Lil Wayne will release "Grown Man" as the second single from Tha Carter II, due December 6. "It's self-explanatory," he said. "It's just showing people that I've stepped up." The album includes collaborations with Birdman, Kurupt and Robin Thicke. As for rumors that he was joining Boyz N Da Hood, Wayne said, "It didn't work out, but we still cool." ...

Sharifa's "I'll Be Around" will be the second single from the Ludacris Presents Disturbing Tha Peace compilation, due December 13. "It's produced by Salaam Remi and I'm looking forward to dropping it at the top of the year," Sharifa said. ... Meanwhile, Ludacris is eying a spring release for his next album, Release Therapy. "I can be done if I want to, but we always keep recording," he said. ...

There's a second No Doubt baby on the way — guitarist Tom Dumont and his wife, Mieke, are expecting their first child together, according to the band's label rep. The couple got married in October 2004, and Mieke is now five and a half months along. (The first No Doubt baby, of course, is toddler Mason James Young, son of drummer Adrian Young and wife Nina). ... Meanwhile, Gwen Stefani continues to take care of her baby — her solo career, that is — by signing on to the growing list of performers for the upcoming Billboard Music Awards (she's also up for nods in three categories, including New Artist of the Year). 50 Cent, Mariah Carey and Green Day have the most nominations. Also performing will be Daddy Yankee with Pharrell, Green Day, Toby Keith, R. Kelly and Carrie Underwood, among others. LL Cool J will host the show, which will air live on FOX from the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas on December 6 at 8 p.m. ET/ PT tape-delayed. ...

Ashlee Simpson is making a repeat appearance at the Radio Music Awards this year. Last year, she used her performance to make fun of her then-recent flubs on "Saturday Night Live," and this year, she'll presumably demonstrate that she's past all that. Also performing are Ricky Martin (with Amerie and Fat Joe) and Keith Urban, among others, while Ashlee's ex Ryan Cabrera, Scott Weiland and Bo Bice are scheduled to appear. Mark McGrath and Jaime Pressly are sharing hosting duties for the show, which will air live on NBC from the Aladdin Casino Resort in Las Vegas on December 19 at 9 p.m. ... Wednesday night's (November 30) episode of the CBS crime drama "CSI: NY" will prominently feature "Talk," the new single from Coldplay. A character on the show will receive a call on his cell phone, and his ring tone will be — you guessed it — "Talk." After the scene, viewers will be able to purchase the song as a ring tone for their very own cell phone. "Talk" also appears in the background of a scene later on in the episode, too. ...

The Killers have teamed up once again with famed documentarian and photographer Anton Corbijn — who directed their video for "All These Things That I've Done" — to do a special spread for the December issue of GQ. The band poses on Star Motorcycles to show "how they make the road, as well as their music, all their own." ... Trillville will release "Nothing Les" as the next single from Trillville: Reloaded. "Everybody gotta dress nice and I expect nothing less," the group's Don P said when asked to explain the track. ... Alicia Keys and Bono have collaborated on a cover of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's 1986 duet "Don't Give Up" to release as a benefit for Keep a Child Alive, a nonprofit that distributes medicine to families infected with AIDS and HIV. Their version will be released exclusively via iTunes on Tuesday. Cingular Wireless is also selling a ring tone version to benefit the same group. ...

The surviving members of the MC5 won a lawsuit brought against them by the widow and children of their late lead singer, Rob Tyner (real name Rob Derminer), when a federal judge in Michigan dismissed the suit, ruling that Becky Derminer failed to prove an ownership interest in the band's copyrighted works, and that she could not bring any further trademark or copyright-infringement claims against Wayne Kramer, Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson. "This is a vindication of our clients' position," said the band's lawyer J. Michael Huget. "Their intellectual property rights have been upheld." ... Hey, have you ever wanted to own Jerry Garcia's toilet? Neither have we, but the late Grateful Dead frontman's porcelain throne is one of several home accoutrements that will soon be put up for bid in an eBay charity auction. Garcia's dishwasher, freezer and cupboards will also go on the block starting December 18, and proceeds will benefit the Sophia Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit that aids children and families during marital separations and divorces. The group's chairman, Henry Koltys, bought Garcia's Nicasio, California, home in 1997, two years after the singer died of a heart attack. ...

Add Washington, D.C., to the list of those suing Sony BMG over its stealth XCP copy-protection software. A lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in D.C. under a provision of the Consumer Protection Act that allows a resident to act as a "private attorney general" on behalf of the general public. The suit claims that Sony deceived consumers by secretly installing copy-protection software on some 24 million discs that compromised the security of the users' computers and that attempts to fix the problem caused even greater security issues. Sony has already been hit by a suit from the Texas attorney general and at least six other class-action suits over the discs. ... If it's the last Wednesday of the month, that means it's suing time for the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA has announced its latest round of copyright-infringement lawsuits, this time against 754 unnamed individuals using such P2P services as the soon-to-be-legit Grokster, Kazaa and LimeWire. Among those sued were students at 12 colleges, including Boston University, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Michigan State, New York University, Ohio State and the University of Pittsburgh. Also sued were 81 named individuals across the country. ...

11.29.2005

Paris Hilton will be meeting with her legions of fans as she signs copies of her new book, "Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All to Me," in New York on Thursday. The debutante-turned-bestselling-author will appear at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square starting at 4 p.m. ...

Avenged Sevenfold are mapping out a North American tour, and they'll be bringing CKY along with them for the ride. Other support acts will be announced in the coming weeks. So far, the band's secured just a handful of dates for the trek, which will kick off on January 20 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ... Beck has released four never-before-heard tracks on his just-relaunched Web site: "Sorrow," "Day for Night," the abstract instrumental "Premonition" and a summery pop song simply called "Untitled 2." ...

Chris Cornell is suing his ex-wife and ex-manager, Susan Silver. The Audioslave frontman claims in a lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles that she conspired to divert money that belonged to him and his former Soundgarden bandmates and held his library of music, lyrics and Grammys hostage, which he says she's doing out of "personal animus" toward him. He also accuses her of putting her personal interests above her fiduciary duties when she was managing Soundgarden by not advising them of conflicts of interest. He's seeking over $1 million in damages. ... A Korn fan is suing the city of Tacoma, Washington, because he got knocked over at a concert and was forced to leave, despite being injured. The fan claims in a suit filed in Pierce County Court last week that he was jumped on and knocked down a level in the Tacoma Dome, breaking an arm and a hip. Security offered him no help, but told him to leave or he would be arrested, he claims in the suit, which also names the venue and Pro Staff security as defendants. ...

The Rolling Stones will perform during the Super Bowl XL halftime show, the NFL announced Tuesday (November 29). The game is set to take place February 5 at Ford Field in Detroit. ... Gratitude, the band featuring former Far frontman Jonah Matranga, have called it a day — maybe. The band's last gig went down November 23 in Minneapolis. "We ended happy and able to look each other in the eyes," reads a posting on the band's MySpace page; all a label rep would say is the band is no longer with Atlantic Records. "In the much-too-short life of this band, we had some incredible times, put in a lot of good, hard work, and learned a lot about what we want and what we don't want in this life of trying to make a living making music." ...

Coheed and Cambria's Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness will be re-released on December 13 in a deluxe, expanded limited-edition version. The disc will come with a DVD featuring the videos for "Welcome Home" and "The Suffering," along with six animated vignettes based on the graphic novel for Good Apollo, an in-the-studio piece documenting the making of the album, and a mini-movie titled "Favor House Atlantic." ... On February 7, Beth Orton will release The Comfort of Strangers, her fourth album of electronica-tinged folk. Only this time, thanks to producer/former Sonic Youth member Jim O'Rourke, she's replaced the electronica with marimba. Orton recorded the deliberately lo-fi album with O'Rourke in just two weeks. The 14 tracks feature folksy collaborations with singer/songwriter M. Ward and percussionist Tim Barnes. ...

Bad Religion will release a DVD on February 20. Called "Live at the Palladium," it will feature footage shot over a two-night stint at the legendary Hollywood venue last year. The DVD also includes interviews with the Los Angeles punk band, never-before-seen footage from the New Wave Theatre captured between 1981 and 1983, a band photo gallery with new and vintage images, and a bunch of the group's music videos. ...