LUCINDA WILLIAMS played "Protection" with The Roots on the Tonight Show.

JOHNNY MARR is advance streaming Playland via Spotify.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND is releasing a "lost album" as part of the super-deluxe reissue of the third LP. Meanwhile, there's always The Matrix Sampler.

REAL ESTATE's set at the Pitchfork Music Festival is online.

THE BASEBALL PROJECT:  Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, Peter Buck and Linda Pitmon drop by KEXP.

BENJAMIN BOOKER covers Otis Redding and Furry Lewis at Aquarium Drunkard.

STEVIE NICKS drops “Mabel Normand” and “Watch Chain” ahead of 24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault.

SHOCKING BLUE: She's your "Venus."

THE REPLACEMENTS' seminal Let It Be turns 30 today. Get Off My Lawn and read a classic 1986 inteview from Creem.

SPANDAU BALLET is reuniting. Gary Kemp talks aboutwhat the band meant to him with The Guardian.

LINDA THOMPSON writes about Leonard Cohen's Popular Problems. (Thx, LHB.)

GREIL MARCUS talks to Pitchfork about his new book, The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Ten Songs.

MILA KUNIS & ASHTON KUTCHER are the parents of a baby girl.

BRAD PITT says his family makes him the richest man alive. Much like George Bailey, if George Bailey also had millions upon millions of dollars.

ISLA FISHER & SACHA BARON COHEN are expecting their third child.

AMANDA BYNES was kicked out of fashion school.

TRACY MORGAN has relied upon a wheelchair and walker since his accident in June — and his career could be in jeopardy.

JUSTIN BIEBER mixed it up Tuesday with the paparazzi in Paris and appeared to throw a punch during the fracas.

TAYLOR SWIFT is the cover of November's British Vogue.

ETHAN HAWKE is reportedly now the lead candidate to play Marvel's Doctor Strange.

HONG KONG: As China marked its National Day Wednesday, a defiant gathering of thousands of people demanding deeper electoral reforms for the port city cast a shadow over Beijing’s celebration. How defiant? This defiant.

TURKEY: Prime Minister Erdogan said Turkey will fight the Islamic State "and all other terrorist organizations in the region." Turkey is planning to establish safe havens inside northern Syria to protect areas controlled by the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front. The government is also asking Parliamentary approval for deployment of Turkish troops abroad and allowing foreign troop deployments on Turkish territory.

IRAN plans to offer equipment to the Lebanese army to bolster its battle against jihadists, a senior Iranian official said on a visit to Beirut Tuesday.  

IRAQ: Politics are heating up amid the threat from the Islamic State. Meanwhile, the IS is selling ancient Iraqi artifacts in the black market to finance its military operations in the region, Iraqi and Western officials said. The terror group also now controls a large chunk of Iraq’s wheat supplies.

A DOG is rescued from a pool of hot tar.

A COYOTE is recovering after it got stuck in a bumper in north suburban Waukegan, IL.

A HERD OF DEER photobomb a wedding.

EINSTEIN the DOG is running for Mayor of Oakland.