Last week, acclaimed movie director Dave Grohl told the 15 people who were accidentally watching him fill in as host on Chelsea Lately that Britney Spears "seems dead inside" to him. Disregarding how weird it is to discuss someone's inner-deadness on the Chelsea Handler set without talking about Chelsea Handler, it made us wonder what other music artists are dead inside. Ten came to us instantly, so we stopped there, because it's proper list size.

See also: In Defense of Dave Grohl

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Not the Kanye video.

Just hours before New Year's Eve, an unfinished but largely coherent cut of the video for Kanye West's "Monster" leaked. It was...unsettling. West's use of the severed heads of dead women as props--and their lifeless bodies as vaguely sexual marionettes--in the clip was the apotheoses of a year's worth of model corpse photos (before now published as art for West's various G.O.O.D. Friday singles), and will do nothing to blunt the growing chorus of critics pointing out what an asshole misogynist West was in 2010. It's a charge to which we're sympathetic. But never in a million years did we imagine the "Monster" video as being anything but the original product of West and director Jake Nava's sick imagination. As it turns out, however, Kanye might not just be an extremely public model killer; he may well be a plagiarist, too. Of Philadelphia indie-rock band Dr. Dog, no less.

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Though the gala was weeks ago, CBS just got around to airing the annual Kennedy Center Honors award show. Among the honorees? Bill T. Jones, Jerry Herman, Merle Haggard, Oprah Winrey, and Paul McCartney, to whom Steven Tyler can be seen paying awkward, shrill tribute to above. Which makes us wonder. Did the Beatles end up winning 2010 somehow?

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Take it with a grain of salt, but we hear pretty reliably that the big guest for Yo La Tengo's eighth-night finale at Maxwell's will be none other than Brooklyn's the National. If true, they'd follow a murderer's row of guests YLT have already had out to Hoboken this year: M. Ward and tonight's Village Voice Web Awards host Todd Barry; the Parting Gifts; Jeff Tweedy and Eugene Mirman; soul hero Syl Johnson; Mission of Fucking Burma; our own Robert Sietsema's reunited Mofungo; and whoever shows up tonight (Bonnie Prince Billy, perhaps, since he's in town for an NYC show tomorrow night?). And who better than the National to cap things off on the last night of Hanukkah at a venue that holds only 200 people?

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Update: Keep your eye on this ticket link. Show goes on sale at noon, he's supposedly doing the entire new record, and...it'll cost $100.

Teyana Taylor is the former My Super Sweet 16 star and Tyler Perry movie veteran whose vocals can be heard, among other places, on the opening few bars of Kanye West's My Dark Twisted Fantasy (she's also on "Runaway," and a few other uncredited places on the record). And, as Brooklyn Vegan points out, she may have just done something very, very indiscreet, tweeting the above yesterday evening. So is Kanye West really playing a secret surprise show at the Bowery Ballroom tonight? Well, the venue just so happens to have nothing on its schedule for Tuesday, November 23. And Taylor wasn't the only one to say something she probably shouldn't have on Twitter:

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Titus Andronicus play Webster Hall during last year's CMJ. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne

Ah, the first day of CMJ: a moment of optimism, possibility, and prophecy. Even now every website and publication with any kind of music-related bent is scrambling to post guides and predictions, links to MySpace sites with virginal three-digit playcounts. But can the system actually be gamed? Can critics actually predict with any kind of accuracy who will emerge at the end of the week with the coveted gold star of consensus? We convened a panel of two to discuss (the third member of our critical SWAT team is talking about CMJ on WNYC right now, if you want the full SOTC stereo experience). Well?

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Yes, New Year's Eve, that magical evening of at least slightly overpriced parties that nonetheless hold out the possibility of an epochal, champagne-fueled, surprise-guest-besotted, properly year-christening blowout. There are hundreds to choose from; the Drive-By Truckers, we are beginning to suspect, might be hosting the best.

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Jay-Z and Eminem began their triumphant two-city, four-show run last night at Detroit's Comerica Park, and if that show's any indication, when they show up at Yankee Stadium September 13 and 14, they'll be bringing along every famous rapper they (or you) can think of.

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Can this superhero save herself?

Nicki Minaj has had quite the weekend. First came "Check It Out," a Buggles-sampling, will.i.am-featuring slice of zaniness that seems destined for Pink Friday, her long-gestating debut LP, currently due on November 23. Then came a marriage announcement via from fellow Young Money rapper Drake, which Minaj quickly confirmed, then annulled. And then, finally, there was "Monster," the latest mega-single from Kanye West, featuring Minaj, Rick Ross, Bon Iver, and Jay-Z. Faced with pretty much the stiffest competition rap can muster in 2010, Nicki murdered all of them--her schizophrenic, endless verse is the runaway highlight of song that would otherwise be entirely forgettable (you're a ghoul, Jay? Really?).

And that's pretty much Minaj's signature in 2010: blistering guest verses that salvage lackluster songs from artists as unreliable as Robin Thicke, Ludacris, and Usher. What she hasn't been able to do, including on "Check It Out," is headline a particularly convincing song of her own. With every insanely virtuosic guest verse, anticipation for Pink Friday rises. But we may have to start getting used to the idea that this is as good as it's going to get. Nicki's a great rapper. But it doesn't seem likely that she has a great album in her. Here's why:

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Throwaway Tweet? Teasing jab at This Is Happening devotees? Yes on probably one and possibly both counts, and yet, and yet. If we do get another LCD album, you know who to thank.