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Well you knew this was gonna get a little messy, eventually. Missouri indie rockers Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin speak to Radar about the suddenly uncomfortable prospect of being named after the recently deceased Russian leader. Said singer Philip Dickey:

I feel really awkward. This is the busiest my phone and e-mail have ever been in my life ... We had this national release in October. I don't blame people if they suspect that this is just us wanting attention.

That said, don't expect SSLYBY to drop the BY anytime soon.

We have a lot of younger people at our shows these days who don't even know who Yeltsin is ... but we're kind of locked in at this point. If we tried to change it we might come up with something worse.

We like the name, though the guys should play around and see what they come up with! Just stay away from Someone Still Loves You Don Imus.

Cool project for R.E.M. lovers. Back in September of '06, a host of Athens artists including Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood, Tin Cup Prophette, and The Observatory (featuring 14 Elephant 6ers) pulled together to pay live tribute to the city's favorite sons. Thankfully, the evening was set to tape and will see release on Athens-based Iron Horse Records, with proceeds benefiting two GA community charities. Here are two culled from the record's 19 tracks: Hood's raw rocking "Burning Hell," stacked on the Observatory's snake-charming slant on "Feeling Gravity's Pull."

Patterson Hood - "Burning Hell" (MP3)
The Observatory - "Feeling Gravity's Pull" (MP3)

Finest Worksongs: Athens Bands Play The Music Of R.E.M. is out 5/29 on Iron Horse Records. Tracklist after the jump.

R.E.M. RELATED: Perpetua's got a brand new bag: writing about every R.E.M. song, ever, one at a time. Might take him a while, but it's a good read. Check in at Pop Songs 07.

Fans with a shared love of rock icons and unidentified flying objects will be enthralled by Alien Rock: The Rock 'N' Roll Extraterrestrial Connection, a book by Michael C. Luckman which compiles anecdotal evidence in support of the existence of extraterrestrial life from Earth's most reliable witnesses: drugged up rock stars. Luckman divulges Mick Jagger's alien experiences to BANG Showbiz (via ShowBiz Spy):

"Mick Jagger has been very involved with the subject of UFOs for many years.

"In 1968 he went camping in Glastonbury with his then girlfriend, singer Marianne Faithful, and encountered a rare, luminous cigar-shaped mothership.

"Around the same time Mick had a UFO detector installed at his British estate. The alarm kept on going off whenever he left home, indicating the presence of strong electromagnetic activity in the immediate area."

The 63-year-old singer also sighted a UFO over the crowd during The Rolling Stones' infamous 1969 Altamont Concert in California.

Mick is not the only member of the band to believe in aliens.Sure, you think you know which other Stone believes in E.T. But the answer might actually surprise you...

This weekend, Stereogum will join the throngs of sunscreen-lubed festsetters in Indio for our very first trip to Coachella. There's too much to see and not enough cameras to go around, but be sure we'll stave off dehydration as long as possible and liveblog the best the weekend has to offer. This morning Coachella finally announced set times, so start planning accordingly. The flyers' two misspellings (Roky Erickson on Saturday and Mando Diao on Sunday) = collector's items! Check 'em after the jump.

Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, we break 'em down for you. Why Video Hangover? Because when you watch as many videos as we do, you're going to feel it afterwards.

"Funky Cold Medina"
Tone Loc, 1989

Some things to consider while asking yourself: if the Funky Medina is so cold, why is it smoking?

The other day, Interpol posted a lovely scene of snow-capped peaks and the date 7.10.07 on their site, and the web surmised this corresponds to the forthcoming record's release date. That's fair, though we're waiting to hear a good explanation for the accompanying pic. (Carlos D's vacay Flickr maybe?)

And today, Jeremy informs us of the record's tracklist. For the fanatics:

[Redacted per Impose Magazine's request]

We don't have anything on the record's title, so you can expect another round of web posts when that last bit leaks (buzz bands, take note). If ya missed it, head here for live clips of "Pioneer To The Falls" and "The Heinrich Maneuver." Despite the wholesome goodness of the above postcard pic, their antics are much the same as you last remember.

Spring has finally come to Minnesota. The weather was tempting us a little, and then we got another snowstorm, but now it's really spring. The birds are chirping, the air is fresh, and everyone has emerged from their cocoons. This is the time of year that we're all actually happy, because the temperature will be 95 degrees in a month.

Anyway, I've been writing a little about spring music for a while, and this song comes to mind. Maybe it's just that colorful artwork, because this is a sweet little piano ballad, which I tend to associate more with fall or winter.

Ben Weaver - Plastic Bag.

Weaver is from St. Paul, so he knows a thing or do about our crazy climate. I can't help but think the cover of his record Paper Sky was inspired by Minnesota in April or May. In any case, this is a really nice CD, full of catchy melodies and quirky touches - like that octave violin phrase that lasts throughout this track. It totally holds it together, and Weaver seems to have an ear for arrangement.

Pick up Paper Sky from Ben Weaver's website.

We have news of a Decemberist going it alone, at least for a home recording release and a string of West Coast dates as the Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble. The guitarist who dueled with Colbert Frampton in a battle of the shred offers up Plastic Bag In The Tree, a collection of tunes featuring mainly Mr. Funk, along with some of his Portland neighbors, featuring covers (Radiohead, Fleetwood Mac, the Pretenders, Massive Attack) and a couple of originals. No shanties here; the Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble specializes in acid-tinged instrumental folk ditties which are, as Chris jokes, "good intermittent music for NPR's All Things Considered!" Find a taste from the record below. We like this song's tuning, which he nicked from John Fahey; tab fiends, he "thinks" it's a low C (CGCGCE).

Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble - "Chained To A Pole" (MP3)

Head to MySpace for a sweet cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop." You can catch Chris with a veritable ensemble of support players (including Norfolk & Western's Peter Broderick and fellow Decemberist Jenny Conlee) on a string of west coast dates. Chris booked the tour without remembering the Fahey tuning, so maybe just go to relish the potential dissonance. Take the jump for the dates.

Right, so we've already heard Chris pay unplugged tribute to MJ, but now we got video and a full-on, blues-rocky band. Good news is Chris's voice sounds amazing as always. Bad news, we got video and a full-on, blues-rocky band. Why does he look so awkward? It's like he doesn't know what to do with his hands (or himself).

An American actress would like it to be known she listens to music and she has an opinion: American songwriters ain't what they used to be.

[She] reminisces about the music she listened to as a child, from the likes of Guns 'N Roses to the soundtrack of musical Les Miserables, but admits she isn't a fan of the artists which dominate today's charts. She says, "It's harder to find great music these days. We have Amy Winehouse now, I guess and Bono (of U2). But still our biggest bands back home are crap ... We don't have a Bob Dylan; where are all the great writers? We don't have enough new great talent. We just don't have the inspirational songs that pop out."

Guess the thespian, take the jump.