ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS

It’s hard, but we’ll excuuuuuse that ramblin’ Steve Martin for sharing a table at L. A.’s Dr. Munchie’s with... aaagggrrrhhh... Karen Carpenter. This year's award for the fastest rock album goes to a British band known as the Warsaw Pakt, not because of the frenzied pace of the music (no one has yet successfully challenged Tad Nugent on those grounds), but because the LP was recorded directly onto a master disc without benefit of a preliminary taping session.