The latest issue of Rolling Stone once again features a grizzled old rocker on the cover, but since it’s a grizzled old rocker I like, I won’t complain. Neil Young’s mug will be staring out from the cover of RS for the next two weeks, and they’ve put together a few special online features in conjunction with it. The excerpt from the cover story they’ve posted online only covers well-worn territory of Young’s childhood, but hopefully the full article offers something more insightful. Which isn’t to say I’m going to buy a copy, I haven’t bought a copy of Rolling Stone in many many years and don’t think I could bring myself to do so now. The full piece will be online eventually.

A more interesting feature is their list of the best Neil Young songs you’ve never heard. Appropriately, I’ve never heard most of these songs save for “I’m The Ocean”, “Soldier” and “Stringman” but can attest that those tunes definitely stand up with anything else Neil has penned. Maybe I should make an effort to the rest of those listed, though that probably means I’d have to listen to Re*Ac*Tor… To roung things out, they’ve also dug up an old interview conducted by Cameron Crowe circa 1979. I haven’t gone through the whole thing yet, but it definitely looks like a piece worth taking the time to read, seeing as how it catches Neil on the cusp of entering his most… eccentric decade to date.

And finally, the website for the Jonathan Demme concert film, Neil Young: Heart Of Gold, doesn’t have much yet besides the trailer, but promises more content before the film’s theatrical release on February 11.

Stylus has given themselves a makeover for the new year and, well, it looks kinda Pitchfork-y. I was no fan of their old design, it was a real pain trying to dig through their archives to find old posts and whatnot, but the new look is rather uninspiring either. But at least they kick things off with a review of the reissue of Slowdive’s Just For A Day reissue, declaring it the cure for the common cold. I picked up the reissue at the end of last year and have to say, the remastering is quite nice – the old version was so quiet – but the bonus disc is worth the price of admission alone. I would have liked to get the double-disc edition of Souvlaki as well, but there are so few extras on there that I don’t already have (thanks to the bonus tracks on the original North American SBK edition) that I couldn’t justify it.

Billboard talks to The National about meeting and playing with Bruce Springsteen at a recent concert paying tribute to his Nebraska album. Brooklynvegan has pics and a review of the event in New York City last week. The Billboard piece mentions that the band will be doing “a short east coast and west coast run” of touring in late March. Man, how much do you want to bet that there’s going to be a Toronto date in the last week of March… when I will once again be out of the country. Maybe you’ve forgotten that I was in Estonia or something when The National was in Toronto back in September… I haven’t. Man.

The Journal News gets acquainted with Emily Haines of Metric. Via LHB.

Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater and Okkervil River fame tells Chart there’s no such thing as indie rock, just budget rock. The new Shearwater record, Palo Santo, is done and will be out in May.

Paste reports on the making of the butterfly-powered video for The Shins’ “Saint Simon”.

np – Dot Allison / Afterglow