Cheers to the Lou. J-Kwon has kept his promise to keep the remix to his hit "Tipsy" "so so St. Louis." He just finished a new version of his track featuring Chingy and Murphy Lee. ...

U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux has ruled that all civil suits filed regarding the 2003 Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, will be handled in federal court. The judge announced his ruling on Monday, stating that the federal court system has authority to handle cases involving accidents in which 75 people or more died and a defendant lives in a different state than the one in which the accident took place. ... Country legend Loretta Lynn's first album in four years, Van Lear Rose, features a guest appearance by the White Stripes' Jack White, who also produced and arranged some tracks. After the Stripes' White Blood Cells was dedicated to Lynn, the singer opened for the band and sang several duets with Jack at a New York show last year. Preceded by the single "Portland, Oregon," Van Lear Rose is due April 27. ...

Ja Rule, Omarion, Courtney Love, MC Lyte, Ice-T and Jermaine Dupri were among the celebs who came to New York's Spice Market on Monday to celebrate the release of Janet Jackson's new album, Damita Jo. ... Missy Elliott's "Pass That Dutch" and Christina Aguilera's "Fighter" will be the leading contenders at the 13th annual Music Video Production Association Awards with six nominations each. Dave Meyers ("Pass That Dutch"), Floria Sigismondi ("Fighter"), David LaChapelle (No Doubt's "It's My Life"), the Malloys (Metallica's "St. Anger") and Sophie Muller (Pink's "Trouble") will vie for Director of the Year at the ceremony, May 20 at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. ...

Queens of the Stone Age will release a limited-edition EP called Stone Age Complication on April 20. The disc will feature six B-sides, half of which will be covers: the Kinks' "Who Will Be the Next in Line," Subhumans' "Wake Up Screaming" and the Cramps' "The Most Exalted Potentate of Love." The collection will also feature the U.N.K.L.E. remix of "No One Knows" and the two originals "Born to Hula" and "The Bronze." Only 25,000 copies of the EP will be printed, and the disc will only be available at select retail outlets. ... Metallica fans in Sweden are trying to convince government officials to erect a stone in memory of late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. The fans have named the project "Cliff in Our Minds." Burton died in a 1986 bus accident near Ljungby, Sweden. ...

Ryan Adams has released a three-song EP called Moroccan Role which is only available through iTunes. The disc features the previously unreleased tracks "Ah Life," "I'm Coming Over" and "Don't Even Know Her Name." ... Reunited San Francisco thrash metal band Exodus will launch a North American tour on April 10 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The dates, which run through May 9 in Santa Ana, California, will be to support the band's new album, Tempo of the Damned. ...

Erich "Mancow" Muller, a syndicated shock jock from Chicago, has sued a listener for filing multiple indecency complaints against his morning show. Mancow is accusing Chicagoan David Smith of filing more than 60 FCC complaints and pressuring sponsors to leave the show, and is seeking $3 million and a court order to stop him from filing more complaints. Mancow has been fined for six different shows as part of the FCC's recent crackdown on so-called offensive broadcasting. ... Dax Shepard from "Punk'd" is making his second guest appearance on "Life With Bonnie" this week. Though he last played a young director on an episode that aired just a month ago, Shepard this time takes on the role of a plastic surgeon who leaves his mark on Bonnie Hunt. The episode, called "Nip, Tuck and Roll," airs Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET on ABC. ...

Members of the Spice Girls and 98 Degrees are turning up the heat for the Broadway production of "Rent." Melanie Brown, a.k.a. Scary Spice, will be taking on the part of Mimi, starting April 16, and Drew Lachey, a.k.a. Nick's brother, will be taking the part of Mark, a role Joey Fatone once filled. Brown's stint will run through September, the month Lachey joins the cast, which means they'll overlap for a few weeks. ... The Polyphonic Spree have set a July 13 release date for Together We're Heavy, the many-membered group's second album. Tripping Daisy/ PJ Harvey collaborator Eric Drew Feldman produced the album for the Spree, who are about to hit the road with David Bowie. ...

Swedish melodic death-metal band In Flames will launch a tour with Killswitch Engage on May 3 in Pontiac, Michigan. Dates run through May 11 in Vancouver, British Columbia. In Flames' new album, Soundtrack to Your Escape, comes out April 6; the third Killswitch Engage record, The End of Heartache, will be released May 11. ... Late-'80s industrial/thrash band Prong will begin a tour of North America on April 29 in Sacramento. Dates run through May 29 in Fort Collins, Colorado. The stint will be the band's first in eight years. Prong's latest LP, Scorpio Rising, came out in November. ...

03.29.2004

It's no April Fool's Day joke -- Michael Jackson is receiving a humanitarian award, despite the current child-molestation charges hanging over his head. The African Ambassadors' Spouses Association, is honoring the embattled singer for his worldwide humanitarian efforts, as he's reportedly given more than $50 million over the years to various charities, including some that feed the hungry in Africa. Jackson is expected to accept the award in person at the ceremony in Washington, D.C., on April 1. ...

In support of their debut album, Tough Luv, Roc-A-Fella's Young Gunz will join the next leg of Kanye West's spring tour. Their run begins April 3 in San Francisco, goes down the West Coast and ends up in Detroit on April 16. The rest of the Kanye tour runs through the beginning of May. ... Lance Bass may not be going to space anytime soon, but he's going to drop from the sky -- for a good cause. The 'NSYNC singer is among the hundreds of people currently signed up for Operation Freefall, a national skydiving event created to raise awareness about sexual assault. The event, sponsored by RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) and SOAR (Speaking Out About Rape), is scheduled to take place April 24 across 37 drop zones. More information is at Operationfreefall.com. ...

Jan Berry, one half of '60s surf rock duo Jan and Dean, died Friday in his home when he stopped breathing after suffering a seizure. He was 62. With Dean Torrence, the pair were pioneers of the West Coast genre, penning the hits "Deadman's Curve," "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena" and "Surf City" with the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. A car accident in 1966 left Berry partially paralyzed with severe brain damage. ... PJ Harvey's sixth album, Uh Huh Her, will be released in June. Tracks on the disc, the follow-up to 2000's Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, include "The Life and Death of Mr. Badmouth," "Shame," "The Pocket Knife," "The Letter" and "Cat on the Wall." ...

The Suffolk Wildlife Park in England has named a baby giraffe after the Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins. Also, councilors in the band's hometown of Lowestoft, Norfolk, have suggested that a road be named after the group. ... Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams and Dwight Yoakam are the first crop of artists announced to honor the late country rocker Gram Parsons with a couple of concerts July 9 and 10. Return to Sin City: A Tribute to Gram Parsons will take place at the Santa Barbara Bowl in Santa Barbara, California, and at the Universal Amphitheatre in Universal City. The bizarre circumstances surrounding Parsons' death from a lethal alcohol and morphine combination in 1973 are chronicled in the upcoming film "Grand Theft Parsons," starring Johnny Knoxville and Christina Applegate. ...

The latest albums by the White Stripes, Kid Rock, Iggy Pop and Obie Trice, among others, will battle it out for Outstanding National Major Label Album at the annual Detroit Music Awards, taking place April 23 at the State Theatre. Rock's "Picture" and "Feel Like Makin' Love," Eminem's "Sing for the Moment" and "Superman," the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army," and Iggy's collaboration with Sum 41, "Little Know It All," are competing in the Outstanding National Single category. ... New York radio station Z100 has just announced the initial lineup for its annual celebrity blowout Zootopia, taking place May 21 at Madison Square Garden. Scheduled to appear at the concert so far are Jessica Simpson, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Black Eyed Peas, William Hung of "American Idol" and Liz Phair. The station says more acts will be added shortly. ...

This year's Reading and Leeds festivals will be headlined by the White Stripes, the Darkness and Green Day. The tandem events, which take place August 27 to 29 in Reading and West Yorkshire, England, will also feature 50 Cent, the Offspring, the Hives, the Streets, Franz Ferdinand, Lostprophets, Morrissey, Ash, the Libertines and others. ... "Touch Me I'm Sick," an exhibit of photos by grunge lensman Charles Peterson, will be on display from April 1 to May 1 at the Powerhouse Gallery in New York. The show, named after a Mudhoney song, features vibrant shots of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Tad, Pussy Galore, Laughing Hyenas and others. ...

Truth Hurts is shooting the video for her new single, "Ready Now," in Los Angeles on Tuesday with Fatima Robinson, who is coming off Black Eyed Peas' "Hey Mama." The song is the title track on the singer's new release for Raphael Saadiq's Pookie Entertainment label, due June 1. ... A sinus infection has postponed the spring Siouxsie & the Banshees tour to the fall. Frontwoman Siouxsie Sioux came down with the illness after a recent sinus operation. The trek was supposed to begin May 19 in Seattle and hit 14 theaters. Although a new itinerary has yet to be announced, the tour is expected to commence in September. ...

Cypress Hill have set an April 13 release date for "Still Smokin' - The Ultimate Video Collection." The double-disc DVD features live footage and videos for favorites like "How I Could Just Kill a Man" and "Insane in the Brain." ... Prince's very own digital music store is open for business. The Musicology Download Store launched Monday and offers most tracks for 99 cents, or 77 cents for members of the NPG Music Club after a lifetime membership fee of $25. The downside to the purple one's latest project is that it only sells the music that Prince owns, meaning there's no Purple Rain, 1999 or Sign O' the Times. ...

Dez Fafara's post-Coal Chamber project, Devildriver, has been added to Ozzfest's second stage for selected dates. Featuring Ozzy, Judas Priest, Slayer and Slipknot, Ozzfest is set to kick off July 10. ... The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network registered 30,000 new young voters in the Chicago area leading up to its summit on Saturday. The summit featured a panel with Kanye West, Ludacris, Twista, Common. ...