Rock News: Music's high and low notes

NOA TO J.LO

Jennifer Lopez has been trashed in Star magazine by her first husband, Ojani Noa. Lopez had hired Noa, who divorced her in 1997 after 15 months of marriage, to run her Cuban restaurant, Madre, in Pasadena, Calif. When Noa was fired from his position recently he responded by selling his story to the tabloid. The story includes a warning to J.Lo's fiance Ben Affleck.

"Ben better enjoy his time with her while he can," Noa told Star. "She will dump him as soon as her wandering eye fixes on someone new. Ben should ask himself, 'If she climbed into bed with you so easily, don't you think she'd do the same with someone else?'"

Noa told Star Lopez is "a sex-crazed, selfish and cruel man-eater," and predicted "Jennifer will end up in her old age all alone with seven or eight wrecked marriages in her wake." Yes, but what does he really think about her?

DON'T STEP ON MADONNA'S GRASS

Madonna is at war with Britain's avid hiking community, reports England's Sunday Express. The Material Girl is challenging the country's ancient "Right to Roam" laws, which provide hikers walking access along specified routes through privately owned land that runs along old walking trails. Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie sent a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week saying hikers on their 1,200-acre estate posed a "potentially dangerous situation," the Sunday Express reports.

OASIS DRUMMER STILL FIRED

Drummer Tony McCarroll waited too long to press his claim he was unfairly canned from the group, ruled the High Court in London last week. The founding member of the popular British rock group Oasis filed a claim charging solicitors Statham Gill Davies mishandled the band's 1993 recording contract with Sony, which allowed the band to dump McCarroll without compensation. The judge awarded a summary judgment to the solicitors without the need for a full trial because McCarroll missed the six year statute of limitations on the complaint. McCarroll formed Oasis with schoolmates Liam Gallagher, Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, and Paul McGuigan. Gallagher's brother Noel joined the band later. McCarroll was still in the band when its 1994 debut album "Definitely Maybe" reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom but had left by the time of the group's second album, "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" in 1995. The Gallagher brothers are the only remaining members from that time.

STRUMMER IN STUDIO

Clash co-founder Joe Strummer is back in the studio to record the third album with his Mescaleros group, the follow-up to 2001's "Global a Go-Go." During the band's recently completed tour, several songs slated for the album were given run-throughs, including "Dakar Meantime" and "Coma Girl." The band also performed well-known Clash tunes like "Rudie Can't Fail" and "(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais." Strummer was joined at London's Acton Town Hall show by Clash crony Mick Jones for a reunion after nearly 20 years. The two joined forces to perform the Clash classics "Bankrobber," "White Riot" and "London's Burning."

ANTI-POP ON BLUE SERIES

Matthew Shipp, the brilliant pianist and mastermind of the avant-garde "Blue Series" on Thirsty Ear Records, is working on a project with the New York-based hip-hop trio Anti-Pop Consortium. The group, which broke up last August, has reconvened to make this its final project. Thirsty Ear is planning a Feb. 18, 2003, release for "Anti-Pop Consortium vs. Matthew Shipp." Shipp is curator of Thirsty Ear's Blue Series, recordings that have featured the work of William Parker, Roy Campbell and Spring Heel Jack in addition to Shipp himself. Shipp has been experimenting with the possibilities of merging hip hop and the avant garde for several years now. "Anti-Pop Consortium vs. Matthew Shipp" features Anti-Pop's Beans, High Priest, and M. Sayyid playing with Shipp, saxophonist Rob Brown, Parker, vibraphone player Khan Jamal, and trumpeter Daniel Carter.