1. Bjork, “Earth Intruders.” First single from beat-crazy new album Volta (due May 8) from the Icelandic trickster. Tribal beat and lyrics about “necessary voodoo,” with musical assistance from Congolese thumb piano wielding ensemble Konono No. 1, plus production by Timbaland. Available on iTunes.
2. Harvey Pekar, American Splendor: Another Day (DC Comics, $14.99). In which the comic book Chekhov asks the pertinent question: “Am I really so weird, or are there a lot more weird people out there who just won’t admit it?” After Splendor was made into a splendid 2003 movie starring Paul Giamatti, Pekar hasn’t been in peak form, with the lengthy The Quitter and Ego & Hubris. But this collection of short autobiographical pieces find the cranky Cleveland everyman philosopher back at the top of his game, and being drawn by an impressive array of artists, with Ho Che Anderson, Ty Templeton and Richard Corben among the best.
3. Ian Rankin, The Naming of the Dead (Little, Brown, $24.99) The new Inspector Rebus novel is set during the G8 summit in Scotland in July 2005, where a serial killer is on the loose and a British MP has fallen to his death from Edinburgh Castle. But as always, it’s not the plot matters, it’s the wholly believable, essentially human characters that do. Rebus and his partner Siobhan Clarke take their sweet time solving this one, and that just means more time spent in their intelligent company.
4. Feist, "1234." Sing-songy clapalong introduction to The Reminder, due May 1, which seems set to take Leslie Fiest's music from being bossa nova background in chi chi boutiques and espresso bars to the sophisticated sound on the radio this summer. On iTunes.
5. Patti Smith at the Philadelphia Book Festival. Saturday at 5:45 at the Free Library. The recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and former Germantown and Deptford resident has a new album of covers out next week, Twelve, that‘s far from her best. (Tears for Fears? Why, Patti, why?) But she’s a magnetic performer, and will be singing as well as reciting poetry from her collection, Notes for the Future/Auguries of Innocence. African guitarist Vieux Farka Toure and David Bromberg’s Angel Band are also on the weekend Book Fest schedule. www.philadelphiabookfestival.org
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