Does anyone ever write/play in keys where double sharps are actually necessary?

Yes, but, I mean, here's the thing:

When people say, “There’s no such thing as a stupid question,” they’re not saying what they mean. What they mean is that no matter how silly a question might sound, it’s almost always worth asking, which is true.

Since you'll likely still be recovering from your first official brain-melting hangover of 2009, we'd like to spare you any additional paralyzing shocks on New Year's Day. So prepare yourself: if you happen to catch the halftime show at the Rose Bowl on January 1, that really will be the USC Marching Band performing "Almost Easy," by so-cal emo-speedmetal titans Avenged Sevenfold

LISTEN: Sarah Rabdau, "Jackie" (mp3)

It’s a good thing my grandmother stayed home from Necro’s show at the Middle East this past Saturday. She hates when musicians dump buckets of ice water on groupies’ heads, spit in their faces, and talk nasty to them in front of throngs of degenerate suburbanites.

We all expected what we got. Before the show began, Lateb and Slant of Heddshotts – who were opening the fandango – told me that they planned to drop the nastiest joint in their arsenal.

We'll spare you the long history of the effort, by the awesome folks who own the Middle East, to turn the old Somerville Armory into an even awesomer community arts center called the Center for the Arts at the Armory: if you want to follow along at home, read some of these articles. Suffice it to say that the process is ramping up, with a full-blown benefit for the center being staged just down Highland Avenue from the Armory at the Somerville Theater.

We've known for a while that it was coming -- thanks to Jimmy Eat World's Clarity throwback tour, which was announced several weeks back -- but now it's official: the Lansdowne Street House of Blues (which of course will bare no resemblance to the old Original House of Blues in Harvard Square where you saw R.L. Burnside and David Johanssen and such) will open in February, with a lineup that sounds not unlike what the old Avalon would've played host to around this time of year.

Future events such as these will affect you in the future!

In 2004, Carl Newman of the New Pornographers - perhaps feeling jealous of his fellow Pornos' other projects - released a solo disc under the name A. C. Newman. Titled The Slow Wonder, it was an unexpected delight, bursting with palpable joy on tracks like "Miracle Drug," "On the Table," "The Town Halo," and "Secretarial."

Dear Readers,

The Phoenix is pleased to introduce “Dear Joel,” our new advice column focused on the specific needs of the local music community -- that is: people in bands, people who listen to bands, people who have been kicked out of bands (or will soon be kicking someone out of a band), people thinking of joining/starting/sabotaging bands, or anyone with technical, social, economic, psychological or libidinous interests in music.

Last Monday, Great Scott played host to a solid double bill with psychedelic Brooklyn reverb-rockers Crystal Stilts, who we understand haven't been at this live thing too long, and Scottish synth-pop outfit Love Is All, and the latter were the clear highlight, delievering a high-energy, fun set that had the place shaking - quite literally, as the video will attest.

Just before Letters to Cleo launched their two-night reunion/homecoming at the Paradise, they invited us down to grab some exclusive video of their soundcheck, which doubled as their only New England rehearsal. In case you missed it, Daniel Brockman's review is here, and here's a slideshow from Night One at the Paradise

Anyone who saw the Raising Hell tour is automatically cooler than those of us who didn’t. That makes Ricky Powell – who was backstage for that entire stretch, as well as on dozens of other seminal hip-hop outings – the coolest dude since Wilt Chamberlain.

In his career as a photographer, muse and all-around king scenester, Powell has witnessed things that most heads have barely dared to dream.

This week in the fishwrap, departing Phoenix staffer Caitlin Curran interviews couples who are also bandmates and finds out how on earth they manage to have sex with each other while also making music together. The online version is expanded, with additional profiles of two of our favorite (and coincidentally, local) band/couples: Helms, and Damon and Naomi.

In case you missed Faraone's next-day recap of last week's BMA's, we're dropping the highlights of the performance portion of the evening. Three songs by Big Digits, who debuted a song with the bearded dude from Crystal Understanding crooning the hook, shouted out Bosstones dancer Ben Carr, prayed not to win the Best Hip-Hop Category for fear of getting their asses kicked (the BMAs later obliged them with a loss), and contemplated offering a marriage proposal to the girls of Jada.

DOWNLOAD: Grimis, "Bagheera" (mp3)

You say 90 percent of bands today seem like water added to a packet of pulverized denim and powdered hair gel? Meet Grimis of Andover. They’ve been around for eight years, 200 shows, and three albums, but a bunch of you probably don’t know about them — which means a bunch of you stand to have a new favorite bunch of songs.

On the night that NBC announced it's keeping Jay Leno and dispensing with half its weekly prime-time inventory, Jimmy Fallon officially began his run as the next host of the post-Conan "Late Night" . . . well, in cyberspace, at least. He's vlogging at NBC to prime the pump for the 12:30 slot. And if THIS were to actually be true, we might actually think about tuning in . . .