Hey Savage, a British blogger has coined a new word to describe your latest pop crush Mika: gaybe.

Multi-instrumental wizard Brian Webber (B-Web for short) has left the Saturday Knights. Contrary to some reports, Weber was apparently out of the band before SxSW and didn't play with the band at the festival. Weber tells me he was kicked out of the band in late February after a flare of tempers led to some boozy fisticuffs between himself and Barfly.

Light in the Attic's Chris Estey says he "wasn't at that meeting" but adds that Weber's departure was "fairly abrupt, as they were heading to SXSW." An official statement from the band is in the works.

Isaac Brock cut himself with a knife on stage Sunday night at a Modest Mouse show in Sioux Falls, SD. Apparently, the cut was deep enough to draw blood but superficial enough for him to finish the show. Idolator and Pitchfork have details. Any Line Out readers at that show? If so, please send us eye-witness accounts, photos, bloody rags, etc.

Are ladies hotter if they make performance art?

The Wikipedia entry on Hot Boys

Rapper Mims (last week's #1, this week's #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart) on why he's hot:

This is why I'm hot, This is why I'm hot This is why, This is why uh This is why I'm hot (uh) This is why I'm hot, This is why I'm hot whoo This is why, This is why This is why I'm hot

I'm hot coz I'm fly
You ain't coz you're not
This is why x2
This is why I'm hot(x2)

This is why I'm hot
I dont gotta rap
I can sell a mill saying nothing on the track
I represent New York
I got it on my back
And they say that we lost it
So I'mma bring it back
I love the dirty dirty
Coz niggas show me love
The ladies start to bounce
As soon as I hit the club
But in the Midwest
They love to take it slow
So when I hit the H
I watch you get it on the floor
And if you needed hyphy
I take it to the bay
Frisco to Sac town
They do it eryday
Coppin a Hollywood
As soon as I hit LA
I'm in that low low
I do it the cali way
And when I hit the Chi
People say that I'm fly
They like the way I dress they like (they like my) my attire
move crowds from side to side
They ask me how I do it and simply I reply

And, finally, Rob Harvilla (writing for the enemy) on why Mims is hot.

How hot is this guy? So fucking hot!

Obviously attraction isn't purely physical, it's also mental or even ideological. When we see someone hot playing in a band we think, "Ah, they like punk/rock/metal/whathaveyou. So do I!" And the physical attraction we feel is encouraged by a perceived alignment of ideals. Holding a guitar doesn't make people hot or hotter, it makes hot people appear to "rock," which may or may not really mean anything anyway.

Ted Leo: Hot. But even hotter when you know his band fuckin' rules.

Ari Spool is right, boys are hotter when they play an instrument.

But here's where you're wrong, Miss Spool:

Boys are pretty, no matter what kind of music they play, whether it sucks or is totally amazing.

I so disagree with that statement. The music absolutely does matter. A hot boy in a shitty band is no longer a hot boy, he's just a boy in a shitty band. I don't care how hot the boy is, if the music he's making is terrible, I can't back that.

Take the All-American Rejects, for example. I saw that singer—Tyson, Taylor, Thomas, Todd, whatever his name is—and I thought "Shit, dude's totally hot." Then I heard his band, his terrible Top 40 pop band (they play that "Swing Swing" song) and just like that, the attraction was gone. Now I think he's a joke. He's not cute, he's annoying; I don't want to kiss him, I want to kick him. He's just a dumb boy in a dumb band.

Which isn't to say the only way a hot boy can stay hot is if he plays serious music or "dies for his art." He can have fun, he can have personality, he just can't play shitty songs. Good songs don't always have to be full of emotion and urgent passion—good songs can be upbeat and light too. Hot boys can play pop. Hot boys can play rock. Hot boys can play hiphop, punk, garage, hardcore... A hot boy can never ever play funk. You're right about the "no slap bass" rule.

I'm not the one with low morals in this debate. I'm the one with standards.

OK Go: A band I hate, but a boy I like.

Boys are hotter when they play an instrument. This is fact, and the reason men ever pick up instruments at all. But, beyond this fact, a difference of opinion exists: Does the music actually matter? Megan and I will debate this for you today. (Here's Megan's argument.)

I contend that it doesn't. Boys are pretty, no matter what kind of music they play, whether it sucks or is totally amazing. For instance, the boy above is in OK Go, and with all their kitschy nonsense treadmill business or whatever, he is still amazing looking. His band sucks (YouTube is their creator), but I would tell him that I thought they were good if it would make him get naked for me.

Am I the one of low morals in this debate? I think not, even though I consider lying an option. If you like the music a man is playing, and therefore find him attractive, that is more of a lie. He is not attractive; his art is attractive, and you are sexually attracted to his art. I look for a personality–-a personality and a guitar (or keyboard, or drums, but maybe not slap bass). I look for the man to be having fun, instead of dying for his art.

It doesn't matter that he's playing some bullshit, as long as he looks hot doing it.

The Van Halen reunion tour planned for this summer is off. Seems David Lee and Eddie still can't get along.

In my column this week I'll be delving into the minor controversy caused by the openers at last Thursday's Deerhoof show, Blackblack. Not to give too much away, but the band played painted all black, something a lot of people understandably interpreted as blackface. Here's a somewhat blurry picture:

A ton of people were at this show. What did you think? The band says they were "shadows," and a couple of LARPers I asked thought they looked more like Drow, but damn, that is a dangerously stupid makeup choice. (Also, the band was pretty dull.)

Microsoft is reportedly working on a Zune phone to compete with Apple's coming iPhone. Because, you know, the Zune is competing so well with the iPod already.

No word on how "squirting" will be involved.

I heard wrong about Stop Biting leaving the Lo-Fi for Thursdays at the Baltic. It's the same fellas, but it's a different night, with a different name, aiming for its own vibe. Stop Biting's not going anywhere. My bad.