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Cold War Kids, "Louder Than Ever" [Tune]: These indie rockers from Long Beach, CA, are an enigma. After a great debut on 2006's 'Robbers and Cowards', their second album, 'Loyalty to Loyalty,' sounded like a misguided attempt to emulate the Kings of Leon in selling out their sound. After redeeming themselves with a solid four track EP earlier this year, the band has announced the release of its third album in January, with Louder Than Ever the first song. I'm afraid the up and down trend may continue.  The song is streaming here, with a download available on the link.


I'm with Rococo: One of these days I'm going to have to subscribe to Vanity Fair. Articles like this on Conan's last days with NBC are just too good to miss. The events detailing Conan's famed "People of Earth" letter are particularly riveting.

Going Down, In a Blade of Glory: The story goes that a former Turkish soccer star with three World Cup goals to his name is reprising Will Ferrell's role from "Blades of Glory" in his pursuit for Olympic ice skating glory. The reality is that it's likely a guise for the soccer star to spend more time with his ice skating partner, a former Olympian, whom he met while winning Turkey's ice-skating version of Dancing with the Stars together. To no one's surprise, the two are now dating. Score one for Chazz Michael Michaels.

Is That How He Got the Job In the First Place? There are some lines that might get you out of a ticket for speeding with possession of nearly ten pounds of marijuana while driving across state lines. Unfortunately for this guy, "I'm a bullpen catcher for the Chicago Cubs" is not one of them.

If You Love It You Better Put More Butter On It: I love how Anthony Bourdain has led the charge in blowing the roof of restaurant secrets. Here's five more good ones to note.

Pearl Jam: Through the Years: A retrospective on Pearl Jam and its 'success and retreat' model for rock stardom. I'll always remember the anticipation for their second album, "Vs." The local Tower Records displayed a wall of them behind layers of cellophane in the days before its midnight release. The awesome part was that the cds had all these different prices on them. I remember being mesmerized staring at this giant wall of awesomeness. It's amazing to think that bands could sell 7 million albums at $15 apiece back them; remember, this was before cds could even be burned, let alone downloaded. Anyway, it's worth a read for any fan of the band. Please also pay special attention to the amazing puffy shirt/vest combo Emilio Estevez is rocking on his SNL intro in the last video.

Hawaii has lost one of its true local icons. Andy Irons, R.I.P.