JON BON JOVI and a real estate developer have purchased the Philadelphia Soul, an expansion team in the Arena Football League. The team will debut next season . . . The MOONEY SUZUKI have enlisted the MATRIX to produce their third album, due next year . . . AC/DC will release the 1991 concert film Live at Donington on DVD on November 11th . . . AVRIL LAVIGNE has covered songs by GREEN DAY and BOB DYLAN for an EP to be included with her new DVD, My World, due November 4th . . . R. KELLY has been recording with CASH MONEY's BABY on a new record, tentatively titled "The Best of Both Worlds 2" . . .

The reunited AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB will play a free show at Spaceland in Los Angeles every Monday night in December . . . BELLE AND SEBASTIAN will begin a fifteen-date tour on October 26th in Atlanta . . . TELEFON TEL AVIV will release their second album, Map of What Is Effortless, in January . . . The GRATEFUL DEAD's The Closing of Winterland, which documents the last performance at the famed San Francisco venue in 1978, will be released on DVD on November 11th . . . The PHANTOM LIMBS begin a twenty-date tour on October 3rd in Los Angeles . . .

The EELS will begin their Fall Tour of College Duty on October 16th in Lawrence, Kansas . . . MELISSA ETHERIDGE and girlfriend TAMMY LYNN MICHAELS exchanged vows in a ceremony in Malibu, California over the weekend . . . JOHNNY CASH won Artist of the Year and his American IV: The Man Comes Around won Album of the Year at the 2003 Americana Awards in Nashville over the weekend. JOHN PRINE received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriter . . . WILCO, SPOON and BRIGHT EYES will contribute songs to The Amos House Collection, due in December . . . PAUL McCARTNEY told fans in a September 18th Webchat that he had started work on a new album but isn't likely to finish it until next year . . .

STARSAILOR will release their new album, Silence Is Easy, on January 27th . . . Songs by the ROOTS, the DEAD, SONIC YOUTH and the FLAMING LIPS will be included on Live From Bonnaroo 2003, a two-CD set due September 30th. A DVD from the event will also be released . . . The YEAH YEAH YEAHS launch a twelve-date tour on November 8th in Washington, D.C. . . . AL GREEN has reunited with his old producer WILLIE MITCHELL to record a new album, I Can't Stop, due November 18th. With the album's release, Green's four-CD box, The Immortal Soul of... will be bumped to 2004 . . . 311 and ALIEN ANT FARM begin a twenty-four-date tour on October 12th in San Bernardino, California . . .

(September 23, 2003)