Stock up on the Faygo, cuz the clowns are coming to town. Insane Clown Posse are set to kick off their first full-scale headlining tour to support their latest album, The Wraith: Shangri-La, January 22 in Fargo, North Dakota. Thirty confirmed shows conclude March 9 in Peoria, Illinois, and additional dates are expected. ...

"In the Name of Love: Two Decades of U2," a retrospective on the Irish rockers, will open at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on February 8. Among the rare artifacts in the exhibit are the first U2 T-shirt made in an art class, a bio of the Hype — one of the band's early names — and rejection letters from two record companies. ... Mickey Finn, percussionist for the glam rock band T. Rex, died January 11 in a hospital in Croydon, England, following a prolonged illness, Reuters reported. Finn's manager Barry Newby told the news service that the musician, who played in the band between 1970 and 1975, is believed to have died of kidney and liver problems, but the exact cause of death hasn't been determined. ...

Police in England has recovered 500 tapes of original Beatles material following raids on suspected music thieves in London and the Netherlands, the BBC reported. The tapes contain the "Get Back" sessions, which have previously only been available as bootlegs. The songs were recorded in 1969 for an album called Get Back, but those plans were scrapped, and some of the songs later wound up on Let It Be. ... Ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash stepped onstage with former Black Sabbath singer Glenn Hughes and Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins on January 11 in Los Angeles to protest military action in Iraq. Also attending the event was Martin Sheen and Ron Kovic, the disabled Vietnam vet who wrote the book "Born on the Fourth of July," the basis of the 1989 film starring Tom Cruise. ...

"Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator," a documentary on the life of troubled pro skateboarder Mark Rogowski, once considered among the best in the sport, will make its world premiere January 18 at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. As his popularity was waning in 1992, Gator, who had appeared in Tom Petty's half-pipe-starring video for "Free Fallin'," raped and murdered a 21-year-old woman. ... File-swapping service Kazaa suffered a legal setback Friday, when lawyers for its parent company, Sharman Networks, failed to have the lawsuit brought against it by the motion picture and recording industry dismissed. A federal court judge in Los Angeles denied the motion, prompting the copyright-holding industries to comment in a statement that Sharman's "attempts to play an intricate and shameless shell game ... have rightly failed." ...

The Flaming Lips will release an enhanced DVD of their second single, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 1", on January 21. The enhanced DVD single will feature acoustic versions of the song, video and two rare instrumentals, "Fish Fry & the Bigot's Drunk" and "Galactic Melancholy," from frontman Wayne Coyne's soundtracks to the documentary "Okie Noodling" and his film "Christmas on Mars," respectively. ... Idlewild will release The Remote Part, the follow-up to their 2001 album 100 Broken Windows, in the U.S. on March 25. The Scottish rockers will promote the LP with a North American club tour beginning March 5 in Boston and later hitting the South by Southwest music conference in Austin. ...

Bygone hard rockers Def Leppard will appear as themselves in Tuesday's episode of the new NBC sitcom, "Hidden Hills." ... Hillbilly humorists Hayseed Dixie, a group that achieved infamy with 2001's A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC, which featured backwater send-ups of "Highway to Hell," "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," are at it again. Kiss are the target of Hayseed's latest homage, Kiss My Grass: A Hillbilly Tribute to Kiss, which features covers of such timeless Kiss cuts as "Lick It Up," "Detroit Rock City" and "Cold Gin." A tour to support the LP kicks off February 18 in Charlotte, North Carolina. ...

01.10.03

In addition to such previously confirmed performers as No Doubt, Shania Twain, the Dixie Chicks and Celine Dion, the NFL is set to announce even more girl power for the pre-game stage lineup at the Super Bowl. Beyoncé Knowles and Michelle Branch will both be joining Branch's "Game of Love" compatriot Carlos Santana and his band. Super Bowl XXXVII will take place January 26 in San Diego, and will air live on ABC at 3 p.m. PT/ 6 p.m. ET. ...

It's time for the fellas to get their say. Nas continues to be one of the most sought-after MCs for remixes, as he appears on the new version of TLC's "Girl Talk," which is produced by the Trackmasters. ... Mariah Carey will kick off the motor sports festivities at the Daytona 500 by singing the national anthem, the Daytona International Speedway announced Thursday. The Daytona 500 will take place February 16 and will be broadcast live on Fox. ...

The members of Incubus are putting their time between albums to good use. Drummer Jose Pasillas and guitarist Mike Einziger, who is up for a Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Grammy for his work on the band's latest LP, Morning View, are among the musicians working with an 11-piece orchestra for an evening of psychedelic funk billed "The Time-Lapse Consortium." The ensemble will perform at the Roxy in Los Angeles on January 24. Meanwhile, the group's DJ Kilmore is sharpening his remixing skills, and singer Brandon Boyd has been surfing. ... Toni Braxton has selected a second single from her More Than a Woman LP, and this one most likely won't be mired in controversy like "Me and My Boyfriend," the singer's original choice for her next single until Jay-Z released his " '03 Bonnie & Clyde" track, which used the same Tupac sample. The diva has chosen to go with "Lies, Lies, Lies" instead. ...

Infectiousness in pop music is usually a good thing, but Avril Lavigne could do without this form of contagiousness. The 18-year-old rocker's name is used to identify a new computer virus, which attaches itself to e-mail that may have her name in the subject line and attempts to disable anti-virus and security software. Stranger still, if it's the 7th, 11th or 24th of the month, a browser directed at Lavigne's official Web site, www.avril-lavigne.com, will open. The virus, which follows fellow celebrity-named bugs Anna Kournikova, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, only affects PCs using the Windows operating systems. ...

"Can Fly! The R. Kelly Story," the 1998 children's book about the singer's rise to stardom, is being re-released on March 1. The author, Kim Dulaney, said the decision was made due to public demand. ... Jurassic 5's Chali 2na is two songs into recording a solo album. The rapper told the Los Angeles Times the LP would explore a variety of sounds outside of hip-hop. ... R&B and hip-hop fans: Are you going for a fashion statement that's equal parts Ziggy Stardust and P.M. Dawn? You're in luck. Producer 7 Aurelius, who has worked with Ashanti, Janet Jackson and Foxy Brown, is debuting his own clothing line. Creatively titled "Aurelius," the line will debut next week in Milan and will feature a signature "7" stitched on all the outfits. ...

The Walkmen will be doing a two-week tour of the West Coast starting January 23 in Vancouver and wrapping up February 7 in Seattle. After that, the band will hit the studio to record its second album. ... Rich Robinson of Black Crowes fame will set out with his new band Hookah Brown for an eight-date tour of the Northeast, beginning January 21 in Baltimore. The shows will feature some Black Crowes songs alongside Hookah originals, as the band looks for a record deal. ...

• Insane Clown Posse
• U2
• T. Rex
• The Flaming Lips
• Def Leppard