Overcast
Photo: Metal Blade Records

It's been two years since influential Massachusetts metallers Overcast announced they'd be reuniting for a single release — a collection of re-recorded tracks culled from the band's poorly produced back-catalog.

But on Tuesday, after what was a prolonged, yet modest, bidding war (or as close to a bidding war as you can get in metal), Overcast's reunion LP, Reborn to Kill Again, finally landed in stores. And while the band has a handful of reunion shows booked through August 30 in Waterbury, Connecticut, with Dissolve, the reunion is going to be short-lived — at least for the time being.

With frontman Brian Fair's first priority being Shadows Fall, the band he joined after Overcast's 1998 demise, and bassist Mike D'Antonio's other band, Killswitch Engage, set to start work on their next studio effort in October, Overcast's reunion can't carry on forever. But D'Antonio said there's a chance the band could release new material down the line.

"When we recorded it, we just tried to get the songs sounding as good as they possibly could, and there are two songs we'd never recorded that are on this record," he said. "We had talked about doing another record, and there's another record on the table under our contract with Metal Blade. We can do it if we want. If we don't, whatever. But we have discussed doing another record, and I'm kind of excited about tinkering with ideas for it. That said, if we did start writing a new album, and it wasn't turning out like an Overcast record, I don't think we'd put it out. It really needs to have a certain vibe. It can't be another metalcore record, like the things that are going on these days. It really needs to have that old-school mentality, which we had held true back then. If not, it's not even worth it."

Produced by Killswitch guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz and recorded on the band's own dime, Reborn to Kill Again may sound slightly different to longtime fans. That's because some of the songs were recorded the way they were originally played or tweaked in the studio to reflect the changes they've undergone since they were first recorded.

"We didn't want to change it too much, and we didn't want it to sound like a different band," D'Antonio said. "At the same time, we didn't want to give [fans] the exact same record, but we did want it to feel like the same band. Some of the stuff was recorded the way we'd played the songs live, because when you've played something 100,000 times, you end up tweaking it, changing it slightly. So the new album reflects some of the older songs and how we used to play them live back then."

After Overcast's brief run of gigs, it's back to Killswitch for Mike. He said he's been writing material for the follow-up to 2006's As Daylight Dies over the past year, and he's already submitted a handful of demos for the disc, which the band hopes to have in stores this coming spring. He said a headlining run was also in the works for March.

"I'm one of those dudes who needs to write constantly, because I really suck at writing music with a deadline," D'Antonio said. "My brain gets fried, and I can't do anything, I just shut down completely. When we start on this next one, we'll just bring our demos to practice, and we'll listen to them, judge them and start rearranging the parts that need to be rearranged — or we just start jamming on what sounds cool."

So far, he said, the material's sounding "fast" and everything he's written for the LP "has at least one blast beat and very fast drumming, with really slow riffs." Has the bassist ever considered a Shadows Fall/ Killswitch Engage co-headlining run, with Overcast as the opener? "Not at all, but that could be fun," he said. "It could be really not fun for me, but that's something to consider."

The rest of the week's metal news:

If you'd like to hear Metallica's new single, "The Day That Never Comes," you can head on over to the band's MySpace page, where it's been streaming since Thursday morning. The song will appear on the band's forthcoming album, Death Magnetic, due September 12. ...

First, Sid Wilson breaks both his heels. Now, Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison has broken an ankle, forcing the band to cancel its upcoming European touring plans. "Doctors have advised Joey to stay off his leg for four to six weeks, to prevent further injury or permanent and more serious damage," the band said in a statement. "We know you will be hugely disappointed, and so are we. Canceling shows is never an easy decision, and we apologize to all our fans, friends and family for not being there to throw down with you." Slipknot's new album, All Hope Is Gone, hits stores Tuesday. ...

Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel collapsed onstage Sunday during the Bristow, Virginia, stop on this summer's RockStar Energy Mayhem festival. Demmel was severely dehydrated and, according to a press release, had mentioned several times to his tech that he was feeling lightheaded during the show. He's said to be doing much better now. "That was a scary moment for all of us," said drummer Dave McClain. "Seeing your friend collapse like that is something that nobody wants to experience." Demmel isn't expected to miss any of the band's upcoming shows. ... Chimaira are hard at work, writing material for their next LP. They have about four songs ready so far and will again be working with producer Jason Suecof (God Forbid, Trivium). The band hopes to begin tracking in October. ...

Winds of Plague have parted ways with drummer Jeff Tenney. "Winds of Plague as individuals have been hit very hard recently by a very selfish act committed by our longtime drummer, Jeff Tenney," the band said in a statement, without providing further details. "We are disgusted and very disappointed in his actions [and are] currently on the search for a new drummer." ... Napalm Death have christened their upcoming 13th album Time Waits for No Slave, and the record should be in stores before year's end.

• Overcast
• Killswitch Engage
• Metallica

Lindsay Lohan on the cover of <i>New York</i> magazine
Photo: Bert Stern

Lindsay Lohan has done some racy photo shoots in the past, but she takes it to a whole new level in New York magazine to pay tribute to her idol. The recently rehabbed actress re-created Marilyn Monroe's famous "Last Sitting" nude pictorial for the mag's spring fashion issue with the shoot's original photographer, Bert Stein. So was she nervous about getting in front of the camera wearing nothing but a chiffon scarf? "I was comfortable with it," she told New York, though she admitted to doing "250 crunches" the previous night. On set for Lohan's revealing re-creation was a small entourage of her manager; her security guard; a makeup artist and assistant; a hairstylist and assistant; a stylist; a manicurist; a sentry posted to guard the on-loan diamonds; the photographer and his manager; two photo assistants; and the actress' younger sister, Ali. (By comparison, Stern's original shoot with Monroe was just him and his subject). "Here's a woman who is giving herself to the public," Lohan said of the original photos. "She's saying, 'Look, you've taken a lot from me, so why don't I give it to you myself.' She's taking control back." ...

After taking home five Grammys at least week's awards, Amy Winehouse will appear at the Brit Awards in London Wednesday night, her publicist confirmed. The performance will be Winehouse's first appearance on a British television program since she left a London rehab clinic two weeks ago. ...

Indie powerhouse TVT Records, home to rap stars Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins, will file for bankruptcy protection, label head Steve Gottleib announced Tuesday. According to Billboard, the New York company will continue to operate, but a number of staff members have been let go, and several acts, though not confirmed as of press time, will become free agents. The Gottleib-founded TVT rose to prominence in the '80s after releasing rock albums by Nine Inch Nails and made larger strides beginning in the '90s with its roster of hip-hop acts. Recent legal battles with Def Jam Records and Slip-N-Slide over projects by Ja Rule and Pitbull before each gained notoriety zapped TVT of millions of dollars. ... "Dancing With the Stars" typically appeals to an older demographic, but Mario hopes to bring his young fans to the competition. The R&B crooner will join "American Pie" star Shannon Elizabeth, Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor, Olympic gold medalist Kristy Yamaguchi and more on the reality show's new season, which kicks off March 17 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. ...

The producers of "American Idol" have teamed up with Apple's iTunes Store, giving "Idol" fans the chance to purchase music by their favorite contestants before the show's winner is crowned. Starting this week, iTunes will offer downloads of every performance from the top 24 semifinalists, for 99 cents; full videos of the final 12 contestants will be offered for $1.99 beginning March 12. iTunes will also allow customers to pre-order tracks from a given contestant for automatic download the day after "Idol" airs. One-click access to the store is being made available from the show's official Web site. ... "American Idol" victor Jordin Sparks will be the opening act on Alicia Keys' upcoming North American tour, which kicks off April 19 in Hampton, Virginia. The tour concludes June 18 with a performance at New York's Madison Square Garden. ...

They haven't even been born yet, but Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony's twins might already be earning some cash. People magazine reportedly shelled out up to $6 million for the first crack at photos of the babies, while OK! struck an exclusive deal for international rights to the pictures, according to AdAge magazine. However, People and the stars' reps denied that these deals are final. ... Heidi Klum to the rescue! According to an AP report, the model and "Project Runway" host wants to help Britney Spears and said she'd be willing to open her home to the troubled pop star while she tries to put her life back together. "She can call me and come live in our house with us for a couple of months," Klum said. "I would help set her straight. I am sorry when a young person gets thrown so off-track. She has, of course, lived an extremely wild life." No word on whether Spears will take her up on the offer. ...

According to The Associated Press, the Spice Girls' tour-bus driver assisted police in the arrest of a Michigan man, who is the chief suspect in a carjacking. Police told the wire service that the bus driver called 911 to report a possible drunk driver weaving in and out of traffic on Interstate 75, just outside of Detroit, on Saturday. (The Spice Girls were performing that night in nearby Auburn Hills.) The motorist was arrested and turned over to police in the town of Burton in connection with a carjacking at a gas station. Police did not identify the Spice Girls' bus driver or the man who was arrested. ...

Pink's marriage might be ending, but her movie career is still moving forward. She shot "Catacombs" several years ago, and now the horror film will finally see the light of day — or, at least, the DVD shelf — when it is released in video stores Tuesday (February 19). "It takes place in Paris," Pink told MTV News when she first shot the movie. "I'm an expatriate who moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne, but I dropped out, because I like to party, and my friends run all these underground parties in the Paris tunnels, where they have all these ancient remains of people. And people actually do party underground there. It's all true. It's pretty amazing and intricate, actually." Pink's character then invites her younger sister (played by Shannyn Sossamon) to come and visit, and because her sib is "very high-anxiety, an annoying nervous wreck," Pink decides to invite her to the catacomb parties to "mess with her a little bit. It's all about family ties and how evil we can be to our siblings and what we get for doing that," Pink said. Despite the film's locale, she only shot in the City of Lights for four days, and the rest of "Catacombs" was actually shot in Bucharest, Romania. "It's cheaper," she shrugged. ...

My Chemical Romance have revealed details of their upcoming tour. The trek will feature openers Billy Talent and Drive By, and get under way March 28 in Tempe, Arizona. Dates are scheduled through May 6 in Philadelphia. ... Green Jellÿ, that long-forgotten mock-metal outfit behind the infectious "Three Little Pigs," have reformed and are in the process of booking a national tour for this summer. The band will also re-release 1991's Cereal Killer and 1994's 333 LPs, along with a DVD of all their videos. For now, Green Jellÿ are scheduled to play the new Milwaukee Metalfest on June 7 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ...

Camp Freddy, the cover band featuring Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, ex-Cult bassist Billy Morrison and Velvet Revolver's Matt Sorum and Scott Weiland, will be taking over Los Angeles' Roxy Theatre "every Thursday night during the month of May for our very first residency," the band reports. "Each week we will perform a different set list, and the evening's performance will culminate with two or three songs featuring our very special guests of the night. We will not be advertising these guests in advance. The band will be joined each week by our good friend and longtime Camp Freddy cohort [Sugar Ray's] Mark McGrath." ...

On Saturday, Bury Your Dead guitarist Eric Ellis was attacked by six individuals following the band's performance at the Rave in Milwaukee. Ellis was held at gunpoint while the men hit him multiple times with a baseball bat and hammer. Local police have characterized the incident as a "gang initiation." Despite his injuries, Ellis and the rest of the band will continue on with their tour alongside Hellyeah. "It will take more than this to stop Bury Your Dead," the band said in a statement. ...

Ska-punk act Goldfinger will return April 22 with Hello Destiny, which will be issued by Side One Dummy Records. The album follows 2005's Disconnect Notice and will feature founding guitarist Charlie Paulsen, who parted ways with the band in 1997. ... Portland, Maine, rockers 6Gig will be reuniting for two hometown gigs. The shows are set for April 25 and April 26, at the Big Easy. ... Foxy Shazam will be hitting the road with Portugal. the Man starting March 17 in El Paso, Texas. The trek runs through March 27 in San Francisco. ...

Underoath have tapped Matt Goldman and Killswitch Engage's Adam Dutkiewicz to produce their forthcoming album, which they've written eight songs for so far and will begin recording in about a month. Meanwhile, the band's "Live" CD/DVD set will hit stores May 13.

2.15.08

Alicia Keys took home four trophies from the NAACP Image Awards, held at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium Thursday night. She won the Outstanding Album and Outstanding Female Artist prizes, as well as the top video and song awards. Other honorees included Chris Brown, Jordin Sparks, Denzel Washington and Janet Jackson. Washington and his "Great Debaters" co-star Jurnee Smollett won the Best Actor and Actress prizes for film, while Jackson received the Best Supporting Actress honor for her work in "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?" ...

As Britney Spears' father extended control over her affairs in Los Angeles on Thursday, a New York attorney attempted to undo them by taking the conservatorship to federal court. Claiming he represents the singer — despite a judge already deciding she's unable to retain counsel of her own just yet — attorney Jon Eardley filed a claim that the singer's conservatorship deprives her of her civil liberties, since she's been denied the right to meet freely with whom she chooses (as her father has the power to restrict visitors); make and receive phone calls (since a restraining order prevents manager Sam Lutfi from contacting her); drive a car (since her father hired security to do that for her); and gain access to money or credit cards (since her finances are being handled by her trust). "She is being confined ... to the private person of her own home," the suit reads. Eardley is represented by Lutfi's publicist, Michael Sands, who claims that the motion moves jurisdiction from Los Angeles Superior Court to the U.S. District Court, and voids the conservatorship: "Britney Spears has no conservatorship!" he said in a press release. However, the Los Angeles Superior Court responded, "This is an issue that will have to be litigated by the parties." ...

Paramore and Jimmy Eat World have rolled out dates for their much-anticipated co-headlining tour. The 20-date outing will take them from San Antonio on April 1 to Atlantic City, New Jersey, on May 2, with stops in California, Iowa, New York and elsewhere along the way. ...

Eddie Vedder has sketched out the itinerary for his first-ever solo tour, which he will stage in support of his Grammy-nominated "Into the Wild" soundtrack, according to Billboard.com. The Pearl Jam frontman will swing through Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 2, after which he'll play a smattering of shows in various California cities: Santa Cruz (April 5), Berkeley (April 7), Santa Barbara (April 10), Los Angeles (April 12-13) and San Diego (April 15). ... The Raconteurs are wrapping up their yet-untitled sophomore effort in Nashville, according to a recent post on their MySpace page. The post wasn't forthcoming with more details, although it did say, "They promise to release [the LP] as soon as they can." ...

U2 frontman Bono and British artist Damien Hirst raised $42 million for HIV/AIDS programs in Africa at a Sotheby's auction in New York on Thursday, according to The Associated Press. The (Red) Auction, co-organized by the Gagosian Gallery, sold pieces from some of the world's top contemporary artists. Sotheby's said model Christy Turlington bought a piece for $170,500. "We got serious about love, and not just the love of art, but the love of our brothers and sisters suffering from AIDS in the poorest places on the planet," Bono said, according to BBC News. ...

Coheed and Cambria, Incubus and Disturbed have been added to the roster for this year's Download Festival in England (June 13-15). They join a lineup that already features Kiss, Judas Priest, the Offspring, Motörhead, H.I.M, Children of Bodom, Rise Against, Lostprophets, Alter Bridge and In Flames. ... Aerosmith are starring in a new edition of "Guitar Hero" called, er, "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith." Due in the summer, the game will feature 30 or so songs by the Boston legends, as well as ones by bands that have opened for Steven Tyler's crew. ...

Chan Marshall — better known as Cat Power — has bulked up her tour schedule in support of her recently released album, Jukebox, according to Pitchfork. Following an April 10 show in Vancouver, British Columbia, she will hit up Seattle the following day and continue playing gigs through an April 20 show at Austin, Texas' South by Southwest fest. Two days later, she'll perform in Houston, after which she'll journey down to Mexico City for an April 23 performance. ... The National — whose last album, Boxer, made many critics' top 10 lists last year — have slipped out a live EP through Rhapsody, Pitchfork reports. The release, called Rhapsody Rocks NYC, contains four songs recorded at New York's CMJ Music Marathon last year. ...

Butch Walker has slapped together a new live album, but in case you're running low on funds these days, don't worry — he's posted the 24-track effort for free download at FriendsorEnemies.com. Devout fans can get the release with bonus tracks for $5.99. ... Portishead have firmed up their first album in 10 years. Third will drop April 29 and feature 11 songs, including "Nylon Smile," "Magic Doors" and "The Rip." ...

Yoko Ono has denied reports that she was planning legal action against singer Lennon Murphy, who has sought to trademark the name of her band, Lennon. In a letter to the technology blog BoingBoing, Ono explained that several years ago, Lennon Murphy sought Ono's permission to perform under her birth name, Lennon Murphy, which Ono did not object to. But later, without Ono's knowledge, the singer reportedly filed an application in the U.S. Trademark Office requesting the exclusive right to utilize the name "Lennon" for musical performances. Ono's attorneys asked Murphy's lawyers and manager to withdraw the registration, offering to cover all costs Murphy had incurred in filing for the trademark. When Murphy went ahead with the registration anyway, Ono said she did not sue Murphy, but had her attorneys notify the trademark office that Ono did not believe it was fair that Murphy be granted the exclusive right to the Lennon trademark for musical and entertainment services. Ono wrote, "I am really hurt if people thought that I told a young artist to not use her own name in her performances and had sought to sue her. I did no such thing. I hope this allegation will be cleared." ...

Borders Books is trying a new method to appeal to music downloaders. According to a press release, the retailer will roll out 14 new concept stores this year featuring "digital centers" that will allow customers to burn CDs and download music and books to most MP3 players, though not to iPods.

• Lindsay Lohan
• Amy Winehouse
• Britney Spears
• Spice Girls
• My Chemical Romance

Emigrate
Photo: Pilgrim Management / Motor Music

It was hard enough for Rammstein guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe to leave his friends and daughter in Berlin and relocate to New York to write an album for his side project, Emigrate. The last thing he needed was for the house he moved into to be haunted.

The residence, a former firehouse in SoHo, apparently revealed its spiritual energies to Kruspe soon after he set up his home studio there. He says the burglar alarm went off repeatedly without being triggered, tiny holes appeared in his window without explanation, and his girlfriend had to move out after just two weeks because she felt so unsettled by the house's vibe.

"I went online to research the history of the house, and I found a picture of it from 1874," Kruspe said a week before heading back to Germany to continue work on the next Rammstein album, which doesn't have a name yet. "I printed it up, and when I looked closely at it, I got goose bumps all over my body. The picture is of three guys standing outside the building, and one of them looks exactly like me."

While some of Kruspe's friends have found being in the house too unnerving, the former resident of East Germany has accepted the spirit and fed off its energy. "The house has a strange feeling to it, but that's why I love it," he said. "I made peace with the energy long ago, and now I'm basically talking to it, saying, 'Hello,' 'Good night' and 'What's going on?' But obviously, I'm doing that in my head — if I started talking out loud, I think I would have to check into a hospital."

Maybe some of the paranormal activity inspired Kruspe to write Emigrate's self-titled debut, which comes out January 28, but the songs on the disc are neither haunting nor ethereal. They're filled with feelings of loneliness, despair and rage that stemmed more from the isolation he felt in America.

"I moved here in 2001 because I needed a change in my life," he explained. "I had been living in Berlin for 18 years, and I was bored and wanted a new challenge. I felt I had to create something new, and one of the things you have to do as an artist is go the unsafe way, because this brings you into the suffering world, and if you're suffering, you can write good music. When I came to New York, I dealt with a lot of rejection and depression in the process of entering the new world and saying goodbye to the old one, and that was definitely inspirational."

Equally inspiring was Kruspe's desire to branch out from the sonic niche he had created with Rammstein. Before he moved to America, he was experiencing creative and personal friction with his bandmates. In the past, he had written nearly all the group's songs, and was extremely controlling about how the music was played and the role everyone served in the group. After years of putting up with his totalitarian perfectionism, his bandmates started to rebel.

"It got to the point where people couldn't be around me," Kruspe said. "If you want to eat a chocolate cake, one piece is nice, but if you eat the whole cake, you'll f---ing puke. And it was the same with me. It was too much to deal with, so I distanced myself from the whole situation and tried to find something else."

Kruspe found the outlet in Emigrate, a project that allowed him to explore new artistic avenues on his own and take on the role of lead singer as well as guitarist. While songs like "Emigrate," "Wake Up" and "My World" have elements in common with Rammstein — chugging metal guitars, ominous keyboards, militaristic percussion — other tracks, such as "In My Tears" and "Temptation," are softer, moodier and more subtle, interlaced with acoustic-guitar arpeggios, gloomy pop vocals and baleful samples of strings.

"At the time I did these songs, I felt like something was missing in Rammstein," Kruspe said. "To work for that band is almost like working for a soundtrack. You have to work with no vocals because those are the last things that will appear on the song. For Emigrate, I started to work more as a traditional songwriter. Also, I was singing and writing lyrics in English, which allowed me to experiment with all these things I had never explored before. Basically, that allowed me to balance myself out again so I could go back to Rammstein and be the happy guitar player."

Sometimes it's hard for musicians to return to their main bands after they get such a taste of freedom. But having complete creative control of Emigrate had the opposite effect on Kruspe. Rammstein are now working democratically, and Kruspe says he's coexisting with his bandmates more amicably than ever. So far, the group has written 30 basic tracks at a rental house near the Baltic Sea, and it plans to enter the studio in March and release the follow-up to 2005's Rosenrot sometime in 2008.

"It's looking like it will be the most heaviest record we ever did," Kruspe said. "The songs are faster, and it feels like we're really going back to our roots and rediscovering what we like and what Rammstein is all about. We're thinking of going to Los Angeles ... to record an album in America [for the first time]. And we're in a position right now where we don't have a contract with any record company, and that gives us peace of mind because there's no pressure from the outside."

For Kruspe, the only drawback about being back with Rammstein is he'll be unable to tour for Emigrate. After Rammstein finish their record, the band will embark on its first world tour in two years, which leaves no time for him to support his solo disc. But that doesn't mean he won't find time to write new Emigrate songs.

"Every time I'm in New York, I'm working for Emigrate," Kruspe said. "I'm trying to really separate the work I do by the city I'm in. It's almost like I'm living totally different lives. I never really believed in monogamy anyway, so I always like to live in a duality like that. And when the time is right, I'll take Emigrate on tour, also."

The rest of the week's metal news:

The team behind Metal File has come up with its Top 10 Metal Records of the Year lists, if you care. Here's writer Jon Wiederhorn's list: 1. Behemoth - The Apostasy; 2. Machine Head - The Blackening; 3. Down - Down III: Over the Under; 4. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works; 5. Every Time I Die - The Big Dirty; 6. Job for a Cowboy - Genesis; 7. Nile - Ithyphallic; 8. Ministry - The Last Sucker; 9. High on Fire - Death Is This Communion; and 10. Sigh - Hangman's Hymn. Next is writer Chris Harris' list: 1. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works; 2. The Number Twelve Looks Like You - Mongrel; 3. Watain - Sworn to the Dark; 4. Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum; 5. Chimaira - Resurrection; 6. The Red Chord - Prey for Eyes; 7. Opeth - The Roundhouse Tapes; 8. Behemoth - The Apostasy; 9. Xasthur - Defective Epitaph; 10. A Life Once Lost - Iron Gag. Lastly, Kurt Orzeck, who edits Metal File each week, submitted his own picks: 1. 3 Inches of Blood - Fire Up the Blades; 2. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works; 3. Baroness - The Red Album; 4. Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks; 5. Down - Down III: Over the Under; 6. Opeth - The Roundhouse Tapes; 7. Dethklok - The Dethalbum; 8. Yakuza - Transmutations; 9. Horse the Band - A Natural Death; and 10. Arch Enemy - Rise of the Tyrant. ...

Killswitch Engage, Every Time I Die, the Dillinger Escape Plan and Parkway Drive will hit the road next year for a spate of U.S. dates. The tour kicks off January 9 and runs through February 5, although the cities the band will perform on those two specific days have yet to be determined. A full list of the dates can be found on Killswitch's MySpace page. ... 36 Crazyfists have titled their forthcoming Ferret Music debut The Tide and It's Takers. Look for the record to drop March 4. ... Grindcore monsters Cephalic Carnage were robbed during a recent stop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they had to have their van worked on. "A backpack containing the recent earnings from the tour (close to $4,000), a laptop computer with over $2,000 in music-software programs loaded, an iPod and various personal items were among the items stolen," the band said in a statement. "We immediately called the police and suspected that an employee grabbed the backpack in the process of getting the work done. This could not have come at a worst time, as we were looking to use earnings from this tour to help cover the upcoming holiday expenses for our kids and families. As you might expect, we are extremely upset, as this tour was doing very well for us (both financially and morale-wise)." The band will continue with its tour and hopes to recover the pilfered items. On a related note, the Locust were also recently victimized, after a show in St. Louis over the weekend. The band's van was broken into, and "a large amount of personal possessions, including three computers, phone chargers, money and anything else you might think of" were pinched, according to a statement. ...

Bay Area metal vets Death Angel plan to release their upcoming LP, Killing Season, February 26. ... According to Nebula, the stoner rockers will be hitting the studio in the next few weeks to begin recording demos for the follow-up to 2006's Apollo. We'll keep you posted as more news becomes available. ... Firewind's Gus G. has offered an update on that band's forthcoming album. "Most of the recordings for the new album are done by now," he wrote in a post on the band's Web site. "We've been locked at Sweden's Studio Fredman for about a month now, and I'm super-excited with the way things are shaping up. Killer sounds on the drums, guitars and bass. We've recorded 12 original songs and a few covers, which will be revealed in time." No word yet on when the LP will hit stores. ... Gorgoroth-gate continues this week, as the bandmembers' feud rages on. Guitarist Infernus, now embroiled in a legal dispute with the rest of the group over the rights to the its name, has launched the "official" Web site and MySpace page for his version of Gorgoroth. According to Infernus, the band currently "consists of Infernus as the sole permanent member, which means that no live appearances are planned for the immediate future." Infernus said he's been working on material for Gorgoroth's next full-length, called Quantos Possund Ad Satanitatem Trahunt. ...

Swedish doom-metallers Eerie will release an LP in fall 2008 called As the World Comes to an End. The band claims in a statement that the set will feature "six to seven songs [that] will embrace your haunted and darkened lives." ... Doom-metal outfit the Gates of Slumber have announced that they, too, will have an active 2008. Next year the band will issue its next LP, Conqueror, which will boast "Black River," "Eyes of the Liar" and "Witch Throne." Look for it to hit store shelves in May. ... Swedish black-metallers Vanmakt have lost guitarist Satygh. The band's frontman, Gorgoth, said the rest of Vanmakt couldn't trust Satygh, and hence, they're now looking for a new guitarist. In the meantime, they've enlisted a substitute so that they can avoid missing any upcoming live gigs. ...

Eternal Ruin need a new singer following the departure of Chris Yuastella. "It seems the band and Chris have reached a plateau of complacency over the past few years," read the band's statement on the matter. "We firmly believe now is the best time to make this move based solely on the band's future. We've already begun working on the new stuff and [are] extremely pleased thus far. The new stuff will be a little more defined than previous efforts, plus will definitely have the brutality the band is known for." ... Matt Heafy is threatening to release another Trivium record. According to a post on the band's MySpage page, the singer/guitarist said, "it's [going to] be a very long while" before the band plays any more live gigs, as "[we've got to] take the time to go and make the greatest Trivium album ever (we have demoed [a lot of] tracks and so far ... it's already, in demo form, shaping up to be the best material we have ever created)." We'll take your word for it. ... Swedish melodic black-metal maelstrom Siebenbürgen have re-formed and crafting new material for an album that could drop sometime next year. According to a statement issued by frontman Marcus Ehlin, the band features several new members, but the "music is in the same vein as before: dark and atmospheric metal." ... XXX Maniak and Throatplunger have teamed up for a split 7-inch release that should be available in the next two weeks. The effort will boast "Golden Showers, Black Hearts," "Attending the Graduation of Someone I F---ed 10 Years Ago" and "Railing Lines at Ground Zero."

• Rammstein
• Killswitch Engage
• Behemoth
• Dillinger Escape Plan

Lamb of God
Photo: Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images

Long before the bill for last summer's free Ozzfest was revealed, Metal File spoke with Lamb of God guitarist Chris Adler to gauge his opinion on the long-running fest going gratis. His response wasn't surprising, until a month or so later, when the metallers were named as one of the festival's mainstage acts. That's because the idea, at first, rubbed him the wrong way.

"As a fan, I'm excited. But as an insider, I realize something is funky about it, and I don't know how they're pulling it off," he said at the time. "At the end of the day, someone is getting paid, and to expect the performers to walk up there and do it for free while someone is benefiting from it other than them, that doesn't seem right to me. I love the idea that people can come and see bands they love and not lose their butt on the ticket's price, but for it to be free? You can't tell me the organizers are not making money at the end of the day. To expect the performers to perform for free, it devalues the performer and the living we're trying to make. If you can do it for free now, what was the point of ripping everyone off before?

"It's dangerous, because the young, innovative bands helping metal evolve will get shut out of this whole thing," he continued. "If people expect every show and every piece of music to be free, we will lose the ability to continue to evolve. There will just be the same established acts that can somehow figure out ways to make money."

Last week, Adler — who is in promotion mode for the band's upcoming co-headlining run with Killswitch Engage — defended his earlier statements and said that, in practice, the free tour actually worked out well for Lamb of God and several other bands on the lineup.

"We didn't want to be put into some kind of support slot with restrictions," Adler said. "If you want us to be part of the tour, and you're not going to pay us our market value, and we're going to give 110 percent to every fan that shows up, we have to have our say in how it's done. And they were extremely accommodating to what we wanted to do. The options at the time were to do a headlining tour, which we'd just done with Machine Head and Trivium; [or] to go out with Korn, who had offered us a slot [on the Family Values Tour,] but it [wasn't the offer they had hoped for] or to take this Ozzfest on, to see what happened, and to play in front of an audience who's maybe never seen or heard of us before.

"As a musician, of course I want to make a living and come home and keep the lights on," he added. "But really, the spirit of what I do is share the music we create with people who might be interested in hearing it. So to get in front of an audience that maybe hasn't heard of you before, it would have been irresponsible for us not to do it. In the end, was it undervalued? Were people not paid? Were people struggling to get through the whole tour, including us? Absolutely. Did the fans get their money's worth? Yes. And did we make some new fans out of it? I think so."

Adler said he doesn't think Ozzfest should be free going forward but reiterated that he's glad Lamb of God signed on for the trek last summer.

"How do you turn down main support to Ozzy Osbourne on Ozzfest, playing in L.A. to 55,000 people?" he asked. "That's an experience I'll never forget. For us, I know next year we're not doing anything because we want to write a record, but we thought this year's [Ozzfest] was massively successful and exposed the ... normal Ozzfest fan to something a little deeper in metal than what's out there."

With 2007's Ozzfest behind them, Lamb of God are preparing for the last tour in the cycle for last year's Sacrament. After that, they'll head into hibernation mode and begin work on their next LP, Adler said. The band's upcoming run is a revival of sorts, of the 2003 Headbangers Ball Tour — that trek featured Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage, the latter of whom are co-headlining the new LOG trek, which kicks off November 28 in Lowell, Massachusetts, and runs through December 17 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. DevilDriver and Soilwork will serve as main support for the tour.

"It's the exclamation [point] to the album cycle," Adler explained. "We're going to go away and hibernate for a while after this tour, so we wanted to make it something special — and get back with our friends in Killswitch, especially. On this tour, we want to dig a bit deeper on all of our records, so we're not bored with it. It's important for us to step it up a notch and give people a reason to come out and see us."

Adler said LOG plan to inject into their new set several songs from the self-titled album they released under their previous name, Burn the Priest, in 1999. After the tour, they'll spend some time away from the band, "so we can remember what our wives look like." Then, they'll get serious about writing new material: "It's time for us to put out an unpolished, nasty metal record," the guitarist said.

"Actually, in our talks of this hibernation next year, we've really, all of us, have gone back and revisited the Burn the Priest album and what it meant at the time, and what we can learn from it in going forward to the next record," he continued. "I think it's definitely something we're going to be considering in the writing process. We have some ideas floating around, but nothing cemented or named yet. One of the things we've all done is [gone] backwards in our history and pulled out [2000's] New American Gospel, and the Burn the Priest record, and we want to take the experience we have now as writers and players, and revisit those records — to get back into that headspace again but bring the experience we have now to that process. We want to get a little dirtier, because we don't want to be this homogenized metal band."

Adler said the bandmembers are considering producing the LP themselves but may also consider assembling a team of producers — some they've worked with in the past, some they've never worked with before — to help guide them through the process.

In the meantime, LOG have two releases on the way to hold fans over until the next record, which Adler said could be ready in time for a late 2008 release. This spring, the band will release another DVD, which the guitarist said is the companion disc to the DVD that came with deluxe editions of Sacrament. It will feature tons of tour footage and include "more of the drinking aspect of the band."

Adler also said Sacrament will be reissued on November 27, but in a unique form.

"The label came to us several months ago, right before Ozzfest, and said they wanted to repackage the record with some kind of bonus track and sell it again," he said. "We didn't want to do it. Being fans of music and people who buy music, it always sucked to go buy a record and then two months later, there's another version of it with a live track that you love, and you have to spend your money again. We came back to them and said, 'No, we don't want to do it. Please don't do it. We will be very unhappy if that happens.' They brought us to the table and asked if there was any way we'd feel good about re-releasing Sacrament."

So Adler came up with a rather genius idea. "It will come with a disc of every music file, every instrument, separated, for every song on the record," he said. "The solos, the effects, everything, so that anybody can reassemble them, can cut them up, lay down their own vocals, cut out the drums, do it themselves, produce it better than we did. This is the studio experience of the record, and with any recording program, you'll be able to import these files and do whatever you want with them."

The rest of the week's metal news:

As Killswitch Engage prepare for their tour with Lamb of God, frontman Howard Jones revealed to Metal File his desire to work once again with Blood Has Been Shed, the band he led before replacing Jesse Leach in KSE back in 2002. "We'll probably do something else again," he said. "It's still just [drummer] Justin [Foley] and I, [guitarist] Corey [Unger] and [bassist] John [Lynch], and we'll probably record something again. We might drum up something here, because the band's been around for quite a bit of time, and we need to celebrate our anniversary and put out something — maybe do a few new songs. We'll reconnect at some point, because it's something we've tossed around. It's just a matter of everyone connecting." Meanwhile, Killswitch guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz is continuing to work on his side project, Burn Your Wishes, with Unearth's Ken Susi, Seemless' Dave Pino and Derek Kerswill, and former Poison the Well bassist Iano Dovi. ...

Iron Maiden have pulled back the curtain on the double-DVD release of their classic concert video "Live After Death," which was originally issued in 1985. The new package will come out February 5 and coincide with the beginning of the band's Somewhere Back in Time world tour, which launches February 1 in Mumbai, India. The first DVD captures a 90-minute concert performance at California's Long Beach Arena during 1984's Powerslave tour while the other one contains the second part of the documentary "The History of Iron Maiden" (part one is available on the DVD "The Early Days"). There's a glut of bonus footage too, including an hourlong documentary, interviews and 50 minutes' worth of footage from the band's Queen-supporting set at Rock in Rio in 1985. The total running time of the package is over three hours. "It was one of the first full concerts to be filmed after the advent of video, and of course the live album [of the same name], recorded on a different night to the video, has long been considered to be one of the seminal metal live albums and has sold millions since," the band's longtime manager, Rod Smallwood, said in a statement. "Fans have been begging us to do this DVD for some time now, but we wanted to wait until we were able to re-create that whole tour to go with it." ...

Ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist and masked maniac Buckethead will release a pair of DVDs on December 11. The first, "Young Buckethead," features a complete concert by his old experimental band, Deli Creeps, that was filmed in 1990 at the Cactus Club in San Jose, California. The disc also contains footage under the headers "Buckethead in the Basement" (with the guitarist on synth) and "Buckethead's Backyard Solo" (a 14-minute jam of virtuosic weirdness). For those who can't get enough, the second DVD, "Young Buckethead 2," contains a Deli Creeps show from 1991 at the Kennel Club in San Francisco; the band's debut, at San Francisco's I-Beam in September 1990; and a comedic backstage-monologue feature called "Buckethead in the Park." ... Between the Buried and Me, August Burns Red and Behold ... the Arctopus will launch a three-week tour on November 29 in Charleston, South Carolina. Dates run through December 16 in Asheville, North Carolina. ...

The Hard Rock/ Metal nominees for the seventh annual Independent Music Awards are: New Jersey's Ashes Are Nutritious ("Genocide"); Sweden's Electric Earth ("Words Unspoken"); Canada's Unexpect ("Another Dissonant Chord"); the U.K.'s Weapons ("Terrorist Youth"); and Canada's State of Shock ("Life, Love & Lies"). The winner will be announced in December. Past winners include God Forbid and Lacuna Coil. ... Goth-rockers the Gathering will release a double-DVD and CD called "A Noise Severe" on February 5. The recordings were made in Santiago, Chile, during the band's South American "Homelands" tour and will be the group's last releases to feature singer Anneke van Giersbergen, who left in June to focus on her new project, Agua de Annique. She has not yet been replaced. "There was an incredible noise the whole concert," drummer Hans Rutten said in a release. "The audience was superb. I think it's a very elegant way to end an era — with Anneke, that is — and it gives strength to us and what the future will bring. I think the recordings speak for themselves. It's unique. It's a statement. It's something to be proud of." ...

Veteran thrashers Testament will re-release two albums, 1997's Demonic and 1999's The Gathering, January 8. The discs were originally released on Spitfire but have since gone out of print. Recorded during the period when guitarist Alex Skolnick, bassist Greg Christian and drummer Louie Clemente were out of the band, Demonic features guitarist Glen Alvelais (Forbidden), bassist Derrek Ramirez (Dragonlord), and drummer Gene Hoglan (Strapping Young Lad, Death), while The Gathering features guitarist James Murphy (Death, Obituary), bassist Steve DiGiorgio (Death, Iced Earth and Sadus) and drummer Dave Lombardo (Slayer). Testament are currently working on their first album of original studio material since The Gathering. ...

Western Massachusetts band the Acacia Strain have added a second guitar player Jonathan Dennison (Unholy, Another Victim) in time for their upcoming tour with Despised Icon, Full Blown Chaos and the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza. "I couldn't be happier with our decision," singer Vincent Bennett said in a statement. "Everyone is really excited to have him onboard, and we can't wait to see what he has to offer this band. We're wicked excited for this tour." The upcoming trek kicks off November 24 in Chicago and runs through December 22 in Worcester, Massachusetts. ... Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta has signed Florida sextet Catalepsy to his Stillborn label. The band recently finished recording its debut full-length CD, Iniquity, with producer Brian Elliot at Miami's Mana Recording Studios. The disc is scheduled for release on February 12. "It's great adding yet another young and hungry band to our new and improved roster," Jasta said in a statement. "Catalepsy crushes, and I'm glad to have them onboard. Plus they are from Florida — that state f---ing rules and has produced so many great extreme bands." ... In related news, Hatebreed will headline this year's Stillborn Fest, a 10-day tour that kicks off December 20 in Springfield, Virginia, and ends December 30 in Rochester, New York. At All Cost, God Forbid, Agnostic Front, Necro and new Stillborn signees Thy Will Be Done are also onboard, and additional to-be-announced bands will play select dates. ...

Stoner/psychedelic metalists Danava will release their second album, UnonoU, February 17. The disc will be the follow-up to the group's self-titled 2006 album. ... Progressive Canadian death-metal band Into Eternity will launch a North American tour with prog veterans Symphony X and Epica on April 4 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dates run through May 3 in West Springfield, Virginia. "The whole band is blown away to be touring with Symphony X," Into Eternity guitarist/singer Tim Roth said. "What a way to kick off the new album cycle. I look forward to seeing Epica as well. This is going to be a heavy tour with lots of high singing and shredding, and an amazing package for the fans to see." Into Eternity are currently working on their first concept album, which will be the follow-up to 2006's The Scattering of Ashes. ...

French electro death-metal band the CNK, will release its second album L'Hymne à la Joie, November 20. The album, which was produced by Stefan Bayle (Anorexia Nervosa), has been described by the band as "Rammstein and Alec Empire, sitting together on a heap of human corpses, rambling on the death of our modern world." What could be finer? ... French dark-metallers the Old Dead Tree have parted ways with Foued Moukid, who has stepped down from his drum-wielding duties after three years with the band. Moukid has decided to devote himself full-time to his other band, Arkan. "We have been working together for almost three years and we shared some unforgettable experiences together," the band said in a statement. "We will obviously remain friends and this 'breakup' has been on very good terms from both sides." The Old Dead Tree are now on the lookout for a new drummer, and those interested in trying out should e-mail the band at Info@TheOldDeadTree.com.

• Lamb of God
• Killswitch Engage
• The Acacia Strain

King Diamond
Photo: Metal Blade Records

In King Diamond's 1986 single, "Halloween," the Danish-metal prince shrieked about ancient rituals, torture and all things demonic: "Like in horror dreams, I want/ I command you to scream." A full 22 years later, Diamond — who released his latest album, Give Me Your Soul ... Please, in late June — is still doing plenty of screaming. Only lately, they've been screams of pain. And this Halloween he won't be stealing any souls — or even trick-or-treat candy. He'll be bedridden with a herniated disc.

"I can't sit down, even on my couch, for more than a few minutes," he said from his Texas home. "About a month ago I tried, and after 15 minutes, it started feeling like my left leg was getting set on fire."

Just six weeks ago, Diamond had to stand on one leg to brush his teeth and was unable to bend over enough to spit toothpaste into the sink. Now, as long as he eats standing up and walks for 90 minutes between four-hour intervals in bed, he can get through the day without any major attacks of pain.

Of course, that makes touring impossible, and in late June, Diamond postponed his entire European trek. While he hopes to heal in time for the U.S. tour, which is scheduled to launch March 23 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and run through May 8 in Houston, he's not entirely sure he'll be able to play those shows either.

"It can take up to a year and a half for a severe herniated disc to heal properly, but it varies from person to person," he said. "So, we are crossing our fingers and praying that we won't have to cancel the U.S shows. Right now there's not much more we can do."

Diamond got a taste of what might happen if he hits the road too soon in September when director Bill Schacht from video company Aestheticom — which has also worked with Amon Amarth — shot a video for "Give Me Your Soul," the first King Diamond clip in 17 years. "They limited what I had to do, of course, so I only did one day of shooting for 90 minutes, but just standing there moving a little bit in the full outfit was very difficult," he said. "And afterwards, I got one of those sharp attacks of pain that I hadn't had in a month and a half. The only thing I can compare it to is a really super-bad toothache or earache. And afterwards, I was like, 'OK, I'm not ready [to tour] yet.' "

So, how did the pioneer of demonic metal injure his back, anyway — painting pentagrams in blood around the altar, strapping virgins into the torture rack in his basement? Nope, the 51-year-old rocker hurt himself working in his home studio on Give Me Your Soul ... Please.

"I think the real damage happened mixing the record, because I did that three weeks straight for a minimum of 12 hours a day," he said. "One of the last nights, when I was going to bed, I felt these pains in the sciatic nerves on each side, and I thought, 'Oh what is this?' The next morning I woke up and I couldn't walk or stand. It was like being paralyzed. I can't begin to say how painful it was. They say that's the worst pain you can experience as a human being. Had I not lived on the ground floor in a house, I would have jumped out the window."

If, as his detractors claim, Diamond is damned to spend an eternity in hell, at least he'll have an idea of what it might be like. "In the beginning, these attacks were 15 minutes at a time, of unbearable pain. The first month after I had the accident, my left leg looked like I got out of a concentration camp. It was all thin and I lost all the muscle tone because I couldn't put any weight on it."

After undergoing an MRI, doctors determined that Diamond's herniated disc wouldn't require an operation but that he would have to undergo intensive physical therapy and plenty of rest if he was to properly heal. "Doing the exercises, at first, I would try to wiggle my left leg back and forth a little, but there was so much pain it was absolutely impossible. But gradually, I got to the point where I could move the leg pretty well and now I'm walking around and both legs are the same size again."

In addition to religiously following doctors' order, Diamond is now eating healthy and avoiding all medication — even Tylenol. "I take no painkillers whatsoever," he said. "That's the best way to heal fast, I think, because if my spine is in a slightly wrong position lying down, I feel the pain and I readjust the position of how I'm lying and then it slowly dies away. That way I know I'm not lying in a wrong position. If I feel the pain it's a signal that, 'Hey, you're doing something wrong.' "

But while he's being a good patient and focusing on his recovery, Diamond is itching to be able to get back onstage and perform songs from his new album, which he considers his greatest accomplishment yet as a solo artist.

"It's very frustrating to be stuck here and not be able to do what I do best," he explained. "I'd rather get shot in the leg because then I know I'd heal in a couple months and I'd be ready. I would love nothing more than to be able to play the U.S. shows, but of course, it's much better to postpone the tour and heal properly than to go out and play some stupid hero with your own health and then find out it didn't work. You got one week into the tour, and now you sit in a wheelchair and [your] career's over. So, this is the only way to do it. And afterwards we have many, many more good years ahead of us. I just have to get better first."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Norwegian black-metallers Zyklon are going on hiatus. According to guitarist Tomas "Samoth" Thormodsæter Haugen, the band's future plans are "up in the air at the moment," as all of its members live in different cities. "We're not always an easy band to manage," he said in a statement. "[We all] have multiple commitments on different fronts, thus it's often hard for all the [logistical] and practical things to work. This situation has especially come more into focus in the last year or so, where it has become harder and harder to get the band together when needed, with the spirit and excitement that one expects from a band like this. Basically, I don't feel that we as a band have the fire needed to start working on a new album right now. Therefore Zyklon are taking a break." Samoth, who is also known for his work with Emperor, also revealed that there are plans for an Emperor DVD with "a lot of cool material to be reviewed, mixed and edited." No word yet on when the effort will hit stores. ...

Turbonegro are down a member after the departure of rhythm guitarist Rune Rebellion, according to reports. But Rune isn't leaving the Turbonegro family — he'll continue running the band's label, Scandinavian Leather Recordings, and plans to manage the band's tour business. ... All That Remains, Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage are among the artists who have been nominated in the Outstanding Metal/Hardcore Band of the Year category at this year's Boston Music Awards. We'll find out who takes the honor home on December 1, when the awards invade the city's Orpheum Theatre. The Red Chord, Unearth, Isis and Converge are also in the running for the award. Meanwhile, the Shad and Killswitch have also been nominated in the Album of the Year (Major) and Act of the Year categories. ...

Things are not well in the land of Gorgoroth. Gaahl, frontman for the black-metal masters, and guitarist Infernus recently had an undisclosed argument over the band's future and, via MySpace, had announced their dissolution. But on Monday, the band's Web site insisted Infernus left the fold, leaving Gaahl and bassist King ov Hell to continue on as Gorgoroth. Not so fast — Infernus, a founding member of the band, plans to file suit against his former bandmates, for use of the Gorgoroth name. Gaahl issued a statement explaining the mess. "It's the disrespect he has shown our working partners — record labels, session musicians, promoters (by sending unserious demands in riders, etc.) and producers we have worked with over the years — which has lead to this decision," he wrote. "In addition, he has not been a creative force for the last eight years. He has shown no interest in the art defining Gorgoroth during that same period of time. He has not shown up for rehearsals and has broken agreements on several occasions. It's gotten to a point were King and I can't create a fire as long as someone is there pouring water over it." He said he intends to continue crafting sinister metal, with or without the Gorgoroth name. According to Infernus, he's been meeting with his legal team and said "there is now Gorgoroth, and another fraction with a Gorgoroth name on it." ...

Soon, we'll have another Arsis album to feast on. The band recently completed work on the effort, titled We Are the Nightmare, under the guidance of producer Zeuss (Agnostic Front, Hatebreed). The LP is slated for release early next year and boasts 10 tracks, including "Shattering the Spell," "Failing Winds of Hopeless Greed" and "A Feast for the Liar's Tongue." ... Filipino-American thrash-metallers Death Angel have titled their forthcoming LP Killing Season. The record is slated for release early next year and is being recorded at a Los Angeles studio with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Shadows Fall, Velvet Revolver). ... Belgium grindcore specialists Leng Tch'e are in search of a new bassist, with usual player Nicolas Malfeyt having shifted to second guitar. The band had been looking for a second guitarist. Those interested in auditioning should contact the band via its MySpace page. ... Ever wanted to name a band? Well, here's your chance. Fear Factory guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers and drummer Raymond Herrera have teamed up with Threat Signal frontman Jon Howard to start a new project, but they haven't been able to come up with a name for it. Ideas can be submitted to Wolbers via his MySpace page. ...

Drummer Jeramie Kling has left Floridian metallers the Absence after five years with the band. According to a statement from the group, Kling said he felt he had "experienced 'repetitive, blatant dishonesty' from bandmembers that 'ultimately was taking away from the band's success and priorities.' At this point, Jeramie no longer wishes to be associated with the Absence due to their 'pretentiousness and disregard' on a personal level and to the fans who put them where they are." The band will honor all of its prior touring commitments, as soon as it tracks down a fill-in. ... Obituary and Merauder will join forces for a handful of gigs in December. Look for the bands to roll through Clifton Park, New York (December 7); Brooklyn, New York (December 8); and Sayreville, New Jersey (December 9). ... Experimental hardcore outfit Some Girls have thrown in the towel. There's no word yet on why the band split up. ... Remember Dub War, those Brits who forged reggae with metal and somehow pulled it off? Well, while the band has been inactive since 1999, two Dub War releases will be coupled together and reissued as an exclusive double-CD pack on Tuesday. The set will include 1995's Pain and 1996's Wrong Side of Beautiful.

• King Diamond
• Zyklon
• Turbonegro
• All That Remains
• Shadows Fall

Soilwork
Photo: Nuclear Blast Records

Back in 2002, Soilwork released the well-received Natural Born Chaos, a tight, ultra-intense LP that irrevocably altered the band's sound — and for the better. It's still regarded as a tremendous breakthrough for the Swedish melodic-death-metal merchants, thanks in large part to producer Devin Townsend's influence.

Unfortunately for Soilwork, the Strapping Young Lad frontman — who has also worked with the likes of Lamb of God and Gwar — was too busy with his own projects to assist the band on its subsequent releases (2003's Figure Number Five and 2005's Stabbing the Drama), much to Soilwork frontman Björn "Speed" Strid's chagrin.

"He's meant so much to Soilwork's music," the giant singer explained. "I don't think we'd sound the way we do without him. He's been such a huge inspiration through the years, and he creates music in such a unique way ... I could definitely see him doing the next record for us."

By "next record," Strid's referring to the one that will inevitably follow Sworn to a Great Divide, the band's latest studio outing, which hits stores October 23. While Townsend didn't produce Sworn in its entirety, he did free up some time to work with Strid on his vocals, which the producer was "really psyched to do," Strid explained.

Sworn was tracked in Soilwork's hometown of Helsingborg, at Not Quite Studios — which is owned by the band's friends in Darkane. The album, like Soilwork's other efforts, expands on the sound they've been developing since the release of 1998's Steelbath Suicide, and Strid believes it's the band's most diverse offering to date.

"We can't make the same album twice," he explained. "Our music, it comes out in a natural way. We want to top ourselves every time, and we learn from the previous recording and try to take it to the next level. I definitely think we have developed our own sound, which is kind of hard nowadays. We were one of the originators of this balance between melodies and intensity, and we've developed that through the years. In the beginning, it was mostly the guitars that took care of the melodies. Now, it's in a different shade — it's more like the vocals take care of some of that stuff."

Soilwork, who were one of the main attractions on Ozzfest's second stage back in 2005, plan to spend the next year or so on the road to promote Sworn, Strid said. They'll get started next month when they take part in one of the year's biggest metal tours: the Lamb of God/ Killswitch Engage co-headlining run, which is set to launch November 28 in Lowell, Massachusetts, and go through December 17 in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

It will be the band's first arena trek — a welcome change, Strid said, from Ozzfest's outdoor amphitheaters. After that tour wraps, Soilwork plan to return to Europe for some gigs and then head back to the States sometime in early 2008. Strid said there are no solidified plans yet for any '08 tours but confessed that several things are "in the works."

The band shot a video back in July for the album's lead single, "Exile," which Strid said has an unusual plotline.

"This director [Daniel Larsson] contacted us, and he had a tricky concept for the video," the singer explained. "His idea was that the whole band would be locked inside these speakers and amps, and this girl's walking her dog and she finds the speakers and amps in the bushes. She gets addicted to the music that comes out, and she wants to present it to the world — but we're working against her, tumbling around in the speakers. It's actually quite cool."

Soilwork's music will be featured in the upcoming video game "Overclocked," a thriller about an Army psychiatrist who's called to evaluate five young patients who've lost their memories. The band wrote an exclusive song, also called "Overclocked," for the game. Strid said they also hope to issue a DVD next year, as it will mark the 10th anniversary of Steelbath Suicide's release.

"It will be a live DVD," he said. "We wanted to do something special for our fans, and we've got lots of material already. We want to film some more shows soon — maybe even tape one show from each continent we hit on our tour."

Unfortunately, the yet-untitled disc will not feature footage from one of Strid's most memorable shows, which happened several years ago when the band was on tour with Brazilian death-metallers Krisiun.

"It was our first tour in Europe, and we were driving around in a house van that kept on breaking down," he explained. "We were playing in France at this restaurant, but the staff there thought they had booked a Brazilian samba band. You can image the looks on their faces when we all walked through the door. But actually, it was an unbelievable show. We still played, and the people there were really nice — they fed us and gave us red wine. It turned out pretty cool at the end."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Swedish band Sonic Syndicate will make their North American debut on an upcoming tour featuring Amon Amarth, Himsa and Decapitated. The tour launches November 19 in San Diego and runs through December 19 in Los Angeles. "We are excited and really looking forward to finally getting over there to see the American fans," guitarist Richard Sjunnesson said in a statement. "I have personally followed [Amon Amarth] since the early '90s, and touring with them makes me happier than words can express. It will of course also be an honor to share the stage with the brilliant metal acts Himsa and Decapitated. See you all soon!" ... West Virginia's Byzantine will drop their third album, Oblivion Beckons, at the end of January. The album was produced by Aaron Fisher and is the follow-up to 2005's ... And They Shall Take Up Serpents. "This is the first Byzantine album in which all four members have contributed songs," singer/ rhythm guitarist Chris "OJ" Ojeda said in a statement. "To my ears, it makes for a much more varied and interesting album from start to finish." Tracks include "Absolute Horizon," "Nadir" and "Expansion and Collapse." ...

Rammstein guitarist Richard Kruspe's side project, Emigrate, will bring their self-titled debut to the U.S. on January 28. The band's first single, "My World," was featured in the film "Resident Evil: Extinction." A video for the second single, "New York City," was recently shot in New York and can be seen on the Emigrate Web page. Emigrate — featuring Kruspe (vocals, guitar), Olsen Involtini (guitar), Arnaud Giroux (bass), Henka Johansson (drums) and Sascha Moser (programming) — recorded their album with longtime Rammstein cohorts Jacob Hellner and Stefan Glaumann. "At one point, I was asking myself, 'Does the world really need my record?' " Kruspe said in a statement. "[But I decided] I had to do it, simple as that." Kruspe is currently in Berlin with Rammstein recording the band's next album. ... Burnt by the Sun, From Autumn to Ashes and Schoolyard Heroes have been added to the lineup for this year's Saints and Sinners Festival, set for November 3 and November 4 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Also slated to take the stage are Against Me!, Saves the Day, Horse the Band, the Number 12 Looks Like You, Glassjaw, Between the Buried and Me, From First to Last, Norma Jean and others. ...

Pig Destroyer frontman Blake Harrison and Misery Index bassist/singer Jason Netherton are now the hosts of a new two-hour show on XM Satellite Radio station Liquid Metal. Named "The Ultraviolence" after a 1987 Death Angel album, the program will debut Friday night (October 12) at 7 p.m. on Liquid Metal, XM channel 42. "We will play everything you may have missed, you have never heard of and/or you should know and [be] raising your illegitimate children to (preferably starting in the womb)," wrote Netherton in a release. "We will also be having guests and friends on regularly. The war starts now." ... Polish death-metal veterans Vader will release the live DVD "And Blood Was Shed in Warsaw" on November 20. The disc was shot at the Stodola Club in February on the last stop of the band's tour to promote its 2006 album, Impressions in Blood. The show features guest appearances by members of Behemoth and Vesania as well as the videos for "Helleluyah (God Is Dead)" and "Sword of the Witcher." ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma, metalcore band the Agony Scene will release their third album, Get Damned, October 23. The disc will be the band's first to feature drummer Ryan Folden, who replaced Brent Masters late last year. The band will launch a tour with A Life Once Lost, Suicide Silence and Walls of Jericho on October 30 in Rochester, New York. Dates run through November 14 in Lewisville, Texas. ... Psychedelic cult-metal band Bigelf will release their debut album, Hex, in North America on October 30. The disc was recorded in 2003 and released shortly after in Europe, but never came out Stateside. ... Long Island, New York, hardcore bludgeoners This Is Hell are in Full Force Studios with producer Joe Cincotta (Obituary, Suffocation) tracking the follow-up to their 2006 full-length debut, Sundowning. Drums for the yet-untitled new disc were recorded at Killingsworth Recording Company in Long Island with Tomas Costanza (Diffuser, Bedlight for Blue Eyes). The album is tentatively scheduled for release on February 19.

• Soilwork
• Lamb of God
• Killswitch Engage
• Sonic Syndicate
• Amon Amarth

Mary J. Blige
Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

Word to Mike Seaver and Boner: Mary J. Blige has some Growing Pains of her own. The singer has settled on that as the title for her new album — and has bumped its release by a week, from November 20 to November 27. The first single is called "Just Fine" and will be released to radio on Thursday (September 27). The track was produced by Jazze Pha and Tricky Stewart (Britney Spears, Mya), and is an uptempo party record with a dance/disco sound. On the track, Mary expresses the joy of having high self-esteem. "No time for moping around/ Are you kidding?" she sings. "And no time for negative vibes, 'cause I'm winning ... Got my head on straight, got my vibe right, ain't gonna let you kill it/ See, I wouldn't change, my life's just fine." ...

Is Kanye West the next MLK, Gandhi or Jesus? His mother, Donda West, didn't shy away from such comparisons in a recent interview with the Baltimore Sun — she was in town to promote her recent book, "Raising Kanye." "Kanye keeps it real," she said. "He touches the people. You never know how words can save a person's life, physically or otherwise. People like Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi or, in my view, Barack Obama, or Jesus Christ — people whose job it is to tell the truth — I see that in Kanye. Now, people like you are gonna go, 'Oh, Kanye's mom said he's like Jesus!' but ... when you have a gift, you didn't get it by yourself. ... Your truth is your truth." ...

Amy Winehouse isn't one to hold back either — the troubled U.K. starlet has named her new DVD "I Told You I Was Trouble," according to Uncut magazine. Packed onto the disc is a documentary, a full concert she played in April at London's Shepherds Bush Empire, her "Rehab" performance from the Brit Awards, an early acoustic version of "There Is No Greater Love" and more. "I Told You I Was Trouble" will drop November 6, her publicist confirmed to MTV News. ...

Paul Wall's next album is going to have more of a rock edge, now that Travis Barker is producing it. "Paul usually stays around the same element," Barker told MTV News in Las Vegas while he was in town for the VMAs. "Most of the Houston stuff is slow and real feel-good. This has faster tempos. Still feel-good, but it'll be different for Paul." ... Before he took his wild imagination to the big screen with "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," French director Michel Gondry was best known for his frequent collaborations with Björk, perhaps most memorably on the video for her song "Human Behaviour." Now the two are at it again. Gondry revealed to MTV News that a month from now, he will be directing the music video for "Declare Independence," from the Icelandic singer's latest album, Volta. ... Dave Grohl is getting axed — Gibson Guitar has come up with a new specialized model, the DG-335, for the Foo Fighters frontman. The instrument — which has a rare Pelham blue finish and looks like Grohl's signature guitar — will be available October 4. The price tag for the blue model is $4,468, while the ebony version is a bit cheaper at $3,880. ...

Evan Rachel Wood apparently isn't too afraid of boyfriend Marilyn Manson's fans. "I do feel [some of] his fans like me," she told People for its new issue, which streets Friday. But the actress revealed that she was a little more nervous about Manson seeing her sing onscreen in the new flick "Across the Universe." "I was shy because I didn't want to scare him off," she said. "I'm a singer too! Listen to me! But he's been really supportive, it's great. He's encouraged me about my singing more than anybody." The shock-rocker wasn't the only one who inspired Wood to sing, however — she also name-dropped David Bowie and let it be known that she has a tattoo of his Aladdin Sane lightning bolt. She also has matching tattoos with Manson. "We both got black hearts," she said. "It represents mad love." ...

The Smashing Pumpkins have issued a statement regarding the death of a man at their concert in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday night, in what police believe was a crowd-surfing accident. "The Smashing Pumpkins were deeply saddened to learn about the passing of a young man who attended their Vancouver show Monday night," read the statement, which was posted on their Web site. "As they and everyone else await news from the investigation into the nature of his passing, the band wants to express their sincerest condolences to his family and friends." ... Vivica A. Fox pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of drunk driving on Thursday, The Associated Press reports. The actress, who was arrested after being caught speeding in March, could face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted. ...

Paris in Rwanda: Hilton is making good on her promise to engage in philanthropic efforts by traveling to the impoverished African country, according to "Access Hollywood." The heiress will travel with a member of Playing for Good, a group that connects celebrities with charity organizations, and she is expected to make a financial contribution as well. According to TMZ.com, Hilton will go to Rwanda in November after she finishes filming her horror rock opera "Repo! The Genetic Opera." ... Will Ferrell's charity auction has been won by a Dallas man, and his 10-year-old son will get the chance to play an extra in Ferrell's upcoming "Step Brothers" flick, People reports. The man, who has chosen to remain anonymous, put in a winning bid of $47,000, which will go to the Cancer for College foundation run by Ferrell's friend Craig Pollard. ...

Looks like it's almost Tool time again: The indefatigable heavy-rock band is putting together yet another stretch of dates in support of 10,000 Days, which came out way back in May 2006. Dates have yet to be confirmed, but according to Tool's site, they're stirring up a stretch across the West Coast that will begin in mid-November and last until Christmas. ... Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell recently told MTV News' Tim Kash that he wants to see the fest travel across the world "before I die," but while those plans haven't come about yet, the dates are in place for next year's annual Chicago installment. Lolla will go down August 1-3, once again at Grant Park. ...

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Magic isn't happening until Tuesday, but they snuck out a vinyl version of the release on Wednesday that will allow it to be considered for the Grammys, according to the Los Angeles Times. ... The Wu-Tang Clan's Killah Priest has been added to several dates on Bury Your Dead's upcoming headlining run. Look for him to take the stage in Richmond, Virginia (October 17); Wilmington, North Carolina (October 18); Jacksonville, Florida (October 19); and Tampa, Florida (October 20). ... Bad news for fans of hardcore hip-hoppers Twiztid: The band's upcoming Toxic Terror Tour, featuring openers Mower, has been nixed following a recent car accident involving Twiztid's Monoxide. He suffered a torn ACL muscle in his knee, which will require he stays off it for the next month or so. ...

While System of a Down's members go off and do their own things — what with the band on hiatus — drummer John Dolmayan has firmed up plans for his new comic book site, TorpedoComics.com. The Internet retail shop goes live November 1 and will boast some 15 million items, including comics, toys, graphic novels, trade paperbacks, superhero action figures and other related memorabilia. Dolmayan has also teamed with guitarist Daron Malakian for a new project, Scars on Broadway. ... Former Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, former Anthrax frontman Joey Belladonna, ex-Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson and Sevendust singer Lajon Witherspoon are among the celebrities who'll appear at the Morgan Rose Celebrity Golf Classic, scheduled for November 15-16 at the Heritage Golf Club in Tucker, Georgia. Proceeds from the event will help support the Atlanta Children's Shelter. ...

Mudvayne will release their latest LP, By the People, for the People, on November 27. The disc will boast several live recordings, rarities, demos and two new studio tracks, "Dull Boy" and a cover of the Police's "King of Pain." The album will be entirely fan-generated; the band is asking its fans to participate in creating the album's contents. Fans can visit the band's Web site and MySpace pageMySpace page to help pick the track list, submit fan-generated album artwork and participate in creating the video for "Dull Boy," the first single. ...

Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," which has been shown in some college and high school classrooms, got blowback earlier this year when a Washington school put a moratorium on the global-warming movie. Now a British school governor is taking an even stronger measure by suing the British government for distributing the movie to more than 3,500 secondary schools, according to AP. Paul Downes, a lawyer for Stewart Dimmock, said, "Given the serious inaccuracies in the film and the misrepresentations it contains, the film is irredeemable." The lawyer added that even though the movie has already been shown to some students, the High Court could still rule that the government had acted unlawfully and cease distributing it. ...

There's no stopping the Martin Scorsese rock-doc train. The esteemed director, who has directed films about the Rolling Stones, the Band and Bob Dylan in the past, will focus his lens next on the life of George Harrison, according to Variety. Scorsese will produce the yet-untitled picture with Harrison's widow, Olivia, and the late guitarist's former Beatles bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will also participate. The flick will revolve around Harrison's time in the Beatles and his later years, and also touch on his involvement with Eastern spirituality as well. In related news, McCartney and Starr are participating in Liverpool, England's European Capital of Culture celebration. Macca will perform at the Anfield soccer stadium on June 1. Starr will return to the city — where the Beatles hailed from — for a ceremony at St. George's Hall on January 11, and he will also appear at the Echo Arena on January 12.

09.26.07

Mariah Carey got a win in court last week when a federal judge decided that a copyright-infringement case against her had no merit. Singer Rachele Chafir had sued Carey in April 2006, claiming that Carey's hit "It's Like That" was copied from her song "Sexy" and lifted key pieces, including the music, for the chorus. Chafir, who copyrighted the song in 2004, claimed Carey had access to "Sexy" since it was available on a Web site, but U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood decided that wasn't proof Carey or her collaborators had gone to the Web site or lifted the material, which wasn't "strikingly similar" enough to be considered infringement. With "no genuine issues of material fact," Wood closed the case. "It was the right decision," Carey's lawyer Ilene Farkas told MTV News. "The record was clear in this case." Meanwhile, Carey is moving on with her yet-untitled follow-up to The Emancipation of Mimi, which her record label confirmed is now due December 4. ...

Going, going ... to Cooperstown. And with an asterisk on it. Baseball star Barry Bonds' record-breaking home-run ball, which was purchased two weeks ago in an online auction by hip-hop fashion mogul Marc Ecko, will be heading to the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum after all. Ecko bought the ball and launched a Web site giving fans the chance to vote on the ball's final destination: outer space or to Cooperstown, with or without an asterisk signifying Bonds' alleged steroid use in helping him become the all-time home-run king. The announcement was made Wednesday morning (September 26) on the "Today" show after a week of voting. According to Vote756.com, over 10 million votes were cast, of which 47 percent chose to send the tagged ball to the famed baseball museum. ...

The twisted saga of the investigation into the unsolved 1997 murder of the Notorious B.I.G. took another turn this week when Waymond Anderson, an inmate serving life for murder, recanted testimony in which he had implicated the Los Angeles Police Department in the rapper's murder. The Los Angeles Times reports that Anderson said in a recent deposition that he lied about LAPD involvement as part of a "scam" cooked up with two other convicts to get a big monetary settlement from the city of Los Angeles. Most shockingly, Anderson accused the rapper's family — which has filed a wrongful-death suit seeking damages from the city — and its lawyer of taking part in the scheme and offering to pay him a percentage of the settlement for false testimony against the LAPD. In the August 20 testimony, Anderson said he had never met the officers he implicated, despite earlier statements in which he described conversations with the two disgraced ex-LAPD cops. A lawyer for Biggie's family, Perry Sanders, called Anderson's allegations "100 percent, demonstrably false," adding yet another twist to the already-knotted-up story by saying that Anderson appeared to be changing his story at the behest of Chuck Philips, a Times reporter who has written extensively about the murder investigation and has questioned the theory of LAPD involvement. Phillips and the Times dismissed the allegations. ...

In other Biggie news, the recently released documentary "The Notorious B.I.G.: Bigger Than Life" follows the rapper's life from his early days to his death with interviews from many of the behind-the-scenes music-industry figures and friends who watched the rapper rise from a street-corner hustler to one of the biggest rap stars in the world. The film also features several minutes of previously unreleased footage shot by a bystander of the scene on the night Biggie was gunned down. The fan's video — which director Peter Spirer ("Beef," "Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel") said has been reviewed by authorities — doesn't capture the moment Biggie's car was shot at, but it does have audio of the shots and shaky footage of the chaotic aftermath. ...

Embattled football player Michael Vick is facing stricter release conditions after testing positive for marijuana earlier this month, The Associated Press reports. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson imposed the new conditions, which include restricting Vick to his home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. with electronic monitoring and making him submit to random drug tests. He was ordered to continue participating in substance-abuse and mental-health counseling. Vick was put under pretrial release supervision in July, and the restrictions included refraining from the use of narcotic drugs or other controlled substances. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback, who pleaded guilty in August to federal dogfighting charges, is awaiting sentencing December 10 — and Vick's violation of the conditions of his release could be taken into consideration by the judge. He faces up to five years in prison for the federal charges, and has been indicted on additional state charges in Virginia as well. ...

A second woman has filed a lawsuit against Lil Wayne over a melee that broke out during one of his shows at Morgan State University in Baltimore in October. According to an AP story, Carlisa Dixon said she was impaled on a metal pole after the crowd surged to snatch up money that was being tossed from the stage. Dixon is seeking $1 million from Wayne's record label and touring companies, and another $1 million from the university, claiming she underwent surgery for a puncture wound as a result of the crowd surge. A lawsuit was filed in August by another woman who claimed she was trampled in the same money-throwing incident. A spokesperson for Wayne could not be reached for comment at press time. ...

A man died at a Smashing Pumpkins concert in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Monday night in what police think may have been a crowd-surfing or moshing accident. The Canadian Press reports that Vancouver police say the man was unconscious when he was dragged out of the crowd at the Pacific National Exhibition Forum during the show and worked on by first-aid personnel on site before being transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police have ruled out foul play. ... The Voodoo Music Experience is shifting locations, but just slightly. The fest, to take place October 26-28, has a new site in New Orleans City Park to accommodate ongoing restoration and improvement of the park. The shift brings the fest closer to Tad Gormley Stadium, where Voodoo was first held in 1999. ...

Do you march to Nelly's beat? The rapper is cobbling together a marching band for his performance at the BET Hip-Hop Awards on October 13. Auditions will be held Sunday starting at 11 a.m. in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Orleans and St. Louis, and Nelly is looking for girls who can play drums, tri-toms, bass drum, tuba or trumpet. Prospective players need to know how to perform his song "Grillz" and move to the beat of the song while playing their instruments. Final auditions will be held October 8 in Atlanta, and those who can't make the auditions in person can post a one-minute video clip on Nelly's drum-line-audition site. ... If you've been doubting Swizz Beatz's fashion sense, think again — Gap has tapped the hugely popular producer for its spring ad campaign. ...

VH1 Rock Docs picked up its first Emmy win on Monday as "DMC: My Adoption Journey" earned the award for News & Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Arts & Culture Programming. The program, which revolves around the Run-DMC member's search for his birth mother, premiered in February 2006 and will re-air on VH1 on Saturday at 10 p.m. ... Have you already imported Babyface's Playlist into your own playlist? Then mark you calendar — the singer is putting together a tour in support of his recently released LP. Babyface will play a gig in the Philippines on October 13, followed by a stretch in Japan; after that he'll hit Oakland, California, on November 23, and Sparks, Nevada, the following day. ...

During a recent visit to "The Howard Stern Show," Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx spoke out about drummer Tommy Lee and his apparent departure from the band. He told Stern that Lee quit, and Sixx blamed the current legal problems the band is having with one of its former managers for the turmoil. Sixx said that, since Lee isn't the Crüe's frontman or chief songwriter, the band should be fine without him. He added that he harbors no ill will toward Lee. ... Snow Patrol keyboardist Tom Simpson was expected to appear in court in Glasgow, Scotland, on Tuesday to answer to drug-possession charges filed against him this summer. While the charges weren't dropped, the prosecution doesn't intend on taking "further action," meaning the charges will either have to be re-raised again or dropped altogether. ...

Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard's side project Brad are getting back together for a one-night-only show on October 17 at New York's Webster Hall. The benefit event will also feature Billy Bragg and be hosted by Tim Robbins. It is being held to support Woody and Marjorie Guthrie, and the 40th anniversary of the Huntington's Disease Society of America, which was founded by Marjorie. ... Puddle of Mudd aren't ones for Southern hospitality, apparently. Frontman Wesley Scantlin has been banned from Memphis' Graceland after hopping in the pool in Elvis Presley's mansion during a tour on Monday. ...

The Eagles will perform on an awards show for the first time when they take the stage at the Country Music Awards, which will air November 7 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Carrie Underwood is also slated to perform. ... The Rolling Stones' recent tour didn't just carry the band to the top of Forbes' list of biggest-earning music acts — it landed them in the Guinness World Records, according to Reuters. The classic-rockers' A Bigger Bang tour took $437 million dollars to give them a new record, for the world's most successful music tour. ...

Killswitch Engage and Lamb of God will be teaming up for a late-fall co-headlining tour, which is set to kick off November 28 in Lowell, Massachusetts, with dates booked through December 17 in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. DevilDriver and Soilwork will open on all dates. ... Chris Cornell has added another round of dates to his North American tour, which began in the spring. He has booked another 28 gigs, meaning the trek will continue through November 23, when he's expected to perform at the Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. ...

A photo from Elton John's collection has been pulled from a British gallery where it was to be displayed over concerns by police that it might be child pornography. The photo — which was taken by award-winning American photographer Nan Goldin — shows two young girls, one with her legs spread apart, and was to be displayed at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in northern England before it was seized by police, according to London's Times Online. John released a statement, explaining, "The photograph entitled 'Klara and Edda belly-dancing' (1998) is one of 149 images comprising the 'Thanksgiving' installation by renowned U.S. photographer Nan Goldin ... The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world [and] has been offered for sale at Sotheby's New York in 2002 and 2004, and has previously been exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid [Spain], New York, Portugal, Warsaw [Poland] and Zürich [Switzerland] without any objections of which we are aware."

• Mary J. Blige
• Travis Barker
• Paul Wall
• Marilyn Manson
• The Smashing Pumpkins

Mariah Carey
Photo: Mariah Carey/Getty Images

Mariah Carey got a win in court last week when a federal judge decided that a copyright-infringement case against her had no merit. Singer Rachele Chafir had sued Carey in April 2006, claiming that Carey's hit "It's Like That" was copied from her song "Sexy" and lifted key pieces, including the music, for the chorus. Chafir, who copyrighted the song in 2004, claimed Carey had access to "Sexy" since it was available on a Web site, but U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood decided that wasn't proof Carey or her collaborators had gone to the Web site or lifted the material, which wasn't "strikingly similar" enough to be considered infringement. With "no genuine issues of material fact," Wood closed the case. "It was the right decision," Carey's lawyer Ilene Farkas told MTV News. "The record was clear in this case." Meanwhile, Carey is moving on with her yet-untitled follow-up to The Emancipation of Mimi, which her record label confirmed is now due December 4. ...

Going, going ... to Cooperstown. And with an asterisk on it. Baseball star Barry Bonds' record-breaking home-run ball, which was purchased two weeks ago in an online auction by hip-hop fashion mogul Marc Ecko, will be heading to the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum after all. Ecko bought the ball and launched a Web site giving fans the chance to vote on the ball's final destination: outer space or to Cooperstown, with or without an asterisk signifying Bonds' alleged steroid use in helping him become the all-time home-run king. The announcement was made Wednesday morning (September 26) on the "Today" show after a week of voting. According to Vote756.com, over 10 million votes were cast, of which 47 percent chose to send the tagged ball to the famed baseball museum. ...

The twisted saga of the investigation into the unsolved 1997 murder of the Notorious B.I.G. took another turn this week when Waymond Anderson, an inmate serving life for murder, recanted testimony in which he had implicated the Los Angeles Police Department in the rapper's murder. The Los Angeles Times reports that Anderson said in a recent deposition that he lied about LAPD involvement as part of a "scam" cooked up with two other convicts to get a big monetary settlement from the city of Los Angeles. Most shockingly, Anderson accused the rapper's family — which has filed a wrongful-death suit seeking damages from the city — and its lawyer of taking part in the scheme and offering to pay him a percentage of the settlement for false testimony against the LAPD. In the August 20 testimony, Anderson said he had never met the officers he implicated, despite earlier statements in which he described conversations with the two disgraced ex-LAPD cops. A lawyer for Biggie's family, Perry Sanders, called Anderson's allegations "100 percent, demonstrably false," adding yet another twist to the already-knotted-up story by saying that Anderson appeared to be changing his story at the behest of Chuck Philips, a Times reporter who has written extensively about the murder investigation and has questioned the theory of LAPD involvement. Phillips and the Times dismissed the allegations. ...

In other Biggie news, the recently released documentary "The Notorious B.I.G.: Bigger Than Life" follows the rapper's life from his early days to his death with interviews from many of the behind-the-scenes music-industry figures and friends who watched the rapper rise from a street-corner hustler to one of the biggest rap stars in the world. The film also features several minutes of previously unreleased footage shot by a bystander of the scene on the night Biggie was gunned down. The fan's video — which director Peter Spirer ("Beef," "Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel") said has been reviewed by authorities — doesn't capture the moment Biggie's car was shot at, but it does have audio of the shots and shaky footage of the chaotic aftermath. ...

Embattled football player Michael Vick is facing stricter release conditions after testing positive for marijuana earlier this month, The Associated Press reports. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson imposed the new conditions, which include restricting Vick to his home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. with electronic monitoring and making him submit to random drug tests. He was ordered to continue participating in substance-abuse and mental-health counseling. Vick was put under pretrial release supervision in July, and the restrictions included refraining from the use of narcotic drugs or other controlled substances. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback, who pleaded guilty in August to federal dogfighting charges, is awaiting sentencing December 10 — and Vick's violation of the conditions of his release could be taken into consideration by the judge. He faces up to five years in prison for the federal charges, and has been indicted on additional state charges in Virginia as well. ...

A second woman has filed a lawsuit against Lil Wayne over a melee that broke out during one of his shows at Morgan State University in Baltimore in October. According to an AP story, Carlisa Dixon said she was impaled on a metal pole after the crowd surged to snatch up money that was being tossed from the stage. Dixon is seeking $1 million from Wayne's record label and touring companies, and another $1 million from the university, claiming she underwent surgery for a puncture wound as a result of the crowd surge. A lawsuit was filed in August by another woman who claimed she was trampled in the same money-throwing incident. A spokesperson for Wayne could not be reached for comment at press time. ...

A man died at a Smashing Pumpkins concert in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Monday night in what police think may have been a crowd-surfing or moshing accident. The Canadian Press reports that Vancouver police say the man was unconscious when he was dragged out of the crowd at the Pacific National Exhibition Forum during the show and worked on by first-aid personnel on site before being transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police have ruled out foul play. ... The Voodoo Music Experience is shifting locations, but just slightly. The fest, to take place October 26-28, has a new site in New Orleans City Park to accommodate ongoing restoration and improvement of the park. The shift brings the fest closer to Tad Gormley Stadium, where Voodoo was first held in 1999. ...

Do you march to Nelly's beat? The rapper is cobbling together a marching band for his performance at the BET Hip-Hop Awards on October 13. Auditions will be held Sunday starting at 11 a.m. in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Orleans and St. Louis, and Nelly is looking for girls who can play drums, tri-toms, bass drum, tuba or trumpet. Prospective players need to know how to perform his song "Grillz" and move to the beat of the song while playing their instruments. Final auditions will be held October 8 in Atlanta, and those who can't make the auditions in person can post a one-minute video clip on Nelly's drum-line-audition site. ... If you've been doubting Swizz Beatz's fashion sense, think again — Gap has tapped the hugely popular producer for its spring ad campaign. ...

VH1 Rock Docs picked up its first Emmy win on Monday as "DMC: My Adoption Journey" earned the award for News & Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Arts & Culture Programming. The program, which revolves around the Run-DMC member's search for his birth mother, premiered in February 2006 and will re-air on VH1 on Saturday at 10 p.m. ... Have you already imported Babyface's Playlist into your own playlist? Then mark you calendar — the singer is putting together a tour in support of his recently released LP. Babyface will play a gig in the Philippines on October 13, followed by a stretch in Japan; after that he'll hit Oakland, California, on November 23, and Sparks, Nevada, the following day. ...

During a recent visit to "The Howard Stern Show," Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx spoke out about drummer Tommy Lee and his apparent departure from the band. He told Stern that Lee quit, and Sixx blamed the current legal problems the band is having with one of its former managers for the turmoil. Sixx said that, since Lee isn't the Crüe's frontman or chief songwriter, the band should be fine without him. He added that he harbors no ill will toward Lee. ... Snow Patrol keyboardist Tom Simpson was expected to appear in court in Glasgow, Scotland, on Tuesday to answer to drug-possession charges filed against him this summer. While the charges weren't dropped, the prosecution doesn't intend on taking "further action," meaning the charges will either have to be re-raised again or dropped altogether. ...

Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard's side project Brad are getting back together for a one-night-only show on October 17 at New York's Webster Hall. The benefit event will also feature Billy Bragg and be hosted by Tim Robbins. It is being held to support Woody and Marjorie Guthrie, and the 40th anniversary of the Huntington's Disease Society of America, which was founded by Marjorie. ... Puddle of Mudd aren't ones for Southern hospitality, apparently. Frontman Wesley Scantlin has been banned from Memphis' Graceland after hopping in the pool in Elvis Presley's mansion during a tour on Monday. ...

The Eagles will perform on an awards show for the first time when they take the stage at the Country Music Awards, which will air November 7 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Carrie Underwood is also slated to perform. ... The Rolling Stones' recent tour didn't just carry the band to the top of Forbes' list of biggest-earning music acts — it landed them in the Guinness World Records, according to Reuters. The classic-rockers' A Bigger Bang tour took $437 million dollars to give them a new record, for the world's most successful music tour. ...

Killswitch Engage and Lamb of God will be teaming up for a late-fall co-headlining tour, which is set to kick off November 28 in Lowell, Massachusetts, with dates booked through December 17 in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. DevilDriver and Soilwork will open on all dates. ... Chris Cornell has added another round of dates to his North American tour, which began in the spring. He has booked another 28 gigs, meaning the trek will continue through November 23, when he's expected to perform at the Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. ...

A photo from Elton John's collection has been pulled from a British gallery where it was to be displayed over concerns by police that it might be child pornography. The photo — which was taken by award-winning American photographer Nan Goldin — shows two young girls, one with her legs spread apart, and was to be displayed at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in northern England before it was seized by police, according to London's Times Online. John released a statement, explaining, "The photograph entitled 'Klara and Edda belly-dancing' (1998) is one of 149 images comprising the 'Thanksgiving' installation by renowned U.S. photographer Nan Goldin ... The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world [and] has been offered for sale at Sotheby's New York in 2002 and 2004, and has previously been exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid [Spain], New York, Portugal, Warsaw [Poland] and Zürich [Switzerland] without any objections of which we are aware."

09.25.07

While her fellow Black Eyed Pea Will.I.Am is hyping his new project, Songs About Girls, Fergie isn't slowing down with her own solo affair, last year's The Dutchess. The singer just shot a clip for the song "Clumsy" with directors Marc Webb (Diddy, the Pussycat Dolls) and Rich Lee (Chamillionaire, Dashboard Confessional). The surreal, humorous clip features Fergie falling head over heels — get it? — for love in various scenarios. ...

A House panel cast a congressional light on hip-hop lyrics on Tuesday (September 25), with David Banner and Master P giving sharply different views. The Associated Press reports that the latter rapper (real name: Percy Miller) told the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that he is determined to create clean lyrics. "I want to apologize to all the women out there. I was honestly wrong," he said of his prior material. Banner (real name: Levell Crump), on the other hand, defended his profane lyrics, saying, "Change the situation in my neighborhood, and maybe I'll get better." But while P and Banner didn't see eye to eye in terms of who is responsible for derogatory language in hip-hop, they agreed that the government shouldn't censor lyrics. "If by some stroke of the pen hip-hop was silenced, the issues would still be present in our communities. Drugs, violence, sexism and the criminal element were around long before hip-hop existed," Banner said. According to AP, the hearing was similar to the 1985 event in which late rocker Frank Zappa made a feisty appearance also railing against censorship. ...

Like the sound of the "Rocawear Arena" instead of the "Continental Airlines Arena"? Yeah, so does Jay-Z. The ambitious hip-hop mogul is bidding for the arena's naming rights, according to New Jersey's Star-Ledger. Although he is the co-owner of the New Jersey Nets and his Rocawar is a sponsor of the NBA team — which currently plays at Continental — sportswear maker Southpole has made the highest bid so far, $2 million. But there's a catch: The reason the name is up for grabs is because Continental is backing out of its deal with the arena, and both the Nets and hockey team the New Jersey Devils are planning to move to other venues. ...

Life isn't getting any easier for Britney Spears. Kim Robard-Rifkin, the reported woman whose car the singer hit in August — for which she was charged with two misdemeanors on Friday — has spoken out to CelebTV.com. "I was not surprised with the criminal charges — this is what happens when somebody hits your car and runs — especially when it is all caught on video," she said in a statement. Spears' former bodyguard Tony Barretto also spoke out on Monday, telling "Today" show host Matt Lauer that he had witnessed her using drugs on two occasions. While Barretto did not specify which drugs he supposedly saw her taking, he said both incidents occurred at a nightclub in Los Angeles, one at the table she was sitting at and the other in a private restroom. When Lauer asked him about a third incident in which he alleges to have seen her strung out in a Los Angeles hotel room, Barretto replied, "I did." ...

Sarah Silverman was surprised by the reaction that met her controversial VMA monologue, in which she flung derogatory insults at Britney Spears, among others, she told Us Weekly. Regarding one of her saltiest remarks — that Spears' kids "are the most adorable mistakes you will ever see" — Silverman replied, "The joke that everyone was upset about ... was the most innocuous joke. It never occurred to me that [it] would be deemed hurtful or over the line." She also told the magazine for its new issue, which streets Friday, "I don't want to get into feuds with girls half my age. I'm in it to be funny and not for the drama. It's embarrassing." ...

Look, up in the sky, it's a new Gnarls Barkley album! And as Cee-Lo recently told MTV News of the follow-up to St. Elsewhere, "It sounds otherwordly. ... It sounds like an original, if I do say so myself. The theme is progression and how there's a first time for everything. You just have to go for it." Beyond that, though, Cee-Lo didn't want to give up too much. Asked about collaborators, he demurred: "Danger Mouse is my special guest. He's my counterpart in the enigma of Gnarls Barkley." No duh — we meant, anyone else? "Let me continue to surprise you," Cee-Lo smiled. For those who caught Cee-Lo's take on Prince's "Darling Nikki" with the Foo Fighters at the VMAs, he wants fans to know that his performance at the show was supposed to be a surprise appearance with Amy Winehouse, "believe it or not." But since she had to bail from the show, he's saving that collaboration for a future appearance. ...

The Sex Pistols — who just tacked two more gigs onto their upcoming November reunion in London, according to BBC News — have another trick up their collective sleeve: A newly recorded rendition of their punk staple, "Anarchy in the U.K." The band entered the studio for the first time in 30 years to record the track, which will surface on "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock." ... As I Lay Dying clearly have more than a few gasps left — the metal band edged out Switchfoot, Jason Mraz and others to win the San Diego Music Award for Artist of the Year. AILD nabbed the same honor in 2005. ... Canadian singer/songwriter Patrick Watson and his band have pulled off an arguably more impressive feat: The Montreal quartet have nudged by Arcade Fire and Feist to land the Polaris Music Prize for Best Album. ...

Despite the recent head injuries sustained by guitarist Brent Hinds, Mastodon have booked a gig, opening for the Queens of the Stone Age on October 29 in Los Angeles. The band is also scheduled to appear at the Vegoose festival on October 27 in Las Vegas, where Hinds was jumped following Mastodon's performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Police claim Hinds was attacked outside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on September 10 during an encounter with System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian and his friend William Hudson. According to police, Hudson assaulted Hinds, and Odadjian witnessed the incident. ... While at the VMAs, Mastodon told MTV News that they wrote their best song ever — even though it's not quite finished yet — while on the way to the big show. "It's pretty much the best record we've yet to write," guitarist Bill Kelliher said before singing a couple of the riffs with Hinds. "That's how it goes — du-duh-du-duh na-nah-nah. We wrote it in the car on the way over here, at least the intro of it. Part one. We're at the really beginning stages. It's going to be awesome, though. Everything we do is amazing." ...

The Game entered his expected not-guilty plea on Tuesday to three felony counts stemming from a pickup basketball game in Los Angeles in February. The rapper (real name: Jayceon Taylor) is free on $50,000 bail and has a pretrial hearing set for October 30. ... Jack Bauer might not be such a hero after all: Kiefer Sutherland was arrested early Tuesday morning for drunken driving in Hollywood, Reuters reports. The actor was pulled over after making an illegal U-turn and blew more than the .08 legal limit upon taking a breathalyzer test. He posted $25,000 bail at a Hollywood police station and is due in court on October 16. ...

The Phil Spector murder trial is in the hands of the jury now, but that hasn't stopped more bizarre developments from emerging in the case. According to AP, over the weekend, a threatening post appeared on a MySpace page possibly belonging to the music producer's wife, Rachelle. "I love Phil Spector!!! The Evil Judge Should Die!!!! Xoxo Chelle," read the post, a police spokesperson told the news outlet. The page, which features an image of Rachelle wearing a "Team Spector" tee, was referred to a sheriff's department unit that investigates such threats. The post has since been removed. ...

Amazon's new digital-music store is up and running, with songs going for 89 to 99 cents and albums selling for around $6-$10. The songs, which don't have copyright protections, can be burned onto CDs and copied to multiple computers. Record-label giants Universal and EMI, in addition to a flood of indie labels, are selling their songs through the site. ... A former trustee in James Brown's estate might have misappropriated up to $7 million of the late music legend's money, special administrators told a South Carolina judge on Monday. State Circuit Judge Jack Early told David Cannon, the former co-executor of Brown's will, to pay $400,000 and produce additional documents. Early also said Brown's family could pursue the claims. ...

The Cult will headline the fall installment of the Jägermeister Music Tour, which is set to launch October 17 in Pala, California, and run through mid-December, with the full list of dates coming soon. Rounding out the bill will be Vietnam, the Cliks and Action Action. ... Former L7 leader Donita Sparks is going out on her own with her debut solo effort, Transmiticate, due January 22. The effort, which will feature her new backing band, the Stellar Moments, shifts away from the grunge and metal sounds that defined L7 and tinkers with more pop and dance elements. ...

Fans of Los Angeles ska act Hepcat are mourning the passing of bassist Dave Fuentes, 36. While details are scarce, the band did issue a statement, saying, "We are sad to announce that our brother, beloved bandmate and amazing friend, David Fuentes, is no longer with us. He will be missed by everyone but especially everyone in the Hepcat family." He leaves a wife, Yohanna, and two sons, Andrew, 7, and Darren, 3. A memorial fund has been established to help his family. ... A special-effects technician working on the set of the Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" was killed when a truck carrying a camera platform rammed into a tree on Monday in London, AP reports. Filming was not taking place at the time of the accident, which is under investigation.

• Mariah Carey
• Notorious B.I.G.
• Lil Wayne
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• Killswitch Engage

Lindsay Lohan
Photo: Mark Mainz/Getty Images

Lindsay Lohan is getting sued again — this time for assault and negligence by one of the passengers who was traveling in the car the actress allegedly chased last month while driving under the influence. Tracie Rice, the woman who filed the suit and was in the car driven by Michelle Peck — the mother of one of Lohan's former assistants — claims that Lohan "put me through one of the most frightening experiences of my life," according to a statement obtained by The Associated Press. "What Miss Lohan did that night was extremely dangerous and reprehensible. Someone could easily have been killed or seriously hurt because of her irresponsible decisions that evening." The suit also alleges that Lohan intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon the woman, and it seeks unspecified damages as well as payment of medical and other emotional-distress-related expenses. ...

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline's divorce lawyers were supposed to help resolve their clients' child-custody dispute at a Los Angeles Superior Court hearing on Tuesday (August 14), but instead the attorneys used the court date to try to protect the former spouses' privacy. According to a court clerk, legal representatives from Los Angeles TV news channel KNBC, "Access Hollywood" and People magazine jointly filed papers Tuesday morning to prevent court records in the former couple's child-custody battle from being permanently sealed. The move came after news outlets got wind that Federline's attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan was planning to bring to court a folder of documents "about an inch and a half thick," according to a source close to the matter. Federline's team has already subpoenaed Spears' cousin and former assistant, Alli Sims, and Spears' bodyguard Daimon Shippen; more subpoenas to give depositions about the care of the children are due to come for those close to Spears, the source said. Superior Court Commissioner Scott M. Gordon will hear the opposition to seal the records in a separate hearing on September 14, while the custody dispute will continue in court on September 17. ...

Wu-Tang Clan covering the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" ... with George Harrison's son Dhani ... and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante playing along? That's the news the RZA spilled to RollingStone.com late last week, saying the collabo for the ages will surface on the Clan's November 13 album, 8 Diagrams. The track will sample the original George Harrison-written song, with the group rapping over the track, Frusciante wailing on lead guitar and Dhani Harrison playing acoustic. ... Amy Winehouse's touring band, the Dap-Kings; Jamiroquai's Stu Zender and other to-be-announced singers will make guest appearances with Mark Ronson when he mans the decks at the VMAs on September 9. ...

Don Imus back on the airwaves? AP reports that the shock jock has reached a settlement with CBS Radio over his contract and is in negotiations with New York's WABC-AM radio — home to another inflammatory jock, Rush Limbaugh — to return to broadcasting. The settlement would preempt Imus' threatened $120 million breach-of-contract suit, a CBS spokesperson told AP, although the terms were not disclosed. ...

Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem must really be enjoying each other's company these days — the tour partners are planning to release a split 7-inch while on the road, RollingStone.com reports. The record will include the Fire's cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son" and LCD's take on Joy Division's "No Love Lost." ... Perry Farrell and his Satellite Party will descend on jam-band Moe.'s eighth annual Moe.Down fest, to be held August 31-September 2 in Turin, New York. The Party will be filling in for Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, who had to bail from the fest for personal reasons. ...

The tentative track list for the soundtrack to the upcoming film "Resident Evil: Extinction" has been announced. The set will include cuts from Shadows Fall, Flyleaf, Bayside, the Bled, Chimaira, Poison the Well and It Dies Today. Look for it to hit stores September 18 and the film to hit theaters three days later. ... Gwar have been added to the Viva la Bands Tour, which will also feature Cradle of Filth, CKY and Vains of Jenna. The trek kicks off September 24 in Baltimore and runs through November 3 in Worcester, Massachusetts. ... The lineup for the Radio Rebellion Tour has been released, and extreme-metallists Job for a Cowboy and Polish death-metal specialists Behemoth will be co-headlining. Gojira and Beneath the Massacre will be the opening acts on the trek, which will hit 28 North American cities, beginning October 18 in Baltimore and wrapping November 18 in New York. ...

Lana Clarkson's mother Donna took the stand Monday in the Phil Spector murder trial, testifying about shopping with the deceased actress shortly before she was shot on February 3, 2003, the Los Angeles Times reports. Refuting claims that Lana Clarkson was despondent over a failed acting career — the defense has argued that she was driven to suicide — the prosecution attempted to show instead that she was optimistic about the future. The defense asked Donna Clarkson to testify about apparently forged documents the actress used to try to get a loan, but prosecutor Alan Jackson said the documents would only provide "a look at what kind of person she is, not who pulled the trigger." Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler has allowed the letters to be admitted. ...

Sixteen solo albums by John Lennon debuted on iTunes on Tuesday, and for the next 30 days, exclusive video content will accompany six of them — including John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band and Milk and Honey. The albums are available in iTunes Plus, which offers DRM-free tracks, and each song costs $1.29. ...

Phil Rizzuto, the New York Yankees shortstop who later became a longtime announcer for the team and was best-known for catchphrases like "Holy cow!" and "Unbelievable!," died Tuesday. He was 89. Rizzuto, whose nickname was "Scooter," will also be remembered as the voice providing the play-by-play commentary in Meat Loaf's infamous 1977 song, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light."

08.13.07

Britney Spears' assistant was served with court papers Sunday morning to give a deposition in a legal matter between the singer and Kevin Federline. Mark Vincent Kaplan, Federline's attorney, told The Associated Press that Alli Sims will be asked to offer a statement "in connection with the Britney Spears/ Kevin Federline issue," although he didn't elaborate. He added that Sims is "believed to have relevant information" but didn't go into specifics about that either. On Wednesday, Kaplan filed documents in Los Angeles Superior Court for primary physical custody of Federline's two sons with Spears. ...

Diddy will executive produce the upcoming biopic of the Notorious B.I.G., Variety reports. "Soul Food" director George Tillman will be behind the lens for "Unbelievable: The Life, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.," for which an open casting call was launched nationally on Sunday. ...

Jennifer Lopez has pegged October 9 as the release date for her English-language album Brave, her second LP of the year and sixth studio disc overall. The set is highlighted by the just-released single, "Do It Well," and will be produced by J.R. Rotem (50 Cent, Christina Aguilera), among others. J. Lo's other album this year, Como Ama Una Mujer, is the best-selling Spanish-language debut LP ever. ... Amy Winehouse, who was hospitalized last week for severe exhaustion, has scrapped two planned shows in Germany opening for the Rolling Stones, RollingStone.com reports. The singer told Britain's News of the World, "I don't know how to explain what happened. ... I can't remember what I looked like. I couldn't recognize myself. It was terrifying." ...

Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Kid Rock and Velvet Revolver will anchor Los Angeles radio station KROQ's Inland Invasion fest — which has been renamed the L.A. Invasion, since its relocation from a venue in Devore, California, to one in Carson. Against Me!, Chris Cornell, Hot Hot Heat, Satellite Party, Paramore and Cypress Hill round out the bill for the show, which will take place September 15. ...

The French publisher of the "Harry Potter" series will not seek damages against a 16-year-old who allegedly posted online an unauthorized French translation of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," publishing house Gallimard Jeunesse said Monday (August 13), The Associated Press reports. The case is still being investigated by French authorities, who will decide whether to bring it to trial. ... Robert Smith of the Cure, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, Frank Black and Tom Waits will judge this year's International Songwriting Competition, RollingStone.com reports. ...

Bloc Party, Múm, Of Montreal and more have been confirmed for the ninth annual Iceland Airwaves festival, set for October 17-21 in downtown Reykjavík. ... The Shins have beefed up their fall tour schedule with a smattering of new U.S. dates. After playing Seattle's Bumbershoot festival on September 1 and Chicago's Download Festival the following day, the band will take a month off, then hit the road again beginning October 5 in Berkeley, California. From there, the Shins will play more West Coast and Southwest dates before dipping down South and winding their way up the East Coast for a two-day stand at New York's Terminal Five on October 23-24. They'll cap the tour with a pair of gigs at Las Vegas' Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel on October 27-28. ...

Wilco are bumping a pair of concerts because guitarist Nels Cline has come down with the chicken pox, according to the band's site. The Tuesday night show in Duluth, Minnesota, will now be staged September 4, and a concert scheduled for Winnipeg, Manitoba, will be postponed or scrapped entirely. ... "You Hear It First" vets the Shout Out Louds will tour for a month after they drop their new album, Our Ill Wills, on September 11. The indie-pop quintet will embark at the LA Weekly Detour festival in Los Angeles on October 6 and stay on the road through a November 3 show in Dallas. ...

According to Killswitch Engage bassist Mike D'Antonio, the band will head out for a co-headlining run with Lamb of God this winter. Suicidal Tendencies and Every Time I Die are in talks to open the gigs. ... Alice in Chains have been working on its first new material in more than a decade, according to frontman William DuVall. He said working with the band has "been deeply rewarding" and the new material sounds "insane." No word yet on when the reunited grunge rockers will release their next LP. ...

"Big Lebowski" fans who incessantly re-enact scenes and dialogue from the cult flick are about to be able to make their interpretations even lifelike: action figures are on the way. Seven-inch scale figures devoted to the Dude and Walter will be available in October and can be preordered here. ... Barenaked Ladies will host another cruise in 2008 called Ships & Dip III and leaving Miami on January 27. Tickets go on sale March 22. Meanwhile, Lynyrd Skynyrd (with guests the Marshall Tucker Band) are also hosting another cruise, while Sister Hazel and Toad the Wet Sprocket are signed on for Rock Boat VIII. ...

According to the Asbury Park Press, police charged 33 people with underage drinking last week at the Family Values Tour's Wednesday stop at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. Thirteen others were arrested on various other charges, including resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and assaulting a trooper. In all, 46 people, ranging in age from 16-47, were taken into custody during the gig, which was headlined by tour founders Korn. ... A James Brown trustee accused of misappropriating $350,000 of the late singer's money has resigned, the Chicago Tribune reports. David Cannon turned over a check for the sum at a hearing on Friday. A follow-up hearing has been slated for September 24 as wrangling continues over Brown's estate.

• Lindsay Lohan
• Britney Spears
• Wu-Tang Clan
• Mark Ronson
• Amy Winehouse

Kevin Federline
Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Britney Spears' assistant was served with court papers Sunday morning to give a deposition in a legal matter between the singer and Kevin Federline. Mark Vincent Kaplan, Federline's attorney, told The Associated Press that Alli Sims will be asked to offer a statement "in connection with the Britney Spears/ Kevin Federline issue," although he didn't elaborate. He added that Sims is "believed to have relevant information" but didn't go into specifics about that either. On Wednesday, Kaplan filed documents in Los Angeles Superior Court for primary physical custody of Federline's two sons with Spears. ...

Diddy will executive produce the upcoming biopic of the Notorious B.I.G., Variety reports. "Soul Food" director George Tillman will be behind the lens for "Unbelievable: The Life, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.," for which an open casting call was launched nationally on Sunday. ...

Jennifer Lopez has pegged October 9 as the release date for her English-language album Brave, her second LP of the year and sixth studio disc overall. The set is highlighted by the just-released single, "Do It Well," and will be produced by J.R. Rotem (50 Cent, Christina Aguilera), among others. J. Lo's other album this year, Como Ama Una Mujer, is the best-selling Spanish-language debut LP ever. ... Amy Winehouse, who was hospitalized last week for severe exhaustion, has scrapped two planned shows in Germany opening for the Rolling Stones, RollingStone.com reports. The singer told Britain's News of the World, "I don't know how to explain what happened. ... I can't remember what I looked like. I couldn't recognize myself. It was terrifying." ...

Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Kid Rock and Velvet Revolver will anchor Los Angeles radio station KROQ's Inland Invasion fest — which has been renamed the L.A. Invasion, since its relocation from a venue in Devore, California, to one in Carson. Against Me!, Chris Cornell, Hot Hot Heat, Satellite Party, Paramore and Cypress Hill round out the bill for the show, which will take place September 15. ...

The French publisher of the "Harry Potter" series will not seek damages against a 16-year-old who allegedly posted online an unauthorized French translation of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," publishing house Gallimard Jeunesse said Monday (August 13), The Associated Press reports. The case is still being investigated by French authorities, who will decide whether to bring it to trial. ... Robert Smith of the Cure, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, Frank Black and Tom Waits will judge this year's International Songwriting Competition, RollingStone.com reports. ...

Bloc Party, Múm, Of Montreal and more have been confirmed for the ninth annual Iceland Airwaves festival, set for October 17-21 in downtown Reykjavík. ... The Shins have beefed up their fall tour schedule with a smattering of new U.S. dates. After playing Seattle's Bumbershoot festival on September 1 and Chicago's Download Festival the following day, the band will take a month off, then hit the road again beginning October 5 in Berkeley, California. From there, the Shins will play more West Coast and Southwest dates before dipping down South and winding their way up the East Coast for a two-day stand at New York's Terminal Five on October 23-24. They'll cap the tour with a pair of gigs at Las Vegas' Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel on October 27-28. ...

Wilco are bumping a pair of concerts because guitarist Nels Cline has come down with the chicken pox, according to the band's site. The Tuesday night show in Duluth, Minnesota, will now be staged September 4, and a concert scheduled for Winnipeg, Manitoba, will be postponed or scrapped entirely. ... "You Hear It First" vets the Shout Out Louds will tour for a month after they drop their new album, Our Ill Wills, on September 11. The indie-pop quintet will embark at the LA Weekly Detour festival in Los Angeles on October 6 and stay on the road through a November 3 show in Dallas. ...

According to Killswitch Engage bassist Mike D'Antonio, the band will head out for a co-headlining run with Lamb of God this winter. Suicidal Tendencies and Every Time I Die are in talks to open the gigs. ... Alice in Chains have been working on its first new material in more than a decade, according to frontman William DuVall. He said working with the band has "been deeply rewarding" and the new material sounds "insane." No word yet on when the reunited grunge rockers will release their next LP. ...

"Big Lebowski" fans who incessantly re-enact scenes and dialogue from the cult flick are about to be able to make their interpretations even lifelike: action figures are on the way. Seven-inch scale figures devoted to the Dude and Walter will be available in October and can be preordered here. ... Barenaked Ladies will host another cruise in 2008 called Ships & Dip III and leaving Miami on January 27. Tickets go on sale March 22. Meanwhile, Lynyrd Skynyrd (with guests the Marshall Tucker Band) are also hosting another cruise, while Sister Hazel and Toad the Wet Sprocket are signed on for Rock Boat VIII. ...

According to the Asbury Park Press, police charged 33 people with underage drinking last week at the Family Values Tour's Wednesday stop at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. Thirteen others were arrested on various other charges, including resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and assaulting a trooper. In all, 46 people, ranging in age from 16-47, were taken into custody during the gig, which was headlined by tour founders Korn. ... A James Brown trustee accused of misappropriating $350,000 of the late singer's money has resigned, the Chicago Tribune reports. David Cannon turned over a check for the sum at a hearing on Friday. A follow-up hearing has been slated for September 24 as wrangling continues over Brown's estate.

08.10.07

Think 50 Cent is taking his upcoming face-off with Kanye West lightly? In an interview posted on SOHH.com on Friday (August 10), Fiddy threatened to end his rap career if he gets upstaged by 'Ye when their albums go head to head on September 11. "If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11, I'll no longer write music," he said. "I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out anymore solo albums." 50's Curtis will square off against West's Graduation. ...

Lily Allen has canceled gigs once again, this time because she has strep throat and sinusitis, she says in a post on her MySpace blog. "I'm back in London eating my mum's chicken soup, 'cause I'm afraid the traveling has caught up with me," she wrote in the post. "Before anyone starts trying to accuse me of neglecting my fans, I want to apologise and say how sorry I am, but I can't risk causing any permanent damage." Defending herself further, the singer also posted an image of her holding her doctor's note. ...

D'Angelo received suspended jail sentences Friday after pleading guilty to charges of driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license, AP reports. A Virginia judge revoked his license for 13 and a half months and fined him $1,250, with additional penalties suspended. A reckless-driving charge was dropped. ... Beastie Boys finally said hello to Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday night with — if you can believe it — their first-ever concert in the borough. RollingStone.com reports that the group, which played at McCarren Pool in Greenpoint, aptly opened the set with "Hello Brooklyn" and closed it with "No Sleep Till Brooklyn." ...

Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae and Joss Stone are chipping in for Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, which arrives in stores September 25. Paul McCartney, Elton John, Robert Plant and other classic-rock vets also salute the bluesman on the two-disc set, the sales from which will go toward buying instruments for public schools in New Orleans, rebuilding Domino's home there and helping other Crescent City-related programs. ... Emma Bunton, a.k.a. Baby Spice, gave birth to a, um, baby boy in London on Friday. It's the first child for the singer and boyfriend Jade Jones, who used to be in a pop act of his own: boy band Damage. ...

Bright Eyes are lighting up their tour schedule with seven additional dates: September 14 (Boise, Idaho); September 15 (Spokane, Washington); September 18 (Fairbanks, Alaska); September 19-20 (Anchorage, Alaska); September 23 (Eugene, Oregon); and September 24 (Chico, California). ... Waiting for a Cure LP? Well, the wait just got a bit longer. The band's new album was supposed to drop earlier this year, got bumped to the fall — and now won't be ready until the spring, Billboard.com reports. The band is busy touring and frontman Robert Smith hasn't finished writing yet. ...

Underoath will hit the road with Every Time I Die, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and Poison the Well for a fall tour beginning September 22 in Houston and ending November 6 in Orlando, Florida. ETID, who are still on the Sounds of the Underground Tour, will drop their new Ferret release The Big Dirty on September 4. Earlier this week, they posted "No Son of Mine" — a track from the Steve Evetts-produced (Dillinger Escape Plan, Sepultura) effort — on their MySpace page. ... Queens of the Stone Age will not perform as part of Samsung and AT&T's free Summer Krush series on Monday in Los Angeles, as previously reported by Billboard.com. Plain White T's will play the gig instead. ...

As promised, Pearl Jam have posted the edited and unedited videos of their performance of "Daughter" at Lollapalooza on their Web site. Some segments of the performance were missing in AT&T's live "Blue Room" webcast, including critical remarks frontman Eddie Vedder made about President Bush. A spokesperson for AT&T recently told MTV News the omissions were not intentional and were mistakenly made by a webcast vendor. ...

Spoon, Coheed and Cambria, Devin the Dude and others have been confirmed for this year's CMJ Music Marathon, going down October 16-20 in New York, Billboard.com reports. UNKLE will play one of their first gigs ever with a live band, and surprise VMA Video of the Year nominees Justice will also hit up the fest. ... Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip, Deerhoof, Grizzly Bear and David Byrne are among the acts who are contributing performances of songs written by David Shrigley for Worried Noodles, an unusual package containing two CDs and a hardcover book by the Scottish artist. The book of words and drawings was previously issued and caught the attention of the musicians, who have chalked up new songs for the set. ...

Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones flick is rolling into next year. The film, originally slated for an August 26 theatrical release, will open in April instead, to allow the band more time to promote it. ... Speaking of rock docs, IFC has secured the rights to "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten," a flick about the former Clash frontman that will hit select theaters November 2 and be televised on the cable channel thereafter. ... An unreleased Mick Jagger song produced by John Lennon in Los Angeles in 1973 will surface on The Very Best of Mick Jagger, due October 2. Jagger recorded the song, which has been on bootlegs for decades, with a cast of all-stars that included Harry Nilsson, Jack Bruce, Al Kooper and others. ...

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the release of Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, a special edition of the album will be released August 28. The three-disc collection will look like a cloth-covered book, and include remastered stereo and mono versions of the album plus bonus tracks. The effort will also include a 12-page reproduction of Syd Barrett's notebook. ... Notorious ex-David Bowie manager Tony Defries will release his autobiography, Gods and Gangsters, in 2008. Also known for his work with the Beatles and Stevie Wonder, Defries is best remembered for helping to fashion the string of iconic characters rolled out by Bowie in the 1970s, as well as helping launch the solo careers of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Luther Vandross and John Mellencamp. ... The world's leading record label, Universal Music Group, has announced that it will experiment with offering a large part of its catalog for download without copy protection at least through January. According to The New York Times, Universal (home to 50 Cent, Amy Winehouse and Akon) will offer the songs without DRM through RealNetworks, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Google and some artists' sites — but not on top download service iTunes.

• Britney Spears
• Kevin Federline
• Jennifer Lopez
• Amy Winehouse
• The Smashing Pumpkins

Roadrunner United 12.15.2005

• Slipknot
• Stone Sour
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• Murderdolls
• Deicide

Killswitch Engage live at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, KS 03.19.2005

• Killswitch Engage

MTV Headbangers Ball Tour live at The Fillmore in San Francisco, CA

• Lamb of God
• Shadows Fall
• Killswitch Engage