CRINew Music Re 1 ort MARCH 27, 2000 ISSUE 659 VOL. 62 NO.1 WWW.CMJ.COM MUST HEAR Sony, Time Warner Terminate CDnow Deal Sony and Time Warner have canceled their the sale of music downloads. CDnow currently planned acquisition of online music retailer offers a limited number of single song down- CDnow.com only eight months after signing loads ranging in price from .99 cents to $4. the deal. According to the original deal, A source at Time Warner told Reuters that, announced in July 1999, CDnow was to merge "despite the parties' best efforts, the environment 7 with mail-order record club Columbia House, changed and it became too difficult to consum- which is owned by both Sony and Time Warner mate the deal in the time it had been decided." and boasts a membership base of 16 million Representatives of CDnow expressed their customers; CDnow has roughly 2.3 million cus- disappointment with the announcement, and said tomers. With the deal, Columbia House hoped that they would immediately begin seeking other to enter into the e-commerce arena, through strategic opportunities. (Continued on page 10) AIMEE MANN Artists Rally Behind /14 Universal Music, TRNIS Low-Power Radio Prisa To Form 1F-IE MAN \NHO During the month of March, more than 80 artists in 39 cities have been playing shows to raise awareness about the New Latin Label necessity for low power radio, which allows community The Universal Music Group groups and educational organizations access to the FM air- (UMG) and Spain's largest media waves using asignal of 10 or 100 watts. In January, the FCC company, Grupo Prisa, have established its guidelines for low power radio stations; those entered into an agreement to form guidelines are set to go into effect on April 17. Dubbed a new Latin music record compa- "Left Off The Dial 2: One Month For Low Power FM," the ny, tentatively named Muxxic series is afollow-up to last October's similar "Left Off The Latina. The New York-based com- Dial: 10 nays For Low Power FM" (Conti/mid on page 10) pany will be a (Continued on page 11) TRAVIS Apples In Stereo Ripe For THIS Increased Success D. WEEK'S lui By Chris Parker hews closer to the power-pop CMJ RADIO 200 The Apples In Stereo of their last album, Tone Soul YO LA TENGO And Then Nothing... have specialized in the sunny Evolution, than to the psyche- 18 CORE RADIO melodies, winning har- delia of 1999's EP release, YO LA TENGO And Then Nothing... monies, and the Her Wallpaper fight-hearted psych- Reverie. "It's the next 19 COMMERCIAL ALTERNATIVE rock that character- HIGH logical step forward RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS "Otherside" izes many of the from Tone Soul 20 INTERNET BROADCAST other bands in the PROFILE Evolution. It's a YO LA TENGO And Then Nothing... Elephant 6 collec- little more R&B. 20 INTERNET RETAIL LULLABY BAXTER TRIO tive, including Olivia Tremor (Continued on page 11) STEELY DAN Two Against Nature Control, Ladybug Transistor 28 LOUD ROCK and Beulah. Elephant 6- PANTERA Reinventing The Steel (sampler SpinART Records will release 29 RPM Jackpot the band's first full-length album in three years, The KID KOALA Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Discovery Of A World Inside The 30 BEAT BOX Moone, on April 18. GHOSTFACE KILLAH "One" According to Brendan 32 TRIPLE A * 41 Gilmartin, SpinART publi- STEELY DAN Two Against Nature cist, the Apples' new effort Apples In Stereo 33 JAZZ SEX MOB Solid Sender THE LAST WORD: 34 NEW WORLD JOSEPH ARTHUR FEMI KUTI Shoki Shoki PAGE 64 JACKPOT 'e'4.¡;• ••'^p NO ON TOUR WITH FU MANCil _ ROORO, NC /28 WASHINGTON, 17,.C. ;3/30 CLEVEI. • BRIDGE, N 3/31 PONTIAC, MI II CHAMPAIGN, 11. L. YORK, NY 4/2 DES IA '9 4/4 80111.17ER, CO It METAL INFO: J'EN MEOLA (212) 274-754 EMAIL: [email protected] COLLEGE INFO: PHIL KASO (212) 274-7544 EMAIL: [email protected] A OADRUNNER RCADE USIC COMPANY ROADRUNNER e) 2000 Roadrunner Records Inc. www.roadrunnerrecords.com www.stepkings.com Artwork 0•. 2000 William Gaines, Agent, Inc. EC OR OS Worldwide Management: Jeff lampol for lampoVAtencio Management. Produced & Mixed by Machine MUST HEAR THE ESSENTIAL RELEASES OF THE WEEK TRNIS Jackpot fit Mí- . I 44, AIMEE MANN TRAVIS LULLABY BAXTER JACKPOT Bachelor No. 2 (SuperEgo) The Man Who (Epic) TRIO Weightless (Future Farmer) With all of its allusions to being a With its 1997 debut, Good Feeling Capable Egg (Atlantic) The music of Northern Califor- runner-up, the title of Bachelor No. Travis came across as a raggedh The throaty alto of chanteuse Lul- nia's Jackpot is all about reminis- 2 seems fitting for the Aimee soulful band trying to distinguish laby Baxter may be the first thing cence. You can hear it in the Mann record that Interscope itself from the wave of post-Oasis that bewitches you upon hearing words. You can sense it in the declined to release. But the album Brit-pop acts. The band's follow- her self-named Trio's debut trio's Petty-meets-Pavement style of has nothing of the also-ran about up, however, has taken the Glas- recording, but the album's myste- roots rock. Makes perfect sense, it. Rather, it serves as further proof gow band's homeland by storm, rious spell runs much deeper. It's too, given that the band's mem- that Mann is anational treasure; a becoming the top-selling U.K. actually the fairytale lyrics of Capa- bers have been making and expe- songwriting sharpshooter whose album of 1999 by uniting the best ble Egg that make it a real find. riencing music together since ele- every tune, filled with idiosyncratic parts of OK Computer's disillusion- Those lyrics, like works of classic mentary school. They have a life- melodies and elegantly trenchant ment and melodrama with a clas- children's literature, possess a time of memories to write about, lyrics, hits hard and deep. Where sic British rock sensibility. The cut beguiling innocence that belies and they delve into the Trapper her first two solo records, Whatever "As You Are" produces a languid their allegorical mission. That sort Keepers of their minds to create and I'm With Stupid, were bolstered churn similar to that found on the of duality is usually reserved for this impressive follow-up to their by electric-guitar toughness, Bache- Beatles' "Across The Universe," the stories of writers like Lewis 1998 debut, Bone-Ville. Weightless lor No. 2 (like the Magnolia sound- while the gentle shuffle of the sin- Carroll, but Baxter's uniquely sug- wins the listener over with the track) finds Mann coaxing melan- gle "Why Does It Always Rain On gestive coo imbues these adorable kind of slacker-born lyrics and choly and dumb hope into a state Me?" results in a flawless, hum-all- songs with layers of meaning. Even twangy, post-AOR melodies that of grace with silky vocals and day kind of song that offers ataste taken at face value, ingenious little would make the perfect sound- unfussy, but sparkling arrange- of lead vocalist Fran Healy's most phrases such as "the petunias jeer track to the coming-of-age flick ments. All the songs on Bache yearning, paranoid lyrics ("I can't and whistle" or "bluebirds the size that winds up in every in-the-know whether they're trip-hoppy or stand myself/I'm being held up by of sugarcubes circle 'round my college kid's video collection. On Bacharachian, are winners, but a invisible men"). While The Man head" will warm the cockles of the album's gorgeously melodic few deserve special mention. "Red Who is a bit top-heavy with melan- even the most frigid ol' heart. The opener, "La La Land," frontman Vines" is a loping reverie about a cholic near-ballads, the record backing of the resourceful, pan- Rusty Miller persuades his baby to knight-errant friend, and "Ghost makes up for its navel gazing with instrumental Oranj Symphonette, blow off her finals so they can lie World" tells the story of a rapturous melodies and, as which skips from swing to tradi- around naked and blast some bummed-out teenager. The latter's demonstrated by "Writing To tional country to a Caribbean-fla- Judas Priest in the name of pro- plaintive bridge — "And all that I Reach You" and "The Fear," a vored shuffle to torchy jazz and crastination. It's a song that need now/Is someone with the sense of hopeful radiance within back again, can't be underestimat- instantly unveils the wry, off-the- brains and the know-how/To tell an otherwise sad and gloomy art- ed in the success of this odd little cuff humor that dominates the me what Iwant" — is especially pop framework. Considering how record, but Baxter's words — like majority of Weightless. But whether poignant and resonant (even if well Travis' sophomore effort butterflies wearing boxing gloves. the songs recall basking in amete- you're not pimply), and may translates the group's influences to steal one of her picturesque or shower on the clangy "Water- betray where Mann's genius lies. into compelling works of beauty, phrases — will be what continues fall," or mellowing out on awood- She knows that were still geeks it's hard to imagine how much to flit among the wrinkles of your en floor in suburbia on the gor- hanging around high school hall- better this band can get.