Karl 
THE BEATLES play "Kansas City," "I'm A Loser" and "Boys" on Shindig. This was the first time the public heard "I'm A Loser."
FREE INDIE COMP: TV on the Radio, The Raveonettes, Broken Social Scene and many more appear on Warm & Scratchy, which you can download for free at Adult Swim.
WILCO frontman Jeff Tweedy talks to Time Out Chicago about the impossibility of meeting fan expectations.
PETER BJORN & JOHN: Idolator has posted several covers of their signature song, "Young Folks," including a bluegrass version by Dawn Landes.
DEAD ROCK STARS Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious, Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer appear in UK ads for Doc Martens. The Daily Swarm has the tasteless pics.
BJÖRK: You can watch her entire Coachella set via Google Video.
THE 25 BEST ROAD TRIP SONGS, according to the Rolling Stone blog.
SONDRE LERCHE admits that his mother playing A-ha "really loud" after he had gone to bed was a formative experience (and I'll link the clip for A-ha's "Take On Me" for anyone who hasn't seen it). Fortunately, if you stream a few Lerche tracks, you find the A-ha influence to be quite indirect.
MIXTAPES: As Rob Gordon would tell you, "the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art." And sure enough, Rob's advice turns up in Esquire magazine's "How to Make the Perfect Mix Tape," which gets bonus points for linking to the fab TinyMixTapes.
THE ONLY ONES, best known for the wonderful "Another Girl Another Planet," are on the reunion bandwagon. BONUS: One cover version not mentioned in the linked article would be from The Replacements, though they usually played it at the original tempo, as does Paul Westerberg.
BONO tortures Britney Spears with a voodoo potato. Allegedly. Also, U2 gets the digital 3D treatment in a new film that its makers say is a pioneering recreation of a live concert.
MICK JAGGER reportedly tried to enlarge his penis by letting bees sting it, according to movie director Julien Temple. You can almost hear Jagger saying, "This sort of thing ain't my bag, baby."
GEORGE MICHAEL has a 20-million-dollar art collection. No, really.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Katie Holmes is miffed that a blond-haired, blue-eyed fashion student, who claims to be a virgin, has changed her name to Katee Holmes and is launching a porn career in which she'll be deflowered.
PAULA ABDUL: I observe American Idol from a distance, so I normally wouldn't note that she broke her nose trying to avoid stepping on her chihuahua. But the incident gives rise to another of her loopy TV interviews, so watch and enjoy.
BRADGELINA: Jolie tells NBC's Ann Curry that she wants to do "a lot of things as a woman, as a mom, and – and that's my focus." And tells People that she wants to take a year off from work. At least until a movie good script comes along.
THE FRENCH HOTEL is to be tagged with an alarm to protect her from fellow prison inmates. So why can't she be tagged when she gets out to protect the rest of us from her?
JACKO: Radar has scans of some of the odd personal items Michael Jackson likely removed from the auction of Jackson memorabilia bought ata bankruptcy sale.
JOSH HARTNETT fed PENELOPE CRUZ fruit while they were caught canoodling at the Delancey bar in NYC.
OWEN and LUKE WILSON are not living up to their potential, according to a piece at Slate: " They amble from movie to movie with the insouciance of the Southern slackers they are, always giving the impression of being busy elsewhere with something more interesting…"
BRUCE CAMPBELL, the hard-working character actor most recently seen as the Maître d' in Spider-Man 3 (he appears in all three) is now playing Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" for Old Spice. The behind-the-scenes footage is alright, too.
MICHAEL MOORE has attacked the Swedish government for opening up the health service to more private sector involvement. Johan Pehrson, a Liberal Party member of the Swedish Parliament's Social Affairs Committee, said Moore's comments "show how little he knows about Swedish healthcare politics." But he does know a thing or two about promoting his new movie.
IRAN: So, did you hear about massive protests in northern Iran yesterday? Or about the Iranian-American scholar interrogated over more than five months and then jailed beyond the reach of diplomats? Or about the Iranian surface-to-air missiles being fired at the Brits in Afghanistan? Probably not. But ABC News is reporting that the CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government. Current and former intell officials told ABC News the approval of the covert action means the Bush admin, for the time being, has decided not to pursue a military option against Iran. Of course, leaking the finding may make any such op more difficult, and increase the ultimate chances for a military strike. Thanks, ABC!
IRAQ: US troops continue to build small, neighborhood outposts to support the troop "surge" in and around Baghdad, while the final extra Army brigade is poised to arrive in Iraq next month. The New York Sun reports on the retaking of once-volatile Haifa Street. The New York Times reports on the Kadhimiya neighborhood, where relative safety means living with a certain level of extortion, political corruption and religious militancy. Filmmaker J.D. Johannes reports on the Dora and West Rasheed districts, which are seeing commerce, people returning to their homes, essential services, kids playing soccer in fields they haven't played on in 2 years, and professionalization of the police and security services. (Plus, he works in a Dead Milkmen reference.) The Christian Science Monitor reports on three different Baghdad neighborhoods, where a shopkeeper, a Christian, and an imam try to carry on amid daily dangers. Prime Minister Al-Maliki is officially backing the creation of national salvation councils in all of Iraq's provinces to fight terrorists. At IraqSlogger, Robert Y. Petyon likens such councils to paramilitary death squads and predicts blowback. It's an argument worth considering, but when Peyton suggests in the same piece that the US "pushed away" al-Sadr's Mahdi Army which "morphed into a major fighting group with a political face," it seems like he's trying to have it both ways, so long as both ways are critical of the US.
LIONS and BUFFALO and CROCS…. OH, MY!
ESCAPED COW: A two-hour chase involving 15 policemen was needed to catch the disoriented and dangerous animal after it wandered around the center of downtown Lausanne, France.
THE SQUIRREL THREAT: A Denver Zoo monkey has died of bubonic plague, apparently after eating a squirrel stricken with the disease.
WAYWARD WHALES UPDATE: A Sacramento River bridge has confused them, but the last report was they were headed in the right direction.
A DEAD BAT is a most unwelcome free gift in your breakfast cereal. Even if it's Count Chocula, which it wasn't in this case. Not even FrankenBerry. Or Fruit Brute.
