It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for another weekly dip into the pool of music news, interviews and videos that I like to call This Week In Music! Yes, in addition to the normal Pick Your Poison mp3s and Soundcloud streams, I like to toss out links to a bunch of other music-related content that I’ve found interesting or worthwhile over the course of the week. I encourage you to check some, if not all of these things out, particularly if you’re looking to waste some time. There’s plenty to see, read and hear:

You can bid on an auction to have Jens Lekman write a song about you.

Watch a 15 minute video about Maculay Culkin’s Velvet Underground cover band The Pizza Underground

Watch Iron & Wine, Calexico, Kathleen Edwards and Glen Hansard perform The Pogues holiday classic “Fairytale of New York”

Watch Morrissey perform at the Nobel Peace Prize concert

Damon Albarn has posted a short teaser of his forthcoming solo record

Ex-Pixies bassist Kim Shattuck talks about how she was fired by the band

YouTube Audio Stream: EMA – Satellite

Download a Flying Lotus outtakes compilation

There’s a whole lot of famous guest stars on the upcoming season of “Portlandia”

YouTube Audio Stream: Arctic Monkeys – You’re So Dark

Once you’re done with that set of distractions, let me offer up another set via some song downloads and streams. Don’t miss tracks from The Backyard Committee, Barzin, Champagne Jerry, The Dead Heads, Gina Chavez, Honeymilk, NTNT, The Slowdown and Young Girls. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream cuts from Blood Orange, Baio’s remix of Cults, Dropkick Murphys, James vincent McMorrow, The Mast and Sleepy Sun.

The Backyard Committee – Festival

Barzin – All the While

Champagne Jerry – Yo Kev! (ft. Ad-Rock)

The Dead Heads – Edge of the Apocalypse

Dreamend – Magnesium Light

Echo Bloom – The Returning of the Doves

Gina Chavez – Gotta Get (ft. Grupo Fantasma)

Honeymilk – Sea to Shining Sea

Lorde – Glory & Gore (Unlike Pluto Remix)

NTNT – The List

Preston Lovinggood – Shipwrecked

Scott Barkan – Leaving Here

The Slowdown – Digital Gold

Young Girls – Caroline

SOUNDCLOUD

Blood Orange ft. Samantha Urbani – West Drive (Profit Vocal Dub)

Cults – High Road (Baio Remix)

Dropkick Murphys – The Season’s Upon Us

James Vincent McMorrow – Red Dust

The Mast – Raining Down

Sleepy Sun – Galaxy Punk