Karl 
THE CURRENT: The indie branch of MPR has an ocean of streams of cool bands just waiting for you — The Shins, The Hold Steady, Bob Mould, The National, Rilo Kiley, Dungen, The Magic Numbers, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Brendan Benson, Crooked Fingers, Eels, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Feist, and many, many more.
CMJ AT 25: The mag celebrates in part with a list of the “25 Most Influential Artists” on college and non-commercial radio since the first CMJ gathering of the community 25 years ago. It also notes those Artists' predecessors and successors. (Thanks to Ken King for spotting this one)
FAT POSSUM: *Sixeyes has kind words and a load of legal downloads from the label that is home not only to bluesy indie-rock from the Black Keys and Heartless Bastards, but alo the garage of Thee Shams and the full-on blues of R.L. Burnside and Furry Lewis.
NEKO CASE and the Sadies' guitarists Dallas and Travis Good are interviewed about their brand of country music, as well as technical stuff in Guitar Player magazine.
ROCK FOR AGES: The Arizona Republic has theories on why some acts have longevity and others don't.
BOB GELDOF called on pop artist Peter Blake to do a Sgt. Pepper's pastiche for limited edition Live8 DVDs. Wish I had thought of that…
ART BRUT: You can (and should) stream the band's recent set for WFMU (the band's first US radio set) especially the lovely “Emily Kane.” Plenty of Jonathan Richman references are sprinkled throughout these new-wavey numbers (Pate fans will love the U2 pastiche that pops up in “My Little Brother”), and bafflement by the band that we in the States know the lyrics when they don't have their record out here. (Love them Internets!)
PAUL WELLER: The former Jam frontman is to be honored for his outstanding contribution to music at next year's Brit Awards. He is undoubtedly thrilled to be following past awardees like Duran Duran.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer has reportedly checked into the same Arizona rehab clinic that just finished hosting the shamed supermodel.
LAURA VEIRS talks to The Stranger about working with a theme.
TAPES 'N' TAPES: This band from the Twin Cities cites Wire, Beach Boys, Pavement, Replacements, Pixies, Flaming Lips, Talking Heads, Television, Morris Day, and Lars Eric Mattsson as influences. YANP can hook you up with legal MP3s, or you can stream a few from MySpace. If you check out “Cowbell,” you may end up with a fever… and the only cure is… more cowbell!
TOP TEN EPs: Nice to see the format get some love, but someone at Stylus needs a history lesson — these are all pretty recent.
RYAN ADAMS' upcoming album, 29, is streaming at Scenestars.
ON THE PITCHFORK: Interviews with Broken Social Scene and Sonic Youth's Lee Renaldo.
MORRISSEY answers his fan mail. The man has a way with words.
SUPER FURRY ANIMALS turned down two million bucks for the use of “Hello Sunshine” in a Coca-Cola ad.
CULT OF THE iPod: Apple Computer's iTunes music store now sells more music than Tower Records or Borders, according to analyst firm the NPD Group.
SONY CD COPY-PROTECTION DEBACLE CONTINUES: The Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with two leading national class action law firms, have filed a lawsuit against Sony in Los Angeles County Superior court. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has also filed suit.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Pitt and Jolie make their first public appearance. Jolie says that motherhood was “the luckiest thing that ever happened to me.” Using one's wealth to jet off to various third-world countries to pick up orphans is an odd definition of luck, but whatever. Meanwhile, Pitt and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) battle over alpha-maledom.
ROGER DALTREY: The Who vocalist is talkin' 'bout his g-g-generation: “It's always frustrated me — rock 'n' roll and its statement about youth. Old age has its own problems, and it'd be great for Townshend to put those words into music.” He also talks about contemporary bands.
BRITNEY SPEARS may be headed to Broadway, in hopes of getting a job for Cletus and hanging on to some of her own money.
FERGIE of Black Eyed Peas claims she hasn't had any work done. Yeah, right.
MADONNA is reaching a new low in trashy hooker fashion. Hubby Guy Ritchie is attempting to distance himself from Kabbalah, thinking it has done him no favors professionally. He's right, though most people don't pick a religion for career reasons — not even Tom Cruise.
JASON SCHWARTZMAN (Rushmore, I <3 Huckabees, Shopgirl) is not only pals with rocker Ben Lee, he toured Australia in 2002 as the drummer for Phantom Planet.
KIERA KNIGHTLEY: Pride and Prejudice opens wider on Wednesday, but her cover feature for Vogue is all about The Wizard of Oz.
HAROLD RAMIS also has a movie opening Wednesday. The Ice Harvest is doing well on a small sample of reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, but is it really among the most anticipated of the holiday film season?
CATHERINE ZETA-JONES reportedly demanded she be flown to a recent awards bash by private jet so that she and hubby Michael Douglas could smoke. A source was quoted by Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper as saying: “She's quite a nervous flyer and it's the one luxury she indulges in.” Yeeeaahh… CZ-J and Michael Douglas are living the life of the Amish the rest of the year.
JOSS STONE is despondent over breaking up with boyfriend and music producer Beau Dozier (son of famed Motown hitmaker Lamont Dozier).
JESSICA SIMPSON and hubby Nick Lachey probably are not looking forward to reading any story involving Lachey, a porn star, her two friends, whipped cream and marital aids. Actually, “marital aids” would not be the right euphemism in this context.
IRAQ: Bill Roggio reports on the launch of Operation Bruins in northern Ramadi. This appears to be a cordon-and-search operation, with the US hoping that bringing in Iraqi troops and pairing them off with U.S. units can avoid ful scal operations like those launched in Tal Afar. In the Christian Science Monitor, Jill Carroll reports on efforts to keep insurgents from returning to towns cleared in Operation Steel Curtain. In a sidebar, Carroll also reports on the dilemma of being the only person on a US patrol who spoke Arabic.
NBC's CHRIS MATTHEWS tells political science students at the University of Toronto that in the war, “If we stop trying to figure out the other side, we've given up. The person on the other side is not evil — they just have a different perspective.” If it will help Matthews figure out who the other side is, they are people who hack the heads off of journalists like Danny Pearl and other hostages. They hijack airplanes and fly them into skyscrapers. They are beings like Zarqawi — a man renounced by his own family, but whom Matthews aparently feels is simply misunderstood.
THE NETHERLANDS: Islamist murders and threats have transformed the once-tolerant nation into a place of armed bodyguards and fear. At Leiden University law school, professor Afshin Ellian, an Iranian refugee who has called for reform of Islam, notes: “It is not special in terms of Islam — in Iran, it is normal to kill people who criticise Islam, as in Egypt and Iraq. It is legitimised by Islamic political theology, which says it is all right to kill someone if they are an enemy of Allah. But this is happening in Europe.” Obviously, Chris Matthews must go to the Netherlands to tell eveyone how misunderstood the Islamists are.
MUSLIM LEADERS UNITE AGAINST TERROR: Islamic religious leaders in Indonesia have agreed for the first time to work with the government to combat the recruitment of militants, a move that marks a bolder approach by Islamic groups toward terrorism. Clearly, these Muslim scholars and groups have not heard Chris Matthews.
PANDAS have a new champion in Nicole Kidman, after seeing the National Zoo's new arrival Tai Shan in Washington DC.
TURKEYS bound for Thanksgiving tables fled a truck Friday on the New Jersey Turnpike. “I think we should be investigating this as an escape attempt,” said Joseph Orlando, a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
KANGAROO may be renamed to encourage people to see them as tasty, rather than cute and cuddly.
SHEEP: In Norway, they eat the heads. A reason to be thankful as you dig into your headless turkey on Thursday.
