THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE dB's!  Although the influential, but oh-so-unlucky modern pop combo will likely stress new material when I see them tonight, we have vintage video of "Happenstance," "Bad Reputation" and "Living A Lie" from Sweden circa 1982.  From the studio, we have the clip for "Neverland." Chris Stamey left the band (temporarily) after which we got the infamous, banned-from-MTV clip for "Amplifier," plus live takes of "She Got Soul" and "Not Cool" from the legendary Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ circa 1986.  From the same time period, you can see the band help close down Folk City in NYC with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street."

JULIANA BARWICK advance streams Will.

SERATONES advance stream Get Gone.

GRUBBY LITTLE HANDS advance stream Garden Party.

KACY & CLAYTON advance stream Strange Country.

PAUL SIMON swears a lot on "Papa Cool Bell."

TRAVIS drops “Animals" ahead of Everything At Once.

PRINCE: Playing "Baby I'm a Star" at the 1985 Grammys and taking a blowtorch the joint with The Revolution, Sheila E, and even a cameo from Jerome of The Time before storming out like a WWE champ. Also, authorities investigating his death found prescription opioid medication on him and in his Minnesota home, a law enforcement official told CNN. Authorities have obtained a search warrant for Prince's house.

R.E.M.'s Mike Mills talks about his love for Big Star.

BLONDIE's Debbie Harry criticizes YouTube's royalty payments.

PRIMAL SCREAM's Bobby Gillespie talks to Magnet about influences, collaborations, and more.

LIZ PHAIR's TOP 10, according to Stereogum.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Mother's Day, which is currently scoring 10 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Ratchet and Clank, which is scoring 19 percent; and Keanu, scoring 78 percent.

CHYNA's manager, Anthony Anzaldo, has revealed that the former WWE star most likely died from an accidental overdose of Ambien and Valium.

KELLY RIPA is getting a raft of celebrity guest hosts.

ALICIA VIKANDER  has signed on to star as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.

CHARLIE SHEEN does not pose an imminent threat to ex-fiancee Brett Rossi ... so says a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.

LEAH REMINI is defending Scientology leader David Miscavige's father and his decision to speak out against the church in a forthcoming memoir.

GERMANY: If the urgent challenge for the nation last year was sheltering the hundreds of thousands of people who descended on the country almost at once seeking asylum, then this year’s task is to integrate them.

THIS CORGI is Breaking The Law.

NORTH KOREA fired two midrange Musudan missiles Thursday, but both appear to have failed, South Korean Defense Ministry officials said.

MELBOURNE CAT rescued from tree following a crowdfunding campaign.

DEAD FISHERMAN reels in a180-lb carp.

D'ANGELO covered Prince's “Sometimes It Snows In April" for Fallon.

PETER FRAMPTON comes alive for a Tiny Desk Concert.

HAYBABY advance streams their Blood Harvest EP.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: New tracks from New Moon Hooch, Summer Cannibals, PUP, and more highlight the latest edition.

THE GRATEFUL DEAD tribute, Day Of The Dead, drops five more tracks.

PRINCE asked for Journey's blessing before releasing "Purple Rain."

PARQUET COURTS' Sean Yeaton talks to Pitchfork about Prince (before his death), Limp Bizkit, Kurt Vile, ghosts, and more.

LED ZEPPELIN: The "Stairway to Heaven" plagiarism trial gets important pretrial evidentiary rulings...and a settlement offer.

OUTSIDE THE LINES: Behind-the-scenes pictures, outtakes and lost images from the cover shoots of punk and new wave's most famous LPs.

KELLY RIPA is threatening to quit Live! unless certain demands are met.

JAY-Z has been fully on board with how Beyoncé has chosen to deal with their marital issues on Lemonade.

ROBERT DOWNEY JR feels like he could do another Iron Man pic, tho there isn't one in the works.

MELISSA McCARTHY opened up about her emotional return to the Gilmore Girls set.

WILL FERRELL will star in a comedy about Ronald Reagan's Alzheimer's disease.

WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER: TEN YEARS LATER is coming to Netflix.

SAUDI ARABIA isn’t ready to end the world’s only ban on women driving.

RUSSIA has resumed bombing moderate opposition fighters in Syria, a U.S. military officer from Baghdad told reporters at the Pentagon.

ISIS is facing cash and manpower shortages, the deputy commander of the counter-ISIS coalition said.

A RACCOON bites the hand that feeds it.

THE BISON may become the national mammal of the United States.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A goat with a human face.

THE SWARM: An unusual problem is buzzing around a family’s garage in Waukee, IA.

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM busted out Prince's "Controversy" at the Coachella.

MUSEUM MOUTH advance streams Popcorn Fish Guinea Pig.

DOWSING advance streams Okay.

JAGGERY advance streams Crux.

TERRY drops “Don’t Say Sorry" ahead of Terry HQ.

FAYE makes “Ancient Bones” ahead of their self-titled debut EP.

PRINCE reportedly died without a will. The Revolution announced it would reunite for some shows, presumably including the planned Prince tribute concert in Mpls. The Current offers an hour-long documentary, featuring interviews from Bobby Z, producer Susan Rodgers, Jimmy Jam, Wendy and Lisa and more.

MORRIS DAY becomes one of The Guardian's Cult Heroes.

IGGY POP is releasing an "as told to" Stooges memoir that will include contributions from Joan Jett, Johnny Marr, Jack White, and others.

FREDDIE MERCURY: A research team in Europe looked into the science behind his voice.

CHRIS EVANS wants to continue playing Captain America, which isn't surprising, but interesting given where Marvel's Cinematic Universe seems headed.

RACHEL ROY denies she was ever a third woman to Jay-Z, let alone the "Becky" Beyonce refrs to on Lemonade. Rita Ora may want that title tho.

MICHAEL STRAHAN will be leaving Live with Kelly Ripa four months early. Top executives at Disney and ABC have personally apologized to Kelly Ripa for last week's bungled announcement about the departure of her co-host Michael Strahan.

DAKOTA JOHNSON, Intervewed by Chrissie Hynde (who talks about her forthcoming solo LP along the way).

CHRIS MARTIN was spotted with HEATHER GRAHAM.

DAISY RIDLEY practices her lightsaber skills for Star Wars: Episode VIII.

DISNEY announced a slate of nine live-action films.

TURKEY: Ebru Umar, a Dutch journalist, was arrested after she wrote a column last week critical of president Erdogan, and his government’s growing crackdown on freedom of expression.

THE ISLAMIC STATE: The flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and Syria has dropped from roughly 2,000 a month down to 200 within the past year, according to the Pentagon, which says the waning numbers are further proof of the Islamic State’s declining stature. OTOH, US director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. says the Islamic State is operating clandestine terrorist cells in Britain, Germany and Italy.

PALLAS CATS: The "Most Expressive Cat In The World"?

AN ELEPHANT, snapped topless.

MOST DOGS aren't huggers.

A MISSING CAT returns home after six years.

BOB MOULD & SUICIDE COMMANDOS cover “When You Were Mine,” while LIZ PHAIR covers "Nothing Compares 2 U" for a Princely twofer Tuesday.

BRITTA PHILLIPS advance streams Luck Or Magic.

MO KENNEY advance streams In My Dreams.

PITY SEX advance streams White Hot Moon.

MATT & KIM stream their surprise WE WERE THE WEIRDOS EP.

SONIC YOUTH shares 1986's "Theme With Noise" ahead of the Spinhead Sessions.

BAND OF HORSES drop “Casual Party" ahead of Why Are You OK.

THE TUBES: "She's A Beauty" and "Talk To Ya Later" are your Twofer Tuesday.

PRINCE:  TMZ claims Prince had bigger money issues than anyone would believe (though still greatly wealthy). Pitchfork catalogs his battles with the internet and the industry. Jeff Blehar more broadly essays Prince's stubborn independence. For a more personal touch on these aspects of Prince, try Questlove. Stereogum and Dangerous Minds provide playlists from DJs who played a Prince date and a Prince party.

THE RAMONES, remembered by manager and photographer Danny Fields.

GREIL MARCUS, on the connections between the Rolling Stones, Trump, and Obama, PJ Harvey's pure intentions, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's narrow entryway, and more.

THE JOY FORMIDABLE's Rhiannon “Ritzy” Bryan talks to Drowned in Sound about touring, recording Hitch during a breakup, and more.

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE drops its final trailer.

INHUMANS has been pulled from Marvel's 2019 release schedule.

DOCTOR STRANGE: Co-writer C. Robert Cargill compared the politics of writing The Ancient One to Star Trek's Kobayashi Maru test.

RACHEL ROY pulled out of an event scheduled for Monday, due to a “personal emergency” amid speculation that she is referenced in a track on Beyoncé's new album, Lemonade.

AMY SCHUMER is profiled by Vanity Fair.

TOM BRADY may continue to fight his Deflategate suspension.

TWIN PEAKS: David Lynch's Showtime revival will have a cast of hundreds, including musicians like Trent Reznor, Sharon van Etten, Eddie Vedder, Sky Ferreira, and Au Revoir Simone.

SAUDI ARABIA, crimped by low crude prices, on Monday unveiled a long-term blueprint for the kingdom’s economic transformation aimed at freeing itself from dependence on oil within the next five years.

AUSTRIA's government was licking its wounds Monday after a historic debacle that saw the opposition anti-immigrant far-right triumph in a presidential ballot two years before the next scheduled general election.

ANTEATER vs DUCKS: Who you got?

A BALI PYTHON turned up in a Beaumont, TX kitchen.

THE GOATMAN claims a victim, with some likely help from drugs and alcohol.

PORTLAND FIRE & RESCUE completes an animal rescue trifecta.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN opened this weekend's Brooklyn stand with "Purple Rain."

MULLIGRUB steams Soft Grudge.

PLANTS & ANIMALS advance stream Waltzed In From The Rumbling.

PET SOUNDS: The Levitation Festival's tribute LP is streaming.

SONNY & THE SUNSETS share "Moods" ahead of Moods Baby Moods. And dang if a song like this would exist without Prince.

BILLY PAUL,  the R & B singer best known for "Me and Mrs. Jones," has died of pancreatic cancer at age 81.

PRINCE was cremated and celebrated afterward in a small, private service by a group of his "most beloved" family, friends and fellow musicians. His estate could be worth up to 800MM and may all go to his younger sister.  Footage of Prince rocking the SNL40 afterparty surfaced first online and then on the show itself.  Michael Green tells the story of the Purple One leading a 80s cover band in Birmingham. The L.A. Times celebrates his oft-overlooked lyrical prowess and Patterson Hood more generally discusses Prince's 80's output. while ZZ Top’s legendary frontman Billy Gibbons pays tribute to The Artist's guitar virtuosity (including embedded video of Prince covering the Stones). The Guardian reports on Prince's business dealings. his secret vault, and his support for the Paisley Underground.  SPIN re-ups its oral history of Purple Rain. Pitchfork re-ups its look at Dirty Mind.  Billboard covers his difficult relationship with music videos. The well-known Electric Fetus record store in Mpls tells you some of the last CDs he ever bought.  And there's this maybe.

BEYONCE dropped her latest album, Lemonade, which may suggest some marital discord. Is Rachael Roy to blame?

BAT FOR LASHES: Natasha Khan talks to Pitchfork about the perils of modern romance and the tragic tale that propels her upcoming fourth album, The Bride.

BRITTA PHILLIPS moves west and discovers a new sound and a new sense of self. (Thx, Frank Yang.)

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The Jungle Book repeated atop the chart with a crushing 60.8MM, dropping a mere 41 percent for a film that opened north of 100MM. That likely projects to 350-400MM in North America alone by the end of its run, possibly a billion worldwide.  The Huntsman: Winter's War was the crushee, placing with mere 20MM debut against a 115MM budget (Snow White and the Huntsman opened at 56MM). Barbershop: The Next Cut showed with 10.8MM, on a 47 percent drop that's probably too large for a 20MM comedy. Zootopia popped back up to the fourth slot with another 6.6MM on a still-leggy 19 percent drop. The Boss rounded out the Top Five withanother 6MM on a 30 percent drop.  Batman v Superman slips below the fold and may end up grossing less than Zootopia.

KELLY RIPA returns to her show tommorrow, after a tough talk with Disney.

KANYE WEST brings his interruption skills to a wedding.

MERYL STREEP & JOHN CAZALE: A tragic romance.

PATTON OSWALD's wife, Michelle McNamara, a crime writer, died at age 46.

INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE drops a second trailer.

NORTH KOREA: Pres Obama said on Sunday that he does not believe North Korea is sincere in its offer to halt nuclear tests if the US suspends military exercises with South Korea, and that Pyongyang would “have to do better than that”.

THE ISLAMIC STATE has been forced to ration fuel in some areas and cut pay by half to its fighters and government officials in regions it controls after the U.S.-led coalition air campaign incinerated about 500MMof the Islamic State’s cash stockpiles and cut its oil revenues by an estimated 50 percent.

SYRIA: The U.S. plans to send up to 250 additional military personnel to Syria to help local forces fighting Islamic State.

PUPS run for dinner, timelapse style.

A GOLDEN RETRIEVER pilots a Tesla car...or does it?

A DIABOLICAL BEAVER menaces Latvia's second-largest city.

HEY, IS THAT A FISH attached to your unit or...oh.