CRINew Music Re u oft SEPTEMBER 11, 2000 ISSUE 682 VOL. 63 NO. 12 WWW.CMJ.COM MUST HEAR Universal/NIP3.com Trial Begins With its lawsuit against MP3.com set to go inent on the case. to trial on August 28, Universal Music Group, On August 22, MP3.com settled with Sony the only major label that has not reached aset- Music Entertainment. This left the Seagram- tlement with MP3.com, appears to be dragging owned UMG as the last holdout of the major its feet in trying to reach a settlement, accord- labels to settle with the online company, which ing to MP3.com's lead attorney. currently has on hold its My.MP3.com service "Universal has adifferent agenda. They fig- — the source for all the litigation. ure that since they are the last to settle, they can Like earlier settlements with Warner Music squeeze us," said Michael Rhodes of the firm Group, BMG and EMI, the Sony settlement cov- Cooley Godward LLP, the lead attorney for ers copyright infringements, as well as alicens- MP3.com. Universal officials declined to corn- ing agreement allowing (Continued on page 10) SHELLAC Soundbreak.com, RIAA Agree Jurassic-5, Dilated LOS AMIGOS INVIWITI3LES- On Webcasting Royalty Peoples Go By Soundbreak.com made a fast break, leaving the pack behind and making an agreement with the Recording Word Of Mouth Industry Association of America (RIAA) on aroyalty rate for After hitting the number one a [digital compulsory Webcast license]. No details of the spot on the CMJ Radio 200 and actual rate were released. Beat Box charts, and holding Soundbreak.com is one of only two other companies steady on the latter for 14 weeks — to come to an agreement with the RIAA on digital per- the longest an album has stayed on formance royalty rates. The others are www.com and the chart all year — Jurassic-5 is musicmusicmusic.com. While they got in quickly, it's debat- once again ready to take its show A VENEZUELAN JOURNEY INTO BRACE able whether these companies will (Continued on page 10) on the road. (Continued on page 10) LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES TVT Targets Broad Audience b' THIS With Nothingface's 'Violence a'. WEEK'S saine time its so much By Lisa Hageman 12 CMJ RADIO 200 Washington D.C. hard more angelic. It's got all this DE LA SOUL Art Official Intelligence rock quartet angst but all this 18 CORE RADIO Nothingface has beauty at the same LAIKA Good Looking Blues completed its third time," he said, "On album entitled this album, the 22 INTERNET BROADCAST Violence, marking its PRVE band's playing by JURASSIC-5 Quality Control debut on TVT Records with their emotions and their 22 INTERNET RETAIL a roar. The band's two pre- (Continued on page 11) SOUNDTRACK Coyote Ugly vious albums, 1997's Pacifier 28 RPM and 1998's An Audio Guide ROYAL FINGERBOWL THIEVERY CORPORATION The Miror... To Everyday Atrocity, were NEW WORLD released on DCide Records. 29 DA LATA Songs From The Tin Violence's release date is October 10. 30 N ALTERNATIVE José Mangin, college ZURDOK Hombre Sintetizador radio promoter at TVT, told 31 JAZZ CMJ that the new album is a DAVID BERKMAN Communication Theory testimony to the maturity of 32 BEAT BOX the band. "It's so much DE LA SOUL "000H" more pissed off but at the Nothingface 33 TRIPLE A B.B. KING &ERIC CLAPTON Riding... THE LAST WORD 34 LOUD ROCK DAMAGE MANUAL IN FLAMES Clayman UNDERWORLD PAGE 56 ADD DATE 09.12.00 o MORPHINE: 11 BOOTLEG DETROIT TALA MATRIX THE ONLY AUTHORIZED It LIVE RELEASE 1DD DATE: 09.12.2000 A LOW-Fl RECORDING I BY A FAN IN "T Matrix represents yet another THE AUDIENCE milestone from Bill Las well's consistent- MIXED AND EDITED ly engaging Axiom label..." BY MARK SANDMAN TOM TOM CLUB ST. ANDREW'S HALL, (during master percussionist DETROIT MI The Good The Bad MARCH 7, 1994 ZA IR HUSSAIN 1 VIDEO ENHANCED CD And The Funky with MORPHINE LIV AT RADIO NOW Inaugurated in 1981 by art BIL LASWELL Si school graduates and founding members of USTAD mAN KHAN Talking Heads, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, the Tom Tom Club is back to turn on new generations to asound dr; • t that opened musical doors • in prototypical hip hop and funky rap. , Contact: b7. / RykoPalm Contact: Dan Connelly • 1 RYKOPALM 877.509.9258 Dan Connelly 877 509 9258 CONTACT: [email protected] [email protected] RykoPalm TEAM CLERMONT Dan Connelly Team Clermont (Brian, Bill, Lucas and Nelson) 877.509.9258 (Brian, Bill, Lucas 888 548 8326 [email protected] [email protected] and Nelson) AAM (Justin, Tiffany and Devin) 888.548.8326 212.924.3005 [email protected] .axiom-records.com I ' [email protected] ELECTRO -ACOUSTIC HYPERCUSSION 0 2000 Rykoesc low Rock Loss ©moo Rykodisc ". 2000 Palm MUST HEAR THE ESSENTIAL RELEASES OF THE WEEK SHELLAC LOS AMIGOS ROYAL FINGERBOWL UNDERWORLD 1000 Hurts (Touch And Go) INVISIBLES Greyhound Afternoons (TVT) Everything, Everything (V2) "Kill 'em. Kill ern already. Just Royal Fingerbowl's literary jazz lii most cases, the term "live elec- Arepa 3000: AVenezuelan Journey fuckin' kill 'em." So goes the prima- balladry is grounded in both New tronic music" is a laughable oxy- Into Space (Luaka Bop-Virgin) ry lyric to 1000 Hurt's not-so-ironi- Orleans nostalgia and a mint moron. Shows often consist of The lounge-funk of Venezuela's cally titled opener, "Prayer To God," julep-dipped Tin Pan Alley sensi- band members taking the stage in premier party band, Los Amigos on which Shellac dictator Steve Albi- bility. After five years of constant front of awall of equipment, hit- Invisibles, has served as the space- ni pleadswith his maker to snuff out club dates the n-jo has garnered a ting "play" on a DAT machine, age bachelor pad music of choice a former lover and the man who cult following, fueled by the music then jumping around with one for playboys in the know since the stole her away. Albini hasn't sound- and the mystery behind the ori- hand in the air for the entire per- six-piece ensemble's 1998 debut, ed this gleefully vitriolic since the gins of the trio's name. Main song- formance. Then there's Under- The New Sound Of The Venezuelan heyday of Rapeman. Hell, 1000 writer Alex McMurray (vocals and world, the most exceptional Gozadera, set down on American Hurts is practically aconcept record, guitar) and cohorts Kevin O' Day exception to the rule, a band soil. These invisible friends have a given its consistent and unrelenting (drums) and Andy Wolf (upright whose original fusion of atmos- penchant for sexual innuendo demonstration of how contempt can bass) elicited fair comparisons to pheric techno and robotic rock is that would make Serge Gains- pogress from hostility to outright vio- early Tom Waits on their debut often more powerful in arenas bourg blush and an equally irrev- lence. "Hey man, hey, Iwamta have a album Happy Birthday, Sabo!. While than it is on record. The on-the- erent sense of humor. On Arepa fight with you/And the way that you Greyhound Afternoons will also spot productions of Rick Smith 3000, that's supported by a lethal behave it is dear to me that you would please Waits fans, this effort punc- and Darren Emerson (who recent- combination of Esquivelian kitsch, like to have one too," he spits on tuates how unique Royal Finger- ly left the trio) feed and feed off of Chic-esque groove lines and acid- "Watch Song," bolstered by Bob bowl's style of barroom waltzes the energy of the audience, fluctu- jazz soul. Conceptually, Arepa 3000 Weston and Todd Trainer's men- and country melodies can be. At ating on a nightly basis to create envisions Venezuela's empanada- acing bass/snare flexing. Weston times, the songs come off like Jack perfect synergy between artist and like fast-food staple as the proto- and Trainer are one of the most Sheldon ditties from Schoolhouse audience, while Karl Hyde's vocals type for the first Venezuelan space formidable rhythm sections in all Rock!. except that the schooling prove even more maniacal and ship, a smirking commentary on of rock, playing with both industri- this trio offers takes place in life's emotional on the fly. Everything, the country's populist attitude as al brutality and surgical precision. shadows. McMurray's ashtray well as its Third World status. On Everything documents the band's Albini's scythe-like guitar scrapes, crooning bolsters his sardonic lyri- spontaneous onstage energy with this brilliant sophomore set, they layered into dense, needling cal portraiture. describing what it's eight tracks recorded during its make abeeline for the dancefloor sheets of noise on tracks such as like to look at a magnified mirror: 1998/1999 world tour. From the with acollection that pushes their "Shoe Song," are the sonic equal scars, freckles, moles, ingrown fusion of French house and tropi- smooth serenity of "Jumbo" to the to his thuggish, bitter-little-man- hairs, and wrinkles (whether breakbeat precision of "Pearls cal swing to the most satisfying scorned rantings — sharp, sting- they're from toughing, crying or Girl"; from the anthemic overtures end. Arepa 3000 is a full-on party ing and unexpected, with asubtle simply aging). One McMurray of "Born Slippy" to the hypnotic record that's equal parts Zapp, cerebral edge to help add depth character doesn't seem to mind, pulses of the show-stopping Perez Prado and Frankie Knuck- to the cutting.