WILD BEASTS take some sort of trip to "Mecca."

BROKEN BELLS play a full set Live On Letterman.

BOB MOULD stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set. 

OWEN PALLETT performs in the WNYC Soundcheck studio.

CENTRO-MATIC plays a mini-set at KUTX. 

GASLIGHT ANTHEM goes "Rollin' and Tumblin'" ahead of Get Hurt.

CONNECTIONS "Beat The Sky" ahead of Into Sixes.

THE PIPETTES: "Your Kisses are Wasted On Me." Before it all went wrong. Sigh.

PRINCE: Purple Rain turns 30 this week; Stereogum ranks his albums.

RICHARD REED PARRY of Arcade Fire and Bell Orchestre talks to Drowned In Sound about  Music for Heart and Breath, the irritations of playing wearing a stethoscope, and why nobody should care about Metallica playing Glastonbury.

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS announces a postumous album.

THE 50 BEST LPs of 2014 (So Far), according to Pretty Much Amazing.

GARY OLDMAN 's apology was not accepted by the Anti-Defamation League.

GEORGE CLOONEY wants to be Governor or Senator or something.

ADAM LEVINE insists he never had sex with Lindsay Lohan.

CHRIS BROWN rejected a plea bargain in his Washington assault case.

MADONNA was wearing Islamic garb on Instagram.

THE GEORGE LUCAS MUSEUM will be built in Chicago. Yay?

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD gives a first look to Entertainment Weekly.

NORTH KOREA has threatened a "resolute and merciless" response against the US unless it bans a film about an attempt to assassinate the country's leader, Kim Jong-un.

UKRAINE: Russia's upper house of parliament voted Wednesday to revoke the right of President Vladimir Putin to use troops in Ukraine as efforts continue to calm a separatist uprising in Ukraine's east.

VENEZUELA: University students and government opponents protested in Caracas on Tuesday, demanding the release of people who have been arrested in street demonstrations in recent months.

IRAQ: Sunni militants in Iraq took control of several small oil fields and targeted one of the country’s largest air bases Wednesday, while a suicide bomb blast rocked an outdoor market just south of the capital of Baghdad.

A GREAT WHITE SHARK was spotted off of Cape Cod, right at the height of tourist season.

REGINA THE OCTOPUS predicts US-Germany tie, meaning Americans will advance to 2nd round of World Cup. That's just science.

A PUPPY got his head stuck in a car wheel.

A CAT supervises a polices earch of its home.

VERUCA SALT drops a video for "It's Holy," the B-side to their return single.

THE NATIONAL ran through a nearly two hour set at Celebrate Brooklyn.

BEVERLY advance streams Careers.

TURN TO CRIME streams Can't Love.

BRIAN ENO & KARL HYDE advance stream High Life.

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS drop their swan song, a cover of Joey Ramone's "I Got Knocked Down (But I'll Get Up)."

RICHARD HELL & THE VOIDOIDS: Vintage video of "Blank Generation," with a little "Love Comes in Spurts."

THE ANTLERS: Peter Silberman and Darby Cicci talk to PopMatters, separately.

THE ENGLISH BEAT: Dave Wakeling, the sole remaining original member, is crowdfunding a new LP under that moniker.

IGGY POP gets an apology from Amnesty International.

SONG OF THE SUMMER? Musicians gave their picks to Flavorwire.

GARY OLDMAN: The quasi-apology for his Playboy interview is coming soon.

JUSTIN BIEBER was in a car accident in Bev Hills after a paparazzi chase.

HOPE SOLO: The 911 Tape.

LANA DEL REY and her fiance, Barrie-James O'Neill, have split.

ELIZA DUSHKU split with longtime boyfriend Rick Fox and moved back to Boston to, eventually, go to school.

DEAL OR NO DEAL model's husband kills himself amid marital woes, after pics of her with Leonardo Dicaprio and Adrian grenier turned up online.

PREDATOR getting a reboot from Shane Black? That might be interesting.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

ELI WALLACH, who was one of his generation’s most prominent and prolific character actors in film, onstage and on television for more than 60 years, died on Tuesday. He was 98.

UKRAINE: A cease-fire between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists appeared to be in danger Tuesday as President Petro Poroshenko said he may end the weeklong agreement early.The announcement came after rebels shot down a Ukrainian military helicopter Tuesday near the city of Sloviansk.

PAKISTAN: Gunmen fired on a Pakistan International Airlines plane as it was landing in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday night, killing a woman on board and injuring three crew members in the third incident at a Pakistani airport this month.

LIBYA teeters near chaos ahead of national elections.

IRAQ: Sunni militants are consolidating their hold on a swath of Iraq and now threaten the integrity of the Iraqi state, U.S. military and intelligence officials said. Iraqi sources denied that Tarbil and Al-Waleed have been seized by ISIS militants.

CAT vs CHIPMUNK: Who you got?

A MONKEY using an iPhone. Nature photographer Marsel van Oosten shares the full story behind his amazing shot and technique.

A GREAT WHITE SHARK was captured about a mile off Rockaway Beach.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: Militant rodents, have attacked one guy's phone and internet services at least 30 times.

THE BOTH: Aimee Mann and Ted Leo say "No Sir” to Conan.

FIRST AID KIT stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

SONGS OF THE SUMMER, 1962-2014, streaming via NPR.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: Tracks from Tom Petty, Lana Del Rey, Sean Rowe, Phox and more highlight the current edition.

PATTI SMITH: Pitchfork scoured the net for pre-Horses material. 

ROBERT PLANT and the Sensational Space Shifters drop "Rainbow" ahead of lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar.

THE SHINS drop "So Now What" from the Wish I Was Here soundtrack.

MANFRED MANN covers Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn" and "Just Like a Woman" for Twofer Tuesday.

ST VINCENT talks to Rolling Stone while visiting he Museu Blau, a natural-history museum overlooking a stretch of the Mediterranean.

PHISH talks songwriting on All Things Considered.

HAPPY MONDAYS: Paul Ryder and Rowetta ell The Guardian about making "Kinky Afro."

MERRY CLAYTON – the stark and striking female voice on the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," and one of the stars of the Oscar-winning documentary Twenty Feet from Stardom – has been seriously injured in a car crash.

KRISTEN STEWART threatened to sue Joan Rivers for saying her way to stardom was the casting couch.

KRISTEN BELL is pregnant with her second child with husband Dax Shepard.

GEORGE CLOONEY entertained his fiancée's mother, Baria Alamuddin, at his villa on Lake Como, Italy, over the weekend.

GARY OLDMAN goes politically incorrect in a Playboy Interview.

ROBIN THICKE is laying it on thick in his campaign to win back estranged wife Paula Patton. Perhaps too thick.

UKRAINE: Pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine agreed Monday to respect a cease-fire declared by the Ukrainian president.

SYRIA on Monday handed over the remaining 100 tonnes of toxic material it had declared to the global chemical weapons watchdog, but the country cannot be declared free of the weapons of mass destruction, the organisation's chief said.

IRAQI premier Nuri al-Maliki's security spokesman said Monday that "hundreds" of Iraqi soldiers have been killed by Sunni Arab militants in a major offensive that has overrun vast tracts of the country. Sunnis are reportedly expelling Shiites from Kirkuk and nearby towns.  In the two weeks since it was seized by Sunni militants, some residents of the northern Iraq city of Mosul feel the clock has been turned back hundreds of years. US President Obama is lining up ISIS targets in Iraq and may launch an attack on the militant Islamic militia that is threatening Baghdad even if he does not get an agreement with the Iraqi regime, Secretary of State John Kerry said today.

BEAGLE vs TOASTER OVEN: Bet on the Beagle.

ALLIGATORS should not be moved by amateurs.

A BULL SHARK was spotted in a freshwater pond at a beachside park.

PEANUT wins the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair.

FOO FIGHTERS cover The Rolling Stones, Queen, Van Halen, and Alice Cooper at the Firefly fest.

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW advance streams Remedy.

OOIOO advance streams Gamel.

JIM LAUDERDALE advance streams I'm a Song.

CORB LUND advance streams Counterfeit Blues, recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis.

MICK JAGGER & DAVID BOWIE, "Dancing In The Street," without music.

HOW TO DRESS WELL: Tom Krell gets a meaty profile as the new Pitchfork cover story.

LANA DEL REY: A paradox explored on The Record.

JESSIE WARE gets a non-serious interview from Nosiey.

GUIDED BY VOICES:The genius Bee Thousand turns 20, and gets its own lager, Beer Thousand. Get off my lawn.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Think Like a Man Too tops the chart with 30 million; that number is good against a 24 million budget, but about what the original did, not sequel type numbers. 22 Jump Street showed with 29 million, on a steep 49 percent drop.  Then again, 21 Jump Street dropped 45 percent in its second weekend and turned out leggy, so who knows.As it stands the sequal is at 111 million domestic against a 50 million budget, and hasn't opened in a lot of other territories.  How To Train Your Dragon 2 shows with 25.3 million, on another sequelly drop of 49 percent. This will have to do Kung-Fu Panda 2-style biz overseas to make the 400 million it likely needs to profit. Jersey Boys debuted in the fourth slot with a soft 13 million, but with a 40 million budget and no real competition for the older demo, Clint could recoup his production budget. Maleficent rounds out the Top 5 with 13 million; Jolie is showing some legs, and she'll need them to make the approximately 80 million more worldwide it needs to profit.She'll likely find it in China.

JUSTIN BIEBER & SELENA GOMEZ, caught canoodling in studio.

KATIE COURIC married financier John Molner in East Hampton, New York on Saturday.

JENNIFER LOPEZ  and Dancing With the Stars pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy met up for a “very flirty” night on the town, weeks after they shot down dating rumors.

HOPE SOLO was arrested overnight for allegedly striking her sister and her nephew at the Kirkland home she shares with her husband, former NFL player Jerramy Stevens, according to police.

STAR WARS: Rian Johnson will write scripts for Episodes VIII and IX, but only direct VIII.

ROSARIO DAWSON is joining the Daredevil series on Netflix.

UKRAINE: The new cease-fire implemented in embattled eastern Ukraine by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Friday was clearly under threat by Saturday, if not sooner.

EGYPT: A court upheld death sentences against Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and some 182 followers. Many of those sentenced were tried in absentia, and their sentences are invalidated if they surrender to authorities or are arrested, in which case retrial is ordered.

SYRIA: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham executed three Free Syrian Army officers (the vice-leader of the military council in Deir Ezzor province and two commanders in the Al Haq group) in Deir Izzour. ISIS yesterday took over Mo Hasan and other strategic towns in eastern Deir Izzour, including the headquarters of the rebel battalions' military council.

IRAQ: Militant fighters tightened their grip Sunday on western Iraq as security forces withdrew from a handful of towns in Anbar province, moving closer to Baghdad. President Obama said the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham poses a "medium and longterm threat" to the US, but that other terrorist groups may present more immediate threats, and said "ISIS is just one of a number of organizations that we have to stay focused on," mentioning al Qaeda in Yemen and Boko Haram.

A WOLF PUP hiccups.

THE ASSASSIN BUG impales its prey and sucks it dry, then attaches the entire corpse to its back.

A RACCOON takes a Winne-the-Pooh enactment to a whole new level.

A BABY RHINO was born at the Oklahoma City Zoo on Saturday.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with GERRY GOFFIN, R.I.P.: Goffin, who collaborated with Carole King to write some of the biggest hits of the 1960s, songs that endured through generations and became classics, including “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?,” “Up on the Roof,” “One Fine Day” and “The Loco-Motion,” died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 75. The Goffin-King had a remarkable run of Top 40 hits: The Animals had a hit with “Don’t Bring Me Down.” The Monkees recorded “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” among several. Aretha Franklin reached the Top 10 with “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. They also had one infamous miss, 1962's "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)".

JACK WHITE at Bonnaroo: downloadable as audio or video.

SHEARWATER is streaming its odds and sods collection, Missing Islands.

DONOVAN BLANC streams a self-titled debut

HOW TO DRESS WELL is streaming What Is This Heart?

CREAM sync into "I Feel Free" on the Beat Club in 1967.

BOB MOULD discusses his favorite LPs at length with The Quietus. Great choices and interesting commentary. Because Bob Mould, silly.

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH: Alec Ounsworth updates Magnet on the state of the band.

JON PRATT, Pate's frontman, turns up on his Mr Sciencey day job in this Radolab podcast about the difficulty of maintaining the official  weight of a kilogram.

IGGY POP declares Justin Bieber the "future of rock and roll." The explanation is obvious.

CUTOUT BIN: From Wilco to the Waitresses, from the Crystals to the Violent Femmes, from Jefferson Airplane to the Boomtown Rats, plus Dusty Springfield, Pink Floyd, the Stone Roses, the Smiths 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: Jersey Boys, currently scoring 58 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and Think Like A Man Too, scoring 26 percent.

KIM KARDASHIAN talks about her marriage to Kanye West with MailOnline.

LADY GAGA scrapped a video since her co-star was once on trial for kiddie porn and her director is in a swirl of controversy over allegedly sexually assaulting or harassing his models.

LINDSAY LOHAN is preparing to make her theatrical debut in a West End production of Speed-the-Plow.

LUPITA NYONG'O is the cover story for the new Vogue.

THE ROCK talks to The Hollywood Reporter about rebooting his career into eight figures.

SAVED BY THE BELL gets an unauthorized biopic which will almost certainly be less racy than Dustin Diamond's book.

UKRAINE: The leaders of Ukraine and Russia talked peace on Thursday amid the longstanding tensions between the countries over the grinding unrest in eastern Ukraine.

IRAQ: Refinery workers, witnesses and an Iraqi Army officer reported the seizure of Iraq’s biggest oil refinery by Sunni extremists on Wednesday after army helicopter gunships failed to repel their attack. But other Iraqi officials, including the commander of the garrison defending the refinery in Baiji, asserted that fighting was still going on inside the extensive facility, shut down by the violence.  US officials are indicating that Prime Minister Maliki must step down to resolve the crisis. The jihadist group bringing terror to Iraq overran a Saddam Hussein chemical weapons complex on Thursday, gaining access to disused stores of hundreds of tons of potentially deadly poisons including mustard gas and sarin.

A BLIND DOG regains his sight.

SPIDERS kill and eat fish.

WHEN BEAVERS ATTACK, don't be in the kayak.

A MOOSE smashed through the windscreen of a packed coach as it travelled along a highway, stopping the mileage clock at the number of the beast - 666.6.