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Nick Lowe, Richard Thompson, Iron & Wine, Ugliest Dog   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Monday, June 25, 2007 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

 

NICK LOWE may be known for the british pub pop of "Cruel To Be Kind" and "Crackin' Up," but PopMatters has a piece on his recent career reinvention with songs like "The Club," from his new At My Age LP, which is rootsier than ever.  BTW, Lowe's age is 58; he first became a dad at 56. You can also stream a Lowe mini-set from the World Cafe via NPR.

RICHARD THOMPSON played DC's 9:30 Club Friday night so you can stream the gig on demand from NPR.  Mark Caro notes that some at RT's Park West gig in Chicago would have liked a chair.  RT talks to the Philadelphia Daily News he was "very cynical about the flower-power thing," but still thinks music can change the world, and embraces the Internet age.

INDIE SELLS OUT:  Little Steven Van Zandt writes about why he promotes indie bands for TV commercials.

IRON & WINE: The Shepherd's Dog doesn't come out until September, but there have been a few leaks in addition to "Boy With A Coin," there is the fab boogie of "The Devil Never Sleeps" and the laid-back "Carousel."

THURSTON MOORE of Sonic Youth is putting out his first solo LP in 12 years this September; it's primarily acoustic guitar and bass, but with guitar solo's from Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis.

THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT:  Hank Medress, a founding member of the 1960s doo-wop group the Tokens, died last Monday of lung cancer; he was 68.  Best known for "Wimoweh," natch.  BONUS:  They Might Be Giants paid tribute in "The Guitar."

PAUL WELLER and GRAHAM COXON will release a joint collaboration, entitled, ‘This Old Town,' via digital download on July 2nd.

THE EDITORS:  An End Has A Start doesn't come out until mid-July in the US, but you can stream the whole thing right now at TheirSpace.

LINDSAY BUCKINGHAM looks back at the Rumors LP, 30 years later, with Spinner.

JOHN DOE played a mini-set for NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, and compares his acting gigs to his music gigs for Pate magazine.

DAVID LEE ROTH had such an unquenchable thirst for sex during his Van Halen days that he gave generous cash rewards to staffers who supplied him with the hottest girls, according to a new, unauthorized bio of the platinum-selling band.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  The most expensive comedy ever, Evan Almighty, topped the box office, but with only 32 million -- well below even the 40 million studio lowball estimate.  Exit polls suggest that without "frequent church attenders," this film might have gone down as one of the biggest bombs in Hollywood history.  OUCH!  Recouping the 210 million budget, even worldwide, seems... unlikely.  Thriller 1408 debuted in second, making 20 million (on a 25 million budget).  The Fantastic Four flick plunged 65 percent in its second weekend, will likely make less than the original and about break even domestically.  Ocean's 13 made another 11 million, and is slightly ahead of where O12 was after three weekends.  Knocked Up rounds out the Top Five with another 10 million, breaking the 100 million mark on a 30 million budget.  Pirates 3 adds seven million to its total in the US and has made 872 million worldwide; it may win the ultimate battle with Spider-Man 3 (which fell out of the Top Ten this weekend).  Surf's Up pulled in 6.7 million in seventh place.  Shrek the Third crosses the 300 million mark in eighth place.  Nancy Drew didn't drop much, even in ninth place, but it didn't start well enough.  Rounding out the Top Ten is the debut of A Mighty Heart, with four million.

A MIGHTY HEART continued to cause controversy, on top of Jolie's attempts to control her press for the movie.  Paramount Vantage staged a Thursday night screening and discussion with participation from the Council on American-Islamic Relations to the dispair of Jewish activists and Judea Pearl, father of the late journo Daniel Pearl.  Apparently, they didn't think inviting a group recently named as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in connection with a Texas terror-financing trial was a good idea.  At the other end of the scale, Roger Ebert compared the US government and those who complain about the news to terrorists in his review of the flick, though neither group has a policy of beheading innocent civilians, last I checked.

BRADGELINA:  Jolie has cut funds to a charity named after son Maddox in his native Cambodia, according to reports.

FRENCH HOTEL at the GREYBAR HOTEL:  The heirhead is due to be sprung Tuesday.  The reportedly lucrative interview with NBC is off; while the Peacock denies it was ever on, the NYT reported on how ABC was outbid.  Instead, the celebutante will make her post-jail appearance on Larry King Live Wednesday night.  And the family has thought better of having a post-jail party.  BTW, Radar has a little something on the shrink who helped get her home release.

LINDSAY LOHAN is still in rehab, but after a divorce hearing, Dina Lohan's security guard and Michael Lohan traded some vicious barbs.  Let's go to the video.

BRITNEY SPEARS is set to join Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, Debbie Harry, The Dresden Dolls and more for the True Colors tour date in L.A. June 30th.  No mention of whether Rosie O'Donnell will be there.  X17 claims that the pop tart may be trying to get a restraining order against her mother.

EDDIE MURPHY is the father of "Scary Spice" Melanie Brown's 2-month-old daughter; at least that's what Brown's rep says of the DNA test results.

PAUL POTTS still has to get out of bed to go to work, but now his work will be singing opera for the Queen and recording albums for Simon Cowell's label.  Video from the opera singer's Today show appearance at the link.  (Thanks, Lance.)

LIV TYLER wishes she had French-kissed Kate Hudson when they played lesbian lovers in 2000 film, Dr. T and the Women.  Which may explain her enthusiastic greeting for Kate Bosworth earlier this month.

CAMERON DIAZ inadvertently offended Peruvians who suffered decades of violence from a Maoist insurgency by touring Peru Friday with a bag emblazoned with one of Mao Zedong's favorite political slogans.  She has apologized, saying she had no idea that the bag emblazoned with a red star she bought in the People's Republic of China had a Maoist slogan.

THE DARK KNIGHT has been shooting near my offfice for the past week, and is using the lot across from my home as a makeshift helipad as I write this, so I am reminded to point you toward video of the Batpod, as well as pics of Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart shooting down in Hyde Park.

BRITAIN'S FIRST MUSLIM MP is stepping down after receiving death threats over his role in bringing three racist killers to justice.

THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:  Scores of Emiratis are angry that a pig-shaped toy is being sold in local malls.  "There are some dirty games being played against our culture and religion," said local parents.

IRAN is in the throes of one of its most ferocious crackdowns on dissent in years, with the government focusing on labor leaders, universities, the press, women's rights advocates, a former nuclear negotiator and Iranian-Americans. (Pics here that you will not see as often as, say, pics from Abu Ghraib prison.)  Tehran is encouraging people who receive "immoral" messages on their mobile phones to report them to the judiciary and receive a reward.  Instead of freezing all nuclear enrichment-related activity, as the UN Security Council has demanded, Iran has accelerated the program.  So of course, the UN's nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei says we should be focused on normalization of ties between Iran and the West.  And as Iran's economy is tanking, Reuters runs a light-hearted story on Pres. Ahmadinejad consulting his butcher for economic advice.

IRAQ:  Bill Roggio rounds up news on the ops in Baqubah, Tikrit, Mosul, Fallujah and the "belts" around Baghdad.  US helicopters killed 17 Al Qaeda gunmen trying to sneak past a checkpoint in Baqubah.   Overall, Operation Phantom Thunder has netted 721 detainees so far, with 50 classified as leaders of cells and high-value targets, while Baghdad murders last week were down to 33, from 93 a week in January.  Michael Yon e-mailed that Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Baqubah was going well, though he elsewhere faults Iraqi commanders and US military media operations.  The commanders in the Baghdad "belts" also worry about the inadequacy of Iraqi troops (in numbers and equipment).  US forces using tips from Iraqi informants raided a safe house in Sadr City before dawn on Saturday and detained three militants with suspected of ties to Iran.  Prime Minister al-Maliki, citing a "misunderstanding" of an earlier remark, insists  that he supports the US tactic of arming Sunni Arab tribes to battle insurgents in Iraq.  And an Iraqi court has sentenced three former aides to Saddam Hussein, including the man known as "Chemical Ali," to death by hanging for their role in a 1980s genocide campaign that that killed up to 100000 Kurds (one of many figures that give perspective to the scale of violence in Iraq today).

ELWOOD, a 2-year-old Chinese Crested and Chihuahua mix, was crowned the world's ugliest dog Friday at the annual ugly dog contest at the Marin-Sonoma County Fair.

CHARLIE, a black lab, drove his owner's car into the Pend Oreille River in Sagle, Idaho.  Things got a little weirder when the tow truck driver showed up.

FIREFIGHTERS resuscitated four cats and an albino rat from a charred apartment in southeastern Idaho.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT:  A squirrel casing the Shanghai subway evaded security guards attempts to catch if for about seven hours.

KNUT UPDATE:  Despite recent high temperatures in Berlin, the celebrity polar bear cub isn't suffering from the heat, according to new infrared photos.

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