THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE 1965 NME POLL WINNERS' CONCERT!  The Animals perform "Boom Boom," "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." and "Talkin' Bout You/ Shout"  The Moody Blues play "Bo Diddley" and "Go Now."  Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders play "Game Of Love" and "Just A Little Bit Too Late." Herman's Hermits play "Wonderful World" and "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter." Donovan plays "You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond" and "Catch The Wind." The Kinks crank out "You Really Got Me" and "Tired Of Waiting For You." The Rolling Stones play "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love/ Pain In My Heart," "Around And Around" and "The Last Time." The Beatles play "I Feel Fine," "She's A Woman" "Baby's In Black," "Ticket To Ride," and "Long Tall Sally."

GREEN RIVER is reuniting and playing previously unreleased songs at the two-day 20th anniversary bash of Sub Pop Records

MATES OF STATE stopped by KUT's Studio 1A for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via NPR.

RON SEXSMITH talks to the Associated Press about the biz and his new album, which is streaming through the weekend via Spinner.

DUNGEN is currently streaming "Satt Att Se," the new single and album opener from their upcoming LP.

BRIAN WILSON rolls out a trailer for his upcoming concept album "That Lucky Old Sun," which finds him back at the studios beneath Capitol Records.

T-BONE BURNETT is profiled by PopMatters.

SAM BUCK ROSEN does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, including one unreleased.

PHIL SPECTOR is getting sued by Ronnie Spector, Darlene Love, Fanita James (Bob B. Soxx) and others for unpaid royalties.

CUTOUT BIN: From the Bay City Rollers to Bob Dylan, from The Stooges to Steely Dan, from Otis Redding to Josie Cotton to Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds can be jukeboxed or streamed separately via the Pate page at the ol' HM.

JESSICA BIEL talks about marriage, kids, Dancing with the Designers and more at Harper's Bazaar.  There's behind-the-scenes video of the photoshoot also.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Hellboy II: The Golden Army, currently scoring 87 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Eddie Murphy's Meet Dave, currently scoring 27 percent; and the Disneyfied, 3D is some theaters Journey to the Center of the Earth, which is scoring a surprising-to-me 60 percent.

CHRISTIE BRINKLEY DIVORCE TRIAL ends in a sudden settlement, after a negotiations seemed to fall apart the otther day. Brinkley received sole custody of their two children (w/ sole decision-making power), and gets to keep all 18 properties in the Hamptons, for 2.1 milion.

MADONNA & BRITNEY SPEARS will reportedly appear together almost naked apart from tiny leather bondage pants and knee-high boots in the video they have made for Madge's upcoming tour.

JACKO hits a toy shop in pajamas, a surgeon's mask, a rasta wig and a wheelchair. Pic at the link.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS: Quentin Tarantino has just sent out his long-anticipated WWII movie script  to four studios, and it appears to have landed with New York magazine's Vulture blog, which proclaims it "exactly as batshit over-the-top insane as we hoped... it reads like Kill Bill meets The Dirty Dozen meets Cinema Paradiso." No cast is yet in place, though Brad Pitt's name has surfaced.

BRUCE CAMPBELL talks about Burn Notice, the Evil Dead and more in a video series for Entertainment Weekly.

JEN & JOHN: Did Aniston find "a batch" of love letters from Mayer's ex-girlfriend Jessica Simpson in his guitar case? A source claims they were surprisingly well-written, so I'm doubting it.  BONUS: Pics from Simpson's birthday party.

SACHA BARON COHEN & ISLA FISHER have been forced to postpone their wedding over religious issues.

UMA THURMAN's engagement may be bumming out Elle Macpherson.  OTOH, Uma is probably not thrilled about her ex Ethan Hawke marrying the ex-nanny of their kids, either.

IRAN test-fired more long-range missiles overnight in a second round of exercises.  However, Iran's Revolutionary Guards doctored a photo of the first missile test to conceal a failure of one the missiles to launch.  The fauxtography was caught by Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs, which has previously uncovered fauxtography during the recent Israeli-Hezbollah conflict and played a major role in exposing the 60 Minutes document scandal that caused Dan Rather to get the boot from CBS.

IRAQ's army and police will be fully manned and operational by mid-2009, possibly as early as April. Turkey and Iraq signed trade and security agreements, while Kuwait will name an ambassador to Iraq. US troops captured a "key" Special Groups leader in Baghdad. Iraqi forces captured five Special Groups operatives in central Iraq. Iraqi troops captured 20 insurgents in Babil, 19 in Baghdad, and 10 Islamic State of Iraq fighters in Mosul. Coalition forces detained 30 al Qaeda fighters.

BIKER DOGS seems to be a new trend. Here's Minnie.

A SERVAL was captured in Midtown Atlanta Thursday morning. No, I'm not going to tell you what a serval is.

BABY ELEPHANT debuts at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Awww...

TURNING CATS INTO HATS: More ewww than awwww.

TINY CREATURES, otoh, are definitely awww....

A LARGE SHARK has been spotted just off the beach at Martha's Vineyard. What say you, Police Chief Brody?