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Photo by Ryan Muir

The week before last Arcade Fire's Win Butler had a nice long chat with Amy Phillips about Mirror Noir, the new documentary about the making of Neon Bible and subsequent tour that the band just released in an array of configurations. As part of the promo push for the doc they've just released an mp3 of "Burning Bridges", an instrumental version of a song called "Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts" that the band has played live for a few years. Just gotta cough up a working e-mail address and it's yours.

MP3:> Arcade Fire: "Burning Bridges"
[Mirror Noir is available now from Arcade Fire]

Sufjan Stevens and his pals at Sounds Familyre like to celebrate the season with new Christmas music. A new track from the second volume of SF's A Familyre Christmas series, up today at their blog, is also featured on Songs for Christmas Volume 8: Astral Inter Planet Space Captain Christmas Infinity Voyage, the latest small-run privately distributed entry in Sufjan's Christmas music catalogue. And it's electronic! Vocoder, spiky synths, laser blasts, some spazzy beats-- definitely not one to enjoy with the folks, but possibly interesting for a Christmas on Mars.

MP3:> Sufjan Stevens: "Good King Wenceslas"
[from A Familyre Christmas Vol. 2; out now on Sounds Familyre]

In this extra special episode of "BEARDO", Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav brings together fellow musicians to raise awareness of the plight of the super rich during this difficult economic time. Featuring Andrew W.K., Fred Armisen (Trenchmouth), Moby, Nancy Whang and Pat Mahoney of LCD Soundsystem, the New Pornographers' Carl Newman, Ian Svenonius (Nation of Ulysses, The Make Up, Weird War), Okkervil River's Will Sheff, Oliver Ackermann of A Place to Bury Strangers, Ryan Schreiber (Pitchfork founder/president), Gavin McInnes (Street Carnage/ex-VICE), comedian Seth Herzog, plus members of Love as Laughter, Excepter, Cheeseburger, Panthers, some guy in a bright orange wig called Ronald Michael MacDonald, and sundry other pals. Huge thanks to engineer/mixer David Tolomei of DNA Studios.

MP3:> USA for Affluence: "Cash for Christmas"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

In the late 1970s, Johnny Cash hosted a Christmas Special each year, featuring musical performances from him and his extended family as well as other country and pop luminaries. On Pitchfork.tv we have these four highlights for One Week Only. First up is the ancient folk song popularized by Ledbelly (and then Kurt Cobain) "In the Pines", performed by June Carter Cash and her legendary family. Then we get the Million Dollar Quartet (almost) of Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis paying tribute to Elvis with "This Train Is Bound for Glory". A stirring "Silent Night" with a reading from the Bible is prefaced with Cash's word about a visit to the Holy Land. And then the late, great Andy Kaufman applies his spot-on Elvis impression (which the King himself apparently loved) to "That's When Your Heartaches Begin".

"In the Pines" - The Carter Family

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

"This Train Is Bound For Glory" - Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

"Silent Night" - Johnny Cash, June Carter, and Family

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

"That's When Your Heartaches Begin" - Andy Kaufman

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

A lot happening in the Purple Kingdom in the last 24 hours. First, Prince debuted some new songs on L.A.'s Indie 103 yesterday, apparently from a forthcoming album. Several are said to be heavy on guitar, and one was a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' proto-glam classic "Crimson and Clover". And now comes another new song, this one an appealingly simple and stripped-down funk number called "There Will Never B Another 1 Like Me", streaming on the very purple new website MPLsound.com. He's right, you know: there will never be another one like him. (via Rolling Stone)

Stream:> Prince: "There Will Never B Another 1 Like Me"

Of Montreal pulled out all the stops on Letterman last night, enlisting their usual parade of fanciful props and costumes from their famously theatrical live shows. Barnes emerges from a curtained litter, decked in regal Prince purples, to perform "An Eluardian Instance" from this year's Skeletal Lamping.

[Skeletal Lamping is out now on Polyvinyl]

"Love Lockdown" still has some life in it yet. Our #39 track from 2008 is remixed by the guy who issued our #28 album. Interspersing Kanye's robo-croon with his trademark digital crunches, FL's Steven Ellison makes him sound even more alien and distant. (via RCRD LBL)

MP3:> Kanye West: "Love Lockdown (Flying Lotus Remix)"
[808s and Heartbreak is out now on Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam]

As with Bon Iver on Letterman a couple of days ago, Fleet Foxes on Conan is a nice way to wind down 2008. Both have logged some serious miles this year touring behind very strong records. I've been looking for a YouTube of this one but no luck yet (NBC's not a big fan of those). So video comes courtesy of Hulu, which is using pretty harsh compression on the audio here, plus you have to sit through an ad. Still worth a look for this lovely song.

Video:> Fleet Foxes: "English House" (Live on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien")
[original version from Sun Giant; available from Sub Pop]

Peter Gabriel/Ezra Koenig photos by Ahmed Klink

"Hot Chip Cover Vampire Weekend With Peter Gabriel?", we asked in a news story back in September. The answer? Yep. Abeano today posted a stream of the song, which they say was once intended for a Vampire Weekend B-side but was shelved. All things considered, it's pretty much exactly what you'd hope for from such a wtf one-off. "This feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel, too," is followed by "It feels so unnatural to sing your own name." And then somewhere in there he stars wailing like he wandered into "The Blood of Eden". (Abeano, via NME)

Stream:> Hot Chip and Peter Gabriel: "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"

Recorded for Tapulous' Christmas With Weezer iPhone application, Weezer's version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" plays it pretty straight. They pump up the guitars but don't mess with the song otherwise, and you can almost taste the figgy pudding. (via Spin)