The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page 40

THE TIMES shreveporttimes.com 6E FRIDAY. AUGUST 6, 2004 I JUflll IM I III 1 1 msKHi Music Reviews Nothing's gonna stop Scissor Sisters Purchase your copy for $23 at the following locations: The Times Milloy's Photographies Iiie. 222 I ake Street 2303 Milam Street Baptist Church Bookstore Harms Noble Booksellers' iwoaern 664oVouree County Market 37(W Greenwood Road 6363 Hearne Avenue I) Books 29 Kings Highway Flymi's Church Supply Mj lain Street The Gospel Shop 2(K)1 E. Texas, Bossier Greenwood Acres Full Gospel Baptist Church 74S0 Greenwood Road 280ON. Hearne Ave.

1544 Milam Mt. Canaan 1666 Alston' Nubian 3800 block Southern Bookstore 30MVM.LK White's 1023 Norma call Willie or order online sh re veport Lin wood Ave University Jr. Drive Printing Avenue Burton (318)674-3361 at imes.com. S-l fZA Inn i I I Scissor Sisters lead singer Jake Shears and Ana Matronic perform at a club in this March 2004 file photo. The band tries to find a place of their own on their latest release.

7 LJ I i IV I Ill IILIJUUUIIJM- mi neuuiy auion jl WwiMWlffiMi Ami Street I tf 4w A (She Climcg For tt (Mteil and assiast wy to Ofdor tickets, go to com (Atetmaitw- TickBt Centen, Ateno Box Office ot 741 9700 Fw Wo.m.uun csH W81 747-H01 TICKET PRICS: $12 $11 rnsim ci mrM Pickets mis UrtNINti anUVf SAVINGS T1CKLTS CV.Y ffwiida VIP flow IMUl THt TIMES KTBSKVKI OPINING SHOW Vnhil on 9U riH)i' pricn tl 7 A Iff tirlcen i ftAWWIw At.US, 7 CentukyTei rfre Gannett News Service it Scissor Sisters Scissor Sisters Dismissed by the hard-of-hearing as cabaret cutups, Scissor Sisters may have to crank up a few stereos and smash a few stereotypes to convince the mainstream that they aren't the new Village People. With three openly gay players, campy threads and unabashed dancefloor fi last, the New York quintet (four men, one woman, no siblings) risks novelty status, but that threat evaporates in the glorious melodies, crackling rhythms and steely pop infrastructure that solidify these flamboyant, fresh and frisky tunes. Singers Jake Shears (a former go-go dancer) and Ana Matronic, bassist Babydaddy, guitarist Del Marquis and drummer Paddy Boom bring verve and nerve to discofied glam-rock that recalls early Elton John in the poignant Mary and roaring Take Your Mama and the Bee Gees in a radical makeover of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. While the Sisters get serious about New York's conservative crackdown in T-fc on tlie Radio and meth addiction in Return to Oz, the club never cools, especially when the mood turns FilthyGorgeous (Tm a classy honey kissy huggy lovey dovey ghetto You go, grrrls. Edna Gundersen Terror Squad True Story Fat Joe's Bronx crew comes out slamming with its first album since the untimely 2001 death of risng superstar Big Punisher (Christopher Kios) The lineup has been shuffled a bit, with mainstays Joe, Armageddon and Prospect joined by Remy and Tony Sunshine, who replace die departed Triple Seis and Cuban link.

Remy's edgy lyrics and Sunshine's smooth crooning ensure that both newcomers waste no time making their presence felt The Squad's assault on the airwaves is led by what could be the club anthem of Hie summer, Lean Back. Other standouts include the soulful Nothing's Gonna Stop Me, thug love jam Take Me Home and the pointed Pass Away. Bring 'Em Back pays homage to Pun and Big (who worked with Fat Joe before a fatal shooting) and lets die late MCs have their say. Fat Joe is the unifying force throughout, and even with the changes, the Terror Squad is still pretty rugged. Steve Jones Lloyd Southside Irv Gotti's newest protege has stirred some heat with his guitar-kissed title track widi Ashanti.

As with most Gotti-supervised projects, the beats are hot and soulful Unfortunately, the same can't always be said for thug-player I Joyd. He's at his best on such sexy ballads as Hey Young Girl and Cadillac Love, 1 ii i2L AP skateboarder punks feeble and self-involved. The band doesn't leave melody and hooks out of the equation, making Empire one of the year's meatiest punk efforts. Edna Gundersen Universal Honey Vicious Circles Fifty years or so after rock 'n' roll's birth, all mainstream pop-rock has become derivative: elements of the past recycled and recombined. The trick is to make it sound fresh, and this veteran Canadian male-female duo has the knack.

There are echoes of ABBA, Fleetwood Mac, The Pretenders and even Black Sabbath (Circles' riff is a pop-wrought Iron Man variation) but the closest comparison is die underrated Swedish duo Roxette. Honey's Leslie Stanwyck and Johnny Sinclair share a flair for the glorious pop chorus, the insidious guitar figure and the deeply meaningless lyric that made Roxette's pop confections such a joy ride in the JOs. Ken Barnes Regina Belle Lazy Afternoon Veteran star Belle breathes new life into an eclectic set of jazz standards, show tunes and classics. Though the songs are familiar, die arrangements often are not, and the sultry singer backed by a stellar George Duke-led band puts her own stamp on them. She lets the groove build slowly on Fly Me to the Moon before it eventually takes off, and offers a bluesy take on Otis Redding's Try a Little Tenderness.

Her impromptu rif fing with her background singers on Tlie Love I Lost For the Love of You is a joy. The same can be said of other songs, such as the sexy Brazilian ballad Corcovado and the hopeful Tlie Man I Love. It's a nice way to spend an afternoon. Steve Jones but lame street-oriented songs such as Hustler and I'm a never really ring true. As a singer, Lloyd proves seductive; but as co-writer of all the songs, he shares the blame for their inconsistency.

Maybe with experience, the pen will catch up to his voice. Steve Jones Edwin McCain Scream Whisper As the title of his first studio album in three years reinforces, subtlety has never been McCain's strong suit Still, the singersongwriter is more musically savvy and less mawkish than many of his navel-gazing peers. And as socially conscious tunes such as Good Enough and the more graceful White Crosses prove, McCain's earnestness isn't reserved for the kind of whiny solipsism that mars so much contemporary guitar-pop. Elysa Gardner Bad Religion The Empire Strikes First In its 24th year, the veteran California punk band hasn't lost its venom, its muscle or its backbone. Empire opens with Overture, a menacing instrumental that sets the stage for a wave of vitriolic assaults.

Many of these forceful anthems would dovetail nicely with vignettes in FaJtrenheit 911, and none of them will be on the sound system at the Republican convention. Singer Greg Graf fin unleashes outrage and indignation as he rails against the Bush administration in Let Them Eat War and other teeth-gnashing, guitar-grinding tunes on this seedling manifesto. Urgent and timely, Empire also addresses environmental misuse (los Angeles Is Burning), predatory priests (Sinister Rouge) and sciencereligion tensions (Atheist Peace), rendering the whines of W4 II OPENS UTOMORROW! i AUG. CentvryTu CENTER 'OPENING SHOW SAVINGS -TICKETS AUG. 7 AUG.

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