Pop punk pioneers the Descendents used their July 4 holiday from the Warped tour to offer hometown fans an unannounced free concert on the Hermosa Beach, Calif. boardwalk. Kathy Koehler, a spokeswoman for the Descendents' label Epitaph and a Hermosa Beach resident, told ATN the impromptu show was "very cool." Pennywise's Fletcher Dragge did make the scene to play guitar on a cover of Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown." The Descendents, whose drummer Bill Stevenson logged time with Black Flag, also ripped through Black Flag's "Wasted" and "Jealous Again," as well as Agent Orange's "Bloodstains" and a slate of their own tunes. "There were a couple hundred people surrounding the boardwalk," Koehler said. "Eventually the cops came through and drove everybody away, and told the band they had to stop playing"...

There's nothing like a concept album to pump fresh blood into a sagging career. So, without further ado, cueball pianist Joe ("Steppin' Out") Jackson will release Heaven and Hell (September 2), an eight-song meditation on the seven deadly sins that finds Jackson in a decidedly classical mood (so classical, in fact, that the album will come out on the Sony Classical label). With help from an eclectic group of classical and pop performers, among them soprano Dawn Upshaw and Suzanne Vega ("Angel (Lust)"), violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg ("Prelude"), Jane Siberry ("The Bridge (Envy)") and the Crash Test Dummies' Brad Roberts ("Passacaglia/A Bud and a Slice (Sloth)"), Jackson's first album in three years is as over-the-top as it sounds, although still grounded enough in his signature piano bar ivory-tinkling that fans will recognize the man behind the concept...

Priority Records will release the latest volumes of its low-dough Rapmasters series on Aug. 5. Volumes 5-8 of the series, which kicked off last summer, will contain nine songs each from a wide range of above and underground artists, including Ice-T ("I Must Stand"), Ice Cube ("It Was a Good Day"), EPMD ("You Gots to Chill"), NWA ("Straight Outta Compton"), MC Ren ("Final Frontier"), Paris ("Watcha See"), Eazy E ("Radio"), as well as Master P ("99 Ways to Die"), E-A-Ski ("Blast If I Have To") and Mack 10 ("On Them Thangs"). The CDs are all priced under $10...

Finally, if you happen to be in L.A. tonight, drop by the Viper Room for a "special guest appearance" by former Cult lead singer Ian Astbury at the Masters of Reality show. Astbury, who has been in the studio with Reality mastermind Chris Goss for the past two weeks working on new material, will debut some of the collaborations during his unbilled appearance at the show.

(ATN's Senior Writer Gil Kaufman and Staff Writer Chris Nelson compiled this report.)