September 23, 1994 ISSUE #393 The $6 95 708 Stokes Road o Medford, N.J. 08055 TOP PRIORITY LIZ PHA Supernova TRIPLE ACE Bic H o "Tool> lean t 6 -ri-lePloris-rE RS S T R A T E C. E BIG HEAD TODD & THE MONSTERS Strate gem ALTERNATIVE PICK D GENERATION No Way Out HARD H I FTER LIBO W 0, 1 • SLAYER KNO WS... Divine Intervention ebe e the new single from the 1p •cd •cs whip-smart ief• • whip-smart in stores now - • watch for the self-directed video for "supernova" on mtv e liz phair performs live on late night with david letterman sept 29 • and a bunch of other stuff we can't announce or haven't thought of ...yet A.:-.colades for Liz and her 1993 debut album, EXILE IN GUYVILLE EXILF. IN GUYVILLE: more than 200,000 copies sole in the US -Voted "Album of the Year" by SPIN -41 in tie VILLAGE VOICE Razz and Jop Critics' Poll • Liz Phcir: voted "New Artist of the Year" by SPIN -Voted "Best New Female Artist of the Year" by ROLLING STONE Matador Records 676 Broadway NYC 10012 THE ATLANTIC GROUP TOP PRIORITY Liz Phair, "Supernova", Matador/Atlantic Whoa!! Is Atlantic's press and publicity machine in overdrive on Ms. Liz or what? How 'bout that Rolling Stone cover piece for their "Women In Rock" issue? Then thee's every talk show from Letterman to Modern Rock Live. But then again, the media has been hot for Liz since her Exile ir Guyville indie release sold 200,000 copies last year, a la The Village Voice naming it the Album Of The Year. As noted in the Rolling Stone piece, it's the first time a woman had captured that honor since Joni Mitchell back in '74, "when Ford was in the White House": Phair was nine at the time. Now the question is, can Liz stand the heal of the blitz? We say with thoroughly solid record — and lead track — the full court press is perfectly timed and entirely deserved. Not that the rhaijority of mainstream programmers will echo WA VF's Dave Rossi and "The hook's hypnotic and infectious, almost in a Lenny Kravitz groove. Listened to it twenty times in a row". Actually, given the immense pre-sell on the project, "Supernoiti" is surprisingly understated, but totally immediate nonetheless. Atlantic's golden touch has never been stronger — ar d this is one case where it'll be a pleasure to watch the star maker machine, as Ms. Mitchell put it back in '74, launch the pnenom into the orbit she unquestionably deserves. HARD A CTS To FOLLOW Moist, "Push", EMI What with Petty, Oueensryche, the Eagles, Aerosmith, Plant and Page, and a dozen more automatics poised to pop over the next month, yer basic baby bands better bring a story to the tank No sweat for Moist. This Vancouver band is already platinum up north, thanks to an honest, underproduced track (taken from the silver release) and a strong stage presence to match. John Gorman heard it in Canada, searched it out in Cleveland, and since NMMS has been on it since late June, it's notched up several Top 5 phone showings — with active listener response around a wuple of shows in town. WKLO's Tom Marshall hears it, too, "The track has a sense of urgency throughout and I think there's some depth on the record, too." Expect the label to take a nice, comfy long term approach to breaking this band, with serious market lc market focus when their stateside tour commences in late October, once Moist makes their way back from Europe i ter_ Gary Hoey, "Linus And Lucy", Reprise As noted by KIBZ's John Terry, "Besides 'Happy Birthday Tc You' this is just about the most well known song anyone could imagine. He's such a big artist in this town we figure we can't miss wth a rock version of the tune"... No doubt Gary's the hardest working man in show biz with enough morning show shots lately to make Ted Nugent look like a weekend jock. KDKB's Paul Peterson adds. "We've played every Hoey track early, including 'Hocus Pocus' and we have great success with every one of his records. This market just loves him, and he keeps coming up with great songs. This one's hysterical!"... Wait a minute? Is Dana Jang actually excited? "That guitar sound of Gary Hoey really attracts peoole" he sez, 'and the familiarity is there with the Charles Schultz thing." KORC also went early, with Doug Sorenson commenting, 'We've been on it three weeks and we think it sounds good. It fits what we're doing". KIOZ's Greg Stevens agrees. "We've had grea. success with everything Gary has done. He's been here a number of times and the response is always there". 11.11.1111. R.E.M., "Monster", WB As if Rock Radio's willingness to embrace harder rocking wasn't a foregone conclusion, "Kenneth" this week cranks out a huge 14-4* mainstream move, with a nice build in requests and increases a go go. The "Monster" has just strolled into stations, and there's a whole lot more edge where that came from, staling with 'Crush' and 'Star 69". We gotcher obvious crossover killers in 'Strange Currencies' and 'Bang And Blame", even near noveity items like 'King Of Comedy', 'Sleep/Dream' and 'Tongue The mon- stah, he said, is a one listen mutha. As noted by Mr. Marshall at 'KW, "This definitely appeals to stations that rock more and it sounds very fresh and very contemporary. Right in step wilt, what's going on in music in 1994"... Phil Marlowe forwards, "REM. has in some ways reinvented their sound and we think the Itcord has tons of depth. I played five songs on the shift yesterday and loved four of them". THIS WEEK'S AOR REVIEWS RESUME ON PAGE 8 BILL HARD EDITOR/PUBLISHER HOLLY McCOR MACK HARD ROCK EDITOR COLLIE HARD CO MPTROLLER SPIRO PHAN OS ALTERNATIVE EDITOR KIM DIPIETRO EDITORIAL ASSISTANT LISA RIEGEL ASSOCIATE EDITOR JODIE FABRICUS ASSISTANT METAL EDITOR KELLI SNIVELY ADVERTISING ASSISTANT JOE HILGER DESIGN/PRODUCTION MANAGER KEN SUBRA MANIAN EXEC. DATA SYSTEMS TIMOTHY McCAFFREY ART DIRECTOR CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Published Weekly by. Christine Black Jonathan Wright Earl Gardner Tom Howarth Mike Cooper Charlie Worthman The Hard Report, Inc. 708 Stokes Road 609-654-7272 WO KE) 609-654-6852 (FAX) Medford, NJ 08055 Comments deadline: Wednesday 2PM. Industrr comments and opinions are not necessarily those of The Hard Report or its employees. Material within may not be reproduced without permission. Radio reports: Monda} & Tuesday 10 AM-5PM EDT. SEPTEMBER 2 1994 THE HARD REPORT 3 cei 1 1 Stone Temple Pilots "Interstate Love Song" Atlantic 3157 2706 2 2 Rolling Stones 'You Got Me Rocking" Virgin 2659 2431 3 3 Eric Clapton 'Tore Down" Reprise 2510 2287 14 4 R.E.M. 'What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" Warner Bros. 2288 1413 5 5 Hootie & Blowfish "Hold My Hand" Atlantic 2242 2040 7 6 Pink Floyd "High Hopes" Columbia 2089 1894 4 7 Counting Crows "Rain King" DGC 1966 2125 6 8 Tesla "Mama's Fool" Geffen 1888 1935 12 9 Soundgarden "Fell On Black Days" A&M 1868 1614 9 10 Neil Young "Change Your Mind" Reprise 1800 1708 8 11 Collective Soul "Breathe" Atlantic 1777 1735 11 12 Jacky' "Push Comes To Shove" Geffen 1564 1665 13 13 Offspring "Come Out And Play" Epitaph 1432 1605 10 14 Stone Temple Pilots 'Vasoline" Atlantic 1389 1706 17 15 Green Day "Basket Case" Reprise 1342 1227 17 16 Gilby Clarke "Cure Me. Or Kill Me" Virgin 1309 1227 24 17 Gin Blossoms "Allison Road" A&M 1225 1097 20 18 Gods Child "Everybodys 1" Owest/VVB 1194 1129 19 19 BBM 'Waiting In The Wings" Virgin 1189 1131 16 20 Candlebox "Far Behind" MaverickAX/B 1187 1250 22 21 Pantera "Planet Caravan" EastWest 1148 1113 23 22 The Allman Brothers "Back Where It All Begins" Epic 1122 1112 15 23 Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" A&M 1101 131« 30 24 Live "I Alone" Radioactive 924 lit 751 20 25 Toad The Wet Sprocket "Fall Down" Columbia 910 1129 - 32 ii Bloodline "Stone Cold Hearted" EMI 801 692 26 Rolling Stones "Love Is Strong" Virgin 790 ()lb 969 42 Peter Gabriel "Red Rain" Geffen 787 29 M E Big Head Todd "In The Morning" Giant 720 38 Soulhat "Bonecrusher" Epic 714 28 Freddy Jones Band "In A Daydream" Capricorn 700 27 Live "Selling The Drama" Radioactive 671 36 Bruce Dickinson 'Tears Of The Dragon" Mercury 622 25 Spin Doctors 'You Let Your Heart Go... Epic 620 35 11.1 Pearl Jam 'Yellow Ledbetter" Epic 612 34 all I Mother Earth "So Gently We Go" Capitol 600 44 Dream Theater "Lie" EastWest 580 52 1111 Sheryl Crow "All I Wanna Do" A&M 568 31 Alice In Chains "I Stay Away" Columbia 557 47 Weezer "Undone (The Sweater Song)" DGC 542 Sometimes, once in a great while, in a perfect world, an album comes along that defies the stereotypes and the desire THE HARD REPORT 4 SEPTEMBER 23,1994 46 41 Offspring / "Self Esteem" Epitaph 519 443 55 42 Great White "All Right" Zoo 518 381 33 43 ZZ Top "Fuzzbox Voodoo" RCA 513 663 41 44 John Mellencamp 'Wild Night" Mercury 492 536 43 45 Nine Inch Nails "Closer" Ncitn eencope 483 485 48 46 Alice In Chains "Don't Follow" Columbia 480 431 60 47 Toad The Wet Sprocket "Something's Always Wrong" Columbia 448 250 54 48 Collective Soul "Shine" Atlantic 418 399 53 48 Savatage "Handful Of Rain" Atlantic 418 400 39 50 Jeffrey Gaines "I Like You" Chrysalis/EMI 396 580 50 51 Meat Puppets "Backwater" London 377 411 57 52 Type 0 Negative "Christian Woman" Roadrunner 353 342 40 53 Steve Perry 'You Better Wait" Columbia 351 572 58 54 Freedy Johnston "Bad Reputation" Elektra 340 273 37 55 Meat Puppets 'We Don't Exist" London 332 635 51 55 Pride & Glory "Losin' Your Mind" Geffen 332 407 61 57 John Mellencamp "Dance Naked" Mercury 328 249 64 58 Cracker "Let's Go For A Ride' Virgin 325 235 59 59 Smithereens 'Time Won't Let Me' RCA 322 265 62 60 dada "All I Am" IRS 293 246 49 61 Stone Temple Pilots "Big Empty" Atlantic 291 417 D 62 Danzig 'Til You Call On The Dark" American