FLEET FOXES played "Mykonos" and "Blue Ridge Mountains" live on a weekend comedy show.

U2 is streaming a new song, "Get Your Boots On," via Last.fm

ANDREW BIRD talks to The A.V. Club about the recording of the Noble Beast album.

MINIPOP did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, three previously unreleased (incl. a Flaming Lips cover).

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE talks to Pitchfork about the new album, an upcoming box set and more... 

EMMY THE GREAT unspools her "First Love" from her upcoming debut album.

JOHNNY MARR takes time from working with Neil Finn and the Cribs to teach the popular-musicology degree course at the University of Salford.

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO talks to Creative Loafing about working with songwriter-guitarist Chuck Prophet (Green On Red) on the Real Animal album.

THE ANNUALS bassist Mike Robinson talks to Mpls CityPages about the year that was and the economic uncertainty to come.

PETE DOHERTY is inspired by the example of Amy Winehouse. Yes, really.

JOAQUIN PHOENIX RAPS: Let's go to the video, or skip to the part where he falls offstage.

BRITNEY SPEARS may be paid £10million to stick her name on a ghost-written autobiography.

TOM CRUISE: Italian publication LeiWeb opened its interview with Cruise by describing all the restrictions imposed by the movie star's publicists, including that the interviewer must have liked Valkryie.

MADONNA will not be happy that these unretouched promo pics have leaked online.

SEAN PENN denies being a stooge for left-wing dictatorships.

BOY GEORGE signs autographs in prison.

FRED AMISEN & ELISABETH MOSS were... wait for it... caught canoodling at the Chateau Marmont.

MISS USA 1991 is joining the adult film industry.

500 DAYS OF SUMMER may be the Zooey Deschanel movie we've been waiting for.

BLACK DYNAMITE, previously spotlighted here, has been picked up for distribution by Sony.

NARNIA: The secret history of why Disney divorced Walden Pictures after the release of Prince Caspian.

THE PRISONER: Why it endures.

AL QAEDA has problems in Pakistan, which is not necessarily the case with the Taliban.

AFGHANISTAN: Most voters in leading European countries believe their governments should resist any request by incoming US President Barack Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan, according to an opinion poll published on Tuesday.

IRAN has renewed efforts to supply advanced weaponry to Hamas and the IDF is concerned that the terror group will try to smuggle long-range Fajr missiles into Gaza.

IRAQ: Positive signs from US invasion of Iraq beginning to be seen.

THE MATRIX KITTEH: Agent Smith = Puppies.

BABY ALBINO HEDGEHOG saved from almost certain death. Awww... some pic at the link.

BABY BLACK RHINO, abandoned by its mother, trots after his keeper all day, scared to let him out of his sight. Pics at the link.

FROGS marry 7-year-old girls in India, do not turn into princes.

A TALENTED GOAT performs during the opening ceremony of the 33nd Monte Carlo International Circus Festival in Monaco, but I'm not sure what its talent is.

HAIL TO THE CHIEF: 70 songs about American presidents, courtesy of The A.V. Club.  Including Devo's "Whip It."  Yes, really.

NEW RELEASES: Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion is streaming in full at NPR. The Bird & the Bee, Bon Iver, A.C. Newman, Matt & Kim, Cut Off Your Hands, Antony & the Johnsons and more are streaming at Spinner. Robert Pollard releases The Crawling Distance (here's a free download).

A.C. NEWMAN got a feature plus tracks from his new solo album on NPR's Day to Day.

THE GOURDS play a mini-set for KUT, streaming as one of NPR's Favorite Sessions.

THE DECEMBERISTS will give you an advance track from their upcoming album in return for your e-mail address.

BEIRUT has a video for "La Llorona" from the upcoming March of the Zapotec EP.

WHAT'S GOING ON: My Morning Jacket's Jim James talks to the Guardian about his favorite album.

OF MONTEAL frontman Kevin Barnes is profiled by Sasha frer-Jones for The New Yorker.

MATT & KIM talk to Pitchfork about mixing art and commece, and mixing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a Red Bull.

LAND OF TALK: Liz Powell is profiled by Carl Wilson for Canada's Globe & Mail.

LINDSAY LOHAN & SAMANTHA RONSON: Together again.

KELLY OSBOURNE has been arrested for allegedly slapping a gossip columnist who called her fiance stupid.

ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. is angry with Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie for making him wear four-inch platforms in his shoes.

MICKEY ROURKE, interviewed by Christopher Walken.  Need I say more?

SEPARATED AT BIRTH: Dyan Cannon and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler.

ADVENTURELAND is among the movies premiering at the Sundance fest this year.  Here's your trailer. 

SPIDER-MAN 4 will begin shooting in 2010, according to J.K. Simmons, a/k/a J. Jonah Jameson.

WATCHMEN, fresh off that lawsuit settlement, launches a new website.

AL QAEDA terrorists died from the plague... or from an experiment gone wrong?

THE STANS: The Pakistani government indefintitely closed the Khyber Pass to NATO supply columns moving into Afghanistan. "We're preparing for an assault."

IRAQ: A man who claimed the People's Mujahideen of Iran trained him to become a suicide bomber turned himself in to Iraqi authorities.

CAT & MOUSE, living together... mass hysteria!

THE PUPS OF WAR, by the British soldier who saved them from horrors of the Afghan front.

HEY, BULLDOG, have you seen 15 pacifiers?

JAVELINA attacks a Dutch tourist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Will it turn up in the Tenenbaums' closet?

CAT SEASON..., Rabbit Season!

U2: "Pride" and "MLK." Crushingly obvious. Have a dream.

SPRINGSTEEN: Born To Promote.  You can advance stream his album via NPR at midnight.

JENNY LEWIS stopped by the World Cafe for a mini-set streaming on demand via NPR.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND: Chris Tomson speculates about the next album at Drowned In Sound.

COURTNEY LOVE: If you're going to make anti-Semitic comments, you may as well make them in Heeb magazine.

DION: A vintage performance of "Abraham, Martin & John."

FRANZ FERDINAND: Singer Will Hodgkinson gets audiobiographical with the Guardian.  Alex Kapranos talks to the Sunday Herald Sun about learning to hold back.

DEPT. OF EAGLES get a meaty writeup in the Boston Globe.

ST. VINCENT: Annie Clark is profiled in the Sydney Morning Herald.

BOOKER T. talks to Billboard about playing with the Drive-By Truckers.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  Paul Blart: Mall Cop makes a surprisingly strong No.1 on a surprisingly strong weekend.  Blart made an estimated 33.8 million, the second biggest January opening ever; the weekend overall was in the Top Ten of all weekends.  Blart has already exceeded its 26 million production budget.  Gran Torino held well in second place, dropping only 25 percent and making 22.2 million.  Newcomers My Bloody Valentine 3-D, Notorious and Hotel For Dogs all opened strongly at 21.9, 21.5 and 17.7 million respectively.  However, the Hotel cost 75 million, which means Dreamworks may have picked the moment when theatergoers are dogged-out to release a dog movie.  Below the fold, Defiance leapt into the eighth slot with 9 million (as against a 50 million budget), while Slumdog Millionaire crept back into the Top Ten.

JOAQUIN PHOENIX has become a rapper.  Yes, really.

BOY GEORGE was sentenced to 15 months in jail for chaining an escort to his bed and beating him.

PATRICK SWAYZE has been released from the hospital, after a brief hospitalization for pneumonia.

WOLVERINE is reportedly having extrensive reshoots, which is probably a good thing, based on prior reports of studio meddling that would have lightened the tone of the movie.

WATCHMEN lawsuit settles. Geeks keep March 6th circled on their calendars. The deal is said to involve a sizable cash payment to Fox and a percentage of the film's boxoffice grosses; Fox will not be a co-distributor on the movie or co-own it.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: On skateboards, as it turns out.

MAD MEN creator Matthew Weiner has cut a two-year deal with Lionsgate TV that will keep him at the helm of his Emmy-winning AMC drama.

AL QAEDA loses at least 40 terrorists to the plague. Bring out your dead!

NORTH KOREA claims to have weaponixed enough plutonium stocks to produce four or five nuclear bombs.

IRAN:  US security and law-enforcement officials say they have fresh evidence of recent efforts by Iran to evade sanctions and acquire metals from China used in high-tech weaponry, including long-range nuclear missiles.

IRAQ: Provincial elections scheduled for Jan. 31 will be the most crucial test so far of Prime Minister al-Maliki's attempt to bolster the central government's authority.  Despite the history of his Dawa party as a Shiite political movement opposed to secular governments, Maliki and his State of Law coalition have avoided overt religious messages in favor of populist promises to improve security and basic services such as water and electricity.

HAMSTER PACKS A CARROT: Let's go to the video.

THE DOG-POWERED SCOOTER is being hailed as the the latest in dog walking technology.  I suspect PETA may feel differently.  Pics and video at the link.

RAPTOR almost eaten by crocodile.

A SERIAL FISH THIEF who officials say reached into a tank, picked up a shark with his bare hands and smuggled it out of a store in his jacket has been arrested in Freeport.

ELEPHANT WELFARE becomes a bone of contention between Lily Tomlin and guitarist Slash.  Yes, really.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

... with R.E.M.!  Live on German TV's Rockpalast circa 1985, more complete than what has previously turned up on the Tube. Songs include "Feeling Gravity's Pull," "Harbourcoat," "Sitting Still," "Maps & Legends," "Fall On Me," "Green Grow The Rushes," "Driver 8," "Hyena," "So. Central Rain," "Have You Ever Seen The Rain," "Can't Get There From Here," "King Of The Road," "Seven Chinese Bros.," "Auctioneer," "Old Man Kinsey," "Little America," "Pretty Persuasion, " "Theme From Two Steps Onward," "Toys In The Attic," and "See No Evil." The site also lists "Second Guessing," "Ghost Riders In The Sky," "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville," "We Walk" and "Paint It Black," but they don't seem to be working.

THE NPR 100: Throughout the year 2000, NPR presented the stories behind 100 of the most important American musical works of the 20th century. They're upgrading it now, including features on "Born To Run" and "Good Vibrations."

MOTOWN AT 50: All Things Considered has a feature with streams of Hitsville USA's overlooked singles.

BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY: Will Oldhan visits WNYC's Soundcheck for a sneak preview of his upcoming Beware album.

THE WALKMEN talk to San Diedo CityBeat about changing up their sound on the You & Me album.

2009 ROCK & ROLL HALL of FAME inductees are Run-DMC, Metallica, Jeff Beck, Bobby Womack and Little Anthony and the Imperials. Unforgivable snubs include The Stooges, Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth and the Replacements.

RYAN ADAMS is blogging about Ménière's disease, which is prompting him to leave the Cardinals and quit blogging.  We'll see.  In the meantime, this end-of-2008 AOL Session may be the last we see of them together for a while.

LAND OF TALK frontwoman Liz Powell talks to Canada's National Post about the new album, BSS and getting a start in the US (including a well-deserved nod to Brooklyn Vegan).

HEARTLESS BAST^RDS:  The L.A. Times has an interview with Erika Wennerstrom and a free download of the single from the band's upcoming album.

STEPHEN MALKMUS talks fantasy basketball. And Scrabble.

CUTOUT BIN: From M Ward to M Python, from T. Rex to Tom Waits to Tommy Tutone, from the Replacements to the Alan Parsons Project, plus Marshall Crenshaw, new Neko Case, Little Anthony & the Imperials, the Georgia Satellites and more   -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases are Hotel For Dogs, which is currently scoring 48 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Paul Blart: Mall Cop, currently scoring 28 percent; My Bloody Valentine 3-D, scoring 83 percent (based on few reviews); and the Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious, scoring 59 percent.  Defiance expands wide and is scoring 54 percent.  Last Chance Harvey expands to about 500 screens and is scoring 71 percent.

AMY WINEHOUSE is reduced to crawling up to holidaymakers and grabbing their drinks, after fed-up resort staff refused to serve her.

BRITNEY SPEARS in the Sex & The City sequel?

JOHHNY DEPP may be marrying longtime girlfriend Vanessa Paradis in the spring.

MICKEY ROURKE discovers that one price of regaining fame is being... wait for it... caught canoodling with Bai Ling.

THE FRENCH HOTEL: Trout pout?

STAR WARS: Retold by someone who hasn't seen it.

STEVE CARELL may do his acting at the Office, but at the general store he just bought, he'll be "manning the cash register, and stocking the shelves as time permits."

MICHAEL CERA seems like the lone holdout on the Arrested Development movie.

AFGHANISTAN: Foreign Policy looks at lessons from the new counterinsurgency field manual and interviews Centcom's Gen. David Petraeus.

IRAN: Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the fighting in Gaza shows that "the continuation of the Zionist regime's life in the region is not feasible."

ROOKIE (and Carolyn Scott) perform "You're The One That I Want."

RSPCA says people who dress up their dogs could be prosecuted. Video at the link.

PET SEMATARY: Cats and men, buried together... mass hysteria.

STOLEN GECKO mysteriously returns to a Toowoomba pet shop.

GOAT burns down the house in Warren County, Iowa.  Owner saved by cat.

THE ACORN video for "Crooked Legs" made the Tube's front page, reminding me that I forgot to post it last month.

JOLIE HOLLAND stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set you can stream via NPR.

THE HOLD STEADY, sans rhythm section, played a stripped-down mini-set at KEXP, streaming via NPR also.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: James Montgomery of MTVNews spends a week with the new Merriweather Post Pavilion album, to see if it lives up to the hype.  The band talks about MPP with The Quietus.

KATHLEEN EDWARDS talks to the Seattle P-I about playing in Afghanistan and a casino.

BODIES OF WATER has a strange, creepy video out for "Under The Pines," from their recent A Certain Feeling album.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT ALBUM? The Guardian Music Blog investigates.

ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS: Frontman Hegarty gets a meaty profile in the Village Voice.

SONIC YOUTH: Thurston Moore says the upcoming album will feature "juicy supersonic songs," whatever that means.

THE ROSEBUDS: Kelly Crisp talks to JamBase about the band's current album. Video at the link, too.

RICARDO MONTALBAN, who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV's "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday morning at his home. He was 88.  Of course, he had a slew of credits, evrything from duteing with Esther Williams on "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to his star turn in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in which he reprised his role as Khaaan! from TOS.

TWINS must be the new thing for celebs, if Lisa Marie Presley and Marcia Cross are any indicator.

BRITNEY SPEARS ran into ex Justin Timberlake at an asian restaurant in West Hollywood Monday night.  The pop wreck is in the process of moving into her sprawling new 8.9-million-dollar Calabasas home.

THE FRENCH HOTEL hid in the bathroom at Creative Artist Agency's big post-Golden Globes bash Sunday night after CAA's Kevin Huvane caught her slipping in uninvited - and loudly demanded she be removed from the Sunset Towers party.

JENNIFER LOPEZ says divorcing Marc Anthony is not an option.

SAMUEL L. JACKSON clearly bristling, said today that negotiations to put him in the role of Nick Fury have broken down because "there seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world."

MICKEY ROURKE & SAM ROCKWELL, otoh, are in talks to star as the villains in "Iron Man 2," being directed by Jon Favreau.  And Emily Blunt has emerged as the frontrunner to play the Black Widow.

PATRICK McGOOHAN, the Emmy-winning actor best known for starring in cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner, has died at the age of 80.  A good reason to remind everyone that you can watch The Prisoner in its entirety online via AMC.

OPRAH loves Kate Winslet's Golden Globes.  And who am I to argue?

AMERICAN IDOL: Ryan Secrest tries to high-five a legally blind contestant.  Ooops.  The show was down about 10 percent in the ratings from last year.

WATCHMEN: A scheduled Tuesday court conference between Fox and Warner Bros. attorneys has been canceled, fueling talk that a settlement in the contentious "Watchmen" case is imminent.

THE PEANUTS CODE: Scholars have analyzed the scores played by the piano-mad Schroeder in "Peanuts" and have found real Beethoven: "If you don't read music and you can't identify the music in the strips, then you lose out on some of the meaning," said William Meredith, the director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University, who has studied hundreds of Beethoven-themed "Peanuts" strips.

OUR FRIENDS, THE SAUDIS: The Kingdom's most senior cleric has told followers it is permissible for ten-year-old girls to marry and anyone who think they are too young are doing the youngsters 'an injustice'.

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan and Coalition forces detained eight Haqqani Network and Taliban fighters during operations in Khost and Kandahar provinces on Jan. 10. The Chaman border crossing in Kandahar reopened for NATO supplies after protests in Pakistan ended. Kyrgyzstan threatened to shut down a key US airbase used by NATO forces in Afghanistan.  BONUS: Afghan Schoolgirls Undeterred by Acid Attack.

FRENCH POLICE DOGS may be tougher than French Police.

PETS Who Want To Kill Themselves.

BRITISH BULLDOGS endangered by new breeding standards.

BIRD DIAPERS spark protest.

FUGITIVE MACAQUE on the loose in Clearwater, FL.