THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE FACES! Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, Ronnie Lane, Kenny Jones, and Ian McLagan, live on the Beeb circa 1972.  Your setlist includes: "Three Button Hand Me Down"; "Maybe I'm Amazed"; "Too Much Woman/Street Fighting Man"; "Miss Judy's Farm"; "Love In Vain"; "Stay With Me"; and "I'm Losing You."

BUDDY & JULIE MILLER visit World Cafe.

RAPHAEL SAADIQ visits World Cafe.

HOT CHIP visits Morning Becomes Eclectic.

THE WHO shares "All This Music Must Fade."

CRAIG FINN shares “It’s Never Been A Fair Fight,”and an unplugged version.

THE BEATNIX cover Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

LANA DEL REY reinvented herself ... and modern-day rock stardom. Spoiler: it has something to do with melodies and lyrics. And here she covers Joni Mitchell's "For Free."

THE TOP 60 WILCO SONGS, as ranked by Steven Hyden.  There's also a Spotify playlist.

THE TRANSCENDENCE OF NICK CAVE: After losing his son, the post-punk icon found communion with his fans.

NETFLIX has entered the music space in its quest for content.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Joker, which is currently scoring 70 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; and Judy, which expands to 1400 screens scoring 83 percent.

JOKER: The pre-release hype and criticism are both a bit much. The criticism is partly based on some bad reporting about the 2012 movie theater shooting in Colorado.Other jabs seem political, when the politics of the film point in at least 3 different directions, suggesting no statement was intended. Ironically, that may also be part of why those acclaiming it are similarly guilty of over-reaction. Joker is a good to very good film, one that pushes the envelope of what a comic book movie can be, even more than Watchmen did before the comic book movie boom really took off. Yet Joker is not quite as original or profound as the film fest hype, excepting Joaquin Phoenix's star turn. It's a serious, occasionally grim affair with only occasional bursts of dark humor. As the trailers suggested, it borrows heavily from the decaying 70s in NYC vibe and themes of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and King of Comedy, perhaps getting a bit of a free ride on them as well (I'd argue that Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns is another influence here). Moreover, the second half is far superior to the first, building momentum to a series of shocking payoffs. At bottom, Joker shows that DC -- like Marvel -- can do more than one type of movie within the comic book genre, which is cause for celebration in itself..

JAMES FRANCO's acting school is accused of sexually exploiting students.

ROBERT DE NIRO is being sued by a former assistant who claims he made sexually charged comments to her, was verbally abusive and assigned her "stereotypically females duties."

EDDIE MURPHY confirmed he is planning to make Beverly Hills Cop 4 once work on Coming To America 2 is complete.

RICHARD JEWELL: Cint Eastwood's next movie has a trailer online.

BREAKING BAD: Every episode, ranked by The Ringer.

BROADCAST TV PREMIERE WEEK: Ratings tank as younger viewers turn their backs.

ORPHAN ORANGUTANS react to a toy cobra as part of a "snake awareness" lesson, their first ever such lesson, apparently.

A GANG OF RACCOONS crash a San Francisco weddding.

STEVE IRWIN'S FAMILY has opened an elephant hospital.

ELSA: The baby koala warming hearts across the internet.