Really Randoms: Wu-Tang Clan & Luther Campbell, Sublime and more : Rolling Stone

Following its merger with Relativity Records earlier this month, hip-hop label Loud Records -- previously aligned with RCA -- has revealed a list of upcoming releases that includes new albums by their marquee group, the Wu-Tang Clan, as well releases from the Clan's Inspectah Deck and Raekwon, an album by new Loud signing the Beatnuts and a new platter from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. The earliest release on a schedule that extends well into next year is Mobb Deep's latest joint, Murder Music, set to come out on August 17th. And, assuming he's not locked up in the clink by then, 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell will have a solo album out sometime next year...

Three years after the death of Sublime frontman Brad Nowell, his former bandmates are preparing to release Right Back, the debut album by their new group, the Long Beach Dub All Stars, on September 28. For that album, the All Stars, a nine-piece ska-punk outfit formed by Sublime's drummer Bud Gaugh and bassist Eric Wilson, brought in reggae artists Barrington Levy, Half Pint and Tippa Irie, and punkers like Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge and Bad Brains vocalist HR. The first single, "Trailer Ras," hits radio in mid-August and the band will tour throughout the fall...

In one of those rare moments that render us completely unable to say something snide and stupid, we hear that the working-class Big Apple suburb of Mount Vernon, New York will be spending the next eighteen months turning a dilapidated block into a veritable hip-hop wonderland anchored by a museum tracing the history of the music. Local youths will work on the project and receive on-the-job training in the construction trades, while a bevy of artists who grew up in the town -- including Heavy D, Doug E. Fresh and Sean "Puffy" Combs -- are donating cash and memorabilia. Ah, the chance to see Puffy's entire collection of vintage Police singles all in one place...oh shoot, we were supposed to skip the snide asides this time...

There's an old saying that insists "those who can, do; those who can't, teach." It's not terribly hard to extrapolate what the coiner of that phrase thinks of judges, which leads us quite nicely to this week's Sign of the Apocalypse. Jewel, that rhymin' fool, has signed on as celebrity judge for a poetry contest being sponsored by trendy clothing company Alloy. The thread-merchants' catalog promises that this generation's Ogden Nash will be gleaning their website's "poetry page" from the road on a regular basis, and will be the sole arbiter of what's groovy in the competition -- although, we're, like, sure she wouldn't call it a, you know, "competition." The winner gets to meet Ms. Kilcher herself at a show in Orlando, Florida on August 27. Grab those Number Two pencils and rhyming dictionaries -- it's gonna be a bumpy ride. . .

It is with a heavy heart that we report the Ol' Dirty Bastard has reportedly finally sunk to the lowest rung of the criminal ladder: check-bouncing. The Artist Formerly Known as Big Baby Jesus was nabbed by cops on Thursday after bouncing a check to the bail bond company that sprung him from the slammer on last year's far more interesting "terrorist threats" case, which has yet to go to trial. Somehow, Dirty managed to find another bail bondsman who was willing to take on his case -- presumably on a cash-only basis -- and get him out again, this time on $100,000 bail...

Garth Brooks may have had his baseball dreams crushed when he was dumped from the San Diego Padres in spring training, but a far more unlikely music man has just been snapped up by the Baltimore Orioles -- ladies and gentlemen, in the on-deck circle, David Bowie. Well, okay, so the Thin White Duke isn't actually going to check in as Albert Belle's replacement in left field -- those uniforms, after all, need some serious work. He has, however, been contracted to run the team's Web site through his fast-growing Bowie.net ISP. "We couldn't be more pleased to be associated with this first class franchise," Bowie said in a statement. Translated into sports-chat, that means, "We're going to Disney World."...

Pete Townshend didn't reveal who his guest was going to be at his ragged-but-right intimate solo appearance at New York's Supper Club Wednesday night, but given that the Who vet had taped a performance with Eddie Vedder on The Late Show with David Letterman earlier in the evening, it's doubtful many folks in the invite-only crowd were surprised when the bleached Pearl Jam singer and die-hard Who fan came out for six songs, including his own "Better Man." Highlights (not counting Townshend's broken down, solo piano version of "Slit Skirts"), included two songs from Townshend's 1977 collaboration with Ronnie Lane, Rough Mix: "Till the Rivers All Run Dry" (written by country artist Don Williams) and "Heart to Hang Onto," the latter of which will appear (with Vedder) on a bonus disc complementing Pete Townshend Live, due out Sept. 21. Proceeds from the album, recorded last year at Chicago's House of Blues, will benefit the Windy City's Maryville Academy for abused and neglected children . . .

Despite the fact that the Smashing Pumpkins revealed earlier this month that their new album was sixty per cent completed, and said they were sifting through twenty-one songs for the new album with an eye to finishing the opus by early August for a fall release, Virgin Records announced today that the band's latest won't see the light of day until February 2000. "They just needed more time with it," said a Virgin spokesperson . . .

Retro-swing troupe Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will resume their relentless touring schedule following the release of This Beautiful Life, due out in October. Produced by the same team that shaped the group's self-titled major-label debut, the new album "touches on more musical styles but keeps with the same thread as the first one," according to manager Gary Stamler. "It's not so much a swing album as the first one but [still] keeps those roots with the band." Songs on the twelve-track record include "What's Next," "Big and Bad," "I Wanna Be Just Like You" and "I'm Not Sleepin'." . . .

It looks like Victoria's Secret is not the only company that Metallica is gearing up to sue. On the band's Web site there is a questionnaire asking fans if they have ever bought "Metallica"-colored lip pencils sold by Victoria Secret, nail files with the Metallica name on it, or clothing sold by Gianni Sport with the Metallica name on the hang tags. If so, the metallurgists want you to get in touch with their lawyer, Jill Pietrini, by email. . .

Suicidal Tendencies singer Mike Muir is recuperating at home after being stricken with a bout of pneumonia during the band's July 25 Warped Tour show in Detroit. Muir checked into a Detroit-area hospital, where he was treated and released. Muir's illness has forced the band to forego the remaining Warped Tour dates. . .

On the heels of their performance at the highly-commercialized Woodstock '99, the Dave Matthews Band have agreed to play a considerably less profitable venue - PBS. According to management, the band's September 11 show at New Jersey's Continental Arena will be filmed for a television special to air later this year...

Korn began recording their next album today, according to Korn singer Jonathan Davis. "We started moving our s--- into the recording studio that will be home for the next couple of months," wrote the fiesty frontman yesterday in a post on the band's official website. "We start recording on Wednesday (July 28), and are really exited 'cause the new s--- is off the hook." Earlier this month, the singer explained that the songs the band has been penning reminded them of other bands, so they decided to name each track after the Eighties band that inspired it. Brendan O'Brien will whip the dozen or so songs into shape over the next couple of months, and if you're interested in how he does it, you can check into Korn's website, where a 24-hour webcam will offer a peek into the studio...

Billy Corgan took time out of recording the next Smashing Pumpkins opus to pen four stories for the premier issue of (t)here, a new Chicago-based magazine focusing on arts and culture. Corgan's longtime girlfriend, Yelena Yemchuck contributed four photographic images that were the inspiration for the musician's stories. The summer 1999 issue went on sale on July 25, and can be found at better bookstores and galleries for the next three months. Look through the magazine's pages for future collaborations between high-profile celebrities, since (t)here's schtick is to ask artists in various media to work together on projects that complement each other's styles ...

The American Life League will honor Van Halen singer Gary Cherone with their Courage Award in recognition of his support of the pro-life cause, in a ceremony that will be held in Washington, D.C., on August 14. The singer came to the attention of the anti-abortion organization after he who wrote an open letter to Eddie Vedder two months ago, attacking the Pearl Jam singer's support of pro-choice organizations . . .

We should have seen it coming after the Artist publicly slagged the Internet at last week's Yahoo! Internet Life Music Awards. The onetime potentate warned the audience "Don't be fooled by the Internet. Use the Computer. Don't let the computer use you. Y'all saw The Matrix." So it comes as no surprise that the eccentric musician would revert to more traditional methods to distribute his forthcoming album, Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. The Artist announced that the disc, which is rumored to sound like his Purple Rain-era songs, will be released this fall through a major label, instead of through his website. The trouble is nobody is quite sure exactly where the disc will end up. Smart money says that Arista Records is the frontrunner, while Sony's Tommy Mottola and Donnie Ienner were spotted in a confab with the artist recently. In a parallel universe, the singer's former label, Warner Bros., is getting ready to release The Vault...Old Friends 4 Sale, a collection of unused material from his albums dating from 1985 to 1994. That disc hits stores August 24 ...

Move over, Gomez. The nominations are in for this year's Technics Mercury Music Prize, which honors the best British or Irish album of the year as chosen by a select panel of journalists. Gomez's Bring It On won the prize last year, but on September 7 it will go to either Blur's 13, the Chemical Brothers's Surrender, Beth Orton's Central Reservation, Underworld's Beaucoup Fish, Manic Street Preachers' This is My Truth Tell Me Yours, Stereophonics' Performance and Cocktails, Talvin Singh's Ok, Faithless' Sunday 8 p.m., Blackstar Liner's Bengali Bantam Youth Experience, Kate Rusby's Sleepless, Thomas Ades' Asayla or Denys Baptiste's Be Where You Are . . .

Last year, with his book Light My Fire: My Life with the Doors, former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek became an author. Now, he's adding "director" to his resume with a film called Love Her Madly. Although the flick has nothing to do with the famous song other than the same title, Variety reports that its about "love, madness, obsession and murder surrounding a captivating female drama student," all of which sounds suitably Doorsy. Manzarek also co-wrote the screenplay, and the film is produced by Doors videographer Rick Schmidlin. . .

After the book I, Tina and the ensuing movie What's Love Got To Do With It, not many people like Ike -- Ike Turner, that is. Tina Turner's autobiography is one of extreme hardships and glorious triumphs, not the least of which is the ditching of her abusive husband and musical partner. Well, Ike Turner is sick of being the bad guy in someone else's book, so he's decided to write his own. Takin' Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike Turner is Ike's side of the story, and it hits bookstores in October. . .

On Saturday, former Guns n' Roses guitarist Slash interrupted the recording of his first album since 1995's It's Five O'clock Somewhere with famed producer Jack Douglas to go directly to jail. A day after his thirty-fourth birthday, the artist born Saul Hudson was arrested at Ocean Way Studio in Los Angeles for allegedly beating his live-in girlfriend Perla, according to police. She claims that Slash beat her on July 19 at Le Parc Hotel in West Hollywood, but authorities did not explain why she waited so long to report the incident. The guitarist is now free on $50,000 bail . . .

Almost three decades after the Who's rock opera Tommy hit the stage for the first time, Tommy architect Pete Townshend is staging "Lifehouse," a sequel twenty-eight years in the making. Rehearsals for "Lifehouse," which will debut on BBC3 in December, have already begun. Begun in 1971, the musical is reported to be about a "vast global network" much like the World Wide Web. According to Kate Rowland, head of the BBC radio drama, as quoted in the U.K.'s Independent, "It's extraordinary when you think about what [Townshend] was writing in 1971. It was like he was projecting ahead. He didn't use the words 'Net' or 'Web.' He called it 'grid'" . . .

You knew that Ozzy Osbourne is slated to be a doll, thanks to McFarlane Toys and Signatures Network, but on July 25, the Ozzmeister will also be a magazine. Todd McFarlane Productions is unleashing Ozzy Osbourne, a fifty-six-page glossy magazine, taking some of the old war horse's more sensational road stories and having author Paul Jenkins putting them in a "fictional setting." So they say. The mag will also include an Ozzy biography, photo gallery, and a no-holds barred interview conducted by Steve Niles -- all for only a mere $4.95 . . .

Just last week, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine told reporters that he named his band's forthcoming album Risk because his old bandmate in Metallica, Lars Ulrich, told him that he wasn't taking enough risks with his career. This week it has come to our attention that the old hunk of burning love, Tom Jones has dubbed his upcoming double album, Reload, no doubt as homage to Metallica's 1997 opus of stripped-down, rhythmic songs. But the similarity ends there. Jones' Reload is a collection of duets the Welsh crooner recorded with some of rock's brass. Among those joining Jones are Natalie Imbruglia for a rendition of INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart"; the Cardigans for the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House"; Van Morrison for his own "Sometime We Cry"; the Barenaked Ladies for the George Baker Selection's "Little Green Bag"; and the Pretenders for Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" . . .