Yesterday, we reported on the release of "The Beatles: Rock Band" . But the Beatles aren't the only A-list quartet with a video game in the works.

And I'm probably going to hell for saying it, but I'm way, way more amped for the imminent release of "Guitar Hero Metallica" , especially now that Activision , the game's developer, has announced the tracklist.

"Guitar Hero Metallica" hits stores on March 29, and it's available on Xbox 360, Nintento Wii, and Playstation 2. The game allows plastic axe-slingers to play along with 28 songs from the band's discography, and it also features songs from other bands that Metallica hand-picked for the game. (As with recent "Guitar Hero" games, you'll be able to drum and sing along, as well.) The "Guitar Hero" folks tried the same trick last year with an Aerosmith-themed game, but that one had to deal with the fatal flaw of Aerosmith sucking.

Metallica's game, of course, includes plenty of tracks from the band's not-so-great recent years, but there's also an impressive amount of material from their utterly badass do-no-wrong first four albums. My fingers already hurt thinking how hard it's going to be to play "Creeping Death" and "Whiplash".

The tracklist of songs from other bands is likewise jammed with classics. Say what you will about Metallica, but they have good taste. "Ace of Spades"-- with an animated Lemmy appearing in the game! Mastodon's "Blood and Thunder"! Corrosion of Conformity's "Albatross"! Social Distortion's "Mommy's Little Monster"! Seger! Priest! Kyuss! Uh, Foo Fighters!

Metallica's messed around with the "Guitar Hero" franchise before. On the same day that they released last year's not-terrible Death Magnetic as a proper CD, they also released it in downloadable "Guitar Hero 3" form. And people who bought Death Magnetic on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 2 will have access to it on this game. Also, people who buy it on Wii or PlayStation will get three bonus tracks, all from Death Magnetic : "Broken, Beat & Scarred", "Cyanide", and "My Apocalypse".

As we previously reported , Metallica will enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 4. And on March 31, they will release a 163-track digital box set of their entire discography on iTunes. (It will hit other digital retailers on April 28.) Also, they've got a run of European shows coming up, including some with well-chosen openers Lamb of God and Mastodon.

While there were many great bands and performances at last year's Pitchfork Music Festival, there were only a few genuine stars in the classic sense of the word. Jarvis Cocker didn't headline the fest, but he was definitely the biggest star; whether stalking the stage, engaging in witty banter, or breaking down into whiteboy James Brown convulsions, the former Pulp leader entertained like a bizarro Vegas vet.

The trip to our Chicago fest didn't only result in an amazing set. While visiting the Windy City, Jarvis and his band holed up in Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio to test out a couple new songs. They liked the sound (and the price: "it was very cheap," says Cocker in a statement), so the crew returned in January to record Further Complications , due out May 19 (May 18 in the UK) on Rough Trade.

Though Jarvis claims he hasn't "gone rock," hard-nosed studio rat Albini seems like a fitting choice for the album, considering the increasingly roughed-up tunes Cocker has been peddling since parting with Pulp. Don't expect any of those We Love Life Scott Walker strings here. Do expect some songs he debuted on tour last year, like the incredible soul number "I Told You Twice (Leftovers)", "Angela", "Fuckingsong", and the title track.

More track titles with priceless notes from Jarvis himself: "Slush" ("I guess that slush will be the ultimate outcome of global warming"), "Caucasian Blues" ("an attempt  to understand the pain of a man whose Honda Goldwing has run out of petrol"), "I Never Said I Was Deep" ("the phrase that I would like carved on my tombstone"), "The Night They Let Me Out of the Home" ("portrays the difficulties of using public transport whilst on crutches"), and "Homewrecker!" ("an absolute racket featuring saxophone from Steve Mackey [he played on The Stooges' 'Funhouse', you know]"). If there was a Grammy for song-explaining notes, Jarvis would win every time.

Apparently, all those songs won't be on the final LP-- the tracklist is still being sussed out. "Apparently" is also the title of another new song "about how you can be in love with someone without realising it." Is it me or does this sound like year-end material right here? No pressure!

Most importantly, Jarvis finally explains his recent abundance of facial hair: "I grew it to keep my face warm in the Arctic and then I kind of got attached to it. (The amount of grey in it horrified me at first but now I think it acts as a handy reminder of my own mortality.)" No Just for Men for this man.

Jarvis is taking his show on the road all over Europe this summer. He probably won't play any Pulp songs, so stop asking:

You know impressively bearded alt-country OG Steve Earle is a good guy because he helped Bubbles through rehab on The Wire. So he didn't need to solidify his good-guy status any further by recording an album in tribute to the late country-folk cult hero Townes Van Zandt. But Earle's done it anyway. That's just how he rolls.

On May 12, New West will release Townes , Earle's tribute to his friend and mentor. The album will also be available as a deluxe two-CD set and on 180-gram vinyl. That's the cover above.

According to a press release, Earle and Van Zandt first met when Van Zandt heckled an Earle show in 1972, the sort of thing that must be a total nightmare for most singer-songwriters. But the two stayed tight until Van Zandt's death in 1997.

Dust Brother John King, who produced Earle's 2007 album Washington Square Serenade, mans the boards on one song, "Lungs". On that same song, Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello guests on guitar. (And yes, he does play one of those wikki-wikki turntable-scratch solos, but it sort of works.) Singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, Earle's wife, sings backup on "To Live Is to Fly" and "Loretta". Earle also recruited a backing band of bluegrass all-stars to play on several songs. And duetting on "Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold": Earle's son Justin Townes Earle, appearing on record with his dad for the first time. (Earle really must've loved the guy if he named his kid after him.)

In the album's press release, Earle has this to say: "This may be one of the best records I've ever made. That hurts a singer-songwriter's feelings. Then again, it's some consolation that I cherry picked through the career of one of the best songwriters that ever lived." Aww.

You have to admire Earle for recording an entire Townes Van Zandt tribute album and not including "If I Needed You". That takes some balls.

In other Earle news, he'll play two shows at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music on April 4 and 5.

Here's a stream of Earle's cover of Van Zandt's "Lungs", featuring Tom Morello on guitar:

The North Carolina indie institution Merge Records turns 20 this year, and they're celebrating their anniversary in grand style. As you know, they're putting out a sweet subscription-only box set featuring contributions from all kinds of special guests. And, as we reported in January, the label will host a huge five-day music festival this summer. Their SCORE! series is already sending exclusive compilations to everyone who had the foresight to sign up (they aren't taking any more subscribers, sorry).

And now the label has announced the tracklist for SCORE! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers , its compilation of non-Merge bands covering classics from the label's back catalog. Holy shit, this thing is nuts!

The tracklist is full of heavy hitters: the Shins, Broken Social Scene, Death Cab, the National, Broken Social Scene. And the different bands' choices of cover material makes a pretty fascinating study. Like, it's not too surprising that 69 Love Songs , the Magnetic Fields' mammoth collection of classic-sounding, alternate-reality hits, would figure heavily. It is pretty surprising, however, to see that Bright Eyes (who sort of is a Merge artist these days) would try his hand at "Papa Was a Rodeo", Stephin Merritt's semi-ironic cowboy lament. Likewise, it's crazy to see Swedish indie pop heartthrob Jens Lekman and eternally poised Everything But the Girl frontwoman Tracey Thorn teaming up for anything , let alone a version of the Magnetic Fields' "Yeah! Oh, Yeah!"

That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. The biggest eye-popper on this whole thing might be Ryan Adams' cover of label bosses Superchunk's "Like a Fool"; nice to know that guy hasn't thrown out his record collection. Times New Viking's take on the Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #1" should be noisily cathartic. Barbara Manning, meanwhile, tries out Portastatic's "Through With People", and it's tough to even fathom what level of gorgeosity we'll be dealing with there. And it's nice to see the unjustly slept-on late-90s downbeat lo- fi shambler East River Pipe getting some love; both the Mountain Goats and Okkervil River pay tribute.

This compilation will be one of two SCORE! items that the general public will be able to buy. The other one, a remix compilation-- featuring Battles, Four Tet, Jason Forrest, Caribou, Junior Boys, Trey Told 'Em, Barbara Morgenstern, John McEntire (Tortoise, the Sea and Cake), Mark Robinson (Unrest, Teenbeat Records), and Hands Off Cuba-- will be announced later. The Covers is up for preorder on Merge's site starting today. SCORE! subscribers will get it in their March mailing, and the rest of us can buy it on April 7.

Music videos are at a weird point in their evolution right now. Thanks to the internet, we can watch basically any video ever made whenever we want. But now that MTV has become an entire network devoted to dating shows from third-tier celebrities, those videos never quite reach TV audiences, at least not in the numbers they once did. And so videos have become weirdly fleeting and ephemeral, quick little things to watch at our desks when we're on our lunch breaks.

Well, Department of Eagles aim to change that. When the hushed psych-pop duo debut their video for "No One Does It Like You" from their album In Ear Park, they'll do it in grand fashion at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

The video premiere goes down on March 24 as part of MOMA's PopRally event. After the video screens, MOMA assistant curator Sarah Suzuki will moderate a Q&A with the band and the video's two directors: visual artist Marcel Dzama and Patrick Daughters, the guy responsible for iconic clips like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Maps"and Feist's "1234" . (Dzama also designed costumes and sets for the video.) And following the Q&A, Department of Eagles will perform.

Department of Eagles don't have a whole lot else planned, since the looming release of Veckatimest means D.O.E.'s Daniel Rossen will be pretty busy with his other band, Grizzly Bear. But the duo do have some SXSW shows planned, including The 2009 Pitchfork/Windish Austin Bash.

The Beggars Group blog posted a little preview of the video, featuring some intriguing photos from the video shoot. Ooh, looks spooky!

Just looking at Depeche Mode's forthcoming Tour of the Universe itinerary gives me jet lag. Breaking it down: 58 shows, 27 countries, four months, infinite soul-baring synth sounds. It's a good old-fashioned megatour. After teasing us with venue-less North American dates a week ago, the band has now filled in the blanks-- the road trip will touch down in such hallowed spaces as Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl this summer. (Via Brooklyn Vegan.)

The tour is in support of their upcoming LP Sounds of the Universe -- featuring more-than-passable single "Wrong"-- which comes out April 21 via Capitol/Mute in the U.S. and April 20 via Mute in Europe.

A warning: Fans looking to buy tickets for the upcoming Depeche gigs should beware of Ticketmaster's own scalping site TicketsNow, which was apparently offering wildly overpriced seats for shows that aren't on sale yet. Canadian website Freshdaily lays out this latest scam.

For more info on Sounds of the Universe 's superfan formats, head here. For more info on the globe-spanning tour, head down: