NEIL ARMSTRONG, MUDDY WATERS AND NIRVANA are among 50 recordings being added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. The discovery of a previously unknown recording by jazz masters Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane was also announced Tuesday. Other inductees from the rock era include James Brown's 1965 Live at the Apollo, the Beach Boys' 1966 Pet Sounds, 1971's The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East and Public Enemy's 1989 Fear of a Black Planet.

THE BEES released their latest single, "Chicken Payback," o­n Monday. You can (and should) see their video to hear it. Would I steer you wrong? Yes; if I know you well enough, I probably already have. But really, what's to lose here? It's daffy fun, trust me.

ON THE PITCHFORK: Simon Rix lists Kaiser Chiefs' favorite albums and singles. Olivia Tremor Contol books two U.K. gigs and o­ne at the 40 Watt in Athens, GA. More, please.

DAVID LOWERY of CVB and Cracker gives a blogging friend advice o­n "How To Win Friends and Influence People in the Music Business."

COVERVILLE is always fun, but its latest podcast includes the Talking Heads' version of "Take Me To The River," which reminded me to recommend it here.

"SUPERFREAK!" It's hard to run for City Council if you are Rick James.

SIDEWAYS: According to Rex Pickett, the author of the book, the story is kinda autobiographical. BTW, kudos to the PR flack who got that story placed o­n the day the movie came out o­n DVD. And I must add that the DVD commentary by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church is quite fun.

SPEAKING OF DVD EXTRAS, The New York Times looks at those who have mastered the young art of turning the video edition of a film into a sui generis event, from menu design to bonus features.

SERIAL KILLER'S DAD sells DVDs of his son's confession, replete with details of of how he lured women to his house and strangled them. Now there's a guy intent o­n beating the fathers of Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Simpson in the creepiness sweepstakes.

LINDSAY LOHAN may be trying to take our minds off of that ugly Bruce Willis rumor with a Christian Slater rumor. Doesn't work for me; sure, Slater is closer to Lohan's age, but Willis has more showbiz clout.

BRITNEY SPEARS: In another sign of the apocolypse, the pop tart and hubby Kevin Federline will star in their own surreality series o­n UPN. No word o­n whether Vegas-based VIP Hostess Vanessa Hulihan, who issued a non-denial of hijinx with K-Fed, or a Kabbalah rabbi will have guest shots o­n the show.

DESPERATE DIVAS REDUX: Teri Hatcher tells her side of the photo shoot disputes linked here yesterday. So does Vanity Fair contributing editor Ned Zeman. Reading these articles together, o­ne gets the impression that ABC does not want Hatcher to be getting more attention than the other Housewives (as she has been), and that Vanity Fair may have purposefully violated ABC's conditions to generate the kerfuffle and get pub for their mag. If I was really conspiratorial, I'd note that the show has returned for its big finale in sweeps season, too.

MADONNA has been cut out of husband Guy Ritchie's latest movie. A source is quoted by ContactMusic as saying, "Perhaps Guy did not want Madonna's kiss of death o­n his latest movie, or perhaps he just decided the scene wasn't quite right, but either way Madonna does not make the final cut." I vote for both of the above.

STARBUCKS is going to start selling CDs by new artists.

WEDDING LANTERNS sparked a UFO scare near Leez Priory in Britain.

GOOGLE will soon let the general public upload self-produced videos to its servers, according to co-founder Larry Page.

WHO DO YOU TRUST? Let's consult the brain scan.

JOHNNY GOSCH: If you attended Iowa State University at the time Pate was active, you probably recognize the name. The Des Moines Register has run a story about a wacky theory that the Iowa paperboy kidnapped in 1982 and never found is former White House correspondent Jeff Gannon, exposed in February as James Guckert, a man with no journalism experience and links to several gay escort addresses o­nline. Register staffer Erin Crawford notes that "The Gannon-Gosch conspiracy theory first appeared o­n the message board of a liberal political site called The Democratic Underground on Feb. 26." She also notes Sherman Skolnick's posts at Rense and Jeff Wells' blog, Rigorous Intuition. Anyone who visits these sites can figure out their politics, which makes Crawford's insertion of Rush Limbaugh into the story almost as wacky as the the Gosch-Gannon theory itself. The story says o­nly that he talked about Gannon (as did many others), not Gosch; the idea that Limbaugh would be claiming President Bush is involved with a government-run pedophile ring seems unlikely.

RELIGION AND JOURNALISM: There were 35,000 new major media stories o­n the Pope in the 24 hours after his death Saturday. Yet Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz told his weekly chat audience: "None of the networks has a fulltime religion reporter. Two of the three newsmagazines haven't replaced religion reporters who have left."

NPR's WHITE NOISE: Columnist Eric Deggans writes that "public radio - especially NPR's signature shows - just feels too darn white."

VIGILANTES AID ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT: The Border Patrol and human-rights groups have criticized the monthlong Minuteman Project, which is described as a protest of the federal government's inability to control the U.S.-Mexican border. However, in the first documented encounter between the Minutemen and Mexican nationals sneaking across the border, volunteers gave aid to a lost, emaciated and dehydrated man. The Border Patrol is still unhappy.

FEMALE BOXER DIES AFTER K.O.: Becky Zerlentes, 34, died Sunday from a head injury sustained in a Golden Gloves competition. The story avoids any reference to Million Dollar Baby.

GREEN DAY was baffled that the Marriott Marquis rejected the Independent Film Channel's billboard featuring the heart-shaped grenade gripped by a bloodied hand from the cover of the band's American Idiot. IFC exec Evan Shapiro smells politics, dismissing the stated reason that the ad was "distasteful." Politics is possible, but this eyewitness account of people falling to their deaths from the WTC and "piling up o­n the Marriott Marquis" o­n September 11th might explain why the hotel might not be keen to be displaying the bloody grenade.

WHY DID THE WTC COLLAPSE? A new report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology finds that the twin towers' design performed fairly well. The Village Voice provides the layperson's explanation: "The NIST, using computer models and mathematical analysis based o­n video and photographic evidence, says the fires were so hot they caused the outer walls o­n the impact side of each of the buildings to bow inward. Eventually the top of each tower began twisting and bending, and the columns were unable to hold the weight of the floors above."

BOYS AND GIRLS think differently from birth?

BILL GATES: wanted a drawbridge for his property in the Bronx, according gossip columnist Cindy Adams.

TONY BLAIR has asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament next week, setting a general election for May 5th. Current predictions are for a decent, but smaller majority for Blair's Labour Party, but opinion polls suggest Labour's lead over the Tories has slipped. American pollster Frank Luntz, who was a political commentator during the 1997 and 2001 elections, conducted a focus group and writes that "never have I seen voters so disgruntled as now."

A CHINESE FOOD DELIVERY MAN was found trapped in a broken elevator Tuesday, more than three days after he was reported missing. The Chinese community feared that Chen might have been a victim of robbery or foul play by immigrant smugglers. I'm sure he survived o­n the food he was supposed to deliver, but ten minutes later... Thank you very much; don't forget to tip your waitress.