THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE...

...with THE TALKING HEADS!  Here's the expanded band -- including axeman Adrian Belew (who certainly influenced Jon Pratt's early work in Pate) -- in Rome, circa 1980.  Your setlist: "Psycho Killer," "Stay Hungry," "Cities," "I Zimbra," "Drugs," "Take Me To The River," "Crosseyed And Painless," "Life During Wartime," "Houses In Motion," and "Born Under Punches."

DEER TICK is streaming their Tim EP (not to be confused with The Replacements' Tim LP) via Rdio.

SHARON VAN ETTEN stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

MARK LANEGAN plays for KEXP from the Cutting Room studios in NYC.

JESSIE BAYLIN stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

THE DEL FUEGOS: Warren Zanes talks to MOKB about the band, beer commercials and close encounters with The Replacements' Bob Stinson. The band is doing a short reunion tour and has an E, from which you can get "Friday Night" as a freebie.  But check out some vintage tracks at DelFuegoSpace.

PAUL STANLEY: "People, let me get this off my chest..."

FLEET FOXES frontman Robin Pecknold posted a demo of a new solo-acoustic song called "Olivia, In A Separate Bed."

BILLY STRANGE, veteran songwriter, singer, arranger and guitarist -- perhaps best known for playing on the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds LP (notably "Sloop John B") and Nancy Sinatra hits including "These Boots are Made for Walking" and "Bang Bang" --  died in Nashville, Tennessee Wednesday.  He was 81. Here he is talking about "A Little Less Conversation," which he co-wrote with Mac Davis.

TRAILER TRASH TRACYS: Jimmy Lee and Suzanne Aztoria talk to The Quietus about the curse of lo-fi, their love of ABBA and why Paul MacCartney loves their name.

THE BIG PINK: Milo Cordell talks to MAGNET about how he and ex-Alec Empire guitarist Robbie Furze went about creating a fearless, genre-bending opus.

IGGY POP talks to Vice about fashion.

FEETWOOD MAC, discussed by Malcolm Gladwell.

CUTOUT BIN: From Gene Wilder to Barry White, from The Replacements to Sugarloaf, from The Clash to the Rolling Stones, plus the Young Fresh Fellows, Alabama Shakes, David Bowie, Feelies 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: Act of Valor, which is currently scoring 22 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and Wanderlust, scoring 63 percent. Gone and Tyler Perry's Good Deeds were not screened for critics. Shocka.

RHIANNA & CHRIS BROWN are dangerously close to getting back together, but the singers' friends are desperately trying to keep them apart ... for their own good.  BTW, Brown is facing a robbery accusation on Miami Beach.

WHITNEY HOUSTON's daughter Bobbi Kristina is feared to be going off the deep end.

JENNIFER ANISTON talks to THR about moving on from Friends and what it would take for her to return to TV.

ANGELINA JOLIE has written the foreword to ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton's new memoir.

SACHA BARON COHEN is not banned from the Oscars, but the Academy is making it clear that he is not welcome to use the red carpet as a platform for a promotional stunt for his upcoming movie The Dictator.

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO & STEVEN SPIELBERG helped the Academy Foundation acquire a pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.

TEN BIOPICS THAT WORKED... and why.

SYRIAN forces continued their artillery barrage in Homs, killing more that 80 people, including a US journalist and a French photographer.

IRAN: After two days of talks, the IAEA failed to reach an agreement with Iran on its nuclear program. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said his country's nuclear policies would not change. Russia warned that a strike against Iran could have "catastrophic" consequences.

IRAQ: More than 60 Iraqis were killed and scores more were wounded in a wave of bombings and shootings across the country that targeted Iraqi security forces and civilians, primarily Shia.

DONKEYOTEE duets.

PIGEON-NAPPING RING busted in Taiwan.

A BABY SQUIRREL MONKEY is now receiving visitors at the Virginia Zoo.

THE CAT BOUNTY HUNTER: Jordana Serebrenik may be New York City's only professional cat catcher.

BLUR played a set at the 2012 Brit Awards, including "Girls & Boys", "Song 2″, "Parklife", "Tender", and "This Is A Low".

DAMIEN JURADO stopped by KEXP with some adventurous psych-folk.

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

THE WOODEN SKY is advance streaming Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun.

PLANTS & ANIMALS are advance streaming The End Of That.

CHAIRLIFT stopped by World Cafe for a session.

THE ELWINS are joined by Nils Edenloff of The Rural Alberta Advantage for a cover of Chilliwack's "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)" on Exclaim!

MAGNETIC FIELDS: Stephin Merritt talks to Drowned In Sound about an assortment of subjects from pop music to love in the Facebook generation.

THE FUTUREHEADS talks to NME about recording an a capella album.

ROSIE THOMAS talks to eMusic about Bette Midler, the bipolar-ness of New York, and getting married on a farm in Kansas. (Thx, LHB.)

HOW CAPITOL RECORDS (allegedly) screwed Kenny Rogers. A handbook for musicians.

LINDSAY LOHAN got yet another rave review from Judge Stephanie Sautner during her probation progress report hearing  Wednesday.

BRITNEY SPEARS wants to join the judges' panel on X Factor.

BRADGELINA: Jolie hints she may finally be ready to marry Brad Pitt.

WHITNEY HOUSTON: Bobby Brown reportedly wants to sell a tell-all book, although he signed a confidentiality agreement when they got divorced.

KARDASHIANS: Kourtney is expecting a baby girl.

CHARLIE SHEEN's  ex-wife, Brooke Mueller, has been released from the renowned Cirque Lodge in Sundance, UT, according to RadarOnline.

L.A. NOIR: former Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia is set to star in Frank Darabont's TNT pilot for a fast-paced crime drama set in Los Angeles during the 1940s and '50s.

TERROR in NORWAY: During his trial for death threats against Norwegian leaders, Islamic extremist Mullah Krekar condoned the use of suicide bombers in Afghanistan.

SYRIA: Even before government forces began an artillery onslaught on Homs' Sunni Muslim areas nearly three weeks ago to try to crush the opposition, the city had been splintering along sectarian lines. Some fear this could foreshadow civil war.

EGYPT & TUNISIA: After months of reassuring secularist critics, Islamist politicians in Tunisia and Egypt have begun to lay down markers about how Muslim their states should be -- and first signs show they want more religion than previously admitted. Shocka.

AFGHANISTAN: The US and the Afghan governments are considering pushing through a long-delayed partnership agreement by moving the contentious issues of night raids and control over detainees to separate negotiations, officials from both countries said.

DOG trees a MOUNTAIN LION.

WILDTHING was Best Bison at a wedding in Quinlan, Texas.

COWS stare unamazed as they are monitored by texting collars.

CRISPY BACON -- a pot-bellied pig -- recovers from a drug overdose.

TENNIS releases a clip for "Origins."

THE NEW MULTITUDES: Jay Farrar (Son Volt, Gob Iron, Uncle Tupelo), Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel), Anders Parker (Varnaline, Gob Iron) and Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket, Monsters of Folk) are advance streaming this album, which puts music to Woody Guthrie's previously unrecorded lyrics.

DR. DOG stopped by The Current and KEXP for live performances; you get an inteview at the former, but an extra song at the latter.

GARY CLARK, JR stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: New tracks from Mount Carmel, Now Now, and M Ward highlight the latest edition of the series.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT drops "Montauk" ahead of Out Of The Game.

ROBERT POLLARD drops "Obvious #1" from hiss forthcoming new solo record, Mouseman Cloud.

THE TREMELOES: "Here Comes My Baby," live circa 1967. Written by Cat Stevens.

PERFUME GENIUS: Mike Hadreas talks to Drowned In Sound and The Line Of Best Fit about second-album-writing and more...

THE REPLACEMENTS: Bob "Slim" Dunlap is in the hospital this week recovering from a serious stroke, which he suffered on Monday morning.

THE BEACH BOYS: Brian Wilson and Mike Love talk to the New York Times about their upcoming album.

THE TOP 10 music television shows, according to TIME.

CHARLIE SHEEN says he feels bad for saying Ashton Kutcher "sucks" as the new lead on "Two and a Half Men" ... and now he's issuing an official apology to the actor.

WHITNEY HOUSTON: Contra a prior report, Netflix lost streaming rights to her movies before her death.

RHIANNA & CHRIS BROWN have collaborated on 2 brand new songs. Sigh.

DREW BARRYMORE was clutching what appears to be sonogram results as she left a doctors office in Beverly Hills with her fiance late last week.

JEREMY LONDON denies he's homeless.

THE UNSEEN: 24 TV shows produced but never properly aired.

TERROR in the PHILIPPINES: Police on Basilan island captured Ismael, a.k.a. Patah Hamjak, an Abu Sayyaf operative linked to beheadings, bombings, and a 2009 jailbreak.

KYRGYZSTAN: Pres Atambaev told a US State Department delegation that "no foreign troops" would be allowed to remain at Manas airport after 2014. The US currently pays Kyrgyzstan for the use of Manas as a transit point for American operations in Afghanistan.

YEMEN's election meant the formal end of Pres Seleh's 30-year rule and the chance to move past a violent, yearlong political crisis.

IRAN warned it would take pre-emptive action against perceived foes if it felt its national interests were threatened, and laid down new conditions for oil sales. The warnings came as Tehran also appeared to place limits on a visit by a team of United Nations nuclear officials, saying the investigators would not go to nuclear facilities, despite earlier reports that its members had sought permission to inspect a military complex outside Tehran.

AFGHANISTAN: Pres Karzai on Tuesday invited Taliban leaders to enter direct negotiations with his administration.

LYZE: The Happiest Owlet. (Thx, Zoey.)

TWO GORILLAS escaped their exhibit at the Kansas City (MO) Zoo.

FIVE REINDEER were caught joyriding in Norway. None of the animals were wearing seatbelts.

THE UK'S MOST DANGEROUS SPIDER took down a father in a toy store.

BON IVER does a 4AD Session with Sean Carey, including a cover of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me."

NEW RELEASES from Cursive, James Vincent McMorrow, Leland Sundries, Dirty Ghosts, Young Empires and more are streaming this week at Spinner.

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS is advance streaming Ghostory.

LOS CAMPESINOS! stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

M WARD drops "Primitive Girl" ahead of A Wasteland Companion.

JOE TEX: "Papa Was Too" and "By The Time I Get to Phoenix" for a soulful Twofer Tuesday.

THE SHINS: James Mercer talks to Exclaim about not quitting the band of which he is the remaining original member.

LEONARD COHEN: Conor Oberst and Ron Sexmith talk about Old Ideas on All Things Considered.

FIELD MUSIC talks to The Observer about making almost no money.

SPIN has become a large-format, bi-monthly music magazine.

WHITNEY HOUSTON: A black velvet dress that belonged to the singer and a pair of earrings she wore in "The Bodyguard" will be sold to the highest bidder next month. Also, streaming rights to her movies were pulled from Netflix so that studios could juice DVD sales.

LINDSAY LOHAN personally reached out to Lorne Michaels to get her hosting gig on Saturday Night Live.

DAME JUDI DENCH, who has revealed she is suffering from a degenerative eye condition, played down concern over her sight on Monday, saying she was not going blind.

ADELE has vowed to spit in her estranged father's face if she ever sees him again.

EMMA WATSON grew up on screen but as an adult, she's making her mark in the fashion world.

CHRIS TUCKER may owe the feds 12 million dollars.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN drops a clip online that seems to recall Spider-Man 2 a bit.

SYRIA: Opposition protests began in Damascus; government security forces fired on the crowd, and security forces spread out across the city to prevent further protests. China urged an end to the violence. Egypt recalled its ambassador.

AFGHAN police captured a group of terrorists taking 41 Afghan children to Pakistan to receive insurgent training, the Afghan Ministry of Interior said on Monday.

IRAQ: Green Zone. International Zone. The Bubble. To the foreigners still living there, the Iraqi capital's fortified center has a new name: Ghost Town.

ESCAPED EMU on the lam in Vermont.

ATTEMPTED CAT RESCUE ends tragically.

GOATS can develop their own accents.

MICHAEL DAVIS, the bassist of influential late 1960s rock band MC5, has died of liver failure. He was 68. So you know what time its is, and I'll throw in the DKT-MC5 version with Mark Arm and Evan Dando for good measure.

FANFARLO is advance streaming Rooms Filled With Light.

THE DIRTY THREE is advance streaming Toward the Low Sun.

CHARLES BRADLEY stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

HEARTLESS BAST^ARDS also stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

BLACK MOUNTAIN drops the eight-minute "Mary Lou" ahead of the Year Zero soundrack.

LAURA MARLING covers Ryan Adams' "My Winding Wheel."

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS: "James K. Polk," for Presidents' Day and the kids.

SHARON VAN ETTEN talks to Chart Attack about her late night TV debut and more...

SLEIGH BELLS talked about their creative partnership and the second Sleigh Bells album, Reign of Terror, on Weekend Edition Sunday.

GREIL MARCUS talks to The Guardian about the dawn of rock criticism.

PETE DOHERTY talks to The Independent about Kate Moss, Amy Winehouse, his baby daughter and why he paints with his own blood.

DORY PREVIN, the lyricist for three Oscar-nominated songs who as a composer and performer mined her difficult childhood, bouts of mental illness and a very public divorce to create a potent and influential personal songbook, died last Tuesday at her home in Southfield, Mass. She was 86.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Safe House edges out The Vow and the weekend's new releases at the top with an estimated 24 million, although it's close enough that any of the top 3 could be in the lead when the money is actually counted.  Safe House now has a 78.3 million domestic total against an 85 million production budget.  Last weekend's champ, The Vow, places with 23.6 million, though that's on top of an 11.6 million Valentine's Day haul; The McAdams tear-jerker has rung up 85.5 million against a 30 million budget.  The widely-panned Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance debuts at No.3 with 22 million against a 57 million budget. Silver lining? The original Ghost Rider opened twice as big.  International audiences are saving Nic Cage's career at this point.  Journey 2: The Mysterious Island drops to fourth with 20 million, but has the best hold from last weeked's openers.  It already has a 53 million total here and at least 85 million overseas against its 80 million budget.  This Means War rounds out the Top 5 with 17.5 million, which won't hurt Chris Pine or Tom Hardy nearly as much as it will Reese Witherspoon.  Below the fold, The Phantom Menace plunges 65 percent as people realize Jar Jar Binks is even worse in 3-D... but it's free money for the Lucas Empire. The weekend's best-reviewed debut, The Secret World of Arrietty, opened in ninth with 6.4 million.  Then again, Ponyo (Studio Ghibli's last movie) opened in the US at 3.6 million, but earne over 200 million worldwide.

WHITNEY HOUSTON: Spinner has highlights(?) of the singer's funeral and notes ex-hubby Bobby Brown left early when his entourage was asked to leave. Houston's daughter disappeared for several hours after her mother's funeral -- and was found using drugs, according to two sources close to the family. 

DAME JUDI DENCH revealed she is battling to save her eyesight.

HEIDI KLUM & SEAL originally hoped to reconcile, but a reunion might not be in their future after all.

LINDSAY LOHAN becomes an E! True Hollywood Story tonight.

MADONNA will have a new dancer on her forthcoming world tour - her daughter Lourdes.

JANET JACKSON is reportedly in talks to join The X Factor.

GEORGE WASHINGTON: Though now lumped in with everyone for Presidents' Day, tomorrow is the birthday of the "Father of his Country."  In 1776, David McCullough notes that when Washington took command in July 1775, he thought he would be home at Mount Vernon by Christmas. McCullough catalogs Washington's blunders -- many of them nearly fatal to the Cause -- but concludes: "He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, nor a gifted orator, not an intellectual... He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood... and above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake, and he never gave up." That, as much as anything, is why Washington is usually ranked among the greatest of US presidents. not to mention the subject of a profane, animated rap cartoon.

TERROR in the USA: Amine El Khalifi, a 29-year-old Moroccan, was arrested near the US Capitol today and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

IRAN's navy claimed its warships entered the Mediterranean on Saturday to show its 'might' to regional countries, as a high-level American official was due to arrive in Israel.

AFGHANISTAN: In an effort to rid their army of Taliban infiltrators, Afghan officials have begun ordering soldiers with families in Pakistan to either move their relatives to Afghanistan or leave the military.

A SEA LION that had been shot in the left flipper is recuperating at SeaWorld San Diego and listed in "stable but guarded" condition.

AN EXOTIC BANGAL CAT lost in the ceiling at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield was found safe and sound in a trap set up to catch him.

HEY, IS THAT A DEADLY SNAKE BITING YOUR TESTICLES, or... oh.

FOOD ON MY DOG: It's an internet smash.