With so much hype surrounding 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin', it's no surprise that bootlegged copies of the album began circulating last week. As a result, its release date was pushed up from February 11 to this Thursday.

The album features the popular tracks "Wanksta" and "In Da Club," plus "Patiently Waiting" with one of the album's Eminem guest spots and "Many Men," a song that addresses 50's "wanted" status.

Detroit blues-rockers Soledad Brothers roll out their third album, Live, produced by the White Stripes' Jack White and featuring a guest drum spot by the other Stripe, Meg. The Pet Shop Boys offer up some remixes on their Disco 3 EP, and DJ Spinna gathers the likes of Jean Grae, Vinia Mojica and Soulive for Here to There.

Saliva, Nickelback, Chevelle and Hoobastank all come together on the "Daredevil" soundtrack, while on the "Shanghai Knights" soundtrack it's the way-back sounds of the Kinks, the Who and the Dave Clark 5.

Out Tuesday, February 4:

• Alabama - In the Mood: Love Songs (RCA)
• All-American Rejects - The All-American Rejects (DreamWorks)
• Antiseen - Noise for the Sake of Noise (TKO)
• Jay Aston - Alive and Well (Angel Air)
• Dave Attell - Skanks for the Memories (Comedy Central)
• Baptist Generals - No Silver/No Gold (Sub Pop)
• Jason Bivins & Ian Davis - Benthic (Family Vineyard)
• Broken Home - Broken Home (Angel Air)
• Burd Early - Leveler (Western Vinyl)
• Bobi Céspedes - Rezos (Six Degrees)
• Ray Charles - Georgia on My Mind (Prism)
• Nick Curran - Doctor Velvet (Blind Pig)
• Daycare Swindlers - This Is No Way to Make a Living (Vile Beat)
• Didjworks - Tranceformation (Nature Beat)
• Dirt Bike Annie - It Ain't Easy Bein' Single (Dirtnap)
• Diva Destruction - Exposing the Sickness (Metropolis)
• DJ Spinna - Here to There (Rapster)
• Drummonds - Pas de Trois (True Life)
• Baxter Dury - Len Parrot's Memorial Lift (Sanctuary)
• Electric Company - It's Hard to Be a Baby (Tigerbeat6)
• Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage (EP, XL/Beggars Banquet)
• Elefant - Gallery Girl (EP, Kemado/Palm Pictures)
• Bill Evans - Big Fun (ESC)
• Farse - Boxing Clever (Moon Ska UK)
• Frukwan - Life (Empire Musicwerks)
• Funky Lowlives - Cartouche (Stereo Deluxe)
• Gentle Giant - Endless Life (United States)
• Glass Candy & the Shattered Theatre - Love Love Love (Troubleman Unlimited)
• The Good Ship - The Good Ship (Orange Twin)
• Grand Ulena - Gateway to Dignity (Family Vineyard)
• Peter Himmelman - My Best Friend Is a Salamander (Liquid 8)
• The Iditarod - The River Nektar (BlueSanct)
• If Thousands - Yellowstone (Chairkickers')
• Jars of Clay - Furthermore — From the Studio, From the Stage (Essential)
• Joan of Arc - So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness (Jade Tree)
• The Juliana Theory - Love (Epic)
• Quincy Jones - Exodus (Prism)
• Jon Langford and His Sadies - Mayors of the Moon (Bloodshot)
• Keen-O - Nobody Knows How and Why (Materiali Sonori)
• Kenny Lee Lewis - Music of the Steve Miller Band (Liquid 8)
• Loveless & Goodnight Trail - Loveless & Goodnight Trail (Sonic Boom)
• Lupine Howl - The Bar at the End of the World (Beggars Banquet)
• Harry Manx & Kevin Breit - Jubilee (Northern Blues)
• Johnny Marr + the Healers - Bloomslang (iMusic)
  Read: "Ex-Smiths Guitarist Follows Dream Snake, Finds His Voice"
• The Marsalis Family - A Jazz Celebration (Marsalis Music)
• Mixtwitch - Smile for the Money Shot (Moon Ska UK)
• moe. - Wormwood (iMusic)
• Polly Moller - Diogenes (Silver Wheel)
• Mortification - Blood World (Acts 26)
• Moving Units - Moving Units (EP, Palm Pictures)
• Nada Surf - Let Go (Barsuk)
• New Wet Kojak - This Is the Glamorous (Beggars Banquet)
• Faris Nourallah - I Love Faris (Western Vinyl)
• Billy Ocean - On the Run (Planet Media)
• The Orb - Back to Mine (Razor & Tie)
• Oswald - "Pop Goes the Octopus" soundtrack (Nick/Jive)
• Pet Shop Boys - Disco 3 (EP, Sanctuary)
• Ian Pooley - Excursions (Obsessive)
• Suzi Quatro - Wake Up Little Suzi (Go)
• Trevor Rabin - Live in L.A. (United States)
• Radioactive Man - Fabric 08 (Fabric)
• Reunion - Re (Sonar Kollektiv)
• Savoy Brown - Strange Dreams (Blind Pig)
• Blake Shelton - The Dreamer (Warner Bros.)
• Since by Man - We Sing the Body Electric (Revelation)
• Sister Hazel - Chasing Daylight (Universal)
• Snog - Beyond the Valley of the Proles (Metropolis)
• Soledad Brothers - Live (Dim Mak)
• Stiffed - Sex Sells (Cool Hunter)
• Storm - The Unpredictable Amalgamation (Orpheus)
• Subb - Daylight Saving (Stomp)
• The Sun - Love & Death (EP, Warner Bros.)
• Surgin' - Tokyo Rose (Zoom Club)
• Keith Sweat - Live (Elektra)
• Tank - Still at War (Zoom Club)
• Tiga - DJ Kicks (K7)
• Tigersmilk - Tigersmilk (Family Vineyard)
• Uncurbed - Chords for Freedom (Sound Pollution)
• Undead - First Worst & Cursed (Bacchus)
• Ral Partha Vogelbacher - Kite vs. Obelisk (Megalon)
• Walkabouts - Drunken Soundtracks: Lost Songs (Glitterhouse)
• Rick Wakeman - Live (United States)
• Dionne Warwick - Dionne Sings Dionne (Empire)
• Whitmore - Smoke the Roach (Moon Ska UK)
• Wiggles - Magical Adventure: A Wiggly Adventure (Lyons Group)
• Tony Williams - Wilderness (reissue, Ark 21)
• Frank Zappa - For Collectors Only (Go)
• Various artists - 60 Classic Punk Tracks (Simply the Best)
• Various artists - Acoustic Coffee House: A Tribute to Elvis (Reverberations)
• Various artists - Being Black (Spun)
• Various artists - Breathe: The Bluegrass Tribute to the Dave Matthews Band Vol. 2 (CMH)
• Various artists - Chillout: Adventures in Leisure (Vitamin)
• Various artists - Cuba Cha Cha Cha (Orfeon)
• Various artists - Cuba Live: Recorded Live in Cuba (Rounder)
• Various artists - Daredevil: The Album (Wind-Up)
• Various artists - Disney's Princess Sing-Along Album (Disney)
• Various artists - "Gods and Generals" soundtrack (Sony Classical)
• Various artists - Gypsy Swing: The Nashville Tribute to Django Reinhardt (CMH)
• Various artists - Jungle Book 2 (Disney)
• Various artists - Keep on the Sunny Side: Bluegrass Salutes the Carter Family (CMH)
• Various artists - Pure Trance (Varese)
• Various artists - Real Americana (Lakeshore)
• Various artists - "Shanghai Knights" soundtrack (Hollywood)
• Various artists - The String Quartet Tribute to Jane's Addiction (Vitamin)
• Various artists - The String Quartet Tribute to Nirvana (Vitamin)
• Various artists - Tribute to Staind (Big Eye)
• DVD: The Blood Brothers - Jungle Rules Live (ARTISTdirect)
• DVD: Judy Collins - Live at Wolf Trap (Pioneer Entertainment)
• DVD: Widespread Panic - Live From the Backyard in Austin, TX (Sanctuary/Widespread)

February 6:

• 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin' (Interscope)
  Read: "50 Cent's Album Hitting Stores Sooner Than Planned"
  Buy Now: Get Rich or Die Tryin' (Interscope)

March 4:

• Cursive - Ugly Organ (Saddle Creek)
• Fabolous - Street Dreams (Elektra)
• Hootie & the Blowfish - Hootie & the Blowfish (Atlantic)
• Lil' Kim - La Bella Mafia (Atlantic)
• Special Goodness - Land Air Sea (Control Group)
• Voivod - Voivod (Navarre)
  Read: "Jason Newsted Says His New Band Can Kick Metallica's Ass"

March 11:

• Various artists - Punk Goes Acoustic (Fearless)

March 18:

• Buzzcocks - Buzzcocks (Merge)

March 25:

• Celine Dion - One Heart (Sony)
• Linkin Park - Meteora (Warner Bros.)
  Read: "Linkin Park Discuss Meteora, Plan Surreal Video"

• 50 Cent
• Johnny Marr
• Pet Shop Boys
• Jars of Clay
• Nada Surf

Johnny Marr and the Healers
Photo: Artist Direct/BMG

British pop artist Johnny Marr, co-founder of '80s rock group the Smiths, was in a colorful headspace when he decided to start a new band three years ago. He had accomplished everything he wanted to with his electro-pop group Electronic and he was interested in expanding his musical and mental horizons.

He aimed to get away from computerized music and explore more organic rock terrain, and in his extracurricular life he was tapping into a wealth of otherworldly stimuli including religion, parapsychology, psychic phenomena and philosophy, which helped guide his path.

"I was kind of into the Jim Morrison vibe, only without the beard and the organ," he said. "I've done the zone-out thing in Arizona for the last five or six years, and I've been going to séances and checking out a lot of esoteric stuff. I've seen tables shaking and candles moving from one part of the room to another — all these things I haven't quite gotten my head around yet."

Much of Johnny Marr and the Healers' debut album, Boomslang, reflects Marr's openness to such new experiences. The band's name is a reference to a book by Russian psychic philosopher Madame Blavatsky, and the album title came to Marr in a vision.

"I had a dream about a talking snake, which said, 'I am Boomslang, I am Boomslang. I wanna go up, I wanna go up,' " said Marr. "It seemed to go on all night, and I woke up thinking, 'Well, that was pretty weird, even for me.' So I went on the Internet and lo and behold, there was a snake called Boomslang."

Songs like "The Last Ride," "You Are the Magic" and "Need It" bubble over with loose rhythmic grooves, echoey guitars and sedated vocals that vibe with Marr's open-minded consciousness. Musically, the songs have more in common with the soporific pulse of '90s Manchester, England, bands like Stone Roses and Charlatans UK than with the sulky androgynous pop of the Smiths.

"I'm interested in investigating so-called 'white rhythms' — something that can make you dance and hit you physically but isn't directly close to James Brown or Funkadelic," said Marr, who plays guitar and sings on Boomslang. "Sometimes it's too easy to get on a Bootsy [Collins] vibe, and I can appreciate that, but it's not where I'm coming from culturally."

Assisting Marr in his quest for sonic transcendence are ex-Kula Shaker bassist Alonza Bevan and Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey on drums.

"The chemistry with these guys is amazing," Marr said. "In a perfect world, we'd all be Healers and my name wouldn't be in front of it, but everyone around me convinced me that it would be silly not to put my name on it. It would be like Patti Smith calling her group the Shoes."

Originally, Marr planned to hire a lead vocalist for the band, so he sang on a batch of tunes in his studio and gave the recordings to various singers. Then he listened to their tapes and chose a frontman for the Healers. But when he played the seemingly lucky crooner's demo for Began and Starkey, they balked.

"They snuck off to a cafe, then came back and said they thought what I was doing was more interesting," said Marr. "They used the key words. They said it was odd, quirky and messed up, and that's what I was looking for. It was nice because from the time I was 16 I've done music, and the aesthetic and the vocal and lyrical content has always been an unknown for me because it came out of someone else's mind. It would be like I did the landscape and then somebody else put the subject right in the center of it. With this record, I was able to paint the complete picture."

Johnny Marr and the Healers tour dates, according to their publicist:

• 1/15 - Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's

• 1/16 - Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's

• 1/17 - Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's

• 1/18 - Philadelphia, PA @ North Star

• 1/20 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat

• 1/21 - New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge

• 1/22 - New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge

• 1/24 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club

• 1/26 - Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace

• 1/27 - Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick

• 1/28 - Chicago, IL @ Double Door

• 2/1 - San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo's 365 Club

• 2/3 - West Hollywood, CA @ The Troubadour

• Johnny Marr

DMX's next film project, "Cradle 2 the Grave," now has a release date. According to a rep for the rapper, his co-starring turn with Jet Li should hit theaters February 28. Meanwhile, X is in talks to develop a cologne called Xcaliber, for which he's currently arranging distribution and licensing. ...

Lil' Wayne, Mannie Fresh, Ronald "Slim" Williams and Brian "Baby" Williams will hand out 2,000 turkeys and holiday dinners at the A.L. Davis Park in New Orleans on Monday. The Johnnie and Gladys Williams Foundation, named after Slim and Baby's parents, are sponsoring the fourth annual Cash Money Turkey Giveaway. ... Due in February, Shaggy's "Hope" and singer/songwriter Kevi's "Don't Talk to Strangers" are the latest in Hip Kid Hop's read and rap-a-long children's book series. LL Cool J and Doug E. Fresh contributed the first books, which are accompanied by CDs with original music. ...

Los Angeles' KROQ announced on Thursday (November 21) the lineup for its annual Almost Acoustic Christmas concerts, scheduled for December 7 and 8 at the Universal Amphitheater in Universal City, California. Audioslave, Disturbed, New Found Glory, P.O.D., Queens of the Stone Age, Sum 41, Zwan, Taproot, Trust Company and the Used will play the first night; Beck with the Flaming Lips, Coldplay, Creed, Dashboard Confessional, Good Charlotte, Jack Johnson, Jurassic 5, the Vines and Jimmy Fallon will perform on the second. ...

Bon Jovi are making hogs of themselves when it comes to pigskin performances. Following their set in Times Square that kicked off the season and the announcement that they'll be part of the Super Bowl halftime show in January, the NJ rockers will, along with Vanessa Carlton, perform in Detroit during halftime of the Thanksgiving Day game between the Lions and Patriots, which begins at 12:30 p.m. ET. ... February 25 will be a good day for Ice Cube fans. That's when the first four solo albums by the former N.W.A rapper turned "Friday" trilogy star get reissued with bonus tracks. While Amerikkka's Most Wanted (1990), Death Certificate (1991), The Predator (1992) and Lethal Injection (1993) get rejuvenated shelf life, "Ice Cube: The Video Collection," featuring Cube's first 15 videos, will become available on DVD format. ...

Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr and his band the Healers, featuring Beatle son Zak Starkey and Kula Shaker's Alonso Beavan, will tour the States in support of the group's debut album, Boomslang, due February 4. Eleven dates, from January 15 (Hoboken, New Jersey) to February 3 (West Hollywood, California), are confirmed thus far, with additions to be announced shortly. ... Scottish rock band Idlewild have replaced bassist Bob Fairfoull with Gavin Fox, formerly of Turn, and touring guitarist Allan Stewart has been made a full-time member. The group recently finished an album, which is not yet titled or scheduled for release. ...

Aborym vocalist Attila Csihar, who used to howl for church-burning black metal band Mayhem, was recently arrested in Treviso, Italy, and charged with possession of 158 tablets of ecstasy and several grams of hash. In a statement on its Web site, the Italian band wrote that Csihar will go on trial in December, but regardless of the outcome, the band will continue. "Cross your fingers upside-down," said the band. "We will make you have news as soon as we get them." ... Chimaira will release their second album, tentatively titled The Impossibility of Reason, on April 15. Switched singer Ben Schigel will produce. ...

11.20.02

Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty and Nappy Roots joined activists Wednesday (November 20) for the launch of Speak Up, a campaign against weapon-related school violence, sponsored by PAX, Atlantic Records and Teen People, among others. In support of the cause, Nappy Roots filmed a public service announcement and Matchbox Twenty will include a special insert about the campaign in their new album, More Than You Think You Are. ...

In the "takes-one-to-know-one" department, Marilyn Manson wrote in his online journal that fellow über-controversial artist Eminem was "rather delighted with the bits of my new album he was lucky enough to hear" when they encountered one another at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Barcelona last week. ... Slayer will release the DVD "War at the Warfield" on February 11. The disc, which was recorded at San Francisco venue the Warfield on December 7, 2001, features the band's former drummer Paul Bostaph, who dropped off the tour last December because of a chronic elbow injury, and has since joined Systematic. Bostaph was replaced on the road by the band's original drummer, Dave Lombardo, who will play on Slayer's next record. ...

Videos and live footage from New Found Glory, Something Corporate, Home Grown and others will be featured on a Drive-Thru Records DVD due December 17. The video will also feature the label's latest signing, Senses Fail. ... English rockers Supergrass will release their fourth album, Life on Other Planets, in February. Since the album has been available as an import since September 30, the American release will include either a bonus CD or DVD of a full concert of career-spanning material, said Supergrass' publicist. ...

Jordan Knight, who is currently recording his second solo album with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, will sell two new singles on his Web site (www.jordanknight.com) beginning December 2. The songs from the former New Kid on the Block are an acoustic cover of Force M.D.'s "Tender Love" and a club remake of Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting." ... If you're a punk with a penchant for Green Day, Skunk Ape Records wants you for its forthcoming tribute to the Bay Area punks. On the heels of its homage to Weezer, titled Making Noise and released in February 2001, the California indie label has issued a call to arms for all bands to submit Green Day covers to Skunk Ape Records, 8671 Emramada Avenue, Whittier, CA 90605, before January 31. For more information, visit www.skunkaperecords.com. ...

The University of Southern California dedicated an auditorium located in the school's theater complex to the late Frank Sinatra, according to the Associated Press. In support of the dedication, Sinatra's daughters, Nancy and Tina, will loan USC memorabilia including the actor's Congressional Gold Medal, Academy Awards, gold records and his signature fedora for public display through March. ... Coolio will connect with deceased relatives on "Crossing Over With John Edward on Thursday. Through Edward's readings, they will make contact with the rapper's late mother and other loved ones, reaffirming the crazy-coiffed MC's belief in the host's psychic abilities. ... Brian May, founding member of the rock group Queen and former astronomy graduate student, has received an honorary science doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire. May, who received the degree Tuesday at the university's campus north of London, said the honor "completes a great cycle in my life," according to the Associated Press. ...

• DMX
• Audioslave
• Cash Money Millionaires
• Good Charlotte
• Johnny Marr