THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with ECHO and the BUNNYMEN!  Live at the Royal Albert Hall, circa July 1983.  Your setlist includes: "Going Up," "With A Hip" and "All That Jazz"; "All My Colours (Zimbo)" and "Silver"; "The Cutter" and "The Killing Moon"; "Rescue" and "Never Stop"; and "Over the Wall." Your encores are "Crocodiles" and "Do It Clean."

MARK LANEGAN stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

CRAIG FINN stopped by Minnesota Public Radio's UBS Forum for an intimate performance of these new songs and a chat. He also talked to the Chicago Reader the day after the first show of his solo tour.

CASS McCOMBS stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

HOSPITALITY previewed their debut on Merge live at WNYC Soundcheck.

ARTHUR CONLEY: Do you like good music? "Sweet Soul Music"?

WILD FLAG's Carrie Brownstein talked to The Telegraph about the state of rock, danger, nostalgia and more. SEMI-RELATED: The Independent asks members of four bands The Black Keys, Wilco, The Alabama Shakes, and EMA whether guitar rock is dead.

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS: Stephin Merritt talks The Guardian about unrequited love, posing naked, growing a beard, and why Germans don't recognise the sound of a ukelele.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: Patterson Hood talks to Louisville.com about the art of storytelling in song. (Thx, LHB.)

JOE TEX and JAMES BROWN were bitter rivals.

THE BEACH BOYS reunion starts with the Grammys.

GIVE IT UP FOR THE BANDS: Buddy Holly's Crickets, Bill Haley's Comets, James Brown's Famous Flames, Gene Vincent's Blue Caps, Hank Ballard's Midnighters and Smokey Robinson's Miracles will join their frontmen as full-fledged members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at this year's induction ceremony, slated for April 14 in Cleveland.

THE CUTOUT BIN: From the Rutles to the Beatles, from Tom Robinson to James Brown, from the Pogues to Al Green, plus Robert Gordon & Link Wray, the Ramones, Beck, the Four Tops and more  -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which is currently scoring 45 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Safe House, currently scoring 53 percent; The Vow, scoring 36 percent; and the 3-D reissue of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

KATY PERRY signed her divorce from Russell Brand with a smiley face, in case you were wondering if she's ready for a long-term commitment.

THE KARDASHIANS: Kim's divorce from Kris Humphries may be headed toward a public trial. Khloé is relieved she's not pregnant.

HALLE BERRY is asking the judge in her custody war for permission to move to France with daughter Nahla; baby daddy Gabriel Aubry is not amused.

GEORGE CLOONEY talks to Deadline about his Oscar-friendly flims, overseas commercials, and more.

WILL FERRELL introduced the Chicago Bulls at the New Orleans Hornets the other night, icymi.

IRAN renews efforts to shut down popular websites.

LIBYA: The country that witnessed the Arab world's most sweeping revolution is foundering.

AFGHANISTAN: The government said it was willing to accept the transfer of Taliban detainees held at Guantanamo to Qatar.

IRAQ executed Abu Talha, a senior aide to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, and sentenced a Saudi al Qaeda in Iraq leader to death.

GIANT BUNNY eats a banana.

A MICRO PIG now weighs the same as a rugby forward and is 5ft long and 2½ft high.

THE OLDEST LIVING THING ON EARTH: No, not Keith Richards (he's undead).

RAM & DOE, getting married... Mass hysteria!

CULTS drops a video for "You Know What I Mean."

FRANKIE ROSE advance streams Interstellar.

ISLANDS advance streams A Sleep & A Forgetting.

ROYAL BATHS streams the psych-garage Better Luck Next Life.

SHELBY LYNNE stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS cover Leonard Cohen's "The Smokey Life."

THE TING TINGS drop "Soul Killing" in advance of Sounds From Nowheresville.

LUSCIOUS JACKSON returns with "Are You Ready?"

ALABAMA SHAKES played "Hold On" and "I Ain't the Same" for Conan.

SHARON VAN ETTEN talks about a few of her favorite things for a Pitchfork Guest List.  She also talks to The A.V. Club about Tramp.

DAN MANGAN talks to PopMatters about being in a band called Dan Mangan and more...

THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN reunites for a US tour. There's also a Jim Reid solo track at the link.

THE JUNO AWARDS nominees are announced. Congrats?

RUSSELL BRAND to KATY PERRY: I don't want your money, even without a prenup.

LINDSAY LOHAN: How much has she spent on lawyers to handle her various dramas?

DANIEL RADCLIFFE expressed disappointment that the final Harry Potter movie failed to enchant the Academy, saying ‘snobbery' has prevented franchise from winning more accolades.

SIMON COWELL breaks his silence about the recent exit of judges Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul, and host Steve Jones.

GARY BUSEY files for bankruptcy.

VICTORIA'S SECRET model Kylie Bisutt has decided to leave the lingerie empire because it clashes with her Christian beliefs.

THE BOURNE LEGACY (ft. Jeremy Renner, not Matt. Damon.) has a trailer online.

TERROR in the USA: Ahmed Hussein Mahamud, a Somali-American from Westerville, Ohio, pled guilty to providing material support to Shabaab.

TERROR in the UK: Christian Emde and Robert Baum, Muslim converts from Solingen, Germany, admitted to terrorism charges and will be deported.

SYRIA: Following similar action by the US, Britain, and Belgium, Italy and France recalled their ambassadors to Syria. Six Gulf nations recalled their ambassadors and asked the Arab League to "take decisive action." Russia criticized the actions and sent a delegation to Syria. Turkey started a new initiative after the failure of the UN resolution.

EGYPT has said it will not be persuaded by the potential loss of US aid to end an ongoing investigation into foreign-funded non-governmental organisations.

IRAN: Amid deepening political infighting, Iran's parliament summoned President Ahmadinejad to discuss his handling of the economy. Iran and India reached a deal on oil payments. China reduced its purchases of Iranian oil, turning to Saudi Arabia and Russia instead.

AfPAK: NATO, Afghan and Pakistani military officials were to hold talks on improving border security and coordination on Wednesday, in a possible sign that tension is easing following a cross-border NATO air attack in November that infuriated Pakistan.

SNORING DORMOUSE: Let's go to the video.

A PIG and ten grenades were seized by Miami police.

A MOUNTAIN LION snatched a kid at Big Bend National Park. The child survived.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A purple squirrel.

WHAT IF All the Cats in the World Suddenly Died?

THE BLACK KEYS dropped "Gold On the Ceiling" on the MTV.

TENNIS is streaming Young & Old, produced by the Black Keys' Patrick Carney.

BETH JEANS HOUGHTON and the HOOVES OF DESTINY are streaming Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose.

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

BHI BHIMAN stopped by The Current studios for a session on the United States of Americana.

EFFED UP streams "Year of the Tiger," their latest Chinese Zodiac single.

BEN FOLDS FIVE: "Kate." Daisies in her footsteps.

XTC: Andy Partridge talks to The Quietus about the 30th anniversary of English Settlement. Audio embedded at the link.

HEARTLESS BAST^RDS: Erika Wennerstrom talks to Prefix about Arrow, Valentine's Day and other coincidences.

BAND OF SKULLS: Russell Marsden gives SPIN a track-by-track tour of Sweet Sour, along with the album stream.

CLOUD NOTHINGS: Dylan Baldi talks to Drowned In Sound about forming a band, going dark, and more.

ANGELINA JOLIE is a lady in the streets and a freak in the sheets, according to her partner Brad Pitt.

ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. and wife Susan welcomed a baby son Tuesday morning.

LAURA DERN & BEN HARPER reportedly reconcile.

ZSA ZSA GABOR was kept behind closed doors at her own 95th birthday party.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN drops a trailer online. It might just work.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT will make his feature directing debut on an untitled comedy he'll star in with Scarlett Johansson.

THE TOP 50 MODERN LOW BUDGET FILMS, compiled by Den of Geek.

UGGIE, the scene-stealing Jack Russell terrier in the Oscar-friendly The Artist, is retiring from showbiz due to a neurological disorder.

BILLHINZMAN, the actor and director most famous as the very first zombie to shuffle into George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, passed away over the weekend after a battle with cancer. He was 75.

TERROR in the USA: Raja Lahrasib Khan, 58, a Pakistani cab driver in Chicago and US citizen, admitted to giving funds to Ilyas Kashmiri, a top al Qaeda and Harkut-ul Jihad Islami commander.

OUR FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS will not allow the price of oil to rise to about 100 a barrel, bucks a barrel. Is that a green light for Israel to bomb Iran?

SYRIA: China and Russia defended their veto of the UN resolution on Syria. The US, France, Saudi Arabia, and Russia planned their next course of action. The US closed its embassy in Syria due to security concerns.

EGYPT's government will back down in a stand-off with Washington over US funding for civil society groups because allowing the dispute to drag on could jeopardize aid worth billions of dollars, two Egyptian officials said.

PAKISTAN: A senior American military commander is expected to travel to Pakistan this month in what Obama administration officials say is the first step toward thawing a strategic relationship that has been in effect frozen for more than two months.

AFGHANISTAN: A secret NATO report shows the Taliban are trying to regroup and are preparing to take over Afghanistan after complete withdrawal of foreign troops.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A shepherding rabbit.

HYENA happy to get a hug.

FOUR BREEDS that have never won the Westminster Dog Show.

FIVE KILLER WHALES have been named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit which argues they deserve the same constitutional protection from slavery as humans.

WILCO played a set at Austin City Limits, with Nick Lowe turning up at 46:30 to assist on his "Cruel to be Kind."

NEW RELEASES from Paul McCartney, Sharon Van Etten, Band of Skulls, Ben Kweller, Dr. Dog, Chuck Prophet and more are streaming this week at Spinner.

ALABAMA SHAKES stopped by KEXP for a session.

BETTY WRIGHT stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART: John Peel Top Gear sessions from 1968.

THE SHINS drop "September," the B-side to a single coming out today.

HERE WE GO MAGIC drops "Make Up Your Mind" ahead of A Different Ship.

ART BRUT: Forgot to mention yesterday that "Bang Bang Rock & Roll" soundtracked a Chevy Super Bowl ad.

THE MINDBENDERS bring Twofer Tuesday: "Game of Love" and "Groovy Kind of Love."

CRAIG FINN talks to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press about recording and touring his solo debut.

OF MONTREAL: Kevin Barnes talks to Drowned In Sound about the inspirations and influences behind Paralytic Stalks' new sound and darker mood, including, Sufjan Stevens, William Burroughs, modern classical music and the endurance (or lack thereof) of his Catholic upbringing.

THE BEST OF JANUARY, according to Drowned In Sound and Pretty Much Amazing.

AXL ROSE got a Twitter greeting from AARP.

GISELE BUNDCHEN was reportedly cussing as hubby Tom Brady was losing the Super Bowl. I would further goof on the spectacle of the gazillionaire lingerie model defending her gazillionaire QB hunk, but it's getting to the point where she's taking flack for consoling him after the game. Can't we all just get along?

ADAM LAMBERT, contra prior reports, will not be joining Queen.

OLIVIA WILDE is a good kisser, according to Twilight's Ashley Greene.

HARRISON FORD in the next Blade Runner?

RANDY TRAVIS was arrested Monday morning in Sanger on a charge of suspicion of public intoxication.

THE AVENGERS had plenty of new footage in the extended Super Bowl trailer.

NICOL WILLIAMSON, whose death of esophageal cancer at the age of 73 has been announced, was arguably the most electrifying actor of his generation, but one whose career flickered and faded like a faulty light fitting.

TERROR in the UK: The Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled that radical Islamist preacher Abu Qatada must be freed on bail, after the UK's attempt to deport him to Jordan was barred by the European Court of Human Rights. The government considers him a high security risk.

SYRIA: Russia may be seeking a "controlled demolition" of Assad's rule to save its sole major foothold in the Arab world against Western rivals when its foreign minister and spy chief hold rare talks in Damascus this week.

IRAQ: Security forces captured al Qaeda in Iraq's finance minister in Mosul. A court sentenced two Islamic Army in Iraq members to death for the kidnapping and murder of two French journalists and an Iranian diplomat.

HUSKY adopts SIAMESE KITTEN...Mass hysteria!

LEMURS show off their mad kung fu skillz.

SALLY the ORANGUTAN: Saved by complex, perhaps unprecedented surgery.

THE 25 MOST AWKWARD Cat Sleeping Positions.

MAGNETIC FIELDS dropped a NSFW video for "Andrew In Drag."

SHEARWATER is advance steaming Animal Joy.

FIELD MUSIC is advance streaming Plumb.

THE KILLS played DC's 9:30 Club; you can stream the gig on demand via NPR.

JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD opened for the Kills and you can stream their set as well.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT covers "Hey Jude" at Sundance.

SHARON VAN ETTEN talks to the Washington Post and All Things Considered about recording Tramp, which drops tomorrow.

BEST COAST: Bethany Cosentino talks to the L.A. Times about the band's upcoming sophomore LP, inspiring 17-year-old girls, and more...

LIZ PHAIR writes about Lana Del Rey and feminism at the Wall Street Journal.

FIRST AID KIT talks influences and more at Dose. (Thx, LHB.)

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Chronicle tops the chart with 22 million, beating expectations and besting The Woman In Black, whose 21 million was in line with tracking predictions.  Chronicle's budget was a mere 12 million.  The Grey shows with 9.5 million.  Big Miracle debuted in fourth with 8.5 million against a 40 million budget. Underworld: Awakening rounds out the Top 5 with 5.6 million on a 55 percent drop.

CHRONICLE: According to Marvel comics, "With great power comes great responsibility."  But what if it doesn't?  This movie, with screenplay from Max Landis (son of John Landis) directed by Josh Trank (his first feature) succeeds by capturing how actual teenagers might react if suddenly granted a superpower, without great responsibility and with great acting out.  The found footage gimmick, which theoretically should enhance the realism of the inherently fantastical situation, may ultimately detract from it if the viewer stops to think about how it was compiled.  But by the time the film reaches the point where the question would become nagging, the action keeps attention focused on the story. 

SUPER BOWL ADS are here, incmi. Echo & the Bunnymen, The Cult and Yello provided a pretty Gen X soundtrack. Get off my lawn.

DEMI MOORE has checked into the ultra-posh Cirque Lodge addiction treatment center in Sundance, Utah.

KIM KARDASHIAN and... Jets QB Mark Sanchez?

ADAM LAMBERT is reportedly the new singer for Queen. Can they carry on with a gay frontman? Heh.

COURTNEY LOVE says she'll sue over leaked "confidential" deposition papers filed by her daughter, Francis Bean Cobain, which allege drug use and claims her reckless behavior caused the death of the family cat and dog.

DANIEL RADCLIFFE  admitted he was drunk while filming some scenes for the "Harry Potter" movies during a period in his life where he was drinking "nightly," the young star said in an interview.

BEN GAZZARA, an intense actor whose long career included playing Brick in the original "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway, roles in influential films by John Cassavetes and work with several generations of top Hollywood directors, died on Friday in Manhattan of pancreatic cancer. He was 81.

SYRIA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described as a "travesty" Russia and China's veto of a UN resolution condemning Syria's crackdown against anti-government protesters.

EGYPT: Eith the country now at a critical stage in its transition toward democracy, US aid is in peril as lawmakers threaten to block assistance in response to Egypt's crackdown on pro-democracy groups, several of them well-connected nongovernmental organizations based in Washington.

IRAN: American and European officials said Friday that a mission by international nuclear inspectors to Tehran this week had failed to address their key concerns, indicating that Iran's leaders believe they can resist pressure to open up the nation's nuclear program.

AFGHANISTAN: The United States' plan to wind down its combat role relies on shifting responsibility to Special Operations forces that hunt insurgent leaders and train local troops, according to senior Pentagon officials and military officers. These forces could remain in the country well after the NATO mission ends in late 2014.

MAYBE THE DOG has your receipt.

ZOO MONKEYS booze up to ward off the cold in Kazakhstan.

SNAKE in a Swedish trouser press. That kind of thing is not my bag, baby.

MASS IGUANA KILLINGS planned in Puerto Rico.