Epic Records announced that the DVD "Pearl Jam [ tickets ]: Touring Band 2000" will be released not on Tuesday (4/10), but on May 1.

NewTimesLA.com's current cover story concerns rapper Rodney Waltrip, who, according to the article, "should be headed for hip-hop superstardom, but for some reason, almost nobody will go near him. Maybe it's because he's suddenly, openly, gay."

Giovanni's Son, Waltrip's debut full-length, has those who've heard it calling it a revelation, a landmark collection on par with anything released in hip-hop in recent memory. And right now, when people should be talking about him as the first gay rapper within reach of mainstream superstardom, only New York's Matador--primarily known as an indie-pop label, of all things--is willing to go near him.

Songwriter Daniel Agren is suing Marc Anthony, as well as Sony Music Entertainment, Sony/ATV Tunes and producer Cory Rooney, claiming that they wrongly used his music, lyrics and arrangement in the song "I Need to Know," RollingStone.com reported. Anthony's attorney reportedly called the complaint "totally frivolous."

According to Inside.com, major labels Vivendi Universal and Sony announced on Thursday that they have formed an online music service called Duet; they will license their music to Yahoo!, which will sell the service. This follows Monday's announcement that major labels Bertelsmann and EMI, along with AOL-Time Warner--parent company of major label WEA--have formed an online music service called MusicNet.

Says a press release we got: Hayseed Dixie, "a group of heretofore-unknown Appalachian music enthusiasts" from Deer Lick Holler, Tenn., (not on our map), have recorded a hillbilly tribute to AC/DC. The album is set for release on the DTR label on April 17.

In a prepared statement, Hayseed Dixie member Barley Scotch said, "We hope big-time superstardom doesn’t spoil us and that we maintain our self-defecating sense of humor."

On a related note, Billboard reported that "MTV apologized yesterday (April 5) to two 14-year-old girls who said they were splattered with feces when a two-man act called the Shower Rangers defecated on stage during a taping of the music channel's show 'Dude, This Sucks.'" The alleged event took place in January.

The article says that the girls--who have filed suit against MTV--claim they were standing next to a Southern California stage where the "Snowed In" segment of the show was being taped when the defecation occurred. Billboard quotes the girls' lawyer Gloria Allred as saying that "Without warning or explanation the two Shower Rangers turned their backsides to the audience, both opened a flap on the back of their shorts, exposing their naked buttocks. ... Before [the girls] could say or do anything, the Shower Ranger whose buttocks faced them bent over, spread the cheeks of his buttocks and emitted a spray of fecal matter."

MTV's website doesn't make any mention of a show called "Dude, This Sucks," though it does refer to "Snowed In" as a show itself. And our web search didn't turn up anything about the Shower Rangers, though the more worldly of us can probably figure out what the name refers to.

So what do you think? Were the Shower Rangers trying to sabotage this MTV show, or did they think that MTV would naturally appreciate the extra effort and air it? Or maybe the duo is simply unbalanced, like we assume G.G. Allin was?