GARY RICHRATH, the REO Speedwagon guitarist who wrote some of the band's biggest hits, including "Take It on the Run" and "In Your Letter," died Sunday, according to a Facebook post by REO lead singer Kevin Cronin. They were a big band in Illinois years before they hit nationally and one of the frst big rock shows I attended as a wee lad, so I will always have a certain sympathy for Richrath's textbook 70s guitar leads.  Let's celebrate his career with this sizeable chunk from the Midnight Special. (h/t John Davey)

JASON ISBELL played a mini-set for Spotify.

ROGER LION: Joe Pernice and Budo advance stream their self-titled debut.

OUGHT advance streams Sun Coming Down.

FIRE TALK advance streams their debut, R/T Hawaii.

THE DECEMBERISTS drop "Why Would I Now?" ahead of the Florasongs EP.

GIVERS drop "Bermuda" ahead of New Kingdom.

SILVERSUN PICKUPS drops “Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance)" ahead of Better Nature.

THE SUPREMES perform "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "Somewhere" from West Side Story in October 1966 for Twofer Tuesday.

JACK WHITE and PATRICK CARNEY (Black Keys) almost got into a bar fight.

MOGWAI's Stuart Braithwaite talks to Exclaim about Minor Victories, his side band with Slowdive's Rachel Goswell and Editors' Justin Lockey, along with his brother James Lockey. (Thx, Frank Yang.)

DAVE GAHAN talks to Pitchfork about Soulsavers and the future of Depeche Mode.

HOW CAN PARENTS Make Time For Music.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER has been named the new host of The Celebrity Apprentice, replacing the dumped Trump.

MATT DAMON explains diversity to a black filmmaker.

ELLEN PAGE walked the Toronto International Film Festival red carpet with her girlfriend Samantha Thomas.

TAYLOR SWIFT is reprotedly getting serious about new boyfriend Calvin Harris.

RACHEL McADAMS is officially in the cast of Marvel's Doctor Strange. I would guess she will play the doc's guide/assistant Clea.

ELISABETH OLSEN: The Scarlet Witch talks to Refinery29 about playing Hank Williams' first wife opposite Loki, and criticism of women in the Marvel universe.

MARY POPPINS looks to be returning to the big screen in a new adventure.

SPECTRE: There's fresh footage in the latest TV spot.

RUSSIA is using an air corridor over Iraq and Iran to fly military equipment and personnel to a new air hub in Syria, openly defying American efforts to block the shipments and significantly increasing tensions with Washington.

IRAN  has discovered an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium and will soon begin extracting the radioactive element at a new mine, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said on Saturday.

GIANT LAND CRABS invade central Florida.

A MONKEY ON THE LAM from four Kentucky agencies on a 2-day chase has finally been taken in.

A TORTOISE ON THE LAM is hunted by a police dog.

AND THERE WERE PIGLETS all over the motorway.

...so I'll be back Tuesday with the usual. Meanwhile:

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The Perfect Guy edged The Visit for the top slot by just 1MM -- 26.7MM to 25.7MM. Screen Gems seems to do well with modestly-budgeted horror and thriller pics like The Perfect Guy.  M. Night Shyamalan's The Visit is the first pic by the director that wasn't widely mocked by critics, and this opening looks pretty darn good against a mere 5MM budget (put up by Shyamalan).  War Room shows with 7.4MM on a leggy 22 percent drop, witha 39MM total against a 3MM production budget.  A Walk in the Woods drops 44 percent to take in 4.6MM, which is likely enough to take it to breakeven next week. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation rounds out the Top 5 with 4.2MM and pushes past 612MM worldwide as the Chinese co-production finally opened in the People's Republic.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

SLY & THE FAMILY STONE rip through a medley of "Everyday People" and "Dance to the Music," plus "Hot Fun in the Summertime," "Don't Call Me N*gger, Whitey," and "I Want to Take You Higher" on network TV, circa 1969.

DARLENE LOVE advance streams Introducing Darlene Love.

TELEKINESIS advance streams Ad Infinitum. 

GLEN HANSARD advance streams Didn't He Ramble. 

BATTLES advance streams La Di Da Di. 

SHELF LIFE advance streams Everyone Make Happy. 

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS: As summer wanes, let's roll John Darnielle's take on "The Boys Are Back In Town."

THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN: Jim Reid reflects on Psychocandy over at Under The Radar. (Thx, Frank Yang.) 

STEELY DAN talks to the WSJ about the making of "Deacon Blues." 

DURAN DURAN talk to The Guardian about being snubbed by Dylan, riding rutting elephants in Sri Lanka and wearing pink trousers.

KEITH RICHARDS, Lord of the Undead, gave his daughters permission to snort his ashes. 

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include The Visit, which is currently scoring 64 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; plus The Perfect Guy and 90 Minutes in Heaven, neither of which was screened for critics.

GRACE JONES slays Rhianna, Miley Cyrus, and Lady Gaga in her autobiography.

BEN AFFLECK changed his phone number to ditch the nanny? Too good to check. 

BRITNEY SPEARS beat out JENNIFER LOPEZ for first choice of Vegas concert dates. 

ROBERT PATTINSON & FKA TWIGS: Marriage rumors. 

THE BIG BANG THEORY: Penny and Leonard's Wedding Photos. 

9/11: The first five minutes of CNN coverage. I came out of the shower, saw the second plane hit on NBC, and knew had had to contact my boss, whose daughter lived in NYC. There is still a lot of crazy stuff going on around the country and the world as a result, so consider taking a moment to watch and remember.

AL QAEDA: Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor who replaced Osama bin Laden as the head of al Qaeda four years ago, in a new audio message accused ISIS top leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of “sedition” and insisted the Iraqi terrorist recluse was not the leader of all Muslims and militant jihad as “caliph” of the Islamic State, as al-Baghdadi had claimed 14 months ago in a Mosul mosque. 

RUSSIA's new air base in Syria has the US scrambling. 

BERTIE: The Fastsest Tortoise in the World. 

GIANT MOTHS invade Britain to party. 

THE SWARM kills a golfer in Michigan. 

A DEPRESSED ORPHAN WOMBAT finds comfort with teddy bears. 

STEPHEN COLBERT joined MAVIS STAPLES, BEN FOLDS, BRITTANY HOWARD, BUDDY GUY and more on Sly Stone's "Everyday People."

ROBERT FORSTER: The Go-Betweens founder streams Songs to Play.

LOU BARLOW performs in the WNYC Soundcheck studio.sh

SHEARWATER assembled a sampler of their catalogfor fans old and new.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED:Tracks from JR JR, Givers, Thunderb^tch and more highlight the latest edition.

KNICKERBOCKERS: "Lies." Someday you're gonna be lonely.

YO LA TENGO's Ira Kaplan, interviewed by Luna's Dean Wareham.

RICHARD HAWLEY talks to The Guardian about his roots, his love of folk music... and his beloved dogs.

SAINTSENECA talks to Stereogum about quantum physics and pop structures.

AL STEWART, circa 1966 (well before The Year of the Cat) is profiled at Aquarium Drunkard.

RONDA ROUSEY: The UFC fighter is starring in MGM's reboot of the 1980s cult classic Road House.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II hits for the cycle.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE talks to the New York Times about how the Hunger Games changed her life.

JON HAMM & JENNIFER WESTFELDT's split was over the issue of kids.

BRUNO MARS has been invited to perform in and "curate" the halftime show for SuperBowl 50.

CAITLYN JENNER opened up to Matt Lauer about life as a woman, criticism she's faced and even what she thinks about those Caitlyn Jenner Halloween costumes.

BEVERLY JOHNSON has found it in her heart to forgive Bill Cosby.

RUSSIA has started to build a huge military base housing ammunition depots and barracks for several thousand soldiers near the Ukrainian border, a project that suggests the Kremlin is digging in for a prolonged stand-off with Kiev.

IRANIAN Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a speech that was posted to Twitter that “God willing,” Israel will cease to exist in the next 25 years.

THE ISLAMIC STATE & AL QAEDA: More than 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military's Central Command have formally complained that their reports on ISIS and al Qaeda's branch in Syria were being inappropriately altered by senior officials, The Daily Beast has learned.

A RARE PINK DOLPHIN, possibly pregnant, was spotted again off the Louisiana coast.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED, GLOW-IN-THE-DARK CHICKENS may fight avian flu.

THE NATIONAL ZOO's baby panda is starting to look more like a panda.

A CAPUCHIN MONKEY learns touse  tools...to pick its nose.

FIDLAR dropped a video for "Drone."

DANCES stream their debut LP, Keep Talking. 

DURAN DURAN advance streams the cameo-laden Paper Gods. 

LEON BRIDGES played a Tiny Desk Concert. 

SONIC YOUTH: Brixton Academy, London – December 14, 1992. 

SWEET SPIRIT drops "Baby When I Close My Eyes" ahread of Cokomo. 

ANGEL HAZE drops "Moonrise Kingdom," presumably inspired by Wes Anderson.

JOHN LYDON (a/k/a Johnny Rotten) talks to the L.A. Times about family life, living in America, anger, and more. 

ROD STEWART fronted the (remaining) Faces for the first time in 40 years. 

CHVRCHES talk pop and politics at Stereogum. 

LOW tells DIY that on their new LP, the devil is in the details. (Thx, Frank Yang.) 

TOM BRADY is calling “time out” on rumors surrounding his marriage to supermodel Gisele Bündchen.

BRADLEY COOPER's galpal Irina Shayk met his mother over the Labor Day weekend. 

PIPPA MIDDLETON ran and swam 45 miles across 26 islands in Sweden. 

VANESSA WILLIAMS is returning to the Miss America pageant, presumably clothed.

TERRY GILLIAM, contrary to a Variety report, is not dead. Merely a flesh wound. The persn responsible has been sacked. (Thx, Nathan.)

THE WARRIORS: The Making of a Cult Classic. 

EUROPE: Boats containing Syrian refugees are sabotaged at sea.  An Internet television channel associated with Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party fired a camera operator on Tuesday after images of her kicking and tripping migrants spread across social networks.

TURKEY: A crowd attacked the headquarters of Turkey's pro-Kurdish HDP party, amid rising violence between Turkish forces and the militant Kurdish PKK group.

IRAQ put F-16 warplanes acquired from the United States into action against ISIS for the first time. 

A BABY WALLABY: Let's go to the video. 

THE REAL-LIFE PADDINGTON BEAR returns to Peru. And looks nothing like Paddington. 

A 10-FOOT GATOR crawls out of a stoirm drain in a Louisiana subdivision. 

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A black bear with a blue head.