Back in February, after having heard only “My Moon My Man” from the sublime The Reminder LP, we called it like we saw it: this was to be Feist’s big breakout year, predicting a “Chan-like rise in stature.” In a sense, that’s an understatement, but broken-out she has, winning raves around the world and up and down the NYSE, tapped for campaigns from LG to Apple [www.stereogum.com].

But after all the great stuff that’s gone down for this year for Leslie (friend/producer Chilly Gonzales saying “she sold half a million Let it Die albums in three years and almost the same amount of The Reminder in three months”), there’s still stuff on the horizon getting her stirred up…

Via Guardian: [music.guardian.co.uk] “But ask her what she’s most looking forward to right now, and after fiddling with her water bottle for a while, she decides that it’s the Police’s invitation to sing with them on an MTV Unplugged session and having her photo taken by Annie Leibovitz.”

Leslie and Sting first met at Bonnaro this year; we were nearby when Feist’s manager came frantically, pulling her and saying “We have to go.” After Feist asked why, said manager offered: “Sting’s requested a meeting.” Requested a meeting! That’s how Sting rolls. Anyway, the meeting must’ve gone pretty well. Not sure when this thing will air, but we’ll keep you posted. At this point, what could make this year any more Feisty?

Between blog posts of his TMI -prose [www.stereogum.com], Joseph Arthur writes music. A lot of it, actually; he’s got two records out this year, the first of which (Let’s Just Be) dropped last month. Also during his poetic downtime, Joseph enjoys bumming Newports [www.stereogum.com], ascribing colors to magazines (e.g. Paste is beige [www.stereogum.com], and wearing oversized aviators, cool scarves, and “God Is Awesome” tees. This band rocks.

Watch the video for “Diamond Ring” here [www.josepharthur.com]

Check out Joseph Arthur in the music documentary “In the Sun: Michael Stipe and Special Guest” airing on Sundance Channel in June.

Earlier this month, New West released Preludes [www.amazon.com], a pared down stash of pre-’76 home recording and demos, usually the sort of item reserved for the hopeless fanatics to buy — or vilify. As far as we’re concerned, though, the more people turned on to Z’s sardonic craft, the better. So mine on, reintroduce, reincarnate. We miss Warren, and in mining the treasure trove of classic concerts that is Wolfgang’s Vault [www.wolfgangsvault.com] remains (one of Stereogum’s favorite idle pastimes) we stumbled upon an amazing Zevon show from Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ in October of ‘82 [concertvault.com]. And the show description is even better:

It was remarkably eerie that the late, great singer/songwriter Warren Zevon ended this memorable 1982 performance by telling the audience: “They say that everything that dies will come back – and if that is true, I hope I come back as Suzanne Sommers. No, just kidding, but in case I don’t, I’d like to thank everyone for a great time and have a great life…” Then the irreverent music celebrity launched into his classic song, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.”

So clearly Warren is in limbo now. Suzanne Somers watch out.