NOISE

Will this reunion end after these 15 dates or might you guys take it into the studio afterwards?

I have no idea. I really can't even call it. Hopefully it'll happen like that, but for now it's just a show thing ... I have some problems doing these shows. People want to see us, but personally I get tired of doin' the same songs. As an artist I'd feel better knowing that we have some new material, even if it's just one new single, to let people know we have something new dropping. It would make me feel brand new. These songs that we're doing ... the last single came out in '98, and it's 2006, so it's like, yo!

You guys owe Jive Records one more album. Is that a deterrent to recording?

I can't speak for the rest of the group, but when we were talking about doing an album we felt kinda disrespected by them, like they were treating us like we really didn't count no more. They didn't want to honor what we wanted as far as payment, so it just didn't pan out. They still like saying that they own us pretty much, but then, when we're talking about some good money or whatever, they're not really hearing us.

Your tour is sponsored by 2K Sports and their new video game NBA 2K7, which features a Phife basketball character folks can play. What are you like on the court?

Definite point guard—two of my favorite players were Rod Strickland and Mark Jackson—because I'm short and the handle was always kinda hot. I'm into making that extra pass to the open man instead of rushing the jump shot. But in the clutch I wouldn't mind being Jerry West, know what I'm saying?

The Low End Theory is often cited as the best hip-hop album of all-time. What's your opinion?

On a personal, Low End Theory is my favorite because it was my coming-out party. Nobody really knew what elements I brought to the group after the first album. I knew how to rap, how to MC, but I wasn't focused. I was still running the streets with my homeboys and doing things I wasn't supposed to do. Then, right before we started working on The Low End Theory, I bumped into Q-Tip on the train and we were talking, and he was like, "Yo, we gotta really kill it this next album. Our foot is in the door, but now we gotta really kick it off the hinges." So I put all that other dumb stuff I was doing to the side and really got focused on doing something positive, letting everyone out there know who Phife Dog really was as an artist. So just like when people come up to us and say, "Yo, that album changed my life," that album changed my life as well.

Do you guys have to rehearse for these shows or do the tunes just come right back?

Nah, we don't have to practice. Every now and then I might get in the car and pop an old CD in just to refresh myself, 'cause I don't wanna play myself on stage. But as far as rehearsal, we just get together, cracking some jokes, laughing, whatever, and then it's on.

Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. The Beatles' Revolver. Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead. Radiohead's OK Computer. According to more than 140,000 users at
rateyourmusic.com, those classic albums represent the best of each decade, from the 1950s through the '90s. Their pick for the 2000s? Until very recently, Blackwater Park, the 2001 release by Opeth, a Swedish death-metal outfit built on proggy melodies and guttural vocals. Though the album still ranks ahead of such recent favorites as Radiohead's Kid A, Tool's Lateralus and Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, it has dropped behind new No. 1 Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven by Canadian post-rockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Something tells us Opeth fans aren't gonna go down without a fight, though.

What kind of crazy Strip hotel rate did Jurassic 5 stumble onto? The So-Cal hip-hop crew played Zia in July, stops by the House of Blues on Wednesday and returns again for next month's Vegoose festival. To celebrate J5's sudden Vegas preoccupation, here's a quintet of classic cuts:

1. "Quality Control" (Quality Control, 2000)

No party mixtape feels right without it.

2. "What's Golden" (Power in Numbers, 2002)

Now if CBS would just stop using it for their

March Madness show.

3. "Verbal Gunfight" (One Big Trip soundtrack, 2002)

Download it individually, or hunt down the rara

avis Jurassick! 12-inch.

4. "Back 4 U" (Feedback, 2006)

The departed Cut Chemist is missed this time out,

but not on this opener produced by remaining

DJ Nu-Mark.

5. "Concrete Schoolyard" (Jurassic 5, 1997)

"Playground tactics/No rabbit-in-a-hat

tricks/Just that classic/Rap shit from Jurassic"

CHARLEY HORSE


UNHOLY ROLLER (2 stars)

The debut by this psychobilly supergroup, featuring members of The Cramps, Nashville Pussy, Die Hunns and Throw Rag, has promise, but it's washed away when Sean Wheeler's bored vocals—as well as lame, poorly placed audio samples—ruin what would otherwise be an excellent album.

HUSKY RESCUE


COUNTRY FALLS (3 stars)

Self-described one-man band Marko Nyberg brought 20 or so musician pals aboard to record this debut LP, and tours behind the music—best described as Helsinki's answer to French electro-pop outfit Air—with a five-piece combo, including female vocalist Reeta-Leena Korhola. Not exactly typical loner behavior, but intriguing nonetheless.