Billed as Sticks and Stones, New Found Glory performed a small club show in Anaheim, California, with their friends in the upstart outfit Breakdance Vietnam on Monday, playing a set that mostly avoided hit singles in favor of more fan-oriented material. ... On a related note, the side project featuring New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert and members of New York hardcore staples Madball and H20 have changed their name from All Ages to Hazen Street. The band, which recently added former Cro-Mags/ Bad Brains/ Shelter drummer Mackie Jayson, will begin recording their debut album this weekend in Los Angeles. ...

Conan must really like the White Stripes. The red-and-white rockers will grace the stage four nights in a row on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," from April 22-25, performing a different song each night. ... What do Green Day, Blink-182, Third Eye Blind, 3 Doors Down, Alanis Morissette, Eric Clapton and Sheryl Crow have in common? They all play Fender brand guitars, and they all have tracks on The Players: Powered by Fender, which comes out April 22. Other Fender strummers included on the disc are Filter, Remy Zero, the Goo Goo Dolls, Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray. ...

On August 2 and 3 at Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine, Phish will host It, the band's first concert festival since a millennium event three years ago in Florida. Phish will warm up for the shows with a 21-date tour kicking off July 7 in Phoenix. ... While Blue Man Group have been recruiting stars galore for their album, one of those songs is going to get an added push from the big screen. The art collective teamed with Bush's Gavin Rossdale for a song called "The Current" that will be used in "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," to be played while the credits roll. ... R&B veteran Patti LaBelle will record a remake of the hit "Dancehall Queen" with dancehall DJ Beenie Man. In 1997, Beenie had major chart success when he recorded the song with Chevelle Franklyn. ...

Perhaps only the most hardcore Duran Duran fans think the '80s glamour boys deserve a whopping 13-CD box set. Perhaps those folks also work at Capitol Records. The group's label throughout the 1980s will release Duran Duran: The Singles Box 81-85, a collection of all the band's singles from "Planet Earth" to "A View to a Kill," on June 10. Each disc features the hit, along with the b-sides that were included when the singles were originally issued. ... That same format is also being applied to snarling new wavers the Stranglers. The Stranglers: Singles Boxset Volume 2, also due June 10, is a 12-disc set that spans 1979's "Nuclear Device" to 1982's "Strange Little Girl," which eventually became the title track (using the pluralized "girls") to Tori Amos' 2001 covers album. Rare Swedish and French singles are also included. ...

Before Cracker's proper fifth album, Countrysides, is out in July, the band will release the "reinterpretations" collection Oh Cracker, Where Art Thou? on May 6 via Pitch-A-Tent Records, singer David Lowery's label. Lowery and Johnny Hickman recorded the album, which includes classic Cracker tracks like "Euro-Trash Girl," live in a studio with Colorado's Leftover Salmon serving as the backing band. ... British art-punk band Wire will release their first studio album in 12 years, Send, on June 10. The disc follows the 2002 EPs Read & Burn 01 and Read & Burn 02. ...

03.24.03

John "Fabolous" Jackson and four others were arrested Sunday night in New York on criminal weapons possession charges. Fab had just finished performing at Webster Hall as part of radio station Power 105's first anniversary celebration when, according to police, officers stopped the car the rapper was traveling in and found a loaded 9 mm handgun. He was still in custody, awaiting arraignment as of Monday afternoon. ... Train have set a June 3 release date for My Private Nation, the follow-up to 2001's Drops of Jupiter. The San Francisco roots rockers shot a video for the first single, "Calling All Angels," last week in Los Angeles. ...

Madonna took the most awards in the 23rd annual Golden Raspberry Awards, which honor the worst films of the year. Her "Swept Away" took Worst Picture and Worst Remake, and Madonna took Worst Actress. She shared honors for Worst Screen Couple with Adriano Giannini, and husband Guy Ritchie earned Worst Director for the flick. Britney Spears tied for Worst Actress with "Crossroads" and won for Worst Original Song. The awards were announced on Saturday in Santa Monica, California. Madonna and Britney were not there to claim their prizes. ... What's another two weeks for fans that have waited almost two years for the full-length debut from the Mars Volta? The as-yet-untitled LP from two-fifths of what was At the Drive-In now carries a June 17 release date. ...

A previously unreleased song Paul McCartney wrote when he was 16, "Thinking of Linking," will be included on the DVD release of "Beatles Anthology," due April 1. The track is one of five songs he, George Harrison and Ringo Starr played together during a private '90s jam session. Two of the others, "Ain't She Sweet" and "Baby What You Want Me to Do," were filmed while Harrison and McCartney sat on the grass strumming ukuleles and Starr drummed on his legs. ... Stone Sour guitarist Josh Rand's wife, Laura, gave birth to the couple's second child on Thursday. Mia Angelina Rand was born at 2:21 p.m. and weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces. ...

Liz Phair has changed the title of her first album in nearly five years from Happy Tragic Thing to Liz Phair. The set, produced by the Matrix (Avril Lavigne), singer/songwriter Michael Penn and R. Walt Vincent (Pete Yorn) and featuring the single "Why Can't I," is due June 24. ... It took only 10 days for the Eels to record their sixth album, Shootenanny, due June 3. Songwriter/violinist Lisa Germano appears on several tracks. ...

Everclear will promote their recently released sixth album, Slow Motion Daydream, with a spring tour beginning April 1 in Kansas City, Missouri. The outing, featuring the Exies and Authority Zero, will wrap May 15 in Seattle. ... DJs Dieselboy and Bad Boy Bill will headline the PlayStation 2 Dual Play tour, which kicks off Friday in Atlanta. Tiesto and Noel Sanger will take over April 13 in Las Vegas, through June 6 in San Francisco. ...

• New Found Glory
• The White Stripes
• Sheryl Crow
• Beenie Man
• Duran Duran

Soulive
Photo: Blue Note

Jam rockers who are still bemoaning the absence of this year's Furthur Fest can perhaps take consolation in knowing that the moe.down festival is alive and well.

The second annual event will take place from August 31 to September 2 in Turin, New York, at the Snow Ridge Ski Mountain at the base of the Adirondack Mountains.

The festival will feature five sets by moe. (just one of the perks of throwing your own bash), as well as main stage performances by Cracker, Soulive, Chris Whitley, the Wailers, the Radiators, Melissa Ferrick, Gibb Droll, Joe Bonamassa, Lo Faber Band, Donna the Buffalo and Frank Zappa cover band Project Object (featuring Zappa vocalist Ike Willis).

Side-stage acts for the event include Ockham's Razor, the Waz, Ulu, Maggi, Pierce and E.J., Unity Group and BLA, with more to be announced.

Last year's moe.down included performances by Ani DiFranco, Les Claypool, Martin Sexton, Great Big Sea and Ominous Seapods.

Tickets for this year's festival are on sale for $60 until August 13, and $75 thereafter. The price includes camping fees.

• Cracker
• The Wailers (Rock)
• Chris Whitley
• Melissa Ferrick
• The Radiators

After a successful 13-date West Coast run earlier this year, Cracker has announced plans to bring its "Traveling Apothecary" tour, featuring members of seminal college rock group Camper Van Beethoven, to the East Coast.

For the new set of "Traveling Apothecary" shows, Cracker frontman David Lowery will once again be joined by three of his former Camper Van Beethoven bandmates: bassist Victor Krummenacher, guitarist Greg Lisher, and violinist-keyboardist Jonathan Segel.

The set lists for the shows will feature songs from both Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven -- although organizers stress that the gigs in no way mark a CVB reunion and are not billing it as such. As with the earlier shows in February and March, Lisher, Krummenacher, and Segel will open the concerts by performing songs from their solo careers.

"This is not a Camper Van Beethoven reunion," Lowery noted in a statement. "It also isn't exactly a Cracker show. Anyone who expects us to stick closely to the recorded versions of all the songs [from both groups] may be disappointed."

In addition to Lowery, Lisher, Krummenacher, and Segel, the "Traveling Apothecary" tour will include ex-King Missile bassist Chris Xefos, as well as Cracker regulars John Hickman on guitar, Frank Funaro on drums, and Kenny Margolis on keyboards.

Dates currently confirmed for the Cracker "Traveling Apothecary" tour:

9/14 - Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
• 9/15 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
• 9/16 - Richmond, VA @ Brown's Island (no opening set)
• 9/17 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle
• 9/19 - Knoxville, TN @ Moose's
• 9/20 - Nashville, TN @ South Street (no opening set)
• 9/21 - Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
• 9/22 - Chattanooga, TN @ Rhythm And Brews
• 9/23 - Huntsville, AL @ Big Spring Jam

• Cracker

Cracker's David Lowery, fresh off his recent production duties on the new Counting Crows album, has now put the finishing touches on a Cracker compilation album, "Garage D'Or" and due out on March 14.

• 2/4 - San Juan Capistrano, CA @ Coach House
• 2/5 - Phoenix, AZ @ Alice Cooperstown
• 2/6 - Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
• 2/8 - West Hollywood, CA @ House Of Blues
• 2/9 - Santa Cruz, CA @ Catalyst
• 2/10 - San Francisco, CA @ Slim's
• 2/11 - San Francisco, CA @ Slim's
• 2/12 - Petaluma, CA @ Mystic Theatre
• 3/1 - Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
• 3/2 - Vail, CO @ Garton's
• 3/3 - Steamboat Springs, CO @ Inferno
• 3/4 - Aspen, CO @ Double Diamond
• 3/17 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
• 3/18 - Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero

• Cracker

With the release of Cracker's newest album, "Gentleman's Blues," frontman David Lowery notches the ninth album of his 14-year career -- including the time logged with his first group, the ecclectically influential Camper Van Beethoven.

• Cracker

January 8 [14:00 EDT] -- If you're looking for the latest effort from Cracker, don't check your local record store.

The band's frontman, David Lowery, has most recently put his energy into his movie debut, a film called "River Red," which debuts at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah later this month.

Lowery plays a bartender in "River Red," which marks the directorial debut of Eric Drilling and also features "American Werewolf In Paris" star Tom Everett Scott.

A thorough knowledge of mixology seems to be the best asset for musicians hoping to break into films. Julian Lennon also set 'em up behind the bar in "Leaving Las Vegas," and in the upcoming "Spiceworld," Elvis Costello makes a cameo as a bartender.

The Gwenyth Paltrow film "Sliding Doors" will open the Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off on Thursday, January 15.

Meanwhile, Cracker has a new album due later this year called "Gentlemen's Blues" which features songs with pianist Benmont Tench and guitarist Mike Campbell from Tom Petty's Heartbreakers as well as former Replacement Tommy Stinson, currently of the group Perfect (and recently seen and heard in Puff Daddy' rock remix of "It's All About The Benjamins") on bass.

• Cracker