• Record labels are unleashing DVDs at an increasing pace, well-conceived and generously filled with bonus material. Here's a healthy handful of new and forthcoming DVDs that demand attention. The Chrome Dreams imprint has just released its DJ's Complete Guide: All You Need To Know About the World of DJing, a British-produced step-by-step instructional DVD.
• Taking Pearl Jam's idea and turning up the speed, The Who has announced that it will soon be issuing a series of CDs that documents each concert from the band's 2002 North American tour. Each two-CD set will bear the Encore series brand and is being made available by Eel Pie Records and TheMusic.
• Three Led Zeppelin DVDs are due in mid-November on the European Warner Brothers imprint. Often bootlegged in their audio-only form, the discs promise some of the most exciting of the band's 1970s tours with Live at the Royal Albert Hall, Live at Earls Court, and Live At Knebworth.
I wasn't previously familiar with Ray Wilson's pedigree, as a number-one charting UK pop star with Stiltskin in 1994, or of his replacement of Phil Collins as the lead vocalist of Genesis in 1996, but allow me to bow down and sign up for the fan club.
• Plea for Peace: Take Action is a new compilation benefit CD that will be released this coming Tuesday in support of the National Hopeline Network, a coast-to-coast suicide/crisis counseling organization. The two-CD set bears the imprints of the Asian Man and Sub City Records labels and features rare, live, or previously unreleased tracks from the Selby Tigers, Alkaline Trio, At the Drive-In, TSOL, Thursday, and more.
• Two state-of-the-art technologies come together this week in Flash Frames: The Best of Internet Animation, a DVD/CD-ROM release that shows off the best of do-it-yourself FLASH animation. With no slow loading, these vivid clips roll right out, each one more mesmerizing than the last.
• The carefree, drug-fueled excess of late-1980s British club scene is documented this Tuesday by the Essential/FFRR label as it releases the original motion picture soundtrack to 24 Hour Party People. The comedic film re-creates the famed era when punk rock evolved on the dance floor of the Hacienda club and in the Manchester sound of the Happy Mondays and other sweaty ravers.
• After countless years and a few false starts, Axl Rose and his next generation of Guns N' Roses are stepping out into the sunlight next month. No news yet of American tour dates, but the band has announced the new lineup will debut August 17 in Tokyo and weave through England and Belgium for a few weeks.
• This Tuesday Public Enemy releases what could be considered the first truly interactive album ever made. Entitled Revolverution, the 14-track CD is a collection of live tracks, remixes, and unique new material that boasts creative partnership with the band's fans.
• With Eminem's heavy nick of the Malcolm McLaren scratch-and-street classic "Buffalo Gals" on his smash "Without Me" pumping the hot air of summer, my old-school heart is yearning for those crazy house-friendly hip-hop days of the 1980s.

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