Do I dress like Interpol?

This is all second hand info, because everyone knows I don't wake up before 10am, but apparently it was stated on the FNX morning show today that I dress, and I quote, "like Interpol?" Someone made a comment about the pill, then I got a friendly shout out followed by the notion that I "dress like Interpol."

Huh. Anyone hear this?

Don't insult Coldplay!!!

From my Hotline column in today's Herald: When Radiohead released “In Rainbows” online late last year without a fixed price, the band figured fans would chip in a few bucks to download the album. It was right.

So maybe Coldplay already understands that most self-respecting folks won’t pony up a dirty dime to hear the first track off the overwrought UK balladeers’ upcoming album. Which is why Coldplay’s new single, “Violet Hill,” is available for free download starting Tuesday, when fans can darken their former shade of “Yellow” over at coldplay.com/song starting at 7:15 a.m. Fans then have to pay for it after one week.

“Violet Hill” is the first track off the band’s upcoming album, the ridiculously titled “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.” Not to be outdone, Coldplay is also playing two massive free concerts, one at London’s Brixton Academy and the other at New York’s Madison Square Garden (June 23).

The free show at MSG should be the ugliest display of cheap grandiosity since Sean Avery suited up for the New York Rangers.

First off, never allow me to complain about my job after that Avery comment was published. Ever. But the entry also led to some fairly flacid hate-mail, most of which was a variation of "Why you no like the Coldplay?!?!" Sadly, this email from GTD, with "Get real, please" in the subject line, was my Russian breadwinner: "What on earth is your problem with those guys putting on a free concert?? Go pick on someone who actually deserves it. Snooty idiot."

Fair enough, GTD.

Long / Short

My Pet Winehouse

I really don't understand the whole Amy Winehouse thing (go Duffie, kids), but I loved me some My Pet Monster when I was a litle kid. Thankfully, it never sang. Separated at birth? A long-lost sibling? Good fucking god, those teef.

Adult toy:

Kid toy:

Regeneration Tour, I <3 Belinda Carlisle

Show of hands: Who is going to the Regeneration Tour on Aug. 20 at the Pavilion? Look at this ‘80s doozey of a lineup:

Human League – Ok, decent headliner, though I bet they haven’t aged well. Life in a cocktail bar is bad for the skin. But drum machines are timeless.
Belinda Carlisle – Holy shit. My first love. I used to watch the “Heaven is a Place in Earth” video with one hand in my pocket and another on the screen. And true story, I used to turn it off three-quarters through because she ends up sucking face with some dude (It turned out to be her hubz). It was a true precursor to my life of juvenile jealous rage. And I’ve never, to this day, heard how the song ends. But I bet the heavy metal breakdown outro and ghettotech back-beat is killer dope. But seriously, her solo catalogue is top-notch and mad underrated: “Mad About You,” “Summer Rain,” “I Get Weak” and the best song she’s ever done, the truly majestic “Leave A Light On For Me”. Sigh. I feel 8 years old again. What a way to go-go.
Flock of Seagulls – VH1’s favorite flakes should still be credited with writing “Wishing,” one of the greatest new wave songs with one of the greatest synth loops ever created. I can listen to an hour-long version of the last two minutes of this song. No joke.
ABC – “Poison Arrow” and the “Look of Love” are worth showing up to the Pavilion at 6pm. Who broke my heart? Well, Belinda did in 1989.

Anyway, so fucking delish. This is all in one night, under one New England sky, for just $25. Maybe I can finally meet Belinda. Maybe I can hear the end of “Heaven is a Place on Earth.” Do you know what that’s worth?

No Devils, no RoL, what's a boy to do but watch Predator Rap?

So I’m like a lost puppy these days, as both Rock of Love II and the Devils’ season came to a screeching conclusion (or silent thud, depending on your POV) in the past week or so. Now, I don’t really have the Devils equivalent of Daisy's MySpace page to get me through the idle rigors of an NHL off-season, and outside of passively rooting for the Rag$ to lose versus the equally-deplorable Pittsburgh Penguins, I couldn’t give a fuck-all in Crosbyville as to who win the Stanley Cup this year. However, reading that the NHL league office has nixed production of the Sean Avery Rule t-shirt is good news. Sweet consolation prize for fans that once saw their team win three Cups in nine years. Then again, I was rooting for Oscar de la Hoya’s niece to win Rock of Love, so maybe this is the punishment I get.***

Last off season I made a buncha racket about trading Patrik Elias and/or Brian Gionta for a physical presence on the blue line (the Canucks’ Mattias Ohlund, anyone?), and that would-be presence might have knocked new Vogue intern Sean Avery on his ass a few times in the deciding games of last week’s Devs-Rags games. If only we had anyone who stepped up and vicked this guy. Colin White, was your vag itchy? David Clarkson, not as tough as we thought. Maybe Cam Janssen would have made a difference, maybe not.

But oh, how I long for the days of Scott Stevens. We were pushed around, out-gunned and systematically embarrassed by our biggest rival, leading out Greatest Player Ever to unravel after no one on the team stood up for him. Awesome. I cried about consecutive second-round exits last summer, and now we’re handed an opening-round defeat to the overpaid cross-town dip shits in Blue. Sweet. And no, I wouldn’t have shook Avery’s hand either if I was Martin Brodeur. HOF goalie Billy Smith of the NY Islanders never shook hands with anyone after a playoff defeat, but of course the media scrutiny that exists today wasn’t a fraction of that in 1980. You shake hands with players you respect after a hard-fought series. Brodeur showed Avery the kind of disrespect the Rangers forward showed the game all series.

In any event, it looks to be a long off-season. Thank God I have the Predator Rap to hold me over.

*** Hey, back to Daisy from RoL again. It’s now all news and shit that she’s related to former boxing champ Oscar de la Hoya. Do you think that Oscar and family were kinda embarrassed by her all those years? I mean, they couldn’t get a family member to appear in the episode where they brought the other sluts’ parents to the show, and now suddenly her Family Fucking Tree is out in the open for all to digest?!!? Something is up, here. Imagine of Oscar went on RoL instead of Chaz’s sister?!?! If it took a silver medal performance on Cock of Love for Daisy’s family to finally accept her, then so be it.

Big Dipper secret show (tonight)

A little birdie told me that Big Dipper, acclaimed late-'80s indie/post-punk dudes who have temporarily left the suburban life to reform to destroy all newcomers, are playing a TOP SECRET show tonight at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain. They go on a 9pm sharp, and if this doesn't end up being true, well, then, good thing I put it here and not the Herald, amirite or amirite?

Thanks to the always-awesome folks at Merge Records, Big Dipper has a very nicely packaged 3-CD anthology, "Supercluster," out now, and the "official tour dates look like this: 4/24 at Maxwell's in Hoboken NJ, 4/25 at Southpaw in Brooklyn and 4/26 at the Middle East in Cambridge.

I can has ROFLCon? Yes!

This week the ROFLCon hits Cambridge, a two-day e-fest that has invited Internet celebs such as Tron Guy and the dude who created I Can Has Cheezeburger. If I didn't just hang up the phone with D.A.B. from VH-1's dope new show "Miss Rap Supreme," this story would be my favorite so far this month.

Also in the papers, Hotline-style: The Rumble finals have a certain Wednesday-night-at-the-Abbey-Lounge feel to it, and KRS-One's "Stop the Violence" tour is postponed after he got hit in the head with a thrown bottle. Lovely.

Florida says no to Truck Nutz

There are so many things that need to be discussed today -- Like... how Martin Brodeur rightfully dissing Sean Avery Friday night in the handshake line, the Devils ass-kicking at the hands of the Rags$, KRS-One's "Stop the Violence" tour being postponed after he got bottled on-stage in New Haven, the Boston Marathon ruing my life, the Daisy beatdown on the Rock of Love reunion and of course, my ever-growing desire to be elsewhere.

But all takes a back seat, for the time being, to the Florida senate trying to ban Truck Nutz!. Story after the jump!

TALLAHASSEE - Motorists could face a $60 fine for displaying an increasingly popular attachment to the trailer hitch of their pickup trucks.

Carey Baker, R-Eustis, the Florida Senate's transportation chairman, won a two-day fight over decorations that resemble male genitalia -- devices dubbed "truck nutz."

"Just as it would not be appropriate to show that device on the Senate floor, it's not appropriate to have that hanging from the back of a truck on a public road," Baker argued.

His provision was amended onto a larger transportation bill (CS/SB 1992) passed Thursday.

A companion House bill does not include the prohibition -- which was vigorously opposed a day earlier by Sens. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, and Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach.

"There's got to be better things for us to be spending our time debating," said Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, D- Cooper City.

Casiotone For the Painfully Alone, and professional dog-walking

From the noosepapah:
Today's Hotline discusses Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, which is at the Middle East tonight, as well as the Black Crowes never-ending tour. Yesterday, I nabbed the cover story with a piece on professional dog-walking services.

Yeah. The Information are at TTs tonight, if you need something to do. They is good.