THE DEARS' new clip for "Money Babies" is rather apocalyptic.

THE SMITHS are considering reuniting for the Coachella music festival.

JULIANA HATFIELD stopped by WFUV for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via NPR.

THE RUMBLE STRIPS stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via MPR.

THE REPLACEMENTS: The Guardian takes stock of the seminal band, with comments from both Tommy Stinson and Paul Westerberg, who says this about the band's legendary drunkenness: "Sometimes it made us fearless and sometimes it made us ridiculous, but it's all part of what made us great. We were what we were supposed to be."

GUIDED BY VOICES is providing the music for a 3-D rock opera about Cleopatra by Steven Soderbergh?

JANE'S ADDICTION reunited for a five-dollar club gig last week; watch "Ocean Size" and "Wh0res" at the 'Gum.

DUNGEN -- and the way the Swedish psych-rockers trancend language -- is profiled in the Boston Globe.

HANK WILLIAMS: Intimate and rare performances that few fans have heard are streaming via NPR.

PHIL SPECTOR: The pop genius and accused murderer uncorks a fresh round of crazy for the BBC: "Depression is a wasted emotion to me, like pity, it's a wasted emotion. I'm concerned with the fact that I have not been made a doctor at any college and Bill Cosby has, even Dylan has..."

VASHTI BUNYAN, the Godmother of freak folk, gets a segment and songs  on NPR's Day to Day.

BONO: Photographed with two 19-year-old hotties in St Tropez, with his wife nowhere to be found.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Unsurprisingly, High School Musical 3: Senior Year romped to the top of the chart, making 42 million dollars on an 11 million budget.  Saw V came in second with 30 million (slightly less than Saw IV) on a 10.8 million budget.  Max payne drops about 57 percent to third place with 7.6  million; it's on track to break even. Beverly Hills Chihuahua drops only 39 percent and is on target to make 100 million in the US (Good weekend for The Mouse). Pride and Glory debuts in fifth, with 6.3 million.  Below the fold, Oliver Stone's W. and Body of Lies tank.

LIVE FROM NEW YORK, it's Amy Poehler's (and Will Arnett's) son, born Saturday.

LINDSAY LOHAN says she's not a lesbian and that Samantha Ronson is the only girl for her. NTTAWWT.

BRADGELINA: Jolie has returned from a two-day humanitarian trip to Afghanistan this week, visiting poverty-stricken families, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

AMY WINEHOUSE faces arrest for assault after failing to attend a quiz over allegations she hit a reveller.

MADONNA is having intense Kabbalah "anger management" counselling to deal with her fury against Guy Ritchie as the couple's bitter divorce takes its toll. Ritchie claims his marriage to Madge disintegrated when she started planning their sex life in her diary around her sessions in the gym.

JENNIFER HUDSON and her family are pleading for the safe return of her 7-year-old nephew, who has been missing since Hudson's mother and brother were found dead in their Englewood home on Friday.

ETERNAL SUNSHINE DRUG erases memories in mice. I thought Lacuna already had the patent on this.

SYRIA: US military helicopters attacked territory inside Syria close to its border with Iraq Sunday, targeting the foreign fighter network that travels through Syria into Iraq in an area where the Americans have been unable to shut it down because it was out of the military's reach.  Bill Roggio thinks that the US military must have detected a senior member of AQI in the region.

AFGHANISTAN: Opium production will fall by almost a third this year, according to a US government report; the UN, however, estimates the drop in opium production will only be 6% this year.

IRAQ: Omar and Mohammed Fadhil of ITM survey the latest developments on negotiations over the Status of Forces Agreement.

A FUGITIVE HAMSTER who evaded a team of eight firemen armed with hi-tech rescue equipment including a chocolate-coated camera has been found alive.

PET PYTHON blamed in Virginia Beach woman's strangulation. Video at the link.

SCARLETT the CAT a calico hero who drew worldwide acclaim after rescuing her five kittens from a 1996 Brooklyn fire, has passed away.

LEO the DOG was hailed as a hero on Sunday after risking his life to save a litter of newborn kittens from a house fire, rescuers said.

A FEATHERED DINOSAUR from the Jurassic period was discovered in China. Dr. Grant will be so excited!