THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THIN LIZZY! Remember that chick who used to dance a lot? Here's Phil Lynott & Co. live at the Sydney Opera House in 1978, playing "Jailbreak," "Bad Reputation," "Cowboy Song," "The Boys Are Back In Town," "Waiting For An Alibi," and "Are You Ready?"

JASON ISBELL advance streams Something More Than Free.

WHITE REAPER advance streams Does It Again.

RATATAT advance streams Magnifique.

NEKO CASE played the Clearwater festival. 

WALTHAM: "Cheryl (Come and Take a Ride)" would've been a smash in the 80s.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: Patterson Hood writes about the South and the Confederate flag in the New York Times magazine.

THE RUNAWAYS: Jackie Fuchs (nee Fox)  has spoken out for the first time about an alleged rape by band manager and producer Kim Fowley she says took place at a party on New Year's Eve 1975-1976, which she also claims Joan Jett witnessed (and which Jett denies)

DAVID CROSBY finds Kanye West :dumb as a post," among other things..

RANDY MEISNER, former Eagles bassist, has been placed under court-ordered 24-hour supervision after allegedly threatening murder-suicide with an AK-47 and pills last January.

AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd was sentenced to house arrest for his murder threat. 

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Minions, which is currently scoring 54 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; The Gallows, which is scoring 14 percent; and Self/Less, scoring 22 percent.

ARIANA GRANDE's donut-licking is now under investigation. 

NATALIE PORTMAN is profiled by Harper's Bazaar. 

BRUCE JENNER's car crash video was released. 

BILL MURRAY helped clean up after the Deadheads left the Fare Thee Well concerts. The shows are online.

NICHOLAS CAGE was rudely awakened by a naked man eating a Fudgesicle at the foot of his bed.

CHINA: The US Office of Personnel Management revealed on Thursday that “sensitive information” about 21.5 million people was obtained last year by hackers believed to be working for and in China.  BTW, that figure --representing 7.7 percent of the US population--is almost certainly going to be revised upward; based on the low number of spouses and cohabitants reported.

GREECE cobbled together a reform plan that crosses its own “red lines” on taxes and pensions; Germany concedes some of Greece's debt will need to be restructured.

IRAN: Nuke talks were extended for a fourth time. 

A LEOPARD lunches on a zebra that explodes. 

THOSE TWO PUPPIES turned out to be black bears.

THIEVING BIRDS steal underwear and socks from skinny-dippers for their nests, not to mention the laughs. 

A BURMESE PYTHON slithers along a Welsh telephone wire.

DESTROYER drops a clip for "Girl In A Sling" ahead of Poison Season. 

MATES OF STATE were live on KEXP from The Cutting Room Studios in New York City. 

SLOAN: June 29, 2015, at Rough Trade. 

BABES IN TOYLAND played Rock The Garden 2015. 

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED revisited the 90s in the latest installment of the series. 

JASON ISBELL drops the title track for "Something More Than Free." 

PALEHOUND drops “Healthier Folk” ahead of Dry Food. 

BO DONALDSON & THE HEYWOODS: "Billy, Don't Be a Hero," from the Summer of '74. Workin' the Elvis jumpuit look.

RICHARD THOMPSON: The Ultimate Triple Threat. (Thx, Frank Yang.)

JANIS JOPLIN: The story behind "Mercedez-Benz." 

FRANZ FERDINAND's Alex Kapranos shares the soundtrack of his life with NME.

RINGO STARR: Musical Genius? 

MARISA TOMEI is in final negotiations to play Aunt May in the Spider-Man reboot. So presumably, Peter Parker won't be worrying about her frail health.

TOM SELLECK is accused of water-rustling in drought-stricken Callifornia. 

ARIANA GRANDE apologized for saying she hates America and Americans, but really we're all fat.  

AMY SCHUMER apologized for some of her jokes. 

BEN AFFLECK & JENNIFER GARNER: You'll be shocked to learn their split may have been less than fully amicable.

BILL COSBY's statue at Disney World is coming down. 

JEFF GOLDBLUM and his wife welcomed a son on July 4.

ROSIE PEREZ is leaving The View. 

TWIN PEAKS: The reboot has been pushed back to 2017. 

CHINA: Far more than simply a market crisis, the turmoil on the Shanghai Stock Exchange is viewed by China’s leadership as a potential security threat to the regime.   

SYRIA: The US has trained a whopping force of 60 Syrian rebels to take on the Islamic State, for only 250MM dollars.

IRAN offered "constructive solutions" to resolve disputes in nuclear talks with six major powers, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Wednesday, but Western officials suggested they had heard nothing new from Tehran. President Barack Obama pegged the chances of a nuclear agreement with Iran at “less than 50-50,” even as he worked to reassure Senate Democrats that he won't accept a bad deal.

BORDER COLLIES are being deployed by the National Park Service to "relocate" geese on the National Mall. 

SHARKNADO: A home in an ocean front neighborhood has become the talk of the town after the family who lives there found a shark in their backyard. Sue Bowser knows the shark didn't walk or swim there. She believes it fell from the sky, likely the result of a bird losing its grip on the shark. 

A MOUNTAIN LION has been reported throughout San Francisco in the past week, authorities said Tuesday. 

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: A hipster rodent eats NY-style pizza. 

BEST COAST drops a video for "Feeling Ok." 

SAUN & STARR, also part of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, played Philadelphia's NON-COMMvention. 

LUCIUS played Rock the Garden 2015 .

JOY WILLIAMS, formerly of The Civil Wars, stopped by Morning becomes Eclectic for a session. 

THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH played  at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in NYC in an exclusive show for WFUV.

ELEVENTH DREAM DAY drops "The People’s History”  ahead of Works For Tomorrow.

NE-HI drops "Drag" as a single. 

KEITH RICHARDS: The Lord of the Undead's "Take It So Hard."  (Thx, Jay!) 

FOALS' Yannis Philippakis talks to NME about drawing on Van Gogh's madness for the band's upcoming LP. 

!!! was profiled by SPIN. 

LOU CHRISTIE has been a trucker, a roughneck, a carnie – and a cult pop hero. 

RINGO STARR turned 75 yesterday; Ultimate Classic Rock listed his Top 10 Beatles songs. 

BACK TO THE FUTURE: A Cultural Legacy. 

RACHEL McADAMS reportedly has been offered the female lead in Marvel's Doctor Strange. 

HARRY SHEARER is sticking with The Simpsons after all. 

JARED FOGLE: The Subway spokesman is reportedly a suspect in a kiddie pr0n investigation. 

STAR WARS: The second standalone film will be a Han Solo origin tale.

IRAN: The nuclear talks have been extended again, meaning that Congress will get a 60-day look at it, rather than 30 days. 

SYRIA: Kurdish fighters have recaptured more than 10 villages seized by Islamic State north of its de facto capital of Raqqa city, aided by U.S.-led coalition air strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Tuesday. 

THE ISLAMIC STATE released photos showing its fighters using surface to air missiles in Egypt's restive Sinai.

MUNCHKIN KITTEN Meows. Like a squeak toy.

A BEAR shattered a glass barrier at the Minnesota Zoo with rock "the size of a basketball." 

A CALICO LOBSTER, one in 30 million, escapes the dinner plate.

A TEXAS GATOR kills a man, breaking a 179-year streak. 

JON PRATT: The Pate frontman delivers a bluesy reinterpretation of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze," using a 50's era Gibson L48.

COURTNEY BARNETT played Rock The Garden 2015.

REAL ESTATE played the Solid Sound festival.

RHETT MILLER played a KEXP New Home benefit concert. 

NINA SIMONE: NPR is streaming the tribute LP, Nina Revisited.

PUBLIC IMAGE, LTD drops "Double Trouble" ahead of What The World Needs Now... (Language warning)

WAVVES & CLOUD NOTHINGS combine for "No Life For Me." 

MANFRED MANN: "Do Wah Diddy" and "The Mighty Quinn" are your Twofer Tuesday.

U2: Why did one of our best rock bands become so loathed? 

THE GRATEFUL DEAD: Shrewd capitalists. Hence the bumper-sticker on the Cadillac. 

THE CHARLATANS: Tim Burgess talks to The Guardian about Manchester, music and meditation 

ESSENTIAL PUNK ROCK MOVIES, according to Flavorwire. 

BILL COSBY admitted in 2005 that he got quaaludes with the intent of giving them to young women he wanted to have sex with, and that he gave the sedative to at least one woman and "other people," according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

BEN AFFLECK & JENNIFER GARNER give an "exclusive" on their post-split vacation to People magazine, which coincidentally didn't publish any of the many, many, many stories about the couple's impending split. 

HUGH JACKMAN is not allowed to work with Angelina Jolie. 

KOURTNEY KARDASHIAN finally pulled the plug on her relationship with partying baby daddy Scott Disick.

JADA PINKETT SMITH told the Today Show she would never cheat on husband Will Smith. No subtext there.

BOBBY BROWN is going to "nail" the person who photographed Bobbi Kristina Brown on her deathbed. 

DUSTIN HOFFMAN says the movie industry is in its worst state ever, while television is enjoying a boom.

ANT-MAN has yet another trailer online. 

JERRY WEINTRAUB, concert promoter and movie producer best known for The Karate Kid, Nashville, Oh God!, Diner, and the Ocean’s Eleven franchise, died on Monday at 77.

AMANDA PETERSEN (Can't Buy Me Love) died at her home in Greeley, Colorado. She was 43.

GREECE: Hours away from unrest?  Greece's combative finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, abruptly resigned Monday morning in what appeared to be the first move at conciliation by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras toward the country's creditors.

NIGERIA: Two bombs blamed on the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram exploded at a crowded mosque and an elite Muslim restaurant in Nigeria's central city of Jos, killing 44 people.

YEMEN: A Saudi air strike appears to have struck a livestock market in southern Yemen, killing more than 40 people - one of the deadliest bombings of a campaign that has now lasted three months.

IRAN: The foreign ministers from the group of six world powers and Iran were locked in intense negotiations in Vienna on Monday with key disputes unresolved, including a potential stumbling block involving a push by Tehran to have a U.N. arms embargo lifted.  The deadline is supposed to be today, so there will likely be breaking news.

THE WOOF WASHER: As Seen on TV.

A VICIOUS FOX trapped eight people inside a sports club for three hours as it stalked them from the car park. 

SNAILNADO: A Devon beach was closed after a huge hole opend and shot a geyser of snails into the sky.

FLORIDA WILDLIFE OFFICIALS are investigating after a picture surfaced on social media of a woman sitting on top of a sea turtle on Melbourne Beach. 

BEN FOLDS premiered "Phone in the Pool" at Bonnaroo. Language warning.

VERUCA SALT advance streams Ghost Notes.

ANDERSON EAST advance streams Delilah.

WILCO performed an all-acoustic set at the Solid Sound fest.

CONOR OBERST played Rock The Garden 2015.

TAME IMPALA's Kevin Parker explains to The Guardian why the band's new album channels the Bee Gees and Goan beach raves.

ST VINCENT: Annie Clark made a mixtape for an 11-year-old girl.

NEIL YOUNG's 12 Least Essential Albums.

OVERLOOKED RECORDS of 2015 (So Far), according to Pitchfork.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Jurassic World continued to dominate the chart with 30.9MM, edging out by a nose Pixar's Inside Out, which took in 30.1MM.  The latter will have to battle Minions next weekend.  Terminator: Genisys showed with 28.7MM, and 44.2MM since its Wednesday debut; even with 2x as much overseas this weekend, this liklely has to make 200MM domestic to break even in theaters, and that now seems unlikely. The Terminator may finally be dead.  In contrast, Magic Mike XXL comes in fourth with 11.6MM and 26.7MM since Wednesday...but this one had a 15MM budget, so there will be extra-large profit here.Ted 2 rounds out the Top 5, but with a mere 11MM and a 67 percent drop in its second weekend. Ouch.

BILLY JOEL married Alexis Roderick in a surprise ceremony during his annula July 4 party.

VANESSA WILLIAMS also tied the knot Saturday with fiancé Jim Skrip in front of their family and friends.

ASHTON KUTCHER & MILA KUNIS? Also hitched.

BEN AFFLECK & JENNIFER GARNER took their kids to the Bahamas after announcing divorce plans.

JOSH HARTNETT andhis  girlfriend, English actress Tamsin Egerton, are expecting a child.

BLACK PANTHER will not be directed by Ava DuVernay.

NIC CAGE's test footage for Supreman Lives. Oh my.

GREEK voters on Sunday appeared to have delivered a desperately needed victory for their government in its showdown with European creditors, as early official results from a Sunday referendum showed the country rejecting a bailout offer that officials here had scorned.  Of course, their government still has no money.

THE ISLAMIC STATE showcased the execution of 25 Syrian regime soldiers in the city of Palmyra’s ancient Roman ruins.

SYRIA: The pentagon cllaims a U.S. drone strike has killed a top ISIS leader in charge of the terror group's foreign fighter operations and moving people and supplies into Syria and Iraq.

IRAN: There is little indication whether the head of the UN atomic watchdog had made any progress in Tehran on one of the main sticking points: a probe into allegations of past nuclear weaponisation work. Popular support for the deal in Iran rests on a perception, held by majorities of the Iranian people, that Iran will continue to develop its nuclear program -- albeit under a more intrusive international inspection regime -- and that Iran's conditions regarding the scope and pace of sanctions relief will be met.

TINY HAMSTERS hosted a July 4 BBQ.

A STURGEON killed a 5-year-old girl on the Suwannee River.

A 3-METER-LONG PYTHON spotted in a popular park in Malmö remained on the loose on Thursday afternoon.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: A Gladstone, MO, park has been receiving some unusual reports of squirrel attacks this past week.