Without time for a proper entry today, let me indulgently link to a few items that involve me:

I profiled the French pop band Nouvelle Vague over at TIG, writing:

Nouvelle Vague has been very successful to date, especially for a band who play covers of songs, selling somewhere around half a million records worldwide. Yet, it would be unfair to dismiss Nouvelle Vague as a “cover” band. They are hardly a band playing suburban bars on weekends to nostalgic boomers, nor are they a lounge pop joke, ala Richard Cheese. Instead they are offering rearrangements of known songs. It’s not Nouvelle Vague’s goal to “improve” upon such known songs but to stylishly reinterpret them. What I enjoy about listening to Nouvelle Vague is that they find a different beauty in something we already know and enjoy. That and it must count for something that I found myself using “gorgeous” and “Sex Pistols” in the same sentence.

Also, the furor of the Pazz and Jop poll has died down so I think I can safely link to my own ballot and the comments that I submitted that were published.