The chief digs his music, that much is clear.

That was a credible Al Green impression President Obama slipped into a speech during a Jan. 19 fundraising event at the famed Apollo Theater. Not only did the YouTube clip of the singer-in-chief go viral, it became its own music-industry stimulus package: downloads of Green's "Let's Stay Together" briefly jumped nearly 500 percent.

So it's no surprise to see that track on Obama's official campaign playlist, unveiled on Thursday.

These are the songs he'll be blaring at campaign events, so perhaps we should be reading between the song titles for political messages in "No Nostalgia" (AgesandAges), "Keep Marchin'" (Raphael Saadiq), "Keep Me in Mind" (the Zac Brown Band") and -- uh-oh -- "Roll With the Changes" (REO Speedwagon).

Here's the complete playlist ...

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

CHICAGO MIXTAPE
Speaking of mixtapes, Chicago Mixtape -- a spirited enterprise that delivers an album of cool new local music to your in-box every week -- is celebrating its one-year anniversary with, of course, a big concert. In that first year, Chicago Mixtape has spread the love of more than 300 bands (from brand newbies to icons like Andrew Bird and the Sea & Cake) and had to move its home-based start-up to a commercial level of service because of the bandwidth demand from more than 250,000 downloads. That means they could use some coin, and this weekend's concert -- featuring talented locals such as Elephant Gun, the Shams Band, Architecture and the Damn Choir, plus an art show -- is a fund-raiser.
Music starts at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at Subterranean, 2011 W. North. Tickets: $10. Call (773) 278-6600; subt.net or chicagomixtape.com.

A-TRAK
For a fabulous fleeting moment about a year ago, a dance-pop confection by Duck Sauce, titled "Barbra Streisand," was a viral thrill online. (Now it's in my head again. And I really don't mind.) Duck Sauce is a DJ duo, half of which is headlining the bill of like-minded dancefloor fun this weekend at Chicago's Mayhem party. The show features A-Trak from Duck Sauce, supported by local DJs Gun Love, Trentino and Phenom.
At 10 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Mid, 306 N. Halsted. Tickets: $15-$20. Call (312) 265-3990; themidchicago.com.

After the decades of substance abuse, fights, injuries, pathologies, legal hassles, breakups, floods, plagues of locusts -- it's a miracle the members of Megadeth are still able to stand, much less tour and record.

Small wonder they pray together backstage. Twice before each show, in fact.

"We haven't had bad stuff happen to us for a long time, but it used to be commonplace," says Dave Mustaine, the veteran heavy metal band's singer-guitarist and unmovable founding member. "We all -- well, not Chris [Broderick, guitarist] -- but we all enjoy praying before we go on stage. Our schedule is down to a routine. An hour before stage everybody has to leave [the dressing rooms] except family. Thirty minutes before, family has to leave. That's when me, Shawn [Drover, drummer] and Dave [Ellefson, founding bassist] do our first prayers. Ten minutes before stage, we then do a big group prayer. That's really grounding."

Her Super Bowl halftime performance Sunday night was clearly a flashy commercial for her upcoming album, but now Madonna also has announced the details of her world tour in 2012.

Among the first 26 concerts scheduled across North America is a show Sept. 19 at Chicago's United Center.

Jeff Mangum's fans called out to him during Monday night's concert at the Athenaeum Theater. Understandably elated to see Mangum after his 14-year disappearing act, fans shouted out questions between songs. Most of them were frightfully trivial, but one received a poignant answer.

"How do you feel about reincarnation?" someone asked.

"Well, I'm doing it right now," Mangum said.

Back in 1998, Mangum found himself knighted, canonized, deified. "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea," the surreal second album from his folk-rock band Neutral Milk Hotel, quickly surpassed its critical acclaim to become a holy relic -- and that was before Mangum finished the tour (including a stop at Chicago's late Lounge Ax), folded his tent and retreated not only from the business but from sight altogether. Before long, he'd become the J.D. Salinger of indie rock.

"American Idiot" is no dummy when it comes to timing.

First, if you're going to push a show onto a Broadway stage in this era, it's gotta rock. Show tunes, schmo tunes -- the most intriguing hits in New York these days are rock musicals. "Million Dollar Quartet," "Memphis," "Jersey Boys," "Rock of Ages," "Fela!" and even a recent revival of "Hair" -- they all crank it to 11, at least by Broadway standards.

Second, America might be in the mood for a little less escapism (run along now, "Legally Blonde") and a little more social statement. After a year of protests in parks and a lack thus far of similar sentiments in new pop music, what if some biting social commentary showed up at, of all places, the thee-uh-tah?

"Biting" is too strong a word for "American Idiot," the Tony-nominated rock musical based on pop-punk trio Green Day's 2004 concept album, but its classic outsider-in-the-big-city narrative at least reflects some of the potent alienation and post-9/11 jitters of contemporary youth in the composite characters Jesus of Suburbia, Whatshername and St. Jimmy.

Leave it to Madonna to transition from over-the-top Roman decadence to a gospel revival meetin' within the span of barely 15 minutes.

The veteran pop star's satisfying halftime spectacle in the middle of Sunday night's Super Bowl XLVI hopscotched through her musical career and featured its own second string team of special guests.

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

SMITH WESTERNS
When we talked to Chicago's Smith Westerns last spring, the band members (ages 19 and 20) were lamenting the stereotype of their youth. After a year of solid touring and festival shows supporting their acclaimed sophomore record, "Dye It Blonde" (and its great singles), Max Kakacek and brothers Cullen and Cameron Omori likely have aged a few extra years. They're finally back home this weekend.
Porcelain Raft and Bleached open at 9 p.m. Feb. 3 at Metro, 3730 N. Clark. Tickets: $16 advance, $19 day of. Call (800) 514-ETIX; metrochicago.com.

ESTELLE
British R&B supertalent Estelle -- writer, singer, rapper -- received her due attention in 2008 with a Kanye West/will.i.am collaboration, "American Boy." Much acclaim and a Grammy nomination later, she returns next month with her third album, "All of Me." The BET Music Matters Tour brings her through Chicago with Luke James and Elle Varner.
At 9 p.m. Feb. 3 at Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee. Tickets: $20. Call (773) 489-3160; doubledoor.com.

Paul McCartney, "Kisses on the Bottom" (Hear/Concord)

The idea sounded perilous -- Paul McCartney, one of the most revered writers in pop music, shifting gears into interpretive mode for an entire album of standards from the '30s and '40s. John Lennon used to knock's McCartney's "granny music" in the Beatles (specifically deriding "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"), and now here's McCartney at age 69, a grandfather himself, cooing through Johnny Mercer and Fats Waller? Should we expect a double bill at casinos this summer with Michael Buble?

McCartney, though, has been a nostalgic old fuddy-duddy since he was a teenager. "Yesterday" wasn't his only misty-eyed glance backward, and he was especially reflective on his last album of original pop, 2007's "Memory Almost Full." which found him examining his "Ever Present Past" as well as singing, "Don't live in the past" ("Vintage Clothes"). Never one to take his own lyrical advice, McCartney told Rolling Stone last year he's wanted to do an album of standards "since the Beatle days" and delayed it further with good reason: "But then Rod [Stewart] went mad on it. I thought, 'I have to wait so it doesn't look like I'm trying to do a Rod.'"

Blessedly, McCartney does not pull a Rod. "Kisses on the Bottom" is a trifle, for sure, but a largely pleasant one.

Mavis Staples will headline a tribute-heavy schedule at the 29th annual Chicago Blues Festival, scheduled June 8-10 in Grant Park.

Staples will cap the festival's final day -- a schedule that features all female performers at the Petrillo Music Shell, including a tribute to the Queen of the Blues, Koko Taylor, who died in 2009, by Melvia "Chick" Rodgers, Jackie Scott, Deitra Farr and Nora Jean Brusco.

Other top slots go to Texas Johnny Brown -- a jazzy Houston guitarist who toured with Bobby "Blue" Bland and Junior Parker -- on June 8 and Floyd Taylor on June 9. Taylor is a Chicago native, Dusable High School grad and son of the great Johnnie Taylor.