March 15, 2012 – It's taken Garbage so long to return that Shirley Manson and Co. actually sound of-the-moment again. As the alt-rockers get ready to release their first album in seven years, Not Your Kind of People, on May 15, you can already hear their clinically precise grunge-glam smart bombs reverberating across new albums by artists as varied as School of Seven Bells and (as our own Rob Harvilla points out) even Lana Del Rey. "Blood for Poppy," the first full song from the LP, is a sharply hook-packed modern rocker, anachronistic only because of its "radio"-referencing chorus... Don't you guys have Spotify? Anyway, like Garbage's black-eyelinered U2 cover late last year, it's ill-served by YouTube-leak audio quality. Unlike the idea of a Garbage Pail Kids movie, it's promising for more reasons than nostalgia.

March 15, 2012 – The Roots have announced the lineup for their fifth annual Philly music throwdown, the Roots Picnic, Okayplayer reports. The Roots will once again headline and also play backing band for the mighty De La Soul at this year's fest, set for June 2 and 3 at Festival Pier at Penn's Landing. The bill also boasts Kid Cudi, a DJ set by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, both Major Lazer and Diplo solo, Wale, St. Vincent, Danny Brown, tUnE-yArDs, Shabazz Palaces, Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, and more. Two-day passes go on sale to the general public tomorrow and are available through a Live Nation presale today, both via Ticketmaster. The price is $80 per pass plus $16.60 in fees. Below is a video recap of last year's Roots Picnic by BlowHipHopTV, featuring Nas, the Roots, Yelawolf, Wiz Khalifa, and Mac Miller.

March 15, 2012 – The Flaming Lips' long-in-the-works musical is finally almost here. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots will premiere in November or December at the esteemed La Jolla Playhouse, the Los Angeles Times reports. As if San Diego didn't sound appealing enough already at that time of year. As previously reported, the musical will include songs from The Soft Bulletin and At War With the Mystics as well as 2002's Yoshimi. The production is written and directed by Jersey Boys director Des McAnuff. The theater company's website promises a "dazzling, multi-media experience," and yes, the plot focuses on a young Japanese artist named Yoshimi who must do battle in an evil robot world. The wide-eyed Oklahoma psych-rockers have been working on a theatrical treatment for Yoshimi at least since 2007, when The Social Network/West Wing writer Aaron Sorkin was reportedly involved.

March 15, 2012 – More than their Mississippi homebase unites David Banner and Big K.R.I.T. Both are auteurs who produce their own tracks, both are gifted philosophers prone to potty-mouthery (Banner's biggest hit thus far is the filthy sex ode "Play,"; K.R.I.T.'s is called "Country Shit"), and both sound best on syrupy, laid-back tempos. The two come together on "Believe," a pretty damn solid preview of Banner's May 22 Sex, Drugs, and Video Games mixtape. Banner's energetic forcefulness goes with K.R.I.T.'s mellow drawl like cheesy grits, as both pay tribute to the Dirty and, because they're rapping over a pitched-up Jodeci sample, undying love. Banner is asking for donations, which you can make here. Click through to download (via 2DopeBoyz).

March 15, 2012 – At this point wouldn't it be a bigger surprise if Kanye West didn't show up for SXSW? He closed out the festivities in Austin last year with a concert that featured an unannounced appearance by Watch the Throne partner Jay-Z, he previously hit the Fader Fort a couple of years earlier, and he's a veteran stage-stealer. With Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, and Jay-Z all in town this year, was anyone expecting Kanye to just stay home? Spoiler alert: He didn't. Last night, New York club S.O.B.'s held its 30th anniversary party in Austin at the Belmont nightclub, where the event had been moved last week as event organizers cited overwhelming demand. The lineup included hip-hop supergroup Slaughterhouse along with rappers Machine Gun Kelly, 2 Chainz, and others.

March 14, 2012 – First! Only four artists have sent 10 or more albums to the top of the Billboard 200 chart. The Beatles had 19 No. 1 albums, Jay-Z has had 12, and now Bruce Springsteen is tied for third place with Elvis at 10 apiece. First-week sales of 196,000 for his Wrecking Ball were enough, just barely, to keep Adele's 21 from matching Prince & the Revolution's Purple Rain soundtrack with 24 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1. See? Rap albums still sell. 2 Through 10: 21 inches down to No. 2 (195,000). Along with Wrecking Ball, two other records bowed in the top 10 this week: Luke Bryan's Spring Break 4 - Suntan City EP at No. 9 (30,000) and soon-to-be "Colbert bump" beneficiary Andrew Bird's Break It Yourself at No. 10 (slightly less than 30,000). Record-buyers still love Whitney Houston, whose The Greatest Hits slipped to No. 6 (70,000).

March 14, 2012 – Only after the complete dissolution of the music industry machine could an noise-soaked anarcho-rap trio from Sacramento have not one, but two of the year's most hotly anticipated albums. Drummer Zach Hill's collaboration with keyboardist/programmer Andy "Flatlander" Morin and MC Ride landed on SPIN's scientifically sound 40 Best Rap Albums of 2011 list last year with the bludgeoning assault of Exmilitary. Newest track "Lost Boys" might be as good a place any to start familiarizing yourself with Death Grips' April 24 album The Money Store — the first of two planned full-lengths this year on Epic Records(!), including scheduled fall follow-up No Love. Of The Money Store cuts previewed so far, "Lost Boys" has more in common with the queasy electronic din of "Blackjack" than the (relatively) more vocals-in-front "Get Got".

March 14, 2012 – The entire music industry is drunk in Austin right now, but leave it to Andrew Bird and Stephen Colbert to give them something non-SXSW to talk about. The Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter released his holy-shit 12th album, Break It Yourself, only last week, and his performances from that album last night for Colbert were predictably lovely and unclassifiable. During The Colbert Report's TV broadcast, Bird switched off between violin, guitar, and glockenspiel for advance MP3 "Eyoneye," a rousing number that brings the album's title phrase home. As a web exclusive, Bird and his band delivered an equally tight take on the more subdued, tropical-flavored "Danse Caribe." Both songs displayed Bird's considerable whistling talents. Of course, Colbert being Colbert, his interview with the scarf- and blazer-wearing Bird was as much of an event as the music itself.

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.