THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE...

...with THE KINKS! Ray Davies celebrated a birthday this week (as did Brian Wilson) and the recent reissue of the early Kinks albums put me in a mood for their appearances on Shindig!, including "All Day and All of the Night," "Tired of Waiting For You," "Set Me Free," "You Really Got Me," "Who'll Be The Next In Line?," "It's Alright" and "I Gotta Move." Come for th fuzz guitars, stay for the go-go dancers.

FLORENCE & THE MACHINE, Live at the Wiltern.

MIKE WATT brings the Missingmen to Morning Becomes Eclectic.

1, 2, 3 did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter. Brian Wilson meets Adam Sandler?

YACHT played a Tiny Desk Concert at the offices of NPR.

BELL X1 played a set on the Mountain Stage.

BOB MOULD & THE ROOTS cover 0:45 of Sugar's "If I Can't Change Your Mind."

BOOKER T. JONES (ft. MMJ's Jim James): "Progress" tours Los Angeles.

BLAKE SENNETT (The Elected) talks to Paste about the songwriting process behind Bury Me in My Rings, the untouched brilliance of Peter Gabriel, and the death (and possible resurrection) of Rilo Kiley.

TUNE-YARDS: Merrill Garbus shares her current fave songs with the L.A. Times.

PATRICK WOLF talks to Billboard about Lupercalia, inspiration, getting engaged, and more...

DUANE EDDY talks to The Quietus about falling in love with Sheffield, England, chilli-filled Yorkshire pudding, and why Richard Hawley should be mayor.

CUTOUT BIN: From the Sex Pistols to the La's, from the Velvet Underground to They Might Be Giants, from the Four Tops to Weezer, from the Flaming Lips to Rod Stewart and the Small Faces, plus the Beatles, Yuck, Big Star, Art Brut, Brian Wilson and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are now streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Cars 2, which is currently scoring 38 percent on the ol' Tomatometer (shocking from Pixar); and Bad Teacher, which is scoring xx percent.

LINDSAY LOHAN tested positive for alcohol on June 12 or June 13, and has been ordered to appear in front of an L.A. County Superior Court judge this morning.  The Probation Dept. wanted her in jail... but Judge Stephanie Sautner ruled the prior judge - Elden Fox - only required controlled substances testing, not alcohol testing.

JENNIFER ANISTON & JUSTIN THEROUX: Caught canoodling on camera.

JUSTIN BIEBER was tackled and knocked to the ground by a man who jumped a barricade outside Macy's in New York.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON was out until 3:30 a.m. with Justin Timberlake and others the other night.

HUGH HEFNER'S Lifetime TV marriage special is now going to have a 'runaway bride' theme and will air in July. Lemonade!

EMMA STONE has been offered the lead in Pride, Prejudice and Zombies.

JAMIE FOXX will star in the next Quentin Tarantino film.

THE HOBBIT: First Look.

CAPTAIN AMERICA has a new trailer online.

YEMEN: A battle for the control of the Yemeni government in the absence of Ali Abdullah Saleh has pitted his son and other family members against the acting president and his supporters. A top American official called for "immediate" transfer of power, which some say is just taking advantage of Saleh's absence

SYRIAN troops and armored vehicles are sweeping through villages in an advance towards the Turkish border, witnesses say.

LIBYA: Gaddafi said he did not fear death and defiantly vowed to fight "to the beyond," as NATO insisted there would be no let-up in its air war despite Italian calls for a cessation.

IRAQ: Al Qaeda in Iraq has executed five major suicide attacks this month, two against provincial headquarters.

FIRST DOG Fitted With Four Prosthetic Paws.

CI, the world's worst sheepdog, is afraid of sheep. Video at the link.

RABID GROUNDHOG discovered as far west as Michigan. Dinsdale!

DOLPHINS go gangsta on porpoises.

FLORENCE WELCH puts a N'awlins touch on her cover of "Not Fade Away" at the site for for the Buddy Holly tribute LP, which is streaming there and at NPR.

TAPES N' TAPES had the opening slot at Rock the Garden 2011; you can stream the gig via The Current.

THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set (with web extras).

AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

DENGUE FEVER also stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

GLEN CAMPBELL reveals he has Alzheimer's disease. He is both the "Wichita Lineman" and the "Rhinestone Cowboy."

THE BO-KEYS: Scott Bomar and Skip Pitts talk to Weekend Edition about their classic Memphis soul band; Pitts talks about playing guitar on the "Theme From Shaft."  You can stream the album this week at Spinner.

MOUNTAIN GOATS: John Darnielle talks to the OC Weekly about cassettes, Gogol, and Sriracha. (Thx, LHB.)

THE POSTELLES frontman Daniel Balk tells Spinner what sets his band apart (not using computers, for one) and how he feels about the unavoidable Strokes comparisons.

NOEL GALLAGHER (Oasis) got hitched to to his girlfriend of 11 years, Sara MacDonald.

CLARENCE CLEMONS: Flags fly at half-staff in New Jersey today to honor the late Big Man, by order of the governor.

GEORGE CLOONEY & ELISABETTA CANALIS have ended their two-year relationship.

TOBEY MAGUIRE is among more than a dozen high-profile Hollywood celebrities being sued in connection with a mega-millions illegal gambling ring that ran high-stakes underground poker games.

LINDSAY LOHAN pulled the plug on Matt Lauer, but gave an interview under house arrest to Life and Style.

JENNIEFR ANISTON: Ironic Boyfriend Stealer.

KATY PERRY talks faith, fame, body image and politics on the cover of the Rolling Stone.

PRINCE HARRY & PIPPA MIDDLETON? The Captain and the Commando.

MAD MAN, RICH MAN: Deadline reports Jon Hamm's blockbuster new three-year deal is in the eight figures, catapulting him in the top ranks of cable's leading men.

SPIDER-MAN co-stars Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield have been hooking up, or promoting the movie, or both.

YEMEN: A government spokesman insisted that Pres Saleh will return from Saudi Arabia this week.

SYRIA: Security forces killed seven people in the cities of Homs and Mayadeen. Troops opened fire on anti-regime protesters who showed up at rallies being held in support of President Assad.

PAKISTAN: Domestic support for the Pakistani military's campaign against Islamist militant groups has waned in recent years, a poll by a US group has found, showing deep-rooted opposition among the Pakistani public to the United States.

AFGHANISTAN: One group that does not share the international enthusiasm for Taliban peace talks is the majority of Afghans.

A BREAKDANCING GORILLA at the Calgary Zoo. Let's go to the video.

AN EMPEROR PENGUIN took a wrong turn from the Antarctic and ended up on a beach in New Zealand.

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: A deer goes to church.

GRINNING DOGS: Vaguely Creepy.

RADIOHEAD played a new song, "Staircase," at The Basement.

THE OLD 97s stopped by Oregon Public Broadcasting for a chat and mini-set.

EDWYN COLLINS did five free songs for Daytrotter.

HANDSOME FURS are advance streaming Sound Kapital.

TY SEGALL is streaming Goodbye Bread. And here's the Pitchfork revew.

JIM WARD & TEGAN QUIN duet on "Broken Songs."

BLONDIE: "Heart of Glass," filmed at Studio 54 in New York City, almost 30 years ago.

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE: Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood talk to Rolling Stone about their upcoming LP, mid-life laments, Tony Awards surprises - and Katy Perry.

EELS: Mark Oliver Everett talks to PopMatters about psychological rebuilding, his strict discipline of formal simplicity both in his prose and musical style, the loneliness of his creative process, and what kind of parallel universes might exist for him.

BOB MOULD: NPR excerpts part of Chapter One of his autobiography, See a Little Light.

AMY WINEHOUSE cancels her comeback tour after a disastrous opening.

LINDSAY LOHAN shot a commercial while on house arrest.

HUGH HEFNER let Crystal Harris keep the engagement ring.

RYAN DUNN (Jackass) and his passenger each died as result of both blunt force trauma and the fire that consumed Dunn's Porsche during the crash Monday morning, according to the Chester County Coroner.  Passenger Zachary Hartwell was a newywed former Navy Gunner's Mate who had been on two tours of Iraq.

ROGER EBERT courted controversy in tweeting about the Ryan Dunn story. Facebook took down his page for a few hours after complaints relating to the dustup. He conceded that he was perhaps too quick to tweet about the story.

LEO DiCAPRIO & BLAKE LIVELY are very much still together with an ultra-private getaway to Carmel, Calif., last week.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL teams up with adventure and survival expert Bear Grylls for an upcoming episode of ‘Man vs. Wild.'

NICK LACHEY & VANESSA MINNILLO: The wedding will be televised.

JUDY GREER is engaged to her boyfriend of about a year, producer Dean Johnsen.

IAN McSHANE has signed to play one of the dwarfs in Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman.

DOUG HUTCHISON, a character actor best known for roles in The Green Mile, Lost and The X-Files, married aspiring country singer Courtney Alexis Stodden on May 20 in Las Vegas. He is 51. She is 16.

YEMEN: More than 100 Yemeni soldiers have been killed while fighting al Qaeda int he Arabian Peninsula in the city of Zinjibar. The military was forced to withdraw two artillery brigades from the city.

IRAN: Parliament has moved to impeach Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, an ally of President Ahmedinejad.

AFGHANISTAN: Pakistan has cautioned the US that its peace talks with the Taliban might not make headway without clarity on ‘reconcilables' and without taking Islamabad and Kabul on board.

CATS DON'T CARE: An Illustration.

A "DEER WITH WINGS" knocks out power in Helena, Montana.

EIGHT OCTOPUSES in Germany will compete during the upcoming women's World Cup to determine which is the worthy successor to world-famous tipster Paul, organizers said Monday.

ZOOBORNS: 36 adorable new zoo babies.

SUPER-GENIUS COYOTE chased a cat through the cat door of an Oregon home.

YUCK released a NSFW video for "Shook Down."

NEW RELEASES from Bon Iver, Bo-Keys, Gomez, Paleo, BOBBY, Weird Al Yankovic and more are streaming this week at Spinner.

THE DECEMBERISTS played a Tiny Desk Concert at the offices of NPR.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND, Live at the Main Point, Bryn Mawr, PA, Feb. 5, 1975.

JOHN MAUS is advance streaming We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves. NPR says Maus "unabashedly borrows nearly everything in his bag of sounds from the 1980s school of analog synth-pop."

WILD FLAG drops "Romance" in advance of their eponymous debut LP.

JACKIE WILSON performs "Higher and Higher" plus "Lonely Teardrops" for Twofer Tuesday, introduced by Del Shannon and Roy Orbison. (via Pate's Jon Hahn).

FLEET FOXES: Robin Pecknold explains to The Guardian how the second album put the band in a 'dark place' and how they came through it.

BLACK LIPS singer/bassist Jared Swilley talks to OC Weekly about the new album and tour, plus all that gay stuff. (Thx, LHB.)  Guitarist Ian St. Pe talks about the LP with Prefix.

DESTROYER: Dan Bejar talks to The Quietus about the making of Kaputt, his lifelong love affair with British music, Momus and why "I can no longer afford to be held under Dylan or Lou Reed's sway."

THE ROSEBUDS: Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp discuss with Aquarium Drunkard the process in making Loud Planes Fly Low, and the second chance they have at making the "first" Rosebuds record.

MOUNTAIN guitarist Leslie West is recovering and is with his family following an emergency surgery over the weekend in which his leg had to be amputated.

LARRY "WILD MAN" FISCHER, street artist and outsider singer/songwriter, died in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 16 due to heart failure.

HUGH HEFNER, jilted just before his wedding, is already recruiting a new blonde. Shocka.

RYAN DUNN, who performed daredevil stunts in all three "Jackass" movies, died in a car crash Monday morning in West Goshen Township, Pa. He was 34. And he reportedly spent four hours in a Philadelphia-area bar before he got behind the wheel.

STEVEN SPIELBERG reportedly demanded Megan Fox be fired from the Transformers franchise after she compared director Michael Bay to Hitler.

MYSTERY CELEB HERPES CASE reportedly settles for over five million bucks.

SEAN PENN DUMPED SCARLETT JOHANSSON because she didn't know enough about politics, according to the National Enquirer. Too funny on too many levels to check.

HARRY POTTER: Daniel Radcliffe says it would be self-defeating to ever reprise the role.  Author J.K. Rowling has launched a mysterious new website named Pottermore.

HEATHER GRAHAM talks about her long, strange career.

THE HOBBIT: Peter Jackson announces the casting of Evangeline Lily via the Facebook.

IRAN: US SecDef Gates said Iran continues to support Shia terror groups in Iraq. Parliament banned the entry of the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran. The commander of the Basij said the UN is "a colonial institution and a puppet of arrogant powers."

EGYPT: Prime Minister Sharaf and the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces are under pressure to postpone September's parliamentary elections. The Muslim Brotherhood also announced that it will not run a candidate for president. Prominent Brotherhood member Abdul Monem aboul Fotouh was officially axed from the group on Saturday after revealing his plans to run as an "independent" candidate.

SYRIA: Assad pledged reforms within months to address a wave of protests against his rule, but blamed saboteurs for the unrest and warned that no deal could be reached with gunmen. Activists and analysts dismissed his promises.

AFGHANISTAN: US SecDef Gates confirmed that the US is holding "outreach" talks with members of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The US ambassador publicly reproached Pres Karzai for painting American forces here as occupiers and enemies. Relatively few Taliban leaders have taken up the goverment's offer to switch sides.

BIRD vs TURTLE: Who you got?

WHEN COWS ATTACK: A rural Iowa woman died after a cow attacked her while she was feeding her animals, leaving people baffled.

A LLAMA on the LAM was captured after months roaming central Oregon.

A WILY SNAKE escapes during a camping trip. Or maybe it wasn't the snake being wily so much as its owner being not so clever.

CLARENCE CLEMONS - the Big Man with the big horn - died Saturday of complications from a stroke he suffered last weekend, said Bruce Springsteen's spokeswoman. He was 69 years old.  Here's more from Rolling Stone and the New York Times.  And here he is in 1984, wailing, shaking 'em, and delightful as Bruce's foil on "Sherry Darlin'." The A.V. Club obit has still more video. And Spinner has one of his final appearances -- in Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory."

BUDDY HOLLY: Rave On, the star-studded tribute album, is advance streaming via NPR.

BOB MOULD read from his autobiography, answered audience qquestions and played a mini-set at the UBS Forum.

NELLIE McKAY plays a set on the Mountain Stage.

JAPANESE POPSTARS are advance streaming Controlling Your Allegiance.

SONIC YOUTH: "Out and In" is a previously unreleased track (2000) from a forthcoming four-vinyl-LP box set.

BATTLES dropped the danceable math-rock of "Futura" on Fallon.

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS: John Darnielle gives The Atlantic the backstory of "Dance Music."

THE HISTORY OF INDIE: A Guardian playlist which inexplicably skips The Replacements.

GUIDED BY VOICES: Robert Pollard talks to the Wall Street Journal and suggests the reunion may be more than touring.

VINCENT MOON, the French filmmaker responsible for the Takeaway Shows, is profiled by the New York Times.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Green Lantern tops the chart with 52.7 million against a 200 million budget. If not for the 3-D premium ticket price, this would have been in the 40s.  The NYT says it fizzles, but the WB may feel relieved that it did even this well given the intially bad marketing and nearly-universal negative reviews.  Worldwide receipts may produce a breakeven.  Super 8 drops 40 percent to the second slot with 21.3 million (and 72.8 million against a 50 million budget), which ain't bad considering the extra-wide openings of not only Green Lantern, but also Mr. Popper's Penguins, which debuted at No.3 with 18.2 million against a 55-65 million budget. Jim Carrey just ain't the draw he once was.  X-Men First Class took a hefty 52 percent hit in the fourth slot with 11.5 million, a victim of the Lantern.  However, the mutants cross the 100 million mark here, with more than that overseas.  The Hangover Part II rounds out the Top 5 with another 9.6 million; it has grossed over 450 million worldwide against an 80 million budget.

TOM CRUISE: Access Hollywood has the first look at him in Rock of Ages.

MAD MEL UPDATE: Gibson is now dating a goth model.

JOHN MALKOVICH talks to Andrew Dickson on video about being back on stage, John Wayne Gacy, and why he won't take lectures on politics from The Guardian.

KEANU REEVES talks about his first book, Ode to Happiness.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Marvel drops a dozen stills from the upcoming movie.

THE TOP 25 HIGHEST-PAID MUSIC ACTS, according to Forbes.

TERROR in the USA: Yonathan Melaku, a US Marine Reservist from Ethiopia and a Muslim, was arrested inside Arlington Cemetery for carrying suspicious package labeled ammonium nitrate. He also had a notebook with phrases such as "Al Qaeda," "Taliban rule," and "defeated coalition forces" written in it.

OUR FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS: A Saudi woman defiantly drove through the nation's capital Friday while others brazenly cruised by police patrols in the first forays of a campaign that hopes to ignite a road rebellion against the male-only driving rules in the ultraconservative kingdom.

PAKISTAN: US officials say Pakistan has apparently tipped off militants at two more bomb-building factories in its tribal areas. The officials say that allowed the militants to flee after US intelligence shared the locations with the Pakistani government.

AFGHANISTAN: Pres Karzai claimed the US is in peace talks with the Taliban.

EL WILLY DANCES: Let's go to the video.

COOPER the CAT: From budding photographer to media personality and author.

UNPERMITTED MONKEY, doing the work Americans won't do.

RATTLESNAKES don't like to be poked. I didn't think this needed to be publicized, but apparently not everyone got the memo.

THE ANARCHIST Dog-Walking Collective.