The Sex Pistols kicked off their reunion tour in Brixton last night during a raucous gig that lasted a little over an hour. Lead singer Johnny Rotten relied on a crib sheet to remember some of the lyrics he screwed up during the band’s recent warm-up gig in LA. We can’t imagine seeing a bunch of rich 50-year-olds play angry punk music would be any good, and according to early reports, we’re right.

• Radiohead denies reports that 62 percent of people who downloaded In Rainbows didn’t pay a cent (hey, Radiohead webcast today?)
• Rolling Stone finally gets around to featuring The Budos Band
• Rose Hill Drive plans to cover Aerosmith’s Toys In The Attic in Boulder on December 30th and 31st
• Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus describes the making of Prog
• Brent Rolen talks to Les Claypool about his Electric Apricot flick
• Mikey G presents another terrific edition of Video Elsewhere
  
• New tourdates from Peter Bjorn and John and Girl Talk
• Mars Volta channel the Grateful Dead
• Katrina reviews Keller Williams and the WMD’s gig at the 9:30 Club
• Buckethead chronicles his early years with the release of a 2 new DVDs
• The Fab Faux bring Sgt. Pepper’s to Boston on Sunday night

And, finally, Umphrey’s McGee just announced their annual holiday shows in Chicago. Guitarists Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss break out the acoustics at the Vic Theatre on December 7th, while Joel Cummins leads the keyboard holiday show at Schuba’s on December 21st. The band will also play the last three nights of the year at The Aragon Ballroom, but you probably already knew that.

Given my sudden disconcerting hipster heel turn, I’m heading to Williamsburg for The National’s show on Friday night. But the Highline Ballroom that evening plays host to those afrofused funk all-stars known as the Budos Band, and if you’re not hooked into any better plans, you’d be foolish to miss it. A damn fool.

The National better bring it like they did at Austin City Limits, otherwise I’ll be kicking myself for, well, like 10 minutes…then I’ll probably do the pot and forget I’m alive. I keep missing the Budos as a result of poor scheduling and uncompromising laziness on my part, but every time I listen to them or watch some YouTube action, I find myself captivated by their white-hot performances.

This 11-piece Daptone ensemble can do no wrong, churning out deep grooves that sound like newly composed, badass takes on themes to ’70s television shows. And if that sounds a bit curious, I mean that as a tremendous compliment. I’d love to be able to tell you what makes them so nasty, but the simple truth is that this funk ‘n soul nastiness prohibits words and sentences from forming properly in my head. Just watch, and try not to dance in your office chair.

• Watch the full performance of this session at AOL Spinner
• Related Video: Here’s a pretty hot clip from Brooklyn’s Southpaw
• Related Video: Another awesomely sweet clip from Southpaw