So this happened. This past Saturday night in Indianapolis, in an airplane hangar somewhere, Peyton Manning offered up this chilling rendition of "Folsom Prison Blues" with Luke Bryan. Clearly, Manning is an upgrade from Tebow in more ways than one. Want more? You got it. The Broncos' QB also karaoked up "Luckenbach, Texas," by Waylon Jennings. Continue on to see for yourself.

See also:
- Tim Tebow is an awesomely bad singer
- How to avoid screaming yourself hoarse for the horse
- Speedwolf offers up a big old Hail Peyton!

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Brian Ibbott signing copies of Smooth Federation, the debut release on Coverville Records.

Nerds of a feather flock together, as they say. Brian Ibbott and jazz composer Andrew Allen have once again proven this adage to be entirely true. The two have paired up to produce another passion project that is sure to appeal to the dorkiest dweebs you know, Free Play, an album of traditional jazz renditions of video game songs. Their first Kickstarter-funded project was even geekier than that: Smooth Federation, an all jazz tribute to Star Trek. The new one, which has surpassed its Kickstarter goal, is slated to be the second release on Ibbott's Coverville Records imprint.

See also:
- Five noteworthy examples of how Kickstarter is helping make the scene more vibrant
- Save the Tank: Musicians unite to preserve an acoustic marvel
- YTCracker on the virtues of Nerdcore and the finer points of hacking

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A 23-year-old Longmont woman was arrested over the weekend for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend -- over Macklemore's inescapable hit single "Thrift Shop," which he wouldn't stop singing.

When "Thrift Shop" first came out, before it got completely driven into the ground, it was actually a pretty catchy single. Of course once you've heard it nine million times, it loses its luster and just becomes grating. It's enough to drive you to drink, or madness -- or both, in this case.

See also:
- Macklemore's You Can Play anti-homophobic PSA filmed at Winter on the Rocks
- Macklemore at CU Boulder's Balch Fieldhouse on 4/19
- Review: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and more at Red Rocks, 2/1/13

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Carly McKinney, otherwise known as "Carly Crunk Bear" is "no longer employed" by the Cherry Creek school district, according to our Latest Word blog. The teacher, as you might remember, made headlines at the end of January for comments and photos on Twitter she's alleged to have made/posted. Diplo, as you also might remember, took up for the suspended teacher by launching a grassroots #freecrunkbear campaign on Twitter. The Latest Word has the full story. In the meantime, someone get Diplo.

See also:
- Diplo's #freecrunkbear hash tag for suspended teacher, Carly McKinney, aka Carly Crunk Bear
- Carly McKinney, aka CarlyCrunkBear, "no longer employed" by school district
- Carly McKinney, aka CarlyCrunkBear: Overland teacher outed for hot Twitter photos

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Once upon a time when imposing creatures like Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch roamed the earth, we used to get glossy black and white publicity photos sent to us by the truckload along with CDs (I know, right?). The discs are obviously long gone, but we crammed the pics into a filing cabinet and forgot about 'em. Until yesterday. We flipped through a few drawers and found a treasure trove of choice stuff, including the one above of Kid Rock in braids, plus a shot of Blink-182 without Travis Barker, a portrait of the late Aaliyah, a shaggy version of Kings of Leon looking like Nazarath or something and tons of other goodness. Continue on for the 25 best publicity photos we unearthed.

See also:
- A field guide to the ten biggest concert buzzkills
- The Flaming Lips' chocolate-heart creator on the painstaking process of making it tick
- Columbia Records' solution to save the music industry from over a decade ago?

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Instagram/Mary Beth Babcock

By now you've long since been grossed out/freaked out/mesmerized by the seemingly inexhaustible creative genius of Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, the latest example of which, of course, is an anatomically correct chocolate heart that comes signed by the band in custom packaging and complete with an embedded USB drive containing fifteen tracks of music. If you haven't seen it yet, the instagram above of Coyne devouring the delectable heart has been making the rounds this week.

See also:
- 20 Best Dressed Flaming Lips Fans
- Review: The Flaming Lips and Primus at Red Rocks, 8/3/11
- Katherine Clapner, the Woman Behind Dude, Sweet, On Life as a Chocolatier

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Crunk is as crunk does. #freecrunkbear

Update 3/22/13: Carly "Crunk Bear" McKinney is no longer employed.

The Twitter hash tag #freecrunkbear isn't trending yet, not nationally and not even locally, but keep an eye out. Something tells us it will be at some point, if not today, definitely by the end of the weekend after Winter on the Rocks, it might be. Why, you ask? Well, mostly because the plight of Carly Crunk Bear (er, @Crunk_Bear, rather) has been taken up by one Mr. Thomas Pentz, whom you probably know better as Diplo, the illustrious founder of Mad Decent, due of course tomorrow night at Icelantic's Winter on the Rocks. Diplo is attempting to rally his eight hundred and some thousand Twitter followers to tweet with the #freecrunkbear hashtag, mostly as a middle finger to Middle America, we assume.

See also:
- Carly McKinney, aka CarlyCrunkBear: Overland teacher outed for hot Twitter photos
- Extended Q&A with Diplo
- Friday: Icelantic's Winter on the Rocks 2013, 2/1/13

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Brian Landis Folkins

Well, that was short-lived. Turns out Pot 107, presumed to be the first marijuana-themed terrestrial radio station, was an aberration after all, as suspected, and not a actual format. If you tuned in to the 107.1 frequency this morning hoping to hear Denver's Dope Hits, rather than hearing an endless loop of ganja goodness, you were no doubt greeted by the return of the ever-so-brief Jack format, which has, of course, moved over from its previous 105.5 frequency into the Max Media stable. Alas, despite Pot 107's being a genius and completely plausible proposition here with the impending legalization of marijuana, the company that brought us the Pole, all-stripper radio, pulled another fast one. Nice one, dudes. Gotta love the seemingly never-ending radio hijinks.

See also:
- Marijuana legalized: Lady Gaga and other Twitter reactions
- In honor of Amendment 64: Ten stoner anthems, overt hip-hop odes to Mary Jane
- Did Freddie Gibbs make it to DIA without having his weed confiscated?

Brian Landis Folkins

Cypress Hill might as well just move here at this point.

Okay, this next item seems almost too preposterous to be true. You ready? Brace yourself. It seems that Hot 107.1, the EDM-centric radio station on the right of your dial, is now, ahem, Pot 107.1. If this were April Fool's Day, we'd assume that this was a joke. Moreover, if the station was, say, to be flipping formats -- a rumor we heard in passing -- we wouldn't put it past the powers-that-be to do something gimmicky like this in the interim. (Anybody remember the Pole, all-stripper radio? Yeah, this is the same company that did that.) So who knows? This is Denver. Stranger shit has happened. If you'd have told us that weed would be legal, we would've given you a big old GTFO! But then, well, that happened.

See also:
- Marijuana legalized: Lady Gaga and other Twitter reactions
- In honor of Amendment 64: Ten stoner anthems, overt hip-hop odes to Mary Jane
- Did Freddie Gibbs make it to DIA without having his weed confiscated?

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@LadyGaga

Update: Snoop D-O-double-G has now weighed in, as has the Spitta, although his shout out is more subtle.

Holy shit! Amendment 64 has passed. Hands up if you ever thought you'd live to see this day: Pot is now legal in Colorado. In case you've been somehow sequestered all night, the results are in, and let's just say our fine city's nickname, the Mile High City, has taken on a whole new meaning. Of course, as one astute observer on Twitter has pointed out, the same can also now be said about the name of our fine basketball team.

See also:
- In honor of Amendment 64: Ten stoner anthems, overt hip-hop odes to Mary Jane
- A 4/20 playlist from marijuana critic William Breathes
- Music and marijuana make great bongfellows
- Did Freddie Gibbs make it to DIA without having his weed confiscated?
- Amendment 64 approved: Mason Tvert celebrates, John Hickenlooper talks Cheetos

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