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The crowd outside Maxwell’s tonight smoked lots of cigarettes and talked shop - Sonic Youth’s cult following, their influence on today’s rock scene, and the guitar genius of Thurston Moore, who took the stage around 10 p.m.

Rock devotees came from near and far to see Moore - Sonic Youth frontman and founder - play tonight at legendary Hoboken music venue Maxwell’s. Moore was “almost” solo tonight; he was joined by Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, a Hoboken resident who also co-owns Maxwell’s.

“I’m excited, and a little nervous,” said Moore, before taking the stage. “It’s the first time doing the new album.” Moore kicked off a 12-city tour tonight of his latest album, “Trees Outside the Academy.”

“I came all the way from Montana to see him,” said Bob Furu, 34, of Bozeman. Well actually, Furu was planning to visit cousins in Milford, PA and then re-scheduled his trip around tonight’s show. “Sonic Youth is the greatest invention in rock history. If there was no Sonic Youth, there’s no telling what rock music would be like today.”

“I’ve been seeing Sonic Youth since the late ’80s; I’ve never seen Thurston Moore solo before,” said Paul Anderson, 53, who traveled from…(hold your breath)…Paramus to see the show. “It’s great to see him in a small space. The last time I saw Sonic Youth was at McCarren Pool in Brooklyn in August of 2007.”

“They have so much influence on alternative music in the late 80s and 90s - they helped Nirvana get signed,” continued Anderson. “In New York, I used to see them at the old Ritz, Roseland, CBGB’s, but this is the best club in the tri-state area, in my opinion. It’s the most comfortable, you can see the bands - Maxwell’s feels like a neighborhood place.”

And here’s some more love for Hoboken’s best-known live music spot:

“Maxwell’s is the best venue in New Jersey. Anybody that was ever cool played here,” said Dan Hewitt, 27, from the Bronx. “It’s better than most comparable places in New York.” (En-Jay in the hizzouse!)

“Yeah, everything’s been Clear Channeled up!” agreed his friend, Kayla Bradshaw, 25, of Queens.

It’s OK, Kayla, I think Maxwell’s is in good hands. I can’t see someone from Sonic Youth selling out to corporate media.

By Mark Beech

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) — Joni Mitchell is bringing out herfirst album of new material in nine years, hitching on theburgeoning protest bandwagon.

She has reversed her 2002 pledge to retire from music.Mitchell quit back then, calling the record industry a“cesspool'' full of “pornographic pigs.''

Fears that the hell in Iraq and environmental catastropheare putting the world at peril have proved too much for Mitchell,now a 63-year-old grandmother.

It's not the first time Mitchell has come back from“retirement.'' We can be grateful that she reconsidered in the1960s after the release of “Both Sides Now.'' She went on toscore successes with such songs as “Woodstock'' and “Big YellowTaxi.''

Now Mitchell joins another of the 20th century's finestsinger-songwriters, the 65-year-old Paul McCartney, on the HearMusic label, owned by Starbucks Corp., the world's largest chainof coffee shops. I wonder which aging warbler it will sign next.

Her CD, “Shine,'' is likable enough. It has moments ofbrilliance that recall the majesty of Mitchell's 1970smasterpieces “Blue,'' “Court and Spark'' and “Hejira.''

It's also shot through with irony and contradictions. Thereis lyrical anger — “Shine on dying soldiers/ In patriotic pain/Shine on mass destruction/ In some God's name!'' and “Men lovewar/ That's what history's for.'' On “Hana,'' we are urged tofight a beast “with tenacious teeth'' — an ogre that could becommercialism, pollution or technology. Only here does thebacking music get urgent, with a propelling drum machine.

Polite Passion

Elsewhere, from the opening instrumental “One Week LastSummer,'' the passion is buried, the music becalmed. This is awell-mannered record, full of hushed harmonies, poignant pianoand slinky sax. It's almost to be slotted into the easy listeningcategory.

Mitchell revisits “Big Yellow Taxi,'' its environmentalconcerns more relevant than ever, though she shies away from aradical reworking by an angry older woman. The main difference isthat her 2007 voice is lower — it has steadily dropped, theresult of decades of cigarette smoking, since the crystal-cutsoprano peaks on the 1968 “Song to a Seagull.''

The girlish laugh is replaced by a world-weary drawl, andit's now even scarier to hear her sing about putting all thetrees in a tree museum. The 1970 song works better than the new“This Place,'' with its over-earnest plea for ecological sense.

As the writer of “Big Yellow Taxi,'' Mitchell has everyright to return to the song, though she is protesting at thehomogeneity of retailing while her recording plays at more than10,000 Starbucks cafes across the world.

Artwork, Tributes

The song, and a version of Rudyard Kipling's “If,'' arepart of a ballet score, “The Fiddle and the Drum,'' that had itsdebut in February in Calgary, the Canadian city where Mitchellonce studied. This year she is also exhibiting her art and wasthe subject of “A Tribute to Joni Mitchell'' (Nonesuch), a CDthat included covers by Prince, James Taylor and Bjork. So muchfor retiring.

Her reflection teeters between hope — in “If'' and “BadDreams'' — and resignation in most of the other numbers. It'smore downbeat than depressing, more haunting than harrowing. “IfI Had a Heart'' is particularly despondent and yet a good trackto download.

The Mitchell recording comes as other singer-songwritersunfurl their acoustic banners. Britain's James Blunt, who alreadyhas sold more than 13 million CDs, has “All the Lost Souls''(WEA/Atlantic), which offers much quiet balladry; P.J. Harvey's“White Chalk'' (Island) is even better, with an ambient edge.

Blunt and Harvey could well take lessons from Mitchell onhow to do rainy-day reveries. All these CDs are ideal for 4 a.m.introspection and that quiet hour when maybe you just fancy acigarette and a classic novel for company. Joni is guaranteed notto cause a ripple on the surface of your Starbucks cappuccino.

“Shine'' is released today on Hear Music in the U.S. Itcame out yesterday in the U.K. The record is being sold in musicstores and at Starbucks cafes. All the CDs mentioned are pricedaround $12.98, or 8.99 pounds. Download prices vary acrossservices.

(Mark Beech writes for Bloomberg News. The opinionsexpressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this review:Mark Beech in London at

Since the days of Tupac versus the Notorious B.I.G., or Jay-Z versus Nas, disputes between rappers have been guaranteed to generate lots of headlines.

The media attention didn’t cease when the industry’s bad boy, 50 Cent challenged the middle-class superstar, Kanye West. 50 Cent announced that he would retire if West’s album, “Graduation,” beat his album “Curtis” for sales in their first week.

In the end, West won, selling almost one million albums in the first week. 50 later recanted his statement about retirement.

Watch Terry Moran’s exclusive interview with Kanye West Monday night on “Nightline” at 11:35 p.m. ET.

But now that this dispute is decided, West admits that he and 50 accomplished their intended results: Both rappers won the publicity war.

“Because that’s what they want,” West tells “Nightline.” “They want the black guys to be up against each other, about to shoot each other. And that’s not what they got. What they got is two black guys sellin’ a lot of records.”

And while West is elated for such a grand showing on his third album, in the end, he says, his music is about connecting with his audience.

“‘Cuz it isn’t about the record sales,” he says. “I’d rather sell, you know, 500,000 records to people who listen to them every single day of their life than a million records to people who didn’t listen at all.”

The rapper ignores the idea of having a “target audience.” He compares his music to McDonalds. He’s trying to reach everyone. All ages. All walks of life.

“‘Cuz I don’t care if you got $1 in your pocket or if you’re super rich, you might have that urge to go by and get some McDonald fries,” he says. “And that’s the way it is. I don’t care if you’re super down on your luck [or] you at the Hamptons, you need the Kanye CD. That’s my goal.”

Raising a ‘Creative Genius’

West’s musical career started at the age of 14, not in a dance hall or in a music class, but rather with computer software.

“I wanted to originally program video games, like back in seventh grade,” he says. “And I forget the name of the program, but it was this music program … and I found myself having more fun just doing the music part. And I kind of, like, just gave up on the idea of like programming the entire game and stuff. And I just found myself running home to program the music.”

He slowly started to produce rap beats for talent shows at his middle school, and soon he saved up enough allowance to buy a sampler, a piece of hardware that influences his unique style to this day.

This past spring Canadian singer-songwriter Leslie Feist (who records under simply her last name) released her third solo album The Reminder. In line with her status as one of the top alt-pop singer-songwriters and a frequent performer with music festival favorites Broken Social Scene, the album debuted at #16 on the Billboard album chart. It was enough to cause many music journalists to take note of the new album, and, in particular, the charming video created for the single “1,2,3,4.”

Soon, however, The Reminder faded from collective memory. Its status began to rise again when the album was selected on the shortlist for Canada’s distinguished Polaris Prize. The announcement on July 10, 2007 linked the album with fellow high profile nominees Arcade Fire and their album The Neon Bible.

Then “1,2,3,4″ began showing up again. Feist performed it on the Late Show with David Letterman in August with an all-star indie pop choir. The song was also used for summer promos from cable network HBO. Then came Apple and a new round of iPod ads premiering on September 5, 2007. It now appears the dam has broken. “1,2,3,4″ debuted at #44 on the Billboard pop singles chart last week and #17 on the download chart. The song has also made an appearance in the UK pop top 40. The Reminder surged back into the top 50 of the album chart as well. At mid-afternoon on the opening day of Amazon’s online music store, “1,2,3,4″ sat at #1.

It’s been a long road in the music industry for Feist. She began over 15 years ago as a teenager in a punk band. However, with the right pieces slowly falling into place, a star is emerging. Enjoy “1,2,3,4,” a brisk breath of fresh air in the pop music world.

Watch “1,2,3,4.”

Way back in the late ’70s, as punk was melding into new wave, the girl-group aesthetic became a staple in a lot of bands’ sounds, including but not limited to Josie Cotton, Blondie, the Go-Go’s, Blue Angel (fronted by a then-unknown Cyndi Lauper) — even the Ramones themselves.

The Pipettes, a trio of fetching, fascinating Brits, are a “modern” version of that same aesthetic, injecting gorgeous catchiness back into pop music and putting stylish dance steps back on the stage. Fired by the infectious sounds of female doo-wop pioneers the Chantels, street-savvy vixens the Ronettes and ’80s chart-busters Bananarama, the Pipettes’ matching polka dots and sunny, engaging dispositions stand in direct opposition to the prevalent mood of ironic, detached indie rock drone.

Formed in Brighton, England, in 2003, their goal now is the same as it was then: to write the perfect pop song.

“We all like different kinds of music,” says Becki Pipette of her compatriots Rosay and Gwenno and their backing band, the Cassettes. “But what we do all share is the love of a really finely crafted song. So although we appreciate and respect each other’s tastes — which makes it a lot easier to share a creative passion for making music — this notion of the perfect pop song is something we crave, something we’re very ambitious about. We always want to write one better than the last one we’ve written.”

Perhaps that’s why the seamless 16-track We Are the Pipettes (Interscope) — which features their dance floor killer, “Pull Shapes” — sounds more like a compilation of classic singles than a debut album.

They’re as refreshingly irreverent as they are talented, and their interviews are as entertaining as their music. Hoping to direct a little equal time to some of their own idols, the Pipettes once questioned the crushing influence of the Beatles, suggesting that the Fab Four might be just a tad bit overrated. They stirred up a hornet’s nest in the process, Becki concedes, but they’re standing their ground.

“With the Beatles, I don’t think a band had ever had that kind of success before. So it really did pave the way for other bands like that to have global success and start dominating the way that mainstream music existed. Which, considering that our passion is pre-Beatles music — it’s really ‘57 to ‘63, all those girl groups that existed just before soul and Motown became really mainstream as well — it just kind of overshadowed that.”

This is an interesting concept, since the Beatles were influenced by many of the same artists that influenced the Pipettes, including the “girl groups.” The Beatles not only frequently stated their love of those groups but even covered tracks like “Baby, It’s You,” “Boys” and “Please Mr. Postman,” among others. They revered the sound so much, in fact, that they later hired “girl group” architect Phil Spector to salvage Let It Be, and Lennon and Harrison used the producer on numerous solo projects. Still, despite their admiration for the form, the Fab Four’s dominance of pop overshadowed this fact in the minds of the mainstream public.

“I think that’s a real shame because a lot of people do genuinely believe that pop music started with the Beatles. And that’s sad. That’s why we believe that the Beatles ruined everything; it’s not because we hate them or we necessarily hate their music, it’s because their success standardized stuff and made people forget the great pop music that had been written before they came along.”

“You know,” she continues, “we’re not saying that this kind of music is the best music made, but, hey, what if this music would have gone globally mainstream? Then how would things have changed? Would we be getting our Arctic Monkeys and our Libertines now? I think that’s an interesting thing to think about.”

In classic pop fashion, a Pipettes show is an all-ages, all-inclusive affair. “Pop music is about being open to as many different kinds of people as possible — race, creed, age, gender and sexuality shouldn’t matter; it should be able to cross all of those kinds of social constructs and evolutionary designs. A lot of our gigs have kind of become family outings as well, which is really lovely: You get the parents bringing along the kids. I like the innocence of that because the Pipettes are about remembering the innocence of music. Not looking at it as a naive thing, but just trying to bring some of the romance back.

“It’s very much about the whole notion of getting dressed up and going out for the night and having a really good time. And it’s really nice when people come to our gigs and say, ‘We’ve just formed a girl band as well.’ Wicked! Do it! We’re not that specific — it’s not just about women — but I think that kind of idea, if music empowers you in that way, is such a brilliant thing.”

Doors at 8 p.m. on Wed., Oct. 3, at the Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-9700; $12; all-ages.

(September 24, 2007) —
Don’t underestimate public pressure.A syndicated columnist recently argued on this page that gangsta rap should be allowed to die on its own since album sales are already on the decline. We take issue.

While speaking with one’s wallet is a powerful tool, it doesn’t mean society should abdicate its responsibility to hold rappers and music executives responsible for much of the junk that passes for hip-hop music these days.

Public pressure, like this page’s more than 2-year old campaign against gangsta rap, can spark change.Public pressure is what led to Don Imus getting fired. It’s what has led to the many discussions about hip-hop music and the vows by some rappers to clean up their acts.

The fact that Black Entertainment Television, one of the major enablers of violent and misogynistic music, has decided to put together a three-part series, Hip-Hop vs. America, is another telling sign of what public pressure can do.

Panelists for the show include rappers T.I., Nelly and Master P, as well as hip-hop writers and experts. The discussion, based on clips received from BET, appears to be an interesting and thought-provoking one. Nelly and T.I. try to justify their lyrics and actions. While others, like a former Essence magazine editor, challenge the rappers to take some responsibility for the repercussions of their music.

It’s a shame it took BET so long to join this worthwhile discussion. But if not for public pressure, it probably would have been business as usual.

PARIS (AFP) — After more than 15 years as one of the leading lights in British pop music, Damon Albarn is this week preparing for the international debut of his latest project.

A founding member of leading Britpop band Blur and one half of revolutionary “virtual” group Gorillaz, Albarn has turned his attention to the unexplored terrain of mixing ancient Chinese folk music, opera and circus performance.

“Monkey, Journey to the West” arrives in Paris on Wednesday for an 18-night run at a theatre in the French capital before heading to Berlin next year.

Albarn, like the reviewers who saw the show debut at a festival in the north of England in June, is at a loss to describe what he seems to have invented.

“What it is I don’t know. Maybe it’s a kind of the first sort of world music opera,” he tells AFP in an interview. “All I know is that people like it.”

The show is based around a 16th-century Chinese fable featuring a magical journey to India by the Monkey King to collect sacred Buddhist scrolls and rescue China from moral decline.

Albarn has written the musical score, his Gorillaz collaborator Jamie Hewlett has done the visual side of the show and the production has been overseen by acclaimed Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng.

“If you try and define it as an opera, you’ll probably be disappointed. If you call it a musical you’d be totally wrong, and if you call it a show, you’d only be kind of taking it on face value,” he said.

Acrobats, gymnasts, martial arts experts and jugglers perform to Albarn’s music, played by a band featuring Western and Chinese instruments with electronic enhancements.

Albarn, who went on an artistic pilgrimage to China with his co-producers, says he wrote the music using traditional techniques where possible, making use of the five-note pentatonic scale found in Chinese folk music.

“I kept it very simple. I just used one of the earliest examples of the pentatonic scales in China, and I just developed a kind of system of conversation around that.

“There are some elements of songwriting still because my technique as an opera composer is very naive, even if I learnt a lot from doing this.

“There aren’t any Verdi’s arias in there yet!”

Despite his candor about his opera-writing ability, Albarn has become one of the most versatile figures in pop music, constantly reinventing himself and his sound.

After finding global fame as the frontman for Blur, arch-rivals of Oasis for the spotlight in late 90s Britpop, Albarn has gone on to set up Gorillaz and more lately The Good The Bad and the Queen.

Gorillaz, whose music is written by Albarn, is a virtual band made up of four animated characters drawn by Howlett.

The Good The Bad and The Queen is a sort of pop “supergroup” comprising Albarn, former The Clash bass player Paul Simonon, ex-The Verve guitarist Simon Tong and the ex-drummer for Nigerian star Fela Kuti, Tony Allen.

In between times, Albarn has founded his own record label, Honest Jon’s, which he used to release the album “Mali Music” in 2002, a collection of songs recorded by artists from the West African nation.

He plans to continue evolving and takes a swipe at bands which are stuck playing hits years after their initial success.

“Lots of people are still playing the same music that they were when they were teenagers. How is it possible?” he asks.

“I don’t understand that. How can you be an old man playing the music you made when you were a teenager? (You have to) play the music that your life has brought you to. It’s important to develop.”

“Monkey, Journey to the West” is a co-production between Chatelet Theatre in Paris, the Staatsoper (State Opera) in Berlin and Manchester’s International Festival in Britain.

The production will travel to Berlin in July next year.

© 2007 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

Format changes at Birmingham’s Kerrang! radio are part of a drive to ‘grow up’ and win listeners from the BBC, the station’s brand manager has said.Andy Price said the rock-based music station had invested £30,000 in research to find ways to boost audience figures and steal share from Radio 1. As a result of findings the station has revamped its format with new shows and a change of presenters.It has also applied to Ofcom to reduce the number of new music it plays from 50 per cent of tracks to a third. Mr Price said: “We’ve found that at the moment, without question, the number one choice for rock music in the West Midlands is Radio One. But one of the criticisms of the station is that it plays too much new and unfamiliar music.”By applying for a reduction of the amount of new music, it means we can play more familiar tunes and cover that market gap.” Mr Price said research showed Jewellery Quarter-based Kerrang! was targeting a niche market and it needed to widen its appeal to compete with other commercial stations in the region.

He said: “The research was enlightening for us. We realised we’d gone a bit too ‘Emo’ and a bit too niche and this was reflected in our Rajar audience figures, which had gone down slightly.

“We realised we needed a bigger audience to compete with likes of Heart, Smooth and Galaxy from a commercial point of view.”

But Mr Price insisted the station had no intention of becoming a “middle-of-the-road” heritage rock station.

He said: “This isn’t a diluting of the product at all, we’ve positioned ourselves as groundbreaking and innovative. We don’t want to be middle of the road, there are enough of those stations in the West Midlands. But, during the daytime, we want to broaden our appeal and the sound might grow up slightly.”

Mr Price said that, although there would still be humour, it would be less bawdy as research had suggested the station had sometimes alienated listeners by being “too edgy”.

This has involved a shake-up of the station’s line up, with late show DJ Tim Shaw teaming up with ex-Big Brother contestant Kate Lawler for the breakfast show. Stand up comic Nick Margerrison will present the new late show.

Mr Price said: “This is a point in Tim’s career where he feels he is maturing and, obviously, there will not be the opportunity for him to be as controversial in the breakfast slot.

“Whilst the Asylum late show won’t continue without Tim, Nick is not afraid to speak his mind.

“His show will be more of a review of the day - topical, but still edgy.”

Mr Price added that the station was still committed to supporting new acts and that there would be an extension to its Unsigned” show on Sunday evenings.

He added: “There is a huge demand for new music and what we have to do is deliver to that demand in the right way.

“The evening show will champion new music and we are doubling the length of Unsigned to two hours.”

Mr Price admitted that much of the new music and specialist programmes would be broadcast in the evenings, but he said that changes to the way people listened meant shows were available 24 hours a day via the Kerrang! website.

He said: “Yes, some of it will be post 10pm and post 12pm, but people are consuming these shows in different ways and this is reflected in our online listening figures.”

He also stressed the changes were not part of a cost-cutting exercise. He said: “The talent that we have recruited does not come cheap. Kate Lawler, for example, is the highest profile talent the station has appointed since it’s launch and there’s more to come.

“If we had chosen to buy in to network shows, as other stations in the region are doing, perhaps we could have been accused of cost-saving.

“But we are committed to keeping the talent and the programming in the West Midlands.”

A SUPERMARKET is paying to provide a music teacher for an Epsom charity’s Friendship Scheme.

Andy Hunn, manager of Waitrose in Epsom, took the £2,600 cheque along to St Barnabas Church Hall where the Ebbisham Association’s Friendship Scheme for people with severe learning difficulties meets.

Mr Hunn was delighted the money was being used provide a music teacher for the Wates Club, which entertains the clients, many of whom are from the former Epsom mental hospitals.

He added: “As a local organisation Waitrose is proud to be associated with the scheme and will continue to give support.”

Waitrose already supplies the refreshments at the Wates Club, which is named after the local building company thatinitially contributed funds to enable the club to get started.

And Waitrose’s latest donation has meant that Tom Rhind-Tutt, the chairman of the Ebbisham Trust, was able to secure professional music teacher Tom Arnold.

He has offered to lead the musical enhancement activities with a variety of percussion instruments and his songwriting abilities.

Mr Arnold is a full-time professional musician and plays with the new production team from Stomp, aptly named The Lost and Found Orchestra.

The orchestra boasts 35 performers who play an assortment of miscellaneous instruments made from oil drums,old kettles, wash boards and other household items.

This year they have played in numerous famous locations,including a season at the Sydney Opera House and the Brighton Dome.

Tom was also a member of the group Cutting Crew who had a top 10 hit in the eighties with I Just Died in your Arms Tonight. He has also played with the Brighton Beach Boys.

Previously he worked at the Orpheus Centre in Godstone for people with severe physical impairment and is now looking forward to his stint with Ebbisham.

The Friendship Scheme seeks to recruit and introduce suitable volunteers to the patients of the former Epsom mental institutions with a view to them forming a friendship together.

In some cases the patients’ own relatives are either too old to visit or have died.

The association also offers a range of activities including various entertainment facilities including drama, music, art and general socialising.

As a registered charity,the association is independent of Government and official influences. From the start, the borough was supportive of the association and allowed it the name Ebbisham, which is the medieval name for Epsom.