Alternative Rock music reviews

It was an earlier five-song collection that helped introduce Tori Amos to the masses with a quiet cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." There's nothing quite so inspired on Hey Jupiter, which gathers together a remixed version of the title track and four live performances. The remix adds a few high-tech touches at the edges of the song, without either improving or detracting from the original. But fans may be happy with Amos's between-song chatter and an achingly fragile reading of "Somewhere over the Rainbow." --Steve Appleford

Bruce Springsteen used the Jersey Shore as the backdrop for his tragic-heroic tales of everyday people in nowhere places. Ween, as you might expect, have a slightly different take on the proud coastline between New York and Atlantic City, the place where they recorded much of their new album, The Mollusk. Gene and Dean are more interested in dead jellyfish, rusted beer cans, flotsam and jetsam, dirty syringes and other assorted detritus that washes up. As for the kind people who live near the water? Ween's only interested in the ones who lurk at amusement park freak shows--and even then, only the really twisted ones. The Mollusk was made between rounds of surf-fishing for bluefish and bass--both before and after the water pipes burst in their winter beach house/studio, leaving recording equipment adrift in an indoor flood. Naturally, the album sounds thoroughly soaked. This is Ween's 'wet' album, in much the same way last year's 12 Golden Country Greats was their Nashville album. Songs like "The Golden Eel" and "Ocean Man" mine the water motif quite literally, while the hilarious title track and "Polka Dot Tail" take it one step further, the first by aping the dopey Brit folk mysticism of Donovan's "Atlantis" and the second by lumbering whimsically like "Yellow Submarine." Other tracks, such as the opening ditty "I'm Dancing in the Show Tonight," are more impressionistically soaked: the piano notes sprinkle lightly, the tuba plods like a foot through mud, and the vocals warp as if they were accidentally thrown into the washing machine. Though they're good enough songwriters to play it straight and almost get away with it ("It's Gonna Be" sounds pulled from the Peter Cetera songbook), the Ween boys are at their best on songs like "Mutilated Lips," when they're foraging through the grotesque, the surreal, the outright nasty--anything that titillates their sick sense of humor. They're still guys who get off on weird sounds (such as "Pink Eye"'s vacuum cleaner melody and dog bark percussion) and wiener jokes ("Waving My Dick in the Wind"). And what's most fun for us is hearing how much fun it still seems to be for them. --Roni Sarig

Julie Miller's Hightone debut, Blue Pony, was a critical success based on its winning combination of Miller's superior songwriting, plaintive vocals, and husband Buddy's rockin' production. Broken Things is, if anything, a step up, with nary a weak song in the bunch and guest appearances by Patty Griffin, Victoria Williams, Emmylou Harris, and Steve Earle. Many of its charms are encapsulated in the opener, "Ride the Wind to Me": swinging, solid grooves; twangy harmonies (courtesy of hubby); and a chorus that lifts the heart while it captures the ear. Miller's voice is a study in contrasts: an unforced "little-girl" breathiness combined with a bluesy roughness around the edges. Her obvious foundation in country and mountain music and her ability to add slight twists to her lyrics make ballads like "I Still Cry" and the title song into new classics rather than exercises in "retro." Buddy's time in Harris's Spyboy band has helped him add some of the "ambient-roots" sound of Wrecking Ball to the proceedings. It is all to the good, further enhancing an emotionally resonant record. --Michael Ross