THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with LED ZEPPELIN! Live on TV in Denmark, 1969. Your setlist includes: “Communication Breakdown,” “Dazed and Confused,” “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” and “How Many More Times."

ALLEN TOUSSAINT's posthumous LP, American Tunes, is streaming at NPR.

DIARRHEA PLANET advance streams Turn To Gold.

SHAWN COLVIN & STEVE EARLE advance stream Colvin & Earle.

ELI PAPERBOY REED advance streams My Way Home.

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE play "It Must Be Summer" unpluggedy.

PRINCE died from an accidental overdose of self-administered fentanyl, a type of synthetic opiate, officials in Minnesota said Thursday.

THE BEACH BOYS: All Songs Considered posted a mini-documentary on Pet Sounds at 50.

TEGAN & SARA talk to the L.A. Times about leaving the sutltifying politics of indie music for Pop.

VAN MORRISON: Ten of His Best. Mostly avoids the obvious, too.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, which is currently scoring 30 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Me Before You, currently scoring 50 percent; and Popstar: Never Stop Stopping, scoring 83 percent.

JOHNNY DEPP apparently had a confrontation with one of his own bodyguards as he stayed out swigging champagne with a mystery blonde until 4 a.m. A Depp assistant claims Heard doctored texts she produced to support of her claim of domestic abuse.

JULIE ANDREWS & THE MUPPETS are launching a children's show on Netflix.

MICHAEL BAY responded to Kate Beckinsale's claim that he didn't find her all that attractive.

JENNIFER GARNER & BEN AFFLECK, ostensibly estranged, spend more family time in Italy.

TURKEY: President Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday a U.S.-backed offensive against ISIS in northern Syria was largely being carried out by Arab rather than Kurdish fighters, in a sign of tacit approval for the operation near Turkey's borders.

IRAQ: First they imposed tough restrictions on Internet usage and cellphone networks in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. Now Islamic State militants appear to be targeting another staple for residents there: satellite television.

IRANIAN students threw a graduation dance party. It cost them 99 lashes each. Less than footloose. Iran remained the leading state sponsor of terrorism despite sealing a nuclear deal with world powers, the State Department said in its annual survey of worldwide terrorism released Thursday.

A CHEETAH with a GoPro.

A MOOSE gave birth in a Lowe's parking lot.

SNAKES getting it on fall from an attic.

A NEW PRAYING MANTIS is named after Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

PARKER MILSAP delivers a country cover of Bob Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh (It Takes a Train to Cry)" in a bonus World Cafe video.

SLEATER-KINNEY stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

AND THE KIDS advance stream Friends Share Lovers.

MOONFACE & SINAI advance stream My Best Human Face.

SAVOY MOTEL shares "Souvenir Shop Rock" and so do I, because you know who cares what's of the flip side? I do.

OF MONTREAL drops “it’s different for girls,” which is New-Wavey, but not Joe Jackson-y.

THE FIVE STAIRSTEPS: "O-o-h Child." Anyone up for a dance-off?

THE ROLLING STONES: Rich Cohen Tells The (90s-era) Stories You've Never Heard.

DAVID BOWIE: Consequence of Sound reconsiders The Man Who Fell to Earth 40 years later.

EDDIE MONEY's former drummer is suing him for wrongful termination.

MINOR VICTORIES: Rachel Goswell and Stuart Braithwaite talk to Rolling Stone about forming a long-distance supergroup.

AMBER HEARD reportedly produced pics from December 2015 and texts from 2014 in support of her claims of domestic violence by Johnny Depp.

TAYLOR SWIFT and Calvin Harris are going their separate ways after 15 months.

GWEN STEFANI & BLAKE SHELTON are ready to take the next step — make that steps — in their relationship.

MADONNA & GUY RITCHIE's child custody battle is winding down with son Rocco visiting Madge in NYC.

BRIE LARSON is the front-runner to play Marvel's Captain Marvel (as opposed to the original Captain Marvel, who now is associated with the Shazam! title).

SHARKNADO 4 has a trailer online.

UKRAINE has been trying to break free from its communist past, and the campaign is changing the face of whole cities.

GERMANY: Speaking to German reporters in the de facto capital of Tibet's exiled government, the Dalai Lama apparently said that "too many" refugees are seeking asylum in Europe.

LOBBY JOE, a lobster, was released back into the waters on Canada’s east coast, after travelling thousands of kilometers on a journey that had cost hundreds of dollars.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER was charged by an elephant while on safari. There's video. 

40 DEAD TIGER CUBS were found in a freezer at the Tiger Temple in Thailand.

BABY SEALS are endangered by selfies, so cut it out.

CHARLES BRADLEY sings "Ain't It a Sin" in a bonus World Cafe video.

ANDREW BIRD plays a stripped-down Tiny Desk Concert.

PSYCHIC ILLS advance streams Inner Journey Out.

MOURN advance streams Ha, Ha, He.

RYLEY WALKER shares “The Halfwit In Me” ahead of Golden Sings That Have Been Sung.

DAVID BOWIE: "Modern Love." from the Summer of 1983.

LUNA: A homecoming for the band and its devoted following.

RONNIE WOOD has become a father again, to twin girls, two days before his 69th birthday.

SURFER BLOOD guitarist Thomas Fekete has died of complications from a rare form of cancer.

KIM GORDON, contrary to early reports, was not attacked by a coyote at Whole Foods in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.

AMBER HEARD screamed to JOHNNY DEPP in the middle of their argument last week, “Stop hitting me!!!”, but was more than 6 yards away, according to two witnesses. OTOH, sources tell ET that Heard told some close friends that Depp injured his hand punching a wall during an argument they had in Australia last March 2015

STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE is reportedly in crisis and facing reshoots, according to Page Six, though disney claims it always anticipated reshoots (and sadditional shooting is not uncommon in big films).

EMILY BLUNT will play Mary Poppins in a sequel to the 1964 classic film; Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda will also star as a new character, Jack, the street lamplighter.

EMELIA CLARKE wants to be the first female James Bond.

MARK SALLING (Glee) has been dropped from the film Gods and Secrets after being indicted on Friday for receiving and possessing child pronography.

VENEZUELA: Former senior military officers have criticized the chaotic rule of President Maduro, in a sign that he may be losing the support of the armed services, previously a linchpin of his stability.

SWEDEN: 13 of Sweden's 100 largest municipalities have begun offering separate public swimming hours for men and women.

TURKEY: A court has convicted a former Miss Turkey of insulting the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, through social media postings and handed her a 14-month suspended sentence.

A MASSIVE ALLIGATOR strolls along a Florida golf course. Because Florida.

BANGKOK: Authorities armed with tranquilizer guns are still trying to capture dozens of tigers at a controversial Buddhist temple in Thailand after monks allegedly set some free to delay the process.

CAPYBARAS are turrning up all over Toronto.

MEERKATS settle rivalries with eating contests.

DINOSAUR JR debuted “Goin Down" on Later...with Jools Holland.

ABC streams The Lexicon of Love II.

SCROLL DOWNERS stream Hot Winter.

THE HONEYDOGS stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

LEAPLING shares "You Lemme Know" ahead of Suspended Animation.

THE RASPBERRIES crush "Go All The Way" and "I Wanna Be With You" for Twofer Tuesday.

BOB MOULD talks to Premier Guitar about his beloved armada of Strats and the nuts-and-bolts of writing and recording Patch the Sky. (Thx, Frank Yang.)

PRINCE: Questlove has 40 reasons why The Artist was a hip-hop pioneer.

CAR SEAT HEADREST: Will Toledo talks to Pitchfork about modern music, the power of music, social media, and more.

BOB DYLAN: Journalist Barney Hoskyns talks to World Cafe about the special relationship Dylan and his band had with Woodstock.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: X-Men Apocalypse topped the holdiay weekend chart with 80MM, siginificantly lagging Days of Future Past, which opened to 110.6MM domestic. But the overseas grosses were 115.4MM, which suggests this installment may yet find profit on the big screen against its 178MM production budget.  It's not a slam dunk, however; this franchise has never been particularly leggy. Alice Through the Looking Glass places a distant second with 34.2MM against a 170MM budget, and will need the sort of lopsided overseas grosses of Alice in Wonderland to make money in cineplexes. The Angry Birds Movie shows with 24.6MM; its worldwide total of 229.5MM probably puts it in the black already.Captain America: Civil War takes the fourth slot with 19.7MM, which is probably good given the X-Men competition; the threequel has grossed 1.1 Billion globally.  Neighbors 2 rounds out the Top Five with11.4MM; it will likely break even while falling far short of the original worldwide.

JOHNNY DEPP & AMBER HEARD:  Heard showed up in court with a bruise on her face claiming Johnny Depp physically assaulted her and she's the victim of repeated domestic violence ... and the judge issued a restraining order requiring Johnny to stay 100 yards away from her. But she had no evidence of any injuries when cops came to her home Saturday night after getting a 911 call ... this according to LAPD law enforcement sources. Depp's longtime partner Vanessa Paradis and ex-wife Lori Anne Allison vouch for Depp's non-violent character. His friend Doug Stanhope says Depp is the victim and that his friends said nothing about her for fear of being de-friended by Depp. Heard denies Stanhope's claim of blackmail.  Variety wonders whether the failure of Alice Through the Looking Glass this weekend and a tabloid-ready divorce has moviegoers growing tired of Depp (or were they already tiring?).

KATE BECKINSALE recalls Michael Bay's insane comments about her looks.

DWAYNE "THE ROCK" JOHNSON is attached to star in the Sony Pictures adaptation of Doc Savage.

TOPHER GRACE married his fiancée Ashley Hinshaw on Sunday.

VENEZUELA: Hunger, Blackouts and a Government Shutdown.

PAKISTAN: A powerful constitutional body proposed legislation last week that would allow husbands to "lightly beat" their wives who decline sex or refuse to wear what their mates prefer.

THE ISLAMIC STATE is losing territory and, with it, population and resources. Its revenue has fallen almost 30 percent since last year, and it is increasing taxes and punishments to help make up for the losses, according to the IHS Conflict Monitor.

A GORILLA was fatally shot at an Ohio zoo this weekend after it picked up a young boy who had tumbled into an exhibit, officials said.

SENEGAL'S KILLER HIPPOS: "They are evil monsters that attack us night and day."

AN 18-LB SNAKEHEAD was caught in the Potomac, with a bow and arrow no less.

AN OTTER PUP made his public debut at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Prospect Park Zoo.

MEMORIAL DAY has become -- in the minds of some -- a day devoted to uncovering their swimming pools and barbeques. So take a moment (preferably at 3 p.m. local time) to remember what it's really about. At least I think, that's still the deal -- the Remember.gov still seems to be down (good job, feds).  You can read about "The Meaning of Memorial Day" with selections from American authors and statesmen, including Herman Melville, Ernie Pyle, Louisa May Alcott, Frederick Douglass, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Joyce Johnson and the "Arlington Ladies" who attend every funeral in Arlington National Cemetery, to ensure no soldier is buried alone, take more than a moment.  Re-read "A Death in the Family," as powerful as it was when Christopher Hitchens wrote it in 2007.  Revisit William Wyler's footage of the last mission of the Memphis Belle, or check the Tube for Alfred Hitchcock's footage of the liberation of the Belsen concentration camp.  The Wikipedia entry for Memorial Day notes a race track connection unrelated to the Indy 500.  It's a good day -- as good as we are likely to get -- for Sgt. Barry Sadler's No. 1 smash, "Ballad of the Green Berets."  or the movie adaptation of Gen. George S. Patton's "Speech to the Third Army."  As "Greyhawk" once wrote at the Mudville Gazette, "This is Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy it. Celebrate it - the people who died to give you that right would appreciate it. But they didn't die peaceably in their beds, these dogs who fell protecting sheep from wolves."