THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with the HOODOO GURUS! As Trouser Press reminds us: "Australia has produced few bands as crazily entertaining as Sydney's Hoodoo Gurus." In their prime, few could match Dave Faulkner and Co. in the marriage of pop hooks and garage rock riffs. Their debut album contained "I Want You Back," "Leilani," "Tojo" and "My Girl" -- and that leaves out some of my favorite tracks from the LP.  The gems kept coming on later albums, too: "Bittersweet," "In the Wild," "What's My Scene" and "Good Times" (featuring backup vox from the Bangles), the incredible "Come Anytime," and "Axegrinder," the psychedelic "Miss Freelove '69" and the crunching rawk of "The Right Time" -- again, just to name a few.  The Gurus could (and can) also deliver the goods live as these vintage live clips of "Like Wow, Wipeout!" " Let's All Turn On,"and "Middle of the Land" prove.

NEW MULTITUDES: Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker and Jim James stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

CLOUD NOTHINGS play a high-intensity set of songs from their new, critically-lauded album "Attack on Memory" live on KEXP.

JULIA HOLTER played NYC's Le Poisson Rouge; you can stream the whole gig on demand.

DINOSAUR, JR, Live in Stockholm, August 13, 1987.

WILLIE NILE stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

THE WALKMEN goof off on U2 covers while finishing their new album.

BOBBY WOMACK drops "Please Forgive My Heart" from his upcoming solo album, The Bravest Man In The Universe.

TOTO: "Hold the Line." Guilty pleasure.

ANDREW BIRD talks toThe A.V. Club about collaboration and improvisation on his new album, his experimentations with sound, and letting his music evolve organically.

GUIDED BY VOICES: Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout talk to Loud & Quiet about the unexpected reunion. (Thx, Chromewaves.)

BOWERBIRDS' Phil Moore talks to Consequence of Sound about the band's new direction, creating a bigger, broader sound, recording at Bon Iver's studio, and the UK's love of all things folky.

CUTOUT BIN: From Bill Cosby to Pink Floyd, from Cheap Trick to Brook Benton, from The Smiths to Mudhoney, plus Robyn Hitchcock, Stiff Little Fingers, The Guess Who, Jayhawks and more  -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include John Carter, which is currently scoring 49 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Silent House, which is scoring 56 percent; and A Thousand Words, scoring, er, zero percent.

JESSICA SIMPSON says her daughter made her presence known just before a roadtrip.

TAYLOR KITSCH talks to GQ about a year including roles in John Carter and Battleship.

EVA LONGORIA and Eduardo Cruz are dunzo.

SNOOKI found out she was pregnant after going on a bender in Vegas.

WILLIAM SHATNER talks to Fresh Air about his new one-man Broadway show.

ELISABETH MOSS is nothing like Mad Men's mousy Peggy Olsen in Page Six magazine, where she also discusses her short marriage to SNL's Fred Armisen.

THE LONE RANGER: USA Today has a first look at Arnie Hammer and Johnny Depp in costume and makeup.

LIBYA: Gaddafi was running a covert program to conceal weapons in Libyan embassies across the globe, a senior official in the new government said on Thursday.

IRAN: Satellite images of an Iranian military facility appear to show trucks and earth-moving vehicles at the site, indicating an attempted cleanup of radioactive traces possibly left by tests of a nuclear-weapon trigger.

PAKISTAN possessed up to 110 nuclear weapons and spent a whopping 2.2 billion dollars on its atomic arsenal last year, claims a report by an international NGO, prompting Islamabad to call it "highly exaggerated."

AFGHANISTAN: The US is investigating charges that the Afghan Air Force is involved in drug smuggling.  US military commanders said Wednesday there are no plans to turn the Afghan war over to CIA control after 2014.

BABY MONKEY vs KITTEN: Who you got?

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: An undercover squirrel turns up in a Wisconsin toilet.

HAMISH the COCKER SPANIEL saves his diabetic owner four times.

A TINY PIGLET was found roaming the lobby of a hotel near the Honolulu International Airport.