Karl 
PETRA HADEN, one of the triplet daughters of legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden, known here for her a cappella Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out and as a touring member of The Decemberists, covers Jacko's “Thriller” and the Beach Boys' “God only Knows” on her website.
INDIE ROCKAPELLA: The Petra Haden item reminded me to point you to this band, which is streaming a capella covers of the White Stripes, Ben Folds and Sufjan Stevens.
THE FOO FIGHTERS boosted the morale of the Tazmanian miners that were trapped underground for two weeks. After the two men requested Foo Fighters on iPods passed down to them, lead singer Dave Grohl sent them a note of encouragement and support, with a promise of a free show and beer.
KEITH RICHARDS: I usually don't think of People magazine and “dry humor” in the same sentence, but anyone who has heard Keef speak must smile at the headline, “Keith Richards 'Talking' After Surgery.” Reuters reported that Doctors are concerned Keef could suffer from brain damage after undergoing two surgeries, but also the Stones denying a second surgery or possible brain damage. Let's hope the band has it right.
THE GO-BETWEENS: Robert Forster has thanked fans after hundreds of them left “magnificent tributes” for his co-frontman Grant McLennan, who died suddenly last Saturday. Among those fans were several members of Teenage Fanclub and The Auteurs frontman Luke Haines.
ROBYN HITCHCOCK and SCOTT McCAUGHEY performed in “Studio C” on C|Net (including a Johnny Cash tune) and talk about playing Soft Boys tunes on tour, life with R.E.M., and keeping up their Web sites. There's also a performance from Rogue Wave available for download there, which includes a cover of REM's “Driver 8.”
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: With American Idol going to be received in Graceland, my thoughts naturally turned to the King. Check out what is likely the first footage taken of Elvis, with backstage shots of Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Buddy Holly in 1955; shades of Walk The Line! You can also see him play “I Got A Woman” live on his first TV appearance in 1956. I also include his performance of “Hound Dog” on The Milton Berle Show six months later, not only because it's historic, but also because Paul Miller and I often reached for it when we would stumble into our KUSR shift at the last minute — Uncle Miltie vamps for awhile, which gave us time to pull records for the show. Elvis sang “Fame And Fortune,” “Stuck on You” and a mashup of “Love Me Tender” and “Witchcraft” with Frank Sinatra when he got back from the Army (Nancy turns up at the end). 1970 finds him singing “In The Ghetto” in the jumpsuit, though pre-bloated. This clip of “Suspicious Minds” from 1971 is worth it for the moment when Elvis takes us to the bridge like James Brown. If you've never seen his spaced-out rendition of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” you really should, though he's even more whacked out in the version in This Is Elvis. I would rather remember Jumpuit Elvis for the signature horns that open “See See Rider.” I wish he brought the same energy level to his medley of “Little Sister” and “Get Back,” but it's still pretty good. That Idol went to Memphis is as much a tribute to his enduring legacy as the fact that he could hit the charts decades after his death with a remix of “A Little Less Conversation.”
THE PIPETTES: The girl group's debut album, We Are the Pipettes, comes out July 17th in the UK and August 14th in Germany, France, and Scandinavia, but no American release is planned just yet. Fortunately, the Internet allows you to stream the upcoming single, “Pull Shapes,” from MySpace. I dunno if it's as good as “Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me,” but it's pretty darn good. Skatterbrain ripped MP3s of the group's appearance on The Album Chart Show, which you can stream from the Hype Machine.
BILLY BRAGG talks to ChartAttack about his upcoming book, unreleased Mermaid Avenue tracks and his box set: “It was perhaps time to do something tactile before the entire process of buying music becomes nothing more than clicking a mouse. What does a pile of MP3s look like? I don’t know. If you’re walking down the street with an MP3 under your arm and someone else saw it, would they come over and want to form a band with you?”
WILCO drummer Glenn Kotche talks to Pitchfork about the material the band is working up for the next album: “I think anyone who's heard them can see stylistically that it's pretty much all over the place right now…”
POST-PUNK: Short Term MP3 Loss has posted a tribute to post-punk, including Pere Ubu, Gang of Four, Suicide, Pylon, Mission of Burma, The Feelies, Minutemen, Gun Club, Flipper and many more. You can stream it via the Hype Machine.
JAY AND THE AMERICANS may be sold to help pay off 500K in back taxes racked up by Jay Black after gambling pushed him into deep debt.
SUFJAN STEVENS: Stereogum had another advance track from The Avalanche. Scott has pulled it from the site (at Sufjan's request, I'd bet), but you can still stream it from the Hype Machine.
REESE WITHERSPOON and JENNIFER GARNER were among a delegation of women touring devastated parts of New Orleans to meet with families and children trying to adjust to life after Hurricane Katrina. Their penetrating insights will amaze you.
BRITNEY SPEARS made a surprise appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman to publicly confirm her second pregnancy.
RACHEL McADAMS and RYAN GOSLING are not shopping for wedding rings, though McAdams says the McGosling reference in the famous Saturday Night Live “Lazy Sunday” video got her “more phone calls and e-mails than any other time or for any other award that I have ever won.”
TOM-KAT UPDATE: After a disapponting opening weekend for Mission: Impossible III, Holmes nurses Cruise's wounds and shows us her nursing bra. No wonder Cruise's 13-year-old daughter, Isabella, told him that Holmes was “the one.” Star magazine looks at why ex-Cruise Nicole Kidman is rarely seen with Isabella or 11-year-old Conor.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III gets a spoiler-laden review in The New Yorker, but this bit is too good for folks avoiding spoliers (or the movie itself) to miss: “The Cruise fan base has been shaken by a number of public pronouncements, although some of us have merely been confirmed in our original suspicions that there was something about this actor that was not quite of this earth. The stiff-necked jerk of his motions; the grit of his bared teeth; the eyes switched to perennial full beam but never quite blinking, even during tears; his ability to remain totally upright when sprinting, as if carrying an invisible egg and spoon—what are these, if not the techniques of an alien life force who has just graduated summa cum laude in advanced human behavior? Just who was scared of whom, precisely, in last year’s War of the Worlds?”
LINDSAY LOHAN: Following Tom Cruise's crazy train, The New York Times looks at the teen actress trying to go serious while carrying the baggage of a party-girl image to ask: “how much does the off-screen image bleed into, and possibly hurt, the reception of the work?” Speaking of off-screen, it looks like La Lohan has been caught getting cozy with model James Burke, who used to date Lohan party pal Kate Moss.
MADONNA, following an equestrian accident, gets right back on the horse by scaring them right back in a huge photo spread in W magazine. She's also laughing all the way to the bank as she sets out on the most lucrative series of shows ever staged by a female performer.
SIENNA MILLER can eat like a horse, according to chatterbox celeb chef Jamie Oliver. Yet another reason for her to annoy me.
MISCHA BARTON and RACHEL BILSON: The O.C. hotties screamed for help when a coyote entered Barton's trailer looking for leftover food. As if there is ever food in Barton's trailer.
KNIGHT RIDER is heading to the big screen, courtesy of the Weinstein Co., which is quite odd. Series creator Glen A. Larson wouldn't say whether David Hasselhoff would appear in a cameo or if William Daniels would reprise his role as the voice of K.I.T.T. Even more odd is Larson's comment that he would aim for a PG-13 rating because he doesn't want to exclude the series' core audience. Dude, the show ran from 1982-86… the core audience is over 13 (physically, anyway).
CHRISTINA AGUILERA admits that she doesn't like wearing too many clothes.
JESSICA SIMPSON should freak at the report of future ex Nick Lachey getting cozy with the tsunami-surviving supermodel Petra Nemcova. At the very least, it would be an excuse for Simpson almost running her dog through the X-ray machine at LAX.
DENISE & HEATHER& RICHIE & CHARLIE & DAVID: Denise Richards teaches her 11-month-old daughter Lola to walk for the paparazzi in in Calabasas, CA.
ATTACK OF THE FLYING ROBOTS: The prospect that suicide bombers and hijackers could be made redundant by flying robots is a real one, according to experts. Also, Bruce Simpson, an engineer from New Zealand, managed to produce a mini-cruise missile out of readily available materials at a cost of less than 5,000 dollars.
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS are the “likely cause” in up to 30 percent of childhood cancers, adult leukaemia, depression, brain cancers, breast cancer, and even up to ten percent of all miscarriages. Or not.
IRAQ: Prime Minister-designate Maliki expects to present a cabinet to parliament for approval by the end of the week. The nominees for interior and defense will be unaffiliated with a party or a militia. The US has halted the planned deployment of 3,500 troops. At ITM, Omar looks at conflicting report on the violence in Adhamiya, a neighborhood in Baghdad. Stars & Stripes reports on the troops' mixed reaction to new IED-resistant suits. As with the body armor issue, some troops will sometimes prefer mobility over the extra level of protection.
IRAN: The AP thinks that an 18-page letter from Iranian Pres. Ahmadinejad seeks a bond with Pres. Bush, though if you read the translation, it's clear the BBC is closer in calling it an attack on Pres. Bush. And the media is largely avoiding the parts of the letter where Ahmadinejad attacks Israel's existence, questions the existence of the Holocaust, suggests Bush had a role in the 9/11 attacks, that Allah is Bush's Lord, and so on. Bahman Aghai Diba, a PhD in International Law, notes that historically, similar letters have preceded attacks from Iran. ABCNews runs an AP story with the headline, “Experts: U.S. Hasty in Brushoff of Iran,” with those experts being Iran's former ambassador to France and a Tehran-based analyst who thinks the US reaction could fuel anti-US feelings in Iran, as though Iranian public opinion matters to the mullahs. The notable thing in the story is that Ahmadinejad is catching flak for failing to consult parliament before sending the letter, which tells you that Ahmadinejad, a man who says he is touched by the hand of Allah and that the end times are near may actually pass for a moderate in this regime. Indeed, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei just vetoed Ahmadinejad's decision to allow women into sports stadiums.
A HEAT WAVE IN PAKISTAN has killed more than 30 people. No figures for the monkeys, but they seem to be making do with popsicles.
MONKEYS elsewhere drink like humans, sometimes like fishes.
BURMESE PYTHON UPDATE: The owners of a terrier killed by an 11-foot Burmese python were awarded 1,300 dollars in the death of their pet in West Palm Beach, FL.
BEES inexplicably swarm a pickup truck in Colorado.
KITTY survives riding under a car traveling 60 mph on the highway in Miami.
