Louise Post and Corey Parks have left Courtney Love's new band Bastard. Bastard have been recording a punk CD for Epitaph Records, while Love's primary band, Hole, remains on hiatus due to a label dispute. Post defected because of a personality clash with Love. "It was sad to leave, but I felt I had no choice," says Post, who quit after one day of recording with the band and an intensive period of writing and practicing. "I felt Courtney was becoming a friend, and I was very close to [drummer] Patty Schemel -- it was so great getting to play with her. But things just went in a different direction." Bastard's original lineup was Love, Post, Schemel, guitarist Kat Bjelland and Rockit Girl bassist Gina Crosley, who recently joined Post's main project, Veruca Salt replacing Suzanne Sokol. Bjelland, who has a long history of clashes with Love, pulled out soon after, and Crosley was put on ice while Love courted Parks, the fire-breathing, leggy blonde best-known for her stint in Nashville Pussy. Parks did eventually join the project, says Post, but left after just a week or so.

Israelis had become used to seeing American and European rockers jamming on local stages over the last decade. But nearly a year of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed has cast a pall on this summer's concert schedule. "It's pretty bad," said Alex Knyaziker, 26, from Jerusalem, who had hoped to see British rock band Depeche Mode in Tel Aviv before the planned November 1 show was scrapped. The most awaited concert of the season, a performance by Los Angeles rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, was to have taken place, but the band dropped out, fearing the crowd in Tel Aviv's 40,000-seat stadium could become the target of a bomb attack. Among other recent cancellations were American jazz singer Mose Allison and the British percussion group Stomp, popular for its drumming on buckets and metal trash cans. Fears of attacks increased in June, when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of young Israelis waiting to get into a Tel Aviv disco, killing 21 of them. A few musicians have been unfazed by the recent unrest. American singer Rickie Lee Jones sang in Tel Aviv in March, and jazz drummer Max Roach toured the country to jam with Arab and Jewish musicians.

Jimmy Buffett will release his thirty-third album, Far Side of the World, on October 23rd on his own Mailboat Records. The album is Buffett's first release since 1999's Beach House on the Moon. Far Side of the World will combine Buffett originals with a handful of covers. The new album will also be released as an enhanced CD, including footage of the recording sessions for the record and some home-movie footage shot during a recent trip Buffett took to Africa.