WELCOME... TO THE NEW YEAR:  You can stream a live version of Pate's "New Year" (and three others from the 2003 reunion) at PateSpace.

U2:  Crushingly obvious, I know.

NEW RELEASES from Radiohead and Interpol are streaming in full via Spinner.

JIMI HENDRIX plays "Auld Lang Syne," live at the Fillmore on New Year's Day, 1970.

BEST of 2007:  You can listen to KEXP's Top 90.3 Albums of the Year, as voted on by the station's listeners.  You can access the entire playlist, too; just enter Dec. 28, 2007, between 10 a.m.-5 p.m.  If you're not strictly indie, you may want to check Metacritic's 30 Best-Reviewed Albums of the Year; if you keep scrolling there, you'll find even more lists.  And if you're even less strictly indie -- like Friend of Pate Sylvia Hauser -- you can stream tracks from the Top Ten Blues Albums of 2007, according to WXPN.

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe says the band's focus is back and razor-sharp on their new album. Accelerate, due in April.  Stipe elsewhere has called it "a big change."

ABBA wishes you a "Happy New Year."  Mildly paradoxical, I know.  Anyway, for a "happy" song its seems a bit downbeat, so I'll toss in "Take A Chance On Me" for your Twofer Tuesday.

BECK has announced the deluxe re-release of his landmark 1996 album, Odelay, due at month's end.

ARCTIC MONKEYS have revealed their 2008 New Year's resolutions to the NME.  Which reminds me...

OTIS & CARLA: "New Year's Resolution."

DECISION '08:  With the Iowa caucuses imminent, I note this WSJ piece on presidential campaign playlists, with mockery from Idolator. 

OLDSTAND:  SPIN magazine''s July 1989 issue is reviewed at the 'Gum.

MUSIC LAWYERS take a look at major label "360-degree" deals, under which the labels share a piece of most -- if not all -- of the artists' rights in all types of revenue streams, not just record sales, but also concert tickets and t-shirts.

LINDSAY LOHAN was... wait for it... caught canoodling three men in a 24-hour span, as documented by the Daily Mail.  Remember, ex-bf Riley Giles recently told the uber-reliable News of the World that Li-Lo has traded her dangerous drug habit for a manic addiction to sex.

BRITNEY SPEARS faced fresh humiliation as Fed-Ex was spotted cozying up to the French Hotel.  Even funnier, K-Fed dismissed the heirhead... for now.  OK! magazine reports that the pop tart and her two young sons planned to ring in 2008 with her new beau - paparazzo Adnan Ghalib, who, sources tell OK!, happens to be a married man.

JAMIE LYNN SPEARS:  Britney's 16-year-old knocked up sister meets Juno at the Gallery of the Absurd.

MADONNA & GUY RICHIE have sent aides to Cambodia to shop for a new daughter, according to London's Sun.

MISCHA BARTON:  A police source told TMZ that the ex-O.C. hottie blew a .12 on her breathalyzer, and admitted to smoking pot earlier on the day of her DUI arrest.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY has vowed never to live in Hollywood because it's a city with a one-track mind -- comments well-timed for awards season.  The 22-year-old actress was voted the top beauty icon for women in a UK chain store poll.  Meanwhile, her friends bet on how long it will be before she manages to keep her clothes on before a camera.

J-LO is struggling to control her hormones during pregnancy, and is reportedly planning to follow Scientology guidelines when she gives birth next year.

TOE-SUCKING:  Sting and Nicollette Sheridan are among those following the path of fmr Clinton pollster Dick Morris.

2007 POP CULTURE POLL, courtesy of Parade magazine.  Categories inlcude most annoying celebrity, hottest Jolie-Pitt, hottest Clinton, most shocking celeb story, and more...

PEOPLE WHO DIED, courtesy of AOL News.

FOREIGN POLICY GOES GLAM:  Daniel W. Drezner, bogger and associate professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, asks, "Should celebrities set the global agenda?"

PENELOPE & MONICA CRUZ dub scenes from a lesbian pr0n film into Spanish in their brother's latest music video.  NTTAWWT.  Yes, it's Gratuitous Tuesday.

THE STATE OF JIHAD, 2007 is surveyed by Bill Roggio at the Long War Journal.

PAKISTAN:  An American Arms Control Association report concludes that there is little reason to worry about Pakistan's nuclear weapons.  But just in case, US special forces snatch squads are on standby to seize or disable Pakistan's nukes in the event of a collapse of government authority or the outbreak of civil war following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

IRAN's first nuclear plant will start operating in mid-2008, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday.  Turkmenistan has stopped natural gas exports to Iran, causing winter shortages in some parts of the country, Iranian officials said on Monday.  The major Central Asia producer blamed technical problems but some Iranian media reports suggested it had halted deliveries because it wanted to raise the price of gas.  The latter seems plausible in light of Iran's soaring inflation.

IRAQ:  As 2008 arrived in a less-violent Baghdad, residents said it was the first real party they had seen in years.  US forces captured a wanted AQ leader in Kirkuk.  Sunni tribal and political leaders singled out as "traitors" by Osama bin Laden have hit back, accusing him of being un-Islamic and mocking him as being weak.  The Marines' accused leader in the 2005 killings of 24 civilians in Haditha will face voluntary manslaughter charges but not more serious murder charges.

KNUT UPDATE:  The once-cuddly polar bear cub is to star in an animated Hollywood movie by the maker of the Garfield films in a deal that could net Berlin Zoo €3.5 million.  However, my favorite part of the story concerns Knut's ongoing relationship with his keeper, Thomas Dörflein: "Media speculation that Knut may eventually eat Dörflein has so far proved unfounded..."

THE SQUIRREL THREAT:  Militant squirrels (and pitbulls) are getting their own suits of armor.

A FISH FANATIC has become the first man in the world to breed rare stingrays in his living room.

BRITISH BADGERS may be whacked en masse to curb a tuberculosis epidemic in cattle.

A BEAGLE and TWO LAB MIXES inherited an 800K estate, and look forward to spaghetti night.