Faith Evans — the widow of iconic hip-hop artist Notorious B.I.G — will star in her own reality series this year. With three platinum-selling albums under her belt and another record on the way, Evans plans to use the series as a means of relaunching her career. [Variety.com]

The lineup for Bonnaroo 2010 is slowly unveiling itself on the festival’s MySpace page, where new acts are announced every six minutes. While there’s been no sign of the two purported headliners — Paul Simon and Paul McCartney — the festival has confirmed appearances by the Flaming Lips, Phoenix, Weezer, Norah Jones, the Avett Brothers, Jay-Z, GWAR, and others. [Bonnaroo.com]

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It’s one of the ironclad rules of show biz - put a guy in a giant ape suit and you have comedy gold. Whether it’s a dumb ’60s movie (like the cinematic classic Bikini Beach), a silly kids’ TV show or a music video; just get that giant ape running amok and everything is going to be awesome. Case in point, the video for this track by the Art Museums. The song itself is good enough, a bright little pop trifle that perfectly balances the twee, retro-mod sound of ’80s groups like the Television Personalities with the lo-fi buzz of the Woodsist/Captured Tracks contingent. It’s even better when accompanied by a giant ape wearing a Jam parka, riding a scooter and delivering a mixtape to a cute shop assistant. The song isn’t on the band’s soon to be released debut album, Rough Frame, but nine other songs that are just as catchy and fun do appear.

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R.I.P. “The First Knight of British Jazz,” saxophonist/clarinetist/arranger John Dankworth, who died on Saturday at age 82. Dankworth studied at the Royal Academy of Music in the ’40s and formed his first band, the Johnny Dankworth Seven, in 1950. Later that decade, Dankworth formed a big band and married jazz singer Cleo Laine. Along with UK chart success with 1956’s “Experiments with Mice” and 1961’s “African Waltz,” Dankworth moved into film work in the ’60s and became Laine’s musical director in the ’70s; during his career, he also worked as musical director for Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, and Nat King Cole. Dankworth was knighted in 2006; he and Laine had a son and a daughter, both jazz musicians as well. [Independent.co.uk]

Along with the Who’s halftime performance, the Super Bowl boasted plenty of other musical acts. Carrie Underwood and Queen Latifah sang the national anthem and “America the Beautiful” before kickoff, while performances by Steve Winwood and Daughtry warmed up fans before the game. [AOLNews.com]

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By all accounts, Tom Darby and Jimmie Tarlton were an acrimonious duo, thrown together more by opportunity than any pressing desire to play music together, but in spite of the tension between them (or maybe because of it), the body of work they recorded together for Columbia Records between 1927 and 1933 is as singular and distinctive as any in early country or blues. Both were fine guitar players, with Darby generally handling the lead vocals and Tarlton the harmonies, but the difference maker was Tarlton’s striking slide guitar style. Tarlton played with the guitar in his lap Hawaiian style, and reportedly fretted it with a wrist pin from a car. His slide lines give everything the duo recorded an eerie, exotic presence that, coupled with their impeccable vocals, makes them utterly unique.

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Sade’s longest absence yet did not prevent their return from being an event. It at least seemed eventful whenever “Soldier of Love,” released to radio a couple months prior to the album of the same title, was heard over the airwaves. Even with its brilliantly placed lyrical allusions to hip-hop past and present and its mature sound, the single stuck out on stations aimed at teens and twentysomethings, as well as points on the dial that court an older audience. It was the most musical and organic, while also the most dramatic yet least bombastic, song in rotation. Crisp snare rolls, cold guitar stabs, and at least a dozen other elements were deployed with tremendous economy, suspensefully ricocheting off one another as Sade Adu rewrote “Love Is a Battlefield” with scarred, assured defiance.

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1. Saturday Looks Good to Me - All Your Summer Songs
Picking a favorite record of any time frame is always tricky business with so many factors to consider that it’s usually impossible to be totally confident with your choice. Not this time though. I had no problem with making All Your Summer Songs my favorite record of the decade, really there wasn’t any serious competition. Everything about the album hit me just right; the sound, the songs, the cover art, the voices and the emotion. And it stayed with me too; the time elapsed since the record’s release has done nothing to lessen the feeling of warmth I get from listening to it. It’s really corny to say a record changed your life, so we’ll skip the embarrassment and just say this record made my life much. much better.

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I’m New Here is a shock. It’s a wallop filled with big nasty beats, a wide range of sonic atmospheres, and more — sometimes unintentional — autobiographical intimacy than we’ve heard from Gil Scott-Heron than ever before. Produced by XL Recordings head Richard Russell, I’m New Here is his first record in 16 years. It is a scant 28 minutes and doesn’t need to be a second longer. It’s unlike anything he’s previously recorded, though there is metaphoric precedence in his earliest, largely spoken-word, albums. Its production pushes forcefully at the margins and Scott-Heron embraces it without a hint of nostalgia.

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We’ve been doing the HDJz for over a year now and it’s been a constant source of amazement to us at the sheer number of good-to-great bands, singers and producers out there. Maybe they aren’t all world-beaters, innovators or game-changers, but then again, maybe some of them will turn out to be just that. All we know is that it’s a lot of fun digging these bands up and we hope you like it too.

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