Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE…
… with I'M FROM BARCELONA, a 29-member pop collective that actually hails from Sweden, incorporating strings, horns, banjo, accordion, and kazoos into bouncy indie pop with the uplift of the Polyphonic Spree without the cultish white robes. Pitchfork rated Let Me Introduce My Friends at 8.4, with a “Best New Music” tag. The video for “We're From Barcelona” is the obvious (and uber-catchy) place to start, but “Collection of Stamps” has the most fun with a giant keyboard I've seen since Big. BONUS: Those videos don't give a cliue as to how their thing works onstage, so here's the band live at the Painter Popaganda festival in Stockholm. Up With Indie!
GOOD VIBRATIONS: Paste magazine visits the New York Theremin Summit, recaps the strange story of its inventor, Russian intellectual Leon Theremin, and explains that the instrument technically was not used on the Brian Wilson classic.
DONNY HATHAWAY is a legend and “a kind of stealth patron saint” of R & B, according to critic Tom Moon in a new NPR series on “Shadow Classics.” The piece has three Hathaway tracks for your streaming pleasure.
RICK JAMES now has a massive two ton jet-black tombstone, bearing an image of the funk legend clad in tight pants, jacket and clutching a guitar. It's superfreakyyy–ow!
ONE-NIGHT STANDS was the theme of last week's Culture Vulture playlist in London's Guardian. Some of the songs are not found online, and some not by the artist listed — but I found some interesting covers in this list: “You Shook Me All Night Long” by the Arab Strap; “Darling Nikki” by the Foo Fighters; “Pretty In Pink” (soundtrack version) by The Psychedelic Furs; and “F— and Run” by Liz Phair. Plus, I dug up video of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” by the Shirrelles and a cover of “Angel Of The Morning” by Juice Newton (I tried to find the Pretenders' version, I really, really did).
BEATLE BOB: “Beatle Bob dances alone. This itself is enough to fuel rumors. He is the fan who, through sheer enthusiasm, can steal a show… On any given night he materializes, seemingly out of nowhere, and then vanishes, leaving a wake of speculation about where he lives and how he earns his living…” Some folks wish he would just sit down. There's a teaser trailer for a Beatle Bob documentary posted on MySpace, with clips of Bob in action, plus commentary from Bob and rockers like Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon. But his latest coup was appearing onstage with The Frames at Lollapalooza.
THE ROLLING STONES: Mick Jagger admits he takes lessons to preserve his voice after more than three decades of touring — and recommends it for living rockers, too. Meanwhile, Kasabian's Tom Meighan backpedals from his claim that his band — which is opening for the Stones in Europe — would be forced to pay to see the living dead headliners play.
JOLIE HOLLAND talks to the Sydney Morning Herald about dating and musical role model Tom Waits. There's a selection of Holland tracks streamable from the Hype Machine. You can select them individually or select a media player at the top of the page for a Jolie jukebox.
THOM YORKE: The Radiohead frontman removed his call for British PM Tony Blair's ouster from the band's website without explanation, leading to all sorts of speculation.
CUTOUT BIN: More fortuitous finds from ye olde Hype Machine. Frank Black – Duke of Earl; Big Daddy – Ice Ice Baby (trust me on that); The Ronettes – (The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up; The Belle Stars – Iko Iko; Eels – I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man; The La's – There She Goes; Ben Folds – Lost In The Supermarket; The Wrens – This Boy Is Exhausted; The Boo Radleys – Alone Again Or (Arthur Lee, RIP); World of Twist – She's A Rainbow (Tony Ogden, RIP); David Essex – Rock on.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer is hoping to marry the supposedly sober supermodel as soon as he cleans up his act for good (so it might be awhile, if history is any guide). In the meantime, the attention the couple attracts is drawing the ire of his bandmates in Babyshambles.
NOW SHOWING: This week's wide releases are World Trade Center (currently scoring 70 percent on the Tomatometer, higher with the “cream of the crop” critics. BTW, I'm not saying that director Oliver Stone had anything to do with yesterday's big air terror alert… but I question the timing) and the “didn't I see this with Travolta” dance movie Step Up (21 percent). The X-Men-meets-Sky High family comedy Zoom and the “dead people as a computer virus” thriller Pulse open wide without advance showings for critics; draw your own inference. The critically-acclaimed Little Miss Sunshine expands, though only to 153 screens. Fortunately, one was near me. It's a dark comedy with an ultimately positive take on what happens when your dream is dashed. The ensemble cast prevents delving into any of the characters with depth, but still very nicely done. You can stream some of the soundtrack, which includes Sufjan Stevens and DeVotchka, via MySpace.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: X-17 seems to have blurry arial shots of the Tom-Kitten, taken by copter through a window of Tom-Kat Manor. That seems a little intrusive. Meanwhile, Holmes supposedly had Cruise pass a note to Brad Pitt asking for him and the Jolie-Pitt clan to join Tom and his family for a barbecue. Cruise has also invited Victoria and David Beckham to meet baby Suri, with a list of instructions of how to behave around their daughter. I'm sure no pitch for Scientology would be involved in either case.
BRITNEY SPEARS wants to renew her wedding vows with Spenderline? Most gossips are using the “Oops, I Did It Again” punchline, so I'm going with “Crazy.”
BRADGELINA: Building on prior rumors, the latest is that Jolie is having people spy on Pitt while he's shooting movies, after they allegedly agreed to take a year off after the birth of Shiloh.
VAUGHNISTON: As noted yesterday, Aniston's rep denied that Vaughn had proposed. US Weekly stands by its story, upping the ante by blogging “Famous Denials By Jen Aniston’s Publicist.” In the face of conflicting rumors, MSNBC consults a Magic 8-Ball and a Ouija board. No, really.
WHO KNEW?
DAVE NAVARRO and CARMEN ELECTRA BREAK-UPDATE: Electra filed for divorce Thursday. Citing irreconcilable differences, Electra requests that their assets be divided as specified in their prenuptial agreement and that the court not award spousal support to either party.
JESSICA SIMPSON probably won't be getting a reality show on Bravo anytime soon. Andy Cohen, Bravo's Vice President of Production and Programming, writes (albeit in the style of teenage girl) in his blog: “I will never give her another chance. She is everything that's wrong with the world. I told him I have to stand for something. I hate her. My parents taught me not to hate anybody so I am going to revise that and say that I can't stand the sight of her stupid blank face.”
THE SEXIEST WOMAN ALIVE: Esquire magazine has posted its latest teaser interview for its contest to guess who the mag has selected. Actually, it's more of a spoiler interview, which I had already guessed.
HEIDI KLUM: Speaking of Esquire, the supermodel is not wearing much in the new issue. Just a little something for a Friday.
ZOOEY DESCHANEL is set to portray Janis Joplin in the Penelope Spheeris-directed indie biopic. I like Zooey, and she can sing, though I'm not sure she can sing like Janis. Still, she beats Lindsay Lohan, who was once rumored to have the part.
DIANE LANE: The Unfaithful star gives love a bad name.
HOORAY FOR HEZBOLLYWOOD: German TV ran video of “Green Helmet” staging photos at Qana. When a European blogger first started raising questions about this guy, Kathleen Carroll, AP's senior vice president and executive editor dismissed them, saying that in addition to personally speaking with photo editors, “I also know from 30 years of experience in this business that you can't get competitive journalists to participate in the kind of (staging) experience that is being described.” She may want to rethink that. And that building that supposedly got bombed twice, weeks apart? Make that three times. CNN had a piece on the faking or staging of photos from the conflict, with Anderson Cooper relating how Hezbollah was “making stuff up” and staging ambulance runs for the press.
IRAQ: At ITM, Mohammed raises interesting questions about the Arabic media. Chaos continues in some areas of Baghdad. Iraqi police arrested three gunmen hiding in a mosque in western Baghdad. Shepherds in the rural western Baghdad neighborhood of Gazalea have recently been murdered, according to locals, for failing to diaper their goats. However, after US and Iraqi sealed off parts of the southern Dora district, the murder rate, which peaked at 20 a day after a surge in sectarian violence, is now zero.
AIR TERROR PLOT FOILED: You know this already. The plot was similar to the failed “Operation Bojinka” of 1995. The Times of London has a dramatic backgrounder on the police raids triggered when it was learned — perhaps from an undercover agent or US intercepts of the group's communications — that the terrorists had developed the capacity to assemble bombs meant for flights to New York, Washington, San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles. A senior Pakistani official told the Times of London that at least three of the people arrested were linked to al Qaeda — two having been to Pakistan for explosives training with known AQ commanders. The paper also has a list of the suspects. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) criticized Pres. Bush for calling a foiled plot to blow up airplanes part of a “war with Islamic fascists.” CAIR officials have been charged with, and some convicted of, offenses related to the support of Islamist terrorism. OTOH, MPAC's members have claimed Israel was to blame for 9/11, have opposed freezing the assets of Islamic charities linked to terrorism and have denounced several FBI arrests of suspected terrorists in the United States.
EDU-BLOGGING: The 79th Carnival of Education is online, with a theme of Readin', 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic.
PERCY THE MINIATURE PIG tries to beat Britain's heat wave.
LOUIS THE GOAT was crowned King of Ireland on Thursday in one of the country's oldest festivals. Hail King Lou! (Do you get a deal on Guinness with that?)
AN OCTOPUS IN THE OHIO RIVER died after playing a role in a student film.
A SQUIRREL near Swindon in the UK may give the harmless little bunny from Monty Python and the Holy Grail a run for his money.
A LOBSTER PICKPOCKET is busted near Plymouth in the UK and pays the ultimate price.
