A long-in-the-works Paul McCartney tribute album finally arrives this November, and the first track to debut from The Art of McCartney is a rather faithful cover of The Beatles’ “Hello Goodbye” performed by The Cure with Sir Paul’s son James McCartney assisting on keyboards.

Paul McCartney closed out Wednesday night’s marathon 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief and had a few special guests up his sleeve: the surviving members of Nirvana, who reunited to back McCartney not on one of Kurt Cobain’s songs or a Beatles classic, but, rather, a sludgy new rocker called “Cut Me Some Slack.”

As announced late last week, Paul Weller is celebrating the 70th birthday of Paul McCartney with a one-day-only release of a new cover of The Beatles’ ‘Birthday.’ The song — which you can stream here — is available to buy for 24 hours via Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, with all proceeds going to War Child.

Paul Weller will celebrate the 70th birthday of Paul McCartney on Monday with a one-day-only release of a newly recorded cover of The Beatles’ ‘Birthday.’ Recorded in 24 hours at Weller’s Black Barn studios, the song will be available for purchase for 24 hours via iTunes, with all proceeds going to War Child.

The surviving members of INXS this week announced they’ve replaced game-show winner J.D. Fortune with new lead singer Ciaran Gribbin — a Grammy-nominated Irish singer-songwriter who has worked with Madonna, Paul McCartney and Snow Patrol — and already have begun work on songs slated for the band’s next studio album.

This round of tidbits includes stories about The Cure covering Paul McCartney for a new tribute, Johnny Marr quitting The Cribs, the history of The Untouchables’ 1985 album ‘Wild Child’ and rock critic Greg Kot’s 10 favorite Wax Trax! releases.

Perhaps The Cure were on to something after all when they abruptly ended Friday night’s warm-up gig in Las Vegas. Practice for the main event? […]