More Nine Inch Nails than “Cars,” Gary Numan’s Dead Son Rising is a smeared, squelchy outburst of guitar noise, weird psychodrama, face-slap beats and visceral emotion

Paul McCartney, sitting in a plane waiting to return to his native England, saw the smoke rising from the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001. The son of a volunteer firefighter during the German Blitz of World War II, McCartney was moved to assemble an all-star concert

The Cure, appearing at this year’s Bestival, offered a fibrous retrospective — tearing its textured later gothy efforts down to a nervy, straight-forward post-punk vibe that recalled the group’s breakthrough triumphs.

Could Christmas get any cooler than a collaboration between Lemmy and Billy Gibbons on a Chuck Berry tune?

Here’s a run down — with a few of our thoughts — on some notable music projects, both new and reissue, slated for release for the week of Dec. 6, 2011.

They’re a wonder hit wonder band, but what a hit it was! It was late in 1967 when the Human Beinz landed the charts with a rollicking cover of “Nobody But Me,” which was originally recorded by the Isley Brothers.

*** STEELY DAN SUNDAY INDEX *** < >> On occasion, Becker and Fagen would bring in one of their heroes to the studio to make a guest appearance on a track. We noted previously that Ray Brown contributed his acoustic bass to “Razor Boy”

What is the sound of a lone Pepper? Not as hot, not as funky … but more distinctive than you might expect.

At the El Rey Theater, Los Angeles I don’t get to see concerts like I used to. Back in college, it seemed like I saw something every couple of weeks.

Though she doesn’t make radio hits anymore, Me’Shell Ndegéocello just gets more interesting as her focus gets ever sharper.