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Ian Curtis, Phoenix, Nada Surf, Puppy + Fart Machine |
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Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 08:00 AM Posted by: Karl
IAN CURTIS of Joy Division died 30 years ago yesterday. Former bandmate Peter Hook staged an exhibit and tribute. Entertainment Weekly has embedded a video of Hook and other bandmates (later to become New Order), and links not only to the classic "Love Will Tear Us Apart," but covers of the song by those influenced by Curtis and his band. PHOENIX played a Tiny Desk Concert at the offices of NPR. NADA SURF plays mostly covers for the World Cafe, though none matching the awesome photo at the link. KATE NASH stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set. PHOSPHORESCENT gets a twofer on the World Cafe. PUBLIC IMAGE LTD cranked out "Public Image" in a web-only performance for Fallon. Still sounds fresh. THE ANTLERS keep being told that their new concept album, about a dying woman, is a life-changer. But how much of an ordeal did they go through themselves? LAURA MARLING is profiled at The Atlantic. GENE SIMMONS has strongly denied allegations that he ‘humped' and ‘grinded' up against a hapless TV make-up artist earlier this year. DAVID LEE ROTH: Not just a gigolo. LINDSAY LOHAN is denying a report that she has a secret 36-year-old girlfriend. And will liklely use a volcano as an excuse to ditch court this Thursday. CHARLIE SHEEN has agreed to do 2 more years of "Two and a Half Men," for a little under two million per episode. JOHN TRAVOLTA & KELLY PRESTON are expecting, according to the uber-reliable Star. More reliable is the sad story that John's dogs were killed in an accident last week at Bangor International Airport in Maine. TIGER WOODS' wife Elin has enrolled in a college summer course. SARAH JESSICA PARKER says "You don't want to see me topless," and who am I to disagree? LeBRON JAMES is squashing the fast-spreading, and disturbing rumor of a sex scandal involving his mom and his teammate Delonte West. CHRIS KLEIN auditioned for Mamma Mia? I'm inclined to think this is a fake -- in which case it is his best acting work evah. ELTON JOHN is to headline Morocco's largest music festival, despite calls from Islamist political parties that the government should deny him entry. SAUDI WOMAN beats up virtue cop. The incident follows a wave of challenges to religious authorities. KOREA: South Korea will formally blame North Korea on Thursday for launching a torpedo at one of its warships in March, causing an explosion that killed 46 sailors and heightened tensions in one of the world's most perilous regions, US and East Asian officials said. IRAN: The Obama administration announced Tuesday a deal with other powers, including Russia and China, to impose a fourth set of sanctions on Iran in as many years, touching off a contest with Tehran to win support in the United Nations Security Council. But even if the new sanctions pass the Security Council it is unclear whether its provisions - including a mandate to inspect ships suspected of entering foreign ports with nuclear-related technology or weapons - will cause enough pain to force the country to halt uranium enrichment and cooperate with international inspectors. PUPPY + FART MACHINE = Let's go to the video. THE SQUIRREL THREAT: A militant rodent is suspected of knocking out power to a chunk of DeKalb County, GA. A HUGE HEN'S EGG: Possibly Britain's Biggest Ever. BO, the FIRST DOG, was not cheap.
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New Releases, Tom Petty, Frightened Rabbit, Rolling Stones, Baby Sloths |
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Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - 08:00 AM Posted by: Karl
TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS return with a hint of Zeppelin in the video for "I Should Have Known It," an advance track from next month's LP. Of course, they started with more than a hint of the Byrds on "American Girl," bookending your Twofer Tuesday. NEW RELEASES: Albums from Jamie Lidell, Band of Horses, LCD Soundsystem, Black Keys, Marching Band, and reissues from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Duran Duran are streaming this weeke at Spinner. FRIGHTENED RABBIT stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set. LANGHORNE SLIM did the four free songs thing at Daytrotter. EXILES on MAIN STREET: Keith Richards and Mick Jagger talk about their 1972 classic, while Don Was talks about today's expanded re-release. JANE SIBERRY is offering her catalog as free downloads. THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART go "Higher Than The Stars" and I won't spoil the surprise. THE NATIONAL: Matt Berninger talks to The A.V. Club about fatherhood, uncertainty and why he's really having fun when he sounds sad. THE HOLD STEADY: Finn and Kubler talk to Pitchfork about Slash, Titus Andronicus, aging gracefully, their new record, and life sans Franz. JOHN LYDON: The voice of the Sex Pistols and PiL talks to the New York Post about childhood influences, rejecting the Rock Hall of Fame, and more... SECOND BANDS: Carrie Brownstein writes about the times we fall in love with an artist's second or even third attempt. TIGER WOODS and his wife Elin are no longer speaking to each other, according to RadarOnline. RACHEL UCHITEL has signed a deal to get naked for Playboy Magazine - but there's a catch. KENDRA WILKINSON reportedly had her own manager secretly meet with Vivid in 2008 about releasing her sex tape, though she's fauxtraged in public. LINDSAY LOHAN: Falling for a new man in Cannes. AMY ADAMS had a baby girl. CHARLIE SHEEN is in heavy negotiations to continue with Two and a Half Men, but the parties remain far apart. KATE HUDSON does a wide-ranging interview with the Telegraph, but the part everyone will snark on is her comment about being comfortable with the imperfections of her body. JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS spewed the ‘N' word when he was banned from a United Airlines flight due to a drunken display, according to RadarOnline. SHIA LeBEOUF trashes Indiana Jones and the Kigdom of the Crystal Skull. BONUS: Oliver Stone played Cupid for LeBeouf and Cary Mulligan? MICHAEL DOUGLAS refused to sign a petition calling for director and convicted rapist Roman Polanski to escape extradition - insisting it would be "unfair" to support "somebody who did break the law." WOODY ALLEN, otoh, is still backing Polanski. And wishing America was a dictatorship. 20000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA: A battle between Disney and Fox? YEMEN: The leader of an Al Qaeda offshoot in Yemen vowed Sunday to protect a US-born Muslim cleric who has been placed on a CIA list of targets to be captured of killed. IRAN's deal to ship some of its low-enriched uranium abroad has created the illusion of progress in nuclear negotiations with the West, without offering any real compromise to the United States and its allies, who have demanded substantive negotiations on Tehran's broader program. Note that US officials refused to say which person in the government dreamed up the plan in the first place. IRAQ: The shell of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's efforts to produce a nuclear bomb is being slowly dismantled along the banks of the Tigris River, but its radioactive legacy lingers on. BABY SLOTHS: Let's go to the video. These orphans are brought to a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica to be cared for by sloth whisperer Judy Arroyo. FERRET LEGGING outrages animal welfare groups. THE SQUIRREL THREAT drives a family nuts in Trenton, NJ. A STARVING DOG was revived with the sugary sports drink, Lucozade. FLEAS attack a school in Gilbert, AZ, days after word of a bed-bug infestation at the East Valley Men's Shelter in Mesa.
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Don't Stop Believin', Bettye LaVette, Horse Feathers, RIP Dio, Cat & Puppies |
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Monday, May 17, 2010 - 08:00 AM Posted by: Karl
DON'T STOP BELIEVIN', with Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Sting, Shirley Bassey and Debbie Harry. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World, my friends. BETTYE LaVETTE is advance streaming Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook. HORSE FEATHERS doubled down for eight free songs at Daytrotter. AUDRA MAE, who describes her music as "a cross between Patsy Cline and Janis Joplin, but maybe more like Bonnie Raitt," stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set. THE XX, covered by... Shakira? RICHARD HELL & THE VOIDOIDS: Vintage video of "Blank Generation," with a little "Love Comes in Spurts." SHE & HIM: She talks to Drowned in Sound, while Him talks to Acoustic Guitar. (Thx, LHB.) BAND OF HORSES: Ben Bridwell talks to Billboard about signing to both an indie and a major. TIRED PONY: Members of Snow Patrol, REM/Minus 5, and Belle & Sebastian are forming a supergroup. She & Him will guest on their LP. RONNIE JAMES DIO, the metal god who replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath and later piloted the bands Heaven & Hell and Dio, has died, according to his wife and manager. He was 67. WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Iron Man 2 repeated at No. 1 with 53 million. It's 59 percent drop might worry Disney a bit, but breaking the 200 million mark in 10 days instead of 9 is not such a terrible thing, really. Robin Hood opened in second with 37.1 million and -- given the reviews and its surly star -- came closer to Tony Stark than most expected. That 200 million budet looms large, but Crowe & Co. will likely do much better overseas. Letters to Juliet went wide in the third slot with 13.8 million. Just Wright was just fourth, with 8.5 million -- on the low end of a Queen latifah opening. Rounding out the Top Five is the oh-so-leggy How to Train Your Dragon which piled up another 5.1 million, for a domestic total of 207.8 million. CLAUDIA SCHIFFER gave birth to a baby girl (her third child) on Friday. RUSSELL CROWE swore and stormed out of a BBC interview after he was accused of making Robin Hood sound Irish in his latest film. LINDSAY LOHAN is in denial - and may end up in jail. TOM CRUISE returned to Oprah, but didn't jump on the furniture. MARILYN MANSON & EVAN RACHEL WOOD are co-starring in Adam Bhala Lough's retro slasher film "Splatter Sisters." SCARLETT JOHANSSON & RYAN REYNOLDS: Trouble juggling work and marriage? ROMAN POLANSKI: Actress Charlotte Lewis came forward to claim that the director/convicted rapist sexually abused her in the worst possible way when she was just 16, while he was on the lam for US authorities. ISLAMISM in SWEDEN: The home of a Swedish artist who once drew a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog has been hit by a suspected arson attack, police said Saturday. The cartoonist is now in hiding. IRAN: A radical cleric - who also happens to lead Hezbollah - called Saturday for the creation of a "Greater Iran" that would rule over the entire Middle East and Central Asia, in an event that he said would herald the coming of Islam's expected messiah. CAT adopts puppies... Mass hysteria! AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A rare guinea fowl with four wings. ALLIGATORS, ANACONDAS, SPIDERS and a CHICKEN were rounded up at the scene of a sexual assault. THE SWARM: Now part of urban renewal. THE KATIPO SPIDER bites below the belt. A RANDY KANGAROO looking for love in all the wrong places is terrorizing women in a small Australian country town.
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The Cars, Nikki & Rich, Rolling Stones, Mynabirds, Cutout Bin, Gorilla Reunion |
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Friday, May 14, 2010 - 08:00 AM Posted by: Karl
THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE: ...with THE CARS! Circa 1979, before they got too wedded to computers. Your setlist includes "Good Times Roll," "Best Friend's Girl," "Candy-O," "Just What I Needed," "Bye Bye Love," "I'm In Touch With Your World," "Don't Cha Stop." BONUS: An equally vintage take on "Let's Go." NIKKI & RICH stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a chat and mini-set of Brill Building-style pop that's right in my wheelhouse. THE ROLLING STONES are streaming unreleased tracks from Exile on Main Street, plus picks from Liz Phair, Britt Daniel, Robert Randolph and more. ALSO: The Stones may play albums in full on their next tour. THE MYNABIRDS: Laura Burhenn (ex-Georgie James) talks to Paste about the slippery relationship of the personal and political, and her new project -- which she hopes sounds like Neil Young doing Motown (but maybe falls between Cat Power and Dusty Springfield, which is pretty good place to fall). You can stream the album at the link (or from Saddle Creek) or a couple of tracks via MynaSpace. MGMT did a set for a new web-based series, Live On Letterman. Streaming vid at the link. SUB POP has a free sampler for download at Amazon, with tracks from Beach House, Dum Dum Girls, Blitzen Trapper, Cocorosie and more... THE NATIONAL, particularly singer Matt Berninger, are profiled by the Village Voice. That's Matt in the new video for "Bloodbuzz Ohio." UPDATE: I forgot to mention that the band is streaming a live show on YouTube Saturday night at 8ET. THE NEW PR0NOGRPAHERS: Carl Newman talks to The Quietus about definitive records and revenge plots -- and shuffles his iPod for the Montreal Gazette. BEN FOLDS photographs the Tennessee flood for National Geographic. Yes, really. HIPSTER BANDS: A pronunciation guide. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS of Rock and Roll Roadies. CUTOUT BIN: From Solomon Burke to Supertramp, from Three Dog Night to the Buzzcocks, from Warren Zevon to the Jackson 5, plus the Records, Tegan & Sara, CCR, the Black Keys, and more -- this weekend's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM. NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Robin Hood, which is currently scoring 45 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; the romance Letters to Juliet, which is scoring 38 percent; and the rom-com Just Wright, scoring 42 percent. MATT LAUER has walked out on his wife of 12 years after she furiously accused the Today star of cheating with at least two women. UPDATE: Matt Lauer and his wife Annette are blasting the report. KENDRA WILKINSON: TMZ has screengrabs from the sex tape, undoubtedly leaked as part of the equally tawdry marketing of same. DAVID BOREANAZ made the mistake of texting with Rachel Uchitel. ROBERT PATTINSON & KRISTEN STEWART had a huge fight on the set of the Twilight Saga. KATE HUDSON is miffed that ex-bf A-Rod has taken up with Cameron Diaz. SEAN PENN pleaded no contest to vandalism, and was sentenced to three years of informal probation, 300 hours of community service, and 36 hours of anger management counseling. DANICA McKELLAR: The Wonder Years' Winnie Cooper -- and prominent mathemetician -- is selling the idea that math is sexy at Maxim. HEIDI & SPENCER: Living in squalor? ROGER CORMAN: The legendary B-movie mogul talks to The A.V. Club about the Blu-ray/DVD releases of Rock 'N' Roll High School and Suburbia, dropping acid in preparation for directing The Trip, making Little Shop Of Horrors in less than three days, why you can't blow up a high school to disco, and whether he's finally become part of the Hollywood establishment. THE 10 BEST STAND-UP COMICS of all time, according to Guyism. TERROR in NYC: Federal agents conducted Thursday morning raids in Massachusetts and New York in connection with the failed Times Square car bomb, and two people were arrested, federal authorities and witnesses said. IRAN: Al-Qaida operatives who have been detained for years in Iran have been making their way quietly in and out of the country, raising the prospect that Iran is loosening its grip on the terror group so it can replenish its ranks, former and current US intell officials say. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Minister warned the US and other Western nations on Thursday against imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. PAKISTAN: After years in which he became a familiar television presence, al Qaeda's number two leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has "gone dark," according to people who monitor audio and video messages released by the terror group. IRAQ: The White House is likely to delay the withdrawal of the first large phase of combat troops for at least a month after escalating bloodshed and political instability in the country. GORILLA & HUMAN REUNION: Let's go to the video. BLOSSOM the PIG received a letter from British officials encouraging it to register to vote in the general election. The Chicago Way goes global. THE KING OF HERRING has been found off the coast of Sweden for the first time in 130 years. JAIMIE the TORTOISE: 50 escapes in 34 years. None great. EATING A SLUG on a dare was a bad choice.
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Ben Folds, Band of Horses, PiL, Los Campesinos!, Turtle Slide |
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Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 08:00 AM Posted by: Karl
BEN FOLDS covers Elliot Smith's "Say Yes" for The A.V. Club Undercover. BAND OF HORSES is advance streaming Infinite Arms. PUBLIC IMAGE LTD. played DC's 9:30 Club last night, so you should be able to stream the gig on demand today. ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) is Guest DJ, so there's plenty of PiL, plus Jimi Hendrix, Dudley Moore and more in the latest installment of the long-running series. LOS CAMPESINOS! stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set. THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a chat and mini-set. DIANE BIRCH pulls off a number of tricks in one shot for "Valentino." STEPHIN MERRITT (Magnetic Fields) talks to PopMatters about the Realism album, and the legacy of 69 Love Songs. BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE talks to John Norris at Interview about putting the band back together. BIG STAR: A homecoming concert in Memphis turns into a tribute to the late Alex Chilton, with guests including former Big Star bassist Andy Hummel, R.E.M guitarist Mike Mills and The Raconteurs guitarist Brendan Benson. STEVE MASON (Beta Band, King Biscuit Time) talks to Drowned in Sound about Boys Outside, his first album under his own name. BONO drinks your milkshake. He drinks it up. CAMERON DIAZ is dating Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez... but he doesn't want her attending Yankees games. KENDRA WILKINSON: Her sex tape co-star is revealed to be her ex-bf Justin. Shocka. The mess may be affecting her marriage to Hank Baskett. MILEY CYRUS dirty danced with 44-year-old Adam Shankman at age 16. There is video. Mitigating factor: Shankman is openly gay. GWEN STEFANI is expecting her third child with rocker husband Gavin Rossdale, according to various reports. SEAN PENN - who was charged with battery in connection with a paparazzi run-in last October - copped a plea in his criminal case. GLEE creator Ryan Murphy has issued an open letter, urging people to boycott Newsweek until it apologizes for a now-notorious article about gay actors playing straight roles. Kristin Chenoweth also blasted the article. Tough call, as it only draws attention to Newsweek, which hardly anyone reads anymore. THE JERSEY SHORE cast was involved in three bar brawls in one night. DENNIS QUAID had to hit McDonald's to bulk up for the role of Bill Clinton in "The Special Relationship," which is about Britain, not Monica Lewinsky. BETTY WHITE: Last week, SNL - next year, the Oscars? TERROR in NYC: Officials investigating the failed car bombing in Times Square are still far from certain about the role Pakistani insurgent groups may have played in orchestrating the attempt, according to the Senate intell committee's top Republican. ISLAMISM in SWEDEN: Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist whose sketch of the Prophet Mohammad enraged many Muslims, was head-butted on Tuesday while giving a lecture about freedom of speech, he said. In March an American who called herself "JihadJane," was charged with plotting to kill the Swede and using the Internet to enlist co-conspirators. AFGHANISTAN: The UN is to investigate claims that a mysterious illness that has hit Afghan schoolgirls recently was caused by poison gas attacks. PAKISTAN: The Pakistani government did not arrest Taliban leader Mullah Omar, a senior Pakistani government official told The Cable. IRAQ: Politicians have reached an agreement to halt a four-month campaign to bar candidates from politics for ties to the Baath Party, American and Iraqi officials said, papering over the sectarian tensions it unleashed, at least for now, and removing an obstacle in the long-delayed process of forming a new government. TURTLE ON A SLIDE: Let's go to the video. SHARK in a pickup truck. A GIRAFFE kicked a woman to death at a game farm in northeastern South Africa. DELTA AIRLINES lost a dog, offers compensation to its owner.
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