Nirvana's Kurt Cobain
Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

To those who grew up idolizing the man and his music, the news that late, lamented Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain would appear as an unlockable character in "Guitar Hero 5" — one that strikes rock-star poses and rocks out to Bon Jovi tracks, mind you — seemed particularly disrespectful to his legacy, not to mention a tad bit ghastly.

Now, imagine how you'd feel if you were his widow, his former bandmates or his friend.

Because over the past week, all those people — Courtney Love (who, in addition to being Cobain's widow and the mother of his child, is also the arbiter of his estate), Nirvana's Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic and author/friend Everett True — have weighed in on the subject, each expressing their disgust at the way Cobain's likeness is used in the game and some even threatening legal action against its publisher, Activision.

It all started when True — author of "Nirvana: The Biography" and the man who, as legend has it, introduced Cobain to Love in 1991 at a Butthole Surfers gig — published a profanity-laced missive about the game on his blog and accused Love and Grohl of sanctioning the use of Cobain's likeness.

Love responded to True's claims via her Twitter account, writing that she "never signed of [sic]" on Activision's use of Cobain's likeness in the game and threatened to sue the publisher for "breach of contract" (she also took more than a few potshots at Grohl, writing, "If there's a hell, he's going. I'm not").

"For the record, this 'Guitar Hero' sh-- is breach of contract on a bully's part, and there will be a proper addressing of this," Love wrote. "We are going to sue the sh-- out of Activision. 'We' being the Trust, the Estate, the LLC and the various LLCs of Cobain Enterprises."

Of course, this drew a response from Activision itself, who, in a statement released Thursday (September 10), denied Love's claims and said they had attained all the necessary agreements to feature Cobain in the game.

"Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain's likeness as a fully playable character in 'Guitar Hero 5,' " the statement read.

And, in an interview with the U.K.'s Guardian, Activision Vice President Tim Riley took it one step further, saying Love was "great to work with" and "supplied us with videos and photos [of Cobain]" for use in the game.

"She picked the wardrobe and the hairstyle, which turned out to be the 'Teen Spirit' look, then we went back and forth over changes — some subtle, some not so subtle," Riley told the paper. "[Love wanted] a sort of athletic definition, but not overly so."

And finally, late Thursday night, Grohl and Novoselic waded into the fray, releasing a joint statement that said that while they were disappointed by the entire situation, they had no control over the use of Cobain's likeness in the "Guitar Hero" game. But they did ask Activision to make amends by "re-locking" the Cobain character.

"We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the 'Guitar Hero' game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate — we have no control whatsoever in that area," the statement read. "While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in 're-locking' Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future.

"It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters," the statement continued. "Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better."

A spokesperson for Activision has not responded to MTV News' request for comment on Grohl and Novoselic's statement.

For more on "Guitar Hero 5," check out Multiplayer.MTV.com.

• Nirvana

Kurt Cobain in 1993
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Fifteen years ago today, an electrician named Gary Smith was sent out to a gray clapboard home near Lake Washington in Seattle to install a security system. What he discovered, in the greenhouse above the garage, would change the face of rock and roll forever. It was the body of Kurt Cobain.

The Nirvana frontman had been missing for several days, after fleeing a rehab facility in Los Angeles. His mother, Wendy O'Connor, had filed a missing-persons report with Seattle police, advising them to look in Capitol Hill, where Cobain may have been attempting to score drugs. In actuality, he was already holed up in his Lake Washington home, in the greenhouse above the garage, where on the morning of April 5, he removed his hunting cap — which he wore when he didn't want people to recognize him — tossed his wallet on the ground, wrote a one-page suicide note to an imaginary childhood friend named "Boddah" and ended his life with a 20-gauge shotgun blast to the temple.

Three days later, sometime around 9 a.m. PT, Smith discovered Cobain's body. He called police (and a local radio station), and then there were the breaking-news bulletins and the vigils and the questions and the tears. And then it was all over.

Not the remembrances or the hand-wringing or even the speculation about Cobain's death, mind you ... that all continues to this day, in voluminous tomes and box sets and documentaries and the like. Rather, April 8 marked the end of an ideal, of a movement. That sounds hokey, but if I've learned anything in the 15 years since his exit, it's this: When Cobain left, he took a lot more with him than just Nirvana.

This isn't another piece meant to codify Cobain (or his band) or measure the length of their musical shadows. Suffice to say, Nirvana released three studio albums, and all of them rip. And Cobain possessed a growl that could crumble walls and a wail that could cut glass (to say nothing of his songwriting or his underappreciated sense of melody). Everyone knows this. Nirvana were probably our Beatles. Cobain was probably our John Lennon. Let's move on.

What I want to talk about was everything that Cobain symbolized, whether he liked it (or most likely didn't). He was hope, he was heft. He was the everyman, the end of the rock star, the punk dream realized. He had made it, and he was going to lift people up with him. He was cynicism and venom. He represented idealism and truth and the honor that came with never compromising. When he lived, rock music had importance, it had vitality. It was very possible that his songs could change the world. There was a scruffy nobility to him.

Of course, it is entirely possible that he was just the right man at the right time. Nobody represented the idealistic (and, at the same time, nihilistic) '90s like Cobain did. But if you noticed, when he died, all that idealism, all that hope, all that import seemed to die with him. The very idea that a band (or a man) can change the world with music now feels beyond laughable. We have become scarred and jaded. A lot of us are no longer willing to believe in the power of a guitar or a lyric, because Cobain took that with him 15 years ago.

And that's sad, because no matter what Cobain was, no matter what he symbolized or who he inspired, he was ultimately just a man. He had demons that proved too strong and too numerous, and they ganged up on him and dragged him away. And that taught us a lesson: Don't deify, because you'll just end up betrayed. We've spent 15 years doing the complete opposite — we no longer build up, we tear down. We don't believe in things. We no longer strive for truth or subscribe to any particular ethos. Probably because we're afraid to.

Two years ago, on the eve of his 40th birthday, I interviewed a host of people who knew Cobain well and asked them what he'd be doing if he were still alive. They said he would've retreated from public view (perhaps to a desert, as Butch Vig surmised); made deeply personal, decidedly anti-commercial music; and despised the way our society had turned out. I tend to agree with all that. It's difficult (if not impossible) to imagine Cobain alive today ... at least not the way we all remember him. He just wouldn't fit. He couldn't.

I was in 10th grade when the news broke. I remember watching Kurt Loder read the emerging details of Cobain's death on TV, and I remember watching the vigils in the Seattle Center park, and I remember being very sad. At the time, I think it was because of the loss of our great and noble leader and the shuddering of an entire generation. Now, I realize it was because a little piece of me died that day too.

I lost the idealism of youth. And the idealism that comes with plugging in a guitar and playing it very loudly (and very badly). That's never going to come back, either. Probably for any of us.

Questions? Comments? Hit me up at BTTS@MTVStaff.com.

• Remembering Kurt Cobain
• Reaching Nirvana: A Music Video History

• Kurt Cobain: A Life In Photos

• Nirvana

Kurt Cobain in 1993
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Fifteen years ago today, Kurt Cobain's body was found at his house outside of Seattle. He had been threatening to commit suicide — had tried it, even — and now he'd succeeded. The leader of one of the best and biggest bands of the '90s went out on a shotgun blast, in a fog of heroin. A terrible waste, but that was the way he wanted it.

His death wasn't a complete surprise, really. The lyrics that Cobain wrote for Nirvana — the cloud of feeling in which he cloaked his simple song structures — came from a place you were sometimes glad you were only visiting. In a business in which most of what passes for emotion is just another pop calculation, the feeling in Kurt's songs was real. He was apparently amazed, or appalled, by the wealth and fame they brought him. (Although he wasn't so oblivious to these things that he didn't renegotiate the three-way split with his bandmates to reflect the fact the he was the songwriter, and deserved a larger cut.)

They were a great band in any case. But they dealt with their stardom — their sudden, huge renown — mainly by ignoring it. They had no entourage, no hangers-on, no parade of retainers. Showing up for an interview, they would just walk into the room, unaccompanied, bringing along their own beer, likely as not. They were funny; they were nice guys. They had no attitude. Cobain hated the traditional rock-star pose — which was why he had such contempt for Guns N' Roses. He had no interest in giving anybody a hard time.

This is how cool they were. In December of 1993, MTV was getting ready to pre-tape a big New Year's Eve concert in Seattle. Nirvana was one of the bands on the bill, but the headliner was Pearl Jam. Come the day of the show, though, Pearl Jam flaked out and withdrew. In desperation, MTV approached Nirvana and asked the band to step in and save the show, to headline it. This was a huge imposition — essentially, the channel was asking the band to play all night. Nirvana said they'd think about it, and they did. They thought about it for maybe 10 minutes, and then they said, sure.

Or consider this, a story from one of their tours. MTV News had been lobbying to come out on the road with the band, shoot a concert, do an interview. The group was cordial about it, but the answer was no. They'd done a ton of press at the beginning of the tour, and apparently couldn't bear to be asked one more question along the lines of what-is-this-grunge-thing? Who could blame them?

Sitting in New York, though, we thought, wait a minute ... there were two opening acts on the tour, and one of them was Shonen Knife. Shonen Knife was the all-time unlikeliest of rock acts: three burbly Japanese girls with drums and guitars who sang songs about ice cream and jelly beans and sounded like the Ramones might have sounded if the Ramones had sung songs about ice cream and jelly beans. Perfect. We would fly out to wherever and interview the jelly-bean girls and, who knew, maybe pick up a couple shots of the Nirvana guys, too, on the fly. (Kurt Cobain really loved Shonen Knife. He would always come out from backstage to watch them play. "I cried every night," he said.)

Unfortunately, the money people at MTV were dubious about shelling out for an interview with an obscure Japanese punk-pop band. So we had to crawl back to Nirvana and beg them to rethink their no-more-press decision, just this once, and agree to do an interview with us. That way we could get production money — no question there — and fly out and do the Knife, too, and everybody'd be happy. Nirvana thought about this for about 10 minutes too. Then they said, sure.

Cobain loved Shonen Knife and he loved the Vaselines, too, bands like that. But he wasn't an alt-rock snob. He loved everyone from David Bowie to Leadbelly. He said he'd come across Leadbelly's name in reading an interview with William Burroughs. (Burroughs, the Beat author and heroin laureate, was one of Kurt's idols, perhaps unfortunately.) He first recorded the Leadbelly song "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" with his friend Mark Lanegan, of Screaming Trees, singing lead. (The track is included on Lanegan's 1990 solo album, The Winding Sheet.) And of course it was the last song he sang in the MTV "Unplugged" show Nirvana taped in New York in November of 1993. With its bleak lyric about a godforsaken place "where the cold wind blows" and "the sun don't ever shine," "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" must have resonated deeply in Cobain's troubled mind.

I had said or written somewhere that "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" was more commonly known as "In the Pines," and had been performed and recorded under that title by scores of people, chief among them, in my view, bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe. Cobain found this interesting, apparently — or maybe irritating, I'm not sure. I remember standing in a corridor outside his hotel room one night, after the interview we finally did in December of 1993, discussing this subject at some length: "But the Leadbelly version is called 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night.' " "I know, I know, but the Bill Monroe version is called 'In the Pines,' and that's the title I've always heard and — hey, did you ever hear the Dave Van Ronk version? Great guitar player." "Yeah ...?"

A truce was called. I apologized for having impugned his folk-blues expertise. He said, hey, it was okay. He spoke very softly, I remember. Then he said goodnight and disappeared behind his door and that was the last time I saw him.

After his death I wondered whether he and the rest of Nirvana ever realized the powerful emotional effect their music (and their titanic live shows) had on people. Possibly not. "It really took a while," Dave Grohl later said, "like a year and a half or more after everything happened, that I realized, like, 'Wow, we really did kinda make a difference.' " It's too bad Kurt Cobain never had that realization — or, if he did, that it wasn't enough to keep him interested, to keep him alive. He's still missed.

Editor's note: This is a revised version of an article published by MTV News in 2004.

• Remembering Kurt Cobain
• Reaching Nirvana: A Music Video History

• Kurt Cobain: A Life In Photos

• Nirvana

Spencer Elden recreating Nirvana's <i>Nevermind</i> album cover in Pasadena, California
Photo: Splashnewsonline.com

More than 17 years ago, when he was still an infant, Spencer Elden's parents dropped him into a swimming pool in California, where underwater photographer Kirk Weddle was waiting to snap an entire roll of film of the naked, buoyant baby. The picture was later used as the cover image for Nevermind, the second studio LP from a little rock band out of Seattle called Nirvana.

Now, 17-year-old Elden is a high school student, who told MTV News last year that "it's kind of creepy [to think] that that many people have seen me naked — I feel like I'm the world's biggest porn star."

Elden recently re-created the iconic album's cover in the same pool at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, California, where it was originally shot — only this time, he was wearing shorts. It remains unclear as to why Elden decided to shoot this new photo.

Elden's parents were paid just $200 for allowing him to be photographed back in 1991. But last year, Elden told us that being the Nirvana baby has its perks. He references it when trying to pick up ladies, he said: "I have to use stupid pickup lines like, 'You want to see my p---s ... again?' " But it's also led to some strange encounters as well. He was once invited to swim in a rather wealthy woman's pool for the mere fact that he was the Nirvana baby. Another time, he even met "Weird Al" Yankovic, who famously lampooned the cover on his 1992 disc, Off the Deep End.

"I ran into him when I was going to do a TV interview," Elden said. "He was in the hallway, and he actually signed the back of my platinum record."

• Nirvana's 'Nevermind' Album Cover: Then And Now

• Nirvana

Sub Pop Executive Vice President Megan Jasper gives MTV News a tour of the label's Seattle offices
Photo: MTV News

On The Record: 20 Years In 20 Records. Or 21. Whatever.

Back in April, Sub Pop Records celebrated either its 20th or 25th anniversary (or maybe its 27th?), depending on who's counting. It was cause for much celebration and even a bit of confusion, and not just because no one seems to be able to agree on just how old the label really is. This is typically Sub Poppian.

Started first as a 'zine in the early '80s, then inching closer to label-tude with the release of a compilation back in 1986, and finally becoming an actual record label (with an office and everything!) in '88, Sub Pop has grown against pretty much all odds, surviving and thriving thanks to a little bit of luck (or a lot), a complete lack of a business plan, and a stated — if jokingly so — goal of "world domination."

There have been boom times and bust times, and just about every single kind of time in between. Sub Pop went from being the "grunge" label — the hottest name in the game — to being the label no one wanted to be associated with in less than six years, and then it nearly went out of business. Then it didn't, and since the dawn of the new millennium (how dramatic!) it's flourished once again, posting gains in a time when most labels are complaining that the sky is falling and the seas are boiling. Times are good in Sub Pop Nation.

And if anyone can appreciate this, it's Megan Jasper. After all, she started as the receptionist at Sub Pop back in 1989. She was there for the good, the bad and the ugly. She's the one responsible for creating the great "grunge speak" hoax that fooled The New York Times back in 1992. She remembers Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell bumming around the SP offices. She also remembers paychecks from the label bouncing during the lean years. She was fired because there was no money to pay her. And she was rehired. Now she's Sub Pop's executive vice president. This, too, is typically Sub Poppian.

This weekend, Jasper and her co-workers will celebrate the label's 20th (that's the official tally) anniversary, with a typically understated affair. They will throw concerts at Seattle's Marymoore Park (and in most of the city, for that matter), where bands old and new will play. The city is posting SP's iconic black-and-white flag atop the Space Needle. Label owner Jonathan Poneman just threw out the first pitch at a Mariners game. World domination does not seem all that inconceivable at this point.

So, to mark this occasion, I flew out to Sub Pop's offices in Seattle to do a news piece and talk to the people who made the label what it is today. While I was there, I marveled not just at the photo booth and the beer machine in the kitchen (cans of Rainier, 75 cents!), but at the warehouse, which was stuffed full of iconic and amazing records that shaped not just my youth, but the fortunes of the label as well.

And Jasper was nice enough to guide me through it all ... stopping in the warehouse to pick out her 20 favorite (and most important) Sub Pop records. (Check out some MTV News staffers' favorites in the Newsroom blog.) We figured it was a good way to showcase the label's impressive back catalog and pay tribute to the acts that have gotten Sub Pop through the past two decades. It was also a good way for me to fatten up my record collection.

Jasper's picks are below, along with my impressions from listening (or, in most cases, relistening) to them all. Also, even though she was supposed to pick 20 albums, Jasper went ahead and picked 21. How typically Sub Poppian of her.

Soundgarden's Screaming Life EP (1987, Sub Pop # 12)

A landmark not just because it's the debut EP from one of grunge's "big four," but also because without Soundgarden, there'd probably be no Sub Pop. Back in '86, Poneman, who was working as a radio DJ, caught a SG show, had some cash and wanted to put out their album. So at the insistence of guitarist Kim Thayil, he approached Bruce Pavitt, who had been releasing cassette tapes and comps as part of his "Subterranean Pop" 'zine. The two joined forces, and with Poneman's $20,000 investment, they started the label. And the rest, as they say, is history. As for the EP itself, well, there's plenty of yowling from frontman Chris Cornell, plus the debut of Thayil's famed "Drop-D" tuning and a recorded sermon from a 1950s preacher that producer Jack Endino found at a Seattle garage sale. Also, according to legend, opening track "Hunted Down" was the song you'd hear when you called the SP offices and were put on hold — meaning hundreds of creditors were kept at bay by the tune's heavy riffage while Pavitt and/or Poneman scrambled to find some cash. The power of proto-grunge at its most practical.

Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff EP (1988, SP #21)

'Honey frontman/maniac Mark Arm basically invented the so-called "Seattle Sound" with his previous band, Green River, but looking for something more (in his words, "a band that actually liked to practice"), he formed Mudhoney and blew everything up once again. Their debut single, "Touch Me I'm Sick," is probably the single greatest grunge anthem of all time (seriously), all fuzzed-out guitars and tape hiss and Arm's way-out wails. And on Superfuzz, they only honed their, ahem, craft. So we get big, lurching numbers like "Mudride" and "No One Has" (the guitars on the latter actually sound like they're drunk on Schmidt Beer, a local favorite based on its potency and, well, its cheapness); the heavy fretting of "In 'N Out of Grace"; and "If I Think," a tune that basically spawned every "let's slow it down for a minute" song for the next decade.

Nirvana's Bleach (1989, SP #34)

Perhaps you've heard of these guys. Taking the murky bludgeon of Mudhoney, stripping away some of Arm's machismo and adding some rather subtle pop flourishes, Nirvana's debut is as self-assured as anything they'd accomplish later, if not a little bit snottier. As the back of the album brags, er, states, Bleach was "recorded in Seattle ... for $600," though you'd never know it from the genuinely pretty "About a Girl" or the gnarly "Negative Creep." Sure, there are moments when Cobain (or, sorry, per the liners he's "Kobain" here) sounds like a bantamweight trying to flex his way out of a fight — like on "Love Buzz" — but there's no denying that there's something in his voice (of course, that could just be hindsight hearing it for me). I'm probably not alone in thinking that, either. With sales of more than 1 million copies, Bleach is not only Sub Pop's biggest seller to date, but also its only release to be certified as platinum.

Thee Headcoats' Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even! It's Thee Headcoats! (Already) (1990, SP #82)

Brit Billy Childish was Jack White back when White was still upholstering chairs and calling himself John Gillis, and this is him at his garage-y finest. With the help of his Headcoats (and his all-girl Headcoatees), he serves up a lightning-quick retroist romp, complete with hissy, temperamental production and pipelined guitars for days (album closer "Rusty Hook" is quite possibly the greatest White Stripes song not written by the White Stripes). The entire album never gets much deeper than lines like "Treat yourself with respect/ Be a Headcoat man," but, hey, that's still plenty sage for me.

Tad's 8 Way Santa (1991, SP #89)

Brutal, bludgeoning stuff from mountain man (and man-mountain) Tad Doyle, a former butcher who tipped scales and dropped jaws back in the early '90s as the frontman/mastermind behind Sub Pop's heaviest act. And Santa is Doyle at the height of his powers, in more ways than one. Taking its name from a type of acid blotter and featuring buzzing odes to meth-stained truckers and drunk driving, it's a big, dumb and dirty album, one made only bigger (and, quite possibly, dumber) thanks to the lawsuit that resulted when the subjects of its original cover — a tube-topped woman and a heavily mustachioed man who had recently become born-again Christians — sued Sub Pop for using their images without their consent. (Doyle claimed he found the photo of the couple at a thrift store.) All copies of the album were forced to be destroyed, and a new cover image — featuring the band standing next to some livestock at a county fair — was used instead. Re-reading this paragraph again, it's obvious to me that Tad was way more awesome than I remember.

Mark Lanegan's Whiskey for the Holy Ghost (1993, SP #132)

His first solo record (1990's The Winding Sheet) featured Cobain on backing vocals, and his full-time band (Screaming Trees) was one of Seattle's finest, but it's this, his second solo effort, that showcases Lanegan at his best. Recorded over a three-year period (sessions were so grinding that at one point, Lanegan nearly tossed the masters into a nearby lake), Whiskey is an intense listen, filled with beautifully sinister, nocturnal music. Songs like "Kingdoms of Rain" and "Beggar's Blues" echo with churchly organs and somber cellos, while Lanegan's voice pours over it all like Dewar's over ice. Genuinely beautiful stuff and an album that foreshadows the latter part of Lanegan's career, working alongside the likes of Josh Homme and Isobel Campbell.

The Vaselines' The Way of the Vaselines: A Complete History (1992, SP #145)

Seriously screwy, supremely screwed-up indie pop from a pair of clever Scots. Formed on a whim, the Vaselines — Eugene Kelley and Frances McKee — released a pair of EPs and one full-length in the late '80s (all of which is collected here) then split up for no apparent reason to do nothing in particular. Cobain was a huge fan of their skewered work, covering a pair of songs ("Molly's Lips" and "Son of a Gun") on Nirvana's odds-n-sods collection Incesticide, and then — more famously, perhaps — during the band's "Unplugged" performance (doing "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam"). A gleefully warped record, one that only seems to be about three things: sex, bicycles and Jesus. Oh, and drugs too.

Sebadoh's Bakesale (1994, SP #260)

An honest-to-goodness indie-rock classic, Bakesale is full of heart-stopping (or, alternately, heart-breaking) songs of doubt, fear and loathing — both of yourself and your fellow man. Masterminds Lou Barlow and Jason Lowenstein are in top form throughout, from the beautiful "Dreams" and the Slint-y "Sh-- Soup" to the jangly "Give Up" and the classic "Rebound." And it's not as wussy as you might expect — OK, it sort of is, but at least the guitars sound plenty heavy.

Sunny Day Real Estate's LP2 (1995, SP #316)

By now, you probably know the drama surrounding this one — mercurial frontman discovers religion, breaks up the band before album is released, leaving other members high and dry (or in the Foo Fighters) — and all that you've heard about LP2 is correct. But also consider that it's a colossal achievement, one that positively redefined stop/start (and loud/quiet) rock and paved the way for a new musical movement a decade later. Over the course of nine songs, guitarist Dan Hoerner arpeggiates and creates walls of crisp, clean sound, while the rhythm section of Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith chug and prod each other along. And frontman Jeremy Enigk's eerie voice weaves through the din like a serpent ducking into holes. Songs like "8" and "Iscarabaid" are both epic and minute, macro-detailed and wide-angle huge. "8" gets positively stratospheric thanks to Hoerner and Enigk's interplay, and "5/4" rocks harder than any song about Jesus should be allowed to.

The Spinanes' Arches + Aisles (1998, SP #417)

For all the electronic bleep-bloop, spy-movie guitars and bossa-nova beats contained therein (truly, producer John McEntire's tech-y touch is all over this one), Arches is, at its core, a singer/songwriter album, one featuring the razor-sharp lyrics of frontwoman Rebecca Gates (OK, so it also sounds like a Stereolab side project). Witness her deft observations on tunes like "72-74," where she plots revenge with a Mont Blanc pen on "your mustachioed mad man," or "Love, the Laizee," which laments the "seersucker pressure" of a former lover.

The Murder City Devils' In Name and Blood (2000, SP #497)

Ah, the lean years ... when records like this were tossed out by the floundering label with the hope of latching on to something — anything. The Devils' third album is like a pulp crime novel brought to screaming life — booze, sex, ashtrays overflowing with butts galore. And then there are the liner notes, which feature gory and detailed crime-scene photos of the bandmembers' rather unique demises (hanging, blunt trauma, "abdominal goring with a broken bottle"). Plus, a cover of Neil Diamond's "I'll Come Running." If this record were released today, there is at least a 50 percent chance these guys would be Hot Topic godheads.

The Shins' Oh, Inverted World (2001, SP #550)

Oh, enhanced cash flow. James Mercer and his band of merry retroists ambled in from the desert surrounding Albuquerque, New Mexico, with an armload of sunny, amiable jangle-pop (the kind of stuff brooding 25-year-old sitcom-stars-turned-writer/directors just love) and Sub Pop found new — not to mention profitable — life. Of course, you know "New Slang," but there's plenty of gold here ("Weird Divide," "Know Your Onion!") and songs like "Your Algebra" and "The Past and Pending" (you know, the ones after "Slang" that you never listen to) only hint at the more nocturnal territory the band covered on last year's Wincing the Night Away.

The Postal Service's Give Up (2003, SP #595)

By everyone at Sub Pop's admission, this one just sort of fell into their laps, and some 900,000 copies later, it's the second biggest-selling album in the label's history. And no one seems to be able to figure out why.Intended as nothing more than a one-off collaboration between Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and producer Jimmy Tamborello, Give Up has instead taken on a life of its own, and while it's difficult to listen to a song like "Such Great Heights" these days and not think of an ad for UPS, that doesn't mean there aren't some genuinely great moments on the album. Like when "Such Great Heights" bursts open with flourishes of mini-orchestras, or the split-second break in "We Will Become Silhouettes" or even closer "Natural Anthem," where everything comes unraveled in five short minutes. If anything, the album is really a testament to the skill of Tamborello, because if there's a vocal effect, drum pattern, synth flutter or low-end frequency he doesn't use on Give Up, I haven't heard it.

Iron + Wine's The Creek Drank the Cradle (2002, SP #600)

Sleepy lo-fi folk made by a bearded dude from Miami. If there's any indication of just how much Sub Pop has changed over the course of 20 years, this is it. The debut disc from the majestically hirsute Sam Beard, Creek came out of nowhere to earn near-universal acclaim. And it's not difficult to see why. Full of twinkly banjo ("Promising Light") and rusty slide guitar ("Faded From the Winter"), it's a remarkably accomplished introduction to the world. Full of scratches and pops, the screeches of fingers on frets and hushed lyrics, Creek is just as warm as I can presume Beam's beard gets during those balmy South Beach summers.

Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary (2005, SP #655)

From the opening claptrap of "You Are a Runner, I Am My Father's Son" (herky-jerky piano, crashing cymbals, Spencer Krug's bizarro falsetto), it's clear Wolf Parade are zooming toward something — you're just not quite sure what. And while the voyage is nice — "Modern World," "Grounds for Divorce" and "Shine a Light" are all pleasant diversions — you know when you've arrived: with the blaring synth notes and pounding drums of "I'll Believe in Anything," a song that builds and crashes over and over again, creating great peaks of cymbal crashes and huge waterfalls of guitars. It's glorious, like 10 vistas or a dozen mountain ranges. And then, it's over, and the rest of the trip is kind of a bummer. But still, dude, that view from the top!

Love as Laughter's Laughter's Fifth (2005, SP #659)

LAL mastermind Sam Jayne has made a rather amazing anti-career out of not really trying all that hard, first as a guest on Beck's One Foot in the Grave album, then on a pair of K Records releases of his own. And that, uh, talent is on ample display here. There's an awful lot of wide-eyed, delightfully scruffy stuff here, from the opening track "In Amber," which sounds like a Heartbreakers' B-side and features a line about the Pauly Shore flick "Encino Man," and the truly excellent "Corona Extra," a lover's lament that boasts gently plucked acoustic guitar and a cheesy "crashing tide" sound effect. Effort is overrated anyway.

Sleater-Kinney's The Woods (2005, SP #670)

The final chapter in the career of one of America's finest bands, The Woods represents Sleater-Kinney at the brink. Recorded in the dead of winter at Dave Fridmann's Upstate New York studio, it's an album of quiet claustrophobia and less-than-quiet rage. They sound crazy and pissed off at their surroundings and each other, which is why we get feedback heavy freak-outs like "Wilderness" and the raging, 11-minute "Let's Call It Love." That S-K decided to call it quits after the album's release was probably pure coincidence, but it certainly casts a deathly pallor over the record now — like hearing a star collapse into itself, only with more distortion.

Band of Horses' Everything All the Time (2006, SP #690)

Strummy, spacey, sepia-tinged indie rock to purchase SUVs to (or "crossovers" or whatever they're called). South Carolina-bred Ben Bridwell does his roots proud, and there's a homespun warmth to everything on the record. "The Funeral" put them on the map, but it's far from the only great tune here — "Wicked Gil" is a stomper, "The Great Salt Lake" is a My Morning Jacket castoff and "Weed Party" is awesome because it sounds like the kind of song you'd make after attending a weed party.

Pissed Jeans' Hope for Men (2007, SP #730)

Squealing, abrasive, unapologetic noise punk from the pride of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Frontman Matt Korvette yowls his throat out on tracks like the sludgy "People Person" and the thrashing "Secret Admirer," plus there's odes to scrapbooking (that sound like they're being sung by the devil), ice cream and yuppies who play fantasy football. These guys are the future — or just the unruly bastard children of Mark Arm.

Flight of the Conchords' Flight of the Conchords (2008, SP #715)

Faux French new-wave ballads, goofy synth-pop songs, tired "lover-man" tunes aplenty — ladies and gentlemen, the full-length debut from the Grammy-winning comedy duo Flight of the Conchords! I am not the best person to write about this one, as I detest "funny" music (my favorite track here is probably "Au Revoir," since it's only 21 seconds long), so let's just move on, shall we?

The Gutter Twins' Saturnalia (2008, SP #761)

An album more than three years in the making, full of morose and melodramatic ruminations on life, death and the afterlife, by Lanegan and former Afghan Whigs lothario Greg Dulli. If you like the dark and desperate places the Whigs (who, I'm just now noticing, are strangely missing from this list) went, or the windswept desolation of Lanegan's stuff, well, then you probably already own this one. Songs like "Idle Hands" and "Circle the Fringes" are somber, eerie affairs, while album-closer "Front Street" is gorgeous, desperate and swooning. Basically, there are about 1 million emotions going on here ... none of them rosy. But what else would you expect from the Twins?

Questions? Concerns? Platinum plaques? Send 'em to me at BTTS@MTVStaff.com.

• Welcome To Sub Pop!

• Nirvana
• Soundgarden
• The Postal Service
• Iron & Wine
• The Vaselines

Courtney Love
Photo: MTV News

When you've been interviewing people for, oh, a hundred years or so, you build up quite a backlog of banter and chat. A lot of this stuff is inevitably ephemeral — the day will surely never come when anyone cares what Vanilla Ice ever had to say about anything. On the other hand, it is kind of interesting to look back on the vintage natterings of people who are still on the scene and still entertaining us, either with their work or with their dotty behavior.

We've been exhuming a ton of this stuff over the last several months — interviews from the vaults going back not only to the early '90s, but even beyond. Most of these ancient tapes are fun in one way or another; some are scary, which is even more fun. We're going to be posting these old interactions every Tuesday from now on, and if some of what you see seems a little silly at times, well, the past is filled with silly things. Much like the present.

May you never have a year as awful as Courtney Love's 1994. It started out fine, with Love and her band, Hole, putting the finishing touches on their second album, Live Through This. But then Courtney's husband, Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain, committed suicide (his body was found on April 8 at their home on Lake Washington, near Seattle), leaving Courtney with a baby daughter not yet two years old. Four days later, Live Through This was released, its title and some of its songs now sounding eerily predictive. It was the band's best record.

Two months later, Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff died in Seattle of a heroin overdose. Like Cobain, she was 27 years old.

Geffen Records was no doubt sympathetic about all of this, up to a point. But the label did need Hole to start touring in support of the new album, which had gotten rave reviews. So on September 1, the group returned to the road, playing its first concert in Toronto. MTV News set up a post-show interview with Courtney, and I flew up from New York that morning with producer Jane Sangster, a big Hole fan.

The show was pretty great. With Canadian bassist Melissa Auf der Mauer now onboard (she'd been recommended to Courtney by Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan), the band was full of fire. They played powerful versions of the new Live Through This material — "Doll Parts," "Miss World," "Violet"; and their leader — looking as usual like a debauched rag doll, happily yammering away at the crowd, smoking nonstop, planting one big boot on top of a stage monitor as she chopped out chords on her guitar — was in peak form.

Courtney is a natural star — as opposed to the pre-assembled variety so common in most musical precincts — because you never know what she'll do next. I'm pretty sure this is because she never knows what she'll do next. This is what makes her a good interview.

After the show, back at the Four Seasons Hotel, where the band was staying, we were ready for her: camped out in a conference room, backdrop tacked up, cameras ready to roll, we settled in to wait. We waited quite a while; then we waited quite a while more. We wound up cooling our heels for four or five hours — Madonna-level waiting. Finally, around five in the morning, Courtney appeared, smoking like a locomotive and acting as if she were right on time. I resisted an impulse to punch her in the neck. Then she sat down, and we started.

Like all really good interview subjects, Courtney is willing to discuss just about anything. She was funny about her anomalous trust-fund background, especially getting kicked out of England's ridiculously "progressive" Summerhill School. ("The whole idea was, don't go to class if you don't want to. And I didn't.") She was sweet talking about the friends who'd rallied around her after Cobain's death, like Michael Stipe of R.E.M. ("He called me two or three times a day, every day.") She said she was spooked by the feeling that the media were actually waiting for her to die, too, and insisted she was actually past the point of heavy drug consumption. ("I have nine, ten dead friends," she said, "not counting dead husbands and dead band members.") Her feelings seemed to flicker nakedly across her face; she didn't appear to be holding much back. Although who ever knows about that? By the time we finished, the sun had come out.

Courtney went on to become what tabloid editors gratefully embrace as a complete mess. She continued the off-beat movie career she'd begun in 1986 with "Sid and Nancy," and actually won a handful of critics' awards for her performance in the 1996 Milos Forman film, "The People vs. Larry Flynt." But then came the public flip-outs, the drug busts, the child-custody battles, the plastic surgery. And her relationship with the surviving members of Nirvana appears to have grown chillier with each passing year. (Thanks to Courtney's apparent need for money, Kurt Cobain's music is now being licensed for things like video games.)

But nobody ever expected punks to age gracefully, and Courtney is pretty clearly a punk-for-life kind of girl. But she never burned out, and it doesn't look like she'll be fading away anytime soon, either. Let's keep rooting.

Enjoy digging through The Loder Files? You'll find more here, and there's much more to come from the vaults — check back every Tuesday!

• The Loder Files: A Trip Inside The MTV News Vaults

• Courtney Love
• Kurt Cobain
• Hole
• Nirvana

Judas Priest's <i>Screaming For Vengeance</i>
Photo: Sony

In what is said to be the first of a steady stream of announcements, MTV Games announced Friday (April 18) that Judas Priest's 1982 album, Screaming for Vengeance, will be the hit video game's first fully downloadable, playable album. The album will be available next week.

"That album was an important, seminal heavy-metal album in the early '80s," Alex Rigopulos, co-founder of MTV-owned development studio Harmonix, told MTV news during a Thursday phone interview. "It was on the short list of albums that had to be available on the platform."

Following Priest will be the Cars' The Cars in May and the Pixies' Doolittle in June.

While more than 100 tracks have been offered for download since "Rock Band" was released in November, albums — promised shortly after the game was announced — have yet to be offered.

Rigopulos said that it has taken time for record companies to find full masters for classic albums and for the material to then get encoded into songs that can be played via his game's guitars, drums and microphone.

The idea of offering a full album clicks with him, even if he recognizes that it's not the most modern of ideas. "In the last decade or so, we've gotten primarily used to listening to music as singles in our iPod," Rigopulos said. "But a lot of this music was composed and structured to be listened to as an album." Playing through the album can transform or enhance one's appreciation of a band, something that has already happened for him with the Judas Priest record. "I only knew about four of the songs on the album before this whole process started. It was by playing it in 'Rock Band' that I first experienced it as an album. It struck me how powerful it is to play through an album. ... Doing it as a play experience gets this music inside you."

If you've been a follower of the "Rock Band" hype, you might be confused why Judas Priest is getting the debut slot. The first album announced for the game was the Who's Who's Next?, which Rigopulos said is still caught up in the process of a record company delivering the master music assets to the game developer. And what of Nirvana's Nevermind? Rigopulos said that one is just a rumor.

(Regarding the Who, Rigopulos added that there has been so much interest from fans that there will be "another announcement of something" regarding that band and the game.)

The developer wouldn't tease any albums beyond the three announced, but when asked if more recent bands like Fall Out Boy could also get the "Rock Band" album treatment, he said, "I think we're going to be doing all of the above, [keeping] in line with the platform strategy that will include all decades of rock and all subgenres of rock."

Downloading an album for "Rock Band" won't be much different than downloading a song. The download will not include any special play-the-album mode or add-ons based on the band. It will strictly provide a new slate of songs. So don't expect to download Judas Priest avatars or anything. Rigopulos said Harmonix sees the character a "Rock Band" gamer plays as a projection of that player. "For us, the idea of injecting licensed characters doesn't make a lot of sense for 'Rock Band.' "

While singles are released weekly for "Rock Band," Rigopulos said his team could not yet promise a regularly scheduled offering of albums, not even at the monthly rate. And in the weeks that albums do come out, no other singles may be offered. In the longer term, however, the offering of music will ramp up.

Albums will be offered as $15 downloads on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The tracks can be bought individually for $1.99; Screaming for Vengeance has 10 songs. It will be downloadable on Tuesday on the Xbox 360 and on Thursday for the PS3.

And to owners of the PS2 version of "Rock Band" or the upcoming Wii version? Downloading the albums won't be an option, but those gamers aren't being forgotten. "Suffice it to say that all of this content we're amassing for next-gen consoles, we want to make it available to as broad an audience as possible as we can."

Also on Friday, MTV Games announced that more than 8 million songs have been purchased as paid downloads for "Rock Band" via the PS3 and Xbox 360, a significant increase from just three weeks ago, when the 6 million mark was achieved.

Check out the Multiplayer blog, updated daily, for even more gaming coverage.

• Judas Priest
• Nirvana
• The Cars
• The Pixies

Jim Jones' <i>Harlem's American Gangster</i>
Photo: Koch Records

Monday was Presidents' Day so, naturally, this week we're going to painstakingly describe 43 new releases that are hitting stores.

OK, we're kidding. But all the same, we are going to have some fun with the holiday, to make sure this new-releases rundown isn't a total snoozer. Since some of the latest discs simply belong together, this week we're presenting the latest titles in the form of tickets for the presidency (in real life, we're already endorsing Tancredo/Gravel for '12). Who earns your vote? Check out the candidates and cast your ballot ...

Prez: Jim Jones' Harlem's American Gangster
· "The title of this mixtape is a bit controversial," Jim recently told Mixtape Monday about his response to Jay-Z's American Gangster. "[Roc-A-Fella co-founder] Dame [Dash] feels the same way I do about American gangsters: If you snitch, you're not an American gangster. Understand me. That's what we're doing it for." Dame actually crops up on the mixtape — he surfaces in the intro and in a series of skits — while Byrd Gang flagship member Max B did some co-writing. Don't miss "Byrd Gang Money," "Love Me No More" and "Up in Harlem."

VP: Tha Dogg Pound's "Dogg Pound Chronicles: The Cleveland Edition"
· With a dearth of hip-hop happening this week, it wasn't easy to find a running mate for Mr. Jones, but the Pound will do. This video 'zine is an 11-track video mix of songs the group played at a show in Cleveland. For good measure, there's also footage of Daz Dillinger, Kurupt chilling out before the show, as well as artist chats that reveal what they'll be sinking their teeth into next.

Prez: "About a Son" DVD
· "All I knew was that he was a guitar-smashing junkie who screamed," Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad told MTV News about Kurt Cobain and the 1992 interview he did that eventually helped spawn this Cobain biopic. Culled from more than 25 hours' worth of interviews with the doomed star, the film made a sizable impact in the music world last year and is hitting stores via Shout! Factory.

VP: "About a Son" soundtrack
· In an ideal world, the Cobain flick might have been accompanied by a disc of rare Nirvana tunes. But while that didn't transpire, we're still gifted with an original score crafted by Death Cab for Cutie captain Ben Gibbard and Steve Fisk, who collaborated with Nirvana on the production end in the past. The score is coming out in digital form this week, but Nirvana enthusiasts might want to hold out for a limited-edition vinyl version due in April.

Prez: Various artists' Kidz Bop 13
· If recent years have taught you anything in terms of the Billboard albums chart, it's never to underestimate the Now That's What I Call Music! series ... or this one, for that matter. With Kidz Bop 12 having debuted at #7 in the summer, big things should be expected from its successor, which features child-friendly renditions of Plain White T's' "Hey There Delilah," Jordin Sparks' "Tattoo," Rihanna's "Hate That I Love You" and more. And there's a bonus: The disc is enhanced with a video montage for the song "Kidz Bop World" that includes footage from last year's Kidz Bop Live tour.

VP: No Kids' Come Into My House
· The first release by this Vancouver, British Columbia, trio was recorded in their hometown — thanks in part to a grant from the Canadian government — and embraces everything from R&B and pop to disco and avant-garde. Oh, and in case you're not already sold, the group copped the album title from Queen Latifah's 1989 dance single of the same name.

Prez: Secondhand Serenade's A Twist in My Story
· This acoustic rock project revolves around one guy, John Vesely, and he teamed with two big-name producers — Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails) and Butch Walker (Avril Lavigne) — for the follow-up to his self-produced debut. The MySpace-adored Secondhand Serenade — in six months, they landed 27 million plays on the social-networking site — have 11 songs on their new one, including "Stay Close, Don't Go," "Like a Knife" and "A Twist in My Story."

VP: Atlas Sound's Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel
· This ambient project revolves around one guy — Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox — and the new album was created and produced entirely by him. With sounds ranging from drone punk to techno beats, Mbira loops and more, songs on the 14-track effort include "Small Horror," "Ready, Set Glow" and "Recent Bedroom." "I want to make music that could be 'healing' or therapeutic to people who relate to it," Cox said in a statement.

Prez: Kingdom of Sorrow's Kingdom of Sorrow
· This side project by Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta and Down's Kirk Windstein dished up 11 tracks of straight-up metal for its debut, including "Hear This Prayer for Her," "Screaming Into the Sky" and "Demon Eyes (Demonized)."

VP: Ascension of the Watchers' Numinosum
· This project features Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell and keyboardist John Bechdel and also has 11 tunes' worth of heavy goodness, including "Canon for My Beloved," "Moonshine" and "Quintessence."

Prez: 3's The End Is Begun
· The New York prog-rockers have been getting a big push this year thanks to their deal with Metal Blade — and in fact, Jordan Mancino, drummer for As I Lay Dying, which is another MB band, recently told MTV News that he's been digging 3 lately too. This re-release of their 2007 effort has a cover of Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play," as well as a bonus DVD that culls assorted live performances.

VP: 5ive's Hesperus
· The Bostonian experimentalists are indirectly related to 3: 5ive are on Tortuga Recordings, a sister label of Hydra Head, which counts Chicago instrumental act Pelican among the acts on its roster. Pelican previously toured with Opeth, who will be trekking with 3 this summer as part of the Progressive Nation tour. Anywho, the seven-year-old duo of 5ive are back, and for their latest outing, they enlisted Grammy-nominated producer Andrew Schneider (Cave In, Scissorfight).

Prez: Growing's Lateral
· The drony ambient band built its reputation touring with Animal Collective, Black Dice, OOIOO and others, and now it has a new label home in the Social Registry. For Growing's first proper release on the label, they came up with four songs: "Swell," "First Contact," "Lateral" and "After Glow."

VP: Flying's Faces of the Night
· OK, we'll admit it: The only thing this band has in common with the above one is that both their names are the present participles of two verbs. This album by the idiosyncratic pop group was recorded in one week in July 2006 in a studio recently occupied by the Fiery Furnaces.

Bonus ticket: Judging by their album covers, Flowers Forever and Hellogoodbye are a match made in heaven.

Song Title of the Week:

"Which Witch Wuz" from Apes' Ghost Games

Album Cover of the Week:

What a Terrible Thing to Say by Four Letter Lie

Other Notables:

The Raveonettes' Lust Lust Lust
The Danish surf-pop-sters dropped their fourth album overseas last year, and now they're bringing it Stateside with two extra tunes: "My Heartbeat's Dying" and "Honey, I Never Had You." The album has been getting, er, rave reviews already and is the minimalist group's most stripped-down one yet. Check out "Expelled From Love," "Aly, Walk With Me" and "Dead Sound."

Danava's Unonou
The groovy psych group is as its sludgiest yet on this latest slab o' riffage. It only has seven songs, but with just two under the five-minute mark, this is an exhausting effort. Titles include "Down From a Cloud, Up From the Ground," "One Mind Gone Separate Ways" and "Where Beauty & Terror Dance."

The Heavenly States' Delayer
Think you have problems with your in-laws? Check this out — three of the four members of this San Francisco group are related through marriage. The Heavenly States were also the first rock band to play Libya, according to their publicist, and a Libyan-American producer is actually writing a screenplay based on the band's tour there. And, oh yeah, the States have a new album too — the self-produced Delayer is their first effort on their new label, the Rebel Group, and boasts 12 tunes.

New Releases:

· 5ive - Hesperus (Tortuga)
· A Cursive Memory - Changes (Vagrant)
· Ahleuchatistas - The Same and the Other (Tzadik)
· American Music Club - The Golden Age (Merge)
· Apes - Ghost Games (Gypsy Eyes)
· Arson Anthem - Arson Anthem (Housecore)
· Ascension of the Watchers - Numinosum (13th Planet)
· Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel (Kranky)
· Bel X1 - Flock (enhanced; Yep Roc)
· The Big Sleep - Sleep Forever (French Kiss)
· Shauna Burns - The Moon and the Fire (Red Rock)
· Chris Cagle - My Life's Been a Country Song (Capitol Nashville)
· Company - Old Baby (Jagjaguwar)
· Sean Costello - We Can Get Together (Delta Groove)
· Crushed Stars - Gossamer Days (Simulacra)
· Cryptacize - Dig That Treasure (Asthmatic Kitty)
· Danava - Unonou (Kemado)
· Ray Davies - Working Man's Café (limited deluxe edition comes with DVD; New West)
· Dead to Fall - Are You Serious? (Victory)
· Mike Doughty - Golden Delicious (ATO) [Buy Now]
· Ekotren - Light the Fire (Blind Prophecy)
· The Epochs - The Epochs (Rebel Group)
· Eyes Set to Kill - Reach (Break Silence)
· Dennis Ferrer - My World as They Remixed It (King Street Sounds)
· Fight Amp - Hungry for Nothing (enhanced; Translation Lost)
· Flowers Forever - Flowers Forever (Team Love)
· Flying - Faces of the Night (Menlo Park)
· Four Letter Lie - What a Terrible Thing to Say (Victory)
· Giacomo Gates - Luminosity (with DVD; DoubleDave)
· Genghis Tron - Board Up the House (Relapse)
· Anthony Gomes - Live (Ruf)
· Grand Archives - Grand Archives (Sub Pop)
· Graveyard - Graveyard (Tee Pee)
· Grief of War - A Mounting Crisis ... As Their Fury Got Released (Prosthetic)
· Growing - Lateral (EP; The Social Registry)
· Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping (Polyvinyl)
· The Heavenly States - Delayer (The Rebel Group)
· Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)
· Jim Jones - Harlem's American Gangster (Koch) [Buy Now]
Read: "Mixtape Monday: Jim Jones Drops His Own Gangsta; Jail Doesn't Scare Tony Yayo" · B.B. King - Live (Geffen/UMe)
· Kingdom of Sorrow - Kingdom of Sorrow (Relapse)
· Justus Köhncke - Safe and Sound (Kompakt)
· Kula Shaker - Strange Folk (Cooking Vinyl)
· Jim Lauderdale & the Dream Players - Honey Songs (Yep Roc)
· Gary Louris - Vagabonds (Rykodisc)
· Megafaun - Bury the Square (Table of Elements)
· Monade - Monstre Cosmic (Too Pure)
· Allison Moorer - Mockingbird (New Line)
· Morcheeba - Dive Deep (Ultra)
· Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride (4AD) [Buy Now]
· Neptune - Gong Lake (Radium/ Table of Elements)
· No Kids - Come Into My House (Tomlab)
· Pacific UV - Longplay 2 (Warm)
· Paint It Black - New Lexicon (Jade Tree)
· Panther - 14k God (Kill Rock Stars)
· Tom Paxton - Comedians & Angels (Appleseed)
· The Picture Show - Shatters Into Discontent (10 Spot)
· Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust (Vice) [Buy Now]
· Gary Reynolds and the Brides of Obscurity - Santiago's Vest (Electrokitty)
· Arlen Roth (featuring Levon Helm) - Toolin' Around Woodstock (two CDs; Aquinnah)
· Secondhand Serenade - A Twist in My Story (Glass Note) [Buy Now]
· Seven Mary Three - Day&NightDriving (enhanced; Bellum) [Buy Now]
· Sian Alice Group - 59.59 (The Social Registry)
· Steve Smith - This Town (Gas)
· Donita Sparks + the Stellar Moments - Transmiticate (Redeye)
· This Is Hell - Misfortunes (Trustkill)
· Paul Thorn - A Long Way From Tupelo (Perpetual Obscurity)
· Throw Me the Statue - Moonbeams (Secretly Canadian)
· Time Again - Darker Days (Hellcat)
· Various artists - Kidz Bop 13 (enhanced; Razor & Tie)

Notable Reissues and Archival Material:

· 3 - The End Is Begun (special edition with bonus DVD; Metal Blade)
· Lúcio Alves - Pure Bossa Nova: A View on the Music of Lúcio Alves (Verve)
· Average White Band - Soul & the City: Recorded Live at B.B. King's (Copycats/Koch)
· Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode: His Complete '50s Chess Recordings (four-CD box set; Hip-O Select)
· Carla Bruni - No Promises (enhanced; previously available on iTunes only; Downtown)
· The Damned - The Chaos Years: Live and Studio Demos 1977-1982 (Cleopatra)
· Vinicius de Moraes - Pure Bossa Nova: A View on the Music of Vinicius de Moraes (Verve)
· Lee Dorsey - Funky as I Can Be! (Great American Music)
· Envy - Compiled Fragments 1997-2003 (Temporary Residence)
· Marianne Faithfull - No Regrets (Great American Music)
· Hellogoodbye - Hellogoodbye EP/DVD Split and Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! And More! (Drive-Thru)
· iio - Rapture Reconstruction: Platinum Edition (two CDs; Made)
· Antonio Carlos Jobim - Pure Bossa Nova: A View on the Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim (Verve)
· KMFDM - Brimborium (Metropolis)
· Nara Leão - Pure Bossa Nova: A View on the Music of Nara Leão (Verve)
· Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool (Yep Roc)
· Carlos Lyra - Pure Bossa Nova: A View on the Music of Carlos Lyra (Verve)
· Magic Mushroom Band - Live '89 (Zeit Media)
· Roberto Menescal - Pure Bossa Nova: A View on the Music of Roberto Menescal (Verve)
· Os Cariocas - Pure Bossa Nova: A View on the Music of Os Cariocas (Verve)
· Tamba Trio - Pure Bossa Nova: A View on the Music of Tamba Trio (Verve)
· Sylvia Telles - Pure Bossa Nova: A View on the Music of Sylvia Telles (Verve)
· Billy Vera & the Beaters - Hopeless Romantic: The Best of Billy Vera & the Beaters (Shout! Factory)
· Walter Wanderley - Pure Bossa Nova: A View on the Music of Walter Wanderley (Verve)
· Jessica Williams - Nothin' but the Truth (Black Hawk)
· Pete York - Pete York & Friends (three-CD collector's edition; Inakustic)
· Various artists - Don't Press Your Luck! The Sound of '60s Connecticut (Sundazed)
· Various artists - Hard to Find Jukebox Classics: 1957 - Pop Gold and Rhythm & Rock (Hit Parade)
· Various artists - Let's Hear It for the Boy Vol. 7 (two CDs; Megahit)
· Various artists - New York Blues and R&B (two CDs; Acrobat)
· Various artists - Putumayo Presents: Euro Groove (Putumayo World Music)

Music DVDs:

· America - "Live in Central Park" (Eagle)
· Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen - "Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen" (ATA Trading Corp)
· Kurt Cobain - "About a Son" (Shout! Factory)
Read: " 'About A Son' Conversations Give A Glimpse Into The Kurt Cobain Few Knew"
· Earl Thomas Conley - "Greatest Hits" (Quantum Leap)
· Deep Purple - "Live at Montreux 2006" (Blu-Ray; Eagle)
· Fairport Convention - "Maidstone 1970" (Neptune)
· Flipper - "Live: Target Video 1980-81" (Target Video)
· Genesis - "Remember Knebworth 1978: A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Voiceprint)
· B.B. King - "Live" (Geffen/UMe)
· The New Seekers - "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" (ATA Trading Corp.)
· Santana - "Hymns for Peace: Live at Montreux 2004" (Blu-Ray; Eagle)
· Society 1 - "Fearing the Exit"/ "The Creation of Sound" (two DVDs; Earache)
· Tad - "Busted Circuits and Ringing Ears" (Music Video Distributors)
· Tangerine Dream - "Live at Coventry Cathedral" (Video Music)
· Tha Dogg Pound - "Dogg Pound Chronicles: The Cleveland Edition" (Capture Motion)
· The Wake - "Blacklist" (with CD; Cleopatra)
· Yes - "Live at Montreux 2003" (Blu-Ray; Eagle)
· Various artists - "A Tribute to Edith Piaf: Live at Montreux 2004" (Eagle)
· Various artists - "Burn to Shine 5: Seattle, WA 1.27.07" (Trixie)
· Various artists - "Hymns for Peace" (Blu-Ray; Eagle)
· Various artists - "iCrusher Complete" (Earache)

Digital Releases:

· Billy Boy on Poison - Sweet Mess (EP; available at iTunes; Ironworks)
· Bonnie Bramlett - Beautiful (available exclusively at RockinCamel.com; Rockin' Camel)
· Marc Broussard - Must Be the Water (EP; available on iTunes; Atlantic)
· Ben Gibbard and Steve Fisk - "About a Son" score (Barsuk)
· Mobius Band - Love Will Reign Supreme (EP; available for free on MobiusBand.com)
· The Postmarks - By the Numbers (ongoing 12-part series of free songs available exclusively at eMusic)
· Ursula 1000 - Undressed (ESL Music)

Coming Attractions:

February 26:
· Erykah Badu - New Amerykah (Motown)
· Missy Higgins - On a Clear Night (Reprise)
· Janet Jackson - Discipline (deluxe edition comes with DVD; Island)

March 4:
· The Black Crowes - Warpaint (Silver Arrow/ Megaforce/ Sony)
· Flogging Molly - Float (Side One Dummy)
· Stephen Malkmus & Jicks - Real Emotional Trash (Matador)

March 11:
· Fat Joe - The Elephant in the Room (Virgin)
Read: "Fat Joe Nixes Planned Eddie Murphy Cover, Salutes 'Hood Spartans On '300' "
· Meshuggah - obZen (Nuclear Blast America)
· Rick Ross - Trilla (Def Jam)
Read: "Rick Ross Recruits Jay-Z, T-Pain, Lil Wayne To Help Him Thrill On Trilla"

• Jim Jones
• Nirvana

"The Beyoncé Experience Live" DVD
Photo: Sony Music

With the bloated blimp of overspending that is Black Friday about to descend and wreak havoc on the lands, artists are booking it to the stores a few days in advance to make sure they can horn in on the commercial cornucopia before the frothing masses get there first. But don't worry about getting lost and dizzy amid the rush of rabid shoppers — here's a handy guide of highlight gifts you'll find hitting stores this week ...

Dangerously in LoveSounds?: Still need proof that compact discs are going the way of the dodo? According to BestBuy.com, three of the top five hottest-ticket music items going on sale this week aren't even CDs — they're DVDs. One of the video discs in question is "The Beyoncé Experience Live," which commemorates a tour so huge it needed two corporate sponsors in its tag line ("... brought to you by Samsung and L'Oréal Paris"). The DVD features her September 2 show at Los Angeles' Staples Center, where Jay-Z made a special appearance and Destiny's Child reunited for "Survivor." The gig went down two days before her 26th birthday, which ties in quite nicely with the fact that the show was based around her latest album, B'Day.

Best Buy's most in-demand item for the week is Justin Timberlake's "FutureSex/LoveShow - Live From Madison Square Garden" DVD — and we're guessing that has something to do with the fact that it's available only at Best Buy. The two-disc set presents his August 15 show at New York's Madison Square Garden and has song-by-song commentary from JT himself, as well as 80 minutes' worth of extra stuff, including pre- and post-show clips, chats with Timberlake and his performers, and a deeper look into the making of the show. Best Buy is actually circumventing the Tuesday-release tradition and debuting the set instead this coming Friday, which just happens to be the biggest shopping day of the year (go fig).

And in case you're wondering what the other in-demand DVD is this week, it's "Crossroads: Eric Clapton Guitar Festival 2007," which also features John Mayer, Sheryl Crow and more.

Very Ape: Gorillaz are taking after themselves this week — the duo chased their 2001 self-titled debut with their G-Sides compilation the following year, and now they're following up 2005's Demon Days with a similar collection, D-Sides. Fans will drool over a new version of "Hong Kong"; demo versions of "Dare" and "Don't Get Lost in Heaven"; and a bonus CD that boasts remixes by DFA, Hot Chip, Jamie T and others. There's also a special dual-box version that comes with badges, stickers, a patch and exclusive artwork by Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett.

Nine Inch Nails have their own item to tide people over with until they release a new studio album: Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D, which, if you sub in the E's for 3's and the A for an 4, actually makes a whole lotta sense as the follow-up to April's Year Zero. Released by Interscope — despite Trent Reznor declaring his freedom from the label and promising to leak the remixes himself earlier this year — the disc features songs reworked by the Faint, Interpol's Sam Fogarino, Stephen Morris (Joy Division, New Order) and others. More striking is that the package comes with a DVD-ROM containing the master tracks for every Year Zero tune, allowing customers to rearrange them through Apple GarageBand or Ableton Live. Reznor has also promised that a new site, Remix.NIN.com, will be erected in conjunction with the release of Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D, so even more remix fun might be in store.

Rap Roundup: There's no stopping Trent Reznor, and there's no stopping JR Writer, either — with the release of his second LP, this week's Writer's Block 5, the New York MC now has three more chapters in his ongoing mixtape series than he does studio albums. This time around, he's brought Cam'ron, Jim Jones, the Diplomats and Juelz Santana along for the ride.

Speaking of rides, Philadelphia's Freeway is hoping to make sure Roc-A-Fella's fall stays red-hot with the release of his own sophomore effort, Free at Last. For the forever-in-the-works LP — Free previously told Mixtape Monday that it was supposed to drop July 4, 2005 — the up-and-comer attracted a few people you might have heard of: Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, Rick Ross, Scarface and Jadakiss, among others.

In other collabo news, Timbaland's head-scratching hookup with MySpace faves One Republic resurfaces this week: A remix of "Apologize," which previously appeared on April's Timbaland Presents Shock Value, is tacked onto the end of the rock band's Dreaming Out Loud. And last but not least, Cormega called on a few buddies — Dwele and Keek Da Sneak among them — to participate on the soundtrack to his autobiographical flick "Who Am I?," which is dropping as a DVD/CD combo.

Jordan's Flow: Don't try to pin down Jordin Sparks on her debut — "It's hard to make everything fit together," the "American Idol" winner admitted to MTV News last month of the various pop, R&B, country and hip-hop strains found on the self-titled disc. It's stamped with her two singles, "Tattoo" and "This Is My Now" — but Sparks has a lot of work to do to measure up to Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood, given that the songs haven't cracked the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Look for bonus songs on the Wal-Mart, Sony and iTunes editions.

Rating the Reissues: While we're on the bonus-track tip, here's a quick peek at this week's top re-releases, to see if they're worth your while:

Fall Out Boy's Infinity on High
· What's new: bonus CD with five songs, including three live tracks and two B-sides
· Worth it?: Thnks fr ncldng bns mtrl! A CD can hold more than five songs, ya know.

Bloc Party's A Weekend in the City (digital only)
· What's new: one new track, "Flux," which is also being made available via a new EP of the same name
· Worth it?: This one's pretty simple. Don't own the CD? Get the new digital version. Got the CD? Buy the new track or the EP.

Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York" DVD
· What's new: the band's performances of "Something in the Way" and "Oh Me," which did not appear in the original broadcast but were featured on the subsequent CD, plus five previously unreleased rehearsal performances, MTV News interviews with the band and audience members, and a 14-minute documentary called "Bare Witness"
· Worth it?: A bonus hour of archival Nirvana footage is to rock fans what the TV equivalent of an hour's worth of bonus "Seinfeld" material is to TV junkies.

Amy Winehouse's Frank
· What's new: nada
· Worth it?: Earlier this year, U.S. retailers selling import copies of the singer's 2003 debut were forced to remove it from their shelves after receiving a letter from Universal Republic threatening legal action prior to this domestic release. Maybe all that would have been avoided if the label had simply added some bonus content to the reissue.

U2's Joshua Tree
· What's new: Unreleased photos and new liner notes on the single disc, a bonus disc of B-sides and demos from the original album sessions on the deluxe edition, and a DVD of Joshua Tree Tour footage and other rare clips on the limited-edition box set.
· Worth it?: Now this is a reissue done up right.

Mystery Men: Shedding light on some of this week's less familiar notable artists:

· Doug Neumann: A.k.a. "Uncle Doug," he is the general manager of Crush Management, home to Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, etc. On Doug Does Decaydance, Neumann dishes up jazzy covers of songs by those artists and others.

· Bonnie "Prince" Billy: A.k.a. Will Oldham, Palace, etc., he is one of indiedom's most treasured folk/country crooners — and he mastered the art of the ironic cover song waaay before it became cool. On Ask Forgiveness, he reinterprets tracks by R. Kelly, Danzig, Frank Sinatra and more.

· Joe Lally: Bassist for Fugazi, he hit up bandmates Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto — as well as other Dischord Records-related artists like Ben Azzara (the Capitol City Dusters) and Eddie Janny (Rites of Spring) — for his second effort, Nothing Is Underrated.

· James Murphy and Pat Mahoney: Members of LCD Soundsystem, they dig into classic New York disco and funk sounds — and slip in their own group's "Hippie Priest Bum-Out" — on FabricLive.36.

What's This, Isis?: A few of this week's underground heavy-rock sludge-slingers have a little something in common ...

MGR: Instrumental side project by Isis's Mike Gallagher

Tusk: Experimental band featuring three-quarters of Pelican, who have toured extensively with Isis

Boris and Merzbow: The Japanese rock band and extreme-noise composer have teamed many times in the past, including in 2005, when they made Sun Baked Snow Cave. The CD, which consisted of one 62-minute track, came out courtesy Hydra Head Records, the label founded by Aaron Turner, frontman of ... Isis.

Song Title of the Week:

"Stabbin' Daggers" from Sebastian Bach's Angel Down

Album Cover of the Week:

Pole's Steingarten Remixes

Other Notables:

Various artists' The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium
Rivaling The Heavy Metal Box for most badass packaging of the year, this four-CD collection doesn't just come in any old packaging — the discs are housed in a miniature red telephone box, fitting for the 1985-2000 era it revolves around. Fans of Coldplay and Snow Patrol who need a brush-up on history should look no further than this set, which rakes together chestnuts from the Smiths, Placebo — and all the relevant acts in between.

Opeth's The Roundhouse Tapes
Eighteen months into touring in support of 2005's Ghost Reveries, the Swedish death-metal masters played a gig at the Camden Roadhouse in London and documented this show, which took place November 9, 2006. Opeth are signed to powerhouse metal label Roadrunner but, keeping their karma intact, they're releasing it through their former label Peaceville "for helping us back in the day," frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt said in a statement. There are only nine songs featured on the set, but the fact that it takes two CDs to contain them should give you an idea of the kind of epics that are in store.

Six Organs of Admittance's Shelter From the Ash
Comets on Fire guitarist Ben Chasny is back with his 10th dose of droney electronic/acoustic music via his side project. For the eight-song release, the improv-happy artist banded together with the F---ing Champs' Tim Green, the Magik Markers' Elisa Ambrogio, Will Oldham (see above) collaborator Matt Sweeney and Comets on Fire's Noel Harmonson. Fans of minimalism, surrealism and other arty "isms" take note.

New Releases:

· Ayo - Joyful (Interscope)
· Sebastian Bach - Angel Down (Merovingian/ Get Off My Bach) [Buy Now]
· B-Legit - Throwblock Muzic (SMC)
· Blut Aus Nord - Odinist (Candlelight)
· Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Ask Forgiveness (Drag City)
· Boris with Merzbow - Rock Dream (two CDs; Southern Lord)
· British Sea Power - Krankenhaus? (EP; Rough Trade) [Buy Now]
· Cloudland Canyon and Lichens - Exterminating Angel (Holy Mountain)
· Cormega - "Who Am I?" soundtrack (Legal Hustle) [Buy Now]
· Coyote - Outsides (Hot Dog City)
· Doro - All We Are: The Fight (with DVD; Locomotive)
· Melissa Etheridge - The Awakening Live (with DVD; Island) [Buy Now]
· Ex-Boyfriends - In With (Absolutely Kosher)
· The Foreshadowing - Days of Nothing (Candlelight)
· Freeway - Free at Last (Roc-a-Fella) [Buy Now]
· Golden Death Music - Ephemera Blues (Helmet Room)
· Haram - Drescher (Lovitt)
· Javaughn - Superstar (Tuff Gong/ Ghetto Youths)
· Bela Karoli - Furnished Rooms (Helmet Room)
· Joe Lally - Nothing Is Underrated (Dischord)
· Limbonic Art - Legacy of Evil (Candlelight)
· Mago de Oz - A Costa Da Morte (two CDs; Locomotive)
· Major Stars - Mirror/Messenger (Drag City)
· MGR - Wavering on the Cresting Heft (Conspiracy)
· James Murphy & Pat Mahoney - FabricLive.36 (FabricLive)
· Doug Neumann - Doug Does Decaydance (Decaydance)
· Nine Inch Nails - Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D (with DVD; Interscope) [Buy Now]
· NOFX - They've Actually Gotten Worse Live (Fat Wreck Chords) [Buy Now]
· October File - Holy Armour From the Jaws of God (Candlelight)
· One Republic - Dreaming Out Loud (Interscope)
· Opeth - The Roundhouse Tapes (two CDs; Peaceville)
· Pole - Steingarten Remixes (EP; Scape)
· Pure Inc. - Pure Inc. (Locomotive)
· Sear Bliss - The Arcane Odyssey (Candlelight)
· Sentai - Full Representation (Ruffian)
· Seven Witches - Deadly Sins (Locomotive)
· Six Organs of Admittance - Shelter From the Ash (Drag City)
· Jordin Sparks - Jordin Sparks (19 Entertainment/ Jive) [Buy Now]
Read: " 'American Idol' Champ Jordin Sparks Puts Finishing Touches On Debut, Considers Acting"
· Statehood - Lies and Rhetoric (Statehood)
· Keith Sweat - A Christmas of Love (Rhino) [Buy Now]
· Too Pure to Die - Confidence & Consequence (Trustkill)
· Tusk - The Resisting Dreamer (Tortuga)
· The Valerie Project - The Valerie Project (Drag City)
· JR Writer - Writer's Block 5 (Babygrande)
· Various artists - Pink 2 (Swank)
· Various artists - "Alvin and the Chipmunks" soundtrack (Razor & Tie)
· Various artists - "Enchanted" soundtrack (Disney)
· Various artists - "Fred Claus" soundtrack (Reprise)
· Various artists - "Halo 3" soundtrack (Sumthing Else)

Notable Reissues and Archival Material:

· Anberlin - Lost Songs (Tooth & Nail)
· Bulldozer - The Day of Wrath; The Final Separation; IX: Circle of Hell; and Neurodeliri (Metal Mind)
· Nat King Cole - Remixes (D-Rom Ltd)
· Cyclone - Brutal Destruction (Metal Mind)
· Dead Poetic - The Finest (Tooth & Nail)
· Donald Fagen - Nightfly Trilogy (box set with four CDs and three MVI DVDs; Rhino)
· Fall Out Boy - Infinity on High (deluxe edition with bonus CD; Island) [Buy Now]
· Fight K5 - The War of Words Demos (Metal God)
· Floodgate - Penalty (Metal Mind)
· Gang Green - I Can't Live Without It; Older ... Budweiser; and You Got It (Metal Mind)
· Genesis - 1983-1998 (box set with five CDs and five DVDs); and CD-plus-DVD reissues of Calling All Stations; Genesis; Invisible Touch; and We Can't Dance (Rhino)
· Gorillaz - D-Sides (two CDs; glossy-box limited edition also available; Virgin) [Buy Now]
· Great Kat - Beethoven on Speed and Worship Me or Die (Metal Mind)
· Ed Harcourt - Until Tomorrow Then: The Best Of ... (limited-edition version comes with bonus CD; Astralwerks)
· The King Khan & BBQ Show - The King Khan & BBQ Show (In the Red)
· MC5 - I Can Only Give You Everything (Get Back)
· Newsboys - The Greatest Hits (Sparrow)
· Phish - 08.13.93: Murat Theatre - Indianapolis, IN (three CDs); 10.21.95: Pershing Auditorium - Lincoln, NE (three CDs); 11.14.95: University of Central Florida Arena - Orlando, FL (three CDs); 12.01.95: Hersheypark Arena - Hershey, PA (two CDs); 12.29.97: Madison Square Garden - New York, NY (three CDs); Colorado '88 (three CDs); and Vegas 96 (two CDs and one DVD; Jemp)
· Django Reinhardt - The Electric Years (two CDs; Avid Jazz)
· The Shangri-Las - Leader of the Pack (Cleopatra)
· Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes - The Jukes (Hip-O-Select)
· Traveling Wilburys - The Traveling Wilburys Collection (deluxe edition with two CDs and one DVD; Rhino)
· U2 - Joshua Tree (deluxe edition has extra CDs; super-deluxe edition has two CDs and one DVD; Island) [Buy Now]
· Keith Urban - Greatest Hits (special edition comes with DVD; Capitol Nashville)
· Randy VanWarmer - Beat of Love/ Things That You Dream and Warmer Terraform (Collectors' Choice)
· Amy Winehouse - Frank (Universal Republic) [Buy Now]
· Various artists - The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium (four-CD box set; Rhino)
· Various artists - Psychobilly Box: Rockabilly Roots and Hootenanny (two CDs; Cleopatra)
· Various artists - Putumayo Kids Presents: Celtic Dreamland (Putumayo Kids)
· Various artists - Rock 'N' Skiffle: Brit Beat Beginnings (four-CD box set; Proper Box/ City Hall)
· Various artists - The Rubble Collection: Volumes 11-20 (10-CD box set; Fallout)
· Various artists - "Wild Style!" Soundtrack - 25th Anniversary Edition (two CDs; Mr. Bongo)

Music DVDs:

· Beyoncé - "The Beyoncé Experience Live" (Columbia)
· Cowboy Mouth - "The Name of the Band Is Cowboy Mouth" (Valley Entertainment)
· Fight - "War of Words - The Film" (digipak comes with bonus DVD; Metal God)
· Genitorturers - "Live in Sin" (Retribution)
· Kaada/Patton - "Live" (Ipecac)
· Kiss - "Kiss Loves You" (8th Grade)
· Jonny Lang - "Live at Montreux 1999" (Eagle Vision)
· Paul McCartney - "Ecce Cor Meum" (EMI Classics)
· Meat Loaf - "3 Bats Live" (two DVDs; Hip-O)
· Negativland - "Our Favorite Things" (Other Cinema)
· Nirvana - "Unplugged in New York" (Geffen)
· Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - "Greatest Hits Live" (Quantum Leap)
· Queen - "Under Review 1946-1991: The Freddie Mercury Story" (Chrome Dreams)
· The Rolling Stones - "Under Review 1967-1969" (Chrome Dreams)
· Sigur Rós - "Heima" (digipak; limited deluxe edition comes includes book; XL Recordings)
· Tegan and Sara - "It's Not Fun, Don't Do It!" (Sire)
· Justin Timberlake - "FutureSex/LoveShow - Live From Madison Square Garden" (two DVDs; available exclusively at Best Buy, starting Friday)
· Vader - "And Blood Was Shed in Warsaw" (Metal Mind)
· Wolfmother - "Please Experience Wolfmother: Live" (Interscope)
· Joe Zawinul - "A Musical Portrait" (Arthaus Musik)
· Various artists - "A Very Special Christmas: 20th Anniversary Music Video Collection" (Victory Multimedia)
· Various artists - "Crossroads: Eric Clapton Guitar Festival 2007" (two DVDs; Rhino)
· Various artists - "Fuzz: The Sound That Revolutionized the World" (Brink)
· Various artists - "Glade Electronic Music Festival" (Groove Zone)
· Various artists - "Opry Video Classics: Legends" (Time Life)

Digital Releases:

· Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City (reissue with bonus material; Vice) and Flux (EP; Vice)
· The Format - B-Sides and Rarities (Vanity Label)
· Idlewild - A Distant History: Rarities 1997-2007 (EMI)
· Inner City - Good Life: The Best of Inner City (EMI)
· Nils Lofgren - Nils Lofgren (Hip-O Select)
· Katy Perry - Ur So Gay (EP; Capitol)

Coming Attractions:

November 27:
· Christina Aguilera - "Back to Basics: Live" DVD (RCA)
· Common - ThisIsMe Then: The Best of Common (Relativity/Legacy)
· Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds: Deluxe Edition (with DVD; Jive)

December 4:
· Daft Punk - Alive 2007 (limited-edition version comes with bonus CD; Virgin)
· Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab (Def Jam)
· Godsmack - Good Times, Bad Times: 10 Years of Godsmack (also available with DVD; Republic)
· Wyclef Jean - Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant (Columbia)
Read: "T.I. Kick-Starts Wyclef Jean's LP; Mary J. Blige, Akon Tagging Along"
· Styles P - Super Gangster (Extraordinary Gentleman) (Koch)

December 11:
· Bow Wow and Omarion - Face Off (also available with bonus DVD; Columbia)
Read: "Bow Wow Says His Face Off With Omarion Will Mean A 'Whole Bunch Of #1 Records' "
· R. Kelly - "Trapped in the Closet, Chapters 1-22" DVD (Jive)
· Mario - Go (J)
Read: "Mario Gets Back To Making Music With Akon, Timbaland, Neptunes"

• Beyoncé
• Fall Out Boy
• Nine Inch Nails
• Gorillaz
• Nirvana

Sean Penn
Photo: Philip Cheung/ Getty Images

The raging Southern California wildfires that intensified over the weekend are threatening the homes of a number of stars who reside in Malibu. Mel Gibson, Jennifer Aniston, Tom Hanks, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, James Cameron, Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn, Rob Reiner, David Geffen, David Duchovny, Mark Hamill, Olivia Newton-John and Bill Murray are among the stars who have been evacuated or whose homes are potentially in jeopardy. ...

Fall Out Boy have "an album's worth of material" good to go but aren't ready to put out their fifth LP just quite yet, frontman Patrick Stump told Billboard.com. "There's always something that hits me, like a sense of urgency — now is the time for an album — and we're not there yet," he said. "I just get this kind of wanderlust of some kind to go back into a studio. It's always a very defined point." Stump added that the band's Infinity on High, which came out in February, hasn't worn out its welcome yet. "I don't really feel like we're done with this one yet," he said. "I feel like it's still in its cycle. There's a lot of songs on it I'm really proud of." Meanwhile, in regards to the new material, Stump said there are "lots of bizarre ideas" in the mix, "everything from folk to ... actually, I was experimenting with piano phases, like Steve Reich, the composer. There'll be some weird stuff, but at the end of the day, it's probably just gonna be a pop record." Stump also said he recently filmed a guest spot for an episode of "Law & Order" that will air in February. ...

Beyoncé's tour comes to a close November 12 in Taiwan — so, fittingly, she's decided to put out a concert DVD eight days later. "The Beyoncé Experience Live!," recorded at Los Angeles' Staples Center on September 2, features her performances of "Survivor" with the reunited Destiny's Child and "Upgrade U" with beau Jay-Z. It has more than two hours' worth of content in total. ... Tool's long-promised "Vicarious" DVD will be in stores December 18 and include an extended cut of the video for the title track, bonus material and special packaging. ...

The jury trial of Vincent "Don Vito" Margera — Bam Margera's uncle — on two counts of sexual assault on a child is slated to begin Tuesday. Margera is on trial for allegedly groping three underage girls at an autograph signing in August 2006 in Colorado. The jury in the trial was slated to be seated on Monday (October 22), according to a court spokesperson. ...

Ozzy Osbourne has heart — he's donating all his net profits from his November 30 show at Los Angeles' Staples Center, including ticket sales and merch, to the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program run by his wife. ... Korn frontman Jonathan Davis has beefed up his upcoming solo tour with additional dates — the trek will get under way November 9 in Hartford, Connecticut, and run through December 11 in Las Vegas. In related news, ex-Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery is now an ex-Korn guitarist too. He has been replaced by Shane Gibson after being forced to leave the band's current "B---h We Have a Problem" run due to a family emergency. ...

Want to get your hands on some Gorillaz stickers, badges and a "Choose Pazuzu" patch? Then make sure to pick up the special-edition version of their upcoming D-Sides collection, which has bumped from a November 6 release date November 20. The special set will also come in a glossy box and have two exclusive prints by Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett. ... The ever-outlandish Mars Volta fans are going to be required to wear costumes to the one-off show they'll play at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on New Year's Eve. The band's next album, The Bedlam in Goliath, drops January 29. ...

The hip-hop promoter who was allegedly attacked by three of Diddy's bodyguards reportedly served the hip-hop mogul on Friday with papers over the rough-up, although they were reportedly having none of it. According to TMZ, James Waldon tried to hand Diddy papers at his Sean Jean store in New York, but his bodyguards apparently smacked them to the ground before eventually retrieving them. They reportedly chased away Waldon, who alleges in his $5 million suit that three of Diddy's bodyguards attacked him after he chatted with the Bad Boy boss at the Box nightclub in New York. ... Relient K have parted ways with drummer Dave Douglas, who will bolt after the group's tour winds down in late December, it was revealed in a Friday post on the band's Web site. No explanation has been given for the departure of Douglas, who had been in Relient K for seven years. Douglas was quoted in the post as saying he will be devoting most of his time to his Gypsy Parade project. ...

Seems there's trouble in the world of CKY. Apparently a physical altercation recently broke out between various members of the group, and they've taken to MySpace to air their dirty laundry. In a post from guitarist Chad Ginsburg, he claims he broke his foot at a gig in St. Louis, and that frontman Deron Miller "has quit CKY to pursue his own band." He added that he, along with drummer Jess Margera, will carry on as CKY. Of course, Miller has a different side to the story. He claims he didn't quit the band, but, "after the San Diego show, I started getting really depressed and couldn't eat or sleep, so of course, I started drinking more and more moderately." According to Miller, he overheard several of his bandmates talking smack about him in St. Louis, and heard some "extremely personal, painful things that were mostly untrue and stupid." Miller said he confronted the rest of the band, after which "a fight broke out. I slapped Jess' hat off of his head and [Miller was jumped] after I put on my backpack to leave the bus." He said he left the band's tour to "detox" and is considering returning to the fold "if I can get and return some apologies, because let's face it, CKY [carrying on] would both be laughable and illegal." Miller also warned that if any of the songs he wrote for the band's forthcoming album end up on the LP, he'd take legal action. ...

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie can't get enough of each other — the couple are putting together a series for HBO, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The two are creating their first production project, a drama that will chronicle workers in an international aid organization who are assigned to dangerous areas. The series doesn't have a name yet, but it will be written by Scott Burns, who produced Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and co-wrote "The Bourne Ultimatum." ...

Cake are hitting the road for the latest edition of their Unlimited Sunshine Tour series in support of their recently released B-Sides and Rarities compilation. The tour, which kicks off November 28 with a show in Anaheim, California, will also feature performances by Brazilian Girls, Detroit Cobras, Oakley Hall, King City and Agent Ribbons. ...

Kate Hudson and Chris Robinson's divorce is almost officially over — the ex-couple have filed their divorce papers in Los Angeles County Superior Court, according to TMZ. A judge might sign off on the papers later Monday. Robinson filed for divorce in November, and he will share joint custody with Hudson of their only child, son Ryder. ... Lance Hahn, the J Church bassist who also originally fronted the San Francisco punk band, died Sunday from complications arising from kidney disease, according to Austin360.com. He was 40. In July, a tribute album called Let's Do It for Lance! was released to help raise money so Hahn, who had no health insurance, could pay his medical bills. ...

It was a scary moment for punk godmother Patti Smith during a show at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London on Sunday, when the 60-year-old singer took a fall and almost hit the edge of the stage during a show, according to a report. During an encore of her signature tune "Rock N Roll N-----," England's NME reports that Smith tripped on a speaker and fell on her face, cutting her elbow and laying on the ground for a few "agonizing" seconds. Smith allegedly joked about the fall, saying, "I'm not even f---ing embarrassed because I've done far worse," perhaps alluding to the scary fall she took in 1977 in Tampa, Florida, when she tripped off a stage and broke two vertebrae in her neck. ...

Country legend Porter Wagoner has been diagnosed with lung cancer and has been hospitalized in serious condition in Nashville, according to The Associated Press. Wagoner, 80, known for his rhinestone-dripping stage outfits and blond pompadour, is a Country Music Hall of Famer whose hits include "Misery Loves Company," "Green, Green Grass of Home" and "Skid Row Joe." He helped launch the career of Dolly Parton when he hired her as a duet partner in 1967, and Parton has said she wrote the smash hit "I Will Always Love You" (famously covered by Whitney Houston) in Wagoner's honor. ...

Police in Johannesburg, South Africa, have arrested five people in connection with the murder of reggae singer Lucky Dube, who was shot and killed during an attempted carjacking on Thursday. Reuters reports that the men were arrested in an early morning raid on Sunday, during which stolen goods were found in the house in which they were captured.

10.19.07

If you thought Jay-Z was a little premature in announcing his "retirement" four years ago, you're not alone. The hip-hop mogul admits in a new interview with XXL that he "pulled the retirement ripcord too many times." He added, "I want to never say that again. ... People looking at me like, 'Please shut up.' I was looking at [my retirement movie] 'Fade to Black' the other day. I was embarrassed. I couldn't watch. I'm not playing with you. I had to turn it off. I was cringing." On November 6, Jay-Z will issue American Gangster LP — the second album he has put out since making the "retirement" announcement in 2003. ...

Prosecutors in Philadelphia have withdrawn charges against Beanie Sigel after the rapper resolved a dispute over a rental car he had kept long past its return date, The Associated Press reports. Sigel (born Dwight Grant) had rented a 2007 Nissan Altima from Payless Car Rental in July but didn't return the vehicle by its August 13 due date. He also failed to contact the rental company. The car was reported stolen September 6 and was later returned October 5, just as detectives headed to Sigel's home to inquire about the car. Sigel has accumulated $5,000 in late fees, but he has since paid them, which caused prosecutors to withdraw the charges. ...

A Kurt Cobain biopic based on "Heavier Than Heaven," the widely praised 2001 biography of the late Nirvana singer written by Seattle journalist Charles Cross, will be executive produced by Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, according to Variety. The script for the yet-untitled film is slated to be written by "Kite Runner" screenwriter David Benioff, and Universal Pictures is funding the film. The producers have not addressed whether they have the rights to Nirvana's music for the film or which parts of Cobain's life it will cover. ...

Naomi Watts has officially pecked her way into the "Birds" remake, Variety reports. The actress is the first castmember to be announced for the new take on the Alfred Hitchcock classic, while "Casino Royale" director Martin Campbell is reportedly in talks to helm the flick, which will be produced by Michael Bay and is eyeing a 2009 theatrical release. Watts will play Melanie Daniels, a role originally taken on by Tippi Hedren, who recently sounded off to MTV about her distaste for the controversial project. ... What would Fashion Week in Southern California be like without Paris Hilton? The heiress helped close out Petro Zillia's closing show, dubbed "So L.A.," Thursday night in Culver City — although she apparently missed her sister Nicky's spring Chick collection earlier in the week. ...

Bruce Springsteen, Joss Stone, KT Tunstall, Bob Dylan and others are featured on Serve2, a recently released Hard Rock International compilation disc that benefits the Artists Against Hunger & Poverty arm of the World Hunger Year project. Unreleased tracks by those artists — plus Mat Kearney, O.A.R., the Hold Steady and more — will be featured on the set, which is available at Hard Rock Cafes. ... In addition to reuniting for some upcoming shows in November, it appears the Verve have been busy cooking up some new tunes, with the possibility of a new album in 2008. Bassist Simon Jones wrote in his blog that among the band's first new tracks in a decade are the songs "Sit and Wonder," "Judas," "Appalachian Springs," "Mona Lisa" and "Rather Be." ... U.K. shoegazers Swervedriver are also re-forming, bringing their 10-year hiatus to a close. The group is planning a worldwide tour for early next year. ... American Music Club will deliver The Golden Age — their second post-reunion effort, in fact — February 5. The track list hasn't been revealed yet. ...

Hellyeah have set November 13 as the release date for "Below the Belt," their new live DVD. The set will feature footage from the day the hard-rockers got together for the first time, along with performance footage from the making of their album, their first studio sessions and live clips from their world tour. The DVD will also boast personal interviews, as well as a few surprises. ... Irate Aerosmith fans are filing a lawsuit against the band for nixing its September 26 concert on the Hawaiian island of Maui last month, according to The Honolulu Advertiser. The class-action suit claims the band bailed from the sold-out show so it could play a bigger one in Chicago instead; that the late cancellation was unnecessary; and that it caused many fans to lose money they spent — somewhere between $500,000 and $3 million in total — on plane tickets, car rentals and hotels. The suit was filed on behalf of all ticket holders, and, under state law, plaintiffs could be eligible for triple their losses in damages and up to $5,000 if age 62 or over. ...

Stone Roses mastermind Ian Brown is giving his music a classical makeover by enlisting an orchestra to rework his hits. The singer's fifth solo release, The World Is Yours, was released last month, and Brown plans to play a set of classical concerts to put an interesting twist on his famous works. More details will be revealed in the coming weeks. ... Eels are putting out a 10th anniversary best-of set and a collection of rarities, both of which will feature a DVD and land in stores January 15. The sets will be called Meet the Eels: Essential Eels Vol. 1, 1996-2006 and Eels Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased 1996-2006. ...

South African reggae star Lucky Dube was shot and killed in an apparent carjacking attempt on Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa. AP reports that Dube, 43, died when he tried to drive away during the incident and crashed into a tree after being shot twice by two unknown male assailants. Dube's son had reportedly gotten out of the car shortly before the singer was shot.

[This story was originally published at 11:26 am E.T. on 10.22.2007]

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