May 10, 2013 – Some of Lana Del Rey's videos are, for better or worse, discussion-worthy whatever your take on the endlessly discussed music. Remember that JFK-themed "National Anthem" clip with A$AP Rocky? The visuals for "Young and Beautiful," Del Rey's contribution to The Great Gatsby soundtrack, are elegantly conceived, but succeed only as much as the music does. Shot by Sophie Muller (who has worked with, oh, just No Doubt, Garbage, Blur, and names like that) and directed by Chris Sweeney (Foals, Marina and the Diamonds, Friendly Fires), the clip shows Del Rey emoting as an orchestra performs. For some reason she has makeup that looks like two teardrop tattoos. The song, which our own Nicole Sia has called "vapid and foreboding," might not quite communicate the "aching soul" its lyrics describe.

May 10, 2013 – These are our good times. So Daft Punk suggested in a rare radio interview, which aired this morning on Australia's Triple J Radio and is streaming below. Though the interviewer doesn't specify which member of the French electronic duo is speaking, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter made a few anticipation-raising points.One: "Get Lucky," the upbeat, Pharrell and Nile Rodgers-assisted first single from May 21 LP Random Access Memories, in a way captures the essence of the album. Two: That essence involves traveling through different eras in hopes of getting to the future (we always figured they drove a DeLorean). Three: The world might be a pessimistic place right now, but Daft Punk's time-travel allows their album to be a celebration.

May 10, 2013 – Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman's death last week from liver failure was caused by alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver, the band has confirmed. Hanneman, who was 49, co-founded the California thrash-metal institution with fellow guitarist Kerry King in 1981. The pair's rampaging fretboard assaults jointly earned them a high ranking on SPIN's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.In a Facebook post, the band says Hanneman and his confidantes didn't learn the severity of Hanneman's liver disease until recently, though he suffered flesh-eating disease from a spider bite on his arm in early 2011. He was not in line for a liver transplant and it had appeared he was getting better, the band writes. Read their full update on Hanneman's cause of death below:We've just learned that the official cause of Jeff's death was alcohol related cirrhosis.

May 9, 2013 – Listeners have gone from buying new music to streaming it. Now the Recording Industry Association of America is evolving with them, in a change that makes less sense than it may first appear.As Billboard reports, the RIAA has started taking on-demand streams into account in its methodology for certifying gold and platinum albums. The move marks just the fifth big tweak to the RIAA's metrics for awards since they started 55 years ago. The idea is to acknowledge listeners' shift to the digital realm.The streaming services the RIAA will now factor into its calculations include MOG, Muve Music, Rdio, Rhapsody, Slacker, Spotify, and Xbox Music. Also now platinum- and gold-worthy are video streams from MTV.com, VEVO, Yaoo! Music, and YouTube.

May 9, 2013 – "Every building has a face," Telekinesis frontman Michael Benjamin sings on "Empathetic People," a punchy standout from the Seattle fuzz-poppers' new album Dormarion, produced by Spoon's Jim Eno. In the song's freshly posted video, that building is an abandoned vinyl record-pressing factory, which Telekinesis put back to work while banging out their song. Director Patrick Stanton, who has also helmed videos for Gossip and Modest Mouse, told NPR the song "has such a great driving rhythm and a mysteriously dark feel that I knew it would be perfect for this visual concept." In an era when you can make a Radiohead record out of wood, or design a screws-free cassette for prisoners so they aren't stuck listening only to old Jagged Edge tapes, there's still no substitute for a proper vinyl pressing.

May 9, 2013 – The King Kong musical about to scale Melbourne like the Empire State Building might have a soundtrack loaded with laudable names from electronic music, but it's still, y'know, a musical. A three-minute teaser for the show's music offers sneak peeks at Justice's characteristically filter-disco "The Greatest Show on Earth," 3-D from Massive Attack's characteristically spooky-cinematic "Colossus"  and (with Guy Garvey from Elbow) "In the Face of Forever," and, hey, Sarah McLachlan's characteristically Sarah McLachlan-y "What's It Gonna Take?" The biggest draw, though, is a new track from the Avalanches, who shared a mixtape last year but haven't released an album since 2000's landscape-shifting Since I Left You. The Aussie group's "Get Happy," a digital-funk take on an old popular standard, while promising, is hardly the full-fledged sequel fans have been awaiting.

May 9, 2013 – Kanye West in on track to make a cameo in Will Ferrell's upcoming Anchorman sequel.As the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports, the rapper last seen in designer clothes screaming about being a god at a punk-inspired New York City gala was in downtown Atlanta yesterday for the filming of Anchorman: The Legend Continues.The studio declined to comment to E! Online about any role for West, but the celebrity news site's sources say he was part of a fight scene, where were guessing if you were a man he'd punch you. He'd punch you right in the mouth.Here's what we know about Kanye West's upcoming album, which is "dark" and involves Daft Punk. West is slated for a May 18 performance on Saturday Night Live. And his God-ly utterances have inspired us to come up with the list Bigger Than Jesus: 25 Rock Deities, Rap Messiahs, and Would-Be Golden Gods.

May 9, 2013 – "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." That's from the book of Matthew, chapter seven, verse fifteen, in the King James Version of the Christian Bible. It's a line familiar even to the secular, Talmudic-style interpreters over at lyric site RapGenius, who correctly noted a connection in the lyrics of David Bowie's title song from new album The Next Day. Not familiar, on the evidence, is Bill Donohue, head of nonprofit advocacy group the Catholic League, who is outraged — outraged, we tell you!

May 9, 2013 – Cat Power's Chan Marshall has graced us with another chance to hear her heartbreaking piano-and-vocals ballad "Bully," and she has also offered the faintest of hints about its origins. Marshall debuted the wrenching reminiscence on BBC's Later... With Jools Holland last month, and you can buy it on iTunes, but the video of her TV performance is no longer available in the United States. Luckily, Marshall's rendition this morning on BBC Radio 4's "Woman's Hour" (via Pitchfork) is every bit as stirring as our memories of the song's earlier performance, and you can listen to it here around the 18:38 mark.

May 9, 2013 – It's an eventful day for the men in the robot masks. Daft Punk's new album Random Access Memories isn't out until May 21, and so far the French electronic dance music blueprint-setters have released only one advance track, "Get Lucky," their disco-callback collaboration with Nile Rodgers and Pharrell (an early version of album closer "Contact" has apparently emerged in an online recording of a 2002 DJ set).