Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE…
…with the wicked, wicked WILSON PICKETT, live from Germany, circa 1968. His band warms up the crowd with the instrumental “Soulfinger,” but Pickett electrifies from the moment he enters for “Everybody Needs Somebody” and doesn't let up through “Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do),” “Mustang Sally” and “Stagger Lee.” He takes it down just a half-notch for “I'm In Love” before cranking it back into top gear for “Funky Broadway,” during which people dancing in front of the stage start turning up onstage and a tumultuous rendition of “Land of 1000 Dances” from amid the crowd now onstage. Raw and riveting; if this can't put you in a weekend state of mind, probably nothing can.
EDDIE VAN HALEN will be providing songs for a porn flick. Eddie claims that director Michael Ninn reminds him of Spielberg.
PITCHFORK PREVIEW: Funtime OK cannot attend the fest this year, but has posted tracks from the Walkmen, Silver Jews, Destroyer and more that you can stream via the Hype Machine.
CRACKER: David Lowery explains how the band re-recorded its greatest hits to spite their old label. Johnny Hickman talks about how Greenland the band's new album, has been described as sounding like early Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin, though it reminds him of Cracker's own Kerosene Hat.
GOLDEN SMOG: I previously noted the semi-supergroup's travails recording in Spain. Kraig Johnson notes Jeff Tweedy's reaction: “(Tweedy) actually couldn’t make the sessions in Spain, and when he got to Minneapolis he was surprised by all the weird stuff we’d done. His first reaction was, 'People are gonna blame this on me!'” There's plenty of Smog on the Hype Machine, though my pick to click remains the summery pop of “Corvette.”
THE SADIES: A profile in Exclaim begins with the all-star recording of The Sadies In Concert, Volume one, which included everyone from Jon Spencer to the Band’s Garth Hudson. (Thanks, LHB!) You can stream some tracks in advance from YepRoc.
ROBERT POLLARD'S next album, Normal Happiness, puts the focus squarely back on guitar rock. While we're waiting, let's watch bootleg footage of Uncle Bob joining Pearl Jam for a cover of The Who's “Baba O'Reilly.” And if you really want to see Pollard swing the mic Daltrey-style, her's some bootleg footage of GbV playing “Glad Girls,” a song I described to Sylvia Hauser as a pop song without verses. It's all choruses and bridges.
WHO'S LEFT: You might be able to carry on the Who name without Moon or Entwistle, but you could not call it The Who if Townshend and Daltrey didn't have a fight. This time Townshend is miffed at Daltrey's lack of enthusiasm for a plan to donate the proceeds from webcasts of the band's European tour to charity.
NOT-SO-HOT VIDEO: Stylus lists (with YouTube videos) clips never in contention for the magazine's Top 100 list.
THE DECEMBERISTS are officially not bringing violinist and singer Petra Haden into the band. This is a shame; she had good onstage chemistry with Colin Meloy.
VINTAGE VJs: The L.A. Times takes a look through the “Where Are The Now?” file.
PRINCE: Manuela Testolini Nelson will soon be The Woman Formerly Known As Prince's Second Wife. Is there a symbol for that?
SCARLETT JOHANSSON did not care much for the lapdance she received on her 21st birthday. Hence, the old saying about it being better to give than receive.
NICK LACHEY kissed someone else on MTV's TRL, not Vanessa Minnillo. Awkward video at the link. Plus, TMZ blogger Harvey Levin wonders whether Vanessa has been using Nick. OTOH, Lachey is getting lapdances from Minillio, which are probably better than the one Scarlett Johansson got for her birthday.
NOW SHOWING: This week's wide releases are the animated The Ant Bully (currently scoring 53 percent on the Tomatometer), Michael Mann's retooled version of Miami Vice (49 percent overall, but 67 percent among “cream of the crop” critics), and the youth-revenge comedy John Tucker Must Die (23 percent). Woody Allen's Scoop, which opens on 537 screens, scores 43 percent. The movie I would most like to see, Little Miss Sunshine, is scoring 93 percent, but is playing only in NYC and L.A. Of course, I'm at the Pitchfork Festival this weekend, so they have another week to get that movie into Chicago.
CHRISTIE BRINKLEY BREAK-UPDATE: The former supermodel's straying husband is getting support… from his mother.
BRITNEY SPEARS yells at Spenderline for lying around, according to a pool boy the pop tart fired for talking too much to her hubby. The pool boy may be correct in calling Spears a mean person, but who wouldn't yell at Spenderline?
PAM ANDERSON plans to marry Kid Rock four times. For starters, anyway. I gotta say, he's aged more than she has… oh, wait, that's poker shark Doyle Brunson.
DAVE NAVARRO and CARMEN ELECTRA BREAK-UPDATE: Electra says there is “not one ounce of truth” to the rumors about her and Jamie Foxx. Mind you, last month, Electra was denying rumors of trouble in her marriage.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Jada Pinkett Smith vouches for the existence of the Tom-Kitten.
HALLE BERRY looking pregnant? Possibly…
BARBRA STREISAND looking fugly? Definitely!
JACK KEROUAC UNCENSORED: On the Road will be published in its unedited, original scroll version by Viking Press, perhaps by the end of next year, the 50th anniversary of the publication.
DAVID HASSELHOFF was banned from boarding a British Airways flight after showing up to the gate intoxicated. Video at the link. After all, it was the same day his divorce became final… is this any way to treat the King of the Internet?
IRAQ: Ralph Peters argues that there is no civil war in Iraq today, but it's beginning to look as if there might be one tomorrow, which he thinks will require the US and Iraqi forces to break the sectarian militias in a head-on fight. At ITM, however, Mohammed worries that localized reconciliation initiatives may be a front for an alliance of Islamist militias against the new gov't.
MIDEAST CONFLICT: While UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has backed off his knee-jerk claim that Israel “apparently deliberately targeted” a UN observer post in Lebanon, China has taken a leading role in condemning the attack, trying and failing to pass a resolution calling it “apparently deliberate.” If you're asking, “Why China?” the answer may be found by following the (arms) money. Ret. Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, the first commander of UN peacekeepers in Sarajevo, not only recaps the e-mail he got from the UN post at issue suggesting that the place was recently crawling with Hezbollah forces (noted here yesterday), but adding that Annan familiar with this technique, having been the UN undersecretary of peacekeeping in the horrific 1990s, and that leaving the observers in place with a war on “stretches the credibility of the UN's operational judgment close to the breaking point.” Meanwhile, a top Iranian negotiator reportedly met with Syrian and Hezbollah leaders to discuss ways to maintain supplies to Hezbollah. Michael J. Totten, who blogged from Lebanon recently, hopes the conflict will not crush the struggling democracy there. Austin Bay reprints mail from Dr. Demarche — the FSO with prose punch — asking, “Is anyone thinking about the next Hezbollah, and the one after that?”
BUSTER THE TERRIER adopts a baby squirrel. Awww…some video at the link.
IS THAT A PUPPY IN YOUR PANTS, or are you just happy to see me? Video of a dognapping at the link.
CAUTION: Falling St. Bernard ahead.
FIVE SQUIRREL MONKEYS ESCAPED the London Zoo. They are believed to be “adventurous and very intelligent.” Yet only Betty remains at large, the others having turned themselves back in.
PET HOARDING: I would guess that 68 pitbulls would get cranky sharing a house. And I would be right.
ZURICH ZOO ANIMALS beat the heatwave with frozen meatsicles.
