Colin Meloy might look like just another guy in line at Radio Shack, but he knows no fear. After being called out by Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report for utilizing his trademarked Green Screen effect, Meloy upped the ante -- and on December 20th on Comedy Central, we will all benefit from the “Decemberists vs. Stephen Colbert Guitar Solo Challenge.” Meloy also accepted LAist's dare of handing over a Top 10 best CDs......

For the third or fourth week in a row (who's counting?) our lovable loser, Beck, tops the charts at Amoeba in Hollywood with his latest collection. Just behind Beck is the super sweet double-cd Pavement reissue of Wowee Zowee that included, in some cases, information as to how to download a pristine MP3 copy of their April 1994 concert at the Palace here in Los Angeles. 1. Beck - Information 2. Pavement - Wowee......

image from colinbrown via flickr. Against a painted backdrop of a Japanese landscape and bathed in the glow of red paper lanterns The Decemberists took the stage at the Wiltern on Saturday night to play for a full house in support of their latest album, The Crane Wife. The Portland quintet, augmented by a violin player on this tour, skillfully mingled the traditional guitar, bass and drums with a cornucopia of instruments not commonly......

Even though Beck is #1 this week, due in part to his headlining the LA Weekly Detour Festival, we present to you the video of Bob Dylan's 'When The Deal Goes Down', not just because it stars our girl Scarlett Johansson, but because Bob has somehow stayed in the Amoeba Top 25 ever since he debuted there early last month. Who says the kids don't have any taste? 1. Beck - Information 2. Killers......

Trey Anastasio - Bar 17 (Red Ink) Beck - The Information (Geffen) Lindsey Buckingham - Under the Skin (Warner Bros.) Cirque Du Soleil - Corteo (Cirque Du Soleil) Dears - Gang of Losers (Arts & Crafts) Decemberists - The Crane Wife (Capitol) Plácido Domingo - Moments of Passion (Sony Classical) Don't Die Cindy - Most Imperfect Skies (Cake) Evanescence - The Open Door (Wind-Up) Goldenboy - Underneath the Radio (Eenie Meenie) Robyn Hitchcock &......

Though the biography on their website claims the musical group known as the Decemberists are a group of vagabonds brought together serendipitously and subsequently joined together like so many lone wolves to form a proper pack. They are, in fact, a talented group of musicians based in Portland, Oregon, led by singer/songwriter and the heir to the Rivers Cuomo School of looking like an unassuming hipster, Colin Meloy. If it seems that we're tending......