By now you’ve probably heard Justin Vernon of Bon Iver’s collaboration with Kanye West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, and Nicki Minaj, “Monster,” but the summer isn’t (technically) over for the Eau Claire singer-songwriter just yet: Vernon performed with Kathleen Edwards on at least two stops along her latest tour, joining the Canadian alt-country songstress for Failer cut “Mercury” (which he’s covered solo before). 

In addition to onstage collaborations with Vernon, Edwards played covers of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon track “From Hank to Hendrix” and Ryan Adams-penned, Whiskeytown standout “Houses on the Hill.” Need help on another hook, Ye? Edwards is but one degree away… Watch footage from all three performances below:

Kanye West and Jay-Z dropped the first cut from their 5-track collaborative EP, Watch the Throne, moments ago via Kanye University. The new 6-minute song, “Monster,” features our first listen to Ye’s collaboration with Bon Iver, as well as guest spots by Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj. Aside from “Power,” I have to say this is my favorite piece of new material from West this year.

Download the free “Monster” MP3 here, and stream it below:

**Update: Hear one song, “Monster,” from the Kanye/Justin Vernon collab here.

Back in January of last year, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon seized the moment in which Auto-Tuned jams ruled the pop charts by recording a decidedly shtick-less a cappella closing number with the pitch-bending software for his Blood Bank EP. As it turns out, the rumors Stereogum reported the other day were true: the song, “Woods” (stream below), caught the ears of Auto-Tune fiend Kanye West, and now Justin Vernon is officially on Ye’s next record.

“I called [Justin Vernon] and we ended up becoming like really good friends, playing basketball together everyday, and going into the back studio and just record his parts,” West revealed to Rolling Stone. “He’s similar to me, like where he just does shit just so people would be like, ‘Oh shit how did you do that? How did that happen?’ He’s just a really cool guy to be around.”

“Fuck, this is going to be the festival closer,” West said of their song, “Lost in the World,” according to an interview just posted at Pitchfork, in which Vernon describes Ye’s Trent Reznor inspiration and surreal details from their Hawaii session, such as: “I was literally in the back room rolling a spliff with Rick Ross talking about what to do on the next part of a song.”

The Black Keys and the White Stripes better look out: Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon teamed up with Peter Wolf Crier drummer Brian Moen for a reunion performance of their blues-rock duo, the Shouting Matches, in Altoona, WI this past Memorial Day weekend. As Gimme Noise points out, the pair channeled Son House’s legendary “Death Letter,” a song famously covered or reinterpreted by a host of musicians over the years, including Blind Willie McTell and (the first place I heard it) on the White Stripes’ second album, De Stijl.

Fortunately, somebody captured close-up footage of Vernon and Moen’s killer take on the classic tune. Watch the Ray Ban-donning Shouting Matches sing the posthumous love blues below (stick around till the 6:10 mark for Vernon dropping to his knees for a blistering guitar freakout):

Bon Iver’s Twitter always brings good news, be it a new John Prine tribute album, his Record Store Day song swap, or (per today’s tweet) professionally shot footage from last year’s Austin City Limits streaming on Hulu.

Dubbed the “Best of Austin City Limits 2009,” the free video collection includes performances by the Dead Weather, Justin Vernon and company of course, Andrew Bird, Thievery Corporation, (the boys behind our most anticipated LP of the summer) the Walkmen, Deer Tick, Clutch, Alberta Cross, Ghostland Observatory, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, and the Dodos.

From the few clips I’ve devoured so far, I can confirm that the quality is pretty amazing. Now that’s a good way to kick off the week.

Ever since Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon stopped touring behind his breakout record, For Emma, Forever Ago, he has been showering us with wonderful cover songs (not to mention a nice ditty for a certain teen vampire drama soundtrack). After a tweet from my pals at Speakers in Code alerted me to an excellent video of Vernon covering Tom Petty’s “Crawling Back To You” with the National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner, I kept digging, when lo and behold: there’s gold in them hills…

Late last night on Twitter, Bon Iver broke the news about a forthcoming John Prine tribute album featuring cover songs by Conor Oberst, Justin Vernon, Josh Ritter, My Morning Jacket, the Avett Brothers, and 7 others. Dubbed Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, the record will hit shelves via Prine’s record label, Oh Boy, early this summer (June 22).

Until then, you can check out Vernon’s cover of “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow),” which is streaming at NPR, here, My Morning Jacket’s live rendition of “All the Best” (as well as a slew of other MMJ covers) here, and Conor Oberst with Bright Eyes covering Prine’s “Crazy As a Loon” (he chose a different tune for this tribute album, here.

Tracklist: Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine

While we’re on the subject of albums that are skirting below the radar as of late, please allow me to introduce you to Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown, “a modern folk opera whose songs tell the tale of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice re-imagined and set in the United States.”

The album dropped early last month, and though I could see how a description like that doesn’t perfectly market it for spring break season, what if I told you that Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon plays Orpheus, Greg Brown plays Hades, Ani DiFranco plays Persephone, and The Low Anthem’s Ben Knox Miller plays Hermes? Well played, indeed.

We could pour over the details, but you’re better off downloading the song “Wait For Me,” which features Vernon and Knox Miller, here (via Jagjaguwar and Righteous Babe). Also, the full tracklist is below:

Justin Vernon and Peter Gabriel’s split 7”, which features Bon Iver’s cover of “Come Talk To Me” off Gabriel’s 1992 album Us and Gabriel’s take on “Flume” from For Emma, Forever Ago, won’t hit independent retail shelves until Record Store Day, but both songs are currently available to purchase on iTunes today. Perhaps Gabriel’s previously released orchestral version of “Flume” isn’t your cup of tea, but I dare you not love Vernon’s gorgeous rendition of “Come Talk To Me,” even after hearing only the 1-minute preview in the short video below.