Since Saturday Night Live's musical acts don't take the stage until after midnight, indie veterans Wilco officially began our week of music (Wilco's Jeff Tweedy pictured left). The show was also hosted by Ellen Page (Juno), and as we all know the film's soundtrack gave lots of love to various independent recording artists (ahem, Kimya Dawson). What am I trying to say here? SNL threw the indie folk a bone this week!

On Monday, Nine Inch Nails released their brand new 36 track album (whoa). No lyrics though--it's all instrumental. You can buy the whole thing here for $5. If you want artwork, liner notes, and whatnot, you'll have to wait until April.

On Tuesday night the Beastie Boys played a benefit show in NYC, gearing them up for two festival performances this weekend. Good times!

The Godfather's of Goth, Bauhaus, released their new, and apparently "final" album this week. If there's one thing I learned while working in the music biz, it's that the words "never" and "final" don't necessarily mean the "last".

This week, Gnarls Barkley's "Run" video had to be re-edited for UK television stations. The clip contains strobe effects, which failed the Harding Test--a procedure that determines whether or not televised images may trigger epileptic seizures. This isn't the first time a video has failed the Harding Test. I believe The Horrors' "Sheena is a Parasite" also suffered the same fate.

My heavy rotation album of the week was Muse's Black Holes and Revelations. I guess I'm subconsciously getting ready for their upcoming live CD/DVD release in April.

Here's my video pick of the week. It's the Thermals with "Returning To The Fold." No diss on The Thermals, but my first pick was The Last Shadow Puppets' brand new video "The Age of the Understatement." However, their label (Domino) has yanked it off the web, waiting to give it a proper premiere.

Is it me,or does Hutch Harris (lead singer) have a little Stephen Malkmus in him?

Concert picks this weekend:

Langerado Festival (Clewiston, FL)
March 7 (Matt Pond PA, The Walkmen, !!!, The Roots, Built to Spill, Beastie Boys)
March 8 (Arrested Development, Ben Fold, Medeski Martin Scofield & Wood, R.E.M.)
March 9 (Shout Out Louds, Minus the Bear, Ani DiFranco, of Montrael, The National, Phil Lesh)

Strike Anywhere
March 7 (Virginia Beach, VA)
March 8 (Columbia, SC)
March 9 (Orlando, FL)

Justice
March 9 (Baltimore)

To perfectly book-end the week that started with Wilco playing SNL, Vampire Weekend (pictured left) will be the musical guest on this week's show.

Also, don't forget to change your clocks this Sunday morning (March 9). We lose an hour of sleep (sigh), but think of all the daylight we'll get in return (!).

Next week I'll be in Austin, TX covering SXSW. Stay tuned...