Okkervil River, The Hold Steady, The Soup Nazi and the Monitor Lizard

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

GIANT DRINKING BIRDS: It's Friday… need I say more?

FRIDAY TIMEWASTER: Stack The Cats. Like Tetris, but with, you know… cats.

OKKERVIL RIVER: I have been remiss in failing to mention Okkervil River here. The band's latest album, Black Sheep Boy, rates Metacritic scores of 85 from critics and 9.3 from users. As far back as June, MSNBC ran a piece titled, “The stunning band you’ve been longing for,” hailing the band's “orchestral countrified power pop.” Frontman Will Scheff used to be a music critic for the Austin Chronicle and his lyrics are often compared to those of Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy. Black Sheep Boy and the impending Black Sheep Boy Appendix (due Nov. 22nd) pay tribute to 60s folk casualty Tim Hardin. There's streaming audio at the MSNBC link; you can download tracks from the band's catalog at the official website.

DEERHOOF drummer Greg Saunier talks to the University of Colorado Denver's Advocate: “We all quit our jobs about two years ago. The only way we could make enough income to survive was to tour more.” Always nice to give the drummer some.

MY SPACE: London's Guardian catches on to the social network's explosion, as noted here yesterday. Though Rupert Murdoch's recent purchase of the site shows just how savvy his empire is, it may be a misstep to spin off a record label with Interscope, because it feeds the suspicion that new media is being swallowed by old media.

GOOD VIBRATIONS: Build your own junior theremin.

THE “WHERE ARE THEY NOW?” FILE IS filled with hair metal.

BEATALLICA: If you haven't heard the band, it sounds very much like its name. For legal reasons, their material is all freely downloadable, including the five tracks available at veritas lux mea.

THE LIGHT FOOTWORK: You Ain't No Picasso calls them “your new favorite band.” Matt of YANP likens them to Beulah and the Unicorns; there's a fair amount of the “Elephant 6 collective” (Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples In Stereo, etc.) there too. Two of the MP3's at YANP are available directly from the band, but I don't think they mind that third track, either, as they acknowledge YANP right on their home page.

LOOKING FOR MP3s? Hublog has developed a plug-in for the Firefox browser for quick-searching the Hype Machine MP3 blog aggregator.

KANYE WEST is in the middle of a bitter pay dispute after members of his video production crew failed to receive a salary. Worse, he's getting stalked by John Mayer.

THE NATIONAL have given up their day jobs and signed with Beggars Banquet when the money ran out. Allmusic says “The National ultimately present melodious and inspiring compositions also enlightened by a set of influences, including country-rock and even British pop/rock.” The band has free MP3s, so you can give 'em a spin.

THE BELLRAYS: A critic for the Calgary Sun writes: “If you love rock 'n' roll, and if you believe, at its very best, at its purest, it can change your life, if only for a couple of hours, then you need to see them.” The band has WMA downloads available.

STING STUNG: A concert by the normally enviro-friendly former Policeman was recently sponsored by the world's dirtiest airline.

THE HOLD STEADY: I'm reposting this NPR profile with streaming audio in part because “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night” is a cool song, but also because webvomit is killing music with the band's cover of “Hey Hey What Can I Do.” Not that I would download it, but I'm sure the lads would do a boffo version of the classic Zeppelin flip side to “The Immigrant Song.”

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: Is Moss so addicted to Doherty that she will ignore her drug counsellor's advice and see the troubled singer again? Is a Moss-Doherty sex tape floating around London?

ASHLEE SIMPSON: We do know there is video of the less attractive and improbably less talented Simpson sister spectacularly drunk and obnoxious in a Canadian McDonald's for the whole world to mock.

MADONNA stole the show at the MTV Europe Music Awards on Thursday. Robbie Williams said, “She's amazing. She's an absolute legend. I can't believe she's 89 and looks like that.” Host Sacha Baron Cohen (a/k/a Ali G and others) remarked, “It was very brave of MTV to start the show with a transvestite.”

GWEN STEFANI, responding to a catty comment from Madge, says she doesn't copy Madonna, but was as influenced by her as anyone her age. Her current solo tour is being called “far closer to a Madonna-like extravaganza than a No Doubt tour.” But the critics aren't happy about it. Thanks to Flickr, you can check her myriad of costume changes for yourself.

LOHAN LOWDOWN: I'm sure the New York Post juxtaposed a picture of Lindsay Lohan dressed as a slutty firefighter with a story about a man posing as a fireman to rape a woman on Halloween by accident, really.

BRITNEY SPEARS: Us Weekly reports that has kicked her husband Cletus out of their Malibu home and demanded a trial separation. K-Fed is reportedly spending his time clubbing, drinking and smoking the ganja. And Shar Jackson, K-Fed's other baby mama, seems to be enjoying the comedy of it all: “C'mon, kiddo, did you think things were going to be different? Kevin was there for (daughter) Kori every single day of her life until I told him to go out and get a job.”

AL PACINO admits it's been mostly downhill for him since Dog Day Afternoon.

VAUGHNISTON: Aniston is looking to buy a house in Chicago, where Vaughn's family lives, and even considering having a baby with Vaughn. Let's hope Vince leaves fewer bruises than Clive Owen.

JARHEAD: At presstime, the Gulf War drama was scoring a rotten 53 percent on the Tomatometer. But as a public service to the ladies (and gay men who can't wait for Brokeback Mountain), I note that Jake Gyllenhaal is naked in a Santa hat.

THE SOUP NAZI launched his first chain soup store, but without the word “Nazi.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Soup Nazi didn't bother to show for the opening.

CHIP KIDD is an incredibly talented book designer. The fact that he often works on comics-related projects is just icing on the cake. The New York Times notes his superhero-related books, but if you look at a page from his Peanuts book, you can see the sort of thing that inspired the booklets that come with the Pate boxes.

PETRA NEMCOVA accepted Glamour magazine's “The Survivor” award after losing her boyfriend and almost dying herself in the last year's tsunami. It turns out that she's not just a supermodel, she's a Supermodel: “I've been very fast with the recovery. Some people do it in two years and I did it in three months.” Nemcova is no spoiled, stupid little stick figure with poofy lips who thinks only about herself… she's Wolverine.

THE SUPREME COURT: The L.A. Times reports that liberals who have worked with nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. say he is fair, not a rigid ideologue.

IRAQ: Reuters reports that the U.S. Army is adapting its training to “the war of the flea,” but it sounds like the internet is allowing the troops to adapt faster than Army institutions.

MUSTAFA SETMARIAN NASAR, an al Qaeda leader in Europe the suspected mastermind in the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings, and an early suspect in the first London bobings in July, may have been killed in Pakistan.

RIOTS IN PARIS ENTER A SECOND WEEK, gaining fresh momentum as youths shot at police and firefighters, and attacked trains despite more than 1,000 riot police patrolling the streets. Press outlets are starting to notice that France, like other countries in Europe, is showing a growing intolerance for those who follow alien customs, overburden welfare systems and foster radical Islam. An American student in France e-mailed screenwriter Roger L. Simon with some interesting observations about the attitude of the French people toward the US and the prospects for a brutal crackdown on the rioters.

PETTING ZOO CLOSED over fears of a deadly bacterial infection.