Hot on the heels of The Tudors, Showtime takes further outrageous liberties with 15^th century history in The Borgias. Boldly claiming the infamous clan as “the original crime family,” The Borgias is the story of Spaniard cardinal Rodrigo Borgia who becomes Pope Alexandar VI (Jeremy Irons) and his ruthless family who have no qualms decimating anything and anyone in their path.

An opening shot of wooden chairs strewn upright along a desert road. A man standing, holding bunches of pairs of binoculars, obviously waiting for someone. A car appears, knocks down each of the chairs, stops, and an officer of the law emerges —from the trunk. What could all of this mean? Rubber amusingly addresses, early on, the lack of a reason for the inclusion or omission of certain elements of movies, and then launches into its own series of events for your consideration.

Alison Mosshart has the blues. She and The Kills’ other half, guitarist Jamie Hince, have grounded themselves after 2008’s Midnight Boom, the impeccably stylized art rock exhibition that was praised as much as it was polarizing. Things here do get manipulated, and the duo is still unabashed in their hyperbolic swagger, but for the most part Blood Pressures reeks of whiskey and sex—a taste that lingers like secondhand smoke.

If Adele ever has a successful relationship, that could be the end of her musical career. Luckily for her listeners, she seems really bad at picking partners. A terrible relationship gave her material for her critically acclaimed, award-winning debut, 19. A good—but now ended—relationship has given her its successor, the already critically acclaimed and likely soon to be award-winning 21.

Erstwhile frontman of eccentric Texas weirdoes Lift to Experience, which released one album in 2001, the brilliant The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads, and called it quits, Josh T. Pearson’s debut is a mixed bag.

We have seen the cop’s point of view, the detective’s, the lawyer’s, the crime scene investigator’s, and the forensic anthropologist’s, now, it’s the medical examiner’s turn. Dana Delany is the central character, Dr. Megan Hunt. And boy, does she think she’s great. Somehow playing Hunt as a smug know-it-all is the way the cleverly titled Body of Proof decided to go.

John Darnielle has always been at his best when working within the confines of a theme. Whether spinning tales of doomed romance or stories inspired by biblical verses, the device of focus has always effectively harnessed his strengths, creating powerfully cohesive statements out of disparate vignettes and character studies. Fleshing out his already superlative songwriting with the most sympathetic band he’s ever worked with (Peter Hughes on bass and Jon Wurster on drums), The Mountain Goats have hit something of a second stride in the past few years.

We were pretty sure that people would show up to our Thursday SXSW party because of our exclusive set by Atlas Sound, and while we were confident that we had an equally strong lineup for our Friday party (which was presented by Shure), we still weren’t certain how many fans would show up. But our immediate concern at the start of the party was whether our first artist would make it in time (if at all). Porcelain Raft (aka Italian born, London-based, Mauro Remiddi) had underestimated how far his hotel was from our venue (The Flamingo Cantina), was running late, and had a dead cell-phone and thus no way to let us know that he was indeed on his way. Thankfully the charming Remiddi arrived with a thousand apologies 10 minutes before he was scheduled to perform and because he’s a one-man band, was pretty much ready to go on time. The crowd, by the way, was as healthy in numbers as the day before, with a to-capacity venue and a line down the block most of the day.

Knox State University is a college just like any other—Greek life, a winning football team, and, oh yeah, deadly final projects. Originally published as a four issue series in 1999, the heavily satirical tale—not for the faint of heart— is collected here in one volume for the first time.