Karl Bade 
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH: The band's forthcoming self-titled album knocks down a 9.1 on the Pitchfork scale. I agree with the reviewer that there's some Talking Heads-by-way-of-a-more-fun-Arcade Fire vibe there; I would say there's a dash of the Cure mixed in, too. You can download three tracks from the band's site. I thought the first one bland, but the second two were better.
FRANK BLACK: His next album, Honeycomb, comes out in July, but the Pixie is already considering an early 2006 release for a second album recorded, like Honeycomb, late last year in Nashville. Among the artists who participated in the sessions are the Band's Levon Helm, Free/Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke, the Small Faces' Ian McLagan, the Funk Brothers' Bob Babbitt, Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson and Mark T. Jordan. Black also predicts the Pixies will record an album next year.
NEW PORNOGRAPHERS' frontman A.C. Newman talks to Rolling Stone about the band's upcoming album and tour.
SUFJAN STEVENS, STARFLYER 59 and more are discussed in a City Pages piece by Daphne Car titled, “Why on Earth (Or Elsewhere) Am I Enjoying Christian Rock?”
LIVE 8: Bob Geldof is urging Princes William and Harry to attend in Diana’s memory. He is also securing nearly 20 million bucks in loans and sponsorships to help to cover the rising costs of next month’s global network of Live 8 concerts.
BLUR: Bassist Alex James syas the members of the band are suing each other. James expressed his disappointment at the band's uninvolvement in Live 8, following frontman Damon Albarn's blasting of the 'Anglo-Saxon' event. He claims it's not the end of the band, but he's planning to travel the world with a space scientist, collecting samples of meteorites from famous landings.
DOES BONO want to be a Vegas lounge singer?
THE RAMONES are getting the box set treatment from Rhino.
WILCO: Jeff Tweedy wants to make “a really vibrant guitar record” or a “dance” record. Possibly both.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: In Madrid, Cruise took Holmes to meet Penelope Cruz's parents. Katie is at the far right of the picture; Tom is hugging someone else. Journos speculate that Spielberg dropped out of a War of the Worlds press junket at the last minute because he's fed up with the Tom-Kat saga. In Slate, Jack Shafer argues that “The blitzkrieg relationship of the A-list star and his C-list TV-star fiancée, which peaked last Friday with a proposal of marriage atop the Eiffel Tower and a press conference afterward, has caused the celebrity magazine formula to warp and buckle.” Nicole Kidman may be bound by the terms of her divorce to say nothing about Cruise, but off the record, “She thinks he’s acting like a jackass half the time and a Scientology zealot the other half,” according to Radar. Finally, the Extreme Radio site allows you to interactively Ask Tom Anything!
LI-LO UPDATE: The teen diva stomped out of the world premiere of Disney's Herbie: Fully Loaded because her “song” plays over the closing credits, not during the race scene, where she thought it would be. She volunteers that a doctor she saw recently asked her point-blank whether she is anorexic. Gawker helpfully provides your guide to Lohan's talking points.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Perez Hilton has some pics of Jennifer Aniston looking chummy on-set with Vince Vaughn, who played a supporting role in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. And Star magazine is sticking wiith its story about “Jen's Battle Plan,” though Vanity Fair denied part of it.
MEASURING THE BUZZ: Scientists have constructed a mathematical equation that approximates box-office receipts in the weeks after release. An interesting aside in the article is that about 70 percent of film revenue now comes from outside the box office.
BRITNEY SPEARS: How sad is it when your parenting skills are questioned by the French Hotel?
MENA SUVARI and her alien forehead have been spotted in Sydney with the Aussie man for whom she recently left her husband. I hope he's better looking than the woman with whom she was spotted in Venice Beach recently.
DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: The Washington Post's Anne Applebaum complains that the Museum of American History — with its exhibits on pop culture — does not teach anyone American history. But maybe that's a job for schools or, failing that, parents.
IRAQ: Karl Zinsmeister of The American Enterprise returned to Iraq in April and May of 2005 and notes that the “terrorist struggle has hardly ended,” but saw improvements compared to his earlier extended tours during 2003 and 2004, including the state of Iraqi security forces. Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, the No. 2 U.S. officer in Iraq, obviously does not believe that we are seeing the last throes of the insurgency, but believes there could be a significant drawdown in 2006, adding that many of the actual attackers are primarily motivated by money instead of ideology. Al's Girl blogs about the frustration of being a fiancee of someone stationed in Iraq. Yes, that's narrowcasting.
IRAQ II: Al Qaeda in Iraq slammed al-Jazeera television on Sunday, saying the channel's coverage was biased in favor of the U.S. “Kev in Iraq” reports that his interpreters say al-Jazeera is giving positve news stories on the coalition forces.
THE WAR on TERROR “has a popular label and a political label, but it’s not accurate,” according to Lt. General Wallace Gregson, commander of Marine forces in the Pacific. The folks at the linked site seem to believe that Gregson does not think there is a war at all, which, imho, misreads his comment. Instead, he's saying that you really cannot declare war on a tactic and that there should be focus on the nature and ideology of the enemy. Meanwhile, arms experts predict that the chance of an attack with a WMD somewhere in the world in the next 10 years runs as high as 70 percent, with the most likely scenario for a nuclear attack being terrorists using a weapon they made with material acquired on the black market. And Mexican prosecutors say that a Lebanese-born man detained this week on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula is believed linked to extremists with ties to the 9/11 terror attacks.
PORN STAR and former CA gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey says she got a few interesting proposals at a GOP fundraiser.
BASEBALL SCANDAL: It's not steroids — it's cabbage.
EDU-BLOGGING: The latest Carnival of Education is online.
SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT: The Boston Globe is disturbed to discover that 33 percent of 3,247 NIH grant recipients responding to a study said they had engaged in at least one of the behaviors the authors and compliance officers at six research institutions had deemed the most egregious forms of misconduct, with 15.5 percent of the scientists admitting to ''changing the design, methodology, or results of a study in response to pressure from a funding source.”
TOY-FREE KINDERGARTEN: In Austria, children in playschool are having their toys taken away in the belief it will help them fight drug addiction and alcoholism later in life.
9/11 FAMILIES are rallying against building the “International Freedom Center” at Ground Zero in NYC. Debra Burlingame, a director of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, charged that the IFC plans to host exhibits at Ground Zero devoted to worthy, but wholly off-topic issues as the alleged genocide of Americans Indians, the fight against slavery, the Holocaust and the Soviet Gulag. IFC president Richard Tofel doesn't deny it.
BATMAN BEGINS, but he can't save the industry.
NORMAN MAILER is not missing, but I'll bet he's not happy.
UNITED NATIONS procurement official Alexander Yakovlev resigned amid an investigation into a possible conflict of interest involving his son.
GRANDPA KILLS A LEOPARD with his bare hands. A 73-year-old Kenyan grandfather reached into the mouth of an attacking leopard and tore out its tongue to kill it.
THE ISLAMIC THINKERS SOCIETY in NYC describes itself as an “intellectual and political nonviolent organization,” but it bears a strong resemblance to Islamist movements in England that try to unite Muslims by inciting anger. The New York Times quotes the groups spokesman as saying, “We have always stressed nonviolent means.” That would explain their signs bearing messages like “Your Terrorists Are Our Heroes.”
MATCHSTICK MEN: on the internet, no one knows that you're not Nicholas Cage.
AN ITALIAN JOB? Sunnyvale, CA police are searching for a highly skilled and frustratingly elusive prankster who has been tampering with the city’s traffic lights for more than three months. You'll never stop the real Napster.
MARRIED MEN EARN MORE if the wife stays at home, according to scientists who won't be getting any for the forseeable future.
THE AFI TOP 100 MOVIE QUOTES aired on CBS Tuesday night, but it's up on the AFI site and reading it takes less than the three hours Pierce Brosnan spent on it.
A TWO-HEADED KITTEN named Gemini has died of unknown causes afer less than a month of life. This is not the two-faced kitten noted here yesterday; that kitty is named “Deuce.” Strange feline symmetry.
