NEKO CASE & CALEXICO teamed up on her "Ragtime" for Conan.

MODERN BASEBALL streams You're Gonna Miss It.

TOTAL SLACKER is streaming Slip Away.

CHEATAHS stream their self-titled album.

DIANE BIRCH performs pared-down renditions of songs from her album, Speak A Little Louder, in the WNYC Soundcheck studio.

MARGOT & THE NUCLEAR SO & SOs drop "Hello, San Francisco," ahead of Sling Shot to Heaven.

BLEEDING RAINBOW drops "Images," ahead of Interrupt.

BILLY PRESTON: "Nothing From Nothing."

BROKEN BELLS: Danger Mouse and James Mercer talk to Drowned In Sound about After The Disco. 

SLINT: David Pajo and Brian McMahan talk to Pitchfork about the way history has distorted their small-town origins and slowly turned them into unwitting post-rock legends.

MOGWAI guitarist Stuart Brathwaite talks to PopMatters about the band's new album Rave Tapes.  

ROBERT POLLARD talks to MAGNET about throwing a no-hitter in college.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN: Cops raided a Manhattan drug den Tuesday night and arrested suspected dealers who may have been the ones who sold heroin to him. The autopsy was inconclusive; more tests are required. Screenwriter David Bar Katz denies accounts that he and the Oscar-winning actor were romantically involved.

JUSTIN BIEBER and his father were “extremely abusive” to a flight attendant as their private jet flew from Canada to New Jersey; the jet was so full of marijuana smoke that the pilots were forced to wear oxygen masks. Note that NBC News had four reporters on this story.

SELENA GOMEZ went to rehab last month, and blames it on Bieber.

WOODY ALLEN has asked for, and may get, a chance to respond to the revived child molestation story — in an Op-Ed piece in the NYT.

ELIZABETH HURLEY & BILL CLINTON? Tom Sizemore says yes; Hurley says nah.

KIM KARDASHIAN & KANYE WEST have decided to push up their wedding date.

CHARLIZE THERON & SEAN PENN are already talking about getting married? Too awful to check.

LADY GAGA became very depressed at the end of 2013.

EVANGELINE LILLY may co-star in Edgar Wright's Ant-Man.

ARTHUR RANKIN, the producer of the classic Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman animations, died of undisclosed causes Jan. 30 in Harrington Sound, Bermuda. He was 89.

LIBYA: The army said it has not been ordered to move against forces blockading the eastern oil ports.

SYRIA on Wednesday missed a deadline to hand over all the toxic materials it declared to the world's chemical weapons watchdog, putting the program several weeks behind schedule and jeopardizing a final June 30 deadline. Shocka. Failure in Syria may doom any nuclear deal with Iran. The Suqour al-Sham, an Islamist brigade in the Islamic Front, agreed to a truce with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham; the Free Syrian Army-linked Syrian Revolutionaries' Front, which has clashed with the Islamic Front, condemned the ceasefire as illegitimate.

IRAN: The Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran told semi-official television the current nuclear negotiations only extend the moratorium on not injecting gas into their centrifuges for another six months. Iran’s Chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi says that Iran will not give up the Arak reactor.

IRAQ: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham killed 23 people in four bombings in Baghdad. Two of the attacks used suicide bombers, and both occurred near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

LIL BUB & ANDREW W.K. rock out.

A POOCH chewed his way through his owner's £80,000 Aston Martin. And is now available for adoption!

VULTURES take up residence in South Daytona. It's a bit early for Spring Break.

A CAT missing for three years has been found fatter than when he vanished - after hiding out in a pasty factory.

BROKEN BELLS covers "And I Love Her" at the Ed Sullivan Theater for Beatles Week.

MAYER HAWTHORNE stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic.

THE AUGUSTINES stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic.

BELL X1 stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

JAKE BUGG plays songs from his new record, Shangri La, in the studio at OPB.

THE NATIONAL covers Perfume Genius's "Learning" as a B-side.

PHANTOGRAM drops "Bill Murray" ahead of their forthcoming album Voices.

GENTLE FRIENDLY drop "Autumn Nite" ahead oftheir next LP.

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD covers "People Get Ready."

BOB DYLAN's 115th SELL-OUT: Michael Moynihan sorta nails it.Frankly, I dout Dylan would have done a hyper-American ad if it hadn't been for an Italia-owned company moving to the Netherlands.

MARK KOZELEK talks to Pitchfork about the harrowing backstories, both true and slightly fictional, behind the vivid, emotionally raw new Sun Kil Moon album.

PETULA CLARK talks to CBS about her new album, John Lennon, and more...

CONOR OBERST interviews OSCAR ISSAC about Inside Llewyn Davis. 

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN will be remebered at a private funeral in NY. Police are reviewing his personal diaries in the hopes of finding answers. CNN tried to piece together his final hours.

PAUL WALKER was worth 25 million when he died and there seems to be some possibility of a family conflict.

WOODY ALLEN was defended by Barbara Walters, and his attorney, who suggesteed the child molestation charge made by Dylan Farrow was fabricated. Slate notes that a court had a different opinion of the lawyer's claim.

JUSTIN BIEBER will be dogged indefinitely by customs.

GWYNETH PALTROW: Graydon Carter gives his story of Vanity Fair's feud with Goop. If you believe it.

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO & JONAH hill will re-team for a film about Richard Jewell.

RICHARD BULL, who was known for his role as shopkeeper Nels Oleson on the 1974-1983 show ‘Little House on the Prairie', died on Feb. 4 at age 89.

SYRIA: Last year's agreement to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons left President Bashar al-Assad in a strengthened position, and there appears little chance rebels will soon force him from power, the U.S. intelligence chief told Congress on Tuesday. The first UN report on the fate of children in Syria over the past two years details "unspeakable" abuses, including torture by government forces and the use of child soldiers by the opposition.

LEBANON: A judge issued an arrest warrant for Sunni preacher Omar Atrash, suspected of links to al Qaeda car bombings and attacks on Lebanese forces.

EGYPT: The Foreign Ministry requested that Qatar hand over Islamists who have fled to the Gulf power.

OFF THE GATOR'S HEAD is a tough shot.

AN AMOROUS PIG was called in as suspected domestic violence.

100 CHICKENS were stopped in a small SUV in Grand Island, Nebraska.

CHUPACABRA sighting near Houston, allegedly.

THE LOVE LANGUAGE produced a minimalist version of "Faithbreaker" for the video.

CIBO MATTO is advance streaming Hotel Valentine.

TINARIWEN is advance streaming Emmaar.

ARCTIC MONKEYS stopped by WFUV for a chat and mini-set.

POTTY MOUTH stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set. 

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS: "Fall" and "Sleep Comes Down" for Twofer Tuesday.

U2: Bono tells USA Today the band returned to listening to music from the late '70s for inspiration on their upcoming LP...but may not sound like it.

ROBERT CHRISTGAU: The 2013 Dean's List.

DUM DUM GIRLS:  Dee Dee talks to Pitchfork about the soundtrack of her life. 

BRIAN WILSON's Secret Bedroom Tapes. Post-Smile. 

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN: Law enforcement authorities at the scene of his death found 49 full bags of heroin, 23 empty bags of heroin, four bags of white powder believed to be cocaine, as well as various prescription drugs.  It is yet unknown whether the heroin was tainted. Investigators are looking for the drug dealer, with attention on surveillance video of an ATM.  The NYT's A.O. Scott essays Hoffman's gallery of characters. Cameron Crowe wrote about PSH's work as Lester Bangs in Almost Famous.

JERRY SEINFELD & GEORGE COSTANZA: The full episode teased during the Super Bowl.

MILEY CYRUS does her shtick for W magazine.

JUSTIN BIEBER, caught on strip club video.

CHRIS BROWN: Prosecutors want him jailed immediately.

VANITY FAIR unveils this year's Hollywood cover. No American Hustle?

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE's 50 GREATEST SKETCHES, according to Rolling Stone.

EGYPT: The head of the Muslim Brotherhood, along with 50 others, was referred to trial on charges of inciting violence.

LIBYAN and US officials said all of Libya's remaining chemical weapons have been destroyed during a secret US-led operation over the past three months at a site in the Libyan desert.

SYRIA: After al Qaeda disowned the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, a prominent pro-al Qaeda Saudi cleric called on ISIS members to defect. An Islamic Front official praised al Qaeda's move, and claimed ISIS is now "without cover or co-sponsor ... totally stripped after al Qaeda and the people abandoned it."

IRAQ: A series of attacks in and around Baghdad, including a spate of car bombings, killed 24 people Monday as Iraqi forces pressed an assault against militant-held areas of Anbar province.

AL THE CORGI: Let's go to the slo-mo.

FRENCH KITTEN TOSSER faces jail time.

RATS could become bigger than cows. It's science.

RESCUE DOG: Really rescued.

NEKO CASE played on Prairie Home Companion last Saturday. 

TEMPLES advance streams Sun Structures.

ERIC CHURCH advance streams The Outsiders.

THUMPERS advance stream Galore.

U2 dropped "Invisible" ahead of their next LP, icymtsb.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS drop "Made Up English Oceans" ahead of English Oceans. (Thx LHB.)

NEIL YOUNG: "The Needle and the Damage Done." RIP, PSH.

THE BLACK LIPS talked to SPIN about their forthcoming album, Underneath the Rainbow. 

BEATLEMANIA: The Fab Four's arrival in America, 50 years ago, surveyed by the New York Times.

GREEN DAY: Dookie turns 20. Srsly, get off my lawn.

ANNA GORDY GAYE, the sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy and former wife of the late Marvin Gaye, with whom she co-wrote songs for his "What's Going On" album, died at her home in Los Angeles early Friday morning. She was 92.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Ride Along threepeats atop the chart with 12.3 million, reflecting H'wood's conservatism on Super Bowl weekend. Frozen moved backup into the second slot with 9.3 million after releasing a sing-along version. That Awkward Momentopened with 8 million -- not bad against an 8 million budget (indeed, the pickup cost was really 1.5 plus marketing), and better than Zac Efrons last few films...but it will likely die when better movies arrive next Friday. At No. 4, The Nut Job is stillmanagging to business in a Frozen world, taking in another 7.6 million. Lone Survivor rounds out the Top 5 with 7.1 million as it crosses the 100 million mark.  Below the fold, Jack Ryan ekes out sixth place, but crosses the 100 million mark worldwide. Labor Day debuted in seventh place with 5.3 million, so good thing the budget was only 18 million.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired American actor of his generation, who gave three-dimensional nuance to a wide range of sidekicks, villains and leading men on screen and embraced some of the theater’s most burdensome roles on Broadway, died of an apparent heroin overdose Sunday at an apartment in Greenwich Village. He was 46. Mediaite collects clips from his remarkable body of work (missing Doubt, too).

MAXIMILLIAN SCHELL, the ruggedly handsome Austrian-born actor who won an Academy Award for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg, died early Saturday in Innsbruck, Austria. He was 83. He was alsoan Oscar-nominated director, not to mention the villain in The Black Hole.

DYLAN FARROW described being allegedly molested at age 7 by Woody Allen.Asked about it after a Knicks game, Allen pretended to fumble with his phone. Allen's rep says he found it untrue.  Variety reminds us court appointed independent experts found no credible evidence of molestation; People reminds us the prosecutor thought he had probable cause to charge Allen, but did not due to the child's fragility.

JUSTIN BIEBER and a pal double-teamed a stripper during a party at an L.A. recording studio. NSFW pic.

KANYE WEST will not be prosecuted for assaulting an 18-year-old who allegedly hurled a racial slur at West's wife, Kim Kardashia.  West's monetary settlement with the man almost guaranteed this.

OWEN WILSON welcomed a second son, with personal trainer, Caroline Lindqvist.

JESSE EINSENBERG has been cast as Lex Luthor in Batman vs Superman. Yes, really. And Jeremy Irons as Alfred.

THE UNITED STATES: t the Munich Security Conference, Secretary of State Kerry and Secretary of Defense Hagel called on European allies to step up their participation with the US in facing joint political and security challenges. Kerry rejected charges that the US is disengaging from a leadership role.

LIBYA: Authorities said 55 inmates escaped from Tripoli's Bawabat Al-Jibs prison after overpowering the five guards on duty. The jailbreak reflects the instability plaguing the country; in July over 1,000 prisoners escaped from al-Kweifiya prison near Benghazi.

EGYPT: A jihadist group behind a wave of spectacular attacks poses a serious threat to Egypt's stability as political turmoil triggered by the Islamist president's ouster rocks the country, analysts say.

AFGHANISTAN: Pres. Hamid Karzai admits that he has not spoken to Barack Obama in seven months as he reveals the complete breakdown of trust between his country and the United States.

ALICE the FRENCH BULLDOG reacts to her own Tube video. So meta.

MEATBALL is a 36-lb cat in a Phoenix shelter.

A SNOWY OWL was taken to the National Zoo for treatment after reportedly being hit by a bus in DC.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: Appeasement.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

First D.J.: "Rise and shine, campers and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today." Second D.J.: "It's cold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach?" First D.J.: "Not hardly. So the big question o­n everybody's lips..." Second D.J.: "O­n their chapped lips..." First D.J.: "...their chapped lips is, 'Does Phil feel lucky?' Punxsatawney Phil! That's right, woodchuck chuckers it's...

(IN UNISON): GROUNDHOG DAY!!!"

Sunday, Punxsutawney Phil ---  the Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary will predict whether we will have six more weeks of winter.  According to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, Phil has seen his shadow 97 times, and hasn't seen it (predicting an early spring) only 14 times.  Phil's track record is hotly disputed, though he's has had a pretty good run recently.  Nevertheless, thousands will await the sunrise and the groundhog at Gobbler's Knob in the tiny Pennsylvania hamlet that has become known as the "Weather Capital of the World," due in no small part to the movie that makes every day Groundhog Day.

This is o­ne time where the Internet really fails to capture the true excitement of a movie about a large squirrel predicting the weather. However, you can see the trailer as a refresher (while BuzzFeed compiles trivia).

In 2005, Roger Ebert revisited Groundhog Day, declaring that the film "finds its note and purpose so precisely that its genius may not be immediately noticeable. It unfolds so inevitably, is so entertaining, so apparently effortless, that you have to stand back and slap yourself before you see how good it really is."

At the other end of the political spectrum, Jonah Goldberg's equally effusive movie meditation grabbed the cover of National Review: "When I set out to write this article, I thought it'd be fun to do a quirky homage to an offbeat flick, o­ne I think is brilliant as both comedy and moral philosophy. But while doing what I intended to be cursory research -- how much reporting do you need for a review of a twelve-year-old movie that plays constantly o­n cable? -- I discovered that I wasn't alone in my interest. In the years since its release the film has been taken up by Jews, Catholics, Evangelicals, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and followers of the oppressed Chinese Falun Gong movement."

Indeed, a 2004 article mentioned by Ebert (but not linked) from London's Independent observes that the Harold Ramis comedy has been hailed by some religious leaders as the most spiritual film of all time. More examples can be found at the NYT and the Christian Science Monitor.

As Phil Connors ultimately observed: "When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter."

ACCORDINGLY, we start off the weekend:

...with Sonny & Cher o­n Hullabaloo and famously o­n Letterman years later, plus UB40 with Chrissie Hynde, not to mention The Cynics (from the Bonograph tribute CD), and David Bowie & Marianne Faithfull. A bit more for Fivefer Friday.

BLITZEN TRAPPER stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set. 

WARPAINT plays a mini-set for KEXP from the Cutting Room Studio in NYC.

RICHARD BUCKNER plays unplugged at the KEXP studio.

ANGEL OLSEN played a Tiny Desk Concert at the offices of NPR.

YUCK drops "Athena" ahead of the Southern Skies EP. (No, it's not The Who tune.)

THE BIRD & THE BEE, with an assist from The National's Matt Berringer, drop “All Our Endless Love,” from the Endless Love soundtrack.

NENA: "99 Luftbalons." Because I found myself watching Watchmen the other night.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS talks to the Village Voice about the 25th anniversary expanded edition of her self-titled LP.

FUTURE ISLANDS talk to Pitchfork about their ambitious new album Singles and why being a careerist in the world of music isn't such a terrible thing.

T-BONE BURNETT talks to Drowned in Sound about scoring the Coen Bros' Inside Llewyn Davis.

THE BUZZCOCKS' A Different Kind Of Tension -- essayed by The A.V. Club.

CUTOUT BIN: From Oscar Issac & Marcus Mumford to David Bowie & Joy Division, from Jeff Buckley to X-Ray Spex, from Al Green to Of Montreal, plus the Lovin' Spponful, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, The Cure, Wrens and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are That Awkward Moment, which is currently scoring 21 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and Labor Day, which is scoring 35 percent.

JUSTIN BIEBER was “excited, talkative, insulting, cocky” and profane when he was arrested in Miami Beach last week. He was also on weed and pills, accoring to the toxicology report.

JERRY SEINFELD and George Costanza, together again.

SHARKNADO: Ian Ziering and Tara Reid return for the New York-set sequel.

MILEY CYRUS & MADONNA grind on a MTV Unplugged medley. Shocka.

LINDSAY LOHAN claims half of her 75K coat went missing at a New York nightclub.

THE UNITED STATES: Federal prosecutors said they plan to seek the death penalty for suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

SYRIA: The US blamed Syria for delays in the removal of its chemical weapons arsenal.

LIBYA: The son of the Libyan army's special forces commander was kidnapped in Benghazi.

IRAQ: An Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham suicide assault team killed 17 Iraqis in an attack on the Transportation Ministry in Baghdad; the six suicide bombers were also killed.

HAMSTERS Playing Dead.

A DOG was charged with biting a bank worker’s penis in Lagos.

DOG-SLED TAXIS now available at Kirkenes Airport in Norway.

COLONEL MEOW, internet predecessor to Grumpy Cat, has passed away.