THE DUKE SPIRIT has a clip for kinda psychedelic "The Step and The Walk" in advance of their Neptune albume, due in April.  You can also hear the more Motown-influenced "My Sunken Treasure" via the 'Gum.  Both are sounding pretty tasty.

KEREN ANN and DEAN & BRITTA are on tour together (and getting raves), so it's no surprise that both stopped by The Current to chat and play.  You can stream Keren or D&B or both on demand via MPR.

DAN BEJAR of Destroyer and the New Pornographers, talks to Rabble about the upcoming Destroyer album and living in Vancouver, but not about his current side project, Hello, Blue Roses.  Go figure.

LOS CAMPENSINOS! talk to UberDrivel in advance of their full length album, Hold On Now, Youngster... due on February 25th.  You can stream a few tracks via CampesinoSpace.

THE REPLACEMENTS:  Rhino has announced plans to serve up expanded reissues of "Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out the Trash," "Stink," "Hootenanny" and "Let It Be" on April 22.  Tracklistings at the link.

TILLY & THE WALL:  Nick White, keyboardist for the foot-stompin' indie quintet from Omaha, talks to Music Snobbery about the recording of the ban's as-yet untitled third album.  If you haven't seen their flamenco-inflected indie pop, you can watch 'em play "Bad Education" for Letterman.

MGMT:  The psych-pop combo's Ben Goldwasser talks to Matt at YANP about the band's live shows, influences, landing on a major label and more...

THE 1900s, a 7 piece band from Chicago, have a bit of a 60's folk-pop vibe, did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, alternate takes on selections from their Cold & Kind LP.

CELTIC PUNKS:  Crawdaddy compares and contrasts the Pogues and the Dropkick Murphys.

AXL ROSE has become a "virtual recluse" in his Malibu mansion for the past 15 years, according to a new tell-all on the former Guns N' Roses rocker.

BARRON HILTON, little brother of the French Hotel was busted for DUI in Malibu at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, after allegedly ramming an employee at a Malibu 76 gas station.  However, according to a Sheriff's Department press release, a female in Barron's car may have been driving at the time of the collision, and then Barron took the wheel.  The French Hotel refused to bail him out, reportedly saying, "You're going to learn your lesson," though she was seven years older than he when she was busted for DUI.  So his friends are getting a bail bondsman.

BRITNEY SPEARS taught dance to children not much older than her own boys on Monday at Millennium Dance Complex in North Hollywood.  The pop wreck led the class in "her favorite brown cowboy boots, fishnet stockings, a red short skirt, and a bluish greenish top that hangs down past her skirt."

JAMIE LYNN SPEARS is "really excited" about her teen pregnancy, according to Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus.

THE McCARTNEYS:  Peace appeared to have broken out in court yesterday as Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills edged steadily towards a record divorce settlement.  And here I thought giving peace a chance was John's gig.  Mills will take the money and run, according to her dad.  And here I thought taking the money and running was Steve Miller's gig.  Or Woody Allen's.  Granted, that's one of my favorite Woody pics and one of the first mockumentaries, but Steve Miller might have been funnier when he rhymed "El Paso" with "hassle."

LINDSAY LOHAN may get nudged off the wagon by an old friend.

FERGIE AND JOSH DUHAMEL are moving up their wedding date because the "Glamorous" songbird is pregnant, according to gossips at Clive Davis' pre-Grammys bash.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON & NATALIE PORTMAN, promoting The Other Bloyn Girl, talk to W magazine about their public images, monogamy, their presidential picks and more... The best pictures of them are a bit goth, though, so I went with something from their duel appearance on the Today Show.

GWYNETH PALTROW and CHRIS MARTIN are considering adopting an orphan from the actress' hometown of NYC:  "We might get one from Brooklyn. No baby is more helpless than another baby. And I'm a New York girl."

JUNO:  At Slate, Dana Stevens covers the backlash and the backlash to the backlash to the little film that made 100 million and could win an Oscar.

GARY COLEMAN, the now 40-year-old former child star got secretly married to 22-year-old Shannon Price on a mountaintop in August.  The couple can already go a week not speaking to each other.

NICOLAS CAGE sues KATHLEEN TURNER for writing in her new autobiography Send Yourself Roses that the actor was busted for two DUIs and once stole a Chihuahua.

THE 2008 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT ISSUE is online with over 1000 pictures.  You can get some highlights at Egotastic.  It's like Gratuitous Thursday, but on Wednesday.

STEVEN SPIELBERG has decided not to participate in the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing as an artistic adviser, citing the lack of progress in ending the genocide in Darfur.

RUSSIA may target its nukes on... Ukraine.

CARTOON JIHAD:  Danish authorities said Tuesday they have arrested three people who allegedly were plotting a "terror-related assassination" of a cartoonist whose drawing of the Prophet Mohammed sparked rage in the Muslim world two years ago.

COUNTER-INSURGENCY:  Several studies from the RAND corporation on COIN in Iraq and elsewhere in the Muslim world are rounded up at the Small Wars Journal blog.

IRAQ:  The acting director of a Baghdad psychiatric hospital has been arrested on suspicion of supplying AQI with the mentally impaired women that it used to blow up two crowded animal markets in the city on February 1, killing about 100 people.  At TIME magazine, Brian Bennett thinks the US is in danger of understimating radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.  The latest round of talks between US and Iranian officials on Iraqi security will get underway in the next few days.

VALENTINE the PIGLET is so named for an obvious reason.  That's Some Pig.

PETUNIA the PIGLET has taken to eating roast dinners, with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

POULTRY PRANKSTERS CAUGHT ON TAPE:   Surveillance video captured the hooded culprits who let dozens of chickens run amok at Philadelphia's Northeast High School over the weekend, police said.  The prank forced officials to cancel classes Monday for 3600 students.  Pics and video at the link.

SUICIDE MOOSE nearly kills an Alaska State Trooper plunging to its death from the tall cliffs that hug a highway famous for its scenery and wildlife.

WESTMINSTER KENNEL CLUB DOG SHOW:  Uno the beagle takes Best in Show!  Dr. J. Donald Jones, the judge, had not been aware that his choice of a beagle was unprecedented.  The Boston Globe has your day two slideshow.  Which reminds me... where is my buzzy bee?