courtesy of NME.com Tue Mar 18, 8:00 AM ET

The Raconteurs–the group featuring Jack White and Brendan Benson–are rush releasing their second album for next week (March 25). The band have announced that their second LP, entitled Consolers Of The Lonely, will be "available everywhere" from Tuesday.

This includes vinyl and CD formats as well digital formats, although the band concede not every outlet will be able to meet their rapid release scale and some will have to "join as soon as they can."

The follow-up to 2006's Broken Boy Soldiers features 14 tracks, was completed the first week of March this year, and follows the Raconteurs joking last year that it would be a "drug-fueled" record.

According to the band, the record was "then taken immediately to a vinyl pressing plant. Then to a CD pressing plant. Then preparations to sell it digitally began. March 25 became the soonest date to have it available in EVERY FORMAT AT ONCE. The band have done no interviews or advertisements for this record before this announcement."

The group added that they wanted the sudden release so that everyone, fans and media, got the record at the same time "so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding it's availability, reception or perception."

The Raconteurs denied that the rush release was to counter an Internet leak of the album, and they explained they would promote the record after its release.

"In the event that the record leaks, we didn't want this method of release to be seen as a reaction to such a leak," they explained. "It's not. The actual worst thing about a leak is the usual poor sound quality, akin to watching a movie on a wristwatch instead of in a theater. Which for the album's creators is a bit of a letdown, but again, it is completely up to the listener."

A video for the single "Salute Your Solution" will appear online on March 25 as well, although the band–featuring Jack White, Brendan Benson, Patrick Keeler, and Little Jack Lawrence–prefer that fans download the album as a whole.

"The band also prefer that fans buy the album as a whole instead of breaking up the tracks, but until iTunes and other digital services allows bands to release their albums with the option of NOT breaking it up, it will be sold in that fashion on those particular sites," they said. "On the band's website however, the album will be sold in its entirety as mp3s at 320kb bit rate. Also in Japan, fans will be able to download the record via their mobile phones, as that is how a majority of recorded music is consumed there."

They concluded: "We hope not to confuse anyone with too many options, or deny them the formats that they like best. The Raconteurs feel very strongly that music has worth and should be treated as such. Thank you to all those who respect music in this fashion, and thank you to our label partners for working with us to get this album to fans in as many formats as possible all at once."

For more on the Raconteurs, check out their NME.com page.

Lyndsey Parker Tue Mar 18, 9:00 AM ET

After being out of print for 10 years, the book of short stories that inspired Guns N' Roses' epic "November Rain" video is back on the market in paperback.

The Language Of Fear, a collection of 15 short sci-fi/horror stories by Del James, features an introduction by Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose. The book's entry "Without You" is the tale that specifically inspired GNR's Stephanie Seymour-starring "November Rain" video in 1992.

"Del James has a personal knowledge of most of the situations he writes about, and has a love of the gutter from having been there," says Axl Rose of the book's author.

Del James has co-written songs as a lyricist with Guns N' Roses as well as Testament, the Almighty, and the Outpatients, and has directed several music videos and written live television for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is currently finishing his first novel, A Celebration Of Pain.

9 minutes ago

DALLAS - Two fired police officers accused of holding country singer Steve Holy at gunpoint during an argument at his home were indicted on charges that could bring them up to 20 years in prison.

Randy Anderson and Paul Loughridge were indicted Monday on one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Anderson was also indicted on one count of kidnapping.

Holy, a friend and the two officers were allegedly drinking and playing foosball during an impromptu gathering at Holy’s home early on Dec. 27 when an argument broke out, officials said.

Lt. Vernon Hale said one of the officers didn’t believe Holy was really the country singer, known for his hits “Brand New Girlfriend” and “Good Morning Beautiful.”

Holy told police the officers pointed their guns at him and the friend and ordered them on the ground. Before the officers left, the police report said, Anderson told Holy that he’d kill him if he said anything.

Anderson, 26, and Loughridge, 48, were fired in January. Hale said the department acted swiftly since they were accused of a criminal act. They had both joined the department in 2005.

Although he declined to discuss specifics, Loughridge said he believed he would be exonerated.

“I’ve had faith all along in the criminal justice system, and that faith continues,” Loughridge said. A phone number for Anderson could not be located.

Holy’s attorney has said the singer and a friend were at a bar not far from his home when Holy saw an off-duty officer he knew. That officer introduced him to Anderson and Loughridge.

When the bar closed, Holy, his friend and the officers went to play foosball in Holy’s garage. The other officer left a short time later, but Loughridge and Anderson stayed.

In a 911 call after the alleged confrontation, an operator talking to Holy sounds frustrated by an inability to get information.

“Here’s the problem, ma’am. I’m a recording artist, and — ma’am? Are you listening to me?” he says at one point. When she tries to ask Holy if the two officers left together, Holy answers: “He put a gun to our heads.”

“OK, you told me that at least five or six times,” she says. “I have that. I understand that.”

By SAMUEL MAULL, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago

NEW YORK - A judge sentenced Busta Rhymes to three years’ probation Tuesday for assaulting his former driver and a fan, and warned the rapper to stay out of trouble.

The 35-year-old Rhymes, whose real name is Trevor Smith, was also ordered to perform 10 days of community service; pay a $1,250 fine, plus court costs; and enroll in a drunken driving program.

After the sentencing, Rhymes said the terms of the plea deal won’t be a problem. “I have no trouble being a good dude because that’s what I am,” he said.

Scott Leemon, Rhymes’ lawyer, said a private agency called Rock Corp. will work out the community service program. He said he doesn’t know yet what it will be. He also said Rhymes has paid most of the fines and surcharges he owed.

Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Larry Stephen put Rhymes on notice that he must abide by the conditions of his probation.

“If you mess up, you’re going to jail,” he said. “I’ve given you a chance.”

Rhymes said after the sentencing, “I couldn’t feel better, and this couldn’t have happened at a better time. I thank the judge for giving me a chance and I thank everybody for being supportive.”

The rapper said he wanted to get back to “having fun, making music, running around and showing love.”

Rhymes pleaded guilty in January on the day he was set to go to trial on the assault and driving offenses related to four separate incidents.

At that time, Stephen revoked Rhymes’ driver’s license for six months and signed an order of protection directing him to stay away from his former driver.

Known for eye-catching outfits and an antic performance style, Rhymes was dressed at his court appearance in a conservative gray suit and lavender pocket square, a lavender shirt, and a gray-and-lavender floral patterned tie.

His hits include “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See,” “Dangerous” and “Touch It.” He also has appeared in movies, including “Shaft” and “Finding Forrester.”

___

On the Net:

Busta Rhymes:

http://www.bustarhymes.com

By STACEY PLAISANCE, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago

NEW ORLEANS - Jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield has traveled the world playing for audiences in smoky bars and buttoned-up concert halls, and he knows the sounds, tastes and sights of this city are unlike those anywhere else.

So, he says, the city’s library system should be just as unique.

Mayfield intends to unveil a plan Tuesday for a multimillion-dollar library system that reflects the city’s identity. It would start with a jazz-themed branch housing early recordings and reviews.

“We don’t just want to have a library system,” said Mayfield. “We want it to be us. We want it to be our style, our identity.”

Other branches planned for the next five to 10 years, he said, include a culinary branch based on the city’s unique cuisine, and an architecture branch that pays homage to the city’s woodworkers and ironworkers.

The plan will be spread over more than two decades but will begin in the next two years with the construction of the jazz branch, which will cost about $10 million, $2 million of which will come from the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, Mayfield said.

The rest of the money will come from private donations and fundraisers, as well as storm recovery money from the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the city and the state, he said.

When Katrina struck in August 2005, nine of the library system’s 13 branches were damaged. Although all branches are again in operation, some are in portable trailers or makeshift branches set up in temporary venues.

Mayfield, chairman of the board of the New Orleans Public Library System, said jazz libraries and music aren’t all that different.

“A library is democracy inside four walls, the freedom to information,” he said. “Jazz is democracy we hear.”

Mayfield says music continues to help him deal with the loss of his father, Irvin Mayfield, Sr., who drowned during Katrina, and has kept him positive through an exhaustingly slow recovery for the city.

On April 1, he will release an album that he started recording with jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra before Katrina struck, flooding out the Basin Street Records recording studio. The opening track is titled “Yesterday.”

“Going through Hurricane Katrina teaches you something about yesterday,” he said. “Every moment becomes yesterday.”

Still, Mayfield said it’s important to look at what has gone right since the storm. For one, at almost any school in the city — no matter how dilapidated — the students are playing music, he said. He says music is still in every part of the city, from the clubs, to the streets to the universities, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be part of the city’s library system.

“A library is the only place that brings everybody together,” he said. “An immigrant can go there. Homeless people can go there. Anyone from any age can go there and they can all receive what they’re looking for.”

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer 31 minutes ago

LONDON - A British court ruled Tuesday that the full legal ruling on the divorce of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills should be published.

Two Court of Appeal judges rejected an appeal by Mills to keep the ruling private. It was expected to be released later Tuesday.

McCartney’s lawyers didn’t object to publication, but Mills claimed details in the ruling could compromise the security of her 4-year-old daughter Beatrice.

“Miss Mills believes her daughter will be put in real danger. It is most disturbing,” said lawyer David Rosen, who represented Mills in court. She did not attend the hearing.

On Monday, Judge Hugh Bennett awarded Mills a $48.6 million divorce settlement after her four-year marriage to the 65-year-old former Beatle.

The settlement included a lump sum of $33 million, plus the assets Mills currently holds worth $15.6 million.

A summary of the judge’s ruling, released Monday, said Mills had sought almost $250 million, while McCartney had offered $31.6 million, including Mills’ own assets.

Mills, 40, walked away from court with a settlement worth about $34,000 for every day of her marriage to McCartney. But it was only a fifth of what she had sought and a fraction of McCartney’s $800 million fortune.

Mills declared that she was “very, very, very pleased.”

Some legal experts were surprised the former model did not get more.

“In the scheme of things, it’s quite surprisingly low,” said Patricia Hollings, a divorce specialist with London law firm Finers Stephens Innocent. “It is only offering her about 6 percent of his assets. In terms of high-wealth cases it’s very low.”

McCartney left after the ruling without comment. But Mills emerged from the three-hour private hearing for an impromptu news conference on the courthouse steps — railing against McCartney’s lawyer and accusing McCartney of underestimating his wealth.

“All of you that have researched know that it was always going to be a figure between 20 and 30 million” pounds, said a visibly agitated Mills. “Paul was offering a lot less than that. … So we’re very, very, very pleased.”

Mills criticized McCartney’s attorney Fiona Shackleton, who represented Prince Charles in his divorce from Princess Diana.

“She has called me many, many names before even meeting me when I was in a wheelchair,” said Mills, whose own legal team, in an ironic twist, was led by Princess Diana’s divorce lawyer until she fired them in November.

Shackleton emerged from court Monday with a wet head, reportedly from a glass of water that Mills had dumped on her. Mills told reporters Shackleton had been “baptized in court.” McCartney’s representatives declined to comment.

McCartney also was ordered to pay $70,000 a year for Beatrice, and to pay for her nanny and school fees.

Mills said that was a paltry amount. “She’s obviously meant to travel B class while her father travels A class,” she said.

The settlement doesn’t rank with the most expensive celebrity divorces. Basketball star Michael Jordan and singer-songwriter Neil Diamond both had to pay out about $150 million to settle their divorces, according to Forbes magazine.

British divorce settlements are generally lower than those in the U.S. But Mills’ settlement is only about half of the biggest contested divorce settlement in British history — the 48 million pounds (about $90 million at the time) that insurance tycoon John Charman was ordered to pay his ex-wife in 2006.

Mills and McCartney went to court last month to decide on her share of his fortune, which had been estimated at as much as $1.6 billion. However, the judge found that McCartney’s total worth was about $800 million.

Now that the case is over, Mills implored the media to just let it be.

“And I really hope now that me and my daughter can have a life and not be followed every single day and that is why I’ve come out, to give it closure,” she said.

39 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Mariah Carey knows her indisputable talent clashes with her sexed-up image as a “ditz.”

“It’s a dichotomy, I understand,” the 37-year-old Grammy winner tells Allure magazine. “I understand that people think I am a ditzy moron.”

The singer — who was treated for exhaustion in 2001 after a public meltdown — says she still struggles with her confidence.

“I’ve always had really low self-esteem, and I still do,” she says. “What’s weird about that is being onstage, and the love that you get, and the adoration that you feel from your real fans. It’s hard for a partner to compete — just imagine.”

Carey and ex-husband Tommy Mottola, the former chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, divorced in 1997. She has described that relationship as controlling and says: “I had to make a decision: either lose myself completely or learn to stand up for myself. You have to be very courageous to do that.”

She says she’d marry again — preferably, to someone who knows where she’s coming from.

“That’s a big deal for me: feeling like somebody else can’t fully understand me because they’re not in show business. It shouldn’t matter, but it does, because the energy it takes to be `on’ is a lot,” she says.

Carey’s latest album, EMC2, arrives April 15. Her previous album, “The Emancipation of Mimi,” has sold 10 million copies.

The April issue of Allure hits newsstands nationwide on March 25.

___

On the Net:

Allure:

http://www.allure.com/

Mariah Carey:

http://www.mariahcarey.com/

By Jonathan Cohen 52 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Ashlee Simpson has set an April 22 release date for her third Geffen album, "Bittersweet World," which features production from Timbaland and the Neptunes' Chad Hugo.

The first official single, "Little Miss Obsessive," boasts guest vocals from the Plain White T's Tom Higginson. The track has yet to land on any Billboard charts.

Released digitally in December, album track "Out of My Head (Ay Ya Ya)" also failed to chart but has sold 117,000 digital downloads in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Simpson indulges her '80s fetish throughout the project. The sassy "Boys" imagines the Cardigans' "Lovefool" atop a Chic rhythm, and there's a "Beat It" vibe on the chugging "Rag Doll."

"I almost wish I lived my 20s in the '80s," says Simpson, who was born in 1984. "A lot of the record is a bit cheeky. Sometimes I'm writing about something serious, but it was fun for me to kind of goof around as well."

Reuters/Billboard

Natalie Finn Mon Mar 17, 3:35 PM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Sean "Diddy" Combs is "shocked." 

The hip-hop mogul issued a pointed statement Monday denying the details in a web-exclusive Los Angeles Times report tying him, via interviews and FBI records, to the 1994 beating and shooting attack on Tupac Shakur at a New York recording studio. 

"The story is a lie. It is beyond ridiculous and completely false," Combs said in response to the article by staff writer Chuck Philips, who reported on "newly discovered information" implicating two former Combs associates—talent manager James Rosemond and promoter James Sabatino—in the assault. 

Sources said Combs knew in advance that the men were plotting an ambush on Shakur, who they believed had disrespected the Bad Boy Records founder by showing reluctance to join his label, per the Times article. 

According to FBI accounts, Shakur was pistol-whipped and shot four times by his assailants. He also accidentally shot himself in the groin. 

The Nov. 30, 1994, attack on Shakur, who said at the time he thought the beat-down had come at the hands of Combs and his pals—has been singled out as the start of the East Coast-West Coast feud that culminated in the 1997 shooting death of Combs compatriot Notorious B.I.G. in Los Angeles. 

"Neither [Biggie] nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened," Combs' statement continued. "I am shocked that the Los Angeles Times would be so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue story." 

Combs, Sabatino and Rosemond declined to comment for the Times story, but Rosemond's lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, pointed out that his client was never charged or questioned in connection with the attack. 

In a post-publication statement, however, Rosemond called the report "a libelous piece of garbage." 

"In the past 14 years, I have not even been questioned by law enforcement with regard to the assault of Tupac Shakur, let alone brought up on charges," he said. "Chuck Philips, the writer…has reached a new low by employing fourth-hand information from desperate jailhouse informants along with ancient FBI reports to create this fabrication. I simply ask for all rap fans and fans of Tupac to analyze this fiction for what it is." 

Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas on Sept. 13, 1996. His murder, like that of Biggie Smalls', remains unsolved. 

Per the Times, Rosemond was convicted of unrelated weapons and drug charges in 1996 and spent three years in prison. He's currently on probation for assaulting a radio deejay in Washington, D.C. Sabatino is currently serving an 11 1/2-year stretch for wire fraud and racketeering after using fake credit cards to fund his Bad Boy entourage's lavish touring lifestyle in 1997. 

Three men identified by the FBI as those who actually assaulted Shakur in 1994 are all serving time for other crimes and have not been charged in the Still I Rise rapper's attack.

Meanwhile, Forbes puts Combs' estimated net worth at $23 million and his empire has expanded to include fashion and fragrance lines, an Atlanta restaurant, TV production and other multimedia mogul-type enterprises.

He most recently appeared in an ABC production of A Raisin in the Sun, in which he reprised the role he played on Broadway.

Natalie Finn Mon Mar 17, 5:55 PM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Miley Cyrus apparently has enough to do keeping two names straight, let alone three.  

The Hannah Montana star, who was born Destiny Hope Cyrus, is looking to make Miley Ray Cyrus—basically, what everyone knows her by—her legal name. 

Parents Billy Ray and Leticia Cyrus filed the papers Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court on their daughter's behalf. The petition states that Cyrus wants to "make her commonly used name the same as her legal name."

They will also have to publish a public notice of her name change in order to make it official, per documents first obtained by TMZ. Cyrus first talked about legally changing her name in January.

The 15-year-old TV and pop star has said that her adopted first name originates from a nickname her dad gave her as a baby, "Smiley Miley." 

And the rest is Disney Channel history. 

Father and daughter are set to begin filming this spring on The Hannah Montana Movie, but first they'll host the 2008 CMT Awards in Nashville on April 14. 

The Cyruses also both appeared in the box office-topping 3D concert film Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, the companion movie to Cyrus' frequently sold-out Best of Both Worlds tour, which had to tack on 14 more dates than originally planned to accommodate frenzied demand.