In heavy rotation this week: the Beta Band's The Three EPs, Beck's Midnite Vultures, and Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele. Before this week, I spent months or years without hearing any of these albums. Isn't it great to rediscover something amazing that you'd totally forgotten? These are all unbelievably great records. All three artists have new joints coming out this year, and with the possible exception of Beck I'm jazzed about all of them (still haven't heard Sea Change, but it just everything I read about it just made it seem so lame). Also in heavy rotation and unbelievably great: Lifter Puller's Fiestas and Fiascos. But then I never really forgot about that one.

It would gratify me enormously if Fox would stop preemting The OC with American Idol. Surely they could preemt Malcolm in the Middle or some other weakass show instead.

Simon Reynolds has a lot of fun with an extended, sort of stretched analogy comparing electronic music's failed invasion of America circa 1997 with Nazi Germany's failed invasion of the USSR. Stalin is Timbaland! All this comes after Simon talking about the Kompakt vs. Rephlex show at Volume in New York, which I probably should've tried to go to. How tall is Jess Harvell, exactly? I know he can't fuck with this tallness. To this man, you are not tall unless you can reach a basketball net without jumping. Here's a cheat sheet. Yao Ming = tall. Jay-Z = not tall. Krist Novoselic = tall, I guess. Thurston Moore and Rock from Heltah Skeltah = pretty tall, maybe. The Big Show = tall, but Brock Lesnar = not tall. That guy from the Liars = not tall. Charlize Theron = not tall. Michael Jordan = not tall. Me = tall. (March 17 entry)

Discerning moviegoers are going to have a big decision to make this weekend: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Dawn of the Dead? Gondry or zombies. The correct answer, of course, is both.