by SHANE SINNOTT

As of the beginning of the month, Muxtape (muxtape.com) has returned—kind of. The site was originally set up almost a year ago, and allowed users to upload MP3 mixtapes and share them with others. The idea, of course, was to create a mixtape—that thing of yore you made for girls you liked, complete with a photo collage on the cover—for the Internet age. It became real popular real quick, and then followed the familiar arc of almost any Web site that allows people to do anything with MP3s other than buy them. The creator, Justin Ouellette, wrote on the site about receiving a phone call from the VP of anti-piracy from a major. His first words were, “Justin, I have just one question for you—where do I send the summons and complaint?” Last August, the site went offline with a message about needing to “sort out a problem with the RIAA” and most assumed that was the end of it. The site has now relaunched, presumably after a lot of rights negotiation, under a system where bands will sign up to give permission for their music to be used. The site will soon offer a beta test at muxtape.com/information, with tracks from the 12 bands with whom deals have already been made (including Dan Deacon, Of Montreal and Girl Talk.)

The Black Lips, who have a special place in my heart, have a new record coming out Feb. 24 called 200 Million Thousand, and there’re a bunch of tracks floating around online. On the whole, it’s more melodic and surfy than the other records. It’s also, surprisingly, a step backwards, fidelity-wise, from 2007’s Good Bad Not Evil. Case in point, “Let It Grow,” which you can get at tinyurl.com/c8krf2. I also tracked down “Take My Heart,” “I’ll Be With You” and “BBJOT,” which you can check out at tinyurl.com/cyy2nd, tinyurl.com/agho89 and tinyurl.com/chzqzp. Also, now you’ll be able to see the winner of their fan-submitted video contest for “Starting Over” (song: tinyurl.com/bsosl4, video: tinyurl.com/b5ldp9).