Call it Black Friday. The release date for Jay-Z's next -- and according to him, final -- LP, The Black Album, has been set for November 28. The day after Thanksgiving is also the biggest shopping day of the year, and Jay-Z's gonna take advantage by dropping the black version of his signature S. Carter Reebok shoe on the same day. ...

Following last weekend's first audition for the next "American Idol," which drew more than 3,000 people to Pasadena, California, details on the next two tryouts have surfaced. Third-season hopefuls are being asked to begin lining up in Houston's Minute Maid Park on Monday for Wednesday's audition. In Atlanta, the line begins at the Georgia Dome on August 18 for tryouts two days later. Details on additional auditions in New York later this month and Honolulu in September are expected shortly. The third season of "American Idol" will air on Fox in January. ...

Coming on the heels of her Gap ad with Missy Elliott, Madonna's got another commercial enterprise up her sleeve. Her song "Love Profusion" will promote Estée Lauder's new tropical-floral fragrance, Beyond Paradise, in special-effects-heavy TV commercials directed by Luc Besson ("La Femme Nikita," "The Professional"). The ads are slated to hit the air in mid-September, and Madonna will not be appearing at them. ...

Wayne Wonder will be shooting a video next week for the single "Friend Like Me." The clip, from the album No Holding Back, finds Wonder playing a knight in shining armor rescuing a female childhood best friend. VP Records, Wonder's original label, will produce the video. ... "I Get Up," the first new INXS song since singer Michael Hutchence died six years ago, will appear on EA Sports' "Rugby 2004," expected in stores in mid-September. ...

After two postponements, the West Coast version of All Tomorrow's Parties has trimmed a day from its original three-day affair and relocated. ATP will take place November 8-9 aboard the Queen Mary, docked in Long Beach, California. Artists thus far confirmed for the festival, which is curated by "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, include Spoon, Modest Mouse, Cat Power, the Boredoms, Built to Spill, !!! and Mission of Burma. ...

Paul Rosenberg, Eminem's manager, is executive producing a reality contest for Showtime that will feature unsigned rappers competing in rap battles each week until all but one are eliminated. "Interscope Presents the Next," premiering in October, will differ from "American Idol" or "Last Comic Standing" in that winners will be determined by audience noise -- plus cursing is allowed and there are no background checks. ...

A Mötley Crüe box set will hit stores on November 11, featuring B-sides, outtakes, live recordings and a healthy dose of hits. A DVD video collection will also be released. ... Ipecac Records, the label run by Mr. Bungle frontman Mike Patton, has just released the vinyl version of Queens of the Stone Age's Songs for the Deaf. Limited to 1,500 copies, the double-LP contains a bonus track cover of Roky Erickson's "Bloody Hammer" sung by Nick Oliveri. ...

After a four-year hiatus, Primus are returning with Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People, a DVD/CD package due October 7 and featuring five new songs as well as all of the band's videos. Primus will launch the Tour de Fromage on October 15, which will include a set that varies nightly along with a full performance of 1991's Sailing the Seas of Cheese. ... D.H. Peligro, drummer for the Dead Kennedys, has been cast as the lead in the upcoming action film "The Four Horsemen." Peligro will perform his own stunts in the movie, which is being made by MarrLand Entertainment. Shooting begins September 15, and the studio is hoping for a spring release. ...

Former A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin is now also a former member of Zwan. Lenchantin, who left the Circle in February to join Zwan, has decided to focus instead on Papa M, a band formed by Zwan guitarist David Pajo. Papa M plan to tour in October and will enter the studio before the end of the year. ... Matchbox Twenty's next video, "Bright Lights," will be based on live concert footage the band shot in Atlanta last month for a forthcoming live DVD. The clip is currently in post-production. Meanwhile, the band is planning a fall cross-country tour starting September 24 in Tallahassee, Florida. ...

08.07.03

Britney Spears is getting closer to announcing a release date for her fourth album, but the NFL may have prematurely announced one for her. The NFL Web page promoting the singer's upcoming appearance at a September 4 season kickoff concert in Washington, D.C., noted in three places that Britney's upcoming album would drop November 18. Those mentions have since been removed, but Britney's official Web site, having long gone without an update, has new information on it this week, including a line about the album coming out in November. Spears' label, Jive, has yet to announce or confirm an official release date. ...Aerosmith, meanwhile, have been added to the NFL kickoff festivities. The Boston band joins Spears as well as previously announced performers Mary J. Blige and Aretha Franklin, who'll sing the national anthem. ...

If you've ever wondered why and how a song gets stuck in your head, psychiatrists at Dartmouth College now have an answer. A team led by Dr. Petr Janata have identified the rostromedial prefrontal cortex -- it's the spot just below the middle of your forehead -- as the site where long-term, short-term and emotional memories come together in a vicelike grip. The Dartmouth docs did MRI scans of blood flow in that area while playing scales for test subjects -- scales that resembled, we presume, that damn hook from "Jenny From the Block." ...

Clay Aiken's debut album, due this fall, will be self-titled, according to his publicist, clearing up rumors of other names. ... What could be more exciting than seeing Uncle Kracker's face go round and round at 100 mph? Kracker and Franky Perez have teamed up with NASCAR, and two cars will race in the two-day Chevy Rock & Roll 400 emblazoned with the artists' likenesses, logos and album covers. The event takes place September 5 and 6 at the Richmond International Raceway, in Richmond, Virginia. Both artists will also perform trackside, along with Sugar Ray, Trapt and Hootie and the Blowfish. ...

Craigslist.org is a lot of things to a lot of people: message board, roommate finder, matchmaker, etc. And soon it can add "documentary" to its string of descriptors. "Craigslist: The Movie" traces the lives of people who posted listings for wants ranging from husband to backing band to poodle on one day, August 4. Director Michael Ferris, a San Francisco-based actor, hopes to enter the 90-minute movie into next year's Sundance Film Festival. Craigslist was started in 1995 by former programmer Craig Newmark. Since debuting in San Francisco, it now serves 23 cities and receives 1.2 million postings a month. ...

Metallica, Linkin Park, the White Stripes, Marilyn Manson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Used, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Audioslave and Evanescence are just some of the bands nominated for the 2003 Kerrang! Awards. The ceremony will take place on August 21 in London. ... Hoobastank have announced dates for their club tour with Die Trying and Letter Kills. The new slate of shows starts in San Antonio, Texas, on August 20 and finishes up September 27 in Salt Lake City. ...

N.E.R.D., O.A.R., Talib Kweli and Slightly Stoopid have added a New York date to their Sprite Liquid Mix Tour -- they will be performing at the Summerstage site in Central Park on September 13. ... String Cheese Incident are suing Ticketmaster for attempting to halt direct ticket sales to fans. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Denver requests a court order barring the country's top concert-ticket retailer from anti-competitive practices. ...

S.T.U.N. will shoot their first video on Wednesday in Los Angeles for "Annihilation of the Generations." Joakim Ahlund, who helmed Refused's "New Noise" video, will direct. ... Milo is heading back into the studio. Seminal Los Angeles punks the Descendents are working on their sixth studio album, the follow-up to 1996's Everything Sucks, which they hope to release in March. Descendents offshoots All will also drop new records next year -- two albums, in fact. The first will consist of all new songs, while the second will be composed of experimental instrumentals. ...

Female Japanese rock trio Shonen Knife have lined up their first Stateside trek in five years. The three-week jaunt, beginning October 8 in San Jose, California, and ending in Detroit on Halloween, is in support of their latest album, Candy Rock, which was released in Japan in May. Shonen Knife formed in 1981 and 10 years later toured the U.S., opening for Nirvana. ... Pop-rock quartet the Shins will drop their second album, Chutes Too Narrow, October 21. The follow-up to 2001's Oh, Inverted World will be preceded by first single "So Says I," to be released September 23. Following their performance at the annual Bumbershoot festival in Seattle on August 29, the band will begin a three-week tour in New York on September 2, and wrap things up in their hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, on September 24. ...

Blooze rockers Danko Jones are preparing to drop their second album, We Sweat Blood, October 6 overseas, with a North American availability expected shortly thereafter. The band is currently filming a video for the LP's first single, "I Want You," in their hometown of Toronto. Despite hailing from Canada, the trio do not have a North American label deal. They're signed to Sweden's Bad Taste Records. ...