Head to your local Borders today to pick up two free CD samplers they’re currently giving away.

First is VH1 MUSIC GOOD, a 13-track sampler of new artists that VH1 might play if they played music, including The Fray, Say Anything, O.A.R., Feist, Rosanne Cash and others. I found all but two of the songs good.

And last but not least is CLASSIC STYLES CLASSIC SOUNDS FROM SONY MASTERWORKS, a much more mellower disc with tracks from the SYRIANA and MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA soundtracks, plus current renditions of Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Chopin, Stravinsky and all those famous dead guys.

If your iTunes library lacks that presidential feeling, we have your solution. Three Northern California songwriters are currently about midway through a month-long project to write and record 42 songs about every President of the United States of America from George Washington to Bill Clinton. Songwriters Christian Kiefer, Jeff Pitcher and Matthew Gerken are all simultaneously working on the project and are posting the songs (an average of two a day) here.

“It seemed an important idea,” said Pitcher, who presented the initial idea to Kiefer late last year. “Utilizing the ‘golden cows’ of American history as the subject matter of contemporary songs was interesting enough to pursue, and inviting the others into the project helps keep everyone on their toes.”

The trio has tentative plans to release the completed 42-song cycle as an album late this year.

“Microvision,” the first-ever music video from the Hitch-approved band American Boyfriends, is complete, cool and available for your eyeballs now.

Hitch’s own “DVDemented” columnist Richard York is the bald guy playing the guitar, and contributor Chris Sharpe helped put it all together. Even if I didn’t know and love those guys, I’d still say the video is impressive, sporting some terrific animation and effects. I still think their album is excellent, and you can download some songs from it here, including “Microvision” (but for my money, “Supergirl” takes the cake).

Now if they’d only follow up with that second album…

Oh, that was on?

One of the biggest albums of the 1960s was Herb Alpert’s megaselling WHIPPED CREAM & OTHER DELIGHTS, which now enjoys a cult following and an omnipresence at this nation’s garage sales. And on March 7 comes the inevitable – but highly welcome – remix album, WHIPPED CREAM & OTHER DELIGHTS REWHIPPED.

The album features all the hits – “A Taste of Honey,” “Lemon Tree,” “Love Potion #9″ among them – remixed by some of today’s better electronica acts, like Thievery Corporation, The Dust Brothers, Mocean Worker, Ozomatli and Medeski Martin & Wood. Personally, I can’t wait. And, ooh, that cover!

And how! A sampling of Kanye quotes from Entertainment Weekly’s new cover profile of the rapper/musician:

• ”I want you to run home to see a Kanye West video.”
• “I’m the only artist who has a responsibility to hit five, six different types of fans every time.”
• “I feel like I’m too busy writing history to read it.”
• “I’m like the guy in THE AVIATOR. They already made a movie about my life story.”
• “But it would be a shame for me to stop making music, because I’m just so good.”
• “Maybe if Kurt Cobain had just rode in the one helicopter in his lifetime, he’d still be here with us.”

Somehow, I think Cobain’s problems went beyond what a helicopter ride could cure. Anyway, I’ve never heard a single Kanye West song, so I have no idea if he’s as good as he says he is.

• Over the weekend, Eminem remarried his ex-wife, Kim Mathers, with whom he’s had a long, stormy relationship. It marks the only time in history when a wedding announcement included this statement: “Family and close friends were in attendance, including members of D12, 50 Cent, Obie Trice and members of G-Unit.”

• Also over the weekend, Juvenile was arrested related to a child support case. I would’ve thought his friends might have helped him evade arrest, but apparently members of D12, 50 Cent, Obie Trice and members of G-Unit had a prior commitment.

• And Master P is no longer ’bout it, now that he’s featured (doing poorly, apparently) on ABC’s hit show DANCING WITH THE STARS. Because once you’re ballroom dancing alongside the likes of George Hamilton, Tia Carrere and Jessica Simpson’s former brother-in-law, you’ve automatically exhausted all your street cred.

Blender magazine, which I always read when it’s part of a free subscription, has named Kelly Clarkson as its Woman of the Year for its January issue. Unlike other magazines’ year-end selections (GQ and Jennifer Aniston), this one makes sense. After all, if a pop single or two can become a hit with kids, teenagers, adults and that fickle, anti-Top 40 indie crowd of which I am a proud member, that’s quite an accomplishment. And if it means they get to whore her up like a drunken prom queen for the cover, all the better.

The article – entitled “Everybody Loves Kelly (Yes, Even You)” – is fairly interesting, presenting her as still the same person she was before AMERICAN IDOL: sweet and naive. I’m pleased to hear she’s dating a Oklahoman, because some Oklahomans are far cooler than you (like me, for instance).

Elsewhere in the magazine, they interview several musicians about 2005 highlights. I think it’d be fun to be interviewed by Blender, but since Sony is refusing to release my debut rap album and a marriage to Jessica Simpson seems highly unlikely, it ain’t gonna happen. Accepting that, I’ve prepared my own answers using their questions. Enjoy.

ALL ABOUT MY YEAR!
ROD LOTT
Best song I heard this year: I’m calling a three-way tie: The New Pornographers’ “Bones of an Idol,” The Go! Team’s “Ladyflash” and Doves’ “Walk in Fire.”
My favorite new toy: The new Mac I bought this fall is pretty sweet. It’s amazing how far technology travels in five years’ time, which was when I bought the last one.
Fill in the blank: George W. Bush doesn’t care about: Bitches.
Tom Cruise: Crazy, brainwashed, bullying cult freak or all-seeing, all-knowing seventh-level Thetan?: Aren’t those the same thing? I’d love to see him get clinically depressed or injured to the point where he has to take the evil medicine.
Saddest celebrity breakup: None of them. Everyone in Hollywood gets divorced.
Best sex I’ve had this year: Also the only sex I’ve had this year: my wife.
Biggest disappointment of the year: See above. (Ha! Just kidding, babe!)

Every year, I’m reminded why I hate the Grammys. At least the Oscars recognizes lots of independent films that barely get released and the Emmys recognizes some shows people don’t watch. But the Grammys is quite clearly all about the Benjamins.

Witness the five nominees – announced yesterday – for Album of the Year:
• Mariah Carey, THE EMANCIPATION OF MIMI
• Gwen Stefani, LOVE. ANGEL. MUSIC. BABY.
• U2, HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB
• Kanye West, LATE REGISTRATION
• Paul McCartney, CHAOS AND CREATION IN THE BACKYARD

First off, no Mariah Carey album should ever be considered the best, unless for some reason, perhaps following the apocalypse, only two CDs get released in a 12-month span and the other one is Don Henley. It’s not music; it’s studio-sheened pap. As for Gwen Stefani, I can’t hop on the bandwagon that finds her music terrific and finds her attractive; she’s okay when it comes to disposable Top 40 pop, I suppose, but it’s the equivalent of nominating Lindsay Lohan for Best Actress in MEAN GIRLS.

It’s hard for me to dislike a U2 record of any sort, but I think it hardly qualifies as one of the year’s best. Kanye West is likely to emerge as the victor since, unlike President Bush, the music industry cares about black people. Plus, he told the media a couple days ago that if he doesn’t win, he’s going “to have a problem with that.” I’d take that as a thinly veiled threat and check the box next to his name, voters. And Paul McCartney? Has this guy released a good song since the theme to SPIES LIKE US? Completely irrevelant, and awfully wrinkly.

It’s worth noting that the nominees for Best New Artist are Ciara, Fall Out Boy, Keane, John Legend and SugarLand. Worth noting because I can’t tell you a single song any of them have done.

When I think of TRAINSPOTTING, I think of Underworld, whose “Born Slippy” is the film’s unofficial theme song. And if you haven’t thought of Underworld in a while, today’s a perfect time to do so, as they debut the first in a series of download “packages” which are “neither singles nor albums, but an entirely new way to hear their music. Featuring a series of interwoven pieces. It’s an opportunity for the band to venture into whichever direction they like, and release their latest music directly to you, whenever and wherever you want it.”

Available only online, “Lovely Broken Thing” is their first release in two years – a nearly 30-minute, multi-mood track (or tracks plural, depending how you look at it) veering off into a variety of directions, including everything you’d expect from their signature sound and even a stretch that sounds like John Carpenter joined the band for a round. I think Underworld puts it best, though: “Think of it as putting the synth into absinthe.”