NOISE

You guys, along with fans who donate, are doing a motorcycle ride in and around some of the cities you visit to benefit VH1's Save the Music Foundation. Any thought to doing a future tour exclusively on bikes?

What's it been like to see your two Operation: Mindcrime LPs come to life with nightly full-scale theatrical productions?

It's really satisfying and challenging at the same time. Mindcrime is a fairly dramatic story, with a lot of ups and downs. So we try to create focus for the audience. We have acting parts that are lit in a certain way to put the focus on that, and then when there's a musical part we want them to focus on, the lighting changes and the musicians are lit in a way that draws the eye to them. And then we have video screens and sets changing, so we take the audience on a visual as well as audio journey.

USA Today ran a 2005 readers poll of the greatest American rock bands of all-time, and Queensryche finished eighth, ahead of R.E.M., The Ramones and The Beach Boys. Are you surprised you finished that high?

Yes and no. I'm surprised at the particular publication. But we're a very underrated organization, which is kind of amusing to me but at the same time kind of frustrating. We sell records and we tour in 26 countries, so we could be considered a major international corporation. And we definitely have diehard fans. I've heard other bands say that about their fans, too, but I haven't seen people stick with a band for as many years as a lot of our fans have. It's a great thing to know that you can drop into a major city just about anywhere in the world and you're gonna pull a couple thousand people to your show.

Clowns have a mixed rep. On one zanily gloved hand, there's harmless Bozo; on the other, there's the evil Pennywise from Stephen King's It. And then there's John Wayne Gacy, clown as serial killer.

Which brings us to The Insane Clown Posse, those foul-mouthed, reefer-praising, murder-loving Detroit redneck rappers. They've turned the humble clown—bringer of joy to children's birthday parties, impish protector of downed rodeo competitors—into the warped symbol of their own strange cult: the cult of the Juggalo. Juggalos are hardcore fans of the horror-rap group. They adorn themselves with large hockey jerseys or ICP T-shirts; they dye their hair fantastic colors and paint their faces; they smoke weed, drink the fruit-flavored soft drink Faygo and come together for huge barbecues where they share their foul enthusiasms.

Not since Kiss has a group generated such a supportive cult. At least Juggalohood is bringing people together, albeit in a strange way.

This Saturday, the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation serves up its 11th annual gala to benefit at-risk children in Las Vegas. We've pieced together a soundtrack to Andre's life, populated by cuts from the evening's musical performers.

Early Years

1. "Catapult" (Counting Crows, Recovering the Satellites, 1996)

2. "Something's Missing" (John Mayer, Heavier Things, 2003)

3. "Long Long Way to Go" (Phil Collins, No Jacket

Required, 1985)

World-Champion Run

4. "Clarity" (Mayer, Heavier Things, 2003)

5. "Time and Time Again" (Counting Crows, August and Everything After, 1993)

6. "World on Fire" (Sarah McLachlan, Afterglow, 2003)

2006 US Open

7. "Can't Turn Back the Years" (Collins, Both Sides, 1993)

8. "The Hurting" (Tears for Fears, The Hurting, 1983)

9. "Black and Blue" (Counting Crows, Hard Candy, 2002)

10. "Sweet Surrender" (McLachlan, Surfacing, 1997)

HELLOGOODBYE

ZOMBIES! ALIENS! VAMPIRES! DINOSAURS! (4 stars)

Synthy! Peppy! Dancey! Retro! The dress-up-obsessed four-piece's debut full-length is all of this and more! If the '80s addictions de rigueur had been Mountain Dew and cartoons instead of hairspray and cocaine, HGB could have provided the soundtrack, had they been older than, like, two at the time.

Jet

SHINE ON (2 1/2 stars)

The Australian retro-rockers' second album moves away from the AC/DC-like energy of their debut to embrace a Beatles-esque style that sounds like a second-rate version of Oasis. When they cut loose and rock out on songs like "Stand Up," they're as much dumb fun as ever, but those moments are far too infrequent.

SUNN O)))

BLACK ONE (4 stars)

Dark, morbid, depressive, silly. These are the things that come to mind when listening to this Los Angeles-based avant-drone band. Combining synthesizers, guitars, sparse drums and even sparser vocals, the harsh, bleak and sometimes beautiful soundscapes created on Black One are enough to satisfy any fan of the darkest black or death metal, while preserving the experimentality that draws fans of avant-garde and noise. A masterpiece.