THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with SONIC YOUTH!  Here's a gig recorded for German TV in Dusseldorf, circa April 1996, with "Teenage Riot"; "Bull In The Heather"; "Starfield Road"; "Washing Machine"; "Junkie's Promise"; "Saucer-Like"; "Becuz"; "Sugar Kane"; "Skip Tracer"; "Skink"; and "The Diamond Sea" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

THE B-52s:  Cindy Wilson does the Mom thing while Atlanta's Creative Looafing listens to what "could very well become the band's best-received album of its career - if it's properly promoted and heard." 

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED:  Okkervil River, Architecture In Helsinki, John Vanderslice and more are featured on the latest edition of the NPR favorite.

SMASHING PUMPKINS posted "a day in the life" of the band with a series of Tubed clips, including Billy Corgan writing a song performed at the gig that night.

LOLLAPALOOZA:  I'm skipping it this year, but I might stream some sets this weekend from AT&T's Blueroom.  Shows Fri-Sun start streaming at 12:30 CDT.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL INDIE ROCK:  Pitchfork has the tracklisting.

SEEN YOUR VIDEO:  It's been more than a year, so I'm re-linking The Rascals covering "Mickey's Monkey," just because it's exhilarating.

THE 50 GREATEST ROCK DUMMERS, according to the oft-idiosyncratic Stylus magazine.

PINK FLOYD:  In honor of the life and work of filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, An Aquarium Drunkard has posted a batch of tracks from the bootleg Zabriskie Point sessions.  You can jukebox 'em via the ol' HM.

MARK OLSON:  The former Jayhawk has an interview plus live cuts at the World Cafe, streaming now at NPR.

NEW PORNOGRAHERS frontman A.C. Newman talks about the upcoming LP and changing perceptions of bandmate Neko Case.

THE CUTOUT BIN:  This Friday's fortuitous finds on the ol' HM are:  Sonic Youth - Theme From The Simpsons; Dave Edmunds - Here Comes The Weekend; The Undertones - Here Comes The Summer; The Go-Go's - Vacation; VietNam - Summer In The City; Translator - Everywhere That I'm Not; The Housemartins - Happy Hour; I'm from Barcelona - We're From Barcelona; Guided By Voices - Game Of Pricks; The Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn'tve?); Arctic Monkeys - Baby I'm Yours; Elvis Presley - A Little Less Conversation; The Beatles - Hey Bulldog; The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack; Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - I'm Not Gonna Cry; The Commodores - Brick House; Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music; Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay; Sam & Dave - Soothe Me; Richard Thompson - 1952 Vincent Black Lightning; The Doobie Brothers - Black Water; The Thrills - Big Sur; Little Feat - Fat Man In The Bath Tub; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Woodstock; Foghat - I Just Want To Make Love To You; Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane; Foo Fighters - I Feel Free (Cream); Led Zeppelin - Rock And Roll; Christopher Walken - More Cowbell; Apollo 440 - Don't Fear the Reaper (BOC); and Styx - Mr. Roboto.

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM:  Defying the usual law of sequels, I liked the Bourne Supremacy better than the Bourne Identity.  I like the Bourne Ultimatum best of all, for most of the same reasons (but would recommend seeing the first two first).  Plenty of action, though none too over-the-top for the tone of the series.  Plenty of suspense.  Matt Damon gets to bring even more MacGuyver to his role (and is rougher on his wheels than James Bond), David Strathairn makes a great new foil and Julia Stiles finally gets some action.  Probably the best of the summer's threequels.  My other observations would be spoiler-y, so I'll leave it at "recommended."

NOW SHOWING:  In addition to The Bourne Ultimatum, which is currently scoring an impressive 93 percent on the ol' Tomatometer, this weekend's wide releases include the live-action Underdog, which was not screened for critics, suggesting they ruined one of my childhood faves; SNL wunderkind Andy Samberg's Hot Rod, which is scoring a meager 35 percent; and the live-action doll adaptation Bratz, which is currently scoring 9 percent.

SISKEL & EBERT & ROEPER:  You can watch over 5000 duelling reviews in the new Balcony Archive.

ELTON JOHN would like to shut down the Internet for five years, claiming that it's hampering creativity.  He also claims that "In the early Seventies there were at least ten albums released every week that were fantastic," which is a nice anti-drugs PSA of sorts.

PRINCE is in negotiations to have a luxury five-bedroom home built for him within the grounds of London's O2 Arena, formerly the Millennium Dome.  The opening of his 21-night stand at the Dome, which included a swipe at Madonna, got a rave review in the NME.

MARILYN MANSON is getting slapped with a lawsuit by his ex-keyboardist claiming the goth-the rocker squandered their band's earnings on "sick and disturbing purchases of Nazi memorabilia and taxidermy (including the skeleton of a young Chinese girl)."  Speaking of exes, Manson's ex-whife Dita Von Teese tells RadarOnline that she was disappointed Manson spoke about the end of their marriage dating 19-year-old actress Evan Rachel Wood while doing press for his new album:  "I don't think it was the press. It was a matter of, ‘Hey, maybe you shouldn't drink absinthe and do cocaine and do interviews all at the same time.' ... It was drinking and interviewing."

BRITNEY SPEARS:  It's a red flag when the usually fluffy US Weekly starts asking psychologists whether the pop tart is bipolar.

LINDSAY LOHAN:  The paparazzi at Splash News have catalogued Li-Lo's catty attacks on Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Simpson, Sienna Miller, Kiera Knightley, and Jessica Biel.  Meanwhile, enabling mom Dina is being sued for fraud in Las Vegas by businessman Antonio Almeida, who claims she failed to return 400K he lent her four years ago to kick-start Lindsay's music career.

TOM-KAT reportedly want to do a racy photoshoot, "together in the shower, dripping wet and covered by nothing but steam."  Apparently, the couch-jumping instinct has not left Cruise.

REESE WITHERSPOON is set to become an Avon Lady... sorta.

PAUL RUDD talks to MTV about kissing Jessica Alba for money, fantasy baseball and singing.  And that's a pretty good excuse to re-link Rudd and Wet Hot American Summer director David Wain singing Boston's "More Than A Feeling," with Of Montreal backing up the karaoke madness.

BATMAN, ROBIN, SUPERMAN & SPIDER-MAN had to be rescued when the Batmobile lost a wheel.  The Joker got away.

THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY SCOUTING JAMBOREE is going without burgers and sausages -- so as not to offend any religious faiths... though the Daily Mail is silent about which faiths might be offended, natch.  Plus, no campfires.

GWEN STEFANI has ditched her revealing concert costumes after protests from Muslim students in Malaysia.

PAKISTAN:  Almost two-thirds of respondents say Pres. Musharraf should quit, according to a new poll poll by the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based group that has Republican lawmakers and officials among its directors and senior staff.

IRAN:  Two more criminals have been publicly hanged as children looked on and people took pictures.  Graphic pics at the link.  Meanwhile, Iran's reformist former president, Mohammad Khatami, has suffered a blow to his political standing by being pictured apparently shaking hands with women in breach of Islamic convention.  The horror!

IRAQ:  A member in the Iraqi National List said that his bloc is considering withdrawing from the Iraqi government.  According to Khalaf al-Alian -- a leader of the just-withdrawn Iraqi Accordance Front -- Prime Minister al-Maliki has two choices: to form a government of independent technocrats or to step down in favor of a more qualified person.  Iraqi troops killed a local Al-Qaeda warlord and US soldiers arrested two of the extremist network's chieftains.  The Army is now deploying robots armed with M249 machine guns; video at the link.  The reunited Spice Girls may hit Baghdad -- where is Amnesty International now?

IRAQ in the MEDIA:  TNR posted purported confirmation of the "Baghdad Diarist" before going on vacation.  Unfortunately, there's less corroboration there than meets the eye.  TNR addresses only the article titled "Shock Troops."  None of the problems in PFC Beauchamp's other stories are addressed at all.  Most of the purported corroboration comes from other anonymous soldiers, and it's unclear who is confirming what.  The methods of killing dogs described in "Shock Troops" are not the method described by the "corroborating" soldier (and other sources) in the new statement.  PFC Beauchamp wrote about what was "clearly a Saddam-era dumping ground of some sort," but the new TNR statement seems to agree with The Weekly Standard that it was a children's cemetery (without admitting the apparent embellishment).  TNR has someone confirm that someone else wore a piece of skull, but no mention of it being worn for days, even on a mission, with a 4-5 lb. helmet pressing it into his own skull.  And TNR discloses that the first story in "Shock Troops" -- about Beauchamp and a friend mocking a woman with a severely scarred face -- now supposedly happened in Kuwait, prior to the unit's arrival in Iraq.  The thesis of "Shock Troops" was that "That is how war works: It degrades every part of you, and your sense of humor is no exception."  But it turns out that -- if this latest version of his stories is true -- Beauchamp and his friend were "degraded" before they ever saw a day of combat.

SPIDER-CAT is fairly amusing, but admittedly moreso if you've seen The Simpsons Movie.

HOW MUCH IS THAT DOGGY IN THE WINDOW?  A mere £250,000.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT:  A Finnish squirrel who has taken to shoplifting chocolate eggs from a grocery store.  The furry varmint is a repeat offender, going into the store in Jyvaskyla at least twice a day to steal the treats.

...AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:  A seven-legged lamb.  Gonna need a bigger tub of mint jelly.

A CLEVER CAPUCHIN MONKEY has unlocked his pen and escaped from the Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo.

DOG SHOOTS MAN in the back.  Some best friend he turned out to be.