Bono at TIFF

Credit: AP Photo

On the heels of their "Achtung Baby" reissue announcement, U2 has gone further in celebrating that album's 20th anniversary.

Q Magazine has commissioned a covers set of that 1991 album, and Jack White, Depeche Mode, Damien Rice and Patti Smith are all on board. Bono made the announcement during his tenure at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend, in support of U2 band documentary "From the Sky Down."

"Jack White does ‘Love Is Blindness,' Depeche Mode do ‘So Cruel,' Patti Smith did ‘Until the End of the World,' Damien Rice does ‘One.’ It just goes on," the frontman said at a press conference, according to Rolling Stone."And it’s strange, because when I hear the album, when U2 do it, all I hear is what’s wrong with it. But when I heard all these artists doing it, I thought, ‘It’s really good.'"

Chris Martin of Coldplay

Credit: Katie Hasty

Coldplay have revealed two new details of their new, forthcoming album "Mylo Xyloto," both with pop implications of the highest order.

In a release, the British band said simply that the song "Princess of China" will feature vocals from Rihanna. To the Sun, Martin said this in approaching the pop superstar: "The album is designed as a whole piece. It has boy and girl lead characters and top of our list for the girl part was Rihanna, but it took a while to pluck up the courage to ask her. We did a show in Las Vegas and I met her and said, ‘Do you think there’s any chance?’ I was very Hugh Grant-like and spluttering about it."

Further on the pop tip, the band has premiered its new single, to follow-up "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall." And "Paradise" even makes mention of that song.

I find the electronic clap track unnervingly cheap as an arena-rock device, but if Coldplay's design was to make a song that gets butts up out of the seats, they've got it. "Paradise" teases its echoing refrain, holds back until absolutely necessary, then and explosion of an impressively simple writing. It beats the hell out of the verses, which Martin clearly over-thought.

Skylar Grey

Songwriter Skylar Grey’s Interscope debut is titled “Invisible,” and so it is in more ways than one.

Superheroes, for one, have exhibited such a superpowers. Grey shows off her Spider-man side in the newly minted music video for the album’s title track, below.

“I discovered that my insecurities and my flaws were things that I actually need to embrace, and I let them become my superpowers,” Grey said in a statement.

But in my interview with the rising star, she spoke of invisibility as more of an unknowable, which is sort of the general impression of the album at this point. “Expectations are an evil thing,” as she said coolly.

Grey has stepped out as a prominently featured vocalist on several hip-hop hits, including on Dr. Dre’s “I Need a Doctor” with Eminem and on Lupe Fiasco’s “Words I Never Said.” Additionally, she was the songwriting power behind one of Slim Shady’s biggest hits of all time, “Love the Way You Lie” (which guested Rihanna on vocals).

But on the flip side, her performance at Lollapalooza was equally dark but much more rock, like an industrial Nelly Furtado. It was a showcase of her hook-writing abilities but also of personality, cultivated from more than a half-dozen years of navigating a tricky industry in turmoil.

Jeff Tweedy

Credit: AP Photo

Wilco did a time warp today: the band released a music video that will take you back to the '90s, and Jeff Tweedy performed a song that will take you back to 2009.

First, there's "Born Alone," a title that for some reason sorely depresses me. But the tune itself is actually a pretty decent driving number, culled from the band's forthcoming "The Whole Love." And, actually, it's more of a mix of '70s era Paul McCartney road videos with that whole '90s collage love-in. It was directed by Mark Greenberg, who has previously collaborated on Wilco's albums.

"The Whole Love" is due Sept. 27 through the band's own record label dBpm, a first; check out "I Might" here and their Nick Lowe cover of "I Love My Label" here.

Then there's frontman Jeff Tweedy, bless him, is a victim of circumstance.

From Battles' "My Machines"

Battles has just released the music video to "My Machines," in a joint endeavor with the Creators Project, and it's kind of amazing.

Directed by filmmaking duo Daniels -- who have helmed one of my favorite vids from Chromeo -- this Gary Numan-featuring "single-shot" clip is full of as much churning anxiety as the song itself. It involves one man, his groceries and an escalator that may end his life.

What I especially love is Numan's apparent disinterest in the man's fateful journey. Talk about cold pop.

"My Machines" is from Battles "Gloss Drop," released through Warp earlier this year; it's also been released as a limited edition 12"... limited in that its stock was part of the losses in that Sony DADC warehouse fire in London during the riots last month.

PJ Harvey

Basically two names were being bandied about as the frontrunners for this year's Mercury Prize in the U.K.: PJ Harvey and Adele. It was the former that ended up taking the prize today (Sept. 6) for her album "Let England Shake," marking the first time that an artist has earned the honor twice in the Prize's 20-year history.

The £20,000 prize actually marked a 10th anniversary of the first win: Harvey's set "Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea" (2000) earned the 2001 Mercury. That set beat out artists like Gorillaz, Radiohead and Elbow. And the latter, coincidentally, was up for its second prize this year, too (Elbow won the Mercury in 2008 for "The Seldom Seen Kid").

Harvey's win over Adele isn't all that shocking, although the albums represented two very different ideas of Album of the Year. To American listeners, at least, Harvey's work remains lesser-known, particularly compared to powerhouse Adele, whose "21" has reinjected some cash flow into the struggling music-selling industry. "21" and "Let England Shake" are most certainly "adult" albums, in that they're the sort of sounds that older audiences actually go out and purchase and listen to.

But "Let England Shake" really is that good, and so long as Adele doesn't puke herself into oblivion, she has a good many more years of trying to top this list, even with "21" so strong.

"England" is also a devoutly regionalized pick, one that represents Britain well, in its political messaging, its historical inspirations and its complex delivery. When I reviewed the album earlier this year, I was struck, too, by how long its imagery lasted, with help from a full album's worth of music videos to accompany each song.

And the Mercury Prize continues its long string of acknowledging female and female-led artists. Only a handful have won, but their list of qualifying and shortlisted albums has a respectable push for the fairer sex. Harvey's now two of those.

Sergio Vega at Lollapalooza in August

Credit: Katie Hasty

Diamonds are forever but the Deftones have largely shined off their support of their latest “Diamond Eyes.” This weekend, the band finishes their worldwide tour overseas, and now those eyes have turned toward their next recording project.

Jack White with ICP

Credit: Third Man Records

Jack White has produced a new single from Insane Clown Posse, backed by Nashville rock band Jeff the Brotherhood, of the rapping duo tackling a lesser-known Mozart song. The track is literally called "Leck Mich Im Arsch," which translates to "Lick Me in the Ass." This is a real thing.

White's Third Man Records label is releasing the 7" on Sept. 13. It will be backed by a B-side called "Mountain Girl," which is a series of "tall tales about a shotgun wedding, meth problems and moonshine," according to a release.

Stream "Arsch" below.

Aside from my initial reactions of "I just fell out my chair," "Jimmy Page is laughing somewhere" and "You're f*cking kidding me," I actually don't feel all that kidded. Judging from the promotional photos for the single, the joke isn't lost on White. And Jack White has never been one to shy away from comedy, considering the spoken-word output from Third Man, and his appearance on Stephen Colbert with his little witchy band the Black Belles.

And White doesn't mind that there's a flag down on the field for shark jumpage. I actually believe White legitimately likes ICP, though for what reasons I don't know -- is it "Miracles" meta-commentary? A comedy troupe? An unflinching, unthwarted pursuit of personal expression regardless of trend or decade? Performance art? 

Personally, listening to ICP is akin to listening to a curdling Tubercular cough on scratchy tape loop. I'd just rather not.

“I want to rock you like the ‘80s,” Anthony Kiedis cheekily sings on Red Hot Chili Peppers’ current single “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie.” The band, of course, is still both battling and embracing the ‘90s sound that boosted them into the mainstream rock stratosphere on their latest “I’m With You.”

Dave Grohl in "Hot Buns"

Foo Fighters are a popular rock band based largely in Northwest America, founded by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. The act most recently released album "Wasting Light" this year and have spent much of 2011 touring in support.

The group has announced a new collection of touring dates, and in promoting them, shot a video in "hot showers" commonly offered at truck stops in America. They costume themselves like truckers (Edit: I missed it before, but Pat Smear appears as a janitor. Mah bad).

Below is the safe-for-work version. Click here to further understand why the clip is titled "hot buns." It is not safe to watch at work at all.

Because it's really gay.