An impressive A-list of indie darlings, including My Morning Jacket, Beirut, the Arcade Fire, Cat Power and Spoon form the track list for the latest Red Hot compilation album, 'Dark Was the Night,' due out in February. Produced by brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner of the National, the compilation marks a noticeable departure from the mainstream focus of all the previous Red Hot discs.

It will include a number of unique collaborations between indie artists including Feist with Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard and Animal Collective's Grizzly Bear (individually), as well as Dirty Projectors with David Byrne, the Books with Jose Gonzalez, Blonde Redhead with Devastations, and Conor Oberst with Gillian Welch.

The Flaming Lips' current theatrical release, 'Christmas on Mars,' was often facetiously compared to 'Chinese Democracy' simply because it took the band forever to make it. But fans won't have to wait until Mars is colonized for the next Flaming Lips album.

According to frontman Wayne Coyne, the new Lips disc might even arrive by summer. "It's been a couple years since we did 'At War With the Mystics,'" Coyne told Spinner. "We're going to go to [longtime Lips producer] Dave Fridmann's place at the very beginning of March, and I think with the batch of things we already have, we might have a record out by June or July." That's exciting news, but it gets better.

Ever since this summer when they crashed into the buzz universe, Hyper Crush has indeed been living up to the "hype" part of their band moniker. Although their video for 'The Arcade' is a shamelessly engineered throwback to the neon '80s, you gotta admit, it's almost as irresistible as watching old reruns of 'Punky Brewster' or 'Silver Spoon.' Almost.

MC Donny Fontaine (no relation to Vanilla Ice) tells Spinner that Hyper Crush tries "to bring back the things we loved the most when we were kids and mix it in with the new s---." Well, that would explain the Power Glove and the keytar. Maybe. "We got a lot of the Nintendo stuff from eBay, and mom and pop video game spots," admits Fontaine. "And some of the stuff we just found in our closets."

The big news here is that Hyper Crush has the entire stock of Spencer Gifts, circa 1988, in their closets (although we suspect the edible underwear is suspiciously missing).

For years now, many soccer moms and baseball dads have felt that being subjected to their kids' music every car ride home was a form of torture. As reported here this summer, the U.S. military took this idea and turned it up to eleven, amplifying bands from AC/DC to Britney Spears in bombarding detainees with a constant assault of sound. The military reportedly even used children's music such as the theme song from television shows 'Barney and Friends' and 'Sesame Street.'

According to the News Tribune, Reprieve, a British law group, launched an artist-driven campaign this week, entitled 'Pull the Plug on Music Torture,' that will feature moments of silence during otherwise characteristically loud rock concerts and festivals, hoping to draw attention to the issue.

Electronic composer Dan Deacon announced this week that he plans on bringing a large 9- to 11-piece ensemble on tour with him in 2009, in support of his upcoming album 'Bromst.' And he's kicking it off with an inflated 15-person ensemble for a special engagement on December 11 at Brooklyn's Masonic Temple.

"Hopefully it's not a total nightmare first show and it doesn't sink an entire career and I become homeless and die alone, as a fool," he jokes to Spinner. Or, shall we say, half-joked.

Of course, orchestrating such a large ensemble takes some skill -- not just in the composing and conducting but in basic human management as well. "Today at synth practice, we all ate eggplant and goat cheese sandwiches and the farts were unstoppable, like, f---ing burn your eyes and stain your teeth horrible farts," he confides. "At times we had to stop playing. I am doing a great job."

Um, sure. Why not.

Sorry, but not really -- that's the message Coldplay seems to be sending to real-life guitar hero Joe Satriani regarding similarities between his song 'If I Could Fly' and Coldplay's 'Viva La Vida.' As reported last week, Satriani has taken legal action against the band in a plagiarism lawsuit.

In a statement to TMZ, Coldplay responds to the allegations after first recognizing Satriani's skills as a shredder and songwriter. But, they claim, any similarities between the two pieces of music are "entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him. Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write the song 'Viva La Vida.'"

There are some things that are just more important than showing up to accept a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Not many things, per-se, but the birth of a child certainly qualifies. According to her MySpace blog, it looks like M.I.A. might indeed be double-booked come February 8th. (M.I.A. is nominated for Record of the Year for the song 'Paper Planes.')

"BABY + GRAMMY ... is due the same day," she writes. "So either way I figure I'll win, but OMG if I get it, I will never diss the Grammy's ever again!"

Isn't that the way it always works, though? Just ask Eminem, who, it turns out, does give a damn about a Grammy. Either way, congratulations to you, M.I.A. May we suggest that you name your son or daughter, "I'd like to thank the Recording Academy..." (or just Winner for short).

Given Beck's latest album, a pairing with Danger Mouse entitled 'Modern Guilt,' we thought now would be a good time to ask Beck to list his five favorite guilty pleasures. But he gave us a list of his five favorite non-guilty pleasures instead. "I think there was a misunderstanding," he insists. "I thought they asked me to pick my five favorite things." And so, he did.

1. 'Lost Boys of Sudan,' a documentary by Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk: This is a documentary that I saw about four or five years ago. It played on television and it was just something that struck me. I'm not sure why. There's something compelling about [it]. Obviously there's this heartbreaking story of these kids who are caught in the middle of a political upheaval, grew up in these refugee camps and were sponsored to go to America and be integrated to the American educational system. The thing that I was struck by is the way these boys, who had grown up together, really took care of each other. It's interesting to see them coming into an American culture, which is just completely alien to them. We grew up in it so we're used to it, but at the root of who we are as human beings -- it's probably pretty alien to us. It kind of shows you that we're all strangers in this whole modern landscape.

3. 'Mingering Mike,' a book by Dori Hadar: Some guy discovered some records at a swap meet. He stumbled unto these records that looked like lost jewels, and when he looked inside the record wasn't a record -- it was a piece of cardboard. He was really disappointed because he thought the music on them would've been incredible. It looked like the artwork was all handmade.

As he unraveled the mystery, it turned out that in the early '70s I believe, this individual, Mingering Mike, had created this alternate universe where he was a huge music star. He created this whole universe that was his own in which he had 50 hit albums. He made all the albums -- all the album covers, all the song titles, all the information. There just wasn't any music.

So this book collects all the various records that he made and it did remind me of artists that work in "outsider art." I was always drawn to people like Henry Darger and Daniel Johnston -- these people who just created their own creative world where they didn't really need to be part of any infrastructure or anything; they're just completely out on their own. They can create anything they want for their own amusement, and there's something valid in that. There used to be more of that in American life.

4. 'Juliet of the Spirits,' a film by Federico Fellini: That's the first Fellini film I saw. I was actually taken to see that in the movie theater when I was about 12, and it was like nothing I had ever seen. I didn't quite understand it but I loved the imagery and the atmosphere of the film. I was extremely aware of it being of a different time and place and mentality of what I'd grown up in. It was a mixture of color and something somewhat celebratory, but also a bit of dread. That movie was a little spooky, too. And then later I got to see 'La Strada,' 'La Dolce Vita' and a lot of his other important films, but that movie has always stayed with me.

5. 'Shuffering and Shmiling' by Fela Kuti: I really could've picked any record from that period, from the early '70s to the mid-'70s. What is really interesting is that his records tended to be two songs. Each side of the record would be a 20- or 25-minute song. There's something powerful about that, where a song can go for that long. It gains a momentum and a life that you really don't get in a three-minute pop song. It really plays with your perspective of time.

It's interesting that lot of younger bands now are taking influence from the African musicians. When I was about 19, I got to go see Thomas Mapfumo perform. He performed outdoors at a festival for maybe three or four hours -- it seemed like that -- and the song just went on and on and on. There was something that was just so open and hypnotic about that music. I know as a performer it's hard to get an audience to "let go." When that happens, it kinda makes you realize why you do what you do. But that's what that music is intended to be. It's music that hopefully can unmoor you from your own life and perspective, and just kind of drag you in with its current. I wish I could've seen one of [Fela's] shows.

Even if you don't go there hourly to spy on your friend's friends, it's good to know you can still count on MySpace to bring out the red flags. Case in point? Britney Spears, as part of her comeback campaign, recently submitted a list of her favorite songs to MySpace Celebrity. And they ran it as is. Oops! She did it again!


For starters, she misspelled Sinead O'Connor's first name as "Shanade," when listing the Irish singer for the song 'Nothing Compares 2 U.' Whether or not Spears knows that it is actually a Prince cover remains unknown, however we would like to congratulate her for finally recognizing that 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll' belongs to Joan Jett. She did fail to mention that Jett performed it with the Blackhearts, but we're just glad she doesn't attribute it to Pat Benatar anymore.