(Disclaimer: The following is a dose of partisan cheerleading. Proceed at your own risk.)

Props on today's Pop Music section -- it's like manna from the God of Indie Hipsters. Besides Joan Anderman's piece on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah -- the brains behind one of the best albums to hit the quasi-mainstream in a long time -- Jonathan Perry found the time to talk to the Age Rings, the latest in a long line of Allston Rock City exports. Nice to see this excellent local act in the Globe.

Pitchfork, the very beacon of online music hipsterdom, is all abuzz today with news that Seattle singer-songwriter Rosie Thomas is expecting a baby with indie-rock pinup Sufjan Stevens. Problem is, it appears to be a belated April Fool's joke.

Bow your heads and say a little prayer for crooner Gene Pitney, who passed away today in his hotel room in England. Pitney was best known for the 1960s schlock-drama of hits such as "Town Without Pity" and "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance," but he also had one of the best voices in pop for singing about the ache of young love.

Remember that scene in "High Fidelity" when Jack Black's character waves "Blonde on Blonde" in front of that dude's face and whispers something to the effect of: "Don't tell ANYONE you don't own this, man!"

You're about to have one of those moments.

Sometimes, faithful Sound Effects readers, we take the card that fate has dealt us. In my case, this has been a matter of balancing spectacular news with news that has filled me with a sense of crushing dejection.

Steven Segal is making a new movie... and Pauly Shore is co-starring? Joy Division is getting back together... with Ryan Cabrera at the helm? Ryan Adams has sixteen new albums planned for 2006... all produced by Fred Durst?

No. But close...

Apologies to anyone who scanned the front of today's Living Arts section and was shocked to learn that the new Flaming Lips album, "At War with the Mystics," had a so-called "punky attitude." I still haven't figured out how this perversely misleading description made it into the newspaper. Judge for yourself: listen to clips of "Free Radicals" and "It Overtakes Me" and "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" . Read the review from today's paper here.

JOAN ANDERMAN

Alt-rocker Matthew Ryan's music has always come with baggage –- comparisons range from early Springsteen to Ryan Adams –- so it's nice to see a Ryan vehicle fit to be judged on its own merits. Strays Don't Sleep, his synthed-out, mellow-to-the-point-of-collapse quintet, is set to play the Paradise on Saturday, and very little critical attention precedes the band. This is a good thing for me and this is a good thing for you.