Karl 
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS played Chicago's Empty Bottle Saturday and were quite good. John Darnielle had the crowd in the palm of his hand, and used it to his best advantage. He introduced “Southwood Plantation Road” as (to paraphrase) “a song about when two people have positive feelings for each other and memorialize those feelings in a public ceremony before everyone they know… only to discover later that those feelings have changed into ones of incandescent anger and deep self-loathing… so they agree to have sex, if that's all that's left… it's a dance song.” Other numbers were sing-along favorites, like “No Children.” This video was shot in Oregon, as there's none from Chi-town… yet, but it gives you some idea; just imagine a more rowdy crowd. “This Year” was also suitably anthemic. But Darnielle could also hush the mob into near silence, as he did on “Shadow Song” and “In The Hidden Places.” Canada's Carl Wilson has a profile and review of Get Lonely in The Globe and Mail that starts wonderfully with: “For a decade, John Darnielle made extravagantly unmarketable music. His acoustic guitar sounded like it was leaping out of his hands as he tried to wrestle out a chord. He sang like a frog falling into boiling water…” And he refers to “Cubs In Five,” which Darnielle steadfastly refused to play on Saturday.
R.E.M. played a reunion set for their induction into the GA Music Hall of Fame. rbally has it (including R.E.M. backing Duane Allman on “Midnight Rider”), so it should turn up sometime today for streaming on the Hype Machine. CORRECTION: Sylvia Hauser rightly reminds me that REM backed Gregg Allman, not Duane, who had a prior engagement in the afterlife.
ACL FEST got blogged at Gorilla vs. Bear, Stereogum, Scenestars, Out The Other, and Muzzle of Bees, to name a few. Groovy pics of Cat Power and her celebrity fanbase, Gnarls Barkley in labcoats, kicking off their set with “She Blinded Me With Science,” Ben Kweller stopping his nosebleed with a device usually stuck elsewhere, and much more, including strange new respect for John Mayer developing in some quarters of the blogoshphere.
SUFJAN STEVENS: Gorilla vs. Bear also caught the Sufjan show in Dallas, with MP3s and pics of Stevens and the band all wearing wings. The second GvsB link will also hook you up with a video of the encore. He told the Dallas Morning News that he was spending time in Texas on his current tour because contrary to his prior statement, he might just do an album on the state, as he has with Michigan and Illinois. ALSO: Though Stevens tries hard to avoid the “Christian rock” label, sites like Explore Faith describe him as “(s)omething like Nick Drake, Brian Wilson, Neil Young and Flannery O’Connor all rolled into one.”
THE SILVER JEWS: Frontman David Berman talks to the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles about the band's name, rehab and playing Tel Aviv. The article also has an embedded video of “Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You.” There's also songs to stream via the Hype Machine. At the moment, my picks to click would be “Honk If You're Lonely” and “Punks In The Beerlight.”
WHO'S LEFT: Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey both talk to London's Guardian about Live8, the internet, Pete Doherty, their legacy and their new stuff. Speaking of which, Stereogum can link you to streams of two new tracks. The reactions of the commenters are… less than overjoyed.
ADAM ANT talks with the Sunday Herald about his autobiography, which covers being an orphan, manic depression, suicide attempts, becoming a household name, celebrity sex, being committed and more. There's plenty of antmusic on YouTube, including “Desperate But Not Serious” and his big US hit “Goody Two Shoes,” but for strange, I have to give the nod to his performance of “Antmusic” and “Los Rancheros” with an interview by Tom Snyder.
JOHNNY JENKINS, the guitarist, singer and songwriter who influenced Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers, has died aged 67 of a stroke. You can check him out on “I Walk on Gilded Splinters” and “Voodoo In You.”
THE DECEMBERISTS frontman Colin Meloy does the “Guest List” for Pitchfork, including favorite songs, best shows and venues, great books and films, baby booties and more.
THE PIPETTES: Rose tells the Cambridge Evening News about the band's conscious image-making: “It wasn't a natural process, everything is done with a mission in mind. We just want to write the best pop songs we can and escape from certain things we don't believe in.” As usual, there's plenty of Pipettes on the Hype Machine, but for the image, it might be better to watch “Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me” or “Pull Shapes.”
STIFF RECORDS: It's 30 years since the creation of the iconic label that gave us Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Madness and more, earning it a profile in London's Independent.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: The other shoe drops. It turns out that Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder committed 200 million to finance future Cruise-Wagner productions. Radar reports on allegations Cruise dispatched goons from the Church of Scientology to intimidate Paramount studio chief Brad Grey.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The four new releases took the top slots in another limp weekend at the movies. Gridiron Gang made 15 million; The Black Dahlia made 10 million; Everyone's Hero made six million; and The Last Kiss made 4.7 million. The Covenant, last weekend's top draw, slid to fifth place. Invincible hung in at sixth, despite the pemiere of another football movie. The Illusionist continued a campaign as stealthy as its namesake. Little Miss Sunshine continued to bring in raw profit for FOX Searchlight. Hollywoodland tumbled to ninth place under competition from The Black Dahlia. Crank slid five places, but is still a moneymaker for Lion's Gate.
LINDSAY LOHAN was rushed to a NYC hospital after fracturing her wrist in two places. How will she DJ!? ALSO: Li-Lo had a huge fight with her mother at a swanky Chinese restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side, as swear words and fortune cookies were hurled with abandon.
ANNA NICOLE SMITH: A pathologist who gained fame as a critic of the government's probe into JFK's assassination and a consultant in Elvis Presley's death performed a second autopsy Sunday on the son of Anna Nicole Smith. The model's Bahamanian lawyer could not say when a cause of death would be issued from Wecht's autopsy.
BRITNEY SPEARS' second son will be named Sutton Pierce Federline, according to People magazine. Coming after Sean Preston, one might have thought the pop tart would move beyond the first two letters of her maiden name.
JESSICA BIEL, Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive was caught kissing some woman. Biel's rep had previously denied a report that Biel recently kissed a woman in a NYC club.
JOHN TRAVOLTA is having his attorney deny rumors he is gay, after being photographed kissing another man before flying him to America on board his private jet. NTTAWWT.
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN, a/k/a Anakin Skywalker, likes to keep people guessing about the gay rumors surrounding him because he finds them entertaining. NTTAWWT.
ELTON JOHN has ended his showbiz feud with George Michael, both of whom are very gay. NTTAWWT. ALSO: London's Independent gives high marks to The Captain and the Kid, Sir Elton's meditation on his long collaboration with lyricist Bernie Taupin — a man who now shuns the spotlight.
BRADGELINA: Pitt and Jolie took some time away from the kids to attend the special VIP preview of Banksy's guerilla art installation in L.A.'s downtown warehouse district. Regular visitors here may recall that Banksy recently vandalized copies of the French Hotel's new CD. Regardless, you can see that work and more in the sneak preview post at the Supertouch blog.
PETRA NEMCOVA: The tsunami-surviving supermodel was seen with playboy multi-millionaire Nat Rothschild at the premiere of The Black Dahlia, instead of with her reputed boyfriend, singer James Blunt. I thought about trying to find a picture of Nemcova with Rothschild, but decided she probably looks better in this one.
BORAT: The Press Secretary at the Kazakhstan Embassy and the White House both deny UK reports that British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen would be the subject of diplomatic meetings between the U.S. and Kazakhstan.
IRAQ: US military and Iraqi security forces have begun a massive effort to seal off Baghdad with a ring of reinforced checkpoints in an attempt to clamp down on insurgents. Omar of ITM suggested this back in August. Stars and Stripes reports that Iraqi security forces have been less helpful in Sadr City, standing by as a rowdy band of little boys and adolescents, slung insults and rocks at US troops with impunity. Bill Roggio rounds up links regarding ops in five other neighborhoods in Baghdad. AFP (of all outlets) has a balanced report on conditions in Ramadi. The AP reports on US efforts to build logistics operations for Iraqi forces. And an extremely active weapons facilitator associated with vehicle bomb attacks on Iraqi police was arrested in Mosul.
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of American and Afghan troops unleashed a new offensive named Operation Mountain Fury against Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday. Bill Roggio has more.
FWIW: Hamid Mir, the only journalist to interview Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Taliban leader Mullah Omar after 9/11, continues to report on a possible planned AQ attack in the US to be led by Adnan el Shukrijumah This time, Abu Dawood, the newly appointed commander of the al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan, is claiming final preparations have been made for an “American Hiroshima,” and urges Muslims to leave the US. This is a follow-up on a prior blurb.
THE 12TH ANNUAL WIENER DOG RACES were held this weekend at Harrah's Louisiana Downs. Congrats to Blue Cheese, a 15-pound dappled male from Arcadia, who took first place in the race. Picture gallery at the link.
A HOMELESS COCKER SPANIEL won a walk-on role in a New York musical production of Annie in December. Should a homeless dog really be named “Whiskey?”
SNAKES in a FIRE: Venomous ones, too! Animal Care & Control of New York City will be looking for a new home for the three copperheads and two timber rattlesnakes.
AN ARCTIC ICE SEAL turns up at Wrightsville Beach in NC. Wouldn't you? Summer is almost over and it gets cold in the Arctic, y'know?
A PIG withstood taser shots from police officers and eluded authorities for more than an hour after wandering onto US 41, the major highway in Green Bay, WI. That's some pig, Charlotte!
