Music and entertainment news

By Cathy Maestri
InstantRiverside.com

Fontana favorite son Sammy Hagar has signed with the new Loud & Proud label (part of Roadrunner) and will release “Cosmic Universal Fashion” on Nov. 18.

The title track includes a rather familiar refrain; the video style offers plenty of deja vu, too.

The tune “Loud” features the Cult’s Billy Duffy and Matt Sorum as well as Hagar’s fellow ex-Van Halen buddy Michael Anthony. There’s also a cover of the Beastie Boys’ “Fight for Your Right to Party.”

Hagar’s annual birthday celebration is scheduled for Oct. 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 13 at his Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas. (He does like a good party.)

•We were just trolling Gawker to see what’s going on in New York when we ran across an entry titled “Newsman Whining About ‘Editorial Integrity’ Promptly Fired” and were surprised to see it was about The Business Press (part of The Press-Enterprise Co.). Because you wouldn’t expect to find IE media news on an East Coast site. Read the story here.

And yes, editor Bob Dixon had already taken a buyout, so being escorted from the building before he was scheduled to leave wasn’t technically a firing. Still, pretty interesting stuff.

•We now have three items for our Christmas list — a “Colbert Report” On Notice board, a Colbert calendar and the DVD of “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!”, which will air Nov. 23 on Comedy Central.

See, Stephen gets snowed in at his cabin and passes the time with his musical friends, crooning tunes by “The Daily Show’s” David Javerbaum and Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, who just happens to be one of our pop-genius favorites.

Colbert will sing “Another Christmas Song”; Toby Keith will do “Have I Got A Present For You”; Colbert and Willie Nelson will sing “Little Dealer Boy”; “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart will join Colbert on “Hannukah”; R&B crooner John Legend will again duet with Colbert on “Nutmeg”; Feist (pictured) will do “Please Be Patient”; and Elvis Costello will join Colbert on “There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In.” The ensemble will then do Costello’s “(What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace, Love And Understanding.”

Wow.

The DVD, due Nov. 25, will include a book-burning Yule log and alternate endings. A portion of the proceeds will go to Feeding America.”

•Fiesta de Comida — featuring food from more than 30 restaurants as well as music from Poncho Sanchez — is scheduled for Nov. 5 at the new Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. Doors open at 6 p.m.; Sanchez performs 8:30-10 p.m. Proceeds go to the Ontario-Montclair YMCA; call them at (909) 986-5847 for tickets.

•Don’t deny it, we know you’ve been wondering what she would have named you had the VP candidate been your mother. And now you can find out, thanks to the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. She named her brood Trak, Willow, Bristol, Piper and Trig.

Just call us Rake Trinket. And our little bunny Churn Scorpion Palin.

Click here for your own Palin name — and don’t forget to read the comments (and hilarious names) of your pretend siblings.

•MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann vowed to give $100 to charity every time Palin took credit for scrapping Alaska’s infamous Bridge to Nowhere. (She was actually a supporter of the project — until it became a scorned national issue.) The parameters were extended to any lie, as determined by Olbermann, told by Palin and/or her campaign. On Friday’s edition of “Countdown,” he wrote an initial check for $3,700 to the Alaska Special Olympics.

•Saturday’s Farm Aid concert in Mansfield, Mass., will send initial grants to southern farm and faith-based organizations to help family farmers hit by hurricanes Ike and Gustav.

This year’s performers include founders Willie Nelson (pictured), John Mellencamp and Neil Young as well as Dave Matthews, Kenny Chesney, the Pretenders, Jerry Lee Lewis, Steve Earle and Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels.

Donate to Farm Aid’s Family Farm Disaster Fund here.

•TV host Pat O’Brien and “The Insider” have parted ways. Apparently it wasn’t the drunken phone call asking for sex, or either of his rehab stints. No, over the weekend, O’Brien reportedly sent out an e-mail to staff saying that the show’s focus on fashion makes heartland viewers struggling to put food on the table “want to vomit.” That appears to have been the final straw.

We agree with O’Brien. With the economy tanking and the jobless rate (at least in California — and among our newspaper friends) jumping, the obsession with bling and celebrity seems out of touch and condescending. Which is why we don’t watch any of those entertainment-tabloid shows.

•OMG, MTV is Xing “TRL!” (Translation: MTV is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the once-trendsetting “Total Request Live” by putting it on an indefinite hiatus.)

•For someone who’s been through as much as Britney Spears has in the past couple of years, she sure does manage to crank out albums on a regular basis. “Circus,” the followup to last year’s “Blackout,” is due Dec. 2.

•Tom Jones — who never gets enough credit for being cool — will release “24 Hours,” his first album in the U.S. in 15 years on Nov. 25. And it appears that it’s going to be plenty cool, between a retro Stax sound and a guest spot from U2’s Edge and Bono on “Sugar Daddy.”

Not that Jones hasn’t been busy over the past decade or so; it’s just that his albums haven’t been released on this side of the pond. Not even the tune “Sexbomb,” which did quite well on American dance floors.

•Influential indie rocker Bob Mould has agreed to write his autobiography, and it ought to be interesting. Topics will include his bands, Hüsker Dü and Sugar, as well as Mould coming to terms with his homosexuality. Mould has also run his own record label, spent a year as a scriptwriter for professional wrestling and wrote “Dog on Fire,” the theme for “The Daily Show.”

We admit it — it’s the wrestling we’re most curious about.

•Billy Joe Shaver (pictured) has been indicted by a Texas grand jury in connection with an April 2007 shooting outside a bar. He’s been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and handgun charges, both felonies. And he isn’t even a rapper.

According to Billboard, Shaver, 69, reportedly followed the victim out of Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon and asked, “Where do you want it?” before shooting the man in the face.

Shaver’s attorneys say the victim, who wasn’t seriously injured, was drunk, aggressive and followed Shaver outside with a knife.

•Forget the “Now That’s What I Call Music” series — W Hotels has released its sixth mix disc, and it’s infinitely cooler. “The Sound of Wonderlust” features music from Goldfrapp; Amy Winehouse produer and brother-of-Samantha Mark Ronson; Donna Summer; Zarema; Natasha Bedingfield; Kylie Minogue; Morgan Page with the Wild Colonials’ Angela McCluskey; Wow; Audio Bullys with Nancy Sinatra; Newton Faulkner; Four Tet; and Dame Shirley Bassey.

To order from the W store (where you can also buy on of the hotel’s beds), click here.

•Remember back when Pearl Jam was so anti-corporate that it tried to avoid using Ticketmaster?

Guitarist Stone Gossard’s (pictured) new solo album is part of Timberland’s (the clothing company, as opposed to Timbaland the producer) Dig It campaign — which, to be fair, promotes environmental activism through music. Tickets for four October shows (including Oct. 11 at the Avalon in LA) will go to those who volunteer for “re-greening” events; those who purchase selected Timberland products; and through Pearl Jam’s Ten Club. Click here for more on the LA event.

Meanwhile, baseball fan Eddie Vedder has written the Cubs ode “All the Way,” which he debuted at a Chicago show. To listen, click here. Look for an official version soon at the band’s website.

Personally, it’s “Go Cubs Go” that gets us giddy. Chicago folk singer Steve Goodman (whose biggest his was, ironically, “City of New Orleans”) recorded it shortly before he died of leukemia in 1984. WGN had once used it on radio broadcasts; the song was a hit at the team’s 2006 winter convention, and the station decided to revive it. There’s even a ringtone.

Unlike at Dodger games, where everyone leaves in the 7th inning, Cubs fans actually hang around after victories to sing along.

And this season — the 100th since the Cubbies last won the World Series – it’s been played a lot.

No disrespect to fans of the Dodgers and Angels, who will also likely make the playoffs, but now that the Red Sox have won the Series, the Cubs are the only cursed team left. And if that curse isn’t broken now, it may be another 100 years.

Filed under Entertainment, Voxpox