Karl 
THE POSIES have a lot of cool stuff including MP3s of live acoustic Hollies and Kinks covers up on their website. Ken King and the Pavloviches and I saw them play acoustic and were duly impressed; besides, who could cover the Hollies any better (let alone the medley at the end)? Plus, “I May Hate You Sometimes” is one of the best songs the Hollies never wrote.
NEW RELEASES: Bruce Springsteen, Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris, Secret Machines, k.d. lang, and The Coup are streaming in their entirety this week at AOL Music. There's a cheekily-titled UK-only EP from Arctic Monkeys, a new album from Eleventh Dream Day, some Elephant 6-style psychedelic indie folk from Elf Power, the remix album from Feist, some Nick Cave-meets-Brian Wilson with a dash of old skool New Wave madness from The Fever, angular new wave from The Rakes a less-trippy-than-usual outing from Starlight Mints and the Tom Verlaine albums. There's a compilation of Leadbelly: Important Recordings 1934-1949. There are also a bunch of “Stax Profiles” — Albert King, Booker T. & the MG's, Otis Redding and Rufus Thomas. And Collectors' Choice Music is putting out a bunch of KC & the Sunshine Band!
CONSUMER'S GUIDE: Robert Christgau likes the old skool funk of The Coup and the Wire-inspired new wave of The Rakes, among others (see above for links).
BISHOP ALLEN, which is self-releasing an EP for every month in 2006, makes NPR's Song of the Day with “Central Booking,” which appears on the February EP.
ISLANDS ended their NYC show by leading the crowd into the streets, pied-piper style. Stereogum hooks you up with pics and video. Hear more at MySpace.
XTC: Marathon Packs is killing music with demos from the Nonsuch album. So for Twofer Tuesday, let's watch “The Mayor of Simpleton” and a tough live version of “Respectable Street.”
MATTHEW SWEET talks to Suicide Girls about recording the Sid 'n' Susie album with Susanna Hoffs, the demise of the legendary Western Studios in LA and the surprising success of the Thorns (Sweet, Pete Droge and Shawn Mullins). Hear Sid 'n' Susie at MySpace.
NEKO CASE talks about her Ukranian roots, politcs, Canada, the New Pornographers and more at Wears the Trousers.
CENTRO-MATIC frontman Will Johnson tals to ChartAttack about his many bands, including South San Gabriel and The Undertow Orchestra. Even so, Centro-Matic has put out a dozen albums in a decade, plus the odd cassette and EP. You can hear all of Fort Recovery through Misra Records.
JOSE GONZALEZ talks to Tiny Mix Tapes about doing a world tour for a three-year-old album, lending his music to a commercial and learning he has the No. 1 ringtone in the UK: “Thank you. Yeah, the record's doing well there, but I didn't know…”
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: Rare and previously unheard tracks from the Libertines and Babyshambles are leaking onto the 'net, right from the troubled singer's stolen computer. You can probably stream some Libertines in several formats from the Hype Machine. Meanwhile, the supposedly sober supermodel could be charged with drug offenses in the next few days, according to reports. The police witness is Rebecca White, who also claims that she and Moss once had a lesbian romp in a hotel room. NTTAWWT. Indeed, wouldn't that have been a better use of video than Kate blowing rails in some recording studio?
DENISE RICHARDS and CHARLIE SHEEN: The nastiness continues. Richards' bombshell allegations (which I forgot to mention include the claim that Sheen apparently demanded Richards get an abortion when he learned she was pregnant with their first child) are followed by pics of Richards caught cannodling with Richie Sambora, Bon Jovi guitarist and future ex of Heather Locklear, who was recently caught canoodling with comedian David Spade. Entertainment Tonight is Sheen-friendly, not even detailing Richards' allegations. It's probably a coincidence that ET and CBS, which runs Sheen's sitcom, are both owned by Viacom, right?
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise's crazy train crashed into the Mission: Impossible 3 presser in Rome. I guess Cruise had enough of that “staying at home to be with Holmes and the baby” line he was feeding everyone last week. Maybe he was again possessed by the spirit of wanderlust that had him hitchhiking with the men picking up prostitutes outside NYC's Holland Tunnel when he was a struggling actor.
THE MTV MOVIE AWARDS nominees are announced and voting has begun. Toughest to call will be Best Kiss, where Bradgelina and the Brokeback Cowboys are facing off.
SIENNA MILLER and JUDE LAW were snapped together agian, along with Law's kids.
BRITNEY SPEARS had a blow-up with hubby Spenderline in Vegas. She left Nero's restaurant at Caesars Palace in tears and skipped his gig at Pure. Sure, she could have turned up at the show just to flip him off, but having a fight was a good excuse to avoid the undoubted aural assault of her talentless spouse.
BRADGELINA: Rumors of a Monday wedding swirled as the US media started a bidding war over the rights to spy photos to appear in Huisgenoot this week. BTW, E! News Live was suggesting that pics of Baby Bradgelina or the Tom-kitten could fetch a cool million. And Jolie's lesbian lover claims she was also a booty call for Madonna. Tick-tock on those 15 minutes, Jenny.
GILLIAN ANDERSON: The divorce is out there in the court files. But the good news is she has two graphic sex scenes in her upcoming movie, Straightheads.
CARMEN ELECTRA claims hubby Dave Navarro helps keep her in tip-top condition. And that's not even counting the aerial circus hoop.
101 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE, courtesy of Jim Emerson, who blogs at Roger Ebert's site. “It's not my idea of The Best Movies Ever Made… They're the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat 'movie-literate.'”
LOST is a clip show this week, so fans have to make do with news of the “Lost Experience” — an Internet game that will feature a parallel story line that will give insight into the top-rated show. Plus, news that Evangeline Lilly intends to continue doing missionary work.
THE 20-MILLION-DOLLAR WOMAN is not Julia Roberts… at least not when it comes to celebrity endorsement deals. That honor goes to Catherine Zeta-Jones, who tops a list compiled by Adweek magazine.
WES ANDERSON directed JASON SCHWARTZMAN in Rushmore. The duo is reunited in a new ad for American Express. No word on what they were paid, but it was probably less than Catherine Zeta-Jones.
IRAQ: With al-Maliki the presumptive prime minister, Mohammed at ITM begins to look at party posturing over cabinet positions. Defense, Interior and Oil will be the ones to watch. Bill Roggio discovers that bin Laden did mention Iraq in his latest tape, calling Baghdad the epicenter of jihad. AQ No. 2 Zawahiri calls it “the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era.” So why was OBL was urging jihadis to go to the Sudan instead?
BIN LADEN IN THE MEDIA: Speaking of OBL, while Reuters has a policy against calling anyone a terrorist, did you know that the AP and AFP refer to OBL as a “Saudi dissident?” I hear people — including folks at the wire services — say that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter, but when OBL makes these tapes, there's no mention of freedom on them. If his side ever won, these journalists would soon find themselves beheaded, having outlived their usefulness to his propaganda efforts.
IRAN IN THE MEDIA: The AP notes that Iranian Pres. Ahmadinejad said on on Monday that “We say that this fake regime (Israel) cannot not logically continue to live.” The AP refers to this as “criticism” of Israel. But at least the AP reported the comment, which is more than Reuters could manage.
HANNAH claimed the top prize in the 27th annual “Beautiful Bulldog” contest in Des Moines, IA, which marks the beginning of the Drake Relays, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious track and field meets.
SNUPPY, the world's first and only cloned dog, celebrated his first birthday with ice cream and sausages.
A MALLARD has made a nest for herself and her babies-to-be in a Minnesota hardware store's garden department. And why not? It's outdoorsy, but much more comfy. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (does Doug Newman still work there?) said the birds are federally protected and their nests cannot be relocated until the eggs hatch.
MORMON CRICKETS are munching their way across millions of acres in the arid West. I thought that we expect the Mormons to travel across the arid West.
SHEEP are billboards in the Netherlands. Burma-Shear!
BABY PIGMY HIPPO debuts at the Tokyo Zoo. Awww…
