March 14, 2012 – Danny Brown's "Radio Song" received its own video yesterday, not coincidentally the same day the ridiculously distinctive Detroit rapper released a deluxe edition of last year's tour de force XXX (more on that album, our favorite rap album of 2011, here). This anti-commercial song and anti-commercial video actually make a paradoxically great case for buying XXX, now available with three new tracks. But it also underscores why the Brown may be more of a commercial prospect than what he pretends to be. "Radio Song," of course, is actually a stripped-down tirade against radio songs, putting Brown's hyena-pitched bleat atop elegant piano, thwapping snares, and not much else. The joke's that Brown is far more memorable, incisive, and thus, potentially marketable than the conservative, risk-averse, cosign-oriented material that often makes it onto tight Top 40 radio playlists.

March 14, 2012 – "I swear I got so high last night I don't remember falling asleep," Wiz Khalifa begins his new Taylor Allderdice mixtape. As the laid-back Pittsburgh rapper indicated not long ago on his Tumblr, the Rolling Papers star's follow-up to last year's Cabin Fever mixtape is a slight return to the cohesive spaciness of 2010's Kush & OJ mixtape — where Khalifa really found his groove, after an early success that found him rapping over incongruous stuff like Alice Deejay's "Better Off Alone." Accordingly, Khalifa's latest is full of deceptively casual observations about the everyday life of a genial perma-stoner, albeit with slightly more expansive production. Beatmakers here include Spaceghostpurrp, Lex Luger, and the Taylor Gang's own Cardo.

March 13, 2012 – Turning into an adult doesn't have to mean becoming someone else. Bethany Cosentino has said Best Coast's Jon Brion-produced sophomore album, called The Only Place (due May 15) is about her "trying really hard to grow up." The L.A. fuzz-poppers have said on Twitter they'll be previewing some of the new material during SXSW, which, full disclosure, they're playing our very own party this Friday in Austin. And obviously the Brion-lacquered studio product could sound very different. But based on what we've heard so far, Best Coast appear to be doing a fine job of maturing without losing their identity. As the NJ Underground points out, Best Coast played a song from The Only Place, the bouncy lament "Why I Cry," Saturday night in Denton, Texas. "Walk around in a haze / Seems to be the way I spend my days," Cosentino coos.

March 13, 2012 – Though Gossip formed more than a decade ago in the college town of Olympia, Washington, the Beth Ditto-led dance-rockers have been stars in England since the full-throated assault of 2006's Standing in the Way of Control. 2009's Music for Men brought Gossip chart success in continental Europe, as well, but conquering Gossip's home country has remained a challenge for the group. The first track from Gossip's upcoming fifth album, A Joyful Noise, doesn't attempt to compromise to please U.S. pop radio programmers who barely acknowledge guitar-based music anyway, and that looks like a wise decision. Due out on May 22, A Joyful Noise swaps out the previous album's producer, bearded hitmaker Rick Rubin, for Brian Higgins, who has previously overseen seamless synth-pop creations by Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys, Girls Aloud, and Saint Etienne.

March 13, 2012 – Rumors about high-profile guest stars turned out to be false, but Jay-Z alone hardly disappointed during his first solo SXSW performance Monday night at the freshly revamped Austin City Limits theater. Following a surprise appearance last year during Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music showcase, Hova kicked off SXSW week with a roughly 80-minute set packed with hits like "Big Pimpin'," "Just Wanna Luv U (Give It 2 Me)" and "Hard Knock Life." And, because the whole show was a promotional event for American Express, it's streaming online in its entirety. Taking the stage to the defiant soul-based strains of The Black Album's "What More Can I Say," wearing all black everything except a gold chain and colorful baseball cap, Jigga struck a kinetic figure all by himself.

March 12, 2012 – Hard to believe it's been a decade since the Hives re-released their hit single "Hate to Say I Told You So" in the United States. The Swedish garage-rockers slowed down a little bit over the past 10 years, but they're ready to release their first full-length since 2007's The Black and White Album. The Hives' fifth LP overall, Lex Hives, will arrive on June 5, the band has announced. The first track from the album, "Go Right Ahead," is streaming now over at Rolling Stone, and it shouldn't deter any fans of the Hives' previous work. A rowdy rocker with howling vocals from aptly nicknamed frontman Howlin' Pelle Almquist, the song adds a bit more T. Rex boogie and blaring horns to the band's typical rock'n'roll swagger. If the Hives' previous album is still a guide, this one will be blasting from TV commercials in no time.

March 12, 2012 – Radiohead's concert last night in Kansas City drew in more than art-rock fans from throughout the Midwest. It also attracted a bunch of self-proclaimed religious folks known for picketing gay rights events, American troops' funerals, and Foo Fighters concerts. And the protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, even brought their own attempt at music criticism. (They still like The Bends, you just know it.) As At Ease points out, the protesters described the band as "freak monkey's with mediocre tunes," which is [SIC] on arguably multiple levels, depending on whether you're talking to a diehard Radiohead fan or not. Also: God hates correct punctuation, apparently.

March 12, 2012 – Mystikal needs to take his own advice. The New Orleans party-starter's rambunctious rasp of a voice remains every bit the sonic treat it once was, and "Original," his debut single for one-time rivals Cash Money Records, is mildly entertaining club fare, if a bit weighed down by label boss Birdman's characteristically sleepy verse and Lil Wayne's so-so rock'n'roll self-mythologizing. That track's worst flaw as part of a pop narrative, though, is its clumsy failure either to rise above or come to terms with Mystikal's six years behind bars for forcing his hairstylist to perform oral sex on him and two bodyguards.

March 12, 2012 – The Shins gave a sharp performance as this weekend's Saturday Night Live musical guests, but theirs wasn't the song audience members were probably humming at the end of the show. James Mercer's new lineup for the now Portland-based sophisti-poppers took the SNL stage as a seven-piece, including a couple of backup singers. They performed the wistfully romantic, uptempo "Simple Song" and the more restrained, gently motivational anthem "It's Only Life," both from Mercer's first album under the Shins name in five years, Port of Morrow (due out March 20). As seen in the band's New York show earlier in the week, Mercer and Co. were a well-oiled machine, expertly navigating the melodic twists and turns of songs that function like a more adult version of the Shins' Chutes Too Narrow-era richness.

March 9, 2012 – El-P has emerged from the ashes of his Def Jux indie-rap label like he once again has something to prove. The New York MC/producer and Company Flow member reminded anyone unfamiliar just what a ferocious rapper he can be on Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire's internet-star-studded "The Last Huzzah!" remix. He's reportedly producing Atlanta hip-hop veteran Killer Mike's upcoming R.A.P. Music, from which advance track "Big Beast" showcases his bustling, cacophonous production style. On May 22, El-P will release his first non-instrumental solo album since 2007's bleak I'll Sleep When You're Dead, he announced today. Titled Cancer for Cure, the album marks his first for gritty blues label turned indie-rock mainstay Fat Possum, and it will feature Interpol's Paul Banks and Island's Nick Diamonds along with Danny Brown, Killer Mike, Mr. Muthafuckin' exQuire, and others yet to be announced.