This weekend, Sirius XM satellite radio is re-broadcasting its Michael Jackson tribute, “The Off the Wall/Thriller Special,” featuring Quincy Jones.

During the special, Jones discusses the inspiration behind the two albums, both of which he produced.

The broadcast will have encore presentations at 9 tonight, 7 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday on Sirius channel 51 and XM channel 62.

A public memorial service for Jackson is reportedly being scheduled for Tuesday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The scope of Michael Jackson’s musical reach will hit Sirius XM satellite radio beginning at 6 a.m. today.

“The Morning Mash Up!” on Sirius XM Hits 1 and XM’s “20 on 20” will play Jackson’s music and share stories about his career from 6 a.m. until noon.

A tribute to the singer will begin on the “’80s on 8” channel at 7 a.m., with former MTV VJs and current Sirius XM hosts Alan Hunter and Nina Blackwood will host a Jackson special at 7 p.m.
Also: Sirius XM’s The Groove, XM channel 64; Heart & Soul, SIRIUS channel 51 and XM channel 62; Hip-Hop Nation, SIRIUS channel 40 and XM channel 67, will play Michael Jackson songs at the top of each hour all day Friday, June 26. 
Heart & Soul will also air a Michael Jackson tribute featuring some of Jackson’s most upbeat music today at 9 a.m. The Groove will air “The Thriller 25th Anniversary” special showcasing classic Michael Jackson music and an interview with Quincy Jones recorded in 2007 at 5 p.m. today.

In other programming news: The BIO Channel will air “Bio Remembers: Michael Jackson” at 10 p.m. Saturday. The special will feature interviews with Jackson’s family and friends, including Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, and Liza Minnelli.

On Monday from 8-10 p.m., Fox will rebroadcast the Jackson-themed “American Idol” that aired this spring.
“House” and “Lie to Me” will be pre-empted.

There aren’t any heavy hitters such as The Police or Kanye West, but there is a bigger alteration to this year’s Virgin Mobile Festival – it’s free.

Changing from a multi-day fest at Pimlico racetrack outside of Baltimore to a one-day event at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., the Virgin Mobile Free Fest on Aug. 30 will include performances by Weezer, Blink-182, Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, Jet and The Hold Steady.

All tickets will be given away, with previous Virgin Mobile Festival ticket buyers and Virgin Mobile customers getting the first opportunity to secure tickets. Those folks will be invited via email to a private “free-sale” (a free pre-sale) at http://www.ticketmaster.com on Thursday and Friday. The rest of the public can try for tickets beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The Virgin Mobile FreeFest will also contain an area with VIP seating for those who complete 13 hours of community service at designed homeless youth shelters around the country.

A complete lineup of bands and other information can be found at http://www.virginmobilefestival.com.

If you happen to be at Thursday night’s Washington Nationals game against the Boston Red Sox, make sure to pay attention to the guy playing “The Star-Spangled Banner”—it will be Mike Massa, the guitarist for Richmond pop/rock band Palaminos, who has been tapped to perform the anthem as a guitar instrumental.

The band’s new album, “Egos,“ is streaming on its Web site, http://www.palominosmusic.com.

Photo by Duke Johnson

Is anyone surprised about Chris Brown receiving probation and community service as punishment for beating Rihanna, his girlfriend at the time of the incident in February?

Is anyone surprised that this plea deal was announced moments before a preliminary hearing – at which Rihanna was standing by to testify if necessary – was to begin?

Of course not. After all, it was a first offense.

But Brown’s gamble paid off, because instead of facing a potential sentence of five years in prison if the case had gone to trial, he now has to serve 180 days of community service (which the Los Angeles Criminal Court judge said he can apply to do in Virginia if it meets the court’s standards); live under five years of supervised probation; and attend a court-mandated 52-week domestic violence counseling program.

Brown also has been ordered to stay 50 yards away from Rihanna unless they are at the same event – then the boundary is 10 yards. He has also been instructed not to contact her in any way (the order works both ways—Rihanna must abide by those mandates as well).

What do you think? Was Brown’s sentencing fair? Now that he’s pleaded guilty, do you believe Rihanna’s story? And for those of you who were waiting to see how the incident shook out before deciding whether or not to remain loyal to Brown, how do you feel about him now?

I was at the Power 92 studio today to interview TT Torrez for an upcoming story and she happened to have a special guest in with her – rapper Maino.

The Brooklyn native, known for his breakthrough hit “Hi Hater” and his new punchy jam with Swizz Beats, “Million Bucks,” gave a surprisingly revealing interview and happily answered phoned-in questions from fans (while frequently checking his PDA).

The rapper, wearing a black hoodie over a T-shirt and stylish jeans dropped well below the belt line, talked about how growing up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, he didn’t idolize rappers, but the neighborhood drug dealers and “gunmen” instead.

While serving a 10-year stint in jail for drug-related kidnapping – he was released in 2003 – Maino started writing and realized he possessed a talent for rapping. That piece of his life is also when he received the prominent scar on his lower right cheek (“Someone cut me. I cut them first and this was retaliation,” he said).

Maino’s debut album, “If Tomorrow Comes,” will be released June 30.

But along with music, the rapper is pursuing other avenues in entertainment.

“I told myself [after jail], I’m going to use music as a tool and stepping stone to open up other doors in TV and movies,” he said. “I’m blessed to say that’s starting to happen.”

Apparently, the train hasn’t derailed yet.

Britney Spears today announced an additional 20 dates to her “Circus” tour, which stopped at the Verizon Center in D.C. in March. The $50 million production is the highest-grossing tour of 2009 (so far – just wait until the U2 jaunt begins).

If you missed the Spears spectacle there – or just can’t get enough Brit – you’ll have to travel a little further to see her on this round of dates, but hey, they’re all drive-able.

Aug. 24-25: New York (Madison Square Garden)
Aug. 30: Philadelphia (Wachovia Center)
Sept. 5: Greensboro, N.C. (Greensboro Coliseum)

Tickets to all of the new dates will go on sale June 19.

Jamie Foxx is embarking on a 50-city “Intuition Tour” that will stop at Richmond Coliseum at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 23.

Tickets for Mr. “Blame It” are $39.75 and $59.75 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, June 19 at the Coliseum box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, http://www.ticketmaster.com and by calling (800) 745-3000.

The Oscar winner and R&B star released his third album, “Intuition,” in December. It’s since sold more than 1 million copies.

Last week’s No Service Fee Wednesday saw a 500 percent sales spike for shows being held at Live Nation-owned amphitheaters.

The company already announced that for each Wednesday throughout the summer, a different “recession-busting” special would be implemented.

This week’s special – announced today—is almost identical to last week’s, with one big difference – the sale applies to all tickets, not just lawn tickets, as specified in the inaugural sale.

Keep in mind that the sale only applies to certain concerts (check http://www.livenation.com for the list at each venue) and that parking, tax and other fees still apply. Also, the fees can only be deducted for tickets purchased at the venue box offices (that means you guys who might be reading this in the Virginia Beach or Manassas areas) and on the Live Nation Web site.

The “No Service Fee Wednesday” runs for 24 hours, starting at 12:01 a.m. on, duh, Wednesday.

And if you missed last week’s Beat column discussing the Live Nation promotion, as well as a couple of upcoming free shows at Innsbrook, check it out here.

The beauty of The Decemberists is that their music is completely impossible to classify.

An open secret in the hipster-dipster indie/folk rock world for years – Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert have frequently given them a platform – the quintet has barreled into a new stratosphere with their opus, ‘The Hazards of Love.”

A concept album centering on a character named Margaret with a storyline that also features a nasty forest queen and an assortment of love themes, it’s filled with ambitious musical detours that soar beyond the band’s usual breezy folksiness.

At a very sold out National on Friday, The Decemberists performed “Hazards” in its entirety, never pausing between songs for a break or to break character.
The opus was delivered flawlessly – with the exception of singer Colin Meloy’s microphone fritzing out for a few verses during the opening “The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone).“

Performing in front of a crinkly white backdrop to reflect a rainbow of colored lights used for dramatic effect, the band, joined by Shara Worden (as the jealous forest queen) and Becky Stark (looking a bit like Glinda the Good Witch as Margaret), sounded crisp.

Yet this sprawling work, which segued dreamily from “A Bower Scene” to the sleepy country of “Isn’t a Lovely Night,” a duet between Meloy and Stark featuring accordion and pedal steel guitar, never wanders aimlessly.

It’s not quite prog rock (thank God), and the layered harmonies of some songs owe as much to The Beatles’ “White Album” as the crunching guitar and organ swirls on others pay homage to Boston.

But it’s all pretty awesomely accessible, even though the band can sometimes get bogged down in its own self-importance (“You may render me a wreck when I come back” is one line in “Annan Water.” Um, seriously?).

And while the purposeful flitting of Stark’s Margaret and ferocious Grace Slick impersonation from Worden were theatrical to the point of teetering on camp, this crowd of 20-to-40-somethings was so enamored by the performance, most of its members managed to shut up and even keep their texting, Tweeting and status updating to a minimum for the 60-minute set.

The first notes of “The Rake Song,” the closest thing The Decemberists have to a single on “Hazards,” prompted pockets of the audience of 1,500 to toss handfuls of glo-sticks in the air. Every member of the band, except Meloy and bassist Nate Query, picked up drumsticks or mallets for the percussive feast, while fans sang along heartily with the sophisticated pub chant-a-long.

While most of the band is multi-instrumentalists, the quiet hero is Jenny Conlee. Whether playing organ, piano, accordion, keyboard or drums, her melodies and minor key shifts always kept the music interesting and ably distracted from Meloy’s oft-affected vocals (he sounds a bit like a robust Neil Tennant) and the fact that for as musically gifted as Meloy is, his voice doesn’t carry much range.

After wrapping the “Hazards” performance and taking a bow, the band sprinted backstage for a break, then returned for another hour-long set of older material.

Halfway through the first song, “Oceanside,” a pretty, yet basic acoustic strummer from their self-released 2001 EP, it became hugely obvious just how much this band has evolved.