Sad and surprising news from the XTC camp. Long-suffering fans had reason to celebrate earlier this year when the British pop band finally entered the studio to record its first new album since 1992's Nonsuch.

However, the official XTC website, Chalkhills, reports guitarist Dave Gregory, who joined the group for its 1979 album Drums and Wires, has quit because he felt his musical contributions were being stifled.

Gregory had performed on several tracks for the yet-untitled album, which is being completed by Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding, now the only two members of XTC.

Gregory, meanwhile, is rumored to join the reunited Blondie.

XTC's new record is tentatively scheduled for a fall release on Britain's Cooking Vinyl label.

Courtney Love's days as a glamorous, sophisticated movie star may be over.

Entertainment Weekly reports Love is getting back to her punk-rock roots -- she showed up at a West Hollywood dance club recently sporting a new black dye job and asked the deejay to play a song from the upcoming album by her band Hole. When a listener shouted "it sucks," Love reportedly threatened to beat up the critic. How charming.

There's good advance buzz on Brian Wilson's first solo album in a decade. Imagination, due in stores in mid-June, "contains his best sustained vocal work in decades and may just be the best vocal work he's ever done," says David Leaf, a biographer of the Beach Boy and co-producer of last year's Pet Sounds box set.