Charlotte Gainsbourg and company sure know how to stir up some hype for her forthcoming album IRM, which is produced, co-written, and mixed by Beck. First, they dropped the title track for free (in exchange for an email address), then came a preview of the first single “Heaven Can Wait” via YouTube, and now the video premiere to the latter track, directed by the man behind Supergrass’ “Bad Blood” video, Keith Schofield.

Watch here or embedded below, as Beck and Gainsbourg provide the soundtrack to slow motion scenes of people buying guns, people breakdancing, a guy bathing in cereal, and a bunch of other dreamlike situations.

Actually, the cop tackling a man in a SpongeBob Squarepants Halloween costume is more like a nightmare to me, but if I can enjoy Dylan’s night terror of a “Must Be Santa” video, then this one works too, I suppose:

As previously reported, Tom Waits was in New Orleans, LA recently recording a benefit track for and with the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band, as well as a song for the next volume of Anti’s sea shanty series. Well, now we have the former track’s name, a stellar list of collaborators for the upcoming album, and a not so surprising release date.

According to PR Newswire, Waits collaborated on the song “Tootie Ma Is a Big Fine Thing”, the earliest known recorded Mardi Gras song (abstract version from MMW and John Scofield here), for Preservation, a benefit album due out on Feb. 16 of next year, aka Fat Tuesday.

That would’ve been enough for a minor news update on the project, but check out some of the other artists contributing to the album:

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this in the company of music writing colleagues, but I didn’t warm up to Beach House right away. Sure, it’s hard to hate on Victoria Legrand’s haunting vocals or the duo’s modest drum machine-driven rhythm section, but perhaps I was just an impatient listener, always waiting around for some imaginary payoff. It all clicked, however, at the 1:36 mark of their fabulous new track “Norway” from their new album Teen Dream.

News like this sure makes me wish I lived back on the East Coast: The surviving lineup behind not only two of my favorite Velvet Underground songs, but two of my favorite songs of all time, “Candy Says” and “Pale Blue Eyes,” are set to reunite for a discussion at the New York Public Library on Dec. 8.

According to the NYPL’s site (via Billboard), former Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, Doug Yule, and Maureen “Moe” Tucker will join Rolling Stone’s David Fricke for the chat at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in NYC. The good news for those of us unable to attend is that the event is part of the same “Live from the NYPL” series that Ryan Adams and Mary-Louise Parker took part in earlier this fall, which means a downloadable MP3 and/or video will likely be posted afterward.

It’s too bad they couldn’t get John Cale to attend as well, but I suppose he’s more of a MoMA man. To pick up general admission tickets head thataway fast.

We’ve been sitting on this bit for a few days now, but the album officially went up for sale only hours ago, so let’s spread the word: Caffé Vita, a coffee shop with four locations in Seattle and one in Olympia, WA, is releasing a compilation album with over 30 Seattle-based artists to benefit Arts Corp and numerous food banks.

For $7, you get the following tracks, plus six more songs (see below) that are still being recorded and will be emailed at a later date.

We’re going to jump aboard the hype train for a spell here, as the trailer to the new Jeff Bridges-starring, T Bone Burnett-scored film Crazy Heart just dropped (via the Playlist) and the Oscar buzz comparisons to Mickey Rourke’s turn in The Wrestler are starting to ring vehemently true.

T Bone Burnett, the über producer behind Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s Raising Sand, the Walk the Line, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Big Lebowski soundtracks, Elvis Costello’s King of America, and a slew of other brilliant records, co-wrote, co-produced, and wrote the score to this film. Need we say more? Yes, I suppose so…

Here’s The Wrap’s Steve Pond on Burnett’s songs:

Even if you’ve never heard her name—yet you still pick up a glossy rock mag every so often—you’ve seen her work. Christian Joy, designer for Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O (and recently of the Klaxons), is now the subject of an upcoming documentary all about the spandex-loving Queen of Rock Sewing Machine. Well, she’s at least a runner-up for the regal position.

The documentary was shot by Rhett Wade-Ferrell of artist collective Moop Jaw; other members of the group are Warran Wright, Antuong Nguyen, and Ryan Frazer. Wade-Ferrell tells Pedestrian.tv that the collective is also “developing a collaboration with Christian Joy for a series of art films in which she will do all of the art direction so its going to be pretty mental to see her costume ideas translate into an entire world.”