Clint Eastwood is more than just a grizzled and beloved actor/director - he’s also a grizzled singer/musician! Eastwood’s early career includes an album inspired by the TV series Rawhide (Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites), a role in the Western musical Paint Your Wagon (probably best remembered as one of Homer Simpson’s least favorite films), and, of course, a duet with Merle Haggard for 1980’s Bronco Billy.

Eastwood has been composing and performing music for his films’ soundtracks for a long time, but now he’s apparently composed and sung (along with Jamie Cullum) the titular song for his upcoming flick Gran Torino. Just look at the above pic taken from the Gran Torino trailer and you’re probably able to surmise that Dirty Harry sounds like a hoarse Tom Waits after a night of drinking scotch and gravel. Is it grizzled and great enough to win him an Oscar for Best Original Song?

MP3s:
Clint Eastwood and Jamie Cullum - “Gran Torino”
Merle Haggard and Clint Eastwood - “Barroom Buddies”

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Just in case you’ve tired of playing Super Obama World, The Flaming Lips have launched a game to help promote the DVD release of Christmas On Mars. Just in time for the holidays, you can shoot brains at Wayne Coyne’s Martian Santa!

MP3:
Flaming Lips - “A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn’t So)”

PREVIOUSLY:
Christmas On Mars @ deadCENTER (OKC, OK) 6/13/08

Go ahead - beat me up and take my lunch money, but the new Star Trek trailer looks pretty cool and I’ve got a lot of faith in J.J. Abrams. Plus, Simon Pegg makes everything a little more awesome!

MP3:
Bob Schneider - “Captain Kirk”

VIDEO:

Today at Comic-Con, MTV announced their intentions to do the time warp by remaking the 1975 cult-classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show to broadcast on TV next Halloween. Apparently they will work off the original campy 1975 screenplay but ”may also include music not featured in the original.” No word yet on a director or cast, but hopefully execs will not send The Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana to the ol’ Frankenstein place. What do you think - inspired idea or movie-mistake-in-the-making? Here’s a big batch of Rocky Horror covers to enjoy while you pray Heidi Montag isn’t cast as Janet…

MP3s:
Dresden Dolls - “Science Fiction/Double Feature”
Control-R - “Dammit Janet”
Kelly Kapowski - “Over at the Frankenstein Place”
String Cheese Incident - “Time Warp”
Casper & The Cookies - “Sweet Transvestite”
Pansy Division - “I Can Make You a Man”
Truth and Beauty - “Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a Touch Me”
Suburban Legends - “Rose Tint My World”
Paul Pecorino - “I’m Going Home”

As if I needed another reason to be jealous of English culture, the super-rad title sequence for the BBC’s forthcoming coverage of the 2008 Olympics – created by the men behind Gorillaz, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett – has appeared online. The two-minute animated clip features three characters (Monkey, Pigsy, & Sandy) from the duo’s recently-opened opera, Monkey: Journey To The West, who are serving as the faces of BBC Olympics coverage.

Don’t get me wrong - the five Fuwa are plenty adorable as far as Olympic Mascots go (my fave is Huanhuan!), but I’d definitely put my money on the outnumbered, monster-battling Monkey trio if the toon groups ever fought each other! Check out the clip below along with two tracks from Monkey: Journey To The West!

MP3s:
Monkey - “Heavenly Peach Banquet”
Monkey - “I Love Buddha”

VIDEO: