Kaleidoscope

One of the funniest things I heard at SXSW was some dude saying this new band Everybody Was In the French Resistance ... Now! was totally ripping off Art Brut's sing-talking/sweating/dancing/nutty bantering shtick. Uh. Same lead singer and songwriter. It's his shtick in the first place. Where Art Brut is insanely unpredictable, French Resistance (who play the North Star May 14) is Eddie Argos' chance to focus. Kind of. Every break is an opportunity for a lengthy, factually obscene lesson on the next song's place in rock/world history.

After Issue 33 — the monstrous 200-page newspaper-style San Francisco Panorama — you couldn't blame McSweeney's for taking it easy for a while. And indeed, Issue 34 is pretty straightforward format-wise: just two bound volumes in a plastic sleeve. But it's a star-studded edition nonetheless, with words and images by Sarah Vowell, John Hodgman, Julie Klausner, Sarah Silverman, Mike Leigh, Daniel Handler and tons more.

After eight years, Broken Social Scene has tamed the noisy tangents of You Forgot It In People into the refined and delicious new Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts). John McEntire's (The Sea and Cake, Tortoise) pristine production brings out the best in the gang. Tracks like the swaggering "Texico Bitches" and the horn-y "Art House Director" are radio-ready, while string-and-harmonies jams like "Sentimental X's" stick to the BSS formula of complex and dreamy pop songs. Best of both worlds, y'all.

More than 160 local and national artists will set up shop at Penn's Landing for the seventh annual Art Star Craft Bazaar (May 15-16, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., artstarcraftbazaar.com) — two days of quirky homemade goods and live jams. This year roughly 80 new vendors (including Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll) will contribute to the massive spread of jewelry, ceramics, prints, original artwork, housewares, clothing and other assorted weirdnesses (like those creepy plushes from Horrible Adorables).