R. Kelly tops the headlines this week and it's, thankfully, because of his music this time. His new album, Chocolate Factory, finally hits shelves after a few rescheduled stints.

Chocolate Factory features several cuts from Love Land, the widely bootlegged but never officially distributed album from last year, plus new material like the popular, euphemistic single "Ignition."

Though they broke up after their last album, Arrhythmia, the electro-noise hip-hop group Anti-Pop Consortium release one last album as a group, Anti-Pop Versus Matthew Shipp.

Meanwhile, Ministry dispense double the noise and double the hatred with their latest, Animositisomina ("animosity" spelled forwards and backwards, kind of). Among their own rage-filled tracks, Al Jourgensen and company cover Magazine's "The Light Pours Out of Me."

Also out this week are Morphine's best-of record, Rye Coalition's Jersey Girls EP, and Cat Power's You Are Free, which finds singer/songwriter Chan Marshall collaborating with Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder.

Finally, if you haven't tired of it yet from the round-the-clock commercials, you can take home the ubiquitous song "X Gon' Give It to Ya" from the "Cradle 2 the Grave" soundtrack, which also features other songs from the Darkman as well as 50 Cent, Eminem and Foxy Brown.

Now, let me stick my keys in your ignition and cruise on over to the rest of this week's releases.

Out Tuesday, February 18:

• Aereogramme - Sleep and Release (Matador)
• Anti-Pop Consortium - Anti-Pop Vs. Matthew Shipp (Thirsty Ear)
• Bad Times - Bad Times (Sympathy for the Record Industry)
• Blood Red Throne - Affiliated With (Hammerheart)
• Boulevard Knights - Boulevard Knights (Familia)
• Brand New - Your Favorite Weapon (Razor & Tie)
• Calexico - Feast of Wire (Quarterstick)
• Caribbean Pulse - Stand Up (Irie)
• Cat Power - You Are Free (Matador)
• Decoded Feedback - Shockwave (Metropolis)
• John DeFrancesco - Jumpin' (Savant)
• Detroit Experiment - Detroit Experiment (Ropeadope)
• The Dirty Three - She Has No Strings Apollo (Touch and Go)
• DJ Dara - Breakbeat Science: Exercise 01 (Breakbeat Science)
• DJ Whoo Kid - Hood Radio 1 (Full Clip)
• Dave Douglas - Freak In (Bluebird)
• The Downbeat 5 - lsm (Sympathy for the Record Industry)
• Nicolai Dunger - Tranquil Isolation (Overcoat)
• Easy Star All-Stars - Dub Side of the Moon (Easy Star)
• Flatline - Dead Man Walking (Thug City)
• Future Sound of London - Mello Hippo Disco Show (Artful)
• The Go-Betweens - Bright Yellow, Bright Orange (Jetset)
• Jennifer Hanson - Jennifer Hanson (Capitol)
• Isaac Hayes - Chocolate Chip (Prestige)
• Hayseed Dixie - Kiss My Grass: A Hillbilly Tribute to KISS (DualTone)
• Bill Heid - Da Girl (Savant)
• The Immortal Lee County Killers - Love Is a Charm of Powerful Trouble II (Estrus)
• Kings of Leon - Holy Roller Novocaine (EP, RCA)
• Ministry - Animositisomina (Sanctuary)
  Read: "Ministry Add Singing, Not Steroids, On New Album"
• Moreland Audio - Turbogold (54º40' or Fight!)
• Morphine - Best of 1992 –1995 (Rykodisc)
• Necrophobic - The Nocturnal Silence (Hammerheart)
• Orna - The Very Thought of You (A440)
• O.S.I. - Office of Strategic Influence (Inside Out)
• Outspoken - Bitter Shovel (Lava/Atlantic)
• The Owl & the Pussycat - The Owl & the Pussycat (Kill Rock Stars)
• R. Kelly - The Chocolate Factory (Jive)
  Read: "R. Kelly Calls Out Foes, Entices Fans To Join Him At Chocolate Factory"
  Buy Now: Chocolate Factory (Jive)
• Red Hot Valentines - Calling Off Today (EP, Polyvinyl)
• Reggie & the Full Effect - Under the Tray(Vagrant)
• Ruiners - How's That Grab Ya (Disaster)
• Rye Coalition - Jersey Girls (EP, Tiger Style)
• Schoolly D - The Best of Schoolly D (Jive)
• Septic Flesh - Sumerian Daemons (Hammerheart)
• Shipping News - Three-Four (Quarterstick)
• Patrick Street - Street Life (Green Linnet)
• Styx - Cyclorama (Sanctuary/CMC Int'l)
• Ben Taylor Band - Famous Among the Barns (Iris/Ryko)
• Teen Idols/Squirtgun - The Dysfunctional Shadowman (Asian Man)
• Dar Williams - The Beauty of the Rain (Razor & Tie)
• Xiu Xiu - A Promise (5 Rue Christine)
• Zion I - Deep Water Slang v2.0 (Raptivism)
• Various artists - Bangin' - Progressive Beats (Tommy Boy)
• Various artists - "Cradle 2 the Grave" soundtrack (Def Jam)
  Read: "Eminem, DMX Team Up For 'Cradle 2 The Grave' Soundtrack"
• Various artists - Dirtnap Across the Northwest (Dirtnap)
• Various artists - Hookah Café (Triloka)
• Various artists - The Power (Razor & Tie)
• Various artists - Survive and Advance Vol. 2 (Merge)
• Various artists - What Doesn't Kill Me (Blackout!)
• DVD - Modulations: Cinema for the Ear (Music Video Distributors/Caipirinha)
• DVD Electric Frankenstein - Live at Camden Underground (Music Video Distributors/Punkervision)
• DVD Angie Stone - Music in High Places: Live in Vancouver (Image Entertainment)

March 4:

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

• Various artists - Punk Goes Acoustic (Fearless)

• Buzzcocks - Buzzcocks (Merge)

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

• R. Kelly
• DMX
• Ministry
• Cat Power
• Styx

Styx's Tommy Shaw
Photo: BMG/Sanctuary

Classic-rock luminaries including Styx, REO Speedwagon and Journey will assemble in October for two concerts to raise money for rescue workers and the families of those killed during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

The concerts, titled Volunteers for America, will be held October 20 at HiFi Buys Amphitheatre in Atlanta and October 21 at Smirnoff Music Centre in Dallas, according to Charlie Brusco of Atlanta's TBA Entertainment, which is producing the events. Tickets for both shows go on sale Saturday.

Volunteers is the brainchild of Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw and REO singer Kevin Cronin. "They couldn't help but figure that there were people who attended their shows this summer who were directly affected by the attack or were firemen or police working in the area," Brusco said. He added that the rockers wanted to represent Southerners in general, and Texans in particular, amid the slew of benefits organized in the wake of the attacks.

Additional acts confirmed for Atlanta include Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, the Edgar Winter Group, John Waite and former Grand Funk Railroad frontman Mark Farner. Survivor, Kansas and Eddie Money will replace Skynyrd on the Dallas lineup, with more acts to be announced for both cities in coming weeks, Brusco said.

Original MTV VJ Alan Hunter will MC the shows. Organizers hope to arrange a radio simulcast and a toll-free number for donations. All the artists have waived their fees, with proceeds to benefit the American Red Cross and yet-to-be-determined fire and police charities, Brusco said.

For more information on and audience reaction to the attacks, including tips on how you can help, see "9.11.01: Moving Forward."

• Styx
• REO Speedwagon
• Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Journey

Styx's Chuck Panozzo
Photo: Joe Louis Photography

For more than 30 years, Styx bassist Chuck Panozzo has helped rock fans escape through teary power ballads, progressive-rock anthems and futuristic sci-fi concepts. Now he's urging whomever he can to confront reality and publicly embrace their homosexuality, as a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project.

In his new role, Panozzo will speak with the press, work to promote AIDS awareness and encourage those at risk to get tested for the disease. He also hopes to help closeted gay men and women open up and come out.

"Gays and lesbians need to know that coming out is not such a bad thing," he said. "In fact, it's the most liberating thing that they could ever imagine. It's something that can really touch their soul and free their spirit."

Panozzo came out on July 28 at the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner in Chicago. He also admitted he's been living with advanced AIDS since 1999.

"I didn't want to be in denial anymore," he said from his Chicago home. "I had seen my brother [Styx drummer John Panozzo] in denial, and he died of addiction [in 1996]. My best friend was in denial of having AIDS, and he died of it. I said, 'I can't be that person.' I don't want to be a coward about this thing and at the end of my life have somebody else say, 'Oh, well, he died of AIDS.' I didn't want that to be me."

Panozzo was diagnosed with HIV in 1991; he remained untreated and symptom-free for eight years. Then the disease hit hard. Despite immediate treatment, he was intensely ill for the next 18 months.

"I had every condition that comes with having advanced HIV," he said. "I lost 50 pounds and I had terrible anemia. And my mother was dying at the time I was starting to take my meds, which was really difficult. I was prescribed protease inhibitors, which save lives, but they're very difficult to take. I had to pull out of the band for a while because I had a fight on my hands that was more important than anything."

This year, Panozzo played 32 shows with Styx even though he was still battling AIDS. He admits he has good and bad days now, but stresses the importance of staying active and not giving up.

"I really had to say to myself, 'Hey, your life isn't over yet. You have other productive things to do.' And that's why I feel so strongly about the HRC," he said. "I think I left this glorious professional legacy, but my personal life sucked because I never addressed my homosexuality. So I needed to make another mark in my life.

"If I can make one person go and get tested and question why they've lived in the closet as long as they have, then I have succeeded, and my brother and my friend will not have died in vain."

• Styx

Badly Drawn Boy
Photo: Beggars Banquet

The original idea was for companies like Mitsubishi and the Gap to use artists like Groove Armada and Badly Drawn Boy to sell cars and clothes. But in the end, it may be that Groove Armada and Badly Drawn Boy were simply using cars and clothes to sell their music.

Exhibit A: As Seen on TV: Songs From Commercials, due June 5 from the people behind the chart-topping Now That's I What Call Music compilations. As Seen on TV includes some of the more memorable TV ad songs of recent months, from late singer/songwriter Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" — featured in a much-remarked-upon Volkswagen ad — to Badly Drawn Boy's equally delicate "The Shining," which the Gap used in a winter-themed ad.

The 20-song album also includes Trio's new-wave nugget "Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha," used in a Volkswagen ad, the Propellerheads and Shirley Bassey's "History Repeating," used in a Jaguar ad, and Groove Armada's "I See You Baby," used in a Mitsubishi commercial.

Fittingly, As Seen on TV's makers plan to promote the TV-commercial comp with TV spots of its own.

Adam Starr, the UTV Records product manager who dreamed up As Seen on TV, said he hopes the compilation will give more exposure to acts like Drake and Badly Drawn Boy, whose sales hardly match their critical acclaim.

"When the Nick Drake commercial first happened, people were half disgusted by it and half, like, 'Great, he's getting attention.' And that's kind of the gist of what this is about," Starr said Tuesday (May 22).

Other tracks on the album, which UTV A&R Vice President Jeff Moskow described as "either cool or kitschy," include Handsome Boy Modeling School's "Rock n' Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This)," the Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds," the Buzzcocks' "What Do I Get?" and, of course, Styx's "Mr. Roboto." UTV isn't the first company to see potential profit in the boom of hip commercial soundtracks — Volkswagen itself recently released the collection Street Mix — Music From VW Commercials Volume 1, which includes the same Trio, Drake and Styx tracks (see "Volkswagen Rolls Out Mix CD With Styx, Trio, Other Commercial Hits").

• Badly Drawn Boy
• Nick Drake
• Groove Armada
• Fatboy Slim
• Propellerheads

Styx
Photo: Mark Weiss

For several years Volkswagen has been relaunching musical careers as successfully as it has its own discontinued models. Thanks to Volkswagen's music-friendly commercials, the popularity of Trio, Styx and others has soared since the clips began airing during the mid-'90s — and you can bet they're grateful.

Now the car company that ignited the hip-commercial-music craze and created a new outlet for Moby and Sting is releasing VW Street Mix, Volume 1, a compilation CD featuring music from Volkswagen's first commercials.

Nick Drake's "Pink Moon," Trio's "Da Da Da" and Styx's "Mr. Roboto" are included, along with tracks from Hooverphonic, Spiritualized and Pitchshifter.

"We've been putting this together for a couple of years now," said Alan Pafenbach, whose Arnold Worldwide advertising firm creates the commercials for Volkswagen. "It doesn't have all of the songs we have used, but hopefully we will keep releasing CDs and getting them out there." Music fans have already demonstrated they will buy a song they like from a commercial. U.S. sales of Nick Drake's Pink Moon album rose from 6,000 copies, prior to the song's use in a Cabrio commercial, to 74,000 copies in 2000, according to Palm, which distributes Drake's music through Hannibal Records.

Volkswagen have pressed some 30,000 copies of VW Street Mix, Volume 1 and plan to sell them through the company's Internet radio station, RadioVW (www.radiovw.com), by the end of April. Local VW dealers will also eventually sell the CDs, Pafenbach said.

Track listing for VW Street Mix, Volume 1, according to Arnold Worldwide:

• Nick Drake, "Pink Moon"
• Hooverphonic, "Renaissance Affair"
• Charles Mingus, "II BS"
• Styx, "Mr. Roboto"
• Master Cylinder, "Jung At Heart"
• Ben Neill, "Turbonium X"
• Pitchshifter, "Subject To Status"
• Fluke, "Absurd"
• Spiritualized, "Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space"
• Trio, "Da Da Da"
• Velocity Girl, "Sorry Again"
• Psychic TV, "Roman P"

• Styx
• Trio
• Nick Drake

Bon Jovi
Photo: Universal

Rockers Bon Jovi, Sting and Styx will join Ray Charles and the Backstreet Boys as the Super Bowl XXXV pre-game entertainment, according to producers at CBS, which will broadcast the events.

Bon Jovi will perform at a televised tailgate party, and Sting will sing his latest hit, "Desert Rose", and the classic Police tune "Roxanne," during the pre-game stadium show, "Life's Super in Central Florida," which will take place January 28 at Tampa, Florida's Raymond James Stadium.

Styx will perform "Come Sail Away" as pirates enter the stadium on a mock ship during a portion of the show that won't be televised. Charles' "America the Beautiful" and the Backstreet Boys' "Star-Spangled Banner" will be broadcast on CBS, along with Sting's performance. Tampa pop group PYT also will perform and Kevin James of "King of Queens" will host.

Aerosmith — who will perform classics and preview material from their forthcoming album, including their new single — and 'NSync will headline the halftime show, according to producer Alex Coletti, who added that viewers can expect special guests during the MTV-produced show. "They'll be some twists and turns nobody's ever seen in a halftime show yet," he said.

• Bon Jovi
• Jon Bon Jovi
• Sting
• Styx