Neko Case's biggest fans bum-rush her at her front door. "Hi, guys!" she singsongs as four large dogs come clattering over floorboards to fill the entrance of her Tucson, Arizona home with sheer body-wiggling desperation. You'd think she'd been on tour for weeks, not at a local café for two hours.

New Pornographers leader A.C. Newman released his second solo album, Get Guilty, last week. One its best tracks is "Submarines of Stockholm" (below), a power-pop number about a disorenting trip to Sweden. He explains:

As Neko Case gears up to release Middle Cyclone March 3, the alt-country firebrand is giving her fans a glimpse into the eye of the storm by offering Cyclone's first single, "People Got A Lotta Nerve," as a free download.

The 2009 music festival season is already heating up: The initial lineup has been announced for San Francisco's 17th annual Noise Pop event.

Like most members of Canadian power-pop supergroup the New Pornographers, frontman A.C. Newman has a few other musical projects up his sleeve. And now, four years since the release of his debut solo album, 2004's The Slow Wonder, Newman is set to return January 20 with Get Guilty.