July 22, 2003 – The history of underground comics, as best as anyone can remember it From the moment he first spied Mr. Natural in an alternative weekly 35 years ago, Patrick Rosenkranz has been fixated on underground comics. His book, Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975, is the end result of this mania, an exhaustive compendium of the scene started by such outsider artists as R. Crumb ("Fritz the Cat"), Art Spiegelman ("Maus"), and Bill Griffith ("Zippy the Pinhead"). With copious illustrations of weird sex, bad trips, and savage satire, Rebel Visions chronicles a critical wing of '60s counterculture that was fueled by the conviction that radical cartoons could combat the blights of capitalism, the Vietnam War, and, worst of all, squares.

July 21, 2003 – Adam Sandler gives cartoons a whirl in his animated musical, Eight Crazy Nights Adam Sandler has always been an animated character, but for once, everyone else in his movie will be, too. In agambit only the Waterboy might be able to comprehend, the Punch-Drunk Love star's second offering in less than two months is acartoon musical about Hanukkah, titled Eight Crazy Nights (opening November 27). But at a time when you're trying to convincethe world you're a serious thespian, why go the Hanna-Barbera route? "Because this way Adam can look really muscular and handsome,"jokes cowriter Allen Covert, a Sandler associate since Airheads.

July 21, 2003 – Wily Irish everyguy Colin Farrell finds his big personality caught in uncomfortably tight quarters in Phone Booth Colin Farrell is finally making good on his promise. Two years ago, the 26-year-old actor burst out of nowhere(i.e., Ireland) in the blistering boot-camp drama Tigerland. Before you could say "Bless me lucky stars," he was being touted as thenext big thing, costarring with Bruce Willis in Hart's War and Tom Cruise in Minority Report. But it's in the riveting thrillerPhone Booth (opening November 15) that Farrell delivers the goods, as a sleazeball publicist who's forced to face down his personalfailings while being held hostage by a mad sniper in--you guessed it--a telephone booth. Now if he could just do something about thatpotty mouth. Spin: Phone Booth was shot to look like it's taking place in real time.

July 21, 2003 – By: Will HermesUnlimited Sunshine 2002Prospect ParkBrooklynAugust 25, 2002 Midway through a confetti-spewing set, the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne mused with an acidhead grin: "Us, De La Soul,Kinky, Modest Mouse, Cake--that's kinda fucked-up, don't you think?" Nah, not really. By any decent-college-radio standards, themusically diverse Unlimited Sunshine lineup wasn't weird at all. What was radical, though, was how damn joyous the bands were. Neverconfusing the serious with the morose or the playful with the moronic, they offered a five-and-a-half-hour seminar on the subversivepower of positive thinking. Mexican techno-rockers Kinky had trouble moving booties in their afternoon opening slot, but frontman Gilberto Cerezo did acredible jumping-bean impression while his hermanos drove salsa, samba, house, and electro riffs into a giddy pileup.

July 21, 2003 – By: Craig McLeanThe Loud Records A&R guy in New York City had been brutallydirect. Yes, he'd received Mike Skinner's demo CD. No, he wasn'tinterested. "Why would I want this music from halfway across theworld," the guy asked Skinner, "when I can get it here, on a streetcorner?" "That was the turning point in my life," explains Skinner, a 23-year-old English rapper/producer known as the Streets. For his debut,Original Pirate Material, the hip-hop- obsessed Skinner abandoned initial attempts to reimagine his hometown of Birmingham as Wu-TangClan's Staten Island, New York. Instead, he moved to Brixton and took inspiration from the U.K. garage scene, deploying fruity cockneyslang over propulsive bedroom beats.

July 21, 2003 – By: Matt DiehlWhen he was courted by major labels this past year, Cody Chesnutthad two demands: (1) release the singer/songwriter's funk-rock,lo-fi freakout debut, The Headphone Masterpiece, as atwo-disc set, complete with tape hiss; and (2) videotape everylabel meeting for Breaking the Masterpiece, a documentarytracking his rise (Chesnutt canceled a meeting with DreamWorks whenone exec refused to appear on camera). When the labels wanted to meddle in his creative decisions, however, Chesnutt recorded and released the album himself. The DIYapproach fits its renegade vibe.

July 21, 2003 – By: Victoria DeSilverioEx-Smith makes a rare U.S. appearance With the Smiths, Steven Patrick Morrissey found fame, fame, fatal fame. When the band broke up in 1987, Morrissey(affectionately dubbed "Moz" by the Brits) heralded his solo career with the classic Viva Hate. Seven albums later, his adoring fansrefuse to leave him. In August, the reclusive 43-year-old icon launched his second world tour since being dropped by his label fiveyears ago. On September 15, without a manager or an album to support, Morrissey tested out new songs on the worshipful at San DiegoState University's Open Air Theater. Here are the facts. Number of new songs performed:Five Number of new songs that include the word love:All but two.

July 21, 2003 – By: Dana VinsonLast summer, Spin set out to discover a new rock writer.Qualifications: must be talented, unpublished, and read to dodgeflying cold cuts. Our 20-year-old contest winner survived threedays on the road with Papa Roach, and MTV got it all on tape. Thisis her report. Find out what happens Papa Roach stop being politeand start getting real IN KEEPING WITH Papa Roach tradition, birthdays call for a sneak attack. Their drum tech, Rocky, turns 40 today,so the band is scouring the backstage of Albuquerque's Tingley Coliseum for ammunition. "Usually we use pies, but we couldn't findany whipped cream," says guitarist Jerry Horton. "But we've got mayonnaise, mustard, and strawberry syrup." "Dude!" singer Jacoby Shaddix interjects. "Lunch meat!" He points to two deli trays filled with turkey and other sweaty cold cuts.He darts over to test their stickability to human skin.

July 21, 2003 – By: Jon DolanIf the Get Up Kids got low-down, if the Hives had bad teeth, if theStrokes had ever worked at Denny's, they'd still look pretty weakup against the Replacements. Punk rock of the 1980s produced somemagical responses to Reagan-era alienation, but no one everbellowed into the void like these Minneapolis miscreants. Soft boysin hard shells, they drank too much and treated their instrumentslike annoying ex-girlfriends. Yet when existential benchwarmer PaulWesterberg would uncork a lyric like "Wanna be something / Wanna beanything," and Bob Stinson's guitar would start to wail,these schlepps became superheroes. Alienation melted into empathylike Lake Minnetonka in spring.

July 21, 2003 – By: Dave ItzkoffBrittany Murphy has made a career out of playing adorablepsychos and lovable lowlifes, but after co-starring with Eminem in8 Mile, she's going to be maniacally sought after inHollywood. Clearly, there's a method behind her madness Crazy insane, or insane crazy? Brittany Murphy has played 'em all, from a laxative-addicted obsessive-compulsive in Girl, Interrupted to a catatonic head case in Don't Say a Word. A little bit of lunacy, it seems, must complement the genius of the 25-year-old actress, whose shrewd career choices and memorable performances have carried her a long way from her film breakthrough as Alicia Silverstone's makeover beneficiary in the teensploitation classic Clueless.