BEIRUT:  The band's latest video, for "Elephant Gun," (from the Lon Gisland EP) sports trunks, trumpets, and the Middle-European sound for which the band is currently known (word is there will be less of it on the upcoming LP).

NEW RELEASES:  Dinosaur Jr., Feist, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the indie-friendly Spider-Man 3 sdtk and more are all streaming in full this week via Spinner.

JOY DIVISION:  The Ian Curtis biopic, Control, will open the Director's Fortnight at this years Cannes Film Festival.

PETER BJORN & JOHN played DC's 9:30 Club last night, so you can stream their set and that of opener Fujiya and Miyagi via NPR now.

ARCTIC MONKEYS may have set a new UK chart record this weekend with 18 songs in the top 200 -- a position not seen since the heyday of The Beatles -- albeit with help from the new rules counting download sales.

TWOFER TUESDAY:  From the "Where Are They Now?" file, we have "I Spy for the FBI" and "Free Yourself" from Hollywood ska-soul combo The Untouchables -- both from Back Porch Video, which seems to have been a cross between early MTV and Wayne's World.

WARREN ZEVON:  The New York Times reviews  "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead," a no-holds-barred oral history of the lovable but wildly aberrant singer-songwriter, as told to his estranged wife, Crystal Zevon, after learning he had terminal cancer.

GRIZZLY BEAR frontman Ed Droste is interviewed about touring, tattoos and technology at Daytrotter, along with the free song downloads, including the band's take on "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)":  "I think we were really struck by the lyrical content and how dark it was. Dan had gotten the Phil Spector box set and he'd been listening to it a lot. He said, ‘I think we need to play this song.' I'd never heard that one before. And a man singing it was really intriguing to us."

GRUFF RHYS:  Releasing his second solo album, Candylion, is just the latest in an eventful year for the Super Furry Animals frontman. The SFA have just finished recording their eighth studio album, likely due in August; he also has a number of festival gigs and just announced the formation of Neon Neon, a side project with Boom Bip, whose first record is also due for release this summer.

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE:  The troubled singer and the supposedly sober supermodel are getting blamed for encouraging kids to smoke by making the habit "look cool."  Which is faintly amusing, considering that Doherty is set to miss the launch of his fiancée's new fashion line because he is having a new implant fitted to help him quit drugs.

ROSEANNE BARR has emerged as the top contender to replace Rosie O'Donnell next year on The View, according to Page Six.  RELATED:  O'Donnell is a TV maestro who could mean big bucks for the next studio that signs her up, TV industry experts say.  And it appears that Elisabeth Hasselbeck is knocked up again.

BRITNEY SPEARS:  The pop tart's  family feud may soon be coming to a magazine near you. Spears, who fired her manager and is fighting with her dad, is in talks with Allure to do a makeover shoot for its cover and give a tell-all interview.  Vanity Fair is also interested.  Also, she's been spotted again with rehabbing rocker Howie Day.

THE McCARTNEYS:  Heather Mills believes she will be awarded £25 million in her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney, friends claim. They spoke out after Miss Mills's former bodyguard, Sean Ghent, suggested she was seeking a £200 million settlement.

BOY GEORGE is being investigated by London detectives probing assault and false imprisonment allegations made by a 28-year-old male escort.

COURTNEY LOVE plans to auction Kurt Cobain's belongings at Christie's , with "a bunch" of the money going to charity.  Love feels she has to move on with her life:  "I still wear his pajamas to bed. How am I ever going to go form another relationship in my lifetime wearing Kurt's pajamas?"

BRADGELINA:  Jolie and Mariane Pearl (the widow of murdered  Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, whom Jolie is playing on film), sit for a joint interview with Glamour magazine, which starts with the unusual way they met.

JON VOIGHT, Jolie's estranged father, talks to Radar magazine about the war on terror... and does not give the typical Hollywood answers.

ANNA NICOLE SMITH IS STILL DEAD, but publishers are being pitched a book based on hours of never-printed interviews, in which the former Playmate talks about everything from her alleged childhood sex abuse to bedroom memories of billionaire husband J. Howard Marshall.

MADONNA will be unable to adopt another child from Malawi until legal difficulties with David are resolved.

TOM-KAT gets a tabloid round-up of the rumors surrounding their marriage via MSN.

JODIE FOSTER will play Leni Riefenstahl in a movie bound to generate controversy over the life and work of the Nazi documentarian.  The project has been in the works for at least seven years, but now a script is being written, and a director is being negotiated.

REESE & RYAN BREAK-UPDATE:  Witherspoon has reportedly told Jake Gyllenhaal to "date other people until she's ready to commit."

MIRACLES of SCIENCE:  A wonder pill has been developed which not only boosts a female's sex drive, but helps her lose weight at the same time. So far it has been tested only on shrews and monkeys, so I'm sure there are plenty of punchlines to be had.

GLOBAL WARMING...on MARS:  The red planet is being hit by climate change and so fast that it could lose its southern ice cap.  The mechanism at work on Mars appears, however, to be different from that on Earth, as Martians have yet to invent the SUV.  So much for that War of the Worlds thing.

TURKEY:  Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has failed to gain enough support in parliament to become president.  Secular opposition parties want to stop the Islamist-rooted AK Party from winning the presidency and will challenge the election in court.

AFGHANISTAN:  NATO and Afghan forces killed 136 Taliban in a weekend offensive in the Zerkoh Valley of Herat.  Infant mortality has dropped by 18 percent, one of the first real signs of recovery for the country five years after the fall of the Taliban regime.  That means that 40,000 to 50,000 infants who were dying annually during the Taliban era are alive today.

IRAQ:  Al-Sabah reported that some community leaders in Adhamiya are working on forming a council for their own district like that formed in Anbar province to fight al Qaeda.  A department of the prime minister's office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom had apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to US military officials in Baghdad.  Michael Yon, embedded with the 1-4 Cavalry securing Babel College in Baghdad, has posted a photo essay of his journeys, with notes on the impact of the new joint operation strategy in the capital: "Despite so much bad news, much of which I deliver, it's heartening that most of the Iraqis are not fearful of Americans. What many Iraqis REALLY want - and they say it clearly - is to communicate directly with Americans at home..."

GOATGATE:  Electronics giant Sony has sparked a major row over animal cruelty and the ethics of the computer industry by using a freshly slaughtered goat to promote a violent video game.  Gaming site Kotaku sought out Sony for... the rest of the story.

BRAZILIAN FIRE ANTS:  A 2001 study shows the state of Texas spent nearly billion trying to fend off these ants, which are blamed for attacking farm animals, destroying utility boxes and land.

A BEAR ATTACK may not be much worse than the recovery from a bear attack.

SUMATRAN ORANGUTANS at Zoo Atlanta are playing computer games while researchers study their cognitive skills -- and zoo visitors get to watch for fun.

A SUMATRAN RHINO from L.A. is getting the pampered treatment from his Indonesian keepers -- including mud, massages and frequent foot rubs -- in hopes of preserving the species.