By now, the Watchmen movie has come and mostly gone. It was a decidedly mixed bag, ambitious as all get-out, but unfortunately crippled by its slavish devotion to the original source material, as exemplified by wooden dialogue and a cheesy sex scene—not to mention some of the lamest music usage in recent memory. In order to make back all the money that was spent on the movie, several tie-in products are being released to coincide with all of the hype.

The Toronto Peace Festival must have been something back in 1969, with artists such as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and the titular star of this DVD, Little Richard.

Fresh from its SXSW appearances just days ago, Melbourne’s The Temper Trap blazed through an eight-song, 40-minute set at Spaceland in Silver Lake on Monday night, rousing a packed room of curiosity-seekers and latecomers with its blend of anthemic soul and tempestuous, guitar-charged crescendos.

SXSW is a guessing game. There are many hundreds of bands playing at so many different venues, that you can have a fantastic or a lousy time depending on who you see and how well you second guess how long it will take to get into each venue. The goal is to spend most of your time seeing as many great bands as possible, and as little time possible waiting in line or sitting through sets from bands you don’t want to see just to make sure you’re in the venue in time to see the bands you do want to see. Your enemies are late set times and the varying degrees of sound quality at Austin’s many venues.

Under the Radar‘s 2009 SXSW party was presented by JanSport and featured spirited sets from Mumford and Sons, Frances, Viva Voce, Loney Dear, Chairlift, Jason Lytle (of Grandaddy), and Camera Obscura.

If Colin Meloy has, up to this point, written four full albums worth of excellent short stories, The Hazards of Love is his first crack at a novel.

Middle Cyclone comes off like a decent art house film that demands as much appreciation as it does affect once-is-enough sentiment. Neko Case is as cryptic as ever, but then straight-forward like never before.

One of the most gently amazing albums of the year thus far, Here We Go Magic is the work of Brooklyn’s Luke Temple. Recorded in only two months, Here We Go Magic has the well-worn feel of years of work.

“Saying the Unsayable” was an “investigation into the role of lyrics in popular song.” Jarvis Cocker, dressed as dapper as ever in a jacket and tie, stood in front of the eager crowd crammed into the small convention room, and armed with a slide/video projector and a long pointer, as he presented a near-two-hour lecture on the importance of lyrics. And if anyone should know about the value of lyrics, it’s Cocker, arguably one of the greatest British lyricists of the last two decades. “Everything expressed is solely based on my subjective opinion,” Cocker said in his opening, “but I’m usually right.”