NOISE

So, what's it like to drive up the Strip and see your giant-sized image plastered across the side of the Flamingo?

It's the best feeling. I had no idea they were doing that. I'd drive down the 15 and never see it, but my assistant knew and he always made sure I looked in another direction. And then one day I went to the Flamingo and this guy said, "I love your poster" and I said, "What poster?" So they showed me that day, and I got all mushy. It feels like I was supposed to be here, like my whole Broadway and music career prepared me to come here for this.

As a wife and mother of two, how much easier is it to be a resident, rather than a touring, performer at this stage?

Touring is great, because it enables me to perform, but the traveling thing is my least favorite part. Now that I have kids I really hate to travel. I like seeing new places and introducing my kids to new things, but they're so young—3 and 4—and I'm a real hands-on mom, so it was getting too challenging. Here, I'm at home and I get to participate in everything with my kids and at night I'm a rock 'n' roller. I put them to bed and I go to work.

The morning newspaper's initial reaction to your show wasn't especially kind. How do you respond, and are you worried it could keep potential audience members away?

It doesn't matter to me. It was the first week, and we didn't have the leisure of having previews. Most people have two or three weeks of previews. We had two days of previews and only two weeks to put the show together. So you invite press and they come and you hope they enjoy the show. But because it's so new, a lot of boo-boos are gonna happen, because you're ironing out the kinks. And he didn't say I couldn't sing. But I'm a black woman, so I expect it. I'm used to people writing negative things about me. We've been taught from babies to accept prejudism and for people to be skeptical because of our race and because I'm female, so I don't care.

  If you're tempted to hit the merch stand at either of This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb's area performances on Sunday, might we suggest a T-shirt or perhaps a CD? Be advised that the Florida-based folk-punk band's bumper stickers have a hazardous history, most notably a March incident at the University of Ohio in which Columbus fire officials cordoned off a large chunk of the campus—along with four buildings—for three hours after a bicycle with a This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb tag was determined to be a possible terrorist threat. A bomb squad destroyed the bicycle with a high-pressure hose and charged its grad-student owner with a misdemeanor charge of inducing panic. "I think the response was an appropriate one," Ohio Dean of Students Terry Hogan is reported to have said.

Indie website pitchforkmedia.com unveiled its selections for the top 200 songs of the 1960s last week (The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" checked in at No. 1), prompting us to respond with a few picks from artists the panel omitted altogether:

1. Frank Zappa: "Willie the Pimp" (1969)

Badass rock violin, a big 'ole geetar solo and Beefheart vocals about "hot zits." Who could ask for anything more?


2. The Louvin Brothers: "The Christian Life" (1960)

And you thought Gram Parsons' Byrds remake sounded so authentic.


3. Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra: "Fate in a Pleasant Mood" (1965)

Known for going way out there, Sunny reins it in on this sub-3-minute should-be jazz standard.


4. Fairport Convention: "Farewell, Farewell" (1969)

Sandy Denny's voice: the best evidence a higher power really does exist?


5. Muddy Waters: "My Home Is in the Delta" (1963)

Really, we could throw a dart and choose any of a dozen '60s Mudman classics.


6. Grateful Dead: "Dark Star" [Live/Dead version] (1969)


What was briefly right about late-'60s American psychedelia.

7. The Marvelettes: "Please Mr. Postman" (1961)


Pitchfork plucks five Supremes songs, but none from these Motown sweethearts. Where is the love?


8. Julie Andrews: "Do-Re-Mi" (1965)

A scale-teaching device, and a damn catchy tune for the ages. All of them.


9. The Doors: "Love Me Two Times" (1967)

Who says they. need 10 minutes or more to make their point?


10. Townes Van Zandt: "Snake Mountain Blues" (1969)

I feel like counting off paces when I hear this dark cowboy ditty.

THE SOUND OF ANIMALS FIGHTING

LOVER, THE LORD HAS LEFT US ... (2 1/2 stars)

Toss a gaggle of arty punk and emo rockers with code names like Hyena and Lynx into a musical cage forged from spontaneity, liberated tempos and total disregard for cohesion, and what slithers out? Apparently this berserk synthesis of everything from free jazz and German opera to spoken word and tribal world sounds. Violently messy, but undeniably intriguing. [Note that the Las Vegas date is being billed as one of only four career shows for the seldom-seen band.]

CHEAP TRICK


ROCKFORD (2 1/2 stars)

Cheap Trick returns to its rock-pop roots with the aptly titled Rockford, a nod to its Illinois hometown. Fortunately, the quartet eighty-sixed the wimpy, chart-topping power ballads that marred its late-'80s work. Unfortunately, in the Trick's rapid retrocession, the band forgot the catchy hooks and memorable material that once made its music irresistible.