Here's one product you didn't see during the Super Bowl. Roy Orbison's signature song "Pretty Woman" now shares the name with a perfume. Julie Neigher over on sister blog All the Rage has the details, and sampled a scent of "Pretty Woman" last week at Apothia Fred Segal. Amber, bergamot and cedar were the aromas she signaled out. She writes:

Barbara Orbison (Roy’s widow) has created a fragrance aptly named “Pretty Woman.” Of course, one thinks immediately of the iconic song and film. Not a bad thing, considering both were hits (and you know what they say -- three’s a charm). However, Barbara claims that she had this fragrance fantasy long before knowing Roy. “It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to create a perfume that speaks to women everywhere. I believe that within every woman there’s a pretty woman, and my signature fragrance helps bring out that inner confidence and spirit.” 

When I chatted with Barbara (who has the most extraordinary green eyes), she captivated me with her intelligence, business savvy and effusion about her work. She plans to extend the line to face creams and candles. (She already sells a pure perfume oil in the form of a roller ball -- great for women on the go.)

Besides creating “Pretty Woman,” Barbara is an entrepreneur and also manages Roy’s legacy. She executive-produced a limited-edition box set of the definitive Roy Orbison collection (including 107 songs, a 96-page book on his life, and tracks never heard before). Packaged in linen in a chic monochrome black and white, the collectible is available for purchase at Apothia. You can indulge yourself by buying some tunes as well as Barbara’s fragrant opus, making it the perfect one-stop-shop for Valentine’s Day.  

--Julie Neigher, All the Rage

Read: 'Pretty Woman' may score a hat trick with new fragrance

Photo: Roy and Barbara Orbison. Credit: Barbara Orbison

Here's a little unexpected holiday gift from the Muppets Studio, and it's arriving at just the right moment.

With all the talk the last few days of whether or not Adam Lambert went too far or not on the American Music Awards, here's  a handy reminder of how theatrical rock is done right, as the Muppets tackle one of Lambert's favorite songs, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." No over-the-top sexual posturing, no singer-on-the-verge-of-tears and no clumsy falls -- just a fake bear, singing chickens and a vocal solo from one Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. 

That's not to say this is all silly. There's some old-fashioned pyro, and things threaten to get violent with a cleaver-wielding Swedish Chef. As Lambert would say, "All hail freedom of expression and artistic integrity." 

-- Todd Martens

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When superstar rapper Jay-Z came across the use of the suddenly controversial music program Auto-Tune in the now-infamous “Frosty Posse” TV commercial for fast-food chain Wendy’s, he was supposedly moved to pen “D.O.A.” ("Death of Auto-Tune"), declaring Auto-Tune officially over.

“They're joking on it. It's like, OK, enough of that,” he mused to MTV News last month. “It was a trend. It was cool in the beginning. Some people made great music with it. Now it's time to move on.”

While pundits debate both sides of the issue, one can only imagine the inevitable fallout that’s probably starting right about now in the wake of the latest Taco Bell campaign, wryly titled “It’s All About the Roosevelts” (in reference to the former president’s mug on dimes) to promote their new value menu.

For one, producers Dr. Dre and Scott Storch could make a solid case that one of the cut's main hooks — what sounds to be a sample of a Japanese koto — is strikingly similar to the one that anchors the cut “Still D.R.E.” from Dre’s second solo album, “Chronic 2001.”

The singles artist has returned.

Take Flo Rida. By the time his sophomore album, “R.O.O.T.S.,” was released in March 2009, he had already sold more than 2.4-million digital downloads of lead-off single “Right Round,” according to Nielsen SoundScan. In about one month, the album has sold just over 122,000 copies, but in the last week alone, "Sugar," the latest single by Flo Rida (pictured), sold 127,000 downloads, Billboard reports.

And one of the greatest-selling artists of the digital era is back on the charts, proving that he’s no one-hit wonder. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em’s “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” has sold more than 5 million in digital downloads, and his “Kiss Me Thru the Phone,” featuring Sammie, hit the top 10 in spring 2009. But the album it’s on isn’t even in the top-50 on the U.S. pop charts.

Perhaps these are singles that translate better as ring tones than album tracks. Check the video for “Crank That,” which may as well be an advertisement for carrying a data plan, as cellphones are featured as prominently as the artist. The relaxed steeldrum beat is plainly calm, and it's recognizable if blasted out of a tiny speaker in someone’s coat pocket. It’s the song as ring tone.

We take a look at some recent hits to determine whether they work better as a ring tone (meaning we don’t need to hear more than 10 seconds to get the full picture) or as a fleshed-out work.

Read more Better as a song? Or a ring tone?

I went all the way to London to interview England's most notorious rock star and all I got was this stupid blog post.

It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. The plan was for me to sit down with Pete Doherty, the former lead singer for shambolic buzz bands the Libertines and Babyshambles, a skinny bloke whose tabloid renown as supermodel Kate Moss' ex eclipses his musical notoriety in this country.

The meeting place: a posh hotel in the Shephard's Bush section of the British capital where we would talk about his debut solo album, "Grace/Wasteland" (Astralwerks), which hits retail stores today. And Doherty might provide a little light diversion by doing something druggy or outrageous before our time together was up.

Well, look who just cracked the Top 20. Just six months ago, few outside of hip-hop heads who stumbled across the artist’s MySpace page or blog had heard of the up-and-coming rapper. Now, thanks to a seemingly unstoppable single (“I Love College”), savvy marketing from Scooter Braun and maybe even the fact that the 23-year-old's pals helped take down a madman on an airplane earlier this year, Asher Roth somehow has made music fans forget all about Eminem’s comeback this year.

“I didn’t know 'I Love College' was gonna be ‘the one,’" Roth said, somewhat sheepishly, from Atlanta earlier this month.

The charismatic college dropout (he was an elementary education major at West Chester University in Pennsylvania) is connecting with teens and twentysomethings on campuses nationwide this spring, thanks in no small part to his laid-back, laconic delivery and lightweight lyrical content. (Checked the news lately? It's all about escapism on radio in 2009).

“I was mostly there for the experience,” Roth said of his college years. “Everybody partied there... I didn’t do the fraternity stuff, though.”

Roth got his start rapping over other people’s beats and selling mixtapes for $5 when he was a senior in high school. "We just used to download beats off the Internet and we thought we were cool.” 

This year, his circle of friends aren’t the only ones who think he’s cool: “I Love College” is now one of the most downloaded songs in the country with sales in excess of 350,000 paid downloads. A quick glance at his Myspace page reveals that he is a tireless networker intent on proving himself to other rappers, haters be damned. 

So how did the average-looking, average-sounding white rapper manage to sneak his way into the Top 20 this week?

Black Clock, the literary magazine run by many a refugee, student and esteemed leader of the CalArts MFA program, is having an event this weekend at REDCAT to celebrate its fifth anniversary on the occasion of its 10th issue, based around the city-appropriate theme of noir. (Full disclosure: This humble scribe is one of those refugees, and a contributor to Black Clock 7.) The fete will include readings by Aimee Bender (noted Jane Siberry fan), sci-fi writer Samuel Delany (whose masterwork "Dhalgren" is a little like a long-lost Wagner symphony), Greil Marcus (the man behind the desert island concept, not to mention the smartest stuff you think about the Sex Pistols) and Joanna Scott (who surely likes music too but Google won't tell me what).

Every issue, Steve Erickson, Black Clock editor, visionary novelist and essayist, has made a soundtrack that musically reiterates the theme -- past ones have included sex, travel and politics -- but Sunday's event will be the first time he will release the soundtrack to the public. Fork over $13 for a copy of Black Clock 10, featuring Francesca Lia Block, Denise Hamilton, Emily White and Howard A. Rodman (who also wrote the film "Savage Grace"), and you'll get a copy of his limited edition soundtrack for free.

Here's the tracklist:

"Générique," Miles Davis
"The Big Sleep," Max Steiner
"Double Indemnity," Miklos Rosza
"Body Heat," John Barry
"If You Go," Helen Merrill
"Peter Gunn," Henry Mancini
"Vertigo," Bernard Herrmann
"The Bad and the Beautiful," David Raksin
"Harlem Nocturne," Harry James
"Touch of Evil," Henry Mancini
"It's a Lonesome Old Town," Frank Sinatra
"Laura," David Raksin
"Marlowe," David Shire
"Taxi Driver," Bernard Herrmann
"Park Avenue Beat," Fred Steiner
"The Fountainhead," Max Steiner
"Long Ago and Far Away," Jo Stafford
"Chinatown," Jerry Goldsmith

If this isn't the aural equivalent of a blinking neon hotel sign in a broken-down part of town, I don't know what is. Or, as Erickson himself told me, it's the soundtrack for "driving the mean streets of L.A. at 2 in the morning."

--Margaret Wappler

Black Clock: Year Five at REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St. (213) 237-2800. 7-10 p.m. Sunday. Free but RSVP suggested.

Earlier this month, I experienced a surreal evening at the Standard Hotel in West Hollywood. Sure, you say, pretty much any night inside what used to be one of the hippest hotels on the Sunset Strip might be described as surreal, but bear with me.

The less-hair-having half of former chart-topping English duo Tears for Fears, Curt Smith, played two sets of music inside the lobby of the Standard -- free. Oblivious guests walked by on their way to the pool, unaware of the pedigree of the English guy singing nearby. Fewer than 40 fans were in attendance (the room itself, the hotel’s wicker-furniture-laden Cactus Lounge, holds just about the same number). Smith has been in residency at the Standard for a few weeks now, performing every Wednesday, and hotel reps recently announced that they are extending the run all through March.

"I'm doing the residency because I enjoy performing," said Smith via e-mail earlier this week.  "It's intentionally an intimate show, in keeping with the nature of my solo record. Not having a cover charge means that people who only know me from Tears for Fears and aren't familiar with my solo work might take a chance and check it out."

Fans drove in from as far as Azusa to see Smith the night I was there, hoping no doubt to hear a little "Head Over Heels" or perhaps even "Mad World." And Smith, though oddly shy for a man who has performed in front of countless fans during the course of his career, was happy to oblige. He sang "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" in a semi-acoustic setting (with Doug Petty on keyboards and Charlton Pettus handling guitar/backing vocals duty), and performed songs such as “Aeroplane” from his solo record of the same name.

"My daughters prefer Tears for Fears songs as they're more upbeat and generic," Smith said. "Dad's songs are 'a little too sad' for them, which just means that they're harder to understand."

What's not hard to understand is Smith's enduring appeal for his small but devoted fan base. Tears for Fears remain a criminally underrated band that you seldom hear about these days from the current crop of British bands, acts that were clearly influenced by them (we're looking in your general direction, Coldplay).

What do Creation Records founder Alan McGee and "Dazed and Confused" thespian Matthew McConaughey have in common? Both were seduced by roots reggae singer-guitarist Mishka.

And while McGee, who released a collection of the Bermuda-bred singer's songs in 1999 on Creation/Sony, has segued out of the record business, McConaughey is just getting started. The oft-shirtless actor (check out TMZ as of late) is ramping up his fledgling indie this month, mostly because he wants the world to hear Mishka, whose debut release, "Above the Bones," drops on the 17th. His record label, j.k. livin, a reference to a line delivered by McConaughey's stoner-sage character in the 1993 Richard Linklater film, is the latest addition to his lifestyle brand of the same name.

In an interview with Pop & Hiss last week, McConaughey talked about distribution, his 2009 release schedule and even a bit about his producing role on Mishka’s forthcoming release.

Today, we learned that this year's installment of Bamboozle Left, the weekend-long blowout of Orange County mall emo in a parking lot (I've been!), has an unexpected headliner. Mr. Curtis Jackson, who apparently has some time to kill while waiting for his perpetually delayed "Before I Self Destruct" album to become even more relevantly titled, will head up the Saturday show opposite a gaggle of the usual suspects for these sorts of things, including P&H faves Brokencyde, who I simply must see live before the year is out.

While the jokes about this pairing will come fast and easy, this seemingly absurd booking has a strong chance of actually being a pretty fantastic way to close out the weekend and a useful move for Mr. Jackson. Here's why:

The race for 2009's prize for Weirdest Piece of Music Writing already has a clear front-runner, courtesy of the ordinarily reasonable Ron Rosenbaum's attempt at a scorched Earth takedown of Billy Joel in Slate. In this 95 Theses of derision on the pride of Long Island, Rosenbaum breaks the tape at just under 2,000 words in parsing the fine hairs of why, exactly, Joel is the worst artist in pop music. OK, fair enough; he obviously hasn't heard Brokencyde yet, but that's a supportable barroom argument. Yet rarely has such a lengthy piece of criticism warranted such a tidal, nay, tectonic shrug of confusion as to why the essay needed to exist at all.