Karl Bade THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE…
…WITH R.E.M. and friends. Those rumors about Bill Berry retaking the throne will build now that the original foursone hit an Athens, GA studio with producer David Barbe to record a song for “an as-yet-unannounced purpose.” The band has been rehearsing a three-song performance at their Saturday induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Atlanta. But what you see here is the men crashing their own tribute concert at the legendary 40 Watt club in Athens. The big crowd onstage for the finale of “It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” includes Michael Stipe and Mike Mills, Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood, Pylon's Vanessa Hay, 5-8 and more. Peter Buck and Mills joined 5-8 on “Radio Free Europe” and “Sitting Still.” Buck's Minus 5 bandleader (and R.E.M. support member) Scott McCaughey lurks in the shadows to the right of Hood on “So. Central Rain.” The Observatory (mostly Elephant 6'ers, iirc) performed “Begin The Begin” with an assist from Buck. Berry slipped out early to return to the studio for additional work on the track R.E.M. recorded.
MARAINNE FAITHFULL has been diagnosed with breast cancer, but she's not taking it lying down: “I have absolute faith and confidence in my fantastic medical team and of course I will be well again, if not better than ever. Next year's tour, I want to assure fans, will be one big celebration.”
EL PERRO DEL MAR: The band's self-titled debut arrives on US shores No. 7th. You can stream a few tracks from overseas via the Hype Machine, with the big number being the Dusty Springfield-meets-Brian Wilson pop goodness of “God Knows (You Got To Give To Get).”
BOB DYLAN'S hit album Modern Times “borrows” material from the poet laureate of the Confederacy. The times, they are a changing.
“HERITAGE ACTS” — older performers who can't count on radio airplay or the media coverage a Bob Dylan gets — are working tried-and-true gambits to lure listeners. RELATED: The Who will be hosting its own channel on Sirius Satellite Radio, including some never before-heard shows and backstage conversations with the band, including some with the late Keith Moon and John Entwistle.
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: Really, to get your weekend off on the good foot, in that “The weekend starts here,” Ready Steady Go sorta way, there are few songs better than the Pogues' un-Celtic, but insanely catchy “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah.”
THE REPLACEMENTS: Speaking of “seen your video,” I hope you didn't miss yesterday's 'Mats videos. Just sayin'.
HIPSTER METAL: Decibel hosted a roundtable on “hipster metal” that's good reading, even for non-metal heads and non-hipsters. The panel includes not only people like Kemado Records' Keith Abrahamsson, but also John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, who suggests: “My long-standing shtick is that ironic appreciation is actual appreciation, but it’s hesitant… Ironic appreciation is one of those ways of not having to do what is a very scary thing.” The panel discusses wearing suits to concerts. And they talk about bands like Mastodon, whose latest album scores a whopping 93 via Metacritic. You can stream some via the Hype Machine.
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS: Speaking of John Darnielle, he spoke to New City Chicago about improving as a songwriter on his way back to Chicago for a gig at the Empty Bottle, Saturday at 10 p.m. (Ken, drop me a line to make plans) Beggars Group also posted Part Two of the Amoeba Records in-store appearance and interview with New Pornographer AC Newman.
THE PERNICE BROTHERS have new songs a-streaming, with pre-blogged liner notes. Good stuff.
YO LA TENGO: Harp magazine joined singer-guitarist Ira Kaplan and bassist James McNew to watch a Mets game and talk about “sports memories and the places where sports and music intersect.” Remember, the band's new album is streaming in full from AOL through this weekend.
CUTOUT BIN: After a week's absence, Friday's fortutitous finds on the Hype Machine include: David Byrne – I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston); Little Richard – Keep A-Knockin'; Elvis Costello – Stranger In The House (yee-haw!); Mose Allison – Young Man's Blues; Harry Nilsson – You Can't Do That (more Beatle-y than you may know); Faces – Maybe I'm Amazed (McCartney); Troggs – With A Girl Like You; Susanna Hoffs – Stuck In The Middle With You (Stealer's Wheel); What Made Milwaukee Famous – Hellodrama; Split Enz – I Got You; Fountains Of Wayne – Survival Car; Lou Reed with Soul Asylum – Sweet Jane; Pearl Jam – The Boys Are Back In Town (live in Dublin, natch); Jimi Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan); and the Zombies – Time of the Season.
ANNA NICOLE SMITH: The mysterious death of the model's son has been labeled “suspicious” – and the sexpot will be subpoenaed to testify at a coroner's inquest in the Bahamas. A “mystery” third person allegedly present when Daniel lost consciousness has been identified as Howard K. Stern, Smith's longtime pal and lawyer. Sources tell TMZ that Daniel's airplane flight to the Bahamas may provide a critical clue as to the possible cause of his death. An official report is due today.
NEW RELEASES: This weekend's wide releases are led by The Rock's sports drama Gridiron Gang (currently scoring 41 percent on the Tomatometer), followed by the animated film about Babe Ruth's baseball bat, Everyone's Hero (42 percent), the Brian DePalma crime thriller The Black Dahlia (42 percent, but only 38 percent among the “cream of the crop” critics), and the Zach Braff-Rachel Bilson romantic dramedy The Last Kiss (45 percent). Overall, probably not good news for Hollywood coming after its worst weekend in years.
CHRISTIE BRINKLEY BREAK-UPDATE: Brinkley is officially ending her marriage to architect Peter Cook, after learning of his affair with Diana Bianchi, an 18-year-old he'd hired to work in his firm.
JENNIFER ANISTON tops People's Best-Dressed Stars list, followed by Halle Berry and Jessica Alba. Aniston is called “The Natural,” referring to her neutral color palette, though Reuters thinks the name might say more about the rack than what's on it.
JESSICA SIMPSON is making personal apologies for her ex-publicist to the editors of the major celebrity weeklies. And then gets to look at US Weekly's “DUMPED!” cover in the supermarket.
JESSICA BIEL, Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive, could give KISS's Gene Simmons a run for his money. I'm pretty sure there's a “Rock and Roll All Nite” punchline waiting.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Yesterday, I suggested that Cruise and his legal team would probably think about trying to kill a book by porn producer Paul Barresi. Guess What? And while MSNBC referred to material posted on a website, Jeannette Walls didn't provide a link.
LINDSAY LOHAN caught canoodling (to say the least) with bf Harry Morton. TMZ has pics and video.
BORAT: After noting that Pres. Bush will be discussing comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's character with the Pres. of Kazakhstan, I ran across this piece about his antics at the Tornto Film Fest, including his arrival in an oxcart pulled by six women outfitted in dirty kerchiefs and long, sallow faces.
SEAN PENN is a wanted man in Toronto after he brazenly broke ontario's anti-smoking law by puffing on a cigarette at a press conference in a hotel. Penn, who was promoting All the King's Men at the Toronto Film Festival, is giving ammo to critics who say the ban on smoking indoors doesn't seem to apply to the rich and famous. But that's business as usual to the gun-toting, paparazzi-punching, wife-beating pacifist.
ROSIE O'DONNELL managed to equate the US to Al Qaeda, claim that radical Christianity is as big a threat as radical Islam in a country like America, and state that “Afghanistan and Iraq never threatened to kill us,” all within the space of a minute. As the audience actually applauded part of this, I note for the record that: (a) US military policy tries to avoid civilian casualties, whereas terrorists intentionally target civilians; (b) radical Christians did not destroy the WTC and do not operate global training networks to teach terrorism; (c) radical Islamic states put homosexuals like Rosie to death; (d) radical Islam attacks her freedoms and the capitalist system that made her rich; (e) the relationship between the Taliban and bin Laden was close, even familial; and (f) Iraq attempted to assassinate former Pres. Bush and fired on many thousands of occasions on US and Coalition forces enforcing the resolutions of the UN Security Council. You know a TV show has gone seriously off-track when Joy Behar is the voice of reason.
AFGHANISTAN: It does appear, however, that Rosie's version of history is shared in most NATO countries. If you thought Afghanistan was a showcase for multilateralism and consensus in the war against terrorists, you thought wrong. France, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Denmark are among those balking at sending reinforcements to Afghanistan. Indeed, these requests have been ignored for 18 months. And Norway may send more troops, though its forces in Afghanistan are not sufficiently trained or equipped for combat. Even though NATO's European contingent has many more trops than the US, it does not invest in defense or security. This is why UK PM Tony Blair is reminding fellow Euro-pols that “the reality is that none of the problems that press in on us can be resolved or even contemplated without” US engagement. In reporting this, the ever-objective Reuters refers to Blair as Pres.Bush's “closest ally in the so-called war on terror.” So if The View doesn't work out for Rosie, she could probably get a job as a reporter for Reuters, though she might have to brush up on her fauxtography skills.
IRAQ: At ITM, Mohammed writes about Prime Minister al-Maliki's visit to Iran, while Omar lauds Kofi Annan for telling the truth and notes that Iraqi soldiers defused a one-ton car bomb prepared for detonation in downtown Baghdad. Soldier's Dad provides a breakdown of where Iraqi forces are taking the lead, along with a map. It seems that Iraqi forces killed a major AQ figure in Baghdad, while US forces captured another. Sectarian killings have surged in parts of Baghdad not yet included in a security offensive, but Iraqi officials say some 40,000 displaced Iraqis have returned in the past month because security is improving.
TIME TO START AGAIN: C'mon, it's a nice day for a… dog wedding. Or do you think I should have gone with “Holy Shih Tzu?”
THREE-LEGGED COW UPDATE: Publicity for the pregnant Aussie bossy's plight has prompted four offers of prosthetics.
COWS are rampaging in Norway, in retaliation for cow-tipping. Life imitates Barnyard.
HRITIK the GERMAN SHEPHERD has taken up yoga in India. When in Rome…
A WILD MOUNTAIN GOAT was captured in a woman's fenced backyard in the Yukon territory.
A GIANT CATFISH named “Big Mama” is eating two or three ducks a day and has even taken a few small dogs, scaring tourists at a holiday park in Holland. Pic at the link.
