GEORGE HARRISON & ERIC CLAPTON: "Taxman" in Tokyo.  Obvs.

NEW RELEASES: Albums from The Kooks, Laura Cantrell, Cloud Cult, Phantom Planet, M83, Brian Scary, The Duke Spirit and more are streaming in full this week via Spinner.  Black Francis has a new mini-LP and only Svn Fngrs.

CANDIE PAYNE is among the British lady singers in a fashion spread for Paper Magazine.  Frank Yang and I share a moment of blog love for Payne at Chromewaves, which will hook you up with the A/V linkage.  Frank notes that the fab Duffy is left out, but she's talking to icWales and the Sydney Morning Herald.

AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB frontman Mark Eitzel talks about the new album and new bandmates with Prefix.

NEW PORNOGRAPHERS frontman AC Newman tells Billboard the next album will be more "rock" and that he's also writing solo material; "On my own records, I'm kind of left to my own devices. That can be both good and bad."  He also talks to Columbus Alive about starting in on new stuff right after the band finishes this tour: "Things change when it becomes your job. There's a lot more to lose now."

RICK ASTLEY:  The Times of London reports that the RickRolling phenomenon continues to spread, most recently hitting London's Liverpool St. station and -- an ocean away -- Mets Stadium.  Astley talks to the Times about the phenom: "Rick Astley brand? I'm not really aware that there is one. I know I'm on YouTube a lot, but that wave will die down and then there will be a headless chicken or something else. It's just the way life is."

KAKI KING played the Abbey Bar for WXPN in Harrisburg, PA, so you can stream the gig on demand via NPR.  She was also profiled by USA Today.

PITCHFORK: London's Guardian revisits the "Pitchfork Effect" of a good or bad review from the influential indie music site: "Wikipedia notes that for Australian band Jet's second album, Shine On, 'Pitchfork Media posted a totally anomalous review containing only a video clip of a chimpanzee urinating in its own mouth.'"  Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) talks to the Times of London about personally feeling the Effect: "That day was insane. It tipped things over the edge. My manager was taking calls in the shower. I'd go for a p*ss and come back to 50 e-mails in my inbox."  The Chicago Tribune watches Pitchfork.tv as part of a new wave of online video that, instead of the catchall model of YouTube, aims for a niche.

BILLY BRAGG talks to the NYDN about whether his new LP shows signs he has mellowed: "I'm 50 now. You have to change. Otherwise, it would be like me always walking around in skateboard clothes. It doesn't go very well with the gray sideburns..."

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE!  Just when you thought we were done with all that comes word that the supposedly sober supermodel is sending video messages to the troubled singer in Wormwood Scrubs prison.  Doherty is receiving five-star treatment despite prison overcrowding, angering other lags.

MARILYN MONROE: An illicit copy of a steamy, still-FBI-classified movie reel - 15 minutes of 16mm film footage in which the original blond bombshell performs a lewinsky on an unidentified man - was just sold to a New York businessman for 1.5 million dollars.

ASHLEE SIMPSON is pregnant, according to US and OK! magazines.  Fiancee Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy denied the rumors, telling MTV: "There is a witch hunt for people to be pregnant whenever they get engaged in Hollywood."  Ashlee and pneumatic sister Jessica were not talking to the press.

WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE:  Police have recommended to prosecutors that Richie Sambora be charged with DUI and child endangerment - both as misdemeanors - stemming from his March 25 arrest, says a source close to the case.  Sorces tell TMZ, however, that "a significant number of officers" inside the department feel there's no evidence of child endangerment. There was no smell of alcohol on his breath, and no evidence of dangerous or erratic driving.

GERARD BUTLER (300) vehemently denies that he and Cameron Diaz are hooking up.

HAYDEN PANETIERRE has confessed becoming a star as the Heroes cheerleader has turned her into a virtual recluse.

MEGAN FOX will be topless and have a catfight in her underwear in the upcoming Jennifer's Body.  Bitten & Bound reminds us that Fox is aptly named.  Call it Gratuitous Tuesday.

VANITIES GIRLS:  Vanity Fair has a slideshow of the up-and-coming actresses' 50s-style pinup shots the mag has run since 2006, including Kristen Bell in the May issue. Call it Gratuitous Twofer Tuesday.

THE STANS: Al Qaeda and the Taliban on the Afghan-Pakistani border are increasingly facing pressure on two fronts and they can be squeezed with more coordination between the neighbors, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher told a news conference in Kabul. on Monday.

IRAN:  The nation's most senior dissident cleric has lashed out at the country's ruling Islamic establishment, accusing it of imposing dictatorship and violating the rights of its people in the name of Islam.  A top Iranian official on Sunday abruptly canceled a meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, dealing a blow to the UN monitor's efforts to investigate allegations that Iran tried to make nuclear arms, an agency official said.  The US and Iran have been conducting secret back-channel discussions on Tehran's nuclear program and frozen relations between the two countries for the past five years, The Independent reported Monday.  However, the US State Dept was equally emphatic that the talks described in the article were "not a government activity," but instead "a set of private discussions."

IRAQ: US and Iraqi forces plan to stay put in a southern sector of Baghdad's Sadr City where they are battling militiamen rather than push deeper into the Shiite bastion, a top US general said on Monday.  "My aim is to push the 107-mm rockets out of range," Gen. Jeffrey Hammond told a group of journalists.  However, the Iraqi govt has committed to wresting Sadr City from the control of Shia militias, an Iraqi government spokesman and a US military spokesman said in a press briefing Sunday in Baghdad.  Humanitarian and reconstruction aid to Sadr City and other Shia neighborhoods have been committed in the wake of operations. Refugees International claims in a new report that the Iraqi govt's inability to provide basic services for its displaced citizens has attracted the attention of Sunni and Shiite militias, who are stepping in to provide food, oil, electricity, clothing and money. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is demanding the Iraqi govt reinstate all security forces fired for deserting during fighting in Basra.  A chief of a renegade group of Mahdi army militia reiterated on Monday their rejection to handing heavy weapons over to government forces, noting his movement arms would be "stashed to fight the occupier."

COWS stare unamazed as dairy farmer Rob Taverner performs Tai Chi in front of them every morning to get them in the right moo-d to produce lots of milk.

NEWBORN BROWN BEAR CUBS seen in Stockholm.  Awww...

GOOSEANDER CHICK climbs on its mom's back when it tires of swimming.  Awww...

MILLIPEDE INVASION causes three villages in north-west Scotland to impose a wartime-style "blackout."

MONKEY CHEWED COFFEE:  De-Lish!  Story and video at the link.