Topic: Karl

JACKSON BROWNE joined the surviving EAGLES at the Grammys for "Take It Easy," a song Browne (mostly) co-wrote with the late Glenn Frey. They may never be here again.

BEN FOLDS plays a Tiny Desk Concert, including "Emaline" and "One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces."

SIOUX FALLS advance streams Rot Forever.

THE SNAILS, a Future Islands offshoot, is streaming Songs From The Shoebox.

BETTER PERSON advance streams the It's Only You EP.

MAVIS STAPLES drops "Action," written by tUnE-yArDs’ Merrill Garbus, ahead of Livin' on a High Note.

TANYA DONNELLY drops “Tooraloo,” from her upcoming three-CD set called Swan Song Series.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN breaks out a 12-string to cover Jackie DeShannon's "When You Walk in the Room," which was also a hit for The Searchers.

THE REPLACEMENTS book, Trouble Boy, is excerpted at Rolling Stone, with some disturbing details about the late Bob Stinson.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE talks to Drowned In Sound about  Painting With, a deliberate departure which the band had in mind as they were going into the writing and recording process.

STEVE MASON talks to Drowned In Sound about The Beta Band, amking a living, and modern culture.

NINE CLASSIC INDIE CONCEPT ALBUMS, compiled by Baeble Music (Thx, LHB.)

PAUL McCARTNEY, BECK & FOO FIGHTERS drummer Taylor Hawkins got turned away from a Grammys after-party. There's video: "How VIP do we gotta get? We need another hit."

KANYE WEST threw an epic tantrum behind the scenes of Saturday Night Live and petulantly threatened to walk off the show during its live weekend broadcast.

VANESSA HUDGENS and her boyfriend are under investigation for defacing one of Arizona's most prized treasures.

PEE-WEE's BIG HOLIDAY has a trailer online.

WOLVERINE 3 is hunting for an R-rating after the success of Deadpool.

GEORGE GAYNES, a veteran character actor from Tootsie to the Police Academy movies and scads of TV credits, died on Monday in North Bend, Wash. He was 98. His survivors include another great character actress, wife Allyn Ann McLerie.

PARIS ATTACKS: CIA director John Brennan said that the agency and its allies were aware of covert ISIS activity in the lead up to the attacks in the French capital, however attempts to stop it was foiled by “sophisticated” use of encrypted Internet communication.

UKRAINE: A year-old ceasefire deal has failed to stop violence in Ukraine's separatist eastern territories, and international monitors have voiced concern over increased shelling in recent weeks.

RUSSIA is bombing to pieces the Obama administration's hopes of halting the violence in Syria.

JESPER is an outdoorsy cat.

A PIGLET gives new meaning to the word eyeballs.

MONKEYS photobomb a model with a NSFW performance.

FERAL PARAKEETS invade London.

FLEETWOOD MAC FEST featured performances from Courtney Love, Carly Rae Jepsen, Alison Mosshart, Mark Ronson, Perry Farrell, Elvis Perkins, Will Forte, Sarah Silverman, and many more.

BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON gets a tribite LP including tracks from Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Cowboy Junkies and more.

CAR SEAT HEADREST plays a Tiny Desk Concert.

MATTHEW LOGAN VASQUEZ of Delta Spirit performs solo in a special World Cafe episode.

MAVIS STAPLES drops "Dedicated," co-written with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and M. Ward.

LE SERA drops  “I Need An Angel” ahead of Music For Listening To Music To.

REDD KROSS play "Annie's Gone" and cover The Carpenters' "Yesterday Once More" for Twofer Tuesday.

THE EURYTHMICS: Dave Stewart talks to Weekend Edition about his memoir, Sweet Dreams Are Made of This.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE talks to Weekend Edition about recording Painting With in one of the studios where the Beach Boys recorded Pet Sounds.

KEVIN MORBY talks to Aquarium Drunkard about songwriting and the upcoming Singing Saw.

VANITY, lead singer of the '80s girl group Vanity 6, has died after years of battling kidney failure and, more recently, an abdominal illness. She was 57.

KATE WINSLET was told "by a drama teacher that if I continued to be overweight I would really only get a chance to play the cute, fat best friend role or the ugly sister parts."

THE GRAMMYS went to these folks, notably The Alabama Shakes and Jason Isbell.

STEPHEN FRY quit Twitter after receiving backlash for joking about Beavan, who won the Bafta for Best Costume Design for Mad Max: Fury Road.

THE DIGITAL DIRT: How TMZ gets the videos and photos that celebrities want to hide.

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE drops a new trailer online.

STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII teased the start of production (spoiler if you haven't seen The Force Awakens).

GERMANY expects 500K refugees to enter the country this year, newspaper Rheinische Post cited sources from the Federal Labor Office as saying.

RUSSIA claims its airstrikes target ISIS in Syria, but the reality on the ground is that hundreds of children, rebels, aid workers, and civilians have been killed.

A LITTER OF CHEETAH CUBS was born at San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

TIGER BREEDING, otoh, not going so well in Sacramento.

BEAR ATTACK, repelled by boot or thumb.

THOUSANDS OF TARDY SHARKS finally arrive at Palm Beach, Florida.

OK GO released a zero-gravity video for "Upside Down and Inside Out."

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

KT TUNSTALL pays tribute to Fleetwood Mac on Morning Becomes Eclectic.

THE RECORD COMPANY stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

ST VINCENT covers The Rolling Stones' "Emotional Rescue."

BENNY HESTER, best known as a Christian artist, drops "Give Your Love Forever" from his previously unreleased 1972 LP recorded with Elvis Presley's TCB Band.

DAVE GROHL, RHIANNA, STEVIE WONDER & MANY MORE cover Lionel Richie for this year's Musicares concert.

ELTON JOHN accused THE ROLLING STONES of being "irrelevant" for chasing pop success. Um.

BELLY: The making of King.

JULIA HOLTER is profiled by The Guardian.

PRETTY IN PINK; Stereogum revisits the classic John Hughes soundtrack on its 30th anniversary, from the perspective of a Millenial.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Deadpool shattered mutliple records to top the chart with an estimated 135MM, more than double the tracking estimates.The holiday weekend helped, though that's one of the records broken here.  It's also the sixth-biggest Marvel debut, despite (or perhaps due to) its R-rating. That rating likely prompted its small-for-superheroes 58MM budget, which means thisone's already well itno the black on 260MM in worldwide receipts.  Kung Fu Panda 3 places 19.7MM on a mere 7.5 percent drop after dropping 49 percent the prior weekend. The debut of How to Be Single shows with 18.8MM, which seems weak against a 38MM budget, though it won't have much direct competition in the quasi-rom-comedy space until next month.  Zoolander 2 opened in the fourth slotwith 15.7MM, which is about what the original made in its opening weekend with a budget about half of the sequel's reported 50MM; this may falter domestically but is likely to do far better overseas than the original, pushing Ben Stiller and Co. into profit.  The Revenant rounds out the Top Five with 7MM, pretty much what it grossed last weekend; it may still be a few weekends short of profit (but some Oscars will likely do the trick).

DEADPOOL breaks all the rules with glee and lands on target nearly perfectly.  That said, it is not going to be for everyone.  Marvel's first R-rated movie earns that rating at least every few minutes; If Captain America: Winter Soldier was a superhero political thriller, and Guardians of the Galaxy a superhero space opera, Deadpool is a comic book version of a Quentin Tarantino revenge film, filled with gore, profanity, nihilsm, sex ranging from the vanilla to the kinky, and dialog as sharp as the swords strapped to the title character's back. Co-producer Ryan Reynolds gives a star turn as mercenary-turned-mutant Wade Wilson, skewering himself, other superheroes, other movies, and a large number of bad guys, though he's the first to remind you he's not a good guy. The rest of the cast generally perfoms admirably, particularly Morena Baccarin (Firefly, Homeland, Gotham) as the hooker with a heart of gold in Wilson's life (I daresay she will boost home video sales also).  It's an impressive directorial debut for Tim Miller, whose prior experience was in animated shorts and title sequences -- the opening credits here are one of my favorite sequences in years and perfectly set the table for the meal to come. Conversely, this is one of those Marvel movies where you'll want to stay past the end of the credits, for a dessert perfectly in keeping with the meal you you just consumed.

THE BAFTAS went to these folks.

BEN AFFLECK & JENNIFER GARNER spent the Valentine's Day weekend together with their kids.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED  went with three swimsuit covers this year.

TWIN PEAKS: Ashley Judd joins the revival of David Lynch's cult classic.

ROADIES, the upcoming Showtime series from Cameron Crowe, has a trailer online.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: I missed the 205th birthday of the 16th President of the United States on Friday. Even if you saw the Spielberg biopic, here are two things you may not have known about Honest Abe: (1) he was an early adopter of the telegraph; and (2) he once sported a punky haircut. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON: Though now lumped in with everyone for Presidents' Day, Feb 22nd is the birthday of the "Father of his Country."  In 1776, David McCullough notes that when Washington took command in July 1775, he thought he would be home at Mount Vernon by Christmas. McCullough catalogs Washington's blunders -- many of them nearly fatal to the Cause -- but concludes: "He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, nor a gifted orator, not an intellectual... He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood... and above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake, and he never gave up." That, as much as anything, is why Washington is usually ranked among the greatest of US presidents. not to mention the subject of a profane, animated rap cartoon.

A POLAR CUB in Toronto is introduced to snow.

A HORNY, REJECTED ELEPHANT rampaged on a highway in southern China.

TORTOISES upstaged a New York Fashion Week show.

IS THAT A TROUT IN YOUR PANTS, or are you just...oh.

THANKS TO EVERYONE for stopping by!  To celebrate, I'm taking today off.  Nah, seriously, it was a very slow news day.  I should be back tommorrow with the usual weekend installment.

JON PRATT: Pate's frontman brings back "Geologic Time," this time on a Craviola.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: Tracks from Shearwater, Lily & Madeleine, Sunflower Bean, and more highlight the latest edition.

KINDIE MUSIC: The Current is running a family-friendly stream in advance of the Rock The Cradle event. Nice playlist for anyone, updated in real time.

JOHN CALE: The 1975 John Peel Session.

WILD NOTHING drops "A Woman's Wisdom" ahead of Life of Pause.

TEEN has some "Free Time" ahead of Love Yes.

CAROLE KING turned 74 yesterday. "It's Too Late" to recognize the power of Tapestry? I think not.

GUIDED BY VOICES sort of kind of returns in some fashion. Plus a new song from Robert Pollard's upcoming solo LP.

GIMME CELLULOID: A history of Mick Jagger on film.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS talks to Morning Edition about he father, the South, love, and more.

THE BEACH BOYS' albums, ranked at Brooklyn Vegan.

HUGH JACKMAN urges his fans to use suncreen after having a cancerous growth removed from his nose.You would think he would've gotten this advice from his Australia director, Baz Luhrmann.

KHLOE KARDASIAN & JAMES HARDEN are dunzo.

LeSEAN McCOY's bar fight video surfaces.

CIARA sues FUTURE for allegedly blasting her mothering skills and attacking her relationship with Russell Wilson.

STAR TREK's small screen reboot will be helmed by Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, American Gods, Pushing Daisies).

RIVERDALE: Archie and the gang may get weird on the small screen.

DANIEL GERSON, who co-wrote several Walt Disney animated films including Monsters, Inc. and Big Hero 6, has died of brain cancer. He was 49.

NORTH KOREA has expanded a uranium enrichment facility and restarted a plutonium reactor that could start recovering spent fuel in weeks or months, the U.S. intelligence chief said Tuesday in delivering the annual assessment by intelligence agencies of the top dangers facing the country.

THE ISLAMIC STATE: Top U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that ISIS was likely to attempt direct attacks on the U.S. in the coming year and that the group was infiltrating refugees escaping from Iraq and Syria to move across borders.

IRAQI government forces regained full control of Ramadi after pushing Islamic State group fighters out of the city's outskirts, according to Iraqi security forces and the U.S.-led coalition. The announcement, more than a month after Ramadi was first declared liberated in December, underscores the slow nature of Iraqi ground operations despite heavy backing from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.

A 600-LB PIG was spotted outside a New Hampshire primary polling place and later taken into police custody.

A FLORIDA MAN threw an alligator throught the drive-thru window at a Wendy's in Jupiter.

TWO TENNESSEE HUNTERS have been banned from hunting there and 43 other states after they illegally killed as many as 40 deer, and then took photos and videos mocking the animals.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: Gangs of militant rodents attack mothers with babies in Dorset.