February 14, 2012 – Kanye West and Odd Future might be at different points in the road, but they're taking similar paths. Whatever else you could say about them — and a lot has already been said — both are willfully provocative hip-hop acts who've won over crucial portions of the pop, hip-hop, and indie-rock audiences through their constant innovation and unexpected moments of emotional vulnerability. And now signs are pointing toward something that was possibly inevitable from the start: a passing-of-the-torch collaboration between the two. This shit, too, might be cray. As Pitchfork points out, a series of artfully rough-looking photos have been posted on the GolfWang Tumblr showing West, Frank Ocean, and Tyler, the Creator together in a studio next to assorted recording gear.

February 14, 2012 – In case you wondered how telling the world "fuck you" for no apparent reason while pocketing untold sums of money became the sort of thing that could win an artist praise from highbrow types who make a living by providing their readers with an inflated sense of superiority, John Lydon is back in the news. It's been more than four years since the former Johnny Rotten last reunited legendary first-wave U.K. punk band the Sex Pistols, whose best-known bassist Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose so long ago Iran wasn't quite yet a fundamentalist theocracy. In 2009, though, Lydon reunited his other band — the abrasive, dub-inflected post-punk outfit Public Image Ltd.-- for some U.K. shows. Right on schedule, PiL is readying its first new album since 1992's Pistols-sampling That What Is Not. "The album's done," Lydon told BBC 6 Music yesterday, as quoted by the Guardian.

February 14, 2012 – Jack White wants love to do a whole bunch of truly violent, shocking things to him, at least according to the words he sings on his first solo single. The unexpectedly gentle approach of "Love Interruption" should've tipped us off to potential ambiguities in these statements. The song's newly released video continues White's pleasantly laid-back detour, setting the visceral lyrics to footage of the singer and backing vocalist Ruby Amanfu sharing a solitary microphone. Also appearing in the clip are Emily Bowland on bass clarinet and Brooke Wagonner on electric piano. There's a look of old-fashioned glamor to the whole proceeding, though it's long since become unclear at this point whom White more closely resembles, Johny Depp or John Mayer.

February 14, 2012 – Sometimes the best videos do little more than subtly refocus your attention on the music. "Safe & Sound," one of Taylor Swift's two contributions to the companion album for the upcoming movie version of The Hunger Games, is a stripped-down, old-timey acoustic ballad featuring backing vocals from fellow Grammy-night beneficiaries the Civil Wars. When the collaboration first emerged, right before Christmas, it was easy to focus on the way the song appeared to lack Swift's usual pop immediacy and clarion songwriting voice, and to see it as mildly disappointing. Like Nashville neighbor Ke$ha's recent Bob Dylan cover (and praise for Dylan's "honesty"), it felt like a noteworthy display of versatility that nevertheless misunderstood the singer's own particular strengths. Never second-guess Taylor Swift.

February 14, 2012 – Nicki Minaj isn't crazy. The exorcism-themed debut of her new song "Roman Holiday" at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night was gleefully nonsensical, sure, and tinged with lunacy. But it also simultaneously reinforced the Harajuku Barbie's credibility as an uncompromisingly weird MC, presented her as a pop star weird enough to steal the spotlight from Lady Gaga, and established her as a cultural force shameless enough to provoke the usual leave-us-alone-with-our-altar-boys grumbling from the Catholic League's Bill Donohue. Her other new songs from the past couple of days get right back to business. Minaj's newly unveiled "Starships," the latest track to emerge from her forthcoming sophomore album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (currently set for April 3), points its dubstep drops at a different marketing segment.

February 13, 2012 – The Mars Volta's sixth album, Noctourniquet, comes out on March 27 with a storyline evidently drawn from Greek myth, Superman comics, and obscure British rockists. First single "The Malkin Jewel," which premiered today on Australia's Triple J Radio (via Antiquiet), is about as bewildering as that all suggests. Already a part of the Mars Volta's live arsenal, "The Malkin Jewel" continues the band's propensity for music that displays astonishing technical complexity, but the surprise this time is a gutter-blues swagger that brings to mind Nick Cave's Grinderman. Don't expect anything as immediately communicative as Grinderman's "No Pussy Blues," though. Rather, the initial garage-rock lurch and tough-to-discern whispers about rats and vermin give way to a tedious herky-jerk bridge (pretty sure one of the lyrics involves a "bivouac" — Colin Meloy? Kevin Barnes?

February 13, 2012 – Katy Perry could be the next pop star to take her broken heart all the way to the top of the charts. Last night, as Adele won six Grammy Awards, Perry was on hand to debut new single "Part of Me," a brassy dance-pop kiss-off to a lover who can never take away her soul. A lyric video for the studio version of the track has since surfaced online, and although Perry's latest ain't exactly "I Will Always Love You," it's probably good enough to help Perry break Michael Jackson's record for No. 1 singles from one album. "Keep your diamond ring," Perry sings at one point on the new tune, produced by veteran hitmakers Max Martin and Dr. Luke. The breakup theme has already prompted sales-stoking speculation that the song was inspired by Perry's almost-completed divorce from hubby Russell Brand.

February 13, 2012 – Come back, Lizzy Grant, all is forgiven. Saturday Night Live played A&R executive once again this weekend by bringing out YouTube cover band Karmin. Oh, wait, why was everybody complaining about "Video Games" again? Whitney Houston's death the same night only put in exceptionally stark relief just what a ridiculous notion it was to assign a date with stardom for some weirdly perky couple that just happened to rack up (an admittedly insane number of) YouTube views for doing with songs by Chris Brown and Nicki Minaj essentially what Pat Boone did to Fats Domino and Little Richard. SNL acknowledged Houston's death, sort of, by flashing a photo of the late pop queen from a long-ago appearance on the show.

February 10, 2012 – New wave. New love. It works, right? New York-based rockers the Spring Standard bring a touch of the Cars' spastic guitar crunch to "Here We Go," a soaring tune about those first hopeful flushes of romance. The song appears on the trio's upcoming double-EP set, yellow//gold (out May 1 on Parachute Shooter Records), which brings together two complementary but discrete collections of music from the former Pennsylvania-Delaware folkies. "Could this be love?" one of the band's three songwriters asks on the ebullient chorus. Consider this first sight. DOWNLOAD

February 10, 2012 – Starting out in monochrome and shifting into full, glorious color is a cinematic trick as old as The Wizard of Oz, but damn if it doesn't work beautifully sometimes. Fresh off being the newest song on President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign playlist, Bruce Springsteen's recession-rocked anthem "We Take Care of Our Own" gets a visual treatment that works like the music-video counterpart to Clint Eastwood's "It's Halftime in America" Super Bowl ad. As the E Street Band's rousing strains ring out, the Boss rocks earnestly, in silhouette and on rooftops, in between bleak black-and-white footage of everyday people, until, in the second half, the video turns to color, the sun comes out, and folks look confident again. Will you be better off in four years than you were four years ago?