THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with the HIGH NUMBERS!  Actually, this mod quartet had changed its name before they hit French TV's Music Hall for a truly live set on March 30, 1966, but the Tuber you posted this set is rightly concerned about copyright holders.  Part 1 features "Substitute," plus covers of the Everlys' "The Man with the Money" and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas'"Dancing in the Streets".  Part 2 includes a cover of "Barbara Ann" and "My Generation."  Plenty of Moon shining in both clips.

PORTASTATIC gives away their cover of Destroyer's "Foam Hands."

MORPHINE and JEFF BUCKLEY: Memorial sets from Mountain Stage are reposted by NPR.

WOODPIGEON is advance streaming their next album.

TIMBER TIMBRE did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

GUIDED BY VOICES: Captain's Dead has posted a show from 4-28-00 in Asheville, NC, for your streaming or downloading pleasure.

JIMMY FALLON and THE MUPPETS break into Harry Nilsson's "One" during a camera test.

OK GO are advance streaming their next album, and drop a video for "WTF?" As you might guess, there's language.

VIC CHESTNUTT is memorialized by Michael Stipe, Fugazi's Guy Picciotto, and photographer-filmmaker Jem Cohen on Fresh Air.

NORAH JONES did a chat and mini-set for Mrning Becomes Eclectic.

BILLY CORGAN starts a record label, signs the Germs, the Electric Prunes, and the Strawberry Alarm Clock.

JIM JAMES starts a record label, does not sign the Germs, the Electric Prunes or the Strawberry Alarm Clock.

CUTOUT BIN: From the Replacements to Marvin Gaye, from the dB's to Jefferson Starship, from the Pixies to the 1910 Fruitgum Company, from Thunderclap Newman to Stillwater, plus Spoon, the Rolling Stones, Willie Mitchell, Fountains of Wayne, OK Go covering the Zombies and more -- this weekend's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Daybreakers, which is currently scoring 65 percent on the ol' Tomatometer, Leap Year, which is scoring 20 percent, and Youth in Revolt, scoring 68 percent.

TIGER WOODS: One of Tiger's many mistresses, Loredana Jolie Ferriolo, is penning a tell-all book about the golf ace and claims that she witnessed him in gay encounters.

ARTIE LANGE: Howard Stern's sidekick landed in the hospital after stabbing himself nine times in an apparent suicide attempt, sources told The NY Post.

JAY LENO is going back to his 11:30 PM time slot, pushing the man who replaced him, Conan O'Brien, to a starting time of 12:05 a.m.

CHARLIE SHEEN was dumped by Hanes.

AMERICAN IDOL is downsizing Simon Cowell?

PLAYBOY MODEL Paula Sladewski was identified by Miami police as the person found dead and "burned beyond recognition" in a trash bin on Sunday.

THE PEOPLES' CHOICE AWARDS went to these folks. The people are ga-ga for GaGa.

THE DIRECTORS GUILD AWARD nominations went to these folks. Personally, I hope Bigelow beats Cameron.

AfPAK: Al Qaeda has confirmed that the US killed the leader of the Lashkar al Zil, or the Shadow Army, the terror group's military organization along the Afghan and Pakistani border.  Senior Jordanian intelligence sources speaking to TIME on condition of anonymity have disputed the claim that the suicide bomber of a US facility in Afghanistan last week that killed seven CIA operatives had been a double agent working for al-Qaeda all along. Afghan spy officials tell The Daily Beast's Gerald Posner that the chemical fingerprint of the bomb that killed the CIA agents matches the kind produced by Pakistani intelligence.

A WALRUS orally pleasures himself. Goo goo goo joob.

CHIHUAHUA AIRLIFT: More than a dozen Chihuahuas are being flown in style from San Francisco to New York in a bid to reduce chihuahua overpopulation in California, and make up a shortfall on the east coast.

FALLING DOLPHIN, injured trainer.

PANDA CUB Yun Zi debuts at the Sandiego Zoo. Awww...some pics at the link.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater to play "Cousins."

BOB DYLAN: Aquarium Drunkard has posted Yesterday (CBS Studios: Nashville/NYC Outtakes) from 1970, which includes Bobby Z's takes on "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Cupid", "All I Have to Do is Dream", and "Yesterday" (natch).

FRIGHTENED RABBIT: Two new tracks, "Nothing Like You" and "Learned Your Name," are streaming via the 'Gum.

BESNARD LAKES drop a new track, "Albatross."

ATLAS SOUND: Brandon Cox drops a previously unreleased track, "Christmas Synths." Better late than never!

JOE JACKSON: He's the Man.

THE STYLUS DECADE: Zombie Stylus rises from the grave to survey the top albums and singles from the naughts.

BANDS TO WATCH in 2010, according to NME and MOJO.

THE FLAMING LIPS: Wayne Coyne talks to Paste about the Dark Side of the Moon.

THE CASSETTE: Don't call it a comeback?

TIGER WOODS has been staying with his billionaire pal Jim Dolan, the controversy-prone CEO of Cablevision and owner of Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks.

MARIAH CAREY made a drunken mess out of herself while trying to give an acceptance speech at an awards show. Video at the link.

I WAS MARRIED TO MICHAEL JACKSON: Sounds like the title to B-grade horror flick, but it's a legal claim.

JANE KRAKOWSKI of 30 Rock is engaged.

SYLVESTER STALLONE broke his neck while filming a fight scene in his latest movie.

TWILIGHT: The script for Eclipse leaked on the Internet.

SPIDER-MAN 4: Production has been delayed for more work on the script.  The movie is now unlikely to make its May 11, 2011, release date.

JAMES BOND: Sam Mendes is in negotiations to direct the 23rd installment of the franchise, in which Bond discovers that SPECTRE is masterminded by a homophobic veteran in the suburbs. But it looks like this movie may be delayed also, due to MGM's financial problems.

NICK NOLTE: NO EXIT is a documentary featuring the actor as interviewer and subject.  Currently available on demand on several cable systems.

YEMEN: American counter-terrorism specialists and Saddam Hussein's former intelligence officers have forged an unlikely alliance in Yemen to tackle al-Qaeda.

IRAN has quietly hidden an increasingly large part of its atomic complex in networks of tunnels and bunkers across the country.

AFGHANISTAN: How a Double Agent Lured Seven CIA Operatives to Their Deaths

KOALAS steal the limelight from Tennis star Andy Roddick.

A FEMALE CANE TOAD can "pump herself up to mega-size" if she wants to dissuade a male from mating with her.

CARSHER SEAL photobombs penguins.

STRAWBERRY CRABS: Forever.

ISLANDS dropped a new video for "No You Don't" featuring Michael Cera.

ROGUE WAVE dropped "Good Morning" as an advance track from their upcoming LP. Download, or stream it in the 'Gum Mix.

THE MUSIC BLOG ZEITGEIST is posted at the Hype Machine, including streams of the Top 50 albums songs and artists.

HEADLIGHTS did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

BRUCE HORNSBY talked and played on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday.

WILLIE MITCHELL, an architect of the legendary Memphis soul sound, has died at the age of 81.

ELVIS COSTELLO: After Tuesday's vintage clips, I had a hankering for EC's equally vintage -- but more infamous -- take on "Radio, Radio."  As James Lileks recently observed, "The secret to enjoying Elvis Costello is not to know what he's singing about, but merely to know he disapproves of it."

HOT CHIP guitarist Owen Clarke talks to Prefix about the pleasures of domesticity, predicts the eventual fate of the majority of his band's CDs, and offers one of the most anticlimactic exclusives in the history of music journalism.

THE EDGE talks to The Guardian about the past and future of the guitar, meeting Jimmy Page, U2's new album, why they might play new songs at Glastonbury, the fate of Spiderman and the Edge's previously unremarked resemblance to a Hollywood sex symbol.

CHRISTOPHER LEE: The man who played Dracula and Saruman is to tell the story of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, through the universal language of metal.

OF MONTREAL will include Solange Knowles on their upcoming LP, said to have "a Parliament-style, 70s-funk vibe."

TIGER WOODS: Someone is shopping what she says is a Tiger Woods sex tape, and Vivid Entertainment is in the market.

VINCE VAUGHN married Kyla Weber in a small private ceremony before family and friends on Saturday outside of his hometown of Chicago.

KATY PERRY and RUSSELL BRAND got engaged in Jaipur, India.

CHARLIE SHEEN went back to work like nothing has happened, while someone *cough* put out the story that his wife went to rehab for alcohol abuse while pregnant with the couple's twins.

LINDSAY LOHAN claims she was ripped off by her longtime best friend and sidekick Patrick "Pootie" Aufdenkamp.

TOM WAITS appeared on NPRs Morning Edition and spoke about his role in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

THE TOP TEN FILMS OF 2009, according to Stephen King.

YEMEN is only a year away from total economic collapse, with its coffers emptied by corruption and cronyism as the feeble Government struggles to fight wars on two fronts, a leading economic analyst said yesterday.

PAKISTAN: The Taliban burned down an entire village in the lawless tribal agency of Arakzai after villagers refused to back them against the military.

AFGHANISTAN: The suspected double agent who killed seven CIA officers in a suicide bombing was thrown into jail by Jordanian intelligence to coerce him to track down al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Mideast counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.

LADY and the TRAMP, guinea pig style.

DOLPHINS have been declared the world's second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as "non-human persons".

HORSE SLAPPING: Don't do it.

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS: "Keep Slipping Away."

NEW RELEASES: Elvis Presley joins the third week of Christmas albums, though maybe the Aol folk will update today.  Like maybe the album from Findlay Brown...

VAMPIRE WEEKEND is advance streaming their Contra album.

MOUNTAIN GOATS: Jim Darnielle played a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: Broken Bells, Yeasayer and Shout Out Louds are featured in the latest installment of the long-running NPR series.

DEVO: It's not always easy to find these live takes on "Satisfaction" and "Jocko Homo" online, so up they go for Twofer Tuesday.

DEVENDRA BANHART talks to PopMatters about creative control, the biological evolution of mushrooms, and his surprising connection to Neil Young.

FEAR OF STING may cause the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to change its rules, as opposed to inducting snubbed greats.

THE PITCHFORK READERS' POLL is posted. 

IS BLOGGING KILLING MUSIC? I thought home taping already killed music.

TIGER WOODS is profiled by Vanity Fair, while the woman who first broke the news of his affair with Rachel Uchitel exclusively spoke to RadarOnline. The uber-reliable News of the World claims Elin Nordegren says she scored a 300 million Christmas gift from her philandering husband.

WARREN BEATTY is still waaaay ahead of Tiger Woods, if a new biography is to be believed.

MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY and Camila Alves welcomed a baby girl, their second child. Alright alright alright.

LINDSAY LOHAN resolves to have a drama-free New Year. Good luck with that.

MICHAEL JACKSON: An unreleased song leaks on the Internet, an alleged duet with Lenny Kravitz.

KICK-ASS: The comic-book adaptation gets a decidedly profane red-band trailer. I suspect people will love or hate this movie.

YEMEN dismissed the threat posed by Al Qaeda in their country as "exaggerated" and downplayed the possibility of cooperating closely with the US in fighting Islamic militants, even as the US and Britain temporarily closed their diplomatic outposts in Yemen because of unspecified Al Qaeda threats.

IRAN: Nearly 90 professors at Tehran University have told Iran's supreme leader that ongoing violence against protesters shows the weakness of the country's leadership, a pro-reform website reported Monday.

IRAQ and AfPAK by the numbers.

ANGEL, a golden retriever, saved a boy from a cougar. By which I mean an actual cougar. Let's go to the video.

MULLET YOUR DOG: A deceptively simple how-to video..

TOP RACEHORSE threatened by gambler.

VULTURES face extinction as gamblers seek visions of the future by smoking bird brains.

SOUNDGARDEN is reuniting after a 12 year hiatus, so let's break out "Spoonman."

DELBERT McCLINTON stopped by WFUV for a chat and mini-set streaming via NPR.

REALLY OBSCURE SOUL FROM DC gets a feature plus tracks at NPR's Morning Edition.

THE LOUDNESS WARS: Why Music Sounds Worse.

PATTI SMITH and Steven Sebring talk about their POV documentary about her journey, Patti Smith: Dream of Life on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

MASSIVE ATTACK: Robert Del Naja talks to Weekend Edition Saturday about rebuilding the band's sound as a duo.

MAGIC WANDS dropped a video for "Kiss Me Dead" from their upcoming EP.

THE WHO should not perform at the NFL Super Bowl XLIV halftime show, according to Child AbuseWatch.net.

NOTABLE JANUARY RELEASES, courtesy of Paste.

GENRE EXPLOSION: The upside and downside of musical fragmentation.

DAYTROTTER - and its iPhone app - get a shout from The New York Times.

VAN MORRISON denied that he has had a new baby, saying that a report on his official website suggesting he had was the result of a hacking.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Avatar threepeats in theaters with another 68.3 million in ticket sales, on an amazingly small 9.7 percent drop.  It broke the 350 million mark, and was the third fastest to break 300 million on Friday.  It's the biggest gross in January ever (beating Cloverfield) and the biggest third weekend ever (beating Spider-Man and The Dark Knight).  It will likely be in the all-time Top Ten a week from now.  Sherlock Holmes repeated in the second slot, with 38.4 million. The 38 percent drop is slightly trpubling, but Sherlock still has a good shot at 200 million in the US.  The Alvin and the Chipmunks squeakquel held the third slot with 36 million on a 25.1 percent drop, and broke 150 million.  The rodents may beat their first film by the end of this run.  It's Complicated came in fourth with 18.7 million on a 15.4 percent drop.  The Blind Silde held well to round out the Top Five, with 12.7 million and a 10.3 percent increase.

CHARLIE SHEEN did or did not offer to boost Brooke Mueller's pre-nup by a million.  In either event, it sounds like a small sum to a guy who makes over 800K per episode of Two and a Half Men.  Brooke reportedly wants to come back to L.A. with the kids and resume cohabiting with Charlie.

TIGER WOODS will no longer be associated with the slogan, "Reach out and touch someone."  Repets have Elin letting her hair down on New Year's Eve.

KATE HUDSON and OWEN WILSON are reportedly back in touch after her breakup with A-Rod.

SANDRA BULLOCK shined as 2009's top Hollywood star at the box office, according to US theater owners.

ELTON JOHN says he has been helping Eminen fight drug problems for more than a year.

AFGHANISTAN: On Wednesday, a suicide bombing devastated Forward Operating Base Chapman, a hub of counterterrorism and intelligence operations for the CIA. A number of the officers killed had been counterterrorism operatives since before the 9/11 attacks. The base played a critical role in the CIA's significant operations in the country, including helping with drone attacks and informant networks in Pakistan.  The suicide bomber was a regular CIA informant who had visited the same base multiple times in the past.

IRAQ: The US released the leader of an Iranian-backed Shia terror group behind the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007.  Qais Qazali, the leader of the Asaib al Haq or the League of the Righteous, was set free by the US military and transferred to Iraqi custody in exchange for the release of British hostage Peter Moore, US military officers and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.

SOLDIER BEAR: Archival film of Free Polish Forces in WWII.

DEER VS. VACUUM in Des Moines.

TARANTULAS: Another reason not to get close.

19 PYTHONS hamper firefighting at a Utah trailer park.