Karl 
THE BEN FOLDS FIVE: Something about the spring-like weather put me in the mood to hear the BFF play “Kate.” This performance is from Sessions at West 54th. The song is from Whatever and Ever Amen, as is “Song For The Dumped” (audio probably NSFW). Today's bonuses are “Philosophy” (complete with the Gershwin allusion near the end), from the band's self-titled debut, and a cover of the Flaming Lips' “She Don't Use Jelly,” which turned up on a comp named Loungeapalooza.
THE BEATLES' album covers, including With The Beatles, Revolver, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road and Let It Be, will appear on a set of British stamps in January.
TV on the RADIO: The band's major-label debut, Return to Cookie Mountain, is already getting universal acclaim via Metacritic. You can stream the whole album, with bonus tracks, via Pitchfork.
WOXY Vintage is winding up its final week online by replaying the Modern Rock 500.
EDDIE VAN HALEN has a cure for cancer, but he won't tell us what it is.
ISOBEL CAMPBELL, recently nominated for Britain's Mercury Prize for Ballad of The Broken Seas, is releasing a new album, Milkwhite Sheets, on Nov. 6th. You can stream an MP3 of “O Love Is Teasin'” from the album at *Sixeyes or via the Hype Machine.
MEET THE LAWYERS: The Beachles' Sgt. Petsounds, mentioned here previously, has been targeted by Capitol-EMI's legal team, which is making demands on the mash-up maker that are technically impossible to meet.
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: To mark the birth of Britney Spears' second son (see below), here's student Daniel Pi explaining “How To Write A Fugue” based on “Oops… I Did It Again.”
FEIST: Heather Browne has posted Leslie Feist's appearance on Radio France's The Black Sessions, the source of her cover of the Kinks' “That Girl.” You can jukebox the whole set via the Hype Machine.
R.E.M. is supposedly bringing back the rawk on the band's next album, according to bassist Mike Mills. This will further fuel those rumors about drummer Bill Berry rejoining the band, though Mills makes no mention of it in the linked article.
THE LONG WINTERS are getting generally favorable reviews for their third album, Putting The Days To Bed. Frontman John Roderick talks to Harp about his difficulty writing songs and to Arizona Daily Star blogger jb about moving from opening act to headliner, adding that the band recently recorded a cover of the Velvet Underground's “What Goes On” for an unnamed HBO series. Often compared to early R.E.M., Pavement and various Elephant Six bands, there's plenty to stream right now via the Hype Machine.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: While the troubled singer would like to use his own blood to supply the ink for his wedding bans, the woman involved in his infamous “syringe incident” is talking to the Daily Mail.
BRITNEY SPEARS popped out a second son, the fourth spawn of Spenderline.
ANNA NICOLE SMITH: Sources like E! and US Weekly are reporting her son died of “unnatural causes.” Police said they were waiting for a pathologist's report to determine the cause of death.
LINDSAY LOHAN is flashing her genitals again. But I'm not even going to try to beat Tyler Durden's headline.
DAVE NAVARRO and CARMEN ELECTRA BREAKUP-DATE: Is Electra looking to hook up with Frankenstein's Monster? Sure looks like it.
GEORGE CLOONEY will be speaking before the United Nations Security Council about the ongoing crisis in Sudan this Thursday. I'm sure he'll get some prompt action from Turtle Bay.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: The Tom-Kitten netted Vanity Fair 5.4 million page views at the mag's website and 5700 new subscriptions. Sky News wonders whether the couple is still in love, while other media report that a Tom-Kat wedding is expected in the early Fall. Given the couple's current PR campaign, I would expect stories about how the wedding is all Holmes' doing, to distract from the fact that she's marrying Tom Crazy.
SIENNA MILLER and JUDE LAW were snapped looking pretty cozy after grabbing a late night dinner during the Toronto International Film Festival.
TOM HANKS: A new book details court papers in which his first wife alleged he harassed her and attempted to kill her career. The book also claims that some of Hanks' portrayal of Forrest Gump is borrowed from his brother's performance in a softcore sex flick.
BRADGELINA: Pitt and Ocean's 13 co-star Matt Damon feted economist Jeffrey Sachs, who heads up the UN Millennium Project, crediting Jolie for his interest, natch. While promoting Babble at the Toronto International Film Festival, Pitt also said that having kids will affect his future choice of film roles and made a crazy face he believes the press will use “when I have a breakdown or something … when I get arrested for a DUI late at night, make racial slurs or something.”
JESSICA SIMPSON has figured out that she scares men away, though she mistakenly believes it's only the publicity factor scaring them. Meanwhile, ex hubby Nick Lachey is considering making an X-rated home movie, perhaps involving public sex. It's not clear whether he's pitched the idea to new gf and Maxim cover girl Vanessa Minnillo.
BLOGGERS are getting under the tents during New York's fashion week. The Manolo, he is mentioned. And New York Magazine's Web site is featuring the work of the two women behind the often-critical celebrity fashion blog GoFugYourself, which I find brutally funny without any great interest in fashion.
MODERATE MUSLIMS: Inasmuch as Muslims tend to get stereotyped when moderates fail to speak out against extremism, it's worth noting that Emilio Karim Dabul is apologizing for not speaking out earlier, and Aslam Abdullah is condemning radical Islamists who “have brought nothing but shame and disaster to your religion and your world.”
THE MUSLIM COUNCIL OF BRITAIN, otoh, thought the 9/11 anniversary would be a good time to threaten the UK with the prospect of up to two million Islamic terrorists because Britons have questioned widely-held Muslim attitudes since last year's London bombings. The MCB really has a knack for timing, as it signed onto a similar letter in mid-August, days after the UK plane bombing plot was foiled. Indeed, a MCB official wrote a piece so sympathetic to the bombers' complaints that he felt he had to write that “it should not be misinterpreted as an apologia for terrorism.” This same MCB official was a documented fan of the blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman and of Osama bin Laden, who he regarded as a “freedom fighter.” But he's Mr. Moderate now.
FWIW: Hamid Mir, a Pakistani journalist who obtained the only post-9/11 interviews with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, claims that bin Laden has assigned a man named Adnan Al-Shukri Juma to carry out an attack in the US larger than 9/11. This man, a/k/a Adnan G. El Shukrijumah is already wanted by the FBI and is being sought in Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana. Perhaps it's mere coincidence that he is the subject of two stories in the past week on the blog of ABC News reporter Brian Ross, but it's more likely someone has been dialing his number. It may be nothing, but if there's a “dirty bomb” attack in the US during Ramadan, you can say you heard it here first, right along with those Tom-Kat wedding rumors.
DOGS are knocking 'em back at cocktail parties, which is probably where they thought up the idea of calling themselves Canine-Americans.
STINGRAYS fear revenge attacks in the wake of the death of Croc Hunter Steve Irwin. At least ten stingrays have been found dead and mutilated on Australia’s eastern coast in the last week.
THREE-LEGGED COW is looking for a hand in Tazmania.
A GOLDFISH'S COSMETIC SURGERY goes awry, as cosmetic surgery so often does.
A FELINE JIHAD is under investigation in Red Bank, TN.
