• Three terrific new tribute projects are due next week, saluting two superstars and the unique talents shared by a father and son. Failure to Communicate Records is releasing 2. Contamination, a two-CD collection of darkwave artists covering the songs of David Bowie.

• From putting the "show" into the show business of Van Halen's best years to becoming a New York City emergency medical technician and recently one of Howard Stern's terrestrial radio replacements, David Lee Roth is adding another strange note to his résumé.

• Things are getting - and staying - busy for the Flaming Lips. With a new album, At War with the Mystics, set for release April 4, and the digital release of one song from the album, "W.A.N.D," earlier this week, vinyl luxury, DVD expansions, and South Florida dreams are on the psychedelic, pulsating eyeball-orb horizon.

• Last year my greatest musical joy came from "discovering" a magical lost band - one whose psychedelic folkie bliss I'd somehow missed in my 30 years on either side of the record-store counter. Under the warm, old-school glow of a handful of the group's original LPs rescued from a garage sale, I found myself physically melted under the spell of The Incredible String Band as I did the high-fidelity dance and faced the frantic reshuffling of all my passionate lists - top 10 albums of all time, top five bands, top 10 perfect songs, etc.