Focus, Advance Albums, Cutout Bin, “Freak Folk,” and Snakes on Planes

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

… with a rawking and absurdly amusing live version of “Hocus Pocus,” by Focus.

FRIDAY TIMEWASTER: De-Animator. Use your mouse to aim and click to kill zombies.

ADVANCE STREAMS of new albums from Golden Smog and Los Lonely Boys are running at VH1.

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS FEST has posted its schedule of performances.

SAM CHAMPION, a band that tends to fall in an area bordered by Neil Young, Pavement and the White Stripes, has been getting good blog buzz at sites like Gorilla vs. Bear and Stereogum. You can stream and download tracks from MySpace, with another free track posted at the band's website.

THE KOOKS, who manage to be distinctly British and pop without falling entirely into the Britpop sound, finally have a US release date for their album in October. Of course, with the Internet, you can already stream a selection of tracks via the Hype Machine.

PRESSURE DROP: Reggae tends to put me in a summer frame of mind, what with it being island music and all. You can stream several versions of the Toots & The Maytals classic via Can you see the sunset from the southside?

WEEKEND CUTOUT BIN: More fortuitous finds on the Hype Machine: Marvin Gaye – “Got to Give It Up”; Roberta Flack – “Feel Like Makin' Love”; Talking Heads – “Born Under Punches”; White Zombie – “More Human Than Human”; Beastie Boys – “Sabotage”; The 5. 6. 7. 8's – “19th Nervous Breakdown”; The Rolling Stones – “Tumbling Dice”; Allman Brothers Band – “Jessica”; Molly Hatchet – “Flirtin' With Disaster”; Noddy Holder – “C*m on Feel The Noise”; Guided By Voices – “Teenage FBI”; Warren Zevon – “Dancing With Myself”; REM – “Wichita Lineman”; and Don Edwards – “Coyotes.”

SEEN YOUR VIDEO: The peacock's eye seems to have overlooked Soul Asylum playing “Stand Up and Be Strong” on YouTube.

DEVENDRA BANHART does not like his music being called “freak folk” and has come up with his own description: “Naturalism is a good one, right? If we give them some alternatives then maybe people will start taking this seriously. It's not going to happen with these humiliating, embarrassing, cheesy, tacky phrases like 'freak folk.'” Naturally, you can ignore labels and hear him yourself via the Hype Machine.

VETIVER has been closely associated with Devendra Banhart, but PopMatters talks to frontman Andy Cabic about how the band is carving out a distinct identity: “I think there's something the trajectory that I'm involved with or the music I'm writing. It takes a while.” The article includes embedded video of Banhart joining Vetiver for songs at the Vegoose and Bonnaroo festivals. And there's more to stream via the Hype Machine.

JOLIE HOLLAND has been likened to every one from Devendra Banhart to Norah Jones, but — as Raleigh-Durham's Indy explains — the woman is in a class by herself. You can hear her unique blend of Americana via the Hype Machine.

JAMES TAYLOR may be the epitome of the 70s-style sensitive singer-songwriter, but is he really wussier than Nick Lachey and Dan Fogelberg?

PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer told a court Thursday that he will have an implant fitted to help him kick his drug habit. Last month it was reported that Doherty had tried to have an implant fitted at a Portuguese rehabilitation clinic. The judge has recommended that his drug tests are reduced from twice a week to once a week, even though he has yet to test negative.

TOM-KAT UPDATE: TMZ asked the tabloids what they would pay for pics of the Tom-Kitten, while a blogger there suggests that Cruise's dislike of those answers explains why no pics have been published. Amber Taylor alerted me to a thread at MetaFilter asking “Why does everyone assume Tom Cruise is gay?” After getting an Emmy nomination, South Park's controversial “Trapped in the Closet” episode has been restored to the rerun rotation next week on Comedy Central.

NOW SHOWING: This week's wide releases are the unwanted guest comedy You, Me and Dupree (currently scoring 20 percent on the Tomatometer) and the Wayan Brothers' Little Man (22 percent though a surprising 44 percent among the “cream of the crop” critics). Almost certainly another big weekend for Pirates, matey. There are also going to be a lot of sneak previews of the animated Monster House S-a-tur-day… night.

AM I STILL ON PROJECT RUNWAY? Those were the first words of contestant Jia Santos upon waking up in the intensive care unit.

THE SOPRANOS' final episodes will not premiere until March 2007, after James Gandolfini's unexpected knee surgery pushed the first possible launch dates into competition with the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl.

MADONNA'S Ray of Light Foundation has gifted over 4.3 million bucks since 2001 to the Kabbalah Centre, which Fox's Roger Friedman calls “the pay-as-you-go cult run by questionable clergymen Philip and Karen Berg.” Some interesting stuff about the Bergs' cluster of Kabbalah corporatations, too.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY suggests she is an awful girlfriend who freaks out over small stuff and has crying jags when angry. Putting that out there smacks of reverse psychology and allows her to tell prospective beaus they were warned.

MICHAEL DOUGLAS had his son urinate on his back after being stung by a jellyfish: “I don't know if it helped at all, but my son was happy…”

BRADGELINA: Charges were dropped against paparazzo Clint Brewer based on insufficient evidence to prove he stepped on school property while trying to photograph 4-year-old Maddox Jolie-Pitt.

SNAKES ON A PLANE: Author and essayist Chuck Klosterman looks at the filmmakers' catering to viral internet buzz and dreads what it may do to the movie industry: “Snakes on a Plane is an unabashed attempt at prefab populism, and (maybe) this gimmick will work once. But it won't keep working, and it will almost certainly make filmmaking worse…”

JACKO is being sued by ex-wife Debbie Rowe, who claims he has failed to pay her what he promised when the two divorced in 1999. And she needs the money to fund her custody battle against him.

ANDY, did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch? Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? Are you having fun?

“SLUT” and “HO” are terms used by girls “in a fun way, a positive way,” according to Atoosa Rubenstein, the editor in chief of Seventeen magazine. “All of our pop icons look like porn stars,” Ms. Rubenstein said. “However they’re all virgins, quote unquote,” she said, referring to Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears. “That’s a very complex message to send to girls.” I can think of words other than “complex” that might fit in that explanation.

MID-EAST CONFLICT: At the Counterterrorism Blog, Walid Phares lists his four reasons behind the current conflict, while Olivier Guitta itemizes important overlooked news related to the fighting. Austin Bay looks at the possible traps for the parties involved. I noted yesterday that Egyptian Pres. Mubarak was implictly blaming parties like Syria and Iran for the failure of mediation; today, I note that Saudi Arabia is blaming Hezbollah for “exposing Arab nations and their gains to grave dangers.” The politics of the conflict seem to be making strange bedfellows.

IRAQ: Britain has handed over responsibility for security in one of Iraq's 18 provinces to local forces for the first time since the country was invaded. Brad Blauser, a civilian contractor in Mosul, is helping disabled children in Iraq by providing wheelchairs to help make their lives a little more comfortable: “There is an alarming rate of children in Iraq that suffer from birth defects, disease, or casualties of war. I wanted to make sure that these children are not restricted to their homes because they don't have any means to get outside and play with their friends.”