Some #longreads for your perusal this long holiday weekend…

If there is one person who knows the proper way to relax as summer winds down, it is Willie Nelson.  The Red Headed Stranger recently opened up to GQ in an entertaining interview, focusing mainly on his decades-long relationship with the sticky-icky, and revealing who exactly was with him when he was smoking up on the White House roof.

Last week we shared one retrospective on Kanye West’s Late Registration, but we recommend you read the AV Club write-up of the album as well.  Their piece for this week’s Permanent Records feature on Hot Fuss from The Killers is not as essential, though it did lead me to an entertaining theory as to a possible hidden storyline behind the album.

(For the record, “Jenny Was A Friend of Mine” and “Smile Like You Mean It” are the superior singles from that record, and the closer “Everything Will Be Alright” should not be relegated to the also-ran status that has been given to the entirety of the album’s Side B.)

DIIV is set to finally release their follow-up to 2012’s Oshin, and The Fader talks to frontman Zachary Cole Smith about the events of the past few years as the band recorded Is the Is Are.

Finally, be sure to read this fascinating conversation between Huck Magazine and the legendary Ian MacKaye (Fugazi, Minor Thread), as they engage in a thought-provoking philosophical discussion.  It is more interesting than it sounds, I assure you.