There's probably never been a bigger week for Lincoln-related records on a national level -- which is a touch on the ironic side give the fact that the record business is falling apart by the second.

But because albums aren't selling by the millions, or hundreds of thousands for that matter, doesn't mean they aren't good.

And there are four discs with Nebraska ties that will hit stores -- brick and mortar and online from yesterday to next Tuesday.

Already out is Lincoln native Matthew Sweet's "Sunshine Lies," one of the best discs of his 22-year career. Here's a link to my GZO review of that disc.

Also released Tuesday is "Guaranteed to Satisfy," the latest disc from The Derailers, the Texas alternative country band that includes Lincoln's own Sweet Basil McJagger on keyboards. It's excellent too. There'll be much more on Sweet Basil and the Derailers in GZO on Friday.

Tuesday also marked the release of "Daylight is Coming," the major label debut of Remedy Drive. The Word/Warner Brothers release was at No. 6 on the iTunes Christian music chart on Tuesday.

I was at Remedy Drive's fine CD release show at Christ United Methodist Church last night and will be writing about the Zach brothers at length next week.

And, on Tuesday, Brimstone Howl will release "We Came in Peace," its second Alive Records disc and the best real rock 'n' roll record of 2008. My review of that one will be online on Friday morning.

Ah, the end of summer at the movies -- dumping ground for the season's mediocre releases.

Which means that the good pictures released earlier can still pack some box office punch.

That was the case this weekend when the hilarious "Tropic Thunder" took in another $16 million and held onto the top spot at the box office, edging out new release, "The House Bunny" which made $15.1 million.

And "The Dark Knight" continues to be THE summer movie to see, taking in another $10 million to bring its total to $489 million.

Assuming that Batman will take in from $5 to $10 million before Friday, another $10 million weekend over Labor Day and it will become just the second film ever to top the $500 million mark.

"The Dark Knight" is also largely responsible for reversing the continuing downward slide in overall movie box office. So far, this year is down just one-half of one percent from 2007 -- a good sign when the pattern for the last decade has been continuing smaller and smaller totals.

But don't look for much from the new offerings this weekend -- Labor Day is traditionally the worst holiday for movies.

About a month ago, I drove to Omaha for a "Gonzo" party celebrating the birthday of the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and the release of "Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson," a compilation of interviews and articles about the good doctor put together by Nebraskans Beef Torrey and Kevin Simonson.

Tonight at the State Theatre, "Gonzo" party number two will take place. Torrey and Simonson will be displaying some of their HST memorablia -- it's pretty cool -- and there will be Hunter inspired drinks on sale all night.

But what makes this one special is the fact that the State is showing "Gonzo: The Life & Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," an excellent documentary by Alex Gibney that anyone who is interested in Thompson should see.

The first screening is at 6 p.m., the second is at 9 p.m. Book signing will take place in between.

In other Thompson news, I got a press release yesterday from Shout Factory announcing the October release of a 5 CD set of Thompson's tape recordings -- his "notes" as it were.

The set will include recordings about the Hells Angels and the raw material for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" as well as for some of his later Rolling Stone pieces.

That should be enlightening -- if you can understand Hunter's mumble.

I'll have plenty more on that when the set is released.

Neil Young hasn’t played much in Nebraska.

So the announcement that the iconic rocker is rolling into Omaha’s Qwest Center on Nov. 5 is big music news around here.

As far as I know, the last time Young played the state was at Farm Aid III at Memorial Stadium 21 years ago.

He played solo with acoustic guitar during his Farm Aid set, debuting his “This Note’s For You” screed against the use of music in TV commercials for beer, soda, etc.

At the time, the commercial protest song had plenty of zip.

But now, in the “post-Net” music era, landing a song in a TV ad is one of the best ways for artists to get wide exposure and make some money, e.g. Feist’s “1234” in an Apple iPod ad, Iron and Wine’s “Such Great Heights” for M&M’s and “Days Go By” by Dirty Vegas in a Mitsubishi spot.

Young opened his 1983 tour in Omaha. But that show was flat out bizarre. He’d just released “Everybody’s Rockin’” his neo-rockabilly record and performed in that style.

So, the November show will, if nothing else, be the first full-length, relatively straight-ahead Young concert in Nebraska in decades.

The band for the tour will be the same outfit that recently backed Young on his highly praised European tour -- Ben Keith, Rick Rosas, Chad Cromwell, Anthony Crawford and his wife, Pegi Young.

It would have been fun to see Young with Crazy Horse, his earth-stomping, noisy rock ‘n’ roll band.

And if we’d have caught a scheduling break the brilliant Wilco would be the featured opener rather than Death Cab for Cutie, which will close its run with Young in Omaha.

But even with those quibbles, Young's appearance is likely to be the fall concert of the year here.

The month-long reign of "The Dark Knight" at the top of the box office ended last weekend, courtesy of "Tropic Thunder."

The equal-opportunity offensive Hollywood satire from director/star Ben Stiller took $26 million, easily surpassing Batman, which brought in another $16.8 million over the weekend.

That raised the total gross for "The Dark Knight" to $471.5 million, moving it into the No. 2 position on the all-time domestic box office chart.

The top spot is held by "Titanic" at $600 million. "The Dark Knight" won't reach that mark, although Warner Brothers, the company that released the Batman flick is estimating that "The Dark Knight" will wrap up at about $530 million.

Now it's time to turn off the box office prediction machine. The last two weeks of August are traditionally a dumping ground for mediocre pictures and guessing how any of them is likely to do is almost impossible.

So "Tropic Thunder" could spend another week at the top of the chart or "The Dark Knight" could get a last week of summer recharge or something like "Death Race" or "The Rocker" could make $15 million and wind up on top of the chart.

In any case, this has been a suprisingly strong movie summer...I'll ramble on more on that in another post.