THE NATIONAL has a video for "Mistaken for Strangers" from their upcoming album, The Boxer, posted at MTV.

NEW RELEASES:  Wilco (a week early), Lavender Diamond, Maximo Park, Page France and more are all streaming in full this week via Spinner, while Fields is treaming in full via AOL.  Bjork is the probably the week's big release, though.  Keren Ann is worth a listen.  The Clientele releases God Save the Clientele, which is a nice Kinks allusion.  Elliott Smith gets another posthumous release.  I haven't heard much from Electralane, but the Arcade Fire has picked them as an opening act.  I have to tip Sea Wolf just because the band's pgae lists as influences every band they or you can think of with "wolf" in the name.  And Great Lake Swimmers is a band I have overlooked but are liked by musicbloggers whose taste I trust.

SON VOLT mastermind Jay Farrar talks to the Houston Chronicle about his writing process, getting older and the death of Uncle Tupelo.

SONIC YOUTH siren Kim Gordon half-jokes with Drowned in Sound that the band is performing Daydream nation in its entirety for the money, but ends up saying, "That's the only quote you're going to use, isn't it? About the money..."  Kim Gordon knows the press.

MODEST MOUSE played Philadelphia's Electric Factory last Thursday; you can stream the whole gig via NPR on demand.

TWOFER TUESDAY:  They say it's your "Birthday" -- happy birthday to ya!  Plus the ungrammatical, but semi-related "Live and Let Die."

NEW ORDER has split up, perhaps for good, according to bassist Peter Hook.

THE NOISETTES are interviewed in PopMatters.  You can stream their mix of punk, blues, and garage rock from Studio $B via NPR.

PETER TORK claims Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner is keeping the Monkees out of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

NICK DRAKE:  Stereogum has posted a track from the upcoming set of unreleased rarities titled "Black Mountain Blues," which you can also stream from the 'Gum Mix at the link.  Hate Something Beautiful has posted another unrealeased track, "They're Leaving Me Behind," streamable via the ol' HM.

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE:  The troubled singer was arrested yet again over the weekend on suspicion of possessing a class A drug.  The supposedly sober supermodel was reportedly already furious with fiancé Doherty after he failed to attend a rehab appointment earlier this week -- opting instead to go to the pub.

THE FRENCH HOTEL:  The Hiltons were reportedly stunned that America's premiere celebutard got sentenced to 45 days in the county jail.  The heirhead reportedly broke down in tears during a posh lunch with her mom at a Beverly Hills eatery the next day.  Longtime PR flack Elliot Mintz has ditched her.  She tells Harper's Bazaar that the cops pull her over all the time to hit on her.  She is appealing the sentence, natch.

DEBORAH GIBSON has urged today's young party girls to clean up their acts -- or risk looking and feeling terrible when they hit her age.

NATALIE PORTMAN, out promoting the Foundation for International Community Assistance, which provides micro loans to the poor, says the only thing she has in common with Britney Spears is that she also shaved her head -- for the 2006 film V for Vendetta.

DAVID HASSELHOFF:  A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has suspended the Hoff's rights to visit his children in the wake of the videotape showing the actor drunk on his living room floor.

TOM-KAT UPDATE:  Cruise has plunked down 35 million for a Beverly Hills home for himself, Holmes and the Tom-Kitten.  The new address reportedly was not even on the market, so Cruise must have made an offer the owner couldn't refuse.

BRADGELINA:  Jolie has threatened to pull out of filming on her latest movie in the Czech capital Prague after being hounded by paparazzi.

BRITTANY MURPHY, who called off an an engagement to another man just over eight months ago, has secretly wed screenwriter Simon Monjack.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY and SIENNA MILLER:  The Daily Mail has pics of the pair shooting The Best Time of Our Lives, which will feature them in a lesbian love scene... but I cannot help noting that Miller is standing upwind of Knightley.

GISELE BUNDCHEN is reportedly counting down the seconds until her contract with Victoria's Secret runs out so she can cash in on a new deal with H&M.

GWYNETH PALTROW and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin have sold their townhouse in New York's trendy TriBeCa area because they want to be in London full-time for their children's education.

THE MTV MOVIE AWARDS nominees are announced, with voting online.

THE DALAI LAMA was in Chicago over the weekend, where he said he hasn't attained enlightenment yet... which tends to make me think he owes me a tip for that caddying gig years ago.

FANTASTIC FOUR: Rise Of The Silver Surfer has a new trailer online (and before Spidey 3).  I must say I am quite worried that they have messed this up worse than the first one.

IT'S THE END of the WORLD AS WE KNOW IT:  Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and famous for militant intervention to stop whalers, now warns mankind is "acting like a virus" harmin the Earth and that "curing the biosphere of the human virus will also require a radical and invasive approach."  Personally, think Agent Smith was more eloquent on this point, though just as wrong-headed.  Watson calls for a radical reduction of the human population by about 5 billion; the Optimum Population Trust says childbirth must be reduced to slow global warming.  This neo-Malthusian doom-saying ignores that the rate of world population growth has fallen by more than 40 percent since the late 1960s and that forecasts show that, even in the absence of major wars or pandemics, the human population may fall during our children's lifetimes.  So there's not much need for the fiery ritual of Carousel.

ISLAMISM in the UK:  Though I noted last Friday that MI-5 is concerned about 2000 terrorism suspects and their supporters, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens says the real number is about 4000.

FRANCE: Official figures released on Monday said demonstrators set fire to 730 cars and injured 78 policemen across France, with 592 people arrested in the violent protests against conservative Nicolas Sarkozy's victory in Sunday's presidential election.  The tally was revised sharply upwards after an initial report downplayed the clashes and was at odds with local police figures and eyewitness reports.  But you could have seen this election miles away:  The French dislike themselves even more than the Americans do, according to a recent opinion poll.

TURKEY:  The ruling Islamic party's choice for president, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, withdrew his candidacy Sunday after parliament again failed to reach a quorum, setting the stage for what many here view as decisive parliamentary elections in July, as Gul is expected eventually to stand again.  The Islamic party pushed Monday for a constitutional amendment that allows the president to be elected in a popular vote rather than in a parliamentary poll.  Which is the sort of reaction to losing that worried the secular population of Turkey in the first place.

IRAQ at HOME:  Congress will tussle with the White House and Pentagon over the clarity of any benchmarks inserted into a defense funding law.  Badger 6, stationed in Anbar, notes the media's benchmarks are biased toward failure.  In the Washington Examiner, Tom Elliot wonders whether the media will again fail to ask tough questions about Iraq, specifically about deadlines and timetables.

ZOO TUBE:  Hundreds of amateur mini-movies shot at Chicago's Brookfield and Lincoln Park zoos as well as at the Shedd Aquarium are posted at YouTube -- including some involving the more fun parts of the circle of life.  However, the most popular Brookfield flick is a video of a 1996 incident in which a child fell into the ape exhibit and was carried by the gorilla Binti Jua.

A BEARDED SEAL has strayed into Florida's Intracoastal Waterway, hundreds of miles from its Arctic home.  Or is it a Cuban seal using a disguise to immigrate from the nearby island dictatorship?

KILLER WHALES are so pink and cute when they are babies!

TWO RESCUE BIRDS have died after a hole was cut in the fence of their aviary in order to let them free.  Pc Steve Knight, of Dorset Police, said: "These birds are well looked after and are only able to survive because of the care taken of them."

A PAIR of SPIDERS were discovered nesting in a 9-year-old boy's ear, icymi.

A DECLAWED, 8-YEAR-OLD CAT is too scary for Canada's postal system in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

A SMILING LION is not scary enough for a boy visiting a drive-thru safari park in Bedfordshire.