Rod Stewart [ tickets ] will release yet another album of standards--this one titled "Thanks for the Memory... The Great American Songbook: Volume IV"--on Oct. 18.

The set includes duets with Elton John on "Makin' Whoopee," Chaka Khan on "You Send Me" and Diana Ross on "I've Got a Crush on You."

Meanwhile, J Records has announced a Nov. 15 release date for a four-disc box set that includes all of Stewart's "American Songbook" albums.

The surviving members of storied punk-rock act The Germs [ tickets ]--Pat Smear, Lorna Doom and Don Bolles--will play an Oct. 29 gig at the Grand Olympic Ballroom in Los Angeles to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the band's final show.
Handling the mic duties for the group will be actor/musician Shane West, who was cast in the role of late Germs frontman Darby Crash in the forthcoming Germs biopic "What We Do is Secret." Crash--who was born Jan Paul Beahm--committed suicide with an intentional heroin overdose in 1980.

The bill will also feature Suicidal Tendencies, The Dead Kennedys, Marky Ramone and Flipper.

Additional Germs shows are in the works for the U.S. and Europe, according to a press release.

Country singer Gretchen Wilson [ tickets ] has postponed two planned October concerts, but plans to launch her upcoming tour with Big & Rich on Nov. 4 in Houston, as scheduled.

"Gretchen has been instructed by her doctor to take a vocal rest," said a statement issued by her publicist. "There is nothing urgent about her condition. She has been working non-stop for 15 months and this is the best time for her to take a rest."

A planned Oct. 7 show in Huntsville, AL has been moved to Dec. 17, and a scheduled Oct. 8 gig in Perry, GA, has been canceled "with the hope of rescheduling in 2006," according to a press release.

Rapper DMX [ tickets ] reportedly failed to appear at a Wednesday (9/28) court appearance in New York City to answer to charges of driving with a suspended license. According to the New York Post, DMX's attorney told the court that the rapper was ill.

A judge gave DMX until Monday (10/3) to show up in court, after which an arrest warrant will be issued.