SOUNDGARDEN is reuniting after a 12 year hiatus, so let's break out "Spoonman."

DELBERT McCLINTON stopped by WFUV for a chat and mini-set streaming via NPR.

REALLY OBSCURE SOUL FROM DC gets a feature plus tracks at NPR's Morning Edition.

THE LOUDNESS WARS: Why Music Sounds Worse.

PATTI SMITH and Steven Sebring talk about their POV documentary about her journey, Patti Smith: Dream of Life on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

MASSIVE ATTACK: Robert Del Naja talks to Weekend Edition Saturday about rebuilding the band's sound as a duo.

MAGIC WANDS dropped a video for "Kiss Me Dead" from their upcoming EP.

THE WHO should not perform at the NFL Super Bowl XLIV halftime show, according to Child AbuseWatch.net.

NOTABLE JANUARY RELEASES, courtesy of Paste.

GENRE EXPLOSION: The upside and downside of musical fragmentation.

DAYTROTTER - and its iPhone app - get a shout from The New York Times.

VAN MORRISON denied that he has had a new baby, saying that a report on his official website suggesting he had was the result of a hacking.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Avatar threepeats in theaters with another 68.3 million in ticket sales, on an amazingly small 9.7 percent drop.  It broke the 350 million mark, and was the third fastest to break 300 million on Friday.  It's the biggest gross in January ever (beating Cloverfield) and the biggest third weekend ever (beating Spider-Man and The Dark Knight).  It will likely be in the all-time Top Ten a week from now.  Sherlock Holmes repeated in the second slot, with 38.4 million. The 38 percent drop is slightly trpubling, but Sherlock still has a good shot at 200 million in the US.  The Alvin and the Chipmunks squeakquel held the third slot with 36 million on a 25.1 percent drop, and broke 150 million.  The rodents may beat their first film by the end of this run.  It's Complicated came in fourth with 18.7 million on a 15.4 percent drop.  The Blind Silde held well to round out the Top Five, with 12.7 million and a 10.3 percent increase.

CHARLIE SHEEN did or did not offer to boost Brooke Mueller's pre-nup by a million.  In either event, it sounds like a small sum to a guy who makes over 800K per episode of Two and a Half Men.  Brooke reportedly wants to come back to L.A. with the kids and resume cohabiting with Charlie.

TIGER WOODS will no longer be associated with the slogan, "Reach out and touch someone."  Repets have Elin letting her hair down on New Year's Eve.

KATE HUDSON and OWEN WILSON are reportedly back in touch after her breakup with A-Rod.

SANDRA BULLOCK shined as 2009's top Hollywood star at the box office, according to US theater owners.

ELTON JOHN says he has been helping Eminen fight drug problems for more than a year.

AFGHANISTAN: On Wednesday, a suicide bombing devastated Forward Operating Base Chapman, a hub of counterterrorism and intelligence operations for the CIA. A number of the officers killed had been counterterrorism operatives since before the 9/11 attacks. The base played a critical role in the CIA's significant operations in the country, including helping with drone attacks and informant networks in Pakistan.  The suicide bomber was a regular CIA informant who had visited the same base multiple times in the past.

IRAQ: The US released the leader of an Iranian-backed Shia terror group behind the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007.  Qais Qazali, the leader of the Asaib al Haq or the League of the Righteous, was set free by the US military and transferred to Iraqi custody in exchange for the release of British hostage Peter Moore, US military officers and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.

SOLDIER BEAR: Archival film of Free Polish Forces in WWII.

DEER VS. VACUUM in Des Moines.

TARANTULAS: Another reason not to get close.

19 PYTHONS hamper firefighting at a Utah trailer park.