July 30, 2003 – April 4: Dortmund, GermanyPaul: After tonight’s gig at Visions Party, the placeturned into a club night. Someone gave us drink cards with 30little circles, each corresponding to a euro. I ordered threeJägermeisters, a beer, and a gin and tonic. Despite my bestattempts, I never got to 30. I went back to the hotel for a whilebut returned around 3:30 a.m. to see if anyone was still there. Iwent around the back and startled a couple having sex on a car.They were frantically pulling their pants up before I couldapologize. I felt bad about it. I hope that the intrusiondidn’t irreparably kill the mood. April 4: Dortmund, GermanyPaul: After tonight's gig at Visions Party, the place turned into a club night. Someone gave us drink cards with 30 little circles, each corresponding to a euro. I ordered three Jägermeisters, a beer, and a gin and tonic.

July 29, 2003 – By: Dana VinsonBlurMoving UnitsHammerstein BallroomNew YorkJuly 17, 2003 Blur's recent show at NYC's Hammerstein Ballroom was the musical equivalent of an evening at Epcot Center. People from all walks of life came together, more soda was consumed than beer, and of course, there was lots of singing. Boys in Fred Perry jackets mixed freely with Goth girls wearing spiky dog collars; kids in Diesel Jeans and flip-flops ogled British girls in short skirts and chunky boots; and, needless to say, the Strokes were present. Opening band the Moving Units tried their best to move the crowd with pulsing drums and with catchy guitar licks.

July 24, 2003 – WHO: Seattle screamo quintet led by mic-twirling Roger Daltrey doppelgänger Zachary Davidson. SOUND LIKE: Arena-size attitude meets emo intimacy. The band's instrument-trashing live shows play as much to the back rows as the mosh pit. Vendetta Red's major-label debut, Between the Never and the Now, balances teeth-rattling crunch with unapologetic melodicism, particularly on the whisper-to-a-screech single "Shatterday." THE KIDS WEREN'T ALL RIGHT: Prior to relocating to Seattle, Davidson, guitarist Justin Cronk, and drummer Joseph Lee Childres grew up together near Bakersfield, California, where, Davidson claims, "they have the worst air pollution in the country." More troubling was the child abuse that Davidson endured. He revisits the trauma on "Stay Home," which he hopes will comfort other victims.

July 24, 2003 – Six Rock Stars Who Finally CameOut Six Rock Stars Who Finally Came OutCOLOR> 1. Rob Halford2. George Michael3.Michael Stipe4. Bob Mould5. Melissa Etheridge6. Elton John Seven Pop Stars Who Aren't, Contrary to All Appearances, Actually Gay COLOR> 1. Sisqó2. Robert Smith3. Lance Bass4. Justin Timberlake 5. JC Chasez6.Joey Fatone7.

July 23, 2003 – When ex-Whiskeytown leader Ryan Adams released the album Gold last year, it seemed like everyone was talking about him. Now Adams is back with Demolition, a collection of tracks recorded at the same time as Gold. I called him in New York City on my cell phone while being chased by a gang on razor scooters. If you had to write a song about this interview right now, what would you call it?It would probably be about how I just got up from a nap and am making the bed, which is pretty sad. "Rock'n'roll Bad Boy Makes Bed While Doing Interview." That's good that you make the bed, though, because if you live by yourself you develop all sorts of bad habits, like walking aroundnaked all day. I would walk around naked, except that I've got six 25-foot windows in my place, and the building on the right is where Julian andAlbert [of the Strokes] live.

July 23, 2003 – High-tech couplings are breaking out all over Once upon a time, Homo erectus picked up a stick and banged on a rock. Portable music was born. The only problem was that if you wanted to hearit, you had to be there when he made it. Millions of years later, Sony unveiled the Walkman, letting us finally enjoy music anytime, anywhere. After that, whenevera new format emerged (CD, mini CD, DAT), someone would invent a portable device to play it and announce that it was the future of all music. They were lying. That is, until the introduction of the MP3 in the late '90s. Downloadable music changed everything, spawning a generation of music fans with a whatever-you-want-whenever-you-want-it attitude toward their favorite tunes. It was only a matter of time before someone added the perfect version of wherever-you-want-it to the equation.

July 23, 2003 – TRIVIAL PURSUITSThat collection of unreleased Starland Vocal Band tracks doesn'thave to be the only useless information you save onto your iPod:Info freaks have written a program that lets you transfer up to900 film entries from the Internet Movie Database (the softwarecan be found at www.magma.ca/~sheppard/IMDb/iPod.html). Meanwhile, Roster2iPod (at soundsgoodradio.net/py4ipod)lets you copy the current stats of any Major League Baseball teamdirectly onto the device, turning your MP3 player into oneexpensive baseball card. PRESS BOXIf paper is too 20th-century for you, audible.com lets you download(for a fee, of course) thousands of books, newspapers such as The New York Times and TheWall Street Journal, and even foreign-language lessons,which are then read to you through those bud earphones.

July 23, 2003 – Punk rock takes a razor blade to West Coast fashion in the photography of We're Desperate New York City had more attitude, and London was more political; but for pure showmanship, the West Coast punk scene was unrivaled--especially if said showmanship was taking place onthe hood of a vintage car. "We did not like poseurs, but we liked to pose for pictures," writes X's Exene Cervenka in We'reDesperate: The Punk Rock Photography of Jim Jocoy, SF/LA 78-80(PowerHouse Books). Jocoy, a South Korean immigrant and novice photographer, tookadvantage of the movement's exhibitionist streak in documenting the mostsartorially inventive denizens of the clubs, parking lots, alleys,and toilets of Los Angeles and San Francisco. "Most of us were justkind of scraping by, but everyone was going out every night," Jocoyrecalls.

July 23, 2003 – Serial killer-obsessed painter Joe Coleman puts thegraphic back in graphic art Expelled from New York City's School of VisualArts in 1978 (where a teacher called his work "fascist" and"schizophrenic"), Joe Coleman scratched out a living performing asa one-man freak show, biting the heads off rats. "I had all thisrage," recalls the painter, the son of an alcoholic and thesurvivor of a Catholic upbringing. "I just got so frustrated I wanted toexplode." But after 25 years of (figuratively) chomping away andfollowing his own muse, Coleman, 46, has more fulfilling options forearning his rent money.

July 23, 2003 – By: Dave ItzkoffIt's been two years since Patrick Fugit made his unforgettable filmdebut, as a wide-eyed adolescent rock journalist in AlmostFamous. Now the actor, who turns 20 this month, has hisinnocence tested in White Oleander (opening October 11), inwhich he plays the devoted boyfriend of the film's heroine, avictim of troubled foster homes, played by Alison Lohman. Fugittalked with Spin from the comfort of his tricked-outbachelor pad in Salt Lake City (a.k.a. his parents' basement). Why follow up your career-making role in Almost Famous with a part in a moody melodrama and not, say, American Pie 8?I probably would have if it weren't for my dislike of teen comedies. I've turned down a lot of stuff like that. There was one where the wholemovie was based on the fact that teenage boys think about sex every seven seconds.