Karl 
ART BRUT is kicking off their first US tour at SXSW. You can — and should — stream two of the band's best at MySpace. Now. Use the standalone player if you must. At least until you hear the lyric, “And yes, this is my singing voice…”
SXSW 2006: The latest, massive list of performers is up at Brooklyn Vegan. It's SXSW, Baby! is a community blog on all the festivals — one recent post addressed SXSW.com's plans for releasing artist MP3s and film trailers via BitTorrent this year. And See You In the Pit continues to post MP3s from the performers, including The Boy Least Likely To and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.
THE DITTY BOPS turn up in Frontier Publishing's list of “Lesbians We Love.” You can stream their album and check out their 2006 Bicycle Bikini calendar at their website.
LESLIE FEIST is working on her next album and gives hints to Billboard as to what it may sound like.
ANTHONY & THE JOHNSONS sells better in wealthier neighborhoods. NTTAWWT.
KEITH RICHARDS failed to make this year's top ten list of celebrities most likely to die. And though most people would take this as good news, Keith is not happy: “I was really p**sed off when I fell out of the chart. Some years I was on it and I was number one. I'm just not rock 'n' roll enough any more.”
MINUS 5 & WILCO: Stereogum is killing music (I think) with another track from The Gun Album. And Decemberist Colin Meloy will turn up elsewhere on the album.
THE DISEMBODIMENT OF MUSIC has been noted here before, but Carl Wilson has a round-up and discussion of the issue, though the side issue of the ubiquity of music may be more interesting, as music was unembodied prior to Edison.
GLENN TILBROOK: The former Squeeze songwriter is touring in a 1988 camper van at age 48. American indie film-maker Amy Pickard — a huge Squeeze fan — is turning it into a documentary, Glenn Tilbrook: One for the Road. No word on whether he plays before or affter the puppet show.
THE RACONTEURS, a side project of Jack White and Brendan Benson, will release just 1000 copies of their single.
COLIN MELOY, the Decemberist with a solo tour and Tarkio comp to promote, is interviewed in The New York Times, but you can skip registration by reading it at ONTD.
ARCTIC MONKEYS: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is selling so fast that the first pressing may sell out this week. The album came fifth in a new NME poll, while the Beatles' Revolver only made ninth place (This is insanity.). Glyn Jones is the band's Pete Best. However, the backlash may be starting with an underwhelming 7.4 score on the Pitchfork. Popmatters gives it a cleverly written 8. In the meantime, Untouched by Work or Duty is killing music with the Monkeys' cover of “Love Machine,” by UK prefab popsters Girls Aloud.
THE TOP 10 SEMINAL ALTERNATIVE ALBUMS posted at About.com is cramped, to say the least.
ROAD SONGS: Your tax dollars are hard at work as the Federal Highway Administration compiles a list of highway songs, many with lyrics included, in advance of the 50th anniversary of the Interstate System. (Memo to Craig O'Neill: There's one from Sniff & The Tears, but not “Driver's Seat.”) (Thanks, Ken)
STEELY DAN is mulling a series of performances near the end of the summer.
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND will be played by members of Weezer in the Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl. But you can see the real Velvets with clips from their reunion DVD.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer will be quizzed by cops for allegedly smashing a microphone stand into a fan’s face. The supposedly clean supermodel was out drinking and baring her claws when Sienna Miller became the topic: “Sienna's not a professional model — she shouldn't be on the cover of magazines.”
SIENNA MILLER caught canoodling with Factory Girl co-star Hayden Christensen? Just Jared has more pics for you to examine…
BAI LING is at Sundance, singing Bon Jovi songs and claiming she was a Chihuahua in a past life. Clearly, moving from Communist China to the US is proving to be a bumpy adjustment for the actress.
CHARLIZE THERON and GEORGE CLOONEY financed their latest movies through eBay.
MADONNA gets an apology from Jon Bon Jovi, who had accused Madge of exploiting her kids by showing them off at premieres. Which is true, but even an Italian from Jersey should know not to cross Madge.
MICHAEL JACKSON visited a mall in Bahrain's capital Wednesday, covering himself in a black abaya robe traditionally worn by conservative Bahraini women and a veil hiding his face.
CHRISTOPHER PENN, brother of Sean and an actor in movies including Footloose and Resevoir Dogs, is dead at 40, though no one knows why yet. Until they do, Tyler Durden has the definitive word.
BRADGELINA: Jolie is having a boy, a girl, or twins. Quadruplets are right out. We'll all know sooner than we thought.
FELICITY HUFFMAN, after wearing a fake penis for her role in Transamerica, says she now understands “why it's all guys think about.”
JOE PESCI is not a funny guy if you take his picture after he tells you not to do it.
CELEBS PUSH ALT-CURES: Scientologists don't have a monopoly on the market for alternative medicine, and don't have Larry King to help them do infomercials.
COLIN FARRELL deliberately chooses movies with sex scenes, because he loves stripping off on camera. So why is he blocking the sex tape he made with that ex-Playmate? Bad production values?
HALLE BERRY caught canoodling with Versace model Gabriel Aubry.
JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT may soon be a centerfold, sources tell Star magazine (must be true, then).
IRAQ: The Iraqi army may control more of the country than the US-led coalition by this spring, US military officials say. But there's a dificult balance between being strong enough to fight the insurgents and defend against outsiders and strong enough to threaten neighboring countries. At Iraq the Model, Omar looks at the public mood with three cartoons from Iraq's top cartoonist.
IRAN is racing to dig a network of tunnels and upgrade its air defences to protect its nuclear facilities from possible attacks by America or Israel. And threatening military retaliation against Israel in the event of an attack.
CINDY SHEEHAN has an… interesting… opinion on Bill Clinton: “You know, I really think he should have been impeached, but not for a b***job. His policies are responsible for killing more Iraqis than George Bush.”
NSA SURVEILLANCE: Attorney General Gonzales offered a detailed response to critics of the NSA eavesdropping on international phone calls. Protesters held up a banner that misquoted Ben Franklin. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called the arguments “strange” and “far-fetched,” suggesting that she has not read case law like Hamdi v. Rumsfeld or In re Sealed Case. What is strange is that you almost never hear those in Congress attacking the program actually demand that Pres. Bush stop it.
FURRY GUN-MO goes ice skating in Seoul, South Korea — after learning in two weeks.
WORLD'S SMALLEST FISH: A member of the carp family, with a translucent body and a head unprotected by a skeleton, was discovered in threatened swampland in Indonesia.
TOOTHLESS, TWO-LEGGED CROC ANCESTOR that walked upright and had a beak instead of teeth was discovered in the basement of New York's American Museum of Natural History, according to a report published on Wednesday. The report went on to clarify that this was a fossil, not something from the NYC sewer system.
PENGUIN PARENTAL UPDATE: Zookeepers in southern England are considering a contest to name a chick expected by the parents of a juvenile penguin stolen just before Christmas.
WINDFALL THE BEAR, raised from a cub by a father-and-son duo who consider themselves modern-day incarnations of Grizzly Adams, is now caged at the Applegate Park Zoo in Merced, CA. The Dr. Pepper and pizza is gone; she is now harassed by monkeys.
