The sentencing hearing for Mystikal, who pleaded guilty to extortion and sexual battery in June, has been adjourned until November 3. The rapper faces up to 10 years for his involvement in an attack on his hairstylist in July 2002. ...

3 Doors Down, Jason Mraz, Santana, John Popper, and DMC are getting in the zone. As part of a new ABC Sports feature, "Monday Night at the Mic," the musicians are competing with NFL players on their home turf in a round of guitar and MC battles. The competitions begin at halftime of the Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears Monday night game -- with Popper and Mraz taking on Detroit Lions QB Joey Harrington and San Diego Chargers DE Marcellus Wiley -- and will continue at select halftimes this season. ...

Courtney Love's not ready to be America's Sweetheart quite yet. She's pushed back the release of her upcoming solo album to February 10. Love collaborated with rock-songwriting-partner-du-jour Linda Perry for much of the album, along with Matchbox Twenty producer Matt Serletic, Limp Bizkit producer Josh Abraham and her former manager/boyfriend James Barber. ... Garbage drummer and producer Butch Vig's Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, where parts of Nirvana's seminal Nevermind album were recorded, was demolished last week when a 10-ton truck crashed into it. No one was inside at the time. ... P.O.D. have set the track list for November 4's Payable on Death: "Wildfire," "Will You," "Change the World," "Execute the Sounds," "Find My Way," "Revolution," "The Reasons," "Freedom Fighters," "Waiting on Today," "I and Identify," "Asthma" and "Eternal." "I can't wait for everyone to hear the new record and come out to the shows," singer Sonny Sandoval said on the band's Web site. "I know the fellas and I are looking forward to hitting the road again and playing the new stuff." ... Alicia Keys, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Ray Charles and former Pink Floyd mainman Roger Waters will judge the Sir Charles Blues Lab Songwriting Contest for aspiring musicians 13-19 years old. The five winners will get to record in Los Angeles with Charles producing. ... On a far smaller scale than the annual Warped Tour, the Vans Off the Wall Club Tour,

featuring Sick of It All, Avenged Sevenfold, Suicide Machines, T.S.O.L., and Death by Stereo, is set to launch October 8 in Pomona, California. The two-month trek concludes December 5 in San Diego. ... Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable has left the band. He has been temporarily replaced by ex-Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman, who will tour with the band through at least the end of the year. The group's latest record, You Gotta Go There to Come Back, came out September 9. ...

Mike Watt will be testing out material from his next album when he hits the road opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Flaming

Lips next month. Watt will be on board from October 8 in Las Vegas

through October 27 in Calgary, Alberta. ... Harmonizing Scottish pop darlings Belle & Sebastian are coming to the U.S. to support their sixth album, Dear Catastrophe Waitress, due October 7. The three-week trek begins October 26 in Atlanta and winds down November 14 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Then it's back to the U.K. through mid-December. ...

Orchestral composer Michael Kamen is planning to reunite with Metallica for another album. The two seemingly disparate entities collaborated on 1999's S&M, which paired the metal gods with the San Francisco Symphony. In the Hollywood Reporter interview in which he revealed those plans, Kamen also confessed to be living with multiple sclerosis for the past six years, though he said it isn't slowing him down. ... The most bizarre bunch in pop music, the Polyphonic Spree, who are enjoying mucho exposure from the iPod/Volkswagen TV spots, will release their Light and Day EP on September 30. The limited-edition record features Stereolab's remix of their The Beginning Stages Of ... album track "Soldier Girl." ...

Recently split from Rancid's Tim Armstrong, Distillers frontwoman Brody Armstrong is now using her former last name, Dalle. With a new album, Coral Fang, due October 14, the Distillers will hit the road with Queens of the Stone Age September 28 for a month-long North American trek. ...

9.24.2003

Outkast's Andre 3000 is in talks to play Jimi Hendrix in a biopic directed by Allen and Albert Hughes ("Menace II Society," "American Pimp"). But first the rapper will star in an HBO movie coinciding with his group's just-released Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below, and then a film with Morgan J. Freeman ("Hurricane Streets") called "Love Hater." ...

Linkin Park will have to tone down their act when they play Malaysia on October 15. The government has granted the band permission to play a 50,000-seat stadium in Kuala Lumpur on the condition they don't jump around onstage, swear or wear shorts, according to wire-service reports. Officials in the conservative Islamic nation regularly prevent Western rock acts from playing there. ... Korn's sixth album, Take a Look in the Mirror, the first LP fully produced by the band, will drop November 18. In the meantime, fans can catch the first single, "Right Now," rocking radio early next month. ...

Beyoncé Knowles will play herself in an episode of the UPN sitcom "All of Us," airing October 7. ... Next year, the Grammy Awards will return to Los Angeles. The ceremony will take place February 8 at the Staples Center. The show was scheduled a few weeks earlier than usual so it wouldn't bump up against the Oscars and other awards programs. ...

Soulfly bassist Marcello D. Rapp, drummer Roy Mayorga and guitarist Mike Doling have left the band, the group's label confirmed. No reason was given. They have been temporarily replaced by bassist Bobby Burns (ex-Primer 55), guitarist Marc Rizzo (ex-Ill Nino) and drummer Joe Nunez. "This is no big deal," frontman Max Cavalera said in a statement. "Soulfly is always evolving. I'm always going to introduce new musicians to the fans. In fact, there has never been the same band on any consecutive Soulfly record." ... Following up performances in New York and San Juan Capistrano, California, Gina Gershon and current backup band Girls Against Boys will take their act to the House of Blues Sunset in West Hollywood on September 25 to promote the "Prey for Rock & Roll" soundtrack, due October 7. Seven additional dates will follow, and the trek wraps in Philadelphia on October 15. ...

Latin rock and electronic band Kinky have set a November 18 release date for their second album, Atlas. Cake singer John McCrea, who met the band on the recent Unlimited Sunshine Tour, is featured on the first single, "The Headphonist," while Itaal Shur, who won a Grammy for co-writing Santana's "Smooth," co-wrote another tune on the album, "Not Afraid." ... After a dynamic performance for 14,000 fans in Lima, Peru, Alanis Morissette ended the show by shouting, "Thank you, Brazil!" In a press conference in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Morissette said she had been drinking before making the gaffe. "I don't remember saying that," she said at the conference, according to the BBC. "I think I was drunk." ...

Hardcore metal band Life of Agony will release a double CD of their January reunion shows, River Runs Again: Live 2003, on October 14. And the reunion looks like it won't be short lived: The band has booked shows in Long Island, New York, for December 11 and 12 and will start working on a new studio album before the end of the year, which is tentatively scheduled for release in 2004. ... AC/DC's 1991 Monsters of Rock festival performance at Donington Castle in the U.K. is captured on the DVD "AC/DC Live at Donington," due November 11. In addition to the concert, the disc features remastered sound, band commentary and the ability to focus on just one member throughout an entire song. ...

The Sunday accident that caused David Lee Roth to get 21 stitches in his face and forced the cancellation of a handful of shows turned out not to be a run-of-the-mill concert misstep. No, it was "a very fast, complicated 15th-century samurai move" gone wrong that put the former Van Halen singer out of commission, according to his publicist. ... E should hope for straight A's when his band, the Eels, embarks on its Fall Tour of College Duty on October 16 in Lawrence, Kansas. The traipse through mostly college towns winds down November 8 in Brooklyn, New York. ...