Need I say more? Didn’t think so. Let’s just cut to the link.

[ via MeFi ]

The ballot has been issued, and this year’s nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are: R.E.M., Patti Smith, Van Halen, the Stooges, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Chic, the Dave Clark Five, Joe Tex and the Ronettes. Of those, five will actually be inducted next March. The Chicago Tribune’s Mark Caro speculates:

“R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe threatened long ago to keep his band out of the Hall until the Monkees are inducted. Could it be that Jann Wenner and his fellow Hall officials nominated Stipe hero Patti Smith at the same time to make sure the band showed up?”

Check out Caro’s blog for more info on this year’s ballot, plus a great list of other bands yet to be recognized by the hall.

Wanna see Tiger! Tiger! open for the NY Dolls in Atlanta? Well if you knew anything about anything you would. But either way, perhaps you could the rest of us a favor and click here to cast a quick vote?

[ Buy Tiger! Tiger! @ JoeRockhead.com! ]

Two great tastes that taste great together…

10/26 – Norman, OK – The Opolis
10/27 – Lubbock, TX – Jake’s Back Room
10/28 – Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves
10/29 – Austin, TX – The Parish
10/31 – Baton Rouge, LA – Spanish Moon
11/1 – Birmingham, AL – The Bottle Tree
11/3 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
11/4 – St. Augustine, FL – Cafe Eleven
11/6 – Tallahassee, FL – Club Downunder

[ Buy The Mountain Goats and Jennifer O'Connor at JoeRockhead.com! ]

Today, Bloodshot Records releases Animal Crackers by The Wee Hairy Beasties. Generally, we don’t cotton to the kid’s stuff too much, but this is a supergroup made up of Jon Langford and Sally Timms from the Mekons, plus Kelly Hogan and Devil In A Woodpile. Plus, it’s on Bloodshot Records, who almost always bring the goods, so if you’re the parenting kind, you might want to check this sucker out.

Wondering what so-and-so sounds like? Wonder no more. We just added a couple dozen more free preview tracks to JoeRockhead.com for your listening pleasure. In no particular order (obviously), you can now stream samples from the following fine titles while you shop…

Architecture in Helsinki – In Case We Die
Paul Weller – Catch-Flame!
Oppenheimer – Oppenheimer
The Spinto Band – Nice and Nicely Done
Hot Young Priest – Fiendish Freaky Love
Ultrababyfat – No Ringo No
Girlyman – Little Star
Snow Machine – Snow Machine
6X – Thunder Bomb
The Thermals – The Body, the Blood, the Machine
Dead Moon – Echoes of the Past
The Album Leaf – Into the Blue Again
The Thermals – Fuckin A
Envie – Envie
Now It’s Overhead – Dark Light Daybreak
Amy Millan – Honey from the Tombs
Jennifer O’Connor – Over the Mountain, Across the Valley and Back to the Stars
Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Badly Drawn Boy – About a Boy
Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 – Ole Tarantula
Jim Lauderdale – Country Super Hits, Vol. 1
Los Straitjackets – Twist Party
Jim Lauderdale – Bluegrass
The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
The Radioactive Chicken Heads – Growing Mold

Just look for the big silver button!

Stephin Merritt made an appearance on Good Day Atlanta this morning to promote The Gothic Archies CD — some sort of music collection that has something to do those Lemony Snicket books that I don’t know anything about. But I do know something about good television — just take one super-bummed out, nearly catatonic dude, add one hyper-cheery morning show automaton, mix well, and…. awkward!

“I’m a pretty dark person.”
“Is that right? I would have never guessed that.”

Enjoy.

[ Thanks Amanda ]

Some pencilneck got all a twitter at a Wilco show and decided to jump on stage and tried to plant a smoocheroo on Jeff Tweedy. Needless to say, Tweedy turned all green, busted his flannel at the seams, and tossed the guy into the balcony, all while stomping around and bellowing, “JEFF ANGRY!!!!”

Or something like that.

Here’s an eyewitness report posted by someone over at Pitchfork:

“So some dude jumps on the stage. After he gets on stage (who really does this at a Wilco show?), he runs up to Tweedy to give him a fat smooch on his cheek. Tweedy freaks out like the retard from [There's] Something About Mary who doesn’t like having his ears touched and grabs the dude by his throat. While clinching to his throat, Jeff hauls off and decks him with a punch/open hand slap/shove to the face and [the] dude skirmishes away. Tweedy later apologizes (sort of) and hurries to the point of the set where they bow out before the encore.”

I like my version of the story better, but hey, I wasn’t there, so whaddya gonna do? Click here if you’d like more details on the whole sordid affair.

Any bets on how it takes before “I Got My Ass Kicked By Jeff Tweedy” t-shirts start showing up at all the online hipster t-shirt emporiums?

[ Thanks Andy ]

Got no plans this weekend? Well then why not pile in the ol’ microbus and head out to the California desert for the Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival? Billed as “a rootsicana newgrassy folkadelic experience,” the festival happens October 21st and 22nd, and is a benefit for local fire disaster relief and wildlife conservancy organizations. The line-up includes Railroad Earth, Dave Alvin, The Ditty Bops, Tim Easton, Ken Will Morton, the Thrift Store All Stars, and many others.

[ Thanks Michelle ]

Actually, a romantic liason between the two would be far less frightening than the reality: Scarlett Johansson has inked her first recording contract! The first product of this unholy event will be called Scarlett Sings Tom Waits. And yes, the obvious title says it all– The Lost In Translation star, who was recently anointed “The Sexiest Woman Alive” by Esquire Magazine, will populate her freshman disc with a selection of Tom Waits covers. Really, I’m not kidding. The fact that the record label responsible for this shudder inducing news is the ever quirky Rhino allays some of the fears, as they’ve done some interesting celebrity stuff in the past.

No comment yet from Johansson’s new label-mate, Brak.