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Robert Pollard, Iron & Wine, Stars. Killers, Elephant Darts   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Monday, December 03, 2007 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

ROBERT POLLARD kicked off his two-city tour at Chicago's Metro Friday night, theoretically in support of the two albums the fmr Guided By Voices frontman released in October. The first hour of the show tended to favor the more rock-flavored Standard Gargoyle Decisions album, while the second hour tended to favor the poppier Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love album, both of which are still streaming in full from Merge Records.  (If you don't have time to listen to both you can compare more rockin' tracks like "The Killers," "Pill Gone Girl," and "Spider Eyes" with poppier tracks like "Rud Fins," "Current Desperation (Angels Speak Of Nothing)," and "I Clap For Strangers" via the ol' HM at the moment.  The second hour also featured a short break for most of his backing band, during which Bob was accompanied only by electric guitar on a couple of classics, like GbV's anthemic "I Am A Scientist," which turned up at the end of a recent episode of the his TV show Samantha Who?  Pollard was fairly selective with his older material though a particulalrly jaunty "Dancing Girls And Dancing Men" from Pollard's From A Compound Eye album was a highlight.  "Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft," also from FACE, turned up during the encores, as did GbV faves like "Game Of Pricks" and "Shocker In Gloomtown" (there isn't a good version of the latter online, so that last link is a cover by The Breeders, with GbV making a cameo).  Pollard & Co. also turned in a scorching cover of The Who's "Pictures Of Lily" during the first encore.  I don't recall whether "Cut-Out Witch" closed the regular set or was an encore, but this clip from Pollard's 50th birthday part illustrates the kind of mania that can sweep over the crowd once Pollard gets rolling.  Speaking of which, all three hours featured Pollard's prodigous drinking, as well as his generousity in handing his bottle of Cuervo to the crowd on serveral occasions (they returned the favor by providing the cigarettes, he was not supposed to be smoking onstage).  You can check out pictures from the show at the Underground Bee; Friends of Pate may recognize that one guitarist for Pollard's specially recruited band was Dag Juhlin, of fmr Pate labelmate The Slugs.

LED ZEPPELIN:  Rolling Stone has a behind-the-scenes piece on their reunion gig (and possible tour), as well as a reprint of the band's 1975 interview with Cameron Crowe.  For a more pomo take on the band, Ann Powers has a piece in the L.A. Times about how she learned to stop worrying and love the Zep.

IRON & WINE:  Sam Beam stopped by for a solo acoustic segment on Morning Becomes Eclectic, which you can listen to or watch on demand via KCRW.

BRIAN WILSON and, DIANA ROSS were among those to receive lifetime achievement awards at the 30th annual Kennedy Center Honors.  The honorees met with President Bush at a White House reception on Sunday before the gala, which will be broadcast on CBS on Dec. 26.

TOM PETTY and the HEARTBREAKERS will play the SuperBowl Halftime Show in February.

STARS stopped by the World Cafe for an interview and mini-set you can stream on demand via NPR.

THE KILLERS release their second annual Christmas charity single, "Don't Shoot Me, Santa," which can be downloaded via iTunes.

CHRISTMAS SONGS, as recommended by Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer Ken Levine.  ALSO:  The 12 Coolest Christmas Albums Ever, according to Sun Media.

THE UGLIEST MEN IN THE HISTORY OF ROCK, according to the West Virginia Surf Report.

MICHELLE SHOCKED stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set showcasing her new gospel sound, which you can stream on demand via MPR.

THE 28 MOST RECOGNIZABLE GUITARS, with embedded video, courtesy of Blender magazine.

JANET RENO talked to the AP about the Song of America box set, which features new interpretations of seminal songs like "Dixie's Land" and "The Times They Are A Changin'" by artists including John Mellencamp, the Black Crowes, Martha Wainwright and Devendra Banhart.  The fmr Attorney General is listed as executive producer, but she credits her nephew-in-law, producer Ed Pettersen, with the heavy lifting.

THE McCARTNEYS:  The News of the World has the censored-but-still-NSFW hardcore shot of Heather Mills that belies her attempts to down play her past participation in a "sex educational manual."

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  The post-Turkey Day weekend is traditionally a turkey for the movie biz, and this weekend was no different.  Indeed, this past weekend looked almost exactly the same as the one before, just with lower totals.  Disney's Enchanted again took top honors with 17 million, a 50 percent drop from its big opening.  This Christmas held onto the second slot with 8 million (a 53 percent drop) and Beowulf held onto third with 7.9 million (a 52 percent drop).  Awake's debut in fourth place is about the only new element this weekend, earning six million or so.  Hitman dropped a slot, with 5.8 million (dropping 56 percent) to round out the Top Five.  Fred Claus held onto sixth place with 5.5 mil; August Rush held onto seventh with 5.1 mil.  No Country For Old Men popped up to eighth from 11th with 4.5 mil, though this was still a 42 percent drop.  Bee Movie slid from fifth to ninth with about 4.5 mil; with 117 mil so far on a 150 mil budget, it seems like all that hype was not enough.  Rounding out the Top Ten is American Gangster, with 4.2 mil.

TOM-KAT UPDATE:  Cruise's latest pic, Lions For Lambs, may lose 25 million bucks.  Busy Bee loves this picture of Tom-Kat, and so do I.

BRITNEY SPEARS celebrated her 26th birthday at the Scandinavian Style Mansion in Bel Air, but was apparently upstaged by the French Hotel.  The pop tart's pal Sam Lutfi has been subpoenaed by Fed-Ex's lawyer and will be questioned in January in the custody case.  A dramatic first attempt to serve Lutfi went awry and is now under investigation as a "vehicle vandalism incident."  And though Spears has already shot a music video for her next single, "Piece of Me," but she is launching a contest to see if her fans can do better.

MISS CONDUCT?  Authorities investigating allegations that Miss Puerto Rico Universe Ingrid Marie Rivera's dress and makeup were sabotaged with pepper spray during a Nov. 24 pageant in San Juan found no traces of the substance in her belongings.

JESSICA SIMPSON's rep denies reports that she received lip injections this past week.  She has just started naturally looking like a trout.

LINDSAY LOHAN isn't doing much to quell rumors that she's strapped for cash.  She has also broken up with Riley Giles, the 25-year-old snowboarder she met while seeking treatment at Utah's Cirque Lodge.

BRADGELINA:  Pitt is scheduled to announce plans to create more than 100 affordable, ecologically sound homes in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans.  This weekend, big pink houses were installed in the flood-ravaged neighorhood as symbolic stand-ins for those homes.

VICTORIA BECKHAM, a/k/a Posh Spice, is to bare all as part of an advertising campaign for fashion designer Marc Jacobs.

HOLLYWOOD'S TOP-PAID LEADING LADIES are disclosed by The Hollywood Reporter.

DENISE RICHARDS lost her mother to kidney cancer last week.  I wonder whether ex-hubby Charlie Sheen regrets sening Richards that e-mail reading, "Go cry to your bald mom, you (bleeping) loser."

JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT took the Internet to speak out about unflattering photos of herself snapped by the paparazzi: "A size 2 is not fat! Nor will it ever be..."  So true; it's really only an issue for people who make a living looking like Jennifer Love Hewitt once did.

EVEL KNIEVEL, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil, whose bone-breaking, rocket-powered jumps and stunts made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

VENEZUELA:  Pres. Hugo Chavez suffered a stinging defeat in a vote on constitutional changes that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely, the chief of National Electoral Council said Monday.

TEDDY BEAR JIHAD:  Thousands of Islamic fanatics wielding clubs and knives marched through the streets of Khartoum demanding the execution of teddy bear teacher Gillian Gibbons.  Unless you listen to the BBC, which described a small, "good-natured" crowd.  If you watched The View, you got to hear panelists wonder how arrogant westerners can demand that others learn our customs while we ignore the risk of being murdered over the naming of a teddy bear.  Aside from Whoopi Goldberg getting the facts of the case wrong (shocka!), the answer would be that there are plenty of Muslims who say the Sudanese are completely out of line in this case.  Fortunately, sources at the British Embassy in Khartoum said there were "high hopes" the 54-year-old from Liverpool would be on her way home as early as today.

MIDEAST MYSTERY:  Israel's top-secret air raid on Syria in September destroyed a bomb factory assembling warheads fuelled by North Korean plutonium, a leading Israeli nuclear expert has told The Sunday Times.  However, this seems more based on theory than intelligence.

IRAQ:  The number of Iraqis killed last month fell again, to the lowest monthly death toll since just before the 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine provoked a vicious cycle of retaliatory sectarian violence.  Sunnis jockey for influence by walking out of parliament (again) and waging a war of words in the neighborhoods of Baghdad.  Wired reports that the White House talk blaming Iran for destabilizing parts of Iraq changed Sunni attitudes toward the US.  Time asks whether the Shiite militia truce will last.  Nearly 6000 Sunni Arab residents joined a security pact with US forces in the north -- called the single largest volunteer mobilization since the war began.  The US military will carefully manage the growth of neighborhood police units credited with helping to curb violence in Iraq, aiming ultimately to move many into public work roles, a spokesman said on Thursday.  Many Shiites fear the units would become unaccountable militias operating under the pretext of fighting al Qaeda.  Iraq's main Sunni-led resistance groups have scaled back their attacks on US forces in Baghdad and parts of Anbar province in a deliberate strategy aimed at regrouping, retraining, and waiting out George Bush's "surge", a key insurgent leader has told the Guardian.  Grain of salt on that; considering the source -- it sounds a bit like wishful thinking.

IRAQ and the MEDIA:  The New Republic finally concludes it cannot stand by its Baghdad Diarist.  Unfortunately, that admission is buried at the end of a 14-page piece by TNR editor Franklin Foer that spends more time attacking the Army and those who were skeptical of those articles, and trying to show why he should keep his job, than in explaining why TNR lost faith in Pvt. Beauchamp's tales.

AN ELEPHANT totally hustles some humans at darts.

ROGUE CROC UPDATE:  Ukrainian officials summoned a vet Friday to determine whether a crocodile, captured after six months on the run, was comatose or dead.  We can only hope it's a clever ruse.

AMAZING CATS:  A 26-year-old domestic cat from Shropshire could be one of the oldest in the UK.  A feral cat from Tennessee cat survived for 19 days with a peanut butter jar stuck on its head.

RABBITS multiplying like... y'know... endanger the entire ecosystem of Macquarie Island -- one of Australia's ecological treasures.

MALE TOPI ANTELOPES get more than they can handle.

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