While I was only able to attend the last two days of this year’s CMJ Marathon in New York City, it’s fair to say that the east coast event is a very different kind of beast in comparison to the whirlwind of its much bigger brother in Austin’s South by Southwest.

The Louisville Palace is covered with ornate sculpture, and when you look up at the ceiling, you are immersed in a replica of the night sky, glowing stars shining down on the crowd. Yet when Fleet Foxes took the stage, their three- and four-part harmonies danced through their performance like rays of sunshine.

It’s pretty obvious that Peter Hook of Joy Division (and New Order) is cashing in on the immortality of his former group by performing songs from their only two albums, Closer and Unknown Pleasures. In witnessing the emotional multi-aged crowds at either of the nights he performed in Los Angeles—a select number of which are following him on tour—it’s clear that few of the fans there cared if avarice was part of the motivation.

I’d like to nominate Elbow’s Guy Garvey as the most charming man in rock. Really. How many artists do you honestly believe when they thank you for coming? When they ask an audience how they’re doing? Or call a stadium full of people “friends?” Chalk it up to waiting ten years to release their first record. Chalk it up to his being the kind of personality that thrives in the spotlight. Or…chalk it up to the fact that Elbow happens to be a band of gentlemen in the truest sense of the word. Your choice.

A dark night. An empty graveyard. A vampire-like Masonic lodge. Random bursts of smoke on stage. And…Jens Lekman. Very little made sense about the setting for Lekman’s first show in support of newly released EP, An Argument With Myself. But as per usual, that didn’t stop the Swedish troubadour from redefining charming over the course of his fifteen-song set.

It’s deceptively easy to see the career of French musician Serge Gainsbourg as one continuous punchline. With his distinctive vocal style—a muttered sing-speech—parodied almost into oblivion since his rise to popularity in the 1960s, the inclusion of his music in film or television seems to automatically indicate the horny bachelor, the ill-conceived seduction, or (horror of horrors) hipsters aiming to embrace kitsch with both hands. Last night at the Hollywood Bowl however, cool was the name of the game—as Beck, Zola Jesus, Victoria Legrand (of Beach House), Mike Patton, Ed Droste (of Grizzly Bear), The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Lulu Gainsbourg, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, sang, spoke and cooed their tributes to the late performer.

Maybe Rose Hill Drive has not made its best studio album yet. But judging by its performance on this night, it has conquered the live stage.

The first Comic-Con appearance for current Doctor Who stars Matt Smith (The Doctor) and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) packed out Hall H, the biggest room at Comic-Con, on the last day of the convention. Some fans came in costume, many were armed with their light-up Sonic Screwdrivers, and at least two homemade Dalek costumes were spotted. The audience clapped the iconic Doctor Who theme just before the panelists took the stage to tease the second half of the show’s sixth season, which Smith revealed returns to BBC America August 27.

“I was of the mind that it was never going to be a TV show, because it’s so dark,” said Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead comic book series that was adapted into the critically acclaimed AMC TV series, one of the biggest and best reviewed cable series of 2011. At the panel in Ballroom 20 the producers teased and cast season two, which debuts October 16. We also have the trailer for season two.