So Phil Spector has been arrested in connection with a homicide in Los Angeles. Looks like he didn’t take too well to news of the Beatles releasing the de-Spectorized Let It Be this Fall.

There’s a lengthy Interpol interview over on Pitchfork.

And in a final bit of PF-related items, they’re ga-ga over Broken Social Scene’s You Forgot It In People. Big honking 9.2-rated review here. I’m thinking I should be paying more attention to local bands. Considering going to see their show on the 27th with The Dears and The Stills for CMW.

np – Teenage Fanclub / Bandwagonesque

Lazy Sundays mean random scattershot posts.

The Delgados will be at Lee’s on April 4. First show of the North American tour. Matador-signed fellow Scots Aerogramme support.

Rolling Stone interviews Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy here.

Find out all the answers to the questions it never occurred to you to ask at The Straight Dope.

Now you can find salvation with swivel-arm battle grip at Jesus Christ Superstore.

Kingpin debuts tonight at 10 PM EST. I am actually going to try and get in on the ground floor of one of these hype new shows instead of playing catch-up during summer rerun season. Like I need to be watching more television. Well, why not – not as if I have anything else to be doing.

I have started reading Stephen Hawking’s The Illustrated A Brief History Of Time. The pictures really do help immensely. And they’re in colour!

Updated the mp3 of the week. This time it’s Superchunk covering Devo’s “Girl U Want”.

Okay, that’s all for now.

np – The Kinks / Are The Village Green Preservation Society

So just like that, I bought another guitar. It was a year ago this month that I swung by Long & McQuade just for something to do, and walked out with a Squier Fat Telecaster. Well this time I didn’t walk out with the used-but-like-new Fender Nashville Telecaster, but I did pay for it. Because of laws regarding resale of used goods, L&M can’t let it leave the store for another two weeks. I get to pick it up on the 17th – it will be my Valentine’s Day gift to myself. It was $499, too good a price to pass up. Three-colour sunburst with a rosewood fingerboard… In an ideal world, it’d be maple, but rosewood feels and sounds fine as well. The hamster upstairs is already running at top speed to work out what parts I’ll need to acquire to get this thing working and looking how I like. New pickguard, switches, etc. This thing’s gonna be so sweet. Now I have to sell the Squier. I figure I’ll try private sale first, and if that doesn’t pan out, then on consignment we go.

The video for Longwave’s “Everywhere You Turn” is now online. Click on the top news item. Thanks to Garry for the tip.

I won’t be too proud to admit I was wrong if Daredevil turns out not to suck really hard. Some early reviews are coming out, and they’re surprisingly positive. There’s one here and another here. The second is from an avowed Ben Affleck hater, no less. Will it really be any good? We shall see. Pun intended.

My brother was supposed to be back from St. Martin this afternoon, but I figure his flight was delayed, perhaps significantly, by the closing of airspace around the Columbia debris field. Considering it exploded at over 200,000 feet, it’s a pretty massive debris field – there’s wreckage being found everywhere from Texas to Tennessee.

np – Sleater-Kinney / One Beat

The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry at around 9AM this morning. I remember watching it’s first launch on television when I was six. I remember hearing that Challenger had exploded in sixth grade.

My sympathies to the families of the seven astronauts on board.

Here’s CNN’s reportage on the story, but it’ll be everywhere soon enough.

My God. I feel ill.

Surprise surprise. Cruising JAM! Music’s release dates, and what do I see but Liz Phair – Happy Tragic Thing, May 20. First response? Trepidation. Speculation has been rampant for years now about what on earth has held up Liz’s fourth record. A revolving door of producers, constantly pushed back release dates, collaborations with pre-fab pop co-writers? It could all be a recipe for disaster. To say nothing of the cynically-minded indie kids subconsciously (or maybe consciously) anxious to chalk their one-time poster girl up as another casualty of the major-label grinder. Well if this information is reliable, we’ll all know what the dilly-o is in just under four months time. Unless it gets pushed back again because Liz is going back into the studio with Bob Rock or something.

Went out to the pub with the folks from work this evening, as today was Ian’s last day at the agency. A shame that our happy little unit is being fractured, but that’s how it goes I suppose. At least he’s found something else – no mean feat in this job market. Good luck to him, either way. We are having a new person starting on Monday, in an account co-ordinator role. Most of today was spent moving furniture around and wishing that it was, in fact, Saturday.

Some live mp3s available at Superchunk’s site, including some from their Opera House show in Toronto, Fall 2001. Which I didn’t go to. But wish I did. But! Portastatic is opening for Yo La Tengo on the upcoming tour, so I will get to see Mac in some live capacity. And that’s something.

np – Superchunk / Come Pick Me Up