THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

... with THE BANGLES!  There's no better way to start than with these live takes on "Hero Takes A Fall"  and Kimberley Rew's "Goin' Down To Liverpool" for Dave in 1984. It was that sort of rawk (and the hotness of Susanna Hoffs) that got Prince to give them "Manic Monday," their first mainstream hit, from the A Different Light album, which included Jules Shear's "If She Knew What She Wants," Alex Chilton's "September Gurls," and -- inevitably -- Liam Sternberg's "Walk Like An Egyptian."  Nevertheless, their fondness for the genres of the mid-60s was still evident in their take on Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade of Winter" for the Less Than Zero soundtrack, and the psych-garage-bubblegum of "In Your Room" on the Everything album, which yielded their final No.1 hit, "Eternal Flame."  The draw from the 60s is a constant I saw them in a club, on a big stage and in a club again -- the last time was at a House of Blues, where they covered the We Five's "You Were On My Mind."  Obligatory: The Susanna Hoffs solo cover of Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love".

BELLY advance streams Dove.

GAZ COOMBES (Supergrass) advance streams World's Strongest Man.

SHAKEY GRAVES advance streams Can't Wake Up.

PARKER MILSAP advance streams Other Arrangements.

MOUNTAIN GOATS: John Darnielle choreographs Ace of Base's "The Sign." (Language warning) A perennial fave.

PRINCE: Anecdotes from Owen Husney's memoir Famous People Who've Met Me are excerpted at Entertainment Weekly.

LIZ PHAIR: 25 Years Out of Exile.

JANELLE MONAE gets personal.

THE NUMBER ONES ooks at David Rose's horny burlesque jazz instrumental "The Stripper."

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR is this weekend's sole wide release, scoring 87 percent on the ol' Tomatometer. Remember the last time a studio madea dozen movies just to get toone where they throw ten buckets of awesome in the audience's face?  You don't because it's never happened before now.  You may see some reviews claiming the movie is overstuffed.  And while I've criticized other films for that, I can't really do so here, where stuffing the MCU into one movie was the point of the enterprise.  And frankly, it almost seems less stuffed than Civil War, because the screenplay balances the various storylines well.  Also, the movie does an excellent job with Thanos as the ubervillain (a relie,f as Marvel does not always do its villains well).  You might also see reviews comparing Infinity War to The Empire Strikes Back -- and it may be that for a generation that never had to wait for Return of the Jedi.  The other parallel is that, as in TESB, bad things happen.  Shockingly bad things happen.  So much so that if you take younger kids, you should warn them that bad things happen, but it's not the end of the story.  As it's Marvel, there is a bonus scene after all the credits.  And more bad things happen.  And a cool thing.

STAN LEE is accused by a masseuse of inappropriate behavior.

BILL COSBY was convicted on three counts of sexual assault and faces up to 30 years in prison.

MEL BROOKS released The Producers 50 yaers ago; at 91 and a member of the elite EGOT club, he says his job is to make terrible things entertaining.

KANYE WEST is laser-focused on the release of 5 new albums, and based on a firsthand account, the people claiming he's erratic or in the middle of a meltdown are off base.

AVICII's family released a statement on the Swedish dance music star's death at 28, implying suicide.

CHARLIE ROSE is being slated to star in a show where he'll interview other high-profile men who have also been toppled by MeToo scandals.

A QUIET PLACE sequel advances at Paramount, unsurprisingly.

A GIANT MUTANT FLUORESCENT FISH is spotted in North Carolina.

SUPERSIZED FERAL GOLDFISH threaten Washington state, Lake Tahoe, Alberta, etc.

THREE CRAWFISH busted out of a Cajun restaurant in Texas.

ALMOST 10000 TURTLES were discovered in a house in Madagascar.

CALEXICO stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

DR DOG is streaming Critical Equation.

SUPERORGANISM played a Tiny Desk Concert.

HOP ALONG visited World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

KIM GORDON joins STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS on "Refute."

FATHER JOHN MISTY shares a bizarre and gory new video for "Mr. Tillman."

MICK JAGGER says he is writing new material ahead of the upcoming Rolling Stones tour -- and talks about his youth.

U.S. GIRLS have finally arrived.

NILE RODGERS shared a bloody video of himself breaking his nose.

BELLE & SEBASTIAN: Stuart Murdoch talks spirituality and living with weakness.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Ray Charles' country music classic "I Can't Stop Loving You."

RUSSELL SIMMONS has one of the sexual assault suits against him dismissed.

JAMIE LEE CURTIS claims the latest Halloween will go full-tilt boogeyman.

KANYE WEST: People think he's "on the edge," as opposed to demanding attention like always.

QUENTIN TARANTINO says Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is “the closest to Pulp Fiction that I have done."

RACHEL WEISZ & RACHEL McADAMS talk about their sex scene in Disobedience.

HALLE BERRY doesn't see Catwoman as a failure, partly because she got a “sh*tload” of money for it that changed her life.

DOUBLE DARE is returning to Nickelodeon.

NXIVM: The alleged sex cult may be the subject of a TV series.

A YOUNG GIRAFFE is back with her mother after escaping into parking lot.

HORNY MONKEYS that will sleep with anything have created a new species.

THE ONLY WILD POPULATION OF ENDANGERED RED WOLVES is unsustainable and could be wiped out within years.

GOOSE vs GOLFER: Who You Got?

JON PRATT rolls out "The Smallest Things," accompanied by Naomi Engle. As Jon describes it, a sort of Beatlesque bossa nova.

PHOEBE BRIDGERS stops by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED features tracks from Beach House, Tank And The Bangas, Welles, and more.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and MICHAEL STIPE joined PATTI SMITH  at the Beaocn Theatre.

LEON BRIDGES shares "Beyond."

JOHNNY NASH: "I Can See Clearly Now." Because I'm hoping for a bright, sunshiney day

A NEW PRINCE LP of previously unreleased material is coming this Fall.

BEACH HOUSE talks to Pitchfork about their new album and the dark side of glamour.

THE TOP TEN ELBOW SONGS, according to Stereogum.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Mr. Acker Bilk's cloudy jazz instrumental "Stranger On The Shore," which turned up on Mad Men more than once, iirc.

BOB DOROUGH, a jazz player, singer, conductor and arranger and the musical keystone of Schoolhouse Rock!, has died. He was 94. He wrote and/or performed "Conjunction Junction," "3 Is A Magic Number," "I'm Just a Bill," "The Shot Heard Round the World," "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here" and many others in the educational series.

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR's embargo lifts to mostly good reviews (87 percent/7.6) at Rotten Tomatoes.

VENOM has dropped a trailer online that actually shows Venom.

SARAH JESSICA PARKER denies there's an ongoing Sex & the City catfight.

KANYE WEST: Those closest to him believe his mental health may be in serious jeopardy and are pointing to an outburst during a recent studio session as a major red flag.

CHANNING TATUM is having a tough time adjusting to his split with ex Jenna Dewan, sources say.

ALLISON MACK (Smallville) apparently was trying to recruit Emma Watson and other celebrities to join an alleged sex cult on Twitter.

DULE HILL and and Jazmyn Simon got hitched.

BEAR CUBS, rescued in Bulgaria.

THE WORLD'S NEWEST GREAT APE is threatened by a Chinese dam project.

GOING "CADDYSHACK" Goes Wrong. In fairness, the same could be said of Carl Spackler.

THE END OF THE WORLD is Not Nigh.

THE TUBES: "She's A Beauty" and "Talk To Ya Later" are your Twofer Tuesday.

WILLIE NELSON advance streams Last Man Standing.

FRANZ FERDINAND plays the House Of Strombo, including a cover of Drake's "Passionfruit."

ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

ST VINCENT joined BLEACHERS to cover Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" at Coachella.

SUPERCHUNK shares a video for "Erasure."

JULIANA HATFIELD talks to Morning Edition about covering Olivia Newton-John.

PRINCE's family has filed a lawsuit against the Illinois hospital that treated him for an opioid overdose the week before his death.

THE ARCHIES are crossing paths with a bunch of indie rock bands.

THE NUMBER ONES ooks at the Shirelles' early-Vietnam girl-group sigh "Soldier Boy."

PRINCE WILLIAM & KATE welcomed their third child — a prince — on Monday.

DWAYNE "THE ROCK" JOHNSON and longtime girlfriend Lauren Hashian welcomed their second daughter on Monday.

VERNE TROYER had three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system when he was rushed to the hospital and never recovered from it.

KANYE WEST loves Donald Trump. Then again, he loved the Occupy movement.

SHANIA TWAIN quasi-apologized for saying she would have voted for Trump.

INFINITY WAR: Thanos is the protagonist.

GAME OF THRONES star Peter Dinklage and showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have recorded an audio commentary for an episode on the Rick and Morty season 3 Blu-ray.

THE MONKEY SELFIE is not protected by US copyright law, according to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

AN EXOTIC, SWARMING TICK is putting down roots in New Jersey.

A NEW SPECIES OF EXPLODING ANTS has been found in Borneo.

SCIENTISTS have controversially yet successfully grown part of a human brain inside a mouse and the organ even managed to survive for months in a major scientific breakthrough. Over to you, Willard.

X

MAGAZINE: "Shot By Both Sides" on TOTP.

ERIKA WENNERSTROM (Heartles Bast*rds) stops by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

L7 stops by The Current to talk and play.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED, with Guest DJ Ben Schneider of Lord Huron.

THE LONGSHOT: Green Day's Bilie Joe Armstrong is streaming a surprise new album.

LYKKE LI shares "Hard Rain" and "Deep End."

BELLY shares "Starryeyed."

ANDREW W..K. thinks "Music Is Worth Living For."

PRINCE: As his health waned, his inner circle had grown increasingly alarmed.

LIZ PHAIR reflects on the 25th anniversary of Exile in Guyville in the MeToo era.

WYE OAK: Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack talk to Aquarium Drunkard about... Metallica? And more.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Elvis Presley's "Good Luck Charm" and the end of Presley's pop-domination era.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: A Quiet Place rebounds to top the chart with 22MM on a 33 percent drop; its 132MM domestic gross against a 17MM budget is a rare spot of good news for Paramount these days.  Rampage shows with 21MM on a 41 percent drop, which is likely better than expected (and more than 75 percent of its money is being made overseas, primarily Asia, which loves them some giant monsters).  I Feel Pretty shows with 16.2MM against a 32MM budget, which raises the question of whether Amy Schumer can make a hit without Judd Apatow.  Super Troopers 2 takes the fourth slot with 14.7MM against a 13.5MM budget, but there was likely a lot of front-loaded demand, esp. on 4/20.  Truth or Dare rounds out the Top Five with 7.9MM on a 58 percent drop, but a 30MM domestic gross to date against a 3.5MM budget ensures more of these cheapies from Blumhouse.

VERNE TROYER, the actor best known for his role as “Mini-Me” in the Austin Powers series, died on Saturday. He was 49.

AVICII: Artist, DJ, and producer Tim Bergling, a.k.a. Avicii, died Friday afternoon in Oman, according to a statement from his rep. He was 28.

PIPPA MIDDLETON is reportedly expecting her first child with husband James Matthews.

ALISON MACK The Smallville actress has been arrested for her alleged role in notorious upstate sex slave cult Nxivm.

NICOLAS CAGE is preparing to retire from acting.

MOVIE THEATERS want to know what it's going to take to get you off the couch.

ISLE OF DOGS: What Wes Anderson gets right about Japan.

CADDYSHACK:  A Cinderella story about the moment when improvisational comedy took on the staid, stuffy moviemaking business.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: They're giant and rainbow-colored.

A MAN bitten by a shark, a bear, and a snake in less than 4 years.

WHO CARES IF THEY'RE CUTE: Zoologist Lucy Cooke talks about how we are (literally) looking at sloths upside down, why Aristotle was so confused about eels, and why pandas need ambiance to get in the mood.

HEADLESS GOAT Near Topless Bar. Bada Bing.