THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE MC5! "Kick Out the Jams" is a Cary Loren and Leni Sinclair movie.  Part 1 has an Intro, plus "Ramblin' Rose" and "Kick Out the Jams" (and yes, there's language). Part 2 includes "Black to Comm," "I Want You Right Now," and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)." Part 3 includes and "Instrumental Jam" and "Come Together." Part 4 includes "Starship." Part 5 includes "Motor City Is Burning," "Shakin' Street," and "Looking At You."

DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE did three free songs for Daytrotter.

THE ROSEBUDS also did three free songs for Daytrotter.

ALEC OUNSWORTH stopped by WXPN for a mini-set streaming now via NPR.

THE DUM DUM GIRLS drop "Jail La La" as an advance track to their album, due in March.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND bassist Chris Baio gives Drowned in Sound a track-by-track tour of the Contra album.  The also brought strings and horns to Morning Becomes Eclectic.  Chances are pretty good that they will be atop the Billboard chart next week.

THE REPLACEMENTS: Captain's Dead posts a gig from April 5, 1985 in DeKalb.

JAY REATARD, a/k/a Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., is dead at 29. Initial reports were that he died in his sleep, though Memphis police are investigating Reatard's death as a homicide.  Beck, The Pixies, and No Age are among those paying tribute. ("Waiting For Something: A Short Documentary About Jay Reatard" is posted at that last link, too.) Spinner re-linked his session at the Interface. His website posted his final recording, a cover of Nirvana's "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle."

T-BONE BURNETT talks to Fresh Air about the film Crazy Heart and about his storied career.

WILL JOHNSON, of Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, Monsters of Folk, and more, does a Q & A with MAGNET, and guest-edits their blog, with pieces on AA Bondy,1900, the Dexateens, and more.

THE PLASTIC ONO BAND, sporting an all-star line-up, returns for a one-night only performance in Brooklyn, NY.

PASTE: How the indie mag got out of the red, and into the black.

THE TEN WORST ALBUM COVERS of 2009, courtesy of Prefix.

CUTOUT BIN: From Belle and Sebastian to Johnny Cash, from Big Mama Thornton to The Clash, from the Three Degrees to the Libertines, From Lucky Soul to the Plimsouls, plus Jimi Hendrix, the Hold Steady, the Lemonheads and more -- this weekend's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are The Spy Next Door, currently scoring 00 percent on the ol' Tomatometer, and The Book of Eli, which is scoring 45 percent.  Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones expands wide, scoring 35 percent.

CONAN O'BRIEN and JAY LENO turn on each other, and Jimmy Fallon finally weighs in on the late night wars.  Ratings for the Tonight Show have risen in the wake of the controversy, natch. There is no deal to move Leno back to 11:35... yet. But the Daily Beast claims that Conan O'Brien is leaving, receiving a payout -- and he'll be free to appear on another network before his contract expires.

LINDSAY LOHAN braces for the release of an Internet sex tape?

BILLY CORGAN recording music with his girlfriend, the pop singer Jessica Simpson. "If you find these words hard to comprehend, it is because it is difficult to read sentences over the deafening screams of 10000 defeated Smashing Pumpkins fans."

KATY PERRY'S rep denies pregnancy rumors.

RUE McCLANAHAN suffered a stroke, but is doing "amazingly well" at rehabbing.

AVATAR: Entertainment Weekly already has sequel news.

WES ANDERSON accepted his special achievement award for Fantastic Mr. Fox from the National Board of Review in character - via a stop-motion animated vignette.

IRAN: Three men, including an Iranian-born chemical engineer living in Glendale, have been charged in a scheme to smuggle sophisticated industrial components into Iran that could be used in the development of a nuclear weapon.

THE WORLD'S MOST FEARLESS ANIMAL: The badger. And yes, there is a snake cameo.

DILLIE THE DEER really is one of the family. She knows how to turn lights on and off, gets ice from the fridge dispenser,  uses the swimming pool...  and shares her owners' bed at night.

A HORRIFIED TWITTER USER tweeted the moment a tourist was killed in the jaws of a "gigantic shark" in a holiday hotspot. Indeed, "You're gonna need a bigger boat" is less than 140 characters.

BOO, THE NINJA DOG, has been spotted strolling the grounds of Kiyomizudera temple or scampering across the premises of Nijo Castle, both major tourist attractions in Kyoto.

70 CUTE BABY ANIMALS: An awww...some photo-gallery.

LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION covered "Devil in Disguise" for the King's 75th b-day last week.

RUBY SUNS dropped "Cranberry" for a P-fork premiere.

LISSIE did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, one previously unreleased.

HORSE FEATHERS stopped by LaundroMatinee for a mini-set in audio and video.

DICK DALE, king of the surf guitar, stopped by KEXP for a mini-set, including "Miserlou" and "Amazing Grace."

LOVE: "Your Mind and We Belong Together." Rare promo.

THE XX list a few of their favorite things for Pitchfork's Guest List.

BOWERBIRDS talk to the Capital Times about inspirations from nature. (Thx, LHB.)

eMUSIC adds the Warner Music Group family of labels to its offerings in the US.

OZZY OSBOURNE: Choice quotes and a disclaimer from his autobiography.

TEDDY PENDERGRASS died in suburban Philadelphia at age 59.

CONAN O'BRIEN ripped NBC in Tuesday night's monologue. His statement about the sanctity of running the "Tonight Show" at 11:35 Eastern was likely calculated to boost his argument that the time slot was implied in his contract, which does not guarantee his start time.  Jay Leno's contract specifically guarantees his 10 p.m. slot, so the network must negotiate a new deal with him -- and he's already doing PR to make that deal costly.

BRADGELINA donated a million bucks to Doctors Without Borders for the organization's emergency medical operations in Haiti.

TIGER WOODS: New rumors that he is in rehab.

CHARLIE SHEEN moves out, so his wife can move back in. Pesky restraining order!

MICHAEL C. HALL, star of Dexter, said in a statement Wednesday that he is being successfully treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and JESSICA BIEL finally dunzo?  Just as Biel reaches the top of Mt. Kilamanjaro?

HEIDI MONTAG had a staggering 10 plastic-surgery procedures in one day.

JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT is mad at her boyfriend for calling he "pear a**"? Shocka!

SPIDER-MAN REBOOT RUMORS kick off with Robert Pattinson as a candidate to replace Tobey Maguire.  Marc Webb, the (500) Days Of Summer director, has also attracted Sony's interest.

HOLLYWOOD'S TOP EARNING COUPLES, according to Forbes.

MEGAN FOX wears very little Armani in new underwear ads, just in time for Gratuitous Thursday.

YEMEN: The leader of an al Qaeda cell in Yemen has been killed in clashes with security forces, the Yemeni government said Wednesday.

GRAY GRAY Loves Ice Cream.

40 "COLD STUNNED" SEA TORTOISES wash ashore on beaches near Corpus Christi, TX.

PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL will text his weather prediction this year.

A SHEEP gave birth to a dead lamb with a human-like face in Turkey: "The governor of the province where the ugly goat was born said that the little goat was the fruit of unnatural relationship between the female goat and a man."  Hey, it's in Pravda, so it must be true.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE's latest video is for "Brothersport."

FINAL FANTASY is streaming Heartland in ints entirety.

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

EELS drops "End Times," the title track of E's upcoming LP.

THE TWILIGHT HOURS: Matt Wilson and John Munson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic, Polara) stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set streaming via MPR.

STEELY DAN turn in a spirited "Reelin' in the Years" on the Midnight Special.

OKKERVIL RIVER is teaming up with the legendary Roky Erickson for an album due in April.

THE LINDA STEIN MURDER TRIAL is underway.

PATTI SMITH talks to New York magazine about her memoir.

THE TING TINGS are naming their next album after a German massage parlor, inspiring NME to list the 50 most ill-advised album titles ever.

CONAN O'BRIEN says he will not do "The Tonight Show" if it airs at 12:05 a.m. Eastern. His statement implicitly rips the network and Leno's effect on late-night ratings.  He is being wooed by Fox, but two obstacles are his NBC contract and lukewarm interest from Fox affiliates.

SIMON COWELL is leaving American Idol to helm the US version of the X Factor, a show for which he is reportedly courting Paula Abdul.

TIGER WOODS is defended by... wait for it... Mel Gibson.

SHAQUILLE O'NEAL is inching up the Tiger Woods scale.

BRADGELINA: Skipping the Golden Globes.  Aniston can breathe easier.

GEORGE CLOONEY mocked Mariah Carey at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards on Monday.

JESSICA BIEL and EMILE HIRSCH trudge through a blizzard on Mt. Kilimanjaro.

TOM HANKS and JULIA ROBERTS will reteam for Larry Crowne, a project written and to be directed by Hanks.

YELLOW SUBMARINE: British actors Cary Elwes, Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz and Adam Campbell are in negotiations to portray the members of the Fab Four in the mo-cap remake set up at Disney.

IRAN: A remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle killed an Iranian physics professor outside his home in northern Tehran on Tuesday, state media reported, blaming the United States and Israel for the attack. Major world powers are to meet in NYC to discuss new sanctions on Iran.

PAKISTAN is likely to become a more Islamist state and increasingly anti-American in the coming years, complicating US efforts to win its support against Islamist militants, a report released on Tuesday said.

AFGHANISTAN: Gen Stanley McChrystal says the US troop buildup in the country had started to turn the tide against the Taliban.

DOG TICKLES TODDLER: Let's go to the video.

PARTY SHREW: For the last 55 million years, the pen-tailed shrew has survived on a diet consisting of beer.

BIG SPIDER: With a lanky legspan of up to nearly a half foot, a newly discovered spider species is the largest among its family of arachnids in the Middle East.

MICE NEST on a Metropolitan Police officer's desk.

LAURA VEIRS drops a video for "July Flame," the title track from her new LP.

NEW RELEASES: Vampire Weekend, OK Go, Freedy Johnson, and more are streaming this week via Spinner.

DANIEL JOHNSON did seven free songs for Daytrotter.

MORNING BENDERS make "Promises" an advance track from their upcoming album.

DIRTY PROJECTORS drop a free digital single (yes, 2 songs).

SONGS ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY, compiled by The Telegraph.  From Paul Simon to The Kinks to Def Leppard to Bishop Allen to Ringo Starr to Mission of Burma and more, it's like Twofer Tuesday times 23.

ROBERT CHRISTGAU unveils his 2009 Dean's List at Barnes and Noble.

JIMI HENDRIX: "Valleys of Neptune," a 12 previously unreleased song collection that includes the final studio sessions of the original Jimi Hendrix Experience lineup and Hendrix's first recordings with bassist Billy Cox, is set for release on Mar. 9 on Sony's Legacy Recordings.

YO LA TENGO is briefly profiled at Filter.

RINGO and PAUL, together again.

CONAN O'BRIEN has nothing to complain about, according to Jerry Seinfeld, who coincidentally has a show coming to NBC. O'Brien may disagree.

LINDSAY LOHAN's car struck a photog this morning, and her driver is now a person of interest in a criminal assault with a deadly weapon investigation.

DEREK JETER and MINKA KELLY are headed to the altar, possibly in November.

MARILYN MANSON and EVAN RACHEL WOOD are engaged, according to People magazine.

MICHAEL BUBLE is getting hitched to his Argentinian actress girlfriend, Luisana Loreley Lopilato de la Torre.

SPIDEY-SHOCKER: Sony has pulled out of 'Spiderman 4' with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire because of scheduling conflicts with the director, and will reboot the franchise for 2012 with another team.

3-D MANIA: Hollywood is preparing to re-release some past hits, including Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in 3-D following the record-breaking success of Avatar.

DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD is going bicoastal, after poaching Variety's biggest breaking news hound, Mike Fleming.

OLIVER STONE's upcoming Showtime documentary miniseries "Secret History of America" promises to put mass murderers such as Stalin and Hitler "in context."  What could go wrong?

YEMEN: Dozens of Saudi and Egyptian veterans of al-Qaeda's operations in Afghanistan have been pouring into Yemen, a senior official has warned.

IRAN: Gen David Petraeus confirms that the US has developed contingency plans to deal with Iran's nuclear facilities.  There are signs that negotiations with Iran over a nuclear fuel swap have resumed despite the expiration of the end-of-year deadline for a deal set by Pres. Obama.

AFGHANISTAN: Most Afghans are increasingly optimistic about the state of their country, a poll commissioned by the BBC, ABC News and Germany's ARD shows.

WHEN WARTHOGS ATTACK: Let's go to the video.

LIBRARY CATS are the new hotness.

AN ANT SPECIES has dispensed with males entirely.

JELLYFISH STINGS MAN 25 meters above sea level.

A FLOCK OF VULTURES are watching Nancy Cox, waiting on her lawn and slowly chewing their way inside her Ridgeway, VA, home.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND, Unplugged.

SPOON is advance streaming their Transference LP via NPR.  They also have a meaty profile in The New York Times.

BASIA BULAT drops "Go On" as and advance track from her upcoming LP.

YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND stopped by WXPN for a chat and mini-set.

ELVIS PRESLEY: The staff at NPR is streaming their favorite tracks from the King.

LUCKY SOUL releases a video for "White Russian Doll," while Andrew blogged the shoot.

PATTI SMITH: Rolling Stone has an excerpt from her memoir, while Vanity Fair has a blurb from Clive Davis and a slideshow from photographer Steven Sebring.

NELLIE McKAY talks to the Mpls City Pages about A Prairie Home Companion, politics, and Doris Day.

BUZZCOCKS: The Mancester punks' early catalog is getting a big reissue effort from Mute.

KAREN O, frontwoman of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, is profiled by Variety, focusing on her music for Where the Wild Things Are.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  This week's Top Three are last week's Top Three. Avatar shows amazing legs, dropping a mere 29 percent and taking in another 48.5 million domestically, where it enters the all-time Top Ten.  Worldwide, Avatar is already the second biggest earner of all time, behind Titanic.  Sherlock Holmes and the Chipmunks pulled in more than 16 million each.  Both dropped more than 50 percent, whcih is rough, but not shocking after two holiday weekends.  Daybreakers became the first new film in the Top Five since Christmas, with a 15 million debut, proving Ameerica loves Smurfs and vampires.  Rounding out the Top Five, It's Complicated drops a notch, taking in 11 million on a 41 percent drop; the star-filled ensemble comedy has yet to recoup its budget.  Below the fold, Leap Year debuted in sixth place with 9.2 million against a 19 million budget, which isn't bad, considering the bad reviews.  Much the same culd be said about the better-reviewed Youth in Revolt, which opened in ninth place.

CONAN O'BRIEN headed to Fox? It could happen.

MADONNA and SEAN PENN a three-hour, one-on-one dinner at four-star Alain Ducasse restaurant in Manhattan on Thursday.

KATY PERRY's Twitter account sparks rumors she's having a baby with new fiancé Russell Brand.

GREEN LANTERN: Blake Lively has nabbed the female lead opposite Ryan Reynolds in Warner Bros.' live-action film based on the DC Comics hero.

STAR TREK 2.2 is tentatively slated for June 29, 2012.

THE A-TEAM has a trailer online.

KICK-ASS now has a SFW trailer online.

TWO GENTLEMEN OF LEBOWSKI: The Dude abides, in Shakespearean style.

ART CLOKEY, creator of the whimsical clay figure Gumby, died in his sleep Friday at his home. He was 88.

YEMEN: British Intelligence has confirmed perhaps the most chilling boast that accused Christmas Day bomber Umar Abdulmutallab made to investigators after his arrest: that close to 20 other young Muslim men were being prepared in Yemen to use the same technique to blow up airliners.

IRAN: The son of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi on Friday accused hard-line pro-government militiamen and Revolutionary Guard members of trying to assassinate his father a night earlier.

IT'S RAINING IGUANAS: Let's go to the video.  Here's a bonus how-to handle them video.

HAMSTERS drink like humans.

A FROZEN CAT, successfully defrosted.

A WILD TURKEY knocked out power near Folsom State Prison. Investigators checking links to squirrels, ghost of Johnny Cash.