T.I.'s <i>T.I. vs. T.I.P.</i>
Photo: Grand Hustle/Atlantic

Did all of you Smashing Pumpkins fans miss the memo about the band — well, frontman Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, along with a bunch of hired guns — reuniting to record an album, its first in nearly a decade? We ask because only 144,800 of you hit the bricks last week to purchase Zeitgeist, the Pumpkins' sixth studio LP and the first since their 2000 breakup and subsequent 2005 re-formation.

Music-industry know-it-alls figured Zeitgeist would fare better on next week's Billboard top 200, bumping T.I. from the albums chart's #1 position. But it didn't work out that way. Instead, the Pumpkins debut at #2, after being outsold by T.I.'s T.I. vs. T.I.P. by more than 30,000 scans, despite the rapper suffering a 63 percent sales slide from last week. Hence, T.I.'s reign as Billboard's champ remains intact for a second straight week, thanks to reported sales of more than 175,000, according to the latest SoundScan figures.

If the Pumpkins had prevailed, they would have earned the second #1 opener of their career; 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness bowed on top, selling 246,500. But it just wasn't in the cards — in fact, Zeitgeist is the Pumpkins' worst performer, sales-wise, since 1993's Siamese Dream, which opened at #10 with 71,900 copies sold.

Following the Pumpkins at #3, falling one chart position, is Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus, the latest release from the star of the Disney Channel original series "Hannah Montana"; the LP sold another 128,000 copies. Kelly Clarkson's My December slips two spots to #5 with 58,600 scans; at #6, with 55,000 sold, it's Bon Jovi's newest, Lost Highway. Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight hangs tough at #7, with sales of 54,000, while Fergie's Dutchess pops up at #8 with 49,700 scans. Amy Winehouse's Back to Black drops one spot to #9, having sold 48,700 units.

A couple of other rockers make their debuts in next week's top 10. Our Love to Admire, the third LP from Interpol, becomes the band's first outing to debut in the top 5, coming in at #4 with 73,200 scans. And just making the cut at #10 are Austin, Texas, indie darlings Spoon, whose Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga generated sales of more than 46,000. In total, 17 new releases make their debuts on next week's chart, including Aly & AJ's Insomniatic, which bows at #15 with sales of 39,200.

Entering at #20 is the soundtrack to the film "Hairspray," which features the vocal stylings of John Travolta, Zac Efron, Queen Latifah, Nikki Blonsky, Michelle Pfeiffer and more. The set sold 36,700 copies during its first week. Following at #35 is the latest from seminal punks Bad Religion, New Maps of Hell, selling to the tune of 20,750. Another soundtrack debuts at #43, this one for the hit film "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which scanned more than 15,900 units. Crowded House's Time on Earth trails in the #46 spot, having sold 15,500 copies.

Opening at #57 is the latest from Against Me!, New Wave, which sold more than 12,300 copies during its first week in stores. Further down on the chart, finishing at #106 with 6,800 sold, is Monkeys for Nothin' and the Chimps for Free, the new one from Reel Big Fish. Darkest Hour's latest, Deliver Us, follows at #110 with 6,600 scans. Gogol Bordello's Super Taranta! comes in at #115, thanks to first-week sales of 6,250, while They Might Be Giants' The Else takes the #118 slot, with 6,000 copies moving off store shelves.

Mark Ronson's latest, Version, bows at #129, thanks to 5,600 scans, while comedian Patton Oswalt's Werewolves and Lollipops finished at #137, with more than 5,200 copies snatched up. Country star Tracy Lawrence's The Very Best of Tracy Lawrence opens at #163 with 4,630 scans, followed at #164 by Danzig's double-disc collection The Lost Tracks of Danzig, which sold 4,600 units.

• MTV News RAW: T.I.

• T.I.
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• Interpol
• Spoon
• Aly & AJ

Smashing Pumpkins' <i>Zeigeist </i>
Photo: Martha's Music/ Reprise

The new releases are raging this week, with labels cranking out a ton of titles to make up for last week's holiday respite. Fittingly, Tuesday (July 10) is the 86th birthday of the original Raging Bull, boxer Jake LaMotta, so, in the spirit of the sport, we're pitting this week's contenders against each other boxing-match style. Let's get ready to rumble!

Main Event: Smashing Pumpkins vs. Interpol The Pumpkins might actually have more in common with Crowded House — both bands recently reunited and just played at Live Earth. But when it comes to the Billboard albums chart, Billy Corgan and his cohorts have a more formidable opponent in Interpol. The Pumpkins actually tried to issue their Zeitgeist comeback LP on Saturday, to coincide with the worldwide concert event, but alas, the U.S. is still caught up in that whole Tuesday-release thing. With songs like "Doomsday Clock," "Neverlost," "For God and Country" and more, the band's album should fit comfortably next to Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero or even Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight.

In the other corner loom the ever-gloomy Interpol — and while their new effort Our Love to Admire has an insipid album title, it has been ratcheting up strong reviews in Mojo and elsewhere. Most striking of all might actually be the specially packaged version of the release, which comes in hardcover-book casing and contains a poster to boot. And if you're reading this in Japan, you have access to two additional tracks tacked onto the release: "Mind Over Time" and an instrumental version of "Mammoth."

Heavyweights: Aly & AJ vs. Cheetah Girls The sisters Michalka have had their hands full lately — if you haven't seen them starring in the recent "Super Sweet 16: The Movie," then you might have caught them hyping Hope for Education (they're the charity's spokespeople) or even gracing the cover of (sigh) Honey-Comb cereal boxes. Among all their other endeavors, they've somehow managed to squeeze out Insomniatic, an album that is being reconfigured for seemingly every major retailer (iTunes, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and others all feature slightly modified track lists).

The sisters are hoping to beat out another female posse for the tween vote: the Cheetah Girls, who were created by Walt Disney after the wild success of the film of the same name. The trio's The Cheetah Girls in Concert: The Party's Just Begun Tour CD (with an accompanying DVD) captures them performing songs from the soundtracks to the first two films. Remind you just a little of "High School Musical"?

Middleweights: Mike Jones vs. Crowded House For two artists who have probably never been mentioned before in the same breath, Mike Jones and Crowded House have at least one thing in common: It's taken fo'eva for them to churn out new material. Way back in December 2005, the Texas spitter told us he was 85 percent done with his second album, The American Dream — and if it's taken a year and half to cobble together the last 15 percent, we should hope it's some of the tightest rap music ever recorded. It could be, though, that he wanted to polish off another project: his movie, also called "The American Dream," also drops this week.

Crowded House have taken even longer to put out a new album, but you can't really blame them — the group broke up in November 1996 before reconvening in January of this year. Time on Earth, the act's first new studio effort in 14 years, features original members Neil Finn and Nick Seymour, plus written and performance contributions from Johnny Marr (Modest Mouse, the Smiths) and none other than the Dixie Chicks.

Welterweights: Against Me! vs. Bad Religion Punk padres face off against punk princes this week too: Against Me! — one of the hottest punk bands out there right now, along with Tiger Army — are flooding the record racks with their New Wave, which is loaded with such revealing protest-song titles as "White People for Peace" and "Americans Abroad." The album was produced by Butch Vig, who famously sat behind the boards for Nirvana's Nevermind.

While you have the early '90s on the brain, you might recall that Bad Religion were really coming into their own around that time. New Maps of Hell, the band's third release since guitarist Brett Gurewitz returned to the fold and 14th studio album overall, couldn't dovetail more perfectly with New Wave — songs include "The Grand Delusion," "Requiem for Dissent" and "Submission Complete."

Middleweights: Spoon vs. Foo Fighters

Do you like your Foo Spoon-fed? While you're chewing on that one, you might want to say, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" — that's the goofy title of indie-rock immortals Spoon's new album. Better jump on it quick, as the first pressing comes with the limited-edition bonus EP Get Nice!, which actually contains more tracks (12), oddly enough, than the LP itself (10). Don't miss "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case," "Black Like Me" and "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb."

Foo Fighters are also feeling generous — they've dumped six more songs onto the revisited version of their classic The Colour and the Shape for the LP's 10th anniversary. The extras include covers of Killing Joke, Gary Numan and Gerry Rafferty songs, as well as the album's title track, which actually came out as a B-side.

Lightweights: Darkest Hour vs. Nile These metal bands are hardly wimps, but as far as the Billboard chart goes, they'll have some work ahead of them this week. On their fifth LP, Deliver Us, Sounds of the Underground participants Darkest Hour portend a "Full Imperial Collapse," "Fire in the Sky" and "Doomsayer (The Beginning of the End)," with FYE shoppers getting an extra dose of maniacal metalcore as a bonus: the track "Closing on the Day."

Nile are on this summer's opposing metal tour — Ozzfest — and, while also a death-metal band, are a bit more brutal than DH. This week, former label Relapse digs through the crates and pieces together Legacy of the Catacombs, which is littered with 12 of the band's choice cuts, plus a DVD boasting all its videos.

Featherweights: M. Ward vs. Nick Drake And to cap it off, a quiet contest between soft-spoken singer/songwriters new and old. Ward's first album, Duet + Guitars 2 — originally issued by Co-Dependent Records in 1999, then re-released the year later on Howe Gelb's OWOM label — is back again, this time with three extra slices. Drake's Family Tree set teems with more unreleased material, an hour of material the revered folkster recorded before his Five Leaves Left debut. Featured on the extra content is Drake performing with his mother and sister, early versions of some Five Leaves Left tracks and between-song chatter and laughter.

Song Title of the Week:

"... And Justice for All My Loving" from Beatallica's Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath Pub Band

Album Cover of the Week:

Interpol's Our Love to Admire

Other Notables:

Gogol Bordello's Super Taranta!
Jamming with Madonna during her performance at Live Earth London was a great PR move for these New York underground gypsy punks — but are Madge fans really going to dig them? Probably not. In case you're not already familiar with Gogol, the meaning behind their nonsense album title should avail you of their insanity: "Taranta!" is a nod to "tarantella," a form of extreme traditional Italian music made to cure hysterical women. In a recent press statement, frontman Eugene Hutz elucidated: "Gogol Bordello is known for talking about sex, politics, life and the mysteries surrounding our existence, all while showing our original and strong visions of the New Rebel Intelligence — the ability of an individual to interpret actions and objects personally despite authoritarian and informational hysteria." Do you really need to know more?

Roky Erickson's "You're Gonna Miss Me" DVD and soundtrack
This psychedelic rocker's story is an especially sad one, with the documentary chronicling how Erickson went insane but was recently brought back into the music world thanks to his brother, who had to obtain legal custody of him. The DVD is packed with extras, including acoustic performances, "I Know the Hole in Baby's Head" and other readings, a postscript on his emancipation hearing and more. For its part, the soundtrack has two exclusive songs — "For You" and "Goodbye Sweet Dreams" — and a raft of Roky classics.

Jesse Harris's Feel
Unlikely Erickson, this Bright Eyes and Norah Jones collaborator is much less likely to be found in a room playing five TVs at the same time. He recorded his seventh album in just three days, but managed to spill a lifetime's worth of emotion into the disc. "How Could It Take So Long" depicts a displaced New Orleans resident at the Louisiana Superdome in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, while elsewhere on the album Harris gets deep about love and relationships. He integrates Caribbean sounds into "Fire on the Ocean" and, elsewhere on the disc, jazz beats to boot.

New Releases:

· Against Me! - New Wave (Sire)
· Aly & AJ - Insomniatic (enhanced; Hollywood)
· American Black Lung - Sudden Departure of Vultures (Uprising)
· Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell (Epitaph) [Buy Now]
· Beatallica - Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath Pub Band (Oglio) [Buy Now]
· Bedlight for Blue Eyes - Life on Life's Terms (Trustkill)
· Boat - Let's Drag Our Feet! (Magic Marker) [Buy Now]
· Ayla Brown - Forward (Double Deal Brand)
· B-Side Players - Fire in the Youth (Concord)
· Buffalo Tom - Three Easy Pieces (New West)
· The Cheetah Girls - The Cheetah Girls in Concert: The Party's Just Begun Tour (with DVD; Disney)
· Crowded House - Time on Earth (ATO)
· Darkest Hour - Deliver Us (Victory)
· Down to Earth Approach - Come Back to You (Vagrant)
· Droid - Droid (Chime) [Buy Now]
· Fairmont - Wait & Hope (GFB)
· Gallows - Orchestra of Wolves (Epitaph)
· Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta! (Side One Dummy)
· The Gourds - Noble Creatures (Yep Roc)
· Great Lakes Myth Society - Compass Rose Bouquet (Quack Media)
· The Hanslick Rebellion - The Rebellion Is Here.(Eschatone)
· Jesse Harris - Feel (Velour)
· Hawaii Mud Bombers - Mondo Primo(Wicked Cool)
· The Icarus Line - Black Lives at the Golden Coast (Dim Mak)
· Interpol - Our Love to Admire (special edition packaged in hard-covered book form due same day; Capitol) [Buy Now]
Read: "Call Interpol 'The Worst Band On The Planet' — They Don't Care"
· Jason Isbell - Sirens of the Ditch (New West)
· Mike Jones - The American Dream (Ice Age)
Read: "The Dream Is Nearly Over For Mike Jones"
· Justice - Cross (Vice) [Buy Now]
· Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers - Glassjaw Boxer (Everfine)
· Kool & the Gang - Still Kool (two CDs; New Door/UMe)
· Joachim Kühn and Majid Bekkas - Kalimba (Act Music & Vision)
· Justin Lanning - Behind These Eyes (SMC)
· The Leftovers - On the Move (Rally)
· Lez Zeppelin - Lez Zeppelin (Emanation) [Buy Now]
· Mayday Parade - A Lesson in Romantics (Fearless)
· Mustangs and Madras - Le Lechuza (digipak; Latest Flame)
· Oh No! Oh My! - Between the Devil and the Sea (EP; Dim Mak)
· Ra Ra Riot - Ra Ra Riot (Rebel Group)
· Reel Big Fish - Monkeys for Nothin' and the Chimps for Free (Rock Ridge) [Buy Now]
· Fionn Regan - The End of History (Lost Highway)
· Kim Richey - Chinese Boxes (Vanguard)
· Chris & Rich Robinson - Brothers of a Feather: Live at the Roxy (Eagle)
· Mark Ronson - Version (Allido/RCA)
· Round Mountain - Truth and Darkness (Fast Horse)
· Ulrich Schnauss - Goodbye (Domino)
· Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist (Reprise) [Buy Now]
Read: "Smashing Pumpkins Drummer Offers More Clues About Forthcoming LP"
· Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (limited edition comes with bonus CD; Merge)
· St. Vincent - Marry Me (Beggars Banquet)
· Stratospheerius - Headspace (D-Zone)
· Suphala - Blueprint (Suphala)
· John P. Strohm - Everyday Life (Superphonic)
· They Might Be Giants - The Else (Idlewild/Zöe)
· To My Boy - Messages (digipak; Abeano Music/ XL) [Buy Now]
· Trashlight Vision - Alibis and Ammunition (Rock Ridge)
· The Unseen - Internal Salvation (digipak; Hellcat)
· Bill Wence - Songs From the Rocky Fork Tavern (615)
· Alexa Wilkinson - Lullaby Appetite (DNK)
· Jamie Williams - After Hours (Jamie Williams Music)
· Roddy Woomble - My Secret Is My Silence (7-10)
· Various artists - Healing the Divide: A Concert for Peace and Reconciliation (Anti-)
· Various artists - "Hairspray" soundtrack (New Line)
· Various artists - "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" soundtrack (Warner Bros.)

Notable Reissues and Archival Material:

· Terry Allen - Americana Master Series: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill)
· Bee Gees - "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack (Rhino)
· Botch - American Nervoso (Hydra Head)
· Nick Drake - Family Tree (Tsunami)
· Roky Erickson - "You're Gonna Miss Me" soundtrack (Palm Pictures)
· Donald Fagen - The Nightfly Trilogy (three-CD box set; Rhino)
· Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape (RCA) [Buy Now]
· The for Carnation - Promised Works (Touch and Go)
· Kinky Friedman - Live From Austin TX (New West)
· Tracy Lawrence - The Very Best of Tracy Lawrence (Rhino)
· Doyle Lawson - Americana Master Series: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill)
· Nguyên Lê - Purple: Celebrating Jimi Hendrix (ACT)
· Lonesome River Band - Americana Master Series: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill)
· The Monkees - Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.; (two-CD deluxe editions; Rhino)
· Nashville Bluegrass Band - Americana Master Series: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill)
· Nile - Legacy of the Catacombs (Relapse)
· No Use for a Name - All the Best Songs (Fat Wreck Chords) [Buy Now]
· John Phillips - Jack of Diamonds (Varése Sarabande)
· Reckless Kelly - Americana Master Series: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill)
· Peter Rowan - Americana Master Series: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill)
· Stephen Stills - Just Roll Tape: April 26, 1968 (Rhino)
· The Vacancies - Tantrum (Blackheart) [Buy Now]
· M. Ward - Duet + Guitars 2 (Merge)
· Various artists - Body + Soul: Funky Love (Time Life)
· Various artists - Uptown Soul, Downtown Funk (Sunswept)

Music DVDs:

· The Beatles - "Beatles' Biggest Secrets" (Image) [Buy Now]
· Armin van Buuren - "Armin Only: Ahoy 2007" (two DVDs; Ultra)
· The Chieftans - "Live Over Ireland - Water From the Well" (Image)
· The Dresden Dolls - "Live at the Roundhouse, London" (Eagle Vision)
· Roky Erickson - "You're Gonna Miss Me: A Film About Roky Erickson" (Palm Pictures)
· Kinky Friedman - "Live From Austin TX" (New West)
· Engelbert Humperdink - "Greatest Performances 1967-1977" (Universal)
· Marillion - "Live From Loreley" (EMI)
· Supersuckers - "Live in Orange Co." (2B1)

Digital Releases:

· Dead Betties - Nightmare Sequence (hits brick-and-mortar stores on September 4; Cordless)
· K Banger - Truth Be Told (Shaman Work)
· Monster in the Machine - Butterfly Pinned (hits brick-and-mortar stores on August 21; Emotional Syphon)
· Page France - Page France and the Bonus Telephone EP (iTunes only)
· The Scene Aesthetic - Building Homes From What We've Known (Destiny Worldwide)
· Various artists - Simple Life Camp Songs (available through E! Online and iTunes; Nettwerk)

Coming Attractions:

July 17:
· All-American Rejects - "Tournado" DVD (Interscope)
· Avenged Sevenfold - "All Excess" DVD (Warner Bros.) [Preorder]
· Too Short - I Love the Bay (Up All Nite)
· Yellowcard - Paper Walls (deluxe edition with DVD due same day; Capitol) [Preorder]
· Various artists - Now That's What I Call Music! 25 (UTV)

July 24:
· Prince - Planet Earth (Columbia) [Preorder]
· Sum 41 - Underclass Hero (Island) [Preorder]
Read: "Sum 41 Kill President In New Song — Deryck Whibley Says It's 'A Metaphor' "
· Tegan and Sara - Con (deluxe edition with DVD due same day; Vapor/Sanctuary)

July 31:
· Common - Finding Forever (Universal) [Preorder]
Read: "Kanye West, Lily Allen Finding Something In Common"
· DevilDriver - The Last Kind Words (Roadrunner)
· Korn - Untitled (deluxe edition with bonus DVD due same day; Epic) [Preorder]
Read: "Korn Are Cracking Up Over Eighth LP's 'Gothic Feel,' Munky Says"

• Interpol Spread The Love

• The Smashing Pumpkins
• Interpol
• Aly & AJ
• Mike Jones

Halle Berry
Photo: Vince Bucci/ Getty Images

With an A-list Hollywood career, an Oscar on her bookshelf and a loyal legion of fans, some might say Halle Berry is living large. But, she insists, that's nothing compared to the real-life Egyptian queen she longs to portray. "If you're going to do Nefertiti, it's gotta be big," she said this week, flashing a wide smile. "You can't do a little version of Nefertiti. It has to be larger than life." The actress has made a pet project out of the story of the wife of an Egyptian pharaoh and plans to reunite with director Mark Forster ("Monster's Ball") for the B.C.-era biopic. "[Ancient epics] are big movies to make," Berry said. "They're huge undertakings. We want to make sure that we have all of our ducks in a row before we decide to step out there." ...

With apologies to Snoop Dogg, a West Coast party is no longer the best kind of party — not when you can have a bash like the girls on MTV's "My Super Sweet 16," according to singers/actors/sisters Aly & AJ. "[Our film] is based on the show, and you'll see a lot of [familiar things]: drama and lots of catfights," Aly said of the duo's upcoming movie of the same name. "It's got some heart to it at the very end, which is kind of neat." And to make things even more dramatic, these typically tight siblings play enemies in the flick. "We don't play sisters, which is kind of funny," AJ grinned. "We play total rivals." The movie premieres July 8 at 2 p.m. on MTV and comes out July 10 on DVD. The girls' yet-untitled third album drops July 17 and a summer tour will follow. ...

Shia LaBeouf may have finished filming his summer blockbuster "Transformers" months ago, but he insists that the real stars are making the finishing touches at this very moment. "I can tell you that [special-effects studio Industrial Light and Magic], the company that did 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' 'Spider-Man" and 'Superman' graphics, they do all the graphics for these movies, and they said this is the most insane thing they've ever worked on," the "Disturbia" leading man grinned. Asked about whether he performed his own stunts while telling the story of the Autobots and Decepticons, LaBeouf was as proud as he was honest. "I did most of them. That's always hard work, but especially working with [director Michael] Bay," he said of the "Pearl Harbor" filmmaker. "[There'll be] real crazy action — action I don't know how to explain. ... I wasn't expecting the robots to be as big as they are. They're like 70 stories high." Co-starring Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and Bernie Mac, "Transformers" hits theaters July 4. ...

She sports a machine-gun leg in "Grindhouse," but that's nothing, star Rose McGowan said, compared to the real-life oddities of the late actress Susan Cabot. "She [starred] in all these Roger Corman films, with these crazy sets and elaborate costumes, [like] 'The Wasp Woman,' " McGowan said of the woman she'll portray in the upcoming biopic "Black Oasis." "She was obsessed with being really short — I think she was about 4'10". She had a kid, and she was sure he was going to grow up to be big and tall and strong, that was her big dream. [But] then he was born with dwarfism." Cabot's son Timothy, who also suffered psychologically, eventually bludgeoned Cabot to death in 1986, ending a bizarre life that McGowan is eager to recount. "She was actually engaged to King Hussein [of Jordan] at one point, [before] he found out she was Jewish and wouldn't marry her," McGowan said. Written and directed by "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" mastermind Stephan Elliott, "Black Oasis" will also have McGowan re-creating many of the late actress' more notorious roles. "Her [life] starts going crazy and [she] confuses her reality with these movies," the 33-year-old actress said of the script. "So I get to go back and play her in all these insane movies with these insane costumes." "Black Oasis" is expected to begin filming in the fall. ...

Some people claim that there's a little bit of Bob Dylan in everyone, but actors Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale and Hayden Christiansen will soon be taking the influence of the legendary musician even further. "I came in and I shot the first two weeks, and then Cate Blanchett came and shot the next two or three weeks, and then Heath Ledger came in and shot for two weeks," Gere said of the rotating cast playing very different interpretations of Dylan in the ambitious flick "I'm Not There." "I think it was five or six of us who are expressionistically, vaguely playing Bob Dylan, some more directly than others." So, which Dylan did Gere get? "It's the end of the road, y'know. It's [the soundtrack to] 'Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.' It's 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door.' That's the feeling of it," Gere said. "It's more artful, I think, than a [normal] biopic. It's not a traditional plot we're dealing with here." The buzz-heavy flick is set to hit theaters in September. ...

Somewhere, Tom Hanks must be spinning in his, um, king-size bed stuffed with million-dollars bills. Twentieth Century Fox has begun filming a sequel to the 1984 classic that launched the A-lister's career without any of the stars of the original flick. "Bachelor Party 2" will be a straight-to-DVD release along the lines of recent "American Pie" sequels, and will star up-and-comers Josh Cooke, Sara Foster and Gregg Pitts. Currently shooting in Miami, the flick tells the story of a man who proposes to his gal after only a few months of dating and is then treated to the ultimate bachelor party by her brother-in-law who secretly hopes to sabotage their nuptials. "The Big Bounce" star Foster will essentially be playing the Tawny Kitaen role, with notables Harland Williams ("Employees of the Month") and Emmanuelle Vaugier ("Saw II") also making appearances. The sequel hits video stores in spring 2008, some 24 years after the original. ...

"Black Christmas" star Michelle Trachtenberg is preparing a high-profile return to her "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV roots, currently filming an upcoming show called "The Hill." "This is the first that I have been talking about it, but I'm going back to TV," she revealed to us recently. "I'm doing a half-hour show for ABC, and it's a big fancy comedy. You'll all have to tune in and laugh a lot." From "Friends" producer Shana Goldberg-Meehan, the show will be similarly focused on an ensemble, this time using a Washington political backdrop. "It's about the interns on Capitol Hill and the debauchery that goes along with that," Trachtenberg said of the plot. "It's me and ['The Hot Chick' star] Eric Christian Olsen, so there's a lot of funny to be had." ...

Hollywood ain't always easy, especially when you're trying to make a name for yourself. Take Dan Fogler, the fast-rising theater veteran who has upward of 10 movies in various stages of development but is still a virtual unknown outside of Hollywood. I gained like 50 pounds," he laughed recently, revealing his dedication to a project called "Number Thirteen" that would have him play legendary director Alfred Hitchcock. "I was gigantic, going, 'Good evening!' and just walking around my house all day. Then, they were like, 'Um, that got pushed off several months!' " Shrugging, he added: "OK, so now I'm gigantic and British." Fogler insisted that the tenuously financed film will go forward, however, with him working alongside Ewan McGregor, Ben Kingsley and Emily Mortimer in a fictionalized tale about the death of a lead actor in one of Hitch's early films. "It's in the works. The script is pretty good," Fogler added.

Check out everything we've got on Halle Berry, Shia LaBeouf and "Transformers."

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• Flick'd: 'Grindhouse'
• 'Grindhouse' Exclusive: Three Killer Clips

• In Focus: Halle Berry
• "Transformers"
• In Focus: Shia LaBeouf
• "Super Sweet 16: The Movie"

• Aly & AJ

Miley Cyrus, Raven Simone and Aly & AJ's Alyson Renae Michalka
Photo: Disney/ Hollywood Records

It started in 2003, when the soundtrack to a Disney Channel movie called "The Cheetah Girls" quietly went double platinum.

"It just shocked everybody," recalled Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryan. "No one was going to guess that. And then 'High School Musical' came out and just knocked everything out of the ballpark."

As a matter of fact, the soundtrack to "High School Musical," another Disney production, has sold nearly 3.5 million copies since it was released in January, more than any other album in 2006 (see "What Is 'High School Musical' And How Did It Get To #1?").

Spawning a national tour, an upcoming sequel and several solo careers (see " 'High School Musical' Stars On Tour: Don't Expect Any Dirty Looks" and " 'High School Musical' Stars Have Sequel, Solo Projects In The Works"), "High School Musical" is clearly a phenomenon in its own right, but it's also part of a larger tween takeover that is having an enormous impact on music.

While the rest of the industry is struggling, artists aimed at 8- to 12-year-olds are soaring, with the soundtracks to "The Cheetah Girls 2" and "Hannah Montana" — which recently spent two weeks at #1 (see " 'Hannah Montana' Holds Billboard #1; K-Fed's Tough Week Continues") — and Aly & AJ's Into the Rush all nearly platinum.

"I think it's teaching the record execs and the public who really buys albums," said "High School Musical" star Lucas Grabeel. "The kids have parents, the parents have money, the parents want to give them what they want, and not only is Suzy gonna get one, but her brother Joe is gonna get one too."

On average, tweens spend $51 billion annually, according to recent data, and another $170 billion is spent on them. For that reason, preteens have become big business, or, as The Associated Press declared in a recent article, "Tweens are the new teens."

"What was the statistic a couple years ago, that we spent the most money in the whole entire country?" said Raven Simone of "The Cheetah Girls" and "That's So Raven." "Hello! The kids are about to rule the world."

Tween-oriented entertainment is nothing new. After all, "The Mickey Mouse Club" — whose '90s revival on the Disney Channel launched the careers of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera — dates back to the '50s. More recently, Hilary Duff demonstrated the mighty muscle of Disney with her "Lizzie McGuire" character.

Still, tween album sales have never been this high. So why now? Well, for one, many argue that the quality has never been this high. "I am totally impressed by everybody out there," said Vanessa Hudgens, the first breakout star from "High School Musical." "I think everybody is really stepping it up a notch."

"Kids smell bullsh--," added Ron Fair, the A&R guru behind Aguilera and the Pussycat Dolls. "I don't know how, but they do. They gravitate towards the real stuff. For instance, the Vanessa record that's out right now, that's a really strong pop record."

Fair recently got into the tween business with the Slumber Party Girls. To promote the act, he's partnered with CBS (which is airing their TV show on Saturday mornings), Mattel, Archie Comics, the Limited and KOL (AOL's kids' site).

"Things that used to have tremendous meaning in the entertainment industry have changed," Fair said. "Kids aren't hearing the Cheetah Girls on top 40 radio because top 40 radio isn't playing it. And these records could go on to sell millions of copies without radio and without MTV. When did that ever happen in the last 15 years?"

Television, especially, has proven invaluable, as it provides consistent exposure to fans. "I know when Hilary Duff's first album came out, that was the big thing, and I was like, 'Mom, this is what I want for Christmas,' " said Miley Cyrus, who plays Hannah Montana and has her own solo album in the works (see " 'Hannah Montana' Star Miley Cyrus Ready To Break Out, Hilary-Style"). "It's because you grow up watching the show and you kind of experience the same thing the show talks about, and then once they are older, you are older too. So you feel like you kind of know the person."

"I think that each girl stands for what the girls are in this country today," Raven added. "With every girl that the Disney Channel pumps out, it's someone that you can look up to, and I'm very proud to be a part of that genre right now."

Of course, television carries broader expectations, meaning that in the tween world, a good voice alone doesn't cut it. "What we think is so attractive about our group and things like 'High School Musical' is that they involve acting, singing and dancing," said Kiely Williams of the Cheetah Girls, who are currently recording their first non-soundtrack album. "It's all-encompassing, and they want to see that."

So if tweens are saving the music business, the question is: Will the industry learn from them? "Bottom line is, I believe people love music more than ever — they're just not buying CDs," Fair said. "And I think that the strength of the tween thing is it's so on-target. We know who the buyer is, we know where they are and we know how to reach them.

"What do 'The Cheetah Girls,' 'Hannah Montana' and 'High School Musical' have in common?" he continued. "The Disney Channel. So they obviously figured out, in a very profound way, who their audience is. And it's [something] top 40 can't figure out because they're serving too many niches. You can't be all things to all people, so as music and film and all popular culture progress, I think you're going to see more defined, smaller niches that are done with a different business model."

• Tweens Take Over

• Aly & AJ
• Raven-Symoné

Madonna
Photo: Dave Hogan/ Getty Images

Lots of people go nuts over H&M clothes, but Madonna is enough of a fan to make her own. The singer has signed on to design a line of clothes and accessories called the M by Madonna women's wear collection for the Swedish fashion giant. H&M has provided Madonna, her band and dancers with offstage clothing for her recent tour, and the singer has been the face of the chain's advertising campaign this year. "I've made no secret of my love of fashion over the years," Madonna said in a statement on her Web site. "Working with Margareta [van den Bosch, the company's head of design] and H&M was an exciting and new creative challenge for me. I'm really happy with the results and look forward to wearing M by Madonna along with the rest of the world." The line will launch in March. ...

Bow Wow is acting as principal for a day at Schurr High School in Montebello, California, on Thursday (December 7). The rapper is planning to have breakfast with students, read announcements over the loudspeaker, visit some classrooms, give a pep talk to the school's football team, meet with students participating in the pageant, stop by the blood drive and give a live performance. ...

Expect to hear Snoop barking a new tune on the "Arthur and the Invisibles" soundtrack, hitting stores January 9. The rapper contributes "Go Girl," while Jewel chalks up her "Quest for Love" and Elijah chip in "It's a Beautiful Day." The rest of the soundtrack is rounded out by contributions from the London Symphonic Orchestra & the Metro Voices. ... December is shaping up to be a busy month for songwriter/producer Sean Garrett. The man behind Beyoncé's "Check on It" and Chris Brown's "Gimme That" will hit the studio with R. Kelly on Friday in Chicago and plans to work with the R&B artist through Monday. Then Garrett is off to Atlanta, where he'll collaborate with Whitney Houston from Tuesday through December 14. The producer will also reteam with Chris Brown in a New York studio from December 15-19. ...

Former Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson is working on a new project: a baby. The singer/actor, who will next appear onstage in the Toronto production of "Chicago," told MTV News that he and his wife are planning to start a family soon. ... Aly & AJ are hard at work on their second album. "It's definitely still going to be Aly and I, it's just we've grown up and I think the music has grown up with us," AJ said. ... Sean Paul is also laying down new tracks: The dancehall star has been recording his next album in Jamaica since September. "I'll probably be finished by April next year, probably come out in June," he said. ... Clinic have set a January 23 Stateside release date for their fourth album, Visitations. The British band is touring North America beginning March 2 in Los Angeles and wrapping up March 12 in Toronto. ...

If you dug "My Block: The Bay," there's a new comp you should get dumb with: Hyphy Hits, due January 9. The 20-track collection calls on the Bay Area's hottest hip-hoppers to introduce hyphy, their own crunk-and-screw-like blend, to the masses. Expect to find E-40, Keak Da Sneak, Mistah F.A.B., Mac Dre and many others on the set. ... Singer/songwriter Jason Mraz has a digital-only release hitting JasonMraz.com on Tuesday. Selections for Friends was recorded in July during his Songs for Friends Tour and touches on new material, classics and more obscure tracks. "God Rests in Reason" includes spoken-word elements from Khalil Gibran, a reputed poet who has never appeared in a song before. ...

Godsmack frontman Sully Erna will release "The Paths We Choose," his personal memoir, on February 7. According to the book's Web site, the tome isn't just a tell-all about life as a touring frontman. "It's about his life growing up, and all the struggling, suffering and sinning along the way. It's about the good times, and the time he almost gave it all up. It's about the people he loves and the ones who betrayed him, the bands he lived for and the mistakes that seemed like good ideas at the time. But most of all, it's about his never-ending passion for music." ... Garbage will issue a greatest-hits collection titled Absolute Garbage on March 19. Look for the set to feature 17 tracks, including "Only Happy When It Rains," "Stupid Girl" and "Bleed Like Me." The band continues to be on indefinite hiatus. ...

Soon-to-be Fall Out Boy tourmates Permanent Me have aligned themselves with another big name: producer Matt Squire. The Panic! at the Disco and Cute Is What We Aim For collaborator helmed the New York newcomers' debut, After the Room Clears, which will drop January 23. Permanent Me are currently touring with Monty Are I, the Summer Obsession and the Outline. ... Bayside have completed work on their forthcoming album, The Walking Wounded. No official release date has been cemented yet, but the LP is expected to surface in February. ... Puddle of Mudd also recently wrapped recording a new album: their yet-untitled third effort, which is slated for release in the spring. The band expects to tour heavily in 2007 to support the LP. ...

New York hardcore legends Sick of It All are the subject of the upcoming tribute album Our Impact Will Be Felt, which will hit stores February 3 and feature contributions from Sepultura, Bouncing Souls, Bleeding Through, Rise Against and others. To celebrate the release, Sick of It All will hit the road later this month with Hatebreed for a brief five-gig stint that kicks off in Washington, D.C., on December 26 and runs through December 30 in New Haven, Connecticut. The band will also open for AFI for four shows next year: February 5 in New Orleans; February 9 in Columbus, Ohio; February 11 in Cincinnati; and February 15 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. ... Finger Eleven will follow up their 2003 self-titled effort — which went gold — with Them vs. You, due March 20. The album is said to blend rock with country and funk elements.

12.06.2006

Gwen Stefani wants to be a part of what you listen to and what you look like, and now she's stepping into the world of scent. "Creating a fragrance is one of the most prestigious things a designer can do," the singer said in a press release announcing her L.A.M.B. brand's entry into the fragrance field. "For me it's another thing you can wear and another thing I can creatively be a part of." Stefani will team up with Coty Inc. for the scent, which will debut in fall 2007. ...

The Good Charlotte documentary "Fast Future Generation" will be released December 26 on DVD. The film, which premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival, follows the band on tour in Japan. ... Christina Aguilera has signed on to perform live in Times Square for "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2007," airing on ABC. Clark and Ryan Seacrest are co-hosting. ...

Katharine McPhee shows her sexy side on the cover of Shape, wearing a red cleavage-baring bathing suit that exposes her midriff. The "Idol" runner-up also talks about battling an eating disorder and developing a new workout regimen in the cover story — her first one. "At the time of the 'American Idol' tryouts [August 2005], I was out of control, binging and sometimes purging up to seven times a day," she said. The singer checked herself into Los Angeles' Eating Disorder Center of California, where she was encouraged to eat apples with peanut butter and Snickers bars every day. "I had to eat them every day to get over the excitement," she said. "Now I rarely crave them." The Shape issue hits stands this week, while McPhee's debut album — which she's still working on — is due January 30. ...

Plotting Ashlee Simpson's next musical move is going to be "very tricky," producer/ Geffen Records chairman Ron Fair told MTV News. "She is a really great singer, and I think she proved that on her last record," he said. "She's in a very tight spot. She's got an extremely famous sister. Everything they do is magnified by the press. ... It's very hard to do anything if you're under that kind of scrutiny." But don't count the younger Simpson — who Fair called "a real star" — out just yet. "Our company is going to work with her and we're going to figure out how to overcome those prejudices ... because she deserves to be heard and she deserves a shot." ...

Nelly Furtado will perform a private all-ages concert Friday in Los Angeles. Want in? Take a photo of yourself with a copy of Furtado's Loose and e-mail the pic to loosenup@geffen.com along with your name, age and location. Winners will be selected at random throughout the week. And if you're willing to pay your way in — for charity — a two-ticket package featuring meet-and-greet passes and an autographed copy of Loose is up for bid Wednesday (December 6) at Universal Music's eBay store. Proceeds benefit the Land Conservancy of British Columbia. ... Tuesday was a busy breakup day in the world of Hollywood couples. People reported that Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn are calling it quits after more than a year together. The magazine also announced the end of "O.C." stars Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson's offscreen romance. ...

You don't have to win "America's Next Top Model" to rep for Cover Girl. Rihanna has joined Queen Latifah and Molly Sims as one of the faces of the makeup line. The singer, whose mother was once a makeup artist, will shoot her first ad this month. The campaign will launch in the summer. ... Aimee Mann commenced her Christmas Variety Show in San Francisco Tuesday night. The tour — which also features Grant-Lee Phillips, comedian Paul F. Tompkins ("Best Week Ever," "Mr. Show") and "SNL" castmember Fred Armisen on select dates — winds down December 20 in Alexandria, Virginia. ...

Thursday, Fear Before the March of Flames, Murder by Death and Heavy Heavy Low Low will hit the road together next month for a 15-date East Coast run. The tour gets underway in Hartford, Connecticut, on January 18, with dates scheduled through February 3 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. ... Taking Back Sunday will head out with Underoath and Armor for Sleep on a 38-date North American tour that kicks off February 22 in State College, Pennsylvania. The trek is scheduled to run through April 7, but the location of the final show has yet to be determined. ...

Frontman Ben Perri has left Long Island, New York, hardcore outfit From Autumn to Ashes, forcing drummer Francis Mark to take over that role. According to a Mark-penned post on the band's MySpace, Perri seemed to lose interest in the group during the recording of 2005's "appropriately titled" GGGarth Richardson-produced Abandon Your Friends. Mark says Perri didn't write any lyrics for the effort after assuring the rest of the band that he would, was a no-show at practice and ditched FATA before they took off to play Baltimore. "In the middle of recording the best album of our career, and just two weeks before our tour of Australia, Ben quite literally abandoned his friends," the post read. ...

Dog Fashion Disco are calling it quits and have booked a farewell show for January 13 in Baltimore. "It was a hard decision to make," the band said in a statement, "but after 10 years of constant dedication and touring, it is time to pursue other interests." Frontman Todd Smith added, "I always told myself if it stopped being worth the effort, I would gracefully bow out and that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm not going to get into details exactly why everything is ending because it really doesn't matter." ...

MySpace announced Tuesday that it is partnering with Sentinel Tech Holding Corporation to deploy a database with the names and descriptions of convicted U.S. sex offenders within the next 30 days. The move, which comes in response to repeated reports about solicitations from predators on the social-networking site, is an attempt to block sex offenders from the site by using an automated system to search for matches between the database and MySpace user profiles and delete those profiles. The database will be updated every month and include details such as names, age, hair color, height, scars and tattoos.

• Madonna
• Bow Wow
• Snoop Dogg
• R. Kelly
• Aly & AJ

Ludacris' <I>Release Therapy</I>
Photo: Def Jam

Everybody Loves 'Cris: After years pushing the limits of the afro and mimicking Austin Powers, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges is taking a turn toward the serious with his Release Therapy. The rapper takes a seat on the couch, mulling topics like child abuse and politics as Mary J. Blige ("Runaway Love"), Young Jeezy ("Grew Up a Screw Up"), Field Mob ("Ultimate Satisfaction") and Beanie Sigel ("Do Your Time") lift up Luda throughout. He does lighten up a little, though, on the Pharrell-produced "Girls Gone Wild."

Jackson Action: She's up against country hero Alan Jackson and his Like Red on a Rose and R&B crooner Freddie Jackson and his Transitions, but Janet hopes to edge them out with her own new album, 20 Y.O. With a five-part saga that includes the intro, three interludes and the outro, Janet manages to squeeze in 11 additional cuts, like "Get It Out Me," "Show Me" and "Do It 2 Me." The special edition boasts a bonus DVD with dance auditions, in-the-studio material and the making of the "Call on Me" clip.

Christmas in September: Aly & AJ get a jumpstart on the holiday-album thing with this week's Acoustic Hearts of Winter, which may or may not wind up being as successful as Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas, being reissued today. The sparkly CD has "Greatest Time of Year," which will also be on "The Santa Clause 3" soundtrack, plus "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Little Drummer Boy" and "Joy to the World."

Oh Brother: Horns, accordions and organ make their way onto Brother, Sister, the second offering from hippie Christians Mewithoutyou. Fans who preordered at Interpunk.com got an exclusive T-shirt, but everybody can get their ears on "A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains," "Brownish Spider" and "In a Sweater Poorly Knit." Ex-Sunny Day Real Estate singer Jeremy Enigk joins them for two tracks, and Seattle's favorite producer, Brad Wood, twiddles the knobs.

Oh Sister: Scissor Sisters are loading up ardent fans with even more gifts with the deluxe edition of their Ta-Dah — it's got a bonus six-song CD with a demo, remix and four more tunes. Both versions find the burlesquers hailing "Paul McCartney" and declaring "She's My Man" and "Everybody Wants the Same Thing."

Weird Science: Leave it to "Weird Al" Yankovic to brew up good-natured send-ups of familiar Green Day, Chamillionaire and R. Kelly cuts. Straight Outta Lynwood, his first LP in three years, is a DualDisc frothing over with two stereo mixes, instrumental-only versions of all 12 tracks, an onscreen lyrics option, nine behind-the-scenes clips and six new videos. Now that's straight-up.

Breaking Their Silence: In case you missed them at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, the Warped Tour or MTV's very own "You Hear It First" series, this week will be your chance to hear electro wizards Mute Math.The New Orleanians' record is actually a joint effort between their own label Teleprompt and Warner Bros., an unlikely deal that should probably benefit both sides, seeing as how the band has sold more than 45,000 CDs on their own so far. The first 25,000 copies are slapped with a bonus live EP that has six songs — do the math.

Curse of the Bandino: Have enough Dave Matthews Band live albums but not enough sports memorabilia? Make an excuse for yourself with Fenway Park, Boston MA, July 7-8, 2006, a quadro-CD set that brims with a whopping 38 tracks over four discs. Copies ordered through the Live Trax 6 store will have a sticker commemorating the event, plus the chance to win a Red Sox jersey signed by Matthews.

Morning Glory: Cameron Crowe faves and former Boston Pops collaborators My Morning Jacket remind us what makes their live shows so memorable with Okonokos: Double Live Album, mixed by Bob Dylan buddy Michael Brauer and mastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig. The set actually precedes a more comprehensive document of MMJ's explosive concert. Let the press-release description do the talking: "Inspired by a fairytale-like performance in Tokyo, the band decided to adorn their mysterious set with qualities akin to an old growth forest, capturing the essence of a timeless, nameless, anonymous place. The theme of straddling the line between the surreal and the actual is introduced at the film's prologue when a cast of characters draped in Victorian-era costume, along with one alpaca, are introduced." Right on.

Song Title of the Week:

"Polyester Meth Zeus" from Velvet Acid Christ's Lust for Blood

Other Notables:

Botch's Unifying Themes Redux: Botch gave birth to These Arms Are Snakes, Minus the Bear and Roy, but the Seattle hardcore heathens are being judged by their own merits on this LP, the first in a series of discs culling the band's archives. Unreleased tunes, comp-only tracks and other rarities flesh out the set.

Ladyfinger (ne)'s Heavy Hands: The Omaha, Nebraska, group — who use that (ne) at the end of its name, just so you don't forget — drop a new disc on (where else?) Saddle Creek Records of Bright Eyes and Faint note. Speaking of which, Ladyfinger share members with the Faint, Mayday and the lesser-known Race for Titles and Bleeders for Treats. So if you dig that stuff, look no further.

Lucero's Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers: David Lowery of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven fame stepped behind the boards to document this, the fifth opus by the soothing Memphis, Tennessee, band. Organs and pianos seep onto songs like "What Else Would You Have Me Be?," "I Can Get Us Out of Here" and "She's Just That Kinda Girl."

New Releases:

• Adem - Love and Other Planets (Domino)

Buy Now: Love and Other Planets (Domino)

• Airpushers - Themes for the Ordinarily Strange ... (Sarathan)

Buy Now: Acoustic Hearts of Winter (Sarathan)

• Aly & AJ - Acoustic Hearts of Winter (Hollywood)

Buy Now: Acoustic Hearts of Winter (Hollywood)

• Arma Secreta - A Century's Remains (Rithmetic)
• As Tall as Lions - As Tall as Lions (Triple Crown)

Buy Now: As Tall as Lions (Triple Crown)

• Bobby Bare Jr.'s Young Criminals Starvation League - Longest Meow (Bloodshot)

Buy Now: Longest Meow (Bloodshot)

• Jay Bennett - The Magnificent Defeat (Rykodisc)

Buy Now: The Magnificent Defeat (Rykodisc)

• Tony Bennett - Duets: An American Classic (Columbia)

Buy Now: Duets: An American Classic (Columbia)

• Bridges and Powerlines - Bridges and Powerlines (self-released EP)
• Brothermandude - Brothermandude (Adrenaline)
• Solomon Burke - Nashville (Shout! Factory)
• By the Tree - World on Fire (Fervent)

Buy Now: World on Fire (Fervent)

• Richard Cheese - Silent Nightclub (Surfdog)
• Mark Chesnutt - Heard It in a Love Song (CBUJ)
• Natalie Cole - Leavin' (Verve)
• Al Di Meola - Consequence of Chaos (Telarc)

Buy Now: Consequence of Chaos (Telarc)

• Dirty Projectors - New Attitude (Marriage)
• Enigma - A Posteriori (Virgin)

Buy Now: A Posteriori (Virgin)

• Escape the Fate - Dying Is Your Last Fashion (Epitaph)
• Dizzy Gillespie's All-Star Big Band - Dizzy's Business (MCG Jazz)
• Amy Grant - Time Again ... Live (Word)
• Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton - Knives Don't Have Your Back (digipak; Last Gang)
• Hedley - Hedley (enhanced; Capitol)
• Honeycut - The Day I Turned To Glass (Quannum)

Buy Now: The Day I Turned To Glass (Quannum)

• Vanessa Hudgens - V (Hollywood)
• Alan Jackson - Like Red on a Rose (Arista)

Buy Now: Like Red on a Rose (Arista)

• Freddie Jackson - Transitions (Orpheus)

Buy Now: Transitions (Orpheus)

• Janet Jackson - 20 Y.O. (Virgin)
  Read: "Jermaine Dupri Promises Mariah, Janet Duet On New Album"

Buy Now: 20 Y.O. (Virgin)

• Boney James - Shine (Concord)
• Keith Jarrett - The Carnegie Hall Concert (two CDs; ECM)

Buy Now: The Carnegie Hall Concert (ECM)

• Jupiter Rising - Jupiter Rising (Chime)
• Kaskade - Love Mysterious (Ultra)
• Eric Klinger - The Book of Mourning (Da' Core)
• Ladyfinger (ne) - Heavy Hands (Saddle Creek)
• The Lemonheads - The Lemonheads (Vagrant)

Buy Now: The Lemonheads (Vagrant)

• Jeffrey Lewis - City & Eastern Songs (Rough Trade)
• Jerry Lee Lewis - Last Man Standing (Artist First)
• Michael Lington - A Song for You (Rendezvous)
• Lucero - Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers (Liberty & Lament)

Buy Now: Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers (Liberty & Lament)

• Ludacris - Release Therapy (Def Jam)
  Read: "Therapy Session: Ludacris Previews New LP, Shows Off Home Studio"

Buy Now: Release Therapy (Def Jam)

• Dave Matthews Band - Fenway Park, Boston MA, July 7-8, 2006 (four CDs; RCA)
• Paul McCartney - Ecce Cor Meum (EMI Classics)
• Audra McDonald - Build a Bridge (Nonesuch)
• Stephanie McKay - Stephanie McKay (EP; Astralwerks)
• Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood - Out Louder (Indirecto)
• Mewithoutyou - Brother, Sister (Tooth & Nail)
  Read: "Mewithoutyou Confront Rock's Limitations: 'You Can't Give People Hugs In A CD' "
• Travis Mitchell Band - Forget What's Wrong (Rock Ridge)
• Stanton Moore - III (Telarc)
• Mute Math - Mute Math (Teleprompt/ Warner Bros.)
  Read: "Electro-Poppers Mute Math Work Hard To Bring Back The Keytar"
• My Morning Jacket - Okonokos: Double Live Album (ATO/RCA)
• Nina Nastasia - On Leaving (Fatcat)
• NewFound Road - Life in a Song (Rounder)
• Only Son - The Drop to the Top (Cassette)
• Oohlas - Best Stop Pop (Stolen Transmission)
  Read: "Oohlas Have Spastic Frontwoman, Ex-Everclear Drummer — Is Fame On The Way?"
• Cale Parks - Illuminated Manuscript (Polyvinyl)
• Rhapsody of Fire - Triumph of Agony (special edition; Steamhammer)
• Samiam - Whatever's Got You Down (Hopeless)
• Saosin - Saosin (Capitol)
• Mark Schultz - Broken & Beautiful (Word)
• Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah (deluxe edition due same day; Motown Universal)
• Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars - Living Like a Refugee (digipak; Anti)
• Sol.iLLaquists of Sound - As If We Existed (Anti)
• Sparklehorse - Dreamt for Years in the Belly of a Mountain (Astralwerks)
• Mario Vazquez - Mario Vazquez (Arista)
  Read: " 'Idol' Dropout Mario Vazquez Shows 'Grittier' Side On Debut, Hopes For Spot On Christina Tour"
• Velvet Acid Christ - Lust for Blood (Metropolis)
• Paul Westerberg - "Open Season" soundtrack (Lost Highway)
• Westbound Train - Transitions (digipak; Hellcat)
• Wolf Eyes - Human Animal (digipak; Sub Pop)
• "Weird Al" Yankovic - Straight Outta Lynwood (DualDisc; Jive)
• Richie Zito Project - Avalon (Frontiers)
• Various artists - Think Global: West Arica Unwired (World Music Network)
• Various artists - Why the Hell Not ... The Songs of Kinky Friedman (Sustain)
• Various artists - "Dora's World Adventure!" soundtrack (Nick)

Notable Reissues and Archival Material:

• Tori Amos - A Piano: The Collection (five CDs; Rhino)
• The Black Crowes - The Lost Crowes (two CDs; Rhino)
• Tommy Bolan - Whips & Roses II (Steamhammer)
• Botch - Unifying Themes Revisited (Hydra Head)
• The Byrds - There Is a Season (box set with four CDs and one DVD; Columbia/Legacy)
• Farmer Jason - A Day at the Farm With Farmer Jason and Rockin' in the Forest With Farmer Jason (Rhino)
• Fear Factory - The Best of Fear Factory (Roadrunner)
• Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas (Capitol)
• Jerry Garcia - The Very Best of Jerry Garcia (two CDs; Rhino/ J. Garcia)
• David Gray - Sell Sell Sell (Nettwork)
• George Harrison - Living in the Material World (limited-edition version with DVD due same day; Capitol)
• Holy Moses - Finished With the Dogs (Locomotive)
• Ill Niño - The Best of Ill Niño (Roadrunner)
• Waylon Jennings - Nashville Rebel (four-CD box set; RCA Nashville/ Legacy)
• John Lennon - "The U.S. Vs. John Lennon" soundtrack (Capitol)
• Little Feat - The Best of Little Feat (Rhino)
• Ziggy Marley - Love Is My Religion (Cooking Vinyl)
• Sarah McLachlan - Mirrorball: The Complete Concert (two CDs; Arista/Legacy)
• Steve Reich - Phases: A Nonesuch Retrospective (five-CD box set; Nonesuch)
• Sepultura - The Best of Sepultura (Roadrunner)
• Type O Negative - The Best of Type O Negative (Roadrunner)
• Fats Waller - If You Have to Ask, You Ain't Got It (three CDs; Bluebird/Legacy)

Music DVDs:

• Depeche Mode - "Touring the Angel: Live in Milan" (with bonus CD; Reprise)
• Dwarves - "Fefu: The DVD - Special Edition Director's Cut" (Music Video Distributors)
• Hot Tuna - "25 Years and Runnin': Live at Sweetwater" (Vestapol)
• Isis - "Clearing the Eye" (Ipecac)
• Buddy Rich - "Jazz Icons: Live in '78" (TDK)
• Seven Witches - "Years of the Witch" (Screaming Ferret)

Coming Attractions:

October 3:

• Beck - The Information (Geffen)
  Read: "Beck Giving Fans Sticky Fingers With Quasi-Hip-Hop Album"
• Evanescence - The Open Door (Wind-Up)
  Read: "Amy Lee Says New Evanescence LP Has More Sensuality"
• Killers - Sam's Town (Island)
  Read: "Killers Album Preview: Massive Sound, Epic Ballads, Big Ideas Fill Sam's Town"

• The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes (V2)
• Rod Stewart - Still the Same ... Great Rock Classics of Our Time (J)
• Various artists - "American Hardcore - The History of American Punk Rock (1980-1986)" soundtrack (Rhino)

• C-Murder - The Tru Story ... Continued (limited-edition version with DVD and bonus tracks; Koch)
• Glenn Danzig - Black Aria II (Megaforce)
  Read: "Glenn Danzig Preps 'Final' Tour, Film, Box Set And, Uh, Dolls"
• Xzibit - Full Circle (Koch)
  Read: "Xzibit's An Indie Rapper Again, With Game And Quik In Tow"

• Ludacris
• Janet Jackson
• Aly & AJ
• Mewithoutyou
• Scissor Sisters

Aly & AJ
Photo: Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images

With apologies to English-language spellcheckers, AJ of teen-pop duo Aly & AJ has something to say: "Kaleedaspeeba hixafeeba weella neeba hixadooba."

That line made her laugh when she sang it in the recording studio recently. But what in the world does it mean?

As the other half of the sister act explained, it's what the lyric "Kaleidoscope of colors, turning hopes on fire, sun is burning" from the girls' hit song "Chemicals React" sounds like when it's translated into Simlish, the language spoken in the popular virtual-dollhouse video game series "The Sims." (Watch a clip of the Simlish version of "Chemicals React" — and the sisters translated into "Sims" characters — right here.)

The newly translated version is the focal track on "The Sims 2: Pets," a PC and console spinoff to "The Sims 2" that's coming October 17 via Electronic Arts and game-development studio Maxis.

"It's a very fine art," Aly said over the phone from a Saginaw, Michigan, tour stop, when asked to explain how the song got translated. "AJ and I are huge 'Sims' fans. When we were asked to sing the song for the 'Pets' version, we were totally stoked." Their secret weapon? "We already knew how to speak Simlish."

The girls explained that carefully listening to the "Sims" games of old had put them in a good spot by the time EA approached them to sing in a non-native tongue. "They do speak it on the actual CD-ROM [of the game]," AJ said. "If you listen closely you can figure out, 'Oh, "chemicals" would be this.' OK, this is 'chobe and ashashnah.' " (The spellchecker is once again weeping.)

"It's definitely twisting the words around," Aly added about Simlish, which, according to EA, was born from experiments with the Ukrainian and Tagalog languages.

Over the last couple of years, EA has convinced the Black Eyed Peas and Depeche Mode to warble hit singles into Sims speak. Aly said she checked out the Simlish version of Depeche Mode's "Suffer Well" before the girls did their thing. "I almost like that version better than the regular one," she said.

Some musician/ video game crossovers make life a little easier for the artist. Get a song featured in "Madden," for example, and just savor the exposure. But occasionally a musician has to work for it, like recording an original track for 2K Sports' "NBA 2K" series. But only EA's Sims team has had the impetus and the pull to get artists to sing in a different language.

"It wasn't totally easy, but it wasn't like, 'I'm totally stressing out over this,' " Aly said. What smoothed it out was the prior knowledge of Simlish. And the perks don't hurt either: They get to see what they'd look like as game characters. And, seemingly even more to their liking, their dogs do too. Computer-graphic "Sims" versions of Aly & AJ appear in a special music video for the Simlish "Chemical React." Nipping at their heels in that video are Aly's dog Saint and AJ's Bandit.

A copy of the video is available on the deluxe re-release of the sisters' Into the Rush album. Aly & AJ are continuing their U.S. tour and recently recorded a Christmas LP that will be available on September 26.

"The Sims 2: Pets" brings domestic animals into the classic virtual dollhouse gameplay of "The Sims." The PC, console and PSP versions will include the Aly & AJ song. The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions will not.

• Aly & AJ

Hilary Duff
Photo: Evan Agostini/Getty Images

Hilary Duff has racked up her share of screen and radio hits, but when it came to the Billboard albums chart, she was never a bona fide #1, as her first two albums — 2003's Metamorphosis and 2004's self-titled outing — both debuted at #2.

Most Wanted — a compilation disc mixing Duff's biggest hits with current "TRL" favorite "Wake Up" and other new tracks — lived up to its name its first week out. The collection sold close to 208,000 copies to become Duff's best-performing debut and opens as Billboard's #1 album, edging out country singer Brad Paisley's Time Well Wasted and Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi, according to the latest SoundScan figures.

Paisley's latest debuts at #2, with scans of nearly 193,000, followed by Mimi, which moved close to 109,000 copies this time out and has sold more than 3 million copies over its 19 weeks in release. Coming in right behind Mariah — with more than 108,000 week-five scans — is the 19th installment in the Now That's What I Call Music! franchise, featuring tracks from Eminem, Gwen Stefani, Destiny's Child and Coldplay.

The week's third-best debut belongs to Omaha, Nebraska, funk-rock outfit 311, whose eighth studio effort, Don't Tread on Me, takes the chart's #5 with first-week sales of more than 91,000. The album is topped in 311's chart history by 1997's Transistor, which moved more than 128,000 copies and came in at #4 its first week out.

The Black Eyed Peas' Monkey Business grabs #6 this time around, moving more than 82,000 copies. Staind's Chapter V, last week's #1, took a 59 percent drop in sales, hitting #7 with over 76,000 scans. Faith Hill's Fireflies comes in at #8 with close to 73,000 scans, followed by Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway, which sold over 62,000 copies to capture #9. Young Jeezy's Let's Get It moved 61,000 units, taking the chart's #10 slot.

The Killers' Hot Fuss jumps 18 chart positions this week to #11 with 60,000 scans — an 88 percent sales spike. Coldplay's X&Y falls five spots to #12 with sales of 59,000 and change, followed by Green Day's American Idiot, which sold more than 52,000 copies last week and has moved over 4 million since its release.

The latest outing from the Gorillaz, Demon Days, takes this week's #14 with close to 52,000 scans, just in front of the debut disc from the Click Five, Greetings From Imerie House, which opens at #15 with first-week sales of nearly 52,000. Country trio Rascal Flatts takes the chart's #16, moving more than 51,000 copies of their latest, Feels Like Today, followed by Fall Out Boy's From Under the Cork Tree, which netted week-16 scans of close to 49,000. Bow Wow's Wanted follows at #18 with sales of more than 45,000. Sugarland's Twice The Speed Of Life is it at #19 with 44,000 scans, and #20 finisher Gwen Stefani's Love, Angel, Music, Baby sold more than 43,000 copies.

The chart is teeming with noteworthy debuts, including Taproot's Blue-Sky Research at #33 with close to 28,000 scans, Silverstein's Discovering the Waterfront at #34 with 26,000 plus sales, and singing sisters Aly and AJ's debut disc Into the Rush at #36, with 24,000 scans. 10 Years' Autumn Effect takes #72 with 14,000 copies sold, while the Soopa Villianz debut Furious finishes at #92 with 11,000 plus scans. Christian metal act Stryper's Reborn, pre-ordered copies of which included an autographed Bible, opens as the chart's #111, with close to 9,500.

Check out "Hilary Duff: The Nicest Brat" for more on the chart champ. And see "Click Five Winning Over Soccer Moms On Ashlee Simpson Tour" for a profile on the band that scored #15.

• Hilary Duff
• Mariah Carey
• Eminem
• Gwen Stefani
• Destiny's Child

Stars Rock The Vote At Hollywood Party

• Aly & AJ
• Danity Kane
• Christina Aguilera

Aly and Aj, Sean Avery, Slim Thug

• Aly & AJ
• Slim Thug

MTV.com Exclusive: Aly & AJ Photos 04.19.2006

• Aly & AJ

Jesse, JoJo, Chingy, More Arrive At The Hope Rocks Concert

• Jesse McCartney
• JoJo
• Frankie J
• Chingy
• Aly & AJ