It's a rock 'n' roll showdown beyond belief!

In this corner we've got the brand new album by Daughtry, the shaven-headed rocker launched by American Idol whose previous album was a massive commercial smash!

And in the other? None other than the Dead Weather, the new band featuring Jack White of the White Stripes--a band whose very existence seems the antithesis of the formulated pap regularly popularized by the monstrous American Idol machine!

Who rocks the best? Who rocks the hardest? Whose free-spirited grasp of all that rock 'n' roll entails will resonate the most with the American Heartland?

I mean, like, aside from Gene Simmons?

The Dead Weather: Horehound (Third Man)  Considering the players involved--Jack White of the White Stripes, Alison Mosshart of the Kills, Dean Fertita of Queens Of The Stoneage, and Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs--it's no wonder some people are calling the Dead Weather a great new supergroup! But two questions remain! First, what the heck is a

Wow! What an occasion! Please join me in celebrating this special 100th edition of New This Week--the much-loved blog that can only be written after repeated viewings of Yo-Yo Sexy Girl Cop and a vast influx of carbonated cola product!

What have I learned after supplying you, the reader, with all this fabulous content?

1) Many of you do not think the Jonas Brothers are the New Beatles!

2) Many of you do not agree that in some ways Led Zeppelin is better than Nickelback!

3) As always, I should continue to aspire to winning over readers who make such comments as "You like Teena Marie? You're either gay or have no taste in music."

4) And, finally, I believe I may actually have peaked as a writer in 2007 with my thought-provoking battle royale: "Soulja Boy Vs. Springsteen!"

Luckily, thanks to your continued encouragement, I'll simply keep at it--telling it like it is, in no uncertain terms, and making or breaking artists' entire careers with one well-placed keystroke!

Hey, do you have my

I believe that a significant number of excellent albums continue to be released year after year, and that music today is as good as it ever was!

At the same time, those excellent albums aren't necessarily recognized either commercially--i.e. they rarely sell--or, for the most part, critically.

But that's OK!

I say this only because as I make a checklist of this week's 10 most noteworthy releases, I must note with some chagrin that literally half of them contain music that was recorded many years ago! Or by artists who've been around for years!

That being said, I'd like to put a positive spin on all this. The newer artists? They're all exceedingly well-groomed!

Neil Young: Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 (1963-1972)  Believe it or not, after all these years of promises and postponements, this is finally the week the first volume of Neil Young's multi-disc career retrospective hits the street! And what a package! Available as an 8 CD set or a 10-disc DVD or a 10-disc Blu-ray set--depending

If you're a regular reader of this blog--and who isn't?--you may have noticed a few readers persistently comment that I "don't even listen to the albums" and "just look at the covers" before writing my reviews!

You'd be correct if you were to assume that I find such comments deeply offensive!

So to set the record straight--and I'll only mention this once, then never bring it up again--such statements are patently untrue!

I only sometimes look at the covers!

Marilyn Manson: The High End Of Low (Interscope)  One of the most compelling and profound artists of all time--a master at self-expression with his finger on the pulse of all that really matters in this world, a guy whose impact on post-millennial culture has yet to be accurately calibrated--would probably see this album in a record store and laugh! "Wow," he'd say, "is Marilyn Manson still around?" Later he'd joke with his friends that there was a song on it called "Arma-godd**m-motherf***in-geddon" and they'd all chortle in