AND NOW HERE’S THE NEWS: You know...

AND NOW HERE’S THE NEWS: You know you’ve become a major cultural barometer when young bands start making fun of your hits, so we hope that our fave Material Girl takes it as a compliment that not one, but two new Madonna parodies have just surfaced this week. New Allegiance Records has just released a single by Ciccone Youth, which features such local boys as ex-Minuteman Mick Watt and Black Flag mainstay Greg Ginn performing “Burning Up,” while Thurston Moore and friends handle “Into the Groovy” on the flip side. . . . Meanwhile, the Scottish group Heavy Pettin’ has completed a spoof called “Madonna on the Radio,” which will appear on its upcoming PolyGram album later this fall. . . . With so many bands running around who use Dream as a moniker (Dream Syndicate, Dream Academy, etc.), local talents Dream 6 made a wise decision--they’ve changed their name. Now called Concrete Blonde (a rock-handle suggested by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe), the group has signed with I.R.S. Records, which will release the pop trio’s new album, “True,” early next month. In addition to the title cut, the record features “Dance Along the Edge” and “Beware of Darkness” as well as two songs from the sound track to “Texas Chainsaw Massacre II”: “Haunted Head” and “Over Your Shoulder.”