The% Akers
So you were forced to travel like a nomad for hundreds of miles just to
hear some good music this summer. Yeah, I know how tough tailgat
ing can be. But if you didn't want to spend the hundred bucks for a
live show, it's likely your summer lacked a decent soundtrack. After all, how
many times can you listen to that Josie and the Pussycats LP?
Fear not. That and other obvious cries for help are now being answered
through the Fall release of new music. Here to help with the overload, is a
comprehensive guide of what's to come. (And in case you missed them,
we'll include a wrap of some of the summer's best shows next week.)
Christina Aguilera, Mi Reflejo
As if American overexposure wasn't
enough torthe popprinC,s, Aguilera
goes ba& to her t,atin , roots for her
second musical endeavor. The CD
will include Spanish versions of her
U.S. hits, as well as a few new tracks.
Como se diee...ooops?
Barenaked Ladies, Maroon
Anybody with working knowledge of
Napster already got a sample cut of
the Toronto band's new album.
"Pinch" was posted a few weeks back,
hut the buzz about the entire CD is
still uncertain. Since Stunt's qua
druple-platinum success, BNL may
have their work cut out for them.
Joan Osbourn, Righteous
Love It's been five years since Rel
ish, and despite countless setbacks
(including creative differences and
walking papers from her previous la
bel), Osbourn rebounds with a pas
sionate new album, full of soul and
funk.
Boyz II Men, Nathanial
Michael Shawn Wanva In order
to prove themselves as" real musi
cians" most boy hands have taken to
writing their own music. So it came
as no surprise that this seasoned group
would do the same on their first al
bum in three years. Full of Boyz bal
lads, NMSW hopes to stand out amidst
the pop blitz.
LL Cool J, G.O.A.T.
Mr. Smith goes to...record stores?
After 1997's Phenomenon, the come
back kid returns with " a real urban
rap album." Teamed with a group of
rising producers, the new cuts offer
an edgier side to the rap veteran.
Madonna, Music
The Material Mom, whose moment
of Zen came with her quadruple-plati
num alb waa Ray, of ,Ligilt,is back for
.•
the eighth tittle; priorOy No. 1 is
getting ybit to shake s , 9tir groove
thang. Madonna once again collabo
rates with some of Light 's producers
to create a frenetic disco album, full
of funk and soul.
Fastball, The Harsh Light of
Day While many are quick to dis
miss the band as a one-hit wonder
after 1998's "The Way," The Texas
group is betting that talent might just
win over the cynics. Boasting musi
cianship and slammin' hooks, the new
album sounds great. Guess that's
what was missing on the last one.
Bjork, Selinasongs
While the album serves as the
soundtrack to Lars von Trier's Dancer
in the Dark, six new tracks make this
32-minute collection a must-have for
Bjork fans.
Movies
In the Mix
9/13
Bait
9/15
Birthday Girl
9 / 1 5
98 Degrees, Revelation
Throwing their hat back in the boy
band arena, the cp,t ! artet comes out
Vhfthis fourth album, the
Ohio crciOrt6is iely sOn ballads and
4 1.6
more of that dancernusic that makes
everyone study the steps. Hey
N'sync, this fall it's gonna be... 98
Degrees.
Green Day, Warning
After "Good Riddance (Time of Your
Life)," the popTurtk baud was feel
ing a little tess pop or punk. Well,
don't look fOt this sixth album to de
fine the band either. With more
acoustic guitars, Green Day prizes it
self on taking the risk of being vul
nerable.
Radiohead, Kid A
Oasis who? After 1997's OK Com
puter transformed frontman Thom
Yorke and the rest of the hand into
England's rock heroes, anticipation of
a follow-up was fierce. But the se
quel album will have to succeed with
out the benefit of radio air play, since
the band has never received radio sup
port. It's okay, their fan following
wouldn't want them to sell out any
way.
But wait, there's more...
The Corrs
Rickie Lee Jones
Tom Toni Club
Aaron Carter
Mark Knopfler
Meat Puppets
Kenny Chesney
Jane Siberry
Van Morrison
Soul Asylum
Sara Evans
Merle Haggard
Cherry Poppin' Daddies
Fatboy Slim
Jennifer Lopez
Spice Girls
ootie & the Blowfis
Xzibit
Alan Jackson
Limp Bizkit, Chocolate Star
fish and the Hot-dog Flavored
Water The most pleasing Bizkit al
bum yet as it finds fans on both sides
of the,*octf-rap connection. Teamed
with nap Producer Swizz Beatz and
seasoned metalist Terry Date (Pantera
and the Deftones), Chocolate Sailfish
looks to be a precision-heavy album
paying tribute to the kind of music
Bizkit fans love best.
New
Rele
Video
Santana
(Music Video)
9/12
This Is
Spinal Tap
9/12
Everlast, Eat at Whitey's
Featuring such assorted guests as
Carlos Santana and Kurupt, Everlast
plunges farther into the depths of a
hip-hop guitarist with all the soul and
blues such a crossbreed should have.
Grace and mortality play a recurring
theme in these episodic cuts of the
musician's real life.
U 2, All That You Can't Leave
Behind Reunited with Joshua Tree
produceis, the bt.tn‘legres bihind the
pop and technO.:tfditiOns tat other
?4,
bands are now thriving on.' - Going
hack to what they do best, U 2 once
again sounds like U 2, and that always
sounds good.
R. Kelly, TP-2.com
Back to bump and grind you, Kelly
ditches the "I Believe I Can Fly" ap
proach and just gets dOWn business.
With songs for men ("Feelin' on Your
Booty") and women (there's one on
there about scorned females), this al
hum is one for the whole family.
Wu-Tang, The W
The New York-based rap group de
fected to the West coast for their third
album, titled The W. The secretive
follow-up to 1997's two-disc set, Wu-
Ting Forever, is keeping details about
the project quiet. Although word is
that 01' Dirty Bastard is definitely
contributing to the project despite le
gal entanglements
Paul Simon
Lyle Lovett
Travis Tritt
1 0/ 1 0
Collective Soul
11/14
Sale
he Offspring
Ricky Martin, still untitl
Richard Martin, as he may want us to
refer to him, hypes a new, more "so
phisticated" album. But Latin horns
and steamy Love ballads-Xojinds like
Ricky to me; With a hOStlii dance
cuts and a little more pillow talk, it
sounds like another reason to shake
that bonbon.
Did you not
see the rest of
Throw another quarter in the juke
box, baby, because Fall albums are
By Deanna Syrnoski
on the way
IKathie Lee
The Allman Brothers
Robbie Williams Shawn Mullins
PJ Harvey Billy Idol
Joe Jackson Lenny Kravitz
Psychedelic Furs
Megadeth
Spin Doctors
11/21
Master P
Ginuwine
KC & JoJo
Music
the page?
Usher, The Wonderful World of
U What would U do to top your
multiplatinum debut? U would create
a theme. U would put this letter (U)
in as many titles as it would fit and U
would anticipate a great follow-up to
your first endeavor. U would watch
the album climb the charts and then
U would research the alphabet for fu
ture albums.
Everclear, Songs From an
American Movie Vol. Two:
Good Times i for c& , Bad Attitude
I was going tct`wnte a little summary
of this new album', but after the title,
do you really need one? Just in case,
the album is reported to be a lot harder
and more bad-ass than Vol. One,
which was released only five months
prior to this.
Backstreet Boys, still untitled
Backstreet's back! Sorry, how else
was I supposed to start this one. Don't
look for BSB to end world hunger or
make world peace with this album.
It's designed to do pretty much what
Millennium did--sell records and
make slumber parties a lot more
rockin' !
Snoop Dogg, Last Meal
Now that Snoop has left Death Row
for No Limit, he is able to include a
host of help on this new album, in
cluding Master P. Hoping to recreate
the success of 1993's Doggystyle,
Snoop wants make 'em say "how,
wow, wow."
10/17
Billy Ray Cyrus
Nine Inch Nails (remixes)
10/24
12/12
Dave Matthews
System of a Do'
Redm
DVD
Mission to Mars
9/12
Santana
(Music Video)
9/12
This Is
Spinal Tap
9/12
4
..,11
..,"..". ...;, , i - l• r l, .r. , ~.- v.... , - ..•
....... ...... .... • ...
•.• - - •• . • . --. :•-• : --..-
A... , • ,,,
~,,, - - ",i 1 1
1
•...,,...,•„...........„,_ •.,......„,...._ i_... ••...„,...„-•_. -•••,....„
10/31
Godsmack
Poe
kah Badu
Outkast
FSic' Em
IDO
by Deanna Symoski , '
MATURITY
DEATH MATCH:
Where do you go
when you outgrow MTV?
It started innocently enough. I caught a special on Poison Behind the
Music. I really liked Poison so I watched. Then a couple days
later, I stayed tuned for Rock and Roll Jeopardy--I just wanted to see
how I'd do. And then finally there was this special on the Hundred Greatest
Moments of Rock and Roll on Television and I watched for three hours
just to see how many I would remember. At this point I knew something
was wrong--I was watching VH-1 instead of MTV...and I liked it.
I've thought long and hard about this--how is it that I can so coldly
abandon a channel that, at one time, I was so desperate to watch? How is
it that Carson Daly holds absolutely no appeal for me, and how did I
become the person who grumbles about the mindlessness of the channel
when I do happen to pass it by? In short, how did I get this old?
When we were young, MTV happened to he the coolest thing going. It
was edgy, doing things on television no one had seen since Elvis on Ed
Sullivan. Videos like AH-HA's "Take Me On" or Robert Palmer's "Ad
dicted to Love - were creating buzz and helping to lay the foundation for
many of the trends we see in videos today: sex and effects.
It was also jumpstarting careers. To a lot of whippersnappers, Colin
Quinn is just the news guy on Saturday Night Live, but to the rest of us,
he's the announcer from the game show Remote Control. (Incidentally, if
you're still trying to figure out why Adam Sandler looked familiar the
first time you saw him on SNL, it's because he also appeared on Remote
Control as that strange guy who just sort of hung around.)
But most of all, MTV was a whole brand of youth culture most of us
were dying to be a part of at the age of eight--just as we were starting to
figure out what was cool. It wasn't just the songs or the videos that kept
us sneaking hack for more, it was the whole insidious image behind them.
After all, Madonna was someone my mother sure didn't approve of. She
actually threw away the cover of my Like a Virgin LP (yes, LP) because
she thought the pictures were inappropriate for a kid my age. So of course
I wanted to watch MTV to see how Madonna was dressed so I could dress
that way, too.
And while MTV still plays Madonna, she isn't my Madonna anymore.
For me, she will always be covered in lace and jelly bracelets with a had
dye job and red lips. Hers will always be the records I played in my
bedroom just as I started to realize why papa was preaching. But the new
generation has no idea she was ever that punk sex kitten. To them. she's
a Zen mom with a flare for funk. Material Girl who?
Enter VH-1. It's sort of the place where old videos and teen idols go to
die. or at least retire, as they are brushed aside to make way for the next
best thing. It is here where they find a following resurrected by those
who still remember their one hit record or early-eighties Pepsi endorse-
ment. Serving as a video archive of my childhood and of the childhoods
before mine, I now tune in with great nostalgia as I search for my memo
ries. It's not that MTV is bad after all it gave me these memories
hut it will never hold with it the innocence of my Michael Jackson scrap
hook.
So now I watch VH-1 because they still talk about Michael the way I
would prefer to remember him, and in time, just as legends such as the
Beatles, Dylan, Poison and New Kids have done, N'Sync will retire to
VH- I as well. They will join the ranks of the remembered and the re
vered and they will live on forever because they existed while a whole
other generation grew up. And in ten years, the new twenty-somethings
will watch the channel, reminiscing about the time they spent learning
the dance to "Bye, Bye, Bye."
That's just the way it works. MTV is Peter Pan it will never grow
up. It's very existence hinges on its ability to stay forever young, putting
new spins on the same formulas that made us want to watch when we
were that age. (Spring Break isn't exactly a new idea for the network, but
I guess Springer Break is.) Okay, so Carson does nothing for me, but I'm
not really the target demographic anymore. Even though I do own the
N'Sync CD, the network doesn't care if I watch because there are hun
dreds of girls who actually go down to Times Square to scream Daly's
name. That's who they're after. And that's okay, because I'll always
have Adam Curry.
you who t
didn't, said that while there is a lot,
people just have to understand it's for
ratings and isn't the way the whole
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2000
of you tho
the media
much viol
world acts.
Next Week:
pop music
ake you feel