Miss Badu has joined forces with famed producer Madlib on the track “The Healer” off of her upcoming album New AmErykah (Motown 2008). The song lulls and rocks with a boom-clap that evokes the late great J-Dilla. If it dosen’t make you sprout an afro like a Chia pet, then nothing will. New AmErykah hits shelves on February 26.

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Somewhere in between punk and electronic is a little band from Brooklyn by the name of Foreign Islands. They’re calling it’s ghettotech. You can call it what ever you want, just make sure to catch them on tour with Dub Trio.

DJ JD, which is such a lovely, concise palindrome, is taking her happy beats to your city to make you dance your pants off.

We put Brother Ali’s The Undisputed Truth in our Top Ten Albums of 2007. Now he’s putting himself in your neighborhood to entice your ears.

J. Bannon, lead singer of Converge, is going on the Lambs for Lions tour with his band through April.  He also has a solo album on the way, and is about to release an experimental recording, “The Blood of Thine Enemies,” a minimalist, emotional, six-minute dirge very different from his work in Converge. He has plans for a new website showcasing his artwork and also recently formed a band (Irons) with visual artist Stephen Kasner and Integrity vocalist Dwid Hellion.

For some reason, the Playstation 3 has been made available in ceramic, maybe so wives of gamers won’t mind the shiny ceramic box sitting on their living room floor, but more likely to prepare young boys every where for an adulthood of shopping at Crate and Barrel. The biggest pluses to the ceramic Playstation are that it resists finger prints and resembles your toilet.

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Montreal’s Stars are on tour to support their new album, Set Yourself on Fire.

Tom Hagerman, violinist in DeVotchKa and Denver Gentleman, is playing two shows in Colorado this month with his band the Orquesta Obrera. The opener will be Pee Pee, a band that sounds like James Taylor and Pavement but with more strings and horns and that has the best name ever.

Don’t miss the party: Eastern Blok and Lamajamal play Chicago’s Double Door tonight at 9 pm. Eastern Blok, a four-piece ensemble that recently released Folk Tales, fuses jazz standards with Balkan melodies. Lamajamal combine Gypsy sounds with surf-rock sensibilities.