IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Pate is streaming at MySpace.
THE STROKES' new album is getting a 68 score at Metacritic, so you may prefer to stream it in its entirety before deciding to buy it. Frank at Chromewaves is killing music with the band's cover of The Clash's “Clampdown.”
EARLY RADIOHEAD tracks have surfaced on the Internet.
PUNK PIX, and new wavers, too… Johnny Rotten, The Clash, Paul Weller and more archival photos from Andy Rosen.
PETE TOWNSHEND is trying to remain positive about his escalating deafness as he rests his ears prior to the Who tour this summer.
DAVID LEE ROTH says that a reunion of the original Van Halen lineup is “inevitable.” You hear that Mr. Anderson?… That is the sound of inevitability…
1967 was the greatest year for pop music, according to BBC 2 radio listeners, though the article's claim that '67 was “the year that British bands took over America” is rather silly. The British Invasion occurred years earlier, bands mentioned in the piece include The Doors (American) and Jimi Hendrix (American with UK backup), Pink Floyd had little impact in the US then, The Beach Boys released “Good Vibrations” in 1966, etc.
RILO KILEY: You Ain't No Picasso is killing music with a second round of covers of songs by the Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Elliot Smith etc.
THE HOLD STEADY has tour dates in February. Not in my neck of the woods, but DC, Austin and L.A. are on the list. ALSO: Keyboardist Franz Nicolay talks about the band's growing success, the Anti-Social Music collective he helped found in 200) and more in part one of an interview with Aquarium Drunkard.
THUNDERBIRDS ARE NOW have parted with drummer Michael Durgan — who was the last original member of the original lineup.
COOLFER Glenn blogs what's new at online stores, including ten Funkadelic albums added to iTunes. But the real biggie is School House Rock videos!
RY COODER: Aquarium Drunkard is killing music with selections from Cooder's acclaimed Chavez Ravine.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: In an effort to impress the supposedly sober supermodel, the troubled singer threw a security-laden New Year's Eve party that everyone fled before midnight.
HOUSE OF FREAKS: The band's former singer was found dead with his family in his burning house in Virginia in a quadruple murder that has baffled police.
JOAQUIN PHOENIX accompanied Walk The Line to Folsom Prison and played a few numbers unplugged. That probably seemed like a break from dating Lindsay Lohan. We'll know that rumor is true if Joaquin ends up in rehab again before the Oscars.
LOHAN LOWDOWN: Speaking of which, Li-Lo was hospitalized in Miami after suffering an asthma attack Monday night, but is fine now. For you skeptics, it turns out that the Lohan does have asthma as one of her “risk factors.”
REESE WITHERSPOON gave husband Ryan Phillippe her recording of his two favorite Sinatra tunes for Christmas, probably requiring an Oscar-caliber performance of joy from him.
VAUGHNISTON: Aniston says cheese makes her happy, which would explain her movie career. But the gal still moves magazines at a record pace.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN: Larry David wants no part of it. And he uses his own phrase, so I won't.
SIENNA MILLER BANS JUDE LAW from the set of Factory Girl, supposedly at the behest of the studio bosses.
JASON LEE: The Asbury Park Press notes that the My Name is Earl star was a professional skateboarder and entrepreneur before getting into acting.
KIEFER SUTHERLAND: When not saving the world in a single day, special counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer gets falling-down drunk, even wrecking a Christmas tree during a seven-hour bender.
JESSICA SIMPSON filled out those Daisy Dukes with gel inserts? I guess I'm going to have to scrutinize those bikini scenes to verify this ugly rumor. As a public service to you, the reader, natch.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: He may be unhinged, but Cruise was voted the top money-making star for US movie theaters in 2005 by theater owners and operators, beating out Johnny Depp, Bradgelina and more.
HUGH JACKMAN: As the site has some female readers who like the cut of his jib, I note that Just Jared has pictures of H-Jack getting domestic with Max and Ava.
DONALD TRUMP, as I suspected, has no interest in running for NY Gov.
KUNG FU COMEDY is in development for NBC. Mr. & Mrs. Smith director Doug Liman is teaming with writer Dave Caplan on the project. Says Caplan: “Luckily for me, the list of ex-private eye, kung fu-trained comedy writers is pretty short.”
THE WIZARD OF OZ is a cult film? Who knew? Who thinks this? Friends of Dorothy? Hippies who sync it up to Dark Side of the Moon?
GWYNETH PALTROW is having a Kabbalah exorcism of her London pad. Couldn't she just divorce Chris Martin?
IRAQ: At Iraq the Model, Omar reports that negotiations between leaders of the major blocs seem to have ended, with most apparently returning to Baghdad to brief their cadres and perhaps to prepare for expected future meetings. Allawi seems to have dropped off the media radar. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace told the AP that the US ambassador was working with Iraqi leaders to bring more Sunni Arabs into the security forces, though he stressed it was up to the Iraqis to resolve the issue. Petrol returned to Baghdad as Iraq’s main oil refinery resumed production on Monday.
IRAN: According to London's Guardian, the Iranian government has been successfully scouring Europe for the sophisticated equipment needed to develop a nuclear bomb, according to the latest western intelligence assessment. The assessment declares that Iran has developed an extensive web of front companies, official bodies, academic institutes and middlemen dedicated to obtaining – in western Europe and in the former USSR – the expertise, training, and equipment for nuclear programmes, missile development, and biological and chemical weapons arsenals. Iran has told the UN's nuclear watchdog that it plans to resume nuclear fuel research after a 2 1/2-year hiatus. Pres. Ahmadinejad has told lawmakers that trying to work with Europe “had not achieved anything for Iran.” Ahmadinejad also considered global reaction to his remark last month that the Holocaust was a myth had been “positive.”
VENEZUELA: The top-selling toy this Christmas was the Hugo Chavez action figure. Different versions of the doll include one in a combat uniform and one another which reads one of the president's anti-American speeches.
TWO-HEADED ALBINO RAT SNAKE can be yours for a mere 150K. Best of all, one head is male and one is female.
RAISING BABY SQUIRRELS? Let Squirrels For You be your guide. Awww…some pics at the link.
NINE DIAMONDBACK TERRAPINS were rescued from an Asian food market in upstate NY by the Department of Environmental Conservation.
DOG wears ten million in jewels?
MOLES uncover the Lost Ark of the Covenant? Not really, but they did make a find…