FLEET FOXES made their network TV debut playing "Blue Ridge Mountains" for Dave.  And I think if he decides to hold up the album afterwards, that's a thumbs up.

LOS CAMPESINOS! played the World Cafe last week; you can stream the gig on demand via NPR.

THE NATIONAL: Scott Devendorf talks to ClickMusic about recording and which "classics" the band agrees on.

ALINA SIMONE talks to DC's Express about her sophomore album, devoted to covering the songs of Yanka Dyagileva.

THE TOP 20 ALBUMS OF ALL TIME, using an interesting formula that produces an unexpected No.1, courtesy of Yahoo! Music. Albums streamable at the link.

THE HOLD STEADY: Craig Finn talks about Led Zeppelin and The Replacements with Rolling Stone. The band plays a four song rooftop set for the latest edition of PitchforkTV's Don't Look Down series.

AIMEE MANN has plenty of interesting things to tell JamBase about songwriting and recording, like this: "Sometimes it reminds me of graphic art. You have to choose a couple of simple, arresting images and what words you have need to contain the essence of what you want to say. It's not a novel; it's only three-minutes that people are spending with you."

AMERICAN PRINCES do the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

GOOGLE has launched a music search service in China that will give users access to free downloads of licensed songs, while capturing advertising revenue for music providers in a market rife with piracy.

PITCHFORK GIVES MUSIC 6.8, according to The Onion.

JENNIFER ANISTON's rep is denying reports that Ansiton is planning a low-key wedding with John Mayer this fall and is going to have Mayer's baby.  So what about her reported demand that Mayer move in with her?

BRITNEY SPEARS is being lined up to play a killer lesbian stripper in a Quentin Tarantino remake of the 1965 cult film Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!  The NYPost had previously tipped pr0n starlet Tera Patrick for the Role.

QUENTIN TARANTINO, meanwhile, seems to still be moving ahead with the WWII flick, Inglourious Basterds, castin director (and pal) Eli Roth as a baseball bat-swinging Nazi hunter.

MORGAN FREEMAN's attorney and business partner tells Access Hollywood that the actor and his wife of 24-years are getting a divorce.

HEATH LEDGER: Mary-Kate Olsen was to be compelled to testify in front of a grand jury in the Drug Enforcement Agency investigation into determine where Ledger obtained the prescription medications that led to a fatal drug interaction.  But the feds have now closed the case, letting the twin off the hook.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON is blaming "extreme sexism" for the hoopla made over her comments that she had an e-mail relationship with Barack Obama, claiming that people would not care if it was George Clooney. But Entertainment Tonight notices when George Clooney plans a fundraiser for Obama.  The difference is not that ScarJo is a woman, but that she is teh hawtness, something which also seems to have some upside for her, careerwise.

LISA MARIE PRESLEY is expecting twins.

MICHELLE WILLIAMS & SPIKE JONZE go bicoastal.

OPRAH WINFREY: Her ratings and magazine circulation may be in decline, but she still made 385 million last year.

JOSS STONE is joining the cast of Showtime's drama "The Tudors" for its upcoming third season.

EVA MENDES is too sexy for US TV in her new ad for Calvin Klein.  Which only makes me want to watch it.

THE SHIRE goes into foreclosure: hobbits hardest hit.

WEINERMOBILES go bite-size to celebrate Oscar Mayer's 125th anniversary this year and to help introduce the company's new "snack-sized" hot dogs product; it wasn't created in response to high gas prices.

AFGHANISTAN: The Long War Journal maps the rising violence as the Taliban seeks to destabilize and de-legitimize the weak Afghan government and break NATO's will to fight a protracted counterinsurgency campaign.

IRAQ: The NYT interviews Iraqi soldiers. The army has made huge leaps forward, most of the soldiers agreed, and can hold its own in battles with the insurgency with little or no American support. But almost all said the time when the Iraqi Army can stand alone as a national defense force is still years away. Iraqi leaders postponed the ceremony marking the handover of Anbar province due to fear that Americans would pull out of the region too soon to focus elsewhere. TIME magazine covers reconciliation in Samarra, where the bombing of a holy shrine in February 2006 sparked a spiral of sectarian violence nationwide.

GOATS managed to do what terrorists wished they could: They sneaked under a fence onto a restricted area near the base of the Verrazano Bridge in NY without triggering alarms. The animals didn't get through a more formidable second line of defense about 10 feet away.  They are employed by the National Park Service to clear weeds from Ft. Wadsworth, for which there is video.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A pig with five legs.

A POSSIBLY POISONED SEA LION made itself at home on a family sailboat - twice.

HENRY the TUATARA is to become a father at the age of 111.  His mate Mildred won't give her exact age, but is reportedly a spry 70-80 years old.

A RANDY BADGER sparked a police manhunt for a sex attacker when his howls of passion were mistaken for a woman screaming.