Nelly Furtado and Timbaland will team up to perform "Promiscuous" at Teen Choice 2006. The song is nominated for Choice R&B/ Hip Hop Track at the awards show, which presents surfboard trophies to honorees chosen by the public. Jessica Alba, Snoop Dogg, Hilary Duff and the cast of "High School Musical" will also appear at the August 20 ceremony, co-hosted by Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook. You can vote for your favorites at TeenPeople.com through August 11. ...

DMX keeps getting in trouble with the law over traffic violations, but the Dog is refusing to cop a plea for his latest charge. On Monday in New York, he rejected a plea bargain for a misdemeanor charge he caught for aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle in White Plains in June. The case has been adjourned until August 25. ...

When the American Idols Live Tour hits Washington, D.C., on Friday, the talent competition's top finalists have a stop to make before they take the stage. Winner Taylor Hicks and his onstage partners have been invited to the White House, where they will take a tour and meet with President Bush. It isn't clear whether runner-up Katharine McPhee, who has missed all stops on the tour, will attend. ... Meanwhile, "American Idol" hopefuls who plan to show off their pipes during the very first tryouts for next season's contest will be giving their all in a new location. Opening day of the audition process, set for August 8 in Southern California, has been moved from Inglewood's Forum to Pasadena's Rose Bowl Stadium. ...

James Blunt has mapped out a 35-city North American tour, which is set to launch in Montreal on October 1. Dates are booked through November 18 in Las Vegas, and tickets will go on sale Wednesday. Stops are scheduled in Pittsburgh; Providence, Rhode Island; New York; Cleveland; Detroit; Chicago; San Diego; and Phoenix. ... MTV News reported in January that the White Stripes would be lending their voices to an episode of "The Simpsons," and now Fox has announced that the Jack and Meg White guest spots will air September 17. Other celebrity guests hitting Springfield for the series' 18th season include Natalie Portman, Kiefer Sutherland, Dr. Phil McGraw and Metallica, who will be featured in the September 10 season premiere. ...

Arvel Jett Reeves, one of two men accused of conspiring to secretly videotape Michael Jackson on a plane, was sentenced to eight months in federal prison and six months in a halfway house with drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities on Monday, The Associated Press reports. He was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. Reeves and co-defendant Jeffrey Borer -- who owned the Xtra Jet service Jackson hired to fly him to Santa Barbara, California, in November 2003 to surrender in a child-molestation investigation -- admitted in a plea agreement last year that they installed two digital video cameras on the plane to record a "professional entertainer." Borer asked Reeves -- whose company serviced the jets -- to install the cameras with the intention of selling the recordings. Borer will be sentenced in September. Jackson was acquitted of the child-molestation charges in 2005. ...

After an August tour opening up for Death Cab for Cutie, indie-pop husband-and-wife act Mates of State will embark on their own road trip this fall. Starting September 3 at Seattle's Bumbershoot festival, the 17-date trek will hit Canada and parts of the Midwest before finishing up September 30 in New York. Barsuk labelmates Starlight Mints will be the tour openers. ... Clutch will play 14 gigs in September with the Bellrays and Year Long Disaster. The trek kicks off September 9 in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, with dates scheduled through September 22 in Columbia, Missouri. ...

P.O.D. will headline 2006's third and final Park at the Park Concert at Petco Park -- the home of the San Diego Padres -- on August 19, when the baseball club plays the Arizona Diamondbacks. Admission to the concert is free with a game ticket. The rockers will perform just minutes after the game's final out. ... Pennywise, the Circle Jerks, Ignite and the Brown Brigade -- featuring former Sum 41 guitarist Dave Baksh -- will tour together this October. The run kicks off October 1 in Portland, Oregon, and dates are currently scheduled through an October 15 stop in Quebec City. Additional gigs will be announced in the coming weeks. ...

On August 8, the Taste of Chaos Ensemble will release an LP tribute to Mastodon's seminal 2004 album, Leviathan, titled Taste of Chaos Ensemble Performs Mastodon's Leviathan. The collective reworked all of the Leviathan's tracks, transforming the metal songs into instrumental string pieces. In related news, Mastodon have unveiled another nine dates for their forthcoming tour with Converge and the Bronx. The trek hits Lawrence, Kansas, on September 18, and stops in San Francisco (September 25); Phoenix (September 28); Los Angeles (September 29); San Diego (September 30); Dallas (October 3); Austin, Texas, (October 4); Houston (October 5); and Atlanta (October 7). ...

An Ultimate Fighting Championship-backed compilation titled UFC Ultimate Beatdowns Vol. 1 will be re-released on August 29, boosted by some additional cuts. The disc features tracks by Slayer, Damageplan, Hatebreed, Shadows Fall, Sepultura, Killswitch Engage and Chimaira, among others. ... New York punk band the Casualties will release their latest album, Under Attack, on August 22. They'll be touring through August 26 in support of the disc. ... Ani DiFranco is expecting a baby. The singer/songwriter, who was presented with the Woman of Courage Award at the National Organization for Women's 40th annual convention on Friday, announced at the event that she is due in February, AP reports.

07.24.2006

Beyoncé may be heating up the countdown on "TRL" with "Deja Vu," but a number of her fans say the new video has left them cold. More than 2,000 people have signed an online petition addressed to Beyoncé's label, Columbia Records, demanding a reshoot for the video. The petition requests the clip be taped again because, "This video is an underwhelming representation of the talent and quality of previous music-video projects of Ms. Knowles'." Included in the laundry list of offenses are a lack of theme, dizzying editing, over-the-top wardrobe choices and "unacceptable interactions" between B and her real-life beau, Jay-Z. Beyoncé's dance moves were also called into question by the petition, which labeled them "erratic, confusing and alarming at times." ...

Justin Timberlake doesn't talk to Britney Spears anymore, he told GQ for the mag's August cover story, but that doesn't mean he's not rooting for her. The two met while they were Mouseketeers -- when Timberlake was 11 years old -- and he said, "I was in love with her from the start. I was infatuated with her from the moment I saw her." But when the 21-year-old Timberlake split with the 20-year-old Spears, it hit him hard -- and that's not surprising, he told GQ, "especially when you loved that person half your life." What hurt even more was that "she had a couple of opportunities to just sort of stick up for me, and she didn't," he said. "Which is fine. But at that time, you know, I fought back [with 'Cry Me a River']." Now that's he's moved on, Timberlake says it's a "distant thing," but he does feel bad for Spears when he sees how she's being treated by the media. "I wish her well, and I want to see her win," he told the mag. "I don't think you can ever count somebody like her out. Because she may appear one way, but she's very clever." Timberlake's latest video, "SexyBack" featuring Timbaland, will debut on MTV's "Making the Video" Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. ET/PT. ...

"7th Heaven" isn't about to lose Haylie Duff to "Hairspray," so the TV show that jump-started the careers of Ashlee Simpson and Jessica Biel is going to shoot scenes in New York to accommodate Duff's Broadway schedule. Though Duff's character, Sandy Jameson, features prominently in the first two episodes of the new season, she really only has to interact with one main character in the cast -- so Tyler Hoechlin, who plays Martin Brewer, is preparing to fly to the Big Apple to shoot scenes on Mondays, Duff's day off. During those scenes, Duff's character will try to figure out her relationship with Martin as she prepares to go to seminary school. The 11th season of "7th Heaven" premieres September 25 at 8 p.m. on the CW. ... Jet's new album will be called Shine On and will hit stores on October 3, according to the band's label, Atlantic Records. "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is," the first single from the album, is scheduled to land on radio August 7. As is becoming of a band working on the follow-up to a multiplatinum debut, Jet wrote a majority of the material in studios around the world -- including Barbados, Australia and, um, Massachusetts -- and committed it to tape at producer Dave Sardy's Hillside Manor studio in Los Angeles. According to Atlantic, Jet are also planning to support Shine On with a whirlwind U.S. tour, tentatively scheduled to run from September 18 through October 6. ...

Metallica have been named to Blender magazine's list of "The 25 Biggest Wusses ... Ever!" The list, published in the magazine's July issue, "salutes the most awesomely wimpy musicians of all time." And why did Metallica make the cut? Because "the haircuts were lame and the anti-Napster crusade lamer," the magazine explained. Nick Lachey , the Cure's Robert Smith, Belle and Sebastian, Coldplay's Chris Martin and Kenny G also made the list, which was topped by mellow singer/songwriter James Taylor. ... Thursday, Rise Against and Billy Talent will hit the road together this fall, following the bands' stints on this summer's Warped Tour. So far, just seven dates have been booked -- the first set for October 23 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Dates are scheduled through a November 7 stop in Seattle. ... Iron Maiden have rolled out the first 11 dates of their upcoming international tour -- and lucky for us, eight of them are in the U.S. The trek, with Bullet for My Valentine opening on most dates, will kick off in Hartford, Connecticut, on October 4. The tour will then hit Boston (October 6); Camden, New Jersey (October 7); Long Island, New York (October 12); East Rutherford, New Jersey (October 13); Auburn Hills, Michigan (October 17); Rosemont, Illinois (October 18); and Irvine, California (October 21). Additional dates will be announced in the coming weeks. Maiden's forthcoming LP, A Matter of Life and Death, will hit stores September 5. ...

"To Be Loved," the first single from Papa Roach's forthcoming LP, The Paramour Sessions, is now streaming on the band's Web site. The Paramour Sessions is scheduled for release on September 12. ... This year's Ozzfest isn't just about the music -- it's also about crowning the first Miss Ozzfest. Throughout the summer, fans have been voting on the many contestants in the running, and now, Playboy.com is getting involved. The site will present "The Girls of Ozzfest" over the coming weeks, posting nude photos and videos of the "sexy metal maidens from the summer's most extreme tour." .... You Hear It First veterans Far-Less will be playing the rest of the gigs on their To the End Tour with Roses Are Red drummer Mike Lasaponara, who'll be taking over for Ray Felts. The band said Felts will not be able to close out the tour "due to circumstances beyond our control." Far-Less -- who will be on the road through August 6 with Roses Are Red, Bedlight for Blue Eyes and the Panic Division -- will be contributing a song to the soundtrack of "The Santa Clause 3: Escape Clause," due to hit stores this fall. ... A week after parting ways with Roadrunner Records, Ill Niño have announced that they've signed with Cement Shoes Records. The band is currently in Los Angeles working on a five-song EP that will feature two new tracks and three covers. A fall release is planned. ...

Bright Eyes will issue a rarities album October 24 titled Noise Floor. The disc will feature singles, covers, tracks rescued from the cutting-room floor and collaborations recorded between 1998 and 2005. Look for the release to boast 16 tracks, including "Drunk Kid Catholic," "Soon You Will Be Leaving Your Man" and "When the Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass Again." ... The Decemberists will release their fourth album, The Crane Wife, October 3. The 10-track LP was co-produced by Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla and features singer/songwriter Laura Veirs on the track "Yankee Bayonet." The Washington state indie rockers will tour in support of Crane starting October 17 in Portland, Oregon, and the 26-date trek wraps up a month later on November 18 in Vancouver, British Columbia. ... After months of speculation, Microsoft officially announced that it plans to launch its own digital-music player and download service, according to the Los Angeles Times. "Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year," Microsoft spokesperson Chris Stephenson said in a statement. "We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together." The new player is expected to have WiFi wireless networking capacity that will enable users to share their playlists and individual songs and a download service that would have variable pricing, a move rival Apple's iTunes has resisted. ...

Joey "JoJo" Garza, bassist for the Grammy-winning Texas band Los Lonely Boys, was arrested on charges of assault causing bodily injury and possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana at an Austin, Texas, hotel on Saturday. The incident -- in which Garza, 26, was accused of assaulting his fiancee -- was simply a "misunderstanding," according to Carina Lyn, Garza's fiancee. "We were being too loud," she explained, according to The Associated Press. "We apologize to the hotel guests. JoJo and I are very much in love and we are planning to be married." The band was celebrating the release of its new album, Sacred, when a hotel guest reported a disturbance. ... Tina Fey is leaving "Saturday Night Live" after nine years. The "Weekend Update" co-anchor -- who's poked fun at everyone from President Bush to Drew Barrymore from the news desk -- announced that she's vacating her post at the sketch-comedy show to focus on her new duties as writer, producer and star of "30 Rock," explaining that she didn't want "either job to suffer." Fey, who joined "SNL" in 1997 and became head writer in 1999, is also taking "SNL" castmember Rachel Dratch with her to "30 Rock." "SNL" alumnus Tracy Morgan and frequent guest host Alec Baldwin will also star in Fey's new sitcom, which focuses on a sketch-comedy series -- sound familiar? -- and debuts October 11.