Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
WILSON PICKETT — that wicked, wicked Pickett — died of a heart attack at 64. As a teenager, Pickett formed a gospel music group called the Violinaires which toured with the likes of Sam Cooke and The Soul Stirrers. Pickett's first major break came when he was invited to join The Falcons in the early 1959. Future Memphis soul notables Joe Stubbs (brother of Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops), Sir Mack Rice and Eddie Floyd were also members. In 1962, when “I Found a Love” (featuring Pickett on lead vocals) peaked at #6 on the R&B charts, he cut his first solo recordings, including “I'm Gonna Cry,” his first collaboration with Don Covay, an important figure in Southern soul music. Pickett also recorded a demo for a song he co-wrote called “If You Need Me.” Pickett sent the demo to Atlantic Records, where co-founder and producer Jerry Wexler liked it so much that he gave it to Solomon Burke; it became one of Burke's biggest hits and landed Pickett a deal with Atlantic, where Wexler called him “Wicked” Pickett.
In 1965, Pickett scored a #21 pop hit with “In the Midnight Hour,” which he co-wrote with legendary sessions musician Steve Cropper. A slew of late '60s R&B/soul hits followed, including “Land of 1,000 Dances,” “Funky Broadway,” “634-5789,” “She's Lookin' Good” and “Mustang Sally.” He even cut a surprisingly soulful cover of the Archies' “Sugar, Sugar.” Muscle Shoals session guitarist Duane Allman talked Pickett into covering “Hey Jude,” which was a hit for Pickett and helped launch Allman's career. As the '70s dawned, Pickett scored three consecutive top 20 pop singles with “Engine Number 9,” “Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You” and “Don't Knock My Love Pt. 1.” His last hit song was “Fire and Water” in 1972. He was was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, and two years later, he was also given the Pioneer award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. NPR has an audio remembrance. Pickett is also being remembered at MP3 blogs like Soul Shower, Spread the Good Word and An Aquarium Drunkard. Blogger Milbarge notes that Pickett's death comes on the heels of the death of Lou Rawls — with Rawls, Pickett, Redding, Dave Prater, and even Arthur Conley dead, Sam Moore and James Brown should watch their health.
DEVO DISNEY! Devo have reformed to record a kids album called Devo 2.0 that will be released on March 17 by Disney Sound. Disney Sound's first releases were 2005's Here Come The ABC's CD and DVD from They Might Be Giants. Next up is a project with The Go-Go's. For now, we have the “Whip It” video in all of its terrifying glory.
FRIDAY TIMEWASTER: The Chuck Norris Random Fact Generator. Or you can go straight to the Top 30 Chuck Norris facts. ALSO: Chuck's take on the phenomenon.
JOHN LENNON'S original draft of lyrics to “A Day in the Life” has gone on sale in a sealed-bid auction ending March 7. The manuscript is expected to fetch about two million bucks.
BRIGHT EYES: Dylan Schäfer of USC's Daily Trojan knows Conor Oberst — he's a fan of Conor Oberst — but writes that Conor Oberst is no Bob Dylan.
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE-ster Kevin Drew talks to the Toronto Star about how the world sees Canada as one big scene and playing a 5 1/2 hour show in Tokyo.
100K VINTAGE AND DELETED EUROPEAN RECORDINGS are being unearthed by Universal Music Group for online distribution. This program will offer material that, in some cases, goes back to the early days of recorded music. More recent material will include Eddie and the Hot Rods and Fairport Convention.
DRIVE-BY TRUCKER Patterson Hood talks about the importance of homecoming as the band is set to play Athens, GA this weekend.
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO: The band's self-produced and self-released debut, The Best Party Ever, was in Rough Trade's top 10 biggest sellers of the year. Multi-instrumentalist Pete Hobbs and lyricist/singer Jof Owen talk to MusicOMH about how pile of Smash Hits vinyl from 1980-1985 they bought for £3 changed their lives. You can also stream a few tracks from MySpace before the album gets here.
ARETHA FRANKLIN, AARON NEVILLE and DR JOHN will perform the national anthem at the Super Bowl next month.
TEGAN & SARA are glad people are getting over the whole Canadian identical twin-sister lesbian thing and enjoying their music. You can hear some yourself at MySpace.
ARCTIC MONKEYS: Their upcoming album's title, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, is a tribute to Albert Finney and the character he played in Saturday Night And Sunday Morning.
CLOUD ROOM: Pitchfork ran a feature, “The Smash That Wasn't,” about what can go wrong making an indie album, highlighting some friction between Cloud Room and its label, Gigantic. This being the Digital Age, the band has posted its response to the feature. You can stream the non-smash and a new song at MySpace.
THE DECEMBERISTS frontman Colin Meloy played a solo set on KEXP. You Ain't No Picasso is killing music.
BRADGELINA: Jolie has vowed to put maternal duties before her career when she gives birth to Pitt's child — which her adopted children will discuss years later in therapy. Fametracker, in a first, performs a fame audit of the pair's fetus: “We will need special goggles. No, the goggles won't protect us. We'll need artists, great artists, who'll sacrifice their eyes for one brief gaze upon the Brangelina infant (or, as we like to call it, the Infangelina), sketch its glory quickly, then spend their rest of their lives as blind babbling fools, jibbering in some monastery somewhere…”
NOW SHOWING: The big opener this weekend is Underworld: Evolution, which seemingly was not shown to critics — a red flag, there. End of the Spear also opens today. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, by Albert Brooks, opens in limited release. Match Point, The New World, and Brokeback Mountain expand their screens.
LOVE MONKEY: I noted Wednesday that I thought I would give the show a chance — a decision reinforced upon learning that Nic Harcourt, KCRW's music director and host of the weekday radio show “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” is the show's music consultant. So far, he's booked buzz bands She Wants Revenge and Robbers on High Street, more established acts such as Aimee Mann, and an unsigned singer-songwriter named Eugene whose demo Harcourt received at KCRW.
SUPERMAN RETURNS: Are cost overruns Kryptonite for the Movie the Man of Steel?
SPIDERMAN 3: Gwen Stacy lives… and lives. She may be played by Bryce Dallas Howard.
BAFTA AWARDS: The nominees are led by The Constant Gardener, but Brokeback Mountain and Crash are close behind. And George Clooney got two noms in the supprting actor category, which will almost certainly split his vote.
SCARLETT JOHANSSON says that Woody Allen would interrupt the shooting of intense scenes in Match Point to ask, “So how old were you when you lost your virginity?” I have no idea why Soon-Yi decided to start dropping by the set.
BRITNEY SPEARS: Spenderline is at it again. This time he wants her to foot the bill for a Las Vegas nightclub he can run when he's done pretending he has musical talent.
PEACHES HONEYBLOSSOM MICHELLE CHARLOTTE ANGEL VANESSA GELDOF, daughter of Bob, and sister of Fifi Trixibelle, Pixie and Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, comes out against celebs giving their kids silly names. No, really.
PRINCE: SkinnySlim blogs the Golden Globes afterparty thrown by the Artist formerly known as a goofy symbol.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: London's Sun reports that TV bosses have axed an episode of South Park which outs a fictional Tom Cruise character as gay — because they are scared the real actor will sue.
EX-PANTHERS CHEERLEADER Angela Keathley got six months probation for her role in a bathroom brawl sparked by accusations that she was having sex with another cheerleader. Victoria Renee Thomas (the hotter one) has denied the sex allegation and pleaded not guilty.
STACY'S MOM claims she can't find a date.
IRAQ: At Iraq the Model, Omar writes about the results of election fraud investigations, but nails a larger point: “Actually, one of our biggest problems is the lack of trust between the different parties and more dangerous is the little trust the parties have in democracy. This trust crisis is what causes those irrational reactions. The Shia politicians, although they are the biggest winners in the elections are still behaving like victims and they worry about whether this or that Sunni candidate was part of the Ba’ath party. And the same applies to the Sunni who are afraid of Shia domination despite the fact that their (the Sunni) parties will control nearly 30% of the parliament and there’s no chance they can be marginalized again. Not only that, both sides say they’re being conspired upon by the others. This lack of trust will keep being a problem for Iraq…I’m not expecting politicians to trust each other but I hope they mature to trust democracy.”
THE STANS: Bill Roggio notes that last Friday's airstrike in the Pakistani border town of Damadola also killed al-Qaeda’s operational commanders in Pakistan and Afghanistan. That's in addition to AQ's WMD chief. He also notes that the stepped-up terror campaign in Afghanistan by AQ and the Taliban does not sit well with the Afghanis, who organized a protest chanting, “death to Pakistan, death to al-Qaeda and death to the Taliban.”
PURPORTED BIN LADEN TAPE warns Americans of impending attacks and offers a truce (but not really, because who says OBL controlls all terrorists). At the Counterterrorism Blog, Dr. Walid Phares offers translation and analysis. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross posts on al-Qaeda's attempt to signal that it can be appeased.
IRAN: French President Jacques Chirac for the first time raised the threat of a nuclear strike on any state that launches “terrorist” attacks against France. He said France's doctrine of nuclear deterrence has been extended to protect the country's “strategic supplies,” taken to mean oil. Although Chirac did not single out any country in his speech, he did mention “the temptation by certain countries to obtain nuclear capabilities in contravention of treaties.”
THE WORLD'S LARGEST FISH is shrinking. That's the whale shark, which should not be confused with the far more deadly jaguar shark.
FUGITIVE WALLABY in France is headed for the stewpot after being found dead from a hit-and-run accident.
WASPFISH: A new species of the venomous creature was identified in the South Africa Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity collection in Grahamstown.
GEESE poop. It's a staggering problem that has Oakland, CA trying to figure out how to chase away some 2,000 resident Canadian geese that produce a ton of poop daily from Lake Merritt without running afoul of the Federal Migratory Bird and Endangered Species acts.
