​It's been almost exactly 11 years since Billy Corgan's infamous May 23, 2000 interview with Los Angeles alt-rock radio station KROQ. It started with a minirant against "the Britneys of the world" and concluded with the on-air announcement that Smashing Pumpkins were breaking up.

But now that a decade-plus has passed and the Britneys of the world have all become bipolar moms, maybe it's time for a '90s alt revival?

Now 43, Corgan seems to be so absolutely fucking positive of alt-rock's imminent return that he's pulling an insanely 20th-century trick .... He's releasing an epic 44-track Smashing Pumpkins concept album about the Tarot called Teargarden By Kaleidyscope.

And today, Crossfade's sister blog West Coast Sound over at LA Weekly is debuting the Pumpkins' new Kaleidyscope song "Owata."

Toast for the douchebags!

​Self-admitted douchebag Kanye West and expletive-uttering crooner Cee Lo Green nab the top spots in 2010's Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll.

What is Pazz & Jop, you say? It's just the biggest survey of the year in music by our sister paper in NYC. Over 1,500 critics were asked to submit their favorite albums and singles of the year, all to be painstakingly collected and counted.
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Photo by Mark Austin

Lady Gaga brought her smoke and mirrors to Lollapalooza.

​If you know me, you know how I feel about Lady Gaga and how she's running the biggest pop scam since Milli Vanilli. But I can put aside my feelings aside for a moment to bring you a snapshot from this year's Lollapalooza in Chicago courtesy of our sister paper, Westword. Check out more images of Lollapalooza 2010 at Westword's Backbeat blog.

I Will Be reluctant to answer questions about my past

​Every week, we gather some interesting stuff from our sister Village Voice Media publications' music sections. Just for kicks. Here's last week's entry.

Owl City has a song called "Hello Seattle" and Seattle Weekly likes that fact.

The story behind Sonny Smith's 100 Records, an exhibit of fake album covers, resides in the SF Weekly.

LA Weekly's Chris Martins does a strong bit of investigative reporting in his profile of Dum Dum Girls frontwoman Dee Dee, AKA ex-Grand Ole Party's Kristin Gundred.

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Donald Glover's flow is serious, so stop laughing at his jokes

​Every week, we gather some interesting stuff from our sister Village Voice Media publications' music sections. Just for kicks. Here's last week's entry.

An in-depth look back at N.W.A. frontman Eazy E resides in Phoenix New Times.

SF Weekly goes deep with indie darlings of the moment the Morning Benders and Washed Out, the glo-fi equivalent.

Great titling (Arkansas Bo Is The Best Unemployed Rapper In Dallas), and Ted Leo reflects on his prolific career in the Dallas Observer:

"Being able to step off that hamster wheel where you can't really see what's up around the bend but only what's coming at you fast, it helped me get a little bit of perspective about the whole thing, the whole thing meaning the last 20 years of my life," Leo says. "I think, in a weird way, it opened up the songwriting for a little bit more of just me using my voice and not maybe feeling like I had to say something."

In City Pages, Trip Shakespeare gets the band back together.

Village Voice went to Mexico for the MtyMx fest, Community scene-stealer Donald Glover is also just a rapper, Edd Hurt recalls his 1981 conversation with now-departed Alex Chilton, and Dan Weiss has a spot-on line about the XX:

The big white "X" on black that comprises their album cover (title: xx) is the sort of cult branding that evokes a mass of NIN T-shirts, and their goth-friendly haircuts would be happy to comply if only the group didn't pledge allegiance to Aaliyah and Ma$e first.

Plus, shopping with Gang Gang Dance's Lizzi Bougatsos!

No one told Devendra Banhart he needs help with his album covers, though

​Every week, we gather some interesting stuff from our sister Village Voice Media publications' music sections. Just for kicks. Here's last week's entry.

Devendra Banhart, in Seattle Weekly: "I had one label tell me they would love to sign me...on one condition," he says. "That I allow them to hire a team of songwriters to help me finish my songs." And a Q&A with Jimi Hendrix's half-bro.

SF Weekly peels back the layers of Janelle Monáe's new album.

Village Voice on Drive-By Truckers' The Big To-Do, and Alice in Chains is back!

Soviettes' Luke Redfield goes solo in City Pages.

An ode to the 30-year-old nightlife mainstay Avalon is in LA Weekly, along with Joan Jett and co. looking back at the Runaways.

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Wait, he's not new here?

​Every week, we gather some interesting stuff from our sister Village Voice Media publications' music sections. Just for kicks. Here's last week's entry.

In the Dallas Observer's bumper crop of content: Surfer Blood mourns the loss of Jay Reatard and confirms that even Pitchfork has its limitations, and Wayne Coyne calls the Flaming Lips' live act "just a dumb rock show."

Westword catches up with Appleseed Cast and Gothic punk badass nervesandgel.

The Clientele talks to City Pages.

Scuzzy rawk-blues act Antique Scream details the transition from Arizona to Seattle in Phoenix New Times.
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This man has as many Lil Wayne MP3s as your 14-year-old cousin

​Wednesday is like the pre-Dr. Virgil Mongalo teeth day of the week over here at Crossfade (the sad news of Corey Haim's death is not helping). So, special thanks to sister blog Sound of the City for pointing our cranky mouse hand to Dean of American Rock Critics Robert Christgau's lengthy and informative essay, "The Triumph of the Id," regarding Lil Wayne over at Barnes & Noble's review site. There is much to consider within, but we planted ourselves here for a while:

In my iTunes folder subsist some 165 Lil Wayne songs, all of which went public after 2005's Tha Carter II, a farewell from Wayne the gangsta that launched Wayne the stoned free associater. Several times recently I've played these songs five or six hours straight without once fast-forwarding. Mostly the music percolated in the background as Wayne chuckled, chortled, croaked, cackled, heckled, jeckled, sidled, slurred, Auto-Tuned, and even enunciated over beats of varying irresistibility and originality.

Could we get a quick tally from the crowd? Who has more than 165 tracks? We know you're out there. Admittedly, we have fewer than that, but still succumb to the multi-hour listening binges that usually result in us shouting: "That's right, Mr. Al Sharpton!"

Not a racist album, by any means

​In our sister print publications this week:

Ex-Pedro the Lion David Bazan tells the OC Weekly: "I don't ever see myself pandering."

LA Weekly profiles movie soundtrack badass Lalo Schifrin, who indirectly made Portishead's "Sour Times" a possibility.

In Houston Press, Ben Westhoff gets Geto Boy Big Mike to spill about his criminal past and talk about about moving on.

Village Voice on Titus Andronicus' epic new Civil War album, The Monitor:

Instead, like Sarah Vowell with her history memoirs, Stickles uses the Civil War as a loose framework for a series of anthemic battle cries concerned more with self-actualization than mere re-enactment, addressing both historical concerns and the thoroughly modern perils of getting fucked up and drinking too much whisky and disappointing your parents and coping with people telling you that you'll always be a loser.

Tegan and Sara's Sara Quin didn't have to spend Valentine's Day alone, according to SF Weekly.

Finally, the always-prickly Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt plays genre bully in the Riverfront Times: "I have no idea of folk. I was just using other people's [term]. I think folk is a ridiculous marketing category, and it's based on racism. I don't endorse it in any way."

Rob Harvilla over at the Village Voice reviews Metallica's latest offering Death Magnetic only after playing it on Guitar Hero III. The album was offered on the day of its release as a 11-track download for the game.

Riverfront Times' A to Z blog talks with Metallica's performance coach Peter Towle about the band's new album. Towle appeared on the band's documentary Some Kind of Monster in what some call "awkward therapy sessions."

Seattle Weekly has on going series of Metallica posts arguing the band and new album's greatness. Check out part 1, part 2 and part 3. And there is still more on the way.

-- Jose D. Duran