SMASH MOUTH have recorded three Schoolhouse Rocks songs for an advertisement for Mervyn's department stores. The band has also signed on to perform at the 2003 U.S. Open Arthur Ashe Kids' Day event in New York on August 23rd . . . BETH ORTON will release The Other Side of Daybreak, a collection of B sides and rarities, this fall . . . SEAL will release Seal IV, his first album in five years, on September 9th . . . RUBEN STUDDARD has sued clothing maker 205 Flava, Inc., claiming that the company has unlawfully exploited his popularity. Studdard wore 205's clothing regularly during American Idol . . . ZZ TOP will kick off a nineteen-date tour with TED NUGENT starting August 20th in Las Vegas . . .

TRACY CHAPMAN, THIRD EYE BLIND, GEORGE CLINTON and DARIUS RUCKER will perform at Ben and Jerry's One World One Heart Festival, set for August 23rd and 24th in Bethel, New York . . . CYNDI LAUPER will release her new album, Naked City, on Epic later this year . . . BRIAN SETZER will release Nitro Burnin' Funny Daddy on October 21st . . . The BEN TAYLOR BAND will wrap up opening duty for BLUES TRAVELER and begin a fourteen-date tour on August 8th in Rochester, New York . . . The DANDY WARHOLS begin a twenty-one date tour behind Welcome to the Monkey House on August 15th in New York . . . ALAN JACKSON's "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," featuring JIMMY BUFFETT, reached Number One on the country charts this week, giving the singer his thirtieth chart-topper . . .

PINK will release her third album, Try This, on November 11th. PEACHES and LINDA PERRY are among the artists she has been working with for the record. "She sent me a song and said, 'This song needs you on it!,'" Peaches says of the song "Oh My God." "She took a red eye to New York Friday night, we went to the studio, it took an hour, 'cause she had her shit together" . . .

Recordings by JOHNNY CASH, BUDDY MILLER, the JAYHAWKS and KATHLEEN EDWARDS were nominated for Album of the Year for the second annual Americana Awards, set for September 19th in Nashville . . BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY and the KOTTONMOUTH KINGS will join the INSANE CLOWN POSSE on the twenty-eight date Wicked Wonka Tour, to launch September 17th in Cleveland . . . ERASE ERRATA will release their new album, At Crystal Palace, on October 28th . . . The POLYPHONIC SPREE are looking for a French horn player to join the band for its August 12-17 shows in New York City. Interested French hornists should contact chris@goodrecordsrecordings.com . . .

The WHITE STRIPES had cancel their headlining appearance at the Reading and Leeds Festivals later this month in the U.K. due to JACK WHITE's broken finger, suffered in a car accident last month . . . VERTICAL HORIZON will release its new album, Go, on September 23rd. The band will kick off a nine-date tour on August 15th in San Jose, California . . . Blues legend BOBBY RUSH, who is profiled in MARTIN SCORSESE's upcoming PBS series The Blues, will release a DVD/CD, "Live at Ground Zero," on September 23rd . . . An arrest warrant has been issued for VINCE NEIL after a Carson City, Nevada, prostitute accused the former MOTLEY CRUE frontman of attacking her . . .

STING has enlisted JOSH WINK to remix "Send Your Love," the first single from Sting's upcoming album, Sacred Love, due in September . . . A six-CD live NEIL DIAMOND box set, Stages: Performances 1972-2002, will be released on September 30th . . . The WHITE STRIPES shot a video for "Hardest Button to Button" near Grant's tomb in New York City last weekend . . . The DEAD KENNEDYS will perform a twenty-fifth anniversary show at the Key Club in Los Angeles in Los Angeles on August 19th. The band is celebrating the release of the new DVD, In God We Trust, Inc.: The Lost Tapes . . .

JEWEL will begin a twenty-one-date tour behind 0304 on September 19th in North Charleston, South Carolina . . . EMINEM will make a guest vocal appearance on Comedy Central's Crank Yankers, during the show's third season later this year . . . GUSTER will begin a thirteen-date tour on August 8th in Boulder, Colorado . . . MOBY has made "Love of Strings," a rearrangement of his song "Signs of Love" available exclusively through the iTunes Music Store . . . CYPRESS HILL are in the studio working on the follow-up to 2001's Stoned Raiders, due later this year . . . RAY CHARLES had to postpone fourteen concerts after suffering cartilage damage in his hip . . .

BRITNEY SPEARS and MARY J. BLIGE will perform at a free concert in Washington, D.C., on September 4th to kick off the 2003 National Football League season . . . EVAN DANDO has lined up another round of tour dates behind Baby I'm Bored, to begin September 9th in Indianapolis and run through mid-October . . . LIBERTINES guitarist PETE DOHERTY was arrested last week in London for burglary . . . Video game maker Conspiracy Entertainment filed a lawsuit against EMINEM claiming the rapper reneged on a contract he signed for a game that would feature his videos . . . STEREOPHONICS will launch a ten-date U.S. tour on September 9th in New York . . . HALL AND OATES will be inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk on Sunset Boulevard on August 5th . . .

GUIDED BY VOICES will release a box set, Hardcore UFO's, in November, which will include rarities, B sides, a DVD and the band's 1986 debut EP . . . The WALKMEN are recording their second album, set for an early 2004 release . . FISCHERSPOONER will begin a sixteen-date tour on September 14th in Portland, Oregon . . . SEAN PAUL received a summons by Jamaican authorities for using profanity during the Montego Bay Reggae Sumfest last week . . . Florida metalmen SIX FEET UNDER will release Bringer of Blood on September 23rd . . .

JAY-Z showed his support for basketball star KOBE BRYANT by donning a jersey bearing his name and number at the Las Vegas stop of the Roc the Mic Tour on July 27th. Just after the rapper was joined on stage by girlfriend BEYONCE KNOWLES, he spotted a fan wearing the Los Angeles Lakers shirt that read "not guilty." "I see you in the Kobe jersey, and I feel you," Jay said before asking the fan to borrow it. Bryant was accused of sexually assaulting a nineteen-year-old woman in Colorado earlier this month . . .

The Hip-Hop Summit Youth Council is petitioning residents of Hollis, Queens, in New York to rename 203rd street after slain RUN-D.M.C. DJ JAM MASTER JAY . . . ERYKAH BADU, DAVE MATTHEWS, TOM WAITS, COLDPLAY's CHRIS MARTIN, MOS DEF, the NEPTUNES and GWEN STEFANI are among the jury that will choose finalists for the Shortlist Music Prize, which will be awarded October 16th in Los Angeles . . . NAPSTER 2.0, which will charge money for downloading songs, plans to relaunch before year's end . . . BELLE AND SEBASTIAN are wrapping up their next album, and have lined up three performances in the U.S. starting August 19th in Brooklyn, New York . . .

The BACKSTREET BOYS' KEVIN RICHARDSON will return to the Broadway musical Chicago starting August 6th in San Francisco. Richardson will also be on hand when the musical debuts in London's West End in September . . . SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist DARON MALAKIAN will play in the Los Angeles Dodgers' forty-fifth annual Hollywood Stars baseball game on August 9th . . . PEARL JAM are assembling a two-CD set of B-sides and rarities due by Christmas . . . DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS have reunited for a twenty-date, fall U.K. tour. The band will release a compilation, Let's Make This Precious, featuring some new material in September . . .

(August 1, 2003)