Uncle rock n roll star?

Personal news first today:

• I'm going to be an uncle!!! I actually found out about this a couple of weeks ago, but I keep forgetting to post the info. Yes, my sister-in-law is pregnant! A big "Congratulations!" to my brother and sister-in-law! Due date, as released, is 1/5/06... I guess this means a very "Happy New Year" to them and the rest of the family! Other thoughts about this... You've heard of the "Mozart effect", right? I'm more in favor of the "Lennon effect" (and I'm Austrian?!); ...never to early to start listening to some Beatles! Sister-in-law, I'm bringing the Beatles' catalogue over ASAP! We'll start "Oasis" training at around age 1... (Yes, I'm a great baby-sitter!)

• In related news... My sister-in-law is starting a new job @ "Wilsons Leather Corportate" on 8/1/05! Again, "Congratulations", I'll miss the discounted hair-care-products from Regis Corp, though!? Maybe I need some leather pants soon...

• Is everybody coming to Minneapolis/St. Paul the weekend of 8/5/05? So far I have the mighty Queenvick, MetalFan, and "V" scheduled!? How will I ever co-ordinate all of you?! We'll all try to "hang" together... like the "United Nations"... Jan, where are you, by the way?

In music and related info today:

• Thanks to Rock Snob on this one (her site is outstanding)... Stellastarr* has a new single out called "Sweet Troubled Soul" which you can stream online. Not much a departure from their previous material, as far as I can tell, however sounds excellent! Plus, they still have the arguably hottest bass player alive in music today!

• Speaking of Stellastarr*... I still have an extra autographed poster by them laying around from last time I saw them here... I'll have to think of some good trivia questions to give this one away soon here on the blog...

• Again, related to above... both Stellastarr* and Bloc Party are skipping Minneapolis/St. Paul on their upcoming tours! Bastards!

• I get a weekly email from local DJ "JakeRudh". His site of the week is: MNspeak.com. Pretty cool, I think... You can check out the MNspeak inteview with Jake here. I've met Jake a number of times... It's good to have local people like this around. Funny, in the MNspeak 7 questions inteview he names "Pulp" as one of his favorite gigs... yeah, I was there! Come on, you didn't expect any less, right? JC rules! I still don't quite understand why Jake doesn't start his own blog instead of emailing a bunch of people (I mean hundreds)... Then again, that's me...

• I've been getting so much new music lately I can hardly keep up! One piece of advice though... if you don't own Spoon's "Kill the Moonlight" or "Gimme Fiction", you should!

That's it for today... I know I've been slacking on music news lately, so I promise to give you a full update of all the weeks' action tomorrow! In the meanwhile, check out Miss Valerie, way more orgazined and up-to-date than I will ever be...