ROBERT POLLARD, as anyone who saw GbV might guess, was not happy with Chicago's new anti-smoking ordinance Friday night: “I can't smoke… that means I'll just have to drink more tequila!” Of course, a few moments later, Pollard was engaging in civil disobedience with a cigarette passed up from the crowd — the first of many. While Pollard put a good dent in a bottle of Cuervo (and a number of bottles of beer, noting you must drink from brown bottles, not green or clear), he was not quite as drinky as in the last stages of GbV. And his band was not drinky at all. For his first solo tour, Bob has assembled a crack unit, including Superchunk's drummer and Tommy Keene — who spent the evening putting the POWER in power-pop, relishing the role of guitar god in the Pollard pantheon. The sweat poured off of Keene; at one point, he did a Beatlesque head shake that resembled a dog coming in from the rain. What the band lacked the reckless, drunken abandon of GbV, it made up for with power, precision and giddiness of helping Bob through a set consisting of big chunks of From A Compound Eye, prior solo obscurities, and a few from Pollard's next album, due in October — a tune called “Supernatural Car Lover” being my pick to click. The encore featured muscular takes from the GbV songbook, including “Gold Star For Robot Boy,” “My Valuable Hunting Knife” (with Tommy layeering on the jangle), “My Kind of Soldier” and the anthemic closer, “Don't Stop Now.” Jennings at rbally is killing music with downloads from Pollard's gig at the 40 Watt in Athens. In four different parts. Or you could stream them from the Hype Machine, though I think you would have to turn it up to eleven to get the full effect.
THE REPLACEMENTS: The quasi-reunion reported last week seems to have created a renewed interest in the infamous Mpls. band on the Internet. Jennings at rbally is killing music with a bootleg recorded at the 7th St Entry in Minneapolis, on July 1st, 1985. More law-abiding types can stream it now from the Hype Machine. Jennings also points us to Heather Browne, who is killing music with a boatload of Westerberg and Replacements B-sides, which is a very good thing for those who care what's on the flip side of a record. Plus, there's an amusing post (with some more killing) on Replacements vs. Raconteurs at the wonderfully-titled Bronson vs. God blog. It's almost enough to make an aging hipster feel less pathetic.
MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS: David Byrne and Brian Eno are offering complete and total access to original tracks of their influential collaboration for remix and sampling under a Creative Commons license, with a remix website to follow.
THE DEATH OF COVER ART: Jon Pratt and I were talking about it when he and Naomi came to town a while ago; now it's the Denver Post.
TRIBUTE ALBUMS are coming for Big Star and Pet Sounds. The Independent surveys the genre and lists a Best and Worst Five.
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: Patterson Hood explains the title of the band's upcoming A Blessing and a Curse, an album Manchester onlline says has “tracks that echo and transcend rock'n'roll heroes like the Replacements, Creedence and The Stones.”
COLIN MELOY of the Decemberists and others tell Paste about the first concerts each ever attended.
THE ROLLING STONES would probably prefer to forget their Kellogg's Rice Krispies commercial from the 1960s.
ART BRUT lead singer Eddie Argos talks to ChartAttack about songwriting, SXSW and discovering Sparks beer. You can stream a couple of cool tracks from MySpace and a live set from WFMU.
DISAPPOINTED! Stylus lists the “Top Ten Songs That Don’t Live Up To Their Titles.”
THE 100 GREATEST BRITISH CLASSIC ROCK ALBUMS EVER, according to NME. So why the Irish and Aussie bands?
MORRISSEY talks to the Sun about moving to Rome and working with producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T.Rex) and composer Ennio Morricone.
FLAMING LIPS frontman Wayne Coyne talks to the Sun about living in Oklahoma and going for a more rocking sound after doing a cover of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.”
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The supposedly sober supermodel dropped her libel suit against Channel Five after she came under pressure to sign a Statement of Truth denying taking cocaine in the famed Mirror pictures. Under British law, she will now be stuck with a £60,000 legal bill. Meanwhile, road safety activists are wondering why the troubled singer is downing methadone and hopping into another in his series of cheap Jaguars.
BRADGELINA: Jolie is thinking about writing her autobiography or perhaps it's just a book about motherhood. Seaking of which, Jolie is arguing with Pitt over whether to let four-year-old Maddox get a tattoo. Plus, the couple is looking at buying a pad in the Dominican Republic.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Ice Age 2 did boffo biz, raking in an estimated 70 million. The final numbers may put it in the stratosphere with The Incredibles and Shrek 2. Spike Lee's Inside Man came in second (albeit a distant second). I saw it last weekend and recommend it to anyone who fancies a good heist movie. ATL debuted in third. Basic Instinct 2 bombed like a WMD, taking in a paltry 3.2 million.
JESSICA SIMPSON: Will the pneumatic blonde reconcile with Nick Lachey?
DAVID HASSELHOFF reconciling with his wife? Is Pamela hooked on a feeling?
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Life & Style says Holmes may give birth without Cruise present. Hey, he was there when the baby was conceived, wasn't he? Will the Tom-Kitten be a boy or a girl? the standard punchline is “yes,” but does it work when Cruise is involved?
NICOLE KIDMAN may be able to get her wacky Scientological marriage to Cruise annulled, which would clear the way for a church wedding to Keith Urban.
LINDSAY LOHAN is planning to become the latest celebrity recruit of the Kabbalah, because she needs something to get her through life's difficulties.
DENISE RICHARDS may have ditched wacky Charlie Sheen, but will she do much better with Tommy Lee as a matchmaker?
BIFF! BAM! POW! The classic Batman onomatopoeia… and some less-well known, such as “ZLOPP!”
AGING HIPSTERS are killing off the generation gap. There's a related piece on indie yuppies in the Oregonian.
GEORGE MICHAEL may be barred from entering the US after receiving a police warning for possessing marijuana. Keep your fingers crossed!
JESSICA ALBA rarely needs to go shopping for clothes because designers send her stuff. Designers thinking about dressing Jessica Alba does tend to promote certain sterotypes about fashion designers. NTTAWWT.
PINK syas that kissing Terminatrix Kristanna Loken — who recently publicly declared herself bisexual — was better than kissing her new husband.
CARMEN ELECTRA, who has been treating hubby Dave Navarro with a rhinestone whip and rhinestone handcuffs to keep things spicy, told Jay Leno she is installing an aerial circus hoop in her home so that she can thrill hubby Dave with X-rated circus tricks… and felt compelled to demonstrate. She must buy the the old adage that no matter how beautiful a woman may look, there's always a guy who is tired of her. Or the old adage about insecure actresses.
NANOTECH, like most emerging technologies, is producing a “patent land grab” as firms and researchers race to secure protection for early-stage commercial applications… or to create license fee generating positions that may thwart commercialization.
IRAQ: Bill Roggio suggests that the perception of rising violence in Baghdad, transmitted by the media, leads to an overall perception of Iraq that is inaccurate. He also looks at calls from an independent group and a senior representative of the SCIRI to oust Jaafari to step down as nominee for prime minister, so he may be on the way out. At ITM, Mohammed writes that a unity gov't must be formed quicly, as there are signs that religious hardliners may want to declare jihad against the US presence and moderate Iraqi politicians.
IRAN tested stealth missiles as part of a week of naval wargames that started on Friday. Not to worry though — US intell and terrorism experts say they believe Iran would respond to US military strikes on its nuclear sites by carrying out terrorist attacks worldwide.
ABC PRODUCER SUSPENDED over a pair of leaked e-mails slamming Pres. Bush and Madeleine Albright.
A PENGUIN on THE THAMES? The story ran in London's Sun on April 1st. Which means it's about as likely as Coldplay's Chris Martin writing a song for the Tories, which rn as a report by “Olaf Priol” in London's Guardian.
KILLER BEES are headed to Kansas. So if you're thinking about moving there, you may want to do a rethink.
CROSS THE BOXER proves the old saying about not letting dogs operate paper shredders.
WANDERING WANDA is one wild turkey, having eluded the police in a Kentucky suburb for about two months.
LEOPARDS are not allowed to attend middle school in India.