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Singer-songwriter PETE YORN is in a Los Angeles studio mixing the follow-up to 2003's "Day I Forgot." The set will feature the DIXIE CHICKS' NATALIE MAINES on vocals, EMILY ROBISON on banjo and MARTIE MAGUIRE on fiddle, as well as the FOO FIGHTERS' DAVE GROHL on drums and LEON RUSSELL on piano. The album is due out in the fall . . . WYCLEF JEAN will play a free concert and lead a march for workers at the Yale New Haven Hospital on May 21st in New Haven, Connecticut. The event will support the workers' effort to unionize . . . Bricks from Detroit's Eight Mile Road, made famous in EMINEM's hit movie 8 Mile, have been signed by the rapper and are being auctioned on eBay. Proceeds will benefit the Marshall Mathers Foundation, Eminem's charity for troubled youth, as well as the Eight Mile Boulevard Association, which is promoting revitalization of the area . . . COLDPLAY will play songs from their new album, X&Y, due June 7th, on Saturday Night Live on May 21st. LINDSAY LOHAN will host . . . The SHINS cover the POSTAL SERVICE, the DECEMBERISTS cover JOANNA NEWSOM, and SPOON cover YO LA TENGO on an indie-rock compilation CD to be packaged with the June issue of literary magazine, The Believer . . . DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL are recording with producer DANIEL LANOIS (U2, BOB DYLAN) in Canada. The as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2003's A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar is due in October . . .
WILLIE NELSON's new album, Countryman, is due August 2nd and features the country veteran experimenting with reggae riddims. On the CD, produced by DON WAS and RICHARD FELDMAN (TOOTS & THE MAYTALS, NO DOUBT, WAILING SOULS), the CD includes a cover of JIMMY CLIFF's "The Harder They Come," as well as reggae versions of seven Nelson originals . . . PAUL SIMON, JOHN MAYER, STING, CARLOS SANTANA, DAMIEN RICE, ANGELIQUE KIDJO, ANNIE LENNOX and TREY ANASTASIO have joined jazz veteran HERBIE HANCOCK in the studio to record tracks for his upcoming Possibilities album. Mayer will also be a touring member of Hancock's Headhunters '05 band, which will play select summer gigs, including Bonnaroo on June 10th . . . Dolls based on COURTNEY LOVE's manga character Princess Ai are being produced by L.A.'s Bleeding Edge. In stores in July, the dolls are dressed in ripped tights and come with the next installment of the Princess Ai comic . . . Replicas of SLIPKNOT's signature masks and overalls will be available for Halloween through Morbid Industries . . . INTERPOL and LOUIS XIV will perform at the Electronic Entertainment Expo at Los Angeles' Hollywood Center Studios next Tuesday . . . The BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA kick off a summer tour this Saturday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, wrapping up on September 25th in Winston-Salem, North Carolina . . . FRANKIE LaROCKA, a drummer for DAVID JOHANSEN and BRYAN ADAMS, who later signed the SPIN DOCTORS while working for Epic Records, died Thursday after undergoing heart surgery. He was fifty-one . . .
Former SMASHING PUMPKINS frontman BILLY CORGAN is keeping a blog of his memoirs at his MySpace site, myspace.com/billycorgan, which also streams songs from his solo debut, TheFutureEmbrace, due June 21st. R.E.M. also used the online community site to promote their last release, Around the Sun . . . KINGS OF LEON, HERBIE HANCOCK, MATISYAHU and DE LA SOUL have joined the lineup of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, taking place June 10th to 12th in Manchester, Tennessee . . . BUSTA RHYMES will release his new album, The Big Bang, on July 19th. The album was recorded with producers DR. DRE, TIMBALAND, COOL AND DRE and SCOTT STORCH . . . SLASH will perform at an upcoming TV campaign for X Games 11 on August 4th to 7th in Los Angeles . . .
OUTKAST's ANDRE 3000 has signed a deal with MTV and Nickelodeon to create children's movies. The rapper will star in and co-produce the first of these films, The Hit, about a young boy who realizes Cupid is his next-door neighbor . . . The PIXIES will be offering their fans another chance to buy official live recordings of their 2005 U.S. tour. Fan can order the limited edition discs at pixiesdisc.com . . . JAY-Z has contributed the song "Dear Summer" to rapper MEMPHIS BLEEK's upcoming album, 534. Bleek's CD will also feature YOUNG GUNZ, M.O.P. and newcomer DENIM . . . The ROOTS, DE LA SOUL and MF DOOM will perform at the Mark Echo Presents: Save the Rhinos benefit concert on June 28th at the Central Park SummerStage in New York. The organization is working to double the population of the endangered animal . . .
STEVIE WONDER will release A Time 2 Love, the follow-up to 1995's Conversation Peace, on June 14th. The album will feature a duet with his daughter AISHA, as well as DOUG E. FRESH doing beatbox . . . The FOO FIGHTERS, KASABIAN and SOCIAL DISTORTION will headline the LIVE 105 BFD concert, which takes place June 10th in Mountain View, California. SLEATER-KINNEY, the KAISER CHIEFS, HOT HOT HEAT, the BRAVERY and ALKALINE TRIO will also perform at the Bay Area radio station festival . . . The OFFSPRING and CROSSFADE will headline the inaugural Dew Action Sports tour on June 10th and 11th in Louisville, Kentucky. The EXIES will open for Crossfade, while ACCEPTANCE will open for the Offspring . . . CELINE DION raised $1 million for UNICEF's Tsunami Recovery fund on May 8th at her Mother's Day performance in Las Vegas . . .
EMINEM and NINE INCH NAILS are set to perform at the MTV Movie Awards, airing June 9th on MTV. Eminem will perform his new single "Ass Like That" for the first time on TV, while NIN perform "The Hand That Feeds" . . . The hip-hop collective DIGABLE PLANETS will hit the road for a month-long trek June 7th in Quebec . . . Country singer MINDY McCREADY's ex-boyfriend was charged with breaking into the singer's home early Sunday and assaulting her . . . HARRY CONNICK JR. will release his new album, Occasion, on June 14th, featuring two songs written by saxophonist BRANFORD MARSALIS . . . The O'JAYS will have a street in their hometown of Canton, Ohio, named after them. A portion of Mahoning Road will now be called "The O'Jays Parkway" . . . M.O.P. have left Roc-A-Fella Records. The hardcore rap duo was signed to the label three years ago but has not released an album on it . . .
Piano men BEN FOLDS and RUFUS WAINWRIGHT will join forces for the Odd Men Out Tour, to kick off August 3rd in Vienna, Virginia . . . 50 CENT and G-UNIT are teaming with mobile media company Zingy to release a series of games. The first, G-Unit Free Yayo -- which will allow players to act as 50 Cent, LLOYD BANKS or YOUNG BUCK attempting to rescue TONY YAYO from an evil record label -- will be available this summer . . . Rhino Records will release Besterberg -- The Best Of Paul Westerberg on May 17th. The set features three previously unreleased tracks from the former REPLACEMENTS frontman . . . Neo-soul singer/bassist ME'SHELL NDEGEOCELLO's first jazz album, Dance of the Infidels, is due June 21st. CASSANDRA WILSON, the BRAZILIAN GIRLS' SABINA and LALAH HATHAWAY will guest . . . DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE will be the subject of the upcoming documentary Drive Well, Sleep Carefully: On the Road with Death Cab for Cutie. The film will premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 10th and a DVD will be released on July 26th.
IGGY POP will release the thirty-seven track double-disc retrospective compilation album A Million in Prizes on July 19th . . . CAPONE of the duo CAPONE-N-NOREAGA will release his debut solo album, Pain, Time & Glory, on July 12th. The CD features SCARFACE, C-MURDER and the WU-TANG CLAN's RAEKWON . . . Singer-songwriter BOB MOULD will release his new album, Body of Song, on July 26th . . . The FOO FIGHTERS, AUDIOSLAVE, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, JIMMY EAT WORLD, the KILLERS, INTERPOL, the MARS VOLTA, BLOC PARTY and HOT HOT HEAT will perform at KROQ's annual Weenie Roast on May 21st in Irvine, California . . . DWIGHT YOAKAM gave the commencement address and received an honorary doctorate from Ohio Valley College in Vienna, West Virginia, on May 7th. The country singer also received the key to the city from the mayor of Vienna.