Interested in the dynamics of today’s music industry? Rolling Stone has a solid article for you. While this article is not exactly chock full of new pieces of information, it is thorough.

What can be better than a beautiful song and claymation? Enjoy the Weepies, who are a husband and wife duo.

The original handwritten lyrics to John Lennon’s anthem ‘Give Peace a Chance’ are up for auction and are expecting to fetch 300,000+ Euros.

Here’s an amazing life performance by Nina Simone of ‘Ain’t Got No…I’ve Got Life’. Dig that wicked hairdo of hers.

Rhinna has banned fans from showing with umbrellas at her concerts. The reported reason is for “security concerns”. Odd that lameness was not cited.

via pop candy

Here is the video to Gnarls Barkley’s new single ‘Run’, which is the first single from their upcoming sophmore release. Yes, that is Justin Timberlake in a wig and glasses.

Peter Elkas is an amazing Canadian singer/songwriter. I had the chance to catch him in concert last week and was totally taken by his music. ‘Sweet Nancy’ is the lead single from his new album Wall of Fire, which I can’t get enough of. Wall of Fire is the perfect soundtrack to a weekend morning where you sleep, have some coffee and pancakes with someone that you love.

Check out more songs on Peter’s myspace page.

Nope, that’s not Lilly Allen, that’s Kate Nash. She’s a little older, and presumably a little wiser. Plus, this video has stop-motion toy dinosaurs.

The first version of the song’s video may not say it, but the lyrics to this wonderful song by the Maccabees are quite apropos for Valentine’s Day. Have a good one everyone and happy Valentine’s Day to you DL.

Latest video version:

Penultimate video version:

Continuing with his work of directing documentaries and films about such musical legends as the Band, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, Marty Scorsese will be making a documentary about the life of Bob Marley. The film is slated to be released February 6, 2010 - what would have been Marley’s 65th birthday.

A classic track from Kraftwerk’s album the Man-Machine. Given that this video was made around 1978 (that’s when the album was released, but I’m not sure about the video), it is quite stylishly advanced. Although, this is not surprising as Kraftwork have always been cutting edge.

Like me, not everyone was a fan of having Tom Petty perform at halftime at the Superbowl.

That’s right, Tom Petty - the man with a solid UK chart history of one top-30 song from 19 years ago. The man who can look himself in the eye and know that the most extreme reaction he’s ever provoked in anyone at all was that time when Free Fallin’ made a Mojo reader tap his fingers on his corduroy trousers for 12 seconds. The man whose band is called The Heartbreakers even though they don’t so much break hearts as occasionally cause some superficial rusting.

Moreover, it looks like he was lip-synching.

Vampire Weekend are an up and coming indie group that you may want to get familiar with. Check out the video below for a taste of their sound and some interview bits (I’ve been using bits a lot lately, I wonder if there is something behind that) too!

via Stereogum

Here is a retro-lounge sounding catchy pop number from Swede Jens Lekman. A groovy track, and a soaring video, to get you going this weekend.

Way back when, I asked in this post if you know from Feist. Well now Leslie Fiest is quite well known. But I digress - anyways, here is her latest video for the single ‘I Feel It All’ off of the album The Reminder.

From Paste Magazine:

The New York Observer reported recently that erstwhile heartthrob Val Kilmer is “shopping” for labels to release his album of original recordings. Apparently titled Val Kilmer: Sessions With Mick—as in Val’s pal and partner-in-musical-crime Mick Rossi, not Jones or Jagger or even Fleetwood—the newspaper warns the song cycle “run[s] the gamut from foot-stompin’ rock to moody, guttural ballads,” and even includes a Christmas ditty.

But the Observer isn’t the first to weigh in on this development. Inexplicably, back in October The Solano Tempest posted a review, complete with a (similarly inexplicable) photo of the disc itself. This can only mean that distributing promo CDs exclusively to community colleges is the new pay-what-you-want.

Or maybe it means that even his publicist can’t get behind lyrics like these, via the Observer: “I’ve been growing sideways / I’ve been growing thin / I’ve been a zombie all day / I’ve been preventing sin / Noobadaba dootoo / Noobadaba dootoo.”

See Kilmer’s musical myspace page here.

Onion AV Club has compiled the list of the worst band names of 2007. The list is broken down with a taxonomy of bad band names, including just plain bad, funk, cutesy bullshit and hey ladies.

via pop candy

Mmmmm, the Bees (also known in the US as A Band of Bees) make great music. Here are the vids to two songs off of the album Octopus.

‘Tell Me Baby’

‘Who Cares What the Question Is’

Stereogum has the low down on a brewing controversy where Rolling Stone magazine “wrapped” mention of a top list of indie rock artists around a Camel cigarettes ad that could confuse the reader to think that those artists are a part of the Camel campaign. I remember seeing the ad and thinking just that.