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Digest: Arcade Fire Plot Secret Show in Los Angeles; 'Glee' Scores Huge Ratings After Super Bowl

Also: Waka Flocka Flame joins PETA campaign; Smith Westerns tour with Wilco

February 8, 2011 11:45 AM ET
Win Butler of Arcade Fire
Win Butler of Arcade Fire
Gus Stewart/Redferns/Getty

Arcade Fire May Play Surprise Show in L.A.
The Arcade Fire's manager Scott Rodger has tweeted some hints about the band's plan to play a small "secret" show in Los Angeles sometime later this week as a warm-up for their performance at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. As of now, all that is known is that the gig will be cheap, all-ages and at a small venue. [L.A. Times]

'Glee' Post-Super Bowl Episode Draws Huge Ratings
The episode of Glee that aired after the Super Bowl on Sunday night was seen by 26.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched scripted show in three years. Despite the huge numbers, 31 percent fewer people watched the episode than the premiere of Undercover Boss after last year's Super Bowl. [EW.com]

Waka Flocka Flame Teams Up With PETA
Rapper Waka Flocka Flame is the latest tattooed musician to join PETA's "Ink Not Mink" activist campaign against animal cruelty. The campaign is set to launch on February 22nd. [Complex]

Smith Westerns to Open For Wilco

Smith Westerns have been announced as the support act for a brief run of Wilco shows in May. The tour will hit cities in Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. [Pitchfork]

Adele Announces North American Tour
U.K. pop singer Adele will begin her 22-date tour of the United States and Canada on May 12th in Washington, D.C. She is also set to make appearances on The Today Show and the Late Show with David Letterman. [Billboard]

MORE: TV on the Radio Announce New Album; Lady Gaga Pushes Up Release Date For 'Born This Way'

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »