SALES CENTER   ROCK MUSIC CD's Top 50 Most Popular Rock CD's:     33. Mutations ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Beck / Uni/Geffen/Dgc Records / November 3, 1998 Our Price: $11.88 ~ You Save: $5.09 (30%) Read more about this title...   34. Let's Talk About Love [ENHANCED CD] ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Celine Dion / Sony Music / November 18, 1997 Our Price: $12.58 ~ You Save: $5.39 (30%) Read more about this title...   35. Desireless ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Eagle-Eye Cherry / Sony Music / July 21, 1998 Our Price: $12.99 ~ You Save: $3.98 (23%) Read more about this title...   36. Hot [ENHANCED CD] ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Squirrel Nut Zippers / Pgd/Mammoth / September 5, 1997 Our Price: $12.99 ~ You Save: $3.98 (23%) Read more about this title...   37. Savage Garden ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Savage Garden / Sony Music / April 15, 1997 Our Price: $14.99 ~ You Save: $2.98 (17%) Read more about this title...   38. Garage Inc. [EXPLICIT LYRICS] ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Metallica / Wea/Elektra Entertainment / November 24, 1998 Our Price: $17.49 ~ You Save: $7.49 (30%) Read more about this title...   39. Whitechocolatespaceegg ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Liz Phair / Emd/Capitol / August 11, 1998 Our Price: $12.99 ~ You Save: $3.98 (23%) Read more about this title...   40. Adore ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Smashing Pumpkins / Emd/Virgin / June 2, 1998 Our Price: $14.99 ~ You Save: $2.98 (17%) Read more about this title...   41. Musical Chairs ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Hootie & The Blowfish / Wea/Atlantic / September 15, 1998 Our Price: $12.99 ~ You Save: $3.98 (23%) Read more about this title...   42. The John Lennon Anthology [BOX SET] ~ Usually ships in 24 hours John Lennon / Emd/Capitol / November 3, 1998 Our Price: $51.08 ~ You Save: $21.89 (30%) Read more about this title...   43. Live on Two Legs ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Pearl Jam / Sony Music / November 24, 1998 Our Price: $11.88 ~ You Save: $5.09 (30%) Read more about this title...   44. Premonition ~ Usually ships in 24 hours John Fogerty / Wea/Warner Brothers / June 9, 1998 Our Price: $14.99 ~ You Save: $2.98 (17%) Read more about this title...   45. The Best Of 1980-1990 ~ Usually ships in 24 hours U2 / Pgd/Island / November 10, 1998 Our Price: $12.58 ~ You Save: $5.39 (30%) Read more about this title...   46. Pilgrim ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Eric Clapton / Wea/Warner Brothers / March 10, 1998 Our Price: $14.99 ~ You Save: $2.98 (17%) Read more about this title...   47. Fundamental ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Bonnie Raitt / Emd/Capitol / April 7, 1998 Our Price: $12.99 ~ You Save: $3.98 (23%) Read more about this title...   48. Speak Of The Devil ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Chris Isaak / Wea/Warner Brothers / September 22, 1998 Our Price: $12.99 ~ You Save: $3.98 (23%) Read more about this title...   49. So Much For The Afterglow ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Everclear / Emd/Capitol / October 7, 1997 Our Price: $11.88 ~ You Save: $5.09 (30%) Read more about this title...   50. 5 ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Lenny Kravitz / Emd/Virgin / May 12, 1998 Our Price: $11.88 ~ You Save: $5.09 (30%) Read more about this title...     Articles & Interviews:   Built to Rock He's the most unlikely guitar hero, a self-effacing, nondescript denizen of Boise, Idaho. But Doug Martsch has built a considerable and confounding mystique with his wandering, semipsychedelic explorations with his band, Built to Spill. Amazon.com contributor Lois Maffeo catches up with indie-rock's guitar guru on the eve of the release of Keep It Like a Secret to find out what makes an enigma tick. Read Amazon.com's interview The Three Pillars of Girl Rock What makes a woman rock? Amazon.com contributor Lois Maffeo offers her cornerstones of underground music made by women--the artists and albums that influenced her and legions of others to pick up a guitar and make a noise in a boy's world. Read Amazon.com's article If I Ran Lilith Fair Indie songstress Lois Maffeo, a.k.a. Lois (who brought us the wonderful Infinity Plus), dreams of an alternative universe where she could give Sarah McLachlan her walking papers and take over as ringmaster of Lilith Fair. Read Amazon.com's article Rock & Roll Resurrection Many thought Mark Lanegan was down and out. His band, the Screaming Trees, was in shambles, his solo career had stalled, and a crippling addiction had frozen his creativity and threatened his life. But his powerful 1998 release, Scraps at Midnight, finds the moody baritone clean and in control of his considerable talent. Amazon.com writer Jon Wiederhorn talks with Lanegan about his trials, tribulations, and redemptions. Read Amazon.com's interview Adore-able Billy Corgan and friends return with a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Adore, which Amazon.com writer Jason Josephes discovers is a remarkable departure from the band's usual guitar Sturm und Drang. Read Amazon.com's article David Lowery, Alt-Rock Renaissance Man In the wake of Camper Van Beethoven, vocalist David Lowery ventured into the 1990s with Cracker. The band surprised the alternative rock world with their ironic lyrical twists and warm, but still sharp, sound. Amazon.com editor Kevin Cole and Lowery discuss Cracker's newest CD and their leader's array of performing interests. Read Amazon.com's interview Fighting the Foo Commander-in-Foo Dave Grohl opens up about the future of the Foo Fighters, and his past loves (Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Pixies, and the DC punk and Go-Go scenes) in an interview with Amazon.com's Randy Silver. Read Amazon.com's interview Days in the Sun With his debut CD, Into the Sun, Sean Lennon indulged all manner of musical obsessions. From sugary pop vocals to distorted guitar layers, Lennon made his promise clear. He is equally capable of a convincing samba or a blasting invective. Amazon.com music editor Kevin Cole talks with Lennon about Into the Sun and his ideas on music and society. Read Amazon.com's interview Marcy Storyteller Having gotten the storytelling itch while attending an open school in Minneapolis, Marcy Playground's John Wozniak made a hit record from his stories. He talks with Amazon.com's Andrew Bartlett about his days on the playground and in rock's hot seat. Read Amazon.com's interview Radiohead and a Noisy World Possibly the most celebrated maverick rock act since Nirvana, Radiohead is at a peak. But the band's lyricist and singer, Thom Yorke, remains pessimistic. In fact, he admits to feeling a few faint strains of optimism only when he was a child--back in the 1970s. "But something sort of went really, badly wrong in the '80s," says Yorke. So if OK Computer induces vertigo with its strange power, don't worry, because Yorke knows our condition: "We're basically standing on the edge of a precipice--there's just no way, either ecologically or economically, for us to sustain this thing that we've got. It's just not going to happen." Amazon.com contributor Tom Lanham gets to the heart of the matter with the head of Radiohead. Read Amazon.com's interview Little Blurry Photographs Vic Chesnutt's The Salesman and Bernadette is a stunning and soulful gem. In collaboration with the Lambchop family, Chesnutt backs his sad-happy songs with an artful scrim that hints at elements of soul, country, Brian Wilsonesque pop flourishes, and postrock collage. It's a concept album of sorts, casting the story of an ill-fated love affair with tender insight. Amazon.com contributor Jason Josephes talks with the artist about the album's incarnation and subsequent reincarnation. Read Amazon.com's interview Girls with One R On the same day, both Julie Ruin and Moon Pix were released to the indie world, the products of two very different young women. Julie Ruin, the alter ego of Kathleen Hanna, is a sprawling congregation of punk-rock ethos and lo-fi electronica. Moon Pix, from Cat Power (the nom de plume of Chan Marshall), is a loping, dreamy, and moody meditation. Despite the apparent dissimilarities, Amazon.com writer Lois Maffeo encourages a close listening to the two albums to discover an exciting, new, and challenging state-of-the-union manifesto for women in rock. Read Amazon.com's article Blues Attack As Jon Spencer explains to Amazon.com writer Neal Weiss, the Blues Explosion isn't just a band--it's a philosophy of rock & roll as "strange, crazy, bizarre music." They preach the gospel on Acme, which infuses their bloodcurdling manic stomp with a butt-shaking groove. Read Amazon.com's interview Rhymes with "Suck" Despite a name that keeps them off club marquees and blacklisted from newspapers, the boys in Fuck have developed an audience loyal to the low-key quirky grooves highlighted on their 1998 album, Conduct. Amazon.com contributor Rob O'Conner catches up with bassist Ted Ellison to try to find out what he'll name his new kid. Yikes. Read Amazon.com's article Scotch Rock In 1997, Belle & Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister was such an unprecedented delight that The Boy with the Arab Strap was perhaps 1998's most anticipated album. And deservedly so. A loose collective gathered under the auspices of the charming and coy Stuart Murdoch, Belle & Sebastian create quirky, melancholy, gorgeous, and soulful folk compositions that are immediately and sweetly infectious. Raves one Amazon.com customer about The Boy with the Arab Strap: "If it were vinyl I would need a replacement by now.... This truly is a monumental work in the genre." Amazon.com contributor Lois Maffeo, a belle in her own right, takes a look at the shy band and the Scottish musical scene that spawned them. Read Amazon.com's article Breathing Easy After three albums for Sony, singer/songwriter James McMurtry went indie with Walk Between the Raindrops for Sugar Hill. It's a mix of everything from blues to country to folk to rock & roll, but it's all solid; the son of the author of Lonesome Dove and The Last Picture Show has established his own voice. Amazon.com writer Robert Gordon talks with McMurtry about darkness, loneliness, and Mormons on the doorstep. Read Amazon.com's article The Muscularity of Language Kevin Gordon has always put "Chuck Berry and Walt Whitman in the same bag." On his debut Cadillac Jack's #1 Son, he flexes an Americana mixture of roadhouse rockabilly, honky-tonk, swamp rock, and lyrical might. Amazon.com writer Geoffrey Himes talks with the pride of Monroe, Louisiana. Read Amazon.com's article All Mixed Up So what's up with all those full-length remix records by artists from Bush to Japanese cult singer Takako Minekawa? And is there a musician alive or dead exempt from this growing trend? Amazon.com writer Aidin Vaziri investigates the phenomenon's history in 1980s dance music and talks with High Llamas' frontman Sean O'Hagan about his band's new remix record, Lollo Rosso. Read Amazon.com's article Altered State Before the Chemical Brothers even entered Planet Dust, Manchester, England's 808 State mastered the melding of pop and dance music with pioneering cuts like "Pacific 707" and "Cubik." 808:88:98 documents the quartet's classic first decade of dance-floor experimentation. Amazon.com writer Aidin Vaziri talks to the band about the collection, their influential music, and what's in store for decade number two. Read Amazon.com's article Just Humor Them Groundbreaking dance-pop artists Saint Etienne prove there's life after the hype on Good Humor. Amazon.com writer Ken Micallef talks to the British trio about the record, their influences, and how they've kept their spirits up over the years. Read Amazon.com's article Dispatch from the Front What do Front Line Assembly, Delerium, Cyberaktif, Intermix, Noise Unit, Equinox, Synaesthesia, and Pro-Tech have in common? Two words: Bill Leeb. True workaholics, Leeb and his musical partner, Chris Peterson, generate an average of three new albums each year, from industrial dance to ambient trance. Eleven years and two personnel changes since Front Line's debut, Amazon.com's Steve Landau sits down to talk with Leeb and Peterson about their 1998 remix disc Re-Wind, their fierce independence, and what makes all the sweat worthwhile. Read Amazon.com's article Chemical Reaction With his second full-length, You've Come a Long Way, Baby, Fatboy Slim's big, beat-heavy, block-rockin' tunes placed him at the heart of any serious party. Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy)'s rock-savvy dance music helps move contemporary party sounds back to the best elements of 1960s frat rock--it's loud, it's drunken, and it sounds great. Amazon.com writer Aidin Vaziri talks to Cook about his Chemical Brothers dependency and other influences. Read Amazon.com's article Space Is the Place From art-house punk to DIY singer/songwriter to cool ambient vocalist, Lida Husik has never been predictable. On Faith in Space, Husik teams up once more with electronica producer Beaumont Hannant for another session of homegrown dance tunes. Amazon.com writer Rob O'Connor talks to Husik about her diverse songwriting and the lessons she's learned from her numerous collaborations. Read Amazon.com's article Revenge of the Nerd Not all drum & bass music is made up of terrifying bass quakes and superfast "Funky Drummer" James Brown samples. One need look no further than the music of unrepentant fan-boy geek Wagon Christ--a.k.a. Luke Vibert--for proof. His Tally Ho! is a quirkily eccentric space-age-bachelor-pad jungle journey. Amazon.com writer Ken Micallef hangs out with Vibert, thumbing through comic books and chatting about electronic music. Read Amazon.com's article Sex, Drugs, and Percussion Mickey Hart speaks of sex, drugs, and the importance of percussion. Amazon.com writer Stephanie Mansfield interviews the renowned drummer for the Dead about his latest album, Supralingua, and the dawning of the "rhythm century." Read Amazon.com's article Reel Life Barry Adamson makes fascinating music that doesn't fit into any genre--it can best be described as soundtrack music for movies that don't yet exist. He started out in the indie and punk world as bassist for Magazine and for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Amazon.com writer Gavin McNett talks with this musical omnivore about his intriguing music and his 1998 album, As Above, So Below. Read Amazon.com's article Trick or Treat Amazon.com asked three simple questions to a handful of musicians, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine and Cowboy Junkies' Mike Timmins among them. Discover which music scares them, their most vivid Halloween memory, and a particular song or musical event that was unintentionally spooky. Read Amazon.com's interview Blues Explosion How did Beck producer Tom Rothrock end up remixing old-school bluesman R.L. Burnside on Come On In? Simple: Burnside asked him to. Amazon.com writer Justin Hampton spoke to Rothrock about the collaboration. Read Amazon.com's article Feedback for Christmas Steve Vai and the brotherhood of rock guitarists celebrate the holidays in their own special six-stringed way on the most excellent disc Merry Axemas, Vol. 2: More Guitars for Christmas. Amazon.com writer Kevin Cook talks with Vai about the ways Christmas music and adventurous classic rock can coexist. Read Amazon.com's interview Jock Jams Crowds yelling and screaming. Everybody's got their eyes on a bunch of sweaty people in tight clothing. Quick: Are you at a concert or the World Series? Amazon.com writer David Sprague takes a look at some jocks who rock. Read Amazon.com's article Loony Tunes Just about anyone who was ever a kid grew up on the music of Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott. Chances are that they scored the music of your life, from the first time you slipped on a banana peel to the last time an Acme anvil dropped on your head. Read Amazon.com's article High-Speed Connection With the reissue of pioneering electronic music artist Synergy's recordings from the Chronicles label, composer Larry Fast returns to the spotlight. Read Amazon.com's interview with the creator of Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra, Sequencer, Cords, Semi-Conductor, and more. Read Amazon.com's interview Early Music for the Late Millennium With their debut, Salva Nos, the MediÊval BÊbes first climbed the British classical charts in late 1997. Marketed to the pop world as white-gowned etherealists, this 12-piece ensemble has its origins in another British pop-meets-ancient-music ensemble, Miranda Sex Garden. Amazon.com contributor Matthew Westphal catches up with the BÊbes and finds them refreshingly earth-bound--and altogether interesting. Read Amazon.com's article Hotter Than "Hell" The Squirrel Nut Zippers are back with their third album, Perennial Favorites, after the belated success of 1996's Hot. Guitarist Tom Maxwell talks about their truly alternative blend. Read Amazon.com's article Canadian Invasion What does it take for a north-of-the-border band to win your love? Barenaked Ladies have a hit with their new album Stunt, while Moxy Früvous fight to get their Live Noise heard. Read Amazon.com's article Top of the Pops On his solo live album The Storyteller and in his book X-Ray, Kinks leader Ray Davies recalls his early years--including the pre-rock influences of music hall and "That Old Black Magic." In an exclusive interview with Amazon.com's Rickey Wright, Davies discusses his personal response to those sounds. Read Amazon.com's interview True Blue Rod Stewart made some of the most soulful rock & roll ever when he really was a new boy. Amazon.com's Rickey Wright listens to 1998 remasters of his solo classics. Read Amazon.com's article The Big Bad Voodoo That They Do "Overnight success" often comes to bands that have worked for years before becoming stars. New-swingers Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, whose self-titled album went gold, are one of 1998's not-so-instant breakthroughs. Leader Scotty Morris talks about stardom and the roots of his group's sound. Read Amazon.com's interview The Elvis Costello Essentials We survey two decades of work by one of pop's most prolific, adventurous singer/songwriters. Read Amazon.com's article Digging the Beach Boys The Beach Boys' Endless Harmony is a treasure trove of great music and oddities--including a song that took 29 years to finish. Al Jardine talks to Amazon.com's Rickey Wright about "Loop de Loop (Flip Flop Flyin' in an Aeroplane)" and other excavation operations. Read Amazon.com's article Simply Red Goes Blue Simply Red return with a fresh approach on their new album Blue. "I knew it wasn't going to be the same again," says singer Mick Hucknall. Read Amazon.com's article Pain No More After hitting it big as a member of House of Pain, Everlast makes it back into the spotlight with Whitey Ford Sings the Blues. Amazon.com's Randy Silver sits down for a talk with one of the few MCs around that reference Neil Young as easily as the Fat Boys. Read Amazon.com's interview Table Manners Mix Master Mike steps into the highest-profile DJ spot there is: spinning the wheels of steel for the Beastie Boys. It should be no sweat for Mike, an internationally known DJ and cofounder of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. Amazon.com writer Martin Johnson catches up with Mike to talk about Anti-Theft Device, his first solo album. Read Amazon.com's article The Beastie Boys Essentials The evolution of the Beastie Boys has been incredible to watch--and even more fun to listen to. From the bratty kids who made "Egg Raid on Mojo" (from Some Old Bullshit) to the politically conscious--but still playful--guys who collaborated with Lee "Scratch" Perry, Biz Markie, and Mix Master Mike on Hello Nasty, the Beasties have managed to survive immaturity, celebrity, and even their roles as tastemakers and trendsetters for a generation. Amazon.com has sorted the Beaties' oeuvre into the essentials, the collection builders, those perfect for the completist, and suggested works from some of their collaborators. Read Amazon.com's article Hello Beasties The Beastie Boys are a busy bunch, what with their runaway hit Hello Nasty, Grand Royal Records, and the Tibetan Freedom Concert. They've gone from being Ill to being Nasty, and Amazon.com contributor Aidin Vaziri gets the story from Mike D, MCA, and Ad Rock. Read Amazon.com's article Haydn from the Headbangers What happens when Fear Factory (Obsolete), Virgin Steele (Invictus), and Cradle of Filth (Cruelty and the Beast) meet Paganini, Vivaldi, and Wagner? There's moshing in the orchestra pit as a new generation of bands forges a metal-classical alliance. Roll over Beethoven and tell Metallica the news! Amazon.com writer Bryan Reesman explores the trend. Read Amazon.com's article Janis Before the Fall The newly issued Live at Winterland documents Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company in their halcyon days. Amazon.com writer Myra Friedman, author of Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin, looks back at the work of her unfathomable friend, a woman who was "genius and junkie, rock diva and drunk." Read Amazon.com's article Master Kraftsmen Kraftwerk have returned to the stage for the first time in 17 years, earning a warm worldwide reception for their chilly sounds. Amazon.com writer Jerry McCulley reexamines the oeuvre of a group whose influence on contemporary music continues unabated while its members keep their distance. Read Amazon.com's article As Good As He'll Let It Perhaps there ought to be a game called Six Degrees of John Hiatt. Since moving to Nashville in the late '60s, this roots rocker has, not unlike Lucinda Williams, penned tunes that have become hits by performers no more talented though better known to the masses. Furthermore, Hiatt has worked with a veritable who's who of country and rock. He talks rock & roll with Amazon.com writer Paige La Grone. Read Amazon.com's interview Sound Mechanics With Garage Inc., the stout men of Metallica put the pedal to the metal while putting the wrench to a wide-ranging array of songs from the likes of Nick Cave, Black Sabbath, and... Bob Seger? Amazon.com's Steffan Chirazi sits down with frontman James Hetfield to discuss paying tribute to pathfinders and maintaining a rock institution while raising a family. Read Amazon.com's interview Guilt by Association Songsmith, film composer, and ever-engaging misanthrope--that's Randy Newman in a nutshell. Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman presents the scourge of deities and the diminutive alike in all his raging glory. Amazon.com editor Steven Stolder talks to the guilty party about how it feels to be a ruthless songwriter. Read Amazon.com's interview The Odessey of the Zombies Long one of the most brilliant--and underappreciated--bands of the British Invasion, the Zombies have been given a glowing reappraisal thanks to the appearance of a lavish box set, Zombie Heaven, and the rerelease of their misplaced masterpiece, Odessey and Oracle. Amazon.com editor Steven Stolder talks with the band's Colin Blunstone about being lost... and found. Read Amazon.com's interview The Garbage Man Before he hit the charts with Garbage's self-titled debut and its stimulating successor, Version 2.0, Butch Vig had put in decades of work as a club rocker and cut-rate producer. Amazon.com's Steven Stolder talks to Vig about his current band as well as his landmark work with Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, and less-celebrated idols of the underground. Read Amazon.com's interview Guilt by Association Year after year, renaissance man/pop musician Randy Newman has delivered interesting soundtracks that are somehow both compelling and humorous. In 1998, he delivered three gems: A Bug's Life, Pleasantville, and even a box set anthology, Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman. Amazon.com editor Steven Stolder talks to the guilty party about how it feels to be such a ruthless songwriter-composer. Read Amazon.com's interview Pop's Grace Period Painted from Memory, the critically lauded collaboration between postpunk songwriter-poet Elvis Costello and '60s pop master Burt Bacharach, originated with Allison Anders's Grace of My Heart, a winning look back to the glories of American pop on the eve of the rock revolution. Part soap opera, part pop time capsule, it's one of several tuneful features that shed light on this overlooked era. Read Amazon.com's article

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