ARCTIC MONKEYS ask: “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?” OKKERVIL RIVER advance streams The Silver Gymnasium. THE JULIE RUIN -- Kathleen Hanna's latest band -- advance streams Run Fast. NICKI BLUM & THE GRAMBLERS played a set at the Newport Folk Festival, including a Linda Ronstadt tune. RADIATION CITY fills the KEXP studio with a mini-set of psychedelic folk-pop. THE REPLACEMENTS: Paul & Tommy reunited 32 years from the day they released "Sorry, Ma..." UPDATE 2: Slicing Up Eyeballs collects video of "Takin' A Ride", "Favorite Thing", "Color Me Impressed", "Alex Chilton," and "Bastards Of Young." UPDATE: More sound (check comments at the link). ALSO: The story behind to cover of Tim. FRANZ FERDINAND's Alex Kapranos recently spoke with All Things Considered about writing in cafés, the cryptic note that inspired the new album's title, and why he's leery of going into the studio underprepared. LINDA RONSTADT says she suffers from Parkinson's disease, which has robbed her ability to sing. NEIL YOUNG, ranked by Stereogum. WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The Butler repeats atop the chart with 17 million on a decent 31 percent drop. The timing and marketing is roughly the same as The Help, which already had a fanbase from the book and bigger stars. We're The Millers threpeats at second with another 13.5 million and closes in on the 100 million mark on a 37 million budget. The Mortal Instruments shows with a disappointing 9.3 million of the disappinting 14 million it has grossed since last Wednesday. Lesson: Only Twilight is Twilight. The World's End opens at No. 4 with 8.9 million against a 20 million budget (but another 16 million abroad). Planes clings to the bottom of the Top 5 with 8.6 million and 56 million domestic against a 50 million budget. Belowthe fold, the long-shelved You're Next opened in seventh place with 7 million, despite mostly positive reviews. THE WORLD'S END is the finale of the so-called Cornetto trilogy drom director Edgar Wright, who previously starred Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This one skews closer to Shaun as a bit of a takeoff on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Indeed, while the original Invasion was widely seen as an anti-Communist sort of film, The World's End might make a bolder and harder case for freedom. After all, the original Invasion and the 1978 remake both tended to posit love as the polar opposite of totalitarianism. The World's End has much to say about friendship in that role -- and a bit more about friendship and maturity in general -- but ultimately makes a case for freedom absent from ealrier iterations in this subgenre. I would stress, however, that I doubt this crew set out to make a polemic (esp given the final scene with Frost), and The World's End works just fine as a jaunty British comedy in the mold of the prior two, with plenty of action to boot. Recommended. THE MTV VMAS went to these folks. But what you really want recapped is the Miley Cyrus, er, performance. You'll likely have the same reaction as Will Smith's kids. ALEC BALDWIN and his wife Hilaria welcome a daughter. LINDSAY LOHAN: Headed to HBO? KHLOE HKARDAHIAN and LAMAR ODOM's marriage crisis is triggered by hardcore drug abuse? BRYAN CRANSTON is rumored to be cast as Lex Luthor in the Superman/Batfleck picture. GILBERT TAYLOR, cinematographer for some films you may recognize -- including A Hard Day’s Night, Dr. Strangelove, Frenzy, The Omen, and Star Wars -- died at age 99. SYRIAN state media says the government has reached an agreement to allow a UN team of experts to visit the site of last week's alleged chemical weapons attack. A senior US official said that there was "very little doubt" a chemical weapon had been used by the Syrian regime, but added that any decision to open the site to UN inspectors was "too late to be credible". IRAN warned that the US would face "harsh consequences" if it intervened in Syria, in the wake of allegations that the Assad regime used chemical weapons in a recent attack. IRAQ: Al Qaeda in Iraq killed 31 people in bombings and attacks in Baghdad, Balad, and Baqubah. CRIKEY: The call of the kookaburra. GLUE-SPITTING VELVET WORMS are discovered in Vietnam. THE SQUIRREL THREAT: We're not saying it's squirrels, just that squirrels have taken down the Nasdaq before. MYSTERY CAT prowls northeast Detroit. Looks like a lynx to me.
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