Norma Jean
Photo: Solid State Records

Artist collaborations can happen in a number of different ways. In the realm of pop, they're usually orchestrated by some crafty record-label executive operating on the assumption that if you double the artists, you'll double the album sales. In hip-hop, often it's some producer who'll get two rappers in the same room and press "record." When metal and hardcore acts team up, it's almost always born out of touring — two bands will head out together, strike up a friendship along the way over brewskies and, at some point, agree to hit the studio.

For the members of Christian metalcore outfit Norma Jean, who wrangled Deftones frontman Chino Moreno for a guest spot on the track "Surrender Your Sons" from the band's forthcoming LP The Anti Mother (in stores August 5), it wasn't touring together but at the same time that helped beget the collaboration of their dreams.

"The way it started was, we were on tour at the same time they were on tour, and we kept hitting the same clubs within like a day of each other," recalled frontman Cory Brandan, from the Charlotte, South Carolina, stop on this summer's Warped Tour. He said all of the members of Norma Jean are tremendous D-Tones fans. "So we started leaving stuff for them. We'd leave merch and CDs and notes for them, telling them how much we liked their band. I remember playing the Fillmore in San Francisco, and we left them more stuff."

Apparently, Moreno and the rest of the Deftones found the left-behind gifts and took an interest in Norma Jean.

"I think we were playing in Norfolk, Virginia, one night, and they'd played the day before and left us a bunch of stuff," the singer said. "We were like, 'Wow.' That was literally our relationship for months — leaving each other stuff at different venues. Then we just got ahold of Chino, and he was down to do it. He took some time off from recording with the Deftones, and he came in for a couple of days while we were in the studio, and we wrote two songs: 'Surrender Your Sons' and another we didn't use."

Later on, Norma Jean used one of their contacts to get ahold of Page Hamilton, Helmet's esteemed mastermind. After catching the band's live show, he was in. But Brandan said they didn't just want these two hardcore icons swinging by to track guest vocals. They didn't want to just hurl prepared lyrics at them, shove them into a recording booth and say, "Go." They took a different approach.

"We wanted to collaborate with these artists and have their personalities in the songs as well," he said. "Because their personalities fit with the vocals they'd be doing later, and it makes the songs cooler. The one we worked on with Chino, it sounds like a mix between the Deftones and Norma Jean, and the one we do with Page, same thing — it sounds like Helmet meets Norma Jean. We didn't want to just have guest vocalists come in, we wanted to collaborate with them and write songs — have them come in as if they were in the band. It was cool to see how others work within your own band."

Seeing as The Anti Mother is their final album for Solid State Records, the only label home they've ever known, Brandan said they "wanted to go out with a bang," and securing Moreno and Hamilton — as well as producer Ross Robinson — helped. Ultimately, the singer said he's confident that this is their best offering to date.

"We've been working our butts off on this record more than any other record we've done, and we put our souls into this record," he said. "It's a heavy record, and there's tons of melody throughout the record too. We've experimented with tons of melodies, mixed with chaos and heavy riffs, and I'm singing on some songs. There are songs on here that are that straight-up, classic Norma Jean sound, and there are songs on this record that we've always wanted to write but hadn't. We didn't want to pull any punches, musically."

The band began working on The Anti Mother last fall with new drummer Chris Raines and recorded the LP's final note just three days before they had to head out on Warped. For Brandan, who has two children (ages 14 and 9), a lot of the lyrics on the album were inspired by his own personal travails; he separated from his wife back in January and headed for his second divorce. Dealing with that pain helped shape the songs' meanings.

In addition to a headlining trek this fall with Haste the Day and Oh, Sleeper, Brandan said Norma Jean are mulling where they'll end up next, now that they've fulfilled their Solid State contract. While none of the majors have approached the band yet, the deluge of free dinners is just around the corner.

"We want to wait and be patient and not jump into something foolish," he said, obviously learning from the mistakes of other bands that have made the major-label jump, only to regret it. "I don't think, at this point in the music industry, that it's a bad idea to be a free agent. So we want to experiment and try some things out. We're just waiting to see what comes across the table."

The rest of the week's metal news:

The reunited Overcast, featuring Killswitch Engage bassist Mike D'Antonio and Shadows Fall frontman Brian Fair, has booked a handful of live gigs for next month. They'll play Hackensack, New Jersey, on August 21; Albany, New York, on August 22; Providence, Rhode Island, on August 23; South Burlington, Vermont, on August 24; Worcester, Massachusetts, on August 29; and Waterbury, Connecticut, on August 30. ...

The wife of Divine Heresy's Dino Cazares (ex-Fear Factory) wrote on her MySpace blog that the couple was attacked over the weekend by former Divine Heresy frontman Tommy "Vext" Cummings, who was recently recruited to front the reunited Snot. While backstage, Jen Cazares claims Cummings chucked a beer at her head and then punched her in the face, before grabbing her husband by the hair. Security intervened, and the two men fell to the floor, where Dino cut open his head. It's the second time in recent months that the Cazares have alleged Cummings attacked them. ...

Amon Amarth will be joined this fall by Ensiferum, Belphegor and the Absence for a U.S. run that kicks off October 1 in Anaheim, California. Dates are scheduled through October 21 in Springfield, Virginia. Amon Amarth recently finished recording Twilight of the Thunder God, which will land on store shelves September 30. Look for the effort to feature 10 tracks, including "Where Is Your God?" "Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags" and "Embrace of the Endless Ocean." ...

Sweden's the Haunted have been working on new material, and now they've named their forthcoming effort Versus. It's set to drop sometime in October, according to a press release. ... Every Time I Die have completed their contract with Ferret Music and are currently entertaining offers from other labels. According to frontman Keith Buckley, "I think people will be very pleased to know that it looks like we will not be signing with a major. Some were interested, but I don't think we even got down to discussing deals." ...

In This Moment have completed the recording of their next LP, which they've dubbed The Dream. According to the band, they're "extremely excited with the results. We were all living and recording in the same house, and it has been such an awesome experience for us." The disc will feature 12 tunes, but no official release date has been cemented just yet. ...

Anal Cu--, Anal Blast and Infernaeon have rolled out a bunch of West Coast dates for next month, the first being August 22 in Hollywood. Nine gigs have been booked, and the run ends August 31 in Reno, Nevada. ... Children of Bodom and Between the Buried and Me will be heading out this fall for a U.S. trek that kicks off in Baltimore on September 11 and concludes October 10 in Worcester, Massachusetts.

• Norma Jean (Metal)
• Deftones
• Amon Amarth
• Every Time I Die

Every Time I Die's <i>The Big Dirty</i>
Photo: Ferret Records

Well, artists must have been planning their year around the VMAs, because while August was bristling with new releases and September 11 is going to pack an epic punch, this week is wicked slow. Here's what we're looking at:

Metal Overload: Every Time I Die spent their summer greasing fans for their next album on the Sounds of the Underground Tour, and now it's finally time to deliver the sucker. Following 2005's critically approved Gutter Phenomenon, ETID aim for even loftier heights on The Big Dirty: One track, "Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Battery," is incredulously based on Federico Fellini's "8 1/2." Other cuts, like "Inrihab" and "Depressionista," continue the band's tradition of wacky song titles — though "Rendez-Voodoo" and "Rebel Without Applause" could use some work.

While ETID were on SOTU, Chiodos did the whole Warped Tour deal, delivering their brand of Detroit post-hardcore to the masses. A lot of kids scooped up the band's 2005 debut, All's Well That Ends Well — it has sold more than 160,000 copies — and now the group is hoping for some repeat success with its second effort. While ETID are channeling Fellini, Chiodos have a muse of their own in boozy author Charles Bukowski, whose "Bone Palace Ballet" serves as the title of the band's disc. And try this little nugget of Fall Out Boy-esque trivia on for size: The song "I Didn't Say I Was Powerful, I Said I Was a Wizard" was originally called "A Final Opinion Is of Less Value Than an Appreciation and Tolerance for Obscurity."

If you want to take it a notch heavier, look no further than Bam Margera Presents: Viva la Bands, Volume Two, which is littered with repeat death-metal offenders In Flames, Gwar, Children of Bodom and more. And if you're a Margera fan, Christmas is coming early: The release's DVD component features roughly an hour of Bam footage that is seeing the light of day for the first time.

Last but not least, Megadeth are also storming the metal front this week. The band's recent "That One Night: Live in Buenos Aires" DVD made such a big splash that it has converted the concert into CD form too. The double-disc has three slices from the October 9, 2005, show in Argentina that were not featured in the video package: "Skin of My Teeth," "Die Dead Enough" and "Angry Again."

To the T: London singer/songwriter Jamie T — who's only 21 — has already proven himself back home, outdoing Thom Yorke and Jarvis Cocker for Best Solo Artist at the NME Awards, and he made a bit of a stir Stateside earlier this year at SXSW. Now it's time for him to finally drop his aptly titled Panic Prevention — he suffered from panic attacks as a kid — in the U.S. He's already broken out three singles from the disc: "Sheila," "If You Got the Money" and "Calm Down Dearest."

Digital Underground: The record racks aren't popping too much this week, but there's a bit of activity in the digital ether. Long-running San Francisco string quartet Kronos Quartet — who have previously tackled Philip Glass and Bill Evans, among others — quiet down for Kronos Quartet Plays Sigur Rós. And French ambient act M83 are making sure their Digital Shades Vol. 1 lives up to its name by issuing digitally the first chapter in the unreleased-material series.

Song Title of the Week:

"If I Cut My Hair, Hawaii Will Sink" from Chiodos' Bone Palace Ballet

Album Cover of the Week:

Chiodos' Bone Palace Ballet

Other Notables:

Heavy Trash's Going Way Out With Heavy Trash

When all else fails, there is always Jon Spencer. The Blues (Explosion) brother has ground out another album with onetime Madder Rose bassist Matt Verta Ray. They've tapped some unlikely influences for the affair — in a press release, Spencer said the album salutes everyone from underground acts like the Gories and Doo Rag to Waylon Jennings and Charlie Feathers. But the closing track, "You Can't Win," might have the best foundation: "Partially inspired by post-9/11 paranoia, partially inspired by Greil Marcus' 'The Shape of Things to Come,' and partially inspired by the book 'You Can't Win,' by Jack Black (the hobo, not the funnyman)."

Nurses' Hangin' Nothin' but Our Hands Down

They're up against experimental British act Nurse With Wound, but Nurses think they have the best medicine for music lovers this week with an LP that calls to mind Modest Mouse and Blood Brothers. A nonsensical entry posted on the Chicago band's MySpace page essentially reflects what they're all about: "A few years ago, [the bandmembers] promised each other to become this rock band, write great songs and make as much as possible, and do not deviate from this plan, even though their home state of Idaho had noo shortage of new rok-geroev." If you want to be even more thoroughly confused, look no further than brittle songs like "And Now the Curse of Marjorie" and "Lots of Brass."

Ferraby Lionheart's Catch the Brass Ring

What's a pizza-delivery guy to do in his spare time? Well, write songs, of course. Singer/songwriter Ferraby Lionheart did just that, filtering his love of Prince and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" into his computer in the form of late-night compositions. The Ballad of Ferraby Lionheart features "The Octopus and the Ambulance," "Youngest Frankenstein" and "Put Me in Your Play."

New Releases:

· Jay Azzolina - Local Dialect (Garagista)
· Joshua Bell - Red Violin Concerto (Sony Classics)
· Birgit - True Stories I Made Up (Zip)
· Suzy Bogguss - Sweet Danger (Loyal Dutchess)
· Manu Chao - La Radiolina (Nacional/Because) [Buy Now]
· Chiodos - Bone Palace Ballet (Equal Vision) [Buy Now]
· Clare & the Reasons - The Movie (Frog Stand)
· The Coathangers - The Coathangers (Rob's House)
· Lars Danielsson & Leszek Mozdzer - Pasodoble (Act Music + Vision)
· EleventySeven - Galactic Conquest (Reunion)
· Every Time I Die - The Big Dirty (Ferret) [Buy Now]
· Ferraby Lionheart - Catch the Brass Ring (Nettwerk)
· The Flatliners - The Great Awake (Fat Wreck Chords)
· Marla Hansen - Wedding Day (Standard Recording)
· Calvin Harris - I Created Disco (Almost Gold)
· Heavy Trash - Going Way Out With Heavy Trash (Yep Roc)
· The Holloways - So This Is Great Britain? (enhanced; TVT)
· Jamie T - Panic Prevention (Caroline)
· Just Jack - Overtones (enhanced; TVT)
· Will Kimbrough - (EP) (Thirty Tigers)
· Kosmos - Kosmos (The End) [Buy Now]
· Mancino - Manners Matter (Mancino Music) [Buy Now]
· Megadeth - That One Night: Live in Buenos Aires (two CDs; Image) [Buy Now]
· New Model Army - High (Attack Attack)
· Ted Nugent - Love Grenade (Eagle)
· Nurses - Hangin' Nothin' but Our Hands Down (Sargent House)
· Panacea - The Scenic Route (Rawkus)
· The Perishers - Victorious (Nettwerk)
· Chris & Rich Robinson - Brothers of a Feather: Live at the Roxy (Eagle Rock)
· Kendra Ross - New Voice (Lola's Child)
· Patti Scialfa - Play It as It Lays (Columbia)
· Michelle Shocked - To Heaven U Ride (Mighty Sound)
· Various artists - Bam Margera Presents: Viva la Bands, Volume Two (with DVD; Ferret)

Notable Reissues and Archival Material:

· Ice Cube - In the Movies (Capitol/Priority) [Buy Now]
· Jars of Clay - The Essential Jars of Clay (two CDs; Essential/Legacy) [Buy Now]
· Nurse With Wound - Homotopy to Marie (Jnana)
· Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (limited-edition three-CD reissue; Capitol) [Buy Now]
· Yes - Live at Montreux 2003 (two CDs; Eagle Rock) [Buy Now]
· Townes Van Zandt - Be Here to Love Me and For the Sake of the Song (Fat Possum)

Music DVDs:

· Dave Brubeck - "Jazz Icons" (Reelin' in the Years/ Naxos)
· John Coltrane - "Jazz Icons" (Reelin' in the Years/ Naxos)
· Duke Ellington - "Jazz Icons" (Reelin' in the Years/ Naxos) [Buy Now]
· Dexter Gordon - "Jazz Icons" (Reelin' in the Years/ Naxos)
· Isaac Hayes - "Live at Montreux 2005" (Eagle Rock)
· Charles Mingus - "Jazz Icons" (Reelin' in the Years/ Naxos)
· Wes Montgomery - "Jazz Icons" (Reelin' in the Years/ Naxos)
· Chris & Rich Robinson - "Brothers of a Feather: Live at the Roxy" (with CD; Eagle Eye)
· Sarah Vaughan - "Jazz Icons" (Reelin' in the Years/ Naxos)
· Various artists - "The British Beat Live!: Best of the '60s" (Shout! Factory)
· Various artists - "Improvisation" (two DVDs; Eagle Eye)
· Various artists - "Shakespeare Was a George Jones Fan: Cowboy Jack Clement's Home Movies" (Shout! Factory)

Digital Releases:

· Karmina - The Kiss (EP; CBS) [Buy Now]
· Kronos Quartet - Kronos Quartet Plays Sigur Rós (Nonesuch) [Buy Now]
· M83 - Digital Shades Vol. 1 (Mute) [Buy Now]
· The Milwaukees - American Anthems, Vol. 1 (City Desk) [Buy Now]
· Rhythm King and Her Friends - The Front of Luxury (Kitty-Yo)
· Sons of William - What Hides Inside (Red Lick)

Coming Attractions:

September 11:
· 50 Cent - Curtis (G-Unit/Interscope) [Preorder]
Read: "50 Cent Album Preview: Eminem, Dr. Dre Help Curtis 'Keep It Funky' "
· Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam (Domino) [Preorder]
· Hot Hot Heat - Happiness Ltd. (Reprise) [Preorder]
· Kenna - Make Sure They See My Face (Interscope) [Preorder]
· Kanye West - Graduation (Roc-A-Fella) [Preorder]
Read: "Kanye's Graduation: Inside The NYC Listening Party For West's So-Called 'Comeback' "

September 18:
· Chamillionaire - Ultimate Victory (Motown) [Preorder]
Read: "Chamillionaire Ditches Bad Attitude; Hooks Up With Snoop, Busta For LP"
· Mya - Liberation (Motown) [Preorder]
Read: "Mya Gives Up Grudges And Ego, Picks Up Relationship Wisdom On Liberation"
· KT Tunstall - Drastic Fantastic (Virgin)

September 25:
· Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (RCA) [Preorder]
· PJ Harvey - White Chalk (Island)
· Hell Rell - For the Hell of It (Koch) [Preorder]

• Every Time I Die
• Chiodos
• Megadeth
• Jamie T.
• Manu Chao

Every Time I Die
Photo: MTV News

Every Time I Die had just come off this summer's Warped Tour and were three weeks away from the launch of a Canadian trek when bassist Chris Byrnes informed the group's four founding members that he was out.

Just as the Buffalo, New York, metalcore crew was about to take the stage for August 19's 10th annual Dirtfest in Birch Run, Michigan, Byrnes broke the news that it would be his final performance with Every Time I Die. But frankly, the guys weren't at all shocked. When it's happened four times before, the fifth is sort of a breeze.

"Our bass players are like Spinal Tap's drummers: They just spontaneously combust," joked guitarist Jordan Buckley. "We had gone over a year with the same bass player, and that just doesn't happen in our band. If he didn't quit, we probably would have killed him and eaten him."

"This time, we're not going to give him that $1 million signing bonus like we did with the last guy," said Jordan's brother, frontman Keith Buckley, of their latest hire, the Chariot's former bassist Keller Harbin (making a reference to Metallica's Robert Trujillo, whose bonus was documented in "Some Kind of Monster").

"But we do cry every night," added guitarist Andrew Williams, "because we really want a permanent fifth member."

Keith Buckley said Byrnes' decision to quit came down to money: While the core of Every Time I Die resides in Buffalo, the ex-bassist lives in much-less-affordable New York City. "He really couldn't afford it on our touring schedule and salary," he said. But Byrnes will still be involved with the band to some degree, just in a different capacity. He now works at Entertainment Services Unlimited, the New Jersey management firm that has Lamb of God, Atreyu, From First to Last, Breaking Benjamin, Norma Jean — and yes, Every Time I Die — on its roster.

But ETID is not going to let a little thing like their ritualistic replacement of bassists slow them down. This fall, starting October 6 in San Diego, the boys will be hitting the road with Atreyu, From First to Last and Chiodos. Following that run, which wraps in late November, the Buffalo soldiers will start writing the follow-up to 2005's Gutter Phenomenon, which they hope to have ready for release next summer.

And on Halloween, the band's new DVD, "Sh-- Happens," will hit stores. Williams describes it as a "crapilation of the last nine years of our band, compiled into the crappiest DVD ever." His bandmates have a slightly sunnier view of their latest video, for Phenomenon's "The New Black." The clip was directed by Dan Rush (Lamb of God, Theory of a Deadman) and is making a huge impact even though Jordan joked, "We're going to have to CGI Keller into the new video, because Chris has such a kick-ass part in it."

In the video, which is set in the 1970s and features the bandmembers in fake mustaches, leather pants and even Speedos, frontman Buckley plays a potential lead singer for a label-concocted rock band. "But I show up in snakeskin pants at a meet-and-greet party," he said. "I show up just really pretentious, and they embarrass me as the video goes along until I'm just out of it and I don't even know how to be cool anymore." That all changes when Williams "kisses me on the forehead, and I'm gifted with these powers of dance."

"He has such an awesome sense of humor," Keith Buckley said of Rush. "Normally, with a director, we can say, 'We think this is funny, so let's put it in the video,' and they go, 'Cool, let's do it,' and it ends up being kind of funny. But Dan would say, 'That's not funny enough,' and shoot us down. We had a verbal toss-about, and we came up with some amazing ideas for this video."

Surely some of the video's success can be attributed to the fans the band made on Warped this summer. The band said it was one of the best touring experiences they've ever had, and would return to do the fest again, if asked.

"We have done every major punk/metal/hardcore summer tour," explained Williams. "At Ozzfest, it was maybe 30 drunk dudes at the end of the day who'd be like, 'Oh, that one band that played after so-and-so was awesome.' It really didn't do anything for us. Sounds of the Underground was just us playing for the same kids we've been playing to for the last eight years.

"But Warped, you're playing in front of thousands of people that have never heard you — to kids who are used to My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy," he continued. "And then you have [us], these jerks running around onstage, and they haven't seen anything like us. It was a shock to the system for them, and we started picking up fans."

As the tour carried on, the crowds got bigger and bigger — from 300 bored kids waiting in line at the fried-dough stand to 6,000 recklessly moshing crazies.

"We've played so many tours where we just went over everyone's heads, but we converted a lot of psyched kids," said Jordan Buckley. "It was really awesome for me, because I remember going to the first Warped and just being so psyched to see one band. So, when I see a kid who's psyched to see us, I remembered being that kid, and it's rewarding."

• Every Time I Die

Light This City
Photo: Prosthetic Records

Light This City's Laura Nichol wants to clear something up, once and for all.

Two tracks on the Bay Area death-metallers' 2005 LP, Remains of the Gods — "Letter to My Abuser" and "Your Devoted Victim" — are not about any skeletons Nichol has in her proverbial closet, although fans ask her all the time if she'd ever been abused.

"I have a great family, and I've never had that sort of experience," she explained. "Those songs are more about religion and my struggle earlier on with finding faith and losing it. They're about people I know who are just complete hypocrites, who use religion as a justification and rationalization — an excuse. Those songs are about what I think about that, but really, they're more metaphorical songs and people will have their own interpretations."

Oh, and those constant comparisons to Arch Enemy's Angela Gossow and Lacuna Coil's Cristina Scabbia? Yeah, she doesn't quite get that.

"I really respect them and I love to see women in music, but it is kind of frustrating when you take influence and inspiration from your idols — like [At the Gates'] Tomas Lindberg, [Carcass'] Jeff Walker and [the Black Dahlia Murder's] Trevor Strnad," Nichol said. "And then people will go ahead and compare you to someone who has the same anatomy as you. And if you want to do that, it's fine. I think Angela and Cristina are awesome."

But to be fair, Nichol's voice is more menacing, more intense and more passionate at times, which she said, "is what I'm going for." And fans of the band can expect to be injected with a healthy dose of Nichol's thunderous vocal stylings on Facing the Thousand, which hits stores September 19. She said the album's material came to the members of Light This City without much effort. Well, almost all the members.

"Our plan was to wait and tour on Remains for a while, but we just started pumping out songs — like, no joke," she said. "I couldn't even keep up with my lyrics. I was just like, 'Dudes, you need to slow down.' It just kind of happened. They would all sit around, and we wrote this record in no time at all. We're really proud of it, and I was able to learn so much from the recording of our first album, and I used a lot of that to completely improve my style. We also practiced the songs a lot more; when we recorded Remains, we didn't have a lot of time to practice the songs. We wrote 'em and went right into the studio. So this time around we were able to get the whole band together, practice the songs and perfect certain things."

Nichol's lyrics were inspired by Richard Adams' classic novel "Watership Down," which follows a group of Berkshire rabbits as they flee from the destruction of their warren by land developers and search for safe haven, skirting danger at every turn.

"The new record is a lot about nature, and how f---ed-up it can be," she said. "I drew inspiration from 'Watershed Down' and applied it to my own life. And on the album, I talk about certain types of leaders. On our song 'Cradle for a King,' it's about this plantation owner and how he treats all the people who work for him. I compare him to better, more noble types of leaders in other songs, and some of the tracks relate to each other while others relate back to songs on Remains."

Light This City are on tour with Suicide Silence, All Shall Perish, Too Pure to Die and Nights Like These through September 8 in Las Vegas and will head out with Caliban, the Acacia Strain and Stick to Your Guns September 25 in Roseville, California. On September 10 and 11 in Los Angeles, they'll shoot a video for "The Unwelcome Savior," the first single from Facing the Thousand. Metal video director du jour Darren Doane (Deftones, Every Time I Die) will be helming the clip.

Nichol said Doane would like to take the emphasis off the frontwoman for the video. "You can definitely expect to see intensity, and really, he wants to downplay the fact that I'm a girl," she said. "You won't see our faces for a while — just a bunch of hair — and in the middle of the video, you start to realize, 'Holy sh--! That's a chick and she's kicking my ass right now.' "

As for Light This City's future, Nichol said the band is hoping to land a slot on 2007's Ozzfest. "That's definitely one of our goals in our career," she said. "When the Black Dahlia was on Ozzfest, I went to go see them and hang out, and it was just so cool to experience that backstage lifestyle. It's huge, and it would be a great opportunity. We'd love to do it."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Atreyu, Killswitch Engage, Full Blown Chaos and Every Time I Die are among the acts confirmed for this year's Saints and Sinners Festival, which will happen October 28 and 29 at the Asbury Park Convention Hall Complex in New Jersey. Others expected to take the stage for the two-day festival include the Devil Wears Prada, From First to Last, the Warriors, the Number 12 Looks Like You, A Life Once Lost, Job for a Cowboy and Suicide City. ... "Anti Pizza," a track from mathcore specialists Horse the Band's forthcoming Pizza EP, has been posted on the band's MySpace page. Look for Pizza to hit stores on September 5. ... The Red Chord, Gwar and Municipal Waste will hit the road this fall for a North American tour, for which only 11 dates have been confirmed. More dates will be revealed over the coming weeks. The trek kicks off October 13 in Philadelphia, and dates are scheduled through November 4 in Salt Lake City. ... It Dies Today will team up with the very un-metal bands Silverstein and Aiden for a U.S. run this fall. The jaunt kicks off October 13 in Milwaukee, with dates scheduled through November 25 in Albany, New York. It Dies Today's forthcoming album Sirens will drop on October 3. ...

Dissection frontman Jon Nödtveidt, 31, was discovered in his Stockholm, Sweden, apartment on August 16, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Swedish newspapers reported that Nödtveidt was surrounded by candles and that shortly before the suicide, he sent farewell letters to his father and girlfriend. In the early '90s, Dissection were one of the founders of the Scandinavian melodic death-metal sound, along with At the Gates. However, after two albums — 1993's The Somberlain and 1995's Storm of the Light's Bane — Nödtveidt was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of 37-year-old Algerian homosexual Josef Ben Maddour. Nödtveidt remained in prison until 2004, then restarted a less-impacting version of Dissection with new bandmembers. The group released the two-track "Maha Kali" single in February 2005, then returned with the full album Reinkaos in May of this year. Nödtveidt had hoped to play shows in the U.S. to support the release, but because of his criminal past, he was denied a visa to enter the country. Shortly after the release of the band's new album, Nödtveidt announced that he would break up Dissection and stop writing songs because he had achieved all his musical goals. ...

Deicide will embark on a North American excursion this October with Desolation. The first date's all set for October 14 in Huntington, West Virginia, and will conclude on November 19 in Mexico City. Deicide's The Stench of Redemption landed in stores this week. ... Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, Necrophagist and Unmerciful will spread evil across North America this fall, with a 24-date tour that's set to begin on November 10 in Springfield, Virginia, and end December 7 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. ... After touring from September 30 through October 14 with Vital Remains, Grave and Demiricous, Swedish death-metal veterans Dismember will return to North America with Entombed and Grave. The new dates kick off December 1 in Hollywood and are scheduled through December 16 in San Marcos, California, but the bands will likely remain on the road through year's end. Dismember's new album God That Never Was came out March 7. Entombed will release their new EP When in Sodom on November 14. The band's next full-length, Serpent Saints, is expected early next year. ...

Members of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Vile, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Total F---ing Destruction, Divine Rapture and Prosthetic C--- have made guest appearances on the new album by Philadelphia extreme grind band XXX Maniak, Harvesting the C--- Nectar. The album was mastered by Pig Destroyer producer Scott Hull and includes the bloody morsels "Gorestar," "Lost Inside Yourself" and "Skeleton Toucher." ... Johnstown, Pennsylvania, death-metal band Incantation will release their next full-length, Primordial Domination, September 5. The disc was recorded at Mars Recording Compound in Sharlersville, Ohio, last spring and engineered by Bill Korecky. "We feel very strong about the new material," said guitarist and singer John McEntee. "We never seem to run out of unholy dark-metal movements." After its release, on Halloween, the band's former label Nuclear Blast will reissue Incantation's 1991 full-length debut , Onward to Golgotha. The disc will include a bonus DVD featuring three live sets. ... Experimental Boston metal band Kayo Dot will launch a new tour Wednesday in Nashua, New Hampshire. Dates run through November 10 in Boston. The band's most recent brain-teaser, Kowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue, came out in January.

Giant Squid have lost a few tentacles. At the end of a recent tour, drummer Mike Conroy and keyboard/ trumpet player Tim Conroy left the eclectic Austin, Texas, doom band. Fortunately, as with the case of the actual mighty sea creature Architeuthis, the tentacles have grown back. The band has hired keyboardist Kimberly Freeman and drummer Scott Sutton, both from bubblegum glam-rock band Ghetto Princess. "Her obvious musical ability has carried over perfectly to the keyboards, and Sutton's amazing dynamics and ability will remind longtime Squid fans of the monster drummers of the band's old days," the group said in a statement. ... New York punk trio Spoiler NYC, which features Life of Agony bassist Alan Robert on vocals and bass, have finished their debut album, Grease Fire in Hell's Kitchen. The disc, which will be released by year's end, was produced in New York by Robert. Four tracks from the album, including the title track, "Dead to Me," "Hung My Head" and "Every Person Is Corrupt," can be heard on the band's MySpace page. ... The fourth album by Swedish traditional-metal band Wolf, The Black Flame, will be released on October 3.

• Light This City
• GWAR
• Dissection
• Killswitch Engage
• Every Time I Die

Jay-Z
Photo: Walik Goshorn

Ho, ho, Hova! Jay-Z is proving he's no Scrooge this holiday season. With millions of New Yorkers finding it so difficult to maneuver through the city due to the transit strike — which has now come to an end — the Jigga sent out several limousines to pick up pedestrians around the city who were trying to make it to work over the past three days. Then on Christmas, Jay will hold his annual toy drive in Brooklyn, New York's Marcy Projects, where kids will receive $10,000 worth of toys. ...

Parts of the Golden Globe-nominated Johnny Cash biopic, "Walk the Line," will look familiar to the inmates at California's Folsom Prison when they get a special screening of the flick on January 3. That's because the movie opens and closes with scenes of Joaquin Phoenix as Cash playing his famous shows at the prison nearly 40 years ago that became the basis for the classic Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison album. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Phoenix will be on hand for the screening. ... On Tuesday, the third state law signed this year to ban the sale of explicit video games to minors became the third to hit a legal bump in the road. A federal judge put a temporary hold on a California law that would have gone into effect on the first of the year, saying game-industry lawyers had raised sufficient doubt about the state's ability to prove that ultra-violent games can cause psychological harm to children — the state's impetus for the law. In recent weeks, a similar temporary hold was put on a Michigan law, while a bill in Illinois was struck down pending appeal. ...

Though there's still no title or release date for the album they've been working on since August, Radiohead have announced who'll be producing the record — and it's not who you'd think. For the first time since their 1993 debut, Pablo Honey, the band will be working with someone other than Nigel Godrich: Mark "Spike" Stent, who's worked with Madonna and Björk, will helm the sessions for the new album, set to resume in February. Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien made the announcement on BBC Radio Wednesday night, adding that while the band remains good friends with Godrich, it was looking to break the "comfort zone" it had built over the decade-plus partnership. "You've got to do stuff that you're scared of doing," O'Brien said. "With Nigel, we've been working together for 10 years, and we all love one another too much." ... Every Time I Die have been added to the Warped Tour's 2006 lineup, which also features Motion City Soundtrack, Thursday, From First to Last, NOFX, Anti-Flag, Underoath, Rise Against and Against Me. ...

Nickelback have added two more stops to their upcoming North American tour with support act Trapt: February 7 in St. Louis and February 9 in Wichita, Kansas. ... The Flaming Lips are aiming for an early April release date for their new album, At War With the Mystics, according to their label, Warner Bros. The first single off the record, "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," is due to hit radio in March. Mystics is the Lips' first album of new material since 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. ...

The Velvet Underground's "Live MCMXCIII" will hit stores on January 24 on DVD. "Live MCMXCIII," which has been available on VHS for years, features live footage shot back in 1993 in Paris during the band's brief reunion trek. ... Irish rock legends the Pogues have booked a nine-date East Coast tour. The group will kick things off in Washington, D.C., with a pair of shows on March 9 and 10. Then it's off to Atlantic City, New Jersey, on March 11, followed by two dates in Boston on March 14 and 15. The run ends in New York with four concerts scheduled for March 16-19. ...

12.21.2005

A Notorious B.I.G. duets album-release party advertised as being hosted by Diddy was marred by violence on Wednesday morning (December 21). At 3:10 a.m., police responded to a call of shots fired outside of New York's Club Exit, where the party was being held. Police found one person shot in the leg. A few minutes later, police responded to a fight inside the club, where two people were cut on the face and one man was stabbed in the stomach. At press time, the names of the victims had not been given out. Police have no suspects as of yet. ...

On Thursday, Lil' Kim's charity organization Lil' Kim Cares — in partnership with the Fight for Life Foundation, Mitchell & Ness clothing and boxing champion Zab Judah's charity — will donate toys to underprivileged children in the Philadelphia area. Kim is serving a 366-day sentence in a Philly prison, following her conviction in March on federal perjury charges. Kids 13 and younger can swing by the Francis J. Myers Recreation Center between 4 and 6 p.m. to pick up a present. In addition, Kim has sent a handwritten letter to her fans from jail. "I thank all of you for your heartfelt, overwhelming, tremendous love and support," the letter, which is now posted on her Web site, reads. "It has been your wonderful letters that has helped my time pass." ... U2 were the most in-demand ticket of the year, according to Ticketmaster, which has just tallied the country's most-requested events and concerts for 2005. U2 topped both the events and concerts lists, with the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay, Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney, the Eagles, Elton John and Nine Inch Nails rounding out the concerts list. ...

While Michael Jackson's lawyers continue to try to sort out his overdue $270 million loan with Fortress Investment Group, which could cost him his Neverland Ranch as well as his stake in the Beatles catalog, the singer's troubles seem to be mounting. First, his ex-wife Debbie Rowe is accusing Jackson of abducting their children, by taking Paris and Prince to live in Bahrain during the custody battle. In a hearing on Monday, Rowe filed a motion asking a judge to order Jackson to return the children to the U.S., claiming that the singer lied about having sole custody in order to get the children passports. Judge Stephen Lachs has yet to rule on the matter. Meanwhile, despite reports to the contrary, Jackson has not defaulted on a second, smaller loan of $2.2 million, for which he put up his parents' $7 million house in Encino, California, as collateral. A Jackson family lawyer said that the Encino home is not in jeopardy, and that even if it were, Janet Jackson recently bought a house in Las Vegas that family members could use. That's probably good news to those worried about Neverland being a back-up plan, since a second lien could be placed on that property. Former Jackson associate Marc Schaffel, who's suing the singer for non-payment, has filed a motion for a writ of attachment on Neverland, so that in the event he wins his $3 million lawsuit, he will still be able to collect. A judge is scheduled to hear the matter on January 19. ...

The Strokes, the Darkness and the Super Furry Animals are the first bands announced for the One Earth benefit concert scheduled for January 28 at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. The concert, which will be broadcast around the world in an effort to raise awareness about the problem of global warming, is being organized by the environmental group Climate Change Now. In an attempt to help cut down on the emission of dangerous greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the organization is hoping to convert 1 million European homes so that they can make use of clean, renewable energy sources. ... Tommy Lee joined hair-metal cover band Metal Skool onstage Monday at the Key Club in West Hollywood, where the band has a weekly residency. Lee drummed on "Girls Girls Girls" while ex-wife Pamela Anderson, in a sexy Santa outfit, danced around the stripper pole and doused herself with water. ...

Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor's side project Stone Sour will begin recording the follow-up to the band's self-titled 2002 debut on January 25, and have enlisted the talents of producer Nick Rasculinecz (Foo Fighters, Velvet Revolver) for the effort. More than 30 demos were written for the LP, which is due in June. ... During a recent visit to Nairobi, Kenya, Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello performed as his alter-ego the Nightwatchman in Cork, a local nightclub. Morello stopped into the club with no intention of playing, but was recognized by the house band and the members talked him into taking the stage. Morello borrowed an acoustic guitar and performed a bunch of his politically-tinged folk songs, including "House Gone Up in Flames" and "Flesh Shapes the Day." ...

Starting this month, Vice Records will issue an unreleased track every two weeks from an artist on the label (which includes Bloc Party, Death From Above 1979 and the Streets) on its official blog. The first offering is a remix of Bloc Party's "Two More Years" by MSTRKRFT. ... Pennywise frontman Jim Lindberg, a father of three, is planning to make good use of his experience. He's just signed a book deal with Collins to write a post-punk fatherhood guide called "Punk Rock Dad." ...

• Jay-Z
• Radiohead
• Every Time I Die

Every Time I Die
Photo: Ferrett Records

Never in his life did Every Time I Die frontman Keith Buckley imagine he'd hear anyone ask the question, "Where's Michael Madsen?" Nor could he have expected the answer to that question being, "He's over there ... by the lion."

"I just sort of removed that sentence, and left it floating in space and I stared at it," was the impressionistic memory from Buckley, whose Buffalo-based metalcore band released its third full-length, Gutter Phenomenon, last month. "It was unbelievable that someone could have that exchange — and it made sense to me."

For Buckley, filming the video for "Kill the Music," the first single from Every Time I Die's latest LP, was nothing if not dreamlike.

"The guy who directed the video, Darren Doane [Deftones, Thursday], had just finished shooting a movie with Michael," said Buckley, referring to Madsen, of "Reservoir Dogs," "Sin City," "Kill Bill" and the-voice-of-several-violent-video-game-characters fame (less illustriously, he also appeared in "Free Willy" and "Free Willy 2"). "We were just talking, and, as sort of a half-assed, shot-in-the-dark joke, [one bandmember] mentioned, 'Oh yeah, we should get Michael Madsen to come in and be a hard-ass in the video.' So we called Darren and left him a message and a few days later, he called and said, 'He's in.' "

Still, the band wasn't so sure Madsen would actually show for the shoot. But as Buckley said, "He showed — and he was awesome.

"He was like your uncle who comes by and crashes the party," the singer continued. "He showed up with a suit in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other. It was so surreal. The whole day was nerve-racking until he showed up. There were certain points during the day where I would stop and say, 'What the f--- am I doing?' "

In the clip, which rather inexplicably features several shots of a roaring lion in its opening, Madsen plays a callous music video director, prone to sudden bursts of unbridled rage. At one point during the video, guitarist Jordan Buckley (Keith's older brother) appears to ruin the shot, and Madsen launches into attack mode, wailing on the rocker like a pitbull locked in bathroom with a poodle.

"He did a double-boot stomp on Jordan, and fell down," Keith Buckley recalled. "Everyone stood up, like we had broken porcelain or something. We were just waiting to see if he would be all right and not walk off-set, pissed. But he was fine. He was so enthusiastic. When he got home, he called Darren and was anxious to know if we thought he had done well — like he was contemplating whether he could have done better. And I had to call him at his hotel room and reassure him he'd done a good job."

The band formed a bond with Madsen, who, throughout the shoot, would swipe Doane's megaphone from him to recite lines from "Reservoir Dogs" (We were like, 'Dude, say something from "Free Willy"!' " Buckley said). In fact, Madsen wants to work with Every Time I Die on a song he's written.

"It's called 'Chillin' Villain,' and the lyrics are amazing," the singer said.

And the metalcore act is into collaborative work. Gutter Phenomenon features two of Buckley's oldest pals: My Chemical Romance mainman Gerard Way (on "Kill the Music") and Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw and Head Automatica lending his vocals to the track "Champing at the Bit." But for fans of ETID's first two LPs, Gutter Phenomenon is something of a shift in musical direction for the band, even if that shift is subtle.

"We were listening back to our old stuff and sort of cringing," Buckley said. "From when [2003's] Hot Damn came out and when we started writing this record, we had done so many things — Ozzfest (see "Screamo Comes Of Age On Ozzfest's Second Stage"), a stint on the Warped Tour — and we did so much promotion for Hot Damn before and after it came out that we never stopped to listen to it and see if we had grown. We're all from the same school of thought where, you really can't move on until you hate everything you've done before.

"Too many bands find their niche, and put the same ingredients into every soup. Not us. We knew we had changed, grown up, and acquired new tastes and distastes for music, and became a little more accepting of the background we all had — which was growing up, listening to classic rock from our parents. But on this record, we embraced that. We tried to hide it before because we didn't think it had any room in the 'hardcore community.' "

Fresh off of this summer's inaugural Sounds of the Underground tour, Every Time I Die will spend the better part of the next two months on the road: They launched a a 27-date trek with High on Fire, the Red Chord, the Chariot and Esoteric on September 7 in Poughkeepsie, New York; the run wraps in Rochester, New York, on October 7. The band will launch a second jaunt — this time, with Haste the Day, A Life Once Lost and fellow Buffalonians It Dies Today — on October 8 in Providence, Rhode Island, that concludes in State College, Pennsylvania, on October 24.

• Every Time I Die

Jim Jones' <I>Harlem: Diary of a Summer</I>
Photo: Koch Records

Jones' Diary: Jim issues Harlem: Diary of a Summer in multiple configs, including DualDisc form, with enhanced stereo and a 35-minute bonus DVD, plus additional videos. Tracks include: "Throw Back Muzic '86," "Speak in It" and "Tha Past" (featuring Dave Hollister).

2-Packed: Kurupt's Against the Grain brings back 2Pac on "My Homeboys (Back to Back)" and ushers in Roscoe and M.O.P. on "Jealousy." Other tracks include "Deep Dishes," "Anarchy '87" and "Can U Feel It" (featuring Potion).

Singing Along To Barney: Björk widens her ever-widening boundaries with the "Drawing Restraint 9" soundtrack, an abstract audio accompaniment to the film made by her longtime boyfriend, Matthew Barney. Tracks include "Ambergis March," "Vessel Shimenawa" and "Holographic Entrypoint."

Red Hot: The Bled's Found in the Flood, the Flaming Lips' "VOID: Video Overview in Deceleration" DVD, Leon Redbone's Live - October 26, 1992: The Olympia Theater, Paris, France, Chad VanGaalen's Infiniheart and Young Bleed's Rise Thru Da Ranks. Also sexy: the Big Screen's Left Coast Love Affair, the Lovemakers' Time of Romance and the New Pornographers' Twin Cinema.

Song Titles Of The Week:

"It's Not About Breaking Hearts, It's About Breaking Faces" (Bobaflex's Apologize for Nothing)

"540,000 Degrees Fahrenheit" (Fear Factory's Transgression)

Other Notables:

Hush's Bulletproof: Eminem, D12, Nate Dogg, Talib Kweli and, bizarrely, Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell, lend a hand on the Detroit rapper's debut, sprucing up a lineup fitted with "Real T.V." and "Woodpecker."

The various-artists DVDs "Burn to Shine: Chicago IL 09.13.2004" and "Spend an Evening With Saddle Creek": Ante up with Bright Eyes, the Faint and Rilo Kiley on the Saddle Creek set, or shine on with the Chicago-centric "Burn to Shine," which features live performances by Tortoise, Shellac and Wilco.

Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon's Sixty Six Steps: The guitarist and erstwhile Phish member get even more experimental on their second collabo, glancing over Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" with a Turkish banjo and Pete Seeger's "Living in the Country."

Chuck Leavell's Southscape and Dickey Betts & Great Southern's "Back Where It All Begins: Live at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" DVD: Rolling Stones pianist Leavell glosses over "Jessica," written by Allman Brother Dickey Betts, while Betts revisits that tune and a whole lot more on "Back Where It All Begins," a double disc recorded last year at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

New releases:

• Alycone - The Stars Are Real (System)
• American Princes - Little Spaces (Yep Roc)
• Amsterdam - The Sore Score (Aeria)
• Jasy Andrews - Little Girl (Versailles)
• Animosity - Empires (Black Market/ Metal Blade)
• August Born - August Born (Drag City)
• Bayside - Bayside (Victory)
• Beautiful Creatures - Deuce (Spitfire)
• Sarah Bettens - Scream (K's Choice singer; Hybrid)
• The Big Screen - Left Coast Love Affair (Undecided)
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl (RCA)
  
• The Bled - Found in the Flood (Vagrant)
  Buy Now: Found in the Flood (Vagrant)
• Björk - "Drawing Restraint 9" soundtrack (One Little Indian)
• Bobaflex - Apologize for Nothing (TVT)
• Boozoo Bajou - Dust My Broom (Studio K7)
• Broken Spindles - Inside/Absent (Saddle Creek)
• Bucho - Omit the Harsh (DIG)
• Cafe Soul Allstars - Love Pages (You Entertainment)
• Noam Chomsky - The Imperial Presidency: Sovereignty, Terror, and the "Second Superpower" (G7 Welcoming Committee)
• The Classic Struggle - Feel Like Hell (Metal Blade)
• Crazy Frog - Crazy Frog Presents Crazy Hits (Universal)
• Criteria - When We Break (Saddle Creek)
• Terry Cummings - Nothing Is What It Seems (Pyramid)
• Krishna Das - All One (live, features Def Leppard's Rick Allen plus a choir of 70 and an orchestra of 20; Triloka)
• Nob Dylan and His Nobsoletes - Positively 12 Stiff Dylans (Alternative Tentacles)
• El Michels Affair - Sounding Out the City (Fastlife)
• Every Time I Die - Gutter Phenomenon (Ferret)
  Buy Now: Gutter Phenomenon (Ferret)
• Fear Factory - Transgression (Calvin/ Liquid 8)
• Orenda Fink - Invisible Ones (one-half of Azure Ray; Saddle Creek)
• FJ & Living Souls - Ambient Africa (Eagle)
• Guy Forsyth - Love Songs: For & Against (Small & Nimble)
Creek)
• Nnenna Freelon - Blueprint of a Lady: Sketches of Billie Holliday (Concord)
• Friends of Dean Martinez - Live at Club 2 (Aero)
• Gabin - Mr. Freedom (Astralwerks)
• Richard Galliano - Ruby, My Dear (Dreyfus)
• The Get Quick - How the Story Goes (Rainbow Quartz)
• The Grates - The Ouch. The Touch. EP (Cherry Tree)
• Matthew Herbert - Plat du Jour (Accidental)
• Warren Hill - Pop Jazz (Pop Jazz)
• Hush - Bulletproof (Interscope)
• I Am Kloot - Gods and Monsters (Echo)
• I Wayne - Lava Ground (VP)
• Infusion - Six Feet Above Yesterday (Thrive)
• Jack's Mannequin - Everything in Transit (enhanced; Maverick)
• John Wilkes Booze - Telescopic Eyes Glace the Future Sick (Kill Rock Stars)
• Jim Jones - Harlem: Diary of a Summer (Koch)
  Buy Now: Harlem: Diary of a Summer (Koch)
  Read: "Jim Jones Goes 'Miami Vice' For New Clip"
• Josh Joplin - Jaywalker (Eleven Thirty)
• JT the Bigga Figga - Who Grind Like Us (Get Low)
• Judd & Maggie - Subjects (RCA)
• June - If You Speak Any Faster (Victory)
• Juvenile - Reality Check (UTP/Atlantic)
  Buy Now: Reality Check (UTP/Atlantic)
  Read: "Juvenile Gets Busy At The Holiday Inn; Making An Album>"
• Josh Kelley - Almost Honest (Hollywood)
• Kennedys - Half a Million Miles (Appleseed)
• Khanate - Capture & Release EP (Hydra Head)
• Steve Kimock Band - Eudemonic (Sci Fidelity)
• Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon - Sixty Six Steps (RCA)
• The Kronos Quartet and Asha Bhosle - You've Stolen My Heart: Songs From R.D. Burnham's Bollywood (RCA)
• Kurupt - Against the Grain (Death Row)
  Buy Now: Against the Grain (Death Row)
• Chuck Leavell - Southscape (Evergreen Arts)
• Lofty - In the Beginning (33rd Street)
• The Lost Patrol Band - The Lost Patrol Band (Burning Heart/ Epitaph)
• Lovemakers - Time of Romance (Cherry Tree/ Interscope)
• Lurker of Chalice - Lurker of Chalice (Southern Lord)
• Timo Maas - Pictures (Ultra)
• The Makers - Everybody Rise! (Kill Rock Stars)
• Masters at Work - The Kings of House (Studio K7)
• Delbert McClinton - Cost of Living (New West)
• Neal McCoy - That's Life (enhanced; 903)
• Hendrik Meurkens - Amazon River (Megaforce)
• Minus the Bear - Menos El Oso (Suicide Squeeze)
• Michael Martin Murphey - Storm Over the Rangelands: Cowboy Songs, Vol. 5 (Emergent/92e)
• Mossyrock - Zero to One Sessions (Nice & Smooth)
• Najee - My Point of View (Heads Up)
• New Buffalo - The Last Beautiful Day (Arts & Crafts)
• New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (Matador)
  Buy Now: Twin Cinema (Matador)
• Nural - Weight of the World (Hopeless)
• One Block Radius - Long Story Short (Avatar)
• Orange - Welcome to the World of ... Orange (Epitaph)
• Shane Owens - Let's Get on It (Rust)
• Ozomatli - Live at the Fillmore (with bonus DVD; Concord)
  Buy Now: Live at the Fillmorea (Concord)
• The Pale Pacific - Urgency (SideCho)
• Mike Park - North Hangook Falling (Sub City)
• Pitch Black [nz] - Ape to Angel (Waveform)
• Portastatic - Bright Ideas (Merge)
• Prurient - Black Vase (Load)
• Public Enemy featuring Paris- Rebirth of a Nation (Guerrilla Funk)
  Buy Now: Rebirth of a Nation (Guerrilla Funk)
• T. Raumschmiere - Blitzkrieg Pop (enhanced; Mute)
• Real McKenzies - 10,000 Shots (Fat Wreck Chords)
• Leon Redbone - Live - October 26, 1992: The Olympia Theater, Paris, France (Rounder)
• Amy Rigby - Little Fugitive (Signature)
• Robots in Disguise - Get Rid (Studio K7)
• Rogue Wave - 10:1 EP (Sub Pop)
• Rooftop Suicide Club - Always Like This (Stop Pop & Roll)
• Rupee - 1 on 1 (Atlantic)
• Sawyer Brown - Mission Temple Fireworks Stand (Curb)
• The Setup - The Pretense of Normality (GSR)
• Shark Soup - Fatlip Showbox (BYO)
• The Jason Sinay Band - The Jason Sinay Band (Tomato)
• Smash Mouth - All Star: The Smash Hits of Smash Mouth (Interscope)
  Buy Now: All Star: The Smash Hits of Smash Mouth (Interscope)
• Sons of Champlin - Hip Li'l Dreams (DIG)
• Spacehead - Live @ Hawkfest 2003 (United States Dist.)
• Stellastarr* - Harmonies for the Haunted (RCA)
• Tierney Sutton - I'm With the Band (Telarc)
• Swing Out Sister - Live (Shanachie)
• Syd Matters - Syd Matters (V2)
• Otis Taylor - Below the Fold (Telarc)
• Tenement Halls - Knitting Needles & Bicycle Bells (Merge)
• B.J. Thomas - Hooked on a Feeling - The Best Of (DualDisc release featuring new recordings of hits; Goldenlane)
• Tom & Joy - Antigua (Tommy Boy)
• Kevin Toney - 110 Degrees and Rising (Shanachie)
• Trick Pony - R.I.D.E. (Curb)
  Buy Now: R.I.D.E. (Curb)
• Turbonegro - Party Animals (Epitaph/ Burning Heart)
• Armin van Buuren - Shivers (Ultra)
• John Vanderslice - Pixel Revolt (Barsuk)
• Chad VanGaalen - Infiniheart (Sub Pop)
• Laura Viers - Year of Meteors (Nonesuch)
• Warlocks - Surgery (Mute)
• Jim Wilson - A Place in My Heart (Artemis)
• Ya' Boy - Rookie of the Year (SMC)
• YOB - The Unreal Never Lived (Metal Blade)
• Young Bleed - Rise Thru Da Ranks (West Coast Mafia)
• Yuns - Storyteller (Eastside)
• Joe Zawinul& The Zawinul Syndicate - Vienna Nights: Live at Joe Zawinul's Birdland (BirdJAM/BHM)
• Zox - The Wait (Armo)
• Various artists - "The Brothers Grimm" soundtrack (Milan)
• Various artists - Dimension Mix (Eenie Meenie)
• Various artists - "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" soundtrack (Shout! Factory)
• Various artists - "Four Brothers" soundtrack (Motown)
• Various artists - Live at Continental: Best of NYC, Vol. 2 (Continental NYC)
• Various artists - Timeless Soul Ballads (Sumday)
• Various artists - Tommy Boy Presents: Hip-Hop Roots (Tommy Boy)
• Various artists - "Undiscovered" soundtrack (Ashlee Simpson's in the film but not on the soundtrack; Lakeshore)

Notable reissues:

• Oren Ambarchi - Triste (original LP plus remixes and a poster; Southern Lord)
• Pat Boone - Glory Train: The Lost Sessions (Oak)
• John Entwistle - Rigor Mortis Sets In (remastered; Sanctuary)
• John Entwistle - Smash Your Head Against the Wall (remastered; Sanctuary)
• Gentle Giant - Playing the Fool: 35th Anniversary Addition (DRT)
• Charles Mingus - A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry (remastered; Shout! Factory)
• Roy Orbison - I Can't Stop Loving You (Sumday Entertainment)
  Buy Now: I Can't Stop Loving You (Sumday Entertainment)
• Jerry Garcia - The Jerry Garcia Collection Vol. 1: Legion of Mary (Rhino)
  Buy Now: The Jerry Garcia Collection Vol. 1: Legion of Mary (Rhino)
• Rise Against - The Unraveling (remastered and remixed with bonus tracks; Fat Wreck Chords)
• Rufio - Perhaps, I Suppose ... - Deluxe Edition (with five bonus original demos; The Militia Group)
• Yes - The Word Is Live (three discs of live recordings from 1970-1988; Rhino)

DVDs:

• Bad Manners - "Don't Knock the Bald Heads" (Music Video Distributors)
• Dickey Betts & Great Southern - "Back Where It All Begins: Live at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" (Red Distribution)
• Deep Purple - "Inside Deep Purple 1969-1976: An Independent Critical Review" (two DVDs and a book; Classic Rock Legends)
• Dizzy Gillespie - "Live in London" (Kultur)
• The English Beat - "In Concert at the Royal Festival Hall" (Music Video Distributors)
• Flaming Lips - "VOID: Video Overview in Deceleration" (Warner Bros.)
• Human League - "Live at the Dome" (Music Video Distributors)
• Tom Jones - "Hits" and "Duets" (Tango Entertainment)
• Willie Nelson & Friends - "Live and Kickin' " (Lost Highway)
• Orgy - "Trans Global Spectacle: 1997 to 2004" (D1/DLC)
• T. Rex - "Inside T. Rex 1974-1977" (Classic Rock Legends)
• Shinedown - "Live From the Inside" (Atlantic)
• Beanie Sigel - "The B. Coming of Beanie Sigel" (Universal)
• Johnny Thunders - "Eve of Destruction" (Recall)
• Various artists - "Burn to Shine: Chicago IL 09.13.2004" (Trixie)
• Various artists - "Spend an Evening With Saddle Creek" (Recall)

Coming attractions:

August 30:

• Death Cab for Cutie - Plans (Atlantic)
  Read: "Death Cab For Cutie Living Up To The 'Death' Part On Next LP"
• Rihanna - Music of the Sun (Def Jam)
• Kanye West - Late Registration (Def Jam)
  Read: " 'Can He Do It Again?' -- Kanye West Says New LP Backs Up His Bragging"

September 6:

• 50 Cent - The Massacre (re-release; Interscope)
• Sarah McLachlan - Sarah McLachlan in Bloom (remix album; Arista)
• The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang (Virgin)
  Read: "Rolling Stones Announce World Tour, Unveil New Song"

September 13:

• David Gray - Life in Slow Motion (RCA)
• The Juliana Theory - Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat (Paper Fist/Abacus)
• Switchfoot - Nothing Is Sound (Columbia)
  Read: "Switchfoot Look Like California Raisins After Video Shoot"

• Jim Jones
• Björk
• Kurupt
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
• Every Time I Die

Powerman 5000 (file)
Photo: Dreamworks

While not having a record deal would bother most musicians to their core, Powerman 5000's Spider isn't the least bit worried or distracted. Actually, the frontman says the freedom of having zero label ties gives him carte blanche to do what he wants.

And Spider — Rob Zombie's brother, don't you know — says it's been rather refreshing, from a creative standpoint, to work this way. He thinks that, to fans of the Boston band, it'll be obvious once they've had a chance to hear PM5K's as-yet-untitled fifth album, which they're hoping to release in early 2006.

Spider said the LP, which the band is self-producing, will have an "under-produced," stripped-down sound. "We're leaving in the mistakes," he said. "Kids aren't hearing those kinds of records any more — like the Sex Pistols — where things are out of tune, there are mistakes. Nowadays, everything's lined up to a grid on Pro Tools, and everyone's vocal is tuned to the perfect pitch. That's not what rock music should be."

Rather than focus on going more heavy or finding a label to release the album, PM5K's concentrating on the music: "Every rock band comes out and makes that statement, you know, that this is going to be our heaviest album ever. I hate that. For me, I want to make the best record we can make — whether it's heavier or not, doesn't matter. Some of it will be supper-aggressive, some of it won't be."

The album, which is about halfway done and will be the band's first since 2003's Transform, will include "Heroes and Villains," "The Last Night on Earth" and "Treat Me Like a Stranger." Spider hopes PM5K can make a statement with the album and distance themselves from some long-term associations that he feels have hurt them.

"We came out during the nü-metal explosion, and now, people talk about us in the same sentence as Limp Bizkit and sh--," he said. "We sort of got trapped in a world that we didn't belong in. We were put in a category with bands that I never really felt comfortable being compared to. But sometimes you find you get on this path and it takes you somewhere you didn't necessarily ever expect to be. So for me, this new record is going to be a statement. It's probably the record I should have made 10 years ago, the one that says, 'This is who I am, musically, and this is where my head is at.' "

Powerman 5000 have spent much of their summer on the road, but have only 11 more dates remaining on their current U.S. tour, set to wrap up August 23 in Beaumont, Texas. Then it's back to the studio to finish the record, head back out in October — and find a label to distribute the disc. "There's already been some interest," he said. "For right now, we need to be the band that we are, and the rest will fall into place."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Glenn Danzig's Blackest of the Black Tour, featuring Chimaira, Behemoth, Himsa, Mortiis and the Agony Scene, will kick off September 30 in San Diego, with dates running through October 29 in Los Angeles. ... The second leg of Judas Priest's U.S. tour launches September 24 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. Eighteen gigs later, Rob Halford and his mates will wrap things up in Tucson, Arizona, on November 1. ... Killswitch Engage will take a break from Ozzfest on July 25 for a gig at the Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts, which will be filmed for inclusion on the band's forthcoming DVD. Tickets will be $5; As I Lay Dying and Once Beloved will open. ... Actor Michael Madsen — he of "Reservoir Dogs," "Sin City" and "Kill Bill" — has been tapped to star in Every Time I Die's video for "Kill the Music," the first single off of their forthcoming Gutter Phenomenon. The record's scheduled for an August 23 release through Ferret. ...

Norma Jean will shoot a video for "Absentimental" in the coming weeks. The track comes from the band's O God, the Aftermath album. ... The Black Dahlia Murder, Between the Buried and Me, Cephalic Carnage and Into the Moat will hit the road together this fall, starting in Buffalo, New York, on September 23. So far, 13 gigs have been scheduled, running through October 26 in Indianapolis; a full list is expected next week. ... Dallas' own A Dozen Furies, the winners of MTV's "Battle for Ozzfest," will release their Sanctuary Records debut, A Concept From Fire, on September 13. The offering will boast a dozen tracks, including "The Everlasting Grudge," "Idea and Some Rope" and "Nightmare of a Martyr." ... Ministry and their alter-ego, Revolting Cocks, will launch the MasterBaTour 2006 in May, with dates running through July. The May 28 show in Seattle went on sale July 20. Spyder Baby will open. ...

Oakland power thrashers Watch Them Die will release their second album, Bastard Son, on September 6. The follow-up to their eponymous 2003 debut will include "On Slaught," "Throne of Lies," "Belials Path" and "Early Mourning." Watch Them Die are on tour through September 17 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. ... The second album from Brides of Destruction, Runaway Brides, will hit stores September 27. Since the departure last year of bassist Nikki Sixx, the band has hired ex-Amen member Scott Sorry. The Brides entered the recording studio early this year with producer Andy Johns, who has previously worked with Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. New tracks include "White Trash," "Criminal" and "Lords of the Mind." ... Richmond, Virginia, crossover hardcore band Municipal Waste will release their second full-length album, Hazardous Mutation, on September 20. The group is reminiscent of DRI, Crumbsuckers and early Corrosion of Conformity, and features ex-Discordance Axis/ Burnt by the Sun drummer Dave Witte.

• Powerman 5000
• Brides Of Destruction
• Ministry
• Every Time I Die

As I Lay Dying (file)
Photo: Metal Blade

For metal fans, San Diego metallers As I Lay Dying's forthcoming sophomore release, Shadows Are Security, is one of 2005's most eagerly awaited pieces of polycarbonate plastic. Due June 14 — just over a month before the band takes the stage for the first date of Ozzfest on July 15 — Shadows, according to frontman Tim Lambesis, showcases a more at-ease As I Lay Dying.

"Last time we were a little bit rushed and, being a new band, budget was always an issue," he said. "This time around, we were able to do what we wanted. There are natural progressions in the way we play our instruments: Jordan [Mancino], believe it or not, has somehow gotten better at drums, and I think the guitars are quite a bit more technical. The biggest focus, on my end, was the arrangement of the songs. Because the material was a little more technical; there was a lot more melody to it. I wanted to make sure it was still very memorable, and arrangements are a big part of that."

As reported last week, the band recently shot a video for the album's first single, "Confined," at an abandoned Air Force base in Tustin, California. Lambesis promised the video would have "a lot to do with the lyrics," saying it's "about how we put so much time and effort into so many different things, and how at a moment's notice, everything can change."

More than 14 hours of performance footage was shot — in the rain — of the band, and that will be interlaced with what Lambesis called "eye candy" shots ("Some real tight, zoom-in-type stuff, and even some slow-mo") as well as "concept stuff of a kid who you can tell has spent all day really working on a piece of art, with chalk. You see the sun setting in the background and the storm coming in, but the kid's so wrapped up in his work, he doesn't notice it. And then, in a moment, the rain hits and it's all washed away."

The rest of the week's metal news:

In a Metal File exclusive, the fourth mystery producer behind Roadrunner Records' forthcoming Roadrunner All-Stars disc — which is expected to contain original tracks that are the product of collaborations between past and present members of the label's roster — has been revealed. Joining producers/composers Joey Jordison of Slipknot, Dino Cazares of Fear Factory and Machine Head's Robert Flynn will be Matt Heafy of Trivium. All four musicians will not only play on the songs they've written, but will assemble a team of artists to record the tracks. ... Philadelphia's Tapping the Vein will hit the studio next month with producer Neil Kernon (Cannibal Corpse, Nevermore) to start working on the follow-up to 2002's The Damage. Look for an early 2006 release through Nuclear Blast Records. ...

Ill Niño are putting the finishing touches on their still-untitled third album. The disc will be released August 30 and is being co-produced by guitarist Dave Chivarri with Eddie Wohl. "This is the most progressive and in-depth record we've ever made," said singer Christian Machado. "We experimented with a lot of African percussion and chants while making the riffs a lot more intricate." The band's last disc, Confession, came out in 2003. ... Southern California's Manntis, featured on the show "Battle for Ozzfest," will release their debut album, Sleep in Your Grave, on June 28. Manntis will launch a tour with Otep, Devilinside and Days End on June 1 in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. Dates run through June 23 in Columbia, Missouri. ... Highbrow noise merchants the Minor Times are now part of the Prosthetic Records kith. The label will re-release the band's second offering, Making Enemies, on July 27; look for record three sometime next spring. ...

Swedish experimental-metal legends Meshuggah re-upped with Nuclear Blast this week; the label will release the band's newest effort, Catch Thirty-Three, on May 31. ... Hardcore act Every Time I Die's forthcoming Gutter Phenomenon will include 11 fresh tunes, including "Guitared and Feathered," "Gloom and How It Gets That Way," "The New Black" and "Apocalypse Now and Then." The album's set for an August 23 release through Ferret. ... Drowningman's Don't Push Us When We're Hot will see release on August 23 as well and will feature cleverly titled tracks like "Major Disappointment, Reporting for Duty." ... The Red Chord's video for "Antman," off of their latest release, Clients, will debut on MTV2's "Headbangers Ball" this weekend, but you can also check it at theredchord.com. ...

Hungarian folk-metal band Ektomorf will release their sixth album, Instinct, on June 14. Tracks include "Set Me Free," "The Holy Noise" and "You Get What You Give." ... Experimental space-metal band Sunn0))) are working on their fourth album, White-1, in Magnetic Park studios in Oregon. Track titles include "My Wall" and "The Gates of Ballard." ... Thrones — a.k.a. Joe Preston (Melvins, Earth) — will release his fourth album, Day Late, Dollar Short, on May 31. It will be Preston's first offering in five years. ... Sweden's Burst have been busy working on Origo, which will see a fall release through Relapse. Frederick Rheindahl and Henrik Lipp are producing the effort, which bassist Jesper Liverod characterized as "an exaggeration of everything that Burst is about" and "urgently important to us." ... Norwegian progressive-metal band Communic will release their debut, Conspiracy of Mind, on June 28. The band includes ex-Scariot singer Oddleif Stensland and drummer Tor Atle Andersen. ...

Finnish melodic power-metal band Thunderstone will release their third record, Tools of Destruction, on June 28. The album was produced by Nino Laurenne and mixed by Timo Tolkki. ... Floridian death-metal mechanics Paths of Possession have signed with Metal Blade. The band is fronted by Cannibal Corpse singer George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, and its self-titled debut should be available later this year. ... Symphorce have been working on their fifth album, GodSpeed, at the House of Music studios with producer Dennis Ward (Angra). Look for it September 12. ...

• As I Lay Dying
• Meshuggah
• Ill Niño
• Every Time I Die

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich and his wife, Skylar, are getting divorced, the band said on its Web site. The couple have been separated since March and have quietly been undergoing divorce proceedings. They will share custody of their two children. ...

Every Time I Die singer Keith Buckley was arrested at Sunday's Ozzfest stop in Bristow, Virginia, for drinking in an area that was off-limits. He was released 30 minutes after police led him off in handcuffs. Fans at that show wondering why the crowd broke into the "Ole" soccer chant during Black Sabbath's set should know that it was the work of the SOC, or "Shirts Off Crew." A revolving lineup composed of members of second-stage acts including Slipknot, Atreyu, Bleeding Through and Lamb of God, the SOC can be seen running backstage and through the crowd urging concertgoers to go shirtless. ... On this day in 1969, Neil Armstrong took "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" and his colleague Buzz Aldrin spoke the first words from the moon from inside the lunar module: "Tranquility base. The Eagle has landed." Fifteen years later, Aldrin landed on the podium at the first MTV Video Music Awards, immortalized as the MTV Moonman, the award handed out to the lucky winners. ...

Roc-A-Fella Records continues to beef up its roster. The newest member of Dame Dash's team is N.O.R.E., who just inked his deal. ... Franz Ferdinand, the Streets, Joss Stone and the Basement Jaxx are among the artists shortlisted for this year's U.K. Mercury Music Prize, which honors the best album of the year from the genres of pop, rock, jazz and classical music. The Streets was also nominated in 2002. Last year, Dizzee Rascal took home the pop award. An independent panel of judges selects the albums on the shortlist and then meets on the night of the Nationwide Mercury Prize Awards on September 7 to choose the winner. ...

After cracking down on students for illegally downloading music, several universities across the country are taking a different approach: making legal downloading more accessible. On Monday, Napster announced that it has signed agreements with six more universities, including Cornell, George Washington, and Miami to offer students access to its download program, according to Reuters. Penn State University and Rochester University were the first schools to offer this service to students. ... One school is taking music downloading to the next level, however, handing out iPods to all new students. Beginning this fall, Duke University will give each incoming freshman a brand new iPod, paid for by the university. The iPods will be loaded with school calendars and other information, and the school hopes students will use them to download class materials. ...

Tony Hawk is catching some air ... airwaves, that is. The pro-skateboarding legend is the first host on Sirius Faction, a new channel on Sirius satellite radio for extreme-sports enthusiasts. Broadcast from a custom-designed studio at Hawk's new practice facility in California, the show features interviews, music and commentary without any commercials. ... Duran Duran continue working on their new album, due out in October, and have most recently teamed up with producer Dallas Austin (Pink, Janet Jackson). "This is an incredible experience, you can't pay for the history," Austin said in a statement. "I am a word-for-word, lyric-for-lyric fan. They are all super musicians! And we're all Astronauts!" ("Astronaut" is the title of one of the tracks the band is working on with Austin). The album also features songs the '80s heartthrobs worked on with producer Don Gilmore (Good Charlotte, Linkin Park). "Duran Duran really like to experiment," Gilmore said in a statement. "They don't like to do things the conventional way." One of Gilmore's tracks with the band is called "Still Breathing." ...

The charges against two members of Ozomatli and their manager have been dropped in an agreement with Austin, Texas, prosecutors. The charges stemmed from the arrests of the three individuals during the South by Southwest music festival earlier this year. On March 18, percussionist Jiro Yamaguchi, manager Amy Sue-Blackman Romero, and bassist Wil-Dog Abers were charged with assault on a public servant, interference with the duties of a public servant, and failure to obey a lawful order, respectively, for violating a city ordinance by performing in the street. ... The Don't Knock the Rock Film and Music Festival kicks off in Hollywood August 12 and features a performance by PJ Harvey and the West Coast premieres of the documentaries "Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel" and "Edgeplay," a film about the Runaways, the influential 1970s girl group that counted Joan Jett and Lita Ford as members. ...

Ex-Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has just returned from a monthlong vacation and is currently back in the studio. In a post on his Web site www.billycorgan.com, the rocker says he's about two months away from completing his solo album, which he is co-producing with Bon Harris. ... If Pierce Brosnan hangs up his James Bond hat, who could be next? Internet bookmakers at Intertops.com are betting on Robbie Williams, who is their favorite to be the next Bond, at 7-2 odds. Odds are also placed for Tom Cruise (80-1), George Clooney (50-1), Ben Affleck (250-1) and David Beckham (100-1). ... The farewell voyage of influential indie rock band Guided by Voices will begin in New York on August 19 and run through New Year's Eve in Chicago. The band's final album, Half Smiles of the Decomposed, will be released August 24. ... Machine Head and Chimaira will co-headline the Road Rage Tour, which also features 3 Inches of Blood and Trivium. The trek kicks off August 3 in Cleveland and dates are scheduled through August 29 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ...

7.19.04

The Britney Spears Foundation Room at the Onyx Hotel (the real Onyx Hotel in Boston) is now open to the public. It was designed by the singer's mother to resemble her daughter's bedroom back home in Kentwood, Louisiana. Two 14-year-old girls from the Boston area won a radio contest and were the first to stay in the room on Tuesday. The room goes for $259 a night with 10 percent of the proceeds donated to the singer's charity. ...

Futures, Jimmy Eat World's follow-up to 2001's breakthrough Bleed American, is due October 19. The band will debut some of the material August 27 at San Diego's Street Scene festival and September 3 at Milwaukee's Summerfest. ... John Mayer is going to raise the roof — literally. The singer/songwriter is teaming up with Habitat for Humanity to build a house on Sunday in San Antonio, Texas, and four fans will get the chance to join him as well as see a concert of his that evening. The home is being built for Angelia Brown, a working mother and cook at a hospital in San Antonio. The contest will run on various radio stations in the Southwest. ...

The soundtrack to the Josh Hartnett film "Wicker Park" will have a decidedly indie bent. Due August 24, the disc will feature tracks by Death Cab for Cutie, the Shins, the Stills, Broken Social Scene, Snow Patrol and Mogwai. The soundtrack will also feature previously unreleased songs highlighted by the Postal Service's cover of Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" and a Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blonde) and Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails) rendition of Coldplay's "The Scientist." ... Artists in search of potentially unpaid royalties now have more flexibility to audit record companies thanks to a law California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Friday. The law allows artists to conduct annual audits of record companies doing business in California. ...

The Foo Fighters plan to release a double-CD set to follow up 2002's One by One. Frontman Dave Grohl hopes to write one disc of lightweight material and the other of stomping, crashing heavy rock. The band is currently building a studio in Los Angeles to record the album. Their last few discs were created in a studio in Grohl's basement in Virginia. ... PJ Harvey, Nick Cave and Damon Albarn from Blur have written songs for Marianne Faithfull's new album, Before the Poison, due September 27. The disc is the follow-up to 2002's Kissin' Time, which featured collaborations with Beck, Billy Corgan and Jarvis Cocker of Pulp. ...

Saturday's Axis of Justice benefit in Hollywood ended with the "house band" — Serj Tankian and Maynard James Keenan on vocals, Pete Yorn on guitar and vocals, Tom Morello on guitar, Flea on bass and Brad Wilk on drums — covering U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name." Each of the musicians played solo earlier in the show, which also featured Jurassic 5. ... Having been described as conceptual, ethereal and emotional, A Perfect Circle may soon add "political" to that list. According to statements made by frontman Keenan at the Axis of Justice concert, he's planning on a civic-minded release for November, the same month an APC remix album is due. Although that album is still coming together, it's expected to include a remix of "The Hollow," a tune off the band's 2000 debut, by former bassist Paz Lenchantin, who is also contributing violin and piano parts to the band's next album. ...

The X-ecutioners and Biz Markie will perform at a Rock the Vote-sponsored kickoff party at the Democratic National Convention in Boston next week. Jon Stewart, Natalie Portman and the Clintons will attend the July 25 show, which will be followed on later nights by Black Eyed Peas (July 27) and Maroon 5 (July 29) concerts. ... Godsmack frontman Sully Erna has pulled out of his deal with the co-owners of Dorsia, the New York nightclub he went in on in 2003. Erna plans to sue his former business partners for improper management, sources close to the band said. ...

The death of Doors singer Jim Morrison, of an apparent overdose in 1971, has been as shrouded in mystery as the demise of Elvis Presley. A new book titled "Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend" by Stephen Davis, author of the classic Led Zeppelin biography "Hammer of the Gods," raises the possibility that Morrison's girlfriend Pamela Courson may have had a part in the singer's death. ... Forget about your regular Friday night poker game, the first Vegas Rock Star Poker Tournament and Sweepstakes is giving fans a chance to put on their best poker face and throw down against rockers Dave Navarro, Tommy Lee and Johnny Rzeznik. The weekend tournament kicks off August 26 at the Palms Casino Resort. Contest entries and more information is available at vegasrockstarpoker.com. ...

• Metallica
• Every Time I Die
• N.O.R.E.
• Franz Ferdinand
• PJ Harvey

Ozzfest at the CTNOW.com Meadows Music Centre in Hartford, CT 07.10.2004

• Slipknot
• Slayer
• Otep
• Lacuna Coil
• Lamb of God