THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

... with THE KNACK!  That's alright, I won't tell anyone they're a guilty pleasure of yours. Live at Carnegie Hall in 1979, your setlist includes: "The Hard Way," "She's So Selfish," "Rave Up," "Oh Tara," "Your Number Or Your Name," "Not Fade Away," "My Sharona," "Let me Out," "It's You," "Hold On Tight," "Heartbeat," "A Hard Day's Night," "Good Girls Don't," "Frustrated," "End Of The Game," and "C'Mon Everybody."

MY MORNING JACKET stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

METRIC: Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

YUKON BLONDE advance streams On Blonde.

CHRISTOPHER PAUL STELLING is advance streaming Labor Against Waste.

DIANE COFFEE: Shaun Fleming of Foxygen drops "Everyday" ahead of Everybody’s A Good Dog.

NEIL YOUNG and Promise of the Real drop "Wolf Moon" ahead of The Monsanto Years.

ROGER LION, a/k/a Joe Pernice and the Scud Mountain Boys, drop "A Dead Man's Song" ahead of an untitled (or self-titled?) LP.

THE FOETALS drop “Fine” ahead of Meet The Foetals.

LOWER DENS covers the Hall & Oates hit, "Maneater."

HOT CHIP covers Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark."

MIKAL CRONIN, modern power popster, talks to Pitchfork about his forthcoming concept LP.

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA's  Ruban Nielson talked to The Guardian about how Multi-Love got him in big trouble at home.

MORRISSEY died...for nine minutes.

ORNETTE COLEMAN, the alto saxophonist and composer who was one of the most powerful and contentious innovators in the history of jazz, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 85.

JURASSIC WORLD is this weekend's sole wide release at the cineplax, currently scoring 70 percent on the ol' Tomatometer.

CHRISTOPHER LEE: The WWII Special Forces operator, heavy metal singer, and screen legend famous for roles in Hammer Horror films, The Man With The Golden Gun, and the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars franchises, died at age 93 after suffering heart and respiratory problems.  The Telegraph was all over it.

TOMORROWLAND could cost Disney 140MM.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH will play the receptionist in the female-driven Ghostbusters reboot.

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR will play the villainous Baron Mordo in Marvel's Doctor Strange.

RUPERT MURDOCH is preparing to step down as the CEO of 21st century Fox,handing the reins to son James. But Roger Ailes will still report to Rupert.

CHINA's massive hack of US employee databases announced last week was far deeper and potentially more problematic than publicly acknowledged, with hackers believed to be from China moving through government databases undetected for more than a year.

HOW THE ISLAMIC STATE Crippled Al Qaeda.

IRANIAN senior negotiator Seyed Abbas Araqchi insisted this week that any nuclear agreement reached with Western powers will only be temporary and not binding in the long term.

A DOG joyrides on an ATV.

ANUKO the HUSKY is not amused by stupid human tricks.

A GIANT TORTOISE prowls the streets of Tokyo.

A SHARK was killed in a traffic crash on an interstate in Florida.

SPECTRE has a new promo online that aired during the NBA Finals.  Unfortunately, that's all I can manage today due to family biz.  Fortunately, yesterday was a slow day, with the possible exception of Kim Kardashian denying reports her second child will be a boy. I hope to be back friday with the usual.

JON PRATT: Pate's frontman dropped "Silvertone" on his website, mixing Westerberg with The Who, Tommy James...and Pate.

THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH played a mini-set on CBS This Morning.

MICHAEL SHANNON: The acclaimed actor joined a band of mostly Chicago-area musicians for a mini-set including songs by The Smiths and the Velvet Underground.

BEN BROWNING (Cut Copy) advance streams his full-length solo debut, Turns.  Still synthy, but classically melodic.

CITIZEN advance streams the gnarly Everybody Is Going to Heaven.

GARDENS & VILLA drops "Fixations," ahead of Music For Dogs.

PHILLY BOY ROY, a/k/a indie drummer Jon Wurster, covers Styx's "Renegade" and eats pizza from Lou Malnati's.

YO LA TENGO: Ira Kaplan talks to Newsweek about Stuff Like That There, which is a sequel of sorts to Fakebook.

VAN MORRISON talks to The Guardian about his childhood, his parents’ love of music, about hearing the blues in Belfast, and about his dream of becoming … a vet.

MARK KOZELEK emailed The Guardian, then called the interviewer a "b^tch" onstage.

THE SEX PISTOLS will now be helping to oil the wheels of the capitalist machine as the band’s name and artwork are to feature on a range of credit cards.

AMBER HEARD: Mrs. Johnny Depp shows her true colors in ELLE's July issue.

CHARLIE SHEEN was taken by ambulance to a local hospital after eating bad clams.

CHRIS PRATT clarified his remark that his prior weight made him impotent.

MILEY CYRUS phones Paper from the middle of the jungle.

CHRIS BROWN reportedly got burned by friends who told him Karrueche Tran was dying to get back together with him — which led to the nightclub blowup that made Chris look like an obsessed ex-BF.

VINCENT BUGLIOSI, the former Los Angeles deputy district attorney who prosecuted the Manson family, passed away Monday night at a Los Angeles hospital following a battle with cancer. He was 80.

VINCENT MUSETTO, author of classic New York Post headlines, has passed away at 74.

THE ISLAMIC STATE: What if they won? Meanwhile, American intelligence agencies have extracted valuable information about the Islamic State’s leadership structure, financial operations and security measures by analyzing materials seized during a Delta Force commando raid last month that killed a leader of the terrorist group in eastern Syria, according to United States officials. Also, ISIS’s victory in Ramadi may mean containment is the best the US can do now.

IRAN is spending billions of dollars a year to prop up the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, according to the U.N.'s envoy to Syria and other outside experts. These estimates are far higher than what the Obama administration, busy negotiating a nuclear deal with the Tehran government, has implied Iran spends on its policy to destabilize the Middle East.

BARRY THE DOG loves his bicycle; he loves to ride his bike.

FIGO, a service dog, jumped between her owner and an oncoming bus.

"WORM BALLS" baffle Texas park rangers.

A BABY KOALA clung to its mother during life-saving surgery.

CHRISTOPHER OWENS dropped a hove video for "To Take Care of Myself Again".

FAITH NO MORE is streaming the bonus disc from the Angel Dust reissue.

ALPINE is advance streaming Yuck.

BEST COAST stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

EMMYLOU HARRIS played for WFUV members at City Winery.

J MASCIS & KIM GORDON join forces on "Slow Boy."

DUCKTAILS share "Surreal Exposure" ahread of St Catherine.

LED ZEPPELIN drops "Sugar Mama" ahead of the Coda reissue.

FINE POINTS drop "Astral Season" From the upcoming album Hover.

TEARS FOR FEARS: "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" and "Shout" both topped the charts in the first half of 1985.

DEVO: Pitchfork excerpts the 33 1/3 book on the band's Freedom of Choice.

BRIAN WILSON & JOHN CUSACK talked to The Dissolve about their relationship in the lead-up to making Love and Mercy, Wilson’s brilliance as a studio maestro, and the film’s importance to Wilson as a cautionary tale (Brian sort of confirms what I noted about drugs in yesterday's review of the film). Director Bill Pohlad talks to All Things Considered about the movie.

SOAK: Bridie Monds-Watson is quoted at length in a Drowned In Sound profile.

POP & POLITICS: Is Pop getting political as indie becomes apathetic?

KATE MOSS was escorted off an easyJet flight at London Luton airport on Sunday by police because she had allegedly become disruptive.

KIM KARDASHIAN & KANYE WEST are not naming their second child South.

CAREY MULLIGAN is expecting her first child with her husband Marcus Mumford.

EMILY DESCHANEL  and her husband, David Hornsby, have welcomed their second child together.

CLINT EASTWOOD's joke about Caitlyn Jenner will be cut from the Spike TV Guys' Choice 2015 awards telecast.

TIM CURRY talks to Los Angeles magazine about recovery from his stroke and receiving an Actors' Fund lifetime achievement award.

THE MARTIAN, a Ridley Scott adaptation of the Andrew Weir novel, has a trailer online.

IRANIAN political cartoonist Atena Farghadani has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of “insulting members of parliament through paintings” and “insulting the Iranian supreme leader.”

A CORGI would like to get his ball without moving.

BABY RACCOONS were rescued from the middle of Route 5 in the Western Massachusetts town of Hatfield.

EEL-LIKE FISH rained from the sky in Fairbanks, Alaska.

A VERMONT DOG drove his owner's car into a pond.

SPOON covered The Cramps' "TV Set" on Conan.

RICHARD THOMPSON advance streams Still.

HEARTLESS BAST^RDS advance stream Restless Ones.

JON DeROSA is streaming Black Halo.

SARAH CRACKNELL advance streams Red Kite.

TITUS ANDRONICUS drops "Fatal Flaw" ahead of The Most Lamentable Tragedy.

THE WEIRDOS: "Helium Bar" is vintage L.A. Punk.

NICK CAVE talks to The Guardian about  finding fresh inspiration, oversharing and hanging out by Bryan Ferry's pool.

SAM FERMIN is profiled, member-by-member, at Paste.

SAINT ETIENNE's Sarah Cracknell talks to Brooklyn Vegan about her solo LP and the band's future.

THE BEST SONGS of 2015 (So far), according to SPIN.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Spy tops the chart with 30MM -- but that's less than The Heat or Identity Thief, where Melissa McCarthy had Sandra Bullock and Jason Bateman as co-stars, respectively. Spy won't have direct comedy competition until Ted 2 arrives on the 26th, but all pics will likely take a hit when Jurassic World arrives on 4000 screens this Friday.  With excellent reviews and good word of mouth, Spy should have no problem recouping a 65 million budget, but one has to wonder about the marketing. San Andreas placed with 26.4MM on an okay 52 percent drop. The dinosaurs are the only potential obstacle to this one reaching profit in theaters.  Insidious: Chapter 3 shows with 23MM, which is 15MM less than the last installment, but more than enough against a reported 10MM production budget. Entourage debuts in the fourth slot with 10.4M; against a reported 30MM production budget and a seemingly greater marketing campaign, this one may have return to the small screen before seeing profit.  Mad Max: Fury Road rounds out the Top 5 on a 44 percent drop; its drops have been pretty leggy for a violent, R-rated flick.  Even so, it may have a tough time breaking even in theaters.

LOVE & MERCY: If you didn't already know, I'm a big fan of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys.  I've read extensively about their lives and careers.  So Love and Mercy --which depicts two pivotal periods in the songwriter's troubled life--is a film that is both attractive to me, and yet one I could nitpick to death.  What I will say is that this is a very good movie for one that runs only two hours and must have the approval of Brian's second wife Melinda, the biggest influence in his current life.  As such, the role drugs may have played in aggravating Brian's mental problems are down played, and the antagonists in each period, Mike Love and Dr. Eugene Landy, respectively, are rendered rather one-dimensionally, although this is much less fair to Love than it is to Landy (who is well-portrayed in all his ultimate manipulation and greed by Paul Giamatti).  OTOH, Brian is excellently portrayed in both periods -- by Paul Dano as the psychologically deteriorating musical wundekind creating Pet Sounds and "Good Vibrations," as well as by John Cusack who, despite lacking the physical resemblace Dano has, fully captures the lost, missing-pieces quality of Brian after his Smile-era breakdown.  Dano in particular seems to have absorbed film of Brian from the mid-60s to capture his physicalities, and likely hours of studio tape to embody Brian's creative obsessions.  Elizabeth Banks does the most with the role of Melinda Ledbetter, though we learn more about her from Landy's snooping that the real Melinda may have been willing to put onscreen.  The production design is also terrific, nicely replicating the wardrobe and locations of each era. I don't know whether the Pet Sounds sequence was actually filmed in tiny Western Studios, but if not, it's recreated perfectly, while paying at least small homage to the Wrecking Crew of studio musicians like Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye, who executed Brian's vision while the band was on tour.  Ultimately, Brian's story probably cannot be fully explored in 2 hours, and this version may be as true as any of the others.  I highly recommend it for people looking to find out about this American songwriting legend, and to hardcore fans who can take it for what it is. (I also recommend the Beautiful Dreamer documentary, though it seems similarly influenced by Melinda's p.o.v.)

CHRIS PRATT was impotent, fatigued, and emotionally depressed at 300 lbs.

CHRIS BROWN is having more women problems. Shocka.

JENNIFER ANISTON talsk to Yahoo about Botox and tequila.

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO is suing the French magazine Oops for alleging he's having a baby with Rihanna.

FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF was 30 years ago Friday, meaning the day off, not the movie.

RUSSIA: Putin claims he's no threat to attack NATO, then denies Russia is backing Unkrainian separatists.

TURKEY:  Voters delivered a rebuke on Sunday to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as his party lost its majority in Parliament in a historic election that thwarted his ambition to rewrite Turkey’s Constitution and further bolster his clout.

SAUDI ARABIA shot down a Scud ballistic missile fired from Yemen early Saturday by forces loyal to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, according to a statement by the official Saudi news agency.

LIBYA  has become one of the primary locations to train with ISIS outside of Syria and Iraq.

BABY GOATS in Tiny Sweaters.

A REJECTED, WHITE-FACED FAWN has found new life at an animal farm.

BEES: Suffering from dementia?

AN 8-FT ALLIGATOR found its way to the front door of a Miami apartment.