Better than an old Sears, Roebuck catalog nailed to the outhouse wall, the Bathroom Readers' Institute Press knows that sometimes a hearty morning constitutional goes better with reading material. So far they've printed nearly 20 volumes of their Uncle John's Bathroom Reader series, just releasing the latest: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into Music. I feel sorry for big families if there's a music-trivia nut in the bunch, as the 516 pages are packed with factual frivolity, sure to keep the "occupied" sign up for a while. From nuggets about unsung heroes such as Motown's Funk Brothers to musical word origins to rockers who died young to the first record purchases of major stars to Cab Calloway's jive dictionary, this and a pack of matches might be the perfect gift for Uncle Stinky.

Sad, tortured and painfully blundering, the acquired taste of Neil Hamburger and his stand-up routines are deliciously subversive, much to the delight of Tom Green and musicians Tenacious D, for whom he opened for on the group's international Pick of Destiny tour. Channeling Pat Paulsen, William Shatner, and Andy Kaufman, Hamburger's latest anti-humor antics snuggle up to the heartland, looking for love and a little respect in Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners, out this week on the Drag City Records imprint. And not since Ween sucked on a sprig of hay dipped in PCP in 1996 with 12 Golden Country Greats has country music been strangled so wonderfully. Backed by a killer barnyard band featuring Tubes drummer Prairie Prince and Link Wray bassist Atom Ellis, Hamburger chews up (and spits out) the bucolic landscape with tear-jerkers "Please Ask That Clown to Stop Crying" and "Three Piece Chicken Dinner." He holds hands with the eternally despaired in "Garden Party II" and turns in a wild cover of John Entwistle's "Thinkin' It Over" (from his 1972 Whistle Rhymes album). Do a YouTube search for the video of "Jug Town" and catch the fever.

An anomaly in today's hit-driven radio, WFMU-FM is an oasis in the New York marketplace. Founded in the late 1950s as a part of Upsala College and becoming independent in 1994, the beloved station is one of this country's last bastions of noncommercial, "free form" programming, with music selected by the eclectic taste and knowledge of the DJ, not some industry consultant. With madcap zeal and the battle cry of artistic freedom, the station has served as a musical education and inspirational soundtrack to the brightest and best minds within its reach, documented by its beautifully garish program guide, LCD (Lowest Common Denominator). The publication ceased in 1998, but for those of us who missed out the first time, senior disc jockey Dave the Spazz has assembled The Best of LCD: The Art & Writing of WFMU-FM 91.1FM, recently published by the Princeton Architectural Press. From missives on "monster punk garage music" to Dadaists Coyle & Sharpe to anti-rock-and-roll books from the born-again community to songwriter Doc Pomus, every page is an eyeball-twitching, gut-busting wonder.

In an attempt to fight the peer-to-peer file-sharing that often beats traditional CDs to record-store shelves, two hot acts have tried to regain the upper hand. Originally set to debut in early April, Grammy Award-winning duo Gnarls Barkley surprised everyone with the full digital release of The Odd Couple last week and the Downtown Records CD in stores. Also speeding things up and keeping secrets are Jack White's Raconteurs, wrapping up the recording of Consolers of the Lonely just weeks ago, and rush-releasing the album this week on the Third Man/Warner Bros. imprint. With the nontraditional success of Radiohead's In Rainbows, followed by Nine Inch Nails' million-and-a-half-dollar estimated earnings for Ghosts I-IV in its first week as five-buck download, artists big and small have enacted the ultimate revenge against pirates and monolithic record labels.