A Louisiana judge denied COREY "C-MURDER" MILLER bond a week after granting the rapper a new trial following a murder conviction. The thirty-three-year-old Miller, MASTER P's brother, was accused of killing a teenager in a bar dispute in 2002 and convicted last September. But State District Judge Martha Sassone granted him a new trial because prosecutors withheld information about trial witnesses. Sassone denied Miller bond due to other outstanding felony charges; he has a June court date for assaulting a prison guard . . .

OTEP will release their second album, House of Secrets, on July 27th. The Los Angeles metalmen recorded the album with producer GREG WELLS (DEFTONES, MICHELLE BRANCH) late last year. Six cuts on the record feature guest percussion by SLIPKNOT's JOEY JORDISON. The group will promote House this summer by appearing on the Ozzfest tour, the third year the group has been on the trek, which kicks off on July 10th in Hartford, Connecticut . . .

JEM, ROBERT EARL KEEN and PRAXIS, the group featuring BUCKETHEAD, BERNIE WORRELL, BRIAN "BRAIN" MANTIA and BILL LASWELL, have joined the lineup for Bonnaroo 2004 . . . WEEN will release Live in Chicago on DVD on May 4th. After a spring tour, the duo plans to begin work on a new studio record . . . Hershey Foods has hired THALIA to appear in a series of Spanish-language print and television ads . . . BONNIE RAITT, MICK FLEETWOOD, PETER FRAMPTON, OMARA PORTUONDO and BURT BACHARACH are among the artists who appear on Bridge to Havana, a CD that paired American and British pop stars with their Cuban counterparts. The set is due in July . . . BRITNEY SPEARS is pitching a reality television series based on her current Onyx Hotel Tour . . .

LIL' FLIP plans to launch his Lucky Nites pineapple-flavored liquor on May 1st . . . DOLLY PARTON will receive the Living Legend Award from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., tonight. Previous honorees include RAY CHARLES, JOHNNY CASH, MARTIN SCORSESE and BOB HOPE . . . TEXAS TERRI BOMB will release their new album, Your Lips, My Ass!, this spring . . . The WHO are planning to visit Australia in July and August for their first performances on the continent since 1968 . . . American Idol also-ran RJ HELTON has signed with the management company run by BEYONCE's father MATTHEW KNOWLES . . . CAT POWER begins an eight-date tour on May 18th in Tucson, Arizona. The tour wraps with a May 29th stop at the Sasquatch Music Festival in George, Washington . . .

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have placed a full-page open letter in this week's Billboard urging BEYONCE to quit wearing furs . . . M.O.P. will take PHAROAHE MONCH and former ROOTS member SCRATCH out on the two-month Weapons of Mic Destruction Tour, starting in May. The group will release its new album, Ghetto Warfare, this summer . . . The WHO have lined up two U.S. tour dates, both in California, in early August . . . CLINIC begin a fourteen-date tour on May 8th in Brooklyn, New York . . . Bluesman J.J. CALE will release To Tulsa and Back, his first album of new songs in eight years, on June 8th. Cale is scheduled to perform at ERIC CLAPTON's June 4-6 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas . . . MARILYN MANSON and burlesque artist DITA VON TREESE are engaged to be married . . .

PHISH are in negotiations to host a concert at the Newport State Airport in Vermont this year. If the gig goes through, it will be Phish's first show in their home state since 1995 . . . TEGAN AND SARA are mixing their third record in Vancouver with plans for an August release. Former WEEZER bassist MATT SHARP added keyboards on three songs . . . Officials in Indianola, Mississippi, are planning to erect a stature to honor hometown hero B.B. KING before the opening of the town's B.B. King Museum in 2005 . . . The elderly parents of "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC were found dead in their Fallbrook, California, home Friday, apparently of carbon monoxide poisoning. "Weird Al" went ahead with a Mankato, Minnesota, show the next night, dedicating the set to NICK and MARY YANKOVIC . . . MONSTER MAGNET will release Monolithic Baby on May 25th.

(April 13, 2004)