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Live Jimmy Page/Black Crowes Set Tops New Rock Releases

Also hitting stores Tuesday are LPs from Adventures in Stereo, Arab Strap.

Live at the Greek, documenting former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page's live collaboration with the Black Crowes, is the highlight of this week's rock releases.

The album has been available as a CD, or downloadable track by track, at musicmaker.com since February. The enhanced double disc hitting stores Tuesday — put out by TVT Records — includes the song "Mellow Down Easy," which was not on the musicmaker.com version, as well as video footage.

The collection of 20 songs, recorded last year during shows at Los Angeles' Greek Theatre on Oct. 18 and 19, includes such Zeppelin classics as "Whole Lotta Love" and "Heartbreaker."

Live at the Greek broke ground as an Internet release, selling more songs via download than any previous release, according to musicmaker.com. It was also the first Internet-only album to break a song onto mainstream radio, with "What Is and Never Should Be" (RealAudio excerpt) reaching #17 on the Radio & Records rock airplay chart.

Traditional retail outlets, however, do not expect sales of the new disc to be hampered by its previous online availability. "[The Internet's] got so much promise to it, but the effect on sales is still going to be negligible," said Larry King, a music buyer for Tower Records in Los Angeles who ordered "several hundred" copies of the LP. "If anything, the Internet puts a little buzz out there."

Scottish Offerings

Joining Live at the Greek in stores will be new albums from underground Scottish bands Adventures in Stereo and Arab Strap.

Adventures in Stereo venture away from stereo on Monomania, their first album since 1998's Alternative Stereo Sounds. The album is recorded in mono and uses fuzzy guitar and off-kilter harmonies to create a jangly pop feel.

On songs such as "We Will Stand" (RealAudio excerpt) and "Behind the Trees," they pay tribute to the '60s pop aesthetic of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector, with the vocals of Judith Boyle floating over the layered guitars of former Primal Scream member Jim Beattie.

Arab Strap will release Mad for Sadness, a live album recorded at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1998. The Scottish duo got their start, along with Mogwai, at Chemikal Underground Records in the mid-'90s.

The 10-song album includes shimmering live versions of "New Birds" and "Packs of Three" (RealAudio excerpt of studio version) from 1998's Philophobia, as well as material from two UK-only EPs, The Girls of Summer and (Afternoon) Soaps.

'Real World,' Jade Tree Compilations

Rare singles from hard-rockers Pitchblende, Edsel, Eggs and others are collected on First Five Years, a collection of all the 7-inch singles released on Jade Tree Records from 1990–95. Most of the 35 songs on the album are out of print, or soon to be out of print, according to Jade Tree.

The soundtrack for the film "Scary Movie," which opens Friday, will also hit stores Tuesday. The collection of rock and rap hits, picked out by filmmakers the Wayans brothers, includes Silverchair's "Punk Song #2," the Unband's "Everybody Wants You," and Public Enemy's "What What."

Another collection, MTV's The Real World — New Orleans, includes songs picked by cast members of "The Real World," such as Garbage's "You Look So Fine," the Get Up Kids' "Red Letter Day" and MxPx's "Want Ad." (Sonicnet.com's parent company, Viacom, also owns MTV.)

Also hitting stores Tuesday are Greatest and Latest, a collection from punk-rockers Agent Orange; Days in Between, from Canadian country-rockers Blue Rodeo; and Manhattan Love Machine, from hard-rockers TRS-80.

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