Funk mastermind George Clinton is in mourning over not one but three big losses in recent months. Most immediately, Clinton's 50-year-old son, George Clinton Jr., passed away from liver disease on February 1. Junior sang backup on many P-Funk cuts and had been working with his own band, GCIII, in Florida leading up to his untimely death. A maintenance man found his body inside his apartment after nobody had seen him for a few days. He is survived by his daughter, Shonda Clinton, who fans may know as P-Funk rapper Sativa Diva.

On February 5, Clinton suffered a second significant loss to his extended P-Funk family with the passing of singer Mahlia Franklin. A back-up singer for various P-Funk configurations, Franklin became lead singer for Parlet, an all-female Parliament offshoot that was originally conceived by Clinton as a sister group to Brides of Funkenstein.

Wintertime means cold weather and heavy snowfall for those of us in non-tropical climes, which is a mixed blessing. Sure, there's snowboarding and snowmen, but how does that help when your car is stuck in a snowdrift? More than a few artists have mined the rich metaphoric potential of winter in music videos, usually to melancholy and SAD effect (that's Seasonal Affective Disorder, by the way). Baby, it's cold outside, so read on for some frosty encouragement while you thaw out your fingers with a mug of something hot and boozy.


10. 'The Water,' Feist
The full 15-minute version of this excerpt from 'The Water' is more short film than video, with the moody and melancholic title song floating through only briefly. It's a mysterious, near-silent opus directed by Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew, and it stars Cillian Murphy (of '28 Days Later' fame), veteran Canadian actor David Fox and Ms. Leslie Feist herself. Father and son lug a mummy-like corpse through still and snowy woods to a cabin. But the cadaver soon proves to have a little life in it yet. This clip is reminiscent of the québécois film 'Mon Oncle Antoine,' a chilly Canadian classic that also involves corpses and snow and angst.

Artist: Jared Evan
Video: 'Frozen'
Highlight: In this mysterious black-and-white clip, players partake in a terrifying Russian Roulette-esque game.

Chromeo's P-Thugg is on the hunt -- for tales to tell his future grandchildren, that is. Considering the bizzaro assortment of gigs these electro-funk lovers have booked of late -- from world-famous museums to the Winter Olympics -- the gold-toothed half of the debonair dance duo will have no shortage of vocodered words of wisdom to dispense to his descendents when the time comes.

There was the sweaty DJ set at New York's Guggenheim last Friday night on the swan song soirée of the museum's First Fridays Art After Dark series. "It was really cool cause it's a beautiful place, kind of weird and crazy cool," growled Pee, on the horn from the Williamsburg, Brooklyn studio where he and Dave 1 are making Chromeo's third album, aiming for a summer release.

Alas, First Fridays will be no more. "It was the last one, they said they had problems with the sound rumbling and moving the art pieces."

Ever wondered what all those aging '80s punks are up to now? [Buzzgrinder]

Rammstein has come up with the most effective method of crowd control: flamethrowers. [Times]

Taylor Swift gets the infograph treatment. [Idolator]

Huffington Post takes a look at the spiritual legacy of Bob Marley. [Huffington Post]

Oh, if only David Bowie were in charge on NASA ... [The Onion]

Imogen Heap's hit song 'Hide and Seek' is known more for its appearances in the second season finale of the teen drama 'The O.C.' and the 'SNL' Digital Short, 'Dear Sister.' However, the song made its return when R&B singer Jason Derulo sampled the track on his smash hit, 'Whatcha Say.'

Aside from gaining success and sparking hype around the 20-year-old singer, Derulo also got the thumbs up from Imogen herself. "She told me it's her favorite song," Derulo tells Spinner. "She said that she's happy that 'Hide and Seek' has taken new life and new flight."

Almost a year after she put the finishing touches on her debut album in Los Angeles, British electro-pop chanteuse Little Boots is dropping that effort, 'Hands,' stateside.

"We just wanted to do America properly," Little Boots, aka Victoria Hesketh, tells Spinner. "So many people just go over there and almost do it as an afterthought, go over for a week and just throw the album out and do a couple of shows. I spent a lot of time in America making the album and I really enjoy it over there."