THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE...

...with bootleg video of Robert Pollard playing "Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft" in Lexington, KY. Ken King and I will be seeing him in Chicago tonght.

FRIDAY TIMEWASTER: WEBoggle.

REPLACEMENTS REUNION UPDATE: It looks like the 'Mats recorded two new tracks for the Rhino comp. Pitchfork also has details o­n the forthcoming box set, which looks to have cool video.

MATT POND talks to the Anchorage Daily News about years of touring and improving: "We're getting closer and closer to closing the distance between who we are and what we mean to say or mean to play." You can stream a few of Matt Pond PA's indie pop tunes via MySpace.

BONO was thought to be the front-runner in a multi-million pound deal to buy a stake in the back catalog of Nirvana from Courtney Love. But it's been sold to Larry Mestel of Primary Wave Music Publishing, former COO/GM of Virgin Records.

BLAKE SENNETT, like a lot of people, likes sad lyrics and happy music. You can stream four and download o­ne from The Elected (his non-Rilo Kiley project) at MySpace.

SCOTT McCAUGHEY, touring with (as) the Minus 5, says the band is backing Robyn Hitchcock and John Wesley Harding o­n their next albums. And he's apparently not done with the Young Fresh Fellows, either...

50 BANDS, 50 FREE MP3s: Stereogum hooks you up to plenty 'o' indie goodness, including tracks from Rogue Wave, Neko Case, Drive-By Truckers, Shearwater, Starlight Mints, Exene Cervenka, Saturday Looks Good To Me and many more. Scroll down into the comments and you'll even find a link for The Pushtwangers, the Swedish band Music Works vets will remember for their album with the peel-off dress.

SEEN YOUR VIDEO: The Flaming Lips drop the video for "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song." The song is from the upcoming At War With the Mystics, which London's Guardian really likes, but the Village Voice really doesn't. And I just found an alternate video of "Bohemian Rhapsody" from the crowd o­n a cruise ship, with better audio than the SXSW version.

ROBERT CHRISTGAU doesn't review the Flaming Lips in his latest Consumer Guide, but you'll want to read it, anyway.

ARCTIC MONKEYS not o­nly have a new EP ready to go, but also have about ten more songs ready for the second album.

CENTRO-MATIC: "Patience for the Ride," from Fort Recovery, makes Song of the Day at NPR.

QUARTERLY REPORT: I view part of my mission here as making aging hipsters seem less pathetic. Thus, three months into 2006, I check in with Metacritic's top-scorers to date and find that I have done fairly well at keeping y'all abreast of what's now and happening in the world of music.

PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer has gone through eight old Jaguars in eight weeks. He parks them illegally and buys a new o­ne when they get towed.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Beau (and co-star) Rupert Friend drank up a storm at her birthday party and he's reportedly taking her o­n a month-long drinking binge around the US as a gift.

NOW SHOWING: This week's wide releases are the sequel Ice Age: The Meltdown (currently 61 percent Fresh o­n the Tomatometer), the B-movie homage Slither (a surprising-to me 88 percent Fresh), the Southern coming-of-age drama ATL (57 percent Rotten overall, but 64 percent Fresh with the "Cream of the Crop" critics) and Basic Instinct 2 (11 percent Rotten) which is opening o­n a mere 1,453 screens. Two rockumentaries, Awesome: I F%!#in' Shot That (The Beastie Boys, as recorded by fans) and The Devil and Daniel Johnston, which I mentioned yesterday, open in very limited release.

WHITNEY HOUSTON: In the wake of yesterday's cracktastic tabloid headlines, it's no shock to discover that the singer is broke and evicted.

NAOMI CAMPBELL with echoes of Russell Crowe, is arrested and charged with felony assault for allegedly attacking her housekeeper with a cellphone.

GWYNETH AND GUINNESS: Some were agape at the pregnant Paltrow downing a pint at a hip NYC sushi bar. But some experts recommend a little Guinness for expecting mothers, because of the brew's high iron content.

STACEY'S MOM will probably be a free woman by the time you read this.

SIENNA MILLER, naked with another woman and a couple of horses? What more could anyone ask for, except a link to the NSFW video?

BRITNEY SPEARS: Ex-beau Justin Timberlake believes that Spenderline is "gross," according to Star magazine. Really going out o­n a limb for that o­ne, Justin.

CARS: The next feature from Pixar -- o­nce rumored to be a troubled production -- gets a good advance review from an attendee at ShoWest.

LOVE MONKEY: The show about a 30-something music scout that o­nly I watched will be seen o­n VH1 in April.

LOST fans will be poring over this diagram like it's the Rosetta Stone.

MATT LeBLANC: Series cancelled, marriage cancelled. He won't be there for you.

VICTORIA SILVSTEDT: No, the Victoria's Secret supermodel didn't visit the trout pout doctor -- that's the work of a hockey puck.

CHARLIE SHEEN is miffed that people don't buy his 9/11 conspiracy theories. He says: "Do a little research o­n Building Seven. Building Seven lives at the epicenter of my entire debate." Okay, having read the interim report o­n Building Seven from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (previewed here) and discussion of the issue by folks who know physics and engineering, I conclude that Sheen is still a wackjob. Sheen adds: "A CNN poll at the time of this writing currently sits at 84 percent IN SUPPORT of my views." He's referring to a poll o­n the CNN website, which has no scientific validity -- big surprise there. Chuck, folks aren't pointing out that you were expelled from high school to avoid the issue, but to point out that people with expertise in physics, engineering, etc. are more qualified than you to render opinions about what causes a building to collapse. To put it in terms Sheen would understand, "Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here."

NANOTECH is already a part of 200 everyday items.

CULT OF THE iPod: Fearing lawsuits over lost hearing, Apple issued a software update Wednesday for the Nano and the video iPod that allows users to set how loud their digital music players can go.

IRAQ: The Iraqi commander during a controversial raid by American and Iraq forces says accusations that US forces killed innocent civilians in Sunday's raid o­n a building in Baghdad were "not true." A Soldier's Dad looks at a map of the violence in Baghdad and finds it decreasing and concentrated in specific neighborhoods.

CARTOON JIHAD: A group of 27 Danish Muslim organizations have filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper that first published the carricatures of Prophet Muhammed. Borders and Waldenbooks, fearing for the safety of their customers and employees, will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains the cartoons.

A PURPLE POLAR BEAR and a pink dolphin are among Hemmy's Top Ten Strangest Animals.

SQUIRREL steals a college student's ID card. The student's complaint irks a bureaucrat with Residential Life. The good news? I just saved a lot of money o­n car insurance.

ROBOT MOOSE: Bullwinkle nabs a man attempting to kill an endangered species. Nothing up my sleeve... presto!

A BENGAL TIGER weighing 300 pounds or more stalks Cullman County, Alabama.

PUPPY RESCUE: Chicago firefighters broke through a 10-inch concrete wall to rescue a puppy trapped between two downtown buildings.

DON'T PLAY WITH YOUR SNAKE while driving.