10, 20, 30, 40... Sonic Youth perform "Bull in the Heather."

THE BEES (UK), a/k/a Band of Bees, has been getting some good blog buzz for Octopus, which has yet to be released in the States. But thanks to blogs like Neiles Life, you can stream tracks like the soulful "Listening Man," and "Got to Let Go," as well as the more folksy "Love In The Harbour" now.

THE ARCADE FIRE: "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations," the second track from their upcoming Neon Bible LP, leaked when the band's label mistakenly posted it o­n iTunes.

BOXING DAY: At Chromewaves, Frank served up plenty of audio and video to match his pickups at post-Christmas sales, including Richard Buckner, Great Lake Swimmers, Mazzy Star and more.

SEASON of the LIST: I fell behind in noting the artist Top Tens from Filter, including Isobel Campbell, Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura, Metric, the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Annie Hardy from Giant Drag, Matt Pond of Matt Pond PA, and We Are Scientists.

JAMES BROWN: At Slate Jody Rosen argues that: "No other musician

KENNY ROGERS & THE FIRST EDITION: I could say that "I Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Was In," but you can probably already guess I was in a Big Lebowski kinda mood. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

MORE JAMES BROWN: Though I covered his death yesterday, he's legendary, so let's add a remembrance from saxophonist Maceo Parker at NPR, Glide magazine's compilation of James Brown's greatest quotes, USA Today's critic's guide to the best of JB and -- courtesy of WFMU -- six hours of streaming audio from a show that aired (ironically) o­n Christmas Day 2001.

SEASON of the LIST: Stereogum's Gummy Awards includes a Top 30 Albums list, Most Over-blogged bands of the year, and more. Other notable blogger lists include the Top 15 at Each Note Secure, the countdown at Harmonium, and the Top 15 at Skatterbrain.

THE YEAR AHEAD: Drowned in Sound takes a look at 2007's early releases, while Canada's Gazette lists Montreal bands you don't want to miss. Both have links to MySpace pages for the artists named.

MY SPACE: Speaking of which, New West ran a piece this month o­n how the social-networking site is changing the face of music in spots as remote as Missoula, MT. (Thanks, Coolfer.) Even after all these years, the mere mention of Missoula makes me think of the tragic death of Maddie Ferguson.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS promise a "speaker blowing" LP this Spring. In the meantime, we can enjoy the channel-surfing clip for "Rings Around The World" again.

LOVE TRACTOR put out a Christmas album! Who knew!?

TV o­n the RADIO, whose The Return to Cookie Mountain is o­ne of 2006's best-reviewed albums, played the World Cafe last week, so you can stream an interview and performance via NPR.

THE DECEMBERISTS' Chris Funk tells Jambase that for all of the band's Victorian image and frontman Colin Meloy's vocabulary, Meloy's tone and style "probably come from a healthy dose of Robyn Hitchcock and The Replacements."

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer and supposedly sober supermodel are rumored to be getting hitched Friday in a civil ceremony in West London.

BRADGELINA: Jolie and Pitt spent Christmas handing out gifts to mostly Columbian refugee children in Costa Rica.

GERALD R. FORD, the 38th president of the United States, has died at age 93, according to a statement issued late last night by his wife, Betty Ford. The statement did not say where or when Ford died or list a cause of death. Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments including an angioplasty and a pacemaker implant in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

JAMES BROWN: Lawyer Buddy Dallas locked Tomi Rae Hynie out of the late singer's South Carolina home amid questions of whether she was legally married to Brown.

JACKO is suing his former accountants, claiming they withdrew millions from his bank accounts but did not properly pay his bills.

BRITNEY SPEARS has lost another publicist -- Sonia Muckle, a flack at Spears's label, who was serving as a temp after Spears dropped Leslie Sloane Zelnik. Muckle insists that her departure is totally unrelated to Spears' recent antics.

DENISE & HEATHER & RICHIE & CHARLIE (maybe DAVID): Denise Richards is denying recent rumors of her engagement to Richie Sambora.

GRINDHOUSE: A trailer for the upcoming Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino double-feature is o­nline, with all of the guns, blood, hot rods and flaming motorcycles that you would expect. Plus, Rose McGowan with a machine-gun leg.

DICK CLARK: As health questions dog the o­nce-seemingly ageless mogul, Carson Daly and Ryan Seacrest are trying hard not to look like they want to take his place o­n New Year's Eve.

FELICITY HUFFMAN is offering sex tips in her new book, A Practical Handbook For The Boyfriend.

THE TEN BEST TEN BEST LISTS at Best Week Ever are all pretty good, but my fave is "The 10 Best Celebrity Trends of 2006," which begins its countdown with "Acting All Gay With Jake Gyllenhaal." NTTAWWT.

THE 2006 HOT 100 Girls of Maxim magazine would be better described as women. Just a little something to get us to the end of the year.

THE 50 GREATEST CARTOONS, as voted by folks in the animation industry in 1994, with plenty of video found by Cityrag for 2006. While Daffy Duck is well-represented, some of the Disney clips have been yanked from YouTube for legal reasons, though you might find Donad Duck in "Der Fuehrer's Face" elsewhere o­n the 'net. And though I get why animation folks would name the first Max Fleischer Superman cartoon, I would pick "The Mechanical Monsters."

BRITAIN and FRANCE are both o­n high terror alert.

IRAQ: Parents of slain GIs traveled to Iraq, where they found the Kurds still welcome Americans as liberators. Iraq's highest appeals court upheld Saddam Hussein's death sentence and said he must be hanged within 30 days, which unfortunately may moot his second and subsequent genocide trials for crimes committed against the Kurds and ohters. Naturally, The New York Times is more concerned about Kurdish prison conditions. Meanwhile, British forces raided the HQ of a rogue police unit in Basra o­n Christmas morning to free prisoners who were about to be executed and showed signs of torture. Bill Roggio, still blogging from Camp Fallujah, writes that politicians and tribal leaders in Anbar province are very concerned that the Iraq Study Group report spells the end of the US presence in western Iraq.

IRAN has jailed about 600K people this year, was found by a US District Court to be partly to blame for a 1996 terrorist attack that killed 19 Americans in Saudi Arabia, may be stealing local elections won by less extreme candidates, plans to announce that it has enriched uranium using 3,000 centrifuges, and looks to be trying to destabilize Afghanistan.

SOMALIA: Al Qaeda

WHAT TIME IS IT? IT'S STAR TIME!

JAMES BROWN -- "The Godfather of Soul," "The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business," "Soul Brother Number o­ne," and "The Minister of New New Super Heavy Funk" -- passed away in the early hours of Christmas Day of heart failure after being hospitalized with pneumonia. Everyone from the Rev. Al Sharpton (who toured with Brown in the 70s) to Little Richard to Pres. Bush paid tribute to the man who was to rhythm and dance music what Bob Dylan was to lyrics. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson, among others. Songs such as David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based o­n Brown's rhythms and vocal style. You could build a case that Brown is also the "Godfather of Disco," the "Godfather of Rap" and the "Godfather of Funk" because his electrifying beats powered many of those genres. Or as Brown himself put it, "I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know."

Born in 1933, JB grew up in a house of ill repute and learned to sing gospel in reform school after breaking into a car in 1949. Following his release, he joined a group led by Bobby Byrd that would eventually became the Flames. Brown started o­n drums and shared vocals with others, but soon became the frontman with his trademark frenetic dance moves. Decades of hits would follow 1956's "Please Please Please," including 1962's "Night Train," 1964's "Out of Sight," 1965's o­ne-two punch of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (Part I)" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and 1966's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World." (here's more live JB circa 1966.) From there, he would o­nly get funkier, with tracks like "Cold Sweat," "Mother Popcorn" and "Say it Loud

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE...

...with BILLY MACK! Because "Christmas Is All Around."

NORAD will be tracking Santa Sunday night, per usual.

SEASON of the LIST: PopMatters has its Best of 2006 in many genres, some of which (like the Best Albums list) heve embedded videos. Glide lists 40 Essential Songs of 2006, while some very naughty person has zipped up Pitchfork's Top 100 tracks.

THE DECEMBERISTS-STEVEN COLBERT DUEL came to a head the other night -- with cameos including Robert Schneider of Apples In Stereo, Henry Kissinger and at least o­ne of Rick Nielsen's guitars -- so you can (and should) stream it from Comedy Central now. Decemberists' keyboardist Jenny Conlee talked about the greenscreen challenges at StarWars.com.

A GREENER SHADE OF PALE: Matthew Fisher, the original organist for Procol Harum, has been awarded 40 percent of the copyright of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by a British judge: "I find that the organ solo is a distinctive and significant contribution to the overall composition and, quite obviously, the product of skill and labour o­n the part of the person who created it." Lead singer Gary Brooker is not pleased and will appeal the ruling.

SISTER VANILLA is reuniting the Jesus & Mary Chain gang and adding Linda Reid, Jim and William's younger sister. You can stream a track from their label's website. (thx Chromewaves.)

THE WHO brought their tour to the Twin Cities, so the local media turns to interview -- o­nstage, no less -- Pate bassist Mike Kelly and his son, Sean.

THE HOLIDAY BIN: Your stocking stuffers from the ol' Hype Machine include: Sufjan Stevens - Come o­n! Lets Boogey to the Elf Dance!; Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Christmas All over Again; Yo La Tengo - Rock N Roll Santa; Liz Phair - Winter Wonderland; Fats Domino - Frosty the Snowman; Okkervil River - Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas; Otis Redding - Merry Christmas, Baby; Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home); The dB's - Feliz Navidad; Brenda Lee - Jingle Bell Rock; Tom Lehrer - (I'm Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica; The LeeVees - Applesauce vs. Sour Cream; Jon Fursh - Latkelicious; Bruce Springsteen - Santa Claus is Coming to Town; Rev. Horton Heat - Santa o­n the Roof; James Brown - Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto; Elvis Presley - Santa Claus Is Back In Town; The Boy Least Likely To - Little Donkey; The Ronettes - Sleigh Ride; Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald - Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer (John Beltran Remix); Keith Richards - Run Rudolph Run; Ryan Adams - Hey Parker, It's Christmas (from when he dated Parker Posey); Stiff Little Fingers - White Christmas; Ben Harper & The Blind Boys Of Alabama - Silent Night and Dan Wilson (of Semisonic) - What A Year For A New Year.

THE CUTOUT BIN: This Friday's fortuitous finds from the Hype Machine include: Mitch Easter - Shiny Happy People; The Jazz Butcher - Roadrunner (Modern Lovers); Belle & Sebastian - Sukie In The Graveyard; Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks; X - Under The Big Black Sun; The Clash - White Riot; The Rolling Stones - Tumbling Dice; The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations; Richard Lloyd - Field Of Fire; Stratocruiser - Misty Mountain Hop; Paul Simon - Diamonds o­n The Soles Of Her Shoes; Roy Orbison - In Dreams; Harry Nilsson - Without You (just in case doc loch stops by); Wilson Pickett - Mustang Sally; and Mary Lou Lord & Semisonic - Sugar, Sugar.

DAVID BOWIE & BING CROSBY'S classic duet o­n "Little Drummer Boy."

THE BIKECRACKER: It's The Nutcracker, but played with samples from bicycle parts. You can stream it via the HM. (Thanks, Stereogum.)

RUSH is finishing their first new album since 2002. I note that for Craig O'Neill, and note that note is punishment for not notifying me of his change of address.

THE TWILIGHT SINGERS played the World Cafe; you can stream their mini-set from NPR.

SONY ROOTKIT UPDATE: Sony will compensate customers in California whose computers were damaged by anti-piracy software o­n CDs sold by the firm with refunds of up to 175 bucks. Not great, but as class actions go, not bad.

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: Pate even had a song titled "Rope Around The Moon," so watch the whole thing.

MORE MISS USA FALLOUT: Mothers Against Drunk Driving is severing ties with 18-year-old Katie Blair, following reports that Miss Teen USA was underage drinking and carousing with Miss USA Tara Conner. Katie Rees, Miss Nevada USA 2007, has been stripped of her title after racy photos (some NSFW) emerged of her kissing other women and exposing herself.

NOW SHOWING: This weekend's wide releases include: The Ben Stiller-led Night at the Museum, which is currently scoring 33 percent o­n the Tomatometer; football flick We Are Marshall, which is also scoring 33 percent; and the all-star DeNiro-directed CIA drama The Good Shepherd, which is scoring 44 percent. But the real shocker may be that Rocky Balboa, which opened Wednesday, is scoring 77 percent. Christmas Day sees the wide release of the retro-musical Dreamgirls, which is scoring 75 percent, and the remake of cult horror classic Black Christmas, which is -- shockingly not being screened for critics.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON and JOSH HARTNETT were caught canoodling last week, but Hartnett was caught canoodling with supermodel Gisele Bundchen the very next night. Good thing Scarlett is not a big believer in monogamy.

BRITNEY SPEARS: We Love Celebs has pics of the pop tart getting shooed offstage at L.A. Burlesque club Forty Deuce last weekend.

TOM-KAT UPDATE: Jennifer Lopez

CHRISTMAS COMES THIS TIME EACH YEAR: It's the "Little Saint Nick" by the Beach Boys. But if I posted the Beach Boys today, who will top my holiday countdown tomorrow?

SEASON of the LIST: Brooklyn Vegan a list of 40 faves in four tiers, plus a slew of honorable mentions. NPR is streaming songs from WFUV's Discoveries of 2006, including James Hunter and Jay Bennett, as well as songs from Tom Moon's "Overlooked 11" of 2006, including The Thermals.

MAMA'S GOT A BAG OF HER OWN: Idolator sings the praises of an import-only compilation of hard-to-find female-fronted songs from the '60s and '70s. Three tracks are posted, so you can stream Anna King - "Mama's Got A Bag Of Her Own," Gloria Jones - "What You Want," and Timi Yuro - "Gotta Travel o­n."

GRIZZY BEAR: Following Yellow House, which ranks in the Top10 of 2006 at Pitcfork and Tiny Mix Tapes, GB's Dan Rossen covers Paul Simon's "Graceland" like you have never heard it before.

MOUNTAIN GOATS have posted a new song, "Michael Myers Resplendent," o­n the front page of the band's website. It may not be the Michael Myers you think it is, though. You can stream it via the HM also.

JARVIS COCKER has a video for the single from his import solo debut, "Dont Let Him Waste Your Time." He originally gave the song to Nancy Sinatra.

SPOON frontman Britt Daniel tlaks with PopMatters about working o­n the Stranger Than Fiction soundtrack.

NEKO CASE is excited to be opening for Merle haggard in Oakland, Portland, Seattle and Spokane.

THAT WHAM REUNION has been scotched by Andrew Ridgeley's nerves. And there was much rejoicing.

PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer has lashed out at his former Libertines band mate Carl Barat, saying that the o­nly thing he misses about him is the drugs.

MORE MISS USA SCANDAL: Former Miss USA 1993, Kenya Moore criticized Donald Trump's decision to let Tara Conner keep the tiara, as did former Top 10 contestant Jill Dobson (Miss Michigan 2000), though current runner-up Tamiko Nash was supportive... in public, anyway.  Rosie O'Donnell went after The Donald, who now plans to sue her.  Meanwhile, shocking photos have surfaced of Katie Rees, Miss Nevada 2007, exposing her breasts, passionately kissing other young women, and simulating oral sex with females and a male.

THE McCARTNEYS: Heather Mills has been warned by British police to travel with extra caution, after receiving numerous death threats since her split from Sir Paul.

TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise, who has known to sue anyone who discusses his genome, has apparently threatened people speculating as to whether his teeth evidence a genetic disorder.

MADONNA reportedly will direct Blade to the Heat, a boxing story loosely based o­n the 1959 bout between Emile Griffith and Benny "Kid" Paret.

BRADGELINA: Jolie says stealing another woman's husband is "one of the worst things you can do." Meanwhile, Jennifer Aniston is having to endure Pitt's public joy with his happy new family, with a friend telling US Weekly: "She is so torn-up about the fact that Brad was able to move o­n and has a perfect family life with that witch."

BRITNEY SPEARS: The uber-reliable Star magazine runs disputed hearsay o­n whether Spears was engaged in hanky panky with JR Rotem before she moved to divorce Fed-Ex. Better documented is that the pop tart took 16-year-old sister Jamie-Lynn to a seedy tattoo parlour in L.A. for a late-night visit. Spears the Elder got a small star tattoo o­n her hand. You stay classy, Brit-Brit!

THE FRENCH HOTEL is the subject of some hysterical "before and after" photos taken the same night by X17.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON and JOSH HARTNETT were caught canoodling at TriBeCa restaurant Cercle Rouge last Friday.

REESE & RYAN BREAK-UPDATE: Witherspoon has taken her children and moved to Charleston, SC, where both kids are said to be in public school.

THE CELEBRITY 100 is announced by Forbes magazine. Some, like Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey, are no surprise, but others might be...

EVANGELINE LILLY: The Lost hottie lost all her stuff when the house she rented with two other women was engulfed in flames yesterday.

NANOTECH and EDUCATION: An article in the Washington Post suggests it was was easier to get nanotech into the curriculum in Mexico than in the US. While I think it's important that people (and kids in particular) learn about nanotech, I'm somehow not worried that Mexico is not going to leapfrog the States in this area.

IRAQ: US forces captured a senior al Qaeda in Iraq leader accused of killing hundreds of Iraqi civilians, including women and children. Iraqi police and soldiers took control over southern Najaf province, celebrating in part by biting the heart out of a live rabbit. The DoD has a map showing progress of Iraqi forces in 2006. Gen. Abizaid plans to retire and leave his post as commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East in March. Appointing Gen. Casey to the post would suggest continuation of current policy, whereas appointing Lt. Gen. David Petraeus -- author of the Army and Marine counterinsurgency field manual -- would signal a more aggressive approach like the Kagan-Keane plan is in the cards.

IRAN: Having just taken losses in local elections, Pres. Ahmadinejad says it is "the United States, Britain and the Zionist regime which are doomed to disappear... It is a divine promise." However, a Danish art group managed to place an advertisement in a Tehran newspaper with an insulting hidden message.

PONGO the DALMATIAN is Britain's biggest loser after dropping 20 lbs in Pet Fit Club. You would think all those kids would help keep the weight down.

FLORA the KOMODO DRAGON prepares to give virgin birth to seven babies for Christmas.

WHEN TWO-HEADED REPTILES roamed the earth -- nearly 150 million years ago, sadly.

MY BUDDY CHIMO, a 4-year-old horse, partially cures an 82-year-old horse owner and trainer's blindness.