BRIAN FALLON (The Gaslight Anthem) joins BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN on "No Surrender."

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO is advance streaming Street Songs of Love.

WOLF PARADE is advance streaming Expo 86.

THE ROOTS are advance streaming How I Got Over, with cameos from Joanna Newsom, My Morning Jacket's Jim James, and the ladies of the Dirty Projectors.

THE WATSON TWINS play a short set on the Mountain Stage.

INXS: "Don't Change," live at the US Festival.

STARS frontman Torquil Campbell gives the National Post a track-by-track tour of The Five Ghosts.

LATE BLOOMERS: The National, the Hold Steady and Spoon are profiled by CNN.

BILLY BRAGG: Consequence of Sound delves into the history of "St. Swithin's Day." (Thx, LHB.) 

THE GOLDEN AGE Of Hipper-Than-Thou CD Fetishization Begins Now.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Toy Story 3 easily took the weekend with 109 million, roughly in line with predictions.  It's the biggest Pixar opening ever (since The Incredibles which opened at 70 million), the biggest June opening ever (edging Transformers 2) and may save the summer for cineplexes.  It may also be the first serious Oscar contender of the year.  The Karate Kid reboot drops 48 percent and takes in 29 million -- which is actually pretty good considering the competition.  It passed the 100 million mark on a 40 million budget.  The A-Team drops 46 percent and makes 13.8 million, but will be lucky to recoup its 100 million budget domestically.  Get Him To The Greek holds the fourth slot, and its 47 million total passes its budget (excluding marketing, prints, etc.).  Shrek Forever After drops two slots to round out the Top Five; its 65 percent drop at the hands of Toy Story 3 is pretty severe, but the studio isn't going to weep over 223 million in domestic receipts.

TOY STORY 3 may not be Pixar's best, but it exceeded my expectation, which was that the emotional theme of abandonment had been thoroughly mined in the first two installments.  Some reviewers suggested that this one might succumb to the temptation of so many sequels to overstuff the film with new characters and action, but I don't think the new characters detracted from a focus on Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the original cast.  Other reviewers pegged this as a Pixar version of a Dreamworks animated flick -- and while the Ken and Barbie material edged a bit in that more kitschy direction, the Pixar team largely hewed to to the sincere approach that is the studio's hallmark.  Indeed, when things are at their bleakest for our heroes, you realize what an achievement it has been for Pixar to get people so invested in CGI versions of plastic toys.  "Story" is there in the title, but as always, it's characterization and tone that elevate the movie above the competition (looking decidedly second-rate in the previews).

MICHAEL JACKSON's mother Katherine talks to the Mirror a year on from the star's death.

JEREMY LONDON's wife was in the car with him when he was "kidnapped" and his alleged abductor gave her a ride home during the alleged crime, according to RadarOnline.

JESSE JAMES is moving to Austin at the end of July ... partly so his children can continue their relationship with Sandra Bullock.

LINDSAY LOHAN is off the hook with the L.A. County Probation Department for the whole SCRAM thing earlier this month ... because she tested clean.

GARY COLEMAN was cremated.

IRAN's new revolutionary politics.

AFGHANISTAN: Violence increased dramatically in the first four months of this year, according to the UN. Of course, that tends to happen when there's more fighting.

IRAQ: With US soldiers pulling out over the next 18 months, the Pentagon is getting rid of the fixtures and fittings of the bases they live in, some of it at auction, some bound for the black market.

HARVEY the CAT is not that into you.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT is stimulated with 1.25 million dollars in rope bridges for Arizona.

THREE RARE BIRDS OF PREY now nest at Three Mile Island.

PYTHON in a washing machine.

ALLIGATOR caught with bare hands by a reptile wrangler in Ohio.