Karl Bade 
ART BRUT fans have started a petition for the band to play its “Top of the Pops” on TOTP before the show ends its 42-year run next month. Unfortunately, the song does not turn up on the Hype Machine, though you can still stream great tunes like “Formed A Band” and “Emily Kane” there. You can see a bit of “TOTP” on YouTube… and Dale will be glad to know there's a little homage to the Kinks in it. However, the pictured video is for “Emily Kane,” which is a little Ray Davies and a little Jonathan Richman.
ANN COULTER IS A DEADHEAD: No, really. The provocatress sings the praises of the Grateful Dead in an interview at Jambands.
SLEATER-KINNEY is going on an “indefinite hiatus” with no plans for future tours or recordings. So the band's final destination looks to be Lollapalooza. For now, you can stream a couple from MySpace and a few more via the Hype Machine, though music bloggers may have posted more by the time you read this.
EARWORM: London's Guardian has its readers share the irritating songs that stick in their heads. Remember, if you read it, you could catch it.
JOLIE HOLLAND: Ken Tucker does an audio review of the really rootsy singer-songwriter's latest LP, Springtime Can Kill You. You should be able to find plenty of Jolie to stream via the Hype Machine.
AXL ROSE was arrested in Stockholm after allegedly biting a security guard in the leg at his hotel.
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions play “Perfect Skin” from the band's first album, Rattlesnakes.
REGINA SPECTOR: The idiosyncratic singer-songwriter shows a writer from London's Guardian her love of NYC, while the Village Voice notes that having immigrated from Russia when she was nine, she occasionally spars with US-bashing Europeans. She sounds like a more modern Nellie McKay or a more interesting Norah Jones if you stream some from her ever-popular MySpace page.
ROGUE WAVE: Zach Rogue talks to the Denver Post about various things, including why he doesn't use his real last name, which is Schwartz. There's plenty of Rogue Wave streaming via the Hype Machine, including the band's live cover of Thunderclap Newman's “Something In The Air.”
THE DOORS are getting a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. But so are Mariah Carey, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Crystal Gayle, Tim McGraw, Leann Rimes and Shania Twain.
THE LEMONHEADS, which now refers to Evan Dando and a pair of former Descendents, will have a new album in the fall, the “band's” first in a decade (not counting Dando's '03 solo disc).
PINK FLOYD frontman Roger Waters, who inspired the rock band's iconic album The Wall, scrawled “tear down the wall” on the concrete panels of Israel's West Bank barrier last Wednesday. The Wall came out when I was in high school, so I heard it a lot, but I dont remember there being anything about suicide bombers on it.
THE ELEPHANT 6 COLLECTIVE gets an oral history compiled by PopMatters. Turns out that a Cheap Trick concert is part of it! Meanwhile, YANP points to an unconfirmed report that E6 major domo Jeff Mangum may have an album and tour coming under some name. A bunch of E6 bands can be streamed from the Hype Machine, including The Apples In Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control and Beulah.
SUPERMAN RETURNS is in theaters today, so I — as a service to you — went to an advance screening. So, was it any good? First, let's note that Rotten Tomatoes now has it 79 Fresh overall, 73 percent from the “cream of the crop,” with Ebert not liking it. The average rating from each is a 7.3 and a 7.1, respectively. And that's about right, or maybe that's a few points too low. Superman Returns was good, but not great, and certainly not everyone-sees-it-twice to make back the 250 million budget great. Bryan Singer brings some emotional depth to the story generally and Kal-El particularly (and someone cut the trailer material that made people wonder if there was going to be some gay subtext — though Singer was correct to say this is a very hetero Superman, bordering on stalking Lois Lane). Unfortunately, this seems to have come at the expense of the pure fun element you should have in a Superman movie. Thus, the action set pieces are technically amazing, but not as viscerally satisfying as they should be, especially for a film checking in at 2 1/2 hours. Brandon Routh does a creditable imitation of Christopher Reeve; Kate Bosworth may have been better than Margot Kidder (which, if you revisit the Richard Donner original, may strike you as faint praise, but she benefits from my low expectation). Kevin Spacey turns in a worthy Lex Luthor. He might suffer compared to Gene Hackman, but both Lois and Lex benefit from better writing this time around. There's a kid in the movie who is not played as super-precocious, which was refreshing. There's plenty of homage to the Donner film — and plenty of nods to the John Williams score — without turning into fromage.
REESE WITHERSPOON, having filed suit against Star magazine for speculating that she was pregnant, is now wearing baggy clothes and covering her belly with a shopping bag, probably just to mess with the tabloids. Which I admit is pretty funny.
LINDSAY LOHAN makes the Gallery of the Absurd by way of the Wanton Starlet Trading Card.
NTTAWWT: Internet gambling sites are taking bets on the next celeb to come out of the closet. It's an interesting list.
HEATHER MILLS McCARTNEY is terrified that she is a target for assassination — because of her links to The Beatles. But Yoko Ono doesn't find it necessary to videotape random people on the street as evidence.
CAMERON DIAZ spends enough time playing in the surf that she should know her bikini top is going to fall off sometimes.
KATE MOSS: The supposed sober supermodel still stirs controversy as anti-drugs campaigners condemn the haste with which fashion companies like Burberry have brought her back.
JACK BLACK is reportedly furious that he hasn't received any multi-million dollar offers from magazines for photos of his new son Samuel. He blames the recent spate of high-profile births for “flooding the market.” I'm pretty sure he's kidding.
PIRATES: The premiere of Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at Disneyland also marked the re-opening of the ride that inspired the movies. LaughingPlace has pics and video of the re-tooled attraction.
THE SOPRANOS: Chef Artie Bucco pleaded guilty on Monday to drunk driving.
QUENTIN TARANTINO and ROBERT RODRIGUEZ talk to Entertainment Weekly about their current project, Grind House, which is a a tribute to zombie romps, slasher flicks, and women-in-prison extravaganzas.
SCARLETT JOHANSSON and WOODY ALLEN have re-teamed to make the upcoming Scoop and are lavishing each other with praise. Allen says, “Scarlett is God’s answer to Job. God would say, 'I've created a terrifying and horrible universe, but I can also make one of these, so stop complaining.” Johansson says, “He has a genuine thirst for knowledge. And he’s a very passionate person about work and music and all kinds of things—certainly about women.” I say, “Soon-Yi, it's time to start visiting the set regularly.”
IRAQ: Forensics experts unearthing the skeletons of Saddam's alleged victims have found an unexpected wealth of identification cards in mass graves. A fascinating story of two US Colonels clashing at Camp Taji that ran on the subscription-side of The Wall Street Journal is reprinted at the link, if you scroll down a bit. And the AP runs a story on up-armored Humvees saving the lives of US troops. A recent investigation by the Dayton Daily News noted that up-armored Humvees are also taking the lives of US troops, but the press made much of the lack of armor on Humvees, so the downside is simply ignored and the public never learns whether the armor is an overall benefit (my guess would be it's useful in some places and dangerous in others).
HADJI GIRL: Reuters “reports:” “The U.S. military will not punish a Marine who performed an obscenity-laced song to a laughing and cheering crowd of fellow troops in Iraq making light of killing Iraqis, the Marine Corps said on Tuesday.” Reuters then proceeds to take one or two lines of the song out of context, when the song is about a US soldier getting abushed by a family of insurgents. It turns out that a Marine Corps official suggested what I did at the last link — that poor taste, poor judgment and poor timing, not to mention offensive lyrics, do not necessarily amount to criminal conduct.
AYAAN HIRSI ALI: The reformist Muslim member of the Dutch parliament will retain her her citizenship, which the government threatened to strip, based on a technicality after she became internationally known for speaking out against the oppressive practices of sharia law. Hirsi Ali has had to maintain a high level of security due to threats against her life for voicing views critical of certain aspects of Islam.
THE WORLD'S UGLIEST DOG CONTEST was held recently at the Sonoma-Marin Fair. Archie — the Chinese crested pictured above — won, but if you follow the link, you can find the gallery of dogs — and I think Archie was far from ugliest. There are video links at the link also. (Thanks, Lance!)
FUGITIVE BEAR UPDATE: Bruno, the first wild bear known to have meandered into Germany in about 170 years, was “painlessly done away with” near the town of Bayrischzell. Hubert Weinzierl, president of the German Ring of Nature Preservation, is among the outraged: “In other countries, bear and man are living peacefully together. only in Germany is the bear liquidated.”
FLORIDA GATOR UPDATE: The gator which is thought to have attacked and carried off a miniature Shih Tzu last weekend was captured in Largo.
A GIANT CAPRICORN BEETLE, unseen in the UK for 300 years and rare anywhere in the world, was discovered living in a piece furniture due to be recycled.
WALRUSES are making like lemmings, plummeting off cliffs to their death on a Bristol Bay beach in Alaska. Goo goo goo joob!
