IAN McLAGAN, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, keyboardist for the Faces and Small Faces, Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones (to name but a few), has passed away in Austin TX at 69. The Rolling Stone obit embeds classics "Stay With me" and "Itchyco Park," but I'll throw in "Tin Soldier" as a bonus tribute track. BOUNUS: His recent session at The Current.

JAMES gives KEXP listeners a live performance from The Cutting Room Studios in New York City.

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

THE SUN RA ARKESTRA plays a Tiny Desk Concert at the offices of NPR. 

JUKEBOX THE GHOST stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

ARIEL PINK isn't a misogynist but a nymphomaniac, according to his cal Arts schoolmate John Maus.

CAKE's one-time drummer Peter Ivan McNea has been sentenced to 15-years-to-life in state prison for molesting a three-year-old girl at a Thanksgiving 2009 party.

DAVID BOWIE: Ten of the Best.

ROUGH TRADE'S Top 100 Albums of the Year.

LINDSAY LOHAN is launching a clothing line, named...wait for it...My Addiction.

JIMMY FALLON and wife Nancy welcomed their second child on Wednesday.  He's also Entertainment Weekly's Entertainer of the Year.

ARNIE HAMMER is a first-time father after welcoming a daughter with his wife, journalist Elizabeth Chambers Hammer.

EVA MENDES stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Showto talk about her new daughter and parenthood with her man Ryan Gosling.

MARIAH CAREY  was so consumed with divorce talk Tuesday evening that she blew off her scheduled taped performance for the Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony... but she was to perform live Wednesday night.

ANNIE LENNOX questioned Mdonna's topless photoshoot for Interview magazine. Did she just now realize Madge is "attention seeking"?

CENTCOM reported that since Dec. 1, the US has carried out 14 airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State, and that the US and partner nations carried out 11 airstrikes against the group in Iraq. Secretary of State Kerry refused to confirm reports that Iranian airstrikes had targeted the Islamic State in Iraq and added that the US is not coordinating militarily with Iran, but said that the net effect of such strikes could be positive.

IRANIAN jets helped Iraqi and allied forces, including Kurdish fighters and Shiite militiamen, chase Islamic State fighters from the two towns in Diyala in late November.

NATO and AFGHANISTAN on Tuesday formally launched the new training and advisory mission that will take over from departing alliance combat troops on Jan. 1.

SOPHIA the RHODESIAN RIDGEBACK: From 2 months to 3 years in 23 seconds.

RATS offer clues to why men like lingerie. It's Science!

SNAIL SLIME: The secret to youthful-looking skin.

BLADE the TORTOISE was fitted with a set of Lego wheels after losing the use of his legs.

BOBBY KEYS, longtime saxophone player, session musician and touring member of the Rolling Stones, has died in rural Tennessee at age 70.  Though he's undoubtedly best known for playing on classic Stones LP's including Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street, he got his start playing with Buddy Holly, and one of his first recorded solo's was on Dion & The Belmonts' "The Wanderer." His discography is truly impressive, as are these performances.

CONOR OBERST stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

SEAN ROWE stopped by WFUV's Studio A for a chat and mini-set.

THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE  performs live in the KEXP Studio, with a set of tunes from their 2014 album, Mended With Gold.

THE GOODBYE PARTY is streaming Silver Blues via Bandcamp.

THE DECEMBERISTS drop a lyric video for "Lake Song" ahead of What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.

SLEATER-KINNEY drops "Surface Envy" ahead of No Cities To Love.

THE KILLERS dropped a video for "Joel the Lump of Coal," with help from Jimmy Kimmel.

NATALIE PRASS: This 28-year-old Nashville singer/songwriter weathers heartbreak while backed by lush arrangements that recall the orchestrated, soulful pop of the 1970s.

AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd has entered a plea of not-guilty to charges of threatening to kill and possession of drugs. 

VINYL COMEBACK? Don't believe the hype.

THE 50 BEST ALBUMS of 2014, according to Stereogum.

BILL COSBY is being sued by a 55-year-old woman who claims the comedian sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15 years old ... according to TMZ.

KOURTNEY KARDASHIAN is the next member of the family to do a nude photoshoot.

LADY GAGA revealed on The Howard Stern Show Tuesday that she was raped as a teen.

ROSARIO DAWSON adopted a 12-year-old girl in October.

BRADLEY COOPER tells Buzz Bissinger about his past struggles—including addiction, and the wrenching loss of his father.

SUICIDE SQUAD: Warner Bros announced Jared Leto, Will Smith, Tom Hardy, Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney and Cara Delevingne will make up the all-star cast of Warner Bros.' supervillain tentpole.

"BEAUTY WORK": The secret Hollywood procedure that has fooled us for years.

NATO will establish a prototype of a new rapid response force next year as it strives to improve its ability to deter a potential Russian attack, the alliance said on Tuesday. The new Army commander in Europe plans to bolster the U.S. armored presence in Poland and the Baltic states and keep rotations of U.S. troops there through next year and possibly beyond to counter Russia.

THE ISLAMIC STATE is expanding in Egypt.

SYRIA:  The latest effort to unify the fractured Syrian military opposition has done little to create a cohesive vehicle for foreign military aid that could fight insurgents in Syria, after at least two major rebel groups dropped out of the initiative.Meanwhile, the US hasn't started vetting so-called moderate rebels yet.

IRAN is bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq.

BARRY THE PUG takes a bath.

BUTCH THE BOSTON TERRIER experienced joy in his final days.

GIRAFFE numbers have plummeted by 40 per cent in the past 15 years.

JUMPING THE SHARK: Guess who photobombed a surfing competition off an Australian beach?

OF MONTREAL's Kevin Barnes covered David Bowie's “Moonage Daydream” and “Hang Onto Yourself” at the Museum Of Contemporary Art Chicago.

WILCO is streaming all four discs of Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994-2014... at TLOBF, ClashMusic, Uncut, and The Quietus. (Thx, Frank Yang)

WILLIE NELSON & SISTER BOBBIE stream December Day: Willie's Stash, Vol. 1.

SCHOOL 94 advance streams their Like You EP.

FAITH NO MORE played a secret five-song set at Amoeba Records.

DEER TICK drops "White Havoc" for the holidays.

GLAM XMAS:  Wizzard's awesome "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day" and Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody" (1973's UK Xmas No. 1) are your Twofer Tuesday.

KIM GORDON has proven to be the most adventurous member of Sonic Youth since the band's demise.

PANDORA's new deal with indie labels...sounds like old school payola?

AC/DC: Angus Young and Brian Johnson talk to The Guardian about unwelcome headlines.

ROLLING STONE's TOP 50 ALBUMS of 2014 is pretty Rolling Stone.

CHRISTIAN BALE talks to the Wall Street Journal about Exodus: Gods and Kings, past roles, and tells George Clooney to shut up.

BILL COSBY resigned from Temple University's board of trustees on Monday, after the Berklee School of Music and Cosby’s alma mater, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, became the latest institutions to cut ties with the 77-year-old comedian as more women stepped forward with accusations.

ANGELINA JOLIE had a big scare Sunday when her SUV skidded on an oily L.A. road, hitting a median and blowing 2 tires.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON married French journalist Romain Dauriac in a secret ceremony just after the birth of their daughter, Rose.

ROSIE O'DONNELL's days on The View are numbered. Turns out she's difficult. Who knew?

STEPHEN HAWKING would like to play a Bond villain.

SONY PICTURES are being devoured on copyright-infringing file-sharing hubs online in the wake of the hack attack that hobbled the studio earlier in the week. Currently being investigated is a connection between upcoming Sony movie The Interview, and North Korea.

TERRORISTS are plotting to blow up five European passenger jets in a Christmas "spectacular", security experts say.

TURKEY: The Obama administration is weighing the opening of a new front in the air war against the Islamic State in Syria, part of an offensive to push back militants along the western portion of Syria’s border with Turkey and create a relatively safe zone for U.S.-backed Syrian rebel forces to move in.

SYRIA: CENTCOM stated that the US conducted 27 airstrikes in Syria since Nov. 28; 26 targeted the islamic State and one targeted Al Nusrah.

PUPPIES dressed as Disney characters, and PETA does nothing?

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: A militant rodent terrorized the Chater Infants School in Watford, Hertfordshire.

CRICKETS could solve the world food shortage, if we get desperate.

WHO LET THE COW IN? Moo...Moo...

SHE & HIM drop a video for "Stay Awhile."

LOS CAMPESINOS! advance streams their Christmas EP.

THE BAND: Genuine Bootleg Series 4: Crossing The Great Divide.

WHEN I REACH THAT HEAVENLY SHORE: Unearthly Black Gospel 1926-1936.

THE GROWLERS drop by KEXP to perform psych-pop from their 2014 album, Chinese Fountain.

NME's TOP 50 TRACKS of 2014, playlisted on Spotify.

ST VINCENT dropped "Pieta" and "Sparrow" for  Record Stored Day Black Friday. 

U2 cover "Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Come Home)," ripped from the premiere, for extra retro goodness.

JERRY LEE LEWIS does a Killer Q  & A with The Guardian.

BACKSTAGE WITH JANIS JOPLIN: Tour manager John Byrne Cooke talks to All Things Considered.

LIONEL RICHIE has been confirmed to play Glastonbury 2015. Hello?

NEW TALENT FOR 2015: The Guardian is already on it.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Mockingjay repeats atop the chart (as expected), with 57 million.  The third installment of The Hunger Games now lags the second by roughly 70 million...but it's performing much like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, which is not bad at all, esp. considering Part 2 went on to make much more money.  Penguins of Madagascar places with 26 million, which is likely diappointing against a 132 million budget; Madagascar 3's opening weekend was above 60 million.  Big Hero 6 shows with 18.8 million on a mere 7 percent drop, which suggests why the Penguins didn't fare so well.  The Disney Marvel adaptation has recouped its 165 million production budget domestically, with many foreign markets still to come.  Interstellar takes the fourth slot with 15.8 million and saw a verry leggy 3 percent rise over last weekend. At 147 million, Nolan's epic has not recouped its budget domestically yet, but has grossed another 395 million overseas.  Horrible Bosses 2 rounds out the Top 5 with a 15.7 million debut, but the budget was only 43 million and the original did100 million overseas, so this may yet profit on the big screen.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS has a trailer online, as well as a "George Lucas Special Edition."

IDINA MENZEL hints that a Frozen sequel is in the works. Adele Dazeemwas not available for comment.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL has bulked up for Southpaw.

SHIA LaBEOUF claims a woman raped him during his silent art project last February.

SCOTT STAPP: The Creed frontmanwas placed on a psych hold after cops say he had drug-fueled paranoid delusions.

SNOOKI had a Gatsby-themed wedding in New Jersey, because she's klassy.

CHESPERITO, the Mexican TV comedy legend Chespirito paid homage in The Simpsons, died on November 28, 2014 at the age of 85 in Cancun, Mexico.

CHINA has blocked a group of British legislators from traveling to Hong Kong.

RUSSIA reportedly brokered a major bilateral trade deal for gas with Qatar, and plundered its national art collection, in return for votes to host the FIFA World Cup.

CRIMEA's Tatars again face pressure from occupying Russian forces.

SYRIA: Islamic extremists came out on top of the latest effort to unify opposition to the Assad regime.

A GOLDEN RETRIEVER has racing priorities.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: The holiday lights keep going out at the Cincinnati Zoo, and it's not the zookeepers flipping the switch.

A MARAUDING PIG and its owner were forced to deplane a flight to Connecticut.

A NASHVILLE DOG died following a red-tailed hawk attack.

THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND STARTS HERE... with FAVES 2014!  I occasionally hear from folks who want to know what music -- from among all of the posts I do here -- I recommend.  To some degree, I recommend all of it, unless I expressly write otherwise (e.g., it's not my thing, but it might be yours).  With the holiday shopping season upon us, I have tried to make a list of reasonable size.  It's an unordered list. I likely will have overlooked something that I really dig.  Some of these are grouped together, because that's the way they occurred to me at the moment.  And note these are my faves; I'm not purporting to list the "Best" albums of the year.

EX HEX: Wild Flag breaks up; Sleater-Kinney reforms; Mary Timony moves on to Ex Hex and Rips out an aptly-named, snarly album of garage-punk power-trio goodness, recalling The Runaways and The Pretenders run through some some vintage reverb unit.

TWIN PEAKS: Nothing like the TV show, which I also loved at the outset.  Pate frontman was fond of saying (likely chanelling Luke) that it's hard to be a prophet in your hometown, so I've got this Chicago-based quartet near the top of the list.  Wild Onion avoids the sophomore slump, assimilating classic rock and proto-punk influences with a seemingly unusual depth of knowledge and chops to boot (plus just an occasional whiff of prime Mark Knopfler).

KING TUFF's fifth album, Black Moon Spell,got a boost from a cameo from Ty Segall on the throne for the title track, but the whole thing mines  glammy, early-70s hard rock vibe quite nicely.The title track and (especially) "Eyes of the Muse" are picks to click.

NUDE BEACH doesn't break much stylistic ground within lo-fi garage punk on the double-length 77, but I like the poppy tunes, which goes a long way.

DUM DUM GIRLS: Working with Richard Gottehrer and Sune Rose Wagner (The Raveonettes) accounts for the clean production, but it's the solidly vintage songwriting that attracts me most.  I think this one will tend to be overlooked by the usual critical suspects who prefer He Gets Me High.

SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS returned with Give the People What They Want, which is a somewhat ironic title, given that a number of critics  found this to be a "more of the same" release.  But if you like a fresh take on the classsic R&B one used to get from Stax (and blasts of Motown this time, as on "Retreat"), you'll be hard-pressed to beat this LP this year, delayed from last summer so that Jones could complete chemotherapy.

LEE FIELDS: Of course, if you press hard enough, Emma Jean might be the retro-soul LP that beats the Dap-Kings this year.  Here, Fields draws more from early 70s Motown, Philly, and even a dash of JB as influences, and it's solid.

ST PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES released a creditable debut LP, Half The City, in this retro soul groove.  Some may think it tries a bit too hard, but I'm okay with it until they learn to simmer down on occasion.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS: Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone seems like another aptly titled LP, although I could argue she's really fleashing her songs out here, adding more soul and even jazz touches to her Americana (a genre she helped put on the map) on this double-length album.  If you already have the Williams LP, you might also like Jolie Holland, who got back to her roots on  Wine Dark Sea.  

OLD 97's : Most Messed Up mostly is, in a good way, recorded mostly live in-studio to produce a friendly, shambling, yet energetic collection of Americana. "Longer Than You've Been Alive" isn't strictly true in my case, but no less fun.  Ryan Adams also had a very good year leading up to a self-titled LP.

CLOUD NOTHINGS: I want to call Here and Nowhere Else nosiy and tuneful, but it's mostly the latter, with hooks-a-plenty. Likely Dylan Baldi's best to date.

PARQUET COURTS:  Sunbathing Animal turned out to be an intriguing blend of art-punk like Television and early Wire, filtered through a 90s Pavement-esque slacker filter.

GUIDED BY VOICES and STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS: GbV's Motivational Jumpsuit (the last from the reunited 90s libneup, iirc) and the Malkmus-led Wig Out at Jagbags were both fine entries in the respective catalogs of these 90s stalwarts.  Niether made the sort of critical or commercial impression to vault them onto many "Best Of" lists, I suspect, but tehy make my Faves List.

THE BOTH: Aimee Mann and Ted Leo have also been around for decades, but The Both really does sound like both of them without particularly sounding like either of them.

NEW PR0NOGRAPHERS: I like Brill Bruisers more than I liked Together, as this time the indie supergroup manages to embiggen their power pop without veering too much into hard rock.

SPOON: Similarly, I prefer They Want My Soul to 2010's Transference, which found Britt Daniel & Co. veering away from their core strengths.  It may be shallow, but really, only Spoon can make a Spoon album and thus I like one that sounds pretty much like them.

ST VINCENT: Annie Clark has largely shed the Disney-esque touches of yore, but the sheer weirdness and her shredding guitar remain.  The electro backdrop on St Vincent may seem like a nod to the commercial, but she still freaked out a lot of people on SNL, didn't she?

TUnE-yArDs: Merrill Garbus alsosounds more commercial on the exuberant Nikki Nack, though here again this is a relative term. I for one find her nods to the more convential worldbeats don't diminish her quirkyappeal

ARIEL PINK's Pom Pom, the most recent entry on this list, continues to challenge musically as much as Pink trolls the media.  A sort of Brian Wilson-esque sensibility executed as 80s synth rock, and he makes it work somehow.

PERFUME GENIUS also plays in roughly the same space as Ariel Pink, but perhaps with early Bowie tossed into the mix, making Too Bright a compelling listen.

LAKE STREET DIVE doesn't fit neatly into any genre. I know Jon Pratt's family likes them, which ought to be recommendation enough for Bad Self Portraits.

REAL ESTATE also doesn't really fit in with these groups, but Atlas is an album that can come into heavy rotation through sheer indie pleasantness. 

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Sharon Van Etten, Leonard Cohen, Angel Olsen, Dave & Phil Alvin, and the The Basement Tapes Complete could all be on this list, if not for my laziness.

A CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING:  It's always somewhere on the net.

WKRP: "Turkeys Away," in its entirety. And here's the turkey giveaway by itself.

THANKSGIVING has a lot of myths, both traditional and the new "Pilgrims were evil" o­nes taught in some public schools. Not to mention the fights over kindergarteners dressing as Native Americans.  However, if you read the journal of William Bradford -- who served some 35 years as governor of the Pilgims' colony -- you quickly discover that the Pilgrims' relationship with the natives was complex.  Ultimately, Bradford quieted internal discontent by doing away with the collectivism of a company town and granting property rights.

NOW SHOWING? Did that yesterday; check it out.