Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
… with the late, but ever-wicked WILSON PICKETT delivering a blistering performance of “Land of 1000 Dances,” to a fevered crowd, complete with circa-60's stage-diving. Naa, na na na naa, na na na naa, na na naa, na na naa, na na na naa!
FRIDAY TIMEWASTER: A Yeti icicle-throwing game, with a cute penguin. No, you don't throw the icicles at the penguin…
CALEXICO gets a nice blurb with plenty 'o' download links at *Sixeyes, including a legal download of the band's version of the Love classic, “Alone Again Or.”
PAUL McCARTNEY was busy Grammy night; YouTube hosts lo-res video of “Helter Skelter” and better-quality video of his dubious cameo with Jay-Z and Linkin Park on “Encore.”
AL GREEN has recorded a new album with legendary producer Willie Mitchell, with whom Green minted classics like “Tired of Being Alone” and “Let's Stay Together.”
MATT POND PA gets a glowing review from Page Six, but he does appeal to more mainstream tastes in folkish-indie. You can check out a few via MySpace.
MARTHA REEVES, newly elected to the Detroit City Council, wants the city to put up statues of Motown legends: “I want a big statue of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, sitting on a throne with a crown on her head in the city square. I want a statue of the Supremes in that Stop in the Name of Love pose. I want one of The Temptations doing the Temptations shuffle. And why not have one of Martha Reeves and the Vandellas?”
THE FLAMING LIPS take aim at Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas and Destiny's Child on At War With The Mystics, which is set for release on April 4. Frontman Wayne Coyne says: “I guess part of what I'm railing against on that song is this preternaturally happy music sung by kids and written by 40-year-old Swedish men.”
JOSS STONE wants to quit singing to become a nurse. She should keep singing and — as a compromise measure — dress up as a nurse.
ART BRUT: L.A. Weekly didn't have to harsh on the Arctic Monkeys to tell us how great Art Brut is: “While their clever, guitar-driven tunes can stop-start with the best of the current post-punk posse, they maintain a classic sensibility absent from most… From the shame of bedroom failures ('Rusted Guns of Milan') to a twisted mix of pride and sibling rivalry in 'My Little Brother,' indie rock hasn’t been this literal since Jonathan Richman sang 'Government Center.'” You can stream “Formed A Band” and “Emily Kane” from MySpace.
JON LANGFORD (the Mekons, Waco Brothers, Pine Valley Cosmonauts) will be at the Twin Cities' Walker Art Center this weekend, performing “The Executioner's Last Songs,” a multimedia piece that features both solo and band material, along with his original paintings and photos from his life. He also has new book, Nashville Radio, a collection of 215 paintings, song lyrics, autobiographical writings and a CD of the printed songs largely inspired by Langford's dismay with mainstream country music. It comes out March 7th — the same day as his next album, Gold Brick.
THE WRENS are on the road again on their long, strange trip toward a new album. Saw them at Intonation and was quite impressed.
THUNDERBIRDS ARE NOW frontman Ryan Allen understands when oldtime fans complain about the band's evolving sound: “I loved Weezer’s first two records when I was in high school… Then they came out with their third album and they totally sucked, they were the worst band in the world. So I can see where some people are coming from about us.”
THE PIRATE PARTY aims to abolish copyright laws in Sweden, after parliament passed a law making it illegal to download copyrighted material for personal use. Yawr!
HEART ON A STICK has a 2005 bloggregation that provides an alternative or supplement to the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll.
THE ARTIST CURRENTLY KNOWN AS PRINCE is hiding a small number of “purple tickets” in his new album and single, which are released next month. The winners will go to a private concert at his home, where he will be backed by a band of Oompa-loompas. Somewhere, Michael Jackson is kicking himself for not having thought of this as a way to meet kids. But that somewhere is probably not Bahrain. I was going to say this was a clever move by Prince to encourage folks to buy the album instead of illegally downloading it, but it's more fun to talk about the purple waterfall that mixes his music.
NOW SHOWING: The big rollout today is the desecration of The Pink Panther (32% Rotten on the Tomatometer, with an even lower score from the “cream of the crop”) on almost 3,500 screens. Harrison Ford defends his family yet again in Firewall (24% Rotten, even worse from the “cream”). And there's the oxymoronic Final Destination 3 (50% Rotten, 23% from the “cream). Fortunately, there is Curious George, which is 73% Fresh overall and 64% Fresh from the “cream.”
CURIOUS GEORGE MURDER: Speaking of which, two men have been charged with murdering Alan J. Shalleck, who co-wrote Curious George books and helped bring the very curious little monkey to television.
THE GRAMMYS were clobbered by 'American Idol in the TV ratings. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is demanding its awards back from Kelly Clarkson.
LOVE MONKEY is all but cancelled after three episodes.
KATE MOSS spent four hours with a top brain doctor Wednesday; a spokesperson insisted the supposedly sober supermodel is fine. My theory is that she was thinking about making up with her troubled ex-beau Pete Doherty and decided she should have her head checked.
LOHAN LOWDOWN: Li-Lo is supposedly cozy with co-star Jared Leto, but In Touch magazine reports that she has been “quietly seeing” 31-year-old singer Ryan Adams and “hooked up with” 38-year-old Benicio Del Toro last Sunday, after “spending hours canoodling.”
BRITNEY SPEARS says she “made a mistake” driving with her baby son sitting in her lap, but still blames the paparazzi for it.
COURTNEY LOVE: The newly rehabbed widow of Cobain has been working in the studio with Billy Corgan. She's apparently normal enough to be unbanned from Hollywood's Chateau Marmont.
TOMMY LEE was beaten by Eminem's posse for trash-talking fellow Detroiter Kid Rock.
GREY'S SKELETAL ANATOMY: Ellen Pompeo, the star of Grey's Anatomy, seems like she's on the Skeletor diet. But the actress claims she eats 3,000 calories a day. A nutritionist says most women burn between 1,500 and 2,000 calories a day. Of course, it's possible to eat 3,000 calories daily and still lose weight, isn't it?
WELCOME TO THE O.C. — it's a handy guide to international relations.
HARVEY PEKAR: The American Splendor anti-hero tallks about his latest graphic novel, The Quitter, which apparently is doing better than DC Comics expected.
BRADGELINA: Jolie says, “Honestly, I like everything. Boyish girls, girlish boys, the thick, the thin. Which is a problem when I'm walking down the street.” This is part of her secret. She's really unattainable — just ask Colin Farrell. But she gives off the vibe that, otoh, she's a crazy woman, so maybe today is your lucky day.
CARTOON JIHAD: The Associated Press wakes up to discover that Syria, Iran and extremist groups like the Taliban are fanning Muslim outrage over 12 Danish cartoons. Socialist blogger Norm Geras takes aim at people asserting moral equivalence of sincerely-held beliefs. IraqPundit notes that more moderate Muslims have spoken against the riots than did in the case of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Reza Aslan has related thoughts at Slate.
IRAQ: The Arabic newspaper Al Bawaba reports that US and Iraqi forces have launched a cordon and search campaign in the Hamrin region to look for al-Zarqawi. The leader of Iraq's most powerful Shiite political party has called for greater respect for human rights by the country's security forces. Milblogger Trevor (currently in Baghdad) notes that the Iraqi government has worked very hard to ensure the safety of pilgrims on this year's celebration of Ashura, after last year's coordinated attacks. If things go well, will the press bother to notice?
NSA SURVEILLANCE: At least one Democrat left a four-hour House Intelligence Committee briefing saying he had a better understanding of the legal and operational aspects of the NSA warrantless international eavesdropping program. Alabama Rep. Bud Cramer, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee's oversight subcommittee, said, “It's a different program than I was beginning to let myself believe. This may be a valuable program.” Cramer added that he didn't know if it was legal, but his “direction of thinking was changed tremendously.” Cramer further said he didn't know why the White House waited so long to inform Congress of its actions. I know the answer to that one: Congress leaks like a sieve.
UNDERCOVER KITTEN: Fred, a cat with a badge, busts a a college student accused of treating pets without a license. Burt the Boston terrier had Fred's back.
BROKEBACK ICE FLOE: Shy Swedish female penguins sent to seduce gay Humboldt penguins in a German zoo have failed to break up any of the male-male twosomes. What's penguinese for, “I wish I knew how to quit you!”
RATS smell in stereo, enabling them to identify where a smell is coming from in just 50 milliseconds.
EXOTIC FISH killed in a domestic dispute result in charges against a Walnut Creek, California woman.
PET HOARDING: Nearly two dozen cats makes for a feces-filled house of filth in Orlando, FL.
