Rock News: Music's high and low notes

CLINTON JOINS STONES

Former President Bill Clinton will join the Rolling Stones Thursday for the Natural Resources Defense Council free concert to fight global warming at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The show will begin with an address from Clinton from the stage. Some 12,000 fans won tickets to the show in a drawing last month. Additional winners came through national radio station giveaways.

The night also features a "green carpet" celebrity arrival event with some of Hollywood's top artists raising funds for the environmental group. Celebrity and VIP guests include Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Pierce and Keeley Brosnan, Larry and Laurie David and many others to be announced. Instead of limousines, many celebrity guests will arrive at the show in clean, advanced technology "hybrid" cars provided by Honda and Toyota.

The show will put a worldwide spotlight on global warming and the opportunities that exist right now to start fixing the problem. The show kicks off a new NRDC campaign turning up the heat on political and business leaders.

The Rolling Stones are completing the North American stretch of the 40 Licks World Tour and will launch the international leg starting in Australia Feb. 18, with shows to follow in Asia and Europe. Opening the NRDC Free Rolling Stones Concert will be Susan Tedeschi.

DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL ON SPIN COVER

For the past few years, Dashboard Confessional has been a relentless cult phenomenon, with fans who fill large arenas, band online and memorize painfully intimate songs as if they were smash hits. But who is the man behind Dashboard? Where did he come from? And why do kids break down in tears at his concerts? A new album will try to make the cult go pop and Spin has put the band on its March cover in anticipation of the breakthrough. With his good looks, aw-shucks demeanor and unsubtle acoustic songs, Chris Carrabba, the former director of a special education after school program and Dashboard Confessional mastermind, has become a wary poster boy for a musical movement.

Labeled "emo" in an attempt to link it to a particularly heartfelt strain of '80s hardcore punk, the Dashboard phenomenon is a 21st century moment on its own. It brings hardcore's extreme emotional purges into suburban bedrooms and major concert venues. In the process, Carrabba, 27, has created a personal cult of Tori Amos-like proportions, but with a decidedly folkie bent.

For a generation of music fans weaned on videos extolling Cristal-spilling excess, Carrabba is an accessible star. Through tireless touring and the promotion of California indie label Vagrant, Carrabba soon will earn a gold record for 2001's "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most," and he's the first artist without a platinum record to tape an episode of MTV2 Unplugged 2.0.

His new album, tentatively titled "A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar," is due for a spring release, with help from major label Interscope, which reportedly has invested in Vagrant. Interscope Chairman Jimmy Iovine, who has boosted the careers of Tupac Shakur, Limp Bizkit, Eminem and others, is a mentor to Carrabba, taking his calls at all hours and flying on his private jet to see Dashboard shows.

GRAMMY NOMS AT ALL GOOD FEST

Grammy nominees Gov't Mule and the North Mississippi Allstars add their music to a high-caliber list of acts confirmed to appear at the 7th annual All Good Festival, Walther Productions announced. Galactic, Dark Star Orchestra, Keller Williams, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe and Leftover Salmon are among the performers joining the 2003 Grammy nominees May 15-18 at Marvin's Mountaintop in Masontown, W.V., for the latest edition of one of the East Coast's premier music festivals.

A limited number of early bird tickets, priced at $65, go on sale this week through walthertix.musictoday.com, jambasetickets.com and (800) 594-TIXX. Fees for three days of parking and camping are included in the ticket price.

Gov't Mule, 2003 Grammy-nominee for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for its song "Sco-Mule," off "The Deep End Volume 1" album, is scheduled to close out the three-day All Good Music Festival on Saturday, May 17, while Galactic is set to conclude Friday night's lineup with two hours of future funk.

Dark Star Orchestra kicks off the festivities as the stand-alone attraction on Thursday, May 15, with a four-hour evening set recreating the Grateful Dead live concert experience. Other acts confirmed for All Good are the North Mississippi Allstars, Grammy nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album, Jazz Mandolin Project, The Recipe, All Mighty Senators, Acoustic Syndicate, Umphrey's McGee, Mofro and the Seth Yacovone Band. The remaining bands will be announced in the coming weeks.

Marvin's Mountaintop was introduced last year by Walther Productions through two other major summer festivals -- the moe. or les festival and the Summer of Love... 35 Years Later. The scenic 643-acre site attracted thousands of festival-goers last year. Masontown, located in the wooded rolling hills of West Virginia, is just 15 miles southeast of Morgantown.

SIMMONS RECORDS BACK IN BUSINESS

Kiss mastermind bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons is back in the music business after reviving Simmons Records and is looking for new talent in a variety of genres.

"I'm proud to say I have a new joint venture partner," said Simmons on his official Web site. "If you know of local talent in your area and want me to hear it, send me."

Simmons Records was active in the late 1980s, when it was distributed through RCA/BMG. The company released records by hard rock acts House Of Lords, Silent Rage and Gypsy Rose. Now Simmons is looking for the next big thing.

"I'm looking for talent in their teens or early 20s," he demanded. "You don't have to write songs, but you better have the talent. It can be almost anything."

When it comes to rock bands, Simmons is looking for original material.

"You should be able to write songs," he explains. "If you're the coolest local band in your area, but you think you've got something different, send me your stuff."

Simmons also is interested in hip hop artists, but only with a twist.

"Don't send me the 'MC Criminal' routine," he said. Demos can be sent to Simmons Records, P.O. Box 15097, Beverly Hills, CA, 90210, but "Do not call and ask what I thought of your stuff," Simmons said. "Do not call and ask when you can get your stuff back -- you won't. Do not call and ask for my opinions and advice. Just look at it the way a farmer plants his seed. If the fruit grows and ripens, you'll win. If I want you, you can be sure we will be all over you."