David Newgarden of Manage This!, who manage Lemonheads leader Evan Dando confirmed on Wednesday a seemingly unbelievable story that appears in this week's New Musical Express, an English music weekly, that has Dando involved in a life-threatening car chase two weeks ago. "Apparently it's true," was all Newgarden could say about the tale, which had Dando engaged in a high-speed car chase with a trio of sub-machine gun-waving "Mafioso types" on a Brazilian road. A Lemonheads spokesman told NME: "They were traveling in a van north of S‹o Paulo in Brazil in a place called Curitiba where they were playing a show the next day. They were overtaking a car and Evan cut him up a little bit. When they pulled up at the next set of lights, Evan looked out the window and there were three Brazilian Mafioso types with beards and suits. One of them pulled out the gun and pointed it at Evan's head, the spokesman said. Everyone in the back of the bus dropped to the floor. Evan put his foot on the accelerator and zoomed off. The men then caught up with them at the next set of lights and dragged the gun down the side of the bus." The chase then reportedly continued across town, and although no shots were fired, it was suggested more than one of the band members may have been shopping for new underwear the next day. The Lemonheads will play England's Reading Festival on Sat., Aug. 23. [Fri., Aug. 15, 1997, 1 p.m. PST]

War Pays Tribute To Latin Sound

As rock en Espanol continues to gain acceptance north of the border, Latin rock innovators War will release an album saluting the influence of Latin music on its 28-year career. The 14-song Coleccion Latina (Avenue) will include two remixes of the band's classic "Lowrider," along with liner notes in Spanish. The album's limited-edition packaging features moving graphics of a bouncing lowrider on the cover. Other tracks include an unreleased song "Salsa," "East L.A." (with Spanish and English vocals by Jose Feliciano), "The Cisco Kid" and "Cinco De Mayo." War was originally founded as the backing band for Eric Burdon (ex-Animals), who left the group after scoring a hit with "Spill the Wine." The band went on to pioneer the fusion of Latin, rock, funk and jazz styles, and had several hits in the 1970s, including "Lowrider" (#1) and "Why Can't We Be Friends." [Fri., Aug. 15, 1997, 1 p.m. PST]

Hanson To Play Selves In Indie Film

As the precursor to what could turn into a Saturday morning cartoon or, say, a Christmas special, those lovable teenage Oklahoma moppets Hanson are about to get their own movie. Isaac, Taylor and Zachary Hanson, with the help of their stage parents, have sold the rights to their (brief) life stories to independent film producer Galt Niederhoffer. Variety reports that Niederhoffer plans to cast the brothers in a project that is "likely to have an off-beat edge." Hanson's debut, Middle of Nowhere, has sold over 1.5 million copies in just over three months of release. [Fri., Aug. 15, 1997, 9 a.m. PST]

Joan Jett Single First Off Iggy Tribute LP

The first single from the upcoming Iggy Pop tribute, We Will Fall will be Joan Jett's cover of "Real Wild Child." The single will be released the same day as the album, Sept. 16. The video for the song, directed by John Warden (Powerman 5000, Tiny Tim) was shot in a New York loft and features a cameo from former Ramones leader Joey Ramone, who also appears on the album singing the track "1969." Pop will donate his songwriting royalties from the album to the Music Industry Fights AIDS organization LifeBeat. The compilation also features the Red Hot Chili Peppers ("Search & Destroy"), Misfits ("I Got a Right"), Nada Surf ("I'm Sick Of You") and Sugar Ray ("Cold Metal") among others. [Fri., Aug. 15, 1997, 9 a.m. PST]

Tibet Concert Movie Goes To College

Organizers of the Tibetan Freedom concerts plan to hold a series of screenings of the Tibetan Freedom Movie on college campuses across the country in early November. Spokesperson Maria Ma, of the Milarepa Fund, which organizes the annual benefit, told ATN that the organization,whose cause it is to end China's persecution of Tibet, hopes to hold the simultaneous screenings at a number of colleges around the Nov. 4 release date of the three-CD Tibetan Freedom Concert CD collection. [Fri., Aug. 15, 1997, 9 a.m. PST]

QUOTE (UNQUOTE): "I find it really offensive that new country

stations will often bag the roots of country music to make it sound

appealing to younger people. It not only insults the audience but the

bands who are being played. It insults Garth Brooks when you say,

'This is new country, not like your dad listened to. Your dog's not gonna

be dying on your radio.' Dwight Yoakam would never say anything

shitty about Hank Williams." -- Neko Case, solo country artist

and drummer for Canadian indie rockers Maow.

Busta Rhymes Strikes Again With New LP

Rap wildman Busta Rhymes will drop the follow-up to his breakthrough The Coming on Sept. 23. The album, entitled When Disaster Strikes, will be preceded by the first single, "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See," with a video directed by hot R&B lensman Hype Williams (Notorious B.I.G.) that sources at his label, Elektra, described as a spoof of the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America. The album was produced by Busta with additional production by Sean 'Puffy' Combs and DJ Scratch (EPMD) and is also slated to feature cameos from soul singer Erykah Badu, Rampage, Easy Mo Bee and 8-off. [Thurs., Aug. 14, 1997, 1 p.m. PST]

Primus Pen Cartoon Tune

Primus have written and performed the theme song to the recently debuted Comedy Central adult cartoon South Park. The show, which features crudely-drawn third grade characters in less-than-goofy situations involving violence and bodily-fluids, was created by Primus fans Trey Parker and Matt Stone. According to Primus' management, Stone is a longtime fan who caught the Les Claypool-led band's first ever Colorado gig in 1989, while a student at the University of Colorado and called the office to inquire if Claypool and company would be interested in scoring his new show. South Park's opening sequence even features a Claypool-esque character (a la Burl Ives in the holiday classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), who sings along with the 20-second theme song. Primus are gearing-up to release the second single, "Over the Falls," from their most recent effort, The Brown Album, with an accompanying video directed by Claypool. [Thurs., Aug. 14, 1997, 1 p.m. PST]

Dust Brothers Mix It Up With Chemical Brothers

The third single from the Chemical Brothers' Dig Your Own Hole album, "Elektrobank," (which samples a Keith Murray song), will be released Sept. 9. The six-track single pairs the Brothers with their original namesake, the Dust Brothers production team, for one of three mixes of the song. Some years ago the Chemicals were forced to change their name to avoid confusion with the Dust Brothers (Beck, Beastie Boys, Rolling Stones). Also included are the new songs "Not Another Drug Store," featuring vocals by Justin Warfield and "These Beats Are Made For Breaking," as well as the "Electric Battle Weapon" version of "Don't Stop The Rock." The Chemicals recently filmed a seven-minute video for "Elektrobank" with famed video director Spike Jonze (Beck, Bjork) helming a clip that features actress Sophia Coppola as a gymnast. The video, which, like Jonze's pop-culture-parodying work with Weezer on the Happy Days spoof for their song "Buddy Holly," makes reference to the injury sustained by U.S. gymnast Kerri Strug at last year's Olympics. The the video was filmed in Los Angeles on July 16 and 17. The Brothers, who will return to the U.S. in late October for a 12-date national tour, make a cameo in the video. [Thurs., Aug. 14, 1997, 9 a.m. PST]

Specials Join Goldfinger On Stage

Ska punkers Goldfinger were joined on stage by one of their heroes Monday night at Los Angeles' Whisky nightclub when three members of the legendary British two-tone ska band The Specials jammed with them on a pair of tunes. Goldfinger debuted new songs from their upcoming album, Hang-Ups (Sept. 9), before bringing out The Specials trio to jam on The Specials' classics "Monkey Man" and "Nite Klub." Other on-stage guests at the show included No Doubt horn player Gabriel McNair and three horn players from The Skeletones. [Thurs., Aug. 14, 1997, 9 a.m. PST]

QUOTE (UNQUOTE): "For some reason there's just that strange front man situation where everybody thinks [Axl Rose and I] are supposed to be like Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, which is not the case. And Axl seems to think

the same way, like this is supposed to be some unprecedented lead duo

thing. Where as far as I'm concerned it's supposed to be about where the

music's coming from, where the band's at, who the members are, and a whole

fucking tight kind of group -- it's not just the front guys. Axl just

sees it as nobody matters but he and I, and that's not the case for me."

--Slash, former guitarist for Guns N' Roses

(Compiled by ATN staff.)