DEHD plays for World Cafe.

JOSH RITTER visited The Current.

PETER, BJORN AND JOHN share a "Season of Defiance."

SPANDAU BALLET covered Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer"?

ELVIS COSTELLO talks to American Songwriter.

EELS' Mark Oliver Everett on Fatherhood, the Multiverse and Earth to Dora.

MOJO's Top 75 Albums of 2020.

DOLLY PARTON partly funded Moderna's Covid vaccine research.

THE NUMBER ONES Bonus Tracks looks at the Kingsmen's beautifully sloppy 1963 garage-rock standard "Louie Louie," a #No.  hit with a long and twisty history.

HARVEY WEINSTEIN probably has coivd.

RUSSELL SIMMONS has been awarded a victory in a lawsuit brought against him by a Jane Doe, who alleged that the rap mogul sexually assaulted her in 1988.  The suit ran afoul of the statute of limitations.

SPIKE LEE's s next project will be a movie musical about the origin story of Viagra, Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction drug.

MICHAEL B. JORDAN is PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive 2020.

GEORGE CLOONEY, on gifting 14 of his closest friends a million dollars.

QUENTIN TARANTINO has signed a two book deal with HarperCollins, one fiction, one not.

CONAN O'BRIEN is ending his run as a late-night talk show host after nearly three decades. But he'll have something on HBOMax.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: The Snyder Cut has another trailer.

THE GODFATHER, PART III, re-edited as Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, has a trailer online.

GLENN was no ordinary cat.

WHEN YOU SEE YOUR EX and try to play it cool.

A BEAVER struggles to place a stick in the foyer, eventually prevails.

MICHAEL KIWANUKA plays a Tiny Desk Concert from home.

DEATH VALLEY GIRLS play the Indie Rock Hit Parade.

BLEACHERS return with two new songs, "chinatown (ft. Bruce Springsteen)" and "45."

BILL CALLHAN & WILL OLDHAM (and Bill McKay) cover Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues."

MORRISSEY has been dropped by his label BMG Records, reportedly for political reasons.

EDDIE VAN HALEN had stage IV lung cancer and a brain tumor. He had been considering touring with all the VH vocalists.

TOWER RECORDS returns... online.

THE TOP 40 NEW BANDS of 2020, according to Stereogum.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Lionel Richie's final chart-topper, the sentimentally surreal Oscar-winning ballad "Say You, Say Me."

TAYLOR SWIFT's masters were sold by Scooter Braun to a private equity company.

SINBAD is recovering from a stroke.

LENA DUNHAM  opened up about her struggle to have biological kids.

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO forced chhanges in the script for Killers of the Flower Moon, which may be why Paramount sold Scorsese's project to AppleTV.

BAD BOYS, but starring Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey.  Sh*t just got unreal.

RYAN REYNOLDS & ROB McELHENNEY are indeed buying a soccer club, in an innovative way.

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN is cool with people watching his movies on their phones?

THE SEAL hops back aboard when an Orca turns up, as one does.

THE DOG needs fluffy pillows. Get on it.

A SACRED WHITE SPIRIT MOOSE was shot by poachers in Canada.

NEW RELEASES: Paste will point you to Lambchop, Marika Hackman, The Bats, and more.

BILL'S INDIE BASEMENT has Chilly Gonzalez (ft Feist and Jarvis Cocker), Le Volume Courbe, Whitney K, and more.

THE AVETT BROS play for World Cafe.

DJANGO DJANGO returns with "Glowing in the Dark."

JOAN JETT: I blame Robert Plant for my (only) arrest.

WIN BUTLER talks to Stereogum about Bowie, SNL, Spike Jonze, and more.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Mr. Mister's supremely mid-'80s synth-rock howl "Broken Wings."

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE?  Freaky debuts atop the chart with 3.7MM, about par for pandemic releases.  Let Him Go places with 1.8MM on a 55 percent drop.  War With Grandpa shows with 1.3MM on a 12 percent drop.

HOW A REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER Thrived in Hollywood.

OLIVIA WILDE & JASON SUDEIKIS have split, ending their engagement after seven yearsand two children.

RICK MORANIS: Police on Saturday arrested a homeless, violent ex-con and charged him with randomly slugging the actor last month on the Upper West Side.

VINCE VAUGHN and his choices are profiled by the Los Angeles Times.

DAVID FINCHER critiques Joker, cancel culture, and more.

HERMAN MANCKIEWICZ, PAULINE KAEL, and the Battle Over "Citizen Kane."

A GOOD BOY was rescued from a wall amid the massive floods in Mexico.

CENTRAL PARK has a new celebrity owl.

A SHELTER DOG with a 3-pound tumor gets new life after surgery.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE PAISLEY UNDERGROUND!  A two-part (Part 1, Part 2) feature from the Old Grey Whistle Test on L.A.'s psychedelic-flavored, West Coast scene in the mid-80s. Bands featured include the Long Ryders, Prime Movers, Thin White Rope, Pontiac Brothers and the Rain Parade with a 6 minute live version of No Easy Way Down. The Long Ryders get short shrift so I'll add in their later OGWT appearance to play "Looking For Lewis & Clark." The term "Paisley Underground" is believed to have been jokingly coined by Michael Quercio of the band The Three O'Clock, so I'll toss in the clip for "Her Head's Revolving" as a bonus. Abther band associated with the scene not featured is The Bangs, a/k/a The Bangles, with an early track, "The Real World."  DOUBLE BONUS: The Guardian Music Blog has a link-rich piece on the Rain Parade and other Paisley Underground bands.

THE JONI PROJECT: Artists are paying tribute to Joni Mitchell at WFUV.

SHOPPING plays for KEXP.

DEEP SEA DIVER does a virtual seesion at The Current.

THE ANTLERS share "It Is What It Is."

THE 80 GREATEST ALBUMS of 1980, according to Rolling Stone.

THE TOP 25 SONGS of 1990, according to Paste.

20 SONGS that would prompt copyright lawsuits were they released today.

THE NUMBER ONES' Bonus Tracks looks at Mark Morrison's "Return Of The Mack."

THE WEEKND is playing the Super Bowl.

DENZEL WASHINGTON's Beverly Crest pad got a visit from the fire department.

JOHN WATERS bequeaths his art collection to Baltimore Museum of Art, whose bathrooms will be named in his honor.

NETFLIX: What happens to viewership of their big original movies over time? 

UNSTOPPABLE Turs 10: The cast and crew emember the wild stunts, meticulous attention to detail, and visionary directing that made the film such a success.

FREAKY: There's a Reason Why Hollywood Loves a Good Body Swap.

TITANIC: Was Jack a time-traveler?

RACCOONS -- a lot of them -- when treats are distributed.

THE EXPLODING SPERM WHALE INCIDENT turns 50.

A SNAKE EEL, bursting through a heron's stomach in mid-flight.

SCIENTISTS claim that they've created the first human-animal hybrid in a Chinese laboratory. What could possibly go wrong?

CHEAP TRICK: "I Can't Take It." An overlooked gem.

GILLIAN WELCH & DAVID RAWLINGS visit with World Cafe.

SHIRLEY COLLINS, English folk legend, plays a Tiny Desk Concert from home.

TEENAGE FANCLUB returns with "Home."

PARQUET COURTS returns with "Hey Bug."

PHOEBE BRIDGERS shares the orchestral version of "Kyoto."

THE ENDURING RELEVANCE of College Radio.

THE GODMOTHER OF SOUL: Roseanne Cash essays Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

LAURA VEIRS offers tips on songwriting.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin's gooey, heartsick, Oscar-nominated ballad "Separate Lives."

MADS MIKKELSEN is reportedly in early talks to replace Johnny Depp as the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3.

BRITNEY SPEARS lost her legal bid to have her father removed as conservator of her estate. Her lawyer said she fears her father and will not perform while he remains in control.

JASON MOMOA said his family was "completely in debt" and "starving" after Game of Thrones.

HUGH GRANT describes his covid symptoms.

DAVID FINCHER has signed a four-year deal with Netflix.

TAIKA WAITITI (Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok) directed Coca-Cola's Christmas Commercial.

WHAT ALEX TREBEK thought of SNL's "Celebrity Jeopardy."

A PIGLET gets footloose with some socks.

A NEW & ENDANGERED PRIMATE has been discovered in Myanmar.

MARTY, the cat who lived at the summit of Mount Washington, has died aged 14.