Three Imaginary Girls - Virgin

Imaginary Interview: Fountains of Wayne

ChrisB — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:25:06 +0000

For as long as I’ve been a “serious” music fan, one of my favorite bands was Fountains of Wayne, the powerpop band from New Jersey whose songs are often about socially awkward characters trying to find their place in the real world – although best known for their single “Stacy’s Mom”. When I found out that the band was set to embark on a short, acoustic tour at the beginning of 2009 (including a stop on January 15 at the Triple Door here in Seattle), I jumped at the opportunity to interview songwriter/bassist Adam Schlesinger, where we discussed his band, its future and the songwriting process.

With two songwriters in Fountains of Wayne, you and Chris Collingwood, how do you write songs together?

Well, we don’t really collaborate in songwriting anymore. Even though we still share the songwriting credits, most of the songs are either my songs entirely or his songs entirely and we work on them in the studio. Someone else might have a suggestion or two about a line but we don’t really collaborate anymore. We did when we started the band but now we live in different states.

You work on a lot of different projects, including music for television and film. How do you decide what is going to be a FOW song or what is going to be for something else?

When I write songs, I usually have a particular singer in mind. There have been a few cases where I’ve written something for someone else and we ended up using it but that is very rare. Usually I have to write with a particular singer in mind to even get an idea going.

I really enjoy FOW songs because the characters are easy to relate to, at least in my own life. Are they autobiographical in any way?

I write songs about made-up characters but there might be details I include from my own life. Chris writes some songs like “Valley Winter Song” which is his and about his home. The diary-like songs are mostly his.

There are a lot of timely, pop culture references in your songs. For example, “Someone to Love” references characters that watch “King of Queens” and listen to Coldplay. Do you worry about when those references fade from the cultural memory?

Yeah, it’s true those songs are very of the moment sometimes but I remember listening to Beatles or Kinks songs as a kid and not knowing what those songs meant but to me, they’re grounded in a particular time or place.

FOW’s biggest hit is probably “Stacy’s Mom”, was there anything that stood out when you were making it that made you think it could be a hit?

At that point we felt like we had written a bunch of songs that we thought were good. We had just gotten lucky with that one. In fact, when we made that record, Welcome Interstate Managers, we didn’t even have a record deal. We just made the record on our own and when we were done we put together three or four songs and sent them to record companies. “Stacy’s Mom” was one of them. The people who heard it didn’t think it was a hit song. We got lucky and one guy that heard it thought it could be a hit and he was the one who gave us a deal and spent some money to give us a shot.

But you never know with that stuff. I don’t think we set out to write a hit; we always set out to write catchy songs and we just cross our fingers and hope the stars align and one of them does better than the rest. It was just one of those songs people started hearing and requesting it on radio stations and you began hearing it more and more. It’s a different world now. I don’t know if that would happen in 2009.

Do you feel any pressure to make another hit like that?

Right now we’re just making a conscious effort to make stuff we like and feel comfortable playing. We’re lucky in that over the twelve years we’ve been able to develop a small, but loyal, fan base. We’re just trying to count on them and we’re not trying to have a top 40 hit every time. It would be nice but for us, it is more important that we make records we like.

Are there any songs that are your favorites or that you are particularly proud of?

There are a lot that I really like and there are some that are fun to play each night. There are some songs that we’ve pretty played since we started the band that I still enjoying playing. “Radiation Vibe” is obviously one of them. That’s a song Chris wrote but it is the song that pretty much started the band. I just thought it was amazing and still love playing it every night.

For me, the most satisfying part of writing a song is if you have an off-beat idea and you struggle with it for a while and ultimately it comes together. There are some songs for me like “All Kinds of Time”, from Welcome Interstate Managers, that we don’t play it live much but I’m really proud of it because I think it’s a really strange idea for a song and somehow it ends up being kind of moving in the end. You never know when that’s going to happen. It’s a terrible idea on paper – it’s about a football player and there’s no particular reason why this song should have come out. It didn’t have any emotional resonance but when all the music came together, it gave the song much more weight than I expected.

That’s another thing with songwriting. I often start off with a lyrical idea first then take musical ideas with it; but it really is interesting how words and music interact. A song may look a certain way on paper but when you hear it on top of a certain melody, it has a whole new meaning than what you might expect. I think that is what happened with that song.

As you said earlier, you and Chris both live in different states, how do you write now?

We just get together for like a week or so in the studio and work with what got and try some stuff out. Even if a tune doesn’t knock us out on an acoustic guitar, we’ll still play around with it.

I remember when Chris brought in “Red Dragon Tattoo” and he was down on it and kind of embarrassed about it but we all really liked it and wanted to give it a shot. After jamming on it for a bit we came up with a different approach then what he might have had in his head and then he got excited about it too and it ended up becoming a staple song for us.

How do the other members of the band, drummer Brian Young and guitarist Jody Porter, fit in to the songwriting process?

Well, up to this point, we’ve been the sole songwriters but I don’t want to minimize their contributions. As we’ve grown as a band, I think Chris and I have gotten more comfortable leaving more to chance in the studio. There are a lot of times where one of those guys will offer a part that really alters the song. It might be a guitar part from Jody or a drum part from Brian, but their contributions are essential. It’s really nice having four guys that really get along because our instincts are all similar in terms of what works best for us and the band. They have definitely brought in a lot of crucial ideas.

What is going on with the next Fountains of Wayne record?

We started a new record and have been in the studio for a few months here and there but we probably have a way to go. We’re playing some shows at the beginning of the year to try out some of the new songs. That and it’ll be nice to get out of New York during the winter.

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Be sure not to miss the prolific powerpop band when they play at the Triple Door on January 15 with Jon Auer of The Posies.

Traffic and Weather

ChrisB — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 08:06:27 +0000

7.1

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000N4SKFK/wwwthreeimagi-20

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A few years ago, rock writer Michael Azerrad wrote a book that profiled several underground rock bands from the 1980s to early 1990s. It's a terrific book that everyone should read. But the title, Our Band Could Be Your Life, always bugged me. I know it came from that song by the Minutemen, but there's no way my life could have resembled any of these bands. If you were anything like Henry Rollins, we would not be friends.

My life is fairly ordinary, so I find it easy to fall for a band that writes songs about average, ordinary people. The heroes (or at least protagonists) of songs by Fountains of Wayne all have dull jobs, crappy cars, loneliness and financial issues, or similar problems. Or, more accurately, as one wise reviewer put it, "Fountains of Wayne earned their fanbase by writing songs for socially awkward people in their twenties and thirties who just are not quite ready for the real world." OK, I wrote that, but it's apt.

It is not just that Messrs. Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger write pop songs about unremarkable people that make their band. It's also that the songs are insanely catchy, have tons of hooks, and that Collingwood has the perfect bubblegum voice to bring the songs to life.

Take, for example, “Strapped For Cash,” which starts out with keyboards that sounds like Supertramp’s “The Logical Song," but picks up the pace and begins with tale of a guy who falls in debt to some unsavory characters and just can’t catch a break. “So I headed out west to invest in the races, all the goddamn horses kept falling on their faces; didn’t fare much better at the Taj Mahal, chalk it up to bad luck and free alcohol,” Collingwood sings which is, of course, unfortunate, but we’re also let in on the joke and can laugh at the predicament the character gets himself into.

The title track, “Traffic and Weather” is the story of a local news anchor lusting after his co-host. It is very Ron Burgundy-esque. It might border on creepy (one anchor says, “I like those shorts, I’ve never seen them before, I’d like them even more, lying on my bedroom floor.”) if the song weren't so upbeat and disarmingly funny (and if we could not picture Will Ferrell singing “We belong together like traffic and weather” to Christina Applegate). This is a band whose biggest single was a tale of a guy lusting after his girlfriend’s mom, after all.

Another standout track is the single “Somebody to Love,” which has many of the same elements that made “Stacy’s Mom” a hit: memorable lyrics and backing harmonies (this time provided by Melissa Auf Der Mar, the former Smashing Pumpkins bassist has never sounded better). It's the story of two lonely professional singles -- Seth Shapiro is a lawyer who calls his mom and likes Coldplay; Beth Mackenzie is a photo editor, which is the “job of her dreams – retouching photos for a magazine aimed at teens.” -- meeting and falling in love in an indefatigablely optimistic pop song. Plus, Fountains of Wayne may also be the first band to write a song about having a crush on a girl at the DMV (“Yolanda Hayes”).

It has been about four years since the last proper FOW record, the brilliant Welcome Interstate Managers, and the FOW output during that gap has been good but uninspired (a collection of b-sides and a song for an animated movie, among others). Traffic and Weather is not perfect: the metaphor of waiting for a taxi in the rain is used twice in songs about loneliness (“Somebody to Love” and “The Hotel Majestic”) and not every song works (“Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim” is sweet but its lyrics are simple and lack the cleverness of countless other songs in the deep FOW catalogue). But overall the album is very good news for socially awkward power-pop music fans like me.

But overall the album is very good news for socially awkward power-pop music fans like me.

The Good the Bad and the Queen

The Mad Professor — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 05:29:38 +0000

6.2

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000IAZ3E0/wwwthreeimagi-20

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I must confess, I have an unnatural fascination for what happens after successful bands split. What they do next? Who do they work with? What musical directions they take: new bands, solo work, side projects? Whatever happens never ceases to surprise, mystify, or amaze me, sometimes all at the same time. It would seem that talent and chemistry as a group, once separated, can lead to anything from "OMFG that's even better (unreasonable usage of exclamation points)" all the way to "WTF were you thinking (similarly for question marks)" and everything in-between.

With their four albums from 1994 and 1999 (Parklife, The Great Escape, Blur, and 13) Damon Albarn and Blur pretty much ruled the world, or at least the English-speaking portion in the colder and wetter Northwest corner of Europe. However, after the departure of Blur collaborator and instrumental genius Graham Coxon, and Blur's Coxon-less misadventure Think Tank, Damon found that he needed new avenues to realize his musical visions.

Following the revolving door band Gorillaz, who produced a couple of albums to great media coverage but lacking, IMO, vision, or substance, Damon's next and latest venture is The Good, The Bad & The Queen (heretoafter to be known acronomiously as TGTBATQ), compromised of Captain Blur himself with Verve/Gorillaz guitarist Simon Tong, Clash bassist Paul Simonon, and drummer Tony Allen, a founder of Afrobeat and Afrofunk. As someone who was mad for Blur and lukewarm on Gorillaz, I was totally ready to embrace TGTBATQ. However...

Damon Albarn remains a most gifted songwriter. But listening to TGTBATQ, it came across as incomplete, unfulfilled, unrealized, and left me wanting more. Much more...

TGTBATQ opens with "The History Song," a track that initially grabbed me and made me think "f*%!, I'm gonna love this album!!!" However, as the bars ticked by, it became increasingly apparent that the song was never going to shift direction (which it doesn't) and I soon found myself wanting to try the next track instead. And then the next, then the next, the next, and… (repeat ad infinitum). As Lord Scrumptious says in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: "Time's up. Had your chance. Muffed it." Thus unable to find direction in TGTBATQ's music, I turned instead to the lyrics for solace…

Damon has described the TGTBATQ as "a song cycle that's also a mystery play about London," hence, presumably, the title (geddit?): your regular big city, except that in this one, the Queen lives there too (not Helen Mirren -- the real Queen, as in God save the…). However no cigar once again, with seemingly meaningless lines like "In a tide end town / Everyone hallucinating on you / But a Northern whale / Wouldn't leave until all Englands tears are done" (sic) ("Northern Whale") and "Pull out the bunting / She made them one by one / Hang em in the trees / untill a breeze it comes" (sic) ("The Bunting Song"). Coupled with the "artistic" and repeated use of deliberate typos (according to the liner notes), the lyrics come across as less like a mystery play, and more like bad teenage poetry.

Following "The History Song," the trio of tracks "A Northern Whale," "Kingdom of Doom," and "Herculean" that soon follow are really great ideas that again, ultimately, don't quite deliver on their initial promise. For example, "Kingdom of Doom" comes across as an attempt at a pseudo psychedelic 60s flashback. Rather than convincing me, it instead made me yearn for the far more interesting efforts of early Pink Floyd. And while "Herculean" is easily the best track on the album and its most enjoyable, it reminded me far too much of an early (and superior) Frank Black solo track, "Calistan."

Don't get me wrong, TGTBATQ does have its moments. Unfortunately, after the promising yet frustrating early tracks that reminded me of how great a songwriter is Damon Alban, TGTBATQ seems to lose its shape for most of the rest of the album, culminating in the cringe-worthy final and title track, which seriously sounds like the song you wrote on your dad's piano at age 13, fully expecting to be the next Evan Dando, only to realize 10 years later that 1) it's derivative of everything, and 2) it's kinda crap. And if the painful piano ditty isn't annoying enough, the unnecessary 5+ minute heavy distortion playout has been done before (just once or nine million times...).

In the end, TGTBATQ fell short of my hopes and expectations and after the first few listens, I put it back on the shelf, dusted off my copies of The Great Escape and Blur, and fell in love with the Damon Albarn of ten years ago all over again.

Coupled with the "artistic" and repeated use of deliberate typos (according to the liner notes), the lyrics come across as less like a mystery play, and more like bad teenage poetry.

"This is Not a Love Song" by Public Image Ltd.

Erik Gonzalez — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 08:00:00 +0000

This is one of those songs that either you like it (where I fall) or you hate it with the fire of a thousand suns (where 99% of the people I know fall). Let's see, it's (a) highly repetitive; (b) features Johnny Lydon's nasal, whiny vocals; (c) kind of a weird disco-punk from the early 1980's. Not exactly middle America's cup of tea. "This is Not a Love Song" almost appears as a performance art piece disguised as music, making a statement about writing a song that isn't a love song, and making sure we know it's not a love song. It might sound a little dated these days, but when you listen to "This is Not a Love Song" in 2007, you begin to realize that lots of today's current dance rock bands owe a large debt to Public Image Ltd. Heck, PiL practically invented the genre after the demise of the Sex Pistols allowed Johnny to combine punk & dance into a gooey mess. Listen to pretty much anything by the Rapture and what do you get? Whiny vocals, guitars and dance beats, repetitive lyrics. For that, Johnny Lydon can know that no matter how much his talk shows fail or his unpleasant Sex Pistols reunion tours might offend, PiL will live in on all these bands.

{iPod Roulette is a daily feature from TIG writer Erik Gonzalez, where he highlights the first track his 11,400 track iPod picks for each day. Think of it as your imaginary daily affirmation.}

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It almost appears as a performance art piece disguised as music, making a statement about writing a song that isn't a love song, and making sure we know it's not a love song.

Out-of-State Plates

ChrisB — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 07:00:00 +0000

6.5

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009OL808/wwwthreeimagi-20

fountainsOW05jul.jpg

Listening to a two-disc collection of b-sides can be akin to having dinner at the Old Country Buffet. There's often a lot for consumption, and it is not going to be too terribly expensive — but in the end it is still not very good. In that sense, New Jersey's Fountains of Wayne's latest, Out-of-State Plates is no exception.

Plates was released, presumably, to appease FOW fans who have been eagerly anticipating a follow-up to their 2003 masterpiece, Welcome Interstate Managers, their third full-length album that earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist making them leaders of the ridiculously named "power pop" genre (thanks to the song "Stacy's Mom"). Whether or not their claims to fame are apt or not, Fountains of Wayne earned their fanbase by writing songs for socially awkward people in their twenties and thirties who just are not quite ready for the real world.

Even though some of the songs on Plates appear unfinished, FOW prove that they still have a knack for capturing mundane life in suburbia. One highlight is "I'll Do The Driving" — which is sonically very similar to "Supercollider" from Managers. It is a tale of a relationship where the connection is not cerebral. It contains the clever lyrics, "We're out, the jukebox plays 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' / She says 'I love Johnny Cash — The Man In Red' / I turn my head and pretend I don't hear what she said."

Some of the songs are a little kitsch-y, particularly "California Sex Lawyer" and "I Want an Alien for Christmas". But the single "Maureen" is as catchy as anything in the deep FOW catalogue while their stripped-down, slowed-down version of Britney Spears's "...Baby One More Time" brings in a bit of hook-laden novelty.

Plates is nothing if not a gentle reminder to revisit the previous output. And it should spurn the newly converted to seek out the same previous albums — Managers in particular for FOW is arguably the best pop rock band in America today. While you may not start with Out-of-State Plates, chances are you will end up there.

FOW prove that they still have a knack for capturing mundane life in suburbia.

AstroPOP! for May 2003

chilly c — Thu, 01 May 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Imaginary rock and roll astrology CD reviews by Chilly C for May 2003

Taurus {April 20-May 20}
You're feeling quite a bit, I daresay, licentious this month, Taurus. I feel it. You feel it. Your friends feel it (and trust me they don't want to feel it). How do you assuage this lust? Um, grab the bull by the horns, so to speak, and listen to Sweden's latest export — Caesars' glorious garage-rock comp CD 39 Minutes of Bliss (Astralwerks). The bouncy farfisa and scratchy vocals of breakout single "Jerk It Out" is wink-wink dirty just like your bad dreams, and you'll be feeling better in no time. And the sputtered Buzzcocks-inspired come-on "Let's Go Parking Baby" might even give you some new pick-up lines, so you won't have this loveless problem again. But if you do, Caesars have a song for that as well: "Out Of My Hands." No matter what, they got you covered for the month.

Gemini {May 21-June 21}
Your dual nature can make you totally schizo sometimes, Gemini, but really, who really cares whether it's Castor or Pollux that shines brighter? Take a cue from The Electric Version (Mint/Matador) by New Pornographers The country drawl of Neko Case meshes flawlessly with the Hollies-inspired harmonies of Newman/Dahle/Thurier et al. Here's a group that knows how to play to each everyone's strengths, and their unity-through-diversity puts the 'power' back in power-pop. The lyrics are baffling at times — but you can't take the schizo completely out of the Gemini, can you? Fast and kinetic, direct hits like "The Laws Have Changed" are infectious like SARS. Touch me, twins, I'm sick.

Cancer {June 22-July 22}
I've had it, Cancer. I can't listen to you complain about your freaking job any more. You whine and mope about the crappy pay, the unfulfilling work, the weird smell in the employee lunch room — but never once do I hear you talk about what you're going to do about it. Some advice? Listen to the new self-titled cd by Tart (Smartgirl). You'll never hear Tart whine about their job — especially because their job is to write scorching, breathless anthems for everyone's inner revolutionary. "Keep Breathing" urges us to get outside and feel the air, "Don't Forget" insists that we "live with purpose." With screams and slippery twin guitars derived from the hallowed Tucker/Brownstein tradition, Tart conjure a world where indignation isn't an end in itself — it's a means to healthy self-improvement. And they rock. If listening to this cd doesn't get you up off your ass, Cancer, I don't know what can help you.

Leo {July 23-August 22}
Talent? Creativity? Ambition? You've got it all in spades, Leo. That's no surprise. What is surprising is the fact that the rest of the world hasn't caught on to how great you are yet. Yet. Until then, you are the best-kept-secret of the select few. The Libertines know exactly how you feel. Up The Bracket (Rough Trade) derives an equation that's equal parts Clash, Supergrass, smokes, and Guinness, and the Libertines tear through the 14 songs on their debut's stateside release with a shrug and a sneer that belies their world-domination impulses. "Death On The Stairs" is brilliant in its false indecisiveness — "so baby please kill / oh baby don't kill me." "Time For Heroes" is far less uncertain: the Libertines know it really is time for heroes. And that's you, Leo: coming out of that phone booth in the cape and tights. Talent! Creativity! Ambition! It's your world, now go save it.

Virgo {August 23-September 22}
You want me to tell you what's wrong with you? First off, what makes you so sure I was going to say there was something wrong with you? This defensiveness doesn't become you, Virgo — especially since you're usually the first to parlay your prettiness right into the lap of denial. But looks aren't everything. Evan Dando can tell you that — one minute he was the ultimate alt-pop pinup boy, the next minute he was nowhere. And I don't need to tell you which of those minutes lasted eight years. Dando's first-ever solo cd Baby I'm Bored (Breath Of Salt Water/Bar None) is certainly a step in the right direction. Luckily the title isn't the only thing that's both clever and self-depreciating. The songs are classic Evan: aw-shucks narcissistic, tuneful, and oozing with his curious appeal — like your mom confessing her crush on your prom date. A few songs are sluggish from too much sleep, but "Stop My Head" bounces with well-earned caveats like, "don't listen to me or anybody else / listen to yourself." Did you hear that, Virgo? There's nothing wrong with you.

Libra {September 23-October 22}
I'm only an astrologer, Libra, I can't analyze your dreams. What I would do for you, though, is this. I'd videotape your dreams, and then, when you woke up, I'd play them back for you — with the volume turned all the way down, and with The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates (RCA) playing instead. Your dream begins when a wealthy heiress ("Rich Girl") invites you to a party. A hottie at the party hands you a drink and winks ("One On One"). Then your paramour admits to having watched you from afar all night ("Private Eyes"). Meanwhile, the heiress runs off, leaving you in charge of her estate — but only if you get that law degree you've been thinking about ("Adult Education"). Jeez, this all matches up perfectly! But remember, Libra, I'm no analyst. So I can't tell you what any of this means. I don't feel the need to give such secrets away.

Scorpio {October 23 - November 21}
Scorpio, you're all about keeping in touch this month. How do I know this? The almost fanatical obsession with checking your email inbox every 45 seconds. Sure, you've sent e-mails to everyone you know. And sure, your personality is tide-influencing in its magnetism. But other people have their own lives to lead. So while you're staring at the empty screen, put The Postal Service's excellent release Give Up (Sub Pop) in your D: drive. Jimmy Tamborello's sweet synth loops will calm you down and lift you up. Ben Gibbard's breathy vocals are truly lighter-than-air — which makes the most sense when he's singing about waving from "Such Great Heights." By now you should notice that most of the songs here are about missing someone far away, scheming to get your sweetheart back, or building a fantasy world in which only you and your lover live. Ok, you can wake up now. Your inbox is full!

Sagittarius {November 22-December 21}
Friends look at your latest changes in style like you're bananas, Sag, but I know the truth. When you spend time with the gorillas, you think differently about so-called 'normal' society when you return. Ask Dian Fossey — or Damon Albarn. The Blur frontman's 2000 field study with giant video screens, cartoon monkeys, and Dan the Automator was life-changing in exactly the same way your own personal transformation has been lately. Just-released Think Tank (Virgin) is certainly not your Parklife-era Blur: the digitized voices, tribal drumming, and heavy synths testify to the (now Graham Coxon-less) band's 'new direction.' But "Out Of Time" has the weariness of 96's "The Universal," and the acoustic loop of "Good Song" is resigned and self-aware like Parklife's "To the End." Like you've been trying to tell your friends, don't think of it as a reinvention. There are now just more ways you can be you.

Capricorn {December 22-January 19}
Once again, you've gotten yourself in way too deep: massive debt, juggling a complicated lovelife, not calling your parents very often. Run Baby Run (Buttermilk) by Seattle's RC5 provides a perfect soundtrack to your manic downward spiral. A 5-song blast of white-hot punk-rock fury, this CD is perfect accompaniment for running between restaurants where you've got different dates waiting for you, or for blasting into the receiver when creditors call you. I'm not going to ask you to change, Cap — you're too set in your ways to allow that, but still — not calling your parents is pretty lame. In "Gotta Weekend," the RC5 may be talking about everything they're gonna do on Saturday night, but even hardcore punks call their mom on Sunday morning.

Aquarius {January 20-February 18}
Photo album nostalgia is a warm, fuzzy way for us to look back and assess our own history. But you're a thin-skinned sort, Aquarius, so once you catch yourself in 1992's haircut you wanna just cry and close the book on your past. As sensitive as you are, you should definitely give a listen to the Hardy Mums retrospective Us Chickens (Miller Street). Finally compiled on one cd after years of limited-edition cassette-only releases, these songs from Morristown, New Jersey's greatest band will finally get you to see that the past can really be a wonderful place to visit. The kitchen beat of the lo-fi "What's the Equation?" still delights, the creepy bossa nova of "Hey Girl" still causes shivers. But it's the unreleased tracks that tell us the most: "Get Out While I Still Can" shakes with fever, and "Brussel Sprout (We Are The Turnstiles)" is a surreal masterpiece. Now wipe away your tears, Aquarius. You need to make peace with your past, yes. But, no, you don't have to live there all the time.

Pisces {February 19-March 20}
Spring is here and you've got a fierce jones for the wanderlust. I can't really blame you for not being able to sit still, Pisces. You're finally coming out of your winter doldrums — you deserve to be scanning the horizon for grander opportunities. Ok. First of all, you're going to need some good music for your upcoming road trip and couch-surfing epic. Check out the Femurs' self-titled cd (self-released) — one-man-band Rob Schaeffer feels just like you do: restless, wistful, and looking up and down the I-5 corridor for that perfect place to crash. Catchy indie-pop songs like "Betty's Been Gone" and "Last Train to Memphis" steal the right stuff from the Ramones (the fake English accents!) and the Pixies (those four chords that go together perfectly). Even if you don't hook up with anyone on your trip, you won't feel alone with this CD.

Aries {March 21-April 19}
You come to me for advice, Aries, and I'm going to be honest. So sit down, because what I'm going to tell you — well —the truth is, most of your friends think that you're a little 'out there.' Loco. Hella nuts. But you know, I'm listening to You Are Free (Matador) by Cat Power, and I'm beginning to wonder whether your friends are the ones with the problem. Cat Power's Chan Marshall has certainly been accused of havin' the crazies before, but the songs on this lovely, introspective CD give me a glimpse of a mind that is nothing but sound (ok except for letting Eddie Vedder sing on your record but that's just me). I hear you, Aries, when I hear the forlorn "Shaking Paper," and I hear you in the hypnotic "Speak For Me." You come to me advice, Aries, I'm going to be honest. Don't listen to your friends, don't listen to me. You're doing just fine on your own.

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See what's in the stars -- and the record stores -- for you for May 2003. Includes reviews of the Libertines, Tart, New Pornographers, Caesars, Hall & Oates, and more!