Even around Memorial Day, the news on this May 29th in 1941 was about anything but Peace.

Reports from Berlin said a full-on invasion had taken place on the island of Crete. Reaction over FDR's latest Fireside Chat regarding U.S. shipping and neutral waters was swift and predictable. German bomber raids over England had increased, with raids on Northern Ireland included in the mix. In addition to Crete, intense fighting was now taking place in North Africa, concentrating on the area of Tobruk.

It was also reported that Berlin was relaxing its armistice terms to allow the Vichy French Air Force to "defend itself", causing many in London to speculate that it was a ploy on the part of the Laval government and Berlin to stimulate French manufacture of planes, the majority going to Germany in an effort to step up their lagging production with 7-8 of every 10 planes going to Germany. The French Merchant fleet was under Axis control and French Captains were ordered to scuttle theirs ships rather than face capture by the British.

From London came reports of RAF raids over Northern Germany and the French coast and confirmation that German raids the previous night did heavy damage on Liverpool and Belfast.

From Washington came reaction to German reaction to FDR's Fireside Chat saying Berlin was getting nervous and resorting to name calling and that U.S. involvement in the War in Europe would only be a matter of time or if "one of the axis powers decides to pull the trigger".

All that, and it was only the morning news via NBC for May 29, 1941.

Continuing our week of "being all over the place", here's a nod to one of the stalwarts and lesser-knowns (at least in the States and among mainstream collectors) of the 60's. The Koobas (or Kubas as they were known in 1962) were contemporaries of The Beatles, even down to being from Liverpool and managed for a time by Brian Epstein. But since they were part of the acknowledged British Invasion of the 1963-1965 period, they got overlooked in the flood of bands that materialized and angled for the ears of eager listeners who weren't exactly sold on The Koobas contributions.

They did however, morph into a few genres before calling it a day. Starting off as the aforementioned Beat Group, they then gradually got into a quasi-R&B/Blue-eyed Soul thing before dabbling in pop and finally jumping head first into Psychedelia.

Tonight it's from their Psychedelic period. Their 1969 album Barricades from which the title track is on the player. Sadly, the band broke up just prior to Barricades being released with members going off and joining other bands.

A good band that got somewhat lost in the shuffle - but never too late to be discovered by interested listeners. Lucky for you they've been reissued in recent years. Their original vinyl albums and singles were going for a fortune.

Making discoveries is a lot cheaper these days.

With reports coming in hourly of the disturbances throughout London and other parts of the UK, I was reminded of the eerie similarities between this set of disturbances and another set that took place between July 2-15 in 1981.

1981 was a year for disturbances in general in England, with the predominately black London neighborhood of Brixton erupting in April. That one had racial overtones. The set in July started seemingly off that way, but quickly turned into multi-racial socio-economic violence with the majority of rioters being young (14-20 years old), unemployed and marginalized. Initially glossed over as the work of "hooligans", the violence quickly spread, stretching the police force thin (at the time they were unarmed) and resulting in massive amounts of damage and destruction. Same as it is now.

In 1981 it was the Thatcher government, and much of the mainstream media blamed the escalation in violence on "left-wing agitators" and "professional criminals". This time it's the Cameron government and a scandal-ridden Police force fueled by the recent News International bribery and phone-hacking allegations. Both were largely due to a massive disconnect between the government and constituents and the terrible economic conditions that were prevalent during both times.

This post is made up of excerpts and clips from the period of July 6-14, as it was presented by U.S. News via The CBS World News Roundup, The World Tonight and Hourly News.

It's a reminder of how history repeats and repeats and repeats.

Starting off the week with another My Space discovery. The Maybes? have been around for a few years and are getting ready to release a new album. The first one, Promises came out in 2008 to good reviews and promising sales. The thing about being in a band these days is the patience it takes once the album comes out to realize it's just part of the deal and the slog of gigging and promoting is harder when you're the new band in town.

But judging from tonight's track Trick Of The Light, there's a lot of potential here with strong tracks and good production. They just have to keep it all together in the meantime and keep selling tickets and albums.

Check out their MySpace page to see what they're up to. I don't know what the plans are as far as coming to the U.S. - but the world is loaded with possibilities.

Had they gotten together a few years earlier they would have been just retro enough to cause a stir. Had they gotten together a few years later they may have capitalized on the Post-Madchester era left empty by the loss of Stone Roses.

But no, The Stairs were together from 1990 to 1994 - issued only one album, a handful of ep's and went their separate ways.

Formed in 1990 by bassist Edgar (Summertyme) Jones, who wanted to put together a band with a retro flavor of such 60's groups as The 13th Floor Elevators and The Seeds. The Stairs adopted a certain early Rolling Stones approach, cutting all their material in Mono.

The result was one album and four ep's, of which tonight's track Flying Machine, is off their first ep Weed Bus, originally issued on Imaginary Records and then issued on Go! Records after signing with the label.

After the first album failed to click, they had several attempts at cutting a second album, which never materialized before calling it a day in 1994 with Jones pursuing a solo career.

As I've said so often, timing is everything. And in The Stairs case, it certainly wasn't for trying.