No $575,000 lawsuit is going to keep Detroit badass Kid Rock down. The rocker is set to perform "America the Beautiful" at the Palace of Auburn Hills Sunday night, before Game 5 of this year's NBA Finals between the Detroit Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs. Naturally, Rock is a hardcore Pistons fan. ... Alicia Keys, Jermaine Dupri, Ice Cube, India.Arie, Ciara, Chingy and Twista are among those scheduled to attend the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Awards on June 27 in Beverly Hills. Producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis will be presented with the Heritage Award at the event. ...

In anticipation of Don't Quit Your Day Job, his first album on Kanye West's new label, Consequence is releasing a retrospective mixtape called A Tribe Called Quence 1995-2004. Consequence, a protégé of A Tribe Called Quest, will also be heard in the coming weeks alongside Andre 3000 on the Q-Tip single "Sexy," with Cam'ron on West's "Gone" and on his own single, "Clockin' My Style." ... Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan have recorded a new song called "Unplayed Piano" that will be available exclusively through iTunes beginning Tuesday with all proceeds going to the U.S. Campaign for Burma and Burma Campaign U.K.'s crusade to free Aung San Suu Kyi on her 60th birthday, June 19. The only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient led an international movement to end over 40 years of brutal military rule in the Southeast Asian country of Burma. ...

Pennywise have set an August 9 release date for their eighth album, The Fuse. The first single, "Disconnect," which lambastes a media-obsessed culture, will arrive at radio stations next week. ... Canadian rockers Our Lady Peace, who'll be appearing at the Live 8 show in Toronto, will release Healthy in Paranoid Times on August 30. The album is the group's first new studio release since 2002's Gravity. In additional to the conventional CD release, a DualDisc edition will also hit stores, featuring an in-depth look at the making of the LP. ... Stellastarr* are putting the finishing touches on their sophomore album, Harmonies for the Haunted. The New Yorkers are planning a September release. ...

Less than a month after they announced they'd be going on indefinite hiatus, three members of Floridian beard-core pioneers Hot Water Music have forged a new group called the Draft. According to Hot Water Music's Web site, the band features guitarist and singer Chris Wollard, bassist Jason Black and drummer George Rebelo. They've lined up their first gig, which goes down July 4 at Common Grounds in Gainesville. Hot Water Music's other member, singer/guitarist Chuck Ragan, has "decided to concentrate on life off of the road." ... Cee-Lo and Sean Lennon are among the guests on Esthero's new album, Wikked Lil' Grrrls, due June 28. The Canadian singer will promote the album with a tour kicking July off 2 in Seattle and wrapping up July 31 in Detroit. ...

Taking a break from recording their fifth studio album, Ganging Up on the Sun, in Nashville, Tennessee, Guster will return to their hometown of Boston to perform two shows with the Boston Pops. The orchestra will play classical pieces that have influenced the band, including "G Major" and "Dear Valentine," before joining the group on Guster tunes. The shows are scheduled for June 22 and 23, while the album is due in early 2006. ... O.A.R. have enlisted former Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison (who has produced No Doubt and Live) to oversee their second major-label album. Parliament's Bernie Worrell will guest on the material, which the band will debut on tour this summer. ...

Boston's Irish punkers the Dropkick Murphys will release The Warrior's Code on June 21 before heading out on the road as the co-headliners on this summer's Vans Warped Tour. The record will include the songs "Wicked Sensitive Crew," "Your Spirit's Alive" and "Last Letter Home." ... Brothers Dean and Gene Ween are prepping Shinola, a collection of "scraps, throwaways and outtakes," according to the band's Web site. No release date has been set. ...

06.16.2005

Destiny's Child will make one of their last television appearances at the 15th annual ESPY Awards, The Associated Press reports. The sports awards show, hosted by Matthew Perry, will tape at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on July 13 and air on ESPN July 17. The multiplatinum group stunned fans earlier this week when it announced it would disband at the end of its Destiny Fulfilled ... And Lovin' It world tour, which wraps in September. ...

More dates have been released for this summer's System of a Down/ Mars Volta tour. The 'fro-heavy trek, which kicks off August 4 in Long Beach, California, will now also hit Atlanta on August 19; Hampton, Virginia, on August 21; Baltimore on August 22; East Rutherford, New Jersey, on August 23; Philadelphia on August 26; and Toronto on September 1. ... Want to listen to what's on P. Diddy's playlist? Here's your chance -- the rap mogul, along with Katie Holmes, Mary J. Blige, Renée Zellweger, Cyndi Lauper, Mischa Barton, Jessica Alba, Brittany Murphy and Hype Williams, have created playlists for custom-designed iPods to be auctioned off for charity. Style & Sounds: A Case for a Cause, which runs through Wednesday and benefits breast-cancer research, features cases decked out in fur, jewels, beads, belts and brass, designed by the likes of Betsey Johnson, Cynthia Rowley, Vivienne Tam, Max Azria of BCBG, Judith Leiber and Donna Karan, among others. The auction is live at ebay.com. ...

The judge who presided over Michael Jackson's child-molestation trial ruled on Thursday (June 16) that he's going to release almost every sealed court document in the case, since he had kept much of the material highly edited, even secret, in the interests of providing a fair trial. Since the amount of documents -- from search warrants at the onset of the case to questions asked by the jury during deliberations -- is so great, Judge Rodney Melville said, it will probably take a month. He told lawyers that he would consider their requests, if submitted by June 23, to keep any specific material unreleased. Melville is still considering whether to extend his decision to include releasing videos shown during the trial, and said he would issue a ruling later. ... JC Chasez is in the final few weeks of recording his second solo album. "In my heart it's the best stuff I've ever written," the 'NSYNC singer said. "This record is more focused, more about my heart. The last one was more sex, sex, sex; this one is more love, love, love." When asked if former flame Eva Longoria inspired any of the lyrics, Chasez tensed up and answered, "No ... maybe ... I don't know. They come from wherever they come from." ...

Producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are overseeing a Luther Vandross tribute album that will include Mary J. Blige, Celine Dion, Fantasia, Ruben Studdard and others. "We got a call from Clive Davis, who thought it would be appropriate to put together his great music with a lot of great artists from today," Jam said. "Mary J. does 'Never Too Much' and really makes it her own. Celine does 'Dance With My Father,' and she lost her father earlier in the year, so she sings it with a lot of passion." ... Jam and Lewis are also working on the next record by longtime collaborator Janet Jackson. The producers recently left their Minneapolis studio to join Jackson in Jermaine Dupri's Atlanta studio. "Us and Janet always are busy with a ton of projects, and the chance to go to Atlanta was a chance to go back to the way we did the Control record 20 years ago, where we all sat in a room and vibed and came up with stuff," Jam said. ...

Mya is taking two months off from recording this summer to teach inner-city kids through a charity she founded in Washington, D.C. "My background is dance, so we're gonna have a ball," she said. Mya is still looking at a late summer release for her next album, Control Freak, featuring Dr. Dre, Lil Jon and "just about every damn body." For the first single, Mya is leaning toward a dance track called "Let It Go." ... Ex-Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch is founding what he's calling a Head Home in India, where he will house leper children. "My eyes have been opened to children on the street and I feel like that is who I want and need to help," he said in a statement. Footage of his efforts can be viewed at headtochrist.com before it is turned into a documentary on his life. ...

The lives of 1960s folk-rocker Tim Buckley and his son, '90s not-quite-folk rocker Jeff Buckley, may soon be playing out on the big screen. A script about the famous father and son has been making its way around Hollywood, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The screenplay is based on music critic David Browne's 2001 book, "Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley." Both musicians made a mark on the musical landscape before their untimely deaths: Tim died of a heroin overdose in 1975 at 28, while Jeff accidentally drowned in the Mississippi River during a late-night swim in Memphis in 1997, at age 30. ... The Pixies, Bright Eyes and Elvis Costello have all been confirmed for the Newport Folk Fest, which takes place August 4-7 in Newport, Rhode Island. Emmylou Harris and Jim James of My Morning Jacket are also scheduled to perform. ...

If you couldn't make it to England for two recent reunion shows by '90s psychedelic rockers the Olivia Tremor Control, don't despair -- the trippy troupe is planning a trio of Stateside gigs. The group will play Chicago's Subterranean on July 29 and hit the Bowery Ballroom in New York for a two-night stand (August 2-3), all with support from the reunited New Zealand pop group the Tall Dwarfs. The OTC-affiliated Cloud Recordings will reissue two classics from the Dwarfs, Weeville and Fork Songs, in late summer. ... "Bewitched" casts a spell with the Cars hit "Magic" in its TV spots, but the song isn't making the official soundtrack, out Tuesday. A slew of other magic-minded numbers will appear on the album, though, such as the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," Frank Sinatra's "Witchcraft," Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of the "Wizard of Oz" classic "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead," and original "Wicked" Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth's take on the Eagles' "Witchy Woman." Also on the soundtrack are songs by Talking Heads, R.E.M., Natalie Cole and Persephone's Bees, who have the first single with "City of Love." ...

After getting their start opening for Ashlee Simpson, You Hear It First artists the Click Five are moving on to open for Jesse McCartney for a series of dates at the end of June. After that, the suit-wearing pop-rockers will warm up the crowd for the majority of the Backstreet Boys' upcoming tour, starting July 22 in West Palm Beach, Florida, and ending August 14 in Boston. ...