GARY “ELVIS” SCHEPERS UPDATE: The New Duncan Imperials, who previously played with the tubaist and soundman in The Service, join the crowd doing benefit concerts to cover healthcare costs associated with his diabetes and his bout with flesh-eating bacteria (No, I'm not kididng). NDI is playing Chicago's Abbey Pub Friday night. Pate frontman Jon Pratt is going to try to make it, along with other blockheads from the Pate community. Anyone who can come should — or just buy a ticket direct from the Abbey Pub anyway!
MLK DAY: NewspaperARCHIVE.com has provided a free archive on the history of Martin Luther King, Jr. for the public to view thousands of original newspaper articles. The archive includes stories from days of the Montgomery bus boycott, the “I Have A Dream” speech, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination on April 4, 1968, and thousands of other headlines on the civil rights leader. There is also a timeline for viewing newspapers in chronological order.
CAT POWER: Chan Marshall talks at length to The Age about recording her new album — which comes out tomorrow — at the legendary Ardent Studios, with many of the same musicians that soul icon Al Green worked with during his awe-inspiring 1970s prime. Matador is streaming The Greatest at MySpace. I don't know if it's the Greatest, but it's probably her greatest. Frank at Chromewaves is killing music with Cat Power's cover of Pavement's “We Dance.”
BELLE & SEBASTIAN frontman Stuart Murdoch tals to the Sunday Herald about trying to touch people while aspiring to the catchiness of ABBA, Phil Spector, Blondie and Smokey Robinson. He also has a nice bit about ex-gf and member Isobel Campbell.
GUILT-FREE MP3s: Stereogum has tracks from Belle & Sebastian, Robert Pollard, Eels, Magnet and more…
HARD-FI singer-songwriter Richard Archer talks to the Boston Globe about momentum in advance of the band's first US tour. Their album does not drop here until March.
SUFJAN STEVENS played Lincoln Center in NYC; Village Indian has pics and a review.
THE POLICE are the subject of a documentary by drummer Stuart Copeland, which will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival at the end of the month.
THE FLAMING LIPS get a glowing profile in London's Guardian in advance of the band's 11th album, At War With the Mystics, and a UK tour. Frontman Wayne Coyne is asked, “Exactly how safe is rolling across a crowd in a giant plastic bubble?”
MC5: AZ Night Buzz has part one of an interview with bassist Mike Davis, who talks about a number of things, including the band's influence: “I know of judges, members of Congress, newscasters, lawyers, doctors, and all types of musicians and music fans who cite the MC5 as a major important factor in their history. It’s humbling.”
METRIC: Emily Haines talks to the Journal News about her surprise at being asked to open for the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden, government support, consumer culture and more.
WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NITE? And party every day? Your coffee is almost ready.
PETE TOWNSHEND apologizes to Bob Dylan for snarky comments he made to MOJO magazine.
OKKERVIL RIVER keyboardist Jonathan Meiburg may be on to something: “Indie rock is such a giant category that it's kind of meaningless,” he says. “We talk about budget rock, which is a little more descriptive.” He also talks about the Black Sheep Boy Appendix.
JENNY LEWIS talks about making and touring behind her Rabbit Fur Coat. The Scotsman calls it “a warm but prickly cure for all manner of ills at this time of year.”
ROBERT CHRISTGAU casts a skeptic's eye on compilations of Yo La Tengo and Neil Young. He also compares two Memphis-themed compilations, digging The Sound of the City: Memphis compiled by Charlie Gillett, who authored a wonderful book by the same name as the CD series.
MUSICLAND goes bankrupt. Sam Goody ain't got it!
MORGAN FREEMAN and his partners in the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Miss., plan to produce a series of live blues concert DVDs.
THE ALLMAN BROS., like the swallows returning to Capistrano, will make their annual pilgimage to NYC's Beacon Theater in March.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer has been arrested for for the third time on charges of possesssing class A drugs and driving under the influence. I'm gessing the senetencing on last week's guilty plea may not go well. The supposedly sober supermodel has had debauched and decadent birthday parties; this year, she is celebrating with a low-key dinner. Why, fewer witnesses? Nah, she's afraid someone will bring drugs to a big party.
DAVID HASSELHOFF has filed for divorce from actress Pamela Bach, his wife of 16 years. The AP focuses on his acting, but let's face it — his masterpiece is the video for his cover of “Hooked on a Feeling.”
SHELLEY WINTERS: The two-time Oscar-winning actress is dead at 85; she had been hospitalized in October after suffering a heart attack. I agree with her own opinion of her role as Charlotte Haze in Kubrick's Lolita: “one of the best performances I ever gave in any medium. She is dumb and cunning, silly, sad, sexy and bizarre, and totally American and human.”
THE GOLDEN GLOBES are tonight. In Style has photos of starlets looking hot last year and all-time fugly red carpet dresses. Tom O'Neill has predictions for movies and television.
OSCAR SEASON is also Academy “screener” piracy season.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: A major shake-up at the cineplex, with newcomers Glory Road, Last Holiday and Hoodwinked taking the top slots. Narnia drops to fourth place; King Kong to seventh, on a much smaller number of screens. Kong tops 200 million in the US after 33 days; Narnia which runs 2/3 as long, took 22 days to make that much.
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS are rewriting the pay system for their talent. The upshot of these new deals, which are called cash break-even, is simple: If the film is a hit, the directors, lead actors, writers and others will enjoy an even richer payday, but only after the studio has recouped its investment. If it's a bomb, the studio will be spared the ignoble task of cutting bonus checks on a money-losing dog. Talent agents and show business lawyers are skeptical, citing the industry's history of creative accounting.
BRADGELINA: Now that Jolie is pregnant, her equally strange but estranged dad, Jon Voight, is desperate for her to telephone him. But Bradgelina went to Haiti to do that voodoo that they do so well. Just Jared has pics of Jolie in a wedding dress.
GYWNETH PALTROW'S pregnancy officially outed by Lou Diamond Phillips. Lalalalala Bam-ba!
MICHAEL PALIN is the president of an environmental group that is now attacking him because of his frequent air travel. Is this the right room for an argument?
KATE BECKINSALE, while working on Pearl Harbor, made it her mission to show Ben Affleck that English girls are good at doing their bikini waxes and don't smell.
MUNICH: It turns out there was a cable-TV movie made 20 years ago based on the same book, and some people involved in that production say the Spielberg movie is getting too much credit for originality. Robert Lantos, producer of Sword of Gideon, he has no legal claim, but the complaint can't help the movie's chances during awards season.
TERI HATCHER is reluctant to have cosmetic surgery, saying that, “The idea of putting stuff in your body is weird to me.” Anyone who has seen her skeletal frame recently knows that “stuff” includes food.
THE SOPRANOS return with 12 episodes starting March 12. An additional eight episodes in January 2007 will settle all family business.
EMILY'S REASONS WHY NOT: If it's a list, low ratings would be near the top.
LOST star Cynthia Watros pleaded guilty to drunken driving in a Hawaiian court, where she was fined $312, had her driver's license suspended for 90 days and was ordered to undergo an alcohol assessment and submit to 14 hours of counseling.
COURTNEY LOVE was judged clean and regained full custody of her daughter. She now hopes to make 100 million selling the Nirvana catalog. She's also miffed that Vanity Fair put Lindsay Lohan on the cover for admitting doing drugs when Love did the same thing. Meanwhile, the book by Love's mother is garnering generally favorable reviews.
SUNDANCE FILM FEST: Robert Redford showed up at the Television Critics Association press tour to defend the festival against charges of over-commercialization and celebrification. Likening the phenomenon to ripples in a pond, Redford said: “When a media person comes in and looks at the festival, but from an outer tier, they're going to see a completely different picture than the one we're programming. They'll think it's about Paris Hilton, which is not about anything.”
CAROLYN MURPHY, former SI cover model and the face of Estée Lauder, had her ex-husband arrested on extortion charges after he tried to sell the graphic sex tape they made on their 17-day honeymoon in Barbados. The husband was found in San Jose, living in his car with two dogs.
IRAQ: Young married couples in Baghdad are not getting enough sex, due to a lack of electrical power. Bill Roggio covers continuing police recruitment in Ramadi and continuing operations in northern Iraq. At Iraq the Model, Mohhamed reports that the new government may be a unity government without moving away from the election results; he also reports that citizens are forming squads to fight foreign terrorists in the Anbar province. US troops resue a British freelance journo no one knew was missing.
IRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced Western nations threatening to refer his country to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear program. He accusing the West of a “dark ages” mentality and threatened retaliation unless it recognised his country's nuclear ambitions. That may be why France and Germany already starting to back down from the idea. So we can all look forward to nukes in the hands of a man who believes his government must prepare the country for the return of an Islamic Messiah.
JIHADIS targeted French airplanes. If only they had not invaded Iraq…
A NEW PILL may make traumatic memories less painful and intense. And it's not made by Lacuna, Inc.
BRING IT ON: British scientists are seeking permission to create hybrid embryos by fusing human cells with rabbit eggs.
GIANT MUTANT RAINBOW TROUT are headed your way, if Agricultural Research Service scientists are right.
ELEPHANTS FROM MOSCOW get tanked on vodka.
RHINOS are getting relocated in Kenya.