Nine Inch Nails' <i>With Teeth</i>
Photo: Interscope

Trent Reznor will help feed his eager fans this week as Nine Inch Nails' first batch of studio tracks in almost six years hits stores.

With Teeth, led by the single "The Hand That Feeds," is NIN's first studio album since the two-disc set The Fragile in 1999. "Only" is slated to be the second single off the album Reznor has described as being more mainstream and audience-friendly than some of NIN's previous material.

With Wes Borland back from his three-year absence, Limp Bizkit are releasing their fifth studio album. The Unquestionable Truth, Pt. 1 follows 2003's Results May Vary, which featured former Snot guitarist Mike Smith as Borland's replacement. Truth finds Bizkit looking to the past for inspiration, working with Three Dollar Bill Y'All producer Ross Robinson.

Stevie Wonder has a sunnier outlook on life with his latest, A Time to Love. The optimistic, up-tempo "So What the Fuss" is the first single off the legendary singer's first studio record in 10 years (his last was 1995's Conversation Peace).

Alt-country's Gold-en boy, Ryan Adams, releases Cold Roses this week, the first in what he promises will be a trio of albums released this year. On the double album, which comes on the heels of the last year's Love Is Hell, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 EPs, Adams is joined by backing band the Cardinals. Jacksonville and 29 are slated to follow later this year.

Also out this week are albums by Aimee Mann (The Forgotten Arm), Joe Perry (Joe Perry), the Raveonettes (Pretty in Black), Caribou (The Milk of Human Kindness), Still Remains (Of Love and Lunacy) and Mike Doughty (Haughty Melodic).

Out Tuesday, May 3:

• 1st Offence - Certified Quality (Verbatem)
• Damon Aaron - Ballast (Plug Research)
• Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Cold Roses (Lost Highway)
• Pierre Bensusan - Altiplanos (Favored Nations)
• The BiggDogg Family - A Sinner's Life (U-Block Productions)
• Jim Boggia - Safe in Sound (Bluhammock)
• P. Busboom - The Beginning (Peter Busboom)
• Candlemass - Candlemass (Nuclear Blast)
• Caribou - The Milk of Human Kindness (Domino)
• The Catch - Get Cool (Made in Mexico)
• Cleazy - Undeniable Demandin Respect (Walk With John)
• Anat Cohen - Place & Time (Anzic)
• A Day at the Fair - The Rocking Chair Years (Rushmore)
• Mike Doughty - Haughty Melodic (ATO)
• DreamSinger - For the Sake of Love (Keeping the Dream)
• The Duke - My Kung-Fu Is Good (Spitfire)
• E.S. Posthumus - Unearthed (33rd Street)
• Electra-Kill - The Death of Venus 292 (Addiction)
• Uzoma Ezekwudo - Something Different (Akalaka Music)
• Shelly Fairchild - Ride (Columbia)
• Falconer - Grime Vs. Grandeur (Metal Blade)
• Fall Out Boy - From Under the Cork Tree (Island)
• David Fridlund - Amaterasu (Hidden Agenda)
• Billy Gilman - Everything and More (Image)
• Gizmachi - The Imbuing (Sanctuary)
• The Go-Betweens - Oceans Apart (Yep Roc)
  Buy Now: Oceans Apart (Yep Roc)
  
• Greyscale - Discord for the Dead Kid (Battle Born)
• Howard Hewett - Intimate (Shout! Factory)
• The Higher - Histrionics (Fiddler)
• Jacobs Dream - Drama of the Ages (Metal Blade)
• Keith Jarrett - Radiance (ECM)
• The Jazz Mandolin Project - The Deep Forbidden Lake (Lenapee/DKE)
• Joe Johnson - Life of the Party (Yasny Labels Group)
• Ron Kearns - Live at Montpelier (Ron Kearns Productions)
• Kid Loco - The Graffiti Artist soundtrack(Mettray Reformatory)
• Limp Bizkit - The Unquestionable Truth, Pt. 1 (Geffen)
  Read: "Durst Unveils 'The Truth' And It's Rage Against The Bizkit"
  Buy Now: The Unquestionable Truth, Pt. 1 (Geffen)
  
• LOSA - The Perfect Moment (Metal Blade)
• Tony Lunn - The Last Days of Diresville (Flying Tiger)
• Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm (SuperEgo)
• Mice Parade - Bem-Vinda Vontade (Bubble Core)
• More Dogs - Never Let Them Catch You Crying (Monitor)
• Lorraine Nelson Wolf - Come Follow Me! (Ribbon Hill)
• Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth (Interscope)
  Read: "New Nine Inch Nails LP Takes Risks — By Being Accessible"
• Nouvelle Vague - Nouvelle Vague (Luaka Bop)
• Jennifer O'Connor - The Color and the Light (Red Panda)
• Oneida - The Wedding (Jagjaguwar)
• Paradigm - Mainstream Epidemic (Paradigm)
• Joe Perry - Joe Perry (Columbia)
• Populous - Queue for Love (Morr Music)
• Raveonettes - Pretty in Black (Columbia)
• Stereotypes - 3 (Empyrean)
• Still Remains - Of Love and Lunacy (Roadrunner)
• Vulpine - Channels (Brutal One)
• John Williams - "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" soundtrack (Sony Classical)
• Stevie Wonder - A Time to Love (Motown)
• Wrights - Down This Road (Sony)
• ZZZ - Sounds of ZZZ (Howler)
• Various artists - An Acoustic Tribute to Dave Matthews (Reverberations)
• Various artists - Fish Head (Don Logan Productions)
• Various artists - "House of Wax" soundtrack (Maverick)
• DVD: The Game - "The Documentary - The DVD" (Interscope)
• DVD: Hayley Westenra - "Live From New Zealand" (Decca)
• DVD: Various artists - "Basement TV, Vol. 1" (Basement)
• DVD: Various artists - "The Strat Pack: Live in Concert" (Eagle Rock)

May 10:

• Dave Matthews Band - Stand Up (RCA)
• Spoon - Gimme Fiction (Merge)
  Read: "The Truth About Spoon's Fiction? You Could Call It A Whim"
• Weezer - Make Believe (Geffen)
  Read: "Weezer Album Preview: Wailing Guitars And New-Wave Ballads"

May 17:

• Def Leppard - Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection (Mercury/Universal)
  Buy Now: Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection (Mercury/Universal)
  
• System of a Down - Mezmerize (Sony)
  Read: "System Of A Down Album Preview: Band Pulls No Punches With The Pummeling Mezmerize"
• Various artists - American Idol Season 4: The Showstoppers (RCA)

May 24:

• Audioslave - Out of Exile (Interscope)
  Read: "Audioslave's Morello Says New LP Feels Less Like Soundgarden + Rage"
• Gorillaz - Demon Days (Virgin)
  Read: "Cartoon Gorillaz Put A Muzzle On Danger Mouse, Damon Albarn"
• Wallflowers - Rebel, Sweetheart (Interscope)

• Nine Inch Nails
• Limp Bizkit
• Stevie Wonder
• Ryan Adams
• Aimee Mann

James Van Der Beek, Kerr Smith, and Katie Holmes
Photo: Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment

The third installment of music from the hit series "Dawson's Creek" is out now. Fans looking in record stores for the new LP featuring musical accompaniments to the adventures of Dawson, Joey, Pacey and Jen will be searching in vain, however, as the album is only available online.

Beginning Tuesday (January 7), visitors to www.dawsonscreekcds.com are not only able to purchase one of eight pre-packaged CDs, they can also create a custom album from more than 50 selections, including cuts from singer/songwriter Aimee Mann, jazzy electronic dance diva Vanessa Daou and college-rock troubadour Howie Day.

For the lazy folks who want their decisions made for them, never has lethargy sounded so good. Among the eight pre-compiled offerings are titles such as Dawson's Picks, which features Daou's "Show Me," Joey's Favorites, with Day's "She Says," and Pacey's Songs, including "Underwater" by Switchfoot. The collection would be remiss without a requisite batch of love songs, and Dawson-Joey Moments and Pacey-Joey Moments should do well to split the show's fans into the old-school devotees and relatively green newcomers. The final disc of the set, Most Popular Songs, automatically groups the most-selected songs each month.

Each 14-track disc, custom and pre-assembled alike, will sell for $11.95.

The first "Dawson's" album, Songs From Dawson's Creek, was released in April 1999 and featured contributions from Paula Cole, Sixpence None the Richer and Jessica Simpson. It was followed 18 months later by Songs From Dawson's Creek, Volume 2, which included cuts from Evan & Jaron, Pete Yorn and Five for Fighting.

• Aimee Mann
• Howie Day

Aimee Mann
Photo: Super Ego

NEW YORK — It was fitting that Aimee Mann took the stage Friday at the Beacon Theatre completely wired on latte, as Mann's recent release, Lost in Space, is an 11-song treatise on addiction. The singer/songwriter was so jacked on caffeine, by her own admission, that she paused after her second song, "Calling It Quits," to calm herself down.

"I'm so f---ing wound up tonight!" she laughed. "This feels like the kind of night where I might forget the words or break a string. But if I go down, I'm gonna go down Fiona Apple-Roseland style!"

In fact, Mann did not suffer a meltdown comparable to her friend's notorious 2000 performance at New York's Roseland. Instead, from the serpentine grunge of "Susan" to the delicate intimacy of "Invisible Ink," Mann and her band ably rocked and revealed in equal measure.

Suitably grounded, Mann returned to her set with the four-chord stomper "Choice in the Matter," before switching clumsily to bass and settling into the more plaintive "Amateur."

The centerpiece of Mann's performances is typically her songs from the "Magnolia" soundtrack. With two albums between this night and her Oscar-nominated effort, though ("I thought Elliott Smith should have won," she said), Mann seemed eager to get the "Magnolia" tracks out of the way. Still, "Wise Up" was undiminished. White stagelights flooded the audience during the indicting refrain ("It's not going to stop / Until you wise up"), reversing the gaze uncomfortably. And the psychedelic, peppermint-striped lighting during "Save Me" heightened the already palpable sense of intoxication.

The flow was interrupted when an audience member shouted out a request for "Voices Carry," Mann's 1985 hit with her band 'Til Tuesday.

"Dude, you may as well yell 'Freebird,' " the singer retorted.

Mann's public radio-groomed fanbase expects to rock, albeit with adult restraint. The drum loop of her early hit, "That's Just What You Are," got them dancing in their seats. The unlikely sing-along chorus of "This Is How It Goes" got them crooning along ("It's all about drugs/ It's all about shame"). Finally, Mann traded in her acoustic guitar for an electric and pounded out a highly distorted version of "Long Shot." Stomping and staggering across the stage, she vamped emphatically on the song's well-timed refrain, "Please love me," before heading off into the wings.

She returned alone seconds later and performed a sparsely arranged "4th of July" before being joined by her band for a spirited run-through of "Red Vines." The intricate finger-picking and articulate wordplay of "Invisible Ink" ("There comes a time when you swim or sink/ So I jumped in the drink/ 'Cuz I couldn't make myself clear") rose to anthemic heights as Mann urged the audience to clap along. And again the band was gone.

The band sauntered casually back to a chorus of requests. Mann joked that she had something prepared, but urged the audience to submit its requests on a slip of paper onstage. Sure enough, as she performed her cover of Harry Nilsson's "One" (also from the "Magnolia" soundtrack), Mann seemed distracted by the stream of people depositing scraps before her. True to her word, she gathered the band together and pored over the requests ("We already did 'Choice in the Matter!' " she chided). After fudging its way through "Ray" and "Stupid Thing," though, the band threw in the towel. "That's enough of Aimee Mann Band di--ing around," she quipped.

Aimee Mann set list:

• "The Moth"
• "Calling It Quits"
• "Choice in the Matter"
• "Humpty Dumpty"
• "Susan"
• "Amateur"
• "Wise Up"
• "Save Me"
• "You Could Make a Killing"
• "That's Just What You Are"
• "This Is How It Goes"
• "Pavlov's Bell"
• "Long Shot"

• "4th of July"
• "Red Vines"
• "Invisible Ink"

• "One"
• "Ray"
• "Stupid Thing"
• "I Should've Known"
• "Deathly"

For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports.

• Aimee Mann

Aimee Mann
Photo: Super Ego

Aimee Mann's had a hell of a run lately.

The Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter's "Magnolia" soundtrack was nominated for Grammy and Oscar awards. Her self-released Bachelor No. 2 broke a 10-year cycle of label frustrations and established her as the poster girl for independent artists. And her Acoustic Vaudeville tour with husband Michael Penn and a rotating cast of comedians providing color between songs was lauded by critics and fans alike.

So why is Mann's new album, Lost in Space, strewn with downtrodden, drug-addled, commitment-phobic Los Angelinos?

"The people around me are f---ed up," the former 'Til Tuesday singer said by phone on a recent rare overcast L.A. morning. "There's no lack of f---ed up people to write about."

Like Ned in John Cheever's short story "The Swimmer," the cast of characters in Mann's 10-song cycle move from moment to moment without getting anything but older.

"Here I am again at the same old stoplight," she sings over acoustic guitar and swelling cellos on "It's Not." "I keep waiting for a change, but I don't know what. So red turns into green turning into yellow, but I'm just frozen here in the same old spot. And all I have to do is press the pedal, but I'm not."

These "3 o'clock in the morning crisis" moments, as Mann refers to them, aren't so anomalous and hit awfully close to home.

"They're all people I know in one way or another," she said. "I know ex-drug addicts. I know people who have struggles with their own identity. They're trying to figure out who they are. Or they're totally confused or completely fed up and unable to ever connect with anyone in any real way. I think these are kind of common things."

This thematic cohesion of Lost in Space manifests itself sonically as well. Moody keyboards, mysterious blips, beeps and loopy guitar effects lend the otherwise acoustic record an otherworldly sound.

"Some of it was just happenstance, but then it started to really lock in with the feeling of the record so well that we decided to keep it going," Mann explained. "Some of it comes from guitar effects. [Producer/guitarist Michael Lockwood] has these old and bizarre guitar effects that have their own noises. Sometimes it sounds like birds, sometimes space noise, and I really liked the way it fit in with everything."

Lost in Space is due Tuesday and will be followed by a tour in October, Mann said. Meanwhile, she'll continue to pore over her collection of psychology books and puzzle out the riddles of human behavior.

"To me, it's a noble enterprise to try and understand the least understandable aspects of people. I don't think I'm that different from anybody. I don't even think that the people I know are all that screwed up."

But people do have problems, Mann said, "and I want to know why."

• Aimee Mann

Gordon Gano
Photo: Jill Epstein

With so many visitors it's sometimes hard to know who's the star and who's the guest, hip-hop has perfected the art of the cameo.

But with the exception of Santana's multi-platinum Supernatural and recent CDs from Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow, most rock artists have been less willing to share their albums with a raft of guest vocalists and players.

A pair of upcoming albums from two punk/new wave legends, though, takes the idea of star-studded collabos and twists them around in two unexpected ways.

The solo debut from Violent Femmes lead singer Gordon Gano, Hitting the Ground (August 27), is so star-studded that the nasally voiced singer could only squeeze his vocals onto three of the 11 tracks.

Of course, it helps when your songs are sung by the likes of two different members of the Velvet Underground (Lou Reed and John Cale), PJ Harvey frontwoman Polly Jean Harvey, former Pixies singer Frank Black, They Might Be Giants, and ex-4 Non Blondes singer and Pink/Christina Aguilera producer Linda Perry.

On the flip side, John Doe, singer for Los Angeles punk legends X and leader of the John Doe Thing, simply called some of his friends in to help out on his upcoming fourth full-length solo album, Dim Stars, Bright Sky (August 20). His friends just happen to be folks like Jakob Dylan, Aimee Mann, Juliana Hatfield and Go-Go's member Jane Wiedlin, whose contributions are decidedly more subtle than Gano's collaborations.

"I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool to sing with them ... people who I respect as people and artists?' " Doe said of his first acoustic album, which he tagged as "folk soul." "I have a difficult time separating the two, because if I don't like the person I usually don't like what they sing about."

Gano came by his high rollin' cameos through a back door. His first solo effort after 20 years fronting the Femmes was conceived as the soundtrack to a film by David Moore ("Polish Spaghetti"). The indie filmmaker tapped Gano for the project after seeing a performance of the "Blister in the Sun" singer's musical, "Carmen: The First Two Chapters" at New York's avant-garde Knitting Factory club.

"It started because I thought that, for a movie, it seemed silly if the same voice is singing in the background all the time," Gano said. While, like Doe, Gano nabbed some friends to voice his songs, he'd never met some of the guests, such as Perry.

"I was vaguely familiar with her, but there were probably only five or 10 seconds of the 4 Non Blondes record that had something that I liked vocally," he said candidly. The two bonded on the phone, though, over their mutual love of smoky jazz singer Nina Simone, and Perry turned in a nuanced, sensual vocal that surprised both her and Gano.

In another surprise, Polly Jean Harvey's take on the title track features her amazing, quavering imitation of Gano's signature vocal style over a driving folk punk track, which he took as a high compliment.

Though Gano wrote all of the songs and recorded rough demos for his colleagues (and in some cases finished songs awaiting their vocals) to work off of, only punk godfather Lou Reed got a co-songwriting credit.

"I told him about the project and he said if he had time and was inspired that he would try to do something," Gano said of his musical hero. "Well, at the point where I thought it wasn't going to happen, he called and said he was done, but that he'd changed some of the lyrics." As it turned out, in addition to rewriting more than half of the lyrics to the playful sung/spoken "Catch 'Em in the Act," Reed also completely rearranged the song's phrasing in a way that Gano said he could have never imagined.

Being the old-school punk that he is, Doe had always eyed all-star albums with a healthy dose of skepticism. But, after years of being asked why he hadn't recorded an all-acoustic album, Doe finally decided that the songs he'd been writing seemed to call for a more mellow setting, so he swallowed his punk rock pride and unplugged.

Bringing along his friends for the ride suddenly didn't seem like such a bad idea, either.

"The same part of me that resisted doing an acoustic album resists being pigeonholed and worries about getting old, or soft," Doe said. "It's difficult to maintain that intensity after you've relied on electric guitars and fast tempos. Making rock music is very seductive and you always wonder, 'I've been at 10, am I getting to 10 this way?' "

While he traded bashing drums, electric guitars and loud vocals for pedal steel, mandolin, acoustic guitars and piano, Doe found a different kind of intensity. Paired with female singers who complement his voice in a more seductively poppy way than the edgier vocals of his longtime partner in X, Exene Cervenka, Doe's voice takes on a mellower, wounded tone on the album. Songs like "Closet of Dreams," "Still You" and "Backroom" are a series of elliptical poems about lives hanging in the balance and fuzzy portraits of characters barely keeping hold of the ones they love, and in some cases, themselves.

With a solo career that has frequently drawn more accolades than record sales, Doe said he thought the novelty of an acoustic album, paired with the guests, couldn't hurt his prospects.

"I'd be a liar if I said I did it strictly because of the art," he said. "Eighty percent of the people that say 'I love John Doe' have no idea what I sound like. But I also realize that it's cool and people like those things in an age where there's so many things going on at once and every small advantage my help you make another record."

Similarly, Gano said he wasn't concerned that his voice doesn't appear all over his solo debut, because his guests wont' likely hurt sales, either. "It was just very natural in how it developed," he said. "Maybe it's like my version of a hip-hop solo record!"

• Gordon Gano
• John Doe
• Lou Reed
• John Cale
• PJ Harvey

Beck
Photo: MTV News

If all that glimmers isn't gold, the opposite is also true — at least in the record industry.

Great albums that fall shy of gold certification (having sold fewer than 500,000 copies) will be recognized when a small group of music-industry players — including the artists Beck, Dave Grohl, Mos Def and Lucinda Williams — determine the best album of the year.

For the inaugural Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement, an assembly of 16 musicians, producers and journalists will transcend genres, whittle down the year's offerings to a list of 10 nominees and decide on the year's top LP, according to the award's publicist. The United Kingdom's annual Technics Mercury Music Prize, limited to U.K. releases, is awarded via a similar process.

In keeping with the Shortlist's goal of honoring albums that fall under the radar, rather than redundantly give more juice to established hits, albums must have sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination.

Albums released for a year after July 1, 2000, are eligible for consideration.

Artists Macy Gray, Trent Reznor, Aimee Mann and Roots drummer ?uestlove; producers Dan the Automator (Gorillaz), Steve Lillywhite (U2, Dave Matthews Band) and Ross Robinson (Korn, Slipknot); and music writers for the Los Angeles Times, URB and Rolling Stone round out the panel of judges.

Each of the 16 judges, or Listmakers, chose five albums apiece for contention. The 80 nominations constitute the Long List, which includes the latest albums by Air, Joe Henry, Si Sé, Spearhead and the Dandy Warhols (visit www.shortlistofmusic.com for the complete Long List). The Long List will be narrowed down to the 10-nominee Shortlist after Labor Day and announced at a panel discussion in New York on September 14 as part of the New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend Lecture Series. Listmaker and Times music writer Neil Strauss will moderate the panel.

The winner of the Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement will be announced October 30.

The Shortlist Award was created by MCA Records vice president of A&R Tom Sarig and manager/marketer Greg Spotts, who hope to throw a party and concert in Los Angeles the day after the winner is announced. The Halloween bash is expected to feature onstage collaborations between Listmakers, Shortlist artists and special guests.

• Beck
• Foo Fighters
• Mos Def
• Lucinda Williams
• Macy Gray

David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Prince, and Aimee Mann were among the artists honored at the third annual Yahoo! Internet Life Online Music Awards, which were presented on Monday night during a ceremony at New York City's Studio 54.

Comedian-actor John Leguizamo hosted the event, which featured performances from DJ Rap, Issac Hayes, Aimee Mann, Alanis Morissette, and David Bowie, who also received the Online Pioneer Award, which last year went to Public Enemy (see "Public Enemy, Prince Take Spotlight At Yahoo Online Music Awards").

In winning the Pioneer Award, Bowie was recognized for helping found the online entertainment company UltraStar as well as creating the first artist-produced and hosted Internet service provider with BowieNet, which won a Yahoo! Award for Best Artist Site.

For Mann, whose solo career got a boost after she contributed several songs to the "Magnolia" soundtrack, received an award for Best Internet Only Album for "Bachelor No. 2," which the former 'Til Tuesday frontwoman issued via her site in February.

Despite the honor, "Bachelor No. 2" was picked up by Superego Records and eventually released to retail outlets in May.

The Webcast of Paul McCartney's triumphant return to the Cavern Club in Liverpool in December was named Best Live Online Event (see "McCartney To Webcast Cavern Club Show; Pink Floyd's Gilmour On Board"), while Prince's "One Song" won Best Internet Only Single.

Astralwerks was selected as Best Label Online, while Pasadena, California trio Red Delicious won an award and was recognized for being the Best Unsigned Artist Online. "Painful Convictions," a site dedicated to Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, won Best Fan Site.

Winners rounding out the third Yahoo! Internet Life Online Music Awards included the Ultimate Band List for Best Music Reference Site, "Billboard" Online for Best Music News, and our sister site, SonicNet, which was named Best Overall Music Site for the third consecutive year.

• David Bowie
• Aimee Mann
• Prince

Spike Jonze, Aimee Mann, Phil Collins, and "South Park" co-creator Trey Parker were some of the big "winners," while Madonna and R.E.M. were passed over when the nominations for the 72nd Annual Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday morning in Beverly Hills.

• Aimee Mann

Former Genesis frontman Phil Collins was the big pop music winner at last night's Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, as "You'll Be In My Heart," a song he wrote for the animated Disney film, "Tarzan," was named Best Original Song.

-- David Basham

• Phil Collins
• Madonna
• Aimee Mann

Aimee Mann, former lead singer of the synth-pop band 'Til Tuesday, is riding a wave of critical success again with the soundtrack to the film "Magnolia," featuring nine of her songs. The singer has even earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for one of those tracks, "Save Me," which is up for Best Song From A Film.

• Aimee Mann