PETER BJORN & JOHN drop "Breaker Breaker" as an advance clip for the upcoming album.

NEW RELEASES: Iron & Wine, Deerhoof, John Vanderslice, Amanda Palmer and more are streaming this week via Spinner.

ESBEN & THE WITCH advance stream Violet Cries at the 'Gum.

PALE YOUNG GENTLEMEN did five free songs for Daytrotter.

R.E.M. won't be touring Collapse Into Now, but there's another advance track, "Überlin."

THE ROLLING STONES: 2120 South Michigan Avenue (The Unreleased 1964 Blues Album).

WANDA JACKSON & JACK WHITE cover Jimmy Kidd's "Shakin' All Over" and Bob Dylan's "Thunder On The Mountain" for Twofer Tuesday.

BEST COAST & WAVVES: Tourmates (and bedmates) Bethany Cosentino and Nathan Williams do a two-part interview with the L.A. Times.

JAYHAWKS Gary Louris and Mark Olson talk reunion with the Chicago Sun-Times.

PATTI SMITH is profiled by The Guardian.

ABIGAIL WASHBURN is also profiled by The Guardian.

BRUCE WILLIS is "soul crushing" to work with, according to director Kevin Smith, who has been behaving strangely lately, even for him.

OPRAH WINFREY reveals she has a secret half-sister, named Patricia, who was given up for adoption as a child.  So perhaps it is she who will bring balance to The Force.

JAIME PRESSLY, fresh off a DUI bust, is getting a divorce... and is accused of owing more than 637K in state and federal taxes.

LINDSAY LOHAN is telling her friends she is never evah clubbing again.

MADONNA's cougar ways bother her brother.

WHEN GEORGE CLOONEY said he didn't want to get married again, he forgot to tell his girlfriend first.

LEIGHTON MEESTER is the new Nylon magazine cover girl.

MTV's SKINS has now lost four major sponsors.

THE OSCARS nominations are announced; Film.com notes snubs and favorites.

THE RAZZIE AWARD nominations are announced.

NEWSWEEK hosts its annual Oscar Roundtable, with Natalie Portman, James Franco, Colin Firth, Annete Benning, Nicole Kidman and Michelle Williams.

IRAN: France is pushing for tougher sanctions on Iran after failed international negotiations. The US' point man on he sanctions regime against Iran is set to retire. Law enforcement officials in Tehran announced the creation of a new cyber police force to monitor the internet.

ALMOND the CAT never leaves his tree.

MISCHIEF: An apt name for a horse stuck in a swimming pool.

GAY CATS to marry in NYC.

OHIO CHIMP turns 52, which is old for a chimp.

STEVEN TYLER, 62, briefly took the throne to "Walk This Way" with Fallon and The Roots.

THE GO! TEAM is advance streaming Rolling Blackouts.

LIZ PHAIR stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.  She talks to the Chicago Sun-Times about Funstyle and her next album.

LISSIE also stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

IRON & WINE plated a Tiny Desk Concert and is likely still streaming Kiss Me Clean via TeamCoco today.

LIFEGUARDS: The lastest project from Robert Pollard and Doug Gillard drop "Paradise is Not So Bad" as an advance track.

THE BEACH BOYS: "Wendy." Live, no sync. Really big show.

BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE: More pioneering than the Clash?

SAM COOKE AT 80: The Career That Could Have Been.

GANG OF FOUR: Jon King tells Spinner why Kenny Rogers might be better than Bloc Party.

NO AGE: Randy Randall has a wide-ranging interview with Prefix.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: No Strings Attached tops the chart with 20.3 million against a 25 million budget. It's good to be Natalie Portman.  The Green Hornet places with 18.1 million; it's 46 percent drop isn't bad for a post-holiday weekend, but not good considering there was no new competition for the dude demo. The Dilemma shows with 9,7 million; it's 46 percent drop in weekend 2 is bad for any comedy, let alone one with Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. The Kings Speech holds in the fourth slot with 9.2 million (a 0.2 percent drop) and True Grit Rounds out the Top Five with 8 million on a mere 27.3 percent drop (at 138 million so far, the biggest Coen Bros. movie ever).  Below the fold Black Swan and The Fighter continued to do well in 6th and 7th place, with Black Swan looking like it will hit the 100 million mark domestically.  It's good to be Natalie Portman.

LINDSAY LOHAN reportedly made a secret 25000 deal with the fired Betty Ford worker who accused Li-Lo of criminal battery after refusing to testify against her.

REGIS PHILBIN quit his show after execs told his agent they would cut his salary when his current contract expired, reports TMZ.

GEORGE CLOONEY says he won't marry again.

JESSE JAMES & KAT VON D reportedly plan on tying the knot within the next month. Ex mistress Michelle "Bombshell" McGee seems skeptical.

SUSAN SARANDON denies having a boyfriend, including her young business partner Jonathan Bricklin.

WONDER WOMAN will fly this pilot season after all.

CLINT EASTWOOD directing Beyonce in A Star Is Born remake?

ORSON WELLES: An unfinished "masterpiece" filmed by Orson Welles nearly four decades ago is finally to reach the screen.

JACK LaLANNE, who inspired television viewers to trim down and pump iron decades before exercise became a national obsession, has died at age 96.

HARRY POTTER & THE HONOR BEATING: The brother of a Harry Potter film actress who assaulted her because her boyfriend was not Muslim has been jailed for six months.

IRAN: Two days of talks with six world powers ended in failure on Saturday, with Iran refusing to engage on any concrete proposals to build confidence that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes and with no date set for another meeting. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have ordered a ban on women from watching live broadcasts of soccer matches at public movie theaters.

AFGHANISTAN: President Karzai agreed to allow the parliament to meet.

PAKISTAN: The former Pakistani intelligence agent who is known as the godfather of the Taliban has been killed ten months after being kidnapped by Islamist militants. Ironic.

IRAQ: Muqtada al Sadr has again left Iraq and has returned to Qom, Iran, where he spent three years in exile.

HAIRLESS CAT, Bearded Man. Skritchy.

GREYHOUND RACE ends in an astonishing triple dead heat.

ROAD HOG: A five hundred pound swine blocked traffic in Victorville early last Wedneday morning, creating a hazard.

PETER PAN, UPDATED: Workers at a Ukrainian aquarium didn't believe it when a visitor said a crocodile swallowed her phone. Then the reptile started ringing.

800 PARROTS go cold turkey in rehab.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with MOTOWN MADNESS! There's so much from which to choose, but let's start with a Martha Reeves and the Vandellas trifecta of "Heat Wave" (on RSG!) "Nowhere to Run" and "Dancing in the Street." Chase that with a string of Temptations classics, including "My Girl," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg,"  "(I Know) I'm Losing You," "Psychedelic Shack," and "Ball of Confusion." The Supremes bring "Back in My Arms Again," "Where Did Our Love Go" and a live trifecta of "Baby Love," "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes" and "Let Me Go the Right Way." The Four Tops lip-synch through "It's the Same Old Song" and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" on Shindig, "Something About You" on Hullaballoo and "Baby, I Need Yor Loving" on Shivaree.  The Marvelettes  ask "Please Mr. Postman." Marvin Gaye proclaims "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved by You" and duets with Tammi Terrell on "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," though I'll throw it over to Gladys Knight and the Pips for "I Heard It Through The Grapevine." I'll close with a trifecta from Smokey Robinson and the Miracles -- "The Tracks of My Tears," "You Really Got a Hold on Me" and "Tears of a Clown."

DAYTROTTER has compiled the 20-song Readers' Choice 2010.

DOLOREAN stopped by Oregon Public Broadcasting for a chat and mini-set in audio and video.

BEST COAST drops "Sunny Adventure" from a forthcoming split-single.

J MASCIS drops "Not Enough" in advance of Several Shades of Why.

BUFFALO TOM drops "Guilty Girls" in advance of Skins.

OKKERVIL RIVER, Live in Iowa City, Sept, 15, 2007.

PATTI SMITH, Live at The Bowery Ballroom, NYC, Dec 30, 2010.

THE 50 GREATEST GUITAR RIFFS, according to Spinner.

ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI goes "Round and Round" on their network TV debut.

PJ HARVEY talks to Drowned In Sound about wading into a "war album."

SAM PHILLIPS talks to the Globe and Mail about her online subscription service.

WHAT'S KILLING INDIE STORES? The Internet.

10 COVER SONGS that beat the original, according to Gibson.

NEIL DIAMOND reviews 16 hot new artists.

CUTOUT BIN: From Pavement to Billy Preston, from Bob Dylan to the Talking Heads, from the 3 Degrees to Buzzcocks, from Steely Dan to Joey Ramone, plus Dusty Springfield, Camper Van Beethoven, Chuck Berry, World Party, Thin Lizzy and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are now streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's sole wide release is the Natalie Portman - Ashton Kutcher rom-com No Strings Attached, which is currently scoring 51 percent on the ol' Tomatometer.  Peter Weir's The Way Back opens on 650 screens scoring 78 percent.

THE TOP 10 NATALIE PORTMAN FILMS, according to We Are Movie Geeks.

JESSE JAMES and and tattoo artist Kat Von D are getting hitched.

HILARY DUFF denies the pregnancy rumor linked here yesterday.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL & TAYLOR SWIFT: Together again?

CHARLIE SHEEN: Denise Richards is speaking out about her ex's recent alleged troubles.

HALLE BERRY: A source tells RadarOnline that Gabriel Aubry has been subjected to a number of nasty screaming fits by the Monsters Ball star, along with a number of angry meltdowns, and believes that Halle has hired a private investigator to tail him.

GEORGE CLOONEY contracted Malaria in the Sudan.

ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. has fallen out of Oz, the Great and Powerful, Disney's prequel-ish take on The Wizard of Oz tale, and the studio is in discussions with Johnny Depp to step into the role.

JOHNNY DEPP talks to Entertainment Weekly about his Lone Ranger project.

MINKA KELLY is merely blurbed by GQ, but there are pics for Gratuitous Friday.

IRAN: Ahmadinejad said that the West has no option but to cooperate with a nuclear Iran.

PAKISTAN: Sufi Mohammed, the instigator of the Taliban takeover of the Swat Valley from 2007-2009, is to be prosecuted for crimes almost a decade old.

AFGHANISTAN: The new Afghan parliament decided Thursday to convene as planned at the start of next week, in a defiant response to Pres. Hamid Karzai ordering the opening session postponed by a month.

USEFUL DOG TRICKS, performed by Jesse. Good dog!

A CAT was summoned for jury duty in Boston. The court rejected the owner's appeal to excuse Sal on the ground that he did not read or understand English.

LION TACOS: The Tucson taco restaurant planning them already has served up python, alligator, elk, kangaroo, rattlesnake and turtle.

A GERMAN who shipped hundreds of live tarantulas into the United States through the mail has pleaded guilty to a federal smuggling charge, prosecutors said.

A PIGEON was busted trying to smuggle drugs into a Colombian jail.

SHE & HIM drop a video for "Don't Look Back," directed by Jeremy Konner and proving the only thing better than Zooey is four Zooeys.

THE DECEMBERISTS played The King is Dead live in its entirety for Oregon Public Broadcasting.

THE NATIONAL and BAND OF HORSES on Austin City Limits. (Thx, LHB.)

JAMES VINCENT McMORROW is advance streaming Early In The Morning via MOKB.

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS drop "Damn These Vampires" as an advance track to All Eternals Deck.

MIKE WATT drops "Arrow-Pierced-Egg-Man" as an advance track from... Hypenated-Man.

CHEAP TRICK brought "Dream Police" to Conan, with a full string section and Rick Nielsen's son sitting in for Bun E. Carlos.

SILVER JEWS frontman David Berman has started a blog.

DESTROYER: Dan Bejar wrote to Prefix about his notoriously dense lyrics, his musical influences, and Kaputt's recording process.

DURAN DURAN talks to The Telegraph about 30 years of something, the new LP, etc.

TWILIGHT SINGERS: Greg Dulli talks to MOKB about the new album, Pete Rose and more...

CHARLIE SHEEN spent 26000 on three escorts from one agency during his infamous, drugged-out weekend bender in Las Vegas.

CHRISTINA AGUILERA got "wasted" and passed out in Jeremy Renner's bed at his 40th birthday party.

MAD MEL UPDATE: Prosecutors are ready to file criminal charges against the Hollywood superstar for hitting his baby mama, Oksana Grigorieva, according to RadarOnline.

ANNE HATHAWAY is the Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. Tom Hardy (Inception) joins the cast as Bane.

HALLE BERRY's ex filed for joint custody of their daughter.

MIRANDA KERR shows off her and Orlando Bloom's son.

HILARY DUFF is pregnant, according to the ever-reliable Star.

RICKY GERVAIS shot a top-secret cameo that will appear in the cold open of the January 27 episode of The Office.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS set report and pics.

LEBANON: The Saudi foreign minister says Riyadh has abandoned mediation efforts to end the political crisis in Lebanon caused by the UN-backed Hariri tribunal.

AFGHANISTAN: A senior German al Qaeda leader was killed, perhaps in the joint AQ-Taliban attack on Bagram airfield last May. The growing insurgency in northern Afghanistan could lead to renewed opium cultivation in provinces where the crop has been eliminated.

IRAQ: Violence over all has ebbed, but there remains a steady trickle of deadly attacks, most often focused on security forces, government officials, or, in recent months, Iraq's Christian minority.

OWL vs CHIHUAHUA: Who you got?

SHARKS are probably color-blind.

C*CK KILLS MAN: Cops suspect fowl play.

NEWBORN ELEPHANT: Aw.

DON KIRSHNER, who guided the course of Brill Building and bubblegum pop in the 1950s and '60s as a music publisher and promoter, and later served as an Ed Sullivan for 1970s artists like Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Kiss and the Ramones with his weekly TV program "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert," died on Monday in Boca Raton, FL. He was 76. The cause was heart failure.  He was also impersonated brilliantly on SNL by the fabulous Paul Shaffer.  The A.V. Club collects more from Rock Concert.

DESTROYER is advance streaming Kaputt. Dan Bejar talks to Aquarium Drunkard about managing his various projects, influences on the Kaputt album and more...

SOCIAL DISTORTION does three free songs for Daytrotter, including "Ring of Fire."

R.E.M. drops "Mine Smell Like Honey" as an advance pop-rocker from Collapse Into Now.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS drop "Used to Be a Cop" as a freebie from Go-Go Boots.

NEW RELEASES REDUX: As I suspected, Spinner updated and is now streaming the Decemberists, Social D, Gregg Allman, Klaxons, Tennis & more...

BEST COAST premiered the "Crazy For You" video at I Can Has Cheezburger, for obvious reasons.

PAZZ & JOP 2010 is posted at the Village Voice.

MOUNTAIN GOATS: Jim Darnielle talks to Pitchfork about the new album, how he hooked up with Rutan, maintaining an indie ethos in the age of Twitter, and the fan-generated Facebook campaign that's currently trying to help him nab a cameo on his favorite TV show, Law & Order: SVU.

NILE RODGERS, best known for his work with Chic, is recovering from surgery to treat an aggressive form of cancer.

DICK DALE is also in and out of the operating room.

KRISTEN STEWART is profiled at length in -- and makes tortilla soup for -- Vogue.

REGIS PHILBIN blindsided Kelly Ripa with his retirement announcement today ... telling her less than 15 minutes before they went on the air.

CHARLIE SHEEN didn't use his charm to pick up a professional female companion during his Vegas bender last week. TMZ has the e-mail.

ELTON JOHN shows off his son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John.

LINDSAY LOHAN has passed up to 10 random drug and alcohol tests in the two weeks after she left the Betty Ford Center, according to RadarOnline.

MELISSA ETHERIDGE's ex-wife made a series of new allegations against the singer on her blog, including one involving novelties.

TOM CRUISE & NICOLE KIDMAN kept a safe distance from each other at CAA's Golden Globes afterparty.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL, otoh, was not keeping his distance from Maria Menounos, Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis.

RICKY GERVAIS says he didn't offend anyone at the Golden Globes... but he's "not gonna do it again anyway."

IRAN: A team of UN weapons experts and observers has arrived in Nigeria to investigate a seized Iranian weapons shipment found at the oil-rich nation's busiest port.

AFGHANISTAN: A US-backed plan to hire an additional 73000 Afghan soldiers and police officers has raised concern among diplomats in Kabul about the quality of recruits and the sustainability of an increasingly costly security apparatus financed almost entirely by international donors.

IRAQ: Officially, the yearlong mission remaining for roughly 48000 US troops in Iraq is to "advise and assist" this country's security forces. Unofficially, it is to fight off boredom and to stay alert and safe in the long, empty stretches that dominate their days.

A BABY ARMADILLO: Let's go to the video.

DRUNKEN OWL picked up by German police.

MARRIED COUPLE show off their 28 pet rats.

DOG EATS MAN'S EAR after his girlfriend bites it off. Ruff.

POLICE HORSE allegedly slapped in St. Petersburg, FL.