COLUMBIA, NOTORIOUS, MUSIC CHOICE TAKE IT TO THE "STREET"

Columbia Records, home to such artists as Crazy Town, Train, Pete Yorn and Our Lady Peace (among many, many others), has pacted with digital audio service Music Choice and television production house Notorious Pictures to produce "Music Choice Presents: Street Team."

The cable series aims to make viewers a part of various acts’ entourages—including (you guessed it) Crazy Town, Train, Yorn and Our Lady Peace—by sending a camera crew along for the ride.

The show debuted in May, but for some reason, Music Choice and partners have waited until now to make a big hoo-ha in the press via a tidy, three-page press release. Anyway, the show’s out there, they’d like you to know, and we’re telling you because we’d also like you to know.

Music Choice, by the way, provides a 24/7 digital music service to 20 million cable, satellite, telephone and Internet customers and produces live concert shows as well.

The company is a partnership among Microsoft, Motorola, subsidiaries of Sony, Warner Music Group, EMI, Adelphia, Comcast, AT&T, Cox and Time Warner. Got that?

Each one-hour installment of "Street Team" includes four segments in which four "digi-guerrillas" (i.e., the camera crew) tag along with different acts to see what really happens when artists stop being artists and start being real—or something like that.

The Music Choice release promises, "While the bands are making music, ‘Street Team’ is making television and both are caught live and uncensored as they simultaneously create contemporary culture." The medium is the message, dude.

In addition to the aforementioned, Columbia or Columbia-affiliated artists, Xzibit, Wyclef Jean, Five For Fighting, Tha Liks, Endo and Union Underground have been featured in the first four episodes.

A fifth episode, airing Aug. 27 to Sept. 8, includes segments with new bands Spike 1000 and Craving Theo (not related to Letters to Cleo).

You can join in on the street-level fun at www.streetteamtv.com, which promises to tell you when you can catch the show in your market, but as always, be sure to check your local listings.