THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with POWER POP! A few of these may be known generally, like Cheap Trick's "Way of the World" and Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind"... and some well-known to fans of the genre, like Dwight Twilley's "I'm On Fire," Shoes "Too Late," The Records' "Starry Eyes," the Flamin' Groovies' "Shake Some Action" and the Plimsouls'  "A Million Miles Away" (seen here in a rare live slot).  Others are well-known to longtime Pate fans, like the Three O'Clock's "Her Head's Revolving" or Let's Active's "Waters Part."

BROWNOUT advance streams Fear of a Brown Planet.

BEACH SLANG frontman James Alex is streaming the stripped-down Quiet Slang.

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS stops by WNYC Soundcheck for a chat and mini-set.

THE LONE BELLOW stops bby WNYC Soundcheck for a chat and mini-set.

NINE INCH NAILS shares "God Break Down The Door."

RAY LaMONTAGNE shares "To The Sea."

BRAM TCHAIKOVSKY: "Girl Of My Dreams" and "Lady From the USA", live. Because it's Power Pop Friday, of course.

JOHN LYDON reflects on the death of Sid Vicious.

POP MUSIC seems to have become a lot more sad on the whole over the last 30 years.

HOW TOM WOLFE Changed Music Journalism.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at the Chiffons' girl-group nugget "He's So Fine."

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Deadpool 2, which is currently scoring 85 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Show Dogs, which was not screened for critics; and Book Club, scoring 64 percent.

DEADPOOL 2, btw, does the things that made the original so good, but differently.  That's no small acievement.  Comedy is generally tougher than drama (or action) and the sequel by definition loses the element of surprise.  So the film throws in enough surprises, right from the start, to make a sequel close to as entertaining as the first.  Stay for the credits sequences; there's a big, funny cameo, and if you stick to the end you'll get an answer to a question I was asking myself during the third act brawl.

OBI-WAN KENOBI may get the next Star Wars standalone picture.

ELTON JOHN will take the stage at the royal wedding?

CATFISH: The MTV show has temporarily halted production as it investigates allegations of sexual misconduct involving the program's host and executive producer.

JASON STATHAM is getting in front of a possible bad situation after a man claimed he possessed an audio recording of the actor hurling homophobic insults on the set of one of his big movies.

CHRISSY TEIGEN & JOHN LEGEND are the proud parents of a baby boy.

SEINFELD: THR gains access to more than 70 hours of previously unreleased interviews with the cast, creator and those involved as the former NBC comedy celebrates 20 years since its series finale.

KANGAROO ON THE LAM in... South Carolina. 

HIPPOS sometimes poop so much that all the fish choke to death.

GOAT YOGA, now with beer tasting.

SNAKE in a ceiling fan.

HOT CHOCOLATE: "You Sexy Thing." Believe in miracles?

LAKE STREET DIVE stopped by World Cafe for a chat and mini-set.

OKKERVIL RIVER stopped by WFUV for a chat and and mini-set.

NAIA IZUMI won the Tiny Desk Concert competition.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS joins CHARLES LLOYD & THE MARVELS  on a collaboration; theiy first share "We've Come Too Far To Turn Around."

AN HORSE returns after seven years with "Get Out Somehow."

SNAIL MAIL shares "Let's Find An Out."

RIVER WHYLESS shares “Darkness In Mind.”

CAR SEAT HEADREST plays "Bodys" on Fallon.

STEPHEN MALKMUS talks to Rolling Stone about 25 years of songwriting.

ELVIS COSTELLO on a rare guitar, crying on planes and Judi Dench.

NEKO CASE surveys her favorite albums at The Quietus.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Ruby & The Romantics' oft-covered R&B chestnut "Our Day Will Come."

LANDO CALRISSIAN may get his own movie... someday.

ZOMBIELAND 2 is on track for an October 2019 release, with the original cast.

DISNEY may bring back John Lasseter in some capacity, despite allegations of inappropraite conduct.

FRANCES BEAN COBAIN's divorce may be settled but she has lost one prized possession to her ex: her father's famous guitar. 

PAULEY PERRETTE's  ex says she wrote “handwritten death threats” and defamed him because he filed for divorce from the actress, and now he's filed a lawsuit.

CHRIS PRATT is a leaker. Anyone surprised?

PORTIA de ROSSI quit acting, but wound up in Season Five of Arrested Development anyway.

GEESE vs GATOR: Who You Got?

CHIMPS have cleaner beds than humans, scientists say.

AN EAGLE plunged Juneau into darkness.

A MYSTERIOUS SEA CREATURE washes ashore in the Philippines.

SIMON & GARFUNKEL tackle "Late In the Evening" in Central Park, circa 1981, iirc.

BEACH HOUSE visits Morning Becomes Eclectic.

MAISON DUFRESNE: Another hour of soul serenades, rarefied country and folk b-sides at Aquarium Drunkard.

ALL SONGS: The Songs That Got You Through School.

NEKO CASE brings MARK LANEGAN onboard for “Curse Of The I-5 Corridor.”

MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER shares "Desert Horse."

MITSKI shares a video for "Geyser."

BRIAN ENO is now 70 years old, garnering tributes from Rolling Stone and Pitchfork.

TRACYANNE CAMPBELL opens up on her new music project with Danny Coughlan two years after losing best pal (and Camera Obscura bandmate) Carey Lander to cancer.

SPOTIFY is urged to stop promoting more artists accused of sexual misconduct, in the most predictable news evah.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at the Four Seasons' screechy, swaggering "Walk Like A Man."

TOM WOLFE, an innovative journalist and novelist whose technicolor, wildly punctuated prose brought to life the worlds of California surfers, car customizers, astronauts and Manhattan’s moneyed status-seekers in works like The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities, died on Monday in a Manhattan hospital. He was 88.  We may never see his like again. Here's more from  Michael Lewis and Jack Shafer.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: The Queen biopic has a trailer online.

JANE FONDA wants to work with Quentin Tarantino.

LARS VON TRIER's new film soarked walkouts at Cannes.

GUILLERMO DEL TORO is making a horror anthology on Netflix.

SOLO is getting... decent early reviews?

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A seal with hiccups.

WHAT CAN CHIMP CALLS tell us about human language?

UKRAINE claims its military dolphins in Crimea refused to take orders from Russians, went on hunger strike, and died.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: Check before you start your car.

THE DOORS:  Why not "Light My Fire" and "Touch Me" for Twofer Tuesday?

REMEMBER SPORTS streams Slow Buzz.

CAROLINE ROSE stopped by World Cafe.

NOW NOW streams Saved.

WIRE shares the previously unreleased demo for “The 15th.”

BEST COAST, with Nick Lutsko and Seinfeld2000, shares "Jerry (Maybe We Should Get Married)," with Bethany as Elaine Benes. If you click only one more link today, make it this one.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND gets almost two hours of discussion on Political Beats with Slate's Mark Joseph Stern.

TIDAL is facing heavy criticism and possible legal action from several Scandinavian artist organizations and other entities after a Norwegian business newspaper alleged last week that the company had faked hundreds of millions of plays on Beyoncé's Lemonade and Kanye West's The Life of Pablo.

GLENN BRANCA, who played a key role in the nascent no wave scene in New York City in the '70s and '80s, died of throat cancer at 69.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Paul & Paula's goo-goo-eyed schlock-fest "Hey Paula."

MARGOT KIDDER, who with a raspy voice and snappy delivery brought Lois Lane to life in the hit 1978 film Superman and three sequels, died on Sunday at her home in Livingston, Mont. She was 69. Kidder also became known for a breakdown she had in 1996, when she was given a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. She talked openly about her condition thereafter, bristling at the words “mental illness.”

SALMA HAYEK said Sunday that male stars will have to take pay cuts if they are serious about equality for women.

MEGHAN MARKLE's father isn't going to the royal wedding because of the fallout over his deal with a paparazzi agency.

RYAN REYNOLDS, dressed as a unicorn on Korean TV.

NCIS actress Pauley Perrette claims she endured "multiple physical assaults" on the set of one of her shows, and said that is the reason why she left. 

JOHN CENA still sees a future with Nikki Bella. And she didn't immediately dismiss it...publicly.

THE DC UNIVERSE has a dedicated streaming service, on which there will be Doom Patrol.

A CHINESE FAMILY's pet dog turns out to be a black bear.

AMERICAN AIRLINES' New 'Support Animal' Policy: Mini Horses Allowed, Goats Aren't.

OCTOPUSES are "aliens" which evolved on another planet before arriving on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago as "cryopreserved" eggs via a process known as panspermia, radical new research has suggested.

A POD OF ORCAS was recently spotted exhibiting behavior that reads like a Greek tragedy.  

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

BELA FLECK & ABIGAIL WASHBURN played a Tiny Desk Concert.

DR DEMENTO and John Cafiero share things from Dr Demento Covered in Punk at the World Cafe.

NAKED GIANTS stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set.

ANDRE 3000 shared a Mother's Day twofer.

KACEY MUSGRAVES released a new music video for "Mother."

FRIGHTENED RABBIT issued a statement on the death of Scott Hutchison.

ARCTIC MONKEYS'Alex Turner talks to Pitchfork about the inspirations behind their sixth LP: surreal art films, professional wrestling, monster trucks, and more.

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM talks about his exit from Fleetwood Mac.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at the Rooftop Singers' chirpy folk song "Walk Right In."

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  Avengers: Infinity War threepeats atop the chart with 61.8MM on a 46 percent drop.  That's enough make it eighth on the all-time domestic chart, but the weekend's real story may be its 200MM opening in China, which pushed the foreign grosses over the 1 Billion mark, for a total of 1.6 Billion worldwide so far.  Life of the Party places with 18.5MM, the lowest debut for Melissa McCarthy in five or six years.  Breaking In shows with 16.5MM, a surprise hit against a 6MM budget.  Overboard takes the fourth slot with 10.1MM on a leggy 31 percent drop, with a 29.6MM domestic total against a reported 12MM budget.  A Quiet Place rounds out the Top Five with another 6.4MM on a very leggy 17 percent drop.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH has committed to only taking on projects in which his female co-stars receive equal pay.

RONAN FARROW's next book will tell his side of the story regarding why NBC tabled his Weinstein investigation.

ALLY SHEEDY writes about her experiences with Hollywood sexism.

BROOKLYN NINE NINE is headed from Fox to NBC.

CANNES: 5 Signs of a Festival in Decline.

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN talks about his Batman trilogy.

ROM-COMS:  The A.V. Club has been doing a series on the genre, including Bridget Jones's Diary, Brinng Up Baby, When Harry Met Sally, The Big Sick, Something Borrowed, Overboard, and My Best Friend's Wedding.

JOHN TRAVOLTA had the hots for Olivia Newton-John on the Grease set, because obvsly.

WHEN A WHALE swam up to this woman and wouldn't leave her alone, she was freaked out — until she realized he was saving her life.

CHARLIE RUSSELL, a Canadian naturalist who researched grizzly bears by living among them and argued for a view of the animals based on coexistence rather than fear, died on May 7 in Calgary, Alberta. He was 76. And not killed by a bear.

A BEAR smashed a car window to get to the two dozen cupcakes inside.  Just saying.

POLICE DEPARTMENTS are trying to protect their drug-sniffing dogs from Fentanyl.