Hello, fellow music addicts!  Here’s a quick round-up of news that caught my eye this week:

• Cat Power’s newest album, Sun, drops on September 4th.  Anxious to check it out now?  Spin’s offering a download of “Cherokee” on their site.
• Apparently, Nivea stands for “trust, family and reliability”, in addition to “civilizing Black men” (but they didn’t mean to be racist!).  Thus, Rihanna, with her unabashed discussion of sexuality (how dare she?) is no longer in line with their brand.  Idolator reports that Rihanna’s been dropped for her sexy image, despite their insistence that diversity is important to their brand.  I guess sexual diversity doesn’t count!  Well, that’s one more reason not to use their products.
•  Kanye West, in his latest attention-seeking move, wrote a song about Kim Kardashian.  Because, y’know, she really needs someone to call her perfect.  Careful, ‘Ye; her ego may inflate more than yours!
• If you’re a Beck fan who was looking forward to his promised new album this fall, I hope you can play an instrument and sing – because he’s releasing it as sheet music.  That’s right:  Beck wants you to do the work for him, encouraging fans to record the tunes and upload them to McSweeney’s.  Okay, Beck, let me break it down for you:  you’re quirky and cool, but this?  Totally a hipster-of-hipsters BS move.
• In awesome news, a comprehensive collection of Jimmy Page interviews releases this October.  Over 50 hours of conversations with the guitar legend are distilled into one sweet volume.
• The new Muse album The 2nd Law drops on October 2nd, with the lead single being “Madness”.
• Toronto Concert Alert:  The Tea Party play the CNE Bandshell on Friday, Aug. 31st.  Free with admission ($16).  Can I just say how happy I am that they’re back on the circuit?  I was starting to solely associate those three words with political idiocy.
• And in “this actually happened” news, Marilyn Manson busted out a cover of The Eagles’ mega-hit “Hotel California” at a private gig for Californication cast and crew.  Even more intriguing:  do I spy David Duchovny on guitar?  That said, I still dig his impromptu Justin Timberlake cover over this.

And that’s your 5 min. music news fix for this week!