Art and rock 'n' roll  join forces Sunday afternoon to benefit the Santa Monica Museum of Art.
Raymond Pettibon, whose work includes Sonic Youth and Black Flag album covers, will perform with his Niche Makers; Ron English, famed for his take on pop culture in paintings and billboards, leads his Electric Illuminati;and Mike Watt, bassist for the Minutemen, fIREHOSE and the Stooges, will bring out his band the Secondmen.
Tickets are $35 and include complimentary refreshments from Library Alehouse in Santa Monica; Casa Noble Tequila and Iron Horse Vineyards, who make some interesting sparkling wines.
Concert is in addition to an art exhibit at the Robert Berman Gallery featuring works by Pettibon, English, Daniel Johnston, the three frontline members of Sonic Youth and Gibby Haynes. Opening reception is Saturday at 7 p.m.

Ingrid Michaelson will release a collection of previously unreleased songs, covers and live recordings with a portion of the proceeds going to  Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C).
"Be OK" will be released Oct. 14 on Michaelson's Cabin 24 Records. 
Michaelson's song “Be OK” and music video will be featured on the organization's website and will be available as a single on iTunes beginning Sept. 2.
Stand Up To Cancer is an initiative aimed at raising funds to accelerate cancer research and end cancer's reign as a leading cause of death.
Stand Up To Cancer special will stage a nationally televised fundraising event simultaneously and commercial free on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5 at 8 p.m.
"Be OK" will be marketed and distributed by Original Signal Recordings/RED.
Be OK will include:

Be OK (radio mix)
Lady In Spain (previously unreleased)
You And I (previously unreleased)
Giving Up (acoustic)
Keep Breathing
The Chain (live)
The Way I Am (live)
Somewhere Over The Rainbow (cover)
Can’t Help Falling In Love (cover)
Oh What A Day (previously unreleased)
Be OK (acoustic)

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  Members of the Meters, Randy Newman and Walter “Wolfman” Washington will at events during the two political conventions to raise money for restoration efforts in New Orleans and the surrounding region plus raise awareness about conditions that exist three years after Katrina.
The Meters' Zigaboo Modeliste, George Porter Jr. and Leo Nocentelli will be joined by Allen Toussaint, Terence Blanchard and Henry Butler at the “New Orleans All Star Jam-Balaya” events being held in Denver  on Aug. 24 at the Fillmore and  in Minneapolis on  Sept. 1 at the First Avenue club. Events are being produced by the Friends of New Orleans.
Also performing will be the Wetlands All-Stars (Tab Benoit, George Porter Jr., Cyril Neville, Waylon Thibodeaux, Johnny Sansone, Anders Osborne and Johnny Vidacovich). They will be joined by Irma Thomas,  Marva Wright and  Marcia Ball. The all-star horn section will feature saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., sousaphone player and Dirty Dozen founder Kirk Joseph, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Funky Nation front man Big Sam and trumpeter James Andrews. The opening of each evening will feature New Orleans brass band the Soul Rebels, the Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indians and New Orleans natives Lauren Barrett and Mary McBride.
Hosts for the Denver event are Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, actors Harry Shearer and Wendell Pierce and Democrat strategists James Carville and Donna Brazile. In Minneapolis, the hosts include former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Republican strategist Mary Matalin. FONO Board Chairman Gloria Dittus, Walter Isaacson, former Congressman Billy Tauzin and actor and FONO Board Member John Larroquette will host both events.
Events are also the culmination of FONO’s “Heroes of the Storm” campaign, an effort to honor organizations that have made significant contributions to the recovery and rebuilding effort in the Gulf region.

The Walkmen are making their new album available three weeks early, selling downloads to raise money for  Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Band and Amie Street are making "You & Me" available as part of the website's Download To Make A Difference program.It is the program's second major release.
For each album purchased, AmieStreet.com will donate $5 in honor of Luca Vasallo, a 7-month-old friend to the band. The Walkmen's new album is being released by Gigantic Music and marketed and distributed by the Orchard.

Metallica will perform a benefit show for Flea's musical school, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, on Wednesday at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.
Money raised will go toward programs, operations and scholarships for low-income students whose families would otherwise not be unable to afford instruments and/or lessons. The school’s summer camp program and new building initiative will also benefit from the proceeds.
Also appearing will be Scars On Broadway, the band fronted by Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan from System of a Down.
Tickets go on sales Sunday at 10 a.m. for $200 each. A limited number of VIP tickets at $500 each will be available only  at Silverlake Conservatory of Music, 3920 Sunset Blvd.

Merle Haggard and entertainment businessman Bob Wolf will announce in Nashville Monday the creation of the Green Train, a multi-concert informational train tour that will travel coast to coast.
The Green Train is scheduled to start in Portland, Ore., this summer and will pass through every geographic region in the nation during a six-week whistle stop tour. It will culminate with a volunteer outreach day in Washington, D.C. in August. Haggard and friends will ride aboard the Green Train this summer to promote global awareness.
“Merle and I felt it was important to try and unite our country through a message of common sense, simple conservation and education that carries on through our generations to come,” Wolf said. “We decided a whistle-stop train with a circus-style atmosphere should be the vessel carrying our message, along with a concert tour allowing a younger generation of entertainers to honor the stage with America’s legendary icons in a ‘pass the baton’ kind of ceremony to the next ‘breed of legends.’"

Metallica, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom Waits, John Mayer and Regina Spektor have all signed on for Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit on Oct. 27 and 28.
Tickets  go on sale Sunday through www.livenation.com.

Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger have recorded the folk classic "Hobo's Lullaby" for "Give US Your Poor," a multi-artist CD devoted to fighting homelessness.Appleseed Recordings will release the disc Sept. 25.
All but two of the tracks ("Here and Now" by Mark Erelli and "1,000 Miles Away" by Jewel) are exclusives.Several of the artists collaborated with currently or previously homeless musicians.
The other tracks: "Land of 10,000 Homeless - Minnesota" – audio documentary set to music; "Show Me the Way" – Jon Bon Jovi & Mighty Sam McClain; "Baby Don't Let Me Go Homeless" – Keb Mo & Eagle Park Slim; "There Is No Good Reason" – Natalie Merchant & Friends; "So Lonely" – Sonya Kitchell; "Becky's Tune" – Michelle Shocked and Michael Sullivan; "Walking the Dog" – Bonnie Raitt & Weepin' Willie Robinson; "My Name Is Not 'Those People'" (spoken, with music) – Danny Glover; "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" – Madeleine Peyroux; "Portable Man" – Del Goldfarb & John Sebastian; "Boll Weevil" – Dan Zanes & Kyla Middleton; "Ink Falling (Father Outside)" – Buffalo Tom; "Stranger Blues" – Sweet Honey in the Rock; "Impossible Boulevard" (spoken excerpt, with music) – Tim Robbins; "Feels Like Home" – Mario Frangoulis; "When We Left Minneapolis (spoken, with music)" – Danny Glover.