TiVo Alert: Dinosaur Jr On Letterman TONIGHT

Legendary indie rockers Dinosaur Jr. will be appearing on the Letterman show TONIGHT. Their amazing new album, Beyond, will be in stores tomorrow. I do not mean to "over-hype" an album, but Beyond is, without question, at the level of their late 80s greatness. They have re-captured the magic. I have been listening to the new CD non-stop for the last two weeks!

Frank Black Solo Compilation Coming In June

If you are a Pixies fan, but never gave much of a chance to the solo material from the band's frontman Frank Black, you might want to check out a new compilation called Frank Black 93-03. The compilation will be released June 12. It is a two-disc set that also features a disc of live recordings.

In addition, the collection will feature one brand new song from the forthcoming Black Francis (the name Black used during his time in Pixies) album. The European, Japanese, and US versions will all feature slightly different track listing on the live disc.

Sounds like a winner to me. I have always liked Black's solo stuff. It's a diverse mix of styles and themes. It's not the Pixies, and once you get past that, it is a lot easier to enjoy.

Bright Eyes TONIGHT!

If you live in the Omaha area you are no doubt aware that Bright Eyes is playing tonight at The Holland Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are still available, but they are limited. Conor usually does a little something special for the hometown crowd. Opening the show are McCarthy Trenching and Oakley Hall.

Spinal Tap Reunites To Fight Global Warming

Al Gore and two members of Spinal Tap

(Reuters) The spoof heavy-metal band immortalized by the mock documentary "This is Spinal Tap" has reunited to join a campaign to save the world from global warming.

Director Rob Reiner, whose 1984 film set the bar for the "mockumentary" genre, has made a new short film called "Spinal Tap" as part of a campaign dubbed SOS/Live Earth. The band will also play in London at one of 7 Live Earth concerts on July 7.

"I'm here today to talk about something even more important than me or extremely loud music," Reiner -- in character as film-maker Marti DeBergi -- says in the new film which is to help open the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday.

"Spinal Tap" and eight other short films -- the first of 60 that have been commissioned for the campaign -- will be posted on the Web site www.liveearth.msn.com from Thursday.

In Reiner's original film, he plays documentary maker DeBergi who accompanies the fictitious English band Spinal Tap on a U.S. tour. The film became a cult favorite as a satirical send-up of the music business.

In the new film, Reiner, reprising his role, takes credit for coining the term "global warming." The band members discuss their long history of charity work, such as campaigns to help ferrets -- by raising money to feed them Caesar salad -- and to help people with high insteps.

"Spinal Tap" will be a highlight of Wednesday's opening night gala of the Tribeca Film Festival, which was created after the September 11 attacks as a way to revitalize downtown Manhattan after the destruction of the World Trade Center.

The gala will be hosted by former Vice President Al Gore, whose environmental film "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Oscar for best documentary earlier this year.

Describing himself as a "recovering politician" rather than a filmmaker despite his Oscar success, Gore said the SOS/Live Earth campaign and the short films aimed to show people how they can make a difference and help the environment.

"Solving this crisis means first of all getting the attention of people all over the world for the fact that we do have a planetary emergency," Gore told a news conference at which Reiner unveiled a clip of his film.

Tribeca Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal said the environmental theme was a natural choice for a festival born out of "an act of war" and which has consistently shown films aimed at provoking debate.

"The festival's initial goal was to help bring people back to the streets of lower Manhattan," Rosenthal said. "Now our goal is to help bring people back to their senses."

The 157 feature films and 88 short films include plenty on weighty issues such as genocide in Darfur ("The Devil Came on Horseback"), a homosexual love affair between an Israeli and a Palestinian ("The Bubble") and U.S. soldiers' treatment of detainees in Afghanistan ("Taxi to the Dark Side").

On the lighter side, "Spider-Man 3" will have its U.S. premiere at Tribeca before it opens in theaters on May 4.

Scott Baio Back on TV?

Scott Baio, star of classic films such as Zapped, is set to star in a new reality show on VH1 called Scott Baio is 45...and Single. The show will chronicle Baio's dating life (or lack thereof). Sure, Baio has dated women like Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson, but that was a long time ago. What have you done for me lately, Scott?

Baio's former co-star on Charles in Charge, Nicole Eggert, is also going the reality show route by appearing on the next season of the horrid The Surreal Life. Eggert will be featured along with original Guns N Roses drummer Steven Adler and former Asian porn star Kobe Tai. Sounds like must-see TV!

Here are some screenshots from the Baio classic Zapped (which stars 80s blonde hottie Heather Thomas)

Bright Eyes Debuts at #4!

The new album from Omaha's resident rock stars, Bright Eyes, has debuted at #4 on this week's Billboard Top 200 album charts. The album, Cassadega, sold more than 53,000 copies in its first week. It is the highest charting debut of the week. Impressive.

TiVo Alert!

Lots of good music on TV this week:

TONIGHT on Jimmy Kimmel (ABC) is Silversun Pickups.

Wednesday night on David Letterman (CBS) is Son Volt.

Friday night on Henry Rollins (IFC) is Ryan Adams.

Saturday night on Saturday Night Live (NBC) is Björk (whose new single "Earth Intruders" is quite good, btw).

God Bless The Replacements

...and YouTube. Great interview with the band from 1984 that I have never seen before. Great banter between Paul Westerberg and Bob Stinson. Man, those guys were great

Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out

Guns N Roses were forced to cancel their upcoming Japanese tour due to an injury sustained by bassist Tommy Stinson. He explains, "I accidentally fell down a flight of stairs. I put my hand down to break my fall and heard a loud ‘pop.' The next morning my hand looked like a balloon. I went to see my doctor and while the good news is that it’s not broken, the bad is news is it’s severely sprained and I may have done some ligament damage. We had our last rehearsal a few days ago and shipped the gear to Japan and then this happened. I feel horrible."
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I assume all of you reading this understand the reference made with the title of this posting. If not...shame on you.

R.I.P. Mark St. John

One-time KISS guitarist Mark St. John died yesterday from a brain hemorrhage. He was 51. St. John was only in the band for a matter of months. He joined in 1984 as a replacement for Vinnie Vincent (who had replaced original guitarist Ace Frehley), and played on the platinum selling album Animalize. Animalize yielded the hit "Heavens On Fire" and returned KISS to platinum status for the first time in nearly five years.

In what could only be described as incredibly bad luck, St. John was diagnosed with a condition known as Reiter's Syndrome which caused his hands to swell, and made it impossible to play guitar. He was replaced in 1985 by Bruce Kulick who remained in the band until 1996 when the original line-up reformed.

Eventually, the Reiters was treated, and St. John formed a band called White Tiger with a former lead singer of Black Sabbath. He also worked briefly on a project with original KISS drummer Peter Criss.

Here is the only KISS video Mark appeared in:

Two Paragraphs on the Elvis Perkins / Let's Go Sailing Show

Had a great time at the Elvis Perkins / Let's Go Sailing show last night at Waiting Room. Elvis was quite good, as I expected, but so was opener Let's Go Sailing. LGS's music is slow, quiet pop with soft, dreamy female vocals. Nice stuff. I'm just now starting to listen to the CD. I talked for a while with LGS's singer Shana Levy, and she was a really nice person. Turns out, two of her band's songs were featured on the show Grey's Anatomy. I have never seen the show, but based on how many women in my office talk about it every week, I know it is a big deal. (Check out the band's MySpace page to hear some of their stuff)

The crowd was a little light, but since Neko Case played the night before in Lincoln, I think much of the normal Elvis Perkins audience wasn't willing to go out two nights in a row. What pussies. I was hungover from the night before, and I still made it out -- and drank again! No one can call me an old light weight!

Elvis Perkins TONIGHT at Waiting Room

For those not too tired after last night's Neko Case show, you should head over to Waiting Room to see Elvis Perkins. I think this show will be something special.

If you don't know this Elvis, check out this profile from NPR, or this review from Rolling Stone which features song samples.

Opening the show is an LA pop band called Let's Go Sailing. I don't know much about them, so I am going in with virgin ears.

Here is the video from Elvis Perkins for "All The Night Without Love" from his album Ash Wednesday. This version of the song is a little different than the one on the album.

Neko Case TONIGHT!!

Neko Case is playing tonight at The Roccoco Theater in Lincoln, NE. She has been incredible both of the times I have seen her before, and am excpecting nothing less tonight. Tickets may still be available, but I would double check before heading to the show.