One of the best-selling soundtracks of the last decade, if you count 2000 as being in the Aughts, is "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" There's renewed interest in religion in Coen Brothers movies since the recent publication of "The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers."

What are your favorite soundtracks of the past decade? And whatcha listening to this evening?

In this day and age where it's perfectly normal for bands to take years between albums, it's not a lot of news that Oasis won't have another album for five years, but Noel Gallagher does want you to know that he's putting Oasis on hold for a few years to work on his solo albums and because he thinks that his brother Liam is a jerk.

Noel tells Q Magazine that Liam, known for an angelic voice and a terrible personality, hasn't even met Noel's son. "He's rude, arrogant, intimidating, and lazy. He's the angriest man you'll ever meet. He's like a man with a fork in a world of soup." Looks like Noel has gotten much more clever with words since he wrote "I've got to be myself, I can't be no one else" in Oasis's first song.

Country legend Charlie Louvin died today at 83 from pancreatic cancer. Charlie's music was influential across time and genres, and The Louvin Brothers were one of the greatest duos in country music history. Charlie continued to record and tour after the tragic death of his brother Ira in 1965, and his cancer diagnosis did not diminish his work ethic. He played shows as recently as December and was booked for future dates. He will truly be missed here in Nashville and across the world.

I recently had the pleasure of reuniting with one of my oldest, dearest friends. He was a mentor to me in many ways. He helped expand my mind and showed me new ways to look at life, politics, music, racial issues -- and he introduced me to Frank Zappa. This is one of his FZ favs, and it goes out to him.

If Frank were alive today, imagine the fun he would be having with the likes of Sarah Palin, George Bush and the astrobirthers...

Yesterday was Father's Day, and newly-reunited jam band legends Phish decided that it was more than fitting to celebrate on stage in front of thousands of people.

During "Brother," their opening song at last night's Alpine Valley gig, Phish brought out all of their collective children to sit in a bathtub placed in front of them, referencing the song's main lyric, "Somebody's jumping in the tub with their brother!"

Phish previously pulled this gag during a 1992 tour where all of the band's family, friends and crew jumped in a tub while the song was played.

Phish are currently touring for the first time in five years and play next in Colorado at the Red Rocks Amphitheater on July 30th.

Waterloo Sunset from Something Else by The Kinks

Sure it's easy to make a case that Ray Davies is a combative, neurotic jerk (just ask his bandmates- including brother Dave- and his ex-wives), a joker with a perverse sense of humor (listen to Lola), or just plain psychic when it comes to both Marvel Comics and the present state of the US of A (1979's Catch Me Now I'm Falling), but I'm tellin' ya here and now that if he never writes another song, Waterloo Sunset proves him one of the most hopeless romantics to walk the Earth.

... and then one day, with no explanation whatsoever, this envelope shows up from my brother.

And this was inside.

My brother rocks.

The Easy Star All-Stars -- "Dub Side of the Moon"

Last week I interviewed progressive Texas Rep. Rick Noriega. He's running for the U.S. Seante against the absolute worst, rubber-stampingest and most reactionary senator from anywhere, John Cornyn. Tomorrow, Jane and I will be hosting Rick over at FDL at 11am, PT (1 pm in Texas). Come over and meet him; he's really an extraordinary guy-- one of the most outstanding political figures I've ever met in my life.

As a kind of cultural touchstone, John and I asked him to host tonight's CLLN Music Club. He and I immediately bonded because of our shared affinity for Clapton's "Change the World," which I was busy releasing on my label, Reprise, while he was listening to as he was getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan. Other songs that Rick considered for tonight were "Let It Be' by the Beatles, "Imagine" by John Lennon, Sting's "Alien in New York" ( "I used this all the time for my background music for my presentations to groups when dealing with immigration," he told us.) He works out to "Everything Is Coming My Way" by Santana and a special love song for his wife, "Yellow Rose of Texas." But tonight's featured song is "Justicia, Tierra y Libertad" by Mana, a song Rick and two of his legislative colleagues, Joe E. Moreno and Jessica Farrar, used to always listen to while driving from Houston to Austin to try to deal with Tom DeLay's shenanigans around the Texas redistricting session.

"While I was in Afghanistan Joe died in an auto accident. I was like losing a best friend and a brother but I was in a combat zone and couldn't get back to bury him. This was the song we shared."

My Immortal from Fallen

(blogged by Howie Klein) Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12--he would be 197 today if John Wilkes Booth hadn't shot him in 1865. The Doors' keyboard player, Ray Manzarek, was born on this day in 1939. The dude's gonna be 70! WOW! Happy damn birthday-- loved those albums you produced by Echo & the Bunnymen and X. A bunch of other classic rock musicians celebrate their birthdays today too: Steve Hacket (Genesis), Michael McDonald (Doobie Brothers), Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy-- and Motorhead). And an old pal of mine was born on this day in 1970, Jim Creegan, bass player of the Barenaked Ladies. But today is also the day the great Screamin' Jay Hawkins (born in 1929) passed away-- in 2000. He was a one of a kind-- and one of the greatest showmen in rock'n'roll. He didn't always have that bone in his nose but he almost always popped out of a coffin onstage-- a schitk suggested to him by Alan Freed. He had some good songs over his 50 year career but this was the big one, "I Put A Spell On You:"

Tonight's contest: Tell us your favorite rock'n'roll gimmick (you know, like popping out of a coffin). The 5 best entries get The Essential Donovan (his 14 biggest hits). Send your answer to downwithtyranny@aol.com