Christina Aguilera will release the Linda Perry-produced "Candyman" as the third single from Back to Basics. Aguilera, whose North American tour begins February 20, is co-directing the video with Matthew Rolston (Hilary Duff, Jessica Simpson). ...

It might be comeback time -- again -- for Michael Jackson. The Associated Press reported Friday (January 26) that the singer has relocated to the U.S. after living for the past year and a half in Bahrain, France and Ireland. Jackson is also planning two fan-appreciation concerts, to be held in Japan in March, with one of them allowing fans to meet him for the hefty sum of $3,300. The singer postponed an expensive Christmas party for fans in Japan last year so he could add a second date to the appreciation events. ...

Oscar nominee Jennifer Hudson is Essence magazine's March cover girl and explains in an interview inside that the world can expect to hear a lot more than the "Dreamgirls" showstopper "And I'm Telling You (I'm Not Going)" from her. "I don't intend to say, 'OK, I'm going to sing this song for the rest of my life, and this will be the only character that I portrayed,' " she said. "I'm Jennifer, not Effie," she added, remarking about the character she plays in the film. "I'm flexible and different and have other dreams and other goals and songs to pursue." ... Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony will perform at Ocean Drive magazine's Super Bowl party in Miami on February 3. DJ AM will also entertain the VIP crowd. ...

Chris Daughtry -- sans his chart-topping band, Daughtry -- will treat Greensboro, North Carolina, to a free concert at Greensboro Coliseum on March 23, AP reports. The gig, which is expected to draw 6,000-7,000 people, will act as a prelude to the women's basketball tournament games slated for March 24 and 26. ... "American Idol" season-one runner-up Justin Guarini is joining "Idol Tonight" as a correspondent. Fellow "Idol" vet Kimberly Caldwell and "Popstars" winner Rosanna Tavarez will continue to host the pre-show series broadcast on the TV Guide Channel. The new season of "Idol Tonight" will air Wednesdays beginning in March. ...

Dre & Vidal, Alchemist and Fredwreck are joining the celebrity panel to be showcased at the One Stop Shop Conference on February 10-11 in Phoenix. The event, put on by G-Unit and Sha Money XL, will focus on music producers and also include workshops and networking sessions. Swizz Beatz, DJ Premier and others will also be on the celebrity panel. ... It's almost time to pay your underground-hip-hop dues again. Expect to see Alchemist, Sage Francis and Brother Ali perform as part of the second Paid Dues shindig, to be held March 24 in San Bernardino, California. The eight-hour event, to be hosted by Lucky I Am, will also feature Felt -- the group consisting of Murs and Atmosphere's Slug and Ant -- plus Blackalicious, Mr. Lif, Cage, Pigeon John, Jean Grae and Devin the Dude. ...

VH1 is calling on Mat Kearney to headline the first You Oughta Know Tour. The jaunt, which will also feature Rocco DeLuca and the Burden and the Feeling, begins March 17 in Denver and ends April 20 in Atlanta. VH1 will give the Burden another boost by rebroadcasting its documentary, "I Trust You to Kill Me" -- which features their tour manager, Kiefer Sutherland -- February 2. ... The Ataris will kick off a U.S. tour February 20, the day their album Welcome to Tonight hits stores. The band will start off in Philadelphia and visit cities including New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago and Denver before finishing up the run on March 17 in Salt Lake City. ...

Tom Waits has settled his lawsuit with General Motors and the company's ad agency, which had created a series of European commercials that used a Waits sound-alike as background music in its ads. A Germany attorney representing Waits said the singer will donate his net settlement from the suit to charity. ... B.B. King was hospitalized Friday in Galveston, Texas, with "flu-like symptoms," Reuters reports. The blues legend, who is being held for observation, was forced to cancel a concert as a result. ... Joe Satriani is lining up dates for another G3 tour, to begin in Phoenix on March 14. The trio -- which also includes Dream Theater's John Petrucci and Mr. Big's Paul Gilbert -- will also bring their guitar-hero antics to Las Vegas (March 15); Reno, Nevada (March 16); Berkeley, California (March 17); and Los Angeles (March 18). More dates are expected to be announced shortly. ...

The flap over Ted Nugent's performance at Texas Governor Rick Perry's inaugural ball hasn't ended. Writing a guest column in the Thursday edition of the Waco Tribune-Herald, the Motor City Madman lashed out at people who have deemed racist the remarks he made about non-English speakers. "In total defiance to the vicious lies and hateful allegations of 'racism' leveled at me by irresponsible, unprofessional and downright goofy media punks, I never said a word about immigration or language, specifically not the alleged slam against 'illegal immigrants' or 'non-English-speaking' anyone," Nugent wrote. He added, however, "I will intensify my fight for a united America by demanding all Americans speak English." ...

Dead or Alive frontman Pete Burns has filed a lawsuit against a plastic surgeon over lip injections he claims left him "physically repulsive" and "suicidal," BBC News reports. The suit claims that the singer has suffered several side effects from the procedures, such as swelling, blisters and an inability to eat, drink or speak. Doctors have told him his lips may need to be amputated. Burns claims he received an "excessive number" of injections, and was never warned about the potential side effects. He said he did not leave his home for seven months, because his face was "distorted with swelling," and underwent corrective treatment over 17 months. ... Move over Bacon Brothers: There's another acting Kevin with a band. The Kevin Costner Band will perform a NASCAR Nextel Cup pre-race show at the California Speedway on February 25. Costner will also serve as the event's grand marshal.

01.25.2007

Police ruled out mechanical failures as contributing to the fatal car crash involving Brandy on Thursday (January 25), Reuters reports. Still, the singer could be found to be primarily at fault or criminally negligent in the December 30 crash, which took place in Los Angeles. A police spokesperson, who said investigators will be sifting through more evidence and conducting more interviews in the coming days, added that Brandy was being "fantastically cooperative" with authorities. ...

Ludacris, John Legend, Norah Jones and New Edition will anchor this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, The Associated Press reports. Luda and Jones -- along with Rod Stewart, Van Morrison and others -- are slated for the first weekend, April 27-29. Legend, New Edition, ZZ Top, Steely Dan and others will perform May 4-6. ...

James Brown's children want the trustees of the late music icon's estate removed, citing mismanagement, AP reports. In an emergency petition filed Wednesday, the six children also warned that some of Brown's assets are in danger of being "lost or dissipated or stolen." An irrevocable trust that was signed in 2000 is said to contain most of Brown's assets, and Buddy Dallas -- a trustee, as well as Brown's former lawyer -- told AP that the process was handled "appropriately and properly" when Brown passed away. ... A full-on Crowded House reunion tour is in the works, Reuters confirms. The band, which has been confirmed to perform at the Coachella festival on April 29, has yet to unveil dates for the trek, although it has been revealed that a new LP will coincide with it. The lineup will feature singer/guitarist Neil Finn, bassist Nick Seymour and keyboardist Mark Hart, and auditions are being held for a new drummer. ...

The latest addition to the Grammy Awards lineup is a triple-threat collaboration between nominees John Legend, John Mayer and Corinne Bailey Rae. The trio will play together at the February 11 ceremony, which will also feature previously announced performers Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, the Dixie Chicks, Gnarls Barkley, Ludacris, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Justin Timberlake and Carrie Underwood. ...

The Beastie Boys have been quietly working on a new studio record, the group revealed to Australian newspaper The Age. Down Under fans will get a first taste of the new material when the Boys headline next month's Good Vibrations Festival. Mike D told The Age that the new album "is actually really different," and joked that fans "can expect to be disappointed; they can expect to be angry at us." ... Lily Allen, the Shins and Cold War Kids will headline radio station KCRW's sixth annual A Sounds Eclectic Evening festival April 14 in Universal City, California. Rodrigo y Gabriela and Bitter: Sweet will also take the stage at the Gibson Amphitheatre. ...

Tool will tour the U.S. again in March. Nine confirmed gigs have been announced through the band's Web site; additional dates will be released in the coming weeks. Confirmed dates run from a March 15-16 stint in Las Vegas through a March 27 show in Corpus Christi, Texas. The trek will also take the band to San Diego; Tucson, Arizona; El Paso, Texas; and San Antonio. ... The sold-out Slayer show scheduled for February 17 at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, New Jersey, has been nixed due to "venue production issues." The stop was part of the band's 22-city North American jaunt, which kicked off Wednesday in Tucson, Arizona. ...

20th Century Fox is after YouTube to disclose the identity of a user uploading entire episodes of the network's shows, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Google-owned video-sharing site was served Wednesday with a subpoena by Fox, demanding that YouTube reveal the name of the member that posted recent installments of "24" and "The Simpsons." It is not known whether YouTube has complied with the legal request, the trade paper reports. Fox also hit video site LiveDigital with a similar subpoena. A spokesperson for the smaller video-sharing portal told the Reporter that the company would comply. ... Nicole Kidman was taken to -- and subsequently released from -- a Los Angeles hospital after being involved in a car crash Thursday, AP reports. The accident happened downtown, where Kidman has been shooting the sci-fi thriller "The Invasion." ...

Relient K, the band that brought you "Be My Escape," is heading out for a long spell starting March 9 in New York. Relient K are using the tour -- which will keep them on the road through May 20 in Cleveland -- to promote their March 6 release, Five Score and Seven Years Ago. ...

Godsmack frontman Sully Erna will sign copies of his forthcoming memoir, "The Paths We Choose," February 24 at Borders on Vine Street in Los Angeles. The book hits stores February 7. ... Staind frontman Aaron Lewis is hitting the road on a solo acoustic trek that kicks off March 1 in Royal Oak, Michigan. The tour runs through April 4 in Buffalo, New York. ... AFI have added six more shows to their winter trek, which kicks off Wednesday in Tampa, Florida. Five of the new dates are in California (Davis, San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Chico and Eureka), beginning with the Davis stop on March 1. ...

Pop/rockers Locksley -- who have toured with OK Go, We Are Scientists and She Wants Revenge -- will lend the Rapture some support as the latter band spreads its dance-rock goodness across the Northeast and Midwest next month. The Rapture -- whose Universal Motown LP Pieces of the People We Love came out in September -- and Locksley will hit Cincinnati (February 2); Pittsburgh (February 3); Milwaukee (February 5); Indianapolis (February 6); State College, Pennsylvania (February 7); and Northampton, Massachusetts (February 10). ... Now-defunct Scottish indie squad Arab Strap are getting a send-off with Ten Years of Tears. The 18-track set will feature unreleased demos, plus new recordings, B-sides, remixes and more. ...

Hot Rod Circuit's forthcoming LP, The Underground Is a Dying Breed, will land in stores March 20. The effort will feature guest vocals from Kenny Vasoli of the Starting Line and Anthony Green of Circa Survive. ... Days of the New are returning to the stage as a trio on Saturday, performing at the Gasparilla Pirate Fest in Tampa Bay, Florida. A representative for the band said that frontman Travis Meeks, who chronicled his journey to rehab for drug addiction in an episode of the A&E series "Intervention," has been clean for a year and a half and is rehearsing with bandmates Ray Rizzo and Malcolm Gold in New York. ... NYC indie-rockers Stellastarr are writing their second album but will put their pens down for a handful of East and West Coast gigs. The seven-date run starts February 5 in San Diego and ends February 22 in the band's hometown. Stellastarr have been demoing their new songs in Philadelphia and posting them to their MySpace page.