MY MORNING JACKET played "Gideon" with members of the Boston Pops on The Late Show with David Letterman earlier this month and it's still on YouTube. The Cat Power clip is also still up, so I wonder if Dave has a relaxed attitude about it... THE REPLACEMENTS: Paul Westerberg talks to The New York Times about the new retrospective disc, with quotes true to the spirit of the band: "It probably isn't Interview 101 to say so, but I haven't really listened to it. I guess you should know what you are hyping, but I could say that I know there are a handful of good songs on there, and it may introduce some young people to what we did." We also learn that he is scoring the animated film, Open Season. You can stream a bunch from the 'Mats via the Hype Machine, including relative rarities like "Beer For Breakfast" and the Tim version of "Can't Hardly Wait." 100 AWESOME MUSIC VIDEOS: Pitchfork discovers YouTube in a big way. Among the finds are A-Ha's "Take on Me," David Hasselhoff's "Hooked on A Feeling," Herbie Hancock's "Rockit," Lionel Richie's "Hello," and the Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew's "Super Bowl Shuffle." Yeah, there are some cool ones mixed in also. I've posted most of them here already, but it would be a good way to catch up. A cool one I missed before now is They Might Be Giants' majestic "Ana Ng." PITCHFORK MUSIC SAMPLER: The influential site has also partnered with eMusic to offer free downloads from the bands scheduled to play the Pitchfork Festival next month, including Devendra Banhart, Art Brut, Mission of Burma, Mountain Goats, The National, Yo La Tengo and more. Download 'em individually and you don't even have to provide any personal info. ARCTIC MONKEYS appear to have dumped original bassist Andy Nicholson, who was unable to tour after suffering a bout of "fatigue." SUFJAN STEVENS: Apple is streaming The Avalanche --the album of Illinois outtakes -- in glorious Quicktime. YACHT ROCK: Original Pate drummer Ron Hahm tipped me to this streaming series from Channel 101. Though you may want to start with episode one, which fictionalizes what happened to Jim Messina after being dumped by Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald's creation of "What A Fool Believes" (with a great cameo from Hall & Oates), Ron tips episode seven, in which Dr. Dre and Nate Dogg settle a bet between Loggins and McDonald. THE SEX PISTOLS are giving an official release to their legendary bootleg album Spunk, the only collection of Sex Pistols material that features the original lineup with Glen Matlock. The IckMusic blog recently posted a boot of the Pistols playing Atlanta, GA on Jan. 5, 1978, which you can stream via the Hype Machine. DEVENDRA BANHART: YANP fell under the spell of the "golden-throated shaman" of freak folk at the Bonnaroo festival. There's plenty of Banhart tracks streaming via the Hype Machine. TOM VERLAINE just laughed when the L.A. Daily News asked if a music scene as groundbreaking as the mid-'70s punk movement could possibly bubble up now from the downtown streets of NYC today. There are some recent Verlaine tracks streaming via the Hype Machine. FRANK BLACK wrote a batch of new songs for the Pixies to convince Kim Deal to do an album, but discovered his heart wasn't in it. Three tracks from Black's new Fastman/Raiderman double-disc are streaming via MySpace. PUBLIC ENEMY used to fight the power, but now it seems that Chuck D is more about the Banjamins: "Making a living... That's what drives me. I still don't see how Jay-Z and Puffy are worth what they're worth. I must be doing something wrong." BRADGELINA: Obviously, the big item was the airing of Jolie's interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, which stretched the show into a "very special episode" (really, that's what Cooper called it) lasting two hours, in which they spaced Jolie's segments and even repeated them within the show. She is clearly not what BWE called the old, hot, sexy and freaky Jolie who discussed wearing Billy-Bob Thornton's blood with Larry King back in 2001. And though she was asked a few questions about her personal life, the interview was primarily about her work for the UN on refugee and children's issues. She diplomatically avoided taking the bait when Cooper tried to goad her into commenting on the invasion of Iraq, except to say that it was hard to get funds for some of her projects from the US due to the cost of the war. Given her devotion to refugee issues, she might want to put Iraq on her intinerary. She could visit the Genocide Museum in Suleimaniya to see the 5,000 lights representing villages Saddam emptied and the pictures of about 1.5 million Kurds forced to flee into the mountains in 1991. BTW, the latest refugee report from the UNHCR notes that Iraq had one of the sharpest drops in refugees worldwide in 2005. And since she complained to Cooper that many don't hear about the good work the UN does, she could learn that the same could be said about the US. She could learn that US has cut Iraq's child mortality rate to half of what it was under Saddam, among many other humanitarian accomplishments. We also learned from the interview that Jolie is a big proponent of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and even has the phrase "know your rights" tattooed on her back. So it's slightly ironic that Namibia's National Society for Human Rights branded Jolie and Pitt "colonial overlords" and wants them banned from the country where Jolie just gave birth. VAUGHNISTON: Vaughn invited his parents to the set on the day Aniston had to shoot her nude scene for The Break-Up. No wonder Aniston still wants to be friends with ex Brad Pitt. NICOLE KIDMAN is denying those pregnancy rumors. She and fiancee Keith Urban have also decided that their best bet against the paparazzi is to get them drunk. MADONNA explained to the sweltering crowd at Chicago's United Center: "I told them to keep the air conditioning turned off. We don't want to contribute to global warming, do we?" Richard Roeper lists the following tour factoids from Madge's own website: Number of semitrucks used to transport equipment from city to city: 24; Number of private planes for Madonna and entourage: 2; Number of cars and vans used to transport other members of the tour: 18; Watts of power used to run show each night: 400K. ALSO: Madge is planning a duet with her new apprentice, Darth Lohan. HEIDI KLUM is expecting another baby Seal. HALLE BERRY has adopted... a kitten. US Weekly weakly went with a Catwoman reference, which just shows that they are... scaredy-cats. JESSICA SIMPSON: It looks like her latest spread for Maxim magazine is a thinly-disguised promo for her new line of hideous wigs and hair extensions. GWYNETH PALTROW is a Ghostbuster for Oasis singer Liam Gallagher. And gives family counseling to Madonna. TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise declares he wants ten children. PAMELA ANDERSON is to pose naked in the window of designer Stella McCartney's London store in a stunt for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. That's a cunning stunt. Well, not really. Guys who want to see PETA women naked realize that if everyone went vegan, the women would stop stripping. CARMEN ELECTRA and DAVE NAVARRO break-up rumors are re-circulating, this time in Star magazine. KATIE COURIC is getting a big payday to jump to the CBS Evening News, so Viacom shareholders will be thrilled to learn that her departure hasn't dented the ratings of the Today show. KEIRA KNIGHTLEY prefers Englishmen because they aren't metrosexual. This is what happens when the only American men you meet are in L.A. and NYC. She did offer up that Johnny Depp is a good kisser, but if she prefers Englishmen, the awful prosthetic teeth Depp had to wear as Capt. Jack Sparrow probably made her feel right at home. PIGLET UPDATE: Turkey's public broadcaster has denied banning Winnie the Pooh because of Piglet. TRT said it had acquired the exclusive right to broadcast the cartoons and movies in Turkey but doesn't actually have the cartoons themselves yet. Employees have recently complained of increasing government intervention in TRT's broadcasting policy. RELATED: Now that Turkey is being run by a more Islamist party, its pop culture has become virulently anti-American. IRAQ: At ITM, Mohammed notes insurgents are a step ahead of the government on intell in Baghdad, though he credits the new gov't for admitting it. Elsewhere, the Coalition is faring better. Although Al Qaeda in Iraq will try to regenerate following Zarqawi's death, Coalition forces have killed AQI "spiritual leader" Mansur Sulayman Mansur Khalif and 11 other leaders, and captured four other AQI leaders since June 8th. Khalif was killed in the area of Yusufiyah, where the US soldiers were tortured and killed. Large groups of armed foreign militants reportedly are fleeing towards the Syrian border, as US and Iraqi forces tighten their siege on Ramadi. The trial of Saddam Hussein on charges of massacring 148 Shiite inhabitants in Dujail has passed its first milestone, with the prosecution summing up its case and demanding the death penalty. IRAN: As Pres. Bush heads to the EU Summit to show that America and Europe are on the same page when it comes to curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions, former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix says Iran probably will be able to produce a nuclear bomb by 2010 or 2011 if it is allowed to enrich uranium on an industrial scale. ROBOTS: People are going to be having sex with robots within five years. BELLE WEAVER UPDATE: The beagle that dialed 911 when her owner had a diabetic seizure will be the first animal to receive the VITA Wireless Samaritan Award, given to those who use their wireless phones to save lives, stop crime or help in other emergencies. OTHER DOGS are digging their groovy waterbeds. LEWIS THE CAT UPDATE: A Connecticut judge has spared the life of the cat whose vicious attacks on neighbors landed his owner in court, but the terrorizing tomcat was ordered under house arrest at all times. MOOSE fought off with a slipper in Norway. The object of the moose's anger was Ivar Smedstad's dog, a seemingly innocent Leonberger named Shiba. The moose, after ignoring Ivar's shouting, fled when Ivar beaned it with his slipper. FLORIDA GATOR UPDATE: Alligator hunting licenses went like hotcakes in the Sunshine State. MONKEYS pay attention to the weather. Baboons get stressed out when someone new moves into the neighborhood. A "monkey man" is worshipped by an impoverished Indian village.
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