THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with ELTON JOHN! Half of a live show captured by the OGWT on Christmas Eve, 1974.  Your setlist includes: "Grimsby" (incompete), "Rocket Man," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Daniel," Grey Seal,"  "Bennie And The Jets," "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," "I Saw Her Standing There," "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me," "Honky Cat," "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting," "Crocodile Rock," "The B^tch Is Back," "Your Song," and "White Christmas."

NICK LOWE & LOS STRAITJACKETS stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set, including "Peace Love & Understanding," dedicated to the late Ian McLagan.

THE NEW BASEMENT TAPES: Elvis Costello, T-Bone Burnett, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons), Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops) and Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes) stopped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a session.

SPOON stopped by WFUV Live for a chat and mini-set.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED surveys The Year In Music.

QUARTERBACKS drop "Center" ahead of their self-titled debut.

THE KINKS, with the evergreen "Father Christmas."

BILLY BRAGG writes about the late Ian McLagan at The Guardian.

PATTERSON HOOD talks to the Florence Times-Daily about playing solo in the Shoals. (Thx, LHB.)

THE BEST ALBUM COVERS of 2014, according to Pitchfork.

TEN THINGS you should know about The Trashmen.

THE CUTOUT BIN takes a hiatus this week, as I recover from a cold.

NOW SHOWING: The Pyramid is the only major release this weekend, on only 550 screens, scoring 20 percent on the ol' Tomatometer.  This is typical for the post-Thanksgiving frame, a lull before the holdiday season kicks off with Exodus: Gods and Kings and Top Five.

TERMINATOR GENISYS has a trailer online.

SPECTRE will be the title of the 24th official James Bond film, which announced its cast yesterday.

BILL COSBY's lawyers have struck back at one of his accusers in court, declaring that she tried to extort him for a quarter-million dollars and that she attempted to sell her story to a tabloid a decade ago.

MARIAH CAREY's NBC performance Wednesday night was...Oof!

TYLER PERRY and his longtime girlfriend, Gelila Bekele, welcomed their first child, son Aman Tyler Perry, last Sunday.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH is officially cast as Marvel's Doctor Strange.

RYAN REYNOLDS is closing a deal on Deadpool, the character he originated in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

DECEMBER 7, 1941: A "date which will live in infamy." I'll be watching Tora! Tora! Tora! this weekend. BTW, the first nation invaded by the US after entering WWII was Morocco, then Algeria, iirc. War is strange.

THE ISLAMIC STATE has set up training camps in eastern Libya and the American military is closely monitoring the situation. After hree months of U.S.-led air strikes, Islamic State fighters have surrendered little of their self-declared caliphate to the broad sweep of forces arrayed against them.

IRAQ: The heads of two prominent Sunni Anbar tribes expressed unease about the prospect of cooperating with the US against the Islamic State, and repeated calls for the Iraqi government to support them with funds, weapons, and ammunition.

AFGHANISTAN: A Pentagon report on the green-on-blue attack in Afghanistan in August that killed a US general and wounded 16 Coalition troops found no evidence that the attack was instigated by the Taliban, but faulted Afghan officials for lack of cooperation with the investigation.

YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER: Let's go to the video.

ELECTRIC EELS work like Tasers.

A PIGLET was rescued from the sea by the RSPCA.

THE IKEA MONKEY is looking for a new home.