APPROPRIATE SONG LYRIC OF THE WEEK

"Sun is shining…" Bob Marley

FAME! I'M GONNA LIVE FOREVER

What's black and white and red all over? This column. Okay, the response hasn't been that good (and it certainly didn't deserve such a bad joke in return) but it's been good to hear from some of you. (Oh, and shouts out to Cabot E partygoers last Friday.) Speaking of hearing from you, a member of the freshman quintet Invisible Down Town (I.D.T.) e-mailed me to say they're making their campus-wide debut with a free concert in Loker on Saturday March 11. Some of you may be on their mailing list already, and others may have seen the posters plastered around campus, including a lone one in front of the John Harvard statue base. (Question: is it a good idea to put publicity materials that you want people to believe in front of the Three Lies?) In any case, they're performing with North House, who I think are incredibly talented, and the Mark Robinson 4. Good times, good times.

On a not-unrelated note, congratulations Bonnie Raitt, Class of 72, on the Hall of Fame induction. How many people from Harvard go on to do music as part of their lives? Every time people from our school become famous in entertainment it's always for work on TV or movies. I'm scratching my head to go beyond Raitt, Pete Seeger '47 and Rivers Cuomo, Class of . If you happen to be a repository of arcane Harvard trivia, please tell me a few more.

IT'S A LIMP GENRE, Y'ALL

Irony in Music Department: Britney Spears recently launched a brand of bubble gum.

While I love working with publicity firms and record companies, all of them seem to have independently come up with the same idea: promoting bands that play rock-rap, punk-industrial or any other sound that might be described more generically as ‘hardcore.' Apparently the success of Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit et. al. has caused all of these bands to crawl out of the woodwork. Now, it's been hard convincing myself, or any other writers for Arts, that this is worth reviewing – I think the trend's run its course. Is this really the sound of the '00s? More importantly, are the '00s the noughties?

MY PREROGATIVE

What I Learned From the Soul Train Awards Department: Whitney is still married to Bobby Brown? Hot damn!

People often come up to me and say things like, "Hey, the Radiohead album comes out this summer!" (time frame varies according to rumour) Which is exciting, I guess, except I don't quite get waiting around for one band to come out with material. Celebrity be damned – I'll evaluate songs on their own merits, and there's lots of good stuff that comes out all the time. I suppose it really boils down to a question of what your attitude towards music listening is. If you only listen to two albums a year (ooh, movie-trailer-speak!), it might be important to attach value to the brand names that musical celebrities have become. But the problem is when celebrities can sell anything regardless of quality.

Theorem: celebrities can sell anything regardless of quality

Proof: Madonna's version of "American Pie"

Oh wait, I just read that on April 3 Elastica release their second album. Forget everything I've said.

AND THE MUSIC KEEPS ON PLAYING ON AND ON

Signs that the World is Ending Department: the Vengaboys are scheduled to release a new album.

Last week, the Boston Phoenix became a free newspaper. So with the Phoenix, the Weekly Dig, the Improper Bostonian and Stuff @ Night all competing with the Crimson's very own (and very excellent) FM for the listings market, this section of the column isn't going to be comprehensive. It's more about my personal thoughts on upcoming concerts, especially since ticket sales often begin on a Friday.

For those of you not attending the concert in Loker, a whole bunch of interesting concerts are coming up this week. Long Beach Dub Allstars continue the Californian ska-punk-rock invasion today – read about it next week. Question: Is it really an invasion? It's hard to tell when your roommate is from southern California and that's all he listens to. Does anyone from the East Coast care? Meanwhile, Crash-22 comes to the Karma club in an extravaganza that somehow includes jugglers and visual artists on Mar. 12. Sounds interesting. At least that way you don't have the silly "let's make the crowd wait two hours for us to come on stage – it'll make them more excited" attitude. And in the ascending order of talent, descending order of fame department: Paula Cole, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and the Push Stars take to the Avalon stage on Mar. 15, 16 and 17 respectively.

Meanwhile, Blue Light Special moments: Smashing Pumpkins finally announced a show months in advance, instead of hitting small underground clubs at the last minute like they've been doing recently. They play a show April 29 at the Tsongas Arena; tickets go on sale today at 3pm. Also, Third Eye Blind has just added a second date, April 25, to their concert schedule at the Orpheum (tickets go on sale today at 11a.m.). Who ever said columns couldn't be informative, eh?