No, really, while I realize this is not a news flash, you must check out her MySpace site. Her official home page doesn’t seem to have been updated since a November 2007 blog post/tirade/plea for a new web designer, but the official MySpace site is a treasure trove. First, there are the blog entries, which I feel 100% certain were really written by her and are supremely more interesting and bizarre than anything you’ll see on most artist’s “Official” sites. Then there are the featured tracks from her forthcoming new album. “Pacific Coast Highway” just kills me. If it and “Car Crash” and “Dirty Girls” are any indication, we’re in for something much more raw and real than 2004’s overproduced and oddly sterile America’s Sweetheart, something up there with her best work.

You know who else is insane? Rivers Cuomo. Again, not a surprise, those of us who love him love the precise way in which he’s cracked. (Gosh I hope somebody out there is saying that about me!) His latest interview provides an excellent dose of this refined madness. I’m dying for access to the life-tracking excel spreadsheet he talks about! Once you’ve read the article, let’s share theories on how it can possibly extend to five years before he was born.

Bruce Springsteen is speaking up on the interview front as well, admitting in the New York Times that it was a mistake to do a recent exclusive “Greatest Hits” release with Wal-Mart. Certainly more refreshing than AC/DC’s half-hearted attempt at spin last fall, and they also seem to be miffed at iTunes for having the temerity to allow fans to buy individual good songs from crap albums. While we’re wandering in the thorny fields of intellectual property dissemination, not too long ago CNN had an excellent, thoughtful and hyperlink-happy article on mash-ups.

All right, enough reading and thinking already! I’ll leave you with happens-to-be-gay/happens-to-be-great rapper Cazwell’s “I Seen Beyonce at Burger King.” By watching it you can support countercultural hip-hop, celebrate diverse sexualities, and possibly piss off Jay-Z, all in one fell swoop.

That’s how I felt when I recently saw an old episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and intrigued by the actress it featured, J.C. Brandy, perused her online presence. When I read in her Wikipedia article that, besides the acting gig, she was a guitarist for the all-woman rock band Lo-Ball, I was off to the races. I found their web page, only to discover that they are now defunct! Not before coming up with some really fun songs and videos, though, “Uncomplicated” being my favorite so far. She’s currently pursuing it solo, by the way.

Girl Groups that totally rock are a special passion of mine, and one that is decidedly non-defunct is Vancougar, who released their sophmore album in 2008. I devoutly hope it catches on, as they know their way around punk, harmony, clever and incisive lyrics and the use of a handclap machine. They also seem to understand the pathos of trees in love. I look forward to seeing them the next time they come to the San Francisco Bay Area.

If you’re a resident of said area, by the way, you’ll want to check out Noise Pop 2009 the last week of February. I plan to see Martha Wainwright, Bob Mould, and especially No Age. This seething and yet surprisingly melodic lo-fi duo’s album Nouns made several people’s “best of 2008” lists, including mine. You know what didn’t, because I only saw the film a day or two ago? The soundtrack to Guy Ritchie’s latest film “RocknRolla”. It would have made the list if I caught it earlier, because this mix of classic punk and new wave, Wanda Jackson, Lou Reed and frightening Russian rock is the perfect aural counterpoint to the movie.