Scissor Sisters Live: Twisted Sisters

Scissor Sisters Live: Twisted Sisters

With anger and attire, twisted Scissor Sisters cut to the heart of glitter rock: Aidin Vaziri | Take a time machine back to Studio 54, stumble on five New York night birds -- one who refuses to wear a shirt but embraces leather pants two sizes too small, another who goes by the name Ana Matronic and insists she's a drag queen stuck in a woman's body -- and listen to them sing about downing pills and cruising for cheap sex. On Monday, that, more or less, is what the Scissor Sisters' show at the Fillmore was like. It's no use trying to explain. It's like putting every Elton John record on at once and watching "2001: A Space Odyssey" while speeding around the room in roller skates. It's not supposed to make sense. How could it? This is a band that, on its self-titled debut released earlier this year, draws on influences like Elton John, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, George Michael, the Pet Shop Boys and the Bee Gees. Sense, quite possibly, is the farthest thing from their minds.

Pixies Live: In Heaven

Pixies Live: In Heaven

12 years have not tamed the Pixies' unearthly wails: Aidin Vaziri | It's hard to imagine a more perfect setting for one of the most anticipated comebacks in rock. Not so much because of the cool breeze or communal sense of expectation, but because a campus library stands nearby fully stocked with books on extraterrestrial life forms and conspiracy theories, required reading for anyone who wants to figure out what singer Black Francis is constantly howling about. But it was bassist Kim Deal, cigarette dangling from her bottom lip and dressed head-to-toe in Salvation Army garb, who opened the show with the chilling mantra, "In heaven/ Everything is fine," from "In Heaven (The Lady in the Radiator Song)." After a 12-year hibernation, the Pixies might look like a pack of wet bulldogs, considerably more bald and fatter than when they went away, but their music still startles.

Pop Quiz: Queen Latifah

Pop Quiz: Queen Latifah

Aidin Vaziri | Groundbreaking female rapper? Check. Oscar-nominated actress? Check. Bazillionaire? Check. Jazz and pop standards singer in the mold of Norah Jones? Um ... Queen Latifah hasn't done everything in the whole world yet, but with "The Dana Owens Album" -- that's her real name -- she's getting closer. The album is her first new release in six years, during which time she focused on roles in films like "Chicago" and "Bringing Down the House," and it includes her versions of songs like "Lush Life" and "California Dreamin'."



Queen Latifah
Q: What do you like people to call you?
A: A lot of people call me Dana. A lot of people call me Latifah. Very few people call me Queen, for some reason.
Q: Why's that?
A: I don't know. They like to say the whole thing, Queen Latifah. Just pick one. The New York truck drivers call me Queenie. "Hey, what do you say there, Queenie?"
Q: You can actually become a queen on the Internet now.
A: Yeah?
Q: I already did it.
A: What the hell? Why not?

E! Online Fall Music Guide 2004

E! Online Fall Music Guide 2004

Aidin Vaziri | The E! Online Fall Music Guide 2004 includes Q&A's with Hilary Duff, Duran Duran and Queen Latifah, plus an exhaustive wrap-up of new releases by the likes of Interpol, Ludacris and U2 in Chart Attack.

Beastie Boys Live: Old School

Beastie Boys Live: Old School

That inflatable penis may be gone but the Beastie Boys can still arouse a crowd: Aidin Vaziri | Cough. Hack. Wheeze. Beastie Boys? It's hard to imagine a less fitting name for the three middle-aged rappers that appeared at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Thursday. They flubbed song lyrics. They hobbled around the stage. Within the first five minutes of the show, two-thirds of the lot were already gasping for air. At least in the early days, they meant to do these things. But nearly 20 years after sparking their live reputation with wild-eyed shows bedecked with go-go dancers and a large inflatable penis (those were the days), Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "MCA" Yauch and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz still know how to put on a fantastic show. Dressed in matching electric green tracksuits and backed solely by lightning-fingered DJ Mixmaster Mike, the trio compensated for all the mistakes with dumb jokes and goofy charm. When that didn't work, they dusted off classics like "Brass Monkey" and "Shake Your Rump." And when that didn't do the trick either, they made even bigger, louder and more amusing mistakes.

Pop Quiz: Prodigy

Pop Quiz: Prodigy

Aidin Vaziri | In the seven years since the last Prodigy album, the 8.5 million- selling "The Fat of the Land," Liam Howlett fired his band mates, battled writer's block and trashed a half-completed album in 2002 after the commercial failure of its date-rape drug championing first single, "Baby's Got a Temper." And that was before he recruited guest vocalists like Oasis' Liam Gallagher and actress Juliette Lewis for a completely new album. The result, called "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned," out this week, has already topped the British charts. But what happened to the guy with the funny Mohawk?



Liam Howlett of Prodigy
Q: Did the thought cross your mind that it might be a bad idea to get rid of vocalist Keith Flint, the only guy anyone actually recognizes out of the Prodigy?
A: Keith's still a friend. You have to sometimes strip things to basics. Things can only go so far before you can't take them any further for them to be exciting. Keith's actual lyrics that he was writing at that time were really personal to him. They were too introverted for Prodigy. This record wasn't about Keith's personal s -- .
Q: He wasn't writing enough about inciting arson or taking Rohypnol for your tastes?
A: No, the general upness of Prodigy was not reflected in Keith's lyrics. "Baby's Got a Temper" was very introverted. It was a thing he was involved in, like the recreational side of that drug. That was not suited to the band. I just wanted to strip all that s -- away. It was kind of brave, but it felt right.
Q: But there's nothing good like that on this record.

Vincent Gallo on The Brown Bunny, Winona and Spider-Girl

Vincent Gallo on The Brown Bunny, Winona and Spider-Girl

Gallo's Rumors: Aidin Vaziri | The biggest shock when Gallo arrives at a San Francisco Film Society screening of his movie at the Lumiere Theatre and smiles his way through a question-and-answer session with the kind of charm that makes it almost too easy to blank out the incredibly rude things he has to say. Wearing a brown Western shirt and corduroys, he describes the small film crew who worked alongside him as three rats. "I spent most of my time pampering them," he spits. Then he talks about the two Hollywood starlets who nearly made the cast. He dismisses Kirsten Dunst as "spider-girl" and says he wanted to kill her agent with a plastic bag. Winona Ryder, meanwhile, survived just one day on the set before she was released. "She was not in great shape at the time," Gallo says. "And she was robbing everything in sight." It's fascinating stuff, and it gets even better as he goes on. He bats away all the looming controversy around "The Brown Bunny" with little effort. Yes, 3,500 people did boo in unison when it showed at Cannes last year. Yes, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert said it was the worst film in the festival's history and started singing "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" out loud midway through the showing. "But I had a good time," Gallo says. "It was nice weather. There were a lot of girls on the beach who didn't have their tops on."

Pop Quiz: Linkin Park

Pop Quiz: Linkin Park

Aidin Vaziri | The only people who listen to rock music anymore are World War II veterans. Everybody else listens to Linkin Park because it has taken hoary guitar music and modernized it with beats, samples and graffiti spray, selling 12 million copies of its 2001 debut, "Hybrid Theory," and logging more than 70 weeks on the pop charts with its latest release, "Meteora." The band is currently on the Projekt Revolution Tour with Korn, Snoop Dogg, the Used and Less Than Jake.



Chester Bennington of Linkin Park
Q: Maybe if you stocked your tour bus with a few things Snoop would like -- some weed, a couple porn videos -- instead of just video games and books, he might want to hang out with you a little more.
A: Perhaps I should re-evaluate my whole strategy here. So it's not just about the bud? I've got to get the bud, the booze and the bitches.
Q: Correct. You need a complete tour bus makeover.
A: That's kind of hard because I have a 2-year-old. I don't know if the coke and the strippers would go over that well. I have to pretend I'm a dad and stuff. But I'm sure we could work something out.
Q: I don't know. That sounds a little boring. And you are a former drug addict.
A: Well, we do say that there's no smoking and no weed backstage, or anything really that you can smell. We don't want anything to travel into our dressing room.
Q: So shooting up is OK?