Guardian Music — (Island)Full marks for nerve to Tom Jones for opening his second successive album of stripped-down gravitas rock with Leonard Cohen's Tower of Song, transformed from hotel-bar funk into a finger-picked country blues. Cohen's version is a mordant, bl... more info

Totally Fuzzy — Cold Specks is Canadian singer-songwriter Al Spx, who now lives in London. The band's name is taken from a line in James Joyce's Ulysses: "Born all in the dark wormy earth, cold specks of fire, evil, lights shining in the darkness." Describ... more info

Guardian Music — Be among the first to hear Cold Specks's debut album, I Predict a Graceful Expulsion, and tell us what you think in the commentsClick here to read more about Cold SpecksCold Specks is Canadian singer-songwriter Al Spx, who now lives in London. The ba... more info

Guardian Music — (Telarc)This will come as a surprise to everyone who had John Pizzarelli tagged as a latter-day swing crooner who also plays some tasty guitar. Born in 1960, he is, in fact, a second-generation jazz guitarist, his father being the great Bucky P. Thi... more info

Chorus.fm — *Dustin Kensrue* (http://www.absolutepunk.net/dustinkensrue) performing a cover of Tom Waits' "Down There By The Train" can be found here (http://www.altpress.com/aptv/video/premiere_dustin_kensrue_thrice_down_there_by_the_train_tom_waits). more info

Guardian Music — Fancy some Purple Stew cooked in a Melting Pot, washed down with some Alligator Wine? Then tuck into this week's playlistWe asked you to nominate some songs that take the form of recipes. And – would you believe? Many of them turn out not to be abo... more info

Guardian Music — Victor Willis wins landmark legal case to reclaim part-ownership of dozens of the group's songsVictor Willis, the original policeman in the Village People, has won a landmark copyright case, reclaiming partial ownership of dozens of the band's songs.... more info

L.A. Times - Pop & Hiss — Colin Stetson, Gregory Rogove, and Sarah Neufeld, musicians who have performed with Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Feist, Tom Waits and others, performed in downtown Los Angeles. Times pop critic Randall Roberts reviews. more info

Brooklyn Vegan — Polica @ Brooklyn Bowl (more by Amanda Hatfield) Twin Cities StarTribune sums it up nicely:[Polica] properly seized the moment, which came to them last-minute after Tom Waits had to cancel. Fallon somewhat wise-acrely emphasized the "ç" in the band'... more info

Guardian Music — From downtown dives to the Hollywood hills, a trawl around the singer's former stomping ground is a glimpse of a vanishing LAYou can't get more than 10ft down the main drag of Hollywood Boulevard without being offered a Los Angeles bus tour. But the ... more info