Boston's most notorious rap scoundrel slash actor Slaine - best known theatrically from roles in "The Town" and "Gone Baby Gone" - is set to appear on NBC's "The Cape" tonight at 9pm EST. Unfortunately, the show is getting canceled, and the first season was scaled back from 13 to 10 episodes, so hip-hop fans won't get to check all of the La Coka Nostra and Special Teamz member's performances.

The thing about THE NATIONAL is that each of their albums has been the kind of thing that's taken me a few listens to get a real handle on and more listens still to really start to love. I mean that as a compliment: Alligator was one of the best albums of the last decade. But this particular tendency makes it difficult to form snap opinions of their new songs in isolation (especially when they debut via NBC's streaming video player and its inherent poor audio quality).