R.E.M. has put up a promo video for the upcoming Accelerate album.  You can stream the single, "Supernatural Superserious," via Pitchfork.

FEIST won the Shortlist Music Prize for her album The Reminder.  Finalists for the 2007 Shortlist Music Prize also included Arcade Fire, Burial, Justice, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Spoon, Stars, Wilco and Working for a Nuclear Free City.

KELLEY STOLTZ talks to the East Bay Express about playing and singing almost every note on his new album for Sub Pop: "I try to work every day, whether it's going well or not. It's fun to think up a drumbeat and a bass part and then solve the musical arithmetic problem that creates. It's boring to play guitar all day..."  As Pate's Jon Pratt once said, the guitar player always wants to be the drummer.  You can stream a bunch of new and old tracks via StoltzSpace.  Fans of Harry Nilsson, mid-period Kinks and early Paul McCartney (solo) should check it out.

DEAN & BRITTA talk to the Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot about the transition from Luna and covering new ground on their latest album.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND bassist Chris Baio talks to DC's Express, which notes in passing that the band's breakthrough buzz has stirred debate about musical misappropriation and the tension between upper-class privilege and education and rock music.  As to the former, I would note that it was just a few months ago that people were debating whether indie music was too "white."

TWO HOURS TRAFFIC:  At Chromewaves, Frank Yang touts the staying power-pop of the Charlottetown combo.  He's got plenty of A/V linkage, including an album stream, so I'll just tease it with the new video for "Nighthawks."

HAROLD & MAUDE never had an official soundtrack... until now, courtesy of rock critic turned movie maven Cameron Crowe.  And it's a deluxe package on vinyl.

VAN HUNT:  The neo-soul man's latest album, "Popular," was scheduled to be released this month on Blue Note Records, but this week the singer announced that he has severed ties with the label, the latest victim of the turmoil at Blue Note's parent company, EMI.  Blue Note had already sent pre-release copies of the album to the media for review purposes; an EP previewing tracks from the album is streaming at HuntSpace, sounding funkier than evah.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS:  Gruff Rhys talks to the SF Bay Guardian about the mellower mood that shaped the recording of the band's latest LP, Hey, Venus!

THE 20 MEANEST LOVE SONGS, according to Spinner.

BRITNEY SPEARS was discharged from the psych ward at UCLA Medical Center, after doctors determined she did not pose the legal danger to herself or to others, such that they could continue to hold her against her will.  The conservatorship is still in place.  The pop wreck was pursued by a swarm of paparazzi, as caught on helicopter video.  Rolling Stone has posted an excerpt from its cover story on the decline and fall of the pop tart,  US Weekly has more tidbits from the RS piece, starting with the disclosure that as a teen, mama Lynne, allowed her to get breast implants, which were later removed.  Sam Lufti admitted to giving Spears "a handful of pills" before her parents arrived to get her into treatment.  She apparently also believes Lutfi is the one who stole items from her house.

KIRSTEN DUNST checked herself into the Cirque Lodge rehab clinic in Utah, according to the ever-reliable Star magazine.  Fellow actress Eva Mendes is also in the mountaintop facility right now.

DELTA BURKE checked herself into a psychiatric hospital last week for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and "hoarding."

BRADGELINA:  Jolie's rumored pregnancy may be more the result of insecurity than love, according to the ever-reliable National Enquirer, which claims she spent the last year terrified that Pitt would end their relationship if she failed to give him another child.

KATHERINE HEIGL and her new hubby, musician Josh Kelley wuz robbed!  By a dumb car thief who passed up guitars worth thousands, instead picking up a GPS device worth about a few hundred bucks.

HEATH LEDGER died from an accidental overdose of prescription medications including painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills, the New York City medical examiner's office said Wednesday.  In a statement released through Ledger's publicist, Ledger's father, Kim, said Wednesday: "While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy. Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage."  The Drug Enforcement Administration is stepping in to determine how the actor was able to obtain so many prescription drugs.  Baby mama Michelle Williams and her two-year-old daughter arrived in Perth, Australia, Wednesday afternoon local time for Ledger's funeral.  There is a rumor that his dead body was snapped, and 300K is the price on that photo.

COLIN FARRELL says the release of his cop movie Pride & Glory keeps getting delayed because The Golden Compass was a financial disaster for New Line pictures.

SCIENTOLOGISTS are at war with a member of their own family - the outspoken niece of the church's powerful leader, David Miscavige.

ERIC DANE, a/k/a Dr. McSteamy on Grey's Anatomy, was treated for skin cancer.

JASON BATEMAN confirmed that the folks behind Arrested Development have put the wheels in motion toward a major motion picture of the cancelled cult comedy.

CONAN O' BRIEN, JON STEWART & STEPHEN COLBERT, filling time due to the writers' strike appeared on each other's late-night TV shows Monday in a mock feud over who "made" Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.  Eventually, blowtorches, bricks, stunt doubles and even a little dancing were employed.  The magic of the Internet brings us the video from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, followed by the finale on Late Night.

OUR FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS:  The Christian Science Monitor looks at the varied reasons The Kingdom has not done much to ease oil prices.

IRAN has sentenced a 22-year-old to death after being found guilty of drinking alcohol for a fourth time.

IRAQ:  Bill Ardolino is posting a guide to Iraqi politics, starting with the structure of the executive branch under the Iraqi constitution: "Applied to American politics, such a scenario might look like a Republican president's cabinet divided among Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and Libertarians, roughly proportional to their prevalence in Congress..."  Iraqi and UN officials toured a bomb-damaged Shiite shrine in northern Iraq on Wednesday as workers took the first steps in a long-delayed reconstruction - nearly two years after the attack on the famed golden dome became a rallying point for Shiite rage.  The US military said videos seized from suspected AQI hideouts show militants training children who appear as young as 10 to kidnap and kill.  Here's one of the videos.  And here's video of Iraqi Special Forces rescuing an 11-year-old boy who had been kidnapped and held for ransom by a ring of terrorists near Kirkuk.

THIS SHOCKING PICTURE come from the animal park at Xiamen in Fujian, south-east China, where the public seem to delight in humiliating circus-style stunts and have no regard for animal cruelty.  More at the link.

SEVERAL DOGS were saved by cardiopulmonary resuscitation and mouth-to-mouth from Kissimmee firefighters.  Pics and video at the link.

RATTLESNAKE dispatched by three cops with shotguns in Ozona, FL.

PET HOARDING:  Apache Junction police found 96 rabbits, 47 dogs, chickens, pigs, goats, horses, an African Grey Parrot and a cockatiel kept in abusive conditions when they responded to a tip Tuesday at a house in a rural area of Arizona.

DOLPHINS don't let friends drive drunk.