THE WEEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE KINKS!  Having recently posted some less obvious Stones clips, I thought I'd do the same here, with songs like "I Gotta Move" (from Shindig!), and softer fare like "Sunny Afternoon," the Dave Davies-penned "Death of a Clown," concept LP title track "The Village Green Preservation Society" (pictured), "Days," " Celluloid Heroes" and a rawking live version of "Victoria." Plus, you can hear bits of the hits in the background of this mini-documentary on the band.  And because it's Friday, here's some "Alcohol."

FOUNTAINS of WAYNE stopped by The Current, so you can stream a mini-set -- including the always fab "Red Dragon Tattoo" -- on demand from MPR.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS:  John Linnell shuffled his iPod for The A.V. Club and came up with Glenn Gould and Japanese language instruction, plus more.

SPOON:  The upcoming Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga should be streaming in full via Merge Records today.

ROBYN HITCHCOCK is performing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in its entirety as a benefit for Medecins Sans Frontieres at Three Kings Pub in Clerkenwell, London on June 30 and July 1.  He's also spotlighted at the moment by the Sundance Channel which has an interview and unplugged take on "I Wanna Destroy You" posted for your viewing pleasure.

DAYDREAM NATION, the Sonic Youth epic streaming via Spinner through the weekend, gets retrospectives at PopMatters and the New York Sun.

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS have free songs to stream and download (three unreleased) from SxSW at Daytrotter.

THE EASYBEATS are never far away when I've got "Friday on my Mind."  This is a live version.

BONO:  Radar magazine photoshops the covers of Vanity Fair's star-studded, Bono-edited July "Africa" issue to include a few statistics Vanity Fair left out.

THE PIPETTES:  Waves and Wires has posted the band's San Francisco gig, which you can jukebox (albeit out of order) via the ol' HM.

ICE CREAM TRUCK MUSIC:  Ears weary of "Pop Goes the Weasel" and the Mister Softee theme during these hot summer months now have an alternative: Michael Hearst's album, Songs for Ice Cream Trucks.  You can listen at the album's website.

BONNAROO:  Festival sets from Wilco, Flaming Lips, Feist, Lily Allen, Gillian Welch, Ben Harper, Cold War Kids and String Cheese Incident and more will be streaming via AT&T's Blue Room starting today and through the weekend.

THE CUTOUT BIN:  This Friday's fortuitous finds from the ol' HM are: R.E.M. - Radio Song; Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You; Joe Jackson - It's Different For Girls; The Polyphonic Spree - Running Away; I'm From Barcelona - Britney; The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset; Big Star - Till the End of the Day (live Kinks); U2 - Desire; Dramarama - Anything, Anything; Steve Miller Band - Swingtown; Friends Of Distinction - Grazing in the Grass; The Archies vs The Velvet Underground - Velvet Sugar; Bay City Rollers - Summerlove Sensation; Wilco - Something In The Air (live Thunderclap Newman); John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John - You're The One That I Want; C.W. McCall - Convoy; Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone; Art Brut - Direct Hit; The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket; Count Five - Psychotic Reaction; World Party - Is It Like Today?; Grateful Dead - Truckin'; Cheap Trick - He's A Whore; Diamond Nights - Saturday Fantastic; Meatloaf - I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That); The Turtles - Happy Together; and Journey - Don't Stop Believin'.

FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE of the SILVER SURFER is -- as you can see below -- not a well-reviewed movie.  And I should note at the outset that I thought the first FF a very mediocre adaptation of the comic book.  But it did really well at the box office.  So I can list the many things that are wrong with this second installment.  It does great violence to the Galactus Saga -- one of the seminal tales of modern comics.  It captures the global scope of the story, but largely lacks the gravity and tension it ought to have.  It does even greater violence to Galactus himself (and though I can guess why, I have a good counter-argument as to why something closer to the book would have been better). The "acting" ceratinly hasn't improved.  And Jessica Alba's skin color varies from near-normal to slightly-less-orange than The Thing, with an astonishing lack of continuity.  Nevertheless, I think it may do well, because -- for all of its flaws --  it captures the tone and family-orientation (in the on-screen relationships and overall content) that I think were key to the success of the first film.  People who really liked the first one will probably like this one.  I think that is doubly important this summer, where a lot of people have been disappointed by the big-budget threequels.  Plus, it's only 92 minutes long, which should play well with those fatigued by the length of last month's blockbusters. It also means a fair amount is packed into those 92 minutes, so kids won't lose their attention.  And biz-wise, theaters can run more showings daily.  If you want a big ol' spoiler, you can click the "Read more" link at the bottom of today's blurbs.  BONUS:  The A.V. Club lists "10 Wonderfully Weird Moments From Fantastic Four Comics," including one involving the Silver Surfer-Galactus Saga.

JESSICA ALBA has been required to go everywhere to promote the Fantastic Four flick, including SportsCenter, where she denied saying that she hopes directors will be able to see past "my hotness."

NOW SHOWING:  Aside from the Fantastic Four, which is currently scoring 23 percent on the ol' Tomatometer, this weekend's only wide release is Nancy Drew, which is scoring 55 percent.

JOSS STONE, who has been desperate to be in a relationship since splitting from her first love Beau Dozier in 2005, told Britain's The Times magazine: "I think I'll have to turn lesbian."  Which may be a good way to attract a man. 

PAUL POTTS sang opera on Britain's Got Talent and moved everyone, even Simon Cowell, icymi.

THE FORBES CELEBRITY 100 LIST is out and sortable a whole bunch of ways.

THE FRENCH HOTEL at the GREYBAR HOTEL:  The heirhead begged the deputies to pray for her as she was transferred from Twin Towers  back to Lynwood.  Even though her private room at the Lynwood medical clinic is an upgrade, a law enforcement source told TMZ that "To describe Paris as emotionally upset would be an understatement," with root of the problem being severe panic attacks.  OK! magazine claims that her jailhouse remorse is more about her fear of losing endorsement deals than the pangs of conscience.  A source is quoted as saying it will be tough for her to boost her image with charity work because few charities will want to be associated with her.  And an L.A. Times study shows that she will end up serving more time than 80% of other people in similar situations: "Twenty-three days would be considerably more than the average person given her sentence would actually serve," said Stan Goldman, professor of criminal law and procedure at Loyola Law School.

BRITNEY SPEARS is asking for help from her fans to name the pop tart's upcoming album.  Some of the choices are hilarious... just not the ones that she thinks.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL may make his Broadway debut this fall in a new play loosely based on Howard Dean's 2004 campaign for the White House.

20 MOVIES Not Coming Soon to a Theater Near You, courtesy of Premiere magazine.

THE BIG CHILL-OUT:  Screen Gems is remaking the 1983 Boomer navel-gazer with an African-American cast.  And while the characters will have gone to school in the 90s, the redo may stick with the original's fixation on Motown classics.  Really, hasn't Whitey already done enough to Black people?

BRADGELINA:  Jolie is touting press freedom these days, playing the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a new movie called A Mighty Heart.  But Jolie turns out to be a mighty hypocrite when it comes to her own freedom of the press, requiring all journalists to sign a contract before talking to her, and tried to ban FOX News from the red carpet of her premiere.  USA Today and the AP were among those that canceled interviews, and eventually Jolie scotched all print interviews when she heard the reaction.  After this story got out, she reversed her position on restricting reporters' questions at today's press junket.  The Jolie-Pitt nanny has been telling stories to the ever-reliable National Enquirer.  And St. John must be giddy at having paid Jolie millions to promote their clothing when she turned up at the NYC premiere of A Mighty Heart wearing a 26-dollar vintage dress from Melrose Avenue in LA.

AFGHANISTAN:  The Taliban failed to mount their long-threatened spring offensive, and indications are the guerrillas may have trouble recruiting fighters after the harvest, a NATO commander said.  Afghan Defense Minister Wardak dismissed claims by a top US State Dept official that there was "irrefutable evidence" that the Iranian government was providing arms to Taliban rebels. 

IRAQ in the MEDIA:  Following Tuesday night's AP story on the latest quarterly report from the Pentagon, the Washington Post headline is "No Drop in Iraq Violence Seen Since Troop Buildup," the NYT headline is "Violence Rising in Much of Iraq, Pentagon Says," and the L.A. Times chimes in with "Iraq violence up since troop increase."  And the AP's "Baghdad Crackdown Seeks Sunni Help" claims that the "security operation has failed to curb violence nationwide," "violence is actually more acute nationwide," and that the "sectarian slaughter has dipped slightly in Baghdad, but is up dramatically outside the city."  But the AP later reports the actual numbers.  The four-month death toll before the operation was 7,919 while the number for the past four months was 7,281 -- a drop of 8% nationwide.  Using the same timelines, deaths in Baghdad dropped from 5,585 to 3,764  -- a 33% drop (the AP calls this a "dipped slightly.").  According to iCasualties -- which uses the AP numbers -- there were 3014 civilian deaths in February and 1980 in May -- a 34% drop in the level of monthly deaths.  This is what the US media presents as failure, even before all of the "surge" troops are deployed and integrated into their areas of operation.

IRAQ:  Gen. Petraeus, otoh, drives through the streets of Iraq's capital, he sees "astonishing signs of normalcy" in half, perhaps two-thirds of Baghdad.  That was before the mosque bombing in Samarrah, which he called a "serious blow."  Could it be that the mosque bombing was intended to reignite sectarian violence precisely because the current operations are succeeding in Baghdad?  Bill Roggio rounds up news on arrests in the bombing case and sketchy reports of sectarian strife after the blast.  Daveed Gartenstein-Ross analyzes the strategic implications of the bombing, noting that last year, major violence did not break out immediately following the al-Askariya bombing, but heated up over time.  More than 2000 Kurdish fighters are being deployed in restive Diyala province to support US and Iraqi forces fighting insurgents, a top Kurdish security official said.  A Turkish think tank warns that a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq could inflame Kurdish nationalism.

A CHINESE DOG gave birth to a "kitten" which local vets say is really a puppy which looks like a cat because of a gene mutation. It apparently yaps like a puppy.  Oh, sure.

ALASKA'S ONLY ELEPHANT has agreed to move to a warmer climate amid mounting pressure over her welfare but faces the dilemma of how to get there.  Can't she just wait for the global warming?

BRITISH SNAKES:  Dorset police took custody of a two-meter carpet python -- indigenous to Australia, but found on a country path in the UK.  A couple's intimate moment at Christchurch Park in Ipswich was interrupted when a four-foot constrictor fell out of a tree above them.

LAND 'O' GOSHEN!  That's where a wild turkey suddenly came crashing through the windshield of a New Yorker's car after dropping her son off at school on Tuesday.

...AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:  A piglet with six legs and two penises.  And two anuses.

FANTASTIC FOUR SPOILER:  Jessica Alba's hotness saves this world, and many others.  Really.