Tortured Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson has teamed with his daughters Carnie and Wendy (formerly of the not so late-lamented Wilson Phillips) for a 12-track album creatively-titled The Wilsons (Sept. 9). Papa Wilson produced and "contributed" to four of the tracks, including a cover of "Til I Die," from the Beach Boys' 1972 album, Surf's Up. The album was produced by Stephen Lironi and Dave Stewart (Eurythmics)...

Elvis Costello is parting ways with Warner Bros. His final album for that label will be a greatest hits collection due later this fall. The album will likely contain at least one new track. Costello, who has been vocal as of late in regards to his dissatisfaction with how Warner Bros. has handled his releases, is said to be shopping for a new recording deal...

The solo debut by Death Row rapper Lady of Rage finally saw release this past week. Necessary Roughness, the first album from a female artist on imprisoned Death Row President Marion "Suge" Knight's label (Knight, incarcerated since last November, does, however, get his usual 20-pt. "Executive Producer" title on the album), features production by Easy Mo Bee, Daz and DJ Premier and guest shots from slain Death Row rapper Tupac Shakur and Snoop Doggy Dogg...

The name of the new Southern Culture on the Skids album is Plastic Seat Sweat. It will gum its way into stores on Sept. 23...

"Like a Rock" singer Bob Seger was charged with impaired driving after a 1997 BMW he was piloting slid off the Trans-Canada Highway in Northern Ontario on Wednesday night, according to Canadian press reports. Seger wasn't injured in the crash, but does face a charge of failing to provide a breath sample...

Finally, saying that continued government funding of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) would be tantamount to "the expropriation of taxpayers' dollars for elitist purposes," House Appropriations Committee chairman Bob Livingston, (R-Louisiana) led a move to reduce funding for the agency, according to a Reuters report. The NEA, under fire for more than a decade from the right for the funding of "indecent" artistic ventures, now faces a drastic reduction in funding that would see the agency eliminated within a year. As part of a $13 billion spending bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday, for the Interior Department and related agencies, funding for the NEA would be reduced to $10 million for the fiscal year 1998, which begins Oct. 1, an amount Republicans said should be used to close the agency. In defense of the agency, Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said that of the more than 110,000 grants the NEA awarded for arts programs around the country, only 45 had been found "objectionable." Among the types of projects funded by the NEA in the past are: Symphonies & Chamber Music, Operas, Book Festivals & Poetry Readings, Local Shakespeare Festivals, Museum & Gallery Exhibitions and Literacy Programs. The measure must now go to the full House before it faces the conference committee in the Senate, which will then send the bill to the White House.

(Addicted To Noise Senior Writer Gil Kaufman compiled this report.)