NPR just launched their new music site, which nicely gathers music stories and media from a lot of different NPR shows. My favorite feature: Their media player is Flash-based. It’s a little quirky in Opera, at least, but so much better than the works-some-of-the-time WMP plugin that Opera used, and don’t get me started on Real.

Stephin Merritt was invited to be the first (at least I can’t find any others) participant in All Songs Considered’s “Project Song“. They gave two days use of a studio and engineer and asked him to create a song based on a photograph and phrase. They have video of the process and song, which turned out pretty good. It’s loop-based like those on The House of Tomorrow, but with less noise and reverb (please bring back the noise and reverb). The song’s subject might make a good villian for Lemony Snicket.