Raiding the worst of the 80s, the Black Eyed Peas have released a semi-cover of the improbably titled "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," the Dirty Dancing-enabled monster-smash duet of late 1987. Were you there? It was terrible. Fortunately, the BEP have reduced the title to "The Time" because, words r long. And then they took a bath in Autotune. It fits nicely in their genre of "it's Friday night, let's get dressed to go out and dance in the mirror and everything is going to be awwweesssoommme" music. (All that being said, the synthy verse beat part of the song is kind of great, it's undeniable.) [...]

Seth Colter Walls: Maura! You have an excellent essay in the Voice this week, which accompanied this year's Pazz + Jop music critic's poll. Since you and I both submitted ballots for that-and since music critics like nothing more than to talk about what they've done and said-I naturally thought we should talk about what we've done and said! Let's start out by telling the people about your essay?

Maura Johnston: Well, ha. I don't like to start off with self-promotion, but let's give it a go…

Seth: It's called "Down With Music Racism," your piece. That's very provocative.

Press release of the day! "The world's very first dating site for dog lovers celebrates its fourth birthday today. Founded on 3rd January 2006 by Derek Collinson, a Scottish entrepreneur with a passion for dogs, it is now home to thousands of single dog lovers looking to meet someone who shares their love of man's best friend. Derek explains 'There are an estimated 40 million million single dog owners in America alone who find it difficult to meet other singles who don't mind sharing their lives with dogs and all that entails (no pun intended).'… And to celebrate its fourth birthday www.doglover.biz is offering new members a free [...]