Kevin Federline and Britney Spears
Photo: Getty Images/ Matthew Simmons

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline finalized their divorce Monday (July 30) in Los Angeles Superior Court, The Associated Press reports. "They are divorced. Everything is finalized," Spears' lawyer Laura Wasser said after the hearing. A court commissioner signed the orders for dissolution of marriage, child custody and an alimony agreement, the latter of which won't be made public unless an enforcement issue arises. The child-custody order — which details the former couple's timeshare schedule and transportation matters — was sealed for the time being for safety reasons, pending a hearing slated for August 14. ...

Could a 17-second snippet of a song called "Candy Shop" be a leak from Madonna's upcoming album? Fans speculate that it's of a track Madonna was working on with either Timbaland or Pharrell — but reps for none of the three camps would confirm. "I have no comment about the song 'Candy Shop,' " Madonna's longtime rep Liz Rosenberg told MTV News. "Madonna has studio time booked and is continuing to work on her new CD. The songs are not mixed, and until that time, we can't finalize the track list." The yet-untitled album is due later this year. ...

Christina Aguilera scratched two shows in Australia slated for Saturday and Monday due to the flu — more specifically, a viral upper-respiratory tract infection. "I want to personally apologize to all of my fans for having to cancel my last two shows here in Melbourne," the singer said in a statement. "Thank you for all of the continued love and support and I hope to perform for you all again next time." In the statement, the singer didn't address ongoing pregnancy rumors. ... Lindsay Lohan is "in a very good place right now," her mother Dina told reporters Monday outside a New York courthouse, where she was battling with Michael Lohan over custody of three of their children. Lindsay's exact whereabouts are still unknown. ...

According to Jermaine Dupri, fans will have to wait a while longer for new Janet Jackson music — she's not going to be featured on the "Rush Hour 3" soundtrack. The producer posted a message on his MySpace page saying, "To answer all questions about [the] 'Rush Hour 3' soundtrack, I ended up not doing it 'cause the movie takes place in Paris and a lot of the music didn't fit. So all of you looking for that Janet record, you gotta wait till she's finished with the new album. Sorry." ...

Desert gold: Paul Wall is shoving off to the Persian Gulf for his second USO tour. "Being a part of a USO tour and performing for the troops is amazing," Wall said. "It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and to forget what's happening overseas," he said in a statement. "This is my way of letting them know I realize what they're sacrificing and am truly grateful." ... The Black Eyed Peas will headline the "Jerusalem Rocks!" festival, set to take place September 9 in Israel. The multi-culti act will be joined by Arrested Development and various local acts. ...

Korn's Jonathan Davis has one thing to say to Devo's Jerry Casale: no hard feelings. Responding to the flap that ensued over Korn's fake movie trailer that appeared to cop Devo's "de-evolution" concept, Davis said in a statement to Rolling Stone: "Korn never claimed to be the first to expose de-evolution, our hats are going off to Devo for that." He added, "They are pioneers for sure! However, we are glad to see that our efforts have them speaking up again! It's good to have them back." Davis closed with a requisite plug: "In the meantime, our researchers continue to uncover key evidence of de-evolution at the highest levels (EvolutionDevolution.com)." ...

Chamillionaire, Forest Whitaker and Babyface were among the attendees at Russell Simmons' eighth annual Art for Life event Saturday night. The charitable festivities took place in East Hampton, New York, and raised $1.4 million for underprivileged children in New York. ... Polow Da Don, Mark Ronson and Timbaland protégé Nate "Danjahandz" Hills were among those who made it on Vibe's 14th annual Juice list. Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama graces the cover. ... Damon Dash hobnobs with Ashton Kutcher, Sofia Coppola and Renée Zellweger on Vanity Fair's 68th Best-Dressed List, which appears in the magazine's September issue. George Clooney was named to the list's Hall of Fame, while Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie made it to the couples list — surprised? ...

Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin and bassist Duff McKagan joined ex-GN'R drummer Steven Adler and his Adler's Appetite for a couple of Appetite for Destruction songs during a concert at the Key Club in West Hollywood, California, on Saturday. Slash, who had made it to the venue earlier that evening, did not end up performing during the quasi-reunion. The gig was scheduled in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the release of the band's 1987 debut, Appetite for Destruction. ... Peter Hook threatens offhandedly in a post on his MySpace page that he might take his former New Order bandmates to court, now that they've decided to continue performing as the band without him. He says Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris shouldn't assume they "have the rights to do anything New Order-ey" because he has "still got a third." ...

Metric will swing through the States for a three-week trek starting September 19 in Philadelphia and winding down October 9 in Seattle, RollingStone.com reports. The indie-rockers will record their fourth album in November. ... Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carrabba will ship out for his first solo trek in five years on September 14 in Rochester, Michigan. With Augustana and John Ralston in tow, Carrabba will conclude the extensive trek November 14 in New York. ... The Offspring have parted ways with drummer Atom Willard and recruited Saves the Day's Pete Parada to take his place. Parada will make his debut with the Offspring next month when they perform at the Summer Sonic festival in Japan. Willard, in the meantime, has moved over fulltime to Angels & Airwaves. ...

It was a rough weekend for aging rock legends. First, Kiss singer/guitarist Paul Stanley had to sit out a show in San Jacinto, California, on Friday night after suffering a bout of tachycardia, which caused his heart to speed up to twice its normal rate. On his Web site, Stanley, 55, explained that during a rehearsal for the show, "my heart spontaneously jumped to 190-plus beats per minute, where it stayed for over an hour, necessitating paramedics to start an IV and give me a shot to momentarily stop my heart and get it into a normal pattern." The rest of the group played as a trio in Stanley's absence ...

The news was a bit better for Ozzy Osbourne, who was treated at and released by a Denver hospital over the weekend. Reuters reports that a statement from Osbourne's management on Sunday read: "Ozzy Osbourne had a minor outpatient procedure at Rose Medical Center late last night. He was released early this morning and is doing well." Osbourne, 58, is expected to perform at Monday's Ozzfest in Kansas City, Missouri. KUSA-TV in Denver reported that the surgery, which took place after Saturday's Ozzfest show, was for a blood clot in Osbourne's leg. He had complained of leg pain prior to the gig. ... Is Kelly Osbourne following in Ashlee Simpson's footsteps? Ozzy's daughter is joining the cast of "Chicago" at the Cambridge Theatre in London's West End for a seven-week run. She'll play Mama Morton, the matron of Cook County Jail. ...

Atlanta metallers Daath are stuck in Denver, meaning they'll miss some more Ozzfest dates. According to the bandmembers, they missed last week's stops in Phoenix and Oklahoma City because the airport shuttle bus they rented to get from city to city during the summer tour had broken down. Plans have been made to rent the band an RV, but complications with the vehicle haven't been resolved. There's no word yet on when Daath will return to the tour. ... DevilDriver have joined this summer's Ozzfest, taking over the second-stage slot abandoned last week by Mondo Generator. ... In the meantime, New York metal act Bloodsimple have been added to a competing fest: the Family Values Tour. They'll play the second stage. ...

Al Gore III, son of the the former vice president, pleaded guilty on Monday to two felony and three misdemeanor counts of drug possession stemming from his arrest while driving in Orange County, California, earlier this month. He agreed to enter a nine-month drug program, and the charges could be dropped if he finishes it. ... Visionary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman died Monday on an island off the coast of Sweden. He was 89. Woody Allen once called the director — three of whose films won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film — "probably the greatest film artist ... since the invention of the motion picture camera," according to The Associated Press.

07.27.07

As Kelly Clarkson fans know, the singer wrote or co-wrote every track on her new album My December — but they probably don't know just how quickly. "I've written every song in 15 to 20 minutes. It has to come out of me like that, or it won't at all," Clarkson told Self for its August issue cover story. "It's not even that hard a thought process for me." She revealed to the magazine that she has a microphone hooked up to her computer, which she keeps by her bed so she can record music when a song pops into her head. She has drafts of 150 new songs saved. Check out behind-the-scenes video from the cover shoot on Self.com. ...

A Britney Spears bodyguard is facing a battery charge after wrestling with a pair of men who were trying to photograph the singer with her children in Las Vegas on Thursday, The Associated Press reports. Cesar Julio Camera was issued a misdemeanor battery summons after allegedly grabbing and punching one photographer and pushing another into a wall. Spears and Kevin Federline are involved in divorce proceedings in California that include restrictions on traveling out of state with the children, according to AP. ...

Have a burning "Harry Potter" question for J.K. Rowling? Look out for the J.K. Rowling and the Open Book Tour Sweepstakes launching Monday — 1,000 fans will get a pair of tickets to an evening with the author on October 19 at New York's Carnegie Hall. Rowling will read from "Deathly Hallows," answer questions and autograph copies of the volume. Go to publisher Scholastic's Web site for details. ...

Kid Rock is priming his first studio album in four years — and on the release, he finds room to take a jab at ex-wife Pamela Anderson, Billboard.com reports. The album — due October 9 and tentatively titled Rock'n'Roll Jesus — closes with the country song "Half Your Age," in which Rock says he's found a younger girlfriend who's "twice as hot." The LP also includes a mash-up of Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," and is dedicated to Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, who passed away last year. Kid Rock told Billboard he wants the album to make people feel as if they were "going to church drunk on Saturday night." ... Beck and Jamie Lidell have ganged up for a direct-to-disc recording session at a studio in East Los Angeles, Pitchfork reports. ...

Fall Out Boy already have more songs in the can — and they look to Green Day for inspiration, Billboard.com reports. "I've got a bunch of songs written, but I think I'm going to wait a while before we release it, because I'm still really proud of [Infinity on High] and I want to kind of give it some space," singer/guitarist Patrick Stump told the outlet. He also said Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's declaration that he didn't want to play "four-chord punk-rock for the rest of his life," according to Stump, has impacted the band's outlook. "They're really just true to what they are, and so that's how we are," he said. "I think we'll change stylistically, but at the end of the day, that's just something you wear. You're still yourself." ...

The Spice Girls have added three more dates to their upcoming reunion tour. The shows, in Vancouver, British Columbia (December 2); San Jose, California (December 4); and Shanghai, China (January 8), join a roster of 11 previously announced dates, with the Vancouver gig now serving as the tour's opening night. ... She Wants Revenge will return to record stores this fall with their sophomore LP, This Is Forever. The album drops October 9 and will feature 13 tracks, including "Written in Blood," "She Will Always Be a Broken Girl" and "Pretend the World Has Ended." ...

Forensic pathologist Werner Spitz sparred with the prosecution in the Phil Spector trial on Thursday, repeating the claim that actress Lana Clarkson's gunshot wound was self-inflicted, the Los Angeles Times reports. He said the force of the gunshot in her mouth caused blood to spray out of her mouth and nose — which then landed on the music producer's jacket several feet away. When asked why blood wasn't found on the floor, furniture or elsewhere after it sprayed, Spitz said he couldn't comment on the death scene because he had only seen photos of Spector and Clarkson's clothing and relied on reports made by other experts. ...

A man accused of shooting Ray Davies in a 2004 holdup is off the hook for now — prosecutors dropped the charges after the Kinks frontman didn't show up in a New Orleans court on Thursday, AP reports. It was the second time prosecutors dropped armed-robbery and aggravated-battery charges against the man because Davies wasn't in court. Davies told AP prosecutors didn't notify him about the trial until a few days ago and that he didn't have time to get from London to New Orleans. "I am very disappointed with the way this case has been handled," he said. "I intend to pursue it further." ...

David Bowie is celebrating the 35th anniversary of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars with an innovative alternate-album-cover contest on his Web site. ... Led Zeppelin are getting a whole lot of love via a new batch of reissues, Billboard.com reports. The best-of collection Mothership is due November 13 and will be followed a week later by spruced-up versions of the DVD concert film "The Song Remains the Same" and its accompanying soundtrack. Configurations of each release will have additional content, some of which is previously unreleased. ...

According to a report from Interfax, a Russian nongovernmental news agency based in Moscow, most heavy-metal songs are about murder and suicide — so says Serbsky State Research Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry professor Fyodor Kondratyev. "Having researched 700 most popular heavy-metal songs revealed that half of them is about murder, 7 percent is positive about suicide, and 35 percent preaches a variety of Satanist ideologies," Kondratyev said, in broken English.

• Britney Spears
• Kevin Federline
• Paul Wall
• Damon Dash
• Guns N' Roses

Menomena

Now that the Austin dust has settled, it's time to gain some perspective on last weekend's South By Southwest madness. Thousands of signed and unsigned bands descended on the Texas city like a swarm of locusts (locusts with demos). Ultimately, there were only a handful of bands truly worth recognizing. While Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse and the Stooges may have garnered the most press -- here are some of the bands that may have regrettably slipped through the cracks.

Who: Yeasayer

Where are they from? Brooklyn, New York

Is there a record out? No, not yet. But its debut will be released via Baltimore, Maryland's Monitor Records this coming summer. In the meantime, you can hear a couple of demos on their MySpace page.

Website? Click Here

What do they sound like? At times, the foursome projected a wholly distinct vibe like a manic Peter Gabriel -era Genesis channeled through Animal Collective but the band also manipulates their collective vocals (yes, they all sing) producing a sweet, harmonious cacophony.

The great moment: Performing the whole time under a green hoodie, front man Chris Keating walked intermittently into the audience frantically slapping his tambourine in the air.

Who: Ra Ra Riot

Where are they from? Syracuse, New York

Is there a record out? The band doesn't have a label yet, so there's only a self-released EP (which, incidentally, doesn't do justice to the live show). But based on the buzz of its SXSW performances this will all change very, very soon. What, you can't hear the labels bidding in the background?

Website? Click Here

What do they sound like? The six college aged kids create an enormous, hefty sound complete with a cello and violin, not unlike the Arcade Fire or the Olivia Tremor. And singer Wesley Miles croons earnestly but still not emotive enough that it's emo. Ra Ra Riot has enormous potential and considering the band is only a year old, the actualization is inevitable.

The great moment: Guitarist Milo Bonnacci and bassist Mathieu Santos rested their respective foreheads on one another's shoulders while riffing on their instruments.

Who: Jamie T

Where are they from? London, England

Is there a record out? Jamie's debut Panic Prevention is available in Europe on Virgin Records and at this current time, he has no American label.

Website? Click Here

What do they sound like? The cockney cockiness of the Arctic Monkeys meets the disjointed, slurred flow of the Streets meets the middle-finger attitude of the Clash meets the pop sensibility of Lily Allen meets the carelessness of the Fall. Basically, a lot of meetings.

The great moment: When an audience member noted, "This guy is completely wasted." And it was probably true.

Who: Menomena

Where are they from? Portland, Oregon

Is there a record out? The debut I Am the Fun Blame Monster (an anagram for The First Menomena Album) was released on indie label filmGUERRO and features an 80-page flipbook. This year's critically acclaimed Friend And Foe was released on Barsuk in January and it's inarguably one of the year's strongest records.

Website? Click Here

What do they sound like? The unpretentious side of art-rock. There hasn't been a threesome as competent at playing their respective instruments since Rush. Justin Harris, Danny Seim, and Brent Knopf craft oddly timed, intricate pop songs that are heartbreakingly fragile.

The great moment: When drummer Seim flailed on his kit like the octopus prodigy of Keith Moon.

Who: The Black Lips

Where are they from? Atlanta, Georgia

Is there a record out? There are three indie releases out already but the forthcoming Los Vallentes del Mundo Nuevo, a live album recorded in Tijuana, is their first for Vice Records.

Website? Click Here

What do they sound like? Dirty, dirty rock and roll. The Nuggets -influenced retro-ruckus of the Lips is no revelation but these four rarely sober characters bring the party wherever they go.

The great moment: Considering the band performed thirteen times over the span of four days, there was no definitive great moment. Let's just say that all those live sets culminate into one massive great moment.

Who: The Twilight Sad

Where are they from? Glasgow, Scotland

Is there a record out? Fat Cat Records is currently offering two EPs but the full-length Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters will be out in just a few weeks.

Website? Click Here

What do they sound like? Orchestral rock with a honed passion. The guitar, bass, and drums project an aural fullness while singer James Graham's heartfelt, moving vocals soar above it all. Like Snow Patrol with bite, or Mogwai with sensitivity training.

The great moment: When Graham looked down pensively at the floor holding on to the microphone stand with extreme intensity while his band set off power-chord fireworks.

Who: Datarock

Where are they from? Norway

Is there a record out? Yes, but Datarock Datarock is only available on import and via iTunes, although, Nettwerk will release it this coming spring in the US.
Website? Click Here

What do they sound like? Based on the unabashed silliness of the Datarock uniform--a red hoodie, red sweatpants, and mirrored visors--this band is refreshingly brazen about having fun. Their songs reference the dance rock of Franz Ferdinand, the angular zaniness of Devo and the geeky white boy funk of Hot Chip. There wasn't a still person in the room.

The great moment: When front man Fredrik Saroea riled the crowd up into a frantic clap-along.

Watch videos from this year's artists.

VH1 Blog: Complete SXSW Coverage.

• Amy Winehouse
• The Stooges
• Peter Gabriel
• Animal Collective
• Arcade Fire

<i>Devo 2.0</i>
Photo: Disney Sound

Think of 13-year-old Nicole Stoehr as the anti-J.D. Fortune. While the new INXS singer grew up idolizing the Aussie band he now fronts, Nicole had never even heard of Devo when the pioneering new-wave act tapped her to front its new, kid-safe incarnation, Devo 2.0.

"My mom and dad said they were listening to Devo when they were in high school and college, and my mom said she had this eight-track player thing and it had a bunch of Devo songs on it," said Nicole, who beat out 1,000 other hopefuls to front the all-tween version of the group, whose self-titled debut will be released on the new Disney Sound label on March 14. "My dad said that in college he went to one of their concerts and they were all on treadmills while they sang 'Whip It' and it was the coolest thing ever."

Since she won the gig last year, Nicole has been briefed on the history of Devo-lution by the original members of the band and has recorded the album of 10 kid-friendly Devo covers. The LP also includes two new songs, "Cyclops" and "The Winner." The "showbiz veteran" — she's been taking voice lessons since she was 4, has appeared in stage productions of "Aladdin" and "Beauty and the Beast" and was previously part of a group called Kidstarz — is, like, psyched.

"At first they wanted all boys like the original band," said Stoehr, who goes to performing-arts school. "A bunch of people I know auditioned and I was, like, really bummed I didn't get an audition. Then they wanted a girl for keyboards, and they ended up picking me for lead singer because they liked my spunk and attitude."

But how did the band that used dada-pop songs satirizing corporate culture to theorize that humans were devolving instead of evolving end up under the Mickey Mouse banner? Simple: The folks at Disney asked, and Devo said, "Sure, why not?"

Band co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh said the idea of reincarnating the band with fresh-faced kids (guitarist Nathan, drummer Kane, keyboardist Jackie and bassist Michael are all ages 10-13) actually fits perfectly with the original theory of the group, which formed at Ohio's Kent State University in 1972.

"Back in the mid-'70s, when we were trying to figure out what Devo was, we thought of the actual five members of the group more as a concept than as performing artists, and we imagined sending out bands to perform Devo songs so we wouldn't have to tour," said new dad Mothersbaugh, 55. "It would be like the Blue Man Group is now, with four troops out there at a time playing our songs."

That never happened, but luckily for the real Devo, their friends at Disney found a group of kids who can actually play, "probably better than us at this point," Mothersbaugh joked. Once they were chosen, Devo sat them down and asked them some simple fill-in-the-blank questions to make sure they were right for the "part," such as, "Are we not men? We are ..." If they answered "Devo," Mothersbaugh said, it was a "point in their favor."

The idea of picking pixies to take your place might seem odd, but it's not like the members of the band haven't dipped their toes in the kiddie pool before. Mothersbaugh has scored such popular shows as "Clifford the Big Red Dog," "The Powerpuff Girls" and "Rugrats," and he pointed to the nursery rhyme-like cadences of songs like "Whip It" ("Step on a crack, break your momma's back") and "Peek-a-Boo" as proof that Devo's music has always been kids' stuff.

Realizing the old recordings were not up to modern standards, the band re-recorded the instrumental tracks for the album to brighten up the arrangements and changed "Girl U Want" to "Boy U Want" to accommodate Nicole. And while some of the lyrics have been tweaked to strip the overt innuendo, for fans of the original band, the sight of perky, blond-haired Nicole bopping around in animated videos for "Uncontrollable Urge" and "Jerkin' Back and Forth" might be even stranger than the deadpan, arty clips Devo filmed more than 20 years ago.

The project has drawn mixed responses from hard-core Devolutionists, some of whom have complained in blogs that the band — which three years ago drew groans for licensing the use of "Whip It" for a Swiffer commercial with the tagline "Swiff it good!" — has crossed the line this time. They've wondered whether it's another case of stealth subversion or just a cheesy move to get in bed with the Mouse House. Surely there must be some kind of hidden messages in the songs or some esoteric idea behind the project, right?

Not really, no.

"As times change, people's perceptions change, too," Mothersbaugh said. "I think everyone liked the twist of doing something to update the band. Now the people who are running Disney are the people who grew up on Devo. Back in my 20s that wasn't something I would have imagined."

Plans are in the works for Devo 2.0 to do a limited U.S. tour. Disney Sound has already tapped the next band to get the 2.0 treatment: The Go-Gos will be re-created as the Po-Gos.

• Devo

Fu Manchu
Photo: Mammoth

WEST HOLLYWOOD — If Fu Manchu were hoping to find a few friendly faces when unveiling new material Tuesday night at the Troubadour, the stoner rock outfit was undoubtedly stoked by the warm welcome it found.

By the time the band hit the stage at 11 p.m. to kick off its U.S. tour, the club was packed and the crowd was by all indications "into it," if otherwise meditatively subdued in their devotion.

Those in attendance, including former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan, were clearly devotees of the Fu, nodding their heads along to the band's low-end celebrations of surfing, skating, B-movies and '70s culture in quiet satisfaction, murmuring lyrics to themselves.

Fu Manchu hit the stage with a comfortable swagger, visibly jam-oriented players telepathically in tune with one another. Singer/guitarist Scott Hill (dressed Jeff Spicoli-style in a colorful, striped, oversized shirt), bald bassist Brad Davis, lead guitarist Bob Balch and new drummer Scott Reeder (formerly of Smile) tore through more than 14 songs spanning their decade's worth of rock and roll archeology.

The band launched its attack with the one-two punch of "Evil Eye"— the lead track from 1997's The Action Is Go — and "King of the Road" from the 1999 album of the same name.

But despite the vintage sounds, the crowd may have been most blown away by the suddenly short 'do adopted by Hill, who recently shed his appropriately straggly coiffure.

"Holy haircut!" came a cry from the back of the room early in the band's set. By the middle point of the night, the good-natured heckling had reached a noticeable crescendo, prompting Hill to lean into the mic and quip, "Yeah, so I cut my hair. ... Be into it."

With the new look came new music, courtesy of California Crossing, which hits stores next week. The album's title track, like most of the collection, drops much of the band's formulaic fuzzy guitar tone in favor of cleaner sounds without sacrificing Fu Manchu's combination of kitsch and strangely ominous heaviness.

Reeder, who recently replaced Brant Bjork and does not appear on the new album, was a definite standout, pounding his toms mercilessly beneath Davis' studied and controlled finger-picking. Hill and Balch's body movements were often as in tune with each other as their instruments were, with the band's frontman swinging his axe from side to side during the handful of open-ended power chords his buddy handled alone.

Hill smilingly apologized to the crowd for a small mistake during "Weird Beard," a barely perceptible mishap during an otherwise flawless and casual execution of a smattering of the band's back catalog. The set also included "Hell on Wheels" and another new track, "Squash That Fly" — a song that sees Fu Manchu continuing to build their musical Frankenstein monster from the discarded body parts of Black Sabbath and less obvious influences such as ZZ Top, Devo and the Cars.

Perhaps seeking additional support, Hill and Balch brought their parents out for the gig. Judging from the kind buzz that greeted the band, they didn't need the backup.

Read about all of the shows we've recently covered in Tour Reports.

• Fu Manchu
• Black Sabbath
• Devo
• The Cars

Devo
Photo: Warner Brothers

Speaking from the Mutato Muzika complex on Hollywood's Sunset Strip, Mark Mothersbaugh recalled the motivations for his first band, the Wipeouters, surely the premier eighth-grade surf band in Akron, Ohio.

"We were influenced by some of the first surfing that was done, off the North Coast. Ohio was first settled by Canadians who came across Lake Erie and Lake Michigan," said Mothersbaugh, who is better known as the frontman of Devo. "The pioneers had to wait for them to freeze over, but it would rarely freeze all the way over. They would have their wives lay down in a very stiff, ironing board fashion, and climb on top of them and paddle across." Mothersbaugh's own surfing experience amounts to an involuntary one. "I was small of stature and big of mouth, and I got skipped across Lake Erie by some of the bigger, more Neanderthal types. I was the wooden plank," he said.

So it was the little-known (possibly apocryphal) genesis of surfing that led the young men who would be Devo to first make music together. Around 1967, when Mothersbaugh, his brother Bob and Bob Casale (Bob 1 and Bob 2, respectively, in Devo parlance) were in junior high in Akron, they formed the Wipeouters.

Now, 34 years later, the trio have recorded the songs they wrote at the time, which will be released as P'Twaang (Casual Tonalities) on April 24. The Wipeouters are joined on one track by Jerry Casale and 70-year-old Casale patriarch Robert. Jim Mothersbaugh, although not an official Wipeouter, plays drums on most of the record.

Taking a break from designing ring tones for Nokia wireless phones ("They asked me to mentally reprogram people, making them kinder, gentler and more passive," he said), Mothersbaugh recalled the glory days of his first band.

"Jerry (Casale, Bob 2's brother and Devo's other frontman) was a little older, and was only mildly interested in surf music. He went through puberty before us," and thus was not a Wipeouter.

The band spent most of its time in the basement of the Casale home. "When their parents were shellacking the floor near the washer and dryer, we got promoted up to the garage for two weekends," Mothersbaugh said. "That was the biggest thrill of our career. We opened up the garage door, and there were confused kids on banana-seat bicycles, intently trying to figure out what we were doing. It was the biggest venue we ever played." The Wipeouters met their demise in 1969 when Casale and the two Mothersbaugh boys discovered "pimples, BO and other complicated things that got in the way of practicing." Around 1972, the three Wipeouters joined Jerry Casale and Jim Mothersbaugh to form Devo, which Mothersbaugh considers "probably more successful, although it was less purist" than the Wipeouters. "That band was very optimistic," he said, "whereas Devo was a product of the youth movement being very disillusioned." And that, of course, was the crux of Devo, a band that for eight albums documented what it saw as the de-evolution of mankind via herky-jerky songs like "Jocko Homo," "Whip It" and "Peek-a-Boo" and forward-looking use of synthesizers.

During the final years of Devo, Mothersbaugh began to compose music for television and films, writing the music for "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" and the films "Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore," "Rugrats" and "Sugar & Spice." Each member of Devo (barring each of the band's four drummers) works on various music composition and video projects by commission at Mutato Muzika.

But nearly two years ago, the specter of the Wipeouters re-emerged. "It happened in the routine of being asked to do odd things" he said. "'Write a song for "Powerpuff Girls,'" 'Write a song for a Jackie Chan movie.' One of them was 'Write a title song for kids show named "Rocket Power.'" We looked into it, and it was about surfboarding, skateboarding, snowboarding, that sort of thing.

"A couple of synapses fired in Bob Mothersbaugh's brain, and he went, 'Remember down in the basement in the Casales' house?' And we started to think about all the songs we had written, and how much of a shame it was that we never set up on the back patio, and really play the songs the way they should have been played." The older, wiser Wipeouters imposed some restrictions in order to recapture the spirit of '69. "We decided to put the same energy into it that we had in Ohio, which meant that we could only work on it during the weekends and on the nights when my brother and I could get our parents to drive us over to the Casales' house." So, thanks to the state-of the-art Mutato Muzika, songs like "Wedgie Wipeout" and "Nubie Boardsman" have now reached the digital era without ever having been committed to analog tape at the time of their composition.

It is the recorded debut of Robert Casale Sr., however, that may be P'Twaang's most notable feature. A retired tool and die man, he was visiting his sons in California last year when he revealed that he had picked up the bass guitar.

By recording with Wipeouters, the eldest Casale has moved from telling those kids to keep it down to playing bass on one of the very same tunes. "For only two years [of playing]," Mothersbaugh said, "he has an impressive John Entwistle style." Mothersbaugh is hesitant to tour with the Wipeouters. "In Devo, we were looking good, and we had these really high testosterone levels. We were in our 20s and didn't know any better. Probably what will happen is that we will foolishly agree to a few dates here and there and regret it afterwards. That's my guess."

• Devo

Rage Against The Machine has recorded "radically different" versions of songs by Cypress Hill, Devo, Bob Dylan, and Minor Threat for a project due in November or December, according to guitarist Tom Morello.

"I hate to call them covers, but we take the lyrics from other songs and write brand new Rage Against The Machine tracks underneath," Morello said. "Dylan's 'Maggie's Farm' sounds maybe more like a Black Sabbath song than a Bob Dylan song, and Devo's 'Beautiful World' sounds more like a Woody Guthrie campfire ballad than new wave."

The tracks, produced by Rick Rubin, will be released along with recently recorded live material. Morello said the band has not decided whether the project will turn out to be one album or a double album featuring one live CD and one studio disc. Rage is working with about 30 songs for the project; about 12 are studio covers and the rest are live.

The covers also include Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill A Man," Minor Threat's "In My Eyes," and the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man."

"It's really one of the most liberating and exciting creative experiences that I've ever been involved in," Morello said. "Even with Rage Against The Machine, there are precious few rules, but with this, we've completely thrown out any conventions."

The band also will release a DVD called "The Battle Of Mexico City" from a show it played there last year.

The members of Rage Against The Machine -- Morello, vocalist Zack De La Rocha, bassist Timmy C. and drummer Brad Wilk -- are freed up to concentrate on new projects since their planned "Rhyme & Reason" tour with the Beastie Boys has been canceled.

"I'd do it today," Morello said. "We just don't have a consensus among all seven bandmembers to make it happen right now.... The Beastie Boys are ready to go, and Timmy, Brad, and I are ready to go. We're just not all ready to go."

The tour was originally delayed when Beastie Boy Mike D injured his shoulder in a bicycle accident. A statement from the Beastie Boys' publicists released Wednesday cited the rapper's continuing recovery as well as scheduling problems as reasons for the cancellations.

Rage Against The Machine has not made any alternative tour plans.

• Cypress Hill
• Devo
• Bob Dylan
• Rage Against the Machine

David Byrne, Frank Black, Devo, and The Apples In Stereo have heeded the call of "The Powerpuff Girls" and have contributed tracks to "Heroes & Villains," a new album of music inspired by the Cartoon Network series due out on July 18.

Others power-pitching in for "Heroes & Villains," which was produced by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale, include Shonen Knife, Cornelius, and Bis, the band responsible for penning "The Powerpuff Girls" original theme (see "Bis Lends A Hand To 'The Powerpuff Girls'").

The "Powerpuff" series' creator, Craig McCracken, also oversaw the "Heroes & Villains" project, and says that he's pleased at how the resulting tracks that ended up on the record all seem to fit together.

"Each song on the album focuses on a different aspect of The Powerpuff Girls," McCracken wrote in a statement heralding the "Heroes & Villains" LP, "and together they tell a story. From Townsville being in danger to the day finally being saved, what you hear throughout is a sonic Powerpuff adventure."

The track listing for "Heroes & Villains:"

• Devo - "Go Monkey Go"
• Frank Black - "Pray For The Girls" -
• The Apples In Stereo - "Signal In The Sky (Let's Go)"
• Optiganally Yours - "Walk & Chew Gum"
• Shonen Knife - "Buttercup (I'm A Super Girl)"
• Komeda - "B.L.O.S.S.O.M."
• Dressy Bessy - "Bubbles"
• Bis - "Fight The Power"
• The Sugarplastic - "Don't Look Down"
• Cornelius - "The Fight"
• David Byrne with Malu - "Buttercup, Blossom, & Bubbles Say"
• Bis - "The Powerpuff Girls (End Theme)"
• Marty & Elayne - "Love Makes The World Go Round" [hidden track]

• Bis
• Frank Black
• David Byrne
• Devo
• The Pixies

In what has the makings of a seminar on the true meaning of "alternative" music, new wave futurists Devo will join the Violent Femmes and Ween for a one-off show in Los Angeles later this month.

The show, set for the Universal Amphitheater on January 21, marks a rare appearance by Devo, who resurfaced in 1997 to play Lollapalooza with Korn, Tool, Tricky, Snoop, Prodigy, and others. The band then went on to play the four-date Silicon Planet Experience last fall with Beck, and also turned up on the "Chef Aid" episode of "South Park." The Los Angeles date is, so far, the only show Devo has planned for 1999.

Meanwhile, the show will mark the start of a brief tour of the western states for the Femmes, who will visit Utah, Washington, and various points in California. Here's where they will be:

• 1/23 - Salt Lake City, UT @ University Of Utah
• 1/24 - Boise, ID @ Doubletree Ballroom
• 1/25 - Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
• 1/26 - Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
• 1/28 - San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore
• 1/29 - Temecula, CA @ Pechanga Entertainment Center

• Devo
• Violent Femmes
• Ween

Master P, Primus, Tim McGraw and Devo are among the musicians coming to the aid of "South Park's" Chef in a new episode of the animated hit comedy, which has spawned the album, "Chef Aid: The South Park Album."

• Devo
• Master P
• Primus

A four-city travelling charity tour and convention combination this October will feature Beck, Devo and host David Spade, according to the organizers. Billed as the Silicon Planet Experience, the shows will take place in San Jose, Seattle, Los Angeles and Austin. The event includes technology exhibits and play areas, and is sponsored by Microsoft.

The tickets are pricey, but four different regional AIDS charities will receive the proceeds. Starting on September 1, tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster for $100 apiece.

This is the second year for the event. Last year saw just one very successful production staged in San Jose with the B52s and Dennis Miller headlining the bill. The 2000-odd tickets sold out in short order prompting this year's expansion.

The dates and venues are as follows:

• 10/3 - San Jose, CA @ The Old FMC Defense Factory
• 10/10 - Seattle, WA @ Pier 48, Port of Seattle
• 10/17 - Los Angeles, CA @ Barker Hangar, Santa Monica Air Center
• 10/24 - Austin, TX @ High-Tech Warehouse, Southpark Commerce Center

• Beck
• Devo