Fans who slept through Godsmack's ascent to their latest album, Awake, can revisit the Boston rockers' early days on Smack This!, a DVD retrospective due April 9. The collection features concert footage, backstage shenanigans and interviews with the band. ... That raging Cajun Mystikal is playing both sides of the fence. In the clip for his next single, the title cut off of his Tarantula LP, the New Orleans MC will play both an exterminator and his prey — spiders — thanks to the magic of special effects, according to his spokesperson. ...

Alanis Morissette, Cher, Kiss, Stevie Wonder, Little Richard and, yes, Michael Jackson are lined up to lend themselves to a special celebrating a half-century of the dance party series "American Bandstand," which debuted in 1952. "American Bandstand's 50th ... A Celebration" will air on ABC on May 3 and will be emceed, naturally, by Dick Clark, the show's host since 1956. ... After 11 years and seven albums together, indie rockers Unwound are throwing in the towel, citing an inability to tour with any consistency as the reason for their decision. The first band signed to the Kill Rock Stars label will play its last show Monday (April 1) in their hometown of Olympia, Washington, and its members, who'll pursue separate musical interests, plan on issuing albums of live material and previously unreleased tracks in the future. ...

Whoever said "three's a crowd" is about to get theirs. Revenge of the Triads — programmer/remixer Charlie Clouser (NIN, Marilyn Manson), A Perfect Circle guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and producer Jason Slater (Snake River Conspiracy, Brougham) — are in the studio working on their debut album, which they hope to release this summer. ... Ann and Nancy Wilson have reunited for the first Heart tour in nine years, which will kick off June 21 in Fargo and wrap August 8 in Seattle. Alice in Chains' Mike Inez will join the band on bass. ... Indie rock darlings Beulah will launch a month-long outing April 8 in Denver to promote last year's The Coast Is Never Clear. The tour will come to an end May 4 in the band's hometown of San Francisco. ...

03.28.02

Outkast, the Roots, Talib Kweli, Blackalicious and Mos Def will fill the hip-hop portion of the Audiotistic - The Future Sound Festival on April 13 in San Bernadino, California. Roni Size, DJ Q-Bert and Money Mark, DJ Swamp, Pete Rock, King Britt, DJ Dan, Donald Glaude and Jason Bentley are among the electronic music entertainment scheduled for the sixth annual event. ... David Bowie will release his new album, Heathen, on June 11 on Columbia Records via his own ISO label. The disc is Bowie's first studio venture in three years and reunites the Thin White Duke with producer Tony Visconti, who worked with Bowie on Young Americans, Low, Heroes and Scary Monsters. ...

The laws of space and time can't get more bent than with "Love Song" and "Dead or Anything," two tracks written in Scotland by Australian singer/songwriter Ben Lee and former Lemonhead Evan Dando and recorded in New York with help from 51-year-old Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson and 21-year-old Phantom Planet drummer Jason Schwartzman. The two-song single will become available April 1 through the Web site of Australian indie label Trifekta (www.trifekta.com.au). ... Portishead's performance with the 30-piece New York Philharmonic at New York's Roseland Ballroom in July 1997 will be released on DVD on April 30. "PNYC" will include the entire show, which featured favorites such as "Cowboys" and "Sour Times," along with an unreleased acoustic version of "Wandering Star," short films for "To Kill a Dead Man" and "Road Trip," a documentary on the performance and additional tour footage. ...

"Addicted to Love," "Simply Irresistible," "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" and eight other Top 40 hits will be featured on Best of Both Worlds: The Robert Palmer Anthology (1974 - 2001). Due April 30, the 42-track collection will also include tracks from Palmer's stint with the Power Station and live cuts from last year's Live at the Apollo. ... Elvis Costello will promote his first album in six years, When I Was Cruel, due April 23, with a U.S. tour beginning May 18 in Portland, Oregon, and ending June 24 in Atlanta. The legendary crooner will also make in-store appearances at Tower Records in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York and perform at a free, radio-sponsored show on April 21 in Chicago. ... Meanwhile, Costello will join U2 singer Bono and Tom Waits on the board of advisors for DMZ Records, a new label founded by producer T-Bone Burnett and filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, the team behind the Grammy-winning "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. ...

Former Wallflowers guitarist Michael Ward's new band, Ward, will open for Crystal Method, Cake and Stone Temple Pilots at Rock for the Roses in Austin on April 12. Ward left the Wallflowers last October to work on new music with former Cupcakes member Preston Graves. ... Lit will launch an upcoming tour with an April 7 radio show in Austin, Texas, and play 16 dates before ending May 8 in Boston. ... Pressure 4-5 will join Lit's tour on April 18 after wrapping their own headlining outing, which begins March 31 in Los Angeles. On May 7, they'll join the MTV2 Handpicked Tour with Lost Prophets and Apex Theory. ... India.Arie and Joe Henry will appear on Concrete Love, English singer-songwriter Julia Fordham's first album in five years, due June 18. ... Laptop-toting duo Plaid, who toured with Autechre last year, will release a new EP, P-Brane, on April 30. Now on a North American tour, they hit Brooklyn Thursday (March 28) and will continue down the East Coast before finishing up in Los Angeles on April 11.

• Godsmack
• Mystikal
• Alanis Morissette
• Kiss
• OutKast

Coldplay
Photo: Eufloria

Coldplay, Ben Folds, Unwound and Sense Field are among the acts set to perform at CMJ Music Marathon in New York in September.

Also on tap for the four-day fest are Clinic, Convoy, Firewater, Charles Gayle, the Get Up Kids, God Forbid, Starsailor, the Mooney Suzuki and Turin Brakes, according to a spokesperson for the conference.

CMJ, organized yearly by the College Music Journal, will be held at the New York Hilton and Towers on September 13-16 and feature more than a thousand artists in 50 venues. Day events include panels, keynote speeches, tutorials and demo sessions.

The festival will mark one of Folds' first solo performances with his new band. The former Ben Folds Five leader will warm up with a brief string of dates in July.

• Coldplay
• Ben Folds
• Unwound
• Sense Field
• The Get Up Kids