July 2, 2003 – By: William V. MeterThe members of Blur have alternately sobered up, gotten married,had kids, had a hit record with another group, protested the war inIraq, and dealt with a founding member’s departure. Are theystill the same band? Well, no. But on their new album, ThinkTank, they prove that’s a good thing The members of Blur have alternately sobered up, gotten married, had kids, had a hit record with another group, protested the war in Iraq, and dealt with a founding member's departure. Are they still the same band? Well, no. But on their new album, Think Tank, they prove that's a good thing It's early February, and Blur are thrashing through "We've Got a File on You," a one-minute punk barnstormer off their new album, Think Tank. Today, the audience in their North London practice space consists of two dilapidated vinyl couches and several overflowing ashtrays.

June 29, 2003 – By: Chuck KlostermanThose who fail to understand the past are doomed to repeat it.However, what if that's your goal? What if that's exactly what youwant? What if repeating the past--and then repeating it againand again--is the only thing that makes you happy? If this is indeed the case, you should do what I did: Watch VH1 Classic for 24 consecutive hours.Nothing wages war with insomnia like wall-to-wall videos from the Reagan administration. More importantly, there is much that can be learned from such an experience.

June 29, 2003 – MEETING THOM IS EASY Everyone will tell you it's not, and they're all wrong. There are people who will insist Thom Yorke is a misanthropic sociopath and that he ends interviews for no good reason. They will suggest that the likelihood of him speaking candidly is roughly the same as the chance of him unscrewing two bolts from his neck and removing his cybernetic faceplate, suddenly revealing a titanium endoskeleton that was built by futuristic space druids. But this is not true. Thom Yorke is weird, sort of. But you've met weirder. He's mostly just an intense, five-foot-five-inch 34-year-old who wears hooded sweatshirts with sleeves too long for his limbs, and this makes him look like a nervous kindergartener. He doesn't appear to have combed his hair since The Bends came out in 1995, and his beard looks undecided, if that's possible. But here's the bottom line: He's nice.

June 29, 2003 – I'll leave behind dull care / I'm going there, and I'll not be alone.... I'm going back to dear old Omaha--"I Want to Grow With Growing Omaha,"Albert Adair and Julius K. Johnson, 1923 It's a 12-degree Friday night in Omaha--a beige city of 390,000 perched on the Missouri River bluffs. It's the birthplace of TV dinners and our most awkwardpresident, Gerald R. Ford. Omaha is predominantly white, with a low cost-of-living index and a higher-than-average median household income. It's a hub fortelemarketing and credit-card processing, the food is filling, and the people are friendly. In the films of local auteur Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt),the city is depicted as the epitome of everything dull and repressed about middle-class America.

June 29, 2003 – By: Jon DolanBack in the 1980s, hippies made “worldbeat”--a catchallfor any music from outside America or England--a dirty word. Whichis a shame. From African funk to Asian punk, Cuban rumba toAlgerian disco, global pop is constantly mutating. In a small worldthat’s only getting smaller--and scarier--a little musicalmultilateralism goes a long way. Various artistsThe Indestructible Beat of Soweto(Shanachie, 1987) Like reggae or classic hip-hop in spirit, apartheid-era South African mbaqanga was party-rockin' as political resistance. Its dust-bowl guitars, street beats, gravelly groaning, and ecstatically soulful voices pull revelation from oppression.

June 26, 2003 – PhishRound Room(Elektra) Jam. It might as well be a four-letter word. Americans like their pop music to come neatly packaged, concise, and easily consumed--the mere mention of a jam (or any jelly-based derivative) can send snobs running away from the obligatory 17-minute flute and banjo duet that usually follow such claims. But say the words "studio" and "album," one after another to your average Phish phanatic, and watch their mood rings turn an unsightly shade of green. It's not because they don't love, follow, and virtually stalk the boys from Vermont on the road, but for most a studio disc is generally a watered-down replacement for the live show--no jams, too much polish.

June 26, 2003 – By: Piotr OrlovLali Puna, Styrofoam, and Opiate Judging by the digital nuggets that Lali Puna meticulously sculpt on their albums, this German electronic-pop quartet comes off as more a hip art project than an actual band--they project such absolute control, it seems they couldn't possibly rock out on stage like a real band. But on their inaugural North American tour, which recently touched down at New York City's Mercury Lounge, Lali Puna consecrated a divine rock-techno marriage, progressive electronics and new wave melodies powered by drone jazz gusto and motorik propulsion.

June 26, 2003 – CMJ Opening NightThe Bowery Ballroom, New York CityWednesday, October 30, 2002 Anne Evans 25, New York CityWhassup? "It's a cheap crowd [Anne's a coat-check girl]. They don't tip much. Usually at shows, people talk about the bands. Tonight they're mostly talking about themselves." This year's CMJ rockathon kicked off with the Polyphonic Spree, a 20-person-plus pop ensemble from Dallas that christened the stage with a show worthy of Jesus and a whole truckload of disciples. Their flowing robes, preacherlike gesticulations, and psychedelic gospel songs about the sun and/or love were surprising crowd pleasers--due both to their talent and abject weirdness. After an all-too-predictable delay, the all-girl rap group Northern State hit the stage--mallrat MCs Hesta Prynn, Guinea Love, and DJ Sprout circled the stage dropping rhymes about Baghdad, Dorothy Parker, and Alex P.

June 26, 2003 – By: Dave ItzkoffAnd for All The Real Girls star Zooey Deschanel, that dayis today There's almost nothing about Zooey Deschanel especially suited to the 21st century. From her flapper-era wardrobe to her dewy Vargas Girl eyes, from her classic-rock sensibilities to a name lifted straight from the pages of Salinger, the 23-year-old actress isa living cultural anachronism. Like her literary namesake, she has been voraciously examined, interviewed, and poked at, but this Zooey has no interest in being regarded as an intellectual curiosity. "I was always up for performing," says Deschanel in her big, brassy voice. "It was kind of the only way to get me to shut up." In a sense, show business is in her blood: Her mother is an actress, and her father is the cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, who lensed the Official Greatest Movie Ever Made, Hal Ashby's Being There.

June 26, 2003 – Ten Songs You Shouldn't Put on Your Friend's Good-bye Mix CD If He's GoingOff to Rehab "Cigarettes & Alcohol" Oasis "Gin & Juice" Snoop Dogg "Sorted for E's & Wizz" Pulp "Who's Got the Crack" the Moldy Peaches "Heroin" the Velvet Underground "Purple Pills" D12 "I'm Your Pusher" Ice-T "Drug Drug Druggy" Manic Street Preachers "My Drug Buddy" the Lemonheads "Let's Go Get Stoned" Ray Charles The Five Most Coked-Up Songs Ever "Cocaine," Eric Clapton "White Horse," Laid Back "Lit Up," Buckcherry Every track on The Eagles' Hotel California Every track on Fleetwood Mac's Tusk Ten Things Believed Only by StonersThe Black Crowes' Amorica is just an all-around stellar album. Kyuss was the most important band of the '90s. Valerie Bertinelli is so hot--and also so lucky.