Julian Casablancas on what's wrong with his solo record. Plus: the 76th bullshit Britney story of 2009

Highlights from this week's music pile:

"I guess I always had a kind of fantasy of being, you know, a modern composer — not like I can really pull that off or anything."

-- Julian Casablancas, talking to the Phoenx about his new solo record

"There are a few words I did not expect to use in describing Vampire Weekend's second album. Paul-Simony-er is one of them, but that's mostly because it's not a real word. Another is aggressive."

-- Michael Brodeur, reviewing Vampire Weekend's Contra

"I've made my living in music, but academe is my first love," [Britney] Spears announced in a press conference on the steps of her Louisiana home. Spears, who completed a doctorate in classics at Brown University between world tours, will be the youngest instructor in Bryn Mawr's classical-studies faculty.

-- David Thorpe, adding a 76th to the "Top 75 Bulls#!t Britney Stories" of 2009

"I don't feel like this record is optimistic at all. It's more depressing than the first one, honestly. It's pretty fucking bleak."

-- The Dutchess and the Duke's Jesse Lortz, speaking on D&D's new Sunset/Sunrise

PLUS: Reviews of KEI$HA, DJ MEHDI, LAZLO SUPREME, and an advance preview of Boston's 8-Bit Festival