April 29, 2013 – Saturday night the Washington, D.C., establishment held its annual fete to itself, the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and once again President Barack Obama managed to invite in hip-hop.Obama's entrance music at this year's Conan O'Brien-hosted event was DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win," and the president also mockingly addressed the recent brouhaha over Jay-Z's trip to Cuba: "Some things are beyond my control," the president said. "For example, this whole controversy about Jay-Z going to Cuba — it's unbelievable. I've got 99 problems and now Jay-Z is one." That followed a joke about Young Jeezy at the 2012 dinner. The guy who once said there isn't a red America or a blue America also goofed on country's biggest contemporary pop star.

April 29, 2013 – Rock memoirs have been a booming business lately, with '60s guitar whizzes Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Pete Townshend lending their bylines to bestsellers detailing their behind-the-scenes (mis)adventures. The hip-hop memoir has, more quietly, offered itself as a more innovative form: Jay-Z's Decoded, in 2010, didn't dish about the rapper's much-mythologized past so much as deftly break down his rhymes and argue convincingly for them as great art. Now, Spiegel & Grau, the same Random House imprint that printed Jay-Z's book, is set to put out another convention-bucking hip-hop memoir, this time by the Beastie Boys.As the New York Times reports, the publisher is expected to announce this week that Mike D and Ad-Rock have inked an agreement to publish an as-yet-untitled book, available to be ch-checked out of libraries in fall 2015.

April 26, 2013 – Crystal Castles' new video, a document of their South American tour, arrives as the Canadian duo extend their North American jaunt with Depeche Mode. "Affection," from last year's III, is a shrouded mix of flashing electronics and downcast vocals — reviewer Barry Walters called it "tentative" — and the visuals don't remove the shadows. The song's video isn't Crystal Castles' most attention-grabbing, but it should help prepare Depeche Mode fans for Crystal Castles' unhinged live shows.Assembled by Stephen Agnew, who worked with the pair on their prior video for "Sad Eyes," the clip has a VHS feel. Frontwoman Alice Glass, her hair almost white and her lips blood-red, can be seen wrapping a microphone cord around her neck in live footage shot by producer Ethan Kath during shows in Colombia and Argentina.

April 26, 2013 – The online hunt for details about a possible new Boards of Canada album has only gotten more intense, and now the searchers suspect they've come up with a title. But there are plenty of doubts.As FACT reports, "cosecha," the Spanish word for "harvest," is a phrase buried in the data for a couple of Soundcloud links unearthed via arcane clues found by users of BoC fan message board Twoism. Some users speculate Cosecha is the title of the first album in eight years from the Scottish electronic masterminds. Others theorize that it might be the name for the puzzle itself, while some note that it might just be a red herring.To recap, this all comes after previously unannounced BoC vinyl began showing up on shelves on April 20, which was Record Store Day. Another, identical 12-inch single surfaced in London. Since then, BBC and NPR have both aired further clues.

April 26, 2013 – Country lost one of its greats today, when George Jones died at age 81. According to Billboard, a rep confirms he passed away at Nashville's Vanderbilt University Medical Center after coming down with a fever and suffering blood pressure problems. "Possum," as he was called, released more than 150 albums in his more than 50-year career, and for many he embodied traditional country music in a way worthy of Hank Williams, his idol. The Country Music Hall of Famer's hits included the heart-rending masterpiece "He Stopped Loving Her Today," and many more. He leaves behind his wife of 30 years, Nancy Jones, as well as his sister Helen Scroggins, and his children, grandchildren, and extended family.As the AP notes, Jones' influence extended far beyond country, with Frank Sinatra, Pete Townshend, Elvis Costello, and many others heralding his work.

April 26, 2013 – David Bowie's slow-drip release of information about last month's The Next Day, the art-rock legend's first album of new material in a decade, has so far been more enthralling than the actual music. In January, the Thin White Duke dropped a new single on the world without any advance warning. Since then he has brilliantly cast Tilda Swinton in one video, and Gary Oldman will reportedly star in the next one.

April 26, 2013 – The National have staked out a sterling reputation for smartly brooding indie-rock anthems. Despite touches of wry humor, the material previewed so far from Brooklyn band's upcoming album Trouble Will Find Me refines that strategy more than departs from it. That was particularly true in the group's appearance last night on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, where they dapperly and passionately performed two songs from the May 21 album, joined by elegant trombone and trumpet. On air, the crew, dressed to the nines, romped through "Sea of Love" (above), which contains the album's title phrase, an ambiguous Harvard reference, and honking harmonica. As an online exclusive, they turned down the tempo for urgent, atmospheric ballad "I Need My Girl" (below).

April 26, 2013 – Since 1999, when Belle and Sebastian organized a festival called the Bowlie Weekender, music fans have congregated for weekend-long festivals at Pontins Holiday Camp on the British beach of Camber Sands. The All Tomorrow's Parties festival series, as these events have been known since 2000, has expanded over the years to hold concerts in cities and other locations around the world. Earlier this morning, organizers announced that the tradition of ATP festivals at Camber Sands holiday park will end with two events this fall.Dubbed "End of an Era," parts one and two, ATP's U.K. seaside send-off will bid farewell in style.

April 25, 2013 – As with another movie starring Leonard DiCaprio, spoiler alerts aren't required for The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald's book came out, what, 88 years ago? And on the off chance you haven't read it yet, don't worry: It's great enough it doesn't matter if you already know the plot. So we can unapologetically report that the story involves a hit-and-run car accident. Not just a hit-and-run, in fact, but a "kill and run."That's the title, of course, of Aussie singer and songwriter (she co-wrote the new Beyoncé track) Sia's song for the May 6 soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's upcoming film. As befits the opera photo above, it's a grandiose ballad, with multiple Sias set atop delicate piano and balcony-reaching orchestration.

April 25, 2013 – A week ago today, Twitter rolled out Twitter #music, its new music-recommendation app. (Here's how to use it.) Now, AllThingsD reports the person who spearheaded the project, Kevin Thau, has left the company. Sources familiar with the matter reportedly said Thau will become chief operating officer of Jelly, a mobile start-up from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone about which almost nothing is known. According to AllThingsD, Thau was a longtime Twitter employee and was responsible for Twitter's acquisition of We Are Hunted, a previous music-discovery service that has now turned into Twitter #music. While Twitter #music was in the works, Thau and the rest of the team were reportedly set up in a separate location off-site, so in that sense Thau was split from the rest of the company even before his departure.