During my brief stint at Clear Channel, My 92.9 played over the loudspeaker in the hallway adjacent to my office, so I'd hear the fifteen or so songs in regular rotation over and over and over again, nine hours a day, five days a week. Other than Katy Perry's "Part of Me," no other song filled me with more dread than the Lumineers' "Ho Hey." Sort of banal and campfire-sing-a-longish at first, then after hearing it at least four times a day, I began to believe there were secret encoded violent messages hidden somewhere beneath the banjo and acoustic guitar. It was a bad situation.

Thankfully, I can largely avoid the song these days, but I was willing to go back into the dark place, albeit briefly, for this mashup of Will Ferrell's Harry Carey impression and the soundtrack to my torment. Also, I now want a hot dog.

Some things cannot be unseen. Some images burn into your brain so strongly they never go away, like staring at the sun for more than a millisecond. But in this case, instead of little spots all over your vision, there's a fly-like creature, some weird piggish face and Trent Reznor shakily yelling at you.

That about sums up the music video for the new Nine Inch Nails song, "Came Back Haunted," the first single off the Reznor-fronted group's first album in five years.

How freaky and surreal is the video? Well, before getting into the fact it comes with a STERN WARNING THAT IT HAS BEEN KNOWN TO CAUSE SEIZURES one must take into account it was directed by David Lynch, the man responsible for Twin Peaks, Eraserhead and Blue Velvet. Need I go on?

The clip is four minutes and 17 seconds worth of visual assault on the senses, with a mass of red, white, gray and black shapes, splotches and flashes, all to the tune of the catchy, up-tempo electronic track that harkens back to some of NIN's early stuff from the early and mid-1990s. You know, back when NIN videos included images like a machine-assisted beating heart and a snuff film with self-mutilation.

Ah, the good old days.

The video also can give you an idea of what it will be like to see NIN on its upcoming world tour, which starts with festival appearances in the U.S., Europe and Asia before hitting a couple dozen cities in America. That includes a Nov. 9 stop in Phoenix, where my floor seats (or spots to stand and mosh) have already been secured.

NIN shows have always been just as much about the visuals as the way Reznor and his touring band can convert computer-made music into live sound. His most recent side project, How to Destroy Angels, included his wife as lead singer and had one band member solely devoted to projecting pictures, shapes, light and other weird things on a screen behind them and on columns of translucent surgical tubing in front. Trust me, it was cool.

Now, I know you'll all click on the video below to see if I'm just being outlandish and overreactive (what I like to call Glenn-Beck-ish), but remember, you were warned. Also, if you're rendered comatose (or worse), I call dibs on your watch.

• PorchFest will include 19 different musical acts on 12 different neighborhood porches.

Sponsored by the Downtown Tucson Partnership, Armory Park Neighborhood Association and participating musicians, artists and porch-providers alike, the event will be a "pilot" event, designed to test the waters and see what works, according to a press release.

The new event will include 19 different musical acts, from well-known local artists to new talent, who will play on 12 different porches in the Armory Park Neighborhood — Tucson's first Historical District.

Cyndi Lauper brought her She's So Unusual tour to the Fox Tucson Theatre on Sunday, June 23. You can read Mari Herreras' review in the June 27 dead tree Weekly ...

• C. Elliott
• Cyndi Lauper at the Fox Tucson Theatre

• Noelle Haro-Gomez
• Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend, who last played Tucson on a bill with Hot Chip in 2008, announced new show dates this morning, including a stop on Tuesday, October 1 at the Rialto. Tickets go on sale June 28 and cost $32.50 for general admission or $40 for reserved seats in the balcony. Tickets will be available at the Rialto box office or online to http://www.rialtotheatre.com/events.php

Tucson Weekly photographer C. Elliott takes us there.

• C. Elliott
• Iris Dement

A witness in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of Michael Jackson has some curious credentials, according to CNN:

Czeisler — who serves as a sleep consultant to NASA, the CIA and the Rolling Stones — testified Thursday that the "drug-induced coma" induced by propofol leaves a patient with the same refreshed feeling of a good sleep but without the benefits that genuine sleep delivers in repairing brain cells and the body.

The CNN report suggests MJ really needed to get some shut-eye:

Michael Jackson died while preparing to set a world record for the most successful concert run, but he unknowingly set another record that led to his death.

Jackson may be the only human ever to go two months without REM — rapid eye movement — sleep, which is vital to keep the brain and body alive. The 60 nights of propofol infusions Dr. Conrad Murray said he gave Jackson to treat his insomnia is something a sleep expert says no one had ever undergone.

"The symptoms that Mr. Jackson was exhibiting were consistent with what someone might expect to see of someone suffering from total sleep deprivation over a chronic period," Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School sleep expert, testified Friday at the wrongful-death trial of concert promoter AEG LIve.

The symptoms documented by e-mails among show producers and testimony from his chef, hairstylist and choreographers included his inability to do standard dances or remember words to songs he sang for decades, paranoia, talking to himself and hearing voices, and severe weight loss, Czeisler said.

"I believe that that constellation of symptoms was more probably than not induced by total sleep deprivation over a chronic period," he testified.

I'm a sucker for movies about music, so between Rock Around the Loft (rock films every Wednesday in July, including The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense and Urgh! A Music War) and the One Hit Wonders series of new-to-Tucson documentaries, I'm basically assuming I'm going to spend (at least) two nights each week in a seat at the Loft.

However, the real highlight of the month will be the opportunity to see Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, last year's documentary about one of my favorite bands of all time and one of those great band/bad luck stories you hear sometimes in the history of rock. Seriously, if you haven't heard the three albums the band released in the early 70's, they really could change your life. They're the power pop/rock band every power pop and rock band you've ever enjoyed loved (just watch the trailer and see the names singing Big Star's praises) and there's a good reason. Remember how excited everyone was about Rodriguez and the Searching for Sugarman documentary? This story's less weird in some ways, but just as tugging at the heart-strings, plus (nothing personal to Rodriguez and his fans) the music is better.

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me shows at the Loft, Saturday, July 13 at 7:00 pm.

Tucson Weekly favorite Lariats are playing a free show tonight (at Tiny Town, which I think was Tanline, but either way is 2606 N. Stone) with bands I am possibly not cool enough to be aware of: Territory, Two More Dead and King Clone. Plus, the poster promises free Eegees, so that's a solid deal.

Lariats' new EP, Our Native Tongue Is Bad News, is available now, featuring "The World Is Very Big and We Are Very Small," which you should be able to stream on the player above.

M.I.A. finally has a new album coming out, Matangi, and here's the first track, "Bring the Noize." Recommend a listen from her website for the mesmerizing spinning globe: