Dance label Astralwerks will release a collection of rare songs by the likes of Fatboy Slim, the Chemical Brothers, Primal Scream and others. Rarewerks will compile eleven tracks previously unreleased in the U.S. including Fatboy's "How Can You Hear Us," a remix of the Chemicals' "Out of Control," and other tracks from Basement Jaxx, the Beta Band and Groove Armada. Rarewerks will hit stores Jan. 23 . . .
Tim McGraw was rushed to Baptist Hospital in Nashville on Thursday for an emergency appendectomy. According to McGraw's management, the country star is already at home recovering from surgery. McGraw is expected to fully recover in time to make a scheduled appearance at the American Music Awards in January . . .
Bust out your black eye make-up and cape: former Skinny Puppy frontman Ogre is releasing his first solo album. Five years in the making, the album will be titled Welt and released Feb. 20 on Spitfire Records. Mark Walk is producing . . .
Though "I Won't Back Down" was used (briefly and without permission) in the Bush campaign, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers serenaded Vice President Al Gore with the song during a one-hour set at his home in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, just one hour after his televised concession speech. On hand to tape the TNT special A Very Special Christmas (which commemorates the thirty-second anniversary of the Special Olympics), Petty and his bandmates also played "American Girl" at Gore's request. Jon Bon Jovi (also in town for the TNT special) and Stevie Wonder joined on vocals, Blues Traveler's John Popper on harmonica and Tipper Gore on percussion. A Very Special Christmas, also featuring Macy Gray and Wyclef Jean, airs Dec. 19 at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation at 9:30 p.m. . . .
With their Music: Response EP out only a few weeks, the Chemical Brothers have already set their sights on a new full length LP. Pseudo siblings Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands have begun preliminary work on their fourth album which they have titled, aptly, Chemical Four. Look for it sometime late next year. The beatmakers have been spinning new tracks in a series of tiny club gigs both stateside (at New York's Centro-Fly) and in their native U.K. . . .
Peter Wolf from the J. Geils Band popped in as the guest vocalist for the house band at Wenner Media's annual holiday party Wednesday at New York's Roxy. Joining Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner and various members of Wenner Media's staff in the band Rack of Lamb, Wolf threw long-stemmed roses to the ladies in the crowd during a rendition of "Love Stinks." Also on hand to partake in the festivities were R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Val Kilmer, Ethan Hawke, B-52 Fred Schneider, Boz Scaggs, G.E. Smith, Paul Schafer, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon . . .
Christina Aguilera has lent her artistic services to Aids Project Los Angeles (APLA) and created a Holiday card up for sale via the non-profit organization's Web site, www.apla.org. Aguilera's winter scene is joined by other designs from Selma Blair, Amber Valetta, Richard Tyler and Herb Ritts. The cards sell for five dollars each or ten for twenty-five; seventy percent of the profits go towards APLA. The organization serves Los Angeles County in providing HIV education as well as support services to anyone living with HIV/AIDS . . .
In addition to landing a prized support slot on Green Day's January sweep of the heartland, Oklahoma emo-heroes the Get-Up Kids have landed a similar role for Weezer's highly anticipated Yahoo! Outloud Tour. The Get-Up Kids will team up with Rivers Cuomo and Co. beginning Feb. 21 at the Austin Music Hall in Austin, Tex. With that tour to run through at least mid-March, the band has no plans to return to the studio until June of next year. Fans can in the meantime pacify themselves with Vagrant Records' just released compilation Another Year On the Streets, in which the Kids contribute a cover of the Replacements' obscure malted ode "Beer For Breakfast" . . .
Rocket from the Crypt have completed their sixth album and their first since getting their walking papers from Interscope last year. Group Sound will see a March 6 release courtesy emerging Los Angeles indie Vagrant Records. Self-produced in their native San Diego, Calif., the band enlisted Chad Blinman (Face to Face, the Get-Up Kids) for engineering duties and a pair of mixers, Stuart Sikes (Jets To Brazil, the Promise Ring) and Donnell Cameron (Bad Religion, Blink-182). Spokespersons for the band say to expect a return to the ruthless, horny Rocket of old, laced with some almost ballad-y material, with a tour to accompany the album . . .
It's been a good week for Aerosmith. Not only were the Boston bad boys inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of fame, but the band will became the first rock group -- and the only fourth recipient ever -- to receive the American Music Awards' Special Award of Achievement for "rare and distinguished accomplishments." Past recipients of the award are Michael Jackson, Prince and Mariah Carey. In addition to receiving their award, the band will also perform during the American Music Awards, which will be broadcast by ABC on Jan. 8 . . .
R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Mike Mills and Peter Buck journeyed north to Atlanta, on Dec. 1, to attend an exhibition of Elton John's collected photography at the High Museum of Art. The show, dubbed "Chorus of Light: Photography From the Sire Elton John's Collection," featured nearly 400 images from the musician's own walls, including rare vintage pieces from the 1920s. The event, which was held in conjunction with National Aids Day, featured an auction which raised several thousand dollars for the Elton John Aids Foundation . . .
Pete Townshend's official Web site, www.petetownshend.com, celebrated its first anniversary on Dec. 12. In a post Townshend claims that he and his Webmaster estimate some 500,000 people visited the site in its first year. "[We] have plans for a lot of fresh content for 2001," Townshend writes. "For my part, I will be posting new video diaries and free MP3s as I work through my Scoop 3 archives" . . .
More than 500 fans flocked to Waterstone's bookstore in London's Piccadilly to have their copy of Paintings by Paul McCartney signed by the former Beatle on Tuesday. According to a Reuters report, an eleven-year-old fan staked out the first spot in line by arriving at 6 a.m. that morning. "I've just always loved drawing, painting and stuff," McCartney told reporters . . .
Radiohead announced via BBC radio Monday night that their follow-up to Kid A will be called Amnesiac. Although an official release date has not yet been set, the album -- which was recorded concurrently with Kid A -- is tentatively set for an April release. Although Radiohead did not tour behind Kid A, they are expected to hit the road next spring . . .
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, along with R.E.M.'s Mike Mills, will participate in Grand Slam Tennis Shootout at Austin, Texas' Erwin Center. The two musicians will be paired off with pros Andre Agassi and Jim Courier in a doubles match. For those unfamiliar with his background, Ulrich is the son of late-Danish tennis great Torben Ulrich. Also on hand at the event will be John McEnroe and New York Yankee right-fielder Paul O'Neill . . .
The spat between Death Row and Snoop Dogg is still going strong. Death Row recently posted a video for "Head Doctor" on their Web site. The song is taken from Dead Man Walking, a collection of Snoop outtakes that the label released in October. On Death Row's official Web site, label head Suge Knight stands by his company's product. "It's Snoop Dogg at his best, when he was young and hungry . . . It's got that street edge that's missing from Snoop today." Death Row, meanwhile, still has Snoop's upcoming No Limit release, Tha Last Meal posted on their site for download prior to its Dec. 19 release . . .
"Happy Kwanza!" Joey Ramone told the punks crammed into New York City's Continental Club Tuesday night at his annual Christmas Spectacular party. "Happy Hanukkah, merry Christmas!" Backed by drummer Marky Ramone and a revolving band of musician friends including the Independents (the hardcore punk band he manages) and Jerry Only of the Misfits, he then kicked off an hour-long set that opened with a handful of amped-up holiday tunes including "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" and "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)." Ramone also offered up a whole mess of Ramones chestnuts, ranging from "Beat on the Brat" (dedicated to George W. Bush) to "The KKK Took My Baby Away," "Pet Sematary" and, of course, "Blitzkreig Bop" . . .
Mobb Deep's Prodigy was robbed on Dec. 8 while taking a break from shooting a video in Queens, N.Y. for a single from his latest release, H.N.I.C.. The rapper was apparently robbed at gunpoint by two men and according to a report in the New York Daily News, lost more than $300,000 in gold chains and diamonds. A rep for Prodigy had not heard from the rapper at press time . . .
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have announced that their next album, their first in three years, will come out in April. No More Shall We Part was recorded at Abbey Road studios in London and was produced by Tony Cohen. Tour dates are expected to be announced . . .
Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister has been hospitalized in northern Italy (near Milan), after being diagnosed by doctors as suffering from exhaustion. As a result, Motorhead has decided to cancel the remainder of their current European tour in support of the band's twenty-fifth anniversary album, We Are Motorhead. Kilmeister had to cancel a handful of shows along the world tour do to poor health. In a statement from his hospital bed Kilmister said, "How was I to know that this time they meant it? I carried on because I didn't want to let the fans down in the countries we were due to play . . . it now looks like I should have taken time out weeks ago to fully recover." According to a rep for the band, the hard-living frontman will take a month off, then hit the road again . . .
k.d. lang will take the stage for an evening of A&E's Live by Request on Dec. 14. The pop chanteuse has been rehearsing for the program, during which she could be called on to hammer out a version of any of the songs from her seven-album catalog that ranges from honky-tonk country to torch to pop or other suggestions from those who offer requests through www.livebyrequest.com. The performance will be broadcast from the John Jay College Center in New York City at 9 p.m. Tony Bennett and Willie Nelson are among the other artists who have performed at Live by Request during its four-year run . . .
Tommy Boy Records is the latest label to sign an agreement with EverAd's Play J, joining Priority, Spitfire and Artemis, among others. Through this arrangement, Tommy Boy and its artists (Everlast, De La Soul, Amber) will have music selections promoted and distributed via Play J, which boasts over 65,000 titles in different genres and over 30 million unique users each month. Play J has already posted Everlast's "I Can't Move" from his latest release, Eat at Whitey's . . .
Kiss are rivaling Ozzy Osbourne in their continuing reluctance to retire. The band's farewell tour, which kicked off on March 11, was scheduled to run until the end of the July. But the band has had a difficult time hanging it up, as they've extended the tour and now played 159 shows to more than a million fans. Though the masked warriors swear that they'll wind it all up on Australia's Gold Coast on April 13, after a brief five-show tour of Australia, a spokesperson for the band's label Island/Def Jam claims that the band will bow out with one final show in the U.S. A date, city and venue have yet to be established . . .
"It's obviously a great shot for us to get in front of a whole lot more people than we normally do right before Christmas," Steve Earle says of his band's two-night opening slot for the Dave Matthews Band on Dec. 12-13 at New York City's Madison Square Garden. "I know Dave from Farm Aid, that's where I met him and I usually see him. But they asked us once before and it didn't work out, but they asked this time and it worked out great." Earle, who has been busying himself with a play about the life of Carla Faye Tucker, a woman executed in Texas last year, has also seen his first video released. Transcendental Blues Live catches Earle and the Dukes live in Canada from earlier this year, performing a collection of his tunes old and new. The release also features Earle's video for "Transcendental Blues" and one for "Over Yonder (Jonathan's Song)", directed by Amos Poe. The latter is a stark collection of photographs of all the prisoners executed in Texas over the past eight years. "That video was totally Amos' deal," Earle says. "He did it on his own and sent it to me and it was complete. It's brutal . . . it's relentless for three minutes" . . .
ANDREW DANSBY, STEVE FLORIO, GREG HELLER, CHRISTINA SARACENO, RICHARD SKANSE, JAAN UHELSZKI, JENNIFER VINEYARD
(December 16, 2000)