TAME IMPALA played "Let It Happen" for Conan.

BRAIDS advance stream Deep In The Iris.

MEW advance streams +-.

ELLIOT MOSS advance streams Highspeends.

SPRING KING advance streams the They're Coming For You EP.

EFFED UP dropped the 8-minute track, "California Cold."

ROY ORBISON provides vintage performances of "Running Scared" and "Oh, Pretty Woman" for Twofer Tuesday.

TWIN SHADOW's tour bus was in an accident; TS himself will undergo reconstructive surgery.

LULU talks to The Guardian about her challenging start in life, being a member of the ‘church of the universe' and why she understands why Zayn Malik quit One Direction.

NORWAY's Minister of Culture announced this week that a national FM-radio switch off will commence in 2017.

FLEXI-DISCS: Don't call it a comeback.

JURASSIC WORLD dropped a second global trailer. Go faster, Star-Lord.

FANTASTIC FOUR's reboot gets an official trailer.

BEN AFFLECK demanded that the PBS show “Finding Your Roots” remove the fact that one of the actor’s ancestors owned slaves.

GWYNETH PALTROW & CHRIS MARTIN may finally divorce.

JOHNNY DEPP & AMBER HEARD may have already hit a rough patch.

ARIANA GRANDE & BIG SEAN have split after eight months of dating.

STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE may be about Bothan Spies.

WONDER WOMAN is going to be a quieter, character-based film? Really?

YEMEN: The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt left the Persian Gulf on Sunday and is headed toward Yemen, in response to a convoy of seven to nine Iranian ships which appear bound for Yemen and which could be carrying arms.

IRAN: Beefing up international monitoring of Iran's nuclear work could become the biggest stumbling block to a final accord between Tehran and major powers, despite a preliminary deal reached last week.

A RARE SPERM WHALE was caught on underwater camera.

A DOG is to blame for a house fire that displaced a Rustburg, VA family Wednesday.

A PARROT summoned emergency crews to a house fire in Idaho.  Lesson: if you buy a dog, also buy a parrot.

A BIZZARE SERPENT washed up on the salt marsh at Aramoana in Dunedin.

ARIEL PINK serves up a video for "Jell-O".

JACKSON SCOTT advance streams Sunshine Redux.

BROWN BIRD advance streams Axis Mundi.

THE B-52S stream a 1979 concert getting an official release this week.

ROBOTIC EMPIRE streams a tribute LP, Whatever Nevermind.

SPOON released the demo for "Inside Out."

FATHER JOHN MISTY dropped "I Love You Honeybee" and "Never Been A Woman" for Record Store Day.

THE TEMPTATIONS: "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone."  And when he died, all he left us was alone.

DAMON ALBARN says Pop music no longer challenges the establishment or discusses politics because performers are part of the “selfie generation”.

ALVVAYS: Molly Rankin talks to Pitchfork about her love of Celine Dion, scary motels, and more.

PATTI SMITH & LAURIE ANDERSON inducted Lou Reed into the Rock & Rall Hall of Fame.

CHIC: Nile Rodgers talks about addictions, to food and otherise.

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE posted a teaser trailer after it leaked online.

WEEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Furious 7 threpeats atop the chart with 29MM; it broke the billion-dollar mark worldwide  on Friday, jumping into the top 20 grossers of all time.But now it is in a race against the coming of Avengers 2 on May 1. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 placed with 24MM, a bit above expectations and below the origina's 31.8MM...and thus a movie that scored 0 on the Tomatometer may end up making money in cinemas.  Unfriended showed with 16MM against a budget of roughly 1MM.  Home dropped to th fourth slot with nother 10MM, andiss till well short of what it needs to profit on the big screen (roughly 400MM).  The Longest Ride rounds out the Top Five with 6.9MM and 23.5MM total against a budget of roughly 34MM.

GWYNETH PALTROW:Days after admitting defeat in a widely publicized challenge to subsist on a food stamp budget, the actress was spotted at an expensive barbeque restaurant in Los Angeles with her celebrity friends, according to the National Monitor.

SOFIA VERGARA will not destroy her embryo.

ZACHARY LEVI and Missy Peregrym got secretly divorced, less that a year after getting secretly married.

JOHN RIDLEY  (12 Years a Slave) is teaming up with Marvel to develop a mysterious new TV series.

AN ORAL HISTORY OF AIRPLANE: Surely you can't be serious.

YEMEN: American citizens escaping Yemen, including small children and some frail elderly, are arriving exhausted in Djibouti after harrowing journeys from the besieged country, where a U.S.-supported Saudi Arabian bombing campaign is entering its fourth week. The Obama administration so far has declined to organize a rescue mission for the estimated 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. citizens in Yemen.

LIBYA: A new round of peace talks backed by the UN began in Morocco. Russia has pledged to supply weapons to the Libyan government if a UN embargo is lifted.

IRAQ: Why the rise of ISIS and the fall of Iraq weren't inevitable.

DON'T BEAT YOUR CHEST AT A SILVERBACK GORILLA, even if you're a little girl.

THE SWARM: Some early commuters in the American northwest have been confronted by an unusual road hazard – 20 million angry bees.

ZEBRAS ON THE LAM through the streets of Brussels.

BUFFALOS ON THE LAM in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with BLIND FAITH! Live at London's Hyde Park in June 1969. After an introduction and brief segments about supergroup members Steve Winwood, Rick Grech, Ginger Baker, and Eric Clapton, your set list includes:"Well All Right", "Sea of Joy","Sleeping in the Ground", "Under My Thumb", "Can't Find My Way Home", "Do What You Like", "In the Presence of the Lord", "Means to an End", and "Had to Cry Today".

BOB DYLAN: Aquarium Drunkard has some Blood on the Tracks alternates from New York.

CLOUD NOTHINGS remixed Here and Nowhere Else (in Wingdings) for Record Store Day.

TWIN SHADOW stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

PETER BJORN & JOHN return with the rhythm-heavy “High Up (Take Me To The Top)”. 

THE GO! TEAM drops “Ye Ye Yamaha" for Record Store Day.

JON PRATT: Pate's frontman plays "Watts Up Doc?" and "Watt the Funk?", two instumrntals he wrote for an upcoming video promoting NIST's LEGO watt balance.  Jon also talks about his axe, in this case a 1938 Vega Archtop.

LOU REED's sister sets the record straight about his electroshock therapy.

BEST COAST talks to Stereogum about their friendship, haters, and California Nights.

GRIZZLY BEAR: Ed Droste talks to The Standard about moving to LA, getting divorced, and coming back together with his band. (Thx, LHB.)

STEVE ALBINI: Not a fan of Jay Z's new streaming service.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS dropped a second teaser trailer online.

NOW SHOWING:This weekend's wide releases include Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, which is currently scoring 0 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Unfriended, which is currently scoing 71 percent; and Monkey Kingdom, scorng 92 percent. True Story opens near-wide with 49 percent.

RYAN GOSLING  is in negotiations to star in the Blade Runner sequel opposite Harrison Ford.

NICKI MINAJ is engaged to Meek Hill.

JERRY SEINFELD says TV is over.

WONDER WOMAN finds a new director--Patty Jenkins, who at one point was to direct Thor 2 for rival Marvel Studios.

FLASH GORDON may be directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service, X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass).

TURKEY held a ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of parts of its first nuclear reactor, sparking an angry protest by activists.

SAUDI ARABIA & SOUTH KOREA have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the development of nuclear energy, Saudi state news agency SPA said, building on a deal signed in 2011.These nuke stories are surely coincidental to Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

IRAN has greatly increased the frequency and skill of its cyberattacks, even while negotiating with world powers over limits on its nuclear capabilities.

IRAQ: Islamic State militants launched a fierce attack Wednesday to capture the city of Ramadi, dealing a setback to a newly launched Iraqi military offensive in the Sunni-dominated region.

YEMEN: Military officials and residents said al-Qaeda has taken control of a major airport, a sea port and an oil terminal in southern Yemen after brief clashes with troops. The UN peace envoy to Yemen has resigned, a UN official said, after losing support from Gulf countries for his mission in the conflict-riven nation.

GOALKEEPING CAT: Almost hypnotic.

A RACCOON clung to the ladder of a crane in Toronto – more than 200 meters up.

A WOLVERINE was tranquilized at Newark International Airport in New Jersey.

MINI-GODZILLAS have been discovered in the Andes.

TAKING A PERSONAL DAY, mostly because yesterday was a slooow news day, so a good day to take off. I should be back for the usual Friday festivities.

PERCY SLEDGE, the R&B belter whose biggest hit, "When a Man Loves a Woman," became a cornerstone of soul music, died Tuesday. He was 73. The Guardian collects four more of his best.

LUNA: Watch six songs from their first American show in about a decade.

PASSION PIT is advance steaming Kindred via iTunes Radio.

NAI HARVEST advance streams Hairball.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED features new tracks from the Milk Carton Kids, Buil To Spill, Protomaryr, and more.

GEORGE HARRISON & ERIC CLAPTON: "Taxman." Obligatory.

DAVID BOWIE's new songs for Lazarus may be "classics."

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS: Peter Hughes talks to the Cincinnati Inquirer about how much of the Mountain Goats’ operation remains in John Darnielle’s control. (Thx, LHB.)

CORNERSHOP: Tjinder Singh revisits the group’s breakthrough album, When I Was Born for the 7th Time, at SPIN. Interesting comments on Radiohead also.

STEALING SHEEP: The art-psych-pop trio is profiled by The Guardian.

RACHEL McADAMS & JAKE GYLLENHAAL may be an item.

RITA WILSON was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and has undergone a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

BILLY JOEL and his girlfriend, Alexis Roderick, said in a statement Tuesday they are expecting their first child this summer.

DENNIS QUAID melted down, Christian Bale-style, on set...or did he?

LOVE & MERCY has a longer, more revealing trailer online.

WONDER WOMAN director Michelle MacLaren has dropped out due to what the parties involved are calling creative differences.

RUSSIA: The Pentagon on Monday denounced a recent incident in which a Russian pilot intercepted a U.S. aircraft over the Baltic Sea as "sloppy airmanship."  Oh, yeah...sloppy...that's it.

YEMEN: Local militiamen in the Yemeni city of Aden said they captured two Iranian military officers advising Houthi rebels during fighting on Friday evening.

LIBYA: New Libyan peace talks kicked off in neighboring Algeria. Jordan's King Abdullah II met with Libyan General Khalifa Haftar and pledged his country's support in confrontation with "terrorist organizations."

IRAQI Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi made an in-person appeal to President Obama on Tuesday for more help defeating the Islamic State militants. The Reuters news agency announced that its Baghdad bureau chief has left Iraq after he was threatened on Facebook and denounced by a Shiite militia television station following a Reuters report alleged lynching and looting in Tikrit.

ASIAN FLYING CARP attacked Washington University's first-year men's rowing team.

A MOUNTAIN LION hung out under a Los Feliz home for a day.

DUCKS wandered around DC for no clear reason, like most.

A WHALE feared extinct washed up on an Aussie beach.