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Okay, so go to Dylan07.com, where you will promptly get hit in the ear with Mark Ronson’s “re-version” of Bob Dylan’s “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine).” This is the add-on single for a 51-song box set that Sony is releasing this fall.  Sony/Columbia is asking for a vote on whether people actually like the thing, probably to poke Dylan worshippers into a skin-shredding frenzy over what is being done to “sacred” material and whip up faux controversy.

Ronson is setting himself up as today’s primo desecrator — his “Stop Me” earlier this summer worked Smiths fans into a lynching mood. I thought it was the weakest track on Ronson’s “Version,” but not because I was trying to protect Morrissey from sacrilege — I just thought it sounded like a cheapola cut-and-paste job booming out of a Manila disco, and the Daniel Merriwether vocals just made it sound even more like one of those awful early ’90s Eurodisco songs that would end up on a late-night commercial for a bad collection of Technotronic and Black Box tracks. His Lily-augmented version of the Kaiser Chiefs’ “Oh My God” was much, much better.

But this remix of “Most Likely” is more in line with what RCA did when it commissioned Junkie XL to recast the obscure Elvis Presley song “A Little Less Conversation” as a left-field dance stomper, and then went back to the well with “Rubberneckin’” and “Burning Love” — the original vocals are there, just augmented with Ronson’s currently preferred Winehousey retro-soul arrangement.

I voted “I like it,” but mainly just as a jab to the many, many graying ponytails that will lose their bowels over this. Go see what you think, come back and discuss. 

Technology is my friend, and I am a stalker-friend of new, straight-off-the-assembly-line electronics — iPhone, I don’t love you yet, but grow a decent-sized memory and I’ll be yours forever.

But a recent technological dilemma involving my father-in-law and the death of an irreplaceable machine made me realize how unresponsive technology can be to people not currently residing on the cutting edge of the digital world.

Now, my father-in-law is not a Luddite, a bullheaded, technologically averse person who is one “Mosquito Coast”-style freakout away from churning his own butter and illuminating his grass hut with a candle made from the fat of a wild boar. He has digital cable and a cell phone, uses a computer sparingly, and his OnStar system made him a true believer after his Buick got T-boned two years ago.

But, he only replaces electronics when holding onto them is no longer rational. Until a year ago, he was the proud owner of a console television, and until the screen turned “night vision” green and started flickering like a bug light, he was happy with a TV that probably dated back to the series finale of “M*A*S*H*.”

And there’s nothing wrong with that, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my wife’s father. It’s not my way of operating, but I understand.

The problem began a few months ago, when a DVD player he had bought under my consultation stopped working completely. This was only a mild annoyance, since DVD players have such short life spans they should be marked with “Recycle” logos. But then the tuner on his VCR died last month, and for this enthusiastic tape delayer of football games, it was time to sound the emergency sirens.

As it turned out, the tech gods were conspiring against him. I didn’t think his needs were so great as to warrant a jump toward a DVR or TiVo, so my initial solution was for him to buy a DVD/VCR combination unit — something I would never own, but a short-term solution for my father-in-law. As his unofficial technology shopper, I went in search of a good replacement and discovered something that, at first, I thought seemed bizarre and conspiratorial: few of these DVD/VCR combo platters came with an on-board tuner, meaning you could not program them. These were exceedingly dumb machines.

My first thought was that this was an industry-wide conspiracy — the electronics manufacturers were forcing the last remaining VCR users to convert to digital life or be doomed to the tar pits of technological history. This is not without precedent: I was a perfectly happy vinyl user in 1989 until my music format of choice started rapidly disappearing from Tower Records — itself only a memory now.

Then it dawned on me: the electronics manufacturers stopped building these things without tuners because the old tuners will be completely worthless in exactly 567 days.

On Feb. 17, 2009, NTSC signals, the analog television broadcasts that most of us grew up watching, will cease to exist. All will be digital, and while the VCR is all but dead — I have two networked TiVos, and have not had a working VCR in my home in nearly three years — the headstone already has a date on it.

This week, I will be teaching my father-in-law how to work his DVR. It will be far more than he needs or even wants, but unlike anything else he could buy, it will record every University of Oklahoma game, every episode of “60 Minutes” and
every pundit prediction on “Hardball.” That old box full of gears and capstan rollers must finally be laid to rest, and our march toward glorious, gleaming technological perfection claims another victim.

1. Isobel Campbell, “Willow’s Song.”

2. The Brunettes, “Her Hairagami Set.” The Brunettes’ third album, “Structure & Cosmetics,” will be out shortly for all you members of the twee-house set. Love this New Zealand duo — “Her Hairagami Set” is nice, but the balance of the disc is filled with slightly better gorgeousness. This will be the “Future of Rock ‘n’ Roll” for this week.

3. Dead Kennedys, “I Fought the Law.”

4. Lavender Diamond, “Dance Until It’s Tomorrow.”

5. Ween, “Freedom of ‘76.” A white soul classic from “Chocolate and Cheese,”  featuring Gener’s flawless falsetto. The video looks like an expensive Steven Bochco production — yes, those were the days when Elektra still had governing principles and actually promoted their bands.

6. Lindsey Buckingham, “It Was You.”

7. Rogue Wave, “10:1.”

8. Peter Bjorn and John, “Me & Julio Down By the Schoolyard.”

9. Mark Ronson featuring Lily Allen, “Oh My God.” Lily gets her Jessica Rabbit on during this Kaiser Chiefs cover.  

10. The Rosebuds, “Get Up Get Out.”

Check this leaked clip of not only Cate Blanchett as mid-’60s-period Bob Dylan, but David Cross as Alan Ginsberg.

Yeah, that sounds like a recipe for herbal disaster, right? Well, ladies and gentlemen, IT’S ALIVE!

1. Pink Floyd, “Arnold Layne.” Last night, at the home of a Staticblog reader, we were discussing the relative merits of a Pink Floyd reunion, and our host, Kev, said that it isn’t truly necessary: Roger Waters had all the bases covered when he saw him in Vegas recently. Even had a David Gilmour soundalike. Of course, a true reunion is impossible now, no matter how relations between the Waters/Gilmour camps sour or improve. This video shows the late Syd Barrett in all his pre-meltdown glory.

2. Patrick Watson, “Luscious Life.”

3. Wilco, “Impossible Germany.”

4. Kings of Leon, “On Call.” The Followill boys slicked it up on “Because of the Times,” dispensed with some of their “Strokes on Capricorn Records/Allman Brothers at CBGB” vibe and aimed for the arenas. I don’t mind it when it’s done right, and they did it.

5. A Band of Bees, “Listening Man.”

6. Thee Hydrogen Terrors, “Sissy Bar.”

7. LCD Soundsystem, “Watch the Tapes.”

8. Barenaked Ladies, “Fight the Power.”

9. Dizzee Rascal, “Fix Up, Look Sharp.” This samples a semi-obscure piece of strutting monster truck blather from 1980 called “The Big Beat” by Billy Squier. Oddly enough, “The Big Beat” supplied many of the early Queens rappers with their backing tracks when they were still plugging into streetlights. But for anyone to use it in this day and age took guts, and ends up being both catchy and stupid/funny.

10. The Flaming Lips, “It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big, I Am So Small… Do I Stand a Chance?”

Wah.

On July 2, Tommy Dunbar, the former guitarist for the ’70s Bay Area power-pop band The Rubinoos, filed a lawsuit against Avril Lavigne in federal district court. Dunbar’s lawsuit alleges that Lavigne’s recent hit, “Girlfriend,” bears legally actionable similarity to the Rubinoos’ 1978 song, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.” Whether it meets standards for plagiarism is completely up for grabs, since the courts have affirmed cases that were far less airtight than “‘Boyfriend v. ‘Girlfriend.’”

Just to do a side-by-side comparison, I created a “‘Boyfriend v. ‘Girlfriend’” playlist in iTunes, copied the songs several times and played these two annoying and annoyingly similar tracks until I craved the sweet relief of a hard-drive failure. I am not a copyright lawyer, but I would play one on TV if given the opportunity. Plus, I’ve been obsessed with pop plagiarism since the case of “Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music,” which determined that George Harrison had subconsciously lifted the melody to “My Sweet Lord” from The Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine.”

I also personally enjoyed it when Huey Lewis raked Ray Parker Jr. over the coals for his appropriation of “I Want a New Drug” for the “Ghostbusters” theme. Given how irredeemably lame both songs are, it is hard to see how anybody really wins in that case. It is one thing to steal something brilliant, but co-opting “I Want a New Drug” for “Ghostbusters” is a little like trading in a Ford Pinto to buy an AMC Pacer.

So, I listened, then I listened some more before slamming the headphones on my desk and reaching the following conclusion: On its face, the only prominent similarity in “‘Boyfriend v. ‘Girlfriend’” comes during the choruses for the two songs. Rubinoos singer Jon Rubin sings “Hey (hey) you (you), I wanna be your boyfriend,” while Lavigne sings “Hey (hey) you (you) I don’t like your girlfriend.” They also feature the same handclapping rhythm, but I doubt that any judge would seriously have stadium pep-rally clapping entered into evidence.

Beyond that single repeated line, the melodies bear little similarity. One is a stomping mall-punk anthem, while the other is a power-pop relic that would have sounded great on the “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” sound track. But that one similarity might just be enough.Consider the case of “Three Boys Music v. Michael Bolton,” which is analyzed extensively by Columbia Law School’s Music Plagiarism Project. This was the court battle in which The Isley Brothers brought suit against fake soul provider Michael Bolton for appropriating the Isleys’ “Love Is a Wonderful Thing” for his 1991 hit, “Love Is a Wonderful Thing.”

Columbia Law School features a side-by-side comparison between the two songs. There is a slight similarity in how both titles are sung, but as much as I don’t want to side with Bolton on anything, the tracks’ only commonality comes during the title refrain. Despite this, the Isleys won, and the case was upheld on appeal.It’s entirely possible that Lavigne has never heard The Rubinoos song. Until a few years ago, she professed to have not heard of David Bowie and seemed incapable of pronouncing his name correctly.

 On the other hand, her co-writer on “Girlfriend,” Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, spent a decade as the guitarist for the “Saturday Night Live” band. That guy knows rock music, but again, we’re talking about a 30-year-old song released on an independent label by a band that is mildly semifamous for sounding a lot like The Raspberries. But as her Canadian label head told Billboard, artists carry coverage for these kind of things. “Avril has insurance that covers off cq these sort of suits that are so prevalent in this business,” Terry McBride, chief executive officer of Nett-werk Music Group, told the magazine.

In that case, I suppose Lavigne can splurge. Aging power-pop guys should iron their skinny ties for future court dates.

1. Marissa Nadler, “Cortez the Killer.”

2. The Postmarks, “Weather the Weather.”

3. The Radio Dept., “The Worst Taste in Music.” A tasteful Scandinavian throwback to dreamy, mid-period New Order circa “Low-Life.” Fans of Stars should download “Pet Grief” immediately or yesterday.

4. Grizzly Bear, “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”

5. Paul Weller, “Wildwood.”

6. A3, “Woke Up This Morning.” I’m one of the few people domestically who actually owns A3’s “Exile on Coldharbour Lane,” and believe it or not, the theme to “The Sopranos” is not a complete lock on being the best song from this band. “Ain’t Goin’ to Goa” (links to someone’s vacation pictures with A3 accompaniment) was a great song about avoiding the neo-hippie tourist destination in India, and was played a lot in the days of the original Spy.

7. Sparks, “Perfume.”

8. The Go! Team, “Junior Kickstart.”

9. Evangelicals, “My Headache.”

10. Santa Maria, “Every Time.” More Swedes, featuring Maria Eriksson of the Concretes, whose vocals are a dead ringer for Sasha Bell of The Essex Green/Ladybug Transistor. Not the same former member of the Concretes featured on Peter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks” (that was Victoria Bergsman).

Vanity Fair has a great, in-depth piece on Sly Stone featuring the first interview with the man in a couple of decades. He’s playing the Montreaux Jazz Festival this year and a few other European dates before allegedly going into the studio to record his first new music in over 21 years.

Among the many great songs he wrote and recorded before his decline and eventual seclusion, I consider “Hot Fun in the Summertime” one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded — a deceptively complicated piece of music that combined doo-wop, funk, swing, jazz and classic pop music, and yeah, you’ve heard it, but listen to all the chord and stylistic changes in the song and it will blow your mind several times over. For a relatively smooth song, that’s saying something.

Read the whole thing here.

1. The Pipettes, “Why Did You Stay?” We Are the Pipettes gets its proper U.S. release this summer and “Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me” premiered on “Subterranean” on June 24 — a full year after most of us got turned on to the Pipettes. These domestic release lags are such colossal buzzkills.  

2. Rhymefest, “Chicago-Rillas.”

3. The Besnard Lakes, “For Agent 13.”

4. John Coltrane Quartet, “Giant Steps.”

5. J Dilla, “Wild.” The late James “Jay Dee” “J Dilla” Yancey put together the most amazing beats in hip-hop, and his work habits ultimately took its toll on his health — he spent the last few years of his life on dialysis and died of cardiac arrest last year at age 32 — meaning we would never benefit from the full scope of his talent. Listen to “Wild,” and understand that while more than a few beatmasters would think of using Slade’s “Cum on Feel the Noize” as a refrain in a hip-hop track, not many would have a toddler sing it.

6. TV On the Radio, “Dirtywhirl.”

7. Belle & Sebastian, “A Century of Fakers.”

8. Lewis Black, “The Fall, Hurricanes and Weathermen.”

9. Forward Russia, “Thirteen.”

10. Carla Bruni, “La Noyee.” I was at a party recently where the host repeatedly tried to play Carla Bruni, but languid French pop doesn’t go over well when the women want to dance to Yung Joc. Much profanity ensued.