Underworld, pictured, revealed that its latest work features collaborations with Brian Eno. No word yet on how or when the music will drop. [NME]

Blakroc, the rap-rock project that teams Jim Jones and The Black Keys, streams the track “Ain’t Nothing Like You” (also featuring Mos Def) here. A full-length drops November 27 and features many all-star collaborators including Q-Tip, Ludacris, Raekwon and RZA. [Pitchfork]

Drama at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards: As Taylor Swift accepted the award for Female Video of the Year, Kanye West grabbed the mike to give Beyoncé an awkward shout-out. Later in the night, Mrs. Shawn Carter invited Swift onstage to make up for Kanye’s behavior. [Pitchfork]

Listen here to Death Cab for Cutie’s “Meet Me on the Equinox,” from the soundtrack to the upcoming Twilight sequel, New Moon. Other artists rumored to be featured are Radiohead, Bon Iver and Muse. [Stereogum]

And from the TONY desk:

The Walkmen and Passion Pit, plus hometown blues-rock quartet The Knew, rocked Denver’s Monolith Festival this past weekend. Listen to a Knew track here. [The Volume]

Drummer, a new anonymously named band with a starry connection, includes Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney. But maybe even more intriguing is the pedigree of the rest of the group. Axmen Jamie Stillman and Jon Finley hail from The Party of Helicopters, a defunct outfit from the Keys’ home state of Ohio. POH, which has played a few reunion shows here and there but isn’t properly active, was a hell of a band—its singular blend of emo-inflected indie rock and Fucking Champs–style shred deserved a much wider audience than it garnered. Fortunately, that incendiary mixture is also on display in Drummer. Here’s the title track from the band’s debut, Feel Good Together, due September 29 on Carney’s Audio Eagle imprint.

As promised, I ventured out of my hotel, into the heat and straight to the Fat Possum Records day showcase. The label has put together an impressive roster of young talent, and it could be argued that the bands I caught are more vital than, say, FP’s more established artists like Heartless Bastards or Andrew Bird.

First up was WAVVES. The buzz ‘n’ fuzz man behind the project, Nathan Daniel William, maintains a Daniel Johnston–like opaqueness on record, but live (with a drummer) his songs really fill out and clean up. It’s a different band.

Austin’s own The Strange Boys followed and, boy, did they live up to the name—in a good way. The lead singer, Ryan Sambol, has a whiny yawl, like a child whose candy has been taken away. He might be crying, but I was smiling.

Thomas Function was impressive, as usual, but the sound at Emo’s wasn’t up to the task. Its strongest song, “Belly of the Beast,” lacked its normal punchy crispness.

More from the first day after the jump…

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