“The only time I have ever heard cries of “encore” at the end of a Bang On A Can Marathon came at the close of Branca’s work on Sunday night. After a half-day of works that tried to break new ground, Branca’s piece discovered the road to vitality that exists on the other side of utter exhaustion.” Seth Colter Walls went to the Bang on a Can Marathon this weekend.

• Andrea Seigel is interviewed by Blake Butler.

• Charlie Looker talks avant-garde music and “unfashionable alt-metal.”

• Sonya Chung revisits Richard Yates’s The Easter Parade.

• Wes Eisold on Cold Cave, hardcore, and his days selling books in Philadelphia.