EVERYBODY PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER for Sam & Dave o­n "I Thank You." What were you expecting? Dido? Alanis Morissette?

"I'M THANKFUL" by veteran soul singer Spanky Wilson (with British electronica soul producer Quantic) was recently NPR's Song of the Day, but they shoulda saved it for today! That, or Bing Crosby.

JOANNA NEWSOM talks in-depth with the Pitchfork about working with the legendary Van Dyke Parks o­n her new album, Ys: "He did make it clear that he didn't want me to settle just because he's so great. Of course the first draft he sent me was genius; it was brilliant-- it had his mark and compositional voice all over it. It would've been so easy to fall in love with those parts because of how great he is and how much I love his sound. But the effort to bring those things closer to something that resonated with me as my own and bound me closely to these songs was very huge and took a long time. He never made me feel like I was being unreasonable wanting things to work that way. He also did disagree with me sometimes, and sometimes he won our little arguments. And I'm very glad for the arguments he won, because he was right to have won them, and the whole work sounds better because of that..." The entire Ys album can be found o­n the HM: "Emily"; "Monkey & Bear"; "Sawdust & Diamonds"; "Only Skin"; and "Cosmia." My pick to click would be the o­ne with the animals, because who doesn't like animals?

FIELD MUSIC produces an angular, yet highly harmonic brand of pop -- think The Posies, with bits of The Futureheads and mid-period Beach Boys around the edges. Then stream 'em via the Hype Machine.

SEEN YOUR VIDEO(S): Redd Kross play "Annie's Gone" and "1976" from Third Eye, which may be my favorite album of theirs, maybe because it reminds me of the Hoodoo Gurus.

RIC OCASEK talked to the A.V. Club about his second career as a record producer and was asked whether he enjoyed going through his early home videos for a Cars DVD: "Enjoy? (Laughs.) It was kind of interesting, because I hardly remembered what I had. Certainly some of the home movies, I hadn't seen for so long. The footage was taken from VHS and Betamax... It dates everything in kind of a cool way. That's the way things looked, and that's the way things looked when you videotaped them. I kind of like that aspect of it..." I did a quick search for music to listen to while reading this and found "Just What I Needed."

SEASON of the LIST: Gorilla vs. Bear has a nice twist o­n the genre, with Chris and Garrison re-ranking their "Best of 2005" lists, as a measure of durability.

THE POLICE were a significant influence o­n the early Pate sound, so it's worth pointing y'all to this live 1980 Newcastle gig, posted at Post-punk Junk and streamable you-know-where. As a taste, here's a driving take of "Next To You."

ALUMINIUM is an album of avant garde orchestral recordings of music written by Jack White of The White Stripes, recorded between August 2005 and February 2006, using a specially assembled orchestra comprising many of the UKs finest young classical musicians.

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The supposedly sober supermodel is forcing the troubled singer to choose between his junkie friends or her.

BRITNEY BREAK-UPDATE: Apparently, the main event at the American Music Awards was Jimmy Kimmel's comedic jabs at Fed-Ex. Spears is said to be upset because no o­ne told her beforehand about the skit, which immediately preceded her appearance o­n the show. Maybe she won't feel as bad about it after hearing the report that Fed-Ex may claim she is bisexual and begged him for three-in-a-bed romps as part of the custody proceedings.

MICHAEL RICHARDS CRACK-UPDATE: Two Los Angelinos now claim the ex-Kramer launched into an anti-Semitic rant at a comedy club in April. Richards' publicist confirmed to TMZ that Richards did make derogatory comments about Jews, but says it was part of his act. It would seem so.

LINDSAY LOHAN does something smart by issuing a statement o­n the death of director Robert Altman (I'm sure she wrote it herself). At least, it's smarter than overdosing at the Chateau Marmont, though that last bit is from the super-reliable National Enquirer.

THE McCARTNEYS: Heather Mills says she would rather lose the rest of her limbs than repeat the trauma of her marriage breakdown.

TOM-KAT UPDATE: Faded Youth has a family photo from the wedding. Holmes is obviously slouching... just to get in closer to the kids, I'm sure. It appears that John Travolta was a no-show at the big event, prompting speculation that it was retaliation for not inviting Travolta's pal Oprah Winfrey. I wrote at the time that snubbing the Big O was a big mistake...

BRADGELINA: Jolie has made an unannounced visit to Cambodia, perhaps to check up o­n the nature conservation project she is funding, which has become the subject of a dispute over alleged accounting irregularities. Or maybe she's just a big fan of the Dead Kennedys.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON BREAK-UPDATE? Beau Josh Hartnett has gone into damage control mode after returning to the Auckland set of his new movie from his cozy weekend away in Sydney with a co-star. The best part of this story is Sydney Confidential citing the Wikipedia entry o­n New Zealand actress Amber Sainsbury for "having a massive rack." Did Hartnett's people have the entry scrubbed of that reference? And were they dumb enough to not know that it's cached?

ASHLEE SIMPSON is reportedly staying with big sister Jessica, where she's getting some adult supervision. That is, if you count getting publicly cozy with the married Taye Diggs as adult supervision.

HARRY POTTER and the ORDER of the PHOENIX has a trailer that has found its way o­nline. Enjoy!

THANKSGIVING has a lot of myths, both traditional and the new "Pilgrims were evil" o­nes taught in some public schools. However, if you read the journal of William Bradford -- who served some 35 years as governor of the Pilgims' colony -- you quickly discover that the Pilgrims' relationship with the natives was complex and that the colony was ultimately saved when Bradford started doing away with collectivism and granting property rights.

IRAQ: Oman's foreign minister thinks the US has handed Iraq to al Qaeda, but Bill Roggio surveys the sea-change occurring in western Iraq, where Sunni tribes continue to turn o­n al Qaeda. The Iraqi government disputes UN figures o­n civilian deaths in October. A bomb exploded in an armored car in the Green Zone -- a major security breach -- in a failed assassination attempt o­n the Speaker of Parliament. Special Iraqi Police Forces, with coalition advisers, captured 28 people during a raid near Mahmudiyah.

AFGHANISTAN: Terror attacks seem to have dropped dramatically in October, according to a NATO spokesman. Even so, Germany refuses to deploy troops in the violence-hit south of the country.

THE GUINNESS WORLD RECORD RUBBERBAND BALL was certified Tuesday in the plaza in front of my law school. I can't tell you how proud I am.

CAT WITH PUPPIES UPDATE: Blood tests show it's a hoax! I must say that my co-worker Debbie had it called from the very start.

KICK-BOKING ORANGUTANS smuggled into the UK have been returned to Indonesia. I guess they don't wanna be like you-oo-oo... they wanna be like Steven Segal?

TURKEYS PARDONED by the President apparently retire to spots where PETA claims they don't get enough mental stimulation.

TURKEY RUN: Hey, who doesn't try to escape from New Jersey?

...AND THERE WERE TURKEYS all over the highway... in eastern Iowa!