THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
…with the HOODOO GURUS. Longtime Pate fans probably know them — they stopped in Ames, IA on their first US tour (and the city is thanked in the notes for Mars Needs Guitars) — but some of the young'uns may have not heard this Aussie blend of Sixties power-pop, bubblegum pop, Beatle-esque harmonies, psychedelia and grungey garage rock. You can hear all of those elements in the video for “Like Wow, Wipe-Out!” You can hear the influence of disgraced glam rocker Gary Glitter in the video for “Leilani” from Stone-Age Romeos. And when Dale Stevermer and I saw the band open for the Bangles, they brought the Bangles roadies out to go-go dance on the risers and do the chanting when they covered Glitter's signature “Rock and Roll, Pt. II.” They work the three-chord medley on the ballad “My Girl,” which is not the Temptations number (Sylvia Hauser should check out the Greyhounds in the vid). You can stream four more wonderful tunes from a fan site on MySpace. Oom-gawaa!
FRIDAY TIMEWASTER: Japanese Pepsi Smash is just plain demented.
ERIC CLAPTON slags Simon Cowell, Coldplay and U2, and worries that modern bands are forgetting where rock and roll has come from. He may be right, though some will call him an old fogey for mentioning it.
STING is making an album of 16th century lute music. What would Slowhand say?
THE TWILIGHT SINGERS: I feel a twinge of guilt over missing that former Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli's current band released a new album this week. Dulli talks to Pulse of the Twin Cities about owning a couple of bars in L.A. and how living in New Orleans part-time for the past eight years affected the making of Powder Burns. You can hear some of it via MySpace.
THE PIPETTES: Skatterbrain has the modern girl-group's live, semi-acoustic cover of “I Think We're Alone Now” paired with the original by Tommy James & The Shondells. Elsewhere on the 'net, The Rich Girls Are Weeping has a studio track, “ABC,” which isn't as good as the Jackson 5 or Len Barry — or even their own “Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me” — but it's not bad.
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS singer/guitarist Mike Cooley tells the Illinois Entertainer that Europeans get “the duality of the Southern thing.”
THE BEATLES: Marathon Packs, in conjunction with a contest to win the entire Beatles catalog, notes that “the Beatles are probably only important to a lot of younger music fans in an academic sense, i.e. as history. As in, one must like the Beatles, because they're the Beatles… So, MP has a must-read two-parter on favorite “Beatle moments,” such as “Count-Offs” (like the classic opening of “I Saw Her Standing There”), “Studio Tricks” (like George's solo from “I'm only Sleeping” played forward and backward), “Ringo's Stick Work” (from “What You're Doing” and “Tomorrow Never Knows”) and more, all illustrated with MP3s. And just so Ken King doesn't miss it, one highlight is the opening of “Mr. Moonlight.”
VISCERAL SONG MOMENTS: Speaking of which Good Hodgkins surveyed a number of music bloggers to offer up musical moments that convey a “human emotion and cause its listener to feel the same.”
ARCTIC MONKEYS hammered Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher in the getting hammered department.
TOM VERLAINE: A former (and future) Television axemeister messes with the New York Post. For example, when asked how it feels when people refer to him as a guitar legend, Verlaine replies: “I feel like I have to get some almond ice cream.”
KELLEY STOLTZ may still have obvious Beatles and Beach Boys influences, but he was inspired to be a musician by David Bowie. You can stream three and download two of his tunes at MySpace.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The video of the troubled singer seemingly squirting a syringe filled with blood during an MTV interview has surfaced. Meanwhile, the supposedly sober supermodel is now romantically linked to MTV presenter Russell Brand, who has problems of his own.
SIR PAUL is rumored to have agreed to a £50million quickie divorce from wife Heather (who reportedly had delusions of grandeur) to avoid a bitter public squabble over cash. There's also a breakdown of Paul's £825 million fortune at the first link.
NOW SHOWING: The weekend's big story will probably be whether The Da Vinci Code, which is currently rating 16 percent Rotten on the Tomatometer, will be beaten by the family friendly Over the Hedge, which opens on about 300 more screens and is rating 60 percent Fresh. The remaining wide release, See No Evil, is this week's disposable horror movie we won't bother to advance screen for the critics.
IAN McKELLEN, promoting The Da Vinci Code on the Today show Thursday morning, responded to those who wanted a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie this way: “I’ve often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer at the front saying 'This is fiction.' I mean walking on water? I mean, it takes an act of faith.” Well, yes, it does. McKellen went on to say he found the Bible “somewhat preachy” and called the ending “a bit of a downer.”
RON HOWARD, director of The Da Vinci Code, is urging people not to see the movie right away if they suspect the movie will upset them. Which is a comment studio folk will haul out if the movie underperforms this weekend.
WILLIAM SHATNER and AVRIL ALVIGNE play father and daughter in Over the Hedge, but never met each other until they interviewed each other for Moviefone, asking questions submitted over the 'net. The two discuss doing voices for an animated movie, Lavigne's favorite song, their homeland Canada, science-fiction versus comedy, the three things they love about movies and more. Not bad at all for a promo device.
DENISE & HEATHER & RICHIE & CHARLIE & DAVID: David Spade's rebound romance with Heather Locklear has ended, according to In Touch Weekly. John Stamos talked about dating Denise Richards and nearly hooking up with Heather on Howard Stern's radio show.
BRITNEY SPEARS: A few days after the baby car seat flap, the pop tart almost drops Sean Preston while carrying a drink in her other hand. After the incident, Spears said, “This is why I need a gun.”
JENNIFER LOPEZ: Is she pregnant? Popsugar weighs the evidence.
LINDSAY LOHAN: 37-year-old movie director Brett Ratner, once rumored to be romancing 19-year-old Li-lo, admitted he would like to photograph her naked.
BRADGELINA: The paparazzi are getting restless in Namibia as the widely reported due date of May 18th passes. D'ya think Jolie fed them a fake date? I do! The couple are said to have struck a £2.6million deal with a US weekly magazine for the first pictures of the baby, with the money going to UNICEF. Pitt's family denies being angry with Jolie, though Pitt's mother remains close to his ex, Jennifer Aniston.
CHRIS TUCKER, whose only major movie credits are Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2, is going to collect 25 million smackers for Rush Hour 3. Lesson — you only need to be able to do one thing well to be successful.
CHER turns 60 Saturday. There is no way I will top Jossip's headline.
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY talks to Vogue about fashion (d-uh), movie costumes and using fashion to play a character on the red carpet.
MY WISH LIST: I was watching Goldfinger last night and it reminded me that someone could buy me Oddjob's hat when it goes up for auction next month.
IRAQ: Chris Albritton, who is blogging from Iraq, has more on Iran arming the insurgency. Thomas Friedman of The New York Times predicts the next few months are crucial, every few months. Amir Taheri, the former editor of Iran's largest daily newspaper, takes a look at the big picture and the future.
IRAN: Pres. Ahmadinejad is writing a letter to Pope Benedict. Anyone want to bet it will be another da'wa?
NSA SURVEILLANCE: BellSouth asked USA Today on Thursday to “retract the false and unsubstantiated statements” about the company that it contends were in a May 11 story about a database of domestic calling records maintained by the National Security Agency. The paper is reviewing the request.
BABY ZOO ANIMALS are featured in an AOL slideshow. Awww…
KITTY is a 400 lb. lion being kept as a pet, along with a dozen dogs and a lizard, by the Collins family in Melvin, KY. Some of the neighbors ar less than thrilled. You have imaginary banjo music playing in your head right now, don't you?
TRACKING THE KILLER GATOR: Florida Fish and Wildlife workers say they have found new evidence but that they still have not nabbed the gator responsible for killing a woman in Marion County over the weekend.
A FOUR-FOOT ANACONDA was found slithering around one of Britain’s biggest shopping centers.
A RACCOON survived an 11,000 volt electric shock in southeast Cyprus.
APES are able to plan ahead, researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science. They are just waiting for the big war.
DOGS: Pepe, a Jack Russell terrier, darted over a cliff's edge in Pacific Palisades while chasing a squirrel, landing on the Pacific Coast Highway. Pepe lived, but his owner had to be rescued from the face of the cliff. Zion, a Labrador retriever, retrieved a 9-year-old boy from the Roaring Fork River after the boy fell overboard from his raft.
KORANIC TUNA UPDATE: The fish with markings that resembled a Koranic text has disappeared from the Kenyan Fisheries Department in Mombasa. It's being called a theft, but maybe it's a miracle.