THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

....with MARSHALL CRENSHAW!  Live at The Ritz, July 6, 1985.  Your setlist includes: "Blues Is King," "Whenever You're On My Mind," "Shake Rattle And Roll," "Our Town," "Maryann," "Right Now," "The Distance Between Me And You," "Someday Someway," "Little Wild One," " I'm Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee)," "Yvonne," "There She Goes Again," "Cynical Girl," "Shake Up Their Minds," and "Soldier Of Love."

RIVER WHYLESS advance streams Kindness, A Rebel.

ANGELIQUE KIDJO advance streams a cover LP of Talking Heads' Remain In Light.

SUGARLAND advance streams Bigger.

ERIN RAE advance streams Putting On Airs.

JIM JAMES shares a new song about social media, "Throwback."

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE play "It Must Be Summer" unpluggedy.

MICK JAGGER's dorky dad comments on his teenage son's Instagram are adorable.

TRACYANNE & DANNY: The indie duo turning grief into guitar pop.

"FUNKYTOWN" topped the charts this week in 1980.  Here's how we all got taken there.

25 CLASSIC NYC ARTISTS that didn’t make NME’s top NYC albums of all time.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at the Angels' girl-group classic "My Boyfriend's Back."

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Adrift, currently scoring 70 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Action Point, which was not advance screened; and Upgrade, scoring 85 percent.

MEGHAN MARKLE: Stories about her Mom and Dad.

MAVERICK: Tom Cruise drops a first look at the Top Gun sequel.

COLIN TREVORROW has spoken publicly for the first time about his departure from the director’s chair for Star Wars: Episode IX.

NXIVM: The sex cult that preached empowerment.

FIGHT CLUB author Chuck Palahniuk says he's "close to broke" after his agent's accountant is charged with embezzlement.

A MOTHER OPPOSSUM carries her furry family of baby opossums while taking a stroll down a Boston sidewalk.

RALLY GOOSE: A Baseball Story.

THE EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK is doing something for the first time in its 70-year history: opening park borders to paid hunters.

AN ALBINO PEACOCK in a tiny West Sussex village is terrifying residents as he wanders into their gardens looking for love.

THE FIVE STAIRSTEPS:  “O-o-h Child." Time for a dance-off?

DR DOG visited World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

NATALIE PRESS played a Stereogum session.

JENNIFER CASTLE covers Bob Marley & the Wailers' "Stand Alone" and Brooke Benton's "I Got What I Wanted in a Lagniappe Session.

JASON ISBELL covered Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty."

RYAN ADAMS  has shared the new song “105.5 The Colorado Sound.”

FATHER JOHN MISTY shares a video for "Please Don't Die."

THE MELVINS join CHEAP TRICK on "Surrender."

NEKO CASE Is Still Fighting.

THE NUMBER ONES ooks at a 12-year-old Stevie Wonder's classic live rave-up "Fingertips (Pt. II)."

KIM KARDASHIAN met PRES TRUMP to discuss prison reform, because 2018.

ROSEANNE RERUNS were pulled from several networks.

ANNE HATHAWAY is profiled by Glamour.

BRIGITTE NIELSEN revealed she was expecting her fifth child at 54.

STAR WARS would be better off if it stopped obsessing over its past?

TWO LYNXES have an animated conversation.

A SNAKE knocks out Knoxville.

CAMEL MILK: Better than cockroach milk?

27 RABBITS were left at a Long Island train station.

THINGS? I HAVE A FEW...

WEEZER finally met fan requests for a cover of Toto's "Africa."

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Jan And Dean's California anthem "Surf City."

JONATHAN FIRE*EATER frontman Stewart Lupton has died. He was 43.

ROSEANNE was canceled after series star and creator Roseanne Barr made a comment on Twitter Tuesday morning referring to former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett as looking like the offspring of the "Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes."

WHY IS SOLO considered a yuge disappointment?  Sonny Bunch does box office math.(And the franchise continues to underperform in China.)

MORGAN FREEMAN: Tyra Williams, one of the women who came forward against actor the actor is pushing back against CNN's explosive report that he had sexually harassed up to eight women. Chloe Melas talks to the NYT about her experience.

EMMA WATSON breaks up with Chord Overstreet.

DIANE KRUGER and NORMAN REEDUS are expecting their first child together.

PRINCE HARRY & MEGAN MARKLE plan to honeymoon in the Great White North.

ANTHONY HOPKINS has life advice for young actors (and everyone, really).

HAILEY BALDWIN claims the 2016 election split her family.

ZACK SNYDER says his next project is The Fountainhead.

JAMIE FOXX will lead the new Spawn reboot.

THE WALKING DEAD is losing Sheriff Rick?

PHIL HARTMAN was killed 20 years ago; here's the memorial speech Jan Hooks gave.

THE VAMPIRE LesCat.

A SERVICE DOG gave birth to a litter in the Tampa airport.

MOOSE vs MINI COOPER: Who You Got?

DIRECT TV has a channel for dogs to watch.

THE ONLY BIG "NEWS" OF THE WEEKEND IS THIS:

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Solo: A Star Wars Story tops the chart with a four-day haul of 103MM... far below tracking projections of 130MM, and the lowest opening for this franchise in the Disney era (tho the best opening for director Ron Howard).  Although it has the next couple of weekends to itself, this is in no way good news for the House of Mouse, esp. with only 65MM in foreign grosses.  The fact that Howard was brought in to reshoot as much as 85 percent of this movie inflated the production budget to a reported 250-300MM.  Add in the marketing and ancillary costs and there's a non-zero chance Solo winds up somewhere in a breakeven range.  Disney's not making these to break even, even if it sells toys or fills out theme parks.  Whether it's market saturation, or this one being shunned as punishment for The Last Jedi, I doubt Disney will want to rest on the staus quo.    Deadpool 2 places with 55MM on a 56 percent drop; that's a bit steep for a second frame on a holiday weekend, but with almost 500MM worldwide against a 110M budget, the studio should probably be content against its competition.  Avengers: Infinity War shows with another 21.2MM in its fifth frame.  Book Club takes the fourth slot with 12.5MM on a leggy 8 percent drop.  Life of the Party rounds out the Top Five with 7MM on a 9 percent drop and continues to look like Melissa McCarthy's lowest-grossing star vehicle to date.

MEMORIAL DAY has become -- in the minds of some -- a day devoted to uncovering their swimming pools and barbeques. So take a moment (preferably at 3 p.m. local time) to remember what it's really about.You can read about "The Meaning of Memorial Day" with selections from American authors and statesmen, including Herman Melville, Ernie Pyle, Louisa May Alcott, Frederick Douglass, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Joyce Johnson and the "Arlington Ladies" who attend every funeral in Arlington National Cemetery, to ensure no soldier is buried alone, take more than a moment.  Re-read "A Death in the Family," as powerful as it was when Christopher Hitchens wrote it in 2007.  Revisit William Wyler's footage of the last mission of the Memphis Belle, or check the Tube for Alfred Hitchcock's footage of the liberation of the Belsen concentration camp.  The Wikipedia entry for Memorial Day notes a race track connection unrelated to the Indy 500.  It's a good day -- as good as we are likely to get -- for Sgt. Barry Sadler's No. 1 smash, "Ballad of the Green Berets."  or the movie adaptation of Gen. George S. Patton's "Speech to the Third Army."  As "Greyhawk" once wrote at the Mudville Gazette, "This is Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy it. Celebrate it - the people who died to give you that right would appreciate it. But they didn't die peaceably in their beds, these dogs who fell protecting sheep from wolves."