America’s premiere rock band, Aerosmith, will make new media history once again this week, when they perform live over the Internet, in the first ever truly interactive cybercast. The cybercast will be broadcast from the band’s sold-out show at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey, on October 17th at 9 p.m. EST. However, what really makes this event unique is the viewers’ ability to direct the special themselves, switching live between seven separate camera feeds, each broadcasting a different perspective of the concert. Prior to the cybercast, as they warm up for the show, the band will be participating in a chat via America Online starting at 7:30pm. This will also be simulcast on www.aerosmith.com surfers who register for the show will automatically be e-mailed a digital still, signed by Aerosmith the night of the concert.

Much to their dismay, World Wide Web-sawy fans of the Cure found Wednesday (Oct. 14th) that the largest online source of free live recordings by the band had dried up overnight. “The Cure MP3 Audio Archive” — which hosted 750 live cuts from throughout the modem-rock band’s 23-year career — was removed Tuesday after the student hosting it was ordered to do so by his university, which had been getting pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America. “We brought it to Elektra Records’ attention and said, ‘Let us know if the Cure is OK with the site or [if] they want us to do something about it." said Frank Creighton, the RIAA’s vice president and associate director of anti-piracy. “We got a response from Elektra basically saying that the Cure [were] fine with the RIAA addressing this.” In site owner Hajdik’s eyes, however, the site was doing the band a service by offering exposure and undercutting the market for bootleg live recordings. He is now searching for a new home for his massive library of live Cure works. “A few people have expressed interest, but nobody’s committed to anything,” he said.

Poison frontman Bret Michaels and troubled actor Charlie Sheen and have avoided a court battle. The pleasure-loving bad boys settled a $1 million breach of contract suit on Friday brought by two producers. Alexander Tabrizi and Anthony Esposito claimed in a suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that they were never paid for finding financing for The Last Child, a film co-written by Michaels and Sheen. According to their lawsuit, the men contend they were promised 5 percent of the pictures budget and a production credit. They say they were never paid and were later fired.

Katharina Schneider, a 34-year-old woman from Humanushaus, Switzerland, flew home October 8th, following her arrest on the grounds of singer Chris De Burgh’s Dublin home three days earlier. After initially being remanded in police custody until next month, Schneider, who had bombarded the singer with telephone calls and faxes, was escorted to Dublin Airport by a doctor and a nurse and placed on the flight. Ronald Lynam, solicitor for the defendant, produced a medical report which suggested she had a history of mental illness. Asking permission from the judge to address the court, Ms. Schneider thanked the precinct and everyone “who has been very nice to me. I hope to come back soon.”

Who’s ready to hear Jackyl perform “The Lumberjack”... 20 times in the same day? That could be the likely outcome of the Southern-fried rockers’ Oct. 21st pursuit in Abilene, Texas: performing 20 shows in 24 hours. Kind of puts a whole new spin on the phrase “rock around the clock.” The band plans to launch the marathon as part of its quest to make it into the Guinness Book Of World Records for playing 100 concerts in 50 days. The stunt follows the recent release of Choice Cuts, a compilation of the band's biggest hits along with covers of the Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus” and Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re An American Band.”

Aussie siren Kylie Minogue saw her new image October 7th, when her waxwork double in Madame Tussaud’s museum was unveiled. The updated model, featuring a slinky low-cut dress, makes her look twice the woman she was when her first dummy went on display in 1989. She said she was surprised at how much she had changed since her first sitting. The former “Neighbours” TV soap star, who has collected 25 Top 20 hits in the U.K. during her 10-year recording career, denied reports that she is giving up music for an acting career.

You might be hearing a lot more Bob Seger on the radio soon. Well, Metallica’s take on Bob Seger, anyway. “Turn The Page,” one of the new covers recorded for Garage Inc., is going to be the first single off of the double disc, due Nov. 24th on Elektra. The band has tapped Jonas Akerland — who directed the Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up” and Madonna’s “Ray of Light” — to direct a video for the song Wednesday (Oct. 21st) in Los Angeles.

Coming off one of the most difficult eras in their nearly 20-year career, Athens, GA.-bred rockers R.E.M. staged a triumphant return to alternative radio last week, with nearly every alternative outlet in the U.S. adding the band’s new single to their playlists. According to Kevin McCabe, director of charts for radio-industry trade-magazine Radio and Records, R.E.M.’s “Daysleeper” was picked up by 120 of the 135 alternative stations that report to the magazine, making it the most-added song last week. The single, from the group’s upcoming album, Up (due out Oct. 27th) — the first not to feature drummer Berry, who departed last fall — has kept pace with a number of other high-profile releases this year, according to McCabe. Another song McCabe said had similarly widespread alternative-radio adds was “Sweetest Thing” by Irish rockers U2.

With his third solo album, Rise, Mike Peters has garnered some of the best reviews of his career. “When I left the Alarm [in the early Nineties], it was like going back into the underground,” says Peters. “I’ve been working in the vacuum for such a long time, and there’s only been a few close friends sticking by me for support, so it’s great to be here now doing all these interviews, having people talk about my record — it’s like, ‘All right! I've made it through, I've crossed the bridge.'” Rise represents a bigger triumph for Peters than critical acceptance, however. lt’s his personal affirmation of winding up on the winning end of a brief but worrisome battle with lymphoma cancer. Nearly every song is an anthem. The finished product crackles with a high voltage guitar and electronica-based rock best summed up by the title track, “White Noise.” Peters gives ample credit for the album’s sonic assault to guests like former Cult guitarist Billy Duffy, with whom Peters plays in a side-project called ColorSound (“lt is what it is,” he explains, “it’s the Alarm meets the Cult.”)