Are you tired of not being recognized for the worthless music trivia that you know? Well, here’s your chance to show mom and dad that even though you may be failing your classes, you’ve still learned something during your college career.

In fact, you may even be able to get out of the entire school gig if you are the $50,000 grand prize winner of Amazon.com’s online game, “What’s That Song.”

Here’s how it works: After logging on to www.amazon.com, Web surfers identify the song title and recording artist’s name for the song clip of the day.

Randomly selected entrants with the correct answer will receive $1,000 and will be automatically entered into the grand prize drawing.

During the contest, recording artists from Capitol Records and its sister labels (Blue Note, Capitol Nashville, Grand Royal, Matador and Virgin Records) will answer “provocative questions about their musical tastes — and fans will guess the answer by identifying brief RealAudio sound clips from the artists’ responses,” a press release said.

Sure, the odds of actually getting the 50k are slim to none, but, hey, while you participate in the contest you’ll be able to learn even more interesting tidbits about some of the most well-known musicians in today’s music.

Featured artists include: Beastie Boys, Radiohead, Lenny Kravitz, Liz Phair, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Ben Harper, Cracker, Marcy Playground and Sean Lennon.

The contest ends Nov. 2.

Upcoming Releases

R.E.M. is set to release “Up,” its 11th album next week. The first single and video, “Daysleeper,” is Michael Stipe’s “first true love song,” according to MTV News.

Yo La Tengo will be redoing the theme song from “The Simpsons” for the closing credits of the Nov. 15 episode. “D’oh-in in the Wind” is about Homer discovering that his mother was a hippie. “He ends up drugging the whole town of Springfield,” reported Carrie Borzillo of Rocktropolis. George Carlin and Martin Mull will guest star.

On Nov. 17, fans of Letters To Cleo will finally be able hear the group’s original EP on CD. “‘Sister’ was released only as a cassette in 1991 on the band’s own Rebecca Lula records,” Mike Magnuson of Rocktropolis said.

The re-release boasts the original seven tracks, mastered for the first time, plus four more tunes previously available only on compilations or as b-sides.

In other Cleo news, two of the current members, along with former drummer Stacy Jones, will contribute to the solo album of ex-Veruca Salt member Nina Gordon.

Through the Grapevine

Flashing back to its “garage days,” Metallica is planning to perform a pair of club shows in an effort to support the band’s upcoming album, “Garage Inc.”

Luckily for Iowa fans, dates have been scheduled in the Midwest. Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom will host the band on Nov. 19, and the following day, Metallica will appear at the State Theater in Detroit.

Alanis Morissette is getting butt naked. The Canadian singer’s latest video includes her walking through street and subways without a strand of clothing to be found.

“I had objectified myself a lot, especially through my teen years, and I just reached a point that [I became] very comfortable with my body and taking care of it,” Morissette told MTV News.”Yet I don’t feel overly attached to it in that I don’t think it is exactly who I am.”