THE PRETENDERS galloped through "Boots of Chinese Plastic" for Dave the other night. The album is streaming through the weekend via Spinner.

THE CLASH: Mick Jones talks to the AP about opening for The Who at Shea Stadium in 1982. The album is streaming through the weekend via Spinner.

I'M FROM BARCELONA is streaming their new album in full via MuchMusic.

MY MORNING JACKET frontman Jim James has been released from the hospital after being injured in a fall during a concert at the University of Iowa. Those Hawkeyes are to be avoided.

THE BEACH BOYS rehearse in 1967, including "God Only Knows" and a cover of "The Letter." Stream or download via Aquarium Drunkard.

A-HA: "Take On Me: Literal Video Version." Trust me on this.

SILVER JEWS: David Berman suggests in the Mpls. CityPages that singles are not a good thing.

NIK FREITAS does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, one previously unreleased.

LOS CAMPESINOS! talk to Thirsty about playing a stadium in Japan, the Olympics, and more...

BRITISH SEA POWER answer five questions for Metro.

JAMIE LYNN SPEARS: Sources are denying she's preggers again, or that baby daddy Casey Aldridge knocked up another woman.

NICK NOLTE leapt from a window and grabbed a hose to fight the fire in his Malibu home Tuesday, authorities said.

JENNIFER LOPEZ talks to The Daily Beast about Scientology, breast-feeding, and a "nervous breakdown," as she calls it, that she's never publicly discussed.  The touchy profile was first spiked by Elle magazine.  J-Lo has apparently made legal threats against the website.

DAVID CROSBY turns up in the legal fight between Rob Lowe and his ex-nanny, relating her explanation as to why she only dates 'black guys.'

HOWARD STERN: Wedding pic. Ignore him; check out Beth Ostrosky's dress.

CHRISTIE BRINKLEY's cheatin ex, Peter Cook, tells Barbara Walters that he's "not the ... pervert that I've been painted to be" Friday on 20/20. Brinkley is already firing back.

CARTOON CHARACTERS are brutally killed in a controversial new art exhibition. But wait, there's more... 

THE DARK KNIGHT co-writer David Goyer tells MTV News that all of the sequel rumors are "B.S."

ANOTHER INDIANA JONES MOVIE? Kinda pushing it, aren't we?

GEORGIA, GEORGIA: Two months after invading, Russian troops have begun to dismantle their positions and retreat back to the disputed provinces in the Caucasus.  RELATED: Blogger Michael J. Totten files a dispatch from the forgotten war of Nagorno Karabakh.

AFGHANISTAN: Michael Yon reports for the NYDN: "It has become clear to me that we're losing this war. But losing doesn't mean lost."

IRAN & IRAQ after 9/11: Iran rounded up hundreds of Arabs to help the US counter al Qaeda post-9/11 after they crossed the border from Afghanistan, according to a fmr career US Foreign Service officer. OTOH, Charles "Sam" Faddis, who led a CIA team into northern Iraq following the 9/11 attacks, says the Pentagon's "endless planning and delays" foiled a chance to wipe out a band of al Qaeda leaders who were fleeing American bombs in Afghanistan, with every target of significance returning to Iran.

IRAQ: US and Iraqi commanders signed a handover agreement in Azamiyah, a Baghdad neighborhood where President Saddam Hussein hid during the final days of his regime. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says that a US-Iraq security pact was near, but hat "bold political decisions" will be needed to approve it.

MAY THE MONKEY take your order?

ASHLEE FINDLAY don't like spiders and snakes... with good reason. Neither does Jim Stafford, natch.

POSSUM CUSTODY DISPUTE turns ugly.

CAT-EATING FESTIVAL in Peru has generated fury among animal rights groups. Cat-eating is believed to be an aphrodisiac, but the Peruvians may be mistranslating.

A 7-FT BOA CONSTRICTOR turns up under the hood in Springlield. D-Oh!

CROOKED FINGERS premieres the video for "Let's Not Pretend" at the 'Gum.

AIMEE MANN does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

RAY LaMONTAGNE stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via MPR.

THE FEELIES: Glenn Mercer talks to PopMatters about the band's break-up, getting ahold of their catalog, and scheduling some (more) reuinion dates for the Fall.

CALEXICO: Joey Burns talks to Glide about album themes, collaborations, and Dylan's John Wesley Harding.

THE AVETT BROTHERS: Their video for "Murder InThe City" is pretty basic, but more isn't necessary.

BIRDMONSTER gets a streaming twofer as the Worldd Cafe's "Next" artist this week.

NELLIE McKAY answers the infamous 20 questions for PopMatters.

LAMBCHOP: Kurt Wagner talks to Pitchfork about the band's new direction on its 10th album.

CAT POWER will release her Dark End of the Street EP, on Dec. 9, featuring unreleased covers culled from the Jukebox sessions, including Aretha Franklin, Sandy Denny, CCR, Otis Redding and James Carr.

HALLE BERRY is Esquire magazine's Sexiest Woman Alive.  Acceptance speech and pics at the link. Her beau Gabriel Aubry tells Usmagazine.com that they are working on having another baby. I imagine he wants to practice a lot.

BRITNEY SPEARS does the "three trashy looks that didn't make the 'Toxic' video" thing in her next video.

JOHNNY DEPP will pick up a staggering £32 million for starring in a fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean film --  the highest up-front paycheck in showbiz history.

BRADGELINA: Jolie says the birth of her fifth and sixth children has all but put the stoppers on her sex life with Brad Pitt. Can't they send the kids out with Alice and Sam the Butcher? 

MADONNA says Sarah Palin can't come to her party. Not that Palin has expressed any interest.

JIMMY KIMMEL & SARAH SILVERMAN: More reunion rumors.

WATCHMEN: A video journal for the highly-anticipated graphic novel adaptation begins at Sci-Fi Wire.  The first entry finds Billy Crudup in a motion-capture suit that would not be out of place in Tron.  ALSO: You can stream a Q&A with director Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons via SuperheroHype. Creator Alan Moore is opposed to the adaptation, as usual.

ROSE McGOWAN, with Barabarella off the table, may star in a Linda Lovelace biopic. Which would be more interesting if it was being directed by Vincent Gallo, but no such luck.

HUGH HEFNER & HOLLY MADISON: Dunzo. Could not have seen that coming. Think it was the 54-year age gap?

THE TALIBAN have not broken ranks with al Qaeda, senior US military and intelligence sources told The Long War Journal. They have also threatened to attack polling stations and candidates during Afghanistan's second presidential election, due to be held next summer, as the lengthy and dangerous process of voter registration began yesterday.

IRAQ: The return of an Arab League mission chief this week to the organization's Baghdad office to fill a position that has been vacant since January 2007 is the latest signal that Arab countries are making a belated diplomatic comeback to the war-torn "brotherly" country. The US is preparing to hand control of Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace and swaths of the Green Zone (or International Zone) to the Iraqi Government in one of the most symbolic examples of the country's increasing sovereignty.

MOOSE on the LOOSE: Put down for public safety in Ishpeming, MI. Two calves escaped their mother's fate. Video at the link.

RABID BATS are not a good subject for show and tell.

FELINE RELAXATION TECHNIQUES: Pics at the link.

CAT-LOVING STRAIGHT SINGLE MEN: Trend or twaddle?

WILD BOARS are breeding at a huge rate in Germany and wreaking greater havoc than in any other European country by destroying crops, killing pets and even attacking people, according to a new study.

LYKKE LI & BON IVER perform "Dance Dance Dance" at a fountain in L.A.  IMHO, she really out to pursue a more acoustic sound generally.

NEW RELEASES: The Clash, Pretenders, Of Montreal, Annuals, Crooked Fingers, Margot & the Nuclear So & Sos, The Little Ones, The Spinto Band and almsot unbelievably more are all streaming in full this week from Spinner.

KEANE is streaming its Perfect Symmetry album via Last.fm.

LIZ PHAIR performed Exile in Guyville in full at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, Calif., on Oct. 5. It's streaming on demand -- with all appropos advisories -- via NPR.

ROBERT POLLARD talks to the Chicago Sun-Times about his collage work (visual and musical) and his prolific output: "I'm working on three or four projects at the same time. If I didn't have this entrepreneurial spirit, I'd probably have to get another job."

JOSE GONZALEZ performs "Abram" and "Time to Send Someone Away" for a hushed group of pleasantly surprised visitors at the Blanton Museum, amid large, brightly colored paintings and installations from Brazil, Cuba, and Argentina. Two. For. Tuesday.

JULIANA HATFIELD talks to the L.A. Times about her memoir and virginity.

COUNTRY vs. RAP: An interesting blog comment. And the main post. I have always been disappointed that funny indie music gets dismissed as novelty. (Thx, Amber.)

NICK CAVE talks to J.D. Considine about roles he would rather not assume.

PETER HOOK talks to the Scotsman about being one of the 24 hour party people, ahead of his memoir about the legendary Hacienda club.

ANNE HATHAWAY laughs at herself in her SNL monologue.

AMY WINEHOUSE: The troubled chanteuse is the latest target of Scientologists.

DAVID DUCHOVNY has checked out of sex rehab, according to his lawyer.

EDDIE VAN HALEN is engaged to his girlfriend-publicist Janie Liszewski.

KIRSTEN DUNST says he has grown up and gained perspective from her stint in rehab.

NICOLE KIDMAN has found "a deep and more profound love" with Keith Urban -- like the love between Tom-Kat.

JESSICA BIEL & JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE engaged? That's what the Sunday Mirror claims, anyway...

QUANTUM of SOLACE: The next Bond flick will contain an homage to Goldfinger (Spoiler, obvs.)

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict - and claim to be severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.

IRAN complains that it would be "unsuitable" for both producers and consumers for oil to dip below 100 bucks a barrel.

IRAQ: Rising Iraqi Shiite leader Ammar al-Hakim has extended an olive branch to rival Sunni leaders and tribes during a whistlestop tour of Sunni enclaves ahead of key provincial elections.  Iraqis hope that rebuilding the the Golden Mosque is Samarrah will aid sectarian reconciliation. Violent attacks in northern Iraq have dropped by 60 percent in the past year, and progress in the region has left the insurgency broken, according to a senior commander in the area.

 A BUNNY DOG-PADDLES: Let's go to the video.

GOAT CONDOMS are deployed to save herds in Kenya from an ongoing drought.

PYTHON tries to eat woman's head, has to be hosed down by zoo personnel.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: Militant Red Squirrels tap the ale market for funding.

RUNAWAY SHEEP tasered on the A55 dual carriageway near Bodelwyddan in north Wales.

DEPARTMENT of EAGLES brought members of Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors to help out on "No One Does It Like You," their network TV debut on Conan. Their In Ear Park album drops tomorrow.

BASIA BULAT gets a segment+songs on All Things Considered, streaming via NPR.

THE PRETENDERS: Chrissie Hynde talks to the L.A. Times about her new album, her vegetarian restaurant in Akron, and staying positive.

ADELE stopped by NPR's New York bureau for a chat and an A/V threefer streaming on demand via NPR.

FLEET FOXES: Robin Pecknold talks to the Boston Herald and manages to make me feel old and not-old simultaneously: "I was too young for (grunge) to matter to me. By the time I was a teen I was listening exclusively to '60s and '70s music. In seventh and eighth grade it's more rebellious to listen to the Zombies than whatever emo band was big at Hot Topic..."

CUT COPY made its US TV debut playing "Lights and Music" on the Last Call show.

ARDENT MUSIC: The label that launched Big Star returns with a new secular-music imprint.

ANDREW BIRD has released an advance track, "Oh No," from the Noble Beast album due next January.

THE SEVENTH SEAL OF SMUG: If hipsters really are the harbingers of cultural end-times, then what sort of apocalypse have they wrought?

SOOOOOUL TRAIN was the cover story of this week's Chicago Reader; the online version comes with photo galleries and embedded videos.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Beverly Hills Chihuahua tops the receipts with 29 million, proving the enduring appeal of talking animals.  And it got enough good reviews that it might have legs beyond next weekend's City of Ember (which many may not know is aimed at families).  Eagle Eye drops to second, but not precipitously, taking in 17.7 million.  Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist opened in third place with 12 million.  Sony bought this one for nine million, so this looks to be profitable by next weekend, maybe a hit if it gets good word-of-mouth.  Nights in Rodanthe dropped to fourth place, and may yet be Gere's best performer since Shall We Dance in 2004.  The expansion of Appaloosa paid off, exceeding expectations with 5 million.  The rest of the weekend's new releases opened in ninth through 12th place for a collective ouch.

NICK & NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST was a charming if mostly insubstantial slice-of-indie life rom-com, carried by the performances of Michael Cera and Kat Dennings.  NPR's Day to Day profiles the book's authors, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, with audio of two songs from the movie's delightful soundtrack. The Scotsman talks to Michael Cera: "I don't really want to be famous, and I'm kind of scared that might be happening." The NYDN rates the hipness of the soundtrack.

AN AMERICAN CAROL proves that conservatives can make a movie mocking Michael Moore that is every bit as didactic and heavy-handed as a movie by Michael Moore.

O.J. SIMPSON was found guilty of all 12 counts in the armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas, Nevada, casino hotel last year.  The verdict was handed down came 13 years to the day Simpson was acquitted in the highly publicized murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald L. Goldman. He could face life in prison.

HOWARD STERN and his longtime girlfriend Beth Ostrosky were married in New York City on Friday night, according to guests who attended the celebration.

BRITNEY SPEARS' parents have reportedly slapped a six-month sex ban on their daughter to prevent any bumps in the road on her way back to the top.

ELIZABETH HURLEY has a bizarre static electricity-induced wardrobe malfunction at a charity event in New York.

LINDSAY LOHAN talks to Marie Claire about friends, family and rebuilding her career.

ADAM GADAHN al Qaeda's American spokesman, has resurfaced in a newly released videotape, squashing the rumors that he died in a US airstrike earlier this year.

IRAQ: Coalition forces captured ten AQI operatives in northern and central Iraq. Iraqi forces detained a senior AQI leader and 14 operatives in Mosul. Police captured a senior AQI leader in Wasit province.

ORPHAN ORANGUTANS are wheeled into the forest daily by Borneo Orangutan Survival International to learn how to be orangutans. Pics at the link.

THE ANTI-BEAVER LOBBY is trying to halt plans to reintroduce beaver to Scotland 400 years after it was persecuted to extinction.

ELEPHANTS march through a hotel lobby in Zambia after it was built on their migration trail. Pics at the link.

FISH PEDICURES: Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

GIANT SALAMANDERS that bark like dogs are discovered near Seattle, WA.

THE WORLD'S MOST ENDANGERED TURTLES mate, but the eggs don't hatch.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with BIG STAR!  Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens brought in Posies Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer to reform the ever-influential band in the 1990s and have toured sporadically through the present day.  Lets start with "In The Street" on a late night TV show in 1994, and  "Ballad of El Goodo" from what might have been that first gig in 1993.  And here are three different bootlegs from London on August 28th of this year -- "Feel," "I Am The Cosmos" (w/Auer singing for the late Chris Bell), and "Back Of A Car" (whicj may have the best video quality, if slightly truncated).

NO DEPRESSION has risen from the ashes. The big feature at the moment is Lucinda Williams.

OKKERVIL RIVER frontman Will Sheff shares some of his favorite (and fairly obscure) music with All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen. The two talk also about Okkervil River's latest album.

THE NEW YORK DOLLS are the subject of a new photobook by rock photographer Bob Gruen. RS has a gallery.

THESE UNITED STATES do another four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

RICK ASTLEY has become the surprise contender for best act ever at this year's MTV Europe Music Awards in Liverpool. You know why.

THE LOST MYSTERY OF RECORD COLLECTIONS: There is an intangible joy about being able to hold the object in your hand.

MARC BOLAN of T.Rex is the subject of a 1971 blast from the past, courtesy of Crawdaddy.

SILVER JEWS: David Berman talks to The Stranger about touring -- and takes a few shots at Sonic Youth.

CUTOUT BIN: From Buzzcocks to Neil Diamond, from CCR to GbV to MMJ, from Alex Chilton w/ the dB's to Dropkick Murphys covering Thin Lizzy, to the Righteous Bros., the Everly Bros. the Isley Bros. and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds can be jukeboxed or streamed separately via the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which is currently scoring 64 percent on light reviews at Rotten Tomatoes; Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, currently scoring 60 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, currently scoring 37 percent on light reviews; Blindness, scoring 38 percent; American Carol, which has gone unscreened by critics; and Flash of Genius, which is scoring 71 percent.  Appaloosa expands to wide release, with 73 percent.

BLINDNESS, btw, will be protested by blind activists, who think that moviegoers are too dumb to know the difference between real blind people and people who suddenly are struck blind by a sci-fi virus. You can watch the first five minutes at Yahoo!Movies.

BRITNEY SPEARS wants to purchase the sex tape she made with ex-lover Adnan Ghalib so she can destroy it for good, according to a pal. OTOH, Ghalib suddenly is denying everything.  Meanwhile, Spears' cousin and former assistant, Alli Sims, told Page Six she's still not allowed to be in contact with the pop tart.

SHARON STONE denies that she wanted her 8-year-old son Roan to receive Botox treatments for his "foot odor." 

TINA FEY is the subject of a book bidding war reaching the six million dollar range.

30 UNFORGETTABLE NUDE SCENES: 30 SFW photos.

QUANTUM OF SOLACE, the next Bond flick, has a new trailer up at Yahoo!Movies.

PAKISTAN: Flirting with GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin gets Pres. Asif Ali Zardari in trouble with Pakistan's hard-line mosques and its feminists.

AFGHANISTAN (Sort of): Training taking place this month in the Mojave Desert at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center aims to give troops deploying to Afghanistan a preview of not only the terrain but also the culture and customs.

IRAQ: The Iraqi government has assumed control over 45K members of the Sons of Iraq in Baghdad. Iraqi forces captured seven Special Groups operatives during raids throughout central Iraq and five more in Basra.

KRAKATOA the KOMODO DRAGON celebrates his eighth birthday at the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, FL (east of Java). Slideshow at the link.

A 17-FT PYTHON should not be confused with a tree branch.

BILLY GOAT excluded from Wrigley Field, Dodgers beat the Cubs in Game 1 of their National League Division Series.

THE ATLANTIC WOLFFISH: With a face only a mother could love, it's mean, ferocious-looking, delicious and possibly endangered. Pics and video at the link.

CAT FRAMED in deadly car crash.

A VISAYAN WARTY PIGLET is born at the Brevard Zoo in FL. Awww...some pic and video at the link.