Katy Perry's highly anticipated MTV Unplugged performance will be debuting on MTV and MTV.com this Monday, November 16. Rather than sleeplessly frittering away your weekend, hyperventilating and listening to "Waking Up In Vegas" on repeat, we thought it'd be a good idea to give you an Unplugged refresher course.

Here are some of the best performances of MTV's legendary live show, featuring some obscure performances and some unforgettable ones, with nary an amp in sight.

Nirvana, "Come As You Are" (1993)

For their episode of Unplugged, Nirvana revealed an aching vulnerability to their razor-sharp songs. This was an iconic performance, producing some of the most lasting, indelible imagery of Kurt Cobain.

Paramore, "That's What You Get" (2009)

Audience interaction is one of the best parts of these intimate Unplugged performances. In the case of Paramore, it's more about audience participation, as the crowd helps out Hayley Williams with the "whoa-oh's" of "That's What You Get."

Alicia Keys, "Unbreakable" (2005)

Unplugged puts the artist and their artistry at the forefront. In this 2005 performance, Alicia Keys shows the extent of her capabilities as a performer with a gorgeous rendition of "Unbreakable."

+ Watch more performances after the jump.

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A couple of weeks ago we hollered and crowed about The Swellers, a searing pop-punk act on tour with Paramore. Well, here's another example of Hayley & The Gang's good taste: Paper Route.

Hailing from Paramore's home turf of Nashville, Paper Route, who released their album, Absence, earlier this year, have a muscular rock sound that's nicely embellished with swaths of keys and assorted electronic instrumentation, calling to mind The Cure and New Order.

They have a slightly more over-the-top-bordering-on-goth feel, which might appeal to Paramore's latent goth streak (which was on display in their Twilight soundtrack jam, "Decode").

You can catch Paper Route out on the road with Paramore through the 11th of November.

+ Watch Paper Route's video, "Carousel."

Despite a blossoming love affair with Russell Brand, Katy Perry has been seen being all Elvira/I-Have-A-Cure-Disintegration-poster-hanging-on-the-wall-of-my-soul at the Sonia Rykiel show in Paris on October 4.

Real talk: It's working. Katy Perry might have blown up with a look that resembled a piece of watermelon Bubble-Yum come to life, all greens and pinks, and fruit-as-sex metaphors and whatnot. But she's been rolling through Paris, usually accompanied by Rihanna, like some kind of vampire/Blade Runner robot (or the lost female member of Tokio Hotel?) and it's A. GOOD. LOOK. Wonder if this means Katy's follow up to One Of The Boys is gonna be all doom and gloom and synths? Yes, please?

Dark and gloomy Katy Perry is a total departure from diving-into-cake Katy Perry of a year ago at the 2008 Los Premios. Not that we mind that Katy Perry either. Watch the video here.

The Mission District is a Montreal-based six-piece that combines '80s Brit pop like The Cure and New Order with contagious power-fuzz (just made that up!) pop-punk and churns out one fist-pumping singalong chorus after another. In other words, these clean-cut hipsters make dance music you can mosh to. Armed with unstoppable beats and endless sinister keys, the ex-punks have enough nightclub charisma to put glitter on your chest in a single listen.

Brain-conquering singles like "The Age Of Pretending" and "So Over You" have won them a steady online following (16,000 MySpace friendies and counting), a spot on tour with The Bravery, Elbow and most recently, Nightmare Of You. Oh, and Perez Hilton is obsessed with them ("Hot Sweaty Boys Make Hot Sweaty Music"). No big deal.

Get your hands and ears and everything else on the explosive British sound that's blaring out of Montreal's biggest speakers at The Mission's District's MySpace.

Everybody knows that music is all about borrowing, and in her new video, "So Human," Lady Sovereign shows you how to do it perfectly. First of all, she borrows the magazine layout theme from The-Dream and Kanye West, flashing between different animated cover shots of herself in a frenetic collage of color and attitude. Secondly, the song itself is an adaptation of The Cure's classic, "Close To Me." It's a perfect fit for the sassy Brit, who dominates the girl-rap game in crimped hair and neon clothes.

Lily Allen, be warned. Your British sass trophy isn't as safe as you may think (especially after human headline-generator Perez Hilton bad-mouthed Lady Sov at SXSW). This smirky-mouthed little spitter is ready and willing to give you a big run for your money with this brand-new, pop-inspired confection. Watch the video for Lady Sov's "So Human," right here!

Funeral Party are dance punks from a metal neighborhood. Sounds dangerous, right? Well, lucky for them, it turns out that violent disco is exactly what the East L.A. underground's been waiting for all along. Good sports Chad Elliott (vox, keyboard, laptop), James Torres (guitar) and Kimo Kauhola (bass) play like their lives depend on it, turning out jam after jam of frowny New York grit (The Rapture meets Blue Oyster Cult?), double-dipped in all-night L.A. gloss. Although, something tells us they may see things sliiightly differently...

Buzzworthy: In "NYC Moves To The Sound Of LA," you sing, "New York City loves to mess around with the L.A. sound." What is the L.A. sound and who in NYC is messing around with it?

Funeral Party: DOES IT REALLY MATTER? THE SONG ISN’T ABOUT JUST NYC; IN GENERAL IT’S ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING IS JUST A REPEAT OF ITSELF. C’MON YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THAT MORE THAN ANYTHING, YOU’RE MTV FOR %@#&’S SAKE.

BW: The Trail Of Dead tour never stops in New York. Do you hate New York?

FP: UM, YEAH, WE DID.

BW: What is L.A.'s equivalent of the Statue Of Liberty?

FP: THE STATUE AT THE HOMELESS SHELTER FOR FP: THE HOMELESS PEOPLE YOUR CITY HAS BANISHED TO LA.

BW: What's sitting in traffic like?

FP: IT’S THE SAME AS SITING IN TRAFFIC IN NYC.

BW: Mayor Bloomberg asked us to ask you how many of your songs are about Cory Kennedy?

FP: WHO THE HELL IS CORY KENNEDY?

BW: Okay, so how did Funeral Party come to be?

FP: WE ALL MET THROUGH MUTUAL FRIENDS IN HIGH SCHOOL.

BW: Did you take your name from The Cure's song (don't tell me it was the Ludmila Ulitskaya novel)?

FP: YEAH, IT HAD A BETTER RING TO IT THEN “ALL CATS ARE GREY.”

BW: You're doing a lot of traveling right now. What are you listening to on repeat between shows?

FP: DIAMOND DOGS' ALBUM AND REVOLVER.

BW: What's one thing you can't survive without on the road?

FP: IPODS AND LUDO (NOT THE BAND, THOUGH).

BW: How have your shows changed since joining up with Trail Of Dead?

FP: IT’S MORE OF A ROCK SHOW THAN A DANCE FEST, LIKE IT WAS TOURING WITH YELLE.

BW: What's more fun to play: Clubs or backyards?

FP: BACKYARDS ARE MORE FUN BECAUSE OF THE INTIMACY WITH THE AUDIENCE AND THE ENERGY OF IT ALL.

BW: You're on Fearless Records. Be honest. What are your fears?

FP: PLAYING WITH OTHER BANDS FROM OUR LABEL.

BW: What do you make of the 25 Things phenomenon on Facebook? Does anybody care?

FP: WE SURE AS HELL DON’T.

BW: What band would you want to play your funeral?

FP: APHEX TWIN

BW: Thanks Funeral Party!

+ Holy HELL.  Forget the Oscars -- give me Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the new X-Men Trailer.  NOW. (MTV Movies Blog)

+ She ain't eatin' no more Cheetos y'all! Whatever. Who am I kidding?  Love her or hate her, however, there is no denying the power of the machine that is Britney Spears. (MTV Newsroom)

+ When he was a young boy, Miley Cyrus' whipping boy Justin Gaston surely said to himself, "If I just do this one photo shoot for this one soft-core-male-erotic-magazine-hiding-under-the-guise-of-male-model-career-launching-publication then I just might make it big!"  (Towleroad)

+ Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson doing CSI?? WHYYY?? Cause they don't have more important things to do like, say, i dunno. RAISING THAT BEBE????? (The Awful Truth)

+ What's this?  The City's Whitney Port and her slimy Aussie beau Jay Lyon are still together, despite the trailer for next week's episode? Say it ain't so! (Party Girl)

+ (P.S. Happy Birthday, Whit) (Remote Control)

+ If you're like me, then you totally forgot about saltine short stack Lady Sovereign, who's a'channelin' The Cure for her latest single (hopefully minus Robert Smith's rat's nest)  (Popnography)

+ Kelly "I'll-never-be-as-big-as-Beyonce" Rowland (blessing or a curse? ya heard??) redeemed herself in much more important ways yesterday. (People)

The same West London scene that gave birth to Lily Allen, The Clash and pretty much everything British in between (not to mention Ealing, the hometown of Pete Townshend of The Who), has spit out another brilliant band of new-wave shoegazers called White Lies.

Formerly called Fear Of Flying, White Lies is made up of Harry McVeigh (vox, guitar), Charles Cave (bass) and Jack Lawrence-Brown (drums). The moody Brits have already been compared to The Killers, Interpol, Editors and others, but they name Talking Heads as their major influence. Despite all that, their nouveau '80s sound evokes adjectives more than it does band names. Adjectives like "spooky," "haunting" and "sinister." Like the soundtrack to a Donnie Darko sequel with vampires in it. And apparently we're not the only ones who think so, because White Lies just popped up on the massive and amazing Coachella schedule. Know what that means? It means start listening to White Lies NOW before you're officially the last to hear of them. Watch the video for "Death" below!

+ White Lies' self-titled major label debut is out March 23 on The Cure's Fiction Records (home of Kate Nash, Snow Patrol and Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

Lance Bass,

I will be honest. Until recently Dancing With the Stars was nothing more to me than another reality show where sports stars I wouldn't otherwise be able to identify went to breathe one last breath into their dying careers.

But with the inimitable Cloris Leachman, Kim Kardashian's rear, and, of course, you, Lance Bass, starring on this season's show, I knew I had to give it a shot.

And Lance Bass, after your performance last night, Tom Bergeron read my mind when he said why couldn't that have lasted longer? Lance, you and your rock-n-foxtrottin' partner -- Kat Von D in character shoes! -- quick-stepped to one of my favorite Cure songs, "Close To Me," (and they said it couldn't be done!), employing steps like "the gingerbread man," "Transformer," and, endearingly, "the prairie dog," and directives like "pee like a dog on a hydrant" and ended it with a devil-may-care kiss!

And I. Was. Hooked.

Tonight I'll be watching the third of this week's three (!!!) episodes without a shred of irony (alright, it's helped that I've been sick all week too), and I can honestly say I can't wait.

Godspeed you, Lance Bass. May you and Lacey Schwimmer rack up more points than David Hasselhoff on a breathalyzer.

And Clay Aiken, may you bloom and grow into a man as fine as Lance. And someday, if you ever do Dancing With the Stars -- excuse me, DWTS -- I'll be voting for you like your last name was Obama.

xoxo,
Tamar

+ PS: JONAS BROTHERS ARE ON DANCING WITH THE STARS TONIGHT!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Not since Sinead O'Connor ripped up a pic of the Pope and the Dixie Chicks trashed Bush has a musical act inspired as much controversy as Against Me! and the fan fallout that ensued after their switch from an indie to a major label. But, if you haven't crossed the picket lines into the anti-Against Me! camp, or clogged up PunkNews with vitriol, and you've been a true-blue fan since the first time Tom Gabel picked up a guitar, then there's a fair chance you consider Against Me! "your" band.

We know, we know: You've been listening to them since practically before they were a band. You have We're Here to Ruin Your Fun on tape, and Tom's First Demo is amongst your most prized possessions. You were actually AT the Laundromat shows. You could spend hours arguing Against Me!'s place within the anarchistic punk canon. You'd grab As the Eternal Cowboy and Reinventing Axl Rose if you were headed to a deserted island and could only bring along two albums. (And Crime as Forgiven By if you were allowed to bring an EP).

You swore you'd never love again when they left Fat Wreck for Sire (once home to The Ramones, The Replacements, The Smiths, The Cure and Dinosaur Jr.), but you pretended to be sick the day New Wave came out so you could stay home and spend some special "getting-to-know-you" time with the album, which reflected the band's misgivings and anxieties about signing to a major and "keeping it real" in the face of the punk police.

And above all else, you still know, deep down in your heart, that Against Me! shows are some of the most intense live shows you'll ever experience. And you're past the point of crying "sell out" when a band's outgrown an indie, right? Do we still hate it when our friends become successful? Anyway, we're just gonna borrow Against Me! for a week, okay? Just a week. Then you get them back.

Watch Against Me!'s "Thrash Unreal" video -- (it's one of our favorite tracks off New Wave) -- check out photos from their Artist of the Week shoot in New York, watch their MTV commercial spots, and witness the gospel of Gainesville's greatest all week long on MTV.