by SHANE SINNOTT

Guess What? I’m at a cottage right now. That’s right, I’m drinking beer and staring at a lake while you saps are schlepping about the sweltering city. In the spirit of vacations, I’m going to ditch the cohesive pretence and just throw a bunch of random shit at you that I came across. Fair?

Merge Records, one of the the finest independents of all time, is now celebrating its 20th birthday. Their gift to you is a track from Lou Barlow’s new record, coming out in the fall, called Goodnight Unknown. The song is “Gravitate,” at tinyurl.com/mue6ja.

A guy who’s described as a “micro-musician” called Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours has put together a cover album of Daft Punk songs using samples from old video game consoles, called Da Chip! You can get the whole thing here: tinyurl.com/n47gns.

Weezer has a cover floating around of MGMT’s “Kids,” with a bit of Lady Gaga thrown in, that is earning frontman River Cuomo a lot of kudos (though it’s hard to get past him repeatedly saying, “This is how we get our groove on”). Get it at tinyurl.com/mleu99.

I’m not sure if this mash-up of Lil Wayne and Grizzly Bear, “Two Weeks Til Prom,” is a good idea, but you should probably listen to it at least once. From the Veckaflyest Mashup, at tinyurl.com/lhgpxm.

The most hullabaloo this week is over a new Jay-Z song called “Run This Town.” The fuss is highlighted by the fact that it features Kayne West and Rihanna. From the soon-to-be-super-hyped forthcoming album Blueprint 3, it was given to radio stations at 9:11 a.m. the day it was leaked, to coincide with the Sept. 11 release date, all of which feels icky (tinyurl.com/moq67g.)

And Trent Reznor, continuing his pledge to abandon all things network-y, has deleted his entertaining Twitter account. Twitter was the last outpost after Reznor’s withdrawal, citing general online assholery, but that’s gone now as well. Too bad, as we’ll no longer witness the public fights with Chris Cornell about his new record—“You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell’s record? Jesus.” If you must follow Cornell, though, he’s at tinyurl.com/m7knr2.