THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE LEMONHEADS!  Evan Dando's songbook has always struck me as autmnal, though not all of it really is.  For example, a very young Dando released his take on Suzanne Vega's hit "Luka" in May '89.  He dissolved the band after releasing the Lovey LP, but returned with a new lineup on "It's A Shame About Ray" in July '92. Despite Johnny Depp's appearance in that video, the Ray album lingered in the lower reaches of the charts, despite being filled with grunge-pop goodness like "Rockin' Stroll" and "Confetti."  But that November, Atlantic released the band's take on Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson," which shot to No. 19 on the UK charts and landed Dando unlikely US gigs like "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee."  The flip side of that single was the goofy "Being Around," which becomes a singalong live.  The followup LP, C'mon, Feel the Lemonheads, hit the Top 5 in the UK, but only No. 56 in the US, with the single "Into Your Arms," which would later turn up on the soundtrack to Before Sunrise and in an FTD commercial.  The other two videos from the LP, like "Ray," sport celeb cameos -- Angelina Jolie turns up in "It's About Time" and a young Chloë Sevigny can be seen in "Big Gay Heart" (though I went with Conan because the original is offline).  Unfortunately, Dando would soon slide into heavy drugs and the next album, Car Button Cloth was not nearly as successful -- commercially or artistically.  An unremarkable solo album and sporadic gigs would follow, until Dando got his personal life together and revived The Lemonheads brand with a self-titled LP in 2005, from which "Black Gown" was the lead track.  BONUS:  Dando and Mudhoney's Mark Arm fromted the DKT-MC5 on a ripping version (is there any other kind) of the classic "Kick Out the Jams" of The Late Late Show.

THE NEW PR0NOGRAPHERS: A.C. Newman and dan Bejar stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

CHUCK PROPHET stopped by World Cafe for a mini-set.

SLOAN stops by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

MARK LANEGAN advance streams Phantom Radio.

BOB DYLAN drops “Dress It Up, Better Have It All” ahead of The Basement Tapes Complete.

PARQUET COURTS, a/k/a Parkay Quarts, drops  “Uncast Shadow Of A Southern Myth” ahead of Content Nausea.

BELLE & SEBASTIAN: Stuart Murdoch talks to Flavorwire about every one of the band's LPs.

THURSTON MOORE talks to The Guardian about his divorce from Kim Gordon, life in London and whether Sonic Youth have a future.

CANDI STATON talks to The Quietus about Elvis Presley, Bobby Womack, America's gun culture, how to escape a hellish marriage and more.

BOB GELDOF “blames himself” for the heroin death of his daughter Peaches.

CUTOUT BIN: I'm streaming Rocktober with a little less cheese via the Pate page at the ol' HM.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: This weekend's wide releases include Fury, which is currently scoring 79 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; The Book Of Life, currently scoring 74 percent; and The Best Of Me, scoring 7 percent.

BRAD PITT had a breakdance converstaion with Jimmy Fallon, in lieu of a sitdown interview.

MISTY UPHAM's body was discovered in a ravine near Auburn, WA.

JUDE LAW is going to be a father for the fifth time.

KESHA spilled her guts to her shrinks in rehab about alleged sexual and physical abuse at the hands of Dr. Luke.

HALLE BERRY claims baby daddy Gabriel Aubry has been living entirely off her child support, and she is asking a judge to cut the payments.

MARIA MENOUNOS was victim to a random act of vandalism on Thursday.

RYAN GOSLING is looking at Marvel's Doctor Strange, DC's Suicide Squad, and The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero.

JOHN GRISHAM got himself into hot water with comments about people convicted of sex crimes.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: The two movies announced this week will be two "parts" directed by Zach Snyder, though there will be movies between them.

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, starring Chris Hemsworth and directed by Ron Howard, has a trailer online.

YEMEN: Houthi rebels took control of the city of Ibb and advanced to the outskirts of Rada'a,where they fought with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

SYRIA: Despite years of diplomacy and a CIA operation to vet and train moderate rebels, the U.S. finds itself without a credible partner on the ground in Syria as it bombs the Islamic State group.

IRAQ: Baghdad isn't panicked yet... perhaps because they're used to fear.  But nearby Abu Ghraib is seen as a weak point, and sympathy for the Islamic State is growing here, residents say, because of the heavy-handed actions of Shiite militias. 

A HAWK knocks a drone out of the sky.

WHEN A SPIDER burrows under your surgical scar.

BLOSOM THE COW is saved because she's too tall to slaughter.

A GOAT is questioned regarding a girl's death from E. coli.

TV on the RADIO drops a clip for "Happy Idiot," ft. Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman) and Karen Gillan (Doctor Who, Guardians of the Galaxy).

RYAN ADAMS stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

OWEN PALLETT stops by KEXP to perform songs from In Conflict. 

JESSE WARE advance streams Tough Love.

SHOVELS & ROPE stop by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

FIRST AID KIT talks to Drowned In Sound about their second recording trip to Omaha, Nebraska, their increasingly diverse influences, and the surreal nature of working with some of their heroes.

VASHTI BUNYAN talks to Pitchfork about the soundtrack of her life. Perhaps the most eclectic list I've seen in the series.

U2: Bono apologized for the band's latest album being automatically added to about 500 million users' iTunes playlists last month.

THE SMITHS: Spare them from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

AMANDA BYNES is headed for another conservatorship, possibly a year in involuntary confinement.

STEPHEN COLLINS is now under investigation by a third law enforcement agency for allegedly molesting and/or exposing himself to young girls.

NEIL PATRICK HARRIS will host this year’s Oscars. 

ROBERT PATTINSON is on the road with his new girlfriend, British singer-songwriter FKA twigs, as she travels around Europe on her current concert tour.

UMA THURMAN was sued in Manhattan Tuesday by the French financier Andrew Arpad Busson who wants custody of their 2-year-old daughter, Rosalind.

DC COMICS unveiled their film schedule through 2020, including the casting of Ezra Miller in the film version of The Flash, and Duane Johnson as the villain in an adaptation of Shazam. Elsewhere, producer Charles Roven talks Baffleck.

ELIZABETH PENA, who had roles in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, La Bamba, Lone Star, Rush Hour and The Incredibles, died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a brief illness, according to her manager, Gina Rugolo. She was 55.

THE ISLAMIC STATE has “tactical momentum on several fronts,” but the U.S. and its allies believe they have “strategic momentum,” the coalition’s defense chiefs agreed Tuesday.  The coalition, however, remains beset by lingering strategic differences that threaten to undermine the fight. US and coalition forces carried out 22 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, all in Kobane except for one in Deir al Zour; Tuesday's strikes were the most intense targeting yet by the coalition in Kobane. US forces also carried out one airstrike in Iraq against the group.

RUSSIA and the US agreed to begin sharing intelligence on the Islamic State.

IRAQ:: The Islamic State killed Ahmed al Khafaji, a member of parliament as well as a senior commander in the Shiite Badr militia.

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STELLA the DOG welcomes Autumn in the time-honored tradition.

WOMAN GETS SNAKE She Didn't Order in the Mail.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: A panda at the Toronto Zoo was harrassed by a militant rodent.

THIS ANGRY IGUANA, otoh, seems to have been provoked.

FOXYGEN drops a clip for "Coulda Been My Love."

ARETHA FRANKLIN advance streams Aretha Franklin Sings The Great Diva Classics.

NUDE BEACH advance streams a double-LP, 77. Power. Pop!

WEYES BLOOD advance streams The Innocents.

SHARPLESS streams The One I Wanted To Be.

ROBERT POLLARD's newest guise, Ricked Wicky, has "Mobility" ahead of I Sell The Circus.

MAYER HAWTHORNE covers Rhianna's "Stay."

RANCID is "Already Dead" ahead of Honor Is All We Know.

THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN: Because there's "Something In The Air." And you know that it's right.

U2: NPR's Ann Powers writes of "The Dream Of Ridiculous Men."

IGGY POP, delivering the annual John Peel Lecture for BBC Music, criticized U2 and praised Thom Yorke (among others).

JOHN CONGLETON, musician and hot indie producer, talks to All Songs Considered about everything from The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" to "Grim Grinning Ghosts," the song that accompanies Disney World's Haunted Mansion ride.

BLACK FLAG's Greg Ginn is accused of child abuse by his ex-wife.

AMANDA BYNES is filled with anger as she sits in a Pasadena mental facility ... after her parents created an elaborate ruse to get her committed. He psych hold has been extended another two weeks.

KESHA claims in a lawsuit that she was sexually, physically, verbally and emotionally abused for 10 years by her producer, Dr. Luke, to the point where she nearly died. He's counter-suing, claiming she's a liar who is making up stories just so she can get out of her legally binding contract.

AMY POEHLER used cocaine, ecsatcy and mushrooms in her twenties.

PADMA LAKSHMI & RICHARD GERE have split after six months of dating.

RENE RUSSO revealed she's bipolar during a routine talk show appearance.

JAVIER BARDEM is in early talks to play the villain in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

BILL MURRAY intends to star in a Christmas special for TV that will be directed by his Lost in Translation collaborator Sofia Coppola, where he’ll be performing classic carols.

TURKISH F-16 and F-4 warplanes have bombed Kurdish PKK rebel targets near the Iraqi border, as their ceasefire comes under increasing strain.

SYRIA's main opposition bloc failed to agree on a prime minister during a weekend summit in Turkey, participants said, the latest setback for a coalition long beset by internal divisions. American-led forces have sharply intensified air strikes in the past two days against Islamic State fighters threatening Kurds on Syria's Turkish border after the jihadists' advance began to destabilize Turkey.

IRAQ: Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno says he is only "somewhat" confident that the Iraqi army could defend Baghdad from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The New York Times has published a piece about US and Iraqi troops repeatedly encountering--and occasionally being wounded by--chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule.  Aside from the tragic circumstances reprorted, the NYT also asserts "The United States had gone to war declaring it must destroy an active weapons of mass destruction program," and that "After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Bush insisted that Mr. Hussein was hiding an active weapons of mass destruction program, in defiance of international will and at the world’s risk."  However, if you read the AUMF, you'll find no reference to active programs, but you will find references to stockpiles. If you read Pres. Bush's 2002 SOTU speech, there's no claim of an active program. Pres Bush's speech on Iraq to the United Nations includes no reference to an active program, but there is a reference to the stockpiles. And Pres. Bush's final speech before the invasion merely said "the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."  That said, Colin Powell accused Saddam Hussein and his regime of concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction. And Pres. Bush's 2003 SOTU refers to not only Saddam's failure to account for materials related to chemical and biological weapons, but also to high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production--a claim that was later debunked. Saddam was obviously nowhere as close to restarting his nuclear program as Pres Bush and Condoleeza Rice feared (and made others fear). But it seems odd, or perhaps ironic, that the people often accused of having lied or misled the US into the invasion are now being accused of covering up Iraq's stockpiles of chemical weapons, when they were mentioned repeatedly as a public justification for military action. The tragedy here is that, based on the claimed stockpiles--some of which were apparently still dangerous--the US should have done a better job of protecting our troops who encountered them after the invasion, and a better job of keeping some of these stockpiles from falling into the hands of Islamic terrorists.

DOGS team up to retrieve a ball.

BIGGIE, a 37-lb cat, was turned over to the Riverside Cat Hospital on Saturday, constipated and breathing heavily.

OVER 50 SPERM WHALES rolled and played with dolphins last Monday a few miles off Laguna Beach, California, in what veteran whale watchers said today was the largest group so close to shore in decades.

A BRITISH PARROT named Nigel disappeared from his owner's home four years ago - then returned speaking Spanish. African Grey. Beautiful plumage.

TY SEGALL gets a jump on Halloween in "The Singer."

BECK plays a full set on Austin City Limits.

ST VINCENT and BELLE & SEBASTIAN played full sets at ACL Fest.

UNWOUND streams No Energy, a career-spanning anthology.

KING KHAN & THE SHRINES sing the theme from Squidbillies.

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

BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY talks to Aquarium Drunkard about  the “mind-blowing” pool of talent in Nashville, the nature of “God,” the internet, WTF with Marc Maron, and one of his favorite Samhain lyrics.

IAN CURTIS: The Joy Division frontman's writings are coming to print.

PINK FLOYD's enigmatic cover art, explained by artist Storm Thorgerson.

NORTHERN SOUL, remembered by The Observer as a new movie prepares to do the same.

PENELOPE CRUZ is Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive for 2015.

STEPHEN COLLINS' wife accused the actor of using his famous role on 7th Heaven to gain the trust of two parents so he could molest their kid; if true it would mean he molested at least one child as recently as 2007.

KAT DENNINGS & JOSH GROBAN are an item.

MARTHA STEWART mocks GWYNETH PALTROW with a piece of pie.

ROBERT DOWNEY JR is close to signing on to...Captain America 3. Oh my.

KIRSTEN STEWART talks to The Daily Beast about the latest phase of her career.

THE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS Nominees.

LIBYA: Sources said that Ansar al Sharia's leader for Benghazi, Mohammed al Zahawi, was wounded or killed in recent clashes at Benina Airport and has been taken to a Sirte hospital.

TURKEY denied Monday that it has reached any “new agreement” with the United States to allow the use of Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey for attacks on the Islamic State militant group, despite suggestions from the Obama administration that a deal had been reached. Of course, it's also possible there is a deal and it was supposed to be kept quiet.

ISLAMIC STATE fighters on Monday seized control of an army base in western Iraq, the third to fall in three weeks, as Iraqi forces in the region appeared close to collapse despite U.S.-led airstrikes.  Pentagon officials said they do not believe it is appropriate to evaluate the current strategy based on Islamic State advances in either Anbar or in Kobani. The Islamic State jihadist group says that it has given Yazidi women and children captured in northern Iraq to its fighters as spoils of war, boasting it had revived slavery.

IRAQ: As many as 180,000 people have fled fighting between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants in and around the city of Hit in western Anbar province, the UN says.

KANGAROO FIGHT: Who you got?

CRABZILLA: People have been flocking to a website to judge for themselves whether this picture shows a huge crustacean in shallow water at a harbour mouth in Kent or is just an elaborate hoax.

GIANT SQUID ATTACKS SUBMARINE: Somewhere, Capt. Nemo laughs at Greenpeace.

6,000 VENOMOUS SPIDERS infest a Missouri house.

GLEN CAMPBELL, stricken with Alzheimer's, delivers his swan song, "“I’m Not Gonna Miss You," a personal and professional retrospective.

THURSTON MOORE advance streams The Best Day.

NEIL DIAMOND advance streams Melody Road.

HORSE FEATHERS advance streams So It Is With Us.

MASTER MIX: Red Hot + Arthur Russell.

DAVID BOWIE drops the jazzy "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" as the lead-off track of his latest greatest hits comp.

THE REPLACEMENTS, At Their Best--And Worst.

U2 discusses the Ireland of their youth, their Apple album giveaway - and why Bono works with people he would have once loathed. Big Labor is less than thrilled with their stance on taxes.

THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME 2015 Nominees.

THE 100 BEST LPs of the 200s, according to PopMatters (Introduction, 100-81, 80-61, 60-41, 40-21, 20-1)

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Gone Girl repeats atop the chart with 26.8 million, on a leggy 29 percent drop from its debut. The Fincher flick has recouped its production budget domestically and has had a strong opening in overseas markets.  Dracula Untold places with 23.5 million against a 70 million budget. This is likely deeply disappointing to Universal, which hoped this pic would be the start of a series of reboots of their classic horror properties. Halloween receipts are yet to come, but this vampire seems likely to die short of the 200 million it likely needs to profit in cinemas. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day shows with 19.1 million and should have no problem profiting.  Annabelle drops to the fourth slot this weekend with 16.4 million and will likely be highly profitable, despite being an apparently bad spinoff of The Conjuring. The Judge debuts at the bottom of the Top 5 with 13.3 million, which isn't bad for a drama that has to compete with the hot Gone Girl, but an inauspicious start for Robert Downey, Jr.'s production company.

AMANDA BYNES has been placed on psychiatric hold for the second time. She was apparently lured to and nabbed in L.A.

ANGELINA JOLIE has been made an honorary dame by the Queen of England for services to UK foreign policy and the campaign to end war zone sexual violence.

MISTY UPHAM (Frozen River, August: Osage County) was last seen Oct. 5 and may be suicidal.

REESE WITHERSPOON: What she really wants to do is direct.

LEA SEYDOUX has reportedly been cast as the latest Bond girl.

COLLATERAL: A long read In Praise of Michael Mann's Action Odyssey, a Decade Later.

ARCHIE vs PREDATOR: Who You Got?

COLUMBUS DAY:  I get it as a holiday, so I thought a few words might be in order. Over the course of my life, I have seen the image of Columbus swing from unvarnished hero to genocidal criminal, and the subject of many misconceptions.  Columbus was certainly no sweetheart, but at the end of the 15th Century, it is fair to say that Europeans often did not treat each other all that well. Moreover, before the furriners showed up, Native North and South Americans engaged in tribal massacre, infanticide, scalping, human sacrifice, and the ritual skinning of slaves for their priests to wear. It was a far less civilized time all 'round. But the West is civilized today in part because of Columbus. Some four centuries-plus later, we all are still struggling to become more civilized, but focusing criticism o­n the more-civilized while giving the less-civilized a pass is not particularly useful to that struggle. 

HONG KONG police moved on Monday to remove some of the barricades erected by pro-democracy protesters.

TURKEY will allow American and coalition troops to use its bases, including a key installation within 160 kilometres of the Syrian border, for operations against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

THE ISLAMIC STATE  has systematically separated young women and teenage girls from their families and has forced some of them to marry its fighters, and forced boys to convert to Islam, according to Human Rights Watch.

IRAQI officials have issued a desperate plea for America to bring US ground troops back to the embattled country, as heavily armed Islamic State militants came within striking distance of Baghdad. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey has revealed that the United States had to call in Apache helicopters to protect Baghdad's airport against the Islamic State.

A BULLDOG PUP learns to howl.

A LEECH was discovered inside a backpacker's nose. Khaaaan!

COWS IN DIAPERS protest new EU regs on cow dung. 

PLANET OF THE APES: A New York appeals court will consider this week whether chimpanzees are entitled to "legal personhood" in what experts say is the first case of its kind.