I spent most of last week either preparing in advance for a little trip to Georgia for a friend’s wedding or subsequently enjoying it, so we let a few a tidbits slip under the radar. Look for a round-up, as well as some news from Cesar Comanche and Kooley High, after the jump.

-Next week, Merge Records will digitally reissue three early works by Richard Buckner, who’s been one of this country’s best songwriters for a decade-plus now (seriously, we can rumble over this if you like, Catharsis): 1994’s Bloomed (this is the second time it’s been reissued); 2000’s The Hill (a fascinating reworking of Edgar Lee Masters poems made during an impasse for the sessions behind Buckner’s first masterpiece, Devotion & Doubt); and 2002’s Impasse (but what about the excellent EP Impasse-ette?). Have these mp3s (ordered by our preference) from those records, if you will: Bloomed‘s “Gauzy Dress in the Sun,” The Impasses‘ “Born into Giving It Up” and The Hill‘s “Emily Sparks.”

Another Merge artist, D.C.’s duo Wye Oak, recently cut a cover of “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” for a great comp by the web zine Splice Today. Register at the site to download the comp, which also includes Phosphorescent, Christian Kiefer, and fellow Mergers Radar Bros. And, since this is N. Carolina, try this charming track, “The Coast of Carolina,” from Telekinesis’ debut Telekinesis!, to be released by Merge April 7.

-Kooley High’s latest mixtape, Kooley is High, hits the Internet on Friday, March 6, courtesy of the Web site illroots.com. For now, here’s a teaser, and our review of last year’s Summer Sessions EP.

-Get ready for loud: New Jagjaguwar signees Dinosaur Jr. come to the Cradle with Mike Watt April 27; Mastodon and Kylesa May 13; and Mogwai April 24, a show that’s mostly notable because The Twilight Sad opens.

-Cesar Comanche and DJ Ill Digitz will go conceptual for Comanche’s release party behind his new album, Die in Your LapD.O.T.F.W. On Saturday, March 28, they’ll turn Raleigh’s Ruckus Pizza into The Jam, “a place you can relax, bring a date, socialize, and eat while you are listening to dope jams from the past and present.” The album spins at 9:30 p.m., followed by classic hip-hop and a party. “The alternative to the club scene,” Comanche promises. Here’s Eric Tullis’ review of the record.

-New videos from The Old Ceremony and The Rosebuds: As The Old Ceremony admits on its MySpace blog, the black-and-white, Brett Ingram/Cagney Gentry-directed video for “Walk on Thin Air” makes a few nods to David Lynch. Its surreal portrayal of romantic torture fits Django Haskins’ lines here: “If this is not a dream/ If all this pain is real/ Then so is everything.”

And speaking of surrealism, The Rosebuds’ video for “Life Like”premiered recently by Spingoes anthropomorphic on deers and deer-hunting. Pretty intense shots of Ivan and Kelly in black, too.