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Who Is the Man?
Isaac Hayes talks about Scientology, Stax, and a town called South Park. [2]
Matt Hanks

What's in a Name
"Weekly Alibi" recommends the most bitchin' names for your band. [3]
Benny Villalobos

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Laugh Tracks
In Virginia, Boston's Quintaine Americana were met with an audience yelling "Go home! Devil band! Go home!" But they've cheered up since then. [4]
Jon Garelick

Magnum's Opus
Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Magnum has engaged in the kind of flirtation with nonsense that has engendered more than a few comparisons between him Bob Dylan. [5]
Carly Carioli

Sweet Dreams Are Made of These
Bedhead dares you to disagree. [6]
Brendan Doherty

Psycheblues
Gov't Mule put the power and psychedelia back in blues rock with an authority and imagination not seen in 30 years. [7]
Ted Drozdowski

Pop and Circumstance
Who is Peru's leading Afro-pop diva, and why is she hanging out with Texas nightingale Tish Hinojosa and Zimbabwe songbird Stella Chewishe? [8]
Brendan Doherty

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SXSW Record Reviews
Reviews of albums by bands playing this year's music conference, plus showcase info. [16]

Sangre de Toro
The Damnations
Meat Purveyors
Morningwood
Damon Bramlett

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Slick 'ric
Eric Clapton's new CD, Pilgrim, manages to be pleasant without pleasing. [14]
Richard C. Walls

Pop on the Rocks
No matter how much irony went into making the songs on the Presidents of the United States' farewell CD, they were quickly transformed into disposable pop product. [15]
Matt Ashare

Shaft!

You got that right.

If you really did get that right, you'll want to dig into this interview with Isaac Hayes , who penned the above movie theme for the famous blaxploitation film "Shaft." Because to put it more succinctly, Who's the man who's the musical Scientologist and does "South Park" voices just for kicks? Isaac!

Oh, before we forget, let's get something clear. See the header on the left that says "SXSW Preview"? We want you to know that no, that doesn't stand for Some Xylophones Sound Weird. Actually it's all about Austin's South-by-Southwest, a.k.a. SXSW, music festival. It's the coolest music festival on God's brown earth, and you can read even more about it at the online version of the Austin Chronicle, if it'll make you happy. And we know it will.

What makes us happy are bands with funny names. Not necessarily funny "ha ha" names, though those work too. Here's a perky piece suggesting potential band names for odd musical entities.

Want to play a game? See if you can tell the following "funny" band-name suggestions from actual artists written about elsewhere in this issue. Click on a real band and you'll go to a story about them. Click on a "funny" band and you'll go to the piece on crazy band names . Ready? Begin.

Neutral Milk Hotel, Fried Jumbo, Damnations, Liquid Bitch, the Meat Purveyors, Milky White Discharge, Morningwood, Fatty & The Big Shiny Buckles , The Presidents of the United States of America , Knit Hatful o' Ganga, Bedhead, Snoop Doggy Style, Gov't Mule , and Skoal.

Which is illusion? Which is true?

We would have included Susana Baca and Eric Clapton, but since those are so obviously zany made-up "funny" names, what would be the point?

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Boston Phoenix CD Reviews
Spacehog, Natalie Imbruglia, Mark Mulcahy, the Handsome Family, Adam F, Nick Kelly, Finley Quaye, Odean Pope Trio, and Curlew. [17]

Rhythm & Views
Momus, Air French Band, Frank Zappa. [18]

Tiny Tunes
Reviews of Biopsy's "Cervix State Sequences" and Congo Norvell's "Abnormals Anonymous." [19]
Decomposed Tommy, Andrea Norie

Now What?
If you go gaga over the sultry smoothness of a symphonic glissando, just wait till you experience our transitions to cool and useful music links on the Web. [20]

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