Barenaked Ladies, currently on the road in Great Britain, will return to the States this summer and begin a mini-tour in the Southwest on up to the Pacific Northwest with supporting act Semisonic beginning August 12 in Birmingham, Alab. Semisonic, who just began a month-long tour with Sheryl Crow, will warm up the Ladies for eight dates in cities like Houston, Dallas and Phoenix, before winding up their engagement in Portland, Ore., on August 22 . . .

For Electronic, the synth-pop-rock spin-off that united the Smiths' Johnny Marr and New Order's Bernard Sumner, downtime is almost all the time. It's been two years since the on-off project released Raise the Pressure, and five years before that since Electronic delivered their self-titled debut (which featured the hit "Getting Away With It"). In the interim, while most people forgot about the group, Sumner returned to New Order while Marr strummed his strings for The The and the Pretenders. But come April 19, the duo plans to release its third album, Twisted Tenderness, to those old enough to remember who they are in the first place. Unfortunately, those fans will have to be of the British variety, since the group has yet to find a Stateside distributor. However, lengthy clips of all eleven new tracks can be heard at the band's official website (www.electronic-net.com). According to that site, the record was "produced by Electronic and Arthur Baker in a matter of weeks," and it sounds "a lot more raw" than their last two tomes, "indicating that the band have been freed from the burden of expectation that surrounded previous Electronic releases." Burden of expectation? Guess even Sumner assumes that fans are more interested in his upcoming New Order project than with this collection of tunes. Maybe he shouldn't bother finding an American distributor . . .

Erstwhile Who bassist John Entwistle will provide fans a relic from his recent forty-two city Left for Dead Tour in the form of a twelve-track live album, tentatively titled Left for Live (get it?). The album, due out in June or July on J-Bird Records, will feature four new Entwistle songs (including "Endless Vacation" and "Darker Side of Night"), a few Who tunes ("905," "The Real Me") and the Keith Moon tribute "Under a Raging Moon," which Roger Daltrey originally recorded fourteen years ago for an album of the same name. Entwistle drummer Steve Luongo says Left for Live may receive a pre-release on the bassist's web site (www.eden.com/theox), but a tour in support of the album will definitely follow the album's release this summer . . .

This summer's Fuji Rock Festival in mountainous Naeba, Japan, is only 150 miles from Tokyo, but it's well over 6700 from New York, so if you're planning to hitch from the States, you'd better get started. This year's line-up to Japan's biggest festival, scheduled for July 30 - August 1, might make the trek across the oceans worth it. As of April 12, the line-up includes: Atari Teenage Riot, the Black Crowes, Blur, the Boredoms, Catatonia, the Chemical Brothers, Eastern Youth, Femi Kuti, Happy Mondays, Hi-Standard, Joe Strummer, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Limp Bizkit, Ocean Colour Scene, Phish, Rage Against the Machine, Rocket From the Crypt, Skunk Anansie, Stevie Salas Colorcode, Tricky, UA and Underworld. The festival will take place on five concurrently running stages, and will have restaurants, outdoor bars, a flea market and camping facilities. . .

Tuesday night, VH1 will air the second -- and final -- version of Diva's Live. Seems the music channel has learned the hard way it's a nightmare dealing with all those egos. The show has been advertised as "Diva's are born, not made. Let's hope they play nice," and that seems to have been wishful thinking, since participants Whitney Houston, Cher, Tina Turner, Brandy and Elton John have refused to share dressing rooms. Which means that three major streets in Manhattan have to be shut down to make room for their giant trailers. Wayne Isaak, a vice president at VH1 and creator of the series, was said to be tearing his hair out trying to smooth relations between the famous femmes, but would only allow that the artists are "politely competitive" . . .

In between the 180 interviews Moby did in the past week for his V2 Records debut, Play, Michael Stipe dropped by to photograph the slight techno guru for the June issue of the lifestyle magazine Blackbook. Stipe was profiled in a recent issue, and got along so well with senior editor Anuj Desai that they stayed in touch, and when Desai asked him if he wanted to do a photo essay on Herman Melville's most famous relative, Stipe jumped at the chance. Why? Because he and Moby are friends, and occasionally meet up on Wednesday nights to sing at a karaoke bar near Moby's downtown digs. (Stipe favors "Rhinestone Cowboy" and America's "Sister Goldenhair"; Moby claims to sing "everything.") So, on the strength of that friendship, the R.E.M. frontman showed up at Moby's door last Wednesday (April 7) with a suitcaseful of make-up, clothes and hair-grooming products and proceeded to shoot away. "Michael came over and took pictures of me on my roof, and he took pictures of me in my bathtub," Moby said. "And at the end of it, someone took pictures of the two of us together, wearing the same pair of sunglasses. It was just bizarre. We look like each other's doppelganger. We sort of look like fraternal twins separated at birth." One observer at the shoot concurred. "It was really eerie. The only difference was that Michael Stipe was a little taller than Moby and his skull was a little bonier." Oh, and Moby is the one painted blue and wearing a dress . . .

Christie's Auction House was forced to pull a portfolio of drawings done by Kurt Cobain off the block after his family objected to their sale. Robert Hunter, Cobain's high school art teacher at Weatherwax High School in Aberdeen, Wa., had offered the items, which included a signed pencil and watercolor rendering of Michael Jackson, a pencil sketch of Ronald Reagan (of which Hunter said, "Kurt, your caricatures are outstanding. 10/10 A."), and a rendering of a sperm at the moment of conception (pictured in Rolling Stone's Cobain memorial issue). All of the works are circa '83-'84. Christie's had been most taken with the sperm drawing, assigning a pre-sale estimate of $8,000-10,000). The Michael Jackson drawing clocked in at $3,000-5,000, and the Reagan drawing garnered an estimate of $2,000-$3,000. Apparently, Hunter had contacted the auction house without the family's knowledge or permission -- but according to insiders, he's not the only one selling Cobain's outpourings. "Other pieces of Kurt's art work have been on the market for a while now," says one source. "He gave most of his pieces away to friends and his fellow students and they've been selling it. I'd estimate there are at least 200 of his drawings out there." According to those in the know, there are twenty oil paintings that haven't yet hit the market. One collector told us, "If I were to collect any of Cobain's art, I'd collect his paintings. They're magnificent." Cobain's mother, Wendy O'Conner, reportedly has plans to publish her collection in a coffee table book sometime next year, which may explain why the drawings were pulled out of the sale. A spokesperson at Christie's said, "The family contacted the consignor, who was Kurt Cobain's art teacher, and demanded that he withdraw the items, because they wanted to keep all of Kurt's mementos." The pieces were due to go on sale on April 20 at 1:00 p.m. at Christie's East as part of their "Animation Art, Entertainment and Pop Memorabilia" sale. In case you have the auction bug, Christie's still has some rather thrilling items ready to go under the hammer in this sale (#8225), including: Cobain's '66 Fender Jaguar signed by the band, a brass belt buckle and Moroccan wood necklace belonging to Jimi Hendrix, an oversized black and white photograph of the Beatles signed by the group, and Marilyn Monroe's junior high school photo . . .

The future of the Verve still hangs in the balance. No one knows if frontman Richard Ashcroft can put Humpty Dumpty back together again after guitarist Nick McCabe departed for the second time in five years back in July 1998. But more importantly, no one is quite sure whether the man they call Mad Richard wants to. Last December he spent three weeks in a south London recording studio laying down tracks for what seems to be a solo record. According to sources in the U.K., Ashcroft returned to the studio last month with Urban Hymns producer Chris Potter in tow. Virgin Records doesn't have anything on the schedule for the Verve, and one employee told us that "there may not even be a band to put out a record at this point." The Verve's last public appearance was at Ireland's Slane Castle in August of 1998. At the time of the show, manager Jaz Summers said that he didn't know if the band would record together again . . .

"Man! I Feel Like Twenty Million!" That's the latest hyper-feel-good tune in Shania Twain's arena-pop-country repertoire. Twain's third album, Come On Over, has been certified Diamond by the RIAA for sales of ten million (platinum ten times over). That brings it up to speed with her sophomore effort, The Woman in Me, which got its Diamond nod for sales of eleven million when the RIAA introduced the award in March. Twain shares her double-Diamond status with two fellow divas, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, but she is the only female recording artist to achieve that feat with back-to-back albums . . .

The Rolling Stones shocked a party in honor of the Stone's road crew and hosted by the Blues Foundation last week at the infamous Rendezvous Restaurant in Memphis. After tour manager Lil Gary blew out the candles on her birthday cake -- which was baked in the shape of a guitar with "Time Is on Your Side" emblazoned in frosting -- all attendants of the soiree were treated to a surprise appearance by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood. Richards and Wood even joined the Daddy Mack Blues Band onstage -- playing into the wee hours with the Memphis natives. According to the Stones' inner circle, not only is it extremely rare that any of the "Big 4" shows up for such an event, but to have them [all] sit in with the band, never ever happens" . . .

BLAIR R. FISCHER, HEIDI SHERMAN, RICHARD SKANSE, JAAN UHELSZKI
(April 13, 1999)