Reading about the South By Southwest festival tends to produce, in me at least, a mix of empathetic fatigue and terrible envy, and last week’s bombardment of tweets, blogs, news stories was no different.

Michelle Shocked lived up to her nom de plume on Sunday (March 17) by telling a San Francisco concert audience that gay marriage will lead to the apocalypse during a series of bizarre homophobic rants. According to the Bay Area Reporter, Shocked (nee Karen Michelle Johnston) played a two set show at Yoshi’s. The former Grammy nominee completed the first set without a hitch. The second set, however, went awry as soon as she told the crowd it would be “all about reality.”

Vampire Weekend debuted two new songs from their upcoming album late last night(March 18). Listen to them both below. The New York aired new tracks 'Diane Young' and 'Step', teasing fans with the news on Twitter. "We're dropping a double a-side single today – Diane Young/ Step. Get Ready" wrote the band. Both songs are taken from Vampire Weekend's forthcoming third studio album 'Modern Vampires Of The City', due for release via XL Recordings on May 6.

David Bowie's producer will take part in a new stage show as part of The Record Producers Live series.

The Strokes are streaming their brand new album, 'Comedown Machine', ahead of its official release on March 25. 'Comedown Machine' is The Strokes fifth studio album following 'Is This it?', 'Room On Fire', 'First Impressions of Earth' 'and 'Angles'. Listen to the album via Pitchfork Advance, by clicking here. The band had already unveiled the song 'One Way Trigger' and recently revealed the video for their new single 'All The Time'.

Jason Molina, the singer and guiding force behind Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Company has passed away due to natural causes. He was 39 years old. "This is especially hard for us to share," his label, Secretly Canadian, wrote in a press release. "Jason is the cornerstone of Secretly Canadian. Without him there would be no us — plain and simple." The singer had been mostly absent from the world of music since cancelling a tour with Will Johnson in 2009 to deal with alcoholism and related health issues.

Rare archive material documenting the first 20 years of The Beach Boys' career will go up for auction in London next month. The treasure trove was discovered in a storage facility in Florida in 2000, and is thought to be one of the biggest collections of music memorabilia to ever be put up for sale. It features manuscripts and sheet music for around 150 songs, recording contracts, previously unseen photographs and handwritten lyrics and letters.

David Bowie has gone to the top of the album chart with 'The Next Day'. The much-anticipated album becomes his first Number One since 1993's 'Black Tie White Noise', and has also become the fastest-selling album so far this year, shifting 94,000 copies. Biffy Clyro’s 'Opposites' previously had that title, having sold 71,600 copies during its opening week in January.

The Beatles' John Lennon and George Harrison have received a Blue Plaque in London. The commemoration was at 94 Baker Street - the site of the Apple Boutique clothing shop, which was owned in the 60s by the band's company Apple Corps Ltd, the BBC reports. A plaque to Lennon was already on the site, but has now been replaced with one that also remembers Harrison, who died in 2001. The plaque was unveiled by Rod Davis, the banjo player in Lennon's first band, The Quarrymen, which formed in 1956 and would later become The Beatles.

Morrissey has cancelled the remainder of his US tour. A statement issued on behalf of the singer cited "medical mishaps" as the reason for the cancellation of the planned shows, reports BBC News. Morrissey has been suffering from mounting health issues over the past few months, including Barrett's esophagus, a bleeding ulcer and double pneumonia.