A few newsy bits as you move forward with your afternoon grind:

R&B group TLC is planning to record and release a new album. Of course, that album will be completed without the “L” in the group, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, who died in 2002. Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins have performed sporadically since Lopes’s passing, and they even hosted a reality show a few years back to find a replacement for Left Eye. However, there has been almost new music from the girls, collectively or individually, since 3D, which was completed without Left Eye and released almost a decade ago.

At this year’s MOBO (Music of Black Origin) awards, T-Boz said “We’re going to still sound like TLC, evolving to whatever level we need to be at this time. We’ve always grown throughout the years and have always had our own sound. That’s what works for us and we don’t have to worry about anybody else.” I have to give that comment the side-eye, considering that Left Eye provided the overwhelming majority of the group’s personality that wasn’t provided by writers, producers, and even other singers (most notably Debra Killings, who provided fairly prominent vocals on almost every single TLC hit.) Regardless, I wish the ladies well on their comeback attempt.

As Queens of the Stone Age prepare to release a new album in 2013, leader Josh Homme has announced that the hardest working man in show business, Dave Grohl, is returning to the band to perform drumming duties. If you’ll remember, Dave was in the drummer’s chair for QOTSA’s biggest brush with mainstream success, 2002’s Songs for the Deaf. With Foo Fighters on indefinite hiatus, I guess Dave had time in his schedule to hook back up with Josh (the two are also bandmates in Them Crooked Vultures.) As many members of the staff are huge QOTSA fans (and I dig ’em a decent amount myself,) it’s fair to say that the new album will be quite highly anticipated.

…there’s never a wrong time to show the “No One Knows” video, so…

And because no news roundup is complete without some crazy Jackson family news, here’s the latest from Jermaine. Apparently, the singer/bassist has petitioned to have his name changed to Jermaine Jacksun. Apparently, the father of Jafaar and Jermajesty is initiating the name change for “artistic reasons,” which is interesting considering it’s been twenty years since Jermaine has released anything anyone’s given half a damn about. Speaking on behalf of Jermaine, his friend Steve Dennis told AP: “It is something he has chosen to do, and it’s fair to say that you cannot blame this one on the boogie, you’ve got to blame it on the sunshine,” referencing a Jacksons song that JERMAINE DIDN’T EVEN SING ON. While this totally sounds like an April Fools’ joke, the announcement was made on November 8th, which means that either he’s serious or that the Jackson family reads the calendar a lot more differently than we do.