All but one of the tracks on Madonna's upcoming Confessions on a Dancefloor have leaked onto the Internet, but that's not going to force her hand to put out the album any sooner. Confessions is still slated for a November 15 release, according to Madge's label rep. ...

Ashanti's upcoming remix album will feature four new tracks, including the first single, "Still on It," with Paul Wall and Method Man. "I Love You," "Show You" and "Found It in You" are the other new tracks on Collectables by Ashanti, due December 6. ... Salt-N-Pepa are reuniting for one night on Thursday (November 3) for Motorola's annual Hollywood benefit for Toys for Tots. Paris Hilton, Eva Longoria and Nicole Richie are among those expected to attend. ...

On December 6, the White Stripes will release Walking With a Ghost, an EP featuring not only Jack White's revved-up cover version of Tegan & Sara's tune of the same name, but also four live tracks, two of them recorded at the Teatro Amazones in Manaus, Brazil, hours after White tied the knot with model Karen Elson. The other two are from the Stripes' appearance on radio station KCRW-FM's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" program in September. The EP will also be available for download on iTunes November 14. ...

MySpace Records will launch on November 15 with a compilation disc, MySpace Records: Volume One. The album will feature contributions from Weezer, AFI, Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, Dashboard Confessional, the Click Five and others. ... Shinedown have canceled Thursday's show in Orlando, Florida, as singer Brent Smith is being monitored at a hospital for a non-threatening blood circulation problem. Status of further shows will be determined on a day-to-day basis. ...

The Isley Brothers will release a career retrospective DVD called "Isley Brothers: Summer Breeze - Greatest Hits Live" on November 15. Starting off the set is "Between the Sheets" (which forms the bedrock of Notorious B.I.G.'s "Big Poppa" as well as Gwen Stefani's current single, "Luxurious"), followed by "Footsteps in the Dark," rock standards "Shout" and "Twist and Shout" and covers of Seals & Crofts' "Summer Breeze" and Todd Rundgren's "Hello It's Me." Ronald Isley's alter ego, Mr. Biggs, also makes an appearance with "Down Low" and "Contagious" (featuring cameos from R. Kelly). ... Papa Roach singer Jacoby Shaddix just began shooting his first feature film, an as-yet-untitled supernatural thriller directed by Ryan McKinney. Lou Diamond Phillips and Pam Grier are co-starring in the flick, which is shooting in Sacramento, near Shaddix's hometown of Vacaville, California. ...

Mudhoney's seventh studio album, Under a Billion Suns, will see the fuzzy glow of retail light on March 7. It's the Seattle group's first fresh offering since 2002's Since We've Become Translucent, and will feature 11 tracks, including "A Brief Celebration of Indifference," "Where Is the Future" and "I Saw the Light." ... "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening has announced plans to release All Tomorrow's Parties: Pacific 2003, a collection of live tracks taken from the 2003 ATP festival he curated in California. Artists on the comp include Modest Mouse, the Shins and Sonic Youth. The album is due in stores on December 6. ... "All Dolled Up," a DVD featuring some of the earliest live performances by the recently reunited New York Dolls, will hit stores December 6. Compiled from more than 40 hours of footage shot during the early 1970s by rock photographer Bob Gruen, the feature-length documentary includes performances of "Frankenstein," "Pirate Love," "Bad Detective" and other songs at New York's Kenny's Castaways and Max's Kansas City as well as West Hollywood's Whisky a Go Go and other iconic venues, not to mention revealing interviews, "backstage banter and late-night debauchery." ...

After bloggers flamed the action, Sony Music said on Wednesday that it will distribute a free software patch that reveals hidden files that are automatically installed on computer hard drives by some of its music CDs. According to an Associated Press report, the software was designed to block music piracy, but when a Windows expert reported that his CD drive was disabled when he tried to remove the hidden files, it unleashed charges that Sony was attempting to guard its intellectual property by secretly installing software on the PCs of unsuspecting users. The company said the patch was being offered as a precaution, not because of any security vulnerability, though computer experts cautioned that the software could be used by hackers to mask their programs. The copy-protection technology, which limits how many times a CD can be copied, was included on about 20 titles, including albums by the Bad Plus and Vivian Green. The patch does not remove the copy-protection software. ...

11.02.2005

Shar Jackson opens up about her breakup with ex-boyfriend Kevin Federline (now Mr. Britney Spears) in the December issue of Sister 2 Sister magazine. While stressing that all she wants from Federline is for him to spend more time with their two children, she also makes it clear that her relationship with him was far from over when he took up with the pop star. The night Federline met Spears, Jackson told the mag, he was staying at a friend's house so that he could go to an audition in Los Angeles. Jackson says he then told her that he had callbacks that week and would be staying up there a little longer. She didn't question his story, she says, because "I ain't like one of them females that are like, 'Where you at? Why you ...?' Maybe I should convert." Jackson only started worrying when she couldn't reach him that weekend, "because here I am, six and a half months pregnant, and I ain't heard from my man." When he finally called back, she says, he admitted hanging out with Spears, but told her it didn't mean anything. Later on, he told her he was booked for a commercial and had to fly overseas for it, so she helped him prepare, "getting him his passport and all that stuff." She even spent "the whole hour" before he boarded the plane comforting him, because "he doesn't like to fly." "And in all actuality, he was going to see her," Jackson said. The rest, as they say, is history. ...

A Slipknot fan's Halloween costume inadvertently forced officials at California's Placer County Jail to place the facility on lockdown. According to a report in the Auburn Journal, police dispatchers at Placer County's Sheriff's Department fielded a call on Sunday regarding a man wearing an orange inmate's jumpsuit and shackles who was getting into a car at a local Taco Bell. Fearing one of its inmates might've escaped, "they locked down the entire jail," Lt. George Malim, a spokesperson for the Placer County Sheriff's Department, told the paper. "When you hear something like that, you err on the side of caution." Officials conducted a head count, and all the inmates were present. Patrol officers caught up with the car and confirmed the fan was not criminal. When that fan, Eddie Hail, learned of his costume's unintended effect, he replied, "Oops." His girlfriend had purchased the orange jumpsuit for him so that he could dress up as a member of Slipknot. He later opted to ditch the mask and be a convict for Halloween instead. ...

Mariah Carey and Jay-Z are slated to be honored by the New York Grammy chapter at the Recording Academy Honors gala to be held December 7 at Gotham Hall. The event will also honor Yoko Ono, John Lennon and film composer Howard Shore. ... R. Kelly, Green Day and Toby Keith are among the headliners for this year's Billboard Music Awards, which will air live from Las Vegas' MGM Grand December 6 on FOX at 8 p.m. ET/tape-delayed PT. Carmen Electra, Bo Bice, Nick Cannon, Chingy, Hulk and Brooke Hogan and the Blue Man Group are slated to appear. ...

Hilary Duff's mom is in her stuff — according to a lawsuit filed by youth clothing manufacturer NTD Apparel in Los Angeles Superior Court last week. The lawsuit claims that Susan Duff interfered with an exclusive merchandising agreement for the Stuff by Hilary Duff brand when she granted Target a retail license for it, despite NTD having already entered an agreement with the pop star, when she granted it rights to use her name and image on sports clothing to launch in spring 2004. ... 'Tis (almost) the season, so the White Stripes, Death Cab for Cutie, Hot Hot Heat and Coheed and Cambria have signed up for Bay Area rock station Live 105's alternative holiday fest, Not So Silent Night. The concert will take place December 9 at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. ...

What better way to capture the ultimate concert experience than by way of the fans? That's what the Beastie Boys did when they handed 50 handheld cameras to a throng of concertgoers at one of their shows last year at New York's Madison Square Garden to capture the madness from each person's unique perspective. The end result is their documentary film called "Awesome: I F---in' Shot That," directed by the group's Adam "MCA" Yauch, who said of the film, "[It was shot by] a bunch of untrained camera operators, but that gives the film sincerity. The people that shot it were feeling it." Indie film distributor THINKFilm has confirmed that it has nabbed the rights to distribute the doc, which is tentatively set for a spring release. ... Neil Diamond has launched his own MySpace page, and he's chosen to debut his new album, 12 Songs, there too. From now until the day the album hits stores (November 8), fans can cruise on over to MySpace.com/NeilDiamond and listen to the entire thing for free. 12 Songs is Diamond's first album in more than four years, and was produced by Rick Rubin. ...

Run-DMC's Darryl McDaniels has shot two videos for his solo album, Checks Thugs and Rock 'n' Roll, due in January and featuring Kid Rock, Korn bassist Fieldy and others. The first is for "Just Like Me," which chronicles DMC's discovery that he was adopted and features Sarah McLachlan. The second is for the war commentary "Machine Gun," which features backing vocals from "CSI" star Gary Dourdan, who appears in the video directed by Ondi Timoner, coming off her award-winning documentary, "Dig." ... Mope-master Morrissey is reaching out to the masses to fill them in on the status of his new album, tentatively titled Ringleader of the Tormentors. In a letter posted on fan site True-To-You.net, the Mozzer writes that he is currently mixing the album in Rome with producer Tony Visconti, and that the whole recording process has been "a dazzling experience." He also writes that the first single off Ringleader will be released to radio in the second week of February and that the album will hit stores on March 20. ...

Napster has joined up with Clear Channel Entertainment's Instant Live program to offer new and cataloged live recordings by the likes of Bauhaus, the Allman Brothers Band and the Black Crowes. Instant Live, which records concerts on site for instant purchase, will provide full-length performances that can be purchased, downloaded or streamed as part of the deal. ...