergsman, respective Msses. EPDM and TBT, are taking to the road together, a veritable Thelma and Louise of downtempo, electro-flecked folk melancholia let loose on the highways of North America.

Fans of glamorous, gamine Swedes making sad, sad music rejoice!

Taken by the Dog of the Sea:
February 14: Philadelphia, PA - World Café
February 16: New York City, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
February 17: Brooklyn, NY - Knitting Factory
February 19: Cambridge, MA - Cambridge Family YMCA
February 20: Montréal, Quebec - Il Motore
February 21: Toronto, Ontario - The Mod Club
February 22: Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
February 23: Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural Center
February 26: Seattle, WA - The Triple Door
February 27: Vancouver, British Columbia - Biltmore Cabaret
February 28: Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
March 2: San Francisco, CA - Café du Nord
March 3: Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour

Jón Þór Birgisson, the helium-voiced frontman of Sigur Rós, has announced his first solo album, Go, will be be unleashed unto the world in 2010. Issued under the name Jónsi, the LP is due out on March 23, on XL Recordings.

Birgisson's solo debut follows this year's unveiling of Riceboy Sleeps, the side-project he shares with boyfriend Alex Somers. Riceboy Sleeps first offered a song on the monstrous Dark Was the Night double-disc in January, then fronted with their debut album come July.

But, where Riceboy Sleeps was an album of heavily-processed sounds floating in a sonic soup of ghostly ambience, Go is a largely acoustic LP, with suitably epic, obtuse orchestrations from our old pal Nico Muhly (whose CV, already Antony, Björk, The National, and Grizzly Bear deep, continues growing more impressive by the day).

Fans of Sigur Rós will find much to love in the grandiose crescendos and reach-for-the-stars ambition of Go, but there is, we caution, one change. For those used to hearing Jónsi warbling in incomprehensible 'Hopelandic' whale-calls, it may be a shock hearing the vocalist clearly enunciating actual English words.

• Listen: Jónsi, "Boy Lilikoi"

Go Track List:
1. "Go Do"
2. "Animal Arithmetic"
3. "Tornado"
4. "Boy Lilikoi"
5. "Sinking Friendships"
6. "Kolnidur"
7. "Grow Till Tall"
8. "Around Us"
9. "Hengilas"

Photo © Lilja Birgisdottir

In 2007, perhaps the most surprising album of the year was the debut disc for She & Him. A set of songs by Hollywood rom-com foil Zooey Deschanel, it turned out not to be some actor celebrity vanity project, but a collaboration of bonafide artistic credentials with mumblin' songsmith M. Ward. Volume One, their first-ever disc, was a glorious platter of sparkling jukebox pop matching Deschanel's country croon to Ward's Phil Spector-inspired production.

Now, She & Him have announced the existence of their forthcoming second album, titled, of course, Volume Two. Ward —who, since last time out, has issued both a solo album and that Monsters of Folk thing— again produced, and the LP features a collaboration with tapdancing Nebraskan indie kids Tilly and the Wall on "In the Sun." Merge will release Volume Two on March 23.

In unrelated-but-yet-kind-of-related news, Deschanel was recently named, once again, Stereogum's Indie Rock Crush of the year, somehow beating out Bat for Lashes for the ladies belt (Panda Bear was the winner for the chaps, though, for me, Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste is waaayyyy dreamy). Deschanel's crowned 'crushworthy' status suggests that plenty out there will be anticipating Volume Two's arrival, for reasons entirely musical or not.

Volume Two Track List:
1. "Thieves"
2. "In the Sun"
3. "Don't Look Back"
4. "Ridin' in My Car"
5. "Lingering Still"
6. "Me and You"
7. "Gonna Get Along Without You Now"
8. "Home"
9. "I'm Gonna Make It Better"
10. "Sing"
11. "Over It Over Again"
12. "Brand New Shoes"
13. "If You Can't Sleep"