Chris Martin will perform at the 11th annual fundraising event for the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation at the University of California at Los Angeles on May 20. The Beverly Hills ceremony will honor Alex Wallau, president of ABC, and feature several stars from the network. ...

One of the first sirens to rap says Lil' Kim was done dirty -- and she wants to shout her out in song. Debbie Harry is so compelled by the Queen Bee's prison plight that the Blondie frontwoman has released a Kim tribute track called "Dirty N Deep" via Blondie.net. "So many of us love Lil' Kim and can't wait for her rebirth, re-entry, for her to get out of prison," Harry said in a statement. ...

White Stripes and Raconteurs frontman Jack White and his wife, model Karen Elson, welcomed their first child, a daughter named Scarlett, on Tuesday. According to a spokesperson for White, Scarlett was born in Tennessee, where the couple had recently bought a new home. ... Another new father, rapper Paul Wall, is shooting a pilot for a VH1 reality show. Pink Sneakers, the company behind "Hogan Knows Best," is producing. ...

Madonna is releasing her Jonas Åkerlund-directed documentary "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret" as a DVD/CD package June 20, according to Warner Bros. "It's sort of a circle around three families: the family of the people I work with, the family that I live with, and the family of man, the world that I live in," Madonna said. "It's about the trials and tribulations of putting a show together, the struggle to balance my life as an entertainer with my life as a mother, and it's also about the world, my politics, my belief systems, my philosophy, about where I feel my place in the world is." The DVD version of the documentary will contain never-before-seen footage not included in the televised version, as well as the director's cut of "American Life," while the CD will contain songs from the film and concert, including "I Love New York," "The Beast Within" and a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine." ...

It's not every day a band uses flying manhole covers as an excuse for canceling a concert, but that's exactly what happened Wednesday when a series of underground gas explosions forced the Goo Goo Dolls to sideline their show in Mount Clemens, Michigan, according to The Associated Press. Fans were waiting in line for the band's performance at the Emerald Theatre when an electrical line went awry and caused the nearby blasts. The Goo Goos' Let Love In will be #9 on the Billboard albums chart next week. ...

Muse have settled on Black Holes and Revelations as the title for their forthcoming album, due in July. The album's first single, "Supermassive Black Hole," will be released to rock radio in mid-June. ... Welsh rockers Lostprophets have named Ilan Rubin -- formerly of Denver Harbor -- as the band's new drummer. He replaces Mike Chiplin, who left last year to spend more time with his family. Rubin did record the drum tracks for Lostprophets' forthcoming Liberation Transmission, which hits stores next month, but joined the band full-time just recently. ...

Scottish dance-rockers the Futureheads will hit North America this summer in support of their new record, News and Tributes (June 13). Fellow Vagrant labelmates the French Kicks will support for the first half of the tour and Minnesota indie-rockers Tapes 'N Tapes will take over the last leg. The 21-date tour will kick off in Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 15 and finish August 5 in San Diego. The French Kicks' third record, Two Thousand, is due August 8. ... Modesto, California, space-rockers Grandaddy might not be touring behind what is to be their final record, Just Like the Fambly Cat, but singer Jason Lytle will be making a handful of in-store performances for the album starting Tuesday -- the day the record is released -- in Dallas. Other stops on the five-date jaunt include New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Sacramento, California. ...

Outré indie acts Juana Molina, José González and Psapp will hit the road together. Their tour will begin June 16 in Los Angeles and end July 3 in New York, with stops in cities including Seattle, Chicago, Montreal and Boston. Molina will release her newest album, Son, May 23. ... Boston indie favorites Dear Leader (featuring former Sheila Divine frontman Aaron Perrino) recently released Radar, an iTunes-only five-track EP to tide fans over while the band finishes up its third LP, tentatively titled The Siamese Democracy, according to a release from Leader drummer/Lunch Records founder Paul Buckley.

05.03.2006

Guitar-playing angel Kurt Cobain floats with a devilish Hunter S. Thompson; 50 Cent, Johnny Cash, Tom Cruise and Gwen Stefani back up Jimi Hendrix, Madonna, Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen; the Beatles mix it up with Muhammad Ali and Eminem; Eddie Vedder, Sid Vicious and Kenny from "South Park" all peek over an imposing Run-DMC; Britney Spears stands alongside John F. Kennedy; and James Hetfield pals around with E.T. Those rockers, rappers and pop-culture icons are among the more than 150 superstars collected Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band-style on the cover of Rolling Stone's 1,000th issue, which hits newsstands Friday. ([article id="1529964"]Click to see the 1,000th cover and other notable front pages from the magazine's run.[/article]) ...

Fat Joe, Memphis Bleek, Freeway and Don Omar are among the guests on reggaetón star Hector Bambino's new album, Roc La Familia & Hector Bambino "El Father" Present Los Rompe Discotekas, due June 20. Jay-Z appears on the first single, "Here We Go Yo." ... John Mayer will be honored with the Starlight Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards June 15 in New York. Rob Thomas and Alicia Keys are past winners. ...

Hold up, Janet Jackson fans. That new track you may have heard on her Web site wasn't a preview of her new album -- it was just a "gift." The singer recently released the song "Weekend" via her site, but now she's posted a message on JanetJackson.com saying that the song was just something extra for the fans -- don't expect it to appear on the forthcoming 20 Years Old LP. Jackson's official first single is titled "Call on Me" and will be released to radio July 19. The singer says fans can expect a tour to accompany the album. ... Bullet for My Valentine have been tapped to open the four sold-out New York Guns N' Roses shows. Axl Rose and his band will perform at the Hammerstein Ballroom on May 12, 14, 15 and 17. ...

Former 98 Degrees singer Jeff Timmons was arrested for drunk driving and driving without a valid license on April 23 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to a police report that The Associated Press discovered Wednesday (May 3). According to the report, Timmons was pulled over for speeding and first told police he had a lot to drink, then backtracked and said he had drank two beers. He posted a $500 bond that day. ...

The Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America sent letters Thursday to the presidents of 40 universities in 25 states, asking them to take action on music and movie piracy through campus computer networks. The organizations say college students with access to these networks use programs like Direct Connect, MyTunes and OurTunes to knowingly engage in illegal trading of material without signing onto the Internet. "We cannot ignore the growing misuse of campus [networks] or the toll this means of theft is taking on our industry," RIAA President Cary Sherman said. The letters encouraged the use of blocking and filtering software to stop the illegal activity. ...

What do indie rockers and a cartoon about "children who are more like adults" have in common? Maybe it's that late-night "Adult Swim" humor. Whatever the link, Modest Mouse and the Shins will be among the artists contributing commentary to the fourth-season DVD set of the cult Cartoon Network series "Home Movies." Staff members from parody newspaper The Onion also have their say on the final season, which will be released May 16. ... Thursday are playing a free show Wednesday at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey, as part of the MySpace Free Shows Series. Paulson will open. There's no charge for admission, which will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors for the all-ages show open at 7 p.m. ...

Wolfmother, who will be on the road for much of this month, will next take the stage Saturday in Dallas. Dates for the Australian band's current tour run through June 14 in Los Angeles. ...Taking a break from recording the follow-up to 2004's A Ghost Is Born, Wilco will be hitting the road again this June and July to play shows throughout Canada as well as a few U.S. dates. The Chicago band will finish off its tour in August at Lollapalooza. Wilco will also hit "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" on May 12, during the talk show's Chicago stint. ... "The Proposition," a drama written and scored by Nick Cave, opens in New York and Los Angeles this weekend before going to select cities next weekend. Guy Pearce and Emily Watson co-star in the film, set in Australia's Outback frontier in the 1880s. ...

Organizers have announced the partial lineup for the first-ever Desdemona Music Festival, set for June 23-25 in Cincinnati's Sawyer Point Waterfront Park. The Walkmen, Fiery Furnaces, the Stills, Annie, Radio 4, Heartless Bastards, Small Sins, Richard Swift, Captain of Industry, Paper Airplane and the Turnbull ACs are in for the fest, with 15 more acts expected. ... MSTRKRFT, the side project from Death From Above 1979's Jesse F. Keeler and producer Al-P, are releasing their debut electronic album, The Looks, July 18. MSTRKRFT are currently on tour in Canada and will hit the States in June to play seven dates, including stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Chicago. ...

Punk Core Records will issue a Casualties retrospective culling material from the influential New York punk band's earliest days. Titled Best of the Punk Core Years, the disc is expected to surface later this year. Fans are asked to vote for their favorite Casualties songs at Punk Core's Web site, PunkCore.com. Poll results will help shape the final track list. ... The third outing by singer/songwriter Butch Walker -- this time with his new backing band, the Let's Go Out Tonites -- will hit stores July 11. The Rise & Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonites is the follow-up to 2004's Letters and will be released on Powerballad/ Epic Records.