RETIREMENT PARTY streams their debut, Somewhat Literate.

DEAR NORA streams Skulls Example.

SUDAN ARCHIVES advance streams the Sink EP.

MACHO BOYS streams their self-titled debut.

AMANDA SHIRES shares "Leave It Alone."

MARK LANEGAN & DUKE GARWOOD share "Save Me."

JIM JAMES & ANGEL OLSEN covered Sonny & Cher's "Baby Don’t Go" at David Lynch's Festival Of Disruption.

BETTYE LaVETTE talks to All Things Considered about her changing relationship with Bob Dylan's music and reflects on a lifetime of defying an industry that has tried to box her in.

CHRIS STAMEY talks to The Current about his new book, titled A Spy in the House of Loud.

TOM WAITS's ‘70s Asylum Records catalog is now available on Bandcamp in addition to the entirety of his Anti- Records catalog.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Jimmy Soul's calypso novelty hit "If You Wanna Be Happy."

THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS: The first R-rated Muppet movie shaes a decidedly R-rated trailer online.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL is in talks to play the classic Marvel villain Mysterio in the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming.

PRINCE HARRY & MEGHAN arrived back at their home at Kensington Palace in London.

MARIO BATALI is under investigation for an alleged rape at another one of his restaurants, one a woman claims happened the year before the alleged Spotted Pig incident. He's being kicked to the curb by his business partners.

JOHN CENA and NIKKI BELLA just couldn't quit each other..

HALLE BERRY has signed on to star opposite Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 3.

HUGH GRANT: Finally getting hitched?

INTERVIEW MAGAZINE, founded by Andy Warhol, ends its 15 minutes.

VIDEO OF THE LOCH NESS MONSTER? (Spoiler: nah, bruh.)

A BABOON did not want to fly American Airlines.

EEL PRICES expected to shock this year.

A HUMPBACK WHALE washes up at Ocean Shores in Washington state.

KENNY ROGERS & THE FIRST EDITION: "I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)." Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Yeah.

COURTNEY BARNETT visits Morning Becomes Eclectic.

PARTNER plays a Tiny Desk Concert.

GEORGE EZRA plays the World Cafe.

HONEY CHILD shares “Standing In The Shadows.”

BILLY IDOL trolled Twitter on the big weekend.

"SEPTEMBER" CO-WRITER ALLEE WILLIS has thoughts on Taylor Swift's version.

FRANCOISE HARDY talks about the soundtrack of her life.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at 14-year-old Little Peggy March's dizzy, lovestruck "I Will Follow Him."

REGGIE LEWIS, who produced Madonna, Miles Davis, Lou Rawls and more, has died at 65.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Deadpool 2 tops the chart with 125MM, a few million less than the original, which might be expected after weeks and weeks of the MCU dominating theaters, but maybe a little concerning with Solo set to dominate the holiday weekend.  Avengers: Infinity War places with 28.7MM on a 53 percent drop, suggesting it will pass 650MM domestic, but probably not 700MM.  Book Club shows with a surprising 12.5MM (against a reported 10MM budget), in an example of successful counter-programming.   Life of the Party skids 57 percent to make 7.7MM in its second weekend, taking the fourth slot (and recouping its reported 30MM production budget).  Breaking In skids a harder 63 percent to round out theTop Five with 6.5MM, but 28.8MM domestic against a 6MM budget looks pretty good.

STAN LEE is suing his former company (not Marvel) for... one billion dollars.

THERE WAS A ROYAL WEDDING, icymi.

ASIA ARGENTO got a roaring reception for her MeToo speech at Cannes.

JAMES LEVINE is accused of sexual misconduct by five more men.

ROSEANNE loses a showrunner.

CHEERS: Key figures talked to Variety on the 25th anniversary of the series finale.

WHEN AN ELEPHANT GIVES BIRTH, the herd gathers to protect and celebrate.

TWO MARSUPIAL SPECIES whose males die after marathon sex sessions have been put on Australia's endangered list.

HELLO, POLICE? I'm being followed by a pig.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT, confronted by a monster snake.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with POWER POP! A few of these may be known generally, like Cheap Trick's "Way of the World" and Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind"... and some well-known to fans of the genre, like Dwight Twilley's "I'm On Fire," Shoes "Too Late," The Records' "Starry Eyes," the Flamin' Groovies' "Shake Some Action" and the Plimsouls'  "A Million Miles Away" (seen here in a rare live slot).  Others are well-known to longtime Pate fans, like the Three O'Clock's "Her Head's Revolving" or Let's Active's "Waters Part."

BROWNOUT advance streams Fear of a Brown Planet.

BEACH SLANG frontman James Alex is streaming the stripped-down Quiet Slang.

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS stops by WNYC Soundcheck for a chat and mini-set.

THE LONE BELLOW stops bby WNYC Soundcheck for a chat and mini-set.

NINE INCH NAILS shares "God Break Down The Door."

RAY LaMONTAGNE shares "To The Sea."

BRAM TCHAIKOVSKY: "Girl Of My Dreams" and "Lady From the USA", live. Because it's Power Pop Friday, of course.

JOHN LYDON reflects on the death of Sid Vicious.

POP MUSIC seems to have become a lot more sad on the whole over the last 30 years.

HOW TOM WOLFE Changed Music Journalism.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at the Chiffons' girl-group nugget "He's So Fine."

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Deadpool 2, which is currently scoring 85 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Show Dogs, which was not screened for critics; and Book Club, scoring 64 percent.

DEADPOOL 2, btw, does the things that made the original so good, but differently.  That's no small acievement.  Comedy is generally tougher than drama (or action) and the sequel by definition loses the element of surprise.  So the film throws in enough surprises, right from the start, to make a sequel close to as entertaining as the first.  Stay for the credits sequences; there's a big, funny cameo, and if you stick to the end you'll get an answer to a question I was asking myself during the third act brawl.

OBI-WAN KENOBI may get the next Star Wars standalone picture.

ELTON JOHN will take the stage at the royal wedding?

CATFISH: The MTV show has temporarily halted production as it investigates allegations of sexual misconduct involving the program's host and executive producer.

JASON STATHAM is getting in front of a possible bad situation after a man claimed he possessed an audio recording of the actor hurling homophobic insults on the set of one of his big movies.

CHRISSY TEIGEN & JOHN LEGEND are the proud parents of a baby boy.

SEINFELD: THR gains access to more than 70 hours of previously unreleased interviews with the cast, creator and those involved as the former NBC comedy celebrates 20 years since its series finale.

KANGAROO ON THE LAM in... South Carolina. 

HIPPOS sometimes poop so much that all the fish choke to death.

GOAT YOGA, now with beer tasting.

SNAKE in a ceiling fan.

HOT CHOCOLATE: "You Sexy Thing." Believe in miracles?

LAKE STREET DIVE stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

OKKERVIL RIVER stopped by WFUV for a chat and and mini-set.

NAIA IZUMI won the Tiny Desk Concert competition.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS joins CHARLES LLOYD & THE MARVELS  on a collaboration; theiy first share "We've Come Too Far To Turn Around."

AN HORSE returns after seven years with "Get Out Somehow."

SNAIL MAIL shares "Let's Find An Out."

RIVER WHYLESS shares “Darkness In Mind.”

CAR SEAT HEADREST plays "Bodys" on Fallon.

STEPHEN MALKMUS talks to Rolling Stone about 25 years of songwriting.

ELVIS COSTELLO on a rare guitar, crying on planes and Judi Dench.

NEKO CASE surveys her favorite albums at The Quietus.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Ruby & The Romantics' oft-covered R&B chestnut "Our Day Will Come."

LANDO CALRISSIAN may get his own movie... someday.

ZOMBIELAND 2 is on track for an October 2019 release, with the original cast.

DISNEY may bring back John Lasseter in some capacity, despite allegations of inappropraite conduct.

FRANCES BEAN COBAIN's divorce may be settled but she has lost one prized possession to her ex: her father's famous guitar. 

PAULEY PERRETTE's  ex says she wrote “handwritten death threats” and defamed him because he filed for divorce from the actress, and now he's filed a lawsuit.

CHRIS PRATT is a leaker. Anyone surprised?

PORTIA de ROSSI quit acting, but wound up in Season Five of Arrested Development anyway.

GEESE vs GATOR: Who You Got?

CHIMPS have cleaner beds than humans, scientists say.

AN EAGLE plunged Juneau into darkness.

A MYSTERIOUS SEA CREATURE washes ashore in the Philippines.

SIMON & GARFUNKEL tackle "Late In the Evening" in Central Park, circa 1981, iirc.

BEACH HOUSE visits Morning Becomes Eclectic.

MAISON DUFRESNE: Another hour of soul serenades, rarefied country and folk b-sides at Aquarium Drunkard.

ALL SONGS: The Songs That Got You Through School.

NEKO CASE brings MARK LANEGAN onboard for “Curse Of The I-5 Corridor.”

MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER shares "Desert Horse."

MITSKI shares a video for "Geyser."

BRIAN ENO is now 70 years old, garnering tributes from Rolling Stone and Pitchfork.

TRACYANNE CAMPBELL opens up on her new music project with Danny Coughlan two years after losing best pal (and Camera Obscura bandmate) Carey Lander to cancer.

SPOTIFY is urged to stop promoting more artists accused of sexual misconduct, in the most predictable news evah.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at the Four Seasons' screechy, swaggering "Walk Like A Man."

TOM WOLFE, an innovative journalist and novelist whose technicolor, wildly punctuated prose brought to life the worlds of California surfers, car customizers, astronauts and Manhattan’s moneyed status-seekers in works like The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities, died on Monday in a Manhattan hospital. He was 88.  We may never see his like again. Here's more from  Michael Lewis and Jack Shafer.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: The Queen biopic has a trailer online.

JANE FONDA wants to work with Quentin Tarantino.

LARS VON TRIER's new film soarked walkouts at Cannes.

GUILLERMO DEL TORO is making a horror anthology on Netflix.

SOLO is getting... decent early reviews?

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A seal with hiccups.

WHAT CAN CHIMP CALLS tell us about human language?

UKRAINE claims its military dolphins in Crimea refused to take orders from Russians, went on hunger strike, and died.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: Check before you start your car.