July 17, 2003 – By: Raechel M. SimsThe New PornographersBowery BallroomNew YorkJuly 11 By the time the New Pornographers hit the stage--following one no-show by I Am Spoonbender and a painfully stoic performance by The Organ--the musically deprived crowd welcomed them with a reception worthy of greeting a long-lost sibling. Perhaps that analogy isn't far off the mark, considering the familial vibe the six-member super-group gives off: vocalist Neko Case playing the passionate yet calm matriarch, singer/guitarist Carl Newman the wise yet approachable father figure, and Kurt Dahle as Danny Bonaduce, the lovable younger brother, curls and drumsticks flying from behind his kit.

July 16, 2003 – By: Tim KenneallyWHO: Post-hardcore quintet from Amityville, New York. SOUND LIKE: A cross between Blink-182 (minus the poo fixation) and Fugazi (minus the sermonizing). The zippy, anthemic tunes on their 2002 debut, Tell All Your Friends, are as melodic as they are sarcastic (e.g., "You're So Last Summer"). Atop paint-peeling power chords and mosh-inducing rhythms, singers Adam Lazzara and John Nolan yelp barbed bons mots like "You're a touch overrated / You're a lush and I hate it." A HIT WITH THE LADIES? The group's video for "Cute Without the 'E' (Cut From the Team)" recasts Fight Club as a battle between the sexes, with the ladies laying down a first-class ass-whupping. "The original idea was that everyone would be equally beaten up and bloody, but we didn't think we'd get away with that," says Lazzara.

July 16, 2003 – WHO: Florida femme fatale "VV" and Englishman "Hotel," chain-smoking vegans with a beatbox and vintage gear, both of whom sing and play guitar. SOUND LIKE: Skronky, lo-fi art blues in the tradition of PJ Harvey or Royal Trux. Their debut album, Keep on Your Mean Side, balances trashy, drugged-out distortion with arsenic-laced vocals. WHAT'S IN A NAME? Friends still call them Alison (Mosshart) and Jamie (Hince). Punk-rock legends don't. "I was in this club, and someone was like, 'Hey, Hotel!' I turned around, and it was [Clash guitarist] Mick fucking Jones," Hotel says proudly. LIKE A SLUMBER PARTY, EXCEPT TOTALLY EVIL: When the two first met, Hotel says, "We stayed up all night, wrote five songs, recorded in the bedroom. We were like soul mates." Onstage, they can get harrowingly intimate, with Hotel singing, "We wanna fuck and fight" into VV's ear while she bumps and grinds.

July 15, 2003 – Boards of CanadaTwoism(Warp) Original copies of 1995's Twoism, Boards of Canada's debut release, are so rare that one recently sold on E-bay for several hundred dollars. So this 35-minute mini-album, remastered for re-release on Warp records (home to fellow beatfreaks Aphex Twin and Squarepusher), will undoubtedly be a hot item for diehards who've followed them from their early days on the eclectic UK-based Skam label.

July 15, 2003 – By: Jon CaramanicaIt’s Nelly vs. Spin in an NBA Street Vol. 2showdown! Insert your favorite heat-related metaphor here Though he may have been a top baseball prospect before he finished high school, Nelly didn't look like someone who could dribble circles around us on the basketball court. So we thought we'd have a chance against the St. Louis dirty in a best-of-three competition in NBA Street Vol. 2, EA Sports BIG's sequel to its back-alley b-baller, which features Nelly and his St. Lunatics crew as playable characters. The rapper, however, proved a formidable opponent, playing aggressive defense and elegant offense. So we cheated, forcing Nelly to play as the St. Lunatics team while Spin summoned a triumvirate of NBA legends: Michael Jordan (circa 1985), Darryl "Chocolate Thunder" Dawkins, and Julius "Dr. J" Erving.

July 15, 2003 – By: Chuck KlostermanIn 1993, Liz Phair released Exile in Guyville--one of themost artistically brilliant, sexually confrontational rock albumsof all time. Today, she's fighting for her career and trying tofigure out what the hell to do next Ten years ago, no one embodied postfeminism better than Liz Phair. 1993's Exile in Guyville--arguably the most important record by a female singer/songwriter since Patti Smith's Horses--reinvented the landscape of rock sexuality; Phair's songs were indie-rock letter bombs, full of relationship trash talk, messy vulnerability, and foul-mouthed come-ons. For a moment, it looked like Phair was going to change the way rock fans thought about everything--especially what it means to be a female singer/songwriter. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Phair's next two records met with mixed response from audiences and critics.

July 15, 2003 – By: Andrew BeaujonOklahoma rockers the All-American Rejects have gone from playingall-ages punk shows to hitting it big on MTV and hanging out withmodels. Here’s what happens when emo goes on spring break There will be a "sexy fashion show" tonight. All raging alcoholics are ordered to report to the bar, where the "love bucket-64 ounces of pure alcohol" is on sale. If you do not have a drink in your hand, you are not on spring break. Such is the kind of announcement blasting through the relative noontime quiet of Panama City Beach, Florida. The skinny Oklahomans in the All-American Rejects look very out of place in that they're wearing clothes and are not well ontheir way to getting completely trashed.

July 15, 2003 – By: Jon DolanIf you weren't aware that the tenth anniversary of Pavement'sidyllic indie-rock masterpiece Slanted & Enchanted isupon us, don't worry. There was no VH1 special, no bank holiday, nolegal battle over the master tapes--just a richly appointedreissue. In a way, it's the kind of enthused yet low-key fanfarethat this grad-school Nevermind demands: A decade later,Slanted still feels more like a shared secret than acultural revolution. Its anniversary is a mini Big Chill fora generation that never quite got theirs. If you weren't aware that the tenth anniversary of Pavement's idyllic indie-rock masterpiece Slanted & Enchanted is upon us, don't worry. There was no VH1 special, no bank holiday, no legal battle over the master tapes--just a richly appointed reissue.

July 15, 2003 – By: Greg MilnerFrom punk-rock messiahs to Middle Eastern mystics, EddieVedder's musical heroes are just as intense and difficult as heis "I know I was born, and I know I'll die / the in-between is mine," Eddie Vedder sings on Riot Act, Pearl Jam's recently released seventh album. From his earliest days, Vedder's in-between has been filled with music, from the dynamic voice of the young Michael Jackson to the world-weary growl of the eternally old Tom Waits. Somehow, Vedder's lifelong passion for music has landed him in the position he's in today: sitting on the terrace of a New York City hotel's penthouse suite on a windy fall day, chain-smoking and sketching the arc of his life through the records that have moved him the most. Holding his head in his hands, he looks skeptically at a list he's spent a week preparing, filling the pages of a black compositionbook.

July 11, 2003 – Discerning rock fans seeking (extremely) serious relationship with band of brainy superheroes. Must like long vowels and Aphex Twin; must fear bears, cyborgs, and meeting people. No Republicans, please. Pablo Honey (Capitol, 1993)A paltry debut that barely hints at the band's untapped potential, as Yorke's effervescent tenor is elbowed aside by guitars that mostly chase their own tails. Things perk up a little in act three: "Prove Yourself" and "I Can't" are smarter and thornier than the '90s alt-rock radio fave "Creep." The Bends (Capitol, 1995)An Incredible Hulk-grade growth spurt. Jonny Greenwood leads a three-guitar assault on a world where everybody's melancholy, everything's broken, and even the trees are fake. Overflows with mini-epiphanies (title track, "Just") and concludes with a foreboding dare: "This machine will not communicate these thoughts." It will, children.