The Broken West will appear on Rockville, CA, the new, music-themed, scripted original digital series created by Josh Schwartz (“Gossip Girl,” “Chuck,” “The O.C.”) on Tuesday, March, 17.

Rockville, CA is a contemporary romantic comedy which takes place entirely in a fictional music club called Rockville and was filmed completely on location at famed Los Angeles indie music venue The Echo. The show takes viewers into the lives of a group of twenty-somethings from diverse backgrounds who gather regularly at the club to hear their favorite up-and-coming bands as well as blow off steam. Rockville the club has a life of its own, which is conveyed through the cast of regulars and the musical artists that appear in each of the 20 original webisodes.

The Broken West will appear in one of the four premiere episodes that will be available at TheWB.com beginning March 17. Full streaming video of The Broken West’s performances will be available at www.rockvilleca.com Check out the trailer at the Merge blog.

The Merge Records SXSW Showcase will be Saturday, March 21 at The Parish (214 E. 6th St., Austin). We are co-hosting a showcase with our friends at Barsuk Records.

The line up:
Telekinesis 8pm
The Wooden Birds 9pm
Lou Barlow 10pm
Say Hi 11pm
The Rosebuds 12pm
Ra Ra Riot 1am

M. Ward will also be in Austin for SXSW. He will play a full band session at Auditorium Shores at Our Ladybird Lake beginning at 8PM on Thursday, March 15.

There will be a limited number of tickets to the Merge showcase available at the door for non-badge holders. The M. Ward event at Auditorium Shores is free and open to the public.

If you are in Austin, come say hi!

Rare and out-of-print songs from Mac McCaughans pre-Superchunk band, Wwax compiled for the first time! Like It Or Not is available today in the Merge store where you can preview the full stream.

Mac says, "This is a collection of all the studio recordings that Wwax made, all done at Duck Kee Studios on Bickett Blvd in Raleigh in 1987 and 1988. We took turns singing the songs in Wwax, but they all bear the mark of Wayne's idiosyncratic sense of timing and Brian Walsby's uncanny ability to keep up with him. The sound is also shaped by the fiberglass Ovation Breadwinner guitar that I borrowed from Wayne and played exclusively through his tiny gray spray-painted Peavey Champ, which achieved a brittleness I've not been able to capture since! This is the first digital release of Wwax songs other than a couple stray tracks here and there, and it's strange to hear recordings that are certainly artifacts of a certain era that's not hardcore but not really something else specific either...which is how they sounded then, too."

The Rosebuds, The Broken West & Telekinesis all have new videos! The Rosebuds video is for "Life Like" and is beautifully creepy. The Broken West video makes "Perfect Games" the soundtrack to an homage to "Spy vs. Spy." The Telekinesis video for "Tokyo" was directed by Merge intern, Dianna Potter. Enjoy!


The Rosebuds - "Life Like"

Order The Rosebuds - Life Like on CD, LP, and digital in the Merge store.


The Broken West - "Perfect Games"

Order The Broken West - Now or Heaven on CD or digital in the Merge Store.


Telekinesis - "Tokyo"

Pre-Order the debut album from Telekinesis - Telekinesis! in the Merge store.

We have announced the full track listing of SCORE! 20 Years of Merge Records: THE COVERS! SCORE! subscribers will receive this as part of their subscription. This collection is the first of only two commercially available pieces from the box set. Limited to 7,500 copies, pre-orders for non-SCORE! subscribers are available now. THE COVERS! will be released on CD and digital on April 7, 2009.

1 Quasi Beautiful Things (3Ds)
2 Les Savy Fav Precision Auto (Superchunk)
3 The Shins Plenty Is Never Enough (Tenement Halls)
4 St. Vincent and The National Sleep All Summer (Crooked Fingers)
5 Broken Social Scene Complications (The Clean)
6 Ryan Adams Like a Fool (Superchunk)
7 Bright Eyes Papa Was a Rodeo (The Magnetic Fields)
8 Lavender Diamond New Ways of Living (Destroyer)
9 The Apples in stereo King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 3 (Neutral Milk Hotel)
10 Laura Cantrell Cowboy on the Moon (Lambchop)
11 Bill Callahan Santa Maria (Versus)
12 Barbara Manning Through With People (Portastatic)
13 The Mountain Goats Drug Life (East River Pipe)
14 The New Pornographers Dont Destroy This Night (The Rock*A*Teens)
15 Tracey Thorn & Jens Lekman Yeah! Oh, Yeah! (The Magnetic Fields)
16 The Hive Dwellers My Noise (Superchunk)
17 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists The Numbered Head (Robert Pollard)
18 Okkervil River All You Little Suckers (East River Pipe)
19 Death Cab for Cutie Kicked In (Superchunk)
20 Times New Viking Neighborhood #1 (Arcade Fire)

M. Ward will perform on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson tonight, March 6th. The Late Late Show airs on CBS beginning at 12:35 AM EST.

Other guests include actress Amy Adams and comedian Nick Griffin. Watch for some surprise special guests in M. Ward's band! Listen to the full stream of the album and buy it.

Wye Oak covered a traditional folk song entitled "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair," for Splice Today's The Old Lonesome Sound. The Old Lonesome Sound is a compilation of traditional folk songs organized by Splice Today featuring Wye Oak, Radar Bros., Phosphorescent, Deer Tick, and many others. Preview and download the tracks at Splice Today.

Wye Oak will return to the road in mid-April, and will, no doubt, be previewing new material. Full Wye Oak tour dates listed in the tour section. Go see them and report back!

In addition to playing Coachella in April, Superchunk will release their first new material on CD since 2001s Heres to Shutting Up! Leaves in the Gutter is a collection of songs written while Superchunk prepared for live shows over the past few years.

Mac says, Some of these songs are newer than others, but we kind of felt like if we're going to get to work on a new album we need to clear the decks of these songs first. A couple of them I really like but they already feel like they're from another era and wouldn't fit on a new album anyway, and the newer ones are from the new era but we've recorded them and they sound good so here they are. Now, when we play them live, someone might have actually heard them before!

Leaves in the Gutter will be released on CDEP and digital on April 7, 2009. See Superchunk live at Coachella in Indio, CA on April 18, 2009.

Track Listing:
1. Learned to Surf
2. Misfits & Mistakes
3. Screw It Up
4. Knock Knock Knock
5. Learned to Surf (acoustic demo)

Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band will release a brand new album, entitled Outer South, on May 5th on Merge Records.

Outer South was recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillio, outside El Paso, Texas in November/December and features the same talented group of musicians as were present on last years acclaimed Conor Oberst album.

The Mystic Valley Band are Taylor Hollingsworth, Nik Freitas, Macey Taylor, Nathaniel Walcott and Jason Boesel.

Outer South is a spectacular 16-track album featuring songs written by Oberst, Jason Boesel, Nik Freitas, and Taylor Hollingsworth, some of which were part of the live show from late last year including Nikorette which they performed on Late Night With Conan OBrien in November.

The Mystic Valley Band will be playing a run of shows in the west and at the Coachella Festival this spring.

Thu-Apr-09 Omaha, NE Slowdown
Fri-Apr-10 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre
Sat-Apr-11 Aspen, CO Belly Up
Sun-Apr-12 El Paso, TX Barnett Harley Davidson (Hands of Love & Hope Benefit)
Mon-Apr-13 Albuquerque, NM Sunshine Theatre
Tue-Apr-14 Tempe, AZ Marquee Theatre
Wed-Apr-15 Pomona, CA Glass House
Fri-Apr-17 Indio, CA Coachella Music & Arts Festival
Thu-Jun-18 Telluride, CO Telluride Bluegrass Festival

M. Ward's new album, Hold Time, will be released Tuesday! Order your copy of Hold Time on CD, LP or digital via the Merge store or visit your local record store.

M. Ward will be celebrating the release date with an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Watch M. Ward and his band perform live Tuesday, February 17th at 11:30 PM EST.

Also, visit NPR.org/music on Tuesday at 7pm EST to listen to M. Ward perform selections from Hold Time live from WNYC in New York. The session will be streamed live, and followed by a chat hosted by WNYC's Alana Harper and All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen with questions provided by you, the listener!

Tune in and celebrate Hold Time!