TV ON THE RADIO covered “Nothing Compares 2 U" for a Yale  conference called "Blackstar Rising & The Purple Reign: Celebrating The Legacies Of David Bowie And Prince."

REGINA SPEKTOR stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER covers The Faces and Ralph Stanley in a Lagniappe Session at Aquarium Drunkard.

DEAD MAN WINTER stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

MOUNTAIN GOATS: John Darnielle wrote “The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All The Other Jedi And Eats Their Bones" on  adare from Rian Johnson (director of The Last Jedi).

BNQT, ft members of Midlake, Grandaddy, Band of Horses, Franz Ferdinand, and Travis, shared "Restart."

THE MINDBENDERS bring Twofer Tuesday: "Game of Love" and "Groovy Kind of Love."

TOMMY STINSON talked to Rolling Stone about his solo career.

SHARON JONES, remembered by The Current to kick off Black History Month.

DIRTY PROJECTORS: How Dave Longstreth ended up at Kanye's house with The Weeknd. [Record scratch. Freeze-frame. "You may be wondering how I got here..."]

30 ICONIC ALBUMS TURNING 30, compiled by Paste. Get off my lawn.

BEN AFFLECK has decided to step down as director of The Batman and remain on as a producer and star of the project.

EVAN RACHEL WOOD is engaged to her bandmate Zach Villa.

MARY TYLER MOORE died of several causes.

WINONA RYDER couldn't hear David Harbor's SAG Awards speech? C'mon! This was a career highlight.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST dropped a final trailer.

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET: Jordan Belfort claims he knew the film's financing must have been fishy.

WHY HOLLYWOOD As We Know It is Already Over.

MASAYA NAKAMURA, the father of Pac-Man, has died at 91.

CANADA: The suspect charged with murder in Sunday's shooting that left six people dead at a Quebec City mosque was a "lone wolf," Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Monday.

UKRAINE: More than 10 people have been killed in some of the worst fighting for weeks in eastern Ukraine.

YEMEN: Houthi militants attacked a Saudi warship with three boats off the western coast of Yemen on Monday, causing an explosion that killed two crew members and injured three others, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

IRAN conducted its first missile test since US President Donald Trump took office, giving the nascent administration an early opportunity to show the world how they plan to deal with a key US adversary.

GRAYCE THE PIT BULL Gently Places Her 11 Puppies Into Her Foster Mom's Lap.

OLLIE THE BOBCAT escaped the Smithsonian's National Zoo in DC.

FRENCH HAMSTERS turn cannibal.

ZOO CRASHERS: Choose your entrance carefully. The More You Know. [swoosh]

R.E.M. alumni Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry joined The Minus 5 at the 40 Watt Club on "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville."

FOXYGEN stopped by WFUV for a chat and mini-set.

RICHARD BARONE (The Bongos) also stopped by WFUV for a chat and mini-set.

BLIND PILOT plays the Triple Door on KEXP.

THE NEW PR0NOGRAPHERS share “High Ticket Attractions” ahead of Whiteout Conditions.

SAM COOKE & JACKIE WILSON unexpectedly meet up on "Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha."

DWIGHT YOAKUM talks to Magnet about Goliath, bluegrass, and Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc.

THE 50 BEST POST-PUNK ALBUMS, according to Paste.

BUTCH TRUCKS, the co-founding drummer of The Allman Brothers Band, was a suicide, according to police records.

GEOFF NICHOLS, Black Sabbath's keyboardist for 25 years between 1979 and 2004, died from lung cancer at the age of 68.

JOHN HURT, an unprepossessing British character actor who vanished inside dozens of roles, including in Alien, Crime and Punishment, I Claudius, V For Vendetta, The Elephant Man, 1984, Spaceballs , three Harry Potter flicks and many more, died on Wednesday in Norfolk, England. He was 77.  Here's 143 roles in 4 minutes.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Split repeats atop the chart with 26.3MM on a fantastically-leggy-for-horror 34 percent drop; it's the first M Night Shyamalan film to do so since Signs.  And Split crossed the 100MM mark worldwide against a 9MM production budget. A Dog's Purpose placed with 18.4MM against a 22MM budget, within the range of projections.  Hidden Figures showed with 14MM on a leggy 11 percent drop, likely buoyed by those 3 Oscar nominations.  It too crossed the 100MM mark, against a 25MM budget.  Resident Evil: The Final Chapter took the fourth slot with 13.9MM, a low mark for debuts in this franchise, though it has already grossed another 65MM overseas.  La La Land rounded out the Top Five with 12MM, growing 43 percent over last weekend, as the musical expanded by 1271 screens and rode the big Oscar buzz. It's closing in on a quarter-billion worldwide.  Below the fold, Gold flopped its way into tenth place.

SPLIT, btw, is a very solid horror pic and thus I hesitate in saying it's a "return to form" for M Night Shyamalan, other than financially; I always saw him as not a straight-up horror director.  It doesn't have a twist ending so much a surprise ending, albeit one that fans of the old Night will much appreciate.  And James McAvoy does have a great deal of fun chewing things up as the heavy here.

THE SAG AWARDS went to these folks. Congrats.

EMMA STONE's Battle With Shyness, Panic Attacks and Phobias on the Way to the Oscars.

MISCHA BARTON is revealing that she was drugged while celebrating her 31st birthday with friends.

UMA THURMAN signed off on a deal with her French financier-ex Arpad “Arki” Busson, an agreement that gives her primary custody of their 4-year-old daughter. 

IRON FIST: Ove episode of the Marvel series has been directed by hip-hop icon RZA.

THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE: Behind The Bricks.

HAMILTON's Schuyler Sisters are singing at the Super Bowl.

THE COEN BROTHERS directed a Super Bowl ad that seems like a sequel to Easy Rider.

QUINCY delivers the news in Boulder, CO.

ANIMAL PICS, before and after being called a "good boy."

A CAT with "psychic" powers has been sold to a "well-groomed witch" for £67000, according to its former owner. 

25 ANIMALS that scientists want to bring back from extinction.They'll spare no expense.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with XTC! Look Look is a long-out-of-print collection of music videos from the art-pop combo, Your tracklist includes: "This Is Pop," "Statue of Liberty," "Are You Receiving Me?," "Life Begins at the Hop," "Making Plans for Nigel," "Towers of London," "Respectable Street," "Generals and Majors," "All of a Sudden (It's Too Late)," "Ball and Chain," and "Senses Working Overtime."

STEF CHURA streams Messes.

BEACHHEADS are streaming five tracks from their self-titled debut.

CUDDLE MAGIC streams Ashes/Axis.

TY SEGALL advance streams a self-titled LP, icymi. 

PORCELAIN RAFT advance streams Microclimate.

JD McPHERSON covers Erasure's "A Little Respect" like its' a vintage soul track, and it totally works.

LAMBCHOP covers Prince’s “When You Were Mine”.

MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND, "Blinded by the Light," Live in '75.

THE VILLAGE VOICE PAZZ & JOP POLL results are online.

JAPANDROIDS talk about their favorite garage punk records.

FROM JONI MITCHELL TO LAURA MARLING: How female troubadours changed music .

BRIAN ENO: Ten of His Best.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include: A Dog's Purpose, currently scoring 31 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, currently scoring 40 percent; and Gold, scoring 32 percent.

VANITY FAIR's Hollywood Issue cover is here.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL is pregnant and expecting her second child with her husband, Jacob Pechenik.

PAULA PATTON alleges ROBIN THICKE physically abused her during their marriage. The allegations have resurfaced during a custody battle between Patton and Thicke for their son, Julian.

BRANGELEXIT: Intimate details of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's explosive marriage breakdown to be revealed in a big budget movie by bestselling author Ian Halperin?

ELTON JOHN is writing the musical version of The Devil Wears Prada.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA wants to turn Apocalypse Now into a video game. The horror...the horror...

SHIA LeBEOUF  Shia LaBeouf was hauled off in handcuffs from his marathon protest site in NYC ... after he got into it with a neo-Nazi.

MIKE CONNORS, who took a punch as well as anyone while playing the good-guy private detective on the long-running Saturday night action series Mannix for CBS, has died. He was 91.

WILD HOGS are invading homes in Florida.

DOGS enjoy listening to reggae and soft rock more than other genres of music, according to new research.

SCIENTISTS have created a part-human, part-pig embryo.

FAMED INDIAN SNAKE TRACKERS have been brought in to find Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades.

FOXYGEN dropped a video for “On Lankershim."

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD played for World Cafe.

TY SEGALL stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic.

RICHARD THOMPSON, LENNY KAYE, LEE RENALDO & WILL SCHEFF were among those who played a Leonard Cohen tribute at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg.

GUIDED BY VOICES shares “Hiking Skin,”ahead of the band's first double album, August by Cake.

THE OLD 97s share “All Who Wander” from upcoming album Graveyard Whistling.

THUNDERCAT brings KENNY LOGGINS and MICHAEL McDONALD on for "Show You The Way" from Drunk.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN breaks out a 12-string to cover Jackie DeShannon's "When You Walk in the Room," which was also a hit for The Searchers.

CLOUD NOTHINGS get profiled at Paste.

AEROSMITH: Is it the end?

BUTCH TRUCKS, one of the Allman Brothers Band's founding drummers, died Tuesday evening in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 69. Page Stallings, Trucks' booking agent, confirmed the veteran musician's death to Rolling Stone, but said a cause of death is currently unknown.

HOWARD KAUFMAN, who guided the careers of the Eagles, Aerosmith and Stevie Nicks and helped pull off some of the mightiest rock ’n’ roll world tours of his day, has died at 79.

MARY TYLER MOORE, whose witty and graceful performances on two top-rated television shows in the 1960s and ’70s helped define a new vision of American womanhood, died on Wednesday in Greenwich, Conn. She was 80.  She could sing and dance, give you one of the best sticom episdoes of all time, play against type in movies like Ordinary People and Flirting With Disaster.  And that's even before you get to career as a producer of shows like Hill Street Blues and St Elsewhere.  But most of all, she could turn the world on with her smile, putting Minneapolis on the pop culture map, boosted by a Sonny Curtis classic, "Love Is All Around," notably covered by the Twin Cities' own Husker Du, as well as Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.

DICK VAN DYKE paid tribute to Mary Tyler Moore.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON and her husband, Romain Dauriac, have split after two years of marriage.

ROGUE ONE editor Colin Goudie shares how he made a full-length story reel for director Gareth Edwards from similar scenes from hundreds of other movies so that Edwards could work out the pacing for the action and dialog.

DAISY RIDLEY is ambushed and grilled abour Star Wars: Episode VIII by her Murder on the Orient Express co-star Josh Gad.

THE FLASH movie is getting a total rewrite.

BRENT MUSBURGER one of the most famous sports announcers of all time, announced Wednesday that he will retire from play-by-play work after he calls the Georgia-Kentucky college basketball game on ESPN on Jan. 31. He was my local sports guy when I was a kid; the anchor was Bill Kurtis.  Musberger's rival at the time was Greg Gumbel.

TURTLES hitch a ride on a lizard.

103 PUPPIES were rescued after a delivery van crashed in NY.  No comment from Cruella DeVil.

ANDREW JACKSON had a wicked parrot.

SLED DOG RACERS return to the Scottish Highlands.

CHERRY GLAZER shares a NSFW-ish video for "Nuclear Bomb."

JIM JAMES (My Morning Jacket) stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

MARGARET GLASPY stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

ONCE & FUTURE BAND brings the 70s prog-pop on a self-titled debut album.

THE FEELIES shared "Gone Gone Gone"ahead of In Between.

JAPANDROIDS embrace the slow burn.

SOUL ASYLUM: The Lost Children of "Runaway Train."

THE NEW "PAYOLA": In An Ever-Changing Music Industry, Cash For Hits Remains A Constant.

THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN: Ten of Their Best.

THE OSCARS nominations went to these folks. Congrats! And here are the notable snubs and surprises.

VIOLA DAVIS earned her place in the record books when she received a Best Supporting Actress nod for her role in Fences.

ERIN ANDREWS has been fighting cervical cancer.

MEL GIBSON welcomed his first child with his girlfriend of two years Rosalind Ross.

ANGELINA JOLIE signed a fragrance deal and will be donating her fee to one of her own charities.

JANE FONDA and Richard Perry are quietly parting ways after eight years together.

ROMAN POLANSKI pulled out of presiding over France’s prestigious César film awards next month amid mounting pressure from women’s advocacy groups stemming from his 1977 child rape case.

THE FIVE BEST END CREDITS, according to Cinefix.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SHOTS in the History of Disney.

HERO DOG saves another dog from a raging torrent.

CHIMPANZEES can do almost everything that was once considered a distinctively human trait. You did it. You blew it up.

A CAT is sought for Mouser at onse of Scotland's newest whiskey distilleries.

WOLF-SIZED OTTERS prowled prehistoric China.