THAO with the GET DOWN STAY DOWN covered the Lovin' Spoonful's "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" for Record Store Day.  Thao Nguyen is profiled in the Washington Post.

THE CURE is streaming all 30 songs from their secret show at L.A.'s Troubadour.

PETER BJORN & JOHN stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set streaming on demand via MPR.

THE WALKMEN stopped by WNEW for a chat and acoustic mini-set streaming on demand.

MICACHU and the SHAPES talk to Paste about the band's name and kitchen-sink pop, with embedded audio.

NEKO CASE plays "This Tornado Loves You" at the Ed Sullivan Theater.

MAC McCAUGHAN of Superchunk, Portastatic and Merge Records does a Q&A with MAGNET, including Portastatic's cover of GbV's "Echoes Myron.

THE DECEMBERISTS -- and Carson Ellis, Colin Meloy's wife and band artist -- are profiled in Paste. Drowning, nerds, hard rock, etc.

ANDREW BIRD is profiled at Filter: "I ended up completely changing the way I make music out there. And when you spend that much time alone, you definitely find out who or what your demons are."

M WARD is profiled by the Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette: Ward says he assembles his songs from snippets, half-songs, bridges, choruses and hooks he has recorded over the course of two decades. Ward says he has 500 such recordings and no system for organizing them.

BOB SEGER and his bassist are getting sued over an automobile accident. Like a rock.

LINDSAY LOHAN is drowning her sorrows over her breakup with Samantha Ronson in a sea of men - and some friends are terrified she'll go down the road Britney Spears traveled two years ago.

BEYONCE KNOWLES's raw  "board mix" is almost as bad as the late Linda McCartney's board mix.

ANGELINA JOLIE is signing onto a film franchise based on Patricia Cornwell's bestselling book series on medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE: No evidence suggests Rafiq Qureshi tried to sell his young daughter, Sumdog Millionaire actress Rubina Ali, police in Mumbai announced Wednesday.

TOM CRUISE is a one-man economic stimulus to the script doctoring business.

DENISE RICHARDS shows off her funbags.

MICHAEL PHELPS is dating Miss California?

HARRY POTTER: Daniel Radcliffe talks about the cliffhanger splitting of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

IRAN welcomes "constructive" talks with world powers on its nuclear program but insists the Islamic state will press ahead with its disputed work.  Meanwhile, the state-run news agency ran a story on its website praising the unveiling of an Iranian-made drone, that according to the Israeli daily Maariv bears a striking resemblance to an earlier photo taken in Israel of an Israeli-made drone.

PAKISTAN: So, how's that peace deal working out?  The Taliban have issued a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the Pakistani government, by declaring the country's entire legal system "un-Islamic."  The Taliban have seized control of another district in the country's northwest just 70 miles from the capital after consolidating their hold on the Swat valley.  The Daily Beast's Gerald Posner reports that Taliban forces are on the verge of seizing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

CAT vs. PIGEON: Who you got?

BUGGING BUGS: Tiny radio transmitters have been attached to ants to study their nest-hunting habits.

A BLACK BEAR is on the loose in Broward County, FL.

EAGLE mugs a 69-year-old woman in Austria.

THE BEAVER BAFFLE SYSTEM is being erected in Annapolis.  Hey, nice beaver!

CRACKER: Somehow I missed the video for "Yalla Yalla" in advance of the band's next album, due in may.

ST. VINCENT: Annie Clark is advance streaming the Actor album via NPR.

ROBYN HITCHCOCK stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set streaming now via MPR.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: Indie supergroup The Dead Weather, Bill Callahan and Radiohead make tracks in the latest edition of the long-running NPR series.

THE 50 MOST HEART-BREAKING SONGS of ALL-TIME, according to Entertainment Weekly.

THE SWEPTAWAYS & JENS LEKMAN: It's hard to go wrong with a title like "Happiness Will Be My Revenge." And the video is like the twee version of the Replacements' videos for Tim.

P.J. HARVEY & JOHN PARISH talk to BlackBook about their anticipated new collaborative album, which "invokes the blues shot through with Gothic Americana, closer in tone to Flannery O'Connor than any of (Harvey's) alt peers."

DEERHUNTER offers "Rainwater Cassette Exchange" as a preview of their upcoming EP.

DOVES talk to PopMatters about their development in the Manchester music world, the pressures of living up to their potential, and the new Kingdom of Rust LP.

PINK FLOYD are suing their record label, EMI, over royalty payments.

LINDSAY LOHAN says she is not interested in starring in Vegas's Peepshow... but would be open to a guest shot.

MADONNA: Cops doubt Madge's story that a paparazzo jumped out of the bushes and spooked her horse.

BRADGELINA rumor roundup.

MICHELL RODRIGUEZ got fast and furious as a bridesmaid at the four-day wedding of her best friend and manager, Giancarlo Chersich

EMMA WATSON talks to Interview about Potterworld and growing up Granger.

WOLVERINE has a bit of a fight scene online.

JESSICA BIEL is really NSFW playing a stripper in the upcoming Powder Blue. Call it extremely Gratuitous Wednesday.

J.J. ABRAMS has turned the latest issue of Wired magazine into a series of puzzles.

IRAN: The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps has deployed to the eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan to counter an unnamed "enemy conspiracy."

AFGHANISTAN: The father of the education minister was kidnapped in Wardak province.  The government claimed it conducted negotiations with the Taliban; the Taliban denied the claim.

IRAQ: Security forces have arrested four children who were allegedly part of a group of youngsters being groomed by al-Qaeda to become suicide bombers.

ALPACA PILE-UP: Let's go to the video.

PIG BROTHER:  Meet Piggy, Lilly, Pauli and Fredi, the stars of Austria's latest reality show.

FISH can get seasick?

GIANT NAZI COWS are on the loose in Britain.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A ginormous monkey butt.

BOB DYLAN drops the video for "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'," the bluesy opening track to the upcoming Together Through Life LP.  The video features a 1959 series of photos taken by Bruce Davidson called "Brooklyn Gang" -- you can take a longer look at some of them at Magnum.

NEW RELEASES: Camera Obscura, Tinted Windows, King Khan & the Shrines, The Dukes of Stratospheare, Depeche Mode and more are streaming in full this week via Spinner.

SONIC YOUTH has an advance track, "Sacred Trickster" posted for download at Matador.

BOB MOULD talks to Express Night Out about solo recording, the Internet, and more...

FLEET FOXES; Robin Pecknold reflects on the "insanity" of the band's success in the Times of London.

YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS: Having just caught Scott McCaughey as part of the Venus 3 at a rocking Robyn Hitchcock gig last Saturday, I roll out his YFF cranking out "I Don't Let The Little Tings Get Me Down" and "Rock & Roll Pest Control" raw for Twofer Tuesday.

WILCO: Jeff Tweedy talks to SPIN about the as-yet untitled new album.

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS is touring Down Under: Alejandra Deheza talks to the Sydney Morning Herald, while twin sis Claudia talks to The Age.

SUPERDRAG: The Village Voice covers their "snarling, ferocious comeback."

DEPECHE MODE talks to USA Today about the upcoming album (their 12th) and tour, stints in rehab, songwriting, etc.

LINDSAY LOHAN is reportedly in talks to star in a topless show in Vegas.  Too good to check!

MADONNA: The paparazzo who claims he was the only pap around when Madonna fell off her horse on Saturday says he isn't to blame for her fall - and he claims Madonna's peeps are straight up lying about what went down.

ELLEN POMPEO of Grey's Anatomy is knocked up.

MANDY MOORE jokes that she could hire hubby Ryan Adams for her band.

JULIA STILES writes about the Yankees, the Mets and Wrigley Field in the Wall Street Journal.  Which is a sentence I never would have guessed I would type.

TRANSFORMERS: Michael Bay posted a scene from the sequel he previewed at ShoWest, which Paramount started taking down after about 12 hours.  If only there was somewhere you could still see the scene where Megan Fox disrobes and such... Oh, wait!

ROBIN HOOD: USA Today has the first look at the reportedly troubled Russell Crowe-Ridley Scott take on the legend.

OUR FRIENDS THE SAUDIS censor a Katy Perry photo with all the subtlety of a magic marker.

IRAN: As Pres. Ahmadinejad called for the eradication of Israel in his address to the UN "anti-racism" conference which opened in Geneva on Monday, some 23 EU delegates walked out, hecklers wearing clown-wigs shouted 'racist' towards him and were escorted out by security personnel. Video at the link.  The day before, Ahmadinejad had sought to cast himself as a defender of human rights by urging Tehran's chief prosecutor to fairly examine the cases of an Iranian-American journalist and an Iranian-Canadian blogger.

DJ KITTEH: Stay for the big finish!

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: Ashes, the hairless chimp.

A GIANT GROPER washes up on a Northern Territory beach.  BTW, that's a fish.

COWS band together to stop youth gangs in Swaythling, Southampton.  Moove along, now.

WOMBAT DROPPINGS help an industrial city in Australia fight the effects of the global financial crisis.

M WARD gets animated for the video of his cover of Buddy Holly's "Rave On," backed by Zooey Deschanel.

COLD WAR KIDS stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set streaming now via MPR.

THE SHYS did the four or five free songs thing for Daytrotter, including two versions of the Ian Hunter-esque "She's Already Gone."

IDA MARIA talks to Decider L.A. about synthesia, bleeding onstage, and more...

GOMEZ is profiled by the Wall Street Journal, with streaming audio of "Airstream Driver" at the link.

SKY LARKIN has a video out for "Antibodies" from the tough-to-find Golden Spike album.

THE PIRATE BAY's founders were found guilty of breaking copyright law and were sentenced to a year in jail.

BILL CALLAHAN: The artist formerly known as Smog talks to The A.V. Club about his new album, how it differs from his firt non-Smog LP, etc.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS: Gruff Rhys talks to Artrocker about the new album, his side projects, time travel, etc.

DEVENDRA BANHART talks to the Petaluma Press-Democrat while listening to '70s British funk band Cymande in a rented van "somewhere on I-5."

THE HANDSOME FAMILY: Rennie Sparks talks to the Chicago Tribune about their eighth studio album, "Honey Moon," which celebrates 20 years of marriage to bandmate Brett Sparks.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: 17 Again tops the box office with 24 million, doing well enough over the course of the weekend that it may just have legs.  State of Play placed with 14.1 million, a bit better than Russell Crowe's last pic, Body of Lies.  Mosters vs. Aliens showed again, but has yet to match its production budget in the US.  Fortunately for Dreamworks, the worldwide total is over 250 million.  Hannah Montana slid to fourth place with 12.6 million (a 60 percent drop); even so, this one has made almost four times its estimated 15 million budget.  Fast & Furious rounds out the Top Five with 12.3 million, with a 55 percent drop, but this one is already profitable to the tune of 50 million in the US.  Below the fold, Crank: High Voltage debuted in sixth with 6.5 million, while Observe & Report roughly breaks even in seventh place.

ANDY RODDICK & BROOKLYN DECKER got hitched in Austin, TX.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE: The father of Rubina Ali, one of the film's stars, denied he had offered the nine-year-old for sale for £200,000 in an illegal adoption deal offered by an undercover reporter from the News of the World.

MADONNA was tossed to the ground Saturday when her horse was startled by photographers while riding on a Hamptons estate.

BRITNEY SPEARS: A woman who was arrested for allegedly peering into Britney Spears's California home has said that it was part of a "joke".

LINDSAY LOHAN threw herself at Leo DiCaprio.  Meanwhile, Samantha Ronson is reportedly doing fine after spiltting with Lindsay Lohan. Was anyone worried?

BILL MURRAY autographs a copy of Caddyshack for the woman he plunked with a wayward tee shot at a pro-am golf tourney.  Cinderella story.GWYNETH PALTROW: Taking a dig at Wynona Ryder?

BRAD PAISLEY and According to Jim actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley have welcomed a son.

DREW BARRYMORE denies rumors that she is back with Justin Long.

IRAN: An Iranian-American journalist branded a US spy has been jailed for eight years by Iran after a brief trial held behind closed doors. Meanwhile, the Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government.

PAKISTAN: Here's a Taliban biker gang in the Swat valley.

AFGHANISTAN: The US ambushes the Taliban near Korangul Outpost.  It's the sort of success story the New York Times has not published very often, though it could have.

TICKLING A LORIS: Let's go to the video.

BABY MACAQUE plays hide-and-seek with its mom. Aww... some pics at the link.

BARNACLES adjust length and girth for conditions.

MAN BITES SNAKE: A Kenyan man bit a python which wrapped him in its coils and dragged him up a tree during a fierce three-hour struggle.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with ROBYN HITCHCOCK! I'll be seeing him with the Venus 3 tomorrow, so I wanted to warm up with the new "Up to Our Nex," chased with a handful of classics, including "Brenda's Iron Sledge," "Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl," "Heaven," "Uncorrected Personality Traits," an extra-wacky take on "Madonna of the Wasps" and a recent take on "I Often Dream Of Trains" backed by fellow Soft Boy Kimberley Rew.

RA RA RIOT stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set streaming on demand via MPR.

CRYSTAL STILTS did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter; I regret having missed them last week.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS are posting free downloads at their website.

BOB DYLAN talks to the Huffington Post about his favorite songwriters. Click-through for prior installments in the wide-ranging interview.

EVERY MOTHER'S SON: "Come On Down to My Boat," baby.

THE BREEDERS: the Deal sisters talk to Pitchfork about their new limited edition EP, the future of the Pixies, and Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse".

ALISON MOSSHART of the Kills and The Dead Weather talks to Interview about her stage persona, collapsing onstage, her influences, etc.

DUFFY talks to Interview about bad decisions, disappointing older men, etc. Actually, this piece is old, but it was new to me.

CUTOUT BIN: From Art Brut to the Defonics, from The Jam to Judas Priest, from Violent Femmes to Van Halen, plus The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, The Kinks and covers from Wilco, Jason & the Scorchers, The Boy Least Likely To, Liz Phair, the English Beat and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include: the Big-in-reverse comedy 17 Again, currently scoring 67 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; the thriller State of Play, currently scoring 81 percent; and Crank: High Voltage, which was not screened for critics (even though the original Crank got a pretty good score).

LINDSAY LOHAN got a family intervention, according to OK! magazine.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN is not "the other man" in a Jersey divorce case, according to the wife in question.

HEIDI KLUM is knocked up for the fourth time.

DREW BARRYMORE & JUSTIN LONG: Together again?

HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE: The third and final trailer is online.

JOSH HARTNETT says his stomach scare -- which sent him to the hospital last month -- is from drinking the water in third world countries.

WOODY ALLEN is suing American Apparel for using his image (without permission) on one of their billboards, so of course they now want infor about his sex life.

PAKISTAN: The leader of the July 2007 insurrection in Islamabad has been released from custody and will preach at the very mosque where he and his followers staged their battle against the Pakistani government. China is calling on the Pakistani government to deal with militants based there and allegedly plotting attacks in China later this year.

AFGHANISTAN: Commander Mansoor - a mid-level Taliban commander from southern Helmand - is simply looking for a way out.  The NYT chronicles US efforts to recruit for Afghan militias to fight the Taliban.

THE UNKNOWN KITTEH: Let's go to the video.

WOOD FROGS head for the orgy pool, because they can't eat until they've mated.

BERTIE THE HORSE discovers the power of corporate branding.

SNAKES on a PLANE: Four baby pythons escaped from a container aboard a passenger plane in Australia, leading to a search that forced the cancellation of two flights.  The story prompted an even wackier SoaP opera at... National Review?