Just a few months ago, the rock/hip-hop band Crazy Town was on the verge of calling it quits. In the year since the group's 1999 debut album, "The Gift Of Game" (Columbia Records), was released, the

Songwriter Robi "Draco" Rosa is upset that Latin superstar Ricky Martin will be appearing at the first inaugural celebration for U.S. president-elect George W. Bush. Martin is set to perform the Rosa-penned song "The Cup Of Life" at a Jan. 18 event at the Lincoln Memorial, which will also feature performances by chart toppers Destiny's Child, legendary rocker Van Morrison, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

With college rock stalwart Pavement unlikely to regroup in the foreseeable future, Stephen Malkmus, the band's former front man, is quickly moving on to new endeavors. After leading the band to

Phish's Mike Gordon and Page McConnell, Bootsy Collins, and others join Gov't Mule album sessions . . . Collection of unreleased Modest Mouse tracks due on K Records in April . . . Opera conductor Sarah Caldwell hospitalized . . . Guitarist Bryan Gregory of the Cramps dies.

Legendary rock guitarist Jeff Beck will hit the road beginning Feb. 15 in support of his upcoming Epic album "You Had It Coming." The headlining tour will kick off at the Paramount in Seattle and wrap in late March with a pair of shows at New York's Roseland Ballroom. Supporting Beck will be second guitarist Jennifer Batten, bassist Randy Hope-Taylor, and drummer Andy Gangadeen.

More than 75 female entertainers will rally for a live performance of Eve Ensler's acclaimed "The Vagina Monologues" Feb. 10, with proceeds going to the V-Day Fund, which benefits programs aimed at ending violence against women. The one-time celebrity staging at New York's Madison Square Garden is the centerpiece of the fourth annual V-Day campaign and includes special musical performances from Joan Osborne, Phoebe Snow, the long-established female alterna-rock outfit Betty, and Queen Latifah, who will perform at the show's finale.