You know Saturday Night Live’s fallen on tough times when the only compliment you can give is: “Hey, the humor may be completely missing, but at least they still continue to book great bands.” The show continues to induce blank stares, with this weekend’s episode representing a new low for the current cast. But a brutal evening of comedy provided a splendid night of music, and Feist’s renditions of 1234 and I Feel It All were truly gorgeous, very Joni Mitchellesque.

Spreaking of shows that book great acts Zappa Plays Zappa rocked Late Night with Conan O’Brien last week. But enough of the videos, it’s linkage time:

• Indie bands dive into Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim
• Page McConnell shows off his setup for keyboard.tv
• The NY Times spends a night out with Beirut’s Zach Condon [via LHB]
• Just exactly what finger did Jimmy Page injure?
• Sly and The Family Stone add two more dates at BB King’s in NYC
• Live Nation once again faces a class-action lawsuit
• The comments on TMZ’s Neil Young post are freakin’ hilarious
• Aretha Franklin continues to gain r-e-s-p-e-c-t at age 65 (too easy?)
• A Canadian government study finds that file sharing sells more music
• The Rawking Refuses to Stop doesn’t understand all the love for Broken Social Scene (Ace said the same exact thing at ACL)

And read on after the jump for a comprehensive list of all the setlists from the weekend, including but not limited to Ryan Adams sitting in with Phil Lesh and Mike Gordon playing with RatDog, Van Halen in New Jersey, Jason Isbell and They Might Be Giants. Some torrents from the weekend are also available for download…

We’ve got another answer to the Where’s Cactus query? Former Phish bassist Mike Gordon returned to the stage on Saturday night to sit in with Gov’t Mule at Burlington’s Memorial Auditorium. The artist formerly known as Cactus played a crazy looking bass during covers of the Grateful Dead’s Loser and JJ Cale’s After Midnight with Warren and the boys. You can buy the official audio recording of the show shortly over at Mule Tracks.

Ace provided us with plenty of coverage from the Austin City Limits festival this weekend, but a few other stories came our way…behold:

• Beirut’s second album is due to be released next month
• What’s up with all the moe. references on SportsCenter?
• Listen up, Deer Creek gate-crashers: A man was impaled on a fence while trying to sneak into a concert to avoid the $5 admission fee
• The members of Animal Collective may live separate lives off the road, but on stage they come together as one
• Ultimate Guitar lists 8 guitar solos that turned a song into a classic
  
• Sony’s Legacy imprint has put together some amazing podcasts featuring the likes of Elvis Presley and Sly & The Family Stone
• Sales of music DVDs fell an alarming 16 percent over the past year
• The Guardian lists 50 songs for 50 states
• David Lee Roth looks really old in these high-quality photos from Van Halen’s rehearsal
• Peter Bogdanovich’s four-hour documentary on Tom Petty will make its broadcast debut October 29th on Sundance

And as always on Mondays, read on after the jump for a full slate of setlists from the weekend in music…and hit us up with any cool links we didn’t see.

I wanted to check out one of Beirut’s three shows this week at the Bowery Ballroom, but alas, I bricked it like the keg guy coming early to the Pickford residents. By all accounts the shows were a complete victory for all, the fans and the band, and a special encore unfolded at the Sunday, May 6th show: Beirut, Final Fantasy, half of Arcade Fire and a load of other musicians came out for the encore to serenade the crowd with horns. This is how you wrap up a show:

• For more on this Beirut run at the Bowery, check out Brooklyn Heathen
• For a truly crazy video, check out the latest from Rush, Far Cry
• Click here for the latest six posts from the Pullin’ ‘Tubes archive