January 27, 2012 – We're not saying Tyga's "Rack City" is the best song on the radio right now. Wait, actually, we're saying exactly that. Listen to this remix (via Dajaz1) while you read last week's entry on our hip-hop blog, Tyga's 'Rack City' Is the Best Song on the Radio Right Now: Here Are 10 Reasons Why. A whole bunch of those 10 reasons are still intact, from the refreshingly minimalist production to the sheer, absurd joy of a rapper as personality-free as Tyga happening onto such an unforgettably ridiculous hook. Only now the one-time "Coconut Juice" slinger is joined by some lackadaisical strip-club rhymes from Wale, cannily cold-blooded wordplay from Fabolous, grunting sex boasts from Young Jeezy, money-counting yelps from Meek Mill, and, finally, if I'm counting right, a languidly swaggering T.I.

January 27, 2012 – "You can't assume a man isn't a poet," said Jimmy Webb, the songwriter behind Glen Campbell's classic "Wichita Lineman," in a recent interview about the 1968 hit that secured the countrypolitan singer's legacy. "And that's really what the song is about." Anyone who doubts there's poetry in the high, lonesome voice of Campbell, now 75 and staring down Alzheimer's, will have a chance to see for themselves when he performs live at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. The former host of TV's The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour will sing backed by two current Grammy nominees: Blake Shelton, who's up for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Album, and the Band Perry, who are vying for Best New Artist against Bon Iver and Skrillex.

January 26, 2012 – It's a good day for aggressively brooding Chicago instrumental rock. First came word the Windy City quintet Del Rey has seen its album sales jump in Germany — never mind if it's mostly thanks to coincidentally named pop seductress Lana Del Rey. Now comes a new track from fellow atmospheric Chicago heavies Pelican since 2009's What We All Come to Need. "Lathe Biosas," from the upcoming four-song EP Ataraxia/Taraxis (out April 10 on Southern Lord) marches confidently between art-rock foreboding and neo-metal churn, all in less than five minutes. The title is Greek for "live unnoticed," but why? DOWNLOAD

January 26, 2012 – Lana Del Rey's conversation-dominating rise has been a boon for at least one long-slogging band. As the Chicago Reader reports, Chicago instrumental rockers Del Rey are finally charting in Germany, and they owe it all — or surely some of it, anyway (we're talking about the nation that gave us Falco here) — to the Born to Die singer. The metal-leaning quintet's most recent album, 2010's Immemorial, has evidently popped up in Amazon Deutschland's Top 20 more than once, with a high so far this winter of No. 7. Del Rey's Jason Ward, who runs Chicago Mastering Studio with Bob Weston, tells the Reader the band's German label, Golden Antenna, ordered another pressing of the CD after its sales spiked to 500 copies or so in November.

January 26, 2012 – Amy Winehouse, or at least a fashion collection inspired by the late British singer, has hit the runway in Paris. Jean Paul Gaultier's haute-couture show in Paris yesterday involved heavy eye makeup, towering beehives, and cigarette-smoking models. A live barbershop quartet even apparently sang "Rehab." And guess what? As the British edition of the Week points out, fashion critics are split on the new spring-summer line. Was the collection a fitting tribute to Winehouse, who was found dead last summer in her London apartment at age 27? Well, the New York Times' fashion critic praised the designer for summoning up her "chaotic essence in a marvelous show," so, maybe? "Gaultier did Amy proud," agreed the Daily Telegraph.

January 26, 2012 – In 2008, the three members of Ben Folds Five (yes, we know) reunited onstage for the first time in almost a decade to perform their third and final album, 1999's widely underrated The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. Since then, singer-pianist and songwriter Ben Folds has soldiered on without his North Carolina-born band, releasing fourth proper solo album Way to Normal later in 2008 and a collaborative album with High Fidelity author Nick Hornby, Lonely Avenue, in 2010. But now, at long last, Ben Fold Five is reuniting once again. Show me the mosh pit. Last night, Folds tweeted a photo of himself with fuzztone-wielding bassist Robert Sledge and hard-hitting drummer Darren Jessee.

January 26, 2012 – After gate-crashing the pop-music discussion throughout last year, Odd Future are setting their sights on an equally eventful 2012. The Los Angeles hip-hop collective has announced a 17-date spring tour, along with a new mixtape, upcoming solo albums by members Tyler, the Creator and MellowHype, and the March 25 premiere of the group's Adult Swim sketch comedy show, Loiter Squad. There will most likely be illin'. First, about that tour: Odd Future's North American trek starts on March 9 with a performance at the Marquee Theater in Tempe, Arizona, and the last scheduled performance is currently set for April 11 at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle, with a handful of U.K. dates also squeezed in between. According to Pitchfork, a Loiter Squad screening and an Odd Future pop-up store will hit each city in addition to the group's set. Did we say new Odd Future music?

January 25, 2012 – First! Adele must have country singers shaking in their boots. The British singer's 21 has reached its 17th week at the top of Billboard's Top 200 albums chart, matching the reign of Billy Ray Cyrus' Some Gave All and coming within a week of Garth Brooks' Ropin' the Wind dominance. Her sophomore album sold 95,000 copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan, good enough to surpass the Titanic soundtrack's 16 weeks at the top. Adele may have beaten Celine Dion, but she'll need to keep this up another three weeks to pass the Bodyguard soundtrack's SoundScan-era-record 20-week run. Yesterday's release of Tim McGraw's Emotional Traffic, however, could put an end to that. Garth owes you one, buddy. 2 Through 10: Kidz Bop 21 debuted at No. 2, giving the series its 14th Top 10 album (59,000). Black Keys' El Camino (29,000) and Drake's Take Care (29,000) held steady at No. 3 and No.

January 25, 2012 – Britain's finest rock'n'roll sophisticates took on one of last year's finest U.K. pop sensations earlier today in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. That's right, Arctic Monkeys covered Katy B's sinuously bass-dropping "Katy on a Mission" (rip by the NJ Underground, via Some Kind of Awesome). On last year's Suck It and See, Alex Turner and the boys gave the impression they had outgrown the U.K. and U.S. charts alike: They'd moved on from both their early youthful exuberance and their later sludgy Josh Homme phase to revel in rich, vibrant lyricism and classicist fuzz-guitar tunefulness. It was like they didn't care whether the masses "got it" or not. A rain-soaked Lollapalooza crowd ate it up anyway. As for Kathleen Brien, her On a Mission (one of SPIN's 20 Best Pop Albums of 2011) could hardly have been more deeply invested in current trends.

January 25, 2012 – No, Van Halen haven't been involved in some gruesome crime, though it's not like anybody at the reunited rockers' upcoming shows is going to be calling out requests for latest release "Tattoo." But the David Lee Roth-fronted band will, in fact, be airing "Tattoo" and a previously unheard song titled "Stay Frosty" on tonight's episode of CBS crime show CSI, at least according to unofficial Van Halen site Van Halen News Desk (via Blabbermouth). As incompatible as Diamond Dave's over-the-top rock'n'roll extravagance might seem with gritty crime-scene post-mortems, the choice is not a sign the band has been getting into a little too much of Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo. As it turns out, CSI and music have a bit of a record together.