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Tuesday, May 15, 2001
Outside the box
CD REVIEWS
WEEZER
"Weezer 2" (Geffen)
* *1/2
Five years since the release of the little-heard album "Pinkerton" and seven years since "Buddy Holly" and "Undone (The Sweater Song)," geek rockers Weezer are back with a new album of guitar-driven rock songs that should please fans of the band's earlier efforts.
Rivers Cuomo's matter-of-fact, charmingly flat voice still dominates the band's songs, but instead of being left to stand on its own, Cuomo's voice is surrounded and protected by more fuzz and guitar feedback. Most of the album's songs are still fun and quirky, awkward in a good way, and smartly done.
It's hard not to break out in a grin when one hears Cuomo's affected falsetto on the album's first single, "Hash Pipe," and even more catchy is "Island In the Sun" with its hooky reggae guitar riff and the most sincere commitment to melody on the disc.
The album's short songs (seven are less than three minutes long) don't lend themselves to deep insight, but weighing in at just ten songs and 28 minutes, the brevity of "Weezer 2" is welcome and refreshing.
THE GO-GO'S
"God Bless the Go-Go's" (Beyond)
* *1/2
Everybody's favorite '80s girl group is back with a new album and less hairspray, but they've still got the beat. Their new material doesn't sound like anything that would have come out in the band's glory days, but that's a good thing. Belinda Carlisle and company have updated their sound while retaining their trademark cuteness, combining a pop-rock sensibility with jail-bait appeal from women in their early 40s.
Energetic, spunky and occasionally even relevant - they sing about Hollywood's obsession with thinness in "Throw Me a Curve" - the Go-Go's have a disc of pop rock that would have Josie and the Pussycats purring in envy.
Unlike so many bands that reunite for want of money fifteen years after their glory days, the new Go-Go's have the same personnel as when they broke up in 1985.
None of the band's 13 new tracks seem destined for our collective unconscious, but "La La Land" and "Unforgiven" (with backing vocals by Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong) seem ready for the radio.
Staff writer Brendan Walsh
MANSON FINDS PEACE
Shock rocker Marilyn Manson will pepper his show with Bible verses, rather than stay away from Colorado as religious groups had hoped.
"This way, fans will not only hear my so-called 'violent' point of view, but we can also examine the virtues of wonderful 'Christian' stories of disease, murder, adultery, suicide and child sacrifice," he said in a statement posted last week on his Web site. "Now that seems like 'entertainment' to me."
The church-affiliated group Citizens for Peace and Respect has asked Manson to cancel his June 21 appearance in Denver as part of the Ozzfest tour. The group includes teens and victims' families of the Columbine High School shootings, who say Manson's music glorifies hate and violence.
Associated Press
WEB SITE OF THE DAY
www.hbo.com/sopranos
Check out the insider's guide to mobspeak. Every profession has its buzz words, and Tony Soprano's is no different. If you want to understand what the cugines, capos and consigliere in the borgata are talking about, this glossary will give you a good start.
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