Rock Band

The Irish rock band U2 was nominated yesterday for four Grammy awards from its platinum The Joshua Tree LP, while first-time nominee Suzanne Vega received three mentions with a song about child abuse, "Luka. " Hitmaker Michael Jackson had four nominations for Bad, his first album since the historic Thriller LP recorded in 1983. Country singer Emmylou Harris also received four nominations. Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, Los Lobos, Prince, Wynton Marsalis and Itzhak Perlman were among 14 artists nominated in three categories apiece.

Recently I played lead guitar in a rock band, and the rhythm guitarist was - not that I wish to drop names - Stephen King. This actually happened. It was the idea of a woman named Kathi Goldmark, who formed a band consisting mostly of writers to raise money for literacy by putting on a concert at the American Booksellers Association convention in Anaheim, Calif. So she called a bunch of writers who were sincerely interested in literacy and making an unbelievable amount of noise.

A federal magistrate judge yesterday recommended that the rock band with the unprintable name and the laid-back attitude toward judicial process pay $2.2 million in damages to the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police for misappropriating for its album cover an FOP poster portraying a dead police officer. Yesterday's recommendation against the rock group, whose name is a profane variation of the word crucifix; its distributor, Alternative Tentacles Records, of San Francisco; and Tentacles' owner Eric R. Boucher came 14 months after FOP Lodge 5 and Police Sgt. John Whalen sued them in federal court.

Way back in 1965, Steven Van Zandt, a teenager growing up in central New Jersey, went to see a rock band for the first time. The Jersey band playing at the Matawan-Keyport Roller Drome would change the life of the man later known for his roles with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and in HBO's The Sopranos , not to mention for his own Sirius XM radio channel, the Underground Garage. It was the Rascals, the 1960s hit-making quartet whose four original members - singers Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati, drummer Dino Danelli, and guitarist Gene Cornish - have reunited, as a result of Van Zandt's persistent prodding, after 40 years apart.

Thanks for proving us right. Four weeks ago, Daily News readers were asked to offer up a name for my housemate Pat's new band. That was some 200 suggestions ago. From Aardvark to Zephyr, the tags ranged from truly inspired to . . . well, we're not quite sure what Zaagobey or Chan-thanan means, but the linguistic experts at University of Pennsylvania hope to have 'em cracked before the Esperanto edition of the Daily News hits the stands....

It was a career milestone: their first official, record-company-subsidized recording session. And Jack Logan and the musicians he calls his "enablers" had driven 10 hours to get from Logan's home near Athens, Ga., to a friend's studio in Royal Center, Ind. They arrived at night, exhausted, with plans to begin work in the morning. But Logan - the swimming-pool-equipment mechanic who, at the unlikely age of 36, has been hailed as a rock-and-roll prodigy - had an itch. "I thought it would be a good idea just to test the gear out, you know?"

On a pleasant Sunday afternoon, in their cute little baseball park, the Baltimore Orioles stepped one by one into the batter's box and squinted out at the pitcher's mound. What stared back at them looked downright mean. It stood 6-foot-5 and was outfitted in the imposing black and gray road uniform of the Chicago White Sox. It wore low stirrup socks and kept its cap pulled low over its burning eyes. The general effect of this demonic apparition was enhanced by a neatly trimmed Vandyke beard and mid-ear sideburns.

Annie Haslam's two worlds converge in the narrow hallway leading from her living room. Photographs of Annie Haslam, performing artist, blend into oil paintings by Annie Haslam, visual artist, on the crowded walls. Haslam pictured with Joan Baez, Chubby Checker and Billy Joel attest to her renown as lead singer for the classical rock band Renaissance in the '70s and '80s. Haslam's swirls of color on multiple canvases mark her frenetic entrance into the art world. Since she first picked up a brush last year, Haslam has completed more than 300 abstract paintings, she said.

Eric Martin, a software engineer and ski instructor who lives Harleysville, is one of nine adventurers hunting for $100,000 at 9 tonight on TNT's survival-style game show, 72 Hours . Is it possible for the area to have back-to-back winners? On last week's debut, Michelle Lamelza, who grew up in the Northeast, found the cash-filled briefcase with two teammates during a quest that crossed a half-dozen Fiji islands. See article: " Philly fave wins wild TV treasure hunt . " See slide show: " Reality-show champs from Philly.

There are a handful of incarnations of the indie rock band Eels, a decades-long project led by Mark Oliver Everett. Over the course of 10 studio albums, the band has been quiet and introspective, aggressive and defiant, witty and sweet, and a spectrum in between. Live shows have likewise covered the gamut, from full string orchestra to rock band to solo Everett and his guitar. This time around, Eels is an all-out rock band. Five men, wearing dark sunglasses and clad in black Adidas track suits, took the stage Saturday night at World Cafe Live.