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Art Brut, Antony, Spinal Tap, Tom Jones, Bob Mould, Cat Ranch |
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Thursday, March 05, 2009 - 08:00 AM Posted by: Karl
ART BRUT visits "Alcoholics Unanimous" in the first single from their upcoming album, "Art Brut vs. Satan." ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS played DC's Sixth and I Synagogue; you can stream the gig via NPR, or watch the gig on PitchforkTV. SPINAL TAP talk about their Unwigged reunion tour and play an acoustic medley at NPR's Day to Day. TOM JONES played a Tiny Dest Concert at the office of NPR's Bob Boilen. MAC McCAUGHAN of Superchunk, Portastatic and Merge Records, talks to PopMatters about his career, his bands, and those wonderful four-track recordings that he thought he lost 'lo those many years ago. BOB MOULD & NO AGE play the band's "Miner" and Husker Du's "New Day Rising" at the Noise Pop festival. GRIZZLY BEAR frontman Ed Droste sent Drowned In Sound a progress report on the making of their new record, Veckatimest. MP3 DEALS: A free Stax Records sampler is among the many cheap albums currently on sale at Amazon, including LPs from Sex Pistols, The Cars, U2, TV on the Radio, Adele, Van Morrison, REM, Springsteen etc. BTW, Pate doesn't make any money off that referral (though I should look into it). I just figure some folks might like a deal on legal downloads. ABE VIGODA is Band of the Week at Paste. THE BEATLES are now the subject of a Master of Arts degree program at Liverpool Hope University. WATCHMEN: Jackie Earle Haley talks to the A.V. Club about playing Rorschach. Patrick Wilson (who plays Nite Owl) talks to New York magazine about the possibility of sudden fame. Wired has a behind-the scenes piece that chronicles the cult classic's long jorney to the screen. And don't miss this clip from the Veidt Music Network, circa 1983. ZACH SNYDER, Watchmen's director, is beginning to put together an all-female cast for his next project, "Sucker Punch." BRITNEY SPEARS: Don't call it a comeback quite yet, says the normally fluffy People.com. Ouch! ROBIN WILLIAMS is at a Miami hospital with heart issues and could be laid up for a while. MARISKA HARGITAY is back in the hospital after suffering chest pains. This is the third time Hargitay has been hospitalized since December. KATHERINE HEIGL is quickly earning the reputation for being one of Hollywood's most difficult divas. 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, the upcoming indie starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, now has a full-length trailer online, which opens with a discussion of The Smiths. LEO DiCAPRIO will star in "Inception," the science-fiction film that Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight") wrote and will direct as his next pic at Warner Bros. MEGAN FOX is in final negotiations to star opposite Josh Brolin and John Malkovich in "Jonah Hex," Warner Bros.' action Western based on the DC Comics character. She also is attached to star and develop "Fathom," Fox Atomic's comic book-based underwater adventure. ALSO: She was spotted out with her supposedly ex-fiancé Brian Austin Green. REESE WITHERSPOON talks about an Oscar, a divorce, and a guy named Jake with Elle UK. IRAN: The commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps said his country's missiles can target Israel's nuclear facilities. IRAQ: Casualties among Iraqi civilians and security forces last month hit their second-lowest level in nearly four years. US withdrawal depends on creating new Army units to train Iraqi soldiers to secure Iraq, but the composition of those units has yet to be determined. Several indicators show the quality of life for the average Iraqi is on the rise as the sixth anniversary of the start of the war approaches. THE CABOODLE RANCH: 500 cats, no waiting. THE SEVERED TIGER HEAD MYSTERY, icymi. HOMELESS SEWERAGE HIPPO: South African environmental authorities are looking for homes for hippos, putting out a plea today for people to offer their premises to a hippopotamus that has moved into a water treatment plant. SNAKE in a CAR: A couple drove 170 kilometres (100 miles) from South Africa's famous Kruger National Park with a highly venomous spitting cobra in their car, the Beeld newspaper reported on Wednesday. BEETLES benefit from torture phalluses. Yes, really. Pic at the link.
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U2, Dean & Britta, Dan Deacon, RAM tribute, Sleepwalking Dog |
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Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 08:00 AM Posted by: Karl
U2 play "Breathe" as part of their weeklong engagement on the Letterman show. DAN DEACON is advance streaming his Bromst album via NPR. RAM ON L.A.: Aquarium Drunkard has posted a tribute to the classic McCartney album from Los Angeles bands. It's a free download, though AD asks for donations to No More landmines, a charity Sir Paul supports. ALINA SIMONE talks to Gotham Acme and streams free MP3s, including her take on "Oops... I Did It Again." COLD WAR KIDS do the four free songs thing for Daytrotter. DEAN & BRITTA did a Q&A with MAGNET, including talk of Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, The Kinks, Dean's memoir and a free MP3 of the lovely "Words You Used To Say." ST. VINCENT: Annie Clark talks to Pitchfork the role classic Disney cartoons played on her upcoming Actor album, Twilight, playing covers, and the frightening ubiquity of Aerosmith. THE MOUNTAIN GOATS (and an obsessive fan) get an in-depth profile in New York magazine. THE FLAMING LIPS' "Do You Realize??" is now the Official Rock Song of the state of Oklahoma. And you can click through for a stream. AMANDA PALMER finds out whether she will be allowed to devolve from Roadrunner Records, the major-label subsidiary she says has sabotaged her album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, on June 16th. WATCHMEN: The National Post provides a neophyte's guide to the cast of characters. The L.A. Times reports that young males may not be embracing the movie as heartily as older die-hard devotees. MTV lists Easter eggs in the movie. BRITNEY SPEARS is flogging her tour, but ticket sales are flagging. MADONNA gets slammed by... Jose Canseco(?) for dating 22-year-old Brazilian model Jesus Luz. Is Canseco feeling guilty about opening the MLB box of steroids on behalf of A-Rod? ANGELINA JOLIE began work Tuesday on Salt, a spy thriller about a rogue CIA operative who tries to clear her name after she is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent - perhaps falsely, perhaps not. Two hair colors at the link. JENNIFER ANISTON & JOHN MAYER: The latter admits he visited People's Web site Monday to vote for himself in the site's poll, which asked "Is John Mayer a keeper?" Dude. SEAN CONNERY has been summoned to a Swiss court over an alleged scam worth £50million. SHARON OSBOURNE has been sued by the woman she attacked on her VH1 reality show, "Rock of Love: Charm School." TERMINATOR: SALVATION has a new trailer online. THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM will return to Comedy Central, with co-financing from sister net Logo. GLOBAL WARMING may have hit a speed bump and could go into hiding for decades. OUR FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS: A religious scholar in the employ of the Kingdom issued a fatwa for the prosecution of a royal prince and a Saudi businessman for owning TV channels that broadcast movies. IRAN is supplying the Taliban in Afghanistan with surface-to-air missiles capable of destroying a helicopter, according to US intell sources. The US Treasury Department designated 11 companies under Executive Order 13382 as Weapons of Mass Destruction proliferators and froze their assets for their ties to Iran's Bank Melli. The US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China have committed to 'direct diplomacy' with Iran over its nuclear program. IRAQ: The number of detainees in Coalition custody has dropped below 14,000. BIZKIT the DOG sleepwalks, much like my Dad's dog, except that Bizkit freaks out when he wakes up. LIKE JONAH & THE BIG FISH, but with a cellphone. CAT in a BONG: "Schomaker told deputies 6-month-old Shadow was hyper and he was trying to calm her down." AN ELEPHANT SHREW was born and resided at the National Zoo in Washington DC for several weeks before staff finally noticed it. ELEPHANTS: Can innovative contraception ideas solve South Africa's elephant over-population problem?
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Rosebuds, New Releases, U2, The Knack, Camels in a Car |
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Tuesday, March 03, 2009 - 08:00 AM Posted by: Karl
THE ROSEBUDS are "Life Like" in the video for the title track to their current LP. NEW RELEASES: Neko Case, Buddy & Julie Miller, Wild Light, Say Hi, Rush, Thin Lizzy and more are streaming in full this week via Spinner. Bell X-1 releases Blue Lights on the Highway. Issac Hayes is streaming via AOL. U2, whose album also comes out this week and is playing letterman every night, is the subject of a decade-spanning photo essay at TIME.com. And I missed last week's in-depth profile from Jon Pareles in The New York Times, so maybe you did, too. BONUS: Bono called Coldplay's Chris Martin a "wanker" and a "cretin," though I think he wasn't completely serious either time. DOUBLE-BONUS: The campaign to embarrass the members of U2 over their tax avoidance is getting its boots on. BEN KWELLER did an interview + tracks with NPR's All Things Considered. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: Panda Bear (a/k/a Noah Lennox) speaks with Variety from his home in Lisbon, Portugal about the new record, basketball, and his love for Emily Dickinson. THE KNACK were a two-hit wonder, charting "My Sharona" and "Good Girls Don't" in 1979, which makes them an ideal Twofer Tuesday. BOB DYLAN is asking Jack White, Lucinda Williams and Willie Nelson for help on 20 to 25 unfinished songs by Hank Williams. BEIRUT: Zach Condon talks to the A.V. Club about Oaxacan delicacies, the not-so-universal language of musical love, and why he expects Realpeople to fail. THE ARTIST CURRENTLY KNOWN AS PRINCE is launching a paid subscription site where fans can download his upcoming three albums, live videos, possible full concerts and unreleased music. ANDREW BIRD is profiled by Filter. THE APATOW CREW spoof everything from Vanity Fair covers to Frida Kahlo and The Honeymooners in a photo essay at Vanity Fair. TOM-KAT UPDATE: Holmes talks about motherhood, her marriage to Cruise, etc. with Glamour magazine. So you know it's hard hitting. RHIANNA & CHRIS BROWN returned to L.A. together, and her family is less than thrilled. JENNIFER ANISTON takes a break from complaining about interviews regarding her private life to do one for Elle UK. AMY WINEHOUSE apparently turned her flight home into a party, much to the chagrin of others on the overnight flight from Barbados to the UK. HEATH LEDGER's final film, The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus, has failed to secure a US distribution deal and is yet to be awarded a release date, according to reports. WATCHMEN: The HBO First Look at the superhero saga opening Friday is Tubed in two parts (Part One, Part Two). ELIZA DUSHKU talks to the A.V. Club about Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, of which she is the producer as well as star. SEAN PENN is called a moron by his Cuban-born, Venezuela-raised former co-star Maria Conchita Alonso. THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM is rebelling against budget cuts imposed by Comedy Central. IRAN: The Obama administration has already concluded that a diplomatic overture to Iran, one of the central promises of the president's election campaign, is unlikely to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Iran has demanded an apology from a team of visiting Hollywood actors and movie industry officials saying films such as "300" and "The Wrestler" were "insulting" to Iranians. An Internet security company claims that Iran has taken advantage of a computer security breach to obtain engineering and communications information about Marine One, Pres. Obama's helicopter, according to a report by WPXI, NBC's affiliate in Pittsburgh. PAKISTAN: The Taliban violated the Swat truce. Shocka. AFGHANISTAN: More secret negotiations are underway to bring troops fighting alongside the Taliban into Afghanistan's political process, according to Al Jazeera. NATO may ask China for help with establishing a new supply route into Afghanistan. The UN said it would be nearly impossible to hold elections in April. CAMELS take a Subaru to the West Bank for a dinner date in the Palestinian Territories. THE WORLD'S ONLY PINK BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN, discovered in an inland lake in Louisiana, has become such an attraction that conservationists have warned tourists to leave it alone. CATS & DOGS, living together... mass hysteria. SHARK ATTACKS a teen on the northern beaches of Sydney, Astralia. Organisers of Sunday's Sydney Harbour Swim are playing down fears of further shark attacks, after a Navy diver was mauled two weeks ago. Mayor Larry Vaughn was unavailable for comment. CHEETA the CHIMP's fictionalized memoir is excerpted by NPR's All Things Considered.
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Gaslight Anthem, Bob Mould, Neko Case, Chicken Sweaters |
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Monday, March 02, 2009 - 08:00 AM Posted by: Karl
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM have a performance video out for "Great Expectations." THE REPLACEMENTS: Despite the collective will of fans waiting with bated breath for a reunion, the book on the Replacements has likely closed with Rhino's recent round of deluxe reissues, according to former bassist Tommy Stinson. BOB MOULD talks to the Daily Swarm about writing his autobiography, Husker Du's appearance on the Joan Rivers show, DJing, the state of the music biz, blogging and more... NEKO CASE talks to NPR's Weekend Edition and stopped by Sound Opinions for a chat and mini-set, as part of a show that also has features on U2 and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, meanwhile, list a few of their favorite things for Pitchfork. YEAH YEAH YEAHS have a new teaser video for their upcoming It's Blitz album. MGMT are suing French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party for using one of their hits as a campaign soundtrack without permission. JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT played the World Cafe last week, so you can stream the gig on demand via NPR. VAN MORRISON released Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl last week, and gets an audio feature frm NPR's Weekend Edition. LUCINDA WILLIAMS talks to the Birmingham News about songwriting, finding her voice, et. WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Madea Goes to Jail repeated at No. 1 with 16.5 million, even with a 60 percent drop. The weekend shocker is The Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience finishing second with 12.7 million, when experts were estimating it would make as much as 40 million. It should still make money, but Ouch! Slumdog Millionaire reaped the spoils of Oscar, surging 45 percent to finish third with 12.2 million. Taken continues to show amazing legs in fourth place, taking in 9.9 million and crossing the 100 million mark. He's Just Not That Into You rounds out the Top Five, earning another 5.9 million. Below the fold Coraline plummeted to seventh place, mostly because theaters pulled it from its 3-D screens to make room for the underperforming Jonas Bros. Even so, the delightfully creepy flick has topped 60 million against a 35 million production budget. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li opened in the eighth slot. RHIANNA & CHRIS BROWN are reunited? Battered diva syndrome. BRITNEY SPEARS: Fmr "maganger" Sam Lufti, who has been ordered to stay completely clear of the pop wreck with no contact, tells the court he had no direct contact with Britney Spears -- but he says ex-bf Adnan Ghalib did. LINDSAY LOHAN is converting to Judaism to show her devotion to Samantha Ronson, according to the ever-reliable Daily Mirror. MADONNA's ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, reportedly has been dissing Madge behind her back by referring to her as "It." JENNIFER ANISTON & OWEN WILSON ate dog biscuits on German TV. BONUS: Wilson's loved ones - including his brothers Andrew and Luke - are worried about the impact his volatile relationship with Kate Hudson will have on his fragile mental health, according to the ever-reliable Star. CLINT EASTWOOD apparently believes that political correctness has rendered modern society humorless, for he accuses younger generations of spending too much time trying to avoid being offensive. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON: Ed Ulbrich, the digital-effects guru from Digital Domain, explains the Oscar-winning technology that allowed his team to digitally create the older versions of Brad Pitt's face for the movie. VAL KILMER is serious enough about running for Gov. of New Mexico to reportedly hire a political strategist, to seek out the advice of lawmakers among the state's congressional delegation and to push back as the state's journalists mine celebrity profiles and tabloid coverage. ED McMAHON has been hospitalized in intensive care, where he is being treated for pneumonia; he has was recently diagnosed with systemic bone cancer. PAUL HARVEY, the news commentator and talk-radio pioneer whose staccato style made him one of the nation's most familiar voices, died Saturday in Arizona. He was 90. James Lileks has a streamable proto-"Rest of the Story" story from 1968. PAKISTAN: The radical cleric behind the Swat ceasefire and ongoing negotiations looks to mediate between the government and the Taliban in the most dangerous tribal agencies. AFGHANISTAN: Pres, Karzai has called for elections to be held on April 21 after the election commission moved the date back to August. The interior minister estimated the Taliban to have between 10-15K fighters. IRAN: A street in Tehran was named after Imad Mugniyah, Hezbollah's former military commander who was assassinated in Syria in 2008. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that the US is "preparing the ground for a long and permanent presence in Iraq." IRAQ: Three al Qaeda leaders, including the oil minister for the Islamic State of Iraq, were detained in Baqubah. SWEATERS for CHICKENS: Let's go to the video. UGLY the CAT is attracting a lot of attention at an Exeter, NH vet clinic, where clients say they can't take their eyes off his striking appearance. There's video at the link and on YouTube PARROTS teach a Maryland firefighter to speak again. And he wants a cracker. A BABY GOLDEN LION TAMARIN was born at the Detroit Zoo. YETIS may well exist, according to wildlife expert Sir David Attenborough.
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Nuggets, Leonard Cohen, Cutout Bin, Cute Science |
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Friday, February 27, 2009 - 08:00 AM Posted by: Karl
THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE: ... with GARAGE ROCK! After surveying power-pop a couple of weeks ago, I found myself in the mood for a dozen Nuggets, like Music Machine - "Talk Talk"; Blues Magoos - "We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet"; The Knickerbockers - "Lies"; The Outsiders - "Time Won't Let Me"; Count Five - "Psychotic Reaction"; The Seeds - "Pushin' Too Hard"; 13th Floor Elevators - "You're Gonna Miss Me"; The Standells - "Dirty Water/ Why Pick On Me"; The Leaves - "Hey Joe"; Electric Prunes - "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night," the Crazy World of Artur Brown - "Fire" and The Nazz- "Open My Eyes." NEKO CASE talks to Exclaim about making Middle Cyclone, moving to rural Vermont, and more. The site also has a Neko timeline. Don't forget you can advance stream Middle Cyclone via NPR. A.C. NEWMAN talks to the Santa Barbara Independent about (among other things) whether he sees his album as in competition with fellow New Pr0nographer Neko Case's new LP: "No, I don't see us going head to head. It's a ridiculous, unwinable fight. I think I'm like Don Quixote and she's the windmill - the impossible dream. By that I mean she would slaughter me in any fight." LEONARD COHEN: After a five-year stint in a Zen Buddhist monastery and various legal distractions, he is back on the road: an undertaking that seems to combine his quest for spiritual fulfillment with an effort to regain his financial footing, lost when his former business manager made off with his money while Mr. Cohen was living as a monk on a mountaintop above Los Angeles. You can stream his Beacon Theater gig on demand via NPR. THE HOLD STEADY: Craig Finn recalls the Reagan era and the Zero Boys for The Guardian. BEN FOLDS talks to Exclaim about his current tour, producing everyone from Amanda Palmer to William Shatner to "Weird Al" Yankovic, and more... It made me want to hear the BFF rip through "Kate" again, and to watch him back Shatner and Joe Jackson on Pulp's "Common People." ELENI MANDELL talks to ChartAttack about the ttitle of her Artificial Fire album, her two side projects, Los Angeles, etc. BEN KWELLER, whose latest album is countrified, tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he would open for Tim McGraw or Alan Jackson. PYLON guitarist Randy Bewley died after a heart attack suffered while driving in Athens on Monday. CUTOUT BIN: From The Records to Reunion, from The dB's to Pat Travers, from the Chairmen of the Board to the Zombies, plus Fountains of Wayne, Cheap Trick, Big Star, Glen Campbell and more-- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM. THE GODFATHER WARS: How the movie classic got made, over the objections of the studio and the mafia. NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, which is currently scoring 29 percent on the ol' Tomatometer (not that it matters, given the huge advance biz from tween girls), and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which wasn't screened for critics prior to its release. THE RAZZIES founder John Wilson talks to The Guardian: "They try and ignore us like a fart in a church. We focus on big-budget, big-name, well-known movies because they have no excuse to be as bad as they are." TOM BRADY & GISELLE BUNDCHEN: Hitched. This time for sure... nithing up my sleeve... presto! ANNIE LIEBOVITZ has pawned the rights to her life's work in order to raise nearly 16 million bucks to pay off her debts. CLINT EASTWOOD may act again, "if a great script comes along." JERRY SEINFELD is reteaming with NBC to launch his first reality series. But it's not clear whether he will appear on it. CAPRICA, the spinoff-prequel to Battlestar Galactica, has a trailer online. WATCHMEN is getting split reviews - The Hollywood Reporter thinks it's a flop, and Variety seems disappointed, while the Times of London raves. Will I have an opening day review here at Pate? (shakes Magic 8-Ball) All signs point to "yes." JOSS WHEDON says Warner Bros is struggling to get many DC Comics heroes on to the big screen because they are too mythological and god-like to connect to audiences. TAKING CHANCE brought home the Kevin Bacon last weekend, with HBO's biggest audience for an original movie since 2004. There is a lesson in that for Hollywood that will likely go unlearned. ISLAMISM in the UK: The British Army is facing increasing numbers of British Muslims fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan. INDIA: Police in Mumbai have accused a serving officer in the Pakistan Army of being involved in the terrorist attacks on the city that killed more than 170 people in November. PAKISTAN: Doubts beset Islamabad's Shariah deal for Swat. AFGHANISTAN: Hundreds of US troops pushed into a key Taliban stronghold Wednesday in a major operation to stop the insurgents from infiltrating the Afghan capital from the south. IRAN: France, Germany and Britain are proposing a tough list of additional sanctions to be imposed against Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Which Iran will take seriously when they start strictly enforcing the sanctions already in place. IRAQ: American commanders in the pacified south are saying that it's time to start pulling US troops out. Michael E. O'Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack of the Brookings Institution acknowledge the progress in Iraq, but note the lingering challenges there. THE SCIENCE OF CUTE: What Makes Cute Things Cute? A 771-LB STINGRAY became the biggest freshwater fish ever caught using a rod and line: "That line from the film Jaws came to mind about needing a bigger boat because we had to get it to the shore to tag it." A FAMILY OF FOXES sets up its own "penthouse" home in a treetop. A COYOTE gets booted from the train into Portland from the airport. RAT & MICE CARCASSES = fashionable headgear.
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