WHY? has a video of "Song of the Sad Assassin" (from the Alopecia album) that looks a bit like Beavis and Butthead on a very, very bad trip.  So it was not shocking to learn that animator Mike L Mayfield has worked on King of the Hill and American Dad.

STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS played DC's 9:30 Club Friday night, so you can stream the gig on demand via NPR.

BLACK MOUNTAIN bassist Matt Camirand talks to the Vancouver Sun about "prefer(ring) the sound and equipment that bands used in the late '60s and '70s, compared to stuff that's coming out now."

IDOLATOR asks a related question -- "Why Buy Digitally Recorded Albums On Vinyl?"  At Matador Records, Partrick suggests the answer is that there is something pleasurable about the entire package that you cannot get from a download.  He also has some interesting backstory about why Tower Records went under.

CARIBOU played DC's Rock and Roll Hotel last night, so you should be able to stream the gig on demand today via NPR.  Mastermind Dan Snaith answers six questions for the Washington Post -- including, "What's a guy with a PhD in mathematics - who studied algebraic number theory - doing in a field like this?"

PHOSPHORESCENT uses an odd winter gathering to frame "A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise."

RAY DAVIES plays mostly songs that have inspired him over the years as Guest DJ for NPR's All Songs Considered.

GUNS N' ROSES, after going years without management, will now be represented by Irving Azoff and Andy Gould, the management team that has most recently handled Guns spinoff project Velvet Revolver.  So we may be getting those cans of Dr. Pepper after all.

THE RAVEONETTES played the World Cafe Friday afternoon, so you can stream the gig now via NPR.

X frontwoman Exene Cervenka talks to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the age barrier in rock and band's landmark "13-31 Tour," a 31st anniversary trek featuring original members Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake.

THE MEKONS stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set you can stream via MPR.

BRADGELINA was the subject of a new round of marriage rumors, this time coming out of N'awlins.  But it appears that the ever-reliable Star has some egg on its face.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: 21 hit a surpise jackpot of 23.7 million and the highest per-screen average of the weekend.  Horton Hears a Who drops to second with 17.4 million, but that's a mere 29 percent drop from a long Easter weekend and it has made 117.3 million to date.  Superhero Movie made 9.5 million -- about half of what the original Scary Movie made in 2000.  Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns skidded 61 percent to fourth place with 7.7 million.  Fifth goes to Drillbit Taylor, which looks to be Judd Apatow's second flop.

STOP-LOSS debuted in eighth place at the box office with 4.5 million, which makes it quite unlikely it will recoup its 25 million budget.  People at the studios -- in this case Paramount -- attribute this to people not being ready to deal with the Iraq war, as opposed to concluding that people do not want to see a movie where the US military is painted as the villain.  Again.  There has been quite a good market for movies where the US government is the heavy, pushing current hot-button issues -- the Bourne franchise being an obvious example.  There just doesn't seem to be a market for movies wherer the military or the troops are put in a bad light.

BRITNEY SPEARS is having regular colon cleansing sessions at a clinic in Beverly Hills.TOM-KAT UPDATE:  Cruise and Paramount mogul Sumner Redstone are settling their differences and getting ready to work together again.  Katie Holmes is in final negotiations to make her professional stage debut on Broadway.

GEORGE CLOONEY galpal Sarah Larson's modeling career consisted mostly of being paid by promoters for clubs, magazines and radio stations to attend special events in sexy outfits and party with her wild girlfriends.  The ever-reliable Star magazine links to the risque pictures.

HEATH LEDGER may have fathered a secret love child with an older woman when he was 17-years-old, according to a news report in Australia.

MADONNA wants to remake Casablanca - and this time set it in Iraq. It's sure to be as big a hit as any of her recent movies.

THE FRENCH HOTEL thinks her "hard work" has been "an inspiration for a lot of girls out there."  Not even OK! magazine is buying that.

JENNIFER ANISTON  was looking cozy with Orlando Bloom at newly opened restaurant Beso in Los Angeles.

SWIMSUIT SPECTACULAR:  Moviefone has galleries of the hottest women and men ever to sport swimsuits in movies, as seected by over 12 million voters.  Call it Gratuitous Monday.

GO, SPEED, GO!  Entertainment Weekly has exclusive new pics to go with the magazine's cover story on the Wachowskis' big-screen reimagining of Speed Racer.

DITH PRAN, the photojournalist whose nightmarish experiences in Cambodia were the basis for the film The Killing Fields, has passed away in New Jersey.

AL QAEDA is training operatives who "look Western", with a view to having them enter the United States undetected to conduct terrorist attacks, according to CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden.

IRAQ:  In a possible turning point in the recent upsurge in violence, Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Shiite militiamen off the streets Sunday but called on the government to stop its raids against his followers.  The government welcomed the move, which followed intense negotiations by Shiite officials, including two lawmakers who reportedly traveled to Iran to ask religious authorities there to intervene.  The Iraqi government is due to lift a curfew in Baghdad.  Fighting continued in the Basra area after the announcement,so Michael Yon may yet prove correct in believing it's likely to get worse before it's better.  Though reports had the Iraqi initiative stalling against Shia militia in Basra, the Mahdi Army has taken high casualties.  The renewed fighting between Shiite militias and US and Iraqi troops has forced a temporary re-evaluation of strategy in Diyala province, leading to a pause in some operations targeting al-Qaida in Iraq.  The NYT has an assessment of the internal politics of the fighting.

ELEPHANTS have been trained to paint their self-portraits.

A 6-FT, 200-LB BEAR has been perched high above a Central Florida neighborhood for hours Friday after it was chased up a tree by two 6-month-old kittens.

...AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:  A two-headed calf, born in Van Alstyne, TX.  Video at the link.

OODLES OF POODLES:  A Chilliwack standard poodle has whelped a record brood: 16 puppies.  Pic at the link.

THE WORLD CAT CONGRESS is now in session in Houston, TX.  Could actually get less done than US Congress, United Nations.