Holiday-themed compilations aren’t usually my thing, but add new original songs, covers, and unreleased recordings by the likes of Rachael Yamagata, Tegan and Sara, Regina Spektor, Everest, Devo, and the Flaming lips, not to mention a rare holiday track with Neil Young on vocals, to the lineup, and you’ve got my attention. Later this month, Gift Wrapped II: Snowed In, a 21-track LP featuring cuts by the aforementioned names and more, will hit online music outlets.

The album includes originals by Spektor (“December”), Yamagata (“Baby Come Find Me At Christmas”), Devo (“Merry Something To You”), covers by Everest (Marvin Gaye’s “Christmas in the City”), Tegan and Sara (“The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)”), the Flaming Lips (“Little Drummer Boy”), and — most notably to me — the standard tune “Les Trois Cloches” (aka “Three Bells”) performed by the late Ben Keith with Neil and Pegi Young on vocals. Hear snippets of the songs over on iTunes now and check out the full tracklist below (alongside the Tegan and Sara recording that just popped up on YouTube):

Mark Mothersbaugh and his Devo brethren performed at the Winter Olympic Games on NBC earlier tonight in celebration of international competitive sports, of course, and their forthcoming first studio album in almost two decades. So why not culminate the night with the release of a new song/download?

Enter your favorite “free MP3” email address here to download an 192kbps file of the new Devo jam “Fresh” (for 24 hours only).

Film composer and Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh was fired by Drew Barrymore from her film Whip It! earlier this year after he got “snippy with her” a few times, but aside from that, there’s no concrete evidence that he’s actually hard to work with. Perhaps spoofing his rumored reputation, a staged video of Mothersbaugh smashing a cello and French horn after hearing criticism from the director of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has surfaced on YouTube and it’s pretty funny and/or weird.

Check it out here or embedded below (via The Playlist):

Top that, David O. Russell!

Drew Barrymore might think she’s too cool for Devo, but an all-star lineup of producers are eager to get their hands on the iconic 80s band’s new material. Though there was a rumor floating around that LCD Soundsystem mastermind and DFA co-founder James Murphy was slated to produce Devo’s first album since 1990’s Smooth Noodle Maps, frontman Mark Mothersbaugh has now denied that Murphy is producing the entire comeback record. He did, however confirm that Murphy is interested in collaborating, as well as a few other well-known DJs.

“That was a total misquote,” Mothersbaugh told LA Times’ Scott Sterling of the Murphy rumor. “Gerald [Casale] had said we were searching for people like James to work with, which somehow turned into him helming the entire album. When we contacted him to apologize for the misunderstanding, he said he’d love to work with us. We played a Japanese festival recently between Justice and Fatboy Slim, both of whom said they’d like to work with us too.”

It’s possible that all three knob twiddlers could end up contributing to the as-yet-untitled album because Mothersbaugh also said he’s “looking for some outside mixers and producers that might want to have fun with a Devo song,” adding that they could be “as deconstructive or reconstructive as they want to be.”

Film composer and Devo singer/songwriter Mark Mothersbaugh revealed that he got in a row with Whip It! director Drew Barrymore after she stood him up three times in the studio to work on the score.

“She hired me and fired me in all of like two weeks,” Mothersbaugh told Yahoo! OMG (HT The Playlist). “I got snippy with her. She cancelled out on showing up at the studio three times and I kicked Devo out every single time and had an engineer come in and set up the studio and the third time I got pissy with her on the phone. And she said she just doesn’t think our styles work together. So I got fired.”

As The Playlist notes, Mothersbaugh has also been mysteriously absent from the last two films of his longtime collaborator Wes Anderson. Oh well, the man’s busy, right? Devo recently reunited for their first album in over a decade and they’ve put out a new video/song here.

Devo announced today they are preparing their first album in almost 20 years with 4 out of 5 of the original lineup performing. Josh Freese, the drummer for Nine Inch Nails until late last year, has also joined the group for their forthcoming as-yet-untitled album.

The band is slated to perform at SXSW in Austin, TX on March 20 and release the album in the fall of this year. Band members include Freese, Gerald Casale, Bob Casale, Bob Mothersbaugh, and Mark Mothersbaugh, the composer for most of director Wes Anderson’s feature films. Devo’s last release was 1990’s Smooth Noodle Maps.