Joe Perry (file)
Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

When Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry wrote his wife Billie a love song, "Ten Years," to celebrate their 10-year anniversary, he had no idea the tender cut would eventually be the 10th track on one of his solo albums 10 years later.

"It was her idea, actually, so how could I say no?" Perry said. "I wrote it when we were in preproduction for an Aerosmith record. When the session was over, I just took a few pieces of poetry I had written and put some music to it and cut and pasted it together. That song came completely out of the blue."

Much like Joe Perry. While the veteran guitarist has played on three Aerosmith studio albums since 1997, his last solo album was 1984's Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker. That and its two predecessors, 1980's Let the Music Do the Talking and the following year's I've Got the Rock 'n' Rolls Again, were released during Perry's five-year split with Aerosmith. Joe Perry isn't a sign that there are any new ills in the Aerosmith camp; it's simply an indication that Perry's been itching to make another solo record.

"Aerosmith took a yearlong break after our last tour last year," Perry said. "We really needed that, but I still felt like making music. So I culled together material from demos and guitar riffs and half-songs I've had and worked on over the last 10 years. Some of them were steamrolling guitar riffs than never made it onto Aerosmith records, and other ones were things that I never thought I'd play for anybody else."

Although Joe Perry was assembled from scraps the guitarist had lying around the house, the album holds together as well as anything on "Monster Garage." Throughout, Perry blends freewheeling rockers like "Shakin' My Cage" and "Push Comes to Shove" with love songs like "Ten Years" and quasi-psychedelic tracks such as "Pray for Me." There are even covers of the Doors' "Crystal Ship" and Woody Guthrie's "Vigilante Man."

"I wanted to make a diverse rock record that I could listen to from front to back and have some fun with," Perry said. "To me, it's more like a musical journey than anything else I've done on my own before."

When Perry says on his own, that's pretty much what he means. Not only did he handle all the songwriting and guitars, he also played bass and sang. The only thing he didn't play were drums, which were tackled by co-producer Paul Caruso.

"I tried doing the drums as well, but I just wasn't up to it," Perry admitted. "I can play drums OK, but I really wouldn't be serving the songs anywhere near what they deserved if I did it. Of course, [Aerosmith drummer] Joey [Kramer] lives right around the corner, but I didn't want to bother him. We spend enough time onstage, so Paul filled in and did a great job."

And while Perry isn't quite ready to replace Steven Tyler as Aerosmith's main voice, he was perfectly content with the blues-inflected baritone vocals he brought to the record. In fact, he plans to apply newly learned vocal techniques to the next Aerosmith disc.

"By not trying to push my voice into the higher range and staying where I feel comfortable, I was able to take my vocals to places I hadn't really been before," he said. "So that opened up a lot of doors for me that I want to revisit."

Perry will support his album with select shows and rejoin his bandmates when Aerosmith start rehearsing at the end of August for a fall tour. While the band won't have a new studio disc to support, it will likely be touring behind an upcoming live CD and DVD.

"We don't have that much live stuff out, and one of the things fans have been requesting is a straight live DVD that's a whole concert rather than something cut up with backstage footage," Perry said. "So we're looking at a few shows, some of which are from the last tour, and that's something we'd really like to do."

At this point, Aerosmith plan to finish the tour, then return to the studio in 2006 to work on the follow-up to last year's blues album, Honkin' on Bobo (see "Steven Tyler's Throat Leaves Aerosmith Singin' The Blues"). Perry expects the new Aerosmith record to sound like a hybrid of the loose, freewheeling Bobo and 2001's more technical Just Push Play.

"We have 30 years of playing live together, and that's a real asset," Perry said. "And that's what we drew from on Bobo. We didn't have time to do a full studio record, but we wanted to press the reset button and do something that was less layered and precise. I hope some of that rubs off on our next recording experience so there's still some of that live edge."

• Joe Perry
• Aerosmith

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

Mick Jagger
Photo: MTV

With his much-anticipated fourth solo album due in November, Rolling Stones vocalist Mick Jagger continues to add to his celebrity guest list as he puts the finishing touches on the LP.

Among the latest stars to step into the recording booth with the Jagger-meister are U2's Bono, who provides additional vocals on one song; Aerosmith's Joe Perry, who plays guitar on various tracks; and Wyclef Jean, who produced one cut, Jagger's publicist said.

Also on the still-untitled record are Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas, who sang and co-wrote several songs, as well as Lenny Kravitz and Pete Townshend. Marti Frederiksen, who produced and co-wrote Aerosmith's Just Push Play, will also receive co-writing credit on the Jagger disc (see "Mick Jagger Finds A Muse In Britney Spears").

Rapper/producer Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott won't be on the album, though she did meet with Jagger last month to discuss the project, the publicist said.

Next year, the Rolling Stones will celebrate their 40th anniversary. While both Jagger and drummer Charlie Watts have said they're interested in a world tour, no dates have been scheduled. The Rolling Stones also have no immediate plans to record a follow-up to 1997's Bridges to Babylon.

• Mick Jagger
• U2
• Wyclef Jean
• Joe Perry