MITCH EASTER talks to Greensboro's Yes! Weekly about his first album in 18 years. You can -- and should -- stream a few from Dynamico at HisSpace. (For you youngsters, Mitch produced the first REM albums and sounds a bit like them or Robyn Hitchcock.) Sadly, all of the Let's Active videos I linked last November have been yanked by Viacom, though a copy of "Waters Part" just crept back a few days ago. And they didn't touch a two-part live mini-set from 1989: Part 1 features "Talking To Myself" and "Writing The Book Of Last Pages." Part 2 features "Horizon" and "In Little Ways." And there's a Let's Active MySpace also. The Man can't bust Mitch's music!

THE PAZZ & JOP POLL 2006 is posted at the Village Voice. An old dude from Minnesota takes the top slot. Former P&J curator Robert Christgau has all the past years' results, back to 1974... or 1971.

SLY & THE FAMILY STONE: Tom Moon of NPR serves up streams from Fresh, the band's last album and this week's "Shadow Classic."

THE SAMSHING PUMPKINS "reunion" album will be titled Zeitgeist, with the unusual Saturday release date of 07-07-07.

MIDLAKE: Creative Loafing talks with frontman Tim Smith about the band's evolving sound, which currently owes much to 70s soft rock (but better). Chromewaves can hook you up with audio and video; so can the Hype Machine.

SEEN YOUR VIDEO: I was having some bigtime computer problems while working o­n this entry, but I am still "Takin' Care of Business." BTW, this live BTO clip has an odd cameo introduction.

SxSW: A few of my fave music blogs -- Chromewaves, Largehearted Boy, Gorilla vs. Bear, MOKB, Rock Insider, and YANP -- are curating "Hot Freaks," with 32 bands o­n three stages in two days for the Austin musicfest. GvsB will hook you up with free legal downloads from participating bands.

TOP TEN WORST PROPOSITIONS in song, according to Stylus.

GARY GLITTER'S three-year child molestation sentence was cut by three months as part of a nationwide Lunar New Year prison amnesty in Vietnam.

FRANKIE LAINE, the big-voiced singer who sold more than 100 million records, died of heart failure at 93. Today he may be best known for singing Western themes like "Rawhide," "High Noon" and... "Blazing Saddles."

BRITNEY SPEARS was dumped over the phone by Issac Cohen, who calls her "a bit much for my taste." The pop tart has blurted out that she feels old at 24. It's not the years, hun; it's the mileage. And, if you believe Fed-Ex's minions, the lesbian orgies.

JESSICA BIEL takes Lindsay Lohan's role in A Woman of No Importance.

LINDSAY LOHAN: Speaking of whom, FNC's Roger Friedman says she is doing pretty well... considering her dad's in jail and her mother is a party animal. Kind of a backhanded compliment, really.

REESE & RYAN BREAK-UPDATE: "A source" tells US Weekly that Ryan Philippe is not dating 18-year-old actress Nikki Reed -- she's dating a friend of his. Isn't everyone supposed to outgrow that o­ne in high school?

RYAN O'NEAL is claiming he hit his son Griffin in self-defense. Griffin and his pregnant girlfriend deny that, and have retained celeb lawyer Gloria Allred.

KIM KARDASHIAN'S NASTY SEX TAPE with R&B singer Ray J has been bought by pr0n purveyor Vivid Video, which plans to release it Feb. 28th. There's even a trailer floating around somewhere.

DREW BARRYMORE and ZACH BRAFF were looking cozy at the SNL after-party last weekend. Barrymore's rep denies she's dating the Scrub.

ELLEN DEGENERES and PORTIA DE ROSSI are planning o­n starting a family - as soon as they can decide which o­ne of them will carry a baby. C'mon, I thinbk we know which o­ne wears the pants in that relationship.

MISCHA BARTON: The former O.C. hottie dumped scruffy rocker Cisco Adler after nude pics of him surfaced in that French Hotel stuff leaking o­n the Internet.

HANNIBAL LECTER is looking for his penis and severed head o­n eBay.

CHARLIZE THERON, having made a film that is critical of censorship in Fidel Castro's Cuba, is apparently so scared of being ostracized in Hollywood that she's claiming the US is not much better. At least, you would hope she recognizes the difference between private and government-imposed censroship, and knows that Cuba is o­ne of the world