What would Days of Our Nights be without your weekly Courtney update? Shorter, that’s what! So here goes: We can hardly follow the Mexican-soap-opera twists and turns of Rollingstone.com‘s reports on Love’s “female supergroup” Bastard. Turnover was already dot-com-high when Veruca Salt’s Louise Post and Nashville Pussy’s Corey Parks headed for the door last week—though Post did set a new record, lasting only a single day before throwing in the proverbial towel. Babes in Toyland’s Kat Bjellend left early after claiming that Love wanted her to sign way too many legal papers before even beginning to discuss the band. Rockit Girl’s bassist Gina Crosley, meanwhile, left after Love went behind her back to woo Parks as her replacement; no worries though—she’s since joined Veruca Salt. . . . The White Stripes, it seems, don’t have much sympathy for their record label. They’ve left former Detroit home Sympathy for the Record Industry for the cushier confines of the U.K.’s XL Recordings—not that surprising, considering the mild-mannered divorc饳 must have been feeling pretty bedazzled after the Beatles-worthy media blitz they received on arrival in London last month. Wondering why XL sounds familiar? It’s home to acts like Badly Drawn Boy, Basement Jaxx, the Avalanches, and Capitol K; the label will be rereleasing the Stripes’ earlier albums, including De Stijl and White Stripes. Also being creamed over by Yank-happy Brits, the Strokes‘ debut Is This It debuted at no. 2. Back here in the homeland, we think all the hype over those pouty-lipped prep-schoolers is more like a big ol’ pile of no. 2, but hey, whatever floats your boat. . . . Says our own brave soul, Kurt B. Reighley: “You could predict the Fantomas show Sunday night at the Showbox was gonna be insane just from surveying the band T-shirts in the house: The

Misfits, Rage Against the Machine, Minor Threat, Sisters of Mercy, Led Zeppelin, Bauhaus, Pennywise, the Residents, the Germs, mu-Ziq, and, um, Ben Harper. I spent the entire show slack-jawed and bug-eyed, going, ‘How does Mike Patton do that?’ The only singer who might, maybe, intimidate him is that hellcat Diamanda Galas, and even she can’t thrash around like a badger the way Mike does and keep singing. They had the kids moshing to the theme from a goddamn Audrey Hepburn movie! Plus Buzz Melvin, the drummer from Slayer, and a gong? Best 15 bucks I’ve spent in ages.” Amen. . . . Coming soon to a Ballard Firehouse near you! ’80s favorites Human “Don’t You Want Me” League are returning from whatever cryogenic chamber they’ve been frozen in for the last 15 years with a brand-spankin’ new album (Secrets, on Ark 21), and unlike, say, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the 2001 version of HL actually contains some original members. Touring is slated tentatively for October. . . . Suquamish resident Dean Haas recently alerted us to some ugly goings-on at the Dave Matthews Band‘s recent three-day at the Gorge. According to Haas, all visitors to the campgrounds were required to undergo not one, but two “random” searches—random being randomly each and every vehicle and person—before entering. Haas’ failure to give his seemingly compulsory consent started quite the ruckus amongst the Constitutionally impaired security. What we want to know is, where were these guys when all those Ozzfesters were driving their homemade bombs and jugs of moonshine straight through the gates this summer? In fact, the occasional nickel bag—if not an undercover Heineken or two—seem as much a part of a DMB show as pukka-shell necklaces and those goddamn Jesus sandals. We seriously doubt the easygoing crowd required such Gestapo tactics. . . .

Modest Mouse are all set to release an 8-track EP later this month made up of outtakes and B-sides from the Moon Over Antartica sessions. Everywhere and His Nasty Parlor Tricks (Epic) will feature “Here It Comes,” “So Much Beauty in Dirt,” “Three Inch Horses, Two Faced Monsters,” and “The Air.” Also included, tracks from the Mice’s Night on the Sun 12-inch: “I Came as a Rat (Long Walk Off a Short Dock),” “You’re the Good Things,” and “Willful Suspension of Disbelief.” The band kicked off a major U.S. tour this past Friday in Portland with the Glands, Les Savy Fav, and the Shins. Sounds dreamy. . . . It was slow to grow on us, but Alicia Keys‘ Songs in A Minor is perhaps one of the few reasons to still believe in R&B now that Aaliyah is gone. She may have bailed on Bumbershoot at the last minute, but the 20-year-old’s channeling of early piano-prodigy Stevie Wonder is both soulful and supremely feminine, and her live performance of “Fallin'” at last week’s MTV Video Music Awards was—except for that ridiculous interpretive dancer/ninja writhing around on the floor in a black catsuit—by the far the realest thing in a show full of crass album hawking, horribly unfunny jokes, and half-ass appearances. Memo to host Jaime Foxx: Go back to the WB or wherever you came from, and stay there. Please. . . . Speaking of crappy network shows, there’s still nothing glamorous about being co-opted, is there? Apparently, some genius decided Sit & Spin would be the perfect spot to work up one of their soul-deep dating shows. DOON isn’t even going to pretend to understand the premise of said show, but it somehow involved one guy and his four dates ordering buttery nipples from James of the eX-BeSTFRIeNDS. Geez. And more on Hollywood’s Northwest crush: We’re not ruining the story when we tell you that Marky Mark and his love interest, Rachel from

Friends, end up in Seattle in the just-released Rock Star; he singing heartfelt folk rock in a coffee shop and she making heartfelt lattes in a different coffee shop. Oh, the humanity. . . .

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