Karl 
BIG BLACK: I was unable to attend the Touch & Go label's 25th anniversary concerts, but YouTube has clips of Big Black (including my ol' classmate, Santiago Durango), palying “Dead Billy,” “Cables” and “Racer X.” The sound is distorted — and the cheap joke would be to ask who can tell with Big Black — but the reality is their sound was really quite precise.
NEW RELEASES: Albums from Yo La Tengo, Barenaked Ladies, Everclear, Soulwax, indie ravers The Rapture, Robert Cray Band, and R.E.M. (a “best of”) are streaming in full from AOL this week. Catfish Haven (whose soul-influenced rock recently got raves at Chromewaves), the prolific Jason Molina's Magnolia Record Co., buzz band TV on the Radio and even returning legend Bob Seger all have stuff up on MySpace. Los Lobos has audio and podcasts for their new LP at their website. Richard Buckner's latest album of roots-rock is streaming from Merge Records. A tune from the Nonsuch debut of Black Keys made NPR's Song of the Day, in all its garage-y goodness. And Page France has another slab 'o' folk-pop out today; they will be playing the M-Shop on Halloween, Amesters.
YO LA TENGO, whose I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your A** would be my pick of the week, is already getting universal acclaim at Metacritic. It also got a good review in London's Guardian, who recently had the band play Name (and comment on) That Tune.
PAUL STANLEY of KISS is a dad. He told People magazine: “Lucky for him, he looks just like his mother.”
JANE'S ADDICTION, RYAN ADAMS and OTIS REDDING all have live sets posted at rbally, which you can jukebox via the Hype Machine.
SIXTIES SONGS REVISITED: Following up on Pitchfork's “200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s” feature, staffers post their individual top tens and shoulda-beens. Kudos to John Motley for picking Dusty Springfield's “No Easy Way Down.”
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: I asked myself: “How do you balance out those Big Black videos?” And I answered myself: “By having Walter Becker and Donald Fagen — a/k/a Steely Dan — and crack musicians like Rick Marotta, Chuck Rainey and Yacht Rocker Michael McDonald talk about the making of “Peg.” You can see a live performance from VH1's Storytellers, or stream the studio recording via the Hype Machine. And once I was in a Dan groove (and stopped talking to myself), I couldn't help but throw in “Hey Nineteen” and “Reelin' In The Years.”
ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN frontman Ian McCulloch has been charged with attacking two fans during a backstage dispute after a concert.
ROBERT POLLARD has announced tour dates and released a sneak preview from his upcoming Normal Happiness album, “Supernatural Car Lover,” which finds Bob in his uber-catchy pop mode. You can also stream it via the Hype Machine.
PINK FLOYD: If you thought you knew everything about Dark Side of the Moon, did you know the album has its own CD-pressing factory in Germany?
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer wanted to stage his quasi-Buddhist weddding to the supposedly sober supermodel in a soccer stadium, but has been turned down by officials.
ANNA NICOLE SMITH gives birth to a daughter and loses her son within three days.
THE McCARTNEYS: The latest gossip has Sir Paul buying Heather Mills' silence with a £40 million settlement.
LINDSAY LOHAN understands the karma of having to thank a paparazzo for recovering her handbag and jewelry.
DENISE & HEATHER & RICHIE & CHARLIE: Last weekend, Richie Sambora took Denise Richards to meet the parents. TMZ has video.
DAVE NAVARRO and CARMEN ELECTRA BREAK-UPDATE: Navarro is denying involvement with yet another woman at his website.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Okay, this technically is not about Cruise, but don't you think it bugs him that he can't joke in public about pictures of Brooke Shields eating her own boogers? You know they're busting a gut over at the Scientology Celebrity Centre.
NICOLE KIDMAN is furious with David Thomson's unauthorized biography, which Random House has excerpted at its website.
ORLANDO BLOOM and UMA THURMAN getting cozy just days after Bloom split from Kate Bosworth?
THE FRENCH HOTEL is talentless and unprofessional, according to her co-star in the new movie Bottoms Up, though everyone pretty much knew the first part already. And you will be shocked, shocked to learn that the heiress broke her year-long vow of celibacy after less than a month.
WILLIAM SHATNER: Yesterday, I noted his admitted fear of space travel. Today brings word that Capt. Kirk can't work a computer. The technology must be too primitive, like when the Enterprise traveled back in time and Scotty was trying to use a mouse as a microphone.
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY is rumored to be marrying Pride and Prejudice co-star Rupert Friend. Didn't she watch her own movie? The man is a gold-digger!
THE STATE OF THE WAR: In The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright surveys the assessments of the major jihad theorists. The war has not gone well for them so far, but hope springs eternal for Islamic extremists.
AFGHAN/PAKISTAN: NATO estimates it has killed 420 Taliban fighters in nine days. London's Guardian spins it this way: “If true, the Taliban casualty figures could suggest that either the insurgent ranks have swelled enormously or heavy civilian casualties have been inflicted.” This would be in line with the paper's 9/11 coverage. Meanwhile Coalition forces captured Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was nameed by the US State Dept. as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.” And that truce between the Pakistan Army and Taliban leaders in North Waziristan is already in jeopardy. I'm shocked.
IRAQ: At ITM, Omar comments on the politics of federalism, while Mohammed is stunned at Arabic media coverage of 9/11. He probably shouldn't be, though I note that favorable opinion of the US has gone up considerably in countries like Jordan and Pakistan since 2003, the exception being Turkey, which probably blames the US for Kurdish unrest. A prior poll showed declining support in the region for suicde bombers, with the exception of Jordan, where support for Al Qaeda finally plummeted after Zarqawi attacked the nation. Meanwhile, Coalition forces have begun patrols in Sadr City in Baghdad, the headquarters for radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Operations have also begun in Baghdad's southern neighborhoods of Bay'aa and Risala.
A MASSIVE KILLER BIRD that can kill with a single swipe of his six-inch claws or needle-shaped beak, was recaptured after a week on the loose in Britain.
THE DOG ATE YOUR HOMEWORK? No, more like a raccoon, really…
PET HOARDING: The latest case, involving about 100 birds of various species, two dogs, two turtles, and a rabbit, comes from St. Petersburg, Florida.
AN ELEPHANT at the Everland amusement park in Seoul can mimic human words.
A GOAT was a party to a “shotgun wedding” in Sudan.
