SONIC YOUTH played the 9:30 Club in DC last week, so you can stream it now from NPR. The show features material from Rather Ripped, which Thurston Moore discusses in MAGNET magazine. AOL reports that Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus sat in with SY at the Bonnaroo festival for an encore of “Expressway to Your Skull.” But the pic above is a still from the video for one of my fave SY tracks, “Teenage Riot.”
NEW RELEASES: Keane, Willie Nelson, Fatboy Slim, Brightblack Morning and a box set of the legendary Gram Parsons are streaming in full from AOL Music this week. Frank Black has a new double-disc titled Fastman/Raiderman. The late (and also legendary) Johnny Cash has his last American Records release. Luna may be defunct, but has a “best of” and a documentary on DVD out today (as frontman Dean Wareham dabbles in movies). And you know it won't be long 'til summer comes, now that Thin Lizzy has another “best of” out.
JOE STRUMMER: Speaking of DVD documentaries, one on the last 18 months of the former Clash co-founder will be out next week.
DRU MARTIN: Longtime Pate people may know Dru, who was one of my college roommates and is now a teacher in Germany. He's been inspired by a higher power (as opposed to Angelina Jolie) to adopt orphans. He and his wife have already adopted three lovely kids from a Polish orphanage and they are working on adopting three more in the States.
SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU BORIS YELTSIN has signed with Champaign, IL-based Polyvinyl Records, which should be a good fit. The band often gets pegged as being like The Shins, Elliott Smith and Bright Eyes, but I think there's some mid-period Kinks in the mix as well. You can stream and download three tracks from their last album via MySpace.
TOMMY KEENE is currently touring for Crashing the Ether, which the Chicago Reader calls “his strongest solo album in at least a decade.” But some of the funniest stuff in the Reader feature is Keene's recollection of David Geffen after Keene's first record for the label tankded: “He said, 'You're not going to make another record until you write a certified smash,' So I wrote with Jules Shear. I got together with Paul Westerberg one night, but we just got drunk. I even said I'd get together with the guy who wrote the lyrics for Bryan Adams, but fortunately he wasn't available. I jumped through every hoop they wanted, and in the end they just kind of lost interest.” Keene has posted two free downloads at his site; there are some Keene classics — and a nifty cover of the Hollies' “Carrie-Anne” — streaming from MySpace.
THE WHO got surprisingly high marks from London's Independent and Guardian for their return gig at Leeds University (of Live at Leeds fame, natch). So our Twofer Tuesday presents two rave performances from the same era as the first Leeds concert, with their cover of Mose Allison's “Young Man Blues” from the Isle of Wight Festival and the rare original “I Don't Even Know Myself” at Tanglewood, courtesy of Bill Graham Presents.
JOAN JETT: Apparently, rock and roll loves her, too, if the Village Voice review of her recent gig at CBGB is any indication. You can stream something old and something new via MySpace.
ALLISON MOORER exorcises a demon or two on her new album, Getting Somewhere. You can stream three tracks, including “Fairweather,” which she wrote with husband Steve Earle, via MySpace (as well as a Randy Newman cover).
LAUREL CANYON is the title of a new book by Michael Walker that dishes the dirt on acts like Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Byrds, the Eagles, the Doors, Frank Zappa and more.
THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS put out a double-album to help prevent suicides.
DR. JOHN has made an unlikely tribute album to the classics of Johnny Mercer. NPR has an audio feature plus three tracks.
BRADGELINA are considering putting up a 200-ft high wall in front of their cliff-top, beachfront home in Malibu. I'll bet the California Coastal Commission might be less pliable than the government of Namibia. Jolie confirms plans to adopt her next child to CNN's Anderson Cooper in an interview to air tonight. Cooper gives his version of the story of how he got her first US interview. He also gives the impression that Jolie is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being he's ever known in his life.
BRITNEY SPEARS faced the Dateline NBC crew without her publicists and insisted on doing her own hair and makeup, which Page Six charitably called “a regrettable decision.” Nevertheless, NBC was nice enough to cut the pop tart's attack on Julia Roberts.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Is Holmes shedding pounds too quickly for her wedding to Cruise, or already working on a second kid? Probably the first one.
REESE WITHERSPOON: Knocked up or not? Probably the second one.
NICOLE KIDMAN finally admits she's having her wedding to Keith Urban down under.
KATE BECKINSALE is dispelling rumors of a split from hubby Len Wiseman with a photo op in L.A. She's also giving the world TMI about being able to squirt milk across a room. Ironically, she's claiming that she is out of the competition to star in Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman in part because she embarrassed her daughter enough by dressing as Wonder Woman when they trick-or-treated for Halloween. But if she could do that milk trick in Wonder Woman it would be a blockbuster.
KATE MOSS has pulled out of a £1 million book deal. As the cocaine scandal and train-wreck trysts with junkie singer Pete Doherty did not wreck her modeling career (and may have helped it), it's not worth telling all anymore.
LINDSAY LOHAN is so scared of being outshone that she refuses to allow younger prettier girls sit at her table anywhere. According to Page Six, la Lohan’s bodyguards regularly ask young ladies to find somewhere else to sit.
THE SOPRANOS: With just eight episodes left in the series, six cast members remain unsigned amid pay disputes.
VICTORIA SILVSTEDT: The Victoria's Secret supermodel has a very giving boyfriend.
JOHNNY DEPP makes the cover of Newsweek for a piece with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest spoilers and much about Depp following his own path professionally (in risky roles) and personally (to France).
U.S. CHARITABLE GIVING reached a near-record in inflation-adjusted dollars. And disaster relief was just a small part of it, making up only half of the increase. Which won't stop some UN factotum like Jan Egeland from accusing the US of being stingy in the future, right before he takes credit for what the US does.
IRAQ: The L.A. Times reports that the Army general charged with investigating whether Marines tried to cover up the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha has found nothing pointing to a “knowing cover-up” of the facts by the supervising officers. Rep. Jack Murtha claimed there had been a cover-up on national television before the investigation had been completed. Meanwhile, Iraqi forces continue to assume more responsibilities, even in more restive areas like Hit in Anbar province and the Lutifiyah area of southwest Baghdad, which is in the “triangle of death.” Less dramatic, but important, Iraqi soldiers have completed testing and evaluation of a new tracking and communications system for their convoys. Logistics and support for Iraqi forces are key to an eventual drawdown of US forces.
IRAN: London's Telegraph reports that the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini has broken a three-year silence to urge the US military to overthrow the country's clerical regime. He said much the same in 2003 to Christopher Hitchens. But the oldest son of the Shah of Iran disagrees, telling the Euro edition of Time magazine: “The thought of foreign tanks rolling into Tehran is beyond imagination. No Iranian could tolerate an invasion.”
VERSACE THE CAT wanted to play with the seven-ft long boa constrictor that turned up at the house. His owners thought better of it.
LEWIS THE CAT, accused of biting and clawing neighbors and attacking an Avon lady, faces a possible death sentence, but may find sanctuary in Utah.
SNOOKY, A 200-LB PYTHON, may be forced to part with the San Antonio, TX family with whom he has lived for some 30 years.
THE LAOTIAN ROCK RAT: Reports of its death some 11 million years ago turn out to have been exaggerated.
BEAR EATS OATMEAL after breaking into a house in Vancouver. Following yesterday's report of a bear stopping in for dog food, we need just one more bear and a blonde to complete the story.
BELLE WEAVER used her owner's cellphone to call 911 when he was in the throes of a diabetic seizure. The only thing emergency dispatchers heard was barking, but it was enough cause to send help. “What's that you say, Lassie? Jimmy's trapped in a well?”
SNAKES overwhelmed and outnumbered an animal control company near Frisco, TX… but the humans are getting control of the situation.
CANE TOADS have advanced across northern Australia to the point where West Australian Environment Minister Mark McGowan wants to call in the army.
EGG KILLS HEN: No, really. It was a big egg.