GRANT HART HAS DIED. THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with HUSKER DU.  Grant Hart, the drummer, vocalist and songwriter for the influential Minnesota rock band, died of cancer on Wednesday at his home in St. Paul. He was 56. Rolling Stone and The Guardian both essayed his impact on Punk and Grunge, while bandmate Bob Mould and a host of other musicians paid tribute to man author Michael Azerrad succinctly nailed as "a cyclonic drummer, soulful singer, epochal songwriter and inspiring autodidact."  The Current also has a great obit with tw separate playlists of his career highlights.  World Cafe has reposed a 2010 interview and twofer.  Husker Du was certainly in my personal pantheon of greats at the dawn -- or early morning, anyway -- of what was then known as "college rock."  I saw them play on a number of occasions, including an upclose exposure (by which I mean literally inches at times) on the final night of the Flip Your Wig tour, which included Soul Asylum at Amelia's in beautiful Iowa City. I lost some of my hearing that night, but not enough to harbor serious regrets.  You can get a rough idea of what it was like from Live from London's Camden Palace in 1985. Your setlist includes: "New Day Rising"; "It's Not Funny Anymore"; "Everything Falls Apart"; "Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill"; "I Apologize"; "If I Told You"; "Folklore"; "Terms of Psychic Warfare"; "Powerline"; "Books About UFOs"; "Chartered Trips"; "Diane"; "Celebrated Summer"; "Every Everything"; "Makes No Sense at All"; "Pink Turns to Blue"; "Ticket to Ride"; "Reoccurring Dreams/Dreams Reoccurring"; "Eight Miles High"; and "Love Is All Around".  BONUS: "2541," which is probably his best-known solo track.

JOSH RITTER advance streams Gathering.

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR advance streams Luciferian Towers.

CUT COPY advance streams Haiku From Zero.

CHELSEA WOLFE advance streams Hiss Spun.

METZ advance streams Strange Peace.

THE CLIENTELE shares "Everything You See Tonight Is Different From Itself."

WEEZER shares "Beach Boys." Murry Wilson has a cameo.

R.E.M. shares a demo for "Mike's Pop Song."

JON PRATT: Pate's frontman  rolls out "Summer Crush" and an explainer.

POLITICAL BEATS spends two hours on R.E.M. with guest Matt Welch, former Editor-in-Chief and current Editor-at-Large of Reason magazine. And maybe not what you'd expect from National Review.

ARIEL PINK talks to SPIN about Bobby Jameson and Dedicated To Bobby Jameson.

MATTHEW SWEET talks to PopMatters about his long and winding road.

STEELY DAN: Don Fagen intends to carry on the band's legacy, but cancelled four solo dates due to an undisclosed illness.

NOW SHOWING:  This weekend's wide releases are American Assassin, which is currently scoring 43 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and mother!, which is scoring 76 percent.

SELENA GOMEZ got a kidney transplant from a friend.

FERGIE & JOSH DUHAMEL are going their separate ways.

ROONEY MARA is profiled by Vogue.

BILL COSBY: Another trial date was pushed back as yet another set of new lawyers are brought on board for the much-accused actor.

GAME OF THRONES producers will shoot multiple versions of the ending of season eight to try to avoid leaks.

BETTER WATCH OUT, a horror-comedy splitting critics, has a trailer online.

FINN, a five-year-old Australian cattle dog, is running for mayor of St John’s in Newfoundland.

A SEA MONSTER washed up in Texas.

THAT PUG needed a taxpayer-funded tuxedo, your honor.

YOUR HOUSE CAT may someday contribute to your Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.

LANA DEL REY shares a video for "White Mustang."

RIDE stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

FRANCES CONE plays a Tiny Desk Concert.

WASHER streams All Aboard.

THE REPLACEMENTS share a live "I Will Dare."

DESTROYER shares "Tinseltown Swimming in Blood."

WAVVES shares "The Lung."

SPLIT ENZ: "I Got You." 

SPARKS have a conversation with PopMatters.

THE WAR ON DRUGS: Adam Granduciel talks about his musical influences with Rolling Stone.

THOSE DARLINS' singer Jessi Zazu has died of cancer at 28.

RINGO STARR says he would have voted for Brexit, but don't tell Bob Geldof.

HARRISON FORD talks to GQ about punching Ryan Gosling, watching Action Bronson, and more. He's eminently quotable.

FRANK VINCENT, who played the vicious mob boss Phil Leotardo on The Sopranos, has died. He was 78. Vincent also portrayed tough guys for director Martin Scorsese in Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) — as the real-life Gambino gangster Billy Batts, he with the memorable line, "Go home and get your shine box!" — and Casino (1995).

ANGELINA JOLIE is doing a press push with the New York Times and People, among others.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON quietly settled her custody battle and finalized her divorce from her French husband Romain Dauriac.

MANDY MOORE got engaged to marry Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes.

THE FOREIGNER, starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan, has a trailer online.

HELLBOY: A first look at the reboot.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE performances, ranked.

LARRY KING has lung cancer.

KIM KARDASHIAN taught the Kremlin something.

A STRAY DOG did something special with dinner.

A CHEEKY ELEPHANT got caught stealing hay off a truck in Thailand.

THE RAT HOTLINE is busy in Washington, DC. But you knew that.

PETA officially dropped the Naruto selfie case on Monday.

THE FRONT BOTTOMS share a video for "Vacation Town."

THE NATIONAL, Live in Paris, filmed by La Blogothèque.

BLEACHERS played a Tiny Desk Concert.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED features new tracks from Loney Dear, Wolf Alice, Billy Corgan, and more.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS shares a new version of "Sidewalks of the City."

COUSTEAUX (f/k/a Cousteau) returns with "Shelter."

MADNESS: "It Must Be Love."

ERIC CLAPTON: "Maybe the guitar is over."

DEER TICK's John McCauley talks to American Songwriter.

CARLA BRUNI talks to The Quietus about music and definitely not politics.

BEACHWOOD SPARKS' guitarist and songwriter Josh Schwartz has died after a battle with ALS. He was 45.

STAR WARS: EPISODE IX? J.J. Abrams it is.

IT is already headed for a sequel.

CAREY MULLIGAN & MARCUS MUMFORD have welcomed their second child.

LIAM NEESON has put aside his "special set of skills" and announced he is retiring from thrillers due to his age.

HARRISON FORD was directing New York City traffic on Sunday, after his car got trapped in a backup around the Midtown tunnel.

HELLBOY: Daniel Dae Kim is in talks to replace Ed Skrein in the reboot.

LOUIS C.K.: "You don’t know anybody.”

JOHN CLEESE talks to Vulture about Monty Python's legacy, political correctness, and the funniest joke he ever told.

FLUFFY, a juvenile great white shark, has returned to the ocean after washing up on an Aussie beach.

THE SWARM attacked Philly.

AROUSED MALE FLIES unable to sleep after close encounters with females. Dudes, man.

THE TEXAS OCELOT has a lesson for you.

WOLF ALICE shares a retro video for "Beautifully Unconventional."

LIZZ WRIGHT advance streams Grace.

SELWYN BIRCHWOOD stops by World Cafe for a chat and a couple of tunes.

BRAND NEW plays the High & Low Festival.

MAVIS STAPLES shares the Jeff Tweedy co-written title track for "If All I Was Was Black."

THE HORRORS share "Weighed Down."

THE SUPREMES perform "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "Somewhere" from West Side Story in October 1966 for Twofer Tuesday.

THE NATIONAL's Matt Berninger talks to The Atlantic about eclipses, Trump, Leonard Cohen, whitemaledom, and more.

THE CRAMPS: NPR Music celebrates Songs the Lord Taught Us.

ALVVAYS is profiled by DIY.

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS' Stephin Merritt wrote a jingle for a Silverlake menswear store.

JIM CARREY: This interview could be his best work in years.

ROTTEN TOMATOES scores don't hurt the box office, a new study claims.

BLADE RUNNER 2049 shares a first clip online.

WONDER WOMAN 2: Patty Jenkins is returning to direct the sequel, after an unusually lengthy and tough negotiation.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE says Darren Aronofsky, her mother! director and boyfriend of a year, is “bold and brave”—and maybe a little twisted.

DON OHLMEYER, whose influential television career ranged from producing ABC’s Monday Night Football during its 1970s heyday to guiding NBC to No. 1 in prime time two decades later on the strength of programs like Seinfeld and ER, died on Sunday in Indian Wells, Calif. He was 72.

A FLOCK OF 70 TURKEYS that poop on trucks has driven a small Oregon town to the brink.

TEN SHARKS were found in the basement pool of a New York home after environmental conservation officers searched the residence.

THE DOG is the real hero here.

THE MUPPETS play "Rainbow Connection" at the Hollywood Bowl, with co-wrire Paul Williams, and guest Bobby Moynihan.

THE ROLLING STONES play "Dancing With Mr. D" for the first time in 44 years (and  “Play With Fire” for the first time since 1990 and "Under My Thumb" for the fist time since 2006).

THE DISTRICTS stopped by World Cafe to chat and play a couple.

SUSANNE SUNDFOR streams Music For People In Trouble.

JOSEPH covers Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World."

MARK KOZELEK, BEN BOYE & JIM WHITE share  "The Black Butterfly."

CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG shares "Rest."

REDBONE: "Come and Get Your Love."

MOGWAI's Stuart Braithwaite shares his cultural highlights.

THE ANTLERS clarify that they have not broken up.

WOLF ALICE is profiled at DIY. (Thx, Frank Yang.)

JOHN DARNIELLE is launching a podcast titled, "I Only Listen To The Mountain Goats."

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: It rampaged at the top of the chart with 117MM, well above industry projections of ~80MM. Crazy good against a 35MM budget.  It's the biggest September debut ever.  And the biggest Fall debut ever.  And the biggest horror debut ever.  And the second-biggest R-rated debut ever, behind Deadpool.  It's a bigger debut than Wonder Woman or Spider-Man: Homecoming, albeit against much weaker competition.  And It already has another 62MM overseas.  Home Again placed with 9MM.  The Hitman's Bodyguard showed, sliding to third with 4.9MM on a 54 percent drop. Annabelle: Creation dropped to fourth with 4MM, though it has made teriffic money until the clown showed up.  Wind River rounded out the Top Five with 3.2MM

STAR WARS: Why Colin Trevorrow left Episode IX.

LEAH REMINI won her first Emmy for her A&E series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.

GEORGE & AMAL CLOONEY avoided "Hollywood" names for their twins.

JAMES FRANCO claims he doesn't watch adult films in real life anymore. 

LEN WEIN, the award-winning comics writer and editor who co-created Wolverine, Sorm, Colossus, Nightcrawler (for Marvel), and Swamp Thing (for DC) , along with editing Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, passed away Sunday at 69.

9/11: The first five minutes of CNN coverage. I came out of the shower, saw the second plane hit on NBC, and knew had had to contact my boss, whose daughter lived in NYC. There is still a lot of crazy stuff going on around the country and the world as a result, so consider taking a moment to watch and remember, esp. since MSNBC isn't rea-airing its archival coverage this year and a new generation has grown up with no direct memory of the event.

NEARLY 900 DOGS check into Orlando's Hyatt Regency to ride out Hurricane Irma.

FLAMINGOS are ushered to safety at Busch Gardens in Tampa.

A PAIR OF PARROTS sought refuge at a Miamai hotel.

A GATOR PARK in Orlando claims none of its 2000 residents none will escape. Mmmk.

FREE-ROAMING CHICKENS were rescued from Key West.