Photo by Marco Torres

Cannibal Ox's El-P (left) with Killer Mike at Warehouse Live in June 2012

You may have missed it, but no one would blame if you did because you're not alone. In March, legendary indie hip-hop group Cannibal Ox announced they were making a comeback in a big way, launching a new album, their very own record label, and a Kickstarter campaign to fund it all.

The last time Cannibal Ox recorded a studio album was 2001's The Cold Vein. It was produced by Def Jux mastermind El-P, a distinguished rapper in his own right, and released to wide acclaim and obsessive fandom. Then they went almost totally dormant for the last 12 years.

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Photo by Groovehouse

Last week Dropkick Murphys raised more than $100,000 for their embattled fellow Bostonians.

Life can get pretty dreary at points, and last week was, without a doubt, the dreariest week in a long time. From the massive fertilizer-plant explosion that devastated West, Texas to the Boston Marathon bombing and everything in between, our nation faced some pretty horrific tragedies in which many, many lives were permanently altered.

But buried within the daunting headlines, the silver lining was there, even as rough as shit got. As unfortunate and truly unfair as last week's tragedies were, from them sprung a renewal of sorts, with people rallying together to help ease the struggling of those most deeply affected. That kind of support is often lost in the fray, tucked away behind the demands of our daily lives. But luckily for us, in the times when we need it most, that support always surfaces, ready to remind us of just how badass people truly are.

Sometimes it just takes squinting your eyes and looking closer, beneath the rubble of what's fallen apart, to see it. And that's just what I intend to do here. I'm squinting, and there's quite a lot to be amazed by. Below is our list of all of the silver linings that surfaced last week -- with a musical twist, of course.

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For starters it's #98/150, and now we all know it has a notch in the neck at the 8th fret. Good luck unloading it!

Running around like a bunch of wannabe guitar gumshoes is fantastic, but wouldn't it be better to just avoid losing any gear all together? Fortunately, it's pretty easy to keep things safe or at the very least traceable. It goes without saying that the musician's I spoke to wish they had taken a few of these steps before losing their guitars and effects.

Rewind:

For Musicians, Little Sucks Worse Than Stolen Gear

First of all, get yourself some insurance. Most homeowners policies won't cover musical instruments if they're used in a professional capacity, so look for a company like Clarion or MusicPro who cater to musicians. In fact, if you go with MusicPro, you can get yourself into some health and dental while you're at it.

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Press Association

Marr and his returned '63 Gibson SG

In 2010, Johnny Marr of The Smiths recovered his $45,000 '64 Gibson SG, after it had been stolen at a gig ten years earlier. Unfortunately, most musicians who have lost their gear to theft haven't been so lucky.

The local musicians I talked to recently reported suffering similar losses. Occasionally persistence or cunning detective work have paid off in retrieving the lost instruments, but mostly it's been tales of heartache and frustration.

But whether it was from a vehicle or a home, a venue or practice space, any musician who has had his or her gear stolen suffers from feelings of violation and anger. And although I'm sure we've all played out baseball-bat-beatdown fantasies in our heads from time to time, it some good old-fashioned prevention ultimately might have been a better strategy.

After all, never losing an irreplaceable guitar is far better than the hassles of police reports, shady pawnshops and dangerous undercover work.

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Photo by Marc Brubaker

Houston is by most accounts one of America's more cultured and sophisticated cities, but it still loses its damn mind when a lot of famous people come to town. The swarm of people created by celebrities and their spotters forced the Galleria to shut down early Saturday evening, while a few promoters got a little too eager and promised appearances by celebrities they were unable to deliver, such as Alicia Keys at Rich's Friday night and Young Jeezy and Nelly at the Compound at Hess Club. The local media is developing a serious crick in its neck from all the stargazing.

Rewind:

Your All-Star Weekend Celebrity Guestbook

As for the many, many other rappers who are in town this weekend, the were decidedly less likely to reach for their Twitter fingers last night as they were Friday, but Rocks Off thought we'd see this thing through and collect a few of the better All-Star tweets.

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Photo by Marco Torres

Common scored ten points and grabbed eight in the Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday.

Rocks Off thought we'd stay as far away as the NBA All-Star Weekend hoopla as possible, so Friday night we went to see the wonderful Tift Merritt at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, where a friend of ours who works there told us he had worked out alongside Common and Ne-Yo at the Downtown YMCA earlier.

It's inescapable. But there's really no need to rely on insider tips and secondhand info -- you guessed it, Beyonce is in town -- when so many celebrities of the rapper persuasion are all too happy to advertise their whereabouts on Twitter.

Sounds like quite an evening.

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Photo by Groovehouse

Texas Rep. Steve Stockman, arguably the Tea Party's No. 1 advocate on Capitol Hill, has already had an eventful first term his second time in Washington. About three weeks ago, Stockman said he was ready to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama if Obama's proposed gun-control legislation went through. The Washington Post quoted this statement from Stockman's office January 15:

The White House's recent announcement they will use executive orders and executive actions to infringe on our constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms is an unconstitutional and unconscionable attack on the very founding principles of this republic. I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment.

He also voted against fellow Republican John Boehner's successful bid to remain Speaker of the House, saying, "This is not something I do lightly, but out of bedrock conservative principle and a dire need to save this nation from its current course. We cannot tolerate betrayal of conservative principle and economic reality."

Stockman's 36th District includes a good bit of southeast Texas including eastern Harris County all the way down to Webster, where he keeps his local offices. Recently he announced he will be bringing a very special guest to tonight's State of the Union address: gonzo rocker, noted hunting enthusiast and known Obama-hater Ted Nugent.

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Two days ago, a complete stranger calmly approached me at the airport. Her demeanor was kind, she didn't have any noticeable body odor and gave off a friendly vibe. I smirked before she started the painstaking task of carrying out small talk.

"Hey, are you from here?" she asked. My brain wanted my mouth to utter a crude and succinct reply to send her packing, but my heart ended up saying, "Yes, yes I am."

"Do you know when All-Star Weekend is here?"

She obviously knew when it was and I was hoping I didn't look like a complete fool. Her eyes were slightly drained, her jaw contorted hoping for my reply to seem foolish and I muttered with delight, "Yes, it falls on Valentine's Day, prepare to be single."

She laughed. I was serious. Because All-Star Weekend is not for couples.

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Apparently there are still rappers who want to make the XXL Freshman 10 class this year. Take Riff Raff, for example. He wants it so badly that he has been following everyone on Twitter who votes for him in the contest.

The magazine began running its annual list of noteworthy, "undiscovered" rappers in 2008, dubbing them the "Leaders of the New School." These artists were on the rise, and predicted to achieve some kind of commercial success in 2008-09. Since its inaugural year, XXL has changed the name to "Freshman 10."

Joining the Freshman Class doesn't really bolster a rapper's career -- it's more of a confirmation that people are paying attention, like adding an extracurricular activity to your resume. They don't really need it, but it might help their image.

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We now know definitively that the United States government will not be building a Death Star, at least not under the Obama administration. We know this because enough citizens signed an online petition on the subject that the administration had to respond.

Like all good things on the Internet, We The People -- the official title of the online petitioning program -- has become a playground for smartasses and trolls. While there are plenty of "legitimate" petitions out there, there are gobs of silly ones.

Unfortunately, Music fans have yet to jump on the silly-petition bandwagon. You would think by now some jokester would have started a petition to bestow citizenship on Justin Beiber or ban Nickleback from coming across the border.

If it's a lack of ideas, well, you're in luck. I've got some suggestions. Let's you, me and 24,998 of our closest friends get together and change the world... or at least make some mid-level government paper-pusher waste 20 minutes responding to us.

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