CIENewAllusic OCTOBER 2, 2000 ISSUE 685 VOL. 64 NO. 3 WWW.CMJ.COM MUST HEAR Zomba Files Suit Against MP3.com In the wake a Federal Judge Jed Rakoffs astatement after filing the suit. $25,000 per infringement judgment against All five major labels filed suit against MP3.com, Zomba Recording Corp. — which MP3.com earlier this year for its My.MP3.com owns Jive, home to such teen-pop stars as service, which allows users online access to CDs Britney Spears, NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys they can prove they own. Four of the labels — — filed acopyright suit claiming MP3.com will- EMI, Sony, Warner and BMG — reached settle- fully infringed its copyrights. ments and signed licensing agreements with "MP3.com has adopted ablatant strategy of MP3.com after Rakoff ruled that the company attempting to unlawfully build a business by had infringed on copyrights. Only one — misappropriating us and our artists and writers Universal Music Group — kept the suit going goodwill, recordings and songs," Zomba said in and was awarded $25,000 (Continued on page 8) RADIOHEAD Kadt,y VrWflhlO,y Napster Files Final Brief Warner Announces Napster fired its final round at the Recording Industry Association of America as the embattled file sharing soft- Download Plans ware company made a written presentation to the Ninth Warner Music Group unveiled Circuit Court of Appeals before oral arguments scheduled its digital downloading plans, mak- sr - for October 2. ing it the last of the major record In its latest salvo, Napster argues that the case is not companies to do so. about the copyrights that RIAA claims it is violating, but Warner plans to begin offering rather control over its technology. downloads for sale in November "This case is not about any diminution of plaintiff's through online retailers. The com- copyrights; none has occurred or is reasonably foreseeable pany will begin with current singles as the result of Napster. [It] is about whether [RIAA] can from bands including Barenaked use its control over music copyrights to (Continued on page 8) Ladies, (Continued on page 10) BADLY DRAWN BOY A3 Employs Mob Ties To I&J THIS 1*1 Promote New Album û. WEEK'S UK acid house/gospel A3's Sopranos connection. 12 CMJ RADIO 200 :::E cross-breeder A3 (formerly "We're not focusing on AT THE DRIVE-IN Relationship Of... ;;;;; Alabama 3) recently it, but we're going to 18 CORE RADIO 4 rig; r woke up to find that going to use it to AT THE DRIVE-IN Relationship Of... si ' they were successful HIGH draw people in," said 22 INTERNET BROADCAST on this side of the Garrett Schaefer, PROFILE AT THE DRIVE-IN Relationship Of... pond. The group's Columbia's Director breakout hit "Woke Up of Marketing. "In a lot of 22 INTERNET RETAIL This Morning" is best the (Continued on page 10) MADONNA Music known stateside as the 27 RPM FASTBALL opening theme to the THIEVERY CORPORATION The Mirror. Emmy Award-winning HBO 28 NEW WORLD mobster series The Sopranos. DA LATA Songs From The Tin The band will capitalize TER NATIV E 2900 13 10/04/00 GIER840 923453055 Hombre Sintetizador GIER 5319 HONDA AVE APT G L'ZABAR'S RITUAL TRIO Africa ATASCADERO CA 93422-3428 ' BOX SOUL "All Good? - IiiiiiiiIIIII11111111111111111111111111.1 111111111111111111111 _E A - DAVE ALVIN Public Domain Frederi KUOR -1tELANDS 33 LOUD ROCK 18840 Live Oak St SOULFLY Primtive Hesperia, CA 92345-6464 ROCK*A*TEENS 1 GREEN • RY WARNING: The new album Featuring "Minority," "Warning" and "Blood, Sex & Booze" In stores 10/3/2000 Going for adds October 3rd Find out more: www.greenday.com www.repriserec.comigreenday — -1› ORGY VAPOR TRANSMISSION The new album Featuring "Fiction (Dreams In Digital)," "The Odyssey," and "Eyes-Radio-Lies" In stores 10/10/2000 traPor Trani:ninLon Going for adds October 10th Find out more: www.orgymusic.com www.vaportransmission.com Contact: Carlyn Kessler 1-800-475-2291 [email protected] 0 2000 Reprise Records www.repriserec.com MUST HEAR THE ESSENTIAL REIIIIIIIMOF THE WEE14111_ MatityDrrrdriE0,y ¡le"' ; tie t o T.E.21-11u , cl;" FE RADIOHEAD BADLY DRAWN BOY FASTBALL ROCK*A*TEENS Kid A (Capitol) The Hour Of Bewilderbeast The Harsh Light Of Day (Hollywood) Sweet Bird Of Youth (Merge) Too often, early promises of musi- (XL-Beggars Banquet) Remember the video for Fastball's Incorporating roots Americana cal perfection wind up being Sonically, Damon Gough (a.k.a. enormous breakthrough hit in and art in its swampy, reverb- empty delusions of grandeur Badly Drawn Boy) comes from the 1998, `The Way'? Its infinite num- drenched, post-punk rockabilly, fueled by rock artists' inflated same post-modern Brit mud pit ber of plays never changed the the Rock*A*Teens have brought egos. Then there's Radiohead; so that produced the Beta Band and fact that the band looked equal their hometown (an Atlanta, GA, startlingly original and stunningly Gomez, distillers of pop styles into parts baffled, frightened, and village) to the forefront on their ahead of its time, each album the montages that skip effortlessly annoyed by the entire process, like last four albums. On 1998's critical outfit releases justifies its pomp between genres and textures. But a scruffy kid stuffed into an off- Baby, A Little Rain Must Fall, song- and circumstance. Following The Hour Of Bewilderbeast, Badly the-rack polyester suit for church writer, singer and guitarist Chris 1997's poetic, paranoid and pas- Drawn Boy's long-awaited full- on Sunday. Their scrawny on- Lopez mesmerized with his Cab- sionate OK Computer, Radiohead length debut (he's had four previ- screen presence and vaguely dis- bagetown-inspired moody melo- further eschews the ideals of con- ous EPs, and a stand-out track on gruntled vibe only added to the drama about the kinds of things ventional music to create the self- UNKLE's Psyence Fiction LP), car- band's charm, which naturally that make people question their indulgent Kid A, an epic audio ries a singular lyrical vision his helped to propel the Austin trio to faith in anything. On Sweet Bird Of experiment punctuated with raw counterparts haven't come close pop-single fame. Well, what a dif- Youth, they finally get out of their emotion and inspiring innovation. to achieving, winning Gough the ference amillion-plus albums sold cramped garage (or in many The electronic buzz that illuminat- U.K.'s coveted Mercury Music makes. Now that they've had their instances, their dark cathedral) ed the background of the band's Prize in the process. Bewilderbeast is basic nature affirmed by a legion and are off to the town fair. The previous efforts shines like aflood- a sincere songwriter's flowing of record buyers, Fastball enjoys 17-track disc unravels like a night- light on the alternately tender and meditation on relationships that the fruits of its labor by putting its time stroll through acarnival, with tumultuous Kid A, as obscure elec- by turn caroms and glides literal and figurative riches right echoing guitars and heroic song- tronic melodies and ambient between heartbreak and romance; back into its music. The Harsh Light poems moving close and then meanderings overpower the tradi- insecure melancholy and single- Of Day's near-perfect lead single, away, as if on a merry-go-round. tional rock devices that bubble minded drive; lo-fi folky timidity "You're An Ocean" (we can guar- The mood is chilly, if not wintry, as beneath the surface. Thom Yorke, and soul-pop sublimation; leaving antee that when the band turned Lopez takes on the spirit of a car- the band's lyrical spokesman, few road-signs on the pathway to this one in, not a solitary "I don't ney to announce that "if [he] weaves in and out of his band's or from love unobserved. Ambi- hear a single" remark was uttered wanted to be famous, I'd have shot horns, harps, chimes, keyboards, tious in his multi-hued arrange- at label headquarters), and its someone," or that he can "kiss like strings, guitars and erratic rhythms ments, Gough even inserts musical video (in which band frontruan Marvin Gaye or kill like Reggie (both live and programmed), but pauses into this unfolding tale — Tony Scalzo works the cameras Kray." And yet, the Rock*A*Teens his freeform, practically indeci- short tracks and instrumental like a pro (!) amid a bevy of hip- preserve a spooky kind of hope, pherable murmurings often bleed interludes unify Bewilderbeast into ster showgirls) are true victories of even as it seems its world is crum- into the audio tapestry rather than more than a mere collection of smart power pop. The remainder bling, when Lopez breaks to emerge as "lead vocals." Still, with- songs — fighting the dourness of the album sees the band take a holler that "it's all in yer head." out a hummable hook in sight, that lies behind his intents. An clutch of its clean-as-a-whistle Unique in their sound and practi- Kid A is an unquestionable master- hour into the album, the bird- hooks and skillfully embed them cally unmatched in their aura, the piece; one that holds fast to Radio- chirping, guitar-voice "Epitaph" into some of its most expansive Rock*A*Teens are thé hidden head's unique mastery of sound closes the program with a stroll arrangements yet. At the same treasure of the new Southern without seeming like anything it's through a garden of earthly time, Fastball simply remains a gothic. — Enrique Lavin done before. —M. Tye Comer delights, and you're left with no great band with great songs.