February 8, 2008 – Just days before the big show, officials for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards have announced a handful of additional performers to the bill, including Spin Entertainer of the Year Kanye West, an eight-time nominee, and Amy Winehouse, a six-time nominee. Oh, total babe magnet and booze-cruiser John Mayer will also perform Sunday night (Feb. 10). But oddly, left out of the press release, is news that Winehouse -- due to her, you know, issues with the crack pipe -- has been denied entry into the U.S. Thus her performance, though it may be sleekly edited in for all the viewers at home, will be broadcast via satellite from the comfort of her rehab cell, er, an undisclosed location in England. The results are in and the sheer ridiculousness of SXSW's exhaustive bill far surpasses that of CMJ -- just in case there was any confusion!

February 8, 2008 – Emerging from a lengthy stint in a Parisian studio, electro-pop mavens Ladytron are finally set to return with Velocifero, the follow-up to 2005's opus Witching Hour, slated to land stateside June 3 courtesy of their new label, Nettwerk Music Group. The new record was produced by Ladytron with additional production by Alessandro Cortini (NIN), and Vicarious Bliss of Ed Banger Records (Justice, DJ Mehdi, Busy P), and mixing courtesy of Michael Patterson (Beck, P. Diddy).

February 7, 2008 – Rumors regarding Amy Winehouse's involvement in the forthcoming James Bond film rage on. But now, instead of, um, pointing to Winehouse as the next Bond Girl, sources claim the Brit songbird is set for a much more apt role: singer and songwriter of the film's theme song. There's just one catch: the notoriously drug-addled, crack pipe smokin' singer must be clean by April. "That's when the Bond people make a final decision on who sings the theme," an unidentified source told U.K. rag The Sun. "If Amy is clean then, it's hers." [Via NME.com] Just as Brooklynites were mourning the loss of their beloved Pool Parties, and cautiously pondering the return of the world's biggest melting pot of piss, water, and chloride, officials for McCarren Park have announced the return of the weekly Sunday fiestas in the summer of '08!

February 6, 2008 – Eat it up, Bonnaroo fans! Alt-rock veterans Pearl Jam, Spin's 2007 Entertainer of the Year Kanye West, and revered hard rockers Metallica will headline the seventh annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, again slated to hit the lush 700-acre farmlands outside Manchester, TN June 12-15.

February 5, 2008 – Spin's Breakout of the Year, Feist, has beat out esteemed fellow nominees like Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Spoon, and Wilco to win the Shortlist Prize for her 2007 record, The Reminder. The prize, originally intended to recognize artists that have sold less than 500,000 records in the U.S. between January and November of each respective year, honors Feist despite her recent success, which pushed the sales of her honored LP just over the mark, to 515,000 copies sold.

February 5, 2008 – As nominees, music fans, and industry insiders prepare for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, slated to be broadcast live from Los Angeles' Staples Center on CBS at 8 P.M. Feb. 10, many are making their picks as to who will walk with a statue. And today, as more performers -- Fergie and John Legend to duet! Josh Groban! John Fogerty, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis! -- were added to the bill already including Album of the Year nom and Spin cover boys Foo Fighters, and Breakout of the Year artist Feist, Spin's Peter Gaston took to the CW Morning News to discuss the candidates in the anticipated categories, and predict which artists will emerge victorious. Will it be Amy Winehouse? Bruce Springsteen? Kanye? You'll have tune in and see for yourself. Now Watch This:

February 4, 2008 – As OK Go, members of Shudder to Think, and Stella's Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain gear up for a New York City benefit gig tonight (Feb. 4), the Grateful Dead reunite and rally in Frisco, and Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz revels in his Cocktail-esque skills after bartending his recent benefit, artists continue to emerge in support of democratic candidate Barack Obama -- the latest being Tribe Called Quest rapper Q-Tip. Today, the MC provides a detailed letter, a near diatribe justifying his support for Obama, while urging others to back a candidate he feels "offers sound judgment and experience rooted in the lives of real people." We are in the midst of a very important time in our history. The world is fixated on an American election for many obvious reasons. Abroad, young Americans are dying in a poorly managed and ill-conceived war.

February 4, 2008 – Yesterday (Feb. 3), millions indulged in one of America's greatest pastimes, the Super Bowl, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' lackluster halftime performance. And as the indie rock crowd may have noticed while reclining in a haze of cheap beer and chicken wings, the Arcade Fire's tune "No Cars Go" popped up in an NFL ad during one of the beyond-expensive-for-airtime commercial breaks. Yes, slightly odd. Well, turns out Win Butler and Co. didn't approve the usage of said tune -- um, oops! Lawsuit? Well, according to reports, legal moves have yet-to-be made from the band's camp. [Via Pitchfork] Seminal post-punk outfit Gang of Four, which reunited in 2005 to re-record old material, is currently working on fresh tunes and hopes to release a new record in the near future. "So far [the new songs] aren't huge departures from what we've done before," bassist Dave Allen told NME.com.

February 1, 2008 – The holiday season is for giving, and no one is more in spirit than Peasant, a.k.a. Damien DeRose, a blossoming Pennsylvania-based troubadour, who made the trip to the Big Apple to treat yuletide commuters to tunes from his forthcoming LP, On the Ground. With a team dispersing free downloads cards -- creatively fashioned like a subway pass -- for his new record, Peasant boarded the train with a Santa Hat rightfully in place, and performed a series of delicate, lucid, and life-perceptive tracks as his voice quaked over the squeals and grinds of the train's steel tracks.

February 1, 2008 – The SXSW lineup continues to build, and now the onslaught of musical acts set to hit Austin, TX March 12-16 is mind-boggling. So far, according to austinist.com, a few names have been added to the bill -- approximately 350. A few highlights in alphabetic order: Annuals, the Cool Kids, the Cribs, Elvis Perkins, Jens Lekman, Kimya Dawson, Lykke Li, Man Man, Nada Surf, the Raveonettes, Vampire Weekend, and White Williams. Following yesterday's tidbit regarding the failed Blur reunion, our hearts beckoned a sorrowful "why?" Was it the appetizers, Mr. Graham Coxon? But now, frontman Damon Albarn has cleared things up, discussing the band's, ahem, musically fruitless reunion meal. "I had dinner with the guys recently and it was laugh but there's no way they want to work with me again -- they all hate me," he told NME.com.