We love Amanda Shires: her honesty, her vulnerability and her lovely cinematic songwriting. She’s accompanied at this Tiny Desk Concert by Rod Picott.

I first saw this video about a week ago and meant to post it immediately; it’s unbelievably pleasing. Sesame Street meets the Beastie Boys–what’s not to like? Luckily I haven’t forgotten about it, mostly because my son Hank asks to watch it every morning: “Cookie Monster Dance? Cookie Monster Dance?”

We dig the Bay Area band The Heavenly States and their clever, melodic wordplay. Check out “Berlin Wall” with Spoon’s Britt Daniel on vox!

The great Drive-By Truckers played Letterman this week and David liked their soulful rendition of Eddie Hinton’s “Everybody Needs Love” so much that he asked them for a reprieve to close out the show. Great stuff!

Perhaps it’s the added star power from Hollywood or more likely the quality of new work, but Broadway is enjoying a great box office year which culminated in last night’s Tony Awards. Neal Patrick Harris opened the show with this humorous song and dance number:

Booker T. Jones turns in a thoroughly delightful NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert, alone with his Hammond B3 organ. He even gives an impromptu lesson!

A beautiful “trailer” for the Rome project from Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi (featuring Jack White and Norah Jones), complete with some helpful backstory:

Arcade Fire turned in an awesome performance of “Rococo” at the Juno Awards. The Suburbs took home Album of the Year in Canada in addition to the US!

As part of a performance and interview session at the Last.fm studios, Paul Noonan of Bell X1 relates the SXSW-grounded story behind the band’s new single, “Velcro.” Fans and industry professionals alike hear much about the hard-knock life of bands on the road. It’s refreshing to get the flip side: the intense bonds that touring forms.

The Grammys take place this Sunday night. In honor of Grammy week, we’re revisiting Stephen Colbert‘s hilarious segment in which he fills out his Grammy ballot. (He gets to vote this year because he won the award for Best Comedy Album last year.) Of the categories, he seemed most interested in Best Alternative Album, and invited nominees Vampire Weekend and the Black Keys onto the show to compete for his vote.