Karl 
SMOOSH: The Chicago Tribune has a lengthy profile of the talented tween sisters, noting the lengths taken to protect their last name and their down-to-earth attitude: “I'm not like, 'Oh yeah, I'm so good and everything.' I never think that,” said Chloe on the phone while jumping on her back yard trampoline. “I don't talk about the band when I'm in school. My friends would get bored at me and think I'm stuck up.” Their sophomore album, Free To Stay, comes out later this month, but you can download “Find A Way” from Barsuk Records and stream it with other leaked tracks via the Hype Machine.
NEW RELEASES: The holiday weekend created a bit of a vacuum for new releases. As I write this, AOL Music hasn't even updated its album streams. However, Dave Alvin (Blasters, X, etc.) has an album of covers of California songwriters — including Merle Haggard, John Fogerty, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Jackson Browne, Jerry Garcia and more — called West of the West, with Kate Wolf's “Her In California” streaming from MySpace. Mike Patton, vocalist for Faith No More and Mr. Bungle, reportedly redicovers melody on Peeping Tom. He performed “Mojo” on Late Night with Conan O'Brien last week. The Radio Dept. brings more Swedish shoegazing on Pet Grief. Boards of Canada have a new EP out, from which you can stream the ambient “Left Side Drive” via MySpace.
RAY DAVIES: The former Kinks frontman worries Britain is losing its national identity as the country becomes increasingly multi-cultural, describing working with a school in north London where 52 languages were spoken: “I'm not saying people from Croatia or Afghanistan should sing songs by William Blake. I'm not suggesting Morris dancing in the mosque. “But it would be interesting for people to realise we have a culture here too.”
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: Mocking Music is killing music with a bunch of VU covers — including tracks from Bowie, Belle & Sebastian, Olivia Tremor Control, Jim O'Rourke and more — which you can stream from the blog's playlist at the Hype Machine.
MOUNTAIN GOATS have a new album coming in August, titled Get Lonely.
BEN VAUGHN: Folks from the Pate era may remember him as the writer of “I'm Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee),” but NPR has an audio feature with extra clips about his TV work and new instrumental album.
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: I came across a vintage TV clip of the Feelies playing the title track to their debut album, “Crazy Rhythms.” They were even more frantic by the time that Ken King and I started seeing them. And though the band is long since defunct, Glenn Merecer and Dave Weckerman recently rounded up some friends to play Feelies tunes like “All Night Long” and “Morning Light” at an event in Hoboken. Where else?
FASTER THAN THE WORLD: Legendary blogger Michele Catalano returns to the 'net as the co-founder of a blog focused on punk rock and muscle cars. There is copious killing of music there as well. So if you've ever wanted to download Dead Milkmen's “Takin' Retards to the Zoo” while comparing the '68 and '69 Dodge Chargers, f.t.t.w. is the place for you!
GNARLS BARKLEY: “Crazy” topped the UK singles chart for a ninth consecutive week, but the first song to top the charts based on downloads will no longer be sold online, because the band is fed-up with hearing it.
ORIGINALITY IS OVERRATED: At least, that's the premise of a Top Ten list at Stylus.
PJ HARVEY has reportedly written a new album on the piano. Pics of her tickling the keys at the link.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: Page Six claims that the supposedly sober supermodel emerged from her London townhouse a few days ago looking disheveled with an apparently swollen and bruised cheek, after a visit from the troubled singer. Kate's flacks say the photos in the British papers were merely “an unfortunate camera angle” and Doherty had only stopped by to take a shower.
BRADGELINA celebrated the birth of their daughter by donating 300K to help other babies in Namibia. Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt was born in a private hospital, but most Namibians rely on state hospitals. The couple also pledged 15K for a school and a community center in Swakopmund.
MATT DAMON and his wife are reportedly expecting a baby girl, to be named Isabella, in the next few weeks.
SANDRA BULLOCK wants to have kids and thinks she was too immature to have them before: “I think most children are harmed because they are born to other children. I am the most immature person I know. No, that's not true — there's Hugh Grant.”
JACKO makes his first round of public appearances since being acquitted of child molestation charges last year… starting with an orphanage.
X-MEN: THE LAST STAND? Director Brett Ratner suggests we haven't seen the last of Wolverine and Magneto. I tend to doubt we've seen the last of them at all.
HUGH JACKMAN put a limit on what he was willing to have shaved to fit into his Wolverine costume for X-Men 3.
ANNE HATHAWAY, of The Princess Diaries and Brokeback Mountain, charges 10K an hour… for baby-sitting services at a charity auction: “You have to prove you actually have children, according to my boyfriend,” she joked.
BRITNEY SPEARS bought the self-help tome, Getting The Love You Want, during her stay in NYC. Maybe her Mom can read it to her.
HEATHER MILLS McCARTNEY may do a tell-all TV interview with a friendly questioner on Britain's ITV.
STEPHEN COLBERT, of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, may have ripped Pres. Bush at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but admits he voted for (now former) Sen. Strom Thurmond, due to his office's constituent services. All politics is local?
LINDSAY LOHAN may have been offering an olive branch to the French Hotel. Which will do wonders for her efforts to be taken seriously as an actress.
THE SOPRANOS get high praise from Tom Hagen.
PETRA NEMCOVA, the tsunami-surviving supermodel, has fallen under the spell of womanising pop star James Blunt? Her friends are reportedly alarmed… and rightly so! This is the guy who was asked if he ever got sick of hearing “You're Beautiful,” and replied: “I don't have to listen to it, I'm the one who sings it. And it's continued to get me laid.” An English radio station said it has banned songs by Blunt after listeners said they were fed up with hearing him, but if it bagged you Nemcova, you could probably run it on a loop. It's just the rest of the world that has this reaction.
IRAQ: Reserve Marine Maj. Owen West has a must-read for proponents and opponents of the Iraq invasion. Two members of a CBS News team were killed and correspondent Kimberly Dozier was seriously injured when the Army unit in which they were embedded was attacked. Insurgent snipers are trained to target journos. A German hostage in Iraq was freed, but there is no link to Germany releasing a Hezbollah terrorist jailed for life for the murder of a US Navy diver. BTW, I have a bridge for sale, if anyone's interested.
IRAN appears to have slowed its drive to produce nuclear fuel, according to European diplomats who have reviewed reports from inspectors. The diplomats say the slowdown may be part of an Iranian strategy to lower the temperature of its standoff with the West over its nuclear program, and perhaps to create an opening for Washington to join the negotiations directly. We've seen this movie before.
TERROR IN BRITAIN: Home Sec. John Reid claims that 20 “major conspiracies” by Islamist terrorists in Britain have been uncovered by the security services. He failed to give further details but the claim appears to fit in with briefings by MI5 which suggest that as many as 1,200 potential terrorist suspects may now be in the UK.
CATS do seem to have a thing for boxes, don't they?
GATOR AND SHARK ATTACKS are nasty, but deer are more dangerous.
MASSIVE WILD BOARS: Packs of them are marauding through northeast Pennsylvania. “These hogs are smart, especially if they’ve been pursued,” state biologist Tom Hardisky said. “They learn what to do and what not to do. When one of their buddies gets killed, they remember it and adapt.”
ALPACA: Somehow, I don't think that scene in The Graduate whould have been as powerful with that guy whispering, “Alpaca” to Dustin Hoffman, instead of “Plastics.”
GIANT EARTHWORM surfaces in Seattle. Unfortunately, it's not Godzilla or Them! level giant, just giant for an earthworm.
GOLDFISH have feelings too, say fish researchers. Everybody say, “Fish are friends, not food.”
