Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE…
…with THE EASYBEATS playing “Friday on My Mind,” which tops a playlist of Friday and Saturday songs compiled by London's Guardian. Sadly, some of the best songs on the list are not currently online, but you can watch The Cure play “10:15 Saturday Night” (and, for that matter, Friday, I'm In Love”) on You Tube and stream The Specials' “Friday Night, Saturday Morning” and De La Soul's “A Roller Skating Jam Named 'Saturdays'” via the Hype Machine. I could not find Tom Waits playing “The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House),” but I did find a live take of “The Heart of Saturday Night.” BONUS: From the sublime to “S-A-TUR-DAY… NIGHT!”
LOLLAPALOOZA starts today. Selected slots are being webcasted by the letters A, T and T. No Sonic Youth or Gnarls Barkley, but you can see Wilco.
STILL MORE PITCHFORK: The Austin Chronicle profiles the influential music site and its founder, Ryan Schreiber. The site has posted pics and interviews from Day Two of the fest, including Jens Lekman talking about his band of Swedish hotties. YANP has pics and commentary on The Futureheads and Tapes N' Tapes — in the latter, he solves the mystery of the band's “Internet Promotions Manager Chad Tickle.”
THE HOLD STEADY: At Chromewaves, Frank has a rave about the band, along with photos from their gig at Lee's Palace, which he calls “a torrent of beer, sweat and pure rock.” He's posted MP3s , along with links to two videos for “Your Little Hoodrat Friend.” If you check the Hype Machine, you can stream versions of new songs performed on The Current via Water Cooler Gossip.
MAN MAN frontman Honus Honus talks to Flagpole about whether it's good to be a buzz band, working on the next album, and his day job working in a cockfighting ring, which I would take with a grain of salt.
THE PIPETTES are releasing “Judy” as their new single, in three different formats, with three different B-sides.
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN picked up where your precious Echo left off; the recent reissue of the band's catalog prompts a primer from Prefix. There are a number of JAMC clips on YouTube, though my pick to click today would be “Just Like Honey.” There's also a selection of JAMC streaming via the Hype Machine.
'SCUSE ME, WHILE I KISS THIS GUY: Ken King directs our attention to The Archive of Misheard Lyrics.
THE MANLY PANDAS, GENRE FIGHTER and HORSESHOES are among nearly ten thousand fake band names generated by MIT's Media Lab. Please don't tell Robert Pollard.
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS are among the bands with a session from the Gideon Coe show streaming from the BBC.
THE CUTOUT BIN: More fortuitous finds on the Hype Machine, including: King Curtis – Twisting Time; The Beatles – Some Other Guy; Johnny Kidd & The Pirates – Shakin' All Over; Madness – One Step Beyond; Elvis Costello – (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea; Big Audio Dynamite – The Bottom Line; War – Spill The Wine; Voltage – Hold on! I'm Comin'; Deep Purple – River Deep-Mountain High (Single Version); Van Morrison – Your Cheatin' Heart; and Beck – Your Cheatin' Heart.
MAD MEL UPDATE: TMZ, which has owned the story of Gibson's anti-Semitic rant during a DUI arrest, has everything from cellphone video of Mel at the bar to a clip of Pres. Bush being asked about the scandal. But the site may be unable to get the audio and video taken during his arrest, as the Sheriff's Department may keep it under wraps, and any suit brought by TMZ would also bring in Gibson's new, high-powered legal team.
GIBSON REAX: The President isn't the only one who doesn't want to comment on Gibson's situation. While some in Hollywood have denounced the actor — including a full-page, jokey attack on Gibson by Rob Schneider — most of the suits have stayed quiet. A billboard company refused an anti-Gibson board as billboard operators don’t want to risk alienating studios, who account for most of their ad dollars. Tinseltown gossip Nikki Finke, while denouncing Gibson, rips Hollywood's amorality: “Sex and drug scandals, misogyny toward women, intolerance toward gays, prejudice against racial and ethnic groups other than Jews, celebration of violence, abuse of underlings, and on and on: All are part and parcel of the business of entertainment, where pricks get ahead precisely because of their abominable behavior. This is a town that has no notion of personal responsibility, much less corporate responsibility…” L.A. Observed sardonically maps out Gibson's redemption tour, though Greg Gutfeld has a more entertaining option for a Gibson comeback.
ELSEWHERE IN LA-LA LAND: Uma Thurman doesn't have a problem working on her next picture, In Bloom, just because its director was arrested on sexual assault charges involving two women in Connecticut. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, along with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former President Clinton welcomed London Mayor Ken Livingstone for a green event, though L.A.'s prior Mayor refused Livingstone any official welcome (and urged others to do the same) due to comments demeaning the memory of the Nazi Holocaust, Israeli leaders and embracing an extremist Islamist cleric.
NOW SHOWING: This week's wide releases include Will Farrell's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (scoring 73 percent Fresh on the Tomatometer), the animated Barnyard (33 percent), the reportedly uber-gruesome The Descent (scoring a shocking 90 percent), and the Robin Williams-led thriller The Night Listener (scoring 45 percent).
CINDY CRAWFORD and PAM ANDERSON caught on video giving lapdances. Later, I'll fire off an e-mail to Al Gore to thank him for inventing the Internet, even though you can't see all that much.
TONY BLAIR: The French Hotel does not know who the UK PM is. Hint — he's the dude having gin with Snoop Dogg at Skybar.
ELTON JOHN is sick of American rockers with their piercings and tattoos, and is urging them to adopt the glam-rock style made popular by his peers. He should have thought of that before cleaning out his closet.
BRADGELINA: Pitt and Maddox send each other private podcasts while Pitt is away on location.
BRUCE WILLIS claims a childhood friend is trying to shake him down. Willis claims the frend wanted to exploit “highly personal, private and confidential information” about Willis and his family after being hired to “organize private family photographs, videotapes, DVDs and films depicting Willis and his family members.”
JESSICA SIMPSON wore a see-through dress to L.A. hotspot The Ivy. Yet when I look at her face, I'm troubled by the photo of her getting behind the wheel of a Range Rover. So if you look at the photo gallery, I would advise you to try to not to look at her face.
9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORISTS: More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the US could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps-Howard/Ohio University poll. Some of them are university professors, even at publicly-funded schools like the University of Wisconsin. I'm sure they will have an explanation for the audiotapes showing the gov't was pretty clueless about the whole thing. Proof that if you plunge far enough to the Left or Right, you can meet in the same place.
IRAQ: As the NCIS prepares to issue a report on the Haditha shootings, Time reports that “a Pentagon source familiar with the criminal investigation says that contrary to the suggestions of some media reports Wednesday, there have been no conclusions that the Marines deliberately killed unarmed civilians.” Such might be proved in a military court, but it's another lesson on the wisdom of knee-jerk reactions. About 200 Turkish soldiers entered two kilometers into Northern Iraq to conduct an operation against the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr summoned his followers around the country to attend a mass rally today in Baghdad in support of Hezbollah.
MIDEAST CONFLICT: Just days after French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy claimed that Iran “plays a stabilizing role in the region,” he was forced to conemn Iranian Pres. Ahmadinejad's statement Thursday that the solution to the current Middle East crisis was to destroy Israel. I guess France missed all the other times he's said this. Ahmadinejad also rejected deploying international forces on the Israeli-Lebanese border and Iran freed bin Laden's son from house arrest to build and prepare Islamist terror cells to fight alongside Hizbollah. Walid Jumblatt worries that the fighting has dealt a fatal blow to a Lebanon free of Iranian and Syrian influence. Michael J. Totten opines that Lebanese “support” for Hezbollah is nothing more than an attempt at national unity during a fight. Lee Smith claims that even now, “many Lebanese imagining, fantasizing, hoping against hope that Hezbollah will be wiped from the face of the earth.” Walid Phares agrees, but argues that Lebann needs the international community to support those hopes. Blogging from Tyre, Chris Albritton reports that Hezbollah is hassling and threatening reporters. Ironically, Albritton then links to a story about Israel striking two ambulances that the conservative Riehl World View shows is likely Hezbollah propaganda.
MIDGE, a 6-pound Chihuahua-rat terrier mix, is a crimefighter-in-training. There are pics of Midge training and playing with her 7-year-old, 125-pound colleague Brutus at the link.
MY DOG VOTES is the name of a voter registration drive being run by the Dog Federation Of New York and Southern Adirondack Dog Club. I thought this might tend to disenfranchise cats, but cats tend to be pretty apathetic, much like people.
A THREE-CLAWED MUTANT CRAB has been captured off the Cornish coast. Fortunately, no giant insects were sighted.
ABU THE BABOON has lost his mojo and will undergo the Wellington Zoo's first-ever testosterone replacement next week to see whether they can get his mojo workin'.
EVEN A MAN who's pure of heart and says his prayers at night… May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.
