Prince in the "Musicology" video (file)
Photo: Columbia Records

After being relegated to the bottom of the new releases list week after week, the "various artists" finally got a chance to shine up top this week.

The soundtrack to Jennifer Garner's "13 Going on 30" features throwback hits like "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" by Whitney Houston, "Head Over Heels" by the Go-Go's, "Crazy for You" by Madonna, "Love Is a Battlefield" by Pat Benatar, "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, and a cover of "What I Like About You" by Lillix.

The punk-political throwdown Rock Against Bush features previously unreleased tracks by Sum 41, Alkaline Trio, Offspring, Get Up Kids, Jello Biafra, the Ataris, New Found Glory, NOFX and songs by Social Distortion and Pennywise. There are also videos included on the CD.

The Hip Hop Box is a four-CD set featuring classic tracks by Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, Roxanne Shanté, Salt-N-Pepa, Kool Moe Dee, Too Short, Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, Biz Markie, A Tribe Called Quest, the Wu-Tang Clan, Busta Rhymes, Gangstarr, the Pharcyde, U.T.F.O., Naughty by Nature, and Afrika Bambaataa and the SoulSonic Force. The set, which commemorates the 25th anniversary of hip-hop, includes songs from 1979 to 2003 and a booklet with a forward written by Chuck D.

Meanwhile, Prince presents Musicology, while the kinder, gentler, non-Killah Ghostface releases The Pretty Toney Album alongside Hanson's Underneath, Drowning Pool's Desensitized, Afroman's Afroholic: The Even Better Times and Mario Winans' Hurt No More.

Chris Vrenna, a founding member of Nine Inch Nails and now the man behind Tweaker, releases his second album, 2 a.m. Wakeup Call. Guests on the album include the Cure's Robert Smith on "Truth Is."

Finally, the Veils celebrate The Runaway Found, and Bright Eyes and Neva Dinova supply One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels.

Out Tuesday, April 20:

• Afroman - Afroholic the Even Better Times (Hungry Hustler)
• The Alarm - In the Poppy Fields (Snapper)
• Alien Crime Syndicate - Ten Songs in the Key of Betrayal (The Control Group)
• Alkaline Trio/One Man Army - Split Series, Vol. 5 (BYO)
• Theresa Andersson - Shine (Basin Street)
• Atombombpocketknife - Lack and Pattern (File 13)
• Automato - Automato (Coup de Grace)
• Azita - Life on the Fly (Drag City)
• Bad Acid Trip - Lynch the Weirdo (Serjical Strike/Columbia)
• Beyond Surface - Destination's End (Sanctuary/Noise)
• Black Label Society - Hangover Music, Vol. VI (Spitfire)
• Norman & Nancy Blake - The Morning Glory Ramblers (DualTone)
• Brazil - A Hostage and the Meaning of Life (Fearless)
• Kevin-John Breit and the Sisters - John and the Sisters (NorthernBlues)
• Bright Eyes/Neva Dinova - One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels (Crank!)
• George Calle - Dark Beats NYC, Vol. 2 (Oh Music)
• Cesium_137 - Elemental (Metropolis)
• Jon Cleary - Pin Your Spin (Basin Street)
• Debase - Unleashed (Sanctuary/Noise)
• Demolition Doll Rods - On (Swami)
• DJ Icey - For the Love of the Beat (System Recordings)
• Drowning Pool - Desensitized (Wind-Up)
  Read: "New Drowning Pool Singer Says He Had A Vision Before Tryout"
  Buy Now: Desensitized (Wind-Up)
  
• Dyecrest - The Way of Pain (Sanctuary/Noise)
• Echobrain - Glean (Chophouse/Surfdog)
• Ektomorf - Destroy (Nuclear Blast)
• Fear Factory - Archetype (Liquid 8)
• Flight Recorder - From Pinkerton's Assorted Colours to the Flying Machine (Sanctuary/Castle)
• Jerry Garcia - All Good Things: Jerry Garcia Studio Sessions (box set, Rhino)
• Ghostface - The Pretty Toney Album (Def Jam)
• The Glasspack - Bridgeburner (Small Stone)
• Go Betty Go - Worst Enemy (EP, SideOneDummy)
• Patty Griffin - Impossible Dream (ATO)
• Hangmen - Loteria (Acetate)
• Hanson - Underneath (Three Car Garage)
• Daniel G. Harmann - The Lake Effect (Post436)
• Stefon Harris and Blackout - Evolution (Blue Note)
• Sophie B. Hawkins - Wilderness (Trumpet Swan)
• Rob Ickes with Blue Highway - Big Time (Rounder)
• King Wilkie - Broke (Rebel)
• Kottonmouth Kings - Fire It Up (Suburban Noize)
• Lach - Today (Fortified)
• Jon Langford - All the Fame of Lofty Deeds (Bloodshot)
• LMNO - Economic Food Chain Music (Up Above)
• Lords - The House That Lords Built (Initial)
• Martyr A.D. - On Earth as It Is in Hell (Victory)
• Matt Mau - Lifted: Live in Buenos Aires (Journees)
• Vinny Miller - On the Block (4AD/Beggars Banquet)
• Millie - Time Will Tell (Sanctuary/Trojan)
• John Michael Montgomery - Letters From Home (Warner Bros.)
• Gurf Morlix - Cut 'n Shoot (Catamount)
• Norselaw - Sweet Home Scandanavia (Direct Music Group)
• Persuader - Evolution Purgatory (Sanctuary/Noise)
• Prince - Musicology (NPG/Columbia)
  Buy Now: Musicology (NPG/Columbia)
  
• Lali Puna - Faking the Books (Morr)
• Ratatat - Ratatat (XL/Beggars Banquet)
• The Reputation - To Force a Fate (Lookout!)
• Retisonic - Return to Me (Silverthree Sound)
• Smokey Robinson - Food for the Spirit (Liquid 8)
• Keaton Simons - Currently (EP, Maverick)
• Single Frame - Wetheads Come Running (Volcom)
• Skalpel - Skalpel (Ninja Tune)
• Lt. Stitchie - Kingdom Ambassador (Ejaness Reggae)
• Subdudes - Miracle Mule (Back Porch/EMI)
• Craig Taborn - Junk Magic (Thirsty Ear)
• The Talk - It's Like Magic in Reverse (MoRisen)
• Thelonious Monster - California Clam Chowder (Lakeshore)
• Time Machine - Reviviscence (Sensory)
• Tweaker - 2 a.m. Wakeup Call (iMUSIC/Waxploitation)
• Veils - The Runaway Found (Sanctuary/Rough Trade)
• Vomitory - Primal Massacre (Metal Blade)
• W.A.S.P. - Neon God Pt. 1 (Sanctuary/Metal-Is)
• A Wilhelm Scream - Mute Print (Nitro/Mute Print)
• Alyson Williams - It's About Time (Three Keys)
• Mario Winans - Hurt No More (Bad Boy)
  Read: "Love, Hurt, Betrayal: These Are A Few Of Mario Winans' Favorite Things"
  
• Wolf - Evil Star (Prosthetic)
• Various artists - "13 Going on 30" soundtrack (Hollywood)
• Various artists - Blue Note Revisited (Blue Note)
• Various artists - Hi Power 2004 (Thump)
• Various artists - The Hip Hop Box (Hip-O)
• Various artists - Location Is Everything, Vol. 2 (Jade Tree)
• Various artists - Pickin' on LeAnn Rimes (CMH)
• Various artists - Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1 (Fat Wreck Chords/Punkover)
• Various artists - "Step Into Liquid" soundtrack (Surfdog)
• Various artists - The String Quartet Tribute to Faith Hill (Vitamin)
• Various artists - The String Quartet Tribute to Alicia Keys (Vitamin)
• Various artists - The String Quartet Tribute to Kiss (Vitamin)
• Various artists - Underground Chicano Rap Soundtrack (Thump)

April 27:

• Diana Krall - The Girl in the Other Room (Verve)
• Joey McIntyre - 8:09 (Artemis)
• Patti Smith - Trampin' (Sony)
• Various artists - "American Idol" Season 3: Greatest Soul Classics (RCA)

May 4:

• Buckethead - Population Override (Ion)
• Kimberley Locke - One Love (Curb)
  Read:
• Petey Pablo - Still Writing in My Diary: 2nd Entry (Jive)
• Various artists - "The L Word" soundtrack (Tommy Boy)

May 18:

• Alanis Morissette - So Called Chaos (Maverick)
• Morrissey - You Are the Quarry (Sanctuary)

May 25:

• Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin (Arista)
  Read: "Avril Lavigne Album Preview: Rock Rules On Under My Skin"
  Buy Now: Under My Skin (Arista)

• Prince
• Mario Winans
• Afroman
• Drowning Pool
• Hanson

Not that she needs the money, but Paris Hilton has sold her book proposal for just under a million dollars. The hotel heiress' book, now called "Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose," will come out as a 208-page hardcover in September via Simon & Schuster. ...

Baby's got a new pair of shoes. The Cash Money rapper/executive will launch a signature sneaker on May 15 in association with the Lugz shoe company. The design is described by Lugz as being "clean cut." Included with every pair of kicks will be a "bling bling" Cash Money stack clip, presumably for holding the leftover money that isn't spent on the $70 pair of shoes. ... Rapper Pastor Troy and two of his bodyguards were arrested in Fayetteville, Georgia, late Friday night when less than an ounce of marijuana was found in a yellow Ford F-650 truck in which they were riding. The MC, who was featured on the Lil Jon hit "Throw It Up," is accused by Fayette County sheriff's deputies of also giving a fake identity. Pastor Troy, whose real name is Micah Levar Troy, only admitted his identity after passersby kept yelling out his rap moniker and cops discovered a copy of his CD in his truck. Pastor Troy faces one count of misdemeanor drug possession and one count of giving police a fictitious name. He was brought into county jail and later posted bond. ...

P.O.D. will head out with Lacuna Coil, Blindside and Hazen Street on May 1 in Denver after they wrap up their current tour with Linkin Park. The bands will play around 40 shows in total. ... Cold will launch a tour with Sevendust on April 7. Dates will run through the first week in June, according to a post on Cold's Web site. ...

After playing two solo shows last week in Los Angeles — one at the Viper Room on Thursday, another at the Roxy on Friday — Courtney Love addressed her misdemeanor drug charges in an L.A. courtroom on Monday (February 23). Her new lawyer, Michael Rosenstein, asked for more time, which was granted despite objections from the prosecution. A trial date has been set for March 8. Meanwhile, a wedding date for the singer has been set as well — for the ceremony she's going to officiate as part of a radio contest promotion with 23 stations across the country, that is. Love will perform the wedding ceremony on May 8 in Lake Tahoe, California, for a group of winners, according to her label rep. ... Meanwhile, Scott Weiland got a trial date for his drug charges as well. The singer will stand trial for his charge of driving while under the influence of drugs starting March 15, according to the Los Angeles city attorney's office. ...

As pursuant to a settlement reached by the five major music distributors and the plaintiffs of an anti-trust lawsuit filed against them in 2000, some 3.5 million people who bought recorded music between 1995 and 2000 were mailed a refund check for $13.86 on Friday. The suit alleged that the distributors conspired to raise the prices of vinyl records, CDs and cassettes by imposing a minimum pricing policy. ... '80s rock band the Alarm have landed their first top-30 hit in their native U.K. in 15 years, and all they had to do was change their name. The band recorded the track "45RPM" under the name the Poppy Fields, and for the video used teenage stand-ins to mouth the lyrics. The Alarm claim they disguised themselves as a younger group simply to prove that the pop-music industry is biased against older musicians. ...

02.20.2004

And the New York Yankees thought they had a heck of a lineup. Don't make Dr. Dre laugh. He's bolstered his Aftermath label roster, which already includes 50 Cent and Eminem, by officially inking a deal with Busta Rhymes. No official word yet on Busta's impending LP. ...

Those who caught some recent John Mayer shows may have encountered songs they didn't know by heart. Mayer has been road-testing tracks that may surface on the successor to last year's Heavier Things. He's also stressing the "writer" part of his omnipresent "singer/songwriter" descriptor with a monthly column for Esquire magazine, set to start with the June issue. ... Courtney Love played a solo show at Los Angeles' Viper Room on Thursday. The singer, with a new band, played selections from her solo debut, America's Sweetheart, as well as material from her former band Hole. ... Serjical Strike Records, the label owned by System of a Down singer Serj Tankian, will release the second album by Bad Acid Trip on April 20. The 17-track disc was produced by SOAD guitarist Daron Malakian. ...

The Dave Matthews Band has released plans for its third consecutive summer tour, set to kick off on June 17 in Maryland Heights, Missouri, and wrap on September 5, in George, Washington. The 42-date trek will follow Matthews' solo performance at the fourth annual Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. ... Fans of Danger Mouse's The Grey Album — a mix of vocals from Jay-Z's The Black Album with music from the Beatles' The White Album — are being asked to take part in the Grey Tuesday protest (Greytuesday.org) by posting the album on fan sites for 24 hours beginning Tuesday. Downhill Battle, a music activism project, organized the protest after EMI issued a cease-and-desist order. The protest aims to act as a "day of coordinated civil disobedience" to major labels who want to "control what musicians can create" by limiting their use of samples. ...

• Birdman
• Pastor Troy
• P.O.D.
• Courtney Love
• The Alarm

Bob Dylan
Photo: Sony

Rock's a young person's game, so how is Bob Dylan still showing everyone how it's done 40 years into his career? Sure the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney continue to churn out albums, but Dylan is not only still around, he's winning awards and releasing some of the strongest albums of his career. He turns 60 years old on Thursday (May 24), and in many ways he's just as challenging a character now as he was when he upended pop music back in the mid-'60s. Enigmatic, powerful, and armed with enough wit and whimsy to keep you guessing forever, he deserves a pat on the back and a tip of the hat.

We asked an eclectic group of musicians — including Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland, rapper Wyclef Jean, Sugar Ray singer Mark McGrath, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and electronica duo the Chemical Brothers — to talk about the man's contributions to music and his impact on their art. So happy birthday, Bob. You said it best in your recent Oscar-winning song, "Things Have Changed," when you sang one of your quintessential lines about a drifter on a journey: "Lot of water under the bridge/ Lot of other stuff too/ Don't get up gentlemen/ I'm only passing through." Scott Weiland — "I didn't become a Dylan fan until recently. I've been a Beatles fan my whole life, but Dylan, I always thought, 'I don't understand what's so great about that guy.' But as I've gotten older, and as I've become more open about learning about a lot of things, I've realized that all you have to do is listen to the story he's telling and the way that he's able to use words. He's been widely accepted as probably the most influential writer of lyrics ever since rock 'n' roll began." Wyclef Jean — "'Gone Till November' is an original song that I wrote, but I mention Bob Dylan's name in the song. I said, 'I had none, so I had to do some/ So I'm knockin' on heaven's door like Bob Dylan.' And I was like, 'Yo, we should get Bob Dylan in the video!' And it was like, 'You ain't getting no Bob Dylan! Bob Dylan never shows up in videos, man! Bob Dylan doesn't do that kind of stuff!' But I was like, 'Yo, we can get him, man!' And we got Bob Dylan. I think that what Bob Dylan brought to the game is lyrical continuity in the music, and [the idea that] it's not all about the commercialism. It's about standing up for something and speaking out for the rights of the people." Mark McGrath, Sugar Ray — "I personally have never been influenced by Bob Dylan. He's at another level beyond music; he kind of transcends music. I've never been the hugest fan, but I definitely respect him for what he's done for the American culture in general. I can't write lyrics like he does. I write about beer and falling down, and he writes about cultural change, which I know nothing about. I'll leave it to the pros." Chris Robinson, Black Crowes — "Bob's influence on me was just the power of the music and the magic. Even when I was very young and I wasn't aware of music on a conscious level, I always knew when I heard Bob I knew it was important." Michael Stipe, R.E.M. — "There's a really short list for me as a music fan [and] as a musician and songwriter of people who have had really long careers and maintained a sense of dignity and a really uncompromising approach to their work. It's about keeping your eye on the ball. Fame is great, power is great, money is great. Bob Dylan probably has all that. But the thing that has always kept him writing the stuff he writes is the music. That's what it's about. To me, he's a huge star. I've met the man, too. He's got the softest hands I've ever touched. 'Like a Rolling Stone' is one of the greatest songs ever written. I've always wanted to cover it. I sing it in the shower." Sting — "It was interesting this year at the Oscars, because I was nominated, and Bob Dylan was nominated, and Bob won. I couldn't begrudge him it, because I learned to write songs at his feet like most people of my generation did. We copied Bob Dylan, or tried to." Miles Zuniga, Fastball — "Bob Dylan, to me, is some sort of magician. In [Dylan's 1967 movie] 'Don't Look Back,' you just don't know how he's doing all that. 'I'll let you be in my dream if you let me be in your dream.' That's my favorite line from the movie. He presented [his ideas] like they were always there and you just stumbled upon them, like a mountain. The music and the force of his words are so convincing. You absolutely yield to the force of his words." Rosanne Cash — "There are so few artists who haven't started doing parodies of themselves at around the age of 45 or 50, and Bob hasn't done that. He's been completely original from '64 on. That's a tough trick. To keep going to the same well and finding new things there, to be young and vital regardless of age. The fact that my dad (Johnny Cash) was doing a song with Bob Dylan made me unutterably cool, and 'Girl From the North Country' was so poignant. I had a good sense of who my father was as an artist, so their pairing didn't seem incongruous. In fact, it seemed very natural — these guys are complete originals, of course they should do something together." Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day — "He showed me how to stuff as many lyrics into one song as you can get. 'Like a Rolling Stone' was one of the first songs that got into that feeling of abandon. It sounds like he's talking to some trust-fund college kid who came up and had the world on a silver platter and then he suddenly has to fend for himself, has a lot of growing up to do. One of the reasons he's so legendary is that he's so human, he's put out crap, too. That's what makes him even better — he has evolved. Eventually everybody makes crappy records, but to come back and make something halfway decent ..." Jeff Tweedy, Wilco — "Dylan is, I think, the only artist of the rock era who is truly timeless. Even the Beatles, great as they are, sometimes sound dated. In Dylan's music, the studio is always transparent, as if the only thing that mattered in the studio was that it documented his furious intellect. If there is something like a rock canon, Dylan is the obvious center of it." Mike Peters, the Alarm — "From having posters on the wall in your bedroom growing up and reading and listening to all of this incredible poetry, to actually being able to go on tour with Bob Dylan later in life is a massive thing." Stevie Nicks — "His influence on me as a songwriter is mammoth. When you listen to Bob Dylan's words for many, many years, you really understand that if you want to be a true songwriter, you've got to stand up to him." John Doe, X — "Musically and lyrically, he taught me more than I can say. He rewrote the book — a new chapter on folk, a new chapter on rock and a new chapter on poetry. I know that he has a philosophy of 'strange is better.' At 60 or even after 40, you're usually thinking, 'Well I've done that, now I should be normal.' He doesn't think that way at all. His contribution is his sense of adventure, being a seeker and continuing to experiment. Everybody steals from themselves and copies themselves for the first five years. He still has an unbelievable sense of discovery." Ed Simons, Chemical Brothers — "There's this yearning — there's a sort of restless quality because he's always questioning things, every song. A lot of music feels like it's a complete statement, and to me, that's why I like Bob Dylan — it always feels like there's more. ... We went to see him a couple years ago at a very small club in New York. ... You know, I've never cried at a gig — it was so moving, incredible." Tom Rowlands, Chemical Brothers — "It's just the most amazing imagery that you'd never have in any other songs. It's from another place totally when you listen to it. It just still blows you apart, really. It's brilliant." For more on Dylan, be sure to check out "Forever Freewheelin': Dylan As Improviser."

• Bob Dylan
• Scott Weiland
• R.E.M.
• Wyclef Jean
• Green Day