PINK FLOYD WEEK: The Shins led off the week on Fallon with "Breathe," while the band's official Tube channel hosts "The Geatest Gig In the Sky."

MASON JENNINGS performs at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis.

BON IVER stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

JESSE SYKES & THE SWEET HEREAFTER stopped by KEXP for a session.

IMELDA MAY gets a profile plus tracks from All Things Considered.

TOM WAITS drops "Back In The Crowd" in advance of Bad As Me.

ANDREW BIRD drops "Hospital" from the Norman soundtrack.

YUCK play "Rubber," Milkshake" and "The Wall" in Room 205.

THE BANGLES: Susanna Hoffs talks to Spinner about the band's new record, her 'Under the Covers' collaborations with Matthew Sweet, balancing children and music and how Prince brought the Bangles megastardom.

TELEVISION: Richard Lloyd is not a fan of the band's "new" material. And he's commenting about it on the Tube.

OKKERVIL RIVER frontman Will Scheff talks to The A.V. Club about his first time (onstage), and more...

THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME nominees are announced. The  Cure, Eric B. & Rakim, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Guns N' Roses, Heart, Rufus with Chaka Khan, the Small Faces/the Faces, the Spinners, and Freddie King are first-time nominees. Beastie Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Laura Nyro, Donovan, War, and Donna Summer are repeaters.

JESSICA SIMPSON: Knocked Up?

ASHTON KUTCHER: A 23-year-old woman has lawyered up with a top Hollywood attorney and gone into hiding after an alleged dalliance last Friday.

LINDSAY LOHAN is certainly enjoying the company of her latest employer, Philip Plein.

NANCY GRACE, of all people, had a wardrobe malfunction on Dancing With the Stars? She denies it.

JENNIFER ANISTON: What she really wants to do is direct.

ROMAN POLANSKI publicly apologized to Samantha Greimer, the woman he sexually assaulted 33 years ago, in a new documentary that had its world premiere Tuesday at the Zurich Film Festival.

JESSICA CHASTAIN (The Help, The Debt) has been cast opposite Tom Cruise in an as-yet untitled sci-fi pic for Universal.

KEVIN COSTNER has dropped out of Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, due to a combination of scheduling and personal reasons.

TERROR in NORWAY: Charges have been filed against Mikael Davud, Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak, and David Jakobsen, who were arrested in July 2010 for plotting to attack a Danish newspaper.

EGYPT's foreign minister said his country will always respect its landmark peace treaty with Israel and is seeking ways to strengthen its "strategic relationship" with the United States. Prominent Egyptian feminists say women are being sidelined from post-Mubarak politics: their names ignored for government posts, and their divorce and custody rights threatened by a powerful new Islamist lobby.

LIBYA: Hundreds, possibly thousands, of surface-to-air missiles continue to be stolen from unguarded military warehouses.

PAKISTAN warned the United States to stop accusing it of playing a double game with Islamist militants and heaped praise on "all-weather friend" China. A Pakistani school expelled a 13-year-old Christian girl for alleged blasphemy and her mother was transferred from her job as a nurse near the town where Osama bin Laden was killed.

IRAQ has finalized a deal to buy advanced US fighter jets, the first step toward building a modern postwar air force, officials said.

BEAR CUB FIGHT: Sort of...

LION CUB saved by his Mom in dramatic scenes caught on camera as he cries out pitifully for help!

THUMPER: A giant rabbit has been taken into care by vets after she was found hopping through Swindon's town center.

THE DOG was lame; the nine handballs only turned up in the X-ray.

A KAYAKER was dragged half a mile out to sea after hooking a six-foot shark while fishing off the coast of Devon. What say you, Police Chief Brody?

DUM DUM GIRLS drop a video for "Bedroom Eyes." Dee Dee talks to Pitchfork about the cathartic core of her band's new LP.

NEW RELEASES from Dum Dum Girls, Kasabian, The Bangles, VHS or Beta, Josh Rouse, Dominant Legs, Ohbijou, Young Man and more are streaming this week via Spinner.

WILCO and NICK LOWE played the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD; you can stream both sets via NPR. Wilco also gets a lengthy profile from the L.A. Times, where Nels Cline also talks about joining the band.

ERASURE is advance streaming and talking about Tomorrow's World.

EMA did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter. Not really my bag, but folks at Pitchfest were impressed.

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE gets a profile plus tracks from All Things Considered.

BOB DYLAN: Live in Sydney, circa 1966.

LOU REED & METALLICA drop "The View" in advance of Lulu.

YUCK posted a new track called "Soothe Me" on their blog.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS play "Birdhouse In Your Soul" and "Istanbul (Not Constantinopole)" with the Doc Severenson Orchestra in this week's Twofer Tuesday.

THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN: Jim Reid spoke at length to Drowned in Sound about a variety of topics ranging from major label interference and their subsequent lack of interest to inter-band relationships, particularly the volatile one between him and his brother that overshadowed the band's existence and the effects of substance abuse, most notably alcohol.

PETER MURPHY: "I'm relevant, but Bauhaus aren't."

R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills talks to Rolling Stone about the band's breakup and final songs.

WILD FLAG: Carrie Brownstein talks to All Things Considered about restlessness and her new band.

MEGAFAUN is, in some ways, a calculating band - just not in the way we have heretofore suspected.

NAOMI WATTS talks to More about seducing King Kong and Liev Schreiver. Also, Heath Ledger.

CHARLIE SHEEN and Warner Bros TV have officially settled their legal dispute stemming from Sheen's 100 million lawsuit against the studio and Two and a Half Men executive producer Chuck Lorre over the actor's March firing from the show.

CARRIE UNDERWOOD is a happy newlywed.

ANNE HATHAWAY in full Catwoman regalia, with even more spoilery photos from The Dark Knight Rises set.

KRISTIN CAVALLARI & JAY CUTLER (a/k/a Jerkface): Working it out?

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS talks about two very different roles on Boardwalk Empire and Community.

MATT STONE & TREY PARKER talk to the NYT about The Book of Mormon, Scientology, South Park, and more...

TERROR in the UK: Six Birmingham men were arrested on terror charges, and a seventh is being questioned.

YEMEN: Anti-government tribes took control of a Republican Guard base north of Sana'a.

JORDAN: Demonstrations across the country called for the resignation of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit's government, the dissolution of the lower house of Parliament, and... the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.

SYRIA: A group of defectors calling themselves the Free Syrian Army is attempting the first effort to organize an armed challenge to Assad's rule, signaling what some hope and others fear may be a new phase in what has been an overwhelmingly peaceful Syrian protest movement.

IRAN: The IAEA reported that Iran has enhanced its enrichment of uranium and has installed more sophisticated centrifuges. "We believe if Iran broke out now they could have a bomb in six months," said a former weapons inspector.

THE PUPPY and the step.

GATOR FIGHT at The Eagles Golf Course in Tampa, FL.

THE LAST BULLFIGHT IN CATALONIA: It only took 700 years or so.

THE MALE SIBERIAN HAMSTER knows how to celebrate Autumn.

BILLY CORGAN joins PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT on Joy Division's "Transmission" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in Chicago.

RYAN ADAMS is advance streaming Ashes And Fire.

THE HEAD AND THE HEART stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

MICHAEL CHAPMAN did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

NEIL YOUNG: Acoustic at the Elysée Montmartre, Paris, Dec. 11, 1989.

RADIOHEAD played "Lotus Flower" and "Staricase" on SNL, for ICYMI Monday. BONUS: Live at the Corn Exchange, Nov. 6, 1995.

IT'S PINK FLOYD WEEK on Fallon, featuring The Shins, Foo Fighters (w/ Roger Waters), MGMT, Dierks Bentley, and Pearl Jam.

A.A. BONDY talks to Aquarium Drunkard about his new album, Believers, experiences since his first solo records, discomfort with his own work, liminal states and how, whether autumn or summer, it's all about perspective.

LAURA MARLING talks to the SF Examiner about singledom and the L.A. Times about ideas of femininity. (Thx, Chromewaves.)

SLY STONE -- one of the greatest figures in soul-music history -- is homeless, his fortune stolen by a lethal combination of excess, substance abuse and financial mismanagement. He lays his head inside a white camper van ironically stamped with the words "Pleasure Way" on the side.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The 3-D Lion King rules the cinema for a second week, taking in 22.1 million.  The rest of the Top 5 are debuts.  Moneyball is money with 20.6 million against a 50 million budget, almost exactly what gurus predicted and another in a long line of Brad Pitt successes.  Nipping at Pitt's heels was Dolphin Tale, with 20.3 million -- all the more impressive against a 37 million budget and competition from Hakuna Matata.  Twihards opened Taylor Lautner's Abduction at 11 million against a 35 million budget, but I suspect few ransom payments next weekend. Star power was also enough to open Killer Elite at 9.5 million -- but with a 70 million budget, DeNiro, Jason Statham and Clive Owen can be glad the Aussie government picked up a share of the tab. Below the fold, Drive plunged almost 50 percent, so maybe I am more in tune with the public than most movie critics; even so, it's over 21 million against a mere 15 million budget.  Last weekend's other debuts, Straw Dogs and I Don't Know How She Does It, fared even worse, plunging 59 and 53.4 percent, respectively.

MONEYBALL:  I read and liked the Michael Lewis book, but was dubious about adaptating a work that is really more about basesball statistics and business than sport.  The project's long and winding road in development was not encouraging.  However, the screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian punches up the humor and stresses the theme of the book that sucked me in: the way in which an establishment (here, major league baseball) can operate for an eon based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what is valuable.  As such, the Oakland A's under Billy Beane is a classic underdog story -- or near-classic, as the movie gropes a bit for a Hollywood ending.  Indeed, it's only at the end that you start to notice the 2 hr, 20 min running time, which means it's pretty good.

JONAH HILL talked to New York magazine about Moneyball, Goodfellas, his upcoming animated show Allen Gregory, and growing up.

LINDSAY LOHAN got her claws out in a confrontation with the Indian model wife of millionaire hotelier Vikram Chatwal, just days after the troubled starlet and Chatwal were spotted kissing at his home in New York.

JUSTIN BIEBER rented the entire Staples Center in L.A. for a screening of the movie, "Titanic" for himself and galpal Selena Gomez.

JESSE JAMES & KAT VON D have split again.

KIM DELANEY looked disoriented and disheveled at the Liberty Medal Award ceremony.

KATE WINSLET is dating Richard Branson's nephew Ned Abel Smith.

MELISSA ETHERIDGE and her ex, Tammy Lynn Michaels, are fighting over everything, including whether they were married.

RYAN GOSLING was arrested for a DUI back in 2005, according to the ever reliable Star magazine.

ISLAM in the UK: Thousands of Muslims gathered for a televised rally in London Saturday to fight extremism and promote a moderate, inclusive version of Islam.

IRAN vs SAUDI ARABIA: How they view their roles in the Middle East, each other, and the current "Arab Spring" unrest.

OUR FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS announced on Sunday women would be given the right to vote and stand in elections, a bold shift in the Islamic monarchy as pressure for social and democratic reform sweeps the Middle East.

PAKISTAN: The public assault by the Obama administration on the Pakistani intelligence agency as a facilitator of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan has been met with scorn in Pakistan, a signal that the country has little intention of changing its ways, even perhaps at the price of the crumpled alliance.  The US said "the lines of communication with our Pakistani counterparts remain open" despite the ISI's support of the Haqqani Network.

PUGS vs ZOMBIE: Who you got?

A NEW (AND VERY CREEPY) WORM is looking for a name.

ALBINO FAWN captured on camera in Montana.

CATS IN HATS: The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

... with LLOYD COLE! His debut with the Commotions is right in the heart of Pate's heyday, so I'm partial to the early tracks, like "Perfect Skin," "Rattlesnakes," "2CV" and "Forest Fire," and even tracks from the sophomore LP, like "Brand New Friend" and "Lost Weekend." I haven't been as big a fan of his later solo work, though he does still come up with gems like "She's a Girl and I'm a Man."  BONUS: Cole's "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken" later inspired Camera Obscura's "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken."

WILCO played a full hour-long set as an online-only Live On Letterman session.

THE OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL, live at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City.

ZOLA JESUS: Nika Roza Danilova talks about and advance streams Conatus.

BIG TROUBLES are advance streaming Romantic Comedy (produced by Mitch Easter).

YOUTH LAGOON is advance streaming The Year of Hibernantion.

BEIRUT palyed a Tiny Desk Concert at the offices of NPR.

50 ARTISTS Who Influenced Kurt Cobain. Plus, Nevermind producer Butch Vig (who also produced The Service's George's Duty-Free Goulash) talks to Morning Edition.

MOUNTAIN GOATS: John Darnielle talks to the Des Moines Register about headlining the first Maximum Ames Music Festival tomorrow. Go Ames!  His version of Ace of Base's "The Sign." is obligatory for this.

GIRLS: Christopher Owens gives The Atlantic a track-by-track tour of Father, Son, Holy Ghost.

MATES OF STATE talk to Paste about keeping their duo dynamic.

VAN DYKE PARKS talks to the Daily Swarm about his first new music in 15 years, what it was like to watch Harry Nilsson sing, and more...

THE TOP 100 BEATLES SONGS, according to Rolling Stone. Introduced by Elvis Costello.

CUTOUT BIN: From KISS to Glen Campbell, from Todd Rundgren to Lou Rawls, from Dramarama to Jay & the Americans, plus the Kinks, John Lennon, Marshall Crenshaw, Cheap Trick 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 Dolphin Tale, which is currently scoring 84 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Abduction, which is currently scoring zero (albeit on few reviews); Moneyball, which is scoring 92 percent; and Killer Elite, scoring 27 percent.

EMILY DESCHANEL (Bones) and her husband David Hornsby(, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) welcomed their first child Wednesday, a baby boy.

BRAD PITT tells the Today Show Jennifer Aniston is a dear friend. Really.

DENISE RICHARDS turned down a 100K offer to appear on Two and a Half Men.

LINDSAY LOHAN is ignoring advisers telling her to complete her community service.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON and... Kieran Culkin? Or was it just two old friends reconnecting?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER is writing an autobiography.

DARK SHADOWS: Your first look at Johnny Depp as a non-sparkly vampire.

J. EDGAR, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, has a trailer online.

IRAN: Ahmadinejad speaks to the UN, denying the Holocaust, suggesting the US was involved in the 9/11 attacks and asserting Tehran wouldn't recognize Israel's right to exist even if the United Nations were to accept a Palestinian state into its ranks. Imagine how much fun he'll be with nukes!

SYRIA: The European Union plans to impose new sanctions on Syria, including a ban on oil investments. Turkey is considering imposing sanctions and coordinating its efforts with the US.

EGYPT: Islamists reach out to secular liberals... but do they mean it?

PAKISTAN: US officials said there was mounting evidence that Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency had encouraged a guerrilla network to attack US targets, while a Senate committee voted to make aid to Islamabad conditional on fighting the militants.

IRAQ: On the eve of what is likely to be a nearly complete withdrawal of United States forces from Iraq, one of the great questions is what radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr is going to do.

GRAEME the CAT visits a Melbourne train station twice a day to drop off and pick up his owner.

A MACAQUE clings to a DOG after Typhoon Roke hit Japan... Mass hysteria!

A YOUNG FEMALE GRIZZLY fitted with a satellite collar for more than a year embarked on several lengthy swims across portions of Flathead Lake, wildlife officials in Montana said.

A BALD BABY PENGUIN who was abandoned at birth has been accepted back into his family thanks to the nurturing intervention of staff at an aquarium in China.

ONE SQUID SPECIES swings both ways, nttawwt.

R.E.M. have decided to call it a day as a band, just over 30 years after releasing their debut single on Hib-Tone Records. Generally considered the Godfathers of Indie (back when it was merely "college rock"), one might ask, "Well, how did they get there?"  Some of it was being in the right place (America) at the right time (post-Punk and post-New Wave). The old joke was that it took four to make a R.E.M. record -- three to listen to the Soft Boys and one to write indecipherable lyrics.  But these four from Athens were always a bit more than that; the echo of Robyn Hitchcock's old band was just as much a melding of the Byrds and the Velvet Underground with Wire and power-pop into something simultaneously challenging and accessible.  Of course, signing to promo-savvy IRS Records, which was having success with the Police, the Go-Gos and others didn't hurt a bit.  They steadily climbed the ladder of music industry success, but altered the pop music landscape in the process, and tended to remember where they came from, promoting vital bands like the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, the Minutemen and Sonic Youth with opening slots (Bill Berry told me they tried to get Camper Van Beethoven after their debut LP, but the schedule didn't work out), along with forerunners like The dB's and yes, Robyn Hitchcock (REM axeman Peter Buck would also guest on Hitchcock's records before joining one of his bands).  Indeed, the band also adopted various indie figures as touring members of the band -- dB's frontman Peter Holsapple, The Posies' Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, and Young Fresh Fellow Scott McCaughey all spring to mind.  When drummer Bill Berry left following a brain tumor, the band's album's tended to hold less of the public's attention, although this may have been simply another case of music fans constantly on the search for the new sound, the flavor of the month (Up and Reveal may be underrated albums in their catalog).  Even during this period, the band produced solid work, with a number of memorable tunes.

So let's close this era with a video dump, starting with "Radio Free Europe" and "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" from their network TV debut, and the clip for "Pretty Persuasion" and an acoustic take on "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville." Next, live takes on "Driver 8" and "Can't Get There From Here" recorded in Raleigh, NC, circa 1985. "Begin the Begin," which opens the 25-year-old Lifes Rich Pageant is represented with a clip featuring Bill Berry from the band's 2006 induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. That album's follow-up "These Days" is represented with a clip from Tourfilm, but "Fall On Me" was the band's first major foray into the pop charts.  Document's "The One I Love" took them up another rung, although "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" may have ended up embedded further in popular culture over time. The band's WB debut, Green, boasted a couple of chart-toppers, "Orange Crush" and the inspiredly goofy "Stand," though I'll take "Pop Song '89" over the latter most days.  Out of Time would be the band's first No. 1 LP, riding the improbably mandolin-driven worldwide hit "Losing My Religion" and another goofy track, "Shiny Happy People" (again, give me the harmonies of "Near Wild Heaven").  Automatic for the People most likely makes us think of "Man In The Moon" and especially "Everybody Hurts," although the challending lead single, "Drive," actually charted higher in the US at the time.  Monster was one, topping the US and UK charts; "What's The Frequency Kenneth?" entered the pop culture in a very odd way, so I have to link the Dan Rather clip.  New Adventures in Hi-Fi, the band's final LP with Berry reached No. 2 in the US, and "E-Bow the Letter" and "Bittersweet Me" got comparatively modest airplay.  Up slipped another notch, reaching No. 3 in the US; the lead single, "Daysleeper," had a typical REM vibe, but I loved the Brian Wilson-esque sound of "At My Most Beautiful."  That sound would also feature on the Reveal LP, although "Imitation Of Life" was the safe single. I'll confess to having lost my passion for the band by this point -- and thus have zero to say about Around the Sun -- but it was still always comforting to hear them knock a song out of the park, particularly "Supernatural Superserious" from 2008's Accelerate.  I hoped that would be the start of a second wind for the guys, but it was to Collapse Into Now, apparently.  Here's your bonus track, bringing things full circle.

LOW stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session and did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

YOUNG MAN is advance streaming Ideas of Distance.

JAMES BLAKE stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

VIVA VOCE stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set, including a cover of Big Star's "Thirteen."

THE HOLD STEADY at Beekman Beer Garden, Sept. 17, 2011.

THE JAYHAWKS "She Walks in So Many Ways" from the new Mockingbird Time, at Hollywood's Ocean Way studios.

PEARL JAM: Cameron Crowe takes a a track-by-track look at the "Pearl Jam 20" soundtrack, complete with quotes from his liner notes.

FLEET FOXES: Robin Pecknold talks to the Baltimore Sun about the pressures of writing the band's sophomore LP, and the future. (Thx, LHB.)

TORI AMOS talks to Spinner about Night of Hunters, its real-life inspirations, her friendship with pro wrestler Mick Foley and how she'll take on any "f---ing heavy metal band" with her emotional lyrics.

BATTLES drummer John Stanier talks to PopMatters about the band's unique take on lyrical expression, the zone of indistinction between rhythm and melody, and the recontextualization of the pop-rock formula.

BON IVER's Justin Vernon is briefly profiled by the L.A. Times.

MINKA KELLY exploded after getting groped on the set of Charlie's Angels's, according to the ever reliable Star magazine.

TEAM ANISTON apparently went ballistic after Brad Pitt's Parade interview, which would explain his copious clarifications.  And maybe Pitt's domestic life with Angelina Jolie and the brood really does resemble One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

MAD MEL UPDATE: Gibson allegedly tried to run over a man outside a Costa Rican bakery ... but at least one eyewitness tells TMZ the man's a liar.

RYAN GOSLING and his current go-to girl Eva Mendes were snapped hiking near Griffith Park Observatory.

STEVE MARTIN has Oscars advice for Eddie Murphy.

ELIN NORDEGREN, the wealthy and beautiful ex-wife of Tiger Woods, is ramping up her romance with her new beau, Jamie Dingman; that there are already rumors of marriage for the pair.

TEEN BRIDE Courtney Stodden has signed a deal with a production company to produce her own reality show. Shocka.

THE 10 GREATEST MOVIE TRILOGIES, according to PopMatters.

TERROR in SWEDEN: A Swedish cartoonist who has received death threats for depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog was the target of a planned attack in Gothenburg earlier this month, according to reports.

IRAN: Two American hikers imprisoned as spies for more than two years were released on bail Wednesday, just in time for Ahmadinejad to arrive in NYC for the big UN confab.

AFGHANISTAN: The assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul - apparently by the very group he was trying to negotiate with - suggests a political solution in Afghanistan remains a distant prospect - and is another reminder of how fragile security is in the Afghan capital, according to analysts and diplomats

IRAQ: Prime Minister Maliki called for Syrian President Bashir al Assad to step down. Admiral Mullen said the number of US forces in Iraq will drop to 30,000 by the end of September.

CHIMPS clog dancing. It's CGI, but I don't care.

ADORABLE BABY SQUIRRELS survive a hurricane.

A YOUNG WOMAN on a big horse likely saved a boy from a head-on charging grizzly bear.

PARROT FRAUD: I would like to register a complaint.