Raconteurs, New Releases, El Parro Del Mar and Feznik the Kangaroo

THE RACONTEURS: You can see the alt-sorta-supergroup at Amazon and stream their upcoming album from MTV2.

NEW RELEASES include full albums from Snow Patrol, Chris Isaak (Best of), Paul Simon (produced by Brian Eno), the Isley Bros., Grandaddy (the final album… afaik), the Stills and Elf Power streaming from AOL Music. The ab fab Art Brut get a US release for Bang Bang Rock & Roll, with bonus tracks. Blog buzz band Beirut brings it without guitars. The Black Heart Procession returns with The Spell. The new chamber pop from Final Fantasy has the surefire hit title, “He Poos Clouds.” Gnarls Barkley goes “Crazy” on St. Elsewhere. I See Hawks In L.A. has a third helping of alt-Country. There's a NY Dolls bootleg box set, which isn't streaming, but I thought some of you would want to know about it. And there's a new album from the Yonder Mountain String Band, which is a bluegrass jam band; live, they're likely to cover the Beatles, Stones, Talking Heads, J.J. Cale…

ELF POWER: Canada's Now magazine calls their just-released Back To The Web “the very best album they've ever made… If anything, it sounds like their inspiration has shifted from late-period Beatles and Odessey-era Zombies to early Tyrannosaurus Rex.” Singer-songwriter Andrew Rieger was “sorta hoping the Marc Bolan thing wasn't going to be so blatant.” You can heear the whole thing this week at the AOL Music link above.

BUZZCOCKS added the title track to Flat-pack Philosophy to their MySpace page to go with the single.

PIECE OF MY HEART: Moistworks has posted the original from Aretha's sister, Emma Franklin, along with a version from Dusty Springfield and two live versions from Janis Joplin.

TEN SUCCESSFUL MUSIC ARTISTS WITH TERRIBLE NAMES are inventoried by The A.V. Club.

SEEN YOUR VIDEO: So, it looks like Keith Richards had brain surgery after all. We can hope it helps improve on this live version of “Happy.” Since it's Twofer Tuesday, please relish Richards and Chuck Berry sharing a Spinal Tap moment. And just because, check out what happens when Keef attacks.

EL PARRO DEL MAR is compared to Motown-by-way-of-Sweden by John Richards in making “God Knows (You Have to Give to Get)” a Song of the Day on NPR, but I'd say it's even more old skool than that. NTTAWWT at all.

DANIEL JOHNSON: PopMatters gives a good review to The Devil and Daniel Johnston, the new doc on the bipolar, lo-fi musician and artist, but suggests it “doesn't offer a compete portrait so much as it reveals the impossibility of knowing him (or, in a broader frame, anyone else).”

IT'S ONE LOUDER: Stylus has a column complaining about the bad production, mixing and mastering of modern recordings.

JOHN VANDERSLICE: The singer-songwriter tells the DCist that he gets more audience reaction from blog posts than reviews in the print media: “You know, it's weird, if someone posts something on Metafilter, I look on my website and all of a sudden, we're getting like 25,000 unique visitors in one day, you know. And we got a review on Pixel Revolt in Rolling Stone. And the day that that review came out, there was no bump whatsoever. And that was a good review. And we got no bump in traffic on the website…” As Pixel Revolt got generally good reviews, I'm going to point you to his free MP3s and his MySpace page.

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The supposedly sober supermodel begged the troubled singer in text messages to kick his addictions and live with her. We know this because Doherty sold his mobile phone to a stranger to buy drugs. Pictures on the phone show him partying with friends. A Doherty pal said: “This is plumbing new depths, even for Pete.”

TOM-KAT UPDATE: Though fewer moviegoers love Cruise, ex-wife Nicole Kidman says she still loves him. Just not enough to wish him well on the birth of his child. Lloyd Grove consulted experts on the issue of whether Cruise wore lifts to the M:I-3 premiere to be the same height as Holmes.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III fallout continues, with Paramount and Cruise backers pushing back at claims the opening weekend was disappointing. Defenders note the movie did 70 million in business overseas. Yet no one seems to want to look at why it did better overseas — not as much media focus on Cruise's crazy train? Rob Moore, president of worldwide marketing, distribution and operations at Paramount compared the launch of M:I-3 to Batman Begins, which debuted with 48.7 million and left theaters with 205 million — boasting a high multiple of 4.2 because of positive word-of-mouth. Unfortunately for Moore, M:I-3 had a multiplier of 2.9 — good, but not as good as Batman or either of the first two Missions (though I liked it well enough). Movie City News suggests the B.O. may reflect “the much-discussed cultural shift in the way we see movies,” though waiting for DVD sales won't bode well for upcoming summer releases and future production plans by the major studios.

THE DA VINCI CODE is the next planned blockbuster (unless Poseidon shocks me), but does Sony think the picture is in trouble? Hollywood Elsewhere notes Sony is shopping around an inordinate number of advance interviews for the film, but without advance screenings.

BRITNEY SPEARS has Spenderline on an allowance and just nixed his plan to hit Vegas with his posse. And her most recent acting coach says she will never make it as an actress: “She'll just stare at the camera and either wink, shake her boobs or blow out a bubble of gum but not all at the same time, that would be asking too much of her.”

BLIND ITEMS usually don't do much for me, but Page Six has one about a starlet with a “a sick sexual fetish for something called the 'Donkey Punch.'” However, it's not clear from the item that Page Six knows what a “Donkey Punch” actually is. Naturally, I had no idea myself, but checked into it in order to bring you, the reader, more accurate gossip. Seriously, it came up at Defamer. UPDATE: Tyler Durden speculates.

BRADGELINA: Pitt wants to build a palatial pad in the Dominican Republic. And he's trying to stiff Jennifer Aniston (and not in that good way) on her fee for a movie being produced by the company Pittston founded. Pitt was later dumb enough tor mentioned to Jolie that Aniston called him, resulting in the figurative frying pan and rolling pin treatment.

JESSICA SIMPSON: Trying to look like a latina at the ALMA awards, but looking more like a Creamsicle. The red hair is a wig, part of Jessica's new hairpiece line coming out soon. I'm sure people will look at that and decide that wig is just what they need. Proof that the pneumatic blonde remains blonde in any hair color.

LINDSAY LOHAN told Matt Lauer on Monday's Today show: “I work harder than most of my friends parents. I'm the hardest working person I know.” Best Week Ever has the video. Clearly, she doesn't know James Brown.

THE CREEPY BURGER KING and BROOKE BURKE reportedly have split up. A nation mourns. Pics at the link.

MAGGIE GYLLENHALL was ready to drop out of Oliver Stone's upcoming World Trade Center film after saying that the US “is responsible in some way” for the 9/11 attacks, later saying that she regretted the comment and issued a statement saying that 9/11 was “an occasion to be brave enough to ask some serious questions about America's role in the world.” But she stayed on after smoothing things over with Port Authority Officer William J. Jimeno and his wife, Allison (whom Gyllenhaal will play in the movie). Oddly enough, I thought 9/11 was an occasion to ask some serious questions about the role of murderous Islamic fanatics in the world. And that if Gyllenhaal was actually brave, she wouldn't have issued a mealy-mouthed non-apology for her original comment.

PATSY KENSIT has willingly moved onto a lower level of celebrity, as it makes it easier to date younger and younger men.

A SEX SCENE WITH MEG RYAN grossed out Adam Brody of The O.C., but that's because he watching himself.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON may be harassed by the paparazzi but she is clearly not being harassed by an editor. Meanwhile, she is balking at showing off her body for a body lotion commercial. You can almost imagine her walking around these sets yelling, “Don't you f***ing look at me!”

THIS JUST IN: Lesbians are turned on by women like straight men are.

NANOTECH: The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology has posted a series of essays on the scientific and societal challenges presented by molecular manufacturing. Some of them seem overly alarmist (and Malthusian to boot), but not all of them.

IRAQ: At ITM, Omar thinks (with some justification) that securing Baghdad is crucial and that Coalition and Iraqi efforts to date have been insufficient. However, Al-Qaeda in Iraq is concerned about disorganization within its cells in the Baghdad area, with one extremist describing them as simply a “daily annoyance” to the Iraqi government, according to documents released Monday by the US military. Bill Roggio thinks that Task Force 145 — designated to hunt Zarqawi and other high value al-Qaeda targets — may have struck again in Samarra. And that the arrest of Abu Aisha, one of the chief organizers of terrorist acts in Baghdad, may have forced his network to launch the recent sucide attacks there and in Karbala, in a “use it or lose it” mode.

ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI said, “America, you lost. … I won,” when he received a life sentence for his role in the 9/11 attacks by concealing the al-Qaeda plot from FBI agents after he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration violations. So why is he trying to withdraw his guilty plea?

UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPERS and aid workers have been sexually exploiting girls as young as eight, according to Save the Children. The UN promised to put safeguards in place after sexual abuse in the refugee camps of West Africa was first revealed four years ago, but a new study found that abuse was still widespread. If US troops did this sort of thing, it would be the main story on every network newscast.

FEZNIK THE KANGAROO gets plastic surgery. In Los Angeles, natch. Before the operation, Feznik's career was on the skids — there's not much work for ugly kangaroos in Hollywood.