Want to know what the next dual singles from Outkast's Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below will be? Well, you might actually have a say in the matter. On their Web site, the Dirty South duo are asking fans to vote on one of four possible second singles from both Big Boi and Andre 3000's discs. The choices for Big Boi are "Church," "Unhappy," "Bowtie" and "Reset"; Andre's are "Behold a Lady," "Roses," "Prototype" and "Spread." ...

You can now stuff Duff in your Christmas stocking. The makers of a line of Simpsons dolls, Playmates Toys, is creating three Hilary Duff models -- Rock Star Hilary, TV Star Hilary and Movie Star Hilary. The dolls are set to hit toy shelves just in time for the holiday season. ... Alicia Keys will join Mary J. Blige, Outkast, Ludacris and Chingy on the performance roster for the Vibe Awards. The show, which airs November 21, will also feature newly announced presenters Snoop Dogg, Quentin Tarantino, RZA, Pharrell Williams and Sean Patrick Thomas, among others. ...

Metallica frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich will play rebel teenage dragons in an episode of an upcoming cartoon from Walt Disney Television Animation. The series, "Disney's Dave the Barbarian," will focus on an iconoclastic medieval family that must protect itself from a variety of kooky monsters and villains. The show is scheduled to premiere in January. ... The guys of Radiohead will be living up to their name when they helm a week of programming on the BBC's 6 Music channel during the holidays. They'll sift through the station's music and interview archives to dictate all the programming from December 22-28. ... Already available in Europe, the avant-garde score for the British documentary "Bodysong," written and recorded by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and engineer Graeme Stewart, will find its way to U.S. shores on February 24 through Capitol Records. ...

Pearl Jam's first single in over a year, "Man of the Hour," which they premiered live last month, can be heard through Real Networks' Rhapsody music service as well as on the band's official online fan club, the Ten Club (www.pearljam.com), before it surfaces at traditional radio. The song will be featured on the soundtrack to Tim Burton's upcoming film "Big Fish," due out in December. ... As Madonna's second children's book, "Mr. Peabody's Apples," hits stores, her third is already under way. "Yakov and the Seven Thieves" -- like the previous two books -- has a moral lesson, this time about renouncing wicked ways and embracing good behavior. The plot centers around a cobbler named Yakov who is looking to find a cure for his dying son and enlists the help of the aforementioned seven thieves. It's due out March 15. Two more books by the pop diva are due in June and September. Meanwhile, Madonna hopes to make a film based on her first children's book, "The English Roses," and would like to voice the part of the fairy godmother, she told "Extra." ...

Cheeky Brit-poppers Oasis will return to the studio in early 2004 with electronic musicians Tim Holmes and Richard Fearless (a.k.a. Death in Vegas) producing. Singer Liam Gallagher contributed guest vocals to the Death in Vegas song "Scorpio Rising" from the 2003 album of the same name. Oasis guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher has said the band has 13 new songs to bring into the studio. ... "Uncle" Luke Campbell sure does love the ladies. So much so that the former 2 Live Crew leader is helping clothing designer Team Fergo with a new line of women's jersey dresses that will feature the logos and styles of 11 NCAA women's sports teams. A line of "Uncle Luke" winter jackets will also be launched in time for the cold weather. ...

Singer Macy Gray will play Memphis soul singer Carla Thomas in an episode of NBC's "American Dreams" scheduled to air in January. Gray taped the episode, in which she sings Thomas' 1966 hit "B-A-B-Y," on Wednesday. ... Libertines singer/guitarist Carl Barat needed two facial operations last week after a bathroom accident. Barat was stepping out of the bathtub when he slipped on the floor, causing his face to smash into the sink. He was rushed to a hospital in Hereford, Wales, where he was diagnosed with a busted cheekbone and a damaged tear duct. Barat is expected to fully recover. The band was in Wales working on material for its second album. ...

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the States, a tour bus was stirring with three Eve 6 bandmates. In continued support of It's All in Your Head, Eve 6's 27-date headlining tour is set to begin November 11 in Dallas and end December 20, in Poughkeepsie, New York. Eve 6 will be spreading extra holiday cheer by giving fans who sign up for the band's mailing list at the merch table the chance to win a signed Gibson guitar and sing Eve 6's latest single, "At Least We're Dreaming," onstage with the group. ...

11.11.2003

Christina Aguilera was forced to cancel the final two nights of her British tour due to a case of acute bronchitis. The singer, who was ordered to rest for 10 days, missed Monday's show at the Telecast Arena in Newcastle and Tuesday's at Manchester's MEN Arena. ...

Linkin Park celebrated the upcoming release of their Live in Texas CD/DVD with a special screening at Los Angeles' Regent Showcase Theatre on Monday for fans and friends, including members of Taproot. "Welcome to our big Hollywood premiere!" singer Chester Bennington said, greeting family at the door. ... Chinese-American rapper Jin was involved in a scuffle early Sunday morning in New York's Chinatown that resulted in one man being shot. When an argument erupted at the Yellow Bar between an unnamed man and Jin -- an MC who earned respect in rap battles on BET and MTV's You Hear It First Tour and had a cameo in the film "2 Fast 2 Furious" -- another man, Christopher Louie, attempted to intervene and was shot once in the back with a .40 caliber gun. The gunmen fled and Louie was taken to a local hospital, where he's expected to fully recover. ...

Not to be confused with James Garner's '70s shoot-'em-up series "The Rockford Files," Jay-Z and Dame Dash's record label is releasing The Roc Files on December 16. Included on the compilation of some of the Roc's noise-making singles will be Jay and Memphis Bleek's "It's Alright" and the classic "Full of Smoke," from the now defunct R&B duo Christion. ... A Los Angeles U.S. Court of Appeals judge has determined that the Beastie Boys won't have to pass the wallet to composer James Newton, who sued the band in 2000 for looping his flute recording "Choir" in the 1992 song "Pass the Mic." Last year, the Beasties won the original case when a California court determined that the group paid ECM Records sufficiently to sample Newton's six-second, three-note sequence, and was therefore not guilty of copyright infringement. The appeals judge upheld the decision. ...

Seminal hip-hop group Brand Nubian are reuniting for a fifth album, to be released by the indie label Babygrande Records next year. All the original members -- Grand Puba, Sadat X, DJ Alamo and Lord Jamar (fresh from lockdown on the TV show "Oz") -- will be included on the album. ... Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister is working on a solo album between commitments with his main band, and planning to release it late next year or early 2005. So far, he's recorded five tracks; two feature the Reverend Horton Heat and two were created with the English punk group the Damned. ...

After six studio albums and 13 years together, Face to Face have reached the decision to cap their career. The band's final album, How to Ruin Everything, was released last year, and the Southern California trio played the Vans Warped Tour this past summer. Singer/guitarist Trever Keith is planning a CD/DVD retrospective, while he and bassist Scott Shiflett are working on the second album for their side project Viva Death. ... Perhaps the only thing cooler than starting the new year with the Strokes is doing it in the city of sin -- the New York quintet is slated to play Las Vegas' Cox Pavilion on New Year's Eve. ...

This year's Take Action Tour was the annual trek's best year ever. The 27-city outing, which featured headliners Poison the Well as well as the Dillinger Escape Plan, Further Seems Forever, Avenged Sevenfold and Shadows Fall, took in more than $367,000, of which $37,000 benefited the National Hopeline Network 1-800-SUICIDE, a suicide prevention hotline. ... Dillinger Escape Plan, meanwhile, will tour with experimental screamers the Locust starting January 14 in Sauget, Illinois, and running through March 3 in Denver. ...

A four-song EP, 'Merican, will drop two months before Southern California punk pioneers the Descendents release their first studio album in seven years. The as-yet-untitled LP is due in March, while the EP is scheduled for January. ... Ex-Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson took the stage with former Dio drummer Vinny Appice, Warrant guitarist Erik Turner and Bonham singer Chas West at the Key Club in Hollywood on November 7 to raise money for the Station Family Fund. Great White also performed. ...