LOS CAMPESINOS! drop a video for "Avocado, Baby."

ARCADE FIRE performed highlights from its new album, Reflektor, live at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. Their version of “Supersymmetry” played double tribute to the late Lou Reed.

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA advance streams the acoustic Blue Record EP.

TENNIS advance streams the Small Sound EP.

THE MELVINS advance stream Tres Cabrones.

SUFJAN STEVENS drops a demo for "Jamilla," a 1998 in tribute to his sister.

THE FEELIES are "Slipping Into Something" that sounds inspired by Lou Reed.

LOU REED: Moe Tucker's tribute. More remembrances from Patti Smith, David Byrne, and Antony Hegarty. And The Guardian's 10 essential Lou tunes.

RAY DAVIES talks to WNYC about his new book, Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, and the Road: The Story. (Thx, LHB.)

MIKE DOUGHTY talks to PopMatters about his body of work, online feedback, new technologies, authorship and more...

SKY FERREIRA talks to Pitchfork about her recent drug arrest, her new record's unnerving artwork, and struggling to be taken seriously.

NICOLE KIDMAN reflects back on her marriage to Tom Cruise at Vanity Fair.

GEORGE CLOONEY's mystery woman is Julian Assange's barrister.

LINDSAY LOHAN & MILEY CYRUS, clubbing together? What could possibly go wrong?

CHRIS BROWN is lectured on punching people by... wait for it... Mike Tyson.

KHLOE KARDASHIAN & LAMAR ODOM went to Kanye West's L.A. concert... but they're not together.

WILL & JADA PINKETT SMITH: Trial separation?

THE JONAS BROTHERS are dunzo for now.

TORI SPELLING has financial problems. And a sex tape. You see where this is headed.

JACK NICHOLSON: Trailer sex with Meryl Streep, LSD-induced homoerotic fear fantasies, and more in a new bio of the legendary actor.

KENYA: Police said they are holding five suspects in the Westgate Mall attack, but maintain that only four gunmen carried out the siege; other authorities have said that number is too low.

EGYPT: A son of a major tribal leader in the Sinai was reportedly killed by Islamist militants for cooperating with the army.

ISRAEL: The head of military intelligence recently concluded in a document presented to Prime Minister Netanyahu that Iran "still seeks to reach the status of a nuclear threshold state."

A SEA LION steals a fisherman's prize fish.

IT'S RAINING SNAKES in Phuket Town.

GIANT GEORGE, formerly the World's Tallest Dog, has passed away. He was seven.

CAT FIGHT: He's doing it wrong.

TOM WAITS played a 10 song set  -- his first in five years -- at Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit.

EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROES stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

NEKO CASE stopped by Studio 1A at KUTX for a mini-set.

GARY NUMAN  played live at the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. 

CHERIE CURRIE (The Runaways) drops "Mr. X" ahead of her first LP in decades.

THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN: Of the many bands carrying the torch of the Velvet Underground, you could do worse than these Brits, with "Just Like Honey" and "Never Understand" capturing a bit of the VU's musical range for Twofer Tuesday, not to mention some Phil Spector and Brian Wilson.

LOU REED is remembered by -- among multitudes -- VU bandmates John Cale and Maureen Tucker, Luna's Dean Wareham, and Okkervil River's Will Sheff. ALSO: Lou Reed, consumer columnist and career counselor. PLUS: 20 great Lou Reed moments.

WHITE DENIM has an interview and TX barbeque at The Guardian.

ELLIOTT SMITH: An Oral History.

JOHN McVIE, bassist and founding member of Fleetwood Mac, has been diagnosed with cancer.

KIM KARDASHIAN: Already examining her post-childbirth vagina in the mirror and considering a naked Playboy shoot. Business as usual.

CHRIS BROWN's assault charge has been reduced to a misdemeanor.

OLIVIA WILDE & JASON SUDEIKIS are expecting their first child.

GWYNETH PALTROW: The tabloids move in on adultery rumors. This is what happens when you overreact to Vanity Fair.

BRITNEY SPEARS scares Somalian pirates. If only Capt. Phillips had known.

12 YEARS A SLAVE is causing friction between Brad Pitt and Paramount.

SYRIA: Regime forces recaptured the strategic Christian town of Sadad after heavy fighting; the al Qaeda-linked fighters who had seized it earlier are said to have withdrawn. The OPCW has inspected all but two of 23 chemical weapons sites; the remaining two are inaccessible "due to security reasons."

LIBYA: Two of the Justice Department's key witnesses in last year's terrorist attack on the US mission in Benghazi were summoned to Capitol Hill this month and grilled for hours in separate legal depositions.

ISRAEL: Authorities recently thwarted a major cyberattack that originated in China.

EGYPT: Security forces and Muslim Brotherhood supporters clashed at Al Azhar University.

RAGING BULL attacks traffic officer.

A DOG reaching for treats is blamed for starting a fire that caused some smoke damage to an apartment in Wenatchee.

AN INDONESIAN SNAKE SPA offers a unique massage treatment which involves having several pythons placed on the customer’s body.

ANOTHER "LOST WORLD" discovered in Australia. They spared no expense.

LION vs PIGEON: Who you got?

A GREAT LIGHT HAS GONE OUT:

LOU REED, iconic songwriter best known for "Walk On The Wild Side" and co-founder of the Velvet Underground, has died at 71 of liver disease.  The Rolling Stone obituary is also worth reading in its entirety, but if you are going to assert the VU was "the most influential American rock band of all time" -- quite arguably true -- how can you omit the Brian Eno riff that the first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years, but everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.  RS is also right to emphasize that Reed chronicled the seamy underbelly of the 60s in songs like "I'm Waiting For The Man," "Heroin," and the sadomasochistic "Venus In Furs," but two further observations are in order.  First, Reed tackled these subjects without romanticizing them the way that, say, Jim Morrisson did, which partially accounts for why the hippie demographic never really embraced the VU (East Coast/West Coast rivalry also played a part).  Second, from the outset, Reed was equally adept at songs that were pretty when light, like "Sunday Morning," or "Femme Fatale," and beautiful when deeper, as on "I'll Be Your Mirror," the latter two unforgettably rendered by teutonic chenteuse Nico.  Although FM radio would eventually admit latter-day Velvets tracks like "Sweet Jane" and "Rock And Roll" into the classic rock canon, Reed and the VU generally went unrewarded; decades later, he and fellow Velvets Mo Tucker and Doug Yule would speak at the NYPL about how the industry hated them, among other topics. 

The RS obit also names glam as one of the genres it is difficult to imagine without him; that's true as far as it goes; Reed's live Rock N' Roll Animal set, powered by the twin axes of Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, was a recurring favorite at the Music Works even when I was in college a decade later. But Cameron Crowe was equally correct to argue that during his glam period, "he's trying to be Bowie, but he should just be himself."  It was as himself that Lou Reed had his impact on a slew of bands, including -- but by no means limited to -- The Cars, R.E.M., The Ramones, The Feelies, Echo & the Bunnymen, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Cowboy Junkies, and The Jesus & Mary Chain. (Online reax gathered here.) The best of these were influenced as much by Reed's almost-coversational lyrical honesty as by his musical minimalism.  I don't mean to slight Reed's later solo achievements, particularly The Blue Mask, New Sensations, and New York, but RS covers them pretty well.  I would only add I saw Reed on the New York tour and he was rock solid, with The Feelies as the opening act.  BONUS: "The Ostrich," from the pre-Velvets Primitives. DOUBLE BONUS: How Lou Reed inspired anti-communist revolutionaries like Vaclav Havel. TRIPLE BONUS: The PBS American Masters special on Reed. QUAD BONUS: Lou Reed, Live at the Paramount Theater, April 24, 2008.

SWEARIN' advance streams Surfing Strange.

MIDLAKE advance streams Antiphon.

LUSCIOUS JACKSON advance streams Magic Hour.

CUT COPY advance streams Free Your Mind.

KNICKERBOCKERS: "Lies." Someday you're gonna be lonely.

LOS CAMPESINOS! singer Gareth David tells Weekend Edition the tone of the band's new album, No Blues, reflects a step in a more optimistic direction.

BASIA BULAT talks to the HuffPost about recording Tall Tall Shadow.

PETER HOOK relives the troubled legacy of Joy Division and New Order. 

THE ELEPHANT 6 COLLECTIVE gets a history at Paste.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa tops the chart with 32 million -- big enough to dethrone Gravity, if not as big as prior Jackass flicks.Even so, a nice opening against a 15 million budget.  Gravity finally sinks to place with 20.3 million -- but that's an exceptional figure for a film after four weekends.  Currently at 199.8 million domestic, Gravity will become the first to break 200 million in October.  Captain Phillips shows with 11.8 million on a mere 28 percent drop -- but it will need those legs to break 100 million domestic.  Of course,if the competitionremains like No. 4 film The Counselor, which debuted with 8 million and a terrible "D" Cinemascore from audiences, Hanks has a chance.  Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 clings to the bottom of the Top 5 with 6.1 million, continuing to make free money from the lack of competition for the family audience.  Below the fold, the Carrie remake sinks to sixth, though it may get a lift from Halloween this week.  Also, 12 Years A Slave (which I reviewed last week) takes the eighth slot, despite being on only 123 screens.

CHRIS BROWN was arrested on a felony assault charge in Washington D.C. on Sunday for allegedly attacking a man outside the W Hotel.

MARCIA WALLACE, whose four-decade television career included playing the receptionist on “The Bob Newhart Show” and Bart's fourth-grade teacher on “The Simpsons,” has died.

CHRISTINA RICCI married her boyfriend James Heerdegen in NYC on Saturday.

KIM KARDASHIAN will be given away by Bruce Jenner, despite his separation from Kim's mother (who just got ripped by the normally docile Access Hollywood).

JULIANNE HOUGH caught flak for going blackface for her Halloween costume. Orange Is The New Black; blackface not so much.

EGYPT: A complaint against former interim vice president Mohamed el Baradei for "betrayal of trust" was dismissed.

LIBYA: Assailants tried to kill the deputy head of crime prevention in Benghazi and wounded his brother; the two men are cousins of the city's recently assassinated military police chief.

AFGHANISTAN: A news report found that the staff of the US' inspector general for Afghanistan will be unable to visit sites in 80 percent of the country in 2014, so that monitoring of billions of dollars' worth of US-funded reconstruction projects will be delegated to private contractors.

IRAQ: Al Qaeda is once again setting its sights on Anbar province.

SYRIA: Opposition sources said at least 15 Hezbollah fighters were killed in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta. Kurdish YPG forces clashed with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, the Al Nusrah Front, and rebels in Raqqah and in Hasakah, and took over the Tal Kawjar crossing on the Iraqi border from ISIS, which had held it for months. ISIS attacks killed at least seven regime soldiers in Hama. A regime colonel of military intelligence died of injuries in Homs.

BABY QUAKER PARROTS are excited for a meal.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: A militant rodent roaming a community college in northern Iowa has become the No. 1 suspect in a vandalized bicycle incident.

A BRACE OF DUCKS wandered into a CVS in Saratoga Springs.

MOUSE vs SCORPION: Who you got?

RECORD TRAFFIC on Wednesday. Thanks, y'all!

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE WHO! Live at the Charlton Athletic Football Ground in London, May 18, 1974.  Your setlist includes: "Substitute," "I'm A Boy," "Tattoo," "Young Man Blues," "Baba O' Riley," "Behind Blue Eyes," "See Me, Feel Me,"  "Magic Bus," "My Generation,"  "Naked Eye," "Let's See Action" and "My Generation Blues."

ARCADE FIRE is advance streaming Reflektor.

BARS OF GOLD advance streams Wheels.

KING KHAN & THE SHRINES stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

PRIMAL SCREAM stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

LISSIE stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

COLIN MELOY drops "Do You Remember Walter?" ahead of his Kinks covers LP.

LVL UP drops "Cross The Sea" ahead of a split single.

WE ARE SCIENTISTS: "After Hours," for the weekend.

LED ZEPPELIN: Robert Plant found unreleased material, but there may be an unusual obstacle to its release: John Paul Jones.

THE SADIES talk to Beatroute and the Ottowa Citizen about Internal Sounds. (Thx, Chromewaves.)

THIRD EYE BLIND was ordered to pay 448K to their fmr guitarist.

JONI MITCHELL, ranked by Stereogum. 

CUTOUT BIN: From Chuck Berry to Roxy Music, from Paul Simon to Twisted Sister, from Nirvana to Steely Dan, plus the Smithereens, King Khan, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Uncle Tupelo and more  -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING:This weekend's wide releases are: Jackass Presents Bad Grandpa, which is currently scoring 67 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and The Counselor, currently scoring 35 percent. Conventional wisdom is the old man will dethrone Gravity.

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY: Irish actor Jamie Dornan is in negotiations to replace Charlie Hunnam as Universal hopes to start production in early November.

KIM KARDASHIAN & KANYE WEST will reportedly have a short engagement. Kim's stepdad Bruce Jenner was not invited when Kanye West popped the question to Kim Kardashian.

KATHARINE McPHEE was already separated when snapped kissing her former Smash director Michael Morris. His wife, Mary McCormack, reportedly wants to split.

TORI SPELLING's money troubles are so bad her husband can't afford a vasectomy.

MORENA BACCARIN nd her husband Austin Chick welcomed a baby boy on Tuesday, Oct. 22.

MICHAEL JACKSON tops the new Forbes list of top-earning dead celebs.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER has a teaser trailer online.

EGYPT: Authorities discovered a field hospital in the Sinai thought to be used by Islamist militants. Authorities raised the alert level on the Libya border to prevent the infiltration of militants. An official in Gamaa al-Islamiya said the group will not return to violence and does not necessarily support the return of Mohammed Morsi. Supporters of former president Morsi called for mass protests on Nov. 4, the day Morsi goes to trial.

SYRIA has released 61 female detainees as part of a hostage swap. Regime and Hezbollah forces retook most of Hteitat al-Turkman in Reef Dimashq from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, the Al Nusrah Front, and rebel groups after days of heavy fighting.

IRAQ: Security forces captured eight al Qaeda operatives, including a senior leader, near the Syrian border.

IRAN could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to build a nuclear bomb in as little as a month, according to a new estimate by one of the USA's top nuclear experts.

HIPPO FLATULENCE: Never gets old.

EUROPE GONE WILD: Bison are making a comeback on the Continent.

A VENOMOUS CRUSTACEAN -- the first ever -- was found living in underwater caves.

RACING PIGEONS busted in doping scandal.

OVER 20 MILLION SERVED: Thanks for stopping by, y'all!

THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN yuk it up while "Waiting."

THE FLAMING LIPS advance stream Peace Sword, an EP based on the upcoming Ender's Game movie.

BOB MOULD played the Secret Stage at the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival.

MOONFACE: Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown) advance streams Julia With Blue Jeans On.

PAUL SIMON, Live in Osaka, April 1, 1974.

BILLY JOE ARMSTRONG & NORAH JONES drop “Long Time Gone” ahead of their Everly Brothers tribute LP. Yes, really.

JAMES VINCENT McMORROW is "Cavalier" on the first single from his new LP Post Tropical.

ARETHA FRANKLIN plays "It Won't Be Long," which certainly was not about her career.

CMJ 2013 DISCOVERIES from All Songs Considered and Rolling Stone.

SAVAGES are profiled by Under The Radar.

GUIDED BY VOICES cut ties with drummer Kevin Fennell after he put his kit up on eBay for 55K.

ROD STEWART's cash demands foil a Faces reunion.

KRISTEN STEWART & ROBERT PATTINSON have been secretly hooking up since they broke up?

LINDSAY LOHAN reportedly dismissed her sober coach; she has become a regular at a downtown dive, partying into the wee hours with drunken pals.

PRINCE GEORGE: Christening deets.

LAMAR ODOM claims he has not been blackballed from the Kardashian family.

MINKA KELLY & CHRIS EVANS have broken up after a year of dating.

TOM HARDY has agreed to play Elton John in Rocket Pictures' Rocketman.

ANCHORMAN 2 has another trailer online. 

SYRIA: The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee warned that al Qaeda is developing a safe haven in Syria along the Iraqi border, where it is planning attacks against the West, much as al Qaeda did in Afghanistan. He said there are now over 10K "committed" al Qaeda members in eastern Syria, more than the number of foreign fighters in Iraq during the US occupation.

PAKISTAN: Despite repeatedly denouncing the CIA’s drone campaign, top officials in Pakistan’s government have for years secretly endorsed the program and routinely received classified briefings on strikes and casualty counts, according to top-secret CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos obtained by The Washington Post.

IRAQ: Al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham killed 14 people in bombings that targeted civilians in Baghdad and Madain.

THE LION WHISPERER gets a good morning hug.

A GIANT OARFISH CARCASS found dead off Catalina Island has been dissected and will be split between several universities for research.

DUNG-HOARDING BEETLE caught galloping.

DOG BITES HORSE, Horse Bites Woman. The horse may have gone mad.