Linkin Park, oh, I suppose I've missed you. But what I've missed is your earnest boy-band-with-a-backing-bass sound, the uber-dramatic bridges and crescendos of synthesizers. What I didn't miss was your attempts to be Coldplay. I have seen Coldplay, Linkin Park, and you are no Coldplay.

What I see here is lead singer Chester Bennington (seriously -- CHESTER), singing about the world. The world is apparently bad. You can tell, because he turns on the TV and watches the news. Which is full of violence. So he laces up his manly manly construction boots and leaves the house to walk around the riot raging right outside his door.

And he walks around and sings for a while, while cops point their guns and rioters run amok... Really, it's a pretty boring riot as far as riots go. Eventually, a car gets set on fire, and Chester sings some more about how the world is sad and bad and all that... And then the video ends.

Some might interpret this video as having a very nihilistic message, but it's a video about hope, really. Hope that if you stand near a burning car to sing about how the world sucks, the car's fuel line won't ignite and set you on fire. We all gotta hope for something, I suppose.

As a profoundly embarrassed "Gimme More" apologist (I think it's a good song, okay?!), all of the recent Britney Spears kerfuffle has me feeling awfully torn. After all, I like the song. But everything that's happened in relation to the release of said song is more than a little disappointing.

And I'm including the official music video on that list. It's not just that there's something profoundly creepy about blonde Britney Spears sitting at a bar and getting turned on by watching brunette Britney Spears shake her moneymaker. It's also the seedy club, the uninspired pole-dancing, the weird fake arm tattoo... Oh, good grief, she literally rubs up against the wall for the part where she says she's up against the wall. Boo-urns.

In short -- oh, dear. I'm still a fan, Brit-Brit. But if you could put a little more effort in, that'd be great. We're all saying give us more, at this point.

What happens when you mash-up the biggest train wreck of a performance in MTV history with the bizarre viral-video rant that resulted from it? Believe it or not, something pretty f'in' fresh.

For those of you who have been off the grid for the past few weeks, on Sept. 9, Britney Spears put the final nail in the coffin that is her career when she appeared doped-up, out-of-shape, and in dire need of a lip-sync tune-up during a pathetic rendition of her new single, "Gimme More," at the MTV Video Music Awards. The very next day, Chris Crocker, a sexually ambiguous, hysterical young lad from Tennessee posted an impassioned defense of the troubled pop-tart on his YouTube page. The clip went viral -- in a very big way -- and before Crocker could say "drama queen," he had himself a reality series.

It's safe to say that neither clip is an example of bonafide artistic talent. The same cannot be said, however, for this remix of the two vids by AV maestro DJ Cobra. A well-known turntablist from Los Angeles, Cobra also boasts some nifty video-editing chops. And, as the old saying goes, he's got a knack for making chicken salad out of chicken shit.

Jennifer Lopez's live performance of her new single "Do It Well," on the British talk show Parkinson, is a perfect antidote to the Britney Spears VMA Music Awards disaster. Lopez looks great, she works the stage and the crowd with cheery abandon -- and it actually sounds like she's singing live. Sure, this video clip does lack the David Lachappelle human-sized-Habitrail touch, but when Lopez keeps the beat pumping even a cappella, we're willing to forgive that oversight.

Is Amy Winehouse pulling a Britney Spears? The "Rehab" singer's performance at the MOBO awards may not have been quite the trainwreck that Spears's VMA debacle was, but it was certainly enough to raise some eyebrows.

Winehouse wasn't exactly helped any by the tacky she's-a-fuckup-but-we-love-her-anyway intro, but her glassy-eyed confusion during "Tears Dry on Their Own" and her mumble-mouthed incoherence on "Me and Mr. Jones" were what really sealed the deal. Also not helping subdue the chatter were the leaked reports of her backstage rider demands: two bottles each of Jack Daniels, Rioja, and Champagne, a large bottle of vodka, and two 24 bottle cases of Heineken.

Here's the thing, though: I'm all for spotting a celeb meltdown in the making, but, well, that's how Amy Winehouse always looks when she performs. I, personally, have never seen her clear-eyed or witnessed a performance where I could understand a damn word she was singing. She was already, at best, a bleary-eyed mushmouth, and at worst a woman in a steady drug-addled holding pattern. So I honestly don't know if she's really doing any worse than before.

Which begs the question: How do you know if someone's in a downward spiral if their normal standard of behavior is so far off from, well, normal?

About a bajillion Halo-related videos have popped up in the last few days in anticipation of the release of Halo 3, the third and (ostensibly) final installment of the mega-popular video game franchise. Among the best of these is Team Tiger Awesome’s “Halo Nights,” a boy-band-esque music video about a man’s love of Halo and how it ruins his life. This video is especially timely not only because Halo 3 comes out next week, but also because we are a mere two weeks away from the release of the Backstreet Boys’ latest attempt at a comeback album, Unbreakable.

I incited the ire of BSB fans last week by writing a “snotty” (sic) post about their lead video “Inconsolable” (okay fine, it was snotty, but come on, it’s the Backstreet Boys. Am I supposed to be sincere?). But, after watching this, I can say with confidence that while Team Tiger Awesome may not have millions of record sales, at least they still have their youth and good looks. And relevance. And none of them look like a Puerto Rican Mr. T.

Patriotism just got really hot. Barelypolitical.com, who brought us the classic Obama Girl and Giuliani Girl, has teamed up with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association to produce “I Like a Boy,” a touching albeit tongue-in-cheek promo supporting our troops abroad. The video, which interweaves real shout-outs from Army wives, girlfriends, and loved ones with music-video hotties in hot tubs and dancers in camo crop tops, reminds us (perhaps with unintentional irony) that amid the distraction of the latest iPhone drama, there is still a war going on, and our loved ones are over there risking their lives for us. It also sends the subtle message to our administration -- especially in the light of our president’s recent address to the nation urging for more time -- that there are those of us waiting for the troops to come home -- including our “sugar Bagh-daddies.”

From Liam Sullivan, the man who brought you "Shoes," comes another music video starring the delciously bitchy Kelly (Sullivan himself). Actually, first there's a four minute, non-musical intro with a quirky look at Kelly's whole family, and the hilarity that ensues when her Aunt Susan, an earthy lesbian folk singer, comes to visit.

But then Kelly's neighbor Caitlin comes home with a cute new top, and the musical highjinks get underway. Chearleaders! Ninjas! Heaven! Riots! LisaNova! Dave Navarro! Margaret Cho! This video has everything!

Seriously, betch. Let Kelly borrow that top. She's earned it. (Don't make me have to betchslap the dumb out of you.)

Backstreet’s back... alright? This is what I assume is the lead single from what I assume is going to be another Backstreet Boys album coming out soon. I say “I assume” because I steadfastly refuse to do any research about this whatsoever. But here we go:

It appears the years have not been kind to the Backstreet Boys. Back when they started in 19mumblemumble, they were baby-faced heartthrobs with tight abs and tighter dance moves, but it turns out 45 year old men do not a good boy band make. Hmmm. Shit, I just realized I don’t remember their names. Is that Nick or Aaron Carter? In any case, he looks okay, all things considered, but that one guy looks like a Puerto Rican Mr. T. There’s no way he used to look like that. And wasn’t there a fifth Backstreet Boy? What happened to him? Did he die? Oh man! This song is probably about the pain they suffered when they lost him. Sad.

Okay, well, the video is full of these middle-aged dudes extending their arms longingly towards the camera and clenching their fists in moments of unadulterated passion. Therefore, I highly recommend it.

Britney Spears' new single "Gimme More" isn't such a bad song. The remix with TI is even better. Britney's performance of "Gimme More" at MTV's Video Music Awards, on the other hand, was really just... depressing.

In fact, the word "performance" is such a vast overstatement of what Britney did, I don't even know what word I could put in its place to adequately describe what really happened. Is there a verb for "show up and look incredibly unenthused while lip-synching badly and occasionally walking to another part of the stage?"

Wearing practically nothing and throwing in the occasional bump & grind, Britney should, in theory, come off as a mesmerizing vixen. Instead, she just seems tired and almost resentful to be there, as if to say, "Sure, you can wake me up from my nap and make me do lame choreography, but you can't make me like it."

The last minute is particularly painful; at that point, the only thing Britney could do to make things more morosely lethargic would be to lie down and finish the song while chain-smoking and eating Cheetos.

Sexy Britney was fun. Crazy Britney was fun, for a while, at least. Sad, limp Britney? Not fun. Kind of a downer. Somebody get this girl a Red Bull and some love, STAT.

Jennifer Lopez's "Do It Well," the first single from the new album Brave, is a funky celebration of bringing hotness and commitment together. The video, on the other hand... You know how sometimes you see a video, and you think, "Damn, that is the perfect depiction of everything that song is about," and then the song and the video really resonate with you for a long time? Yeah. This isn't one of those times.

So Jennifer Lopez is this badass beyotch in a supersexy trench coat, and she gets this message that she needs to help the world's youngest fry cook get to Union Street. So she goes to a club where they have strippers in Habitrails, pushes a guy down the stairs, gets another guy in a chokehold, has a dance break, shoves and punches eight or nine more guys, has another dance break, passes a dude in a mousetrap, has another dance break, saves the little fry cook, kicks one last guy down the stairs, and leaves. Presumably for Union Street.

Feel the heat. Feel the love. Feel the inimitable, "Look, Ma, I'm directing" style of the famously edgy David LaChapelle. Feel the need to wonder aloud, "The hell?"

It's becoming more and more clear that whoever books the music for The Late Show With David Letterman is turning the show into a hotbed of new, hip music. The White Rabbits played The Late Show (video here) barely a year after relocating to NYC to pursue their music dreams, and now the midwestern college chums are rocketing into hipster consciousness.

This, their first video, seems like it was mostly shot by the band themselves as they started on the journey from obscurity to the radar of every avid Pitchfork reader. The excitement of these boys is palpable as they goof around on the road, play the biggest shows of their lives, and generally enjoy themselves. Lucky dogs.

If you're like me, you may well not have given Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians much thought lately. After all, their biggest single was "What I Am," off 1998's Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars. They had a few other modest hits, but after Ghost of a Dog in 1990, Brickell married Paul Simon, and New Bohemians pretty much dropped off the radar.

But that's been changing, with a live album in 2000 and a new album, Stranger Things, last year. Other than Brickell's return, the biggest change in the lineup has been the addition of talented Dallas musician Jeffrey Carter Albrecht as keyboardist, completing the transformation of the New Bohemians, who started life as a three-person ska band back in the day, into a fully modern rock band. Tragically, Albrecht was killed this weekend by his girlfriend's neighbor, who shot him through the front door after mistaking him for a burglar.

Albrecht, who also played with Dallas band Sorta as well as his own group Sparrows, did not seem to be one to hog the spotlight. Even when stepping out from behind the keyboard to play guitar, he didn't actually step out from behind the keyboard. But as his musicianship in this live New Bohemians performance of "No Dinero" shows, he made his mark onstage not by being seen, but by being heard.

Albrecht was 34 years old.

I'm still in my 20s, but nothing turns me into an old man faster than electronica music. When riding in the cars of my raver friends I have often been know to yell “This is noise, not music!” and shake my cane disapprovingly. Something I am a fan of, however, is crazy-go-nuts animation. If an electronica track is accompanied by an elaborate, trippy animated sequence, I am willing to cut the song some slack and go along for the ride.

Today my electronica-animation exception has served me well because it has led me to both this fantastic video from animator Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir and the delightful accompanying song They Made Frogs Smoke ‘til They Exploded by the band Múm. The animation in this video is an accomplishment in its own right, but is made all the more impressive by the fact that, in this age of cgi and flash animation, Frogs appears to be good, old-fashioned ink, paint, and stop-motion. It warms the cockles of my old man’s heart to know that these antiquated, but ever charming, techniques have yet to be abandoned completely.

Equally impressive is the song itself. Apparently, Múm has been around since 1998 and has released three full-length albums and a whole mess of EPs. They Made Frogs Smoke ‘til They Exploded is the first single from their upcoming forth album Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy. I suppose my punishment for being such a close-minded old fogey is that occasionally I do miss out on gems like this. On this track Múm has managed to combine real instruments, drum machines, 8-bit bloop loops, and vocal harmonies into a sublime cacophony that gives Frogs a warmth and playfulness that’s often lacking in the genre. It’s worth noting that Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir has also done the album art for both the Frogs single, and the Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy album, which will be released September 25th on Fatcat Records. I, for one, already have my calendar marked. Noise never sounded so good.

When I was first introduced to Feist, I hoped that she would break big -- and, well, you don't get much bigger than performing on Late Show with David Letterman. This charming performance of "1234" makes fantastic use of brass instruments, Feist's rocking vocals, and the clapping hands of the full choir. It's a pleasure to see good music get the promotion it deserves. First stop Letterman, next stop the world.