This week's Playlist is all comeback kids ...

Public Image Ltd., "This Is PiL" (PiL Official) -- Anger is still an energy for John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), returning to his post-Sex Pistols gang -- the mostly adventurous Public Image Ltd. -- with the first new PiL music in two decades. Featuring the latest lineup of guitarist Lu Edmonds, drummer Bruce Smith and bassist Scott Firth, "This Is PiL" comes on like the Big Audio Dynamite reunion at last year's Lollapalooza -- you think it's just a nostalgia romp, but it fits into current scenes and sounds better than expected.

It's not about Whitney.

Fans have been scratching their heads over Bobby Brown's latest single, "Don't Let Me Die," the harbinger to his first solo album in 14 years due next week.

The song, a plain lamenting ballad, begins with Brown -- former husband of Whitney Houston, who died in February -- singing, "Been 'bout a month since you been gone / I guess it's pretty clear that you ain't coming home." The video features some funereal imagery, and the song ends with a long exhale and the sound of a heart monitor.

Some have wondered: Is Brown pimping our Whitney grief?

A look ahead at shows worth seeing (and hearing) this week ...

DAVID GUETTA
The No. 1 DJ in the world returns to raise the roof (possibly literally) at the Congress, ahead of a summer full of festival bookings, the return of the Electric Daisy Carnival and a residency in Las Vegas. The Frenchman knows he'll be in the motherland this weekend: "It's interesting because [dance] music was born in Chicago with house music and Detroit with techno, and we took it in Europe and turned it into something trendy and cool, crossing-over and playing it on the radio," he recently told the Hollywood Reporter.
At 7:30 p.m. May 25 at the Congress Theater, 2135 N. Milwaukee. Tickets: $48.50-$125. Call (773) 276-1235; congresschicago.com.

DOWNTOWN SOUND
The city's annual free Downtown Sound concert series kicks off Monday evening with two underappreciated local heroes: Kelly Hogan, the former Rock*A*Teen longtime Chicago omnipresence, and Scott Lucas & the Married Men, the rootsy side of Local H's Lucas. Both have new albums due on June 5: Hogan's "I Like to Keep Myself in Pain," and "Blood Half Moon" from Lucas' Married Men.
At 6:30 p.m. May 28 at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. Admission is free. Visit the site.

Believe it or not, Justin Bieber is not only about to release his fourth album, he's about to kick off a North American tour -- which comes to the Chicago area Oct. 23-24 at the Allstate Arena.

Bieber announced his tour plans today, a few weeks ahead of releasing "Believe," due June 19, featuring duets with Drake, Nicki Minaj, Big Sean and Ludacris.

Pop music and comedy have been friends with benefits since Stan Freberg lampooned culture via song in the 1950s. Their occasionally legitimate offspring has included a motley crew of court jesters from Sheb Wooley ("Purple People Eater") to "Weird Al" Yankovic's parodies to the wink-wink schlock of Tenacious D.

LMFAO -- named for a colloquial online acronym implying a high-degree of hilarity (more on that below) -- is the latest pop duo throwing their dignity at your funny bone. Wild glasses, crazy costumes, skits and songs about partying, partying and more partying -- if it means guiding you into their low-rent escapism, these two have little shame.

"It could be an inflatable palm tree," LMFAO's Redfoo said in a recent conference with reporters. "It could be a shuffling zebra that will just kind of make you feel like you're in a dream. I think that's the main thing with the costumes and the colors. Some things are random. Sometimes you might just get a grown-up guy in a hot dog suit. Why? There is no reason why. That is exactly why. ... It's like Halloween in the daytime."

The Bee Gees came in threes, but which one was Robin?

Not the tinny falsetto voice that became the hallmark of the trio's pop and disco hits -- that was bearded brother Barry. Robin was the thin one with the wispy hair, wonky overbite and the quivering, tender tenor. When the fraternal group began, in fact, Robin was the lead singer.

After a lengthy battle with cancer, a family spokesperson confirmed Sunday that Robin Gibb has died at age 62.

Here are five tracks from the group's catalog that best showcase Robin's unique contribution to an initially inherent British, folkie-pop sound:

Friday afternoon at Daley Center, folk-rocker Tom Morello roused the rally organized by National Nurses United by playing inspirational union songs. Then he tried to lead a sing-along of "This Land Is Your Land." But the crowd was young and, well, many didn't know the words.

That was not a problem Saturday night.

Closing out a sold-out show -- a concert called This Land Is Your Land: A Centennial Concert Celebration of the Legendary Woody Guthrie, at Metro in Wrigleyville -- Morello and the entire bill of more than 30 local musicians and international icons crowded the stage and sang every line to Guthrie's unofficial national anthem without any audience coaching. This crowd, though, was (at least in comparison with the usual rock mobs at Metro) not young. Many even knew the "censored" verses.

Saturday's tribute show crystallized in music much of what was being chanted, debated and discussed across Chicago during the weekend of the NATO summit and its corresponding protests.

Into her 60s, the girl still worked hard for the money.

In fact, in 2008, just before turning 60, Donna Summer had a No. 1 dance hit with "I'm a Fire." That meant she, along with Cher, had scored a No. 1 song in each of the last four decades. Only Madonna has charted more dance hits than Summer.

But the record stops there: Summer has died at age 63 after a battle with cancer.

Her family released a statement, saying Summer died Thursday morning and that they "are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy." Summer had been living in Englewood, Fla., with her husband Bruce Sudano.

The five-time Grammy winner sold more than 130 million albums and contributed, as much as the success of the Bee Gees, to making disco wildly popular in the 1970s with hits such as "Could It Be Magic," "Love to Love You Baby," "I Feel Love," "Bad Girls," "Last Dance" and the No. 1 "Hot Stuff."

Various Artists, "Occupy This Album" (Music for Occupy)

An opus of 99 songs for $9.99 claiming to speak for the 99 percent, "Occupy This Album" is fortified with polemic and rhetoric in its titles alone: "Take a Stand," "We Stand as One," "Hell No (I'm Not Alright)," "We're the 99," "Fight the Good Fight," "People Have the Power." It's not all bombast and barricades, though. As diverse as the movement itself, this four-CD set is a sprawling, sometimes silly and sometimes satisfying set that -- while not offering much in the way of chart-topping, paradigm-shifting populism -- at least offers up a few answers to those asking, "Where's all the protest music?"

A look ahead at shows worth seeing (and hearing) this week ...

BONNIE RAITT
One of rock's finest interpreters, Bonnie Raitt, 62, has re-emerged after a seven-year recording hiatus with yet another set of perfectly pleasant, well-chosen and occasionally daring songs, "Slipstream." With her honey-smooth voice and take-it-easy guitar playing, she'll hold down two nights this week in Chicago.
Marc Cohn opens at 7:30 p.m. May 19-20 at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State. Tickets: $39.50-$75. Call (800) 514-ETIX; jamusa.com.

FANTABULOSO
Another package show from WKSC-FM (103.5), the Fantabuloso bill features Enrique Iglesias (who's getting around this summer and will be at the United Center Aug. 3 with Jennifer Lopez), Gym Class Heroes, B.O.B., the Wanted, Karmin, Cobra Starship, Havana Brown, Neon Hitch, Dev and Outasight, Carly Rae Jepsen and -- just added -- Adam Lambert. That's a lot of short sets.
At 5:30 p.m. May 18 at Allstate Arena, 6920 N. Mannheim Rd. in Rosemont. Tickets: $25-$95. Call (800) 745-3000; ticketmaster.com.