THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THREE DOG NIGHT! The guilty pleasure of enjoying "Eli's Coming" with fellow fans of the late, lamented SportsNight, along with memories of The Service's cover of "Shambala" led me to compile a few more, including "Mama Told Me Not to Come," "Joy To The World," "One," "Liar," and "Celebrate."

THE SHINS play Morning Becomes Eclectic for a live audience at Berkeley St. Studios.

FRANKIE ROSE stops by KEXP for a clockwork-tight mini-set of solo material.

CEREMONY brings the Punk to KEXP from The Cutting Room Studios in NYC.

VAN DYKE PARKS hits the Mountain Stage for a short set.

GUIDED BY VOICES drops "Class Clown Spots A UFO," the title track from the forthcoming LP.

THE SMALL FACES play "Itchycoo Park," their only US charter.

BEST COAST: L.A. Weekly surveys the backlash against the band as its sophomore LP comes due. (Thx, LHB.)

STEVE ALBINI did Ask Me Anything on Reddit.

THE SIX WORST SONGS on great albums, according to the Riverfront Times.

THE 50 BEST BAND LOGOS, according to Paste.

CUTOUT BIN: From the Original Pistols to the Bee Gees, from Coldplay to the Beastie Boys, from Pete Townshend to Seals & Croft, plus the Velvet Underground, 999, Billy Paul, Elivis Costello, the Beatles and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

DARK SHADOWS is this weekend's sole wide release, as everyone else still cowers before the might of the Avengers.  The Tim Burton / Johnny Depp reimagining of the 60s vampire soap is currently scoring 40 percent on the ol' Tomatometer.

JOHNNY DEPP denied that he and Vanessa Paradis, his partner of 14 years, had split.

ANNA FARIS & CHRIS PRATT are going to be parents.

SEAN BEAN: The Game of Thrones star Sean Bean was arrested and questioned on suspicion of sending abusive text messages and making harassing phone calls to his ex-wife.

RHIANNA has finally had enough of Chris Brown?

ROBERT PATTINSON claims that filming David Cronenberg's sex-and-violence filled Cosmopolis helped give him the confidence he needed to tackle heavier roles.

JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT is ready to throw her hat in the ring for the female lead in "Fifty Shades of Grey." Guessing she'll have competition.

GERMANY is considering a legal ban on ultra-conservative Salafist Muslim groups, its interior minister said on Wednesday after violent clashes with the police, one of which was provoked by German ultra-rightists.

YEMEN: US drones killed eight al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters in a strike in Jaar.  The agent who penetrated al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and returned from Yemen with the group's new "airline bomb" was always under Saudi control and was not a double-agent, two sources briefed by Saudi counterterrorism officials have told CNN. Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, who runs a clandestine bomb factory in Yemen, has built a reputation as al Qaeda's bomb-making savant one potential near miss at a time.

AFGHANISTAN: The parents of the only American soldier held captive by Afghan insurgents have broken a yearlong silence about the status of their son, abruptly making public that he is a focus of secret negotiations between the Obama administration and the Taliban over a proposed prisoner exchange.

IRAN: Please note that it's The Onion reporting "Ahmadinejad Kind Of Getting Back Into Old R.E.M. Again."

DOG vs WALLABY: Who you got?

A PIT BULL saved her owner from an oncoming freight train, risking life and limb, to pull her off the tracks.

ORANGUTANS at Miami's Jungle Island use an iPad to communicate and as part of a part to overthrow humankind.

BIONIC ELEPHANTS: We have the technology.