A half-dozen cool things in music, from two points of view:

"nowlikephotographs," 7 p.m. Wednesdays on Radio K (770 AM). Two solid hours of the best "epic instrumental" music on the planet. Sure, they cover the basics, such as Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai, but they also push ambient gems such as Stars of the Lid.

Girl Talk, "Feed the Animals." Girl Talk slices and dices Top 40 radio and puts it back together without a hint of irony. Thanks to Girl Talk, I can bob my head to samples of Ace of Base and not feel guilty.

The demise of MTV's "Total Request Live." Does this mean that society is shifting to actually listening to full songs via the radio and Internet and that it no longer wants its music via popularity contests and two-minute snippets of music videos accompanied by screaming fans? I take this as a "yes."

MARK WALLER, THEBLOGULATOR.COM, MPLS.

TO CONTRIBUTE: POPMUSIC@STARTRIBUNE.COM

Pete Wentz interview, Playboy. After babbling on with his usual narcissistic, self-absorbed reflections, the Fall Out Boy star, a k a Mr. Ashlee Simpson, offers greater cultural insight at the end: "We've realized we don't have to become who we were supposed to be. That's what I mean by the Lemon Generation. The losers have made their own culture. The losers have won."

Young@Heart Chorus, "Mostly Live." This choir of folks, ages 73 to 93, creatively reinterprets rock hits by the Stones, Neil Young, OutKast and others. Accordion drives U2's "One." The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" is comical. And can you imagine a senior citizen seducing with Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"?

Raphael Saadiq, "The Way I See It." The Tony! Toni! Tone! singer fashions a dozen originals that lovingly sound like 1960s and '70s soul. No wonder Stevie Wonder and Joss Stone join in.

JON BREAM, STAR TRIBUNE