Fikaked: Daily!

• @ the AV Club: Interviews w/ Animal Collective & Harold Ramis (Ghostbusters, Stripes, etc.), and a list of what their writers perceive to be the best music of 2009 so far.
• @ The Onion: an article highlighting how Kobe Bryant was able to finally win the NBA Championship with Luke Walton on the team.
• @ Pitchfork: The Clientele announce new album details.
• The other side of the new Modest Mouse 7", "Whale Song" is over @ Pocket Full of Paper. You can also hear it here:

• "Twitter Tracker" returns:

• Phoenix performing "1901" on Letterman last night:

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Fikaked: Daily!

• In case you haven't heard, the keyboardist from Vampire Weekend and the lead vocalist from Ra Ra Riot have partnered up to form Discovery, and it's awesome. It's basically indie new wave electro pop, kinda similar to Clor. Kickin' the Peanuts has the album posted here for download, and You can hear the first single right here. Be warned, listening almost guarantees immediate addiction:

• Pitchfork has an 30 minute Vampire Weekend set from last summer's Pitchfork festival posted here. "Campus":

• According to Pitchfork, Modest Mouse is going on tour (without Johnny Marr), and Dodos are releasing a new album in September, this time with a vibraphonist as the third permanent member.
• 11 Classic Letterman Moments, courtesy of EW.com.
• From The Playlist: Three Stooges the Movie, Elf as a musical, and 'Batman 3' news.

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Fikaked: Daily!

• EW's Doc Jensen lays out four possible scenarios for where Lost will be taking us in its final season. I'm already tired of waiting...
• Fuse.tv has about 30 mp3s from various Bonnaroo performances this weekend available as free downloads. There's also an option to just download all of them in one file (right click here and "save as"). Performers include: Bon Iver, Band of Horses, Phoenix, Neko Case, and the awesome Grizzly Bear.
• Another EW list: "21 Movie Remakes: The Best and Worst". Gotta disagree with their take on Vanilla Sky...
• A pretty sweet interview of Dana Carvey and Robert Smigel over @ The Onion's "A.V. Club".
• The Hangover isn't going away: it just wrapped up another weekend @ #1, and there's already talk of a sequel. As a direct result, the possibility of Old School 2 ever seeing the light of day is becoming less and less likely.
• One of the other Bonnaroo performers from this weekend, Animal Collective, have just released yet another super-trippy video, this time for "Summertime Clothes". Not as catchy as "My Girls", but still a great track:

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Fikaked: Daily!

• In "what-could-he-possibly-be-thinking?" news, Common will be making an appearance on a track from the new Jonas Brother's album. Not that you should, but you can here it here.
• The new comic series Batman & Robin hit stores this week. It involves Dick Grayson (the original "Robin") taking over for the deceased Bruce Wayne, and Bruce's son, Damian, taking over as Robin. Evidently, it's not bad. Interesting...
• The guys in Band of Horses spin-off band Grand Archives have a new album coming out in September called Keep In Mind Frankenstein. The first track out there is "Silver Among The Gold". You can download it by right-clicking here, or listen to it right here:

• And the battle rages on:

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• Hugo Weaving has signed on for The Hobbit.
• My Name Is Earl is now officially dead. TBS won't be picking it up. I'm still holding out hope USA will do the world a favor and resuscitate Life.
• Lots of weird news today... Kris Allen is reportedly "flattered" by Adam Lambert's "crush". This whole thing is going to get out of hand...
• Heidi Montag, The Hills star who's made it a point to broadcast her Christianity in I'm a Celebrity... is reportedly posing for Playboy. Nothing else really needs to be said.
• CNN actually considers this to be news:

• Norm MacDonald was Conan's lead guest last night, and he is one of the funniest people alive:

• Neko Case performed another single from Middle Cyclone on The Tonight Show last night. Same show, different host:

• Last but not least, Cheap Trick has covered the original 80s Transformers theme for the new movie, and it is remarkably cheesy. Enjoy:

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Fikaked: Daily!

• Ultimate music festival Bonnaroo begins today. This year's standouts include Passion Pit, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, TV on the Radio, Beastie Boys, Phoenix, Public Enemy, Girl Talk, Bon Iver, Neko Case, and Band of Horses, amongst others. Pitchfork has a pretty nice rundown here, including where you can watch live performances and a complete schedule.
• Dave Letterman has gotten into a bit of controversy for making jokes about everyone's favorite idiot, Sara Palin, and her family; he wound up sort of apologizing for it last night.
• Apparently, things are otherwise going well for Dave, as he has closed the ratings gap with Conan over the course of the first week, and actually beat out The Tonight Show for the first time in quite a while on Monday Night. It will be interesting to see how things play out amongst the viewers now that we have two hosts who are more similar in style. Obvious statement of the day: DVRs are good.
• Sounds like the new G.I. Joe movie has had some serious issues. Man, this thing is gonna bomb.

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Fikaked: Daily!

• EW has an article on the phenomenon that is getting sucked into watching terrible movies on television, kinda like last weekend when I came home and found my wife watching Honey on MTV.
• Futurama is being resurrected. Well done, Comedy Central.

• Mos Def performed a track from his new album, The Ecstatic, on Letterman last night:

• According to this report by the Onion News Network, President Obama is planning on drastically scaling back his goals for the nation after an eye-opening visit to a Denny's:

• Conan ran another new installment last night of the best bit they've started up since moving to The Tonight Show, "Twitter Tracker". It's not up anywhere yet, but and they've actually put together a "Twitter Tracker" website:

• Will Ferrell made his next stop on the late night merry-go-round last night, this time on Late Night:

• Another EW list: TV's Top Kitchens.
• A CNN article on the slow, agonizing death of Myspace.
• A crazy report on Idol runner-up Adam Lambert that discusses, amongst other things, his crush on Idol champion Kris Allen, the fact that he decided to try out for the show while high on shrooms at the "Burning Man" festival, and a possible rivalry with the other gay Idol runner-up, Clay Aiken:

• Stephen Colbert is doing The Colbert Report from Iraq all week. Pretty good stuff; here's last night's episode:

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Fikaked: Daily!

• A list of today's notable releases on DVD, including Gran Torino, from The A.V. Club.
• Surprise! Adam Lambert is gay! If nothing else, maybe this revelation will lead people to STOP TALKING ABOUT IT.
• New Built To Spill on the way! It's called There Is No Enemy, and it's due out in October. Lead singer Doug Martsch talks about it with Pitchfork here.
• One of the most awesome things I've seen this year happened last night when Mark-Paul Gosselaar did an entire interview on Late Night as "Zack Morris":

That's it for today; busy, busy...

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Fikaked: Daily!

• Weekend Box Office: Seems The Hangover did fantastic, the marketing gurus couldn't make Land of the Lost look anything but really stupid, and neither one of them could take out Up as #1. Entertainment Weekly is now reporting that the final weekend tally actually has Hangover taking the top slot.
• Chris Nashawaty is taking this opportunity to kick Ferrell while he's down. What, exactly, was not hilarious about Step Brothers?
• Jay-Z just released a new track called "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)". Evidently, like a lot of people, HOVA isn't a fan of of the pitch-correcting software, which is interesting since his boy Kanye just released an album full of Auto-Tuned tracks about 6 months ago. Not sure if this will be on The Blueprint 3 According to Pitchfork, it will in fact be on The Blueprint 3, which is due out in September:

• In the summer's biggest train-wreck so far, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, "Speidi" have managed to create a pretty impressive spectacle, and it's kinda hard to turn away. According to EW, Heidi has actually been checked into a Costa Rican hospital after spending the night in some sort of torture chamber, a punishment for trying to leave the show (and then begging to be brought back).
• Over @ The A.V. Club: 27 Ridiculous Yet Entertaining Pop Culture Fights. Does anything else need to be said?
• Surprise! Idol winner Kris Allen has signed to Jive Records. You can't tell me that Adam Lambert isn't breathing a sigh of relief right now.
• Half-Blood Prince might be delayed in IMAX theaters for a couple weeks because of an exclusive deal featuring Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, which will feature several IMAX-only action sequences. Booyah! I can wait an extra two weeks for another installment of Potter-mania.
• Some general possibly-in-the-works excitement: Anchorman 2 & possibly two new 'Sherlock Holmes' flicks, a new 'Robin Hood' franchise that involves Ridley Scott & Russell Crowe, Ghostbusters 3, and a Short-Circuit remake.
• Tonight: The season premiere of Weeds, I'm a Celebrity... and Jon & Kate Plus 8 overkill continues, Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives does "American Classics" and "Family Favorites" on the Food Network, The History Channel is running a special on the history of 'hillbillies', Conan has David Duchovny & comedian Bill Burr on the Tonight Show, and Jimmy Fallon's got Kelly Ripa & Mark-Paul Gosselaar coming on Late Night.

Pardon the mess; this thing is a work in progress...

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