One listen to Sun Down and you know you're hearing a certain hard-won grace.It all began several years ago for Freitas, when a co-worker sold him an antique piano that was "used by a street musician before the dawn of the Casio." Nik taught himself how to play the thing, and it became the cornerstone of his three earlier records, Here's Laughing at You, Heavy Mellow and Voicing the Hammers.

Effective today, a lengthy track featuring 30 second samples of every song on Cover Up is available at the official Ministry Myspace page. Loaded with contributions from Revolting Cocks' Sin Quirin and Josh Bradford, Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory, Prong's Thomas Victor, and the late, great Paul Raven, Cover Up is a star-studded collection of vintage rock covers.

It all kicks off a month before release with a hometown show in Washington. They also tossed in a couple of festival performances, most notably a stop at the inaugural Pemberton Festival in Canada

Musically, THE SEED features two untitled original compositions by Hahn as well as a track ("There They Go") from Fort Minor, the side project fronted by Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda. Discussing the film's impetus, Hahn says, "I saw a homeless guy having an argument with someone who clearly wasn't there. I wondered what it would look like to see the fight through his eyes. What if what he was seeing was real? Who does he think is out to get him?"

Leona's debut single "Bleeding Love" entered the Hot 100 chart six weeks ago, and each consecutive week has increased over 40 %, and in the last two weeks, the single has exploded with 80% increases each week.

Chief among the aforementioned developments is the departure of drummer Aaron Marsh. Frontman Ian Fike explains: "After four years, Aaron Marsh has decided to leave It Prevails and not continue to tour with us any longer.

While some death metal bands constantly try to redefine their music with various (and often completely unnecessary) stylistic experiments, Malevolent Creation have always been true to the old-school and brutal ways of pure metal annihilation.

Hanging upside-down in a fashionable, Vivienne Westwood straight jacket was no easy task � Ashlee had to learn to tough it out!

Serrano, who got out of the Federal pokey just a week ago, served 15 months for smuggling into the country a non-FDA drug he used to inject Hollywood's A-list with what he called a miracle wrinkle cream. The silicone he injected is used to lubricate auto parts.

The entertainer, who has been honing his songs in near isolation for the last several months, premiered the new material and his powerful backing band Spirit Animal on New Year's Eve and has been performing select shows around town to a ravenous response. He will perform at the Echoplex in L.A. on March 29 followed by a gig at The Mirage in Las Vegas on April 1.

Who was the Fifth Beatle? A bit of debate over this topic as you'll see. Jim Quince writes: I'm sure Mr. Aspinall was a great guy & am sorry he is gone, but reporting him as the Fifth Beatle is dumb & possibly schizophrenic. First, silent Stuart Sutcliff was the Fifth Beatle. Then George Martin was the Fifth Beatle. Now Neil Aspinall?

Response: Jim, I understand where you are coming from BUT this title given to Neil came directly from one of the FOUR horse's mouth. See wiki info: "The Fifth Beatle is an informal title that various commentators in the press and entertainment industry have applied to persons who were at one point a member of The Beatles, or who had a strong association with the 'Fab Four' during the group's existence other than John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The 'Fifth Beatle' claims appeared in the press immediately upon the band's sensational rise to global fame in 1963-1964 as the most famous quartet in pop culture.

"At the Beatles' 1988 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, George Harrison at one point stated that there were only two 'fifth Beatles': Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall.

"Martin himself deflects claims of being the 'fifth Beatle' to Beatles' manager Brian Epstein."

We're Serious Dude We did get a few emails over the whole Motley rumor mess last week. We'd reprint one of them here, but they basically all said the same thing, as if written from the same collective brain, and were the equivalent to us just being "jealous haters". Which is fine... because we are. A bit about losing out on the throngs of Motley fans visiting our site was enjoyable as well. We'll miss all 14 of them. We really will.

But one fan went beyond the predictable gibberish and suggested that the mess was caused because we don't take the band seriously. He or she is right and we promise from hence forth to give things like pink bandanas and assless pants the serious consideration they deserve as we ponder the deep intellectual meanings of lyrics like "Girls, Girls, Girls
Long legs and burgundy lips / Girls, Girls, Girls / Red lips, fingertips" and "He's the one they call Dr. Feelgood / He's gonna be your Frankenstein". These lyrics evoke questions like: So are the lips red or burgundy? And what does the Mary Shelly's classic have to do with a drug dealer? Ok to be fair, Feelgood did have a deeper meaning then that silly line conveyed. And we do have to recognize the band's influence, without them raising the bar we may not have had the profound experience of hearing the genius of lyrics like "I'm just a sucker with a lump in my throat (hey) like a chump... I did it all for the nookie (come on) the nookie (come on) / so you can take that cookie and stick it up your (yeah)." We will do our best to take them more serious in the future. "Bashful Betty, such a bondage brat / Dressed in latex and coated in sewer rat" and "Got a date with my modem line / backdoor valentine." This really is pure genius! "..com .cum" very clever. You sold us.

In all seriousness, while Nikki's lyrics seldom delve into topics deeper then strippers, tattoos, and drugs we will give him props for having a great sense of melody that allows him to write catchy songs. If you enjoy their music, great! Enjoy it. Some of our writers here enjoy their music. But beyond that, it's still tough taking anyone that uses the word "dude," more than three times in a conversation that serious. We'll try and until then, party on dude!

Tip of the week or rather, Real News You Can Use!

Aside from arguing meaningless points with readers, The Mailbag sometimes offers up a public service. "F-R-E-E- that spells... bullsh*t". You can't seem to escape the singing dork commercials these days. He's trying to sell you a credit reporting service by telling you what a loser he is. The problem is he says this service is free, which it's not. To get your free report you have to sign up for a "free trial" in a credit monitoring service and if you don't cancel they will bill you $14.95 a month. The trouble is this "free trial" period is only 7 days and the fine print says it may take 2-3 weeks to be fully enrolled, so you can get alerts from all three the credit agencies. They only promise you a look at the Experian report. So if you have a major boo boo on your TransUnion report, you're screwed. So much for free huh?

Now it is my understanding that it is federal law that all three major credit reporting agencies are required to furnish a free copy of your credit report once a year (but you have to request it). You won't find your "free" credit reports at freecreditreport.com but at annualcreditreport.com; the site set up to provide these mandated credit reports online. Better yet, it's singing dork free and it really is free. Used it a couple months ago with no problem, they asked some questions to verify my identity and I got all three of my reports right then.