New school year? More like new season of TV.

Do you guys want to know how TV crazy I am? My current desktop is a giant calendar for the month of September. Now, if I were a good and a motivated student, it would have class times, stuff to help me study, important school dates, etc. But no. Instead, my desktop is full of premiere dates for every television show I could ever want to watch.

And now that (pretty much) everything has premiered for this TV season, let's get right into it. What I'm about to talk about will probably be nothing new to most of you, but I can't not talk about it.

The Black Keys. Good Lord, their music has been featured on anything and everything. That doesn't surprise me - their music has been used in TV and movies for years now, but with the amazing-ness of their latest album, Brothers, they've been everywhere.

Let's break it down:

1. "Your Touch" used in Private Practice premiere; everyone rolling around in bed together.

2. "Howlin' For You" used in Chuck; spying and sexting.

3. "Howlin' For You" used in Hawaii Five-O; Alex O'Laughlin and Scott Caan bantering.

4. "I'm Not The One" used in 90210; melodrama, making out, morals.

What I'm getting at is if you thought that The Black Keys were already popular...prepare yourself. I predict Bieber-Fever only...for The Black Keys?

Something new but still the same

Hi guys! I've come to talk about something before Zach Braff comes along and ruins it.

Broken Bells is a collaboration between Danger Mouse and James Mercer, The Shins lead singer. I've always enjoyed The Shins, though not to the extent that many people do. And I feel the same toward Broken Bells. Which makes me question myself: "Why are you writing about Broken Bells if you don't think it's totally super amazing?"

The answer is that I always recommend things that I love and that I think deserve a blog post, which is not to say that Broken Bells doesn't deserve one! I'm just trying to help out the masses here. And the masses enjoy The Shins.

Broken Bells is like a slightly electronic version of The Shins' album Wincing the Night Away. It's a little bit ambient (I suppose that's where Danger Mouse comes into play) with James Mercer's unmistakable vocals. To be honest, when I first heard that it was Danger Mouse and Mercer, I was expecting some crazy stuff but it's not a huge deviation from what one would expect.

So, the other night when I heard the song "The High Road," I thought that there are probably a lot of people that are jonesing for some new Shins material, which is not what you'll get, but it's not that far off.

Sorry guys. This isn't exactly a glowing recommendation, but seriously, check it out. It's nice and mellow, perfect for finals week which is, unfortunately, quickly approaching.

So many bands, so much time (spent not studying)

The fictional character of Chuck Bartowski (from the TV show "Chuck") made a playlist for his girlfriend Sarah Walker. It's featured on the "Chuck" site over at NBC.com and it's written as though Chuck himself wrote it (even though the tone is totally off and it's way too simple, that's besides the point).

It's got some nice little gems on it. I'll take this time to break it down.

"Heart Skipped A Beat" by the xx is a nice tune. I've talked about the xx here before so I won't go on about it too much. From what I've heard, a lot of people listen to the xx's self-titled album before going to bed. But don't let that fool you into thinking that they're a slow, sad-sounding sort of band.

"Rhinestone Eyes," a track from the new Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, doesn't exactly fit the bill for sounding extremely romantic. Then again, with lyrics like "Your love's like rhinestones falling from the sky," I guess that's poetic. Plus, who can deny the awesomeness that is Gorillaz?

The band Gus Gus is featured, but as a journalist (er, a kinda journalist) I have to maintain good ethics and remain honest: I don't care for them. They're from Iceland so they're a bit odd. If you're into lo-fi electronic stuff, give it a shot.

Ooh, and then there're The Kills. Have I mentioned them here? I don't care, I'm talking about them now. I'm a passionate The Kills fan. Ever since I heard "U.R.A Fever" (a super sexy song in my humble opinion) I've been hooked. The Chuck playlist is recommending "Tape Song," and I concur. The Kills is a one guy, one girl duo that rocks so hard I can hardly believe it. The only word I can think to describe their sound is smoldering. You're intrigued, aren't you?

Last one and then I'm out because I've got two exams tomorrow that I probably haven't adequately prepared for.

LCD Soundsystem's newest single "Drunk Girls" is on the playlist. Can someone please listen to this song and the Beastie Boys song "Girls" and confirm that the yelling of "girls!" is very similar? LCD Soundsystem is perfect party music. Whether you're a bro, a hipster or you worship the deity Beysus, I dare you to listen to this and not yearn for the dance floor.

A cute redundantly named band

It's been awfully quiet here at CineMUSic. You'll have to forgive me -- week seven mixed in with the Olympics makes a whole mess of reruns on television and no time to watch the new stuff. Because of this, we're going to travel in time to March 2, 2009. The setting is "Chuck," season 2 episode 15, "Chuck Versus the Beefcake." I give to you "Airplanes" by Local Natives.

This particular episode featured a band that's gaining a lot of popularity really quickly.

Local Natives is a band from Los Angeles and is exactly what someone wants from an indie band: haunting lyrics, quirky but beautiful vocals and some careful guitar plucking. A lot of people have chosen to compare them to the likes of Arcade Fire (not really), Fleet Foxes (slightly, only not boring) and Vampire Weekend (NO).

Their debut album Gorilla Manor, was released in the UK in 2009 and received a U.S. release less than 10 days ago. I'm siding with Pitchfork on this one: they gave the album an 8.4 which is -- dare I say -- praise! The 8.4 rating is well-deserved. The album is a nice little gem that people might overlook.

I'm predicting that now that the album is available in the U.S. there will be a noticeable spike in the amount of play they'll receive in television. Let's see: CW shows will want to jump on them and quite possibly Shonda Rimes's Thursday night train wreck (you know, because the shows are simultaneously horrendous and awesome at the same time).

Keep your ears peeled (ugh, gross visual. Sorry everyone!).

British adorableness, basically

Jack Peñate

"Chuck" is not only a great show because of the writing, cinematography and actors, but also because of its magnificent song choices. Last week's episode featured "40 Day Dream" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, but they've been discussed already so you'll have to do some archiving to read my thoughts.

Last night's episode? Jack Peñate! His song "Let's All Die" - which I assure you is actually an upbeat song and not a song about weird cult suicide - opened the show and most likely caught people's attention. He has a voice that you might mistake as someone else's at first but is distinctly his own. He's from London, and it's easy to tell from listening to any of his songs. You know, instead of singing "let's ahl die" he sings "let's oohl die." Charming, yes?

If you're sick of all the shoe-gazey, spacey, experimental stuff like Phoenix and Grizzly Bear, look into Jack. It's indie music you can skank to! And get this: his new album, Everything Is New, is streaming for free on his MySpace so I can't think of a single reason why you wouldn't click that link and have a listen.