Tom Hanks dropped by Conan O'Brien's reinvented "Tonight Show" last night and, maybe as a welcome-to-L.A. tip, he talked up the virtues of In-N-Out Burger. Tom's apparently a huge fan of the fast-food burger chain located mainly on the West Coast.

"It solves every problem ... sometimes you work on a movie and you're there until 3 in the morning — good news is, at midnight, know what's showing up? The In-N-Out Burger mobile," Hanks explained. "So, everyone's happy. You can't get the shake, but you know what? You don't need that much dairy."

So true. Being a New Yorker, I've never actually seen the In-N-Out van, but it's something I dream of. I'm a huge fan of the In-N-Out burger — I'd even say I'm the resident MTV News expert on the cuisine, and I have to get it every time I'm in L.A. Which means that after spending the last out there for the MTV Movie Awards, I needed it to refuel me constantly. (I won't give the exact number of how many times I visited the one right by Universal Studios, for fear of judgment.) Since the chain's been around for over 60 years, I'm a latecomer to the bandwagon, having first heard of the burgers in 1998's "The Big Lebowski."

Hanks also advised O'Brien on the secret menu at In-N-Out: "You have to speak a special language; you have to say, 'Give me a 4x4 Animal Style.' " Which, duh. Any fan of the chain should know all about the special items you can order at any location even if they're not on the very short printed menu. I mean, the company even has it on their Web site.

The most popular option is getting it Animal Style — that's with lettuce, tomato, mustard-cooked beef patty, a pickle, extra spread and grilled onions. Not being a fan of mustard, I usually go for the cheeseburger, unless it's been a long day — then I go for the Double-Double.

So what are you waiting for? It's got MTV and Tom Hanks' seal of approval — all it needs is yours.

The inevitable has happened: "Britain's Got Talent" sensation Susan Boyle got a makeover. She's ditched the drab dresses for a shiny black jacket, dyed her tangled gray locks a rich brown, donned a trendy plaid scarf.

Should we be concerned that the woman who rocketed to fame because of the unlikely juxtaposition of average-gal frumpiness and chill-inducing vocal chops has been forced to conform to conventional standards of beauty? Or should we instead applaud Ms. Boyle for her larvae-into-butterfly transformation now that she's on the world stage? No doubt half the Boyle-ites will be wringing their hands, while the other half sings (mostly off-key) her praises.

This phenomenon is certainly not unique. Are fans bothered that Adam Lambert has largely done away with his severe, across-the-forehead bangs in favor of an Elvis-esque 'do? Indeed, the makeover is part of the "American Idol" experience: It's not just the Clay Aikens and the Elliot Yamins who get plucked, dyed and altogether reinvented. All manner of "Idol" hopefuls get the full-blown treatment.

When it comes to Ms. Boyle, then, her makeover is just one more step along a well-worn path in which a nobody attempts to create a lasting, lucrative career while avoiding being cast into the pit of 15-minute famedom. And what's next? Her own reality show? After all, it turns out that — gasp! — she actually has been kissed!

Here's a crazy theory: This isn't a story about an unglamorous woman compelled to slather on some lipstick. Nor is it a story about "society" and "unrealistic standards of beauty." Maybe it's just about a 48-year-old woman with a beautiful voice that is finally being heard by millions of people — and how happy she must be about it.

Chanel, everyone's favorite rapping receptionist, steals the show on "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory." She's always present when the wackiness ensues at the Fantasy Factory, but it seems like she can never get enough screen time. (For those unfamiliar with the show, she's just like the smoke monster on "Lost" but much cuter and she doesn't murder people. OK, bad analogy.)

So to get our Chanel fix, MTV News correspondent Tim Kash caught up with Rob Dyrdek on the red carpet for the premiere of the new Justin Timberlake-produced "The Phone" and asked Rob about the Internet sensation that is Chanel. Rob describes Chanel as a "young, beautiful, talented, sweet girl" who is sometimes just misunderstood.

"All of my young friends initially [said], 'She's so dumb, she thinks she's a rapper?' Real negative about her," Rob told Tim Kash, but defended her by saying, "They don't understand — she's not faking, she's not acting, this is what she really is." Rob admired her genuine qualities so much that he offered Chanel a job at the Fantasy Factory by asking if she had "any interest in being a rapping receptionist."

Tim then got to the question that was on all the Fantasy Factory fanatic's minds: Is she dating anyone at the moment? "I don't think so." So that means ... no? Rob's a smart man, I guess that means we'll have to keep watching "Fantasy Factory" to find out. Sigh.

Just days earlier, Britney Spears was forced to walk offstage in Vancouver when a cloud of cigarette smoke grew so thick that it impeded the noted smoker's ability to perform.

That was a novel excuse, and much better than the one the Boxmasters offered. They canceled their remaining slots opening for Willie Nelson in Canada just a day after being roundly booed at a Toronto show following a contentious radio interview during which the "Sling Blade" star was evasive and compared Canadian audiences to mashed potatoes with no gravy. The failed sit-down earned the actor an eternal spot in "crazy interview" history, while the halfhearted spin from his camp raised the bar for lame excuses everywhere.

We thought this was as good an occasion as any to look at the myriad of strange/lame excuses bands give for packing up their road cases and going home abruptly.

First on the list is the time-honored "cutting our tour short to record new material" explanation, employed by Avenged Sevenfold in 2006. This one has also been trotted out recently by "American Idol" also-ran Bo Bice.

Static-X found a new one in 2007, blaming their inability to finish a European run on a tour bus that broke down and could not be fixed "in a timely manner."

One of the oddest tour cancellations in recent years was the White Stripes' abandonment of their 2007 trek as a result of drummer Meg White's "acute anxiety," which rendered her unable to travel.

Aerosmith couldn't get their gear to a sold-out show in Maui in 2007, though they were reportedly able to hop over to Oahu to play a private $1 million gig for Toyota car dealers on that same trip.

Normally we wouldn't bother with the scores of artists on the sick/exhausted list, but there was Janet Jackson's nasty bout of recurring vertigo and migraines, which resulted in a number of cancellations and re-cancellations on her troubled Rock Witchu Tour last year.

Some artists are kind of vague about why they deep-six dates, such as Mary J. Blige, who canceled her Australian tour last year due to "other work commitments and personal commitments."

Plenty of acts get felled by food poisoning, including Metallica and My Chemical Romance.

And then there's Lily Allen, who called off her 2007 U.S. tour after a string of disappointing live dates because, she explained, "I am tired, but more than that I don't think I have been giving my best performances." Honesty is the best policy.

Take one graying former Smashing Pumpkins axman, a Hanson brother-turned-father, a 57-year-old Cheap Trick drummer and the Fountains of Wayne bassist, and what do you have?

Tinted Windows, the music world's latest, relatively head-scratching supergroup.

That's right — James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) and Taylor Hanson have joined forces as the curiously named Windows. They even have a MySpace page, so it has to be legit.

And while, sure, it may seem like the oddest grouping of musicians ever, a closer look reveals that maybe Tinted Windows aren't so random after all. Schlesinger and Iha co-own Stratosphere Sound Studios (along with Ivy's Andy Chase), where Tinted Windows recorded their debut. And back when Iha was in the Pumpkins, they used to cover Cheap Trick songs (most notably "Baby Loves to Rock") live in concert. We're not really sure where the 25-year-old Hanson brother fits in, but, hey, it's a supergroup ... and since when do supergroups have to make complete sense?

The band's album is expected to be released this spring, and they'll be making their debut performance at Billboard's South by Southwest showcase on March 20.

Laugh if you want to, but we all know how Taylor's voice swept us away with "Mmmbop." If that's any indication, then Tinted Windows just might be the next big thing.

Morrissey, former lead singer of the legendary Smiths, huge influence on bands like the Killers and Fall Out Boy and one of the headliners at this year's Coachella festival, will release his latest single, "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris," on February 9. It's a great song, but that's not what I want to address here. What I need to deal with is MORRISSEY BEING NAKED on the inner sleeve artwork.

See the naughty artwork, after the jump!

You guys, I like Morrissey. No, I love Morrissey. In fact, that's the understatement of the century, as I have spent more than half my life and nearly all of my money buying anything he has anything to do with as well as following him all over the globe. He has influenced my taste in music, movies and books, as well as my style of dress and outlook on life. He's a total genius and is arguably the greatest pop lyricist that ever lived. But did I need to see his crotch fuzz?

I don't know, to be honest. I can't decide. Considering I've had a crush on him since I was 12, part of me is all, "HOLY CRAP MORRISSEY NAKED THIS IS THE DAY I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!" But then another part of me thinks it's kind of weird for someone as cool as Moz to do something that the Red Hot Chili Peppers have essentially done before. BUT THEN yet another part of me — the part that thinks critically and analytically about Morrissey's every move — kind of loves that it's a pretty daring thing to do in today's youth-obsessed culture, to just sort of be like, "Yeah, I'm a nearly 50-year-old man, and I ain't exactly a Chippendales dancer, but HERE IT IS, WORLD! DRINK IT IN!" It kind of reminds me of when (or, reading about when this happened, because I was 4 years old at the time) the Smiths released their first single, "Hand in Glove," and everyone flipped out because it had a man's bare bum on the cover. Scandal!

I keep getting re-shocked every time I look at the picture, and I feel like today my life has been divided into two very distinct periods: Pre-Seeing Morrissey Naked and Post-Seeing Morrissey Naked. We are now living in PSMN Year One. Is Moz going to kick off this new year by performing on stage in nothing but a sock? I guess I'll see on the nine shows I'm hoping to attend on his upcoming March tour of the East Coast.

Sir Paul McCartney and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder are set to take the stage together in New York on April 4, and all at the request of avant-garde film director, David Lynch. Yes, it sounds strange, but the two music legends have signed on to play a benefit for Lynch's Transcendental Meditation foundation.

The concert, taking place at Radio City Music Hall, will help raise money for the Lynch Foundation, which seeks to promote Transcendental Meditation, a practice to which Lynch attributes his creativity.

McCartney's participation is particularly interesting because of the Beatles' embrace of the practice during the heyday of the psychedelic era in 1968, which found them spending weeks in India with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whom John Lennon later slammed in his song "Sexy Sadie."

Last April, the Lynch Foundation held a similar but much smaller benefit concert in Fairfield, Iowa (the location of Maharishi University, this country's only school based on the principles of Transcendental Meditation). MTV News was lucky enough to attend and to speak with Mr. Lynch in person there about his advocacy of TM.

McCartney and Vedder will be joined onstage by Sheryl Crow, Donovan and Moby.

The Miley Cyrus auction is well on its way to bringing in a nice sum of cash — especially since highest bidder gets to meet her. And the money goes to a worthy cause: the Pappy Cyrus Family Foundation, which helps needy kids. If you could, how much would you pay to meet her? Let us know!

Dan "Monty" Montalto — Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary
Undoubtedly one of the most influential indie records of the '90s, Diary is one of the few albums that I have kept in constant rotation over the years. The brand of "emo" that this album represents (and essentially created) made for some of the best punk/indie/emo records of the late '90s (the Get Up Kids, Braid, Piebald, Texas Is the Reason). Any fans of those artists — and all those that followed — owe much to this album. Even lo-fi rockers No Age recently told us that Diary is one of their all-time faves. For a band with a short and frequently troubled lifespan, Sunny Day Real Estate's discography continues to shine 14 years later.

Chris Harris: The Reverend Horton Heat's The Full Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat
I first discovered the Reverend Horton Heat — which is both a three-piece psychobilly outfit from Dallas, Texas, as well as the stage name of its frontman, Jim Heath — while watching "Beavis and Butthead," when the band's "Wiggle Stick" video was put up for ridicule by the cartoon delinquents. I remember thinking I'd never heard music quite like this before; I was only 15 — if my math's correct — and listened to Jane's Addiction almost exclusively. I was caught in that awkward phase between listening to what my dad thought was awesome (Pink Floyd) and doing my own digging, finding bands on my own. So I picked up a copy of TFCGSOTRHH and became an immediate fan of the band. Songs like "Loaded Gun," "The Devil's Chasing Me" and "Gin and Tonic Blues" introduced me to an unfamiliar sound, one that was dirty, raw and exciting. Live, the band was manic: They ripped through a badass, truly entertaining set, and my impressionable mind was blown. This is one of those records that I can still put on today and not skip a track, which, to me, is the true mark of a solid studio effort.

Christopher "CJ" Smith: Wolf Parade's Apologies to Queen Mary
Arcade who? With the help of producer Issac Brock, this Montreal quartet rattled some bones in 2005 with their debut LP. Montreal was the new Seattle! Although some prefer the low-fi and dirty production on the band's previous EPs, Brock brought a tight cleanness to the album that's allowed it to age gracefully into a modern classic.

Lindsey Thomas: Velocity Girl's ¡Simpatico!
In 1994, I listened to whatever was on the mixtapes my brother made for our dad's Geo Metro: Archers of Loaf, Sebadoh, Dambuilders and other bands that make me sigh whenever I think about the '90s. But none of them were really mine. Then I saw the video for the jangly, summery "Sorry Again" on "120 Minutes" (R.I.P.) and rushed out to buy ¡Simpatico! While the pop songs on the band's first LP, Copacetic, were muddied with shoegaze inspiration and bad production, the follow-up had just the right amount of polish. The melodies were catchy, the guitars were clean, and Sarah Shannon's voice floated on top, a much-needed salve for a 13-year-old music fan who was used to only seeing guys in her favorite bands.

Conor Bezane: The Postal Service's Give Up
Indie icon Ben Gibbard needed a break from his duties as frontman of Death Cab for Cutie, so he teamed up with Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley and Jimmy Tamborello of DNTEL for a side project called the Postal Service. Packed with hypnotizing bleeps and beats, 2003's Give Up was a dance-pop masterpiece. Fans are still anxiously awaiting a follow-up.

Rya Backer: Mark Lanegan's The Winding Sheet
I really take to Mark Lanegan's voice. It's not especially pretty, in fact, it's — for lack of a better word — intense? The point is, Lanegan could probably sing a Danielle Steele novel, and I'd be totally capitvated. Luckily, The Winding Sheet contains no such content. Rather, it's a really drony, thoughtful and brooding album that I like to listen to whether I'm happy (to bring me down a little) or sad (to bring me even down-er). It's probably uncouth to say this in public, as it's a rather (gasp!) popular number, but my favorite song on the album is "Where Did You Sleep Last Night."

Got a favorite Sub Pop record or three? Let us know!

But once inside — up a single elevator to the third floor — you sort of understand why they've got to be discreet. If they flew a flag out front, the place would be inundated by excited music geeks like me.

As the label celebrates its 20th (official) year in business, there's so much history on display here, it's simply mind-boggling. (For a look back at the label's history and a list of 21 quintessential Sub Pop albums, check out this week's Bigger Than the Sound column.) The walls are lined with original mockups for album covers (like Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff EP and the banned artwork for Tad's 8-Way Santa), early design concepts for Sub Pop's iconic "Loser" T-shirt (complete with handwritten instructions from founder Bruce Pavitt that read, simply, "Make it BIG") and original Charles Peterson photographs of young bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden. There are Polaroids of Beck, Greg Dulli and Stephen Malkmus clowning around at the old Sub Pop store. And there are gold and platinum records in the bathrooms.

And then there's the warehouse, staffed by none other than Mudhoney frontman (and grunge god) Mark Arm and overflowing with every rare album the label has released over the course of two decades. The 15-year-old inside me leapt at seeing Saint Etienne CDs I hadn't even thought about in a decade, and fainted a bit when Arm showed me the original pressings of 'Honey's "Touch Me I'm Sick" single. Oh, and there were T-shirts to the rafters. It was magical.

I was lucky enough to be given a tour by Megan Jasper, Sub Pop's receptionist-turned-VP, who proudly showed off the photo booth and beer machine in the kitchen, joked about the lack of "happy endings" in the office massage room and let me run wild and free in the warehouse, where I grabbed records and generally behaved like an idiot.

Jasper knows all the names of the office dogs, knows how to sneak up to the roof to catch a glimpse of the Space Needle and can explain each piece of artwork and ephemera stuck to the walls. It was like having the world's greatest tour guide on the world's greatest tour. It was my indie-rock dream come true. It was amazing.

Oh, and as I was leaving, they even let me take my photo in the booth and stapled the pics on the wall, right next to the guys from Oxford Collapse and below Martha Plimpton. Sometimes I am very lucky.