BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE: Kevin Drew is inteviewed in his bathtub about the pros and cons of the digitial age, sometime-bandmate Leslie Feist (“the hardest working person in show business”), America and the influence of Pitchfork.
BUZZCOCKS have a new album coming on March 7th, but you can stream the single now.
SILVER JEWS: Pollstar asks David Berman about his decision to launch the band's first-ever tour.
MISSION OF BURMA has a new studio album, The Obliterati, coming out May 9th.
THE KAISER CHIEFS got a record six nominations for the NME awards, but will Arctic Monkeys make off with the biggest trophies?
ARCTIC MONKEYS: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not became the fastest-selling debut by a rock band ever in the UK. London's Independent asks artists, commentators and a Labour MP about the phenomenon, including Alan Sillitoe, the author of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which gave the album its title (through the Albert Finney movie adaptation). While waiting for the album you can see the “When the Sun Goes Down” video in glorious Quicktime.
ISOBELL CAMPBELL and MARK LANEGAN: Brooklyn Vegan hooks you up with the video for their cover of Hank Williams' “Ramblin' Man” and notes that Eugene Kelly — member of the legendary Vaselines, Eugenius and Captain America — will fill in for Lanegan on the tour. You Ain't No Picasso has a legit download of “Deus Ibi Ist.” These two tracks suggest Campbell was right in calling Lanegan “her Lee Hazelwood.”
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN is one of the bands with a recent streamable set at KEXP.
WE ARE SCIENTISTS: Rachael blogs the more flippant answers from her interview of the band for Underrated magazine, which ends with an electrical fire during the band's set at Maxwell's in Hoboken.
ABBA has gained a hold on the imagination of today’s youth. Stylus examines why.
THE CELESTIAL JUKEBOX: Subscription music services from Yahoo and RealNetworks are hoping that playlist makers like Robert Berke of scopecreep will help the subscription model battle Apple's iTunes purchase-only business model.
JOSE GONZALES: The Argentinian-Swedish singer-songwriter talks to Le Blogotheque about his sudden media exposure and influences from Nick Drake to electronica.
KANYE WEST has a new feud brewing with America's Catholic League after posing as the wounded Jesus Christ on the cover of the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone. A Catholic League spokeswoman says, “It's moronic. I mean, Kanye West as Jesus? He's a pop star.” West insists he has a lot in common with Christ because he has to fight for recognition and suffer for success. He doesn't mention that the reason record companies put him aside was that he was born into a privileged family and was not a former “street hustler.” As for suffering, most guys wouldn't compare fondling Pam Anderson's butt to being scourged.
FIVE VOICES YOU SHOULD HEAR, according to Time magazine. And it's not lame.
JANETTE CARTER, the last surviving child of country music pioneers A.P. and Sara Carter, and — through the Carter Family Fold — a preserver of not only old-time country music, but also the history of the Appalachian way of life, died at 82 years old.
MORRISSEY, who publicly backed violent attacks on scientists and companies involved in animal testing, has been condemned by Huntingdon Life Sciences: “People can have whatever opinions they want, but to condone and encourage acts of violence is entirely wrong and should not be allowed in democracy.”
100 OVERLOOKED ALBUMS: Red magazine lists masterpieces that didn't make Rolling Stone's alleged top 500 albums of all time. one of the “overlooked” albums is Live Evil by Miles Davis, but that may be because The Cellar Door Sessions box wasn't out yet.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer's band, Babyshambles was joined by former guitarist Pat Walden in Cambridge. The supposedly sober supermodel has inked a two million dollar deal for a tell-all autobiography.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: “Havin' My (Alien) Baby,” courtesy of e-greetings. I hope that's a narrow demographic. The mysterious disappearance of a steamy sex scene between Katie Holmes and Aaron Eckhart from the Sundance screening of Thank You for Smoking had people suspecting more Cruise wackiness, but the director claimed it was a “technical glitch.”
LOVE MONKEY: So, how 'bout that Ben Folds cameo last night? Nice but Ben needs to keep his day job. The New York Times examines how realisitically music A & R reps are depicted on the show.
MICHIGAN J. FROG is getting a pink slip, as the WB merges with UPN to form CW. Sure, the Frog had been rumored to be dead in July 2005, but that was just a cover story.
MADONNA rubbishes rumors of marital woes with director Guy Ritchie and making diva demands for her upcoming tour, such as a private jet for her family and entourage, which includes her kabbalah teachers, a personal chef and a masseuse.
DISNEY IS BUYING PIXAR Animation Studios Inc. for 7.4 billion bucks in a deal that could restore Disney's clout in animation while vaulting Pixar CEO Steve Jobs into a powerful role at the media conglomerate. To infinity, and beyond!
BRADGELINA: George Clooney mocks Pitt. Rumors of a Valentine's Day wedding continue to circulate. Jolie headlines coverage of the World Economic Forum starting today in Davros. After all, she is much hotter than Germany's new Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Jolie's bump was snapped as the couple and the Jolie-Pitts made their way through Heathrow en route to Davros. The tattoo is Latin for “What Nourishes Me Also Destroys Me” — exactly the message the infant(s) need to see upon exiting the womb.
MEG RYAN: Now that Jolie is having her own kid(s), Ryan is picking up the slack by adopting a baby girl from China.
VAUGNISTON are shacking up in Aniston's L.A. home. Of course, this week, Aniston is at Sundance, freaking over the paparazzi.
THE OSCARS will start even earlier this year. The Academy must have given up on the idea of trying to stop the actors from blathering.
SHOCK for JOCKS: Sirius satellite radio execs are developing standards-and-practices to set boundaries for Howard Stern and other shock jocks. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Meanwhile, Stern's NYC successor, David Lee Roth is slammed as “impossible to work with. A real arrogant, self-righteous a–.”
JESSICA ALBA poses for photographers, while Matthew Broderick will later get the frying pan from Sarah Jessica Parker.
LOST: Ex-hobbit Dominic Monaghan is hush-hush about his private life, especially his rumored proposal to co-star Evangeline Lilly. But he will tell you of his love for Scrabble. Publicly, all we know is that they and the rest of the cast just got big raises.
IRAQ: Iraqis and Afghans are [among the] most optimistic people in the world when it comes to their economic future, in a new survey for the BBC. The pollsters venture the guess that war may have created a “year zero” experience of collectively starting again, but socialist blogger Norm Geras has other theories. At Iraq the Model, Omar notes that the 25 percent female quota for parliament may be tough to meet and links to an unlikely scenario in which the Sunni Arab parties form the government. Bill Roggio has more on the split between Iraqi insurgets and al Qaeda. L.A. Times columnist (and Time contributor) Joel Stein doesn't support the troops and thinks that “being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken.” Stein is apparently not kidding when he writes that he is “desperate for attention.”
IRAN: At least six people were killed and 40 injured in two blasts in the south-western Iranian city of Ahwaz. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been due to give a speech at a religious center nearby, but a spokesman did not believe the bombs were linked to the planned visit. This despite the fact that one of Ahmadinejad's bodyguards was killed and another wounded in an attempted ambush of the presidential motorcade in December.
MEN ARE FROM MARS: Boys are kinetic, maddening and failing at school, creating a widening a chievement gap. Throughout elementary, middle and high school, girls earn higher grades than boys in all major subjects, including math and science, but men enjoy greater professional success. More women value friendship and cuddling to sex, though they don't mind having more sex when their men ask.
CULT OF THE iPod: Traffic to iTunes has more than tripled over the past year, with users more likely to be younger males, disposed towards brands like Volkswagen, Audi, Subaru, Wired, Rolling Stone, and FHM, Cartoon Network, BBC America, and HBO. And you can now get Valentine's Day lingerie for your iPod or Mini.
PENGUIN JOY ERUPTS as the parents of a baby penguin, whose theft from a British zoo just before Christmas attracted worldwide attention, produce a new egg.
ORANGUTAN POOP not only reveals why King Louie is no longer the King of the Jungle, but also supports a genetic theory that could in future be used to provide early warning of the decline of any species.
WHALE VOMIT is big money — 32 pounds netting almost 300K.
FLAMINGOS LOCKED UP at a German zoo to stop them from ice skating.
WHAT'S THAT LASSIE? Woof! Woof, woof-woof! George has been thrown from his horse and can't get up? Woof! Let's get him!