Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 27

The Edmonton Journal, Saturday, March 21, 1998 C3 Monitor Our weekly look at the charts and recent releases aoD Meon QB a burnt Edmonton's Feeding Like Butterflies 5 htSVI Edmonton's Top 20 Current Albums 1. Titariic, Sourxftac (1) 2. Madonna, Ray of Light 0 3. Various Artists (Collections), Big Shiny 7unes2(4) 4. Afja, Aquarium (6) 5.

(3) Marcy Rayground, Marcy Playground (18) 7. Eric Clapton, Pilgrim (5) 8. Various Artists, Much Dance 1997 (10) (12) 10.Savage Garden, Savage Garoten (7) 1 1 ShaniaTwain, Come On Over (20) 12. Backstreet Boys, Backstreet's Back O) 13. Creed, WyCwnfteori (29) 14.

Spice Girts, SpiceworW (8) 1 5. Various Artists, Pure Dance No. 2 (13) 16. VA-1988 Grammy Nominees, Grammy Nominees 198 (15) 1 7. Matchbox 20, Yourself a Someone Bse(24) 18.

Win Smith, WillieStyle (16) 19. Sarah 1cLacr Surfeong (19) 20. (22) Edmonton's Top 10 Alternative Albums 1. Marcy Playground, Marcy Playground (2) 2. Wedding Singer, Soundtrack (1) 3.

Creed, My Own Prison (7) 4. Matchbox 20, Yourself or Someone Ese (5) 5. Sarah McLachtan, Surfacing (3) 6. 7. Daysofthe New, Days oftheNew (13) 8.

Verve, Urban Hymns (6) 9. Chumbawamba, Tubthumper (10) 1 0. Our Lady Peace, Clumsy 1) Edmonton's Top 10 Country Albums 1. ShaniaTwain, Come On Over (1) 2. Garth Brooks, Sevens (7) 3.

The Mavericks, Trampoline (2) 4. Trisha Yearwood, Songbook A Collection of Hits (4) 5. Brooks Dunn, Greatest Hits Collection (6) 6. Tim McGraw, Everywhere (7) 7. Leann Rimes, You Light Up My Life -Inspirations (5) 8.

Martina McBride, Evolution (9) 9. Alan Jackson, Greatest Hits Collection (13) 1 0. Mindy McCready, If I Don't Stay (1 1) File photo Feeding Like Butterflies: Inside the Medicine Man Artful effort by Discs VAN HALEN: Van Haen 3 (Wamer 65 mins.) of five Everybody expected the new Van Halen record to suck which it does but for the wrong reason. Accusing fingers were extended towards Gary Cherone, the ex-Extreme frontman and Van Halen's much-hyped third (hence the album title) singer. But he's not the problem here.

The problem is that brother Eddie, the songwriting ringleader of the two-decades-old Yank rock institution, has run out of enough decent ideas to sustain an EP, let alone an hour-plus epic wannabe. Fire in the Hole and the first single Without You are the only real listenable songs on the album. On those, Cherone does an able Sammy Hagar imitation, Eddie chunks and rips away on his axe and Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony serve up the familiar VH rhythm thump. The rest of the record's a dog's breakfast of bad art-rock and worse ballads. Which is a bigger grind to sit through, you ask? The Spanish guitar accents and whiny post-break-up sentiments on the eight-minute Year To The Day or the all-over-the-place Queen harmonizing on Josephina? It's a toss-up.

Even Eddie's traditional solo an Indian-flavoured workout called Primary is forgettable. Like a bad horror movie sequel, Van Halen 3 is for serious fans and completists only Come back David Lee Roth. All is forgiven. FEEDING LIKE BUTTERFLIES: Inside the Medicine Man (Fen-Urim Music, 54 mins.) of five Edmonton's Feeding Like Butterflies have resurfaced with the most interesting, ambitious and utterly confounding local album since their last one. No musical or lyrical idea is too esoteric for the six-strong crew, and -Inside the Medicine Man, like John in His Earthsuit before it, is a melting pot of diverse influences.

The album spans acoustic folk, lush worldbeat and big gestures sometimes in the same song. The music's not so much unfocused intensely focused. There's a method to FLB's madness, though I'll be damned if I know what it is. Shawn VX I Rock Cjf" few 1 ST I Feeding Like Butterflies To hear new i i i- Oi---; reviewed today, and press 1423. 944-0600 At times, the sound has an almost ancient sensibility, with frontman Jason Johnson's floral talk of nymphets and dryads and Bacchus and Yahweh and the band's occasional forays into this sort of medieval harpsichord music.

Then, some of it's as updated as it comes, spiffed up with power ballad sections, dynamic, soft-loud chord changes and huge drums. A standout song like Silver Strain ties all the elements together nicely, though the Tuesday On Wednesday, they took part in a rare in-store autograph session at Sam the Record Man in Toronto. Eddie Van Halen confirmed that two other "unknowns" were also in the running for the job. (Not Canadian female rocker Sass Jordan, as rumoured, although Alex at one point expressed an interest to produce her latest record.) "It wasn't an audition, it wasn't a matter of talent," continued Eddie. "It was a matter of, 'Hey, can we hang with the Because basically you spend so much time together, it's like being married and if you can't settle things amongst yourselves without kicking and screaming and quitting we figured, 'Hey if we can do it a third time, let's make sure it's right this time." A world tour kicks off April 10 in New Zealand and the Van Halens say they expect to play a summer date in Toronto.

Roth left the band in 1985 and was I Tile photo Van Halen: Van Halen 3 File photo Semisonic: Feeling Strangely Fine Schlesinger, and there's some truth to that. Of course, the Minneapolis trio are as gutless as the other bands to whom that claim's been attached your Better Than Ezras, your Gin Blossoms, your Letters to Cleos. With Feeling Strangely Fine, at least, you get the impression that the restraint and sensitive-new-age-guy stuff is intended instead of fallen back on by default. QUICK CUTS David Usher, Little Songs A welcome respite from Moist's calculated bombast, David Usher's first solo record is a subtle, revealing look at a singer more complex than we'd ever have imagined. h) Spacehog, The Chinese Album-Branded by their record company as "a rock opera," Spacehog's sophomore record The Chinese Album is neither rock nor opera.

Just awful. (MO While Cherone's addition is still being assessed, it's good news for fans of Roth-era material, songs like Jamie's Cryin', Running With The Devil and Hot For Teacher. Hagar wasn't into aping his predecessor, a long-standing sore point with the rest of the band. "We had to pull his teeth for a few of them just to get him to do Jump. That's a classic if you want to call it that.

He wouldn't do it," says Alex. But trotting out oldies at this stage Van Halen's self-titled debut came out in 1978 might create the impression that the band is embarking on a greatest hits swan-song. Nope. Performing the hits allows the group to play vintage material for younger ears. "My wife (actress Valerie Bertinelli) was on the Internet and she's going 'Fourteen-, 15-year-old fans think that Balance (1995) is your first They have no idea we have 11 other records out" Eddie says.

months in the hospital By the time he recovered, Elvis Presley had covered his hit Blue Suede Shoes, and his career was never the same again. In 1959, about 100 people gathered, in a hall at Barnard College in New York to see the first performance of The Fantasticks. It moved to the Sullivan Theatre in Greenwich Village the following year, and was still playing there 30 years later. The Fantasticks, with its hit song Try to Remember, is the longest-running musical in theatre history In 1961, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and I T. File photo donkey grunts in the cajun hillbilly middle section are a bit disconcerting.

Oh, it's a trip, man. In the end, Inside the Medicine Man is thought-provoking, super-spontaneous and pleasantly bewildering pop music. Art, even. And for that I totally admire it. Though I'm not sure I actually like it.

SEMISONIC: Feeling Strangely Fine (MCA, 51 mins.) 12 of five Equal parts Face The Music-era ELO and the last Lemonheads record, Semisonic's second album is as unoffensive and listenable as any new modern rock release out there. Singer Dan Wilson is being cast as a melodic genius, a pop craftsman with the same knack for hooks as a guy like Fountains of Wayne's Adam replaced by Hagar, another flamboyant, long-haired blond. tenure ended in 1995. As for that so-called reunion with Roth, which turned into a major embarrassment for all involved, blame Roth. "He put the cart in front of the horse," says Alex, 43.

"(He) calls his publicist It started snowballing and just like stars burn out, snowballs have to stop at some point He eventually got caught in his own trap." Besides, no frontman could be larger than the sum of Van Halen's parts. "Because Ed writes the bulk of the music, it's possible to change one member and you really haven't taken the whole system apart," Alex says. All four members of Van Halen (Michael Anthony plays bass) were in Toronto to help sell the new record, Van Halen III, an uneven sonic blast of a dizzying number of guitar riffs and scant melody the performers were black, while two-thirds of the audience was white, a fact that upset parents and city fathers no end. In 1956, rock 'n' roller Carl Perkins suffered four broken ribs and a broken shoulder in a car accident Perkins' brother, Jay, and his manager were both killed in the crash, which happened while Perkins was on his way to New York City to tape a performance on the Perry Como TV show. Perkins spent nine ft 4- 1 1 t.

1 i. IV vf: I Van Halen starting over with Cherone iThird lead singer in band's 20-year history is a perfect fit, band members say The Canadian Press Toronto I irst there was Diamond Dave. 3 Next Sammy Hagar. Then, faster than you could say Jump, iDavid Lee Roth resurfaced only to disappear again during a proposed ill-fated reunion in 1996. Now stepping up to the microphone for Van Halen, one of rock's most enduring acts, is Gary Cherone, formerly of the Boston-based group Extreme.

The brothers Van Halen, drummer -Alex and guitar god Eddie, took some rshots this week at the less-than-dearly departed, which seems only fair since Roth and Hagar have come through Itown dishing dirt. "It's wonderful having Gary because he's a real team player and doesn't suffer from LSD," says Eddie, 41, in his hoarse voice. "Lead-singer disease." The Los Angeles-based group's new album, Van Halen III, hit stores Edmonton's Top 10 Hard Music Albums 1. Qreed.My Own Prison (2) 2. 3.

Our Lady Peace, Clumsy (4) 4. Blink-1 82, Dude Ranch (3) 5. Metallica, Re-Load (5) 6. (8) 7. Ozzy Osboume, Ozzman Cometh (1 2) 8.

Green Day, Nimrod (6) 9. Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Let's Face ft (9) 1 0. Joe Satriani, Crystal Planet (7) Edmonton's Top 10 Albums 1. Will Smith, BigWillieStyle (1) 2. Janet Jackson, VetvetRope (4) 3.

Love Always (2) 4. Mase, Harlem World (3) 5. Usher, Way (5) 6. Destiny Child, Destinys Child (6) 7. Puff Daddy.Ato Way Out (10) 8.

Lox, Money Power Respect (8) 9. 10. Kllah Priest Heavy Mental (7) Figures are based on sales. Numbers in brackets denote national rankings. SOURCE SoundScan, Inc.

years ago Pdngo Starr first appeared together at the Cavern Club in LiverpooL By July, the Beatles had a regular Wednesday night gig and appeared mere two or three times a week in addition to lunchtime sessions. The group performed at the Cavern Club more than 300 times during the next couple of years. In 1970, the re-formed Faces, with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood, released their debut LP, First Step. Stewart and Wood joined the Faces -formerly known as the Small Faces when group leader Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie. Musical legend Bach was born on this day, ,31 3 Today in Music History March 21st In 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the greatest and most influential composers in the Western world, was born in Eisenach, Germany.

Bach was the master of baroque music and composed works in almost every musical form known at the time. But during his lifetime, IBach was better known as an organist as a composer. For decades after his death, his works were neglected. However, in the 19th century such romantic composers as Mendelssohn and Schumann recognized his genius. The bulk of Bach's work is religious in nature.

Among the best-known of his religious compositions are SL Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio. His best-known secular works include The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Brandenburg concertos. In 1952, disc jockey Alan Freed was the host at the first-ever rock 'n' roll concert the "Moondog Coronation Ball" at the Cleveland Arena. The arena's capacity was 10,000 25,000 people showed up. All.