The Sounds and the Furies

1. Mark E Smith of The Fall on why he supports Manchester City. Includes this brilliant anecdote featuring the Icicle Works:

The Fall used to have a team, we'd play university teams before gigs. We played the Icicle Works when we were both in this hotel in London. There were eight or nine in our team, the group and couple of roadies. This guy called Big Dave from Lincolnshire, who was like the fattest lad you've ever seen, went in goal. And they turned up in replica Liverpool kits with "The Icicle Works" on the front and they've got this mock European Cup with them.

2. Robert Christgau on Robin Kelley's long-anticipated Thelonious Monk biography, though it's more like Christgau, finally, on his beloved Monk. Long, precise, endearing, peerless.

3. Nathaniel Friedman/Bethlehem Shoals of Free Darko on the Jazz Session podcast, tightening his obsessive jazz does not equal basketball argument.