Audioslave are in the midst of shooting the video for "Like a Stone," the second single from their self-titled debut. Following the Los Angeles shoot, the band will play several overseas dates, beginning January 14 in Paris and moving on to London, Holland, Italy, Germany and Japan. ...

Following up his stint on "American Dreams" as the frontman of a band, Nick Carter has his next television acting role lined up. The Backstreet Boy is set to play a music teacher on two upcoming episodes of the ABC comedy "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter." Carter will tape his part next week, and the episodes will air February 4 and 11. ...

Hip-hop and techno are about to collide. Redman, LL Cool J, Guru, M.O.P., Capone-N-Noreaga, Beenie Man & Siamese and Pharoahe Monch have all had tracks remixed by a host of drum'n'bass DJs including DJ Craze, Roni Size, Origin Unknown, Dillinja, Ray Keith and Hype & Pascal for the double disc Drum and Bass Warfare. The project was coordinated by electronic producer Adam F, and will be released March 25. ... Mya, Aaron Carter and Usher celebrate the disco era by taking on classics such as "Turn the Beat Around," "I Just Want to Be Your Everything," and "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" on ABC's upcoming concert special, "Disco Ball." KC & the Sunshine Band, the Pointer Sisters and the Village People revive their original hits for the two-hour special. Taped in Los Angeles in October, "Disco Ball" airs January 16 at 8 p.m. ...

The Boot Camp Clik were supposed to rhyme with guest Talib Kweli at their show Tuesday night at New York's S.O.B.'s, but Kweli left early. While the night's other advertised main attraction, Das EFX, didn't show up at all, Buckshot, the Cocoa Brovaz and the rest of the rhyme collective from Bucktown U.S.A. (a.k.a. Brooklyn, New York) were not the only ones who made the crowd move. Keith Murray and Ras Kass made surprise mic appearances, and Killah Priest was put on the bill as a last-minute opener. ...  

Coldplay have added a second leg of North American tour dates, starting February 27 in Ottawa, Ontario, at the Corel Center. The 13-date stretch runs through March 13 in Minneapolis at the Target Center. The Music are slated as the opening act. ... Bonus and rare footage from Offspring, Rancid, NOFX, Pennywise, Bouncing Souls and Bad Religion will be included on an upcoming Epitaph Records DVD set for release on February 25. Named for the label's long-running sampler series, the Punk-O-Rama DVD Volume 1 will contain 22 videos from such bands as Descendents, (International) Noise Conspiracy, Refused, Dropkick Murphys, Division of Laura Lee and more, as well as interviews with Epitaph founder/ Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, NOFX's Fat Mike and Fletcher from Pennywise. ...

For their new album, The Velocity of Sound, the Apples in Stereo woke from their calming reverie, cranked their amps and made enough noise to create a stirring sonic boom. At the end of the month they'll take the rock on the road, starting January 28 in Nashville. The 17-date tour ends in Indianapolis on February 15. ... Veteran country punks the Supersuckers will release a new album, Motherf---ers Be Trippin', on April 22 on their own Mid-Fi label. The follow-up to 1999's The Evil Powers of Rock-N-Roll will feature the songs "Rock-N-Roll Records (Ain't Selling This Year)," "Rock Your Ass," "Pretty F---ed Up," "Bruises to Prove It," "The Fight Song," "A Goodnight for My Drinking," "Sleepy Vampire," "Bubblegum and Beer" and "Someday I Will Kill You." ... Guitarist Mark Beauchemin and bassist Jeff Reid have left SR-71 and will be replaced by Pat Dement and Mike Ruocco, respectively. SR-71 will hit the road in February to promote their second album, Tomorrow, which features the latest single, "My World." ...

Former Voivod bassist/vocalist Eric Forrest is set to release the first album from his new band Project: Failing Flesh in February. Titled A Beautiful Sickness, the LP will include a cover of Venom's "Warhead." ... Abrasive underground hardcore band the Blood Brothers, whose Ross Robinson-produced big-label debut is set to surface next month, will precede the album's release with a DVD on February 4. "Jungle Rules Live" will include an 11-song live performance captured last year in their hometown of Seattle, as well as three audio-only bonus tracks — "Ambulance vs. Ambulance" and "USA Nails" from the forthcoming Burn Piano Island, Burn, and "Meet Me at the Water Front After the Social" from the indie released March on Electric Children. ... Seattle indie favorites Vendetta Red will release their major-label debut, Between the Never and the Now, on June 24. Jerry Finn (Blink-182, Green Day) is producing the record. ...

01.07.03

Showtime will broadcast a full-length Jay-Z concert on February 22. The one-hour show from Memphis is slated to feature as-yet-unnamed cameos from Roc-A-Fella family members and will precede the Mike Tyson-Clifford Etienne heavyweight boxing match. ...

Kelly Rowland filmed the video for "Can't Nobody," the second single from her solo debut, Simply Deep, last weekend in Los Angeles. Benny Boom (Nas, P. Diddy) directed the clip, which is a take-off of the Christian Slater flick "True Romance." The song and video will hit outlets in late January. ... Vanessa Carlton, John Mayer, Norah Jones, Brian McKnight, Ray Charles, Diana Krall, Rufus Wainwright, Jewel and Nikka Costa are among the artists who will perform in honor of Elton John on January 17 at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California. The benefit for music education is being sponsored by NAMM (the International Music Products Association), which will present John with the Yamaha 2003 Lifetime Achievement in Musical Excellence Award. ...

Those "Make Trade Fair" T-shirts worn by Coldplay singer Chris Martin aren't all for show. Since the band's inception, Coldplay have set aside a fixed percentage of their royalties for charities that include Oxfam and Amnesty International. While management is mum about the exact figure, they did say the band gives between 5 and 15 percent of all its earnings to worthy causes. ... Nickelback and Oleander will launch a seven-date mini-tour beginning January 17 at the Tabernacle in Atlanta and running through a January 25 date at the Egyptian Room in Indianapolis, with stops in Jacksonville, Raleigh, New York, Boston and Detroit. Tickets for the club tour are available exclusively through sponsoring radio stations. ...

The debut album from professional street skateboarder Chad Muska, MuskaBeatz, will be released exclusively to skate shops on February 11. The disc features songs written and performed by an impressive array of hip-hop legends, including Prodigy from Mobb Deep, Guru, Flavor Flav, Raekwon, KRS-One, Biz Markie, Afrika Bambaataa, Ice-T, Grandmaster Melle Mel, U-God, Special Ed, MC Lyte and Jeru the Damaja. ... Those who've always considered Patti LaBelle a space case now have more fuel to add to their rocket ship. The soul diva has been asked to record a song for NASA, which will serve as the organization's anthem. The tune "Way Up There" was written by LaBelle's collaborator Tena Clark and will also be used as the theme song for the 100th anniversary celebration of the Wright Brothers' first flight. ...

Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines tested her acting skills with a cameo role in the independent children's film "Grand Champion," which was directed by her friend and rodeo star Barry Tubb. The flick, which tells the story of a boy who kidnaps a steer to prevent it from being slaughtered, stars Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis and features George Strait and Charlie Robison. "Grand Champion" premiered in select cities last year and will receive widespread theatrical release in the coming months. ...

Nile will kick off their headlining U.S. tour on January 17 in Houston, Texas, at Fitzgerald's. Support for the trek, dubbed The Art of Noise, will come from Napalm Death, Dark Tranquillity, Strapping Young Lad and the Berzerker. ... Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard will release a seven-song EP called Motel of Fools on January 14 that reunites him with GBV rotating castmembers Jim MacPherson and Tobin Sprout. The EP will not spell an end to Guided by Voices, but is meant to be a taste of a full-length Pollard solo record expected this spring. ...

Gary Glitter, who has been convicted for crimes related to child pornography in the past, has been deported from Cambodia after being detained for suspected sex offenses there. The 58-year-old fallen U.K. pop star, best known for the American sports-arena anthem "Rock and Roll Part 2," has reportedly fled to Thailand. ...

• Audioslave
• Usher
• M.O.P.
• Mya
• Boot Camp Clik

Punk legends X, The Damned, and The Misfits are among the artists that have signed on to play the first annual Blood Drive 2000 Halloween Festival, an All Hallows Eve-themed benefit show set to take place in Irvine, California on October 28.

Zen Guerrilla, The Supersuckers, Zeke, and The Amazing Crowns have also been confirmed to take the Hidden Valley Ranch stage for the Blood Drive 2000 show, which will raise funds for the American Red Cross as well as the Free The West Memphis Three Support Fund.

Several of the artists appearing at Blood Drive 2000, including The Supersuckers and Zeke, contributed tracks to the "Free The West Memphis Three" compilation disc, due out on October 10 (see "Vedder, Supersuckers For West Memphis Three LP").

The West Memphis Three are Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., who were convicted of slaying three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993. A pair of HBO documentaries have raised serious questions as to whether the three received a fair trial.

For more information and a complete lineup for the Blood Drive 2000 Halloween Festival, check out the event's official Web site at www.blood-drive.com.

• The Misfits
• Supersuckers
• X

Sonicnet Music News

While one man awaits execution and two others endure life imprisonment, Eddie Vedder, Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Joe Strummer, the Supersuckers, and others are working to win their freedom.

The compilation "Free The West Memphis Three" collects previously unreleased material from artists (including the Long Beach Dub Allstars, Rocket From The Crypt, Nashville Pussy, and others) who believe the three were wrongly convicted, in an effort to raise awareness of their plight.

"We want to make people aware of what's going on, wake people up a little bit, and put together a kick-ass compilation of like-minded, concerned artists," said Supersuckers frontman Eddie Spaghetti, co-owner of the Aces & Eights label, which will release the disc in conjunction with Koch Entertainment on October 10 (see "Supersuckers Champion Controversial Cause As New Albums Arrive").

The West Memphis Three are Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., who were teenagers when they were convicted in the brutal 1993 murders of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, just across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee. Echols was sentenced to die by lethal injection.

But since the 1996 HBO-produced film "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders At Robin Hood Hills," a growing number of Americans believe the three, now in their 20s, are innocent.

The film brought to national attention the flaws -- among them lost and excluded evidence and allegations of a coerced confession -- in the case against Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley, and inspired the Los Angeles-based Free The West Memphis Three Support Fund.

Critics of the case say sloppy police work and rumors of the killings being related to a satanic cult ritual combined to create a witch-hunt climate.

"In crime scene videos, there are unidentified people at the scene," support fund co-founder Burk Sauls said. "Information was leaked to friends in the community; there was no confidentiality or security at the crime scene. The police say that Jessie Misskelley knew things about the murders that nobody else knew, and that's not true. People all over town had been talking about it. It was obviously impossible to get them a fair trial."

"They're victims of geography," Supersuckers guitarist Ron Heathman said. "They didn't do a damn thing. [Police] had to have somebody guilty. In the eyes of the community these three are devil worshippers. The South is frightening -- that good-ol'-boy mentality. The only thing they're guilty of is wearing Metallica shirts."

A second film, "Revelations: Paradise Lost 2," shown on HBO earlier this year, followed the appeals process in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and revealed new evidence that human bite marks found on one of the victims do not match the bite prints of any of the convicted men. Despite the testimony of a criminal odontologist, Judge David Burnett refused an appeal for a new trial.

When former Supersuckers manager and Aces & Eights co-owner Danny Bland saw the first film, he was moved to action.

"I did a Web search and came across the support fund page [www.wm3.org]," Bland said. "I was going to call them and volunteer our services for anything that was going on. It turned out nothing was going on, so we decided to get involved. We've been working on [the CD] a little over a year now."

Bland helped establish a nonprofit group, the Justice League, to work for wrongfully imprisoned people. Proceeds from "Free The West Memphis Three" will go to that organization, but will be earmarked for Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley.

"The money is for them to get the hell out of Arkansas when they get out of jail," Bland said.

Sauls was happy to receive support from the music community. "It's nice to know that public figures are finally having the courage to speak up about this," he said. "Eddie Vedder talked about the case in a Web chat recently. The tides are turning, and it has a lot to do with the information that's out there."

One of the West Memphis officers who discovered the mutilated bodies of the three boys said he understands how people might think the three defendants are innocent, based on the HBO documentaries.

"I don't blame them for thinking those boys were railroaded," said Captain Mike Allen of the West Memphis Police Department. "If I was in California or New York, I'd feel like a great injustice occurred. But I know that's not what happened.

"Two separate juries heard six weeks' worth of evidence and both found [the three men] guilty," he said. "I personally feel like [the artists on the record] don't know all the facts. If they did, there's no way in the world they'd play a note or sing a tune for Damien Echols."

"Free The West Memphis Three" features a diverse assortment of musicians bound by their collective belief in the West Memphis Three's innocence. Bland said highlights will include cover songs both predictable and unexpected. The Clash's Strummer teams with the Long Beach Dub Allstars on Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come," Nashville Pussy takes on AC/DC's "Highway to Hell," Vedder fronts the Supersuckers on X's "Poor Girl," and former Breeders singer Kelley Deal puts her spin on Pantera's "F***ing Hostile."

Many original songs were written specifically for the compilation, including Waits' "Rains On Me," Rocket From The Crypt's "Wrong And Important," L7's "Boys In Black," the reunited Killing Joke's "Our Last Goodbye" and Earle's "The Truth."

Earle's passionate stance against the death penalty rubbed off on Bland, who's known the singer/songwriter since Earle and the Supersuckers collaborated on a five-song EP in 1997.

"Steve is a big part of it, 'cause I was never one to be politically conscious of anything before meeting him," Bland said. "I'd always been against the death penalty but never vocal about it. Being around Steve and seeing the work he does really inspired me."

Other songs on "Free The West Memphis Three" include: Mark Lanegan's "Untitled Lullaby"; the John Doe Thing's "Highway 5"; Zeke doing Iron Maiden's "Wrathchild"; Fastball member Tony Scalzo's "Indicted"; and the Murder City Devils covering the Misfits' "She."

Appeals for Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley are continuing at the state level, Sauls said.

• Pearl Jam
• Supersuckers

After an eternity (or at least a couple years) away from their rock roots, Seattle's raucous rawk renegades the Supersuckers are back in the saddle with a new album and a tour with kindred spirits Motörhead and Nashville Pussy.

The group released "The Sacrilicious Sounds Of The Supersuckers" in 1995 and then found itself out of the rock game until late last year, courtesy of a lengthy and ultimately fruitless dance with Interscope Records.

"We put out a country record ['Must've Been High'] in '97, thinking it would be a little diversion and that a rock record would follow in three or four months," Supersuckers' bassist-vocalist Eddie Spaghetti explained to MTV News late last year. "We signed to Interscope right after the country record, and then it wound up that things were going to take a little bit longer."

Three years to be exact, as the band's next straight-up rock album, "The Evil Powers Of Rock 'N' Roll," didn't arrive until late last year. The band had recorded an album for Interscope, and then waited and waited while the label pondered its fate following the merger of the label's parent company, Universal Music Group, with Polygram Music Group.

"We record the record, and they're dropping more bands," Spaghetti recalled. "They'd drop a new batch, and they'd say, 'Okay, that's the last batch of bands we're dropping.' Then we'd say, 'Well, where's our release date?' [They'd respond,] 'It's pending.' Then right at the last possible minute, they tell us they're not going to put the record out, and that they are going to let us go. They took a year and a half out of our plan, and it's really irritating. I never thought we'd be one of those bands that got caught up in that sort of thing." [RealAudio]

A good summary would be that the only time I've had to work a straight job while in the Supersuckers was when we were on Interscope Records," guitarist Rontrose Heathman added.

Spaghetti offered a more concise summary of the situation: "It sucked."

The Interscope interlude became even less pleasant when the label failed to relinquish ownership of the Supersuckers' new album back to the band, even though they had no plans to release it. Armed with songs written for that doomed album, a few freshly penned ones, and plenty of anger to work out, the band returned to the studio and recorded "The Evil Powers Of Rock 'N' Roll."

"This record is better than the record we recorded for Interscope," Spaghetti said.