THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

... with SHIVAREE! Originally airing on September 18, 1965, Part 1 features the Hollywood Persuaders ("Drums a Go-Go"), P.J. Proby ("Mission Bells") and The Supremes ("Baby Love"). Part 2 features Raquel Welch ("I'm Ready To Groove") and The Temptations ("My Girl" and "The Way You Do The Things You Do"). In Part 3, P.J. Proby returns ("Somewhere") as do the Hollywood Persuaders ("Drive Them To The Back Of The Hat").  And of course, the Shivaree Dancers plus your host, Gene Weed.

THE HOLD STEADY: Craig Finn & Tad Kubler talk to NPR's Morning Edition, which is also streaming a few tracks and a bonus clip in which Finn talks about playing with Springsteen at Carnegie Hall. And while Finn talks Catholicism with NPR, he talks about the band's Protestant work ethic with Drowned In Sound. Finn also talks to Michaelangelo Matmos for The Stranger.

BRENDAN CANNING of Broken Social Scene talks to JAM! about his solo entry in the "Broken Social Scene Presents..." series.

HALLELUJAH THE HILLS do the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, two previously unreleased. Recommended.

THE BLASTERS' Phil Alvin sorts through the unholy mess they've made of American music for Metroactive.

GRIZZLY BEAR debuted a new song, "Two Weeks" for Dave on the Eye network the other night.

SAM PHILLIPS performs a mini-set for the World Cafe you can stream on demand via NPR.

TED NUGENT talks about hunting and shooting with JAM!, which asks him two questions supplied by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. 

SUPERGRASS frontman Gaz Coombes talks to Pitch about the secrets of the band's longevity. There's also a stream of "Rebel In You" at the link.

PETE DOHERTY has been ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation to a photographer whose camera he smashed.

CUTOUT BIN:  From Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper to Fleetwood Mac, from Led Zeppelin to Chicago, from Green to the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, from Liz Phair to the Five Stairsteps 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 The X-Files: I Want to Believe, currnetly scoring 29 percent on the ol' Tomatometer, and Step Brothers, which is currently scoring 60 percent.

BRADGELINA turned to in vitro fertilization to quickly conceive twins Knox and Vivienne, a source tells US Weekly.  What was Pitt thinking?

CHRISTIAN BALE: British tabloids like The Sun are picking up on the claim that Bale flipped during a row with his mother and sister over a request for £100,000 to help the sister raise her three children.

PAM ANDERSON & TOMMY LEE are living together again, with the pneumatic bombshell admitting, "It's kinda silly. I don't know where that's gonna go."

SIENNA MILLER will have computer-generated hair in her upcoming movie, Hippie Hippie Shake.  Guess where?

ANNE HATHAWAY could be drawn deeper into the fraud scandal of her ex-boyfriend, Raffaello Follieri, now that FBI agents have seized the actress' private journals, sources tell the NYDN's Rush & Molloy.  The Princess Diaries joke writes itself.

AMY ADAMS is engaged to boyfriend of six years Darren Legallo, according to People magazine.

MEGAN FOX  is annoyed at being named FHM magazine's Sexiest Woman in the World.  So I linked to it again for Gratuitous Friday.

IRAN signaled that it will no longer cooperate with UN experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work, confirming the investigation is at a dead end a year after it began.  I am so glad the US and EU gave them two weeks to come up with an answer.  I wonder what it will be...

IRAQ: US forces in Iraq said on Thursday that three suspected al-Qaeda leaders surrendered to Iraqi security and coalition forces in Sinjar. Al-Qaeda's foreign fighters are increasingly going to Afghanistan to fight instead, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States said Wednesday. Saladin province saw more than 1100 former Iraqi combatants reconciled with local security and Multi-National Forces since May.

WASCALLY WABBIT has been credited with saving an Australian couple from a fire that started in their house while they slept.

A WILD DEER fleeing summer storms brought chaos to an Italian city center when it ran amok. Pic at the link.

LIVE FISH are being worn as jewelry by teenage girls in Japan.

DRUNKEN ELK pays dearly after attacking a toddler playing in a sand pit at her home in Kungälv in western Sweden on Monday.

PET HOARDING: Humane society workers have found 117 cats, a raccoon and a rabbit in a north Omaha house. The discovery came Wednesday after Council Bluffs, Iowa, police caught the 54-year-old woman who lives at the house reportedly stealing cat food. Officials say she smelled like cat urine.

GNARLS BARKLEY gets a bit graphic in the new video for "Who's Gonna Save My Soul," premiering on the MTV.

SHE & HIM frontwoman Zooey Deschanel talks to Metromix about making the Maxim Hot 100, getting mix CDs from fans, and more...

MATTHEW SWEET is streaming three new songs via SweetSpace.

GIVE THE DRUMMER SOME: Playing the drums for a rock band requires the stamina of a top soccer player, research suggests. Tests on Clem Burke, the veteran Blondie drummer, revealed that 90 minutes of drumming could raise his heart rate to 190 beats a minute.

THE FEELIES: Sound Opinions has an interview plus four songs from their exclusive performance at Maxwell's.

THE BREEDERS "Walk It Off" in their new video from the Mountain Battles LP.

THE BLAKES do the four free songs thing for Daytrotter. Kinda garagey, kinda Stones-y, kinda Stripes-y.

THE VERVE frontman Richard Ashcroft tells the BBC's Steve Lamacq that it wasn't easy to start again with guitarist Nick McCabe. (Thx, Chromewaves.)

GLEN CAMPBELL covers Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)," along with songs from Tom Petty, The Replacements and the Velvet Underground on his upcoming album.

SONGS FOR THE JOKER: "Rare is the actor who has kissed both Gyllenhaals."  You should be able to stream them via the Hype Machine.

CHRISTIAN BALE confronted his mother after she allegedly insulted his wife, a source close to the 34-year-old actor says: "Christian was stressed, but he didn't lay a finger on anyone. Instead, he flew off the handle and cussed his mother. He just got very loud because his mother was saying some very outrageous things about him, and his wife." Sources in Bale's camp tell TMZ Bale has had a long-standing difficult relationship with his mom and the motivation for the whole assault charge may be money.

MICHELLE WILLIAMS ex-fiancé of the late Heath Ledger, has started dating film director Spike Jonze, ex-husband of Lost In Translation director Sofia Coppola -- according to the ever-reliable Star magazine.

MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY and his longtime love Camila Alves, have Levi Alves's pics published in OK! magazine.

ETHAN HAWKE and his wife Ryan Shawhughes welcomed Clementine Jane Hawke last Friday in NYC.  The girl is Hawke's third child.

BRAD PITT is being blasted for giving daughter Shiloh a ride on his lap while driving a golf cart.  According to The Smoking Gun, Brad is threatening legal action against news outlets who publish the pix.  The Daily Mail story with the pics has been removed from its website.

HEATHER LOCKLEAR is home after successfully completing four weeks of treatment for anxiety and depression.

TOM CRUISE will not be doing a sequel to Top Gun, to the relief of moviegoers everywhere.

HOLLYWOOD'S BEST PAID ACTORS, according to Forbes magazine, are not the same as those with the best return on investment.

SIENNA MILLER is suing photo agency Big Pictures and British tabloids News of the World and the Sun over the topless photos of her vacationing with new beau Balthazar Getty.

DON'T FEAR THE REAPER... unless you are a member of the Taliban in Afghanistan.  More UAV!

IRAN: Pres. Ahmadinejad insisted on Wednesday that Tehran would not "retreat one iota" from its atomic work, which includes the enrichment of uranium.  Glad the US and EU are giving them two weeks for an answer.

IRAQ is massing 30K troops in advance of an assault on one of al-Qaeda's surviving strongholds in Diyala province that will be a litmus test of the country's growing security forces.  There may also be operations in Babil and and Wasit provinces.  Wired's Danger Room looks at the status of the Iraqi Navy.  As expected, Iraq's presidential council rejected the draft provincial elections law (over the Kirkuk dispute that caused Kurds to boycott the parliamentary vote) and sent it back to parliament for reworking.  Thus elections may not occur before the UN mandate expires this year.

ESCAPED CHIMP disarms a zookeeper; zoo standoff ended by banana exchange. Video at the link.

A HERD OF RED DEER take a dip in a London stream.  Pics at the link.

POODLES should not be learning to drive.

DENIAL OF SERVICE FERRET prompts an accessability complaint against Ottawa's public transit company.

30 HUNGRY RUSSIAN BEARS have trapped a group of geologists at their remote survey site in the Far East after killing two of their co-workers last week.  During the Cold War, the Russian Bear threat was nuclear, but less probable.  Also, note that the remote site is in Kamchatka, a place well-known to those who play Risk.

DEVENDRA BANHART has a new Bollywood-themed video for "Carmensita," featuring new squeeze Natalie Portman.

PAUL WESTERBERG: PopMatters thinks that 49:00 -- a single 49-minute track where the songs bleed into each other, layered over one another, with some of them nothing more than snippets (as if some invisible hand is spinning a radio dial) -- might be one of the best releases of his solo career.  Billboard has some backstory for the project, including the 'Mats-like mash-up at the end.

THE TING TINGS played DC's 9:30 Club last night, so you should be able to stream the gig on demand via NPR now.

PAT BEACH, longtime friend of Pate and features writer for the Austin American-Statesman, ran afoul of liberal megasite Daily Kos over a snarky piece he wrote about their convention, which his editor has pulled from the Internet.  Ironically, he called the Kossacks humorless.  Doubly ironic, afaik, he's still a pretty liberal guy, but is getting defended by right-leaning sites like Newsbusters and Michelle Malkin.

JAYHAWKS Gary Louris and Marc Olson both talk to Paste about getting back together and making an album.

BECK has posted the video for "Orphans" from his Modern Guilt album.  No cameo from Cat Power, alas.

THE HOLD STEADY stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via MPR.

JOHN LYDON, a/k/a Johnny Rotten, has responded to allegations of his involvement in a racist assault on Bloc Party's Kele Okereke by saying his accuser is a liar and in need of the publicity.

THE MURCURY PRIZE nominees for 2008 have been announced.

BLACK KIDS and their blog buzz are covered by Reuters. Their debut is streaming for a second week at Spinner.

CHRISTIAN BALE denied allegations of assault made against him by his mother and sister.  Bale voluntarily submitted to police questioning in London on Tuesday and was released without being charged. There are reports circulating that the arrest was for verbal assault, and one of Bale's reps is echoing that. Sources directly connected to the case tell TMZ there was physical contact between Christian and his mom, but it amounted to next to nothing.

ALEC BALDWIN is said to have turned testy when Diane Sawyer had to reschedule an interveiw about his divorce memoir because of her husband Mike Nichols' heart surgery.  But a Baldwin pal sticks up for him: "The interview was rescheduled at least four times. Then the air conditioning wasn't working. Alec was a little annoyed, but not with Diane."

DAVID DUCHOVNY & GILLIAN ANDERSON talk to Dark Horizons about the X-Files movie opening Friday, with observations about Mlder, Scully, etc.

MADONNA was ordered by medical experts to take her foot off the pedal on the punishing dance routines because her body simply cannot cope.

ZACHARY QUINTO talks to Sci-Fi Wire about taking over the role of Spock from Leonard Nimoy in director J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek reboot movie.

MILEY CYRUS denies she is interested in the lead role in "Undiscovered Gyrl," an R-rated movie with nude scenes.

EBERT & ROEPER are to be supplanted by E! Entertainment critic Ben Lyons and Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz on a revamped "At the Movies" aimed at a younger demo.

ESTELLE GETTY of The Golden Girls died Tuesday morning at her Los Angeles home at 84.

OUR FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS have updated their textbooks; they still teach hatred for infidels.

IRAQ's parliament on Tuesday passed a law setting guidelines for provincial elections, despite a boycott by Kurdish lawmakers. Officials have targeted sometime in autumn for the polls, but the political dispute -- coupled with parliament's one-month break beginning July 31 -- makes it unclear when elections could be held. The measure now goes to the country's presidency council. Coalition forces discovered a massive cache of weapons during an operation targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq elements near Samarra that concluded July 19.

A SIX-LEGGED FAWN had one of its two tails removed after being attacked by dogs in Rome, GA.

GUINEA PIGS dress for dinner in Peru.

CANADIANS: Be on the lookout for a cat in a pink dress.

A DEAD HERON is hanging around a tennis tourney in Vancouver.

THE WORLD'S FASTEST SNAIL was crowned at the annual World Snail Racing Championships in Congham, Norfolk.

DR. DOG performs "The Old Days" for the redhead on the Peacock.

NEW RELEASES: Dr. Dog, CSS and compilations of The Individuals and Dio-era Sabbath are among the albums streaming in full this week from Spinner.

PAUL WESTERBERG is offering 49 minutes of music for just 49¢.

CALEXICO debuts a new track, "Two Silver Trees" at Paste magazine.

JOANNA NEWSOM, the best indie harpist evah, plays a new song, after joking, "it's not like people can put recordings of this song and place them in some sort of metaphysical forum for other people to see and comment on."

TODD RUNDGREN's  "pinball-like" career is surveyed by the Houston Chronicle ahead of his next album, Arena.  So here is the Nazz with "Open My Eyes" and Rundgren's classic "Hello, It's Me" for Twofer Tuesday.  BONUS: "We Gotta Get You A Woman" is just audio... but what audio!

BON IVER does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter.

JAMES McMURTRY tells the L.A. Times he now embraces those who describe his music as literary, and explains why he formed a rockin' trio.

FLEET FOXES offer no apologies for drawing on music's past. "We try to draw from the traditions of folk music, pop, choral music and gospel, baroque psychedelic, sacred harp singing, West Coast music, traditional music from Ireland to Japan, and film scores," says frontman Robin Pecknold.

BLACK MOUNTAIN gets some in-depth local vove from the Vancouver Sun.

MADONNA is at the center of a £1million sex-video scandal, according to the uber-reliable Daily Star. A sleazy cameraman is trying to flog a tape he alleges shows the singer romping with US baseball hunk Alex Rodriguez. Legal experts say if his claims are true the lensman could face prosecution for voyeurism and burglary. Meanwhile, friends of Alex Rodriguez claim the Yankee slugger is actually an "emotionally abused" husband whose wife, Cynthia, gave him permission to see other women.

JESSICA SIMPSON, whose debut country performance drew boos at the Country Thunder USA Festival, may also have a sex tape with her ex-husband Nick Lachey, according to the Daily Sport, which I have never heard of before now.

THE DARK KNIGHT is even bigger than thought -- grossing an official $158.3 million over the weekend.  Michael Caine talks to the WaPo about Heath Ledger and more.

CHARLIE SHEEN & DENISE RICHARDS both say they couldn't be happier with the latest courtroom custody battle -- which appears to have to do with the kids "acting out" at home.  Sounds like Sheen is the happier one.

AMY WINEHOUSE didn't turn up to see husband Blake sentenced to 27 months in prison today for grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice.

BILL MURRAY will be skydiving at Chicago's Air & Water Show to bring attention to the USO of Illinois and the work that organization does on behalf of American troops here and overseas.

TOM CRUISE has been asked to dust off his aviator shades for a Top Gun sequel.

PATRICK SWAYZE is looking like his old self again, even in the midst of fighting cancer.

HALLE BERRY offered her first glimpse of daughter Nahla Ariela Aubry since her March 16 birth. Berry never sold sold baby photos.

EBERT & ROEPER are both leaving the "Ebert & Roeper" movie-review show, apparently due to contract problems with Disney. "&" was unavailable for comment at presstime.

THE NAME IS BOND: To celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth, Times Online have created an exclusive 100 year interactive Fleming and Bond timeline. Packed with articles and photography from the Times Archive and the original reviews of Bond novels and films, it shows how closely Bond's fictional life paralleled Fleming's.  BONUS: Sean Connery his son Jason that he would never receive a penny of his £85million fortune.

THE END: Critics from the Times of London pick the best movie endings ever, from E.T. to Casablanca. But be warned -- it does contain spoilers.

IRAN was not being serious at weekend talks about its disputed nuclear program, despite the presence of a senior US diplomat, and may soon face new sanctions, according to Sec of State Condoleezza Rice. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said on Monday that Iran wanted no confrontation over its nuclear program and was optimistic about the future course of the nuclear talks. Iran and the six world powers negotiating a settlement to the standoff over the Islamic state's nuclear program have both requested Turkish help.

IRAQ's government spokesman is hopeful that US combat forces could be out of the country by 2010. The Multi-National Forces (captured on Monday a suspected propaganda specialist of the Hezbollah Organization during a raid in the New Baghdad district.  Iraqi authorities have trained 130 women from Sunni tribes to seek out and prevent attacks carried out by al-Qaeda's aspiring female suicide bombers.  The Counterterrorism Blog looks at whether Iraq remains the "central front" in America's war on terrorism.

FISH PEDICURES: The latest in spa pampering.  Slideshow and video at the link.

FERAL AUSSIE DONKEYS: The key to a better sex life?

SNAKE UNDER THE BED in Montreal.

IGUANA: Exploding in Monroe County, FL.

CURIOUSITY got the cat's head stuck in a Mason jar.

PEARL JAM -- esp. axeman Mike McCready -- rock "The Real Me" at VH1's Rock Honors for The Who.  There are plenty of other clips from the telecast at the link, including Daltrey and Townshend ironically romping through "My Generation."

ROBYN HITCHCOCK performed a set for the World Cafe; you can stream the gig on demand via NPR.  Selections include "I Often Dream of Trains," "Full Moon in My Soul," and various Venus 3 tracks, like "Museum of Sex." and "Ole Tarantula."

CONOR OBERST of Bright Eyes is profiled by London's Independent.

AMOS LEE played a mini-set at NPR's Studio 4A you can stream on demand along with a video of "Truth."  He also answers five questions for the Detroit Free Press.

ANDREW BIRD talks to the Aspen Times, mostly about how influenced he is by living in Chicago: "It's another place, like Minneapolis or Iceland, where in the winter, people have to disappear and make art to avoid going crazy..."

THE HOLD STEADY were not "Sequestered in Memphis," but probably best to not mention where they were.

RHETT MILLER does an interview and mini-set for WHYY's FreshAir.

THE B-52's are profiled by the Times of London as they land on British shores this week for their first UK tour since reforming nine years ago.

LEONARD COHEN is profiled by the Times of London as he embarks on his first British tour in 15 years. 

COURTNEY LOVE claims that Ryan Adams used 858K of Frances Bean Cobain's money to fund his 2003 album Rock n Roll.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  The Dark Knight crushes all competition with 155.3 million in estimated receipts, edging out Spider-Man 3. Among the records broken: biggest midnight show gross; biggest single day gross (Friday); largest number of venues; biggest film for the month of July; biggest comic book adaptation; and biggest three-day opening.  It will also help set a record for the biggest non-holiday weekend overall.  The question of legs will be interesting, given pent-up demand and the possibility that families with young children may be put off by the darker tone of the sequel.  Mamma Mia! placed with 27.6 million -- which is impressive, regardless of TDK, particularly given the tepid reviews.  It could make 100 million domestic.  Hancock and Journey to the Center of the Earth each dropped a notch, but Hellboy II was hammered with a 70 percent drop at the hands of TDK. Hellboy II has a total of 56.4 mill and is now in danger of not reaching its 85 million production budget in theaters.

BRADGELINA: Jolie and her twins left the hospital early Saturday.

SHANNEN DOHERTY is indeed returning to the 90210 reboot, where she will play the director of West Beverly High's musical -- on the show within the show.  A high school musical; how original.

CHRISTIE BRINKLEY, fresh from settling a bitter and very public divorce, attended her first ex Billy Joel's concert at New York's Shea Stadium Friday night.

BRITNEY SPEARS won formalization of increased visitation with her kids, but now must pay Fed-Ex 20K monthly for child support. 

JENNIFER GARNER is pregnant, according to multiple sources.

WATCHMEN: The trailer running before The Dark Knight was linked here Friday; Entertainment Weekly has a "first look" at Zach Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's highly -acclaimed 1986 graphic saga, as well as a backgrounder on the original comic mini-series.

A RELIGION CONFERENCE convened by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for the purpose of gathering together leaders of the world's religions ended on a sour note as Christian and Jewish participants complained that the organizers, the Muslim World League, had too much control over the conference's closing communiqué.

IRAN: High-level international talks on Iran's nuclear program ended inconclusively in Geneva, with European envoy Javier Solana telling reporters that Iran needed to give a more definitive answer within two weeks. European officials said they were disappointed by the Iranian response, believing that Jalili missed a clear opportunity to engage on the substance of their revised proposal. At Iran's 1500th Friday prayer session since the sermons resumed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami gave a typically fiery speech. Worshipers chanted slogans likening the US to the Roman Empire and punctuated the sermon with cries of "Death to America!"

IRAQ's main Sunni Arab bloc rejoined the Shi'ite-led government on Saturday in a breakthrough for national reconciliation after parliament approved its candidates for several vacant ministerial posts. Getting the Accordance Front to return after it quit a year ago has been seen as key to reconciling majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's made comments to Der Spiegel supposedly supportive Barack Obama's 16-month timeframe for a withdrawal from Iraq; a spokesman for al-Maliki later said his remarks "were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately."

ROCCO the BEAGLE, who vanished from his young owner's New York garden five years ago, has been found more than 850 miles away... in Hinesville, GA.

LEOPARD vs. ALLIGATOR: A life-or-death struggle, captured for the first time on camera.

TOAD eats SNAKE: An astonishing picture shows nature working in reverse.

FAMILY DOG saves elderly woman from killer kangaroo.

SNAKE in a WASHING MACHINE: Is that an 8-ft python in your blue jeans? Video at the link.