The arrival this weekend of the second Epicenter festival in Fontana begs the question: Does the world really have room for yet another pop music festival?

“No, not really,” says Gary Spivack, co-president of Right Arm Entertainment, the promoter of Epicenter, which in its sophomore year has assembled an eclectic lineup of rock, hip-hop, punk and alternative acts including Eminem, KISS, blink-182, Bush, Rise Against and Bad Religion on Saturday and Sunday at the Auto Club Speedway.

“There are a lot of festivals out there and some really good ones here in Southern California,” Spivack said. “But if someone is being underserved, we want to serve underserved, and we thought, ‘Where’s the really big rock festival that also is able to include some of the really credible hip-hop artists of the day?’ ”

For Eminem, it’s only his third live performance this year -- and only West Coast appearance -- following recent rap blowouts in his native Detroit and then New York on stadium bills he shared with Jay-Z.

“If you’re going to do a show in Southern California, where people have so many options to choose from, you’ve got to swing for the fences,” says Spivack, who started Right Arm four years ago with partners Del Williams and Danny Wimmer. The three were longtime record label employees who “saw the writing on the wall,” Spivack said, in terms of the drastic downscaling so many record companies have gone through in recent years.

Linkin Park, the hard rock pride of Agoura Hills, ushers in the music industry's busy fall and winter release schedule, leading a charge of six new albums into the top 10 of the U.S. pop chart. The act's "Thousand Suns," which showcases a moodier, gentler and more contemplative Linkin Park, sold 241,000 copies in its debut week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. 

Though Linkin Park has no doubt successfully shifted out of the rap/rock-metal scene of the mid- to late '90s, becoming one of the few hybrid acts from the era to demonstrate some career longevity, it isn't immune to the general industry downturn facing the music biz. The band's 2007 effort, "Minutes to Midnight," bowed with a much-mightier 623,000 copies, according to the Billboard archives. This could be a transitionary moment for the band, as initial fan reaction to the less hard-hitting sound appears to be mixed. 

Nevertheless, Linkin Park still outsold the latest from R&B artist Trey Songz, icon Robert Plant, still-rising country star Jamey Johnson and Weezer, who jumped from the Universal Music Group empire to locals Epitaph Records. The fourth effort from Trey Songz, "Passion, Pain & Pleasure," narrowly missed the top spot, selling 240,000 copies in its first week. That's actually a career-best for Trey Songz, who Billboard notes has never sold more than 131,000 albums in a single week. 

Further down, mainstream country's rougher-and-tougher Johnson entered at No. 4 with "The Guitar Song," an album that sold 63,000 copies, while Plant's "Band of Joy," which continues his atmospheric explorations into the American songbook, bowed at No. 5 with with 49,000 copies.

Weezer's "Hurley" didn't arrive with quite the same fanfare as last year's "Raditude," which saw the band selling Snuggies and collaborating with Lil Wayne, yet it did see the act taking greater ownership of its career. For the album, Weezer started its own W Records and licensed the effort to Silver Lake's Epitaph. The independent move still gives the band a top 10 album, as "Hurley" opened with 45,000 copies sold. That is, however, a little less than "Raditude's" debut, as that effort bowed with 66,000 copies sold.

Other notes from this week's chart:

Not counting the group’s triumphant appearance at last year’s Electric Daisy Carnival and a Coachella or two, big beat electronica duo the Crystal Method has not performed a stand-alone set in Los Angeles for six long years. That's an eternity, especially when measured against the platinum-selling group’s choice to maintain a SoCal home base since the early '90s.

But all that is about to change with the group’s date at Hollywood’s Avalon on Friday night – a rare live set booked into the Crystal Method’s North American “Divided by Night” tour that band members Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland promise will be “full of surprises.” So much so, that until fairly recently, they didn’t know for sure what was going to happen.

Pop & Hiss bumped into the Vegas natives on the red carpet at the Grammys last month, moments after it had lost out to Lady Gaga in the best electronic/dance album category. Adding insult to the injury of their defeat, the pop diva skipped collecting her trophy in order to primp for show time, leaving the Crystal Method to stew in its own vitriolic juices.

“Lady Gaga took us down and she couldn’t even show up to collect the award,” Kirkland groused. “Next year, I think they should implement a thing where if you’re not in the room to collect the award, your award goes to someone else. It’s like, if you put in to win the blender, you’ve got to be there to win the blender, right? You gotta be there to win the award!”

A recap of our conversation follows.

The L.A. band enlists the support of Slash, Peter Gabriel and others for a benefit album, available at its Music for Relief website.

Los Angeles-based hard rock act Linkin Park hadn't planned to resurrect a 3-year-old unfinished song, but in the days after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, the band went scouring through its vaults, eventually finding and completing the track "Not Alone" at 3 a.m. last Sunday.

The song, which was released online late Tuesday, is now the leadoff cut on the band's "Download for Haiti" digital-only benefit compilation. Artists including the All-American Rejects, guitarist Slash, Enrique Iglesias, the Dave Matthews Band and rapper Lupe Fiasco contributed to the album, available for free on the website Music for Relief, Linkin Park's disaster-relief charity.

Fans are encouraged to donate after downloading the album.

Linkin Park bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell said the band wanted to give people a way to help the cause -- all the proceeds from the compilation will be given to disaster relief efforts -- without having to open their wallets.

"Even if you can't donate a dollar, or you aren't willing to up front, you can still be a part of the effort by helping to get the word out," Farrell said.

"Maybe that means that if one person, for whatever reason, doesn't have the ability to donate themselves, they may be able to reach a community that can. I didn't want the project to stop at a certain point because of a cost barrier."

Hard rock band Linkin Park has spearheaded a benefit for Haiti, allowing fans to download previously unreleased tracks from the likes of Alanis Morissette, All-American Rejects, Dave Matthews Band, Enrique Iglesias, Hoobastank, Peter Gabriel and more. The compilation, "Download to Donate for Haiti," is free and available for download at the website for Music for Relief, the nonprofit started by Los Angeles' Linkin Park in 2005.

Other participating artists include Lupe Fiasco, who teamed with Kenna on a track produced by Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda, and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash. Music for Relief reports that it has raised more than $3 million for disaster relief in its five years of existence.