Gene Ween will be releasing a new album on April 10 entitled Marvelous Clouds, which will be a 13-song tribute to poet and songwriter Rod McKuen (who has penned songs for the likes of Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra and Madonna just to name a few). All this will be done under his own name Aaron Freeman. Below is a teaser of the album cut “Jean.” (Photo by Ed Murray)

Below is Chiddy Bang’s performance of “Ray Charles” from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon earlier this week. They are backed by The Legendary Roots with Black Thought dropping his own verse in their latest single from Breakfast, which will be out February 28. (Hopefully they won’t have to push the release date back again.)

An eclectic mix of smooth, silky vocals and nimble rhymes will be bringing a different type of songwriter(s) to World Café Live tonight. Hometown homegirl Res will be taking the stage this evening with legendary Brooklyn emcee Talib Kweli as Idle Warship. The duo has teamed-up numerous times over the past decade, but they finally have an official full-length release entitled Habits of the Heart which came out in November last year. They also have plenty of each other’s material that may be part of their arsenal for the evening. Res has been working on a new album, tentatively called Reset, with her How I Do producer Doc McKinney so this should be a good chance to bring her back into the spotlight after her unfortunate run-in with the major label world. Wold Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 8pm, $25 – $48, All Ages – H.M. Kauffman

Dr. Dog premiered a new music video today via Rolling Stone for the track “That Old Black Hole” (which you can view below, and is different from the one released last November). The song will appear on their upcoming album Be the Void (due out February 7). It was directed George Salisbury who is renowned for his cinematic work with The Flaming Lips (Christmas On Mars, Watching The Planets, Stardeath and White Dwarfs – Borderline). Dr. Dog will be performing again in Philly on March 24 & 25 at the Electric Factory.

Check out a beautiful new track called “Aeromancer” from one of our favorite local groove makers CSLSX. It features angelic vocals from Brooklyn’s Mountain Man. We don’t understand why CSLSX take so long between releases, but we are always happy when they finally do share. Enjoy!

CSLSX – Aeromancer (ft. Mountain Man) by CSLSX

The Extraordinaires are simply a band that colors outside the lines. But once you are able to step back and take in what they’ve created, you’ll soon discover that there is method to their madness. The band’s songs are crafted with a child-like wonderment that frankly is needed more and more as the weight of our responsibilities continue to pile up day in and day out. They find that fine line where art and entertainment happily walk hand in hand. Do yourself a favor, and catch their set at Johnny Brenda’s tonight. It will certainly make the rest of your work week more bearable. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 9pm, $10, 21+ – Q.D Tran

Getting everything together for this poll is WAY intense, but it is always fun to see who digs what and to learn about new acts that might not have been on our radar (happens every year – we love it, and we hope you do too). We’re nearing the end folks, but we need your help to make it to the finish line! We just uploaded the full list of artists nominated for our Best of Philly Poll 2011 for Emerging Artists. It’s in the right column on this page and also HERE. Some bands in the list were selected through a submission process and some others were picked by our fine jury of local music lovers (list below), who could freely choose 3 bands each in order of preference. (BTW: If you were wondering why some more well-known names are missing from the list, that’s because we felt that they are already getting plenty of love from other national/international publications so we wanted to try and keep the list to acts that just might need the exposure more. Also past Best of Philly Poll Winners were excluded because you already know how much they rock!) Points have already been assigned to each band according to how well they did in the selection process. Now, the readers’ and fans’ votes will also influence the final chart. Each vote will count!

Below is BITBY’s January Episode featuring Ports of Call. The local five-piece perform “Ballinora” off their latest EP Fractals and an unreleased song called “Catch and Fade” on a chilly afternoon in the burbs.

Corey Duncan who records and performs under the moniker Oh! Pears will be returning to Europe and kicking off a five-week tour this Wednesday in Padua, Italy. He’ll also be joined by his buddy and former bandmate Chris Ward (Pattern Is Movement) on drums. But before Duncan headed overseas for what we are sure will be a rad time and an amazing experience, we took the opportunity to pick his brain hoping to gather some info and to share a bit of knowledge with our readers/artists who aspire to do the same someday. We think that you’ll find some valuable advice for the future HERE. Special thanks to Corey Duncan for sharing.