John Lydon, who is profiled in Sunday's Times, is a quote machine, and therefore pure gold for the journalists lucky enough to shove a tape recorder in his face and get him going. Pop & Hiss recently played chauffeur for the legendarily outspoken singer of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. while he was promoting his new art book, "Mr. Rotten's Scrapbook," and during the ride (which ferried him from his home in Marina del Rey to the Times building in downtown L.A.), Lydon offered thoughts, tips, advice, and observations on his life in 2011 and his nearly 20 years spent living in Southern California.

On East Los Angeles and its many cultures and neighborhoods: "It used to be such a nice, quiet place, but it’s gotten to be gang-y of late, Pasadena, and into Glendale. It’s all gone very different over the years. It’s funny, I’ve watched this town change dramatically. It’s the problem with America is that you separate yourselves. You ghettoize yourselves. You have your black communities, your Mexican communities, your this, your that. You’re too separate, and you’re desperate because of it. You’re all at war, but you’re all fighting the same problem, you’ve just not come to grips with that. That 'us and them' mentality. That’s the boss man that wants you to believe in such nonsense. Divided we fall. United we conquer."

On living near Venice: "Or as we know it locally, 'Very-nice,'" he said. "I like the beach culture because it doesn’t interfere. It’s not nosy and it’s not peeping through lace curtains. It’s floppy Joes and no shoes on your feet and why give a damn  about what the neighbors [are up to].

When trying to alleviate some dental pain, Lydon took a slug of Johnny Walker Black: "Ah, that’ll get rid of the toothache all right! Don’t waste your money on all that Listerine mouthwash. That’s really poor alcohol. If you’re going to do that, go proper. Why [mess] about?"

On his hairstyling technique: "I keep noticing these little barber shops, and I’ve definitely been meaning to give one a visit at some point, because I went nuts two days ago with one of those electric shavers, and somebody rang and I -- accidentally when I was using it -- turned and I went too high up the back, and I need that straightened out. It’s really, really hard to get the back of your head done proper. And who do you trust with dangerous implements at the back of your skull?"

Here it is, just a regular old Thursday. What could punch it up? A new video and song from Lady Gaga -- featuring some German monotone lyrics, a guy named Zombie Boy from Montreal, wind-machine trickery and lots of super-serious catwalking. Not since the days of Right Said Fred have we seen a runway get this sexy!

Yes, this video is sort of eyeroll-inducing, but we don't watch Gaga for subtlety, and we'll admit that it's also strangely addictive, in that mysterious way that all Gaga things are. According to stylelist.com, Lady Gaga cooked up this remix (this is the first time, it should be noted, that she's ever released a song in remix form first) for the Mugler fashion show Wednesday in Paris. Mugler and the New York University alum are tight -- creative director Nicola Formichetti is also Gaga's personal stylist.

Shot by fashion photographer Mariano Vivanco, the video focuses on Zombie Boy and is interspersed with scenes from the Mugler fashion show. A little Internet sleuthing (a.k.a. Google) tells us that Zombie Boy is model Rico Genest. Formichetti found him through his Facebook page -- très moderne! Genest told a website called Bizarre that part of what inspired him to cover his entire body and face in tattoos was his childhood love for the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Good enough for us!

The song from the video is a track off "Born This Way," Gaga's new album, set for release in May. 

-- Margaret Wappler

Don Kirshner, rock impresario, music publishing powerhouse, television host and behind-the-scenes music supervisor (before there was such a job title) and song-picker for the Archies and the Monkees, died Monday in Boca Raton, Fla.,   at age 76. Over the course of half a century in the music business, he served as a bridge connecting songwriters with opportunity, and provided a televised stage in the 1970s and early '80s on which some of the rock era's most important bands performed. Here are a few highlights.

Kirshner worked with ace songwriters to pen songs for the Archies, and oversaw the music component of the cartoon band's sound. As the co-owner, with Al Nevins, of Aldon Songs, Kirshner worked with Brill Building geniuses Neil Sedaka, Carole King and Neil Diamond, among others.

On Jan. 24, Radiohead did a surprise benefit gig at the Music Box @ Fonda in Hollywood to raise funds for relief efforts in Haiti following a  devastating earthquake. The band, which was in town recording, performed to a sold-out house, and in true Radiohead fashion, allowed concertgoers free reign to video the gig. Inevitably, much of that footage ended up on YouTube, where it's drawn hundreds of thousands of views.

A trio of fans compiled the best of the footage to re-create the entire concert, and posted it. They explain the project on formengr's YouTube page:

this was a benefit for Oxfam America's Haiti Earthquake Response Fund. we who assembled this multicam video received approval and support from both Radiohead and Oxfam. on our combined behalf, we kindly request a donation to the beneficiary fund for which Oxfam graciously created the following dedicated link: www.oxfamamerica.org/radiohead

What if, for 25 days, MTV swooped into your town to make a "Laguna Beach"-style show -- only instead of over-privileged bros and catty girl fights, it was actually about something important. What if it was about your local music scene? People in Seattle won't have to imagine it anymore now that MTV New Media, the innovative arm of the channel, debuted the second season of its online series "$5 Cover" on Wednesday. All 12 episodes can be found here.

Set in the heart of one of the wettest and wildest (literally and sonically) cities on the West Coast, the webisode series peels back the skin of what is the often-stereotyped capital of Starbucks and grunge. What emerges is an alchemy of musical diversity, amplified subcultures and endearing anecdotal storytelling "based on reality." No, it's not a straight-up documentary (remember, we said "'Laguna Beach'-style" show). However, it does buck the trends cultivated by MTV's reality-show culture.

The Seattle series -- crunched into a string of eight-minute episodes -- aims to capture the relationships and performances of scrappy musicians with a street savvy dive into the nooks and crannies where music is played, argued over and ultimately celebrated.

The next time you catch yourself pining for the days of New Jack Swing, just remember there’s at least one group out there that’s keeping the pre-Kanye Roland 808 synth-clap sounds alive.

 Yes, the members of Bell Biv DeVoe parted with their flat tops decades ago. But there’s no question that watching the crisp dance moves and high-top fades in videos like “B.B. D. (I Thought It Was Me)” and “Poison” can rekindle the memories of '90s R&B with one click of a mouse.

 
Bruce Springsteen fans who weren't among the 60-some people chosen to sit in on an intimate performance last week at the Carousel House in New Jersey can get a sampling of the songs the Boss and members of the E Street Band played as an adjunct to the release of “The Promise” album featuring outtakes and early versions of songs that ended up on his 1978 album “Darkness on the Edge of Town.”

A five-song, 30-minute video from the performance, for which the E Street Band revisisted that period in its career, is streaming through Jan. 1 at Vevo.com and on YouTube. They were joined at the Carousel House by keyboardist Charles Giordano, a full horn section and multi-instrumental whiz David Lindley, who played violin at the original recording sessions.

The set list includes an alternate version of “Racing in the Street,” “Gotta Get That Feeling,” “Ain’t Good Enough For You,” “The Promise” and, in keeping with the time of year in which they were playing, “Blue Christmas.”

The latter includes a special treat for Lindley-philes with shots of him and his gray-white mutton chops emerging from under a red and white Santa hat. And who’s that Bill Gates lookalike on the Boss’ left when he lets fans crowd around him as he sends holiday greetings from himself and the band at the end of the song?

-- Randy Lewis

Quirky guitar pop band OK Go is known not only for its music, but also for the ways in which members have harnessed video/Internet culture to be heard. In this installment of OK Go's ongoing media experiment, the band traveled through Los Angeles as a parade and shot the experience, ultimately landing at Michelle's Donut House for some replenishment. The video, released Monday morning, has an interactive component too: The band is asking fans to shoot their own musical parades and post the results. For more info, click here.

-- Randall Roberts

Whether to kill time during a lagging workday or to watch a spoof of a favorite music video, many of us have logged a great deal of time on YouTube this year.

As the video site substitutes for channels like MTV and BET that largely have traded in music videos for original programming and reality shows à la "Jersey Shore" (“Don’t applaud -- they are the reason they don’t play your videos,” comedian Chelsea Handler teased the audience at this year’s Video Music Awards), the site also has become the go-to destination for A&R suits looking to launch the next big pop star du jour.

With the year coming to a close, YouTube is rolling out a special channel, Rewind, which will give folks the chance to relive the videos, people and events that defined the site this year. And at this point, it's little surprise that some of the biggest stars of YouTube were discovered right there.

It seems appropriate that director Eli Stonberg should answer his cellphone for an interview while standing out in front of his favorite video store. And while Vidiots, a treasure trove of indie video sales and rentals in Santa Monica, seems like a perfect place to gather inspiration, the 24-year-old Massachusetts native can’t stop talking about how music videos, his main forte, are destined to break the fourth wall and turn fans into directors. If you’ve seen his latest interactive video for "Knight of Wands," by ethereal, all-female indie popsters Au Revoir Simone, you know he’s already off to a good start.

“There’s a whole wide-open frontier of videos with interactive stuff and I wanna be on the forefront of that,” said Stonberg.

He’s certainly got plenty of company. Whether fans are noodling around with the latest Arcade Fire video for “The Wilderness Downtown” by Chris Milk developed by Google, or the dazzling cosmos of Broken Bell’s “October” interactive short, the ability for views to tweak and personalize a music video experience is today’s industry innovation du jour.

That’s definitely the goal he had in mind for Stonberg's video for “Knight of Wands,” off of the Brooklyn synth trio’s latest album “Still Night, Still Light.”

Blurring the lines between live action and an interactive coloring book, the online video—complete with its own Adobe  Flash Player site—allows viewers to douse an illustration of the band with colors and patterns of choice while the song plays in the background. Eventually, the video morphs back into a live action ending, with the spindly members of the band triple-teaming a Roland synth, crooning in harmony to the song’s end. You also get to share your coloring job on a Flickr page dedicated to the video site.

Just released: The new Arcade Fire video, directed by Spike Jonze.

Full credits: Taken from the short film: "Scenes From The Suburbs"

Director: Spike Jonze
DP: Greig Fraser
Editor: Jeff Buchanan
Additional Video Editing: Patrick Colman
Producer: Vince Landay
Producer: Arcade Fire
Production Company: MJZ
Sound Design/Mix - T. Terressa Tate @ The Royal T Room

-- Randall Roberts

Twitter: @liledit

Brian Eno is known for many things -- production brilliance with U2 and Talking Heads; lush and cerebral ambient music; crazy getups in his glam rock days -- but humor isn't really one of them. Perhaps inspired by the well-documented comedy exploits of his onetime collaborator Paul Simon, Eno has made a video of himself getting interviewed by the distinguished journalist Dick Flash of Pork magazine in suport of his new album that Flash incorrectly calls "Milk Crate on a Small Sea," out this week.

Sound fishy? Well, it is. Dick Flash appears to be none other than Eno himself, donning an unflattering mousy-brown wig, glasses and other accoutrements of the music journalist. At the start of the interview, Flash barely lets Eno get in a word edgewise. When Eno finally gets a say, he reveals himself to be embarrassingly inarticulate and a fount of cliches in comparison with Flash's intellectual blowhardisms, botched album title aside. However, there is one topic that finds Eno scarily lucid: copyright law.

The humor is pretty nerdy, and the video runs a little long, but it's delivered with goofball charm. Some favorite moments: Eno says, "Painting, I think it's like jazz," like he's the first dude to ever think of such a thing and stopping just shy of making an obligatory Mobius strip reference. Also, crediting "the medium is the message" to "the bloke who started the Sex Pistols" instead of Marshall McLuhan.There are many other fine gags -- including Eno talking about how they punished a 13-year-old who pirated his music -- but we won't give them all away.

-- Margaret Wappler

P.S. Here's hoping that the book that Flash references, Kurt von Pork's "Vestiges of the Religious Experience in the Artistic Spectrum," gets the Roger Sterling treatment sometime soon. I bet the faux-but-real Museum of Jurassic Technology would love to sell that in its bookstore.