by SHANE SINNOTT

It seems as if our pals Radiohead are going to testify against the RIAA in an upcoming court case. Or so the Internet says, anyway. This would be in the case of a Boston grad student named Joel Tenenbaum, who was sued by the RIAA in 2003 and refused a settlement offer of 500 bucks. Joel’s case has recently been assisted by a Harvard Law professor and his students, who say they spoke with Radiohead management and were left with the impression that the manager at least, if not members of the band, would testify on behalf of the defendant. This would of course help promote the Featured Artists Coalition, of which Radiohead are members, which is attempting to pressure the RIAA into more fan-friendly copyright policy. See featuredartistscoalition.com.

Now, anyone who knows me knows I don’t throw around the term “treasure trove” lightly, especially in a professional capacity. So listen when I tell you that I have found, yes, a treasure trove of material at the Berkeley Place blog (berkeleyplaceblog.com), under a series of posts titled “The Nirvana Diaspora.” The writer has attempted to create an A-to-Z list of covers (both Nirvana covering other bands and vice versa), mash-ups, live material and the like. A couple of hours well spent for anyone old enough to remember one of the biggest game-changers in music history. Dude hasn’t been able to provide a link for every track mentioned on the posts, so I’ll fill in a couple here. Willie Nelson doing “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” or the first bit of it, anyway: tinyurl.com/cgr963, and Nirvana doing “My Sharona” by the Knack: tinyurl.com/dyu22p. Visit the site for more.

More fun can be had over at 8tracks.com, a site that lets users create eight-song playlists for each other and stream the results. If you’re jonesing for the now-defunct Muxtape, this site is what you want. It remains on the right side of the law by setting up each playlist as a tiny radio station with only the creator’s description—you can’t see a track list until you’ve played or skipped through a song (with limited skips allowed).