Karl 
M WARD explains to the Village Voice why Post-War isn't a very political album: “I've never been that interested in recording the sound of me getting something off of my chest. I'm much more excited and enthusiastic about the idea of recording a record that's maybe gonna last a little while.” The article calls “Chinese Translation” one of Ward's best songs yet; you can see the cartoon at the link, or opt for his network TV debut. And you can still stream the album from Merge Records.
R.E.M. will reunite with former drummer Bill Berry when the band is inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Atlanta on September 16th. This will likely re-ignite those recurring rumors that Berry may rejoin the band.
NOUVELLE VAGUE: This French group, which just announced a tour, covers the alternative rock of the 80s — including U2, The Clash, Blondie, Buzzcocks, Echo & The Bunnymen, Joy Division, The Smiths, Dead Kennedys and more — as cabaret music. Stream some via the Hype Machine.
WILLIE NELSON and RYAN ADAMS: Stereogum has more info about their collaboration tells you how to preview three advance tracks.
FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK: Harp magazine has a piece on the rise and timeless appeal of hard rock, with a bit about the “bumper crop of rock bands flying the flag for classic big rock sounds—in teeny little clubs.” And to think I had just featured Diamond Nights' “Destination Diamonds” in the Cutout Bin two Fridays ago. Of course, I don't need to tell Pate fans about hard rock, as the boys were rawking us with tracks like “New Year” and “She's So Special” when the Replacements were bringing KISS back into style.
THE ARCTIC MONKEYS won Britain's Nationwide Mercury Prize for their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. The shocked band joked the prize should have gone to a fellow nominee from Sheffield: “Somebody call 999. Richard Hawley's been robbed.” Stylus had handicapped the race, with profiles of the nominees: “Now, the Arctic Monkees will not win. Period.” Isobel Campbell was pretty ambivalent about her chances when she spoke to Drowned In Sound. But now that's it's over, we can enjoy the return to YouTube of the live take of “I Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor” on the Show That Must Not Be Named.
PET SOUNDS: The podcasts covering “That's Not Me” and “Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” are posted at the album's 40th anniversary blog.
SGT. PEPPER'S retook the top spot in a recent poll of the UK's fave No. 1 album, bouncing back from a silly NME.com poll that gave the award to Definitely Maybe by Oasis.
MEET THE BEACHLES: How could I not folow items on Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper's without pointing you to the mash-up album Sgt. Petsounds?
ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS 3 have released another advance track, “Museum of Sex,” from Hitchcock's upcoming album, Ole! Tarantula. The song features a Groovy Decay-esque saxaphone part. YANP was also good enough to repost the first advance track, “Adventure Rocket Ship.”
JESSICA SIMPSON is still croaking from the burst blood vessel in her vocal cords, but managed to hoarsely interrogate Manhattan attorney Salvatore Strazzullo about the tax implications of all the swag she carted off at the MTV VMAs. Given that she just got ex hubby Nick Lachey to take a lowball property settlement in their divorce, you would think money would not be a problem, but maybe she's been told that her album sales are disappointing. The pneumatic blonde also managed to croak a denial of the story that she's dating John Mayer, which may be true, depending on the definition of “dating.” And BWE has video of her seemingly lip-synching on The View, which you would think she would abvoid after her sister's embarrassing SNL appearance, though this may relate back to a certain desperation to promote the album.
THE VILLAGE POLICEMAN was sentenced to three years' probation Tuesday on drug possession charges after he agreed to enter a treatment program. It's another victory for celeb defense lawyer Mark Geragos.
BRITNEY SPEARS makes a run for the border. The pregnant pop tart looks to be smoking, too.
KATIE COURIC began her on-air stint as anchor of the CBS Evening News. It was live-blogged by Prof. Ann Althouse, and insta-reviewed at Lost Remote, which was a bit kinder. Couric had already launched her blog at CBSNews, with Tabloid Baby catching her in an apparent lie. SEMI-RELATED: It turns out that the real action at CBS News is on the weekends with Russ Mitchell.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: It's a good thing Katie Couric ran those Vanity Fair pics of the Tom-Kitten last night, because Holmes ain't lookin' too good herself these days… BTW, here's that Vanity Fair cover.
RUPERT EVERETT complains that Hollywood discriminates against him because he's gay, while detailing “affairs with a series of high-profile women,” including Susan Sarandon and the late Paula Yates. But his autobiography, Red Carpets And Other Banana Skins, looks to be deliciously catty about Hollywood, if his comments about Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise and Sharon Stone are any indication.
JOE ESZTERHAS: Speaking of catty tell-alls, the screewriter of Basic Instinct, Flashdance, Showgirls and Jagged Edge rips Val Kilmer, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, and Madonna (among others) in his new book, The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God.
MICHAEL CAINE sounds like he agrees with Everett and Eszterhas regarding the how stunningly banal and formulaic Hollywood has become. Kinda makes you wonder why he did Miss Congeniality, Austin Powers in Goldmember, and Bewitched.
MADONNA has hubby Guy Ritchie on a sex schedule to put the spice back into their love life. Because nothing says passion like a schedule.
THE FRENCH HOTEL: British graffiti artist Banksy has tampered with 500 copies of her new CD, Paris, changing pictures on the album sleeve to show Hilton topless and with a dog's head. And who noticed?
OSAMA BIN LADEN will not face capture in Pakistan if he agrees to lead a “peaceful life,” Pakistani officials tell ABC News. Yet that report dropped ABC's earlier caviat that few expect the deal to hold up. The Asia Times has sources saying the US is set on a plan of hot pursuit of enemy combatants across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, so a withdrawal of Pakistani forces from the area would be convenient, wouldn't it?
IRAQ in the MEDIA: The Baltimore Sun runs a piece titled Killings on rise in Iraqi capital: “Although August as a whole was less violent than the month before, last week's killings suggested that death squads are still able to roam around Baghdad despite checkpoints and curfews.” So if the US and Iraqi forces have a good month, we will focus on the last bad week, because it's not like both sides adapt their tactics as time goes on in a war, even though the article quotes US military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson: “This is going to be ebb and flow.”
CARTOON JIHAD: Abu Bashar, who led a delegation of Danish imams to the Middle East to foment outrage over the cartoons of Mohammed published in Denmark (and used fakes to do so) knows three of the nine men arrested in Denmark in a suspected terror plot. And one of the German train bombing suspects a train ticket to the Danish city of Odense, where Bashar lives, and the cleric’s phone number. As Walt Disney taught us, it's a small, small, world.
A DOG STAR IS BORN, as the Internet discusses the IKEA catalog.
MINI-COWS are the Next Big Thing; let's go to the video. (Thanks, Dad.)
SNAKE in a CAR: Better still, the car was in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Shreveport, LA.
SNAKE in a SPLINT: A cobra got a new lease of life after veterinary surgeons in India treated its fractured bones and released him into the wild again.
150 EXOTIC MONKEYS lead this tale of incipient pet hoarding in a a middle-class Johannesburg suburb.
SUICIDE SQUIRREL enters paradise to stop a Finnish opera singer on a bicycle.
