Afternoon Bites: “Icky Mettle” revisited, Guardian first book award, Maile Meloy, and more

“The ramshackle sound of Icky Mettle earned Archers of Loaf comparisons to Pavement (and the occasional dismissal as a Pavement ripoff act), but Bachmann’s earnest self-consciousness is miles away from Stephen Malkmus’s arch self-awareness.” At Pitchfork, Matt LeMay reviews the recent reissue of Archers of Loaf’s Icky Mettle.