• The Canadian indie label Fony Records has just released a two-CD retrospective of one of alternative art-rock's seminal architects, John Oswald, the original sampling poltergeist and plunderphonician. Oswald's 25-year history as a composer, audio agitator, and media deconstructionist rose highest above the radar when he produced his legendary Plunderphonics experiment in the early 1980s.

• As the record industry watches Napster weave and bob through another round of legal rulings, the bottom line is that once the file-sharing cat's out of the bag, there's no way to stuff the screeching, clawing beast back in.

• Kung Fu Records has just released the first in its new independent feature-length film series, That Darn Punk, on home video. The movie is a truly homegrown project, recorded on film - not video - with a bare-bones budget of $20,000.

• As a connoisseur of interesting cover versions, I raise my glass and invite you drink deep from the new Face To Face collection, Standards & Practices, just released on the Vagrant label. Uncovering the band's personal guilty-pleasure nuggets from the new-wave 1980s and more contemporary influences is a real treat on this one - tearing into blistering renditions of selections like The Smiths' "What Difference Does It Make," the Pixies' "Planet of Sound," the Pogues' "Sunny Side of the Street," and the Jam's excellent "That's Entertainment.