Here he is with the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne:

You can see more at the above link.

The Flight of the Conchords' second album, "I Told You I Was Freaky," hits stores Oct. 20. Track listing here.

Steely Dan may be one of the least likely bands to have ever become huge. Despite the fact that they weren’t especially good looking, rarely toured during their heyday and were playing music that had as much in common with jazz as it did with rock, the group managed to sell more than 30 million albums worldwide and get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Now, Steely Dan is gearing up for an eight-night stand at the Beacon Theatre. During five of the shows, it will play one of its classic albums start to finish. For the other three, it will play songs voted on by ticketholders.

We talked with band leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker as they got ready for the shows.

During five of these shows, you’ll play either "The Royal Scam," "Aja" or "Gaucho" in its entirety. How did you choose those albums?
Fagen: They seemed like they were pretty good all the way through and they’re in a style that fit this configuration of the band. And no one would go see us play [2000's] "Two Against Nature" or [2003’s] "Everything Must Go," even though they’re also good all the way through.

Are you suggesting that your earlier albums weren’t good all the way through?
Fagen: They’re good till the last drop. But the early ones are in a slightly different style. They’re more rock inflected, so it’s a little further from what we’ve been doing for the last 15 years.

Are you worried the fans may stump you with a song you don’t really know that well?
Becker: We’ve got that covered. The way we’re doing it is that the people who buy tickets will get a code and they can pick 20 songs from a list of about 50 that we’re prepared to do.

You’re known for being perfectionists. Are you a little more willing to let it all hang out a bit on this tour, since you’ll have to be prepared to play so many different songs?
Becker: Some of these songs are pretty lightly rehearsed. We’re allowing ourselves six hours to brush up on the details of those.
Fagen: The perfectionism is a myth. We’re more philanthropists than perfectionists.

So, you’re saying all those stories about your perfectionism aren’t true?
Fagen: We come from a jazz background. Think about big bands from the ‘30s to the ‘60s. In those bands, the sections all have to play together. If they don’t, it doesn’t sound like a big band. It sounds like a big mess. When we ask people to play together and stay in the note in the same place, that’s the jazz tradition.

You’re known for combining jazz and rock, but it sounds like you really think of yourselves as jazz musicians.
Fagen: Rock music is for kids. We grew up gradually, and as you grow up, you evolve. You stop playing kids’ music after a while, which isn’t to say there aren’t elements of those things that survive in the music.

Were you surprised by the amount of success you had given the complexity of your music and the sarcasm of your lyrics?
Becker: Somehow, we always thought people would like us.
Fagen: We thought the material was strong and that the particular elements wouldn’t scare people away.

It seems harder for music that’s complex to find a big audience today.
Fagen: I don’t know. Some of that cheesy pop stuff is pretty complex. When you think about the Michael Jackson thing…
Becker: What Michael Jackson thing?
Fagen: Did you hear that Michael Jackson died?
Becker: Really? I’m sorry to hear that.
Fagen: His stuff was very carefully arranged. A lot of the music on the charts today is very carefully arranged dance music. They change key a lot. They use all kinds of chords that wouldn’t have been used in the past. A lot of that comes from jazz. The vocabulary of popular music has greatly expanded, but it can still be meaningless, even though it has all that stuff. Vocabulary is s**t if you don’t have an idea in your head and you don’t have anything to say.

For most of your career, you never toured. Have you grown to like it now?
Fagen: We adore it. It’s so much fun. You get to travel around and play for people. Sometimes they like it, and sometime they couldn’t care if you live or die.

You guys were parodied in the Internet series Yacht Rock. Have you seen it?
Becker: Of course. We think it’s fantastic.
Fagen: The guy who invented it came to one of our shows. He gave us some yachting hats and everything.

I was just in Las Vegas this weekend, and I was thinking of this song the whole time. There. Now it's like you were right there with me.

Here's a song that's not "Flagpole Sitta":

Idolator has a pretty positive review of the forthcoming Beatles Rock Band. It sounds really awesome.

Also, last night I went to see Paul McCartney (the concert was awesome, though that's all the review you'll get from me), and during one of his songs, they played BRB footage on the big screen behind him. It was neat, but a little strange to hear McCartney give the game a plug after the song. I feel like, if anyone's at a point to be beyond commercial interests, it's Sir Paul freakin' McCartney. But whatevs. The rest was super cool.

It sounds very TVOTR, just a little more frantic. I like it.

The album comes out Sept. 22.

(click for larger image)

My fascination with 8-bit has not waned in recent months, and, as long as things like Pterodactyl Squad's 8-bit Weezer album keep coming out, it's not likely to.

The compilation features 8-bit cover versions of all your favorite Weezer tunes by some of the greatest chip tuners around. Anamanaguchi's version of "Holiday," particularly, is magical.

Eclectic Method - Back To The Back To The Future from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

Eclectic Method remixes "Back to the Future."

Here's the full interview:

Jack White (The Dead Weather) will be performing at Envoy Enterprises in the pop up store location of third man records on July 16th at 12 pm EDT in nyc. Only the first 100 people will be given wrist bands to attend the performance so be sure to show up early as it’s first come, first served. The store will be located at envoy enterprises, which is at 131 Chrystie Street (between Broome and Delancey).

Flame-haired songstress Tori Amos has entered the ranks of people who have covered "(Hit Me) Baby, One More Time."

Modern Guilt Acoustic "Orphans" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

We just posted on the ultra-prolific Jack White, but he's not the only overachiever making news these days. Beck, one of our favorites, has launched a series of new ventures (Pitchfork has a pretty good summary here, you don't need me to rewrite it). The highlights include an acoustic version of 2008's "Modern Guilt," with one track per week posted to the Videotheque (that's entry no. 1, "Orphans," above) and a multi-part interview with Tom Waits posted to Irrelevant Topics. An excerpt:

TW: Yeah and we have every generation making a whole bunch of new [songs]. Even though the generation before says, "What's wrong with these tunes? We've got plenty of good tunes lying around here. What are you making new songs for? We've got cool songs about everything you're writing about. We've got plenty of songs about girls." "No, no. That's all right, Dad. We're doing something else, something cooler over here. You go ahead." And the dad says, "Do you know Jimmy DURANTE? Have you ever heard of Jimmy Durante?"