THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with STEVIE WONDER! His session at the Beat Club includes "Intro Jam," "Contusion," "Higher Ground," "Dont You Worry ‘Bout A Thing," "I Can See The Sun In Late December," "He's Misstra Know-It-All," "Living For The City" and "Superstition."

THE CURE played “A Thousand Hours,” and “Six Different Ways,” both for the first time since 1987.

THE SISTERS OF MERCY played their first US show in 15 years on Wednesday night.

DOLLY PARTON shares "World on Fire."

THE PRETENDERS shares "Let the Sun Come In."

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE returns with "Emotion Sickness."

TENACIOUS D returns with "Video Games."

THE DRUMS shares “Plastic Envelope” and “Protect Him Always.”

MUSICIANS Are Already Using AI More Often Than We Think.ALSO: Grimes embraces AI and trashes copyright.

REQUIEM FOR MTV NEWS, by Kurt Loder.

SUEDE bassist and author Mat Osman discussed his favorite albums at The Quietus.

ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, which is tracking to open at 70-80MM, will have a cliffhanger ending.

THE HOUSE OF MOUSE loses 4MM subscribers in coontinuing fallout from... losing the rights to Indian cricket.

TOM HANKS said he would boycott books rewritten to reflect any “modern sensitivities.”

MICHAEL J. FOX recalls dumpster diving for food early in hs career.

BEETLEJUICE 2 welcomes Monica Bellucci to the cast.

BLACK MIRROR returns with a mini-season 6.

POOR THINGS, a film by Yorgos Lanthimos, has a trailer online.

A SAD MAMA DOG is reunited with her puppies.

CATS & DOGS, living together...

A BABY HIPPO, bathing.

THE UNTOUCHABLES: "I Spy For the FBI."

HAIM visits Sesame Street.

LANA DEL REY shares "Candy Necklace" (ft Jon Baptiste).

JENNY LEWIS shares "Giddy Up."

PHOEBE BRIDGERS joins ARLO PARKS on "Pegasus."

BEACH FOSSILS shares "Seconds."

FRANK KOZIK, acclaimed poster and LP cover artist of the grunge era, has died at 61.

VASHTI BUNYAN talks to Aquarium Drunkard about her new book, run-ins with Donovan, Nick Drake, The Stones and more.

THE NUMBER ONES, on the Lady Gaga origin story and on "Just Dance," the right song in the right place at the right time.

DISNEY+ & HULU are merging.

MARVEL's SECRET INVASION shares a behind the scenes featurette.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE gets a behind-the scenes story at EW.

TOM CRUISE and... Shakira?

FREAKY FRIDAY is likely getting a sequel, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan expected to reprise their roles.

KEANU REEVES is getting the band back together.

DOLPH LUNDGREN says he's locked in an eight-year battle with cancer.

TIM McGRAW's dog won Best of Breed at Westminster.

HEATHER ARMSTRONG, pioneering mommy blogger, has died at 47.

SHOULD I STAY or should I go?

A SQUIRREL loads up.

A TORTOISE's strange reaction to darker shoes.

LOVE: "Your Mind and We Belong Together." Rare promo.

ALBERT HAMMOND JR is streaming half of his new album.

ANGEL OLSEN, SHARON VAN ETTEN, and MICHAEL IMPERIOLI share cover songs from the World War II era.

LOCAL NATIVES shares "NYE."

GEESE shares "Mysterious Love."

YOUTH LAGOON shares "The Sling."

MTV NEWS signs off after 36 years.

THE NEW PR0NOGRAPHERS' AC Newman spoke to PopMatters in a wide-ranging conversation about Continue as a Guest.

RITA LEE, one of the founding members of Brazilian psych icons Os Mutantes, died on Monday at age 75, following a lung cancer diagnosis and more than a year of treatment.

OPPENHEIMER: Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy discuss their epic movie partnership.

ROBERT DE NIRO welcomed his seventh child at age 79.

MARILYN MANSON faced a setback in court in his ongoing defamation case against Evan Rachel Wood.

SCARLETT JOHNASSON, on suing Disney and working cheap for Wes Anderson.

BEETLEJUICE 2 has a release date.

THE MEG 2 has a trailer online.

THE DIRECTORS' GUILD gears up for its own labor negotiations.

TOM HANKS has a hankering for ... typewriters.

CURIOUS Doggo.

HEY, don't touch me.

A CAMEL greets his herder.

THE GO-GOS: "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "We Got the Beat" for Twofer Tuesday.

KIM GORDON: Hear the surprise EP by her new joint, Body/Head.

LLOYD COLE shares "Warm By The Fire."

BONNY DOON shares “On My Mind.” 

CHRISTIAN LEE HUTSON & FENNE LILY cover the Go-Gos' "Vacation."

DAVID BAZAN discussed the Pedro the Lion reunion with the Cleveland Scene.

RHIANNON GIDDENS won a Pulitzer.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Beyonce's zeitgeist-conquering smash "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)."

OPPENHEIMER has a new trailer online.

HOLLYWOOD'S STRIKING WRITERS now have time to mock Wednesday star Jenna Ortega.

TOM CRUISE congratulated King Charles while flying a plane, because obvsly.

RICHARD DREYFUSS criticized the Oscars’ new diversity and inclusion standards, saying “they make me vomit.”

BLUEY is low-key huge on streaming.

YAHOO! bought Tumblr instead of Netflix or Hulu.  Oops.

SAM GROSS, cartoonist for the National Lampoon, The New Yorker and more, has died at the age of 89.  More at The New Yorker.

MOLES: Great at digging, less great at walking.

CATS & DOGS, living together.

DOLPHINS, checking out squirrels.

BABY RED PANDAS, learning to walk on beams.

EVERY MOTHER'S SON: "Come On Down to My Boat," baby.

NEW RELEASES: Paste will point you to the Lemon Twigs, Durand Jones and more.

BILL'S INDIE BASEMENT has Modern Cosmology, Flasher, Westerman,and more.

THE BASEBALL PROJECT shares "Journeyman."

PETER GABRIEL shares "Four Kinds of Horses."

SEX PISTOLS' bassist Glen Matlock played an updated version of ‘God Save The Queen’ to coincide with King Charles III’s coronation.

NICK CAVE explained going to the coronation.

THURSTON MOORE announced details for his upcoming memoir Sonic Life.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Britney Spears' throbbing dance-pop track "Womanizer," her first chart-topper in nearly a decade.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 easily dominates the chart with 114MM, which nevertheless seems a little soft, and while there are plenty of theories at the link, I think it's paying the bill for the inconsistency of the MCU output post-Endgame.  This one has an "A" CinemaScore, so I expect it will be just fine. Super Mario Bros places with 18.6MM on a leggy 54 percent drop. Evil Dead Rise shows with 5.8MM on a leggy 53 percent drop -- and a 54.1MM total that's not bad at all for a movie that the WB originally planned to dump on streaming.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: The Rings of Power will continue filming without the showrunners and any other writer-producers on set.

THE WRITERS' STRIKE is probably going to go on for a while.

TAYLOR SWIFT & MATTY HEALLY, caught on camera together.

KEVIN COSTNER's divorce and exit from Yellowstone are unrelated, according to his peeps.

BRAD PITT is getting in the cockpit of a real race car for his upcoming film on Formula One, according to director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

STAR WARS TV SHOWS, ranked at Discussing Film.

THE CORONATION of the King.

CATS & DOGS, living together...

ANTARCTIC Rush Hour.