THE SPINTO BAND is poppy as ever on "Summer Grof," an advance clip from the forthcoming Spinto Band release, Moonwink.

THE RACONTEURS' Brendan Benson talks to Newsweek about the surprise release of the band's new album, his iPod Nano commercial commercial, and more...

SHE & HIM fill out a questionnaire for Canada's Exclaim!  What are your current fixations? She: Bobbie Gentry, Marvin Gaye, pumpkin seeds. Him: The Louvin Brothers.  You can stream their album in full via Merge.

GARY LOURIS:  The ex-Jayhawk tells The Phoenix his goal as a solo artist is "to make more records more often. I have a lot of material, and I'm just trying to figure out the musical waters here."

SONS & DAUGHTERS, known for dark folk-punk, have brought in strains of '60s pop and garage rock for their new album, influenced by producer and ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler (who is also mentoring Duffy).  You can stream a bunch of tracks via S&DSpace.

THE ROLLING STONES perform "Ruby Tuesday" on a show whose copyright holder is usually more vigilant.

JULIANA HATFIELD is blogging about her guilt, shame, and embarrassment at being part of a system that exploits women/people and their art -- and taking a blowtorch to MTV's The Hills (and herself for watching it).

BELL X1 stopped by The Current for a chat and mini-set you can stream on demand via MPR.

THE CURRENT has shrun its playlist as its ratings have delined, according to the Mpls City Pages.

TUPAC SHAKUR:  The L.A. Times will launch an internal investigation into the authenticity of documents used in a story last week asserting that the newspaper had uncovered new evidence implicating associates of rap impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs in a bloody 1994 assault on the hip-hop superstar, after the celebrity-centric website, The Smoking Gun, posted a story saying the records -- purportedly statements by an unnamed informant to an FBI agent, which the newspaper posted on its website -- appeared to be forgeries.

RICHIE SAMBORA is off the wagon and arrested for DUI in Laguna Beach.  The Bon Jovi axeman may be criminally charged with child endangerment because his 10-year-old daughter Ava and another juvenile in the car (along with another adult).

ROBIN WILLIAMS and Marsha Garces Williams, married in April 1989, are splitting up.  Williams had dumped his first wife for Garces, who had worked for Williams as a nanny and personal assistant.

TOM-KAT UPDATE:  Katie Holmes is finally cracking under the strain of life with Tom Cruise, according to the ever-reliable Star magazine, which tells of increasingly common fainting spells.

BRITNEY SPEARS seems to be reporting to work, making regular visits with her sons and focused on taking her life back.  So perhaps it's no coincidence that the paparazzi are moving on, perhaps to Miley Cyrus.

RICHARD WIDMARK, who made a sensational film debut as the giggling killer in "Kiss of Death" and appeared in some 40 films, including "Judgment at Nuremberg," "How the West Was Won," and  "Murder on the Orient Express," died after a long illness. He was 93.

KATE MOSS reportedly is set to wed her rocker boyfriend Jamie Hince.  The supermodel reportedly told fans the pair were going to 'get married' as they enjoyed a trip to Amsterdam.

THE McCARTNEYS:  Heather Mills is trying to prove Sir Paul is worth much more than the £400million he claimed in their divorce battle.  Mills also has told friends she cannot look after their daughter Beatrice on £35,000 a year, the sum awarded at the High Court.

ISLAMISM in the UK:  A new study suggests as many as 4000 Muslim teens and young adults simply vanish every year -- forced into arranged marriages by family members through abduction, rape, and threat of death.

IRAQ:  Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave gunmen in the southern oil port of Basra three days to surrender their weapons and renounce violence as clashes between security forces and Shiite militia fighters erupted for a second day.  Moqtada al-Sadr has demanded that the country's prime minister leave Basra.  Bill Roggio notes that the current Iraqi offensive has been anticipated for some time. The Iraqi Army and police have been massing forces in the South since August 2007, when the Basra Operational Command was established to coordinate efforts in the region. As of December the Iraqi Army deployed four brigades and an Iraqi Special Operations Forces battalion in Basra province. The Iraqi National Police deployed two additional battalions to the province.  Armed clashes have resumed in Sadr City, stronghold of the Sadrist movement in Baghdad, between Iraqi and US forces on one side and militants on the other, while US helicopters shelled the city of Tikrit.  NPR has started a series on the Major Crimes Task Force -- Iraq's first professional investigative agency, which takes on the politically explosive cases no one else will touch.

PANDA SEXERCISE:  Zoo keepers at the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Centre in the Sichuan province, South West China, are putting their charges through a rigorous exercise scheme - mainly involving apples - with the aim of improving their mating skills.  Let's go to the video.

PETRA UPDATE:  The black swan who once fell in love with a swan-shaped paddleboat has been dumped by her beau, and is reuiniting with the boat on Friday.

FISH may be able to count, but scientists are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves by swimming into a net when they hear a tone that signals feeding time.

SNAKE in a KITCHEN:  A Belfast woman got more than she bargained for when she reached for a bin bag under her kitchen sink.  Karen Kennedy and her fiance both thought the other was playing a practical joke.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT:  These sneaky, militant rodents socially-network better than Kevin Bacon.