Directly following their Feb. 26-March 19 Australian tour with Live and a pair of Japanese dates on their own, Sugar Ray are due to return to the studio to begin work on the follow up to last year's 14:59. Mark McGrath and Co. have been writing songs for the past few months, and, according to a source close to the group, they are attempting to work out their schedule with Reprise Senior VP of A&R David Kahne, who produced their last two records despite the fact the band records for Atlantic. According to the label, the album is scheduled for a fall release. In the meantime the band will perform a benefit show on Feb. 20 in Santa Ana, Calif., for their ailing pal, Rob Hillis, who has been hospitalized after suffering a number of strokes. In other news, McGrath has recently added a new tattoo -- a rose on his forearm that says "In Memory" as an homage for his friend Lynn Strait, the Snot singer who died in an car accident in 1998 . . .

While you're working your way through the recent Wu Chronicles, the recent compilation of WU-TANG CLAN members' solo efforts, you might want to pop down to your local toy store and check out the new line of Wu-Tang action figures. The figures are modeled after the Staten Island rappers' fantasy personas from their recently unveiled Nine Rings of Wu-Tang comic book, and the first four will be unleashed by D-Boy Inc. and Gibraltar Entertainment during this year's annual Toy Fair (Feb. 10-17). According to Aaron Bullock of Gibraltar, the first characters will be a plastic rendering of Prince Rakeem, who is based on RZA, Ghostface Killah, and the wicked Kryle in both Monster Form and as Kryle Femme . . .

In other news on the pop-star fantasy front, the BACKSTREET BOYS' latest media (ad)venture finds them as action heroes in a comic book series by reknown comic artist STAN LEE. The project will initiate as a special-edition comic book to be sold over the Internet as well as at BSB shows. By summer 2000, the idea will be re-launched as an animated series at www.BackstreetProject.com. The storyline has the boys "visited by a curvaceous interstellar visitor," who gives each teen an amulet, according to Lee's introduction on the site. "When our lyrical lads wear the amulets, their DNA gets twisted by a virtual genetic cyclone that gives each of them astonishing super powers" . . .

Despite having sworn in December that his Web site would be his only means of contact with the outside world, MARILYN MANSON has a public appearance of sorts planned for next weekend. On Feb. 19, the shock rocker will participate via satellite in a presentation during Disinfo.Con, a convention being put on at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom that celebrates subversive media, science and art. The event is organized by the Disinformation Company, which calls itself "the leader in alternative information" and runs the Web site www.disinfo.com ...

SINEAD O'CONNOR has had her run-ins with authorities -- the most recent was last year when John Waters, Dublin journalist and father of her four-year-old daughter Roisin went to the British police complaining that the singer neglected their child. The singer's local council finally dismissed the charges as being without merit, but you'd think that experience would sour her on the police. But no, O'Connor recently dialed up London's finest recently and tipped them that ex-POGUES singer SHANE MCGOWAN was in possession of heroin. When grilled by the local press, the outspoken singer said she did it "out of concern for his life." Since that time, McGowan was picked up by local police, and remanded on bail for drug charges. While he hasn't spoken out publicly about O'Connor's act, one of his mates has. Former Pogue Spider Stacey lashed out at O'Connor in the Monday's Belfast Telegraph. "I think if you want to help somebody, I don't know that going to the police is the right way to go about it," he vented. Stacey told the press that he saw McGowan at Christmas time. "I've seen him worse," he said when asked about the singer's condition . . .

The honeymoon only lasted five days for LIMP BIZKIT and producer RICK RUBIN. The band had gone into a Los Angeles studio with the bearded knob-twiddler (known for his work on the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik, among others) the last week of January, but a spokesperson for the rock & rap act today confirmed that the partnership had ended. There has been talk about the band's producing the album themselves, but representatives of their label say that decision is not final. If the band decided to do the job on their own, it would be their second stab at self-production: They also produced their 1997 debut, Three Dollar Bill, Y'all ...

BUSH's GAVIN ROSSDALE recited a Jewish prayer during a concert in Austria Friday, in reaction to inauguration of the country's new government, the far-right Freedom Party. While Rossdale, whose father's family were Jewish TmigrTs from Russia, recited the Hammotzi (a Jewish prayer for the breaking of the bread) at the performance, riots in Vienna left fifty-six people injured. The uproar over the Freedom Party's election is tied to leader Joerg Haider's public statements downplaying the significance of Nazi war crimes ...

It seems the only way we ever find out about DAVID BOWIE anymore is to log on to Bowie.net. Last Wednesday (Feb. 2) was no exception, and during the course of a half-hour Web chat, he revealed his love for his wife IMAN, strong coffee, and still stronger French cheese called "Devil's Shit." He said he is still planning on going full steam ahead on a stage production of Ziggy Stardust, but couldn't resist on giving a plug for his year old Internet site. "[It] will take the form of theatre, film and Internet. Then of course you will be able to get the book, the television show, the bank and the t-shirt, all of which of course will be available on BOWIENET." When asked about the possibility of working with TRENT REZNOR again, Bowie said he planned to have his old compatriot mix a track from last year's hours... but was rather vague on the details: "Trent is doing a mix for me a little later this year, other than that it's the same old rock cliche of trying to find time when we are both in the same city at the same time" ...

BLINK-182 are better known for shedding their clothes than they are for their good works. But the former skaters have a soft spot for the waterways in their California home state, and along with fellow Golden Staters BAD RELIGION, the RENTALS, LIT, LESS THAN JAKE and REEL BIG FISH, have contributed a track to The Solution to Benefit Heal the Bay, which will be in stores on May 9. All profits raised by the record -- which may turn out to be a double album -- will go to Heal The Bay, an organization created to protect and preserve Santa Monica Bay and the surrounding coastal waters. Blink-182, who have just wound up their Australian tour and will shoot a new video for "Adam's Song" later this month, have generously turned over a live-version of their hit "Dammit," while some of the other twenty-nine bands are contributing unreleased tracks ...

New videos from KORN and LIMP BIZKIT are scheduled to air this evening (Feb 7) at 11 p.m., on USA Network, as part of the Jimmy & Doug's Farmclub.com program. Korn will introduce the video for "Make Me Bad"; the video features actor Udo Kier (Blade) and Brigitte Nielson (Rocky IV) as "mad scientists." Korn also hosts a webchat two hours earlier on AOL. Limp Bizkit will premiere the video for "Break Stuff" on the program, a sample of which is already available for viewing at www.farmclub.com ...

DORIS KENNER-JACKSON of the SHIRELLES died Friday of breast cancer at age 58. Kenner-Jackson, along with Shirley Alston Reeves, Beverly Lee and the late Addie Harris, began performing as the Shirelles in New Jersey in 1957. The group recorded a string of hits in the early 1960s including "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," "Baby It's You" and "Tonight's the Night." The group disbanded towards the end of the Sixties and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 ...

ANDREW DANSBY, JENNY ELISCU, JAAN UHELSZKI
(February 8, 2000)