New Apple Signature iPods.

*******
This guy Brian has tons of links to mp3s and full albums: clickity-clack.

Many of the links die quickly, but some don't. Example: The Arcade Fire's complete album Funeral in mp3.

*******

Illinois drivers: impressive.

*******

This could be glorious: Louie CK's sitcom hasn't gotten the pilot green light from HBO. Doesn't mean it will make it to air, but it's that much closer. Plus, he's definitely doing an HBO special in the next few months. Giddyup!

*******

Saw The Life Aquatic and really enjoyed it. The downside is that Owen Wilson's role, though major, isn't particularly funny. He basically just slides in and out of a meandering Kentucky accent throughout the whole movie. Bill Murray is an absolute beast in this film, and along with Willem Defoe really makes it work. This is definitely not the movie to win over people who didn't like Wes Anderson's other stuff, but I think if you liked his previous stuff you'll like TLA at least a fair amount. It's quirky as shit, perhaps more than any of his previous films.

*******

Recommended to me by Nina, via Ultragrrrl (aka Spin mag's Sarah Lewitin), here's the Spinto Band. Last time I checked the traffic spike they'd gotten had crashed their site and they had exceeded their bandwidth, but give it a try, they've got a bunch of free mp3's.

They look like 15 year old kids, and normally I'm not one for gimmicky kid rock bullshit, but they're kind of on to something. "O Mandy" is a catchy little track, while "Atari" is indie rock at its most nostalgic. I'd rather eat my own vomit than listen to Bowling for Soup or other bands that try to make "funny" music about bygone eras, but this is actually a good song. Plus I think it has real commercial potential. So much so that I was inspired to write this in response to Nina's rec:

atari is my favorite spinto band song and i think it should be used in
commercials where, for some reason related to the relevant product
being advertised, kids should simultaneously start streaming out of
their houses and run into a huge field together.

I'm thinking it would transition from indoor shots of kids getting up
from the tv/video games/computers and then running for the doors, as
their parents just kind of watch bewildered. then you see kids
running out of their front doors and streaming into the streets of
this very cookie-cutter suburb, where all the houses are ranches and
shit. it would have to be very sunny. we'd need kids aged between
maybe 7 and 12.

and then the kids veer off and they're running into this huge, rolling field
and you mix in some slow-mo shots of smiling kids running or whatever.
i'm thinking we'll need pinwheels. a shitload of pinwheels, and
maybe some of those sticks with the streamers on the end. and i'm not
sure what happens once they're in the field, but they would continue
to be happy.

you'd have to splice the song up a little bit because the key part is
the refrain and that piano part. i think this would be an effective
way to sell cellphones or some other product that attempts to convey a
sense of freedom by using their product.

Anyway, you get my drift. I was thinking some more about it, and maybe the above is the video for the song, and the kids run over a hill and find the band just playing in the middle of the wilderness--I'm thinking Sound of Music landscapes here. Well, maybe not that mountainous. Anyway, so the kids find the band, and then maybe while the kids are all jumping around and shit the band sneaks out of the frenzy and back to one of the houses, where they start playing Atari (get it!?!?!) while the kids are dancing around to a tape recording of the band. I don't know, it seemed to make sense at the time. Spinto Band, take note.

I will not rest until (the) Spinto Band are doing commercials for Cingular and playing at the fake club on the OC.

*******

Also worth a listen are another group of dinky yet inventive kid rockers, Harlem Shakes (a Karo tip). I really like Disco 5000. Not sure if that title is a nod to Pulp or what.