Photo by Daniel Kramer

​Rumors swirled across the Web on Tuesday that Madonna's upcoming Super Bowl set list had leaked. It sent shivers down the spines of pop historians and shrugs across the shoulders of people who know which teams are actually playing in the Super Bowl. Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. have already confirmed that they'll be on hand Sunday in Indianapolis to perform "Gimme All Your Lovin,'" their new collabo with Ms. M. Speculation is that the big hits "Ray of Light," "Music," "Vogue" and "Holiday" could round out the Material Girl's performance.

That's a pretty killer lineup of classic Madonna, to be sure, but as die-hard fans of all things Madge, we've got our own ideas on what she should play (and what she should NOT play EVER). Blow that whistle, ref, because we're kicking off the Rocks Off Suggested Set List for Madonna Bowl I.

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photo via torontolife.com

​ A year ago today, Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy of Ontario became the first person in the world to earn a master's degree in The Beatles. I'm not quite sure what she's doing now, but I do know she could probably kick anyone's ass in Beatles trivia.

This little anniversary of her graduation got me thinking: What kinds of crazy music courses are popping up at colleges and universities across the US? Even with the economy in the shitter and tuition costs rising, students are still lining up to take classes like Philosophy and Star Trek and Zombies in Popular Media. But we'll save those for Art Attack. This is a music blog.

At Texas State, I took Sociology of Popular Music, which was a welcome break between Logic and Calculus, and others were offered like History of the Blues, History of Country Music and History of Mexican American Music in the Southwest. Today, however, I was on the hunt for more unorthodox courses, the super-weird and random ones, and found some real gems. While they probably won't help you get a job (unless you plan on writing scores for video games), they might help you dominate the music categories during Geeks Who Drink.

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"Put down that Type O Negative box set you son of a bitch!"

​While your other shopping contemporaries are slashing each others' throats at Walmart and Best Buy for $20 plasma televisions and six Blu-Ray players for $5 on Black Friday next week, why not sleep in and head up to your favorite local record store and fight other music nerds for limited edition vinyl? That's the idea behind Record Store Day's Black Friday events. Except that they do not condone violence of any kind, at least according to their FAQ.

Black Friday isn't as beastly as April's Record Store Day, offering only about 10% of what there is to choose from in April, depending on what store you hit up obviously. Some stores order more than others. This year's Black Friday haul isn't too shabby, and seems to be easier on your pocket. We spent almost $100 in April, and that's not including the back-ordered RSD stuff we picked up after that fact.

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​Forty years ago this past week, John Lennon's second solo LP away from the Beatles, Imagine, hit number one on the UK album charts. The album was released on October 8, 1971 in England and September 9, 1971 here in the States.

The album was seen as a commercial answer to his previous outing, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, which wowed critics with its wailing and barenaked honesty ("Mother") but didn't sell very well. Remember that at this point Lennon, with his wife Yoko Ono was very much an avant-garde figure, and not at all as brazenly poppy as former writing mate Paul McCartney.

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​When The Simpsons completes its last (contracted) season in 2014, it will have set staggering new broadcast records for longest running sitcom (over 550 episodes) and longest running prime time scripted TV series (25 seasons). These are all American records, of course, because the Japanese come hardcore.

The show has long passed the point where we could simply refer to it as that show where "an old drunk made humans out of his rabbit characters to pay off his gambling debts (RIP, Phil Hartman). The Simpsons' merchandising reach rivals that of KISS, it's introduced new words to our very language, and briefly gave us all a reason to watch Fox.

For Rocks Off's purposes, however, the show has also showcased a large number of old and new musical acts. Here are a few of our favorites.

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Rent money is for posers anyway.

​Tonight for one night only at the Houston Marq*E Stadium 23, Rolling Stones fans can finally catch The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas, a 1978 concert from the band's Fort Worth stop. The tour came on the heels of the May 1978 release of the band's Some Girls record, and the set list relies heavily on that album.

Then next month, Some Girls, the Stones' first foray into the punk and disco waters of the late '70s will get the deluxe reissue treatment. The album was last remastered in 2009 in the second batch of Stones remasters that hit stores. The Some Girls resissue comes a year and a half after the massive Exile On Main Street job last May. Obviously, the myths around Exile are way more legendary.

As with Exile, the band, namely Mick Jagger, are going back and cleaning up and or finishing some rough tracks from that period. Exile's new cuts included the great "Plundered My Soul," for one.

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​In keeping with Rocks Off's latest obsession, compiling soundtracks for oddball holidays, we were tickled pink as a chorus girl's nipple to learn that this Friday is Pi Approximation Day.

The holiday was first in 1988 by a physicist named Larry Shaw, who made everyone march in a circle then eat several fruit pies, proving that science is really only three shots away from being a frat party. Nonetheless, in 2009 the House of Representatives made March 14 Pi Day and July 22 Pi Approximation Day.

Pi, for those who may have failed geometry, is a mathematical constant famous for the fact that it basically represents infinity and can therefore be used to calculate the area of a circle and other things that writers have no freakin' idea about. The number is usually represented by the number 3.14 (Hence the March 14 date) or by the fraction 22/7 (hence the July 22 date).

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Join my circle, won't you?

​About a week ago, we finally took up a friend's Google+ invite offer, and immediately starting tooling around the search engine's new social-media outlet. In Google's words, the new site "makes sharing on the Web feel like sharing in real life." That sounds cool, but we already have Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and blogs to do that, right?

Nah, it's supposed to be so much better and more awesome than all those combined, so much so that some friends of ours have deleted their Twitter and Facebook accounts in lieu of Google+. No one will delete their Tumblr accounts, because free porn and memes cancel everything else out.

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​The masterminds behind Aqua Teen Hunger Force have relocated the fast-food crew to Seattle and changed not only the name, but also the structure of the show after deciding that they were unhappy with the pilot. They even made a new theme song, recruiting Queen of the Stone Age Josh Homme and Alain Johannes for the daunting task of replacing the Schooly D's still-catchy original.

[adult swim] is known for its expert use of music during the "bumpers" or "bumps": The few-second pauses between commercials and programming. The eyelash-quick announcements and anecdotes are usually set to the music of Stones Throw Records artists, and [adult swim] is incredibly subtle about their love of late producer J Dilla.

At bumpworthy.com, Adult Swimmers can rummage through an inventory back to 2001 by artist, black and white cards-the most recent format for bumps, or tags. Over the past few years, [adult swim]'s Stones Throw partnership and frequent collaborations with Williams Street Records has led to several compilation albums.

Most are free to download on the Web site, so we've made a compilation of compilation albums for you to check out after the jump.

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nasa.gov

The Temple 1 comet as seen by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft

​On Valentine's Day, NASA's Stardust was able to get within spitting distance of the comet Temple 1. This was the second visit by our spacecraft after Deep Impact buzzed Temple back in 2005, so it gave scientist their first chance to witness how the comet had changed since we last saw it. Stardust not only got some stellar pictures of the interstellar object, but also managed another breakthrough - the first audio recording of a frakkin' comet!

Now, to be fair, space is of course a vacuum. That means that if comets do make a sound, it can't really be heard. What we've got on the recording is the ejecta hitting the microphone, not the mysterious noise of a celestial object birthed from the womb of the galaxy. On the other hand, and we cannot stress this point enough: It's the sound of a frakkin' comet!

Having spent the last several years associating with a lot of electronica acts, the absolute first thought Rocks Off had was, "how can this be sampled and made into a song?"

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