Devo 2.0, Art Brut, Paul Westerberg, Dead or Alive, Surfing Mice

ARCTIC MONKEYS: The other night, my Dad asked what the big deal was with this band. Well, the quartet's Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is now the fastest selling debut in British chart history. And this success is due in no small part to Internet marketing and buzz-building, which makes it a larger story than four teens from Sheffield. RELATED: Having noted that the lads have covered prefab pop group Girls Aloud, I should note that the Sugarbabes have covered the Monkeys' “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor.”

DEVO co-founder Gerald V. Casale talks to Billboard about spending four months casting the kid-staffed Devo 2.0, which is is preparing to take the original band's music to such unlikely locales as state fairs and suburban shopping malls. Casale adds that it “would be funny as hell” for Devo 2.0 to make an unannounced appearance at a regular Devo show at some point. BONUS: If you missed it before, here’s the video for “Whip It.”

BELLE & SEBASTIAN: PopMatters has an advance review of The Life Pursuit. It scores a seven, but reads better than that. London's Observer dug it enough to make it CD of the week.

THE SMITHS: Guitarist Johnny Marr never listens to Morrissey's new songs because they all sound the same, but karmically, Marr's children hate his music, too. Bassist Andy Rourke is just surprised that he made it to 40.

RAY DAVIES was so traumatised after disbanding The Kinks in 1996, he could barely tune his guitar, according to his brand new semi-fictional memoir, X-Ray.

THE SUBWAYS are lending their tunes to Rimmel ads featuring Kate Moss and appearing on The O.C. You can stream a few from MySpace or download the T. Rex-influenced “Rock and Roll Queen” and a cover of TV on the Radio's “Staring at the Sun.” right now.

ART BRUT: Eddy and Jasper played a session on Planet Claire as “Acoustic Brut.” Blogger rbally hooks you up with the downloads.

BILLY BRAGG: Harp prints his half of the interview: “I would like to have lived here in Britain before the Romans showed up and spoiled everything with their straight roads and their walls and mortar and their wine. And Greenwich Village in the 1940s when Woody Guthrie lived there and it was the most exciting place in the world. Or Folk City in 1961. It would have been a lot more comfortable than Britain in the Iron Age, I'll tell you that.”

HANK WILLIAMS radio acetates belong to Hank Williams Jr. and half-sister Jett, according to a ruling from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

SEEN YOUR VIDEO: Paul Westerberg plays “Silent Film Star” on The Late Show with David Letterman (2002).

DEAD OR ALIVE singer Pete Burns is horrified his former record company re-released “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” because he's “sick” of it. That's a word that pops into my head when I think of that tune, too. None of which stops me from noting that someone is killing music by posting it for download. Not to mention the video.

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer had a DUI charge dropped, but remains in custody on possession charges. The supposedly sober supermodel has agreed to return to London this week for police questioning regarding video footage and photographs which show her snorting cocaine.

CHARLIZE THERON thinks winning another Oscar would make her a “greedy bitch.” Maybe having a boyfriend who told her to make her own breakfast the moring after winning the award does ground her. Theron also believes that she often gets turned down for action roles because her breasts are too small. This is her excuse for Aeon Flux?

LOVE MONKEY is on tonight. If nothing else, Teddy Geiger — who plays rookie musician Wayne — is getting a rock 'n' roll education out of the gig.

WHAT KILLED CHRISTOPHER PENN? Was it a wrong turn in his long struggle with drugs? Or was it… the milkshake of death?

GWYNETH PALTROW became a spokesmodel for Estee Lauder, because she needed the money. What would Andrew Dice Clay say?

BUFFY the Network Slayer?

TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise received a Razzie Award nomination for his unconvincing portrayal of a working-class man in War of the Worlds. Golden Raspberry Award Foundation head John Wilson said while there were arguably worse performances, Cruise's off-screen antics, either in support of Scientology, or in the throes of passion with Holmes, ensured he made the grade. (Here's the full list of Razzie noms.) Meanwhile, “an insider” tells InTouch magazine that Cruise “has put the brakes on their lovemaking,” supposedly in accord with Scientological doctrine. NTTAWWT.

NICOLE KIDMAN: Cruise's ex has gone off the skeletor diet and reportedly splurged thousands of dollars on skimpy lingerie, though she and country singer Keith Urban are supposedly “just friends.”

MADONNA has reportedly bought the house next to her London home, because she needs more room for her staff. Or her husband.

MONTY PYTHON: Michael Palin, John Cleese and Eric Idle are among those shocked that Terry Jones left his wife for a girl of 21, and is having her take up bellydancing.

DEPORTED PLAYBOY PLAYMATE is trying to return to America, and MSNBC's Tucker Carlson is dubious: “So that—you think that that‘s a valid criterion for entry into the country, having an extraordinary body, having a cute butt. That‘s sort of—you know, all the girls with the dumpy butts don‘t get in. But the ones with the cute ones do.” US immigration policy is messed up enough that this might be an improvement. Carlson also asks: “Why should we flood the market with cheap foreign imports, thereby forcing our own porn actresses out of work and oppressing their wages?” But in the Internet age, porn is available globally already. So let's get the part about the cute butts inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty, pronto!

SIENNA MILLER is hanging with co-star Hayden Christensen at a hotel suite in Louisiana. Just Jared has the pics of Miller wearing his shirt.

JUDE LAW, meanwhile, is denying dating a brunette stripper from L.A.'s Body Shop. His rep swears that Law not been to a strip club in L.A…. lately.

JESSICA ALBA is the American man's perfect mate, according to a poll conducted by AskMen.com, beating out Sienna Miller and Angelina Jolie. Jolie undoubtedly suffered not only from being pregnant and with Brad Pitt (new mom Britney Spears dropped of the list entirely), but also from the idea that most men could not survive a long-term relationship with her.

IRAQ: Bill Roggio notes that the Iraqi Army is conducting independent counterinsurgency operations, while the Coalition has opened up talks with various insurgent groups in an attempt to co-opt them into the political process. Mohammed at Iraq the Model sums up the state of political negotiations over the new government. ABC News co-anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt are responding well to treatment after an IED attack. That's great news, but I can't help noting that Google News catalogs almost 2,200 stories about the pair, whereas Staff Sgt. Jerry M. Durbin Jr., Sgt. Matthew D. Hunter, Tech. Sgt. Jason L. Norton and Staff Sgt. Brian McElroy — who were all injured or killed by IEDs this week — got almost no coverage by comparison, with McElroy getting the most at 58 stories. These four US soldiers got zero stories on the ABC News website.

IRAN has formed a top secret team of nuclear specialists to infiltrate the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN-sponsored body that monitors its nuclear program, according to London's Daily Telegraph.

BILL CLINTON condemned the publishing of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper an economic conference in the Qatari capital of Doha. The cartoons provoked demonstrations in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, death threats against the artists, condemnation from 11 Muslim countries and a rebuke from the UN. The newspaper asked illustrators to make the cartoons after reports that artists were reluctant to illustrate a book on Mohammed for fear of Muslim retribution. The daily's editors said the cartoons were a test of whether the threat of Islamic terrorism had limited the freedom of expression in Denmark. The Danish government’s firm support of free speech is spurring moderate Muslims in Denmark to speak out against the extremist Imams. Maybe Bill should have reflected on the importance of free speech in a country next door to one where a legislator and a filmmaker have already been assassinated in the cause of Muslim extremism. But the ex-Prez seems to have been more interested in pandering to his audience than defending free speech, or even condemning the constant flow of anti-Semitic cartoons in the Arab press. RELATED: Rowan Atkinson, a/k/a Mr. Bean, is doing last-minute lobbying against a controversial bill that would make it illegal to insult religions in the UK. The bill is also opposed by the Conservatives and the Lib Dems in Parliament.