Arriving next month, with all proceeds going to Oxfam, is the wonderfully titled (for Dylan fans, at least) Versions of Joanna, a 22-track tribute album featuring covers of our favorite singer/harpist’s tunes by M. Ward, Billy Bragg, Owen Pallett, Ben Sollee, This Is Deer Country, and many more. Other than the cover art and tracklist, details are a bit scarce, but two excellent previews are available in the form of previously recorded live takes: M. Ward’s version of “Sadie” (via Ünnecessary Ümlaut) and Bragg’s Voice Project contribution, “On a Good Day.” Enjoy both recordings below alongside the tracklist and cover art:

Following last week’s performance on Letterman, a break in the Dead Weather begins as Alison Mosshart preps a new album with Kills partner Jamie “Hotel” Hince, LJ joins the Greenhornes for their first LP in 5 years, Dean Fertita hits the road with Josh Homme’s QOTSA, and Jack White plots his next 50 or so Third Man Records releases. As I pondered imminent new music from members of our favorite supergroup of the past 16 months, however, it occurred that Mosshart’s evolution from leader of Floridian pop-punk outfit Discount (she “didn’t make up the name”) to co-conspirator in a London art-rock duo to stealing Jack White’s spotlight has gone woefully underappreciated around here.

Though the one-sheet narrative of Mosshart moving from Gainesville, FL to London for an unknown Hince collaboration has been making the rounds since the Kills’ 2003 debut, Keep on Your Mean Side, little has been noted about her first group, Discount, including their 3 LPs and countless EP/7” releases. Let’s get the ball rolling with a few early pop-punk covers of Billy Bragg and R.E.M., 2 originals, and a live video from Mosshart and Discount below:

Who needs marches on Washington or protests in the street nowadays when we have Facebook groups? Sure, it’s one thing to rally for a Smiths (or RATM) single to top the charts, but now 52-year-old English singer/songwriter Billy Bragg has taken to the social networking behemoth for a protest over giant bonuses paid out to employees of bailed out banks in the UK.

“I understand that the Treasury had little choice but to use taxpayers’ money to safeguard savings and stabilise and restore confidence in the financial system,” Bragg writes on his new Facebook group NOBonus4RBS. “What I don’t understand is why, now that we taxpayers are the majority shareholders of these banks, we seem totally powerless to curb their excessive bonus culture?”

Bragg is aiming his protest specifically at the Royal Bank of Scotland, citing that their estimated £1.5 billion in planned bonuses will be taken from UK tax dollars that are due at the end of the month. In a letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling (which he provides as a downloadable .pdf to be used as a form letter by others), Bragg demands that the government limit bonuses to £25,000 or he “shall be withholding [his] tax payment on 31st January.”

In a shout-out to the “Anarchy Christmas Miracle” I alluded to above, Bragg notes: “If nothing else, we may discover if people in this country care more about banker’s bonuses than they do about who will be the Xmas No1.”

Read his full statement and Facebook page here.

As we previously reported, many famous rock musicians and a songwriter for Sesame Street were outraged late last year when news broke that their music had been used to torture inmates at Guantanamo Bay. Whereas Drowning Pool’s Steve Benton said it was “an honor to think that perhaps [their] song could be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that,” Trent Reznor, Rage Against The Machine, and many more were understandably furious.

Now Reznor and Rage’s Tom Morello have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, along with R.E.M., Pearl Jam, the Roots, Rosanne Cash, Rise Against, Billy Bragg, and Jackson Browne, Huffington Post reports.

I mentioned this last week, before TwentyFourBit took off on our road trip, but a story that involves Woody Guthrie, Wilco, and Jay Farrar certainly deserves its own post. In an interview with the Austin Chronicle (via The Daily Swarm), Centro-matic’s Will Johnson revealed some huge news about his involvement in the next installment of unreleased Woody Guthrie lyrics set to music composed by a living artist: Jay Farrar, of Son Volt and formerly of Uncle Tupelo, has taken the torch from Wilco and Billy Bragg, helming the recording of the next volume in the Mermaid Avenue series.

What’s more, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James is also performing on the album, according to Johnson. There’s no release date set yet, but the songs have already been put to tape and are currently in the mixing stage.

My initial reaction to this news was that Farrar trying his hand at the same Guthrie project as his former estranged band mate and songwriting partner Jeff Tweedy could permanently burn the Uncle Tupelo bridge, but now I’m thinking the promotion of this volume could make for a pretty awesome reunion tour. I suppose it’s going to take a few more chance encounters in Mexico for that to happen though.

Singer/songwriter Billy Bragg has been a top spokesperson for the Featured Artists Coalition, a group of UK-based musicians that includes Radiohead, Kate Nash, Robbie Williams, David Gilmour, Travis, and many more. Though their main purpose is “the protection of performers’ and musicians’ rights,” the FAC has been very public of late in their defense of music pirates. What they want to avoid, you see, is a Lars Ulrich-esque debacle where fans get disgruntled for being persecuted over being too eager to get at their favorite band’s music.

In a column for the Guardian, Billy Bragg addressed the issue of whether internet service providers should be required by the government to cancel a suspected pirate’s service. Bragg says that the recording industry is trying to “get the ISPs to do their dirty work for them,” adding that the alleged criminals wouldn’t have “any recourse to appeal in the courts.”

Bragg goes on to say that this practice is “shameful” and likely ineffective. “Technology has so far stayed ahead of enforcement,” he added. “Any unauthorised filesharers who fear being caught out can simply encrypt their exchanges.”

The question over the efficacy of enforcing copyright law through ISPs could possibly be answered by paying close attention to France in the coming months. Just last week, the French government passed a controversial “three strikes” law, forcing ISPs to disconnect music pirates upon their third infraction.

Ryan Adams’ first book of poetry, Infinity Blues, has just been published, marking the singer/songwriter’s first creative output since marrying singer/actress Mandy Moore last month and announcing his “step back” from music. The Guardian recently spoke to Adams, Steve Earle, Billy Bragg and Nick Cave about their foray into non-musical writing.

“My grandparents raised me reading tons of stuff: Hemingway, Edith Wharton, southern Gothic literature,” Ryan Adams said. “My grandfather passed away a while ago now, around Christmas time, and every Christmas I just burned up thinking about it. I miss him a lot and think about the stuff they taught me and I just thought that out of respect - because my grandmother is still alive - I needed to go away and do the work.”

Adams said he wrote for eight hours a day, making sure not to slow down or look back until he was completely spent. “A man doesn’t get driven to write a book unless there’s a sense of loss, unless there’s something missing,” he said. “I used everything I had to lessen that gap, to jump across from who I was to who I wanted to be. I wanted to get it on paper because I knew I’d never feel that way again.”

For more on Infinity Blues and lots of great quotes from Bragg, Cave and Earle, click here (via Prefix).

Singer/songwriters Billy Bragg and Kate Nash appeared today at the “Financial Fool’s Day” protest in London, rallying against the government’s economic policies.

“Bankers’ bonuses should be taxed at 90 per cent like in America,” Bragg told the Mirror before his scheduled performance outside the Bank of England. “We hope to send a message that we are very angry. People are not going to sit back and let this continue happening to us.”

He also spoke to NME, declaring, “If ever there was a time when the possibility of another way of doing things was to be debated, that’s now. So I think the anti-globalisation movement are totally justified in coming out onto the streets into the city of London when the bankers are there to express their anger over this situation that the bankers have got us into.”

Bragg’s midday performance included two popular protest songs, “The World Turned Upside-Down” and his own “The Internationale.” For a video of Bragg leading the crowd in an a cappella version of the latter song, click here.